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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 9380004" data-attributes="member: 508">ADVENTURE 75: SNAKE FARMPC 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 15Game Session Date: 9 June 2024 - - -"Hey, kupo," greeted Mogo as the five dreamwalkers met up with him the following night.  "We've done some exploring since yesterday's session, kupo.  We think we've figured out where those half-dragon hypnalis vipers came from - deep in the heart of the Nightmare Lands, kupo!"  The heroes knew the Nightmare Lands were themselves deep in the heart of the Dreamlands; it was where they had first encountered the Nightmare King."To help you track down exactly where the advanced hypnalis vipers came from, we have a wild moogle tracker - his name's Gwintinigoochi, kupo!"  At his signal, two more moogles, Doc and Moki, fluttered forth, together holding the leash of a pantherish creature the size of a large horse.  Like the more civilized moogles, Gwintinigoochi had undersized wings sprouting from between his shoulder blades, and a drooping antenna growing from his forehead which ended in a large, red pom-pom.  The wild moogle didn't have any of Mogo's kittenish features, though - he was a full-grown adult, a muscular feline built for hunting and tracking, and his sharp teeth and curved claws told he'd be able to hold his own in a fight, if it came down to that.Doc and Moki transferred the end of the leash to Zander Quilson, perhaps because of his association with his cooshee companion.  Gwintinigoochi seemed eager to be off, although he waited patiently for the word to do so - wild moogle he might be, but he had apparently received a fair amount of training to keep him manageable.  "We'll take you through the back ways into the heart of the Dreamlands, kupo," Mogo suggested.  "That's the quickest way to get to the Nightmare Lands, kupo!"The heroes had also been this way before; the back way led to a set of abandoned ruins, the lair of dozens of zoogs.  But with the wild moogle stalking before them at the full length of his leash, any zoogs in the area opted not to make their presence known.  Gwintinigoochi led them unerringly through the ruined city and into the mountains, leading to the foggy valley that marked the entry to the Nightmare Lands.The fog got thicker, until it was difficult to see much more than 10 feet or more away.  Gwintinigoochi seemed undeterred and pressed on; Zander did his best to keep up, not wanting the larger beast to start dragging him along by the leash that he had wrapped around his right hand.  The others likewise pressed tight, not wanting to get separated in the thick fog.  Wakuren was considering using a control winds spell to blow the fog away from them, but he only had one such spell prepared and knew the fog would soon roll back in and encompass them as long as they kept moving, so he held on to the spell for the moment.As a result, they were still pressed together in a tight formation when the fireball hit them.Everyone rolled away from the explosion as best they could, patting themselves down to ensure their clothing hadn't started to burn.  Wakuren recalled seeing a spark of light coming from ahead and to the right of him before the sudden explosion of flame, so he figured that's where their unseen spellcaster had been when he hurled the spell their way.  He went ahead and cast his control winds spell, moving them away from himself and in the direction from which the fireball had come, thinking that way he'd get a good look at whatever wizard had attacked them.However, it wasn't a wizard they were up against - far from it.  The nightmare beast stood a good 25 feet tall, its squat body hunched forward on all fours.  Curving horns grew down from its head before pointing forwards like a mastodon's tusks, and massive tusks of its own sprang up from its lower jaws.  Its thick, scaly hide was a mottled grey and brown, giving it perfect camouflage in the wastelands of the Nightmare Lands, where hardly any trees grew and what little foliage could be found was dried and withered, making a final stand against the parched and cracked ground.  Seeing the heroes arrayed before it, the nightmare beast grinned a horrid grin with its wicked-looking mouth and grunted in pleasure.Wakuren ran sideways, laterally from the rest of the group, not wanting to remain all bunched up with his friends and invite another fireball attack in their midst.  Thurloe had the same idea, but unfortunately started running in the same direction as Wakuren, keeping the two of them at least still bunched up together.  As he ran, though, the spellsword tried casting a slow spell at the nightmare beast, but the creature's inherent resistance to spell energy allowed it to shrug off the effects with no effort.Without Robin in their midst - she was no dreamwalker, lacking the training they had all received from Mogo over the years - Xandro took it upon himself to provide the team with the musical support to which they had grown accustomed: he pulled the Dardolian Lute from his back and began the song of inspirational courage, while slinking along the opposite way from Wakuren and Thurloe.  Alewyth cast a stoneskin spell on Zander (fearing one hit from the nightmare beast would likely slay him at once), then activated her butterfly brooch and took to the skies.  For his part, Zander decided to cast a mislead spell upon himself, turning himself invisible and sending his illusory double over by Wakuren and Thurloe (perhaps subconsciously believing that would help entice the nightmare beast to attack the bunched-together group and leave him alone).  He released the leash before casting the spell, and the wild moogle, no fool, slunk off behind the rest of the group, wanting nothing to do with attacking a creature so much larger than himself.With a wide grin, the nightmare beast lashed out with another magical attack, this time sending a chain lightning spell blasting directly at Thurloe, with arcs reaching out to strike Alewyth, Wakuren, Xandro, and the fake duplicate of Zander Quilson.  The elf took the time to have his illusory double wince in pain and fall over as if dead, hopefully tricking the nightmare beast into believing there was no longer an elf sorcerer among the party.  Wakuren cast a chain lightning spell of his own right back at the nightmare beast, then ran closer to it with his shield of Cal held up before him - purposefully making himself the obvious target for a physical attack.  Thurloe activated the fly ability of his celestial armor and took to the air, flying straight up to a height of 60 feet, where the nightmare beast wouldn't be able to reach him with anything other than a spell effect.Xandro took a moment away from his singing to cast a heroism spell on himself before moving up, off to one side, trying to eventually get into position to attack it unseen from behind while its attention was on Wakuren.  Alewyth, fluttering about on her butterfly wings, tried casting a hold monster spell on the nightmare beast, but it too fizzled against the brute's inherent magical defenses.Still encompassed in his greater invisibility spell, Zander snuck up to the side of the nightmare beast and lined up a prismatic spray spell that avoided catching any of his friends in the area of effect.  A rainbow came blasting at the massive creature, which was struck by a ray of emerald green, infusing the nightmare beast's body with a virulent poison.  But virulent or not, it wasn't enough to have more than the slightest effect on the nightmare beast, who more or less ignored any negative effects the spell had forced upon him.Hobbling forward a step or two, the nightmare beast lowered its enormous head and snapped Wakuren up in its jaws, shield and all.  Once inside the creature's mouth, Wakuren was surprised to feel a leeching throughout his body, as if the beast was siphoning off the half-orc's very life energy into its hungry maw.  Wakuren felt the world go black around him, while the other dreamwalkers heard the sickening sound of the nightmare beast crunching Wakuren's bones and armor as he chewed on his dead snack.  But then the morsel simply vanished from its mouth, and back in Talonia, Wakuren sat upright in his blankets as he was awakened from the terrible dream he'd just had.But back in the Nightmare Lands, the other four heroes now had to take on the nightmare beast without Wakuren's help.  "Do we run?" asked Zander, knowing they could always come back later at full strength after catching back up with Wakuren."No, we can take him!" called back Thurloe from the air, casting a scorching ray spell down at the nightmare beast.  Both rays struck true, and made it past the creature's spell resistance, blistering a pair of scale-clumps on its warty hide.Xandro continued stealthily circling around the nightmare beast, no longer playing his lute - no point in drawing attention to himself! - and setting himself up to be able to attack from behind while staying well outside its immediate reach as he did so.  Alewyth got the nightmare beast to focus its attention on her, by dint of dropping a firestorm spell upon its head, also managing to get her spell past its resistances and dealing it quite a bit of damage in the fiery blast.  Zander followed up with another chain lightning spell, hoping the creature wouldn't notice the spell's point of origin and figure out there was an invisible spellcaster still on the field of battle.But the nightmare beast's attention had been caught by Xandro's attempts to flank it, and it spun about in place, grabbing the rogue up in its jaws.  Xandro felt the same life-energy-sapping effect that had slain Wakuren's dream-self, but he managed to fight against it and remain up and about after the attack - although still imprisoned inside the creature's maw.  But he didn't see why that should change his original plan, of attacking the nightmare beast from a direction it wasn't expecting; he stabbed at the sensitive roof of the creature's mouth with his enchanted rapier Deathwhisper while Thurloe cast an enervation spell that failed to make it past the nightmare beast's defenses.  Finally, Alewyth struck the creature down with an empowered flame strike spell, and Xandro managed to extricate himself out of the dead beast's mouth with a bit of effort."Now what?" he asked.  "Do we go back, or wait to see if Wakuren makes it back here on his own?""Let's give him a little time to catch up," suggested Thurloe.  By then, Wakuren had managed to fall back asleep and re-enter the Dreamlands, where his moogle guide Kupek led him to the back entrance to the zoog ruins.  The zoogs stirred into sudden interest when a half-orc wandered into their territory without a wild moogle to protect him, but before they could attack, Wakuren had cast an air walk spell and was running through the skies in the direction of the Nightmare Lands, visible from that height as the fog-shrouded valley ahead.  He ran until he got a stitch in his side, but he lowered himself down to the valley when he heard the voices of his friends talking below.  "I'm back!" he called.  "Anybody need any healing?"  He was pleased to see the nightmare beast had been slain, and he cast a mass cure light wounds spell to patch up the worst of his and Xandro's wounds.  Then, the end of Gwintinigoochi's leash once more in Zander's hand, the team took off through the fog-shrouded Nightmare Lands.Fortunately, the entirety of the Nightmare Lands wasn't covered in fog.  The mists had started receding on their own when the wild moogle gave a sudden start and raced forward on the leash, pulling Zander rapidly behind, trying to keep on his feet.  "I think he's got the scent!" the elf called to the others, right as Gwintinigoochi led the group to a cluster of small buildings.The buildings all had several things in common: they were constructed of wood, each had a roof, and all stood 10 feet tall.  But there the similarities ended, for to the far right was a long rectangular structure with four pairs of doors along the side facing the other buildings; across from it was an octagonal building that looked to have a set of wide, double doors on each outer wall and some sort of woven antenna rising up from the center of its structure; finally, further south was a smaller octagonal building with one of its eight walls missing entirely.Wakuren tapped Xandro and passed over his ring of invisibility.  The rogue slipped it over his finger, activated it, and faded from view.  Thurloe advanced to the closest-facing set of double doors on the largest building and placed an ear to it, listening intensely.  He heard nothing, but cast a protection from evil spell upon himself, just in case, as this was potentially where the half-dragon hypnalis vipers had come from, and if there were any more of them about the spellsword wanted to be ready for them.  An invisible Xandro pushed him aside and opened the doors, revealing an empty interior shaped like a slice of pie with the narrow end cut off of it - if all eight sets of double doors led to identical rooms, that would leave a smaller octagonal-room embedded in the center of the building.  Then Xandro looked up at the ceiling and saw an arcane rune of some sort carved on the ceiling.  On closer look, it wasn't carved on the ceiling so much as carved from a single piece of stone and embedded in the wooden ceiling.  From what Xandro could recall of his studies of arcane glyphs and runes, this one dealt with some sort of transmutation magic.Wakuren cast a detect magic spell and looked all about him, noticing green glows coming from the rectangular structure and the southern part of the larger of the two octagonal buildings.  Alewyth cast a magic circle against evil spell on herself and entered the trapezoidal room, looking up at the rune on the ceiling and then seeing if there were any secret passageways to be found.  A quick perusal of the four walls assured the dwarf to her satisfaction that there weren't any secret exits to the chamber.Zander cast another mislead spell, cloaking himself in a greater invisibility spell and creating an illusory double of himself, which he sent over by Wakuren while he approached the large octagonal building.  Gwintinigoochi, having led the group to this place, sat down on his haunches and started licking the briars from his fur.None of the heroes had given any thought about their various spellcasting being overheard by anyone in the vicinity, but the Overseer in charge of this snake farm had heard them and stepped out of his workshop, the smaller octagonal building with seven exterior walls.  He was built like the nightgaunts the heroes had encountered before working for the Nightmare King - smooth-faced, black-skinned gargoyles - but this one was easily twice the size of a man.  Stepping out of the opening, he saw Thurloe, Wakuren, and the false image of Zander Quilson, confirmed there were intruders about, and took steps to get rid of them.  Ducking out of sight behind the larger octagonal building, he raised a taloned hand and released the dimensional lock on the first of the three trapezoidal cages with an arcane gesture.  The green glow dissipated from that part of the structure; the creature within was now free to leave its cage.Thurloe had by this time joined Wakuren and placed his ear up against the northernmost door on the rectangular structure.  "I hear something!" he told the half-orc.  "Sounds like...hissing and slithering!  I'll bet you anything there's at least one hypnalis viper inside."  Wakuren continued concentrating on his detect magic spell, but both buildings seemed to be at the same level of power.Inside the first trapezoidal room, Xandro figured he'd learned everything he could about the rune on the ceiling - magic markings weren't particularly a strong suit of his - while Alewyth cast an ethereal jaunt spell on herself.  Now able to pass through solid matter, she went to walk through the narrow back wall of the room and was surprised to find herself prevented from walking through the wall.  Puzzled, she tried passing through a side wall and had no problems doing so, but she was now in a similarly-sized room as the one she'd just left, empty but for the same type of rune carved on a stone embedded in the ceiling.Zander continued walking along the side of the large octagonal building and to his surprise a 10-foot-tall nightgaunt was standing there, facing the wooden structure (if "facing" could be applied to a creature that didn't technically have a face).  He cast a lightning bolt spell at the Overseer, striking him and causing him to shake from the electrical barrage.  But then there was a displacement in the air between them and an advanced hypnalis viper dimension doored into place, freed from its transformation cage.Shocked at the sudden appearance of the serpentine creature, Zander nonetheless made several split-section observations about the viper.  It was easily as big as the half-dragon hypnalis vipers the dreamwalkers had fought in the dreams of the five sleeping dragons the previous evening, although this one didn't have any particularly draconic features - not surprising, as it hadn't been absorbing draconic attributes from its dream victims just yet.  Its scale coloration was about the same as the normal hypnalis vipers the elf had met up with, perhaps slightly darker in hue.  But as he was well aware, using a dimension door spell effect, even to one practiced in its use, left the one using it momentarily distracted - and Zander made sure to make the most of that moment, casting a chain lightning spell at the viper, hoping to arc out to the Overseer, but by then he had moved out of range, heading over to the next trapezoidal cage and dismissing the dimensional lock effect he'd himself recharged into place hours ago.Thurloe, hearing sounds of combat, ran over and cast a lightning bolt spell of his own at the massive hypnalis viper.  Xandro, still invisible, ran right by the serpent and attacked it from behind, sliding Deathwhisper's blade deep between a set of thick scales.  He returned to visibility as a result, but he was well pleased with his actions, as the creature's frantic hissing was evidence enough that he had hurt it plenty.Wakuren rounded the corner and cast a thunder strike spell at the serpentine creature; the Overseer was too far around the curve of the octagonal building for the half-orc to have seen him.  But Alewyth decided to pass through the roof of the second trapezoidal cage she'd examined, and from the rooftop she could see the Overseer, the advanced hypnalis viper...and another one as it dimension doored out of its cage.  Belatedly, she did the math: they had slain five half-dragon hypnalis vipers, and if they had come from this eight-sided structure, there was still one more advanced hypnalis viper here about to be released....There was a trapdoor at the dwarven priestess' feet, and curious, she dismissed the ethereal jaunt spell and opened it.  The center of the structure held an octagonal room, and this trap door looked to be the only way to access it.  Inside slithered half a dozen hypnalis vipers, none of them the size of the two out in the open but seemingly much larger than the standard ones she'd seen thus far.  She guessed they were left here to mutate to a larger form, then transferred to one of the eight growth cages once they'd reached sufficient size.  But not wanting to allow these hypnalis vipers access to a way out of their cage, she slammed the trap door back in place, sealing them back inside their octagonal prison.The first advanced hypnalis viper darted forward and snapped Wakuren up in its jaws.  The heroes' feast spell he'd partaken of that morning ensured the viper's venom did him no further harm, but he was helpless to prevent it from transferring him into the coils of its serpentine body, from where he was constricted painfully until it was difficult to draw breath.  From his new vantage point, he caught his first sight of the Overseer, who was moving over to the third and final occupied cage.Thurloe cast a dimension door spell and ended up behind the Overseer's workshop, where he was temporarily hidden from view by all of their foes.  Tempting as it was to remain there, the spellsword realized they were here to do a job, not see to their own personal safety.  Plus, Wakuren had already fought the nightmare beast until "slain," demonstrating his own bravery and making Thurloe feel like he'd been somehow diminished.  He swallowed down his jealousy and steeled himself to take action, reminding himself that this was just his dream-body he'd be putting in jeopardy; it wasn't as if anything bad could happen to his actual body while his mind was out here in the Dreamlands - even if this particular part was technically in the Nightmare Lands.Xandro ducked into the Overseer's workshop and took a quick look around, but it held no other foes, just tomes and scattered sheets of parchment, with anatomical drawings of the inner workings of serpents hanging on the walls.  Convinced there was no danger here, he stepped back outside.Wakuren cast a harm spell on the viper crushing him to death - at least he was certain to hit with that particular spell, which required physical contact.  The viper writhed in pain but refused to release its constricted prey.Upon on the rooftop, Alewyth got an idea and opened the trap door back up, then cast a dictum spell, targeting the Overseer, the most newly-released advanced serpent (the one not crushing Wakuren), and the six mutant serpents below her.  The half-dozen hypnalis vipers were paralyzed, dazed, and deafened, while the two larger targets showed no effects from the spell.  Frowning, the dwarf kicked the trap door back closed.Zander pulled himself up onto the roof and clambered to his feet, advancing beside Alewyth.  "I think I'm going to try a prismatic spray spell," he advised the priestess of Aerik, moving himself into position to where he could target the maximum possible number of foes without catching any of his friends in the spell's area of effect.The first advanced hypnalis viper continued crushing Wakuren in its coils, but spun about and caught a surprised Xandro in its jaws.  Fortunately for the rogue, its oversized body wasn't big enough to crush more than one victim at a time, although it looked like Wakuren was about to be slain again, at which point there would be plenty of room for Xandro in its newly-emptied coils.The Overseer dismissed the dimensional lock spell effect on the third trapezoidal cage, then continued backing away from the ongoing melee - he was better suited to overseeing the operation of the snake farm than he was at physical combat, although the sharp claws at the tips of his fingers attested he wasn't entirely useless in a fight.Thurloe stepped out from behind the Overseer's workshop and cast a lightning bolt spell at the unencumbered hypnalis viper mutant, keeping himself well out of range of any immediate retaliatory strike it might attempt.  But then the third one dimension doored its way out of its cage, and, having heard footsteps on the roof above it, it materialized on the top of the structure, right next to the antenna reaching up into the skies above the Nightmare Lands.  Thurloe made the mistake at looking over at the new menace as it materialized, allowing the one he'd just blasted with a lightning bolt to slither forward and get its revenge.  It darted forward, catching the spellsword up in its fangs and pumping him full of useless venom.  And then Thurloe found himself being crushed to death as well.Xandro raced forward and stabbed the viper constricting Wakuren, and his rapier-strike slew the creature who had been weakened so much with combat spells.  It collapsed to the ground, its coils releasing Wakuren as it died.  The half-orc staggered to his feet, grateful to be able to take a full breath once again.  "Thanks," replied Wakuren, touching Xandro on the arm and casting a freedom of movement spell on him.  "There," he said, "now they won't be able to grab hold of you like that one did me."  He failed to notice Thurloe was in a similar predicament to the one he'd just escaped.Alewyth cast an empowered flame strike spell on the rooftop viper, encompassing it in a blast of holy fire that burned its scales black.  Then Zander cast his prismatic spray spell, turning the rooftop viper to stone (which immediately caused it to burst through the roof and shatter when it hit the ground below), poisoned the Overseer (but failed to kill him), and sent both acid and fire blasting the head of the one crushing Thurloe.  (Fortunately for the spellsword, he was too close to the ground for Zander's rays to strike him as well.)The Overseer apparently decided he needed to join in this battle, as loathe as he was to engage in physical combat.  But his flapping wings brought him up to the rooftop, where he grabbed Alewyth up in his arms and flew straight up.  If nothing else, he could take this spellcaster out of the fight!Thurloe still had his bastard sword Spellslicer in hand, and he'd imbued it that morning with a vampiric touch spell.  Figuring he might as well put it to good use, he stabbed his blade into the scales of the hypnalis viper crushing him, activating the spell and wounding the serpent that much more, while infusing his own body with stolen vigor.  Xandro approached the viper with Deathwhisper in hand, ready to deal some damage.  The serpent struck at him before he could get to it, but it had a difficult time even holding the rogue in its mouth with the freedom of movement spell active.  Xandro dropped to the ground and stabbed at the serpent with his blade, burying it to the hilt.  Wakuren took the opportunity to cast a prayer spell on the group, the better to enhance their combat prowess.Alewyth could see what the Overseer had planned for her - fly up high and then release her, and unlike Wakuren she didn't have an air walk spell at the ready - so she figured she'd better see if she could get it to release her before they got too high up.  Casting a searing light spell at the Overseer did the trick, and she found herself plummeting back down to the roof of the octagonal building with the antenna.  She crashed through the roof, landing in a now-empty growth cage, the hypnalis viper who'd been mutating in there already having been released.  Groaning in pain from the fall - she'd be black and blue if she didn't cast some healing spells on herself in the meantime - she gathered herself to her feet and kicked the double doors open.Zander cast a summoning spell that brought forth a huge fire elemental into the snake pit grounds; it swung a fiery fist at the hypnalis viper still crushing Thurloe in its coils.  But Thurloe had had about enough of that game, and he used his anklet of translocation to dimension door out of the crushing coils, ending up 10 feet behind the snake-thing.  The viper snapped its jaws at the fire elemental, learning very quickly that was not a smart move, for it got a mouth full of burning flames for its trouble.  But Xandro quickly put it out of its misery with another well-placed stab of his rapier, leaving only the Overseer - and the smaller hypnalis vipers in the octagonal cage and the four cages in the rectangular structure, none of which were currently active combatants - as a target.  As Wakuren cast a mass cure light wounds spell on himself and his friends, Alewyth looked up in the sky, saw the Overseer flapping frantically away, and targeted him with another searing light spell, this one empowered to make it even more deadly.  The spell was enough to knock the black-skinned gargoyle out, and as his body came plummeting back down towards the ground Zander caught it in another chain lightning spell, slaying it instantly.  Its body crashed to the ground, where it lay, broken and unmoving."Well, after all that, these normal hypnalis vipers aren't going to much of a problem at all," voiced Thurloe, walking confidently to the rectangular viper cages.  And he was right; all it took was someone opening the doors and someone else casting a ranged attack spell to take them out, cage by cage."Mogo will be glad that's taken care of," decided Zander, heading over to where Gwintinigoochi had fallen asleep amidst the chaos, far enough away from the combat that he hadn't been disturbed.  Grabbing up the wild moogle's leash, he scolded, "A big, fat lot of help you were, by the way!"Gwintinigoochi just snorted in irritation at having been awakened and then promptly scolded.  Zander wasn't sure if he had just imagined it, but the elf was fairly certain the wild moogle's snort sounded very much like "Kupo!" - - - After the adventure was over, we leveled the PCs up to 16th.  This marked the 75% point of this campaign, with only 25 more adventures left until we finish it out and move on to our follow-on campaign.  I've decided to set that next campaign in the same game world, as I still have plenty of material involving some of the deities we didn't get to see much of during this campaign; Thunderwolf for one will become a bit more prominent in the next campaign.  But that's getting a bit ahead of myself, as there's still plenty of life left in this campaign before we finish it out. - - - T-shirt worn: My white T-shirt with the blue dragon on it, because the dragon is very serpentine - it was the best representation I have of an advanced hypnalis viper.</blockquote>

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