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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 9559865" data-attributes="member: 508">ADVENTURE 88: DIVISION, NOT MULTIPLICATIONPC Roster:Alewyth Putterpye, dwarf priestess of Aerik 18             Thurloe Pulver, human fighter 3/wizard 3/spellsword 10/eldritch knight 2             Wakuren, half-orc cleric of Cal 9/paladin 9             Xandro Silverstrings, human bard 6/rogue 12             Zander Quilson, elf sorcerer 18NPC Roster:Beetle Darkcloud, halfling ranger 6             Robin the Balladeer, human bard 6Game Session Date: 11 January 2025 - - -"That should do it," replied Wakuren.  He'd been busy since piloting the wood colossus to the outskirts of the drow city of Van'kiroth and having it transform back into its manor house form.  He'd nipped into the city to purchase some sovereign glue and had attached the four rubies he'd pried out of the housings of the necklaces the hydra guardian had been wearing outside the lair of the nagas they'd aided recently and glued them to the front, back and sides of the "attic" - the part that became the head of the wood colossus in its humanoid form.  That way, he'd reasoned, four of the heroes could each wear one of the command necklaces and be able to see out of one of the rubies - and cast spells through it if needed."And how exactly are we supposed to see where we're riding our boneheads if we're looking through rubies on the top of the colossus's head?" demanded Thurloe."Easy enough," the half-orc responded.  "We put Beetle in the front, like normal, and then the four of us on 'ruby detail' can form a line with their mounts' bridals attached to the one ahead of it.  Robin and Xandro can keep an eye out while riding, and we four can look in all four directions from a high vantage point while we travel.""I dunno," frowned the spellsword.  "Seems dangerous.""Well, you can just peek through the ruby every now and again, if you'd rather," Wakuren countered."We can give it a try and see how it works out," suggested Alewyth.  "But for now, let's all head into town and see about some lodging for the night."The group rode their bonehead mounts - with Wakuren on Nimbus, his air element warhorse - and approached the city.  As they did so, they met up with a pair of dwarves riding stone drakes - the first dwarves they could recall ever seeing on the continent of Talonia.  They looked much like the dwarves from back home in Armaturia: short, stocky, and bearded, wearing thick leather garments.  They nodded a greeting at the heroes and then spotted Alewyth among them - and made an immediate turn directly towards the heroes."Good mornin' t' ye," said the first, introducing himself as Turang Faceter, a gemcutter here to sell some of his wares in the drow city.  The other dwarf - a miner, judging from the pick and shovel strapped to his drake's harness - said his name was Briloc Swingpick.  Then, looking straight at Alewyth, he said, "D'ye mind if I ask ye a few questions, miss?"  Before the priestess of Aerik could give her consent, he fired off with the first question: "Are ye married?"Alewyth smiled and admitted she was not."Are ye fertile?" Briloc pressed.  At that, Alewyth's face reddened and she burst out with an astonished, "Sir!""Would ye marry me?" Briloc asked next, causing Alewyth to sputter for a moment before saying, "I thank you for the offer, but we have only just met....""What's all of this about?" interjected Xandro.Turang took up the explanations.  "We're from a small dwarven mining town, an' fer th' last coupla years, there's bin no wee babies born t' th' wimmen.  There's plenty've miners what've got their wives there in th' town with 'em, but none o' 'em 've been blessed with a baby fer years now.  We're thinkin' mebbe we bin cursed or sumpin', so we tried makin' offerin's t' th' Demigoddess Desdemona an' all, askin' 'er t' fergive us whatever it was we done, but it hasn't made no diff'rence."  He looked at the holy symbol of Aerik Alewyth wore around her neck.  "Ye bein' a priestess o' Aerik an' all - He's th' patron God o' our town -  d'ye think ye might be willin' t' come t' our mining town an' give us yer blessin', like?"Alewyth didn't even bother consulting her friends before saying, "Of course."  Beetle just rolled his eyes; of course this group would agree to go off on some side mission when they were getting this close to Spiraclast, the city to which he'd been hired to guide them.  He was looking forward to dropping them off and making the long trek back to his people; the trip had already cost him his loyal dinosaur steed, Yellow-Belly.  He was currently riding Wakuren's bonehead, Persistence, a creature much too big for the little halfling's comfort."Just let us finish up our business in town, then," suggested Briloc.  "Meet you back here in, say, an hour?"  The heroes agreed, and Thurloe surreptitiously cast a detect magic spell on the dwarves to see if they showed any signs of magic auras.  They were clean.An hour later, the dwarves were back, with sacks of coins strapped into the pouches on their drakes in place of the gems they'd brought in for sale.  "Off we go, then," said Turang.  "Our mine's in th' Leatherwing Mountains, yonder."  He indicated a mountain range to the north."Whoa, we're going all the way to the mountains?" asked Thurloe."Where else d'ye think a dwarven minin' town would be?" asked Briloc.  "Not t' worry, it's less'n an hour's ride, an' th' mines're not too far deep fer a surface-dweller like ye."Sure enough, an hour later the heroes' dinosaur mounts - and Beetle, who volunteered to stay with them while the heroes went to do what they needed inside the mining town - were being housed in a side cavern that was set up as a stables.  Briloc and Turang led their guests into a tunnel that ended in a set of thick, wooden doors, each 10 feet to a side and banded with iron.  Turang pounded on a door and called out to the guards on the other side to open up.There was the sound of a massive bar being slid on the far side of the doors, and then they slowly opened inwards.  Once fully opened, they formed a wall with a set of metal bars reaching from floor to ceiling, creating an entrapment area with another set of doors at the far end.  Ringing this barred area were six dwarven crossbowmen, each with their weapons pointed at the heroes until they had determined all was well.  Anyone attempting to storm the dwarven town would have a hard time of it!After questioning Briloc and Turang and determining they weren't under any duress - and after the dwarves vouched for Wakuren, whose half-orc heritage automatically made him a suspicious-looking visitor - one of the guards grabbed a key from a ring and opened the barred dors, allowing the eight to enter the town proper.  "Welcome t' Aerikus," he said as he ushered them out of the entrapment area."We'll take ye t' th' leader of the town, but this time o' day he's likely deep in th' mines," offered up Turang.  "Whaddayasay we stop off at the Mead from a Stone fer a drink first?"  He indicated a wooden door with a painting of a foaming mug painted upon it, beneath dwarven runes spelling out the tavern's name."Sounds like a good plan," agreed Xandro.Unlike what they'd seen of Aerikus thus far, the tavern's interior was at least well-lit, due to a blazing fire in a hearth along the western wall.  (While heading to the town's gates, Xandro had activated his goggles of night which granted him darkvision and Thurloe had lit up a torch, while Zander pulled out his everburning torch so he could see.)  Briloc led them to a large table flanked by long benches, each caved of stone.  "Eight tankards of yer mead, bartender!" called out Briloc as they all took their places around the table.  There was a handful of dwarves sitting at the other tables and at the seats around the long bar at the eastern side of the tavern, and several of them looked appreciatively in Alewyth's direction.  She blushed slightly at the unexpected attention."Here ye be, dearies," said a buxom dwarven lass, passing out stone tankards of mead to those around the table.  But Thurloe was already trying to figure out the curse they were under.  "You say you haven't had any kids in the last couple of years," he said.  "Did anything unusual happen about that time - open any new mining shafts, get any strange visitors, anything like that?  Oh, hey, thanks," he added, taking his mug of mead and helping himself to a hearty swig."Hold on a bit," suggested Wakuren, as he cast a detect poison spell on the mead.  Sure enough, it was indicating a small amount of poison, but the half-orc couldn't tell if that was something unusual or just a normal property of alcohol, which he knew full well could be harmful if not kept in moderation.  He looked down at the mugs and then up at Alewyth, who could tell what he'd just cast.  "Allow me to cast a quick blessing upon our beverages," she suggested, casting a purify food and drink spell over the mugs.  Thurloe took another big swig and offered up it didn't taste any different from his first big gulp.  "It's good,' he admitted."I should hope so," agreed the bartender, walking over and introducing himself as Vjolnidarr Alekeep.  He had a head full of red hair, a bushy beard the same color, and an infectious smile. "It's our number one best seller.  Anybody need a refill?"  He held up a stone pitcher not much bigger than any of the mugs, but from it he managed to refill the mugs of both dwarves as well as Thurloe's, as the spellsword had already guzzled his first helping down."That's an interesting trick," observed Zander.  "I assume that works like a decanter of endless water?""Sure does, but it pours out mead, not water - a much better deal, if'n ye ask me!  I basically got me here an infinite supply, so I only charge a single copper per mug.  It's by far the favorite drink in town, that's fer sure!  These cheap buggers'd rather spend a copper on a mug o' me mead than pay more fer the good stuff!  But that's alright - I'm not in th' business t' become rich.""Where did you manage to get ahold of a decanter of endless mead?" asked Alewyth."Oh, you know, back in me adventurin' days!" replied Vjolnidarr."You're a retired adventurer?" asked Robin.  She hadn't seen that many dwarves in her life, and wasn't sure how to tell how old they were; she knew they lived a lot longer than a human, but wasn't sure if they lived quite as long as elves.  But Vjolnidarr didn't look particularly old to the young balladeer."Sure am!  I ran with a buncha other dwarven adventurers, fightin' off giant lizards, an' dragons, like, an' uh, blobby oozes and such.  But then I found this stone flask of never-ending mead and th' life of a bartender seemed like a lot safer life fer me, ye know?""Where exactly did you find the flask?" Alewyth pressed."Oh, uh, it was part of the gear of some monster we killed.""What kind of monster?""Uh, it's been a while...coulda bin a mind flayer, mebbe, or a derro or somethin'...after a few years down th' road, yer adventures all sort of get mixed up in yer mind....you know."Alewyth shot a glance at Wakuren, which clearly said, "I think he's pulling a fast one on us."  Fortunately, Wakuren had a detect lies spell on hand and cast it.  He nodded at Alewyth upon completion, and she continued on with her questioning.  "So, how long were you an adventurer, Vjolnidarr?""Oh, prolly not much more'n a decade, I figger."  Wakuren shook his head, just a little bit side to side, indicating that hadn't been a truthful statement.  Alewyth picked up on his signal and continued.  "And you found the decanter while adventuring, you say?  How long ago was that?""Well, I bin running this tavern for about three years now" - a nod from Wakuren indicated this was true - "an' it were prolly a few years before that when I first got th' flask...."  Wakuren shook his head again; that last bit had been a lie.Zander, in the meantime, cast a detect magic spell of his own, focusing on the stone flask of never-ending mead.  As expected, it gave off a strong aura of the type of conjuration magic associated with teleportation, but surprisingly, it also gave off a moderate aura of transmutation magic.  Furthermore, Vjolnidarr himself was giving off an aura as well, but his was clearly of the enchantment variety.  Rather than trying to act surreptitiously, as the two clerics had been doing, the elf simply blurted out, "He's got an enchantment aura!" to the group at large.  Wakuren immediately cast a protection from evil spell on the dwarven bartender, touching him on the arm as he did so.  As soon as the spell was in effect - and the geas spell he was under had been temporarily negated - Vjolnidarr gasped and blurted out what he'd been trying to say for the last few years: "I've been controlled by duergar, who gave me the stone flask of never-ending mead and told me to make sure everyone in the town drank it!"  His eyes were crazy, as if he'd finally been purged of something eating away at him for literally years.Eventually, with some leading questions, the full story came out.  Duergar had attacked him in the storeroom behind the bar, one of them - an elderly woman - cast a geas spell on him that forced him to do their bidding, and gave him the stone flask of never-ending mead.  His orders were to get everyone to drink the special mead, not to let anyone else into the storeroom but himself, and to report back to the storeroom every four weeks so the month-long geas spell could be reapplied before it wore off.  This had been going on for the last three years or so, he told them - about the same time the dwarven community stopped having babies."Let's go check out the storeroom!" said Thurloe, eager for battle.  He told the dwarves in the tavern to stay back, and Xandro asked Robin to stay behind to ensure none of them followed them through the door to the storeroom.  "Okay," she agreed, "but leave the door open, so you can still hear my tune."  She knew her job in any combat was to play the song of inspirational courage which added strength to the heroes' limbs and further empowered their physical attacks.Vjolnidarr unlocked the storeroom door with a key from his pocket, then moved back with his patrons and servers while the heroes prepared themselves for battle.  Xandro cast heroism spells on himself, Wakuren, and Alewyth, then activated his magic ring and faded from sight.  Alewyth cast a bless spell on the group, granted everyone the effects of a stoneskin spell from her wand, and cast a personal protection from evil on herself.  Then, for good measure, she cast a soften earth and stone spell and destroyed the stone flask of never-ending mead.  Zander activated a shield spell from Thurloe's wand and handed it back; Thurloe absently returned it to his belt without using it himself, as he was busy casting a protection from evil spell on himself at the time.  Wakuren made do with a shield of faith for the moment, then indicated his readiness.  Alewyth, who had stationed herself by the door, opened it and stepped inside to darkness.  Behind her, she could hear the opening sequence to Robin's song of inspirational courage.The storeroom had barrels and crates lined up along all four walls, most of them covered in cobwebs; as Vjolnidarr had indicated, almost everybody went for the cheap mead instead of paying for the higher-priced beverages he kept on hand.  The priestess of Aerik meandered along the northern wall, then south along the eastern wall, opening her senses to any changes in the stone around her.  Xandro entered next, unseen, his magical goggles allowing him to see just fine in the near-darkness; the only light was what spilled in from the fireplace in the tavern behind him.  He had his rapier out and ready, but there didn't seem to be any duergar in the room at all.Thurloe entered the storeroom next, holding Spellslicer in one hand and his torch in the other, the better to allow his human eyesight to make sense of his surroundings.  He cast a detect magic spell and saw nothing directly in front of him was magical, save for the invisible Xandro who he'd almost bumped into.  Behind him came Wakuren, casting a divine favor spell on himself as he looked around.  Zander took a moment in the bar area to cast an expeditious retreat spell upon himself and Petey (who, as usual, was perched on his master's shoulder) from a scroll, then wandered over to the southern wall.  There, he found a large crate that, quite unlike the others in the room, was not covered in cobwebs.  Holding up his everburning torch for a better view, he found a hidden latch mechanism that allowed the front face of the false crate to open into the storeroom, showing the wooden box was not only empty but there was another set of hidden doors on the far side, which looked to pivot outward into whatever room lay beyond."I'll go first," offered up Alewyth, stepping into the hollow crate and pushing open the doors.  Unfortunately, there was simple alarm system in place: the doors, when swinging outward into the room beyond, knocked over a glass bottle that had been placed on the top of the wide, stone steps that led down to a level below the tavern's floor, and the shattering glass alerted a figure in the back of the room, who turned about in shock and looked directly at the intruding dwarven cleric.The figure was male, with a bald head and a wispy white beard extending from his chin.  He stood over a table with a vial of some chemical substance in his hand; off in the corner by where he stood was a cauldron of some sort.  And the room in which he stood was some sort of alchemical laboratory, with tables this way and that, most holding various chemicals bubbling away or dripping into larger vats and mixing together.  There were three large cages underneath the tables along the south wall, whose squeaking inhabitants led Alewyth to believe they were likely rats.The dwarven priestess took the scene in in an instant, and then attacked: the words of a hold person spell spilled from her lips and the duergar alchemist, Lomok, froze up before he could make any attacks himself.  Satisfied with her spellcasting, Alewyth stepped cautiously down the stairs, looking for any other further enemies that might be about.However, her mere presence in the lower laboratory triggered a magical trap behind her: up in the storeroom, three of the barrels came to unholy life and tipped over, rolling in a sort of waddling way to slam into the heroes in the room with them.  Thurloe found himself fighting off a wooden barrel only slightly smaller than he was, while another one that size and one nearly twice as large went after Zander.Xandro wasn't bothered by any of the animated barrels, for he was not only invisible but halfway down the stairs when they attacked.  He saw sweat break out on Lomok's forehead as the duergar tried breaking Alewyth's hold person spell with the power of his own will, to no effect.  However, Lomok's alchemical homunculus, Meeba, saw its master's predicament and did what it could to help: running along the southern tables, it released the rats from their cages, allowing them to run free into the lab.Thurloe brought Spellslicer cutting deep into the side of the barrel attacking him, smashing through several slats and causing the alcoholic contents to spill freely out onto the floor as the animating magic spilled from the barrel's wooden form.  (This also triggered the two spells Thurloe had stored into his sword, vampiric touch and shout, which were not of any help against a non-living foe already destroyed.)  Wakuren lined himself up so he could hurl a javelin of lightning through both of the remaining animated barrels, damaging both but destroying neither.Zander took the opportunity to scoot down the stairs, away from the menacing barrels.  Seeing the rats escaping from their cages, the elf cast a summon swarm spell that caused a flock of bats to manifest directly above the swarming rodents.  Petey, in the meantime, launched himself from Zander's shoulder and flew over to Lomok, stabbing at him with his stinger.  Unable to move a muscle, the duergar alchemist made for an easy target, but the pseudodragon hadn't counted on the duergar constitution making them impervious to his sleep venom.As the bats swooped down to bite at the rats, who counterattacked their flying foes with their own snapping teeth - all of which caused quite a racket - one of the two closed doors on either side of the stairwell opened, and another duergar stepped out from a small bedroom containing little more than a pair of cots.  This one was wearing thick, leather armor and had a greataxe in hand, but when he saw the intruders in Lomok's laboratory (and could hear more fighting upstairs in the storeroom), he simply vanished from view.  Alewyth, who had seen him step into the lab, swung her dwarven axe Sjondra at the place where he'd been, but the swing hit nothing but empty air.  He's probably teleported away, she thought to herself.Wakuren and Thurloe were now in full combat with the animated barrels upstairs, and the lumbering constructs weren't nimble enough to catch them unawares any longer.  Thurloe smashed the larger of the two open with his bastard sword, while Wakuren used the sharp edge at the bottom of his shield of Cal to pierce the staves of the smaller of the two.  Both barrels stopped moving and leaked out their contents - Vjolnidarr was going to have quite the mess on his hands when all of this was over and done!Xandro sprinted across the room and stabbed the helpless Lomok with Deathwhisper, the rogue's blade sliding in deep.  The attack brought him back to full visibility, and he used the opportunity to grin evilly at his still-helpless foe.  As the swarms of rats and bats went at it, Meeba flew into Alewyth's face, biting her with its venomous teeth, unaware that the dwarf had breakfasted upon a heroes' feast that morning and was immune to its poison.  She swatted it contemptuously out of the way and cast an empowered searing light spell at the homunculus' master.  Zander followed up with a chain lightning spell targeted at Lomok, with arcs flying off to strike Meeba and the rats (which, intermingled with the bats as they were, made the bats a secondary target as well, but the elf didn't particularly mind); the end result was piles of dead rats (the bats, as summoned creatures, disappeared after death) and a singed - but still held - Lomok glaring furiously at his attackers.  Meeba weathered the attack as well, but it was obvious the homunculus didn't have a whole lot of fight left in it.Petey continued his attacks on Lomok, as did Xandro - it was almost embarrassing attacking a foe who couldn't fight back.  But then, in a desperate surge of frantic willpower, Lomok finally burst free from Alewyth's hold person spell, only for Petey to take him out with yet another stab with his stinger.  Lomok collapsed face-first onto the stone floor, his showing in this fight not the best example of duergar heartiness.Meeba squawked in pain at its master's death and bit feebly at Alewyth, who once again swatted it away in irritation.  Thurloe clomped down the stairs, ending up in a dead-end of three tables pushed together into a sort of "H" formation.  Wakuren followed right behind him, looking about for enemies and seeing only one particularly bedraggled-looking alchemical homunculus.But then the duergar fighter, Shadrunn, who had used his boots of teleportation to fetch reinforcements, returned to the storeroom above mounted on his trusty steeder Skittersteed and the wizened cleric behind their whole scheme, Ednelda.  The steeder, a horse-sized spider used as a riding mount by chosen duergar, scrambled down the stairs and snapped its mandibles at Thurloe, but the spellsword dodged off to the side at the last moment.  Ednelda cast a summoning spell and a night hag materialized at the top of the steps; at the duergar's direction, it chose a target - Thurloe - and fired off a magic missile spell at him.  (It was at this particular moment the spellsword recalled his having overlooked using his own wand of shield on himself earlier.)Now with more exciting foes to deal with, Alewyth casually sideswiped Sjondra into the flying homunculus and brought Meeba's artificial life to an end, before heading over towards the steeder and its duergar rider.  Shadrunn grinned at the approaching dwarf, but that was a mistake, for it dropped his guard from the other side and Xandro was there in a heartbeat to take advantage of the oversight, stabbing Deathwhisper into the duergar's side.  Then Thurloe finished him off with a decapitating move with Spellslicer that had his head bouncing behind his steed onto the steps, before rolling back down again.  He then channeled a scorching ray spell into his sword, so it would trigger when he next struck a foe.Wakuren cast a holy word spell, which blinded and deafened the steeder as well as paralyzing it, but he wasn't able to overcome the night hag's resistance to spells and Ednelda was out of range.  Zander moved to where he could see up the stairs and cast a horrid wilting spell at the steeder (which killed it) and the two female foes.  Ednelda, cursing, retaliated with a blasphemy spell that wasn't anywhere near as effective as she'd hoped it would be, but it at least dazed the heroes enough she and the night hag were able to get in another attack each before the intruders recovered.  Thurloe was hit by another barrage of the night hag's magic missiles, while Ednelda cast a mass inflict critical wounds spell upon her foes.  The duergar cleric's spell caused Petey to hiss in pain as he dropped to the ground in agony, nearly dead from the magical assault.The night hag blasted Thurloe again with a magic missile spell, but then Alewyth cast a holy word spell of her own that deafened Ednelda and slew the night hag outright - as a summoned creature, she simply returned to whatever fiendish plane she inhabited.  But Ednelda was unable to stop Xandro's charge up the stairs and the subsequent attack with his rapier, which ended up taking her life.With the battle over, the heroes took a quick assessment of the alchemical setup.  The door on the other side of the stairs led to a storage closet where barrels of mead and all sorts of chemicals were kept, and the equipment on the tables all seemed to be various stages of the creation of what notes on the subject indicated were potions of infertility.  The duergar plan, it seemed, was to continue to feed these potions to the unsuspecting dwarves of Aerikus, while Lomok experimented on extending the duration of the effects.  The means of getting the potions to the dwarves was via the cauldron in the corner; the stone flask of never-ending mead merely teleported whatever was in the cauldron through its own spout, so it wasn't really a mead version of a decanter of endless water after all.  And according to the alchemist's notes, once he could get the potions to cause permanent infertility, the duergar planned on dumping sufficient quantities of the substance into the water supplies of every dwarven community they could find, with the hope of eventually wiping out the dwarven race from the Erthe."Nasty!" summed up Alewyth."So, how long before the stuff they've already consumed wears off?" asked Zander."No idea," admitted Alewyth.  "But at least now, it's just a matter of time.  Before too long, there will be babies born to the dwarves of Aerikus once again!"She was absolutely correct, too - some ten months later, the first of the new births occurred, and quite a few of them were named after the heroes who had rescued the mining town from their duergar-caused "curse." - - -I kidded Logan that the ugliest baby born to the dwarves was named "Wakuren" after the half-orc. - - -T-shirt worn: My Mello Yello T-shirt (one of two I have - it's my favorite soda), representing a popular beverage like that at the Mead from a Stone tavern - if only they sold Mello Yello for a mere 1 cp per serving!</blockquote>

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