ADVENTURE 35: CRAZYTOWN
PC Roster:
NPC Roster:
Game Session Date: 11 October 2023
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The following day, the mapping expedition resumed at its slow, inexorable pace. This was the last day they had planned on continuing their explorations; once they'd gotten as far as they were going to go that day, they'd camp for the night and then begin their way back to Ghourmand Vale to restock for a second excursion. It seemed a strange way to go about things to the heroes, but then they lived inside a portable, extradimensional "house" that could be carried along in an amulet, inside of which there was an endless supply of food and drink, all courtesy of magic.
The better part of the day had gotten behind them - fortunately, without running into any other Underdark denizens like the roper, rust monsters, and intellect devourer they'd encountered the day prior - when the sharp ears of Orchid and Chaevaris heard talking coming from up ahead. Waving the others to silence, they strained to hear what was being said. Nobody could make out the words, for they were spoken in a guttural language they took to be Undercommon. But there seemed, the elven women surmised, to be at least five distinct speakers talking.
"We'd best ready ourselves for combat, just to be safe," suggested Harlan in a low voice, casting a bull's strength spell upon himself and a bless spell upon the entire group. Alistair cast mage armor and shield spells upon himself and his grackle familiar Ambrose, then followed up with five cat's grace spells on the heroes and a flame arrow spell on the group's assorted ranged weapons. He'd earlier cast an unseen servant spell, and Ogilvy held the bullseye lantern at the ready; he'd been moving at the front of their formation with the shield guardian Carruthers.
Orchid cast a longstrider spell upon herself and a barkskin spell upon Harlan and then gave a thumbs-up to the paladin to indicate all "pre-combat" preparations had been made. With his holy flaming burst longsword out and lighting the way, the paladin moved forward to see what kind of creatures they were dealing with, for all they knew thus far was that they were intelligent enough to speak a language.
The passageway led to an open chamber, with a ceiling height of nearly 40 feet. There were three main exits from this cavern, two side by side to the northwest and one further northeast; Harlan strode up to the westernmost one and saw, down a few flowstone steps, a pool of rapidly-cooling magma just ahead, sending slow-moving rivulets expanding off in several directions. Over these narrow trickles of lava, five small, white-haired dwarves were holding chunks of meat, if not fully cooking them at least getting them slightly more cooked than raw. Harlan's brow furrowed in anger as he saw some of these chunks of meat were entire arms - likely from a svirfneblin, judging from the skin's coloration. The dwarvish creatures - "derro," the paladin was fairly sure was the correct terminology - had dark skin and white hair, and while they seemed to eschew the standard dwarven penchant for full beards, they certainly liked their mustaches. The derro chattered happily among themselves, oblivious to the approaching heroes, for the magma gave off enough ambient light that the glow from the half-elf's sword aroused no suspicions. They all wore short swords at their belts and had strange-looking crossbows hanging over their backs. And, Harlan was not at all surprised to note, their auras all held the distinct taint of evil.
One of the derro happened to look up and made eye contact with Harlan across the magma flow. He tossed his meat aside, grabbed for his repeating crossbow, and stepped forward - right into the magma, for he hadn't been paying a whole lot of attention to his surroundings. The lava would likely have burned him to ashes in a mere moment had it been at full strength, but the color showed it was nearly cooled back to solid rock, so the worst he did to himself was burn his boots and feet. But the dumbest thing, or at least it seemed that way to Harlan, was one of his four companions did the exact same thing, stepping into the sluggish magma flow and burning his own feet as well. These derro were not the swiftest of foes, that much was certain!
The other three moved up, managing to avoid stepping into the magma, and one got off a shot at Orchid, who had moved up beside Harlan. It struck the druid along the top of one shoulder before she saw it coming. Alistair called for Carruthers to block the entry through the middle passageway and the construct moved forward to obey, Alistair walking up right behind it. Then one of the derro said something in his funny little language, and the sound of his voice expanded and exploded into a cacophonous burst of sonic energy that hurt Alistair's eardrums. He looked around him and saw that Ambrose and Harlan had also felt the effects of the sound burst spell. Carruthers was also in the area of effect, but he gave no indication of the loud noise giving him any discomfort.
Then more voices came from off from the left, along with the sounds of running footsteps - more derro, a lot more than five, were approaching from the west! Alistair cast a haste spell on the group, figuring they'd likely all need the extra speed the spell would give them since they seemed to be outnumbered three to one. Chaevaris nocked an arrow to her bow and called for the surveyors and their dwarven hirelings to hang back while the security team took care of the threat. They were more than happy to obey.
Carruthers sent a steel fist crashing down upon a derro who advanced too close, cracking his skull as his construct body prevented anyone from getting through the central passageway. Off to the shield guardian's left, Harlan stood with his flaming blade ready to deal with any derro foolish enough to try to get past him, while Chaevaris aimed her flaming arrow down the easternmost passageway, in case any of them should try getting to the heroes by that method. A pair of derro did exactly that, and the archer's aim focused on the closest of the two. In the meantime, a derro who wore more expensive-looking armor crept along a back passageway, heading over by the magma pool around which the five original derro had been found cooking their foul meals.
Orchid stepped forward past Harlan to get a good look at the derro forces approaching from the west and also at the terrain along that section of Underdark passageways. She then cast a transmute rock to mud spell upon the ceiling directly above 12 of the 14 derro soldiers the heroes seemed to be facing, for two were out of range trying to sneak down the tunnel Chaevaris was guarding and the leader had disappeared behind a thick section of rock. The ceiling collapsed upon the hapless derro, chunks of rock intermixed among the gloppy mud, which coated their bodies and snuffed out a good section of the closest magma trail that had already been fast on its way to cooling back to a solid. They struggled to pull themselves from the mud, one of them bleeding heavily from a head wound where a chunk of rock had split his skull open.
Ageratum tapped her bracelet and slipped into invisibility. She climbed straight up the side of the nearest cavern wall, thanks to the spider climbing properties of the cloak of arachnida she wore. She positioned herself directly before one of the derro approaching the passageway Chaevaris guarded, well aware that the archer couldn't see the little halfling any better than the derro could. But she didn't stay invisible for long; as soon as the hapless derro had stepped past her, she struck out with her magic short sword, popping back into visibility as she brought her blade deep into the derro's back. He dropped instantly, the first enemy to fall before the heroes. The other derro beside the one she'd just slain whirled upon her and attacked her with his own blade, but she easily dodged his clumsy attack.
Another derro shot a crossbow bolt at Carruthers, hitting him on his broad metal chest and bouncing off without having made so much as a dent. Another shot a bolt at Harlan but missed. One of the ones standing in the cooling lava sank ever lower into it and quickly expired, the victim of his own stupidity. Another mud-covered derro attacked with his sound burst, this time the sonic attack stunning Harlan and Alistair into temporary immobility. And although Carruthers was immune to the stunning effect of the spell, as it was Alistair who gave him his orders (and thus far his orders were merely to kill any derro moving into range to try to get past the construct through the central passageway), the effect was basically the same, for the shield guardian stood immobile, awaiting further instructions. The other derro busied themselves extracting themselves from the dripping mud.
A derro was foolish enough to wander within range of Carruthers' long arms and he quickly bludgeoned the fool to death before resuming his immobile stance. Chaevaris shot her flaming arrow at the remaining derro down the easternmost tunnel, striking him right between the eyes - he fell to the cavern floor, quite obviously dead. And then the derro leader rounded the back corner and found himself staring at Harlan's immobile form.
Orchid cast a summon swarm spell and suddenly there was a swarm of bats flapping near the western derro. They swooped to the attack, focusing on a pair of derro coated in mud, but that was not enough to protect them from numerous bites by the hungry bats. One of the two was slain by the sudden blood loss, falling to the cavern floor and sending the bats swooping at him to drop to his corpse and lap up what blood they could before focusing their attention elsewhere.
Ageratum reactivated her bracelet of invisibility and faded from view. She advanced along the wall, moving in front of another unsuspecting derro. He raised his repeating crossbow to aim at Harlan, and the little halfling let him have it with every ounce of strength she had behind her blade. She almost decapitated him with that single blow, and he too joined the ranks of the derro dead.
By now, a lot of the remaining derro were retreating away from the heroes, trying to regroup out of view. But one had the presence of mind to send another sound burst spell hurtling at the heroes clumped together, and once again Alistair was stunned into momentary helplessness. Harlan, Orchid, and even Ambrose all managed to shrug off that part of the spell's effects, although they all had the sonic pulse coursing through their bodies causing a fair bit of damage. "Sorry, boss," apologized Ambrose as he took flight, leaving Alistair's shoulder while he still could and heading back to the assembled surveyors.
This new sonic attack seemed to wake Harlan from his previous stupor, for the paladin darted suddenly forward, bringing his sword down upon a retreating derro. He caught the fleeing foe in a diagonal thrust that practically cut the little fellow into two. Chaevaris, in the meantime, had nocked another arrow into place and had been moving quietly down the tunnel she'd been guarding, rounding the corner and seeing the derro leader. She quickly aimed the arrow in his direction. He merely stood there, glaring at her, until she realized he hadn't just been standing there like a goof - he'd been actively attacking her with some sort of spell, for she could feel the attack mentally in her head, but she shrugged it off through pure force of will. Strange, she thought to herself, I didn't even see him do anything to actually cast it.
Orchid moved up and glanced over at her bat swarm, still attacking a lone derro - and she saw a strange-looking figure step forward from the darkness at the back of a western cavern. It was a creature the likes of which she'd never seen before, so she called out to her friends, hoping one of them might have heard of such a bizarre figure: "Squid-headed person approaching from the west!" But whatever it was, she cast a spike stones spell in its direction, covering it, the derro being attacked by the bat swarm, three more derro for good measure, and everywhere in between them. The bats slew the derro they'd been harassing and moved on to a pair of fresh victims, dropping one of this new pair with their rapid bites.
The mind flayer who had approached from the west took a step forward and discovered the hard way the druid's spike stones spell effect. He immediately stopped his forward motion and made an quick assessment about the distance between himself and the elf who'd just cast the spell and the man in armor beside her, deciding if they were in range for a mind blast - it was too close to call for now, and he opted to wait until they moved closer. In the meantime, the poor derro being deluged by flying bats tried to flee from them, only to slice up his feet on the tricky spikes now growing up out of the cavern floor. Enraged at the unfairness of it all, he lashed out with a sound burst spell in the direction of Harlan, Ageratum, and Orchid, and while the sonics rattled their teeth none of them fell victim to the stunning effect.
Ageratum was still quite visible but managed to spin in place and slay another derro with her sword despite him seeing her incoming attack. Then another one cast a sound burst spell her way, and this time all three heroes succumbed to the stunning effect, freezing up momentarily.
Two derro moved up side by side, shooting their repeating crossbows at Chaevaris, one hitting the archer in the meaty part of a thigh. Gritting her teeth to ignore the pain, she released her arrow and sent it flying across the gap to strike the derro leader in the shoulder. She didn't realize it at the time, but the derro's bolt had been poisoned; fortunately, she was able to overcome its intended effects.
Alistair suddenly snapped out of his stunned stupor and commanded Carruthers to slay the derro leader, who by now was looking very much the worse for wear. The shield guardian moved forward to comply, striking at the much smaller foe with a clenched fist, but the size differential between them made it easy for the derro to dodge out of the way - a good thing, too, for had the blow landed it would likely have squashed him flat. But the sorcerer, just now recalling Orchid's warning about a "squid head," dashed over by Harlan to get a good look at what he suspected could only be a deadly mind flayer. He raised his metamagic rod, ready to fire off a maximized scorching ray spell at the illithid, but that's when it chose to strike out with its mind blast. As it turned out, Harlan, Ageratum, and Orchid had all been within range, and Alistair had just now joined their ranks as potential targets. The bat swarm and two derro were also within range of the mental attack, and none of them had the mental strength to fend off the psionic attack. The derro froze up instantly, as did the bats - who then plummeted to the ground, to be impaled by the spike stones effect still in place all around them.
Ageratum froze up immediately from the unexpected attack, although Harlan and Orchid both managed to fight it off. Alistair, sensing the mental assault upon his faculties - it felt very much like the stunning effect from those derro sound burst spells, which Alistair was quickly growing to dislike - flinched reflexively and then realized he had been unaffected. With a smile on his aristocratic face, he raised his metamagic rod and let the illithid have it full blast. Two gouts of flame flowed forth from the rod, immolating the mind flayer's body in an instant. It died with a telepathic cry of surprise and pain echoing through everyone's mind.
Chaevaris slew two derro in rapid succession with a pair of flaming arrows. Detecting a powerful source of evil coming from the derro leader, Harlan advanced, his sword ready. He sliced it laterally at his foe, catching him across the chest, and then a third arrow from the archer hit him in the forehead, only to bounce off and clatter to the stone floor of the cavern. The derro leader stepped back out of the range of Harlan's sword and glared at him, and the paladin could feel the confusion spell try to worm its way into his head - only to be cast aside by the half-elf's holy reserve.
There were still two derro soldiers left alive, although they'd been stunned into temporary stupefaction by the mind flayer; Orchid took care of them with a chill metal spell that froze them both dead in their armor before they could free themselves from the illithid's mental attack.
Carruthers took a step forward and tried to carry out his last orders, to slay the derro leader. He swung at the little foe several times, each time hitting but dealing much less damage than one would have guessed; Alistair finally surmised he had some sort of magical protection, like that provided by a stoneskin spell, lessening the results of the physical attacks upon him. Deciding to see if magic worked any better, the sorcerer targeted the derro leader with a maximized magic missile spell through his metamagic rod, and this slew the derro outright. It did not, however, end the threat he provided, for he opened his mouth in a roar of pain as he died and it seemed that he...spit his brain right out of his head! But the brain grew in size as it fell to the cavern floor, and by the time it hit it had four powerful-looking legs, revealing itself as another of those intellect devourers like the one the heroes had fought off just yesterday. It had apparently been "wearing" the derro leader like a puppet this whole time.
Fortunately, the intellect devourer had apparently been taking at least some of the damage that had been dealt to the derro leader's body, for it was a particularly bedraggled-looking brain-thing that stood before them. Harlan detected evil emanating from the beast's aura, and he infused his holy flaming burst longsword with Pelor's smiting energy before bringing it down upon the bedraggled brain. The blade cleaved through the spongy body, cutting the creature into two pieces. Just to be sure, however, Harlan cut each of those pieces into two, and then each of the subsequent four pieces into two as well. Only then did he believe it was dead enough not to return to life.
Orchid dismissed her spike stones spell and her swarm of bats, then called back to the surveyors that it was safe for them to come forward. "Are you sure?" asked the lead surveyor, thoroughly spooked by the weirdness of the creatures they'd encountered thus far in the Underdark. Chaevaris assured them the various threats had been dealt with as she dealt with removing the crossbow bolt from her thigh.
While the surveyors sketched out the tunnels the heroes had made clear for them, the Trained Professional Adventurers advanced even further ahead, wanting to make sure there was nothing else waiting for them before the people they were being paid to keep safe were put into danger. They found but a single way forward, up a rising slope to the west that had the 40-foot ceiling remain constant as they gained elevation, eventually narrowing back down to a single tunnel with a ceiling height of about eight feet. This tunnel led to an overhanging cliff, allowing them to see a small Underdark village below, with a few simple huts surrounding a prominent stone keep. A river flowed nearby, providing a possible exit from the cavern below. When the surveyors had caught up the heroes with their mapping, they took a look at the village below and decided that was something they'd conquer once they returned back this way - for now, they wanted to return to Ghourmand Vale and restock for the rest of the exploratory trip. Looking down at the river below, the lead surveyor ventured, "We may wish to bring a boat or two back with us."
"That is a distinct possibility," affirmed Harlan, knowing full well it would be child's play to bring along a few canoes or even rowboats inside their extradimensional home.
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At the end of this adventure, we all leveled up to 10th level. As a result, Alistair learned his first 5th-level spell, which I opted to make cone of cold - he needs a few more attack spells in his limited repertoire.
PC Roster:
Ageratum Purslane, halfling rogue 9
Alistair Mandelberen Pastlethwaite, human sorcerer 9
Chaevaris Noarunal, elf archer 9
Harlan Starblade, half-elf paladin 9
NPC Roster:
Orchid, elf druid 9
Game Session Date: 11 October 2023
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The following day, the mapping expedition resumed at its slow, inexorable pace. This was the last day they had planned on continuing their explorations; once they'd gotten as far as they were going to go that day, they'd camp for the night and then begin their way back to Ghourmand Vale to restock for a second excursion. It seemed a strange way to go about things to the heroes, but then they lived inside a portable, extradimensional "house" that could be carried along in an amulet, inside of which there was an endless supply of food and drink, all courtesy of magic.
The better part of the day had gotten behind them - fortunately, without running into any other Underdark denizens like the roper, rust monsters, and intellect devourer they'd encountered the day prior - when the sharp ears of Orchid and Chaevaris heard talking coming from up ahead. Waving the others to silence, they strained to hear what was being said. Nobody could make out the words, for they were spoken in a guttural language they took to be Undercommon. But there seemed, the elven women surmised, to be at least five distinct speakers talking.
"We'd best ready ourselves for combat, just to be safe," suggested Harlan in a low voice, casting a bull's strength spell upon himself and a bless spell upon the entire group. Alistair cast mage armor and shield spells upon himself and his grackle familiar Ambrose, then followed up with five cat's grace spells on the heroes and a flame arrow spell on the group's assorted ranged weapons. He'd earlier cast an unseen servant spell, and Ogilvy held the bullseye lantern at the ready; he'd been moving at the front of their formation with the shield guardian Carruthers.
Orchid cast a longstrider spell upon herself and a barkskin spell upon Harlan and then gave a thumbs-up to the paladin to indicate all "pre-combat" preparations had been made. With his holy flaming burst longsword out and lighting the way, the paladin moved forward to see what kind of creatures they were dealing with, for all they knew thus far was that they were intelligent enough to speak a language.
The passageway led to an open chamber, with a ceiling height of nearly 40 feet. There were three main exits from this cavern, two side by side to the northwest and one further northeast; Harlan strode up to the westernmost one and saw, down a few flowstone steps, a pool of rapidly-cooling magma just ahead, sending slow-moving rivulets expanding off in several directions. Over these narrow trickles of lava, five small, white-haired dwarves were holding chunks of meat, if not fully cooking them at least getting them slightly more cooked than raw. Harlan's brow furrowed in anger as he saw some of these chunks of meat were entire arms - likely from a svirfneblin, judging from the skin's coloration. The dwarvish creatures - "derro," the paladin was fairly sure was the correct terminology - had dark skin and white hair, and while they seemed to eschew the standard dwarven penchant for full beards, they certainly liked their mustaches. The derro chattered happily among themselves, oblivious to the approaching heroes, for the magma gave off enough ambient light that the glow from the half-elf's sword aroused no suspicions. They all wore short swords at their belts and had strange-looking crossbows hanging over their backs. And, Harlan was not at all surprised to note, their auras all held the distinct taint of evil.
One of the derro happened to look up and made eye contact with Harlan across the magma flow. He tossed his meat aside, grabbed for his repeating crossbow, and stepped forward - right into the magma, for he hadn't been paying a whole lot of attention to his surroundings. The lava would likely have burned him to ashes in a mere moment had it been at full strength, but the color showed it was nearly cooled back to solid rock, so the worst he did to himself was burn his boots and feet. But the dumbest thing, or at least it seemed that way to Harlan, was one of his four companions did the exact same thing, stepping into the sluggish magma flow and burning his own feet as well. These derro were not the swiftest of foes, that much was certain!
The other three moved up, managing to avoid stepping into the magma, and one got off a shot at Orchid, who had moved up beside Harlan. It struck the druid along the top of one shoulder before she saw it coming. Alistair called for Carruthers to block the entry through the middle passageway and the construct moved forward to obey, Alistair walking up right behind it. Then one of the derro said something in his funny little language, and the sound of his voice expanded and exploded into a cacophonous burst of sonic energy that hurt Alistair's eardrums. He looked around him and saw that Ambrose and Harlan had also felt the effects of the sound burst spell. Carruthers was also in the area of effect, but he gave no indication of the loud noise giving him any discomfort.
Then more voices came from off from the left, along with the sounds of running footsteps - more derro, a lot more than five, were approaching from the west! Alistair cast a haste spell on the group, figuring they'd likely all need the extra speed the spell would give them since they seemed to be outnumbered three to one. Chaevaris nocked an arrow to her bow and called for the surveyors and their dwarven hirelings to hang back while the security team took care of the threat. They were more than happy to obey.
Carruthers sent a steel fist crashing down upon a derro who advanced too close, cracking his skull as his construct body prevented anyone from getting through the central passageway. Off to the shield guardian's left, Harlan stood with his flaming blade ready to deal with any derro foolish enough to try to get past him, while Chaevaris aimed her flaming arrow down the easternmost passageway, in case any of them should try getting to the heroes by that method. A pair of derro did exactly that, and the archer's aim focused on the closest of the two. In the meantime, a derro who wore more expensive-looking armor crept along a back passageway, heading over by the magma pool around which the five original derro had been found cooking their foul meals.
Orchid stepped forward past Harlan to get a good look at the derro forces approaching from the west and also at the terrain along that section of Underdark passageways. She then cast a transmute rock to mud spell upon the ceiling directly above 12 of the 14 derro soldiers the heroes seemed to be facing, for two were out of range trying to sneak down the tunnel Chaevaris was guarding and the leader had disappeared behind a thick section of rock. The ceiling collapsed upon the hapless derro, chunks of rock intermixed among the gloppy mud, which coated their bodies and snuffed out a good section of the closest magma trail that had already been fast on its way to cooling back to a solid. They struggled to pull themselves from the mud, one of them bleeding heavily from a head wound where a chunk of rock had split his skull open.
Ageratum tapped her bracelet and slipped into invisibility. She climbed straight up the side of the nearest cavern wall, thanks to the spider climbing properties of the cloak of arachnida she wore. She positioned herself directly before one of the derro approaching the passageway Chaevaris guarded, well aware that the archer couldn't see the little halfling any better than the derro could. But she didn't stay invisible for long; as soon as the hapless derro had stepped past her, she struck out with her magic short sword, popping back into visibility as she brought her blade deep into the derro's back. He dropped instantly, the first enemy to fall before the heroes. The other derro beside the one she'd just slain whirled upon her and attacked her with his own blade, but she easily dodged his clumsy attack.
Another derro shot a crossbow bolt at Carruthers, hitting him on his broad metal chest and bouncing off without having made so much as a dent. Another shot a bolt at Harlan but missed. One of the ones standing in the cooling lava sank ever lower into it and quickly expired, the victim of his own stupidity. Another mud-covered derro attacked with his sound burst, this time the sonic attack stunning Harlan and Alistair into temporary immobility. And although Carruthers was immune to the stunning effect of the spell, as it was Alistair who gave him his orders (and thus far his orders were merely to kill any derro moving into range to try to get past the construct through the central passageway), the effect was basically the same, for the shield guardian stood immobile, awaiting further instructions. The other derro busied themselves extracting themselves from the dripping mud.
A derro was foolish enough to wander within range of Carruthers' long arms and he quickly bludgeoned the fool to death before resuming his immobile stance. Chaevaris shot her flaming arrow at the remaining derro down the easternmost tunnel, striking him right between the eyes - he fell to the cavern floor, quite obviously dead. And then the derro leader rounded the back corner and found himself staring at Harlan's immobile form.
Orchid cast a summon swarm spell and suddenly there was a swarm of bats flapping near the western derro. They swooped to the attack, focusing on a pair of derro coated in mud, but that was not enough to protect them from numerous bites by the hungry bats. One of the two was slain by the sudden blood loss, falling to the cavern floor and sending the bats swooping at him to drop to his corpse and lap up what blood they could before focusing their attention elsewhere.
Ageratum reactivated her bracelet of invisibility and faded from view. She advanced along the wall, moving in front of another unsuspecting derro. He raised his repeating crossbow to aim at Harlan, and the little halfling let him have it with every ounce of strength she had behind her blade. She almost decapitated him with that single blow, and he too joined the ranks of the derro dead.
By now, a lot of the remaining derro were retreating away from the heroes, trying to regroup out of view. But one had the presence of mind to send another sound burst spell hurtling at the heroes clumped together, and once again Alistair was stunned into momentary helplessness. Harlan, Orchid, and even Ambrose all managed to shrug off that part of the spell's effects, although they all had the sonic pulse coursing through their bodies causing a fair bit of damage. "Sorry, boss," apologized Ambrose as he took flight, leaving Alistair's shoulder while he still could and heading back to the assembled surveyors.
This new sonic attack seemed to wake Harlan from his previous stupor, for the paladin darted suddenly forward, bringing his sword down upon a retreating derro. He caught the fleeing foe in a diagonal thrust that practically cut the little fellow into two. Chaevaris, in the meantime, had nocked another arrow into place and had been moving quietly down the tunnel she'd been guarding, rounding the corner and seeing the derro leader. She quickly aimed the arrow in his direction. He merely stood there, glaring at her, until she realized he hadn't just been standing there like a goof - he'd been actively attacking her with some sort of spell, for she could feel the attack mentally in her head, but she shrugged it off through pure force of will. Strange, she thought to herself, I didn't even see him do anything to actually cast it.
Orchid moved up and glanced over at her bat swarm, still attacking a lone derro - and she saw a strange-looking figure step forward from the darkness at the back of a western cavern. It was a creature the likes of which she'd never seen before, so she called out to her friends, hoping one of them might have heard of such a bizarre figure: "Squid-headed person approaching from the west!" But whatever it was, she cast a spike stones spell in its direction, covering it, the derro being attacked by the bat swarm, three more derro for good measure, and everywhere in between them. The bats slew the derro they'd been harassing and moved on to a pair of fresh victims, dropping one of this new pair with their rapid bites.
The mind flayer who had approached from the west took a step forward and discovered the hard way the druid's spike stones spell effect. He immediately stopped his forward motion and made an quick assessment about the distance between himself and the elf who'd just cast the spell and the man in armor beside her, deciding if they were in range for a mind blast - it was too close to call for now, and he opted to wait until they moved closer. In the meantime, the poor derro being deluged by flying bats tried to flee from them, only to slice up his feet on the tricky spikes now growing up out of the cavern floor. Enraged at the unfairness of it all, he lashed out with a sound burst spell in the direction of Harlan, Ageratum, and Orchid, and while the sonics rattled their teeth none of them fell victim to the stunning effect.
Ageratum was still quite visible but managed to spin in place and slay another derro with her sword despite him seeing her incoming attack. Then another one cast a sound burst spell her way, and this time all three heroes succumbed to the stunning effect, freezing up momentarily.
Two derro moved up side by side, shooting their repeating crossbows at Chaevaris, one hitting the archer in the meaty part of a thigh. Gritting her teeth to ignore the pain, she released her arrow and sent it flying across the gap to strike the derro leader in the shoulder. She didn't realize it at the time, but the derro's bolt had been poisoned; fortunately, she was able to overcome its intended effects.
Alistair suddenly snapped out of his stunned stupor and commanded Carruthers to slay the derro leader, who by now was looking very much the worse for wear. The shield guardian moved forward to comply, striking at the much smaller foe with a clenched fist, but the size differential between them made it easy for the derro to dodge out of the way - a good thing, too, for had the blow landed it would likely have squashed him flat. But the sorcerer, just now recalling Orchid's warning about a "squid head," dashed over by Harlan to get a good look at what he suspected could only be a deadly mind flayer. He raised his metamagic rod, ready to fire off a maximized scorching ray spell at the illithid, but that's when it chose to strike out with its mind blast. As it turned out, Harlan, Ageratum, and Orchid had all been within range, and Alistair had just now joined their ranks as potential targets. The bat swarm and two derro were also within range of the mental attack, and none of them had the mental strength to fend off the psionic attack. The derro froze up instantly, as did the bats - who then plummeted to the ground, to be impaled by the spike stones effect still in place all around them.
Ageratum froze up immediately from the unexpected attack, although Harlan and Orchid both managed to fight it off. Alistair, sensing the mental assault upon his faculties - it felt very much like the stunning effect from those derro sound burst spells, which Alistair was quickly growing to dislike - flinched reflexively and then realized he had been unaffected. With a smile on his aristocratic face, he raised his metamagic rod and let the illithid have it full blast. Two gouts of flame flowed forth from the rod, immolating the mind flayer's body in an instant. It died with a telepathic cry of surprise and pain echoing through everyone's mind.
Chaevaris slew two derro in rapid succession with a pair of flaming arrows. Detecting a powerful source of evil coming from the derro leader, Harlan advanced, his sword ready. He sliced it laterally at his foe, catching him across the chest, and then a third arrow from the archer hit him in the forehead, only to bounce off and clatter to the stone floor of the cavern. The derro leader stepped back out of the range of Harlan's sword and glared at him, and the paladin could feel the confusion spell try to worm its way into his head - only to be cast aside by the half-elf's holy reserve.
There were still two derro soldiers left alive, although they'd been stunned into temporary stupefaction by the mind flayer; Orchid took care of them with a chill metal spell that froze them both dead in their armor before they could free themselves from the illithid's mental attack.
Carruthers took a step forward and tried to carry out his last orders, to slay the derro leader. He swung at the little foe several times, each time hitting but dealing much less damage than one would have guessed; Alistair finally surmised he had some sort of magical protection, like that provided by a stoneskin spell, lessening the results of the physical attacks upon him. Deciding to see if magic worked any better, the sorcerer targeted the derro leader with a maximized magic missile spell through his metamagic rod, and this slew the derro outright. It did not, however, end the threat he provided, for he opened his mouth in a roar of pain as he died and it seemed that he...spit his brain right out of his head! But the brain grew in size as it fell to the cavern floor, and by the time it hit it had four powerful-looking legs, revealing itself as another of those intellect devourers like the one the heroes had fought off just yesterday. It had apparently been "wearing" the derro leader like a puppet this whole time.
Fortunately, the intellect devourer had apparently been taking at least some of the damage that had been dealt to the derro leader's body, for it was a particularly bedraggled-looking brain-thing that stood before them. Harlan detected evil emanating from the beast's aura, and he infused his holy flaming burst longsword with Pelor's smiting energy before bringing it down upon the bedraggled brain. The blade cleaved through the spongy body, cutting the creature into two pieces. Just to be sure, however, Harlan cut each of those pieces into two, and then each of the subsequent four pieces into two as well. Only then did he believe it was dead enough not to return to life.
Orchid dismissed her spike stones spell and her swarm of bats, then called back to the surveyors that it was safe for them to come forward. "Are you sure?" asked the lead surveyor, thoroughly spooked by the weirdness of the creatures they'd encountered thus far in the Underdark. Chaevaris assured them the various threats had been dealt with as she dealt with removing the crossbow bolt from her thigh.
While the surveyors sketched out the tunnels the heroes had made clear for them, the Trained Professional Adventurers advanced even further ahead, wanting to make sure there was nothing else waiting for them before the people they were being paid to keep safe were put into danger. They found but a single way forward, up a rising slope to the west that had the 40-foot ceiling remain constant as they gained elevation, eventually narrowing back down to a single tunnel with a ceiling height of about eight feet. This tunnel led to an overhanging cliff, allowing them to see a small Underdark village below, with a few simple huts surrounding a prominent stone keep. A river flowed nearby, providing a possible exit from the cavern below. When the surveyors had caught up the heroes with their mapping, they took a look at the village below and decided that was something they'd conquer once they returned back this way - for now, they wanted to return to Ghourmand Vale and restock for the rest of the exploratory trip. Looking down at the river below, the lead surveyor ventured, "We may wish to bring a boat or two back with us."
"That is a distinct possibility," affirmed Harlan, knowing full well it would be child's play to bring along a few canoes or even rowboats inside their extradimensional home.
- - -
At the end of this adventure, we all leveled up to 10th level. As a result, Alistair learned his first 5th-level spell, which I opted to make cone of cold - he needs a few more attack spells in his limited repertoire.
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