Ghourmand Vale (3.5 campaign)

[Richards]

ADVENTURE 53: IRONCLAD

PC Roster:

Ageratum Purslane, halfling rogue 12
Alistair Mandelberen Pastlethwaite, human sorcerer 12
Chaevaris Noarunal, elf archer 12
Harlan Starblade, half-elf paladin 12​

NPC Roster:

Orchid, elf druid 12​

Game Session Date: 15 May 2024

- - -

"It sounds to me," replied Holyrood Carp, "like that's an iron golem you'd be facing."

The bard had listened while the Trained Professional Adventurers - with Alistair restored to a non-petrified state - explained about their recent exploits fighting off the beholder in the chamber they'd unearthed. Chaevaris pressed him about details on how best to fight an iron golem, as the group had never faced one before.

"You'll want to avoid fire-based spells," Holyrood advised, "but electricity-based spells will slow it considerably. That's probably the best way to go about fighting an iron golem. Most other spells won't affect it in the least." Alistair made a mental note to lead off with a lightning bolt spell, but then realized after that he'd be pretty much useless against the construct. They'd have to rely upon Harlan's swordcraft - with the flaming burst aspect of his Starblade deactivated, of course.

"But tell me more about the bronze doors with the rope binding them closed," Holyrood pressed. Orchid described it in detail, her elven eyesight having been able to make out more of the bas-relief carvings in the dim light of the chamber in the time they'd been there. The bard got more and more excited as she described the two figures etched on the door, a four-winged being cutting off the bat wings of another figure. "And the words inscribed at the top - what did they say? Did they mention 'the Cutter' at all?"

"The Cutter?" repeated Orchid. "No, I think it just said, 'Devicor daemoniorum,' something like that."

"I thought so!" exclaimed the bard. "My friends, I believe you have discovered the internment site of Scalptor the Cutter, Slayer of Devils, a glabrezu that once walked the mortal world during the time of Grazzt, Iggwilv, and Iuz! He was said to have sliced the wings from a pit fiend before being imprisoned in torment himself, as were many of the other demons and devils summoned forth to aid in battle as demigods waged war against each other. It would make sense, then, to have the place where he is bound guarded by a creature like an iron golem, ready to come to life if anyone tried opening the door imprisoning Scalptor."

"But then wouldn't it be best if we just left him in there?" reasoned Chaevaris. "If he's been safely entombed all this time...."

"That, sadly, is no longer the case," Harlan argued. "The beholder has made an opening from the hillside into the tunnel - and the gnolls burst into the main chamber from their own den. There are now two easy ways for anyone to enter the demon's cell and release him - better that we open the door to slay him once and for all." Arguing against a paladin slaying a demon, the other heroes knew, was pretty much wasted breath, so they geared themselves up for a trip back to the chamber where they encountered and slew the beholder.

"Those 18 or 19 dead gnolls aren't going to be smelling any better than the last time we were there," Ageratum warned.

Despite having paid a wizard to fully charge up their thieves' coil, given that the "hidden" chamber was no more than 6 hours away by horseback, the group opted to take off the following morning on their trusty steeds, giving Chaevaris an opportunity to hunt up an arrowsmith who worked in adamantine in the meantime. And thus it was early afternoon the next day when the heroes arrived at the spot where they'd first heard the beholder calling out a feigned need for help. The archer activated the extradimensional door from her amulet, projecting it onto the side of the hill by the beholder's circular tunnel. Then Alistair ordered Carruthers out, after which they led the horses - and Nova, Harlan's celestial pegasus - into the abandoned gnoll cave where they'd hopefully be safe from any harm. Alistair set his grackle familiar on guard duty outside the beholder's circular tunnel out front, ready to warn them should anyone approach from that direction. Orchid stationed her timber wolf Shushitan out at the front entrance as backup for Ambrose. Then Harlan called for the casting of any spells anybody wanted up and running when they entered the chamber inside.

Orchid began her casting by placing a rusting grasp spell into Carruther's hands, which were fortunately carved from wood and stone. Now, upon Alistair's orders, the shield guardian could release that spell upon touching the iron golem, for it was one of the only spells known to actually harm such a construct. Alistair cast a mage armor spell upon himself and another upon Carruthers, a haste spell upon the group, and a greater invisibility spell upon Ageratum. (She had a magic bracelet that allowed her to cast invisibility spells upon herself, but those always deactivated whenever she attacked a foe; with Alistair's spell she'd remain unseen.) Orchid cast a longstrider spell upon herself, and then a series of six barkskin spells, one upon each hero and the last one upon Carruthers. She then cast an air walk spell upon Chaevaris and the spells mass bull's strength and mass bear's endurance spells upon the five heroes. Harlan cast a bless spell upon the group and announced he was ready. Chaevaris took that as her cue to air walk up to the higher tunnel that opened out into the chamber holding the iron golem and the door behind which was likely imprisoned Scalptor the Cutter. She then opened the visor to her bullseye lantern and let it shine into the open chamber, providing some much-needed illumination for those not blessed with elven vision.

(Ageratum, by the way, had been absolutely right: the smell was simply horrific, what with 19 decaying gnoll bodies and a dead beholder still floating in the air where it had been slain, the buoyant gases keeping it aloft not yet having dissipated after its death. Alistair, upon getting his first whiff of the horrid stench, immediately cast a prestidigitation spell to flood the chamber with the scent of roses.)

The group had settled on a plan: take out the iron golem first, before opening the bronze doors. And it would be best if they could somehow incapacitate the iron golem before it even activated. The halfling had therefore suggested she use her rope of entanglement to wrap around the construct's ankles, which would hopefully trip it in the same way tying someone's shoelaces together did. She fully expected "attacking" the iron golem's ankles in this way would likely activate it, but with the others all ready to react to its initial movement, they hoped to take it out smoothly and easily - potentially immediately after it face-planted onto the floor.

Standing 20 feet directly in front of the iron golem - the furthest distance her rope would reach if she held it like a whip - Ageratum was about to snap its far end at the golem's ankles when she suddenly had a better idea. "You know," she said, "I can have my rope attack its ankles while I'm standing on the ceiling. That way, he won't be able to retaliate against me - I'll be out of reach!" Having convinced herself of the logic behind the sudden change (and that was assuming the construct had some way to see past her greater invisibility spell), she activated her cloak of arachnida and started spider climbing up the wall of the chamber and across the ceiling until she stood directly overhead. But then, in flicking the rope of entanglement in preparation of releasing it to fall down and slither around the iron golem's ankles, she accidentally crossed an imaginary line 20 feet from the back wall - the wall on which the two bound bronze doors stood - and that was enough to send the iron golem into immediate motion.

Orchid cast a second rusting grasp spell onto her own hand and stepped forward to touch the advancing golem. The area around where her fingers brushed against the construct's metal body immediately became pitted and corroded. Harlan charged up beside her, swinging his Starblade for all he was worth. (He had remembered to deactivate the flames that normally blazed down the length of the blade.) His sword struck with a resounding peal of metal upon metal, but it didn't even leave a scratch upon the golem's body - it had apparently been ensorcelled during construction to resist a good deal of physical damage, the paladin realized.

Alistair cast a lightning bolt at the iron golem's head, as its great height ensured that way he wouldn't accidentally catch either of his friends in the spell's path. The electrical attack had the expected effect of causing the construct to slow down significantly. The sorcerer beamed with pride until he realized that was the one and only spell he had on hand that could affect the iron golem; like it or not, he was now nothing more than a spectator in this fight, but perhaps he could find a way to boost one or more of his companions' combat prowess or something....

"Attack the iron golem, Carruthers!" Alistair called out. "And use your rusting grasp spell against it!" Carruthers ambled forward to do his master's bidding, slamming a stone fist into the iron golem's side and causing another area of rust to form. At the same time, Ageratum flipped her rope of entanglement down at the golem, which wrapped itself around the golem's ankles as commanded. However, as three individual foes had all moved up to engage the automaton, it didn't need to move forward to attack them in return, and it remained standing on its feet in the spot in which it had first animated. In fact, its initial attack didn't even require it to move its arms. Its mouth hinged open and a stream of gas ejected from the opening, quickly expanding into a cloud of poisonous vapors. Carruthers was of course completely unfazed by the attack, but so was Orchid, for her druidic training had made her immune to poisons. Harlan was not so invulnerable on that front, but he managed to get a good gulp of fresh air before he was surrounded by the nasty vapors and managed to gut it out for the duration until the cloud dissipated on its own.

Up from her beholder-tunnel perch, Chaevaris shot off a flurry of adamantine arrows in quick sequence. All four hit, although only one hit at the right angle to penetrate the iron golem's body and remain sticking out of it; the other three just plinked off its armor and fell to the floor. Orchid, her rusting grasp spell still active, reached over and hit the golem in a new spot, causing another patch of corrosive metal flakes to appear on its leg. Harlan backed up over by Alistair, out of immediate range, and cast an eagle's splendor spell upon himself.

Alistair moved back to the brass doors leading to the entry tunnel, calling out for Carruthers to press on with his attacks. The shield guardian slammed the iron golem again, the blow causing another spot of rust to form. Then, upon his master's orders, he backtracked a few paces, as Alistair was hoping to get the golem to try to move so the rope of entanglement could do its work and send it crashing to the ground. But Orchid was still well within range, and the slowed construct slammed a swinging arm into her side, sending her sprawling. From her perch upon the ceiling, Ageratum cast a web spell from her cloak down at the iron golem, webbing him from floor to ceiling with an anchor point along the back and side walls. Then she herself backed up, remaining both invisible and on the ceiling.

Four more adamantine arrows came shooting at the iron golem in rapid succession, once again with only one of them penetrating at just the right angle to do any serious damage. Orchid slapped the golem again and caused another rust spot, while Harlan cast a magic circle against evil spell upon himself. Then Carruthers stepped forward again - webbed as it was, the iron golem wouldn't be coming forward to him, it seemed - and brought a massive fist slamming into the golem's midsection, causing it to pit and corrode. The golem slumped forward, its bound legs limp behind it as the weight of its upper torso was suspended by the web spell. But it was quite apparent that the iron golem's days of animated movement were now behind it.

Alistair's mind went immediately to the upcoming fight: demons, he recalled, were resistant to most forms of energy and immune to electricity, so his lightning bolt and chain lightning spells would be of no use. But with the iron golem taken out, the heroes regrouped in front of the bound bronze doors (all but Chaevaris, who remained in her sniper's perch in the beholder tunnel). "Miss Purslane, are you here?" asked Alistair, calling out to the air. "I'd like you to examine this door, if you would be so kind."

"Right here behind you," replied Ageratum's voice from off to the side. "I don't see any obvious traps, but let me try a wand of knock before I try anything else." She activated her wand, but it had no effect upon the doors. Alistair tried a mage hand spell to try to undo the elaborate knotwork binding the doors shut by their handles with a sturdy-looking rope (not wanting to touch the rope himself), also to no avail. Harlan tried channeling a burst of positive energy at it, in the same manner as when he tried to turn undead creatures away from him, with just as much success as the other attempts. Finally, Ageratum's unseen voice called out, "Hey, Harlan, try cutting the rope with your blade. I think the fact it has a holy enchantment might make the difference."

It absolutely did. With a single downward thrust of his Starblade, the knot was cut in twain and the bronze doors groaned as air started flowing out from the cracks beneath; apparently, the ropes had done more than just make it impossible to open the doors - it had sealed off the room beyond from sound or air making its way through. Now, though, the heroes could hear the sounds of heavy chains falling to the floor in the room beyond.

Orchid tugged on the western door, getting it to open and allowing her to see inside the chamber beyond. There was a glabrezu on a raised platform in the center of the room - three steps up, she noted - rubbing its clawed pincer-arms with its smaller, humanoid set; apparently the chains piled on either side of the platform had bound the larger pair of arms, tugging them in opposite directions for all this time. But the druid didn't spend any time at all checking out the room before firing off a wall of thorns spell, surrounding Scalptor and the back half of the chamber, leaving enough room in front for those who wanted to be able to still attack the demon without having to wade through thorns. The glabrezu was tall enough that its head and shoulders rose up out of the 10-foot-tall mass of twisted thorns.

Harlan took immediate advantage of Orchid's new layout. Charging into the chamber and channeling Pelor's smiting energy into his blade, he swung for all he was worth and felt a successful blow drive deep into the fiend's chest, likely slicing through a rib or two on its way in. Scalptor roared in pain, swearing oaths of vengeance in his own horrid tongue.

Alistair pulled open the eastern door to allow everyone a better view - especially Elfy, up there in her perch. He fired off a cone of cold spell, angling it upwards over Harlan's head so he wouldn't also get encompassed by the blast of cold energy. As expected, the glabrezu's demonic nature allowed him to shake off the worst of the spell's effects, but the sorcerer figured every little bit helped eventually slay this foul beast.

Carruthers came charging into the chamber, slamming a fist into the fiend's jaw. Ageratum ran in right behind the shield golem, but she was still running along on the ceiling and still covered by Alistair's greater invisibility spell. She swung her sling in a circle beneath her, letting fly with a stone that struck the demon on the nose but didn't seem to do much more than surprise it. It snarled in irritation and looked her straight in the eye, something she hadn't thought possible, but she'd failed to take into account the fiend's true seeing ability.

Chaevaris, unhappy with the vantage point from her initial perch, air walked above the floor of the first chamber until she had a better view into the internment chamber and the demon imprisoned within - it had apparently swapped out heavy chains for stabbing thorns, but it was still imprisoned. Aiming carefully, she pierced the demon's right eye with an arrow charged up with sonic energy from her magic longbow. Scalptor retaliated with a mighty power word that left the archer stunned for several precious moments where she stood in mid-air. Harlan swung a second time but failed to do as much damage as his first strike, but Carruthers slammed his other fist into the glabrezu's wolfish muzzle, causing bright red blood to start flowing. Orchid cast a freedom of movement spell upon Harlan, thinking to give him the ability to wade unhurt through the mesh of intertwined thorn branches, but he was already swinging back and forth with his Starblade, cutting deep gauges in the glabrezu's flesh with each swing. Pelor's smiting energy surged through his blade, adding to the damage he was dealing to this fiend from the Lower Planes. And sure enough, by the time he was done, the demon was dead before him, although its body remained here in place on the Material Plane instead of returning immediately to the Abyss, for it had been gated instead of summoned. The half-elf gave a grim smile, for he knew that meant Scalptor's death was a permanent one.

"That's one less demon anyone will ever have to worry about," he said with satisfaction in his voice.

"Yeah, but too bad there's no treasure or anything in here," griped Ageratum, as Orchid dismissed her wall of thorns spell, allowing the glabrezu to fall to the floor of his raised platform.

"I wouldn't be too sure of that," remarked Alistair, entering the chamber for the first time. He had Carruthers lift one of the massive, black chains that had been imprisoning the foul demon, and a bit of scraping revealed solid gold beneath the black. "Hey, Elfy, if you'd like to activate the door in here, we can have Carruthers toss these chains inside and we can see about unloading them when we get back to Ghourmand Vale!"

There was no response - Chaevaris was still under the effects of Scalptor's power word stun. But once it wore off, she helped get the chain loaded into their extradimensional dwelling place and then they returned to the gnoll caves to retrieve their mounts. Then, after catching back up with Ambrose and Shushitan, they started their way back to Ghourmand Vale. Ageratum spent a good chunk of the ride back estimating the rough value of the golden chains they were bringing back with them.

- - -

According to Dan, the chains were worth 10,000 gp - not a bad haul!

I wrote this up as if Ageratum moving to the ceiling before employing her rope of entanglement against the iron golem was her own idea, but Dan was the one who had talked his wife Vicki into it - and then, once she was positioned above the golem, he ruled she had stepped close enough to the back wall to activate the iron golem. He swears it was all innocent, but from our point of view (that is: mine, Logan's and Harry's) it certainly looked like he went out of his way to prevent the "bound ankles" attack from working and more or less forcing Ageratum to trigger the golem into movement. (The space where she had said she was going was far enough away from the back wall not to have triggered anything; Dan went with where Logan had moved the Ageratum mini - off the combat map altogether and off to the side, since she was on a spot above and in front of the iron golem - as an indicator of her actual location.) So, although it seemed like willful vindictiveness to us at the time, it may well have just been failure to pay attention on Dan's part - an attribute he's demonstrated before.

 

[Richards]

ADVENTURE 54: MCDERMOTT'S WAKE

PC Roster:

Ageratum Purslane, halfling rogue 12
Alistair Mandelberen Pastlethwaite, human sorcerer 12
Chaevaris Noarunal, elf archer 12
Harlan Starblade, half-elf paladin 12​

NPC Roster:

Orchid, elf druid 12​

Game Session Date: 29 May 2024

- - -

After decades of dedicated service to the Temple of Pelor, the paladin Carl McDermott, Lord Crusader of the Sun Court, had passed away in his sleep. Harlan received word from Grand Master Beaufort, the temple leader, that he was to serve as Captain of the Guard for McDermott's cremation. As part of his duties, Harlan and five of his hand-chosen allies would watch over Lord Crusader McDermott's body as it lay in state at the Sun Court while the temple leadership went up into the hills several hours away. There, they would light the ceremonial torch from the first morning light's rays and bring the sacred flames back to the Sun Court, where the immolation would occur. Harlan and his team would ensure the safety of Lord Crusader McDermott's body during the night and until the ceremony was completed several hours after dawn the next morning.

"You getting paid for this?" asked Ageratum.

"No, it is part of my duties," replied Harlan. "And it's a great honor to be appointed Captain of the Guard. And I get to appoint five others to join me - I was hoping to enlist all of you."

"By all means!" agreed Alistair at once.

"There are only five of us all together, though," pointed out Chaevaris. "Who are we going to pick as the sixth? Holyrood?" Holyrood Carp was a close associate, and although he'd never adventured with the TPA he was well aware of their exploits, due to the songs Alistair wrote about their career and passed on to the bard to add to his musical repertoire.

"No, he's making his way to Greyhawk to catch a ship for the Spindrift Isles, to join some conclave of Bards," replied Alistair. "He'll be gone for some time. Perhaps Carruthers?"

"I don't see why not," agreed Harlan. And thus it was that by dusk that evening, the five adventurers and the shield guardian were in place at the Sun Court, watching as the temple leadership trekked off to the hills to gather the next morning's holy light.

"The guy's got a lot of expensive equipment," Ageratum pointed out once they were alone, standing on her tippy-toes to peer at the body of Lord Crusader McDermott as he lay in state on a bier in the back of the temple. "His armor and shield alone is worth quite a bit, and that amulet he's wearing is covered in diamonds! Are they really going to burn him and let all that go to waste?"

"That is the custom," Harlan replied. "And that silver greatsword of his was taken during an incursion he led into the Astral Plane, to wipe out a bunch of mind flayers who had taken over a githyanki fortress. The sword is worth even more than his armor and his amulet put together. That's why we're here - to make sure none of the local thieves get it into their heads to loot his body before his immolation tomorrow morning."

"Still, it seems like a waste," mourned Ageratum, silently wondering if it would be possible to get a replica of his amulet made before tomorrow morning and swapped for the real thing...but no, there was no way she could get anything made in the time at hand that wouldn't be immediately noticed as an obvious forgery. She sighed heavily at the impending loss of lootable treasure.

"Not just local thieves," pointed out Chaevaris. "The githyanki might not like his having taken one of their silver swords back home with him. And the mind flayers could always show up for retaliation. We'd best be ready for anything."

Fortunately, the Sun Court was imminently defensible, for it had but a single entrance, a pair of double doors at the front of the church, which could be barred from the inside. Having placed the bar into place, the heroes stationed Carruthers immediately inside the doors; anyone trying to force them open would have a nine-foot-tall mechanical opponent to fight off before they could involve themselves in any mischief involving the paladin's corpse.

Harlan positioned himself directly before the paladin's bier and stood guard. Ageratum and Orchid took opposite ends of the front row of pews, facing Carruthers and the double doors. As for Chaevaris and Alistair, they went to the upper level, a horseshoe-shaped ring around the back of the temple where the choir sang. There were two sets of spiral stairs leading to the upper level, and the whole back half of the temple rose up another 45 feet beyond that, forming an open tower. Chaevaris positioned herself directly in the center of the choir level, facing the front of the temple, while Alistair was over by the northwestern staircase. Ambrose had been left outside when they sealed up the Sun Court, with orders to keep an eye out for any approaching potential intruders, and to let Alistair know over their shared empathic link if anybody approached. There was no point in preparing any combat spells just yet, for they had all night and the next morning on duty, with no way of determining if and when any attacks might occur. Still, Alistair had his standard mage armor spell covering himself and Orchid had cast her traditional longstrider spell. And even though there were everburning torches in sconces around the temple, Alistair chose to imbue everyone with a darkvision spell, so they could see no matter what the lighting might be. As an afterthought, the sorcerer cast a detect magic spell and examined the entire temple, making sure nobody had hidden themselves away inside the temple ahead of time with a meld into stone spell or something similar, but the place was clean - other than themselves, the only other sources of magic were coming from Lord Crusader McDermott's armor, weapon, and equipment.

After that, it was several hours of waiting.

But then, long after the sun had set, Alistair felt Ambrose's sudden worry and concern over their empathic link. "Get ready - somebody's approaching!" he hissed to the others, casting a shield spell to further protect himself in combat. Harlan said the words to a quick bull's strength spell, while Ageratum and Chaevaris both activated the magical jewelry they wore that rendered them invisible. Orchid took the opportunity to cast a barkskin spell, readying herself for battle.

When the penetration into the Sun Temple occurred, it came from a direction none of the heroes had anticipated. Chaevaris was the first to notice a sudden increase in the sounds of the outdoors - bird cries, the soft whisper of the wind - coming from directly behind her. Spinning about, she was amazed to see a circular tunnel opening on the upper level, heading all the way through the back wall and into the night air. The sounds of several people clambering up a ladder could be heard, and then, one by one, the would-be robbers made their appearance at the other end of the passwall spell.

The first thief stepping onto the choir level of the Sun Temple was an elf dressed in dark armor, wielding a longsword. He took an immediate left, heading for the northeastern stairs, apparently already having made himself familiar with the layout of the Pelorian temple. Behind him came another fighter, this one a human, followed by a pair of rogues, one of gnomish origin and the other a halfling. The human and gnome headed straight for Alistair, while the other two walked right past an invisible Chaevaris on their way to the opposite spiral stairwell.

Right about the time the human and gnome realized Alistair's presence, he let loose with his prepared spell. A chain lightning spell went blasting directly at the human, then arced over to the other three, covering everyone in flashes of burning electricity. The human, having taken the brunt of the damage, fell over immediately into unconsciousness (if not immediate death), while the other three were rattled heavily but managed to stay on their feet. Alistair slid over to the spiral stairway, placing the railing between himself and the others, who all looked like they relied upon their hand-held weapons in combat. Hearing the sounds of combat from above him, Harlan raced to the northeastern stairwell and started running up it, ready to head off anyone who might try to reach Lord Crusader McDermott as he lay in state. Ageratum ran up to take Harlan's previous post beside the paladin's body.

Chaevaris ran over to the northeastern staircase as well, but for a completely different reason: she figured none of these four intruders was likely responsible for the passwall spell, and it sounded like the wizard who had cast it was still outside. Sure enough, there was another human outside hanging in the air, likely under the effects of a fly or air walk spell. But getting a quick bead upon the wizard's left eye, the archer released her arrow, smiling as it struck true. The arrow pierced the wizard's left eye and exploded out of the back of his head; he fell wordlessly to the ground below, quite obviously dead from the well-placed shot.

Orchid was far enough back among the pews that she could see the situation on the choir level above, and cast a wall of thorns spell that caught the three remaining thieves guild members in a mass of tangled, thorny hedges. They cried out as their struggles to free themselves only pierced the thorns deeper into their exposed flesh. Then Alistair ran forward, up against the northern wall, and cast a lightning bolt spell that hit each of the three in turn, killing both rogues instantly and making the elf fighter start to reevaluate his life choices.

"Ambrose is alerting me to another possible second wave!" the sorcerer called out suddenly. Orchid glanced over at the front door, but it was still barred and Carruthers remained on duty there, ready to clobber anyone who tried entering by that method. But the second wave, when it came, ignored the front doors as well, simply dimension dooring into the space between the pews and Lord Crusader McDermott's bier. This second wave had nothing to do with the first wave; where the original intruders were local thieves guild members looking for an easy looting, the second wave was a githyanki sword retrieval team, seeking to fetch the silver greatsword McDermott had taken from the astral fortress to replace his own shattered blade.

Harlan, up on the choir level, saw the first of the githyanki suddenly appear in the temple, a little too close to the bier holding Lord Crusader McDermott's body for his liking. So, with nary a thought of his own safety (in his haste forgetting the ring of feather falling he wore), he raced southwards and leaped over the edge of the choir platform, to land immediately before a startled githyanki fighter, Jisteral, who had not expected to see a half-elf paladin manifest suddenly before her like that. Harlan brought his Starblade to bear during his descent, swinging the holy flaming burst longsword past her guard and cutting deep into her side.

Chaevaris, seeing the elf fighter wasn't going anywhere anytime soon, stepped to the south of the choir platform and sent an arrow shooting down at Jisteral, but the archer uncharacteristically missed her shot and the arrow buried itself in the temple's carpeting. By then, a second githyanki fighter, Valurpain, had dimension doored into the temple, on the other side of McDermott's bier. Orchid cast a baleful polymorph spell at this new intruder, but the githyanki woman shrugged off the intended effects, and no "bunnification" took place, much to the elf druid's chagrin.

Two more githyanki, the male warlock Dith and the female warrior Falrath, cast their dimension door spells and entered the temple. Ageratum approached Falrath and stabbed up at him with her blade, becoming visible once again as her sword struck true. Alistair cast another chain lightning spell from the choir level, targeting Falrath as his primary and the other three githyanki as his secondary targets. The githyanki proved themselves tougher than the local thieves guild members, for none of them died under the attack - but all four were visibly hurt by the spell's crackling energy.

By now, Carruthers had stomped his way past the row of pews upon his master's command and was ready to engage the githyanki in combat. He went straight for Dith, his closest enemy, but the warlock saw him coming and backed away, not eager to confront a nine-foot-tall automaton in physical combat.

Jisteral swung her githyanki blade at Harlan, getting past his guard but barely grazing the nimble paladin. He retaliated with a barrage of sword-blows in rapid succession, his initial swing infused with Pelor's smiting energy, for he had discerned these githyanki were of an evil nature. At the end of his flurry of sword strikes, Jisteral slumped to the temple floor, dead. Chaevaris took the warlock Dith out with a shot through the eye that slew him instantly, before he'd even had a chance to cast a single spell.

But Valurpain had managed to keep her eye on the goal of this planar excursion, and she stepped up to the unguarded body of Lord Crusader McDermott, grabbing up the githyanki silver greatsword he held in his hands. "Stop her!" called out Alistair from above, well aware that if the githyanki used another dimension door they'd have little chance of ever tracking her down and recovering the sword. Orchid responded with a summoning spell, and all of a sudden there was an enormous elephant there in the temple, directly behind Valurpain. She felt a sudden presence behind her, spun about - and was impaled by the elephant's thrusting right tusk.

Falrath attacked Ageratum with his own blade - none of the sword retrieval team wielded silver greatswords of their own, to prevent complicating matters and causing the need for even more retrieval if they were unsuccessful - and cut up the halfling fairly deeply, but Ageratum just swallowed down the pain, telling herself it was nothing Orchid couldn't patch up with her healing spells after the fight was over. But she was damned if she was going to let this skinny mummy-skank bitch steal the silver greatsword right out from under her own nose! (If Ageratum couldn't make off with any of McDermott's goods, then by damn neither could anyone else - it was only fair!) Using her cloak of arachnida to spider climb up the side of the bier, Ageratum ignored Falrath for now and launched herself at Valurpain, who had made the rather predictable mistake of assuming the large elephant was her most fearsome opponent at the moment. The halfling's blade carved a line of pain across the githyanki's spine, but she managed to maintain hold of McDermott's stolen sword, with every intention of stealing it back and high-tailing it back to the Astral Plane.

Then another chain lightning spell from above slammed into the two remaining githyanki. Valurpain, to the sorcerer's great relief, fell over dead at once, the silver greatsword clattering to the floor. Falrath followed, but only into unconsciousness - at least, for as long as it took for Ageratum to finish the job with a quick sword-slice across the githyanki's windpipe. "That's everybody down here!" Ageratum called out to the others.

Alistair, still up on the choir level, immediately returned his attention to the elven fighter helplessly encased in a wall of thorns spell. "I surrender in the most vigorous manner possible!" the elf declared. "I see now that we had no right to try to help ourselves to what was not rightfully ours, and I am ready to turn over a new leaf! From this day forth, I am a new elf! I will embrace the law with the utmost attention and diligence!"

"I'm glad to hear it," agreed Alistair, still advancing upon the nervous fighter. "In that case, I'm sure you won't mind telling us everything you know about the thieves guild you worked for: membership, headquarters location, past victims and what was stolen, local safe houses...."

"Of course, of course!" agreed the reformed elven thief. "Release me from the spell and fetch me an ink pen and a sheet of parchment, and I will document everything I know!" The others had climbed the stairs by this point and, upon seeing Harlan's nod of acceptance, Orchid released the wall of thorns spell. The elf, Blaze, immediately grabbed for the pommel of his longsword and pulled the blade from his scabbard - only to toss it on the floor at Harlan's feet. "Look at me cooperating!" he emphasized. "Wait - I have a dagger in my boot! Here it is!" And the dagger went plopping down on the floor beside his sword.

The rest of the time spent in the temple was relatively uneventful. Blaze wrote out a full confession and detailed everything he knew about the guild of thieves while Alistair used prestidigitation spells to clean up the signs of combat in the temple. (Having run the duration of its casting, the passwall closed back up, leaving the back wall of the temple intact.) Harlan went out back and removed the ladder, then restored the silver greatsword to the dead paladin's hands. They stacked the githyanki corpses inside their extradimensional dwelling for now (along with the slain members of the thieves guild, including the wizard from out behind the temple), figuring they'd dispose of the bodies after Lord Crusader McDermott's ritual had been taken care of. And the equipment from the four githyanki more than made up for the fact that all of McDermott's equipment was going to be burned up with him; in the halfling's estimation, their githyanki stuff was worth at least two or three times as much as she'd have been able to sell the paladin's weapons, armor, and expensive pendant.

When the temple leadership returned the following morning, several hours after sunrise, they performed McDermott's immolation without delay; it seemed to Ageratum that the pyre they laid him on burned almost as brightly as the sun itself, once set ablaze with the flames from the torch they brought back with them from the hills. And there surely had to be some magic at play, because afterwards, she could see no signs of the armor, the greatsword, or even the diamond pendant among the ashes.

"I think we'd all do well returning home and hitting our beds," suggested Harlan, stifling a yawn. "We can deal with the corpses when we awaken."

"Agreed" came the unanimous response.

- - -

This was a fun adventure to run through. Once again, though, it seems like Orchid's "bunnification" only affects wizards from the one thieves guild, as every time she uses it against someone else it fails.

 

[Richards]

ADVENTURE 55: ALISTAIR'S DREAM VACATION

PC Roster:

Ageratum Purslane, halfling rogue 12
Alistair Mandelberen Pastlethwaite, human sorcerer 12
Chaevaris Noarunal, elf archer 12
Harlan Starblade, half-elf paladin 12​

NPC Roster:

Orchid, elf druid 12​

Game Session Date: 19 June 2024

- - -

"So you were dreaming about a naked man?" pressed Chaevaris, smiling at Alistair's discomfort.

"Well, no -- I mean, yes, technically, but it wasn't anything like that," insisted the flustered young nobleman, recounting the dream he'd had the night before to the other members of the Trained Professional Adventurers. "The dream started out normally, and Holyrood Carp and I were sitting in the Dark and Light Club, talking."

"Only he was naked?" asked Ageratum.

"What? No, not then, no," Alistair insisted. "We were both fully clothed. Carp said he was glad I was such a deep sleeper and that he needed my help. He'd made it to Greyhawk City and chartered a boat with a bunch of other bards headed to some sort of conclave in the Isles - that's all he said, 'the Isles' - and they made it as far as Woolly Bay, 20 days south of Greyhawk. They were almost past Highport when they spotted an island, only then heavy winds came up out of nowhere and the ship was attacked by something battering it from below, something with tentacles that were attacking the crewmen. The ship finally broke apart and everyone was thrown into the sea. Carp was separated from the others, and he managed to swim to shore. He wandered inland, found some sort of villa, and was drinking water from a crystal goblet when he heard a voice behind him. He turned, and then everything went black. That was his description of what happened, only in the dream everything went black as well, and we were no longer in the Dark and Light Club. I was still seated, but Carp was naked in front of me, and he said he wasn't sure exactly where he was, but he had been stripped of all of his possessions. Then, all of a sudden, he was cut off in mid-sentence, and that was it."

"And you woke up?" Orchid asked.

"Well, not immediately," Alistair admitted. "I was back in the Dark and Light Club, and E. L. Grimwade was there, showing me a book she was writing about me. But then I woke up shortly thereafter."

"And your suppositions about this dream?" asked Harlan.

"Well," Alistair began, "the bit with Carp - I'm pretty sure that wasn't a normal dream--"

"You don't normally dream about Carp naked?" Chaevaris interrupted, continuing on with her teasing.

Alistair chose to ignore her, and continued, "--but a dream spell cast by Carp. That part of the dream was very detailed, as real as if it had really happened. I think Carp's shipwrecked somewhere and needs us to come rescue him."

Harlan rubbed his chin in thought. "I think you're probably right," he offered. "Is there any way we can check on his current status?"

"I can cast a scrying spell," offered up Orchid. "It would have a better chance if we have something of his, something that has a personal link to him." Alistair emptied his coin purse and handed over a coin. "Here you go," he suggested. "Part of the payment from the last song he bought from me."

"That's likely not tied to him enough," the druid advised. "Do you have anything of a more personal nature?" Alistair thought about it and then went back into his room, returning with a few letters. "Here we go," he said, handing them over. "Personal correspondence, when I first started writing songs for him." Orchid looked them over and said they should do nicely.

Heading outside to a natural pool of water, Orchid wildshaped into a dire bat (in case the image was all dark, she'd be able to see with her darkvision in that form), and cast the scrying spell. An image of Holyrood Carp started to take form in the pool of still water. Carp was naked, in a dark cave of some sort, then walking up a set of stairs, walking through a narrow opening into a sunlit room, where stood a table holding a crystal pitcher and two goblets. There was a pair of statues off to the left - what looked to be a monk and a fighter, both human - and a big mirror on the wall. Carp then entered a room where his own gear was stored, and he started dressing, unaware he was being watched hundreds of miles away by an elf druid in dire bat form.

"Well?" asked Alistair when the spell ended and Orchid resumed her elven form. "Did you see him? Is he alive?"

"Was he naked?" added Ageratum.

"He is well," Orchid replied, answering the sorcerer's questions and ignoring the halfling's. "He seems to have the run of the place, so he isn't quite imprisoned. But he seemed, well...not quite all there. There's a good chance his mind is not his own: charmed perhaps, or dominated."

"Did you get enough of a look at the area around him that you could teleport us there?" pressed Alistair. Ageratum had a thieves' coil that could instantly teleport them across the miles, but like any such magic, the user had to have a very close image of exactly where they were going or they could end up just about anywhere. Orchid admitted that she did not. "It could have been literally anywhere," she admitted.

So, with the understanding that they could at least teleport to Greyhawk City (a place all five of them were very familiar with), and that Alistair's older brother ran a fleet of merchant vessels, they decided they could at least avoid the 19-day trek to the big city. "It'll still be a 20-day journey down the river and into Woolly Bay before we can hope to find the island," Alistair sighed. "This is going to be a rather slow-motion rescue, I fear." But once in Greyhawk City, Atherton was able to offer them passage on a ship headed in that direction anyway. Alistair promised the captain he just needed to get them to within sight of the island (he showed them on the ship's charts that there was indeed an island in the location where Carp's ship had disappeared), and they'd use the thieves' coil to teleport to the island, so the ship could continue on its journey, hopefully unbothered by the kraken, giant squid, or giant octopus that had attacked Carp's vessel. Then they'd find Carp and use the last charge of the thieves' coil to teleport safely back to Ghourmand Vale.

The ship was called Lady Gloria. It was manned by a grizzled old captain and a crew of 19 others, all of them human. They left Greyhawk City the next morning with the five members of the Trained Professional Adventurers, along with Ambrose and Carruthers, the shield guardian staying inside their extradimensional dwelling as he otherwise took up too much space on the cramped deck of the ship. To Chaevaris's disappointment, there was no crow's nest - she'd planned on making that her more or less permanent lookout station during the voyage - but with a wood shape spell cast by Orchid and a few choice pieces of wooden furniture from inside the extradimensional dwelling, the druid created a rather comfortable wooden platform at the top of the ship's aftmost mast. Ageratum created a comfortable hammock out of spider webbing from her cloak of arachnidia high up among the ship's rigging, where she stayed out of the way and had a good view all around her.

The days passed in relative ease, for all but Alistair, who discovered sea travel was not his thing; he spent a fair amount of time bent over the railing, heaving the contents of his stomach into the ocean. He'd been on a ship before, but that was on an Underdark river - heavy waves were not really a thing below the surface of the Lortmil Mountains. Ambrose spent much of his time in among the rigging, the better not to be accidentally spewed upon when his master's face started taking on that unhealthy shade that meant his seasickness was acting up again.

It was on the evening of the 19th day on the water - the captain had said they'd likely get to within sight of the island early the next morning - when Chaevaris, up on her perch, spotted an approaching vessel and called down a warning. It was about half an hour from full darkness, and the ship - which was approaching from the direction of Highport, a city notorious for its lawlessness, said to be ruled by a half-orc pirate king - approached without flying any flag identifying its place of origin, in violation of the laws of the sea. (The Lady Gloria's Greyhawk City flag flew proudly from the ship's aft.) "Pirates, likely, approaching from starboard aft!" the elf called down to the crew below, as she readied her longbow with an alchemist's fire arrow; Alistair had earlier cast a maximized flame arrow spell upon the group's assorted ammunition as he had every day of their voyage thus far, the better to be prepared in eventualities exactly this.

The captain pulled out a spyglass and verified for himself the approaching ship's lack of colors and its determined interception course. He also noticed something odd: the deck was covered in an area of dark shadows, as if the crew desperately did not want to be seen. But the ship's three masts and flapping sails could be seen just fine, and he called up to Chaevaris to fire at will.

The ships were a good half mile apart, yet that meant little to one with Chaevaris's archery training. She could have fired off a flurry of arrows one right after the other, but she decided to go slow and steady, as she had plenty of time before they were close enough for them to have to worry about boarders. (Nonetheless, the captain called for the full complement of crew to ready battle stations, and the other heroes made themselves ready to repel any pirates who might make it close enough to try to board the Lady Gloria. The spellcasters cast their normal complement of preparatory combat spells, with Alistair adding five darkvision spells to ensure the heroes could still see after the sun went down.)

Chaevaris took a deep breath, held it in, and released her first arrow before exhaling. Her arrow made a wide arc across the distance between the two vessels, before striking smack-dab in the middle of the pirate vessel's forward sail. The impact caused the alchemist's fire to splash across the sail and the flame arrow spell even further enhanced the subsequent explosion of fire. By then, Chaevaris had reloaded and sent a second arrow streaking across to hit the middle sail, followed shortly by a third arrow setting the aft sail ablaze. She could see several crewmembers scrambling up out of the darkness onto the rigging to do their best to try to put out the burning sails, but to no avail - and then, with the ships even closer, she took the chance of sending a cluster of arrows rapid-fie into each sail. She had purchased a full score of alchemical arrows while in Greyhawk, and a full 15 of them were put to use, with only three of them failing to hit their designated targets. By then the sails were full ablaze, and the orc crew were cutting them down from their moorings and using long poles to flip them into the sea, least the flames extend to the masts or deck itself.

The pirate ship was now dead in the water. Just to be sure they were in no danger, Alistair cast a darkvision spell on Ambrose and followed it with a greater invisibility spell, then sent his grackle to go fly over to the pirate ship for a quick look-see. Ambrose returned with a full report: the crew was orcs and four ogres, with a human wizard and a half-orc first mate, all of whom were scrambling to bring spare sails up from the lower decks. There were also two ballistae aimed in the direction of the Lady Gloria, but they either hadn't gotten close enough to bring them to play or the pirate captain didn't trust his crew's ability to target with the same accuracy as that possessed by Chaevaris. Ambrose estimated it would be hours before the pirates were able to resume movement. The Lady Gloria put a greater and greater distance between them until the pirate vessel was eventually lost on the horizon.

"Excellent job, Elfy!" called up Alistair, and for once Chaevaris didn't complain at the silly nickname, for she was pretty pleased with her own handiwork herself. And the excitement of watching the elf single-handedly taking down the pirate vessel's sails had helped Alistair to temporarily put the constant bobbing and rocking of the ship out of his mind; his stomach was actually somewhat settled, his attention being diverted from his seasickness.

Night fell, the night shift took over duties on the ship, and the heroes returned to their normal sleeping accommodations.

The sun was barely coming up in the east when the skies suddenly darkened back up and a wicked wind started buffeting the ship. The crew on duty called for all hands on deck, not liking the sudden appearance of such violent winds and waves - they were sure magic was involved. Orchid agreed, citing the likelihood that a control winds or control weather spell was being put into play.

"It could easily be the kraken, then," suggested Alistair, his face expressing queasiness at the rocking ship's violent motion. Before adding anything further to his supposition, he made a beeline for the railing and started violently heaving overboard.

Carruthers' tower shield had been strapped to the forward mast so the door to the extradimensional dwelling could be placed there and left in place. Orchid opened the door and Alistair called the shield guardian out onto the deck, then had Ambrose go inside, for the winds were threatening to send the little grackle flying hither and yon and the sorcerer feared for his familiar's safety. At least with Ambrose inside the extradimensional interior he was safe from this vicious storm.

That taken care of, Alistair cast a Rary's telepathic bond spell binding the five heroes together in a mental communication link, so they could communicate over the roaring winds. But he had no sooner finished casting the spell than a half dozen tentacles sprang up from the sea, three on either side of the ship. They slapped forward, two of them grabbing a pair of crewmembers and pulling them from the deck, while the other four grappled blindly, trying to find others to grab.

From up in her homemade crow's nest, Chaevaris looked down at the dark shadow beneath the front of the Lady Gloria and saw the kraken's head begin to emerge from the waves. She grabbed an arrow, fitted it to her bow, and aimed at one of grasping tentacles. She held her shot until it grabbed blindly at another crewman, then she sent the arrow flying, to pierce the exact center of the writhing appendage, severing it and releasing the crewman back to the deck.

Orchid cast a freedom of movement spell upon Harlan, ensuring he wouldn't be grabbed up in a tentacle - they counted on him to deal the creature a lot of damage with his Starblade. The paladin cast a quick bull's strength spell on himself to boost his combat capabilities, then moved to the front of the ship, his longsword out and ready for action. Ageratum scrambled up the rear mast to higher ground, planning to stay out of reach of the tentacles, and she pulled out an elixir of swimming and guzzled it down in case she ended up tossed into the sea after all. Alistair looked to the front of the ship, waiting for the kraken to rise up out of the ocean so he could send a chain lightning spell crashing into its head as soon as it became visible. At his side, Carruthers prepared himself to grab onto the nearest tentacle to present itself as a target.

Rising up enough for it to be able to see onto the deck, the kraken had a much better time of bringing his six smaller arms to bear against the people on board the ship. Alistair released his chain lightning spell, pleased to see the kraken didn't seem to have any sort of spell resistance - but failing to notice some of the damage he'd sent the beast's way was absorbed by a resist energy spell targeted against electricity. The enormous cephalopod grabbed at Harlan with two of its arms, sending a third after Alistair, and a fourth after a random crewman, with the fifth striking the ship below the water line and causing a horrendous groan of cracking wood.

Chaevaris quickly aimed at one of the kraken's glowing eyes, sending an arrow flying at it. It just missed the great orb itself, but embedded itself a mere hand's-span away. Orchid backed away out of the reach of the elastic arms, and cast a control winds spell that caused the winds buffeting the ship to abate almost as if she had turned off a switch.

Then Harlan was within reach of the kraken. He brought the Starblade slicing deep into the junction between two of the cephalopod's flailing arms and channeling Pelor's smiting energy into the blow. Blood spilled from the wound before turning into a veritable torrent that stained the crashing waves. Up near the top of the mast, Ageratum coaxed a charge out of her wand of magic missiles and sent a trio of glowing darts striking the kraken's massive head. Alistair pulled out his newly-purchased rod of maximize spell - this one affected twice as many spells as his original rod - and sent a full-power blast of electricity at the kraken, courtesy of a maximized chain lightning spell. Carruthers slammed his stone fist into a rubbery tentacle, crushing it against the ship's rail.

The kraken hadn't expected this much fighting back, as Holyrood Carp's ship was taken down with hardly any effort. It slammed Harlan with a pair of its shorter arms and sent another after Alistair, who got caught up in the suckers lining the appendage and was pulled off the deck and constricted as the arm wound around and around his body, crushing his ribcage. Another arm grabbed another sailor, while the kraken's two longer tentacles made a play for Carruthers from either side, one missing entirely but the other slapping him across the face and chest.

Chaevaris took careful aim from her perch and sent another arrow flying toward the kraken's eye, and this one struck without error, piercing the fleshy orb and sending eye-goo exploding outwards in an exquisite agony of pain. The sonics from her thundering longbow rolled across the kraken's skin, but it failed to deafen the beast.

Aiming just as carefully to ensure she didn't encompass Alistair in her spell's effect, Orchid brought a flame strike crashing down upon the kraken's back half. Then Harlan went into flurry of attacks mode, swinging the blade of his holy flaming burst longsword into the kraken's flesh time and time again, the first strike infused with Pelor's smiting energy once again. The blood poured out of the kraken like wine from a slit wineskin, and the great beast gave a final shriek of rage, then began sinking lifelessly back down below the waves, threatening to take Alistair with him. The sorcerer frantically scurried out from the suckered appendage's now-loose grasp, then called up from the waves, "I say! Throw down a rope or something, if you please!" Harlan did him one better: he called out to his celestial pegasus Nova, and the winged equine flew down to the ocean, allowed the bedraggled sorcerer to climb onto his back, and then flew up to the deck.

Harlan helped Alistair to his feet as he slipped from Nova's back. "Are you okay?" the paladin asked him.

"I'm fine," Alistair insisted, before vomiting up a deluge of seawater onto the deck.

- - -

After the adventure, Dan told us this was just a "travel to the plot" adventure, and that he never intended us to get to the island until the next game session. And I commiserated with him over the stat work he'd done with all of the pirates, which went completely unused. But Dan's come to learn - as my son Logan and I have over the years, as we ran our own campaigns - that you can never fully anticipate what the players will come up with, and sometimes they completely subvert the DM's expectations. (I think Dan had forgotten the ridiculous ranges Logan's elf archer enjoyed when using a bow, and thus hadn't anticipated her bringing the pirate vessel to a complete stop as we left them behind.) But in any case, this adventure took us into 13th level, so we advanced our PCs after the adventure was over.

 

[Richards]

ADVENTURE 56: TAPHRANOORGLUM'S DOLL HOUSE

PC Roster:

Ageratum Purslane, halfling rogue 13​

Alistair Mandelberen Pastlethwaite, human sorcerer 13​

Chaevaris Noarunal, elf archer 13​

Harlan Starblade, half-elf paladin 13​

NPC Roster:

Orchid, elf druid 13​

Game Session Date: 25 June 2024

- - -

"I say," gasped Alistair, after clearing his lungs of the seawater he'd imbibed upon being dragged down in the dead kraken's tentacles, before being rescued by Harlan's celestial pegasus, Nova, who flew him back up to the deck of the Lady Gloria. "I think I could do with a spot of healing, if you don't mind." Orchid was there at once by his side with her staff of healing, attending to his wounds and then to those of the other heroes who had taken hits from the kraken's lashing and crushing tentacles. It took some time for the kraken's control weather spell to run its course, but Alistair didn't mind the rolling decks so much now that he was above water where he could breathe, and his ribs weren't being crushed. It was somewhat ironic that after a 19-day voyage on the water, it was a mere several hours before the end of their trip that the sorcerer's stomach finally got used to be jostled around so much.

But as predicted, the island came within view a short time later. Ageratum had already gathered up her thieves' coil and Caruthers had been stowed back inside Chaevaris's necklace, and the spellcasters busied themselves making sure any spells they wanted already in effect when they landed on the island were in place. The Rary's telepathic bond spell was still in effect, as were Harlan's bull's strength and freedom of movement spells, as well as the potion of swimming Ageratum had gulped down. But Alistair cast his morning mage armor spell on himself and a maximized flame arrow spell on the group's assembled ammunition; Orchid cast a longstrider spell on herself and barkskin spells on everyone, then finished with an air walk spell cast on Chaevaris at the archer's request. Harlan cast a magic circle against evil spell on himself and signaled to Ageratum to go ahead and activate her magic rope. "I'll meet you over there!" he promised, leaping up onto Nova's broad back and flying over towards the island after waving a farewell to the captain and his crew.

Ageratum got everyone positioned with the rope encircling them and said the command word. In an instant, they were teleported from the deck of the Lady Gloria to the sands of the beach on the island the halfling had been able to see from the ship. As she put the thieves' coil away - now with just one charge remaining, that they intended to use to teleport back to Ghourmand Vale after rescuing the bard Holyrood Carp - Chaevaris scanned the skies and saw Harlan and Nova flying over, while the others looked about them to see their new locale.

The beach was a narrow crescent, bounded by sandy dunes. There was a path of sorts, made of haphazardly spaced flat stones, leading up and over one of the dunes; the others started down that path as Harlan and Nova flew a quick reconnaissance mission around the small island. The pair landed as the rest of the group got to the end of the path, which led to a single-story building, much wider than it was deep. "It's the only building on the entire island," Harlan reported as he dismounted from his aerial steed. "Three ways in, from what I could see: an open doorway at either end, and the main entryway, here." He indicated a sort of curved portico sticking out from the middle of one of the longer walls of the structure, where the stony path led from the beach.

"Then one would imagine Carp lies somewhere within," suggested Alistair. "Shall we?"

The group entered, taking the time to let Carruthers out of the extradimensional dwelling once Chaevaris activated the doorway onto the side of the wall, then deactivating it again once the shield guardian had exited. Nova stayed just outside the building while the others cautiously entered.

The first thing they noticed was that the entire structure was one big, empty room. Directly ahead was a small table with a glass pitcher and three small tumblers, just as Carp had described in the dream that had led the adventurers here. On the wall behind it was a small mirror, and to either side of the mirror stood a marble statue of a life-size human warrior, one wearing heavy armor and wielding a longsword, the other dressed in the fighting garb of a monk. There was a long koi pond at either end of the building, with a separate, open-air room at the end leading outside.

"Not much to this place," Ageratum observed. "Betcha anything there's a secret way down to a lower level."

Harlan slowly approached the center of the room by the table, focusing his attention on the statue of the monk, seeing if it had any aura of evil about it. Sure enough, the paladin could sense emanations of an evil nature coming from the statue, and he warned the others over the telepathic link. Orchid cast a detect poison and approached the table, her focus on the pitcher of water, fearing it might be drugged, but it seemed harmless to her magically-enhanced senses. Chaevaris air walked up into the room until her head almost hit the ceiling - the entire structure had a ceiling height of about 15 feet - and felt a sudden brush of something up against her mind. She shrugged it off, but realized for a split second there, she was almost convinced she was terribly thirsty. She warned the others over the link, but Orchid insisted there was nothing wrong with the water.

Alistair cast a detect magic spell and went to examine the pitcher as Ageratum activated her bracelet of invisibility and snuck in along one side. Ambrose flapped his wings nervously as he sat perched upon his master's right shoulder. The little grackle couldn't pin it down, but something seemed off about this whole setup.

"Carruthers!" Alistair called out. "Please be as good as to smash that glass pitcher on the table, there, if you would." The shield guardian ambled up and did as instructed, shattering the pitcher between his massive hands. Water spilled down onto the table and the marble floor. At about the same time, the monk statue suddenly turned to flesh and said a strange word - "Inyago" - before stepping down off the 2-foot-tall plinth and moving forward.

The next thing everyone knew, Ambrose was flapping himself to the ground, to land upon a pile of Alistair's clothing and gear; similar piles came falling to the ground where Chaevaris and Harlan had been. Ageratum and Orchid looked frantically around them, but there were no signs of the other three heroes - they had just vanished into thin air, leaving all of their possessions behind.

The monk skirted around Carruthers in an attempt to go strike Orchid, but the shield guardian, obeying his central orders to keep his master and those he traveled with safe, brought a massive fist down upon the monk as he passed. Furthermore, Ageratum got a strike in with her human bane short sword that nearly crippled the monk as he passed within range of her blade. The attack caused the halfling to pop back into full visibility, but as she had attacked from behind the monk, he still didn't see her.

<I say!> came Alistair's voice across the mental link. <Can anybody hear me?>

<Loud and clear,> confirmed Chaevaris. <Are you in an area of sudden blackness?>

<I fear I am.>

<As am I,> added Harlan's voice.

<Whatever happened to Carp has happened to us. What about the others? Ageratum? Orchid? Are you okay?>

<Busy!> replied Orchid, as she barely dodged the monk's fist strike, his aim no doubt thrown off by the unexpected hits he'd taken in getting over to the elven druid. <Fighting the monk statue, who is now fully flesh and bone!> As she was passing her message over the shared mental link, she was simultaneously striking back at the monk with her scimitar, hitting him in the side of the arm as he futilely tried to dodge her blows.

Then the fighter statue became flesh as well. He stepped down off of his plinth and headed for Carruthers, seeing him as the greatest threat. His longsword clanged across the shield guardian's armored form, causing sparks to fly as metal hit metal.

Ageratum stepped forward and stabbed her human bane short sword into the monk's lower back, killing him instantly. She then darted off to the side, ending up directly behind the fighter attacking Carruthers.

<Wherever I am, I can't seem to teleport out of it,> Alistair admitted over the Rary's telepathic bond spell. <Also, I seem to be...in a state of undress.>

<Yeah, same here.>

<Likewise.>

Carruthers whirled about and struck at the fighter, but he easily dodged under the massive fists being swung his way. Orchid cast a contagion spell on her hand and touched the fighter, hoping to cause him a blinding sickness, but while the spell ran its course the man simply shrugged off the intended effects. Nova, drawn into the building by the sounds of combat, raced up beside Carruthers and struck out at the fighter with his hooves, but the armored opponent dodged back out of the way in time, then turned his spin into a sideways swing of his blade, catching Orchid in the side. But while his attention was focused upon the elf, the little halfling snuck up and caught him in the back of the leg with her human bane short sword. Her blow also managed to siphon off some of his strength, a little trick the halfling had been practicing of late and was glad to be able to put to good use.

While Nova and Carruthers once again failed to connect with their blows, Orchid took a step back and cast a produce flame spell on her hand. A ball of flame appeared, which she threw in the fighter's face, singeing his eyebrows and reddening the skin where it hit. He hit her twice in rapid succession with his sword, but it was obvious he was on his last legs, and another strike from behind by Ageratum caused him to topple lifelessly to the ground. Just to be sure, the halfling, falling on old habits, slit his throat and then did likewise with the monk.

<You know, I think we're in the mirror!>

<What? Impossible, Elfy! Did you see your own reflection in the mirror?>

<No, I was too high up.>

<Nor did I - my focus was on the pitcher and the three goblets. There is an item called a mirror of life trapping, I believe, but you have to see your reflection to be caught up in its trap.>

<Well, do you have any better explanation for where we are?>

<...No. I fear not.>

<I may have caught a glimpse of my reflection,> Harlan admitted. <Still, there's one way to find out for sure. Orchid! Ageratum! Can one of you break the mirror when you get a chance, please?>

Orchid was the closest to the mirror when the request came, and using the butt end of the hilt of her scimitar, she smashed the glass of the mirror. All of a sudden, there was a pile of naked bodies at her feet. Three of them she recognized at once, although this was more of them than she was used to seeing, but the other three were complete strangers. And they were all dead, their emaciated bodies looking as if they'd starved to death, although they each had the telltale marks of savage beatings upon their desiccated flesh as well.

"If you would be as good as to turn your gazes away..." suggested Alistair, as he sidled over to the pile of his clothes and hastily began dressing himself. Harlan and Chaevaris did likewise, and while Orchid did as requested, Ageratum snuck in a peek or two - or three - at the men. (Okay, very possibly four or five, but no more than six, tops.)

"That's much better!" exclaimed Alistair once he was back to fully dressed. He looked over at Ageratum, but she was studiously busy with pulling off any items of value from the slain monk and fighter. Besides the fighter's plate mail armor and longsword, she also held up an ornate ring and a pair of expensive diamonds, each on a chain. "They were wearing these around their necks," the halfling pointed out. Chaevaris opened the door to their extradimensional home and they pitched the loot inside, to go through later. "Now then, I believe you said something about hidden means of going down to a lower level?"

"There's gotta be," Ageratum affirmed, and sure enough, she was right: both of the "koi ponds" turned out to be permanent illusions covering stairs leading down. As the tops of the stairs were closest together and led down in opposite directions, the group decided to station Nova and Carruthers at the top of the northern set of steps while the heroes took the southern route; that way, they could be certain no one would be doubling back behind them as they explored.

Orchid cast a mass bear's endurance on the five heroes as they went down the stairs, boosting their abilities to remain in combat. Harlan was the first one down to the second level, and the first thing he saw was yet another staircase, this one set at a right angle leading further down to the east. But figuring it made sense to fully explore one level at a time, he ignored the stairs for now and opened the door across from those stairs, finding inside a wizard's workshop, filled with all sorts of things needed for the creation and production of magical items. No one was in there at the moment and there were no other doors leading out of the room, though, so he closed the door and returned to the hallway, explaining what he'd seen to the others.

Orchid came down the stairs, turned the corner, and saw a human woman at the far end of the corridor. Unsure if she was an enemy or someone under a domination effect (like they assumed was the case with Carp), she prepared to throw the flaming orb she held suspended over one open hand, the result of her previously-cast produce flame spell. Chaevaris took up position beside the druid, aiming her longbow at the leather-clad human woman in case she tried anything. From what she could see, the woman held a short sword in her hand, so the archer knew she'd be able to release her arrow in plenty of time if she decided to attack either of the elves.

Ageratum was back to full invisibility by the time she hit the bottom of the steps, but whereas Harlan and the elves had gone right, she went left around the staircase. Alistair followed in her wake, although it was entirely accidental because he couldn't see the invisible halfling. But he took the opportunity to cast a shield spell on himself and Ambrose, who sat perched upon his shoulder once again.

The human woman suddenly shouted, "There are intruders here, they got past the monk!" - then made some sort of motion at the wall behind her. (Ageratum, stepping into view from the other side of the stairwell, saw it as opening a secret door.) But Harlan charged down the hallway, the woman's words showing her to be an enemy, likely one of the ones responsible for Holyrood Carp's captivity. He hit her with his Starblade, and he could feel the holy ability of his blade dealing extra damage to her, showing her inherently evil nature. But over Harlan's shoulders came a ball of solid flame and an arrow, each striking the rogue (the arrow piecing her left eye and slaying her instantly). She toppled backwards, opening the secret door she'd already activated and falling lifelessly into a narrow corridor just beyond.

Orchid dashed through the secret door as Harlan pulled the woman's body out of the way; the corridor was empty save for a latch that obviously opened another secret door on the far side of the corridor. Opening that latch, she saw a series of doorways along her left. Another human woman, this one wearing the robes of a wizard, stood at the fourth or fifth door - this was likely the one the just-slain rogue had been warning. The druid responded to this new threat by casting a baleful polymorph spell, and just that quickly the woman was gone, replaced by a fluffy white bunny rabbit. The bunny twitched its whiskers in confusion and hopped about; apparently the spell had been so effective the woman's human intellect had been subsumed by her bunny form and she was now, for all intents and purposes, nothing more than a harmless rabbit. "Bunnification successful!" Orchid called back to her allies.

There was another door just north of the wizard's workshop and Chaevaris gave it a quick peek inside: it was a study, currently devoid of any inhabitants. Closing the door, she followed Orchid's path into the next section of the lower level, with all of the doors, and opened the first. It was a smaller room, a bedroom, but very sparse. If the archer had to hazard a guess, this was the monk's quarters. The second bedroom, she'd guess, was the rogue's, judging by the decor. The third was the bedroom of a wizard, but the last two doors were locked.

Fortunately, Ageratum was at hand. While staying fully invisible, she applied her wand of knock to the doors and opened each of them. They were cells, likely one of them where Carp was imprisoned when not otherwise being dominated.

Harlan and Alistair missed out on all of the bedroom exploring, however, for they'd heard the sounds of footsteps at the stairs leading to an even lower level. The paladin raced back down the way he'd come, eager to do battle with any enemies coming up from below, but when the first one showed itself it was not what either hero had expected, for the humanoid form had the features of a fish! But they'd fought such creatures before: skum, which they knew were created by aboleths. That made sense, for aboleths liked to dominate their slaves - Carp was probably the thrall of an aboleth! Alistair cast a magic missile spell at the skum and surprisingly, slew it as he and Ambrose made their way down the hallway at a more leisurely pace than Harlan, who positioned himself at the top of these lower stairs and saw two more skum on their way up. <I say, there are skum coming up the stairs over at this end of things!> came a call across the telepathic bond, alerting the women of the upcoming threat. They had been stripping the rogue's body of lootable items - armor, short sword, dagger - and tossing them into the extradimensional dwelling, and Chaevaris pushed on ahead when she saw a set of stairs leading down over at their end of things. Assuming the level below met up with the stairs over by Harlan, the elven archer went downstairs, Ageratum at her heels.

Harlan's flaming blade caught the second skum in the throat and he toppled backwards down the stairs; the one behind him tossed him contemptuously aside as he rushed up to take his fallen brother's place. And more of the fish-things were lining up at the bottom of the steps to rise up and take on the intruders.

Chaevaris and Ageratum got to the bottom of the stairs and saw the lowest level; sure enough, there were several skum lining up to take the stairs at the far end of the natural cavern comprising this level. In the middle of the cavern was a fountain with some sort of fish-monster statue in its center, and standing before this monstrosity was the unmistakable form of Holyrood Carp. He was facing east, where the cavern opened up to a wide pool of water containing another half dozen or so skum wading to shore. There was some type of mist or fog in the center of this juncture, reaching up to the cavern ceiling, but it was thin enough to be able to see through, given the phosphorescent gems embedded in the cavern's rock walls, which gave the entire chamber an eerie, almost glowing quality.

Carp seemed not to have noticed the two female members of the Trained Professional Adventurers coming down the stairs (although in his defense, Ageratum was still invisible), but they both saw him just fine: he seemed to be casting some sort of spell, but neither woman was adept enough in spellcraft to be able to determine just what spell it might have been. Chaevaris shot an arrow behind the bard's back, aiming for one of the skum lining up at the far stairs, but she uncharacteristically missed her shot, and the arrowhead scraped along the stone floor of the cavern by the skum's webbed feet. At the top of those stairs, Alistar stepped up behind Harlan and sent another magic missile spell into the fish-face of another skum, killing him instantly. Another leaped up the stairs to snap its teeth at Harlan, but the paladin pushed him away with his shield. As the skum raced back up the stairs to get to Harlan, it was surprised to see the shield no longer deflecting its body - which had somehow been pierced through the chest with the paladin's flaming sword. It fell backwards, dead.

Orchid came up behind Harlan, on the other side from Alistair, and tossed a flame-ball at another skum, hitting it but not killing it. But Chaevaris had her next arrow locked on to Carp's body, ready to shoot if he tried anything. (Given this was a friend, she aimed not at his eye but rather at his belly, and didn't have the bowstring pulled back as far as it could be - she wanted to incapacitate him if possible, not kill him.) "Who do you serve?" she called out to the bard.

Carp turned and faced her. "Myself," he replied, smiling an evil smirk.

"Are you under control by an aboleth?"

"What a silly question," remarked Carp, not answering the "silly question" at all. He took a step towards Chaevaris.

"Don't move!" warned the archer.

But in the meantime, Ageratum had moved up, silent as a cat and as unseen as the wind. When she got close enough, she flung the rope of entanglement at Carp, and he seemed somewhat surprised to see a uncoiling rope suddenly wrapping around him out of nowhere. But he started casting a spell as the rope entwined around him, and seemed about to get it off in time. But then Chaevaris released her bowstring and caught Carp in the gut, the arrow projecting out from the bard's belly, and whatever spell he'd been trying to cast fizzled away to nothing.

Alistair backed up into the doorway of the workshop and slew another skum with a magic missile spell cast over Harlan's shoulder. That left an open path down the stairs, and Harlan raced down it, seeing a bound but upright Carp standing beside a horrific-looking statue/fountain thing. Ageratum and Chaevaris were on the far side of the bard. Harlan raced up to Carp, and as soon as he got within 10 feet of him the magic circle against evil spell encompassed the bard and he stiffened as the mind that had been moving his body was suddenly cast out. "It was a magic jar spell!" Carp cried. "The aboleth's mind was in the diamond on the chain around my neck!" Harlan grabbed the pendant from around the bard's neck and tossed it to the ground.

Orchid had, by this time, come down the stairs and had heard the latest discourse. She summoned a towering earth elemental using a summon nature's ally spell, commanding the creature to destroy the diamond. It stomped on it with a foot carved from solid stone and it shattered - it would never be used to dominate anyone ever again.

Chaevaris ran up by the fountain and targeted one of the three skum in the pool she could see with her next arrow, releasing it and putting the point through the middle of its piscine forehead. It fell instantly, dead. Ageratum ran up to the edge of the mist, seeing a pair of curved steps leading down into the water. Fishing out her elemental gem, she tossed it over by the other skum in the pool and a wave exploded upwards, taking on the form of a water elemental as large as the earth elemental Orchid had summoned. The water elemental called out, "I see the aboleth!" in his watery language - which Ageratum could understand perfectly, as she was wearing the magic helm that translated all languages for her. She relayed the information to the others over the still-active telepathic link. The water elemental, in the meantime, took out the nearest skum with a watery fist, crushing the fish-man's skull.

But then the aboleth, Taphranoorglum, made its presence known by flying up out of the water like a breaching whale. Unlike a whale, though, it remained hovering above the water, the result of a quickened fly spell. The three-eyed fish-thing then immediately cast a chain lightning spell at Harlan, sending arcs of electricity flying off from the paladin to strike Carp, Ageratum, and Chaevaris, the only potential foes it could see, for Orchid was still around the corner and Alistair was still coming down the stairs, picking his way past the corpses of slain skum.

The remaining skum in the pool of water all advanced upon the water elemental, trying to bite it with their teeth and clawing at it as well, but its fluid body resisted most of their attacks. Alistair heard the commotion over the mental link and cast a greater invisibility spell on Ambrose as he stepped foot upon the lower cavern, thinking to load up his familiar with a combat spell he could then go deliver unseen to the aboleth. Harlan, warning the others not to enter the mist (for he feared it was a mind fog spell that would only make them more susceptible to the aboleth's domination attempts), pulled out his longbow and shot an arrow at the hovering aboleth. The flames from the bow being further advanced by the maximized flame arrow spell Alistair had cast earlier, the arrow struck true and flash-fried a section of the fish-thing's scales, filling the chamber with the smell of cooked fish.

Orchid advanced by the fountain and got her first good look at an aboleth, then cast a wall of thorns spell at the water's level, imprisoning the tentacled fish-monster within their piercing branches. Then, upon the druid's verbal orders, the earth elemental smashed the creepy fountain statue with the oddball human and fish features. Chaevaris fitted another arrow to her longbow, aimed for the middle of the aboleth's three horizontal eyes, and let fly, piercing the orb smack-dab in the middle. As the noise of thunder rolled over the aboleth's body, the archer could see that completely blinding this monster would take two more shots instead of the normal one! No fair, having to deal with a three-eyed monster!

Ageratum pulled out her wand of magic missiles and coaxed a shot out of it, striking the thorn-imprisoned aboleth. It might not have been as powerful an attack as the archer's arrows, but every little bit helped. Beneath the aboleth, the water elemental took out another two skum.

But the aboleth wasn't dead yet. It wriggled its tentacles, but if it had been trying to escape from the thorns it was unsuccessful. (It had actually been casting a spell, although the heroes hadn't figured that out just yet.) The action caused some of the thorns to pierce even deeper into the aboleth's scaled flesh, but it didn't seem to mind. Below it, the remaining skum were doing all they could against the water elemental, but they weren't getting very far very fast.

Alistair made his way by the fountain with the crumbled statue, saw Taphranoorglum imprisoned in the thorns, and decided to go for a straight combat spell instead of employing Ambrose just yet. He fired off a chain lightning spell, intending to arc off the aboleth and take out the closest skum as well, as all but one of them were within range. But that's when the sorcerer found out the aboleth had been doing some spellcasting of its own, for his spell hit the aboleth's spell turning spell and was turned right back at Alistair. The full force of the electrical blast hit Alistair, and there were no arcs striking out at the skum - he'd merely managed to hurt himself in the attack. (Ambrose had the good fortune to flap off his master's shoulder at the last possible moment.) The sorcerer was naturally hurt by the lightning blast, but he was even more puzzled, for the spell turning spell - which is what he was certain was responsible for his chain lightning spell's sudden betrayal - was of a power level high enough that the sorcerer was just now getting strong enough to cast! He'd had several discussions about aboleths with the wizard Blorkane back home - the portly mage seemed somewhat obsessed with them - but he'd never mentioned them being of so high of a spellcasting level! Just who was this aboleth, anyway?

Harlan shot another arrow at the aboleth, but he was no trained archer like Chaevaris, and the shot went wide. Orchid cast a wall of fire spell across the front of the wall of thorns spell; she'd seen what had happened to Alistair's spell when he attacked the creature directly, and decided indirect fire damage was the way to go. The smell of cooked fish only intensified, as the spell burned up three of the skum as well as Taphranoorglum.

Chaevaris concentrated on the aboleth's lower eye, took careful aim, and took it out with her next shot. The three-eyed fish-monster was now down to one eye, the very top one, and it was having a bit of difficulty lowering its head enough to be able to see the upstart intruders in the cavern below it. Ageratum fished around for her necklace of fireball beads and plucked the most powerful bead she had of the three remaining. Loading it up into her sling, she flung it at the aboleth, watching with a grin as the small fireball exploded against its head. It wriggled for a moment as if trying to free itself from the thorns, but the combination of the fireball and the ongoing wall of fire finally cooked it where it hung. Shortly thereafter, the water elemental slew the last remaining skum, leaving the heroes without any more foes to fight.

"Do you mind freeing me?" asked Carp, hopping around all trussed up in the rope of entanglement. Ageratum said the command word that released the rope, and the bard rubbed his wrists. "I cannot thank you enough for coming to my rescue!" he said, wincing in pain as he pulled Chaevaris's arrow from his stomach. Orchid approached him with her staff of healing to repair the wound.

"Well, we were glad to be of service," remarked Harlan. "Now then, Ageratum, if you'd like to stow the rope of entanglement and get out the thieves' coil, I think we're all about ready to return to Ghourmand Vale."

"What?" cried the little halfling, aghast at the very thought. "We can't leave yet!"

A frown crossed Harlan's brow. "Are there any other prisoners we've yet to meet up with?" he asked Carp.

"Nope, the others were all dominated until they opted to willingly serve the aboleth - I'm the only one left."

"Not the point," insisted Ageratum. "There's plenty of cool loot upstairs in the good bedrooms!"

She was right, too, for the wizard's quarters held a carpet of flying, a staff of life, one application of sovereign glue, a vial of stone salve, and a bunch of journals. And once she'd chased down the bunny and slit its throat, the human wizard returned to her normal form, allowing the crafty halfling to remove her magic ring of protection and bracers of armor and retrieve the magic rapier belted at her side. Harlan dismissed Nova, and Chaevaris put Carruthers back inside her necklace as well. Then, placing the rope around everyone, Ageratum said the command word that teleported everyone back to Ghourmand Vale.

"I'm famished!" announced Holyrood Carp. "Anybody else feel up to some dinner?"

"Absolutely - I'm thinking fish," suggested Alistair.

Oddly enough, so was everyone else.

- - -

This adventure had a lot of problems with the way Dan ran it, starting with his confusion about how mirrors of life trapping work (you have to see your own reflection in it to be sucked in, but he had it try to grab everyone within 30 feet, despite whether we were valid targets or not, and he seemed to think it was "shot" like a weapon with the command word, catching everyone it could and then turning itself back off); I asked him at work the next morning if he had a plan in case all five of us failed our Will saves (after pointing out his misconceptions), and his only answer would have been to halt the game for that session and figure it out by the next week. So no real plan, then.

Next, I was fairly sure he had accidentally misread the mystic theurge rules when he mentioned he'd made the aboleth a mystic theurge, but it turns out nope, he read through those rules and understood them correctly; he just thought throwing an aboleth wizard 10/cleric 3/mystic theurge 3 - a CR 23 creature! - against a party of 13th-level PCs was a smart move. And then he didn't bother reading through the XP rules; seeing the table capped out at CR 20 threats he just used that and called it good. As a result, we were heavily shortchanged on the XP front (again!), but I put my foot down and insisted that if he was going to be throwing CR 23 creatures at us, we needed to get full CR 23 XP for it. The adventure took us all the way through the rest of 13th level, all the way through 14th level, and partway into 15th level, but by the rules you can't advance more than one level per adventure, so we got stuck at 104,999 XP each, one XP short of 15th level. That means we level up to 14th level, run through the next adventure, and level up to 15th immediately afterwards.

At this rate, this campaign will be over before we know it. (Which is good, because Logan and I had to convince Harry to stick with it until the end, as he was ready to bail after this adventure. Nothing like spending the first 40 minutes sitting in a mirror of life trapping watching the other players fight the combat, then have to fight an overpowered "final boss" with the terrain and spell selection guaranteed to nerf most of the PCs' combat abilities. It's a good thing Dan hadn't found a way to nerf our archer's massive arrow damage, or this might have ended up a TPK!)

 

[Richards]

ADVENTURE 57: SOMETHING SINISTER AT THE SLIPPERY SHAFT (AGAIN)

PC Roster:

Ageratum Purslane, halfling rogue 14​

Alistair Mandelberen Pastlethwaite, human sorcerer 14​

Chaevaris Noarunal, elf archer 14​

Harlan Starblade, half-elf paladin 14​

NPC Roster:

Orchid, elf druid 14​

Game Session Date: 10 July 2024

- - -

A week had passed since the Trained Professional Adventurers returned to Ghourmand Vale with Holyrood Carp, freed from bondage by an aboleth inhabiting his body via a magic jar spell. The heroes were up on the top floor of the Dark and Light Club, Ageratum going over the blueprints of the group's permanent headquarters being constructed about a half-mile outside the borders of the young city, making a few corrections to how she wanted her rooms laid out with a dwarven craftsman, Bullhorn Hammerfoot, one of the many dwarves working with the Karkalatch Clan stone giants. A floor below them, an increasingly boisterous Blorkane was buying drinks and having himself a grand old time, celebrating having just made a large amount of money selling a magic item.

Another dwarf entered the Dark and Light Club, scowling deeply at the wizard Blorkane before heading up the stairs to meet with the TPA. Alistair and Harlan were up there with Ageratum, the sorcerer fending off suggestions from Blorkane that he "come down here and learn to have a good time." Alistair simply told the wizard he had an engagement later that night and needed to keep a clear head. Blorkane waved him off and returned his attention to his drinking.

Harlan looked up at the approaching dwarf. "May we help you, sir?" he asked.

The dwarf introduced himself as Draemon Klarbatch, the operations manager of the Slippery Shaft Silver Mine owned by Kasselban Picksmart. "We are familiar with Kasselban," Harlan replied curtly, his expression and tone of voice revealing quite well his opinion of the dwarven mine owner.

"Well, I think 'e's about t' try t' kill me," Draemon said. He then explained his tale: the other day, a group of ten dwarven miners had been brought into Kasselban's private vault in the mines for a meeting with the owner, and none of them has been seen since. Now Kasselban and his wife - a dwarven woman Draemon had never seen before, nor ever heard mention of prior to suddenly meeting her - wanted Draemon to come to the vault this evening to discuss matters. "I got this feelin', deep in me guts, that if'n I do as they sez, 'e'll kill me!" the miner admitted. "I know ye lot're adventurers, an' I'd like ye t' check th' situation out, if'n ye be willin'."

"By all means," agreed Harlan, always ready to lend a hand and more than happy to put an end to whatever wicked plans Kasselban might have. The paladin well knew the mine owner to be evil, but it had always been the "money-grubber" kind of evil, not the "do away with ten miners for no good reason" sort. "Do you know why Kasselban would have killed the ten miners?" he asked.

"No idea," admitted Draemon. "'e's been quite upset at them miners what've quit his employ t' go t' work fer the stone giants - they pay a lot more than ol' Kasselban, I kin tell ye that - but these ones were loyal t' Kasselban one an' all - they were some o' th' ones what've stayed on."

"A recommendation," piped up Alistair. "I have recently mastered the veil spell. I can cover us all in the illusion of being unemployed dwarven miners looking for jobs, and we can accompany Draemon to Kasselban's meeting at his personal vault."

"I dunno," argued Draemon. "I dinnae really want t' step foot into 'is vault, 'n case it's a trap."

"I can make it such that you look like one of the work-seeking miners," Alistair assured him. "I'll make one of us look like you, and I'll have a Rary's telepathic bond spell cast, so you can feed us any answers to questions Kasselban might ask that only you would know."

"Better yet," piped up Orchid - the others hadn't even seen her and Chaevaris exit their extradimensional dwelling and join them at the table - "I can change myself to look like Draemon: observe." And she altered her entire appearance, armor as well as body, until she was practically a clone of the dwarven mine overseer. "I've even got his voice box in this form," she said, her voice virtually indistinguishable from Draemon's - if not her manner of speaking. Once that was pointed out to her, she replied with, "Right, well - 'ow's this then? Bit more like 'im, would ye say?" Draemon was convinced enough that he was willing to accompany them to the mines, although he voiced a preference to hang back if any fighting broke out. Harlan assured him that would be just fine.

On the way out of the Dark and Light Club, Blorkane called out for Alistair to join him once again. They headed over to the wizard, the young nobleman asking his heavyset colleague the cause of his celebration. "I just made a small fortune selling a trinket to Kasselban Picksmart!" he announced. When asked about the type of trinket, the wizard said it was a cubic gate - a powerful item that could open a gate to other planes of existence. "With it, he can go straight to the Elemental Plane of Earth and dig to his little heart's content!" Blorkane chuckled, slurping up another goblet of wine.

"What other planes does this device link to?" pushed Harlan.

"Well, lemme see...the Material Plane, of course...the Ethereal Plane, and the Plane of Shadows...."

"That's four," prompted Alistair. "Where else?"

"Um...the Abyss," Blorkane replied, looking upwards as if he'd find the answer written on the ceiling above him. "Oh! And the Nine Hells!"

"By the Goddess," murmured Orchid, shaking her head in disbelief.

"How much do you want to bet Kasselban's new wife is a succubus?" asked Chaevaris. "That idiot's probably making deals with demons - that's how he expects to get even with the stone giants he feels have been 'stealing' his mine workers!"

"If that is true," observed Harlan, "there's a good chance those ten dwarves who went missing after their meeting with Kasselban have been sacrificed to the Abyss." Draemon didn't want anything to do with fighting off demons, but once convinced of the seriousness of the situation and with Harlan's promises as a paladin of Pelor to keep him safe, he reluctantly agreed to lead them to Kasselban's personal vault in the Slippery Shaft mines.

Thus it was that the group soon found themselves inside a maze of twisting passageways. Four of the heroes had been inside the mines before, but none had ever been in this part of the mines, where Kasselban kept his private vault. Before they got too close to where they might meet up with the mine owner or his new wife, Alistair cast his traditional shield spell upon himself, then granted each of the heroes the benefit of a darkvision spell - if they were going to be shrouded in the illusion of being out-of-work miners, they'd each need a dwarf's vision to successfully play the part. Orchid cast a longstrider spell upon herself and barkskin spells upon Harlan, Ageratum, and herself, while the half-elf paladin covered himself with a magic circle against evil spell. Then they continued down the tunnel to where Draemon said Kasselban's personal area was to be found.

Sure enough, the cavern containing Kasselban's personal "front door" was a massive one, with a ceiling height of about 60 feet. Seated on a wooden chair to the west of the door was a young dwarven woman, quite lovely by dwarven standards. Harlan instinctively examined her aura and found the telltale presence of evil coming from her direction; he alerted everyone over Alistair's telepathic link he'd cast earlier.

"Draemon, how lovely of you to have come," greeted Mrs. Picksmart. "And you brought along guests! How nice!"

"Yeah," agreed Orchid, wearing the guise of Draemon Klarbatch. "These fine dwarves're lookin' fer work, an' I figgered Mr. Picksmart might like t' look 'em over, like." Then Orchid stopped talking in Draemon's voice and gave a warning over the Rary's telepathic bond spell. <I'm not sure what exactly she just did, but I think "Mrs. Picksmart" just tried to charm me,> Orchid advised. <For a brief second, I got an almost overwhelming urge to trust her and do whatever she said.>

<Succubus,> opined Chaevaris. <I was right.>

Alistair, standing in the front of the group, turned around and showed his back to the dwarven woman. This wasn't intended as a rudeness, but rather so she wouldn't see him casting a spell when his illusory appearance was that of a poor miner. He held up an illusory birdcage, inside of which Ambrose had taken on the false image of a canary, and pretended to fuss over the little yellow bird - when in reality, he was casting a spell onto his grackle familiar so he could then fly over and transfer it to Mrs. Picksmart. "Oh!" Alistair exclaimed in his best dwarven accent (which, truth be told, wasn't necessarily all that convincing), "me wee canary's escaped 'is cage!"

Ambrose flapped his wings and made a bee-line for Mrs. Picksmart, touching the top of her hair with a claw as he flew overhead, releasing the touch of idiocy spell Alistair had imbued upon him for that very purpose. The "dwarven woman" flinched as if shocked - for the spell had overcome the succubus' natural resistance to spell energy, partially draining her mental faculties - and Chaevaris took that as the signal for "the battle is on!" Pulling an arrow from her quiver and quickly aiming it at the succubus (the dwarven miner she appeared to be as a result of Alistair's veil spell seemingly pantomiming the actions), she released her bowstring and sent the arrow whizzing across the cavern to plant itself in the demon's gut. (Not entirely 100% sure this was a demon they were fighting - after all, there was a possibility, however small, that this might in fact be a dwarven woman foolish enough to marry Kasselban Picksmart, who was being dominated by an invisible demon standing right beside her - the archer opted not to take out her eye, which had been her first inclination; better to do something not quite as lethal, that could be more easily undone if needed.) But the single shot was enough to drop the succubus to the cavern floor, where she lay unconscious.

Harlan, however, did not share Chaevaris's doubts, for his paladin ability to sense evil told him this was definitely a demon before him. He charged across the cavern and swung his holy flaming burst longsword down upon the prone form lying there. Ageratum followed in the paladin's wake, bringing her own blades to bear, and in slaying her, the demon reverted back to its succubus form, bat wings and all. Quite tellingly, her body did not discorporate and return to the Abyss upon her death, revealing her to have crossed a planar gate rather than being summoned to the Material Plane. It looked like Chaevaris's theory that Kasselban had been trafficking with demons was true after all.

Orchid cast a mass bear's endurance, buoying the heroes' vim and vigor for whatever fight might be on the horizon. Alistair cast a detect magic spell, hoping to see if there were any sources of magic in the area, either on the dead succubus or coming from the door. But before he could find out for sure, the cavern was suddenly swarming with demons: one minute it was just the five heroes, Draemon, and Ambrose - the grackle returning to his master's shoulder once again - and the next there were no fewer than 16 humanoid vultures shrieking and squawking in their midst.

<Vrocks - they teleport!> called out Harlan to the others over the link. But then Orchid, the furthest back from the rest of the group, got a good look at the demons' locations and cast a transmute rock to mud spell on the ceiling directly overhead the vulture-fiends. Gloppy mud fell down, covering the vrocks and popping the dozen of them that had been nothing more than mirror image spells cast by two of the vrocks into nonexistence. It looked like four of them were actually flesh-and-blood vrocks, and neither looked particularly happy to have had their feathers coated in gloppy muck from the ceiling above. The fact that dozens of small rocks had also fallen down upon them didn't make them any happier, either.

Draemon, as promised, fell back away from the fight - he was a mine overseer, not a combatant. Alistair, fearing for the safety of his familiar, sent Ambrose with him. Because the second wave of this demon combat was now well underway!

Chaevaris quickly aimed another arrow at the closest vrock to her and let fly, piercing its left eye and causing it to howl in pain. Harlan raced up to the one just beside that one, stabbing at it with his Starblade, which he infused with Pelor's evil-smiting energy. That vrock likewise howled in sudden agony, not having expected to have to deal with anything more difficult than an unsuspecting dwarven mine overseer whose mind they could pick to find the location of the Karkalatch stone giant clan, so they could wipe them out as per their agreement with Kasselban (who had thus far held up to his end of the bargain by sacrificing the ten dwarven miners as he'd done).

Ageratum, in the meantime, ran past the one Harlan was fighting to backstab the partially blinded one. But she miscalculated the reach of these vulture demons, and both scratched with wicked claws at the little halfling as she ran past; it was all she could do to dodge out of their way. Still, she managed to get in a good hit with her sword at the one she'd targeted, but at a cost: for both vrocks on this side of the cavern sudden exploded out clouds of spores from their bodies. Harlan seemed unaffected, but Ageratum soon had tight, wiry vines growing out of her skin. "Orchid....!" she called out aloud, forgetting in her horror that the Rary's telepathic bond spell was still up and active.

Alistair focused his attention on the two vrocks on the other side of the cavern, catching both in a cone of cold spell he maximized through the more powerful of his two metamagic rods. The half-blinded one reached out and clawed the sorcerer on the shoulder - Alistair, like Ageratum before him, had miscalculated their reach - but it was after he'd gotten off his spell, which penetrated past the demons' inherent spell resistance. One vrock seemed to take twice the damage as the other, but the young sorcerer was just glad both had been hurt, to whatever extent.

Then the half-blinded vrock let out a screech unlike anything the heroes had ever heard before. It was enough to cause all three women to momentarily freeze up, each dropping whatever items they might have had in their hands. One of the vrocks Alistair had cold-blasted took the opportunity to take a bit of revenge on the nobleman, leaping forward and snapping at him with its vulture beak and clawing at him with its wicked hand-talons, then leaping up and clawing at him again with the talons it had in place of feet. Try as Alistair might, he couldn't evade all of those attacks, and one set of hand-claws ripped across his torso, cutting through his robes and coming dangerously close to ripping his vest of charisma, for which he'd paid quite a pretty penny! That near miss did more to incense the spellcaster than the actual attempt upon his life.

The one fighting Harlan followed the attacks of his vulture-brother, but the paladin had a much easier time of batting them away with his shield and came away completely unscathed. The fourth vrock - the other one Alistair's cone of cold had struck - went after Orchid, who was still stunned into momentarily dizziness by the horrid shriek she'd just endured, but she was still standing after the attack was finished, avoiding several of the blows by combat instinct alone. Harlan channeled more of Pelor's energy into his blade and went to town against the vrock he'd decided was his primary target, slicing it up but good, to the point it looked just about ready to fall over.

Alistair decided not to mess with success and fired off another maximized cone of cold through his metamagic rod at the same two vrocks he'd targeted before. This time the other one seemed to take the brunt of the magical assault, but that was okay - they both seemed fairly spent, and nearly about to fall over. But the one with an arrow sticking out of his left eye decided he was going to take out that blasted halfling, and he devoted his full attention to doing just that. Ageratum managed to dodge away from all of his talon strikes, but his serrated beak caught her on the shoulder for a moment before she could wriggle free. Then the one behind it gave forth with another shocking shriek, and this time it was Harlan and Alistair who froze up, dropping their weapons.

One of the frost-covered vrocks decided this was a good time to try to bring in some reinforcements. It cast its senses across the planes, seeking to make contact with another vrock it could summon onto the Material Plane to help it, but this sort of thing was iffy at best and he was unable to make contact with any takers. Bummer!

Orchid snapped out of her daze and cast a fire storm spell upon three of the four vrocks, covering them in flames from above. She knew, as demons, they were able to ignore flames to some small extent, but this was no small extent: it engulfed their entire bodies, melting away any residual frost from those Alistair had been throwing spells at and drying up any residual mud still coating them, before singeing their feathers and starting to burn their flesh. One of the vrocks fell over, dead from the magical onslaught.

Chaevaris scooped up her dropped longbow and slapped another arrow from her quiver into place. She aimed at the other eye of the one she'd shot earlier, hoping to give it a matching set of protruding arrows. Ageratum went stab-happy against that one's partner, slicing it up with the two short swords she wielded, one in each hand, carving it up like a holiday turkey. Its dying gurgle caused the partially blinded one to look over at its fallen compatriot, which gave Chaevaris the opportunity she'd been waiting for. The vrock's right eye suddenly blossomed with an elven arrow, and it fell over beside its partner, just as dead.

That left just one vrock still standing - and just barely at that. As Orchid came up to Ageratum and cast a heal spell from her staff that caused the wiry vines growing in the halfling's skin - the results of the wretched vrocks' explosive spores - Harlan snapped out of his daze, grabbed up the Starblade, and stabbed it into the vrock's chest. It died where it stood, and like the other three, its body remined on the Material Plane after death, as it had entered the plane through a planar gate opened by Kasselban's cubic gate.

"Let's go have a word with Kasselban," Harlan said, opening the door to his inner vault area. On the other side of the door was a vast chamber containing a long, wooden table, with eleven chairs all around it - the one at the head engraved with a stylized dwarven "P" rune and the image of a pick, no doubt the Picksmart family crest - but there was nobody there, nor were there any other visible exits. Employing the elves and their uncanny senses, Chaevaris soon found a hidden door that led to a narrow chamber wrapping around the room with the table and seating for eleven, and there was Kasselban, sitting on a wooden chair before a line of seven large chests.

The mine owner had definitely seen better days: he was weak, too weak to sit up straight; the succubus, it seemed, had just about siphoned off the last of his life energy before sensing the imminent arrival of the guests. Harlan detected the ever-present stain of evil in the dwarf's black aura.

"Shouln'ta done it," Kasselban whispered, barely loud enough to hear. "They were ten good workers, they were. Loyal. Deserved better...." As last words went, they were enough of a confession for Harlan to be convinced of his guilt, as his now lifeless body slipped off the seat of the chair and he slumped onto the floor of his hidden cache or treasure. Only it turned out not to be much of a cache of treasure after all, as he'd emptied his coffers of coins in purchasing the cubic gate that sat inside the seventh chest, the other six being totally empty. There was a black spoon along with the cubic gate, which Harlan and Alistair determined was a focusing device that attuned the Abyss side of the cubic gate to hone in on whatever part of the evil plane that particular quartet of vrocks inhabited. The paladin swore to have the spoon destroyed, for it served no purpose to them; the cubic gate, he realized, could be put to good use, although the fact that anybody getting hold of it could open a planar gate to either the Nine Hells of the Abyss made it a very dangerous piece of magical paraphernalia. Ageratum suggested they could have a metal "sleeve" of sorts made to put the cubic gate into, which would block off those two dangerous faces of the six-sided cube. That way, they could still easily access the Elemental Plane of Earth, the Plane of Shadows, the Ethereal Plane, and still return back to the Material Plane as desired. Harlan agreed, but insisted the dangerous device be kept inside the extradimensional dwelling, where it would be all but impossible for someone to get to it, even if they somehow learned of its existence.

<Ambrose!> Alistair called over the link. <It's safe, you can bring Draemon in here to see that Kasselban's been dealt with. Then I think it's time we all went back home.>

- - -

Dan said it's likely the ownership of the Slippery Shaft Silver Mine will eventually fall to Draemon, the highest-level worker after Kasselban, after it's been determined that Kasselban Picksmart has no living heirs. So that might take some time, but I think we'll like the new owner a whole lot more than we liked the old one.

We all leveled up to 15th at the end of this adventure session.

 

[Richards]

ADVENTURE 58: FROM THE NORTH

PC Roster:

Ageratum Purslane, halfling rogue 15​

Alistair Mandelberen Pastlethwaite, human sorcerer 15​

Chaevaris Noarunal, elf archer 15​

Harlan Starblade, half-elf paladin 15​

NPC Roster:

Orchid, elf druid 15​

Game Session Date: 17 July 2024

- - -

There was a light snow blowing down from the mountains outside when a knock upon the door to the Trained Professional Adventurers' extradimensional dwelling brought Harlan to see who it might be. After all, it was after dinner time, and the weather had kept the Dark and Light Club fairly empty; nobody really wanted to go out into the cold just to grab a drink or listen to a bard's songs and tales.

"Beggin' your pardon, sir," replied Oscar Poppert, a large-eared member of the town's messenger guild, "but Mr. Slade's called an emergency meeting, and he'd like you all to be there."

"We'll gather our gear and be right there," the half-elf paladin answered. Oscar nodded his head in gratitude - there wouldn't have been a whole lot he could have done had Harlan refused to attend, not that Mr. Slade would see it that way. But he dashed back the way he'd come, so he could tell his boss the message had been delivered and the TPA would be there shortly.

And indeed they were. Arriving at the town's meeting hall, the five adventurers saw a few unfamiliar faces; Ghourmand Vale was a boom-town, constantly taking in new members, and although the main Guildmasters were in attendance (as expected), there were some fresh new faces as well.

Slade wasted no time. "This here's Purly," he said, indicating a young human still huddled in his winter gear, the snow crusting his coat showing he'd been outside for some time. "He's a member of our ranger patrols, and he brings word of an attack by frost giants coming down from the north."

"Yes, sir, that's right," Purly piped up. "The giants, they took our patrol by surprise, 'bout 15 miles from the Vale - the others sent me back at top speed to warn the town proper, that the giants're coming down in great numbers and headed our way. I...I don't rightly know if any of the others got out alive."

"Tell us what you can of their numbers, and their tactics," suggested Harlan. Purly recounted what he knew: they'd fought at least half a dozen frost giants, armed with massive axes and swords, but they could see other groups on parallel courses, heading down from the mountains. Then they'd been hit by an icy fog, making visibility difficult, and the patrol sergeant sent Purly back to give the Vale a warning, so they wouldn't be taken completely unawares.

"I reckermend we send these five out t' deal wit' th' threat," suggested Draemon Klarbatch, newly appointed head of the Slippery Shaft Mines. "Along wit' any others we kin round up, that're likely t' be able t' hold their own against bands o' frost giants. We've already sent runners t' warn th' others in th' vicinity," he explained to the five heroes. The Hieronean clerics and paladins of the Stone Keep would be sending their own teams out to combat any frost giant invaders they might encounter, but there was a lot of ground to cover between the two areas. "An' I reckermend we put a bounty onna head o' each giant slain - that'll add some incentive t' get some o' our local folks out an' fightin', what don't normally do this fer a livin'." The sum of two thousand pieces of gold per slain frost giant - as proven by its decapitated head - was quickly suggested and approved (much to Ageratum's delight, as she suddenly viewed this excursion out in bad weather to be less of an intrusion on her quiet night and more of a money-making scheme with the opportunity for a rather large payday).

"Can you tell us exactly where you were when you were attacked?" asked Chaevaris.

"I can do better than that," replied Purly. "I can take you there." That was also quickly agreed upon, and Chaevaris offered the young ranger the use of her horse Talkacha, as she'd be riding upon her new carpet of flying. Purly's own horse had run itself ragged getting back to the Vale as quickly as possible, and deserved a good rest. "If we can make good speed, we might be able to meet up with them at the logging camp," declared Purly as they group set off, everyone as warm as possible in their winter gear. (Alistair's endure elements spell certainly helped in that regard as well.)

As they approached the camp, Alistair cast a mage armor spell upon himself and his grackle familiar, Ambrose, then cast a Rary's telepathic bond spell upon the group (including Purly, who found the experience quite unnerving) and a maximized flame arrow spell upon the group's assembled ammunition. Orchid likewise cast her customary longstrider spell, then followed up with barkskin spells cast upon herself, Harlan, and Nova. Knowing they'd be up against frost giants (and fearing they'd be accompanied by frost-breathing winter wolves), she also cast resist cold spells upon herself and Ageratum while Alistair did likewise for himself, Ambrose, and Shushitan. The timber wolf was also the recipient of a greater magic fang spell cast by his mistress, and Ageratum received an air walk spell from the same source. Then, as the group dismounted from their horses (all but Harlan, that is, who remained upon Nova's winged back), Ageratum and Chaevaris used their individual magic items to slip into invisibility.

Chaevaris let Carruthers out of their extradimensional dwelling and Alistair instructed the shield guardian to attack anyone who attacked any of the group. As a final thought, Ageratum started applying a dose of stone salve on her invisible skin, coating her with the benefit of a stoneskin spell. Against giants, a halfling couldn't be too careful!

<I hear noises up ahead,> warned Chaevaris over the link. <Could be a group of frost giants.> As they'd agreed upon, Purly took the steeds back a bit in the direction from which they'd just come, keeping them well out of the area of battle. Alistair cast a quick haste spell on the group now that combat seemed imminent, and Harlan applied a bull's strength spell on himself for the same reason. Orchid cast an animal growth spell on her loyal, lupine friend, and Shushitan sprang up to the size of a dire wolf.

Stepping forward through the blowing snow just ahead strode a pair of five frost giants, their fur-wrapped legs kicking up snow with each easy lope. Between them was a mobile pile of snow, something like the trail left by a mole as it burrowed through a yard; something was apparently moving along with them, its body just under the pile of snow cover. None of them seemed to have a care in the world, as if confident in their ability to handle whatever obstacle might show up before them.

Orchid wasted no time. She brought a fire storm spell down upon the assembled group, and all of a sudden the giants' faces lost their carefree looks as they howled in unexpected pain. The snowbank between them melted, revealing the top of a white-scaled beast whose scales blended in quite well with the surrounding snow and ice. <I say! Is that a dragon?> Alistair mused over the link. It was, thus far, impossible to tell for sure.

Ageratum, invisible and air walking, charged through the sky and straight into the closest frost giant's face, popping back into visibility as her magic short sword cut into the poor bugger's nose. From his vantage point, flames had suddenly dropped from the sky, and then a halfling materialized, swinging a blade into his nose before he could even think about blocking her strike. This wasn't anything like what he had expected!

But he was not without the ability to retaliate. Now that the floating halfling was visible, he was able to swat at her with his massive greataxe, cutting into her arm but nowhere nearly as deep as he'd have expected. (Inwardly, Ageratum was thankful for her application of stone salve, which greatly lessened the damage that actually made it to her.) Another giant charged forward with a roar, swinging his greataxe at Harlan astride Nova, hoping to sunder the flaming blade the paladin held before him as a light source in the darkened environment. His efforts were in vain, for the nimble half-elf's magically-increased strength helped him keep the sword in his grip despite the giant's best efforts. Another giant, this one a female, ran up on the other side of Harlan and swung her own blade at him, aiming at his armor instead of his weapon, and she made it past his shield, carving a dent in his plate mail. A fourth giant ran behind her, having started from somewhat farther back; he couldn't help but notice that the fifth giant in their party seemed to be lying dead in the snow, a victim not only to the flames falling down from the sky but also the wounds he'd received earlier when they took out those humans on their horses.

Alistair cast a delayed blast fireball, opting to forego the delay so the bead exploded between three of the frost giants, expanding into a ball of flames that engulfed them but didn't touch any of his friends. After the burning they'd received from Orchid's fire storm spell, that was enough to drop all three, leaving but one frost giant standing and whatever white-scaled pet traveled along with them. Then Carruthers raced forward, bringing a massive fist into the side of the sole remaining frost giant's jaw, causing him to spit blood.

Up on her carpet of flying, Chaevaris peered down at the white beast and perceived a pair of batlike wings stretched out at the creature's sides. Almost positive now this was a white dragon, she took careful aim down the shaft of her readied arrow, waiting for the reptile to raise its head; the archer was hoping to get off another eye shot, a move which was quickly becoming her specialty. <It's a white dragon, all right!> she warned the others.

Harlan squeezed his legs together, the signal for Nova to charge, and the pegasus flapped forward, allowing the paladin to swing his Starblade into the frost giant's side. This close to the dragon, he could see it start to raise its head in preparation of blowing out a gout of frost from its mouth. The paladin began to give out a warning, but Chaevaris had been waiting for just this to happen. She released her arrow, and it crossed the distance between them to plant itself smack-dab into the dragon's left eye. The archer gave a silent cry of exultation (which came out loud and clear over the telepathic link), as flames and thunder accompanied the massive damage she'd just done to the dragon, easily twice as big as a horse. Of course, the attack had rendered Chaevaris - and the carpet upon which she was balanced in mid-air - fully visible, but the dragon wasn't worried about any of that. Brought down to near death from the fire storm spell and the arrow-strike, he opted to turn tail and flee. Taking wing, the wounded dragon flew erratically back the way he'd come, dripping blood from his left eye socket the whole way.

Unnoticed, Nova trailed him, hanging above and to the dragon's left, well out of the line of sight from its impaired field of vision. <I'll see where this beast lairs, and direct you back to it!> Harlan promised. Chaevaris gave thought to following, but she realized her carpet was nowhere near as fast as the pegasus. Plus, she noted, Ageratum had already started going from frost giant corpse to frost giant corpse, making sure each was indeed dead, and beginning the process of decapitation to earn their bounty; she'd best give the halfling a hand with that, as Ageratum's little halfling-sized short sword was not the best blade equipped for the task.

- - -

Sorry, I've gotten a bit behind in my write-ups of our various campaigns, as I also do farewell caricatures for several branches of my office in my free time and I've been swamped on that front for a bit now. But this ended up being a very short game session, in part because everything we fought was vulnerable to fire damage and we had two primary spellcasters able to take advantage of that. Dan decided that if Harlan was going to track the wounded dragon (it was down to 27 hp, I think he said) back to its lair (we decided what was the point of slaying a dragon if we didn't get to loot its hoard?), that would be the logical next adventure. So this would end up kind of being the first of a two-parter, since the very next adventure took place literally minutes after this one ended.

 

[Richards]

ADVENTURE 59: DEMONS AND DRAGONS

PC Roster:

Ageratum Purslane, halfling rogue 15
Alistair Mandelberen Pastlethwaite, human sorcerer 15
Chaevaris Noarunal, elf archer 15
Harlan Starblade, half-elf paladin 15​

NPC Roster:

Orchid, elf druid 15​

Game Session Date: 24 July 2024

- - -

The wounded dragon flew haphazardly through the air, at nowhere near its top speed - it was quite obviously doing everything it could to remain in the air, with an arrow sticking out its left eye socket. Several hundred feet behind it, keeping pace, Harlan sat astride his celestial pegasus Nova and shadowed its movements, ensuring they kept to its blind side and far enough back there was little chance of the dragon noticing them.

Harlan judged they'd flown seven miles or so away from the logging camp where the Trained Professional Adventurers had taken out a band of five frost giants and given the dragon enough of a beating that it opted to flee to safety rather than continue on in such a lopsided fight. The half-elf still had contact with the other heroes over the Rary's telepathic bond spell Alistair had cast upon the five of them and the ranger Purly who had led them to the site where they met the advancing foes in combat. As he and Nova followed their prey, he gave a running commentary to his friends, so they'd be able to follow as best as they could on horseback after severing the heads of the slain frost giants and dumping them into the extradimensional dwelling as proof of their deaths. That way, Harlan knew, he and Nova would have less of a distance to backtrack once the dragon made its lair known to them.

But now the dragon was lowering in elevation - was it getting weaker, or about to land to enter its lair? Harlan spurred Nova on to full speed, shortening the distance between them and their prey. Sure enough, he could see a dark cave opening at the bottom of a glacier just ahead; it looked like the dragon was about to enter its lair, and the paladin didn't want to take the chance it might have allies inside who could heal it back up before the rest of the TPA could join him and Nova. So he had Nova dive straight at the dragon, who was slowing to a halt as it dropped to the snow-covered ground. Nova's front hooves practically collided with the back of the dragon's head as Harlan leaned over to the side of his aerial mount and brought his holy flaming burst longsword cutting deep into the dragon's back, just to the side of one weathered wing, his blade empowered by the smiting energy of Pelor. The joint attacks were enough to cause the dragon to plummet the rest of the way to the snowy ground, staining the area around its cooling corpse with the red of its flowing blood. <We got it!> Harlan advised the others over the mental link. <It's dead, right outside the cave mouth it was about to enter.>

<We're on the move,> Orchid replied back. <We should catch up to you shortly.>

<We'll head back and lead you to the lair,> Harlan advised. <No need for us to be spotted in the vicinty - let anyone inside the lair wonder what happened if they find the dragon's corpse before our arrival.> It didn't take Nova too long to circle back and catch back up to the others, then drop down to the ground and ride alongside them back to the dragon's presumed lair in the glacier.

When everyone arrived, Chaevaris, atop her carpet of flying was as invisible as her magic rug. The horses were stopped a good 100 feet away or so, with Purly once again volunteering to stay behind and watch the mounts while the heroes entered the ice cave. That seemed like a reasonable idea, and Orchid told her timber wolf animal companion Shushitan - back to his normal size now that the animal growth spell had run its course - to stay with Purly and help guard the horses and pony. Harlan climbed down from Nova's back and had him stay behind as well, as he was much more useful as an aerial scout, flying about in circles in the air above and keeping a wary eye out for approaching enemies, than he would be crawling around inside an icy cave network inside the glacier. Carruthers was also released from the extradimensional dwelling and placed on guard duty, protecting Purly and the mounts.

The cave opening ahead looked to be about 35 feet wide, shaped rather like an elongated eye, about 15 feet high at its highest point in the middle. Chaevaris lowered her flying carpet and moved slowly forward, opting not to step foot inside unless necessary, for the carpet could be made to hover in place and made a much sturdier shooting platform than the harness and immovable rod system she'd used in the past. She had an arrow out and notched, ready to shoot, but so far she saw mothing but darkness in the cave ahead.

Orchid stepped forward towards the cave opening, casting a new spell for her as she did so: fire seeds, infusing an acorn from a pouch at her hip with the explosive power of a fireball spell. Harlan was right there beside her, concentrating on detecting any evil emanations coming from the cave. He felt instinctively that there was evil ahead - specifically, in the back of the entry cavern, but he was unable to see anything untoward by the starlight shining in from outside. But he warned the others he was picking up an aura of evil from something unseen inside. <Let's hope it's not the dead dragon's mother,> Alistair said, <although it doesn't look like the dragon's corpse has been disturbed out here. There's a good chance nobody inside has yet noticed.> The sorcerer cast another haste spell on the group, the original one having long since expired.

Ageratum was also invisible, courtesy of her magic bracelet, and the air walk spell Orchid had cast on her earlier was still in effect. She had to admit, running through the very air was something she could get used to on a regular basis - it was so much easier to remain quiet than moving about on the ground!

<There!> called Chaevaris over the link. <Over on the left, by the opening to the next cave over - some sort of frog or toad!> Harlan confirmed that was where the aura of evil was concentrated, leaving Orchid to puzzle about how a toad could possibly be evil. <Evil wizard's familiar, maybe?> suggested the archer. But since this wasn't a giant toad or anything, merely a white-skinned toad who'd easily fit into the palm of her hand, she deemed it not much of a threat. <Worst thing it might be able to do is to warn its master that we're approaching,> she guessed. <We'd best assume anyone inside already knows we're here.>

Orchid responded by casting a mass bear's endurance spell on the group, to better enable them to stay tough in combat, if further combat was likely to be imminent. Harlan followed with a bless spell, while eyeing the toad he finally picked out from against the icy background - it was sitting in a depression, with just the top of its head peeking out at them. But he shared Chaevaris's assessment that it was unlikely the toad would be able to do them much harm.

<I think it best you remain outside, with the others,> Alistair advised his familiar, and Ambrose flew off to nestle in Talkatcha's lengthy mane, as a means of staying warm in the winter cold. Then the sorcerer cast a shield spell on himself while there was no immediate battle arresting his attention. That done, he stepped into the entry cave behind the others and looked about for this "icy toad" the others were making such a fuss over. Alistair figured a magic missile spell or two would be more than enough to take out a measly toad.

But he didn't get the chance - not right away, in any case. Unseen by any of the others, Ageratum, still invisible, ran across the entry cave and down a set of natural steps in the ice to the larger cavern to the west. Another passageway headed back north from this second cavern, and at the end of that corridor stood two male frost giants before a set of doors, quite apparently on guard detail - and it was also quite apparent that while they couldn't see any of the heroes just yet (especially invisible halflings!), they were alerted of possible imminent combat, for they held their greataxes at the ready, as if eager to take on any intruders foolish enough to head their way. Ageratum warned the others over the telepathic link.

Orchid went down the steps, following Ageratum's path quite unwittingly, for she had no idea of the halfling's current location. But she ducked her head around the corner, saw the frost giants, and cast a summon swarm spell that deposited thousands of crawling spiders more than halfway down the tunnel. Knowing the spiders would immediately head towards the nearest potential enemy, she smiled at the thought the giants would be fulfilling that particular role - let their greataxes try to deal with that many individual foes at once! Sure enough, the spiders all scrambled forward, making decent speed over the slick ice (since many of them were climbing over the bodies of those beneath them).

What none of the heroes realized was that the slain dragon's mate was currently perched upon the ceiling of the larger cavern, and she saw Orchid enter the chamber and cast her spell. She released her ceiling perch, spun around during the fall to the ground like a cat, and landed on all four limbs, her long neck pointed down the corridor where the frost giants were about to face the hungry spiders. She released a gout of frost, which slew the spiders - every last one of them - without harming a hair on the beards of the giants, who were immune to the reptile's freezing breath weapon. Orchid was untouched off to her right, but the dragon figured she could take care of the elf in a moment. What she didn't figure was there being an invisible halfling standing in the air right by her neck - although she found that out quick enough when Ageratum's flashing blade cut a deep gash in the side of her neck, popping back into visibility as she did so. <Little help here!> she called to the others.

The dragon roared its displeasure at the unexpected attack, and Ageratum felt the blood in her veins seemingly turn to ice. Chaevaris felt a chill go down her spine as well, although Orchid was able to overcome the dragon's frightful presence, as did Harlan and Alistair. The paladin ran forward, Starblade out and ready to attack. Alistair, no longer the least bit worried about any potential threat that might be posed by the frost-colored toad, cast a delayed blast fireball into the cavern behind the dragon, foregoing any delay at all. The explosion of flames engulfed the dragon's left side, but Ageratum was shielded by the dragon's bulk and Orchid was too far away to be affected.

Ageratum slapped her bracelet and slipped back into invisibility, running around to the other side of the dragon, where she wouldn't know where to find the little halfling. The dragon snapped at her in passing but missed, not knowing the speed by which a frightened halfling could move when under the effects of a haste spell and with adrenaline coursing through her system thanks to the severe fright she'd gotten by hearing the dragon's roar that close up. But, swallowing down her fear, Ageratum faced the dragon, ready to try to attack it from behind, where she hopefully wouldn't be expecting it.

The two frost giants abandoned their posts in front of the doors, running forward to engage the enemy now that they'd made their presence known. One raced past Harlan, not even seeing the paladin around the corner as his gaze focused on Orchid, and the paladin's sword thrust deep into the giant's side in passing, its flaming blade causing the giant no small amount of pain. Then the double doors opened and another pair of frost giants came running down the tunnel behind the first two.

Chaevaris, perched invisibly on her invisible carpet of flying (which hung motionless in the air), took careful aim at the dragon and shot at its right eye, thinking to make a mirror image of the reptile's mate whose corpse lay just outside. But while the arrow hit the dragon's skull and protruded like a wayward horn, she missed actually hitting the eye by a few scant inches. Orchid, in the meantime, backed up and tossed her acorn at the dragon, hitting her on the right side of her torso, just below the wing, and causing a massive fireball that made the dragon instantly forget about any pain she felt from the archer's arrow. The blast also encompassed the first two frost giants, neither of which appreciated the blast of flames.

Perhaps motivated by panic - this was, after all, her primary lair and it was currently enhanced by half a dozen frost giant guards; they shouldn't be suffering such a quick and humiliating defeat by mere humans and elves! - the dragon blew out another blast of frost, this one straight down onto the ground before her. This was not another blast of her draconic breath weapon, though, but rather a freezing fog effect, much like a solid fog spell but with the added advantage of coating everything it touched in a layer of slippery ice, to which she was herself immune. With any luck, this would pin these intruders in place (for the cloud encompassed Orchid and Harlan, and was large enough to block most of the passageway between the entry cavern and her larger lair at the bottom of the natural ice steps, although there was a slight gap along the northern side, not quite large enough for a person to slip through, but enough to see through). Hopefully she and the first two frost giants, who were all trapped inside the freezing fog, could make quick work of the druidess and the paladin before moving on to finding that irritating halfling and whoever was casting fiery spells and arrows from the entry cavern.

From outside the area of effect, Ageratum was disappointed to see the freezing fog effect also made it all but impossible to see inside the hemisphere, as she found out when stabbing into the half-globe of shimmering flakes at the location she thought the dragon's tail was - but missed completely. But Harlan, fully inside, was close enough to one of the frost giants to be able to make out his exact location without difficulty, and he brought his flaming sword to good use, striking and singeing him in blow after blow. Alistair positioned himself to where he could see through the gap and fired off another delayed blast fireball (without the delay - the sorcerer had yet to find a reason to hold off on the potential instantaneous aspect of the spell) along the northern part of the freezing fog area of effect, where he knew the two frost giants had been standing; he just hoped he'd kept Harlan out of the exploding sphere of flames. The blast was enough to slay one of the two giants outright, while burning up the other one fairly severely and dealing damage to the dragon as well.

Ageratum swung her blade again inside the unseen interior of the murky globe, missing the dragon yet again. As did the second frost giant as it moved up to attack Harlan, almost slipping as he did so. The paladin was able to raise his shield above his head and sidestep the incoming attack. Behind him, the third frost giant took the plunge inside the freezing fog, surprised at the resistance the floating snowflakes were giving him. The fourth giant waited his turn, knowing there was limited room in the narrow passageway.

But Chaevaris saw the third giant enter the fog and shot him with a flurry of four rapid-fire arrows as he did so. He roared in pain at the unexpected attack, for he had no idea there was an archer around the corner from the passageway he'd taken. Orchid, unsure of the dragon's exact location, cast a summon nature's ally spell that brought a greater fire elemental into the cavern, to the west of the freezing fog, with directions to reach in and throttle any dragons found inside. The elemental did as commanded, but its first attempts to locate the dragon failed.

And then, to Ageratum's continued dismay, a secret passageway opened - it was a door made of solid ice, which hinged open behind her along the western wall - and another pair of frost giants entered the dragon's lair cavern, the male swinging his greataxe at her before she could react. He hit her solidly in the back, but fortunately most of the attack was absorbed by the stoneskin spell she still had up from her previous battle with the frost giant raiding party back at the logging camp.

Inside the freezing fog, the dragon cast a spell of some sort, but then the fire elemental found her location and pummeled her with massive fists like flaming boulders. The reptile dropped dead to the icy floor, no longer a threat. At the same time, Harlan moved cautiously forward, careful not to slip, and stabbed up at the second frost giant, sinking his flaming blade deep into his belly. When he pulled his sword back out, the giant vomited blood and fell forward, and it was all the half-elf could to to stay on his feet as he scrambled away at the best speed the freezing fog would allow.

Another "instant" (no delay) delayed blast fireball from Alistair exploded into the cloud, killing the last of the frost giants inside the freezing fog and burning the one standing just outside it to the north. He growled in irritation and entered the fog, getting clocked by the greater fire elemental as he did so.

Ageratum used a similar tactic, plucking a bead from her necklace of fireballs and tossing it at the long-bearded frost giant jarl who had just attacked her from behind, the bead exploding into a smaller burst of fire that still did more damage to the jarl than he liked. His wife, having just stepped through the hidden door behind him, cast an unholy blight spell into the freezing fog, knowing full well any of her allies would be unharmed. Orchid and Harlan both felt the effects but were able to ignore the majority of them, feeling a mere distaste rather than an overwhelming nausea, as had been intended.

Chaevaris targeted the last frost giant to enter the cloud of freezing fog before his silhouette became indistinct, killing him with multiple shots to the head. Orchid backed further up, pulling another acorn from her pouch and casting a second fire seeds spell upon it. She kept the acorn in her hand, ready to throw, but she wanted to make sure she had a good target before doing so.

Having heard the sounds of combat behind it, the greater fire elemental whirled around and saw the frost giant jarl and his cleric wife. It lunged at the jarl before hitting an invisible barrier - the jarl had a magic circle against good spell active upon him, which prevented the elemental - a summoned creature - from being able to make contact. Its hiss of anger sounded like a hundred tea kettles boiling all at once. Grinning at the elemental's impotence, he turned his back on it and continued his attacks on the air walking halfling, hitting Ageratum again with his greataxe (which again dealt her much less damage than if she'd not had a stoneskin spell active to lessen the severity of the blows against her).

Harlan, finding himself without any enemies nearby, struggled to push his way through the freezing fog, but it was irritatingly slow going. He headed west, where he could hear the sounds of battle as Ageratum fought off the frost giant jarl singlehandedly (despite the fire elemental's best efforts).

<Jump on up!> Chaevaris said over the link as she waved Alistair up onto her carpet of flying. The sorcerer clambered aboard, and then she maneuvered it so they could see through the gap to the far side of the larger cavern. <Think you can teleport us over there?> the archer asked.

<Just watch me, Elfy!> declared Alistair, casting a dimension door spell that sent them not only into the western part of the dragon's lair, but up towards the ceiling, and behind the jarl and his wife. Ageratum slapped her bracelet and faded back out of view, running away from the jarl and over by his wife. Seeing the halfling headed her way as she faded into invisibility, the giantess moved over closer to her husband for safety. But Ageratum had already closed the gap - the giants had failed to account for her being hasted - and her short sword sliced a line of blood along the giantess's blue-skinned arm. The magic of her blade also siphoned off a bit of the giantess's strength, leaving her momentarily light-headed, as if she'd stood up too fast after sitting for too long.

Chaevaris, on her aerial perch, shot an arrow down at the giantess' stomach, piercing her belly and causing her to become nauseated. Inside the freezing fog globe, Harlan and Orchid both pressed on, moving slowly to their friends' aid. The greater fire elemental slid sideways along the north wall, getting as close as she could while being held back by the magic circle against good barrier. Right now, the cleric was well within the confines of her husband's spell's magical protection, but that could easily change moment to moment.

The jarl turned to his wife and said something in the Giant language., which none of the heroes spoke, but Ageratum's magical helmet allowed her to understand exactly what was said: "Meet me at the altar." The cleric turned to go back through the hidden door, the way she'd come. Then the jarl dashed forward at full speed into the freezing fog cloud, unaffected by the spell effect's slowing efforts or general slipperiness. (He'd had his wife cast a freedom of movement spell upon him earlier.) The jarl met up with a startled Harlan, who barely had enough time to raise his shield against the giant's incoming greataxe blow. But with the giant right there, Harlan was able to attack him right back in rapid succession, his first two attacks hitting their mark. Alistair cast another delayed blast fireball that encompassed both frost giants, and while he couldn't see how the jarl fared against his spell, he could see the giantess had shielded herself with a protection from fire spell, for the effects were not at all as he had hoped.

But then Ageratum was on the cleric, a frenzied halfling stabbing out with a short sword in each hand. Unable to fend off a flurry of so many blows in rapid succession, the giantess found herself bleeding from half a dozen wounds. She quickly retreated to the secret door, seeking to flee from these fiends and meet her husband back where he'd said, by the altar to Kostchtchie, the demon lord they both worshiped. Ageratum struck her a final time as she passed by, just to add salt to the wounds.

But Chaevaris was in hot pursuit, flying her carpet after the fleeing cleric. They went down a diagonal tunnel that the archer assumed would end up in a room on the other side of the double doors the first pair of frost giants had been guarding. She fired an arrow at the back of the frost giantess's head, striking a glancing blow that looked like it took off part of a dainty ear. Then Alistair channeled a chain lightning spell through his metamagic rod, maximizing its damage potential. That attack had her hair sticking out in all directions as she was hit with more electricity all at once than she'd ever experienced before in her life. And then Chaevaris finished her off with a series of well-placed arrow shots that had the back of her head looking like a pincushion. The giantess sprawled face-first on the floor of the altar cavern, no longer counted among the living.

Inside the freezing fog, Orchid stepped carefully toward the frost giant jarl and, seeing the greataxe he wielded had a wooden shaft, cast a repel wood spell that had his weapon moving rapidly away from her. The jarl tried to hang on, but was forced to release it once he saw had he hung on - and been dragged along - he'd have been moving directly into the path of the waiting fire elemental, which would have dismissed the magic circle against good protection afforded by the spell against summoned creatures. Instead, the greataxe, no longer held by the jarl, went flying past the elemental's head to bury itself in the ice wall beyond. Still, that left the jarl without any weapons but his fists, a fact the distraught expression on his face told Harlan he understood all too well.

The jarl tried to make the best of it, swinging his fists down at the half-elf paladin, one hand clanging loudly against the paladin's metal shield. But Harlan's response - a flurry of attacks with his flaming blade - dealt the jarl more damage than he'd been able to dish out against Harlan. Ageratum tried entering the freezing fog and swinging where she thought the jarl might be, but she missed due to the almost total lack of visibility inside the globe. But Harlan made up for it, bringing the jarl down with a few more successful strikes with his Starblade, and the threat from the frost giants and dragons lairing here was no more.

Ageratum led the search expedition seeking out the dragons' treasure hoard, and found not only it but the chamber where the frost giants kept their own loot. As the halfling had expected, it was quite a haul: enough coins, jewels, and gems, to garner each of the heroes thousands of pieces of gold - and that was before the bounty of the slain frost giants was added in. "Not a bad way to spend a cold winter's evening!" she exclaimed, rubbing her hands together.

On the way back out of the glacier lair, Alistair slew the toad with a well-placed magic missile.

- - -

This session took a lot longer than the previous one; whereas the first part of this two-parter took us a little over an hour to complete, this one lasted from 6:30 PM (our normal start time) to almost 10:00, at which point Vicki was about an hour past the amount of time she prefers to spend on a weeknight playing D&D. (She suffers from occasional bouts of vertigo, and it gets easier for her to get dizzy the more tired she becomes.) So Dan promised to try to keep future sessions a bit shorter for her sake.

 

[Richards]

ALISTAIR'S MIGHTY ROD SONG

Heroes known both far and wide are quite legendary
And tales told of their exploits mention their accessories
A weapon or well-crafted tool makes a man seem a god
So let me tell you all about Alistair's mighty rod

His rod is filled with power, you can sense it by the touch
It overflows with arcane might, I can tell you that much
And when he holds it in his hand, it's eager to explode
As if at any given moment it might overload

But Alistair, he wields it like a fencer wields a sword
And he can coax out of it as much power as it's stored
To maximize the damage from a spell he channels through
Just hope you've never given him reason to target you!

For in his hands that sturdy shaft is quite a fearsome tool
And if you doubt my words, then it would seem that you're the fool
If you face him in battle, some good luck might head your way
For Alistair's mighty rod can be used but thrice a day

(Oh, does this fact surprise you, that it has limitations?
Well, let me just advise you: accept no imitations
Like others of its kind, it has a cap on daily uses
For were it left unchecked, it would cause so many abuses)

But even if you see Alistair use it all three times
And think to yourself, "Now I can enact my plotted crimes!"
Well, I have some bad news for you: I hate to kill your fun
But Alistair likes his rod so much, he bought a second one!

A sorcerer of his power has daily spells galore
And making each spell reach its max is what that rod is for
Three times a day was not enough to meet Alistair's plans
So now he enters combat with a rod in both his hands!

So, are you going to take him on, knowing what you now do?
That up to six maximized spells might find their way to you?
I really don't advise it, though I won't make it a dictum
But if you cross him you'll become his two rods' next victim!

 

[Richards]

ADVENTURE 60: NOTICED

PC Roster:

Ageratum Purslane, halfling rogue 15​

Alistair Mandelberen Pastlethwaite, human sorcerer 15​

Chaevaris Noarunal, elf archer 15​

Harlan Starblade, half-elf paladin 15​

NPC Roster:

Orchid, elf druid 15​

Game Session Date: 4 September 2024

- - -

At long last, the new headquarters building of the Trained Professional Adventurers was complete, and the heroes had all moved in. It was a four-story stone structure, basically a square keep with an attached stables off to the side: the ground floor was their general living area (complete with a blank wall on the side where the extradimensional door could be located; the heroes didn't want to give up their previous dwelling and thus just incorporated it into their new place); the second floor held the apartments of Ageratum and Alistair; the third floor was where Orchid and Chaevaris had their own rooms; and the top floor held Harlan's living space in the front and an open balcony in the rear where he could launch his celestial pegasus Nova into the skies as needed. There was no need for a kitchen, dining area, or bathrooms, as those were inside the extradimensional space on the other side of the door when Chaevaris projected it from her necklace. The attached stables were accessible from a side door on the ground level of the keep, or through a pair of larger doors in the front of the stables themselves. There was a separate stall for each of their mounts, plus an extra one for visitors, a feed storage shed, and the living quarters of Purley, who the group had hired on as their full-time animal handler.

Recently, the TPA had taken custody of two plinths that, when stood upon, granted the person so doing the ability to activate a statue spell for the next half a day; each plinth could grant the ability to up to two people who used it each day. Not wanting to limit their access, one plinth was stored in the corner of the lower level of the new stone keep and the other kept inside the extradimensional dwelling, so the adventurers could bring it (along with the door) went they left the keep.

As for the Dark and Light Club, the two-story nightclub where the adventurers had normally plopped their extradimensional door, the owners were given directions to the new keep - about 5 miles out of town, to keep the town safe from any attacks upon the keep but also to allow room for the town to grow and expand over the years - with orders to direct anyone looking for the TPA to their new location. After all, it had become common knowledge that if you wanted to hire the TPA, you needed to head over to the Dark and Light Club.

It was a cold, winter late afternoon when the keep received its first visitor: a delivery lad, dropping off a small wooden crate. Harlan gave the lad a coin for his troubles, detected the crate with his paladin's senses to ensure there was no evil within, and then brought it inside to open. There, he was pleased to see five copies of a new book: The Gallants: Adventures in the Darkened Realms, by E. L. Grimwade, the renowned author of the "Elfy Danger Silverleaf" children's stories that Alistair loved so much. Flipping through the top copy, Harlan noted it was autographed to Alistair - each of the five copies had been signed by the author with a personal note to its intended owner on the inside cover, and depicted the fictional adventures of a group of characters quite obviously patterned after the TPA members. The group consisted of Brindlewald Stormwind, a noble human sorcerer; Patton Lux, a half-elf paladin; Siobhan Wiggins, a halfling rogue lass; Adelain Swiftshaft, a female elven archer; and Daisy Thornvale, an elven druidess. The dedication page read, "To the Trained Professional Adventurers, who live even greater adventures than I can write."

The other heroes were each upstairs in their rooms, putting in their finishing touches. (And Ageratum had twice the chore as the others, for the eight-foot-tall walls of her quarters were bisected horizontally, giving her twice the living space as the others, the "upper floor" reachable only through a halfling-sized hole in the four-foot ceiling she used her spider climb ability to reach.) Harlan left the crate downstairs and went to fetch the others, so they could each receive their own copy; he particularly wanted to see Alistair's face when he saw the end result of their visit, months ago, by E. L. Grimwade herself.

Had it been up to Alistair, that's all anyone would have seen of him that night, for upon discovering the book he wanted nothing more than to return to his new quarters and devour the book, no matter how many hours that might take, and how many missed meals such an undertaking would entail. But before he could make his way back upstairs, there was another knock upon their front door, and Harlan once again answered it.

This time, it was their wizard associate Blorkane Trotter, a heavyset spellcaster with more arcane knowledge than common sense - a trait he had exhibited to their consternation on more than one occasion. "Hey," he said without preamble, bursting his way past Harlan and into their new living area. "I understand you unearthed that cubic gate I sold to Kasselban Picksmart. Well, I need to buy it back from you."

"I don't believe that will be possible," announced Harlan.

"What? Don't tell me you've already sold it!"

"On the contrary," replied Alistair, looking up from his book. "We still have it, but we don't wish it to be available to anyone who might misuse it."

"Several of the Outer Planes to which it's attuned are rather nasty areas - ones we wouldn't want an open planar gate allowing their denizens to come waltzing over here to the Material Plane," affirmed Harlan. "The Nine Hells for one. The Abyss for another."

"But you don't understand!" insisted Blorkane. "The original owner - er, alleged, at least - wants it back, and he knows it was recently in my possession!"

"Blorkane," scolded Ageratum. "Did you steal that cubic gate?" She looked innocently over at Harlan. "We all know that stealing is wrong."

"I most certainly did not!" insisted the heavyset wizard. "It's just...entirely possible it came into my possession without the knowledge that it may have been taken from its owner through...irregular channels."

Chaevaris was well aware of how much money a cubic gate was worth. "Tell you what," she smirked. "Since it's you looking to purchase it from us - an honest, aboveboard individual who would never allow it to fall into the wrong hands - I think we could sell it to you...for the low price of 200,000 pieces of gold." The elven archer was well aware it was valued at 164,000 gold pieces; she just wanted to see him dance a bit.

"Preposterous!" scoffed Blorkane. "Even with the extra enhancement--" he started, but then cut himself off, as if not entirely eager to let the others know about what made this cubic gate even more valuable than the standard model. "I--I have already spent some of what I was paid by Kasselban, but I can give you 120,000 pieces of gold for it, right now!" He patted his coin pouch, no doubt as extradimensional as the door in Chaevaris's magic amulet.

But Harlan had picked up on what Blorkane had started to say. "What's this about extra enhancements?" he demanded. Blorkane tried to deflect the question, but under the determined gaze of a hardened paladin he folded like a cheap house of cards. "If you touch an item taken from the plane in question, and use it to activate a gate to that plane, it will zero in on the area from which it came," he admitted. "So instead of going to a random location on an infinite plane, you can end up, say, at the actual home of a vrock demon by touching one of its feathers to the cubic gate. It's a specialized version, called Tellander's gate," he finally admitted. "But really, I do need it back!"

"I'm afraid that will be impossible," Harlan said sternly. "As I said, we do not wish it to fall into the wrong hands. But if the owner tries to get it from you, you are more than welcome to send him our way. We'd be more than willing to tell him that to his face."

Blorkane wiped the sweat from his face with a handkerchief. "It may well come to that," he explained. "Right now, there's an unnatural storm blasting lightning down on the Dark and Light Club - that may be him announcing his presence."

"What?" demanded Harlan. "Someone's attacking the town - trying to get to us? Why ever didn't you mention this earlier?"

"It sounds like a storm of vengeance spell," interjected Orchid. "That's high-level druidic magic."

"It slipped my mind until now," admitted Blorkane, answering Harlan's question. But the paladin was buckling on his sword-belt and indicating for the others to get their gear together. Ageratum, who already had her gear with her, ducked into the stables and asked Purley to come inside and "keep Blorkane company" - in other words, make sure he didn't go snooping around trying to find the cubic gate (which, unknown to Blorkane, was inside the extradimensional dwelling on the other side of the door in their living room, across from the door leading to the stables). Then the five members of the Trained Professional Adventurers - plus Shushitan, Orchid's loyal timber wolf animal companion, and Ambrose, Alistair's grackle familiar - were mounted on their horses and riding to the town proper at best speed, the extradimensional door tucked back into Chaevaris's magic amulet.

Well, that was mostly true, in any case; Harlan, as usual, had forsaken riding his white riding horse Law and instead rode Nova, his celestial pegasus; Law was ridden by Orchid, who had no horse of her own; and Talkacha was left behind in the stables by himself, as Chaevaris opted to pilot her two-seater carpet of flying instead of sitting astride her gray light riding horse. But the group made their way towards town, seeing the storm of vengeance spell, if that's what it had been, was already winding its way down (as Orchid said it likely would have been by this time, as the spell lasted mere minutes after having been initially cast).

As they got close to the edge of town, the spellcasters started applying those spells they were used to have active in battle, as whatever had caused the storm of vengeance to destroy the Dark and Light Club had more than likely been aiming for them. Alistair already had a mage armor spell active and an endure elements spell to keep him comfortable in the chilly air; he cast that second spell onto Orchid and Chaevaris as well. Then he cast a flame arrow spell on the group's assembled ammunition; a cat's grace spell upon Ageratum (at the halfling's request); a Rary's telepathic bond spell upon the group of five heroes; a shield spell upon himself and Ambrose; and a haste spell upon the heroes and their living steeds. Orchid cast a fire seeds spell upon a handful of acorns in her pocket; barkskin spells upon herself, Harlan, and Nova; a longstrider spell upon herself; and a mass bear's endurance upon the five heroes. Harlan enhanced himself with bull's strength, magic circle against evil, and eagle's splendor spells, then cast a bless spell upon the assembled group.

By that time, the group was in the town proper and were rapidly approaching the ruins of the Dark and Light Club, razed to the ground and nothing more than smoldering ruins. Ageratum and Chaevaris slipped into invisibility, the little halfling dropping from her pony and unsheathing her short sword. There were no visible enemies at hand, but the area was strewn with dead bodies, some crushed by falling blocks of stone from the ruined building and others likely electrocuted from blasts of lightning from above. A smoky haze covered the area, but Harlan and Alistair, riding in the front of the group's ragged formation, spotted a figure through the smoke, stepping out from behind an intact building near the rubble and making some sort of hand gestures. Immediately, a pile of some sort of smoldering rubble appeared before him.

<I say!> declared Alistair over the link. <Some sort of spellcaster up ahead - did you see him?> Harlan agreed he had, and Ambrose supplied a piece of data his master had missed: the figure had dropped something very much like a handkerchief on the ground, which sprouted up into the pile of burning rubble they'd seen suddenly appear. Alistair knew what that meant: <A shrink item spell being undone!>

Orchid urged Law forward at top speed, riding up to the burning pile of rubble, but when she got there the spellcaster was gone. She was able to determine the smoldering pile was made of dung and human bones: an altar to Iuz! She wracked her brains trying to recall when the group had come up against those who worshiped Iuz, and came up short. Shushitan raced up behind his mistress and in doing so, smelled someone advancing towards him down an alleyway. Stopping a few buildings short of his mistress, he snarled as the cloaked human advanced before him, and then he went ahead and bit at the stranger. However, the dark-clad man easily avoided the timber wolf's bite, and Shushitan snapped his jaws upon empty air.

Harlan had Nova fly over by Orchid, the pegasus landing in the street beside the druid. The half-elf cast forth his paladin senses and got a distinct emanation of evil coming from the altar to Iuz - no real surprise there. Chaevaris raised the elevation of her carpet of flying until she was higher than the rooftops, and was able to see the altar and the dark-clad man by Shushitan. She slipped an arrow to her composite longbow and readied to aim. Ageratum, on foot and still invisible, approached the man, whose attention seemed to be focused upon Shushitan, with the occasional nervous glance over at Harlan, Nova, Orchid, and Law. Munson, no longer being led by the halfling, wisely changed course and trotted back the way he'd come.

Then the dark-clad figured stepped fully into the street and started growing. As his body expanded, it morphed in shape, taking on distinctly draconic features, until it was a dark-scaled dragon the size of an elephant. The heroes had fought a black dragon before and this one didn't have the same curving horns or skull-like snout, but they could tell from its coloration it was closer to black than anything else. Some sort of hybrid, perhaps? Whatever it was, with the burning fires behind it, Chaevaris, Shushitan, and Ageratum were granted the image of a dark silhouette taking up the majority of the wide street before them.

"WHERE"S MY CUBE?" demanded the shadowy dragon figure in a deep voice. Suddenly, the heroes realized this was the "original owner" of Tellander's gate, and belatedly recalled one of the planes it connected to was the Plane of Shadow. In answer, Ageratum decided to stab at the reptile with her short sword, but she surprised herself by missing completely - that was something that almost never happened against a target so large! Fortunately for her, she'd recently upgraded her bracelet of invisibility to provide the benefits of a greater invisibility spell, so she remained unseen despite her attempted attack. The dragon likely didn't even know she was there.

Alistair rode up on Zephyr, and once within 60 feet of the dragon he cast a chain lightning spell through his metamagic rod of maximize spell. But the dragon twisted about like a cat and the jagged arc of electricity failed to connect with the massive reptile. Most unusual! Alistair fumed.

Orchid spun about on Law and cast a sunbeam spell at the dragon, but once again the dragon ducked its head and the spell did him absolutely no harm. Shushitan ran up and went to bite the dragon, once again uncharacteristically missing with his snapping jaws - it was as if the dragon wasn't exactly where it had appeared to be, and his advanced lupine sense of smell was offering him no aid in determining its true location.

Harlan and Nova charged into battle against the dragon, the pegasus missing with a sharp hoof-kick but the paladin connecting nicely with his flaming Starblade. Finally, at least one of the heroes was able to cause this blasted beast some pain! Even better, while the dragon was focused on the paladin's attack, Ageratum got in a sneak attack with her invisible blade, stabbing up at the dragon's belly. With her expertise with this type of blade, she struck in such a way as to cause the dragon enough pain to lessen the effects of its own attacks, basically draining it of a bit of its impressive strength by not allowing it to take full advantage of it while in such pain.

Chaevaris was having a hard time "locking on" with her aiming, as at the range she was at, the dragon was still nothing more than a dark silhouette, with no hints as to how far away it might be. Scowling in irritation, she rode her carpet of flying practically up into the dragon's face, until she could feel its warm breath on her skin. One way or another, she was determined to do one of her patented "shots to the eye" to blind the thing - only it wasn't cooperating! At that short distance, she was able to determine it had a large, central horn jutting up from its face like a blue dragon, although this one's scales were definitely much darker than the standard blue's.

Ageratum went stab-happy with a short sword in each hand, thrusting up again and again and piercing her way past the thing's scales and into its belly. The dragon moved over a bit, lining up a blast of its breath weapon to hit not only Harlan and Nova but Orchid and Law as well. Ageratum got in another belly-strike as it moved (and Harlan's Starblade cut a gash along the side of its thick neck as well; even Nova got in a successful hoof-kick), and then it let loose with a blast of electricity that struck each target in turn, singeing the heroes and Nova but slaying poor Law outright. Orchid was forced to leap from the saddle as Harlan's white riding horse collapsed, dead, in the street.

Alistair was furious - not only at the death of a defenseless horse that had been part of their team, but at his own failure to realize this was a blue dragon from the Plane of Shadows; had he realized that earlier, he never would have started his attacks with a chain lightning spell, since blue dragons were immune to electrical-based attacks. Scowling at his own foolishness, he fired another spell through his metamagic rod, this one a cone of cold that he angled upwards so as to hit the dragon but not any of his friends. But the massive, bulky dragon once again proved to be as nimble as a jungle cat and evaded the blast of cold coming from the sorcerer's rod. Once again, Alistair had proven to be completely useless in fighting off this draconic foe.

Orchid, still puzzling why her sunbeam spell hadn't worked - she'd been sure a creature who lived on the Plane of Shadows should have taken some damage from a blast of sudden light like that - abandoned that spell and went with something much simpler, and which didn't target the dragon directly in any case. She cast a small wall of fire spell directly beneath the dragon, over to one side with the heat from the flames aimed at the dragon's other side so it could feel its full effect. But Harlan, Nova, Chaevaris, and Ageratum were all far enough away from the spell's area of effect that they were in no danger of being burned.

Harlan channeled Pelor's smiting energy into his blade and struck at the dragon with every ounce of strength he could muster. The blade swung true, carving a deep gash in the beleaguered foe. Ageratum took advantage of the dragon's split attention to its visible problems to strike it again with her invisible blade. Nova gave the stupid dragon another sharp-hooved kick for good measure. Chaevaris finally got an opportunity to aim at its right eye and let fly with her arrow, but its ability to blend into shadows allowed it to evade the arrow entirely. Another set of cuts into its belly from the stab-happy halfling and it was now close to being on its last legs. It snapped at Harlan, scratching at him with its front claws as well and buffeting him with its wings, while its tail slashed out at Chaevaris, now visible upon her hovering carpet. Ironically, it was at its most effective in combat during what would be the last few seconds of its life.

Seeing how beaten down the others had made it, Alistair decided a maximized magic missile spell would likely be all it took to drop it to the darkened street. He channeled the spell through his magic rod, struck the dragon without fail (one of the highlights of that particular spell), only to see it fizzle against the dragon's inherent spell resistant. Just like that, Alistair actually wished he had sat out this particular battle; he could be back at the keep reading E. L. Grimwade's new masterpiece instead of mucking about here uselessly in the cold!

Finally, the snapping flames of Orchid's wall of fire spell took the life of the dragon, and it collapsed in a heap in the street. From her vantage point on the ground, Ageratum could see one of its foreclaws had been carved into a weird pattern - almost like a key. Remembering the special trick to Tellander's gate, she had Orchid dismiss her wall of fire spell so the halfling could get in close with her blades, this time not to slit a throat (as was her usual custom) but to cut off the distinctive toe. Then, having Chaevaris activate the magic door from her necklace onto a nearby building, she went inside the extradimensional dwelling and returned with the cubic gate in hand. "Which one is the Plane of Shadow one again?" she asked. Once Harlan pointed out the correct symbol on one of the cube's six sides, she touched the key-claw to it and a gate opened up in the middle of the street. As expected, it led not to a random place on the Plane of Shadows, but the exact location of the dragon's hoard on that dismal plane of existence. But dismal or not, the prospect of collecting a dragon's treasure hoard was enough of an incentive to have all five heroes stepping through, returning with armloads of treasure - coins and gems valued at a total of nearly 200,000 pieces of gold in all.

Then, with nothing left to do but take poor Law's body into the extradimensional dwelling for transport back to their keep, they waited around to explain the situation to the town's Guildmasters: the dragon had come from another plane to wreak havoc, and the TPA put a stop to it (with no point in mentioning that idiot Blorkane's responsibility for the attack in the first place - he wasn't much of a wizard, but he was a good source of arcane lore and he was somewhat of a friend, after all). They smashed the altars to Iuz, which had been placed around the ruins, and wondered to themselves (over the telepathic link still in effect) whether the Iuz attack on the Dark and Light Club and the attack by the dragon were linked in any way or just coincidentally occurring at the same time. With no way to tell one way or the other, the heroes made their way back to their new home.

By the time they'd gotten back, they'd agreed they were not going to sell the Tellander's gate back to Blorkane; best that they maintained custody of it and keep it out of circulation. But the heroes were mentally deciding what they'd be doing with their share of the dragon's loot. All but Alistair, that is; he just wanted to get back to his new book.

- - -

Dan admitted the next day at work that he couldn't find stats for a shadow dragon online, so applied a shadow creature template he found to a blue dragon of the appropriate CR he wanted. The shadow creature template has a bunch of options as far as special qualities go (much like the ghost template), and he chose evasion, which is why none of the spells worked against it; as long as he made his save (and a dragon of his level was going to make his save on just about all but a "1"), he took absolutely no damage. Tie that it with some sucky die rolls on our part, Dan's misunderstanding on how the sunbeam spell worked, and the shadow template granting the dragon full concealment - the one thing that undid all of Chaevaris's archer abilities - and we ended up with a lopsided fight that only Harlan, Nova, and Ageratum really got to participate in. Not a whole lot of fun for the rest of us players, though. (I was also a bit perturbed that Alistair didn't get a chance to roll a Spot check or make a Wisdom check or something to notice the massive, honking nose horn on the "black" dragon, which would have easily identified him as some sort of blue dragon immune to electricity). But as the boys and I discussed it that night after the game was over, it was far from the worst adventure we'd been through in this campaign.

 

[Richards]

ADVENTURE 61: DRAWN

PC Roster:

Ageratum Purslane, halfling rogue 15
Alistair Mandelberen Pastlethwaite, human sorcerer 15
Chaevaris Noarunal, elf archer 15
Harlan Starblade, half-elf paladin 15​

NPC Roster:

Orchid, elf druid 15​

Game Session Date: 19 September 2024

- - -

Two days after the destruction of the Dark and Light Club and the slaying of the shadow dragon just outside the ruins thus created, the citizens of Ghourmand Vale were getting back to normal. Mackrel Slade and his company were looking into the cleric or clerics of Iuz responsible for the destruction of the popular nightclub but hadn't made a lot of progress. On the plus side, shadow dragon meat had an unusual smokiness that made for an interesting difference in taste; after the Trained Professional Adventurers had "gifted" the carcass to the town, dragon barbecues had sprung up all over the Vale.

But then a delegation from the neighboring kingdoms of Selene and Ulek arrived in town with worrisome news: a war band of orcs and ogres were heading this way, marching from the southeast during the day and making camp each night in whatever small town or hamlet had the misfortune of being in their way. They were currently south of Courwood, and estimates put them likely at the small hamlet of Woodgap by the time they'd be ready to set up camp for the night. Having heard of the battle prowess of the members of the Trained Professional Adventures, the delegation had a proposal: they wished to hire the TPA to "cut off the head" of the enemy forces by slaying their leadership, namely a half-orc barbarian named Mungo Blum, his two ogre mage bodyguards, a half-orc cleric named Tor Horklott, and a personal guard of eight barbarian ogres of particular strength and savagery. They'd likely be camping overnight in Woodgap - or what they left of it, if they followed suit with their plundering thus far and burned it to the ground - a couple hours after darkness fell. That would be the best time to strike.

"We've got the thieves' coil," Ageratum reminded everyone. "It would be easy enough to teleport over there."

"Easy enough if any of us had been to Woodgap before, and knew what it looked like," corrected Alistair. He turned to Orchid, who had spent many years in various forests before joining their adventuring group. "Ever been to Woodgap?" he asked.

"I'm afraid not," the druid apologized. But that didn't end up being too much of a problem, for the delegation had a scout named Guido who had been there before. It was decided that Guido would steer the thieves' coil to the forest just outside Woodgap, allowing the TPA to sneak up to the hamlet and see if they could isolate the horde's leadership.

"There are several things that must be done," pointed out the leader of the delegation. "We not only need Mungo and his team slain, but we need a black ring he wears returned to us." He went on to explain that this was a holy relic, the ring of the Pomarj, which allowed its wearer to summon an army three times a year. Once this army had been taken care of - the combined forces of Ulek and Selene would be facing them in combat after their leadership had been taken out - they didn't want to have the same thing come about if some other nefarious sort got his hands on the ring. "You are welcome to keep any of the other armor, weapons, and whatnot you gather from those slain, but we must have the ring returned to us."

"That won't be a problem," assured Harlan.

Alistair was confused. "I thought orcs hated sunlight," he said. "Why wouldn't they be traveling at night and sleeping during the daylight hours?"

"Likely the personal preferences of this Mungo chap," suggested a delegate from Ulek. "He's a half-orc, so the sunlight wouldn't bother him so much. Probably doesn't care a whit what his men would prefer, and they're all about following power - if this Mungo is strong enough to keep them in line, they'll put up with marching in sunlight if it means getting to kill and pillage." Alistair just shrugged; it was as logical an answer as he was likely to get.

"We'll need to know what Mungo and Tor look like," pointed out Chaevaris. "An army that size, there are likely to be plenty of half-orcs among them."

"True," agreed the delegates. "But they're likely the only two half-orcs sleeping in comfort in the buildings of Woodgap." Nonetheless, he gave the heroes a brief description of the two half-orcs: Mungo wore leather armor, gauntlets, a magic belt, and the ring of the Pomarj, while Tor was usually decked out in full plate mail armor trimmed in fur, and carried a shield and a mace with a ruby-red business end.

After agreeing upon the fee for their actions, the five heroes gathered up their gear and presented Guido with the thieves' coil at the appropriate time and explained its use to him. Alistair cast a Rary's telepathic bond spell linking the five heroes together in a mental communication link. Then they all scooted together with the magic rope around the lot of them (Ambrose was perched upon Alistair's shoulder, and Carruthers was safely inside the extradimensional dwelling house in Chaevaris' magic necklace; Nova wouldn't be summoned until they reached the forest outside Woodgap, but Shushitan stood beside his mistress), and Guido closed his eyes, visualized where he wanted to go, and activated the thieves' coil. There was a brief moment of disorientation - not uncommon with teleportation magic - and then they found themselves at the outskirts of a wooded forest. The smell of ashes and smoke hung heavy in the air.

Drawn by the light of feebly burning fires, the heroes crept forward towards the edge of the forest. Ahead stood the ruins of Woodgap, a dozen or so buildings, not many of them still intact. Chaevaris, squinting into the post-twilight darkness, said over the telepathic link she could make out three ogres on guard duty. Much further away were the campfires of the rest of the army, the orc and ogre forces sleeping on the hard ground wrapped in whatever blankets and bedrolls there were to go around. Apparently, the buildings of the hamlet of Woodgap were reserved solely for the makeshift army's leadership, as they'd been briefed.

Alistair ushered everyone deeper into the forest, so they could cast spells without being overheard. Ambrose flew in wide circle all around them, ensuring there were no enemies nearby, then Alistair cast five darkvision spells on the heroes, allowing them all to see in the darkness perfectly fine. He also cast an endure elements spell upon himself, keeping the cold winter temperatures from bothering him; Orchid cast that same spell upon herself and upon Chaevaris. The druid also cast barkskin spells upon herself, Harlan, and Shushitan, and a mass bear's endurance on all five heroes. Ageratum rubbed the contents of a vial of stone salve over herself, granting her the equivalent of a stoneskin spell. Harlan cast his usual spells - bull's strength, eagle's splendor, and magic circle against evil - then called across the planes for his celestial pegasus. Once Nova had manifested, Orchid cast a barkskin spell upon him, too, as the half-elf paladin climbed up onto his flying mount's broad back.

<Hang on, I have one more spell I want to cast,> replied Alistair over the link. <I can cloak us all in a veil spell, making the five of us look like orcs. We'll have to remember we can't actually speak their language, but if we pretend we don't hear them if they call out to us, we may get away with the ruse.>

<What about Nova?> asked Orchid. <They won't be fooled by an orc riding around on a pegasus.>

<I'll make him look like...an ogre mage,> suggested the sorcerer. <They can fly, can't they?> It was agreed they were all pretty sure ogre mages could fly, so Alistair cast his spell and they all ended up looking like orcs, Harlan appearing to be an orc riding upon the shoulders of an ogre mage. Only Orchid still had her original appearance; she'd begged out of the spell, stating she wanted to wildshape into an animal form and Alistair wasn't entirely sure whether she'd still look like an orc if she were under a veil spell and then turned into, say, a snake. An orc crawling around on his belly wasn't going to fool anyone!

<Okay, Ambrose, go check out the buildings, see if you can find us Mungo. He's probably in the largest building - that would likely the one he'd feel most appropriate for the leader of the army.> The grackle flew off, while Orchid instructed Shushitan to stay in the forest with Guido. The guide was more than happy to be left behind, and promised if the army became aware of the heroes' presence and started combing the woods, he'd scamper up a tree to remain unseen and then later escape to the southeast, the way the army had already come. Otherwise, he'd be there in the forest, awaiting their return.

Chaevaris and Ageratum activated their magic ring and bracelet, respectively, and slipped into invisibility. <Climb aboard,> the archer offered. <I'll drop you off by the first sleeping ogre we see, and you can slit his throat while he's sleeping.> The archer obviously couldn't see it, but she was pretty sure she could actually feel the little halfling's wicked grin at the thought of the upcoming bloodshed, and she certainly felt it when Ageratum climbed up behind her on the carpet of flying, itself invisible while Chaevaris held its edge in her hand. She lifted the carpet up and flew it over to the nearest ogre on guard duty, a bored looking fellow leaning on his spear, with a greatclub in his other hand. Behind him was a hut with a partially-destroyed roof, inside which slept another ogre, blissfully unaware he'd been targeted as the bloodthirsty halfling's first kill for the night.

Orchid wildshaped into an eagle and flew over the head of the ogre sentry; if he heard her flapping wings, he wasn't intrigued enough at the sound to go seeking her out against the night sky. The druid flew across the scattering of buildings, over to the other side of the tiny hamlet. She couldn't help but notice the fire pit just to the south of the largest building (which Ambrose was doing his best to check out), nor the fact that scattered around the flickering flames were limbs of the humans the orcs and ogres had slain in the hamlet before taking it for their own.

Harlan and Nova came flying over next, and the ogre sentry did look up at them, surprised at the sound of much larger wings flapping and even further surprised to see a flying ogre mage with an orc riding upon his shoulders. He called out to them in the Giant tongue, and Harlan ignored him, having no idea what he was saying, but it was probably some sort of query as to what they thought they were doing flying around like that at night. When Harlan didn't respond, the ogre abandoned his post and followed the aerial pair, allowing Chaevaris to drop Ageratum into the now-unguarded hut and slit the throat of the sleeping ogre within.

But Alistair didn't want the suspicious, loudmouth ogre waking everyone up - he needed him quiet, and fast! A fireball spell or cone of cold spell might possibly take out the guard, especially if he channeled it through his metamagic rod of maximize spell, but the spells themselves were somewhat flashy and might alert the enemy as well as the yelling ogre was likely to do. Then he hit upon a solution and cast a flesh to stone spell at the guard. The ogre froze at once, still looking up at Harlan and Nova in their illusory forms, but now he'd continue to do so forever, for his body had calcified into that of a statue. Alistair strained his ears but heard nobody stirring within the hamlet - that had been close!

Ambrose saw what he'd been looking for through an open window - the half-orc leader Mungo asleep in a makeshift bed, being watched over by an ogre mage. He called out he'd found him over the telepathic bond, alerting everyone of the location of their primary target. (The fact the half-orc wore a large, black ring upon a finger identified him sufficiently to the grackle's satisfaction.) Then he flew away from the large building, likely the town hall from the looks of it, and alit in the branches of a tree. If his master had any other tasks for him, he could say so over the mental link; in the meantime, he was staying out of fireball range.

Having dropped off Ageratum to her first assassination of the night, Chaevaris flew her magic carpet north, lining herself up with the ogre guarding the north exit of the town hall. She set an arrow into her magic bow and took careful aim, lining up her shot perfectly. But then Orchid called over the link for Harlan and Nova to scoot back away from the town hall, because she was about to cast a spell they didn't want to be caught up in. Nova obediently flew back east, over by Alistair and away from the building and the third ogre guard on duty to the south, his back turned to the recently-formed statue and unaware of its significance.

Orchid let fly with a spell she'd never tried before: transmute metal to wood, centered on the western half of the town hall, where Mungo slept. Although the druid couldn't see the immediate effects of her spell, inside the town hall Mungo's famed weapon, a massive warhammer, turned to nearly useless wood, as did the rings worn by the three ogres within the spell's effects (the guard outside and two ogres sleeping within the huts he guarded), and Tor's plate mail as well.

Having made her first kill for the night, Ageratum slipped from the small building and crept over to the next one, sad to find it empty. So she headed west, over by the southern ogre guard. Although still under the effects of the greater invisibility spell from her magic bracelet, she kept an empty building between them as she crept up, spider climbing up the building's side and over the top of its roof.

Alistair cast a dimension door spell and ended up inside the town hall. He peeked his head around a corner and saw the ogre mage standing guard over the sleeping Mungo, but he was bent down and examining the half-orc's signature weapon, amazed that it was now somehow made of wood. Mungo was not going to be pleased about that! But then Chaevaris loosed her arrow and caught the ogre guard outside the north side of the building in his right eye. The arrow went through his thick skull with enough force that its front half protruded out the back of the brute's head; he plummeted to the ground with a grunt and a thud. Chaevaris was now completely visible on her floating carpet, for those able to make her out in the starlight.

Alistair heard whispering - it didn't sound like spellcasting to his practiced ear - and then loud cursing; apparently the ogre mage had awakened Mungo and he was not at all pleased to find his favorite weapon now all but useless. But by then Orchid had flow into the building through the missing roof section to the east and cast a wall of thorns spell along the western half of the building. Instantly, both Mungo and the ogre mage were caught up in twisting branches filled with pointed thorns sticking every which way, more or less immobilizing the two of them, although the ogre mage had turned himself invisible. (The ogre mage-sized shape in the otherwise compact wall of thorns gave away his location, however.)

Harlan and Nova flew over to the southern ogre guard - who had yet to notice his iron ring of protection was now wooden and useless - and attacked him with his longsword while Nova gave him a kick in the side for good measure. The ogre roared in pain and spun about, swinging his massive greatclub up at the offending...ogre mage? What in the Hell? Why was he under attack by one of his own allies?

Mungo's cries of rage and anguish had by this time awakened the other four ogres, who gathered up their greatclubs and started looking about for enemies. Ageratum ran across the rooftop of the single-story hut (at least this one's roof was still intact) and launched herself at the southern ogre guard, stabbing her short sword into his side and riding it down to the ground as it carved a deep gash in his thick hide. Blood spilled down his right side and he clamped his left hand over the wound while looking about to see who it was that had attacked him, for there was nobody in the immediate vicinity except the orc on the ogre mage's shoulders, and they were too high up to have stabbed him like that. What the Hell was going on?

Alistair stepped around the corner with his metamagic rod out and pointed at Mungo. He cast a cone of cold through it, sending a massive cone of frost covering the western half of the gutted town hall, coating both the half-orc and his invisible ogre mage bodyguard in a layer of ice crystals. From the way the larger of the two figures slumped forward and stopped moving, his body supported only by the thorny vines, it was apparent the ogre mage had been slain by the attack. Well, good, although it would have been better if Mungo had succumbed as well. But at least it didn't look like he was going anywhere, anytime soon.

Chaevaris piloted her carpet through the open roof of the town hall and aimed another arrow through the thorns at Mungo, carefully lining up her shot and then releasing it. The arrow struck perfectly true, piercing the half-orc's left eye and triggering a thundering effect that sent booming sonics through his system. Just that quickly, Mungo Blum, warband leader of an army of orcs and ogres, was dead.

<Nice shot, Elfy!> congratulated Alistair over the link.

<Thanks!> Chaevaris replied, too proud of her shot to even notice the use of the nickname she'd hated at first (but was starting to appreciate, for the foolish young human still held the fictional character Elfy Danger Silverleaf in high regard and no doubt intended it as a compliment, in any case).

Orchid cast a fire storm spell, sending a swarth of flames covering the rest of the buildings to the west, to include those with ogres in them. The spell slew one ogre outright, and burned the others - as well as Tor, about to exit a burning building in wooden armor that was hampering his movements somewhat. Harlan and Nova swooped down and the paladin brought down one of the ogres with a single slice of his Starblade, no doubt confusing the enemies who saw them as an orc and an ogre mage thanks to the veil spell. Nova backtracked after that, flying over onto a nearby roof that looked sturdy enough to support their weight.

Tor stepped outside the building in which he'd been sleeping and called the three remaining ogres over by him; they stood in a little graveyard, although they hardly seemed to notice. The ogres instinctively dropped into a protective arc, one standing in front of the half-orc cleric and the other two on either side, ensuring their enemies would have to get past an ogre if they wanted to get to Tor. But Ageratum, grinning her wicked grin, plucked a bead from her necklace of fireballs and tossed it in the middle of the formation, laughing aloud as it exploded into a fireball that encompassed all four of them. So much for their protective formation!

Alistair had squeezed through an opening in the southern part of the town hall just in time to see the halfling's stratagem and decided it was a fine one indeed, certainly worth emulating. So he cast a delayed blast fireball (not bothering with a delay - why hold off on the fun?) that blasted all four right over again. The three ogres died in the blast, while Tor held on by the barest of margins. Then Chaevaris rode her carpet of flying up high enough to get a bead on Tor and shot him straight through the eye, killing him instantly.

And then the last member of the protective guard - one the heroes had temporarily forgotten about - made his sudden appearance. Dropping his invisibility as he attacked, the second ogre mage sent a cone of cold spell blasting directly into Harlan and Nova; Alistair and Ambrose were close enough to become engulfed as well. But it was the last attack he'd ever make, for Orchid flew off to the side and caught him up in a sunbeam spell that permanently blinded him, and then Harlan tore him apart with blow after blow with his mighty longsword, cutting him up until he fell off the roof in a bloody heap on the cold, frozen ground.

The army leadership slain as requested, the heroes had some quick cleanup work to do. Orchid dismissed her wall of thorns spell so they could get to Mungo's body and claim his ring; Chaevaris activated the door to their extradimensional dwelling on a wall of the town hall so they could toss in anything that looked like it was valuable. (Alistair cast a detect magic spell so they didn't miss out on anything that had a magical aura.) This included Tor's ruby-headed mace, a heavy steel shield, a periapt of wisdom, Mungo's leather armor (which held a fortification effect much like the metal armor Harlan wore), an amulet of natural armor, a cloak of charisma, gloves of dexterity, and a belt of giant strength.

"Add in the 30,000 pieces of gold we're getting paid for this mission, and we made out like bandits!" enthused Ageratum.

"Not so loud!" shushed Orchid, looking nervously to the northwest, where the glowing campfires of the orc and ogre army could be seen in the distance.

"Ah, they're too far away to do anything about it!" scoffed the halfling, nodding to Chaevaris that everything worth taking had been tossed through their extradimensional door. The archer caused the door to vanish back into her amulet, then led the way back to the forest to pick up Guido and Shushitan.

- - -

Dan might have gone a little heavy on the treasure in this adventure, because we split up the items our PCs could use (Ageratum got the +4 gloves of dexterity and the +4 ring of protection; Harlan got the +2 periapt of wisdom, the +4 belt of giant strength, and the +5 amulet of natural armor - they're both going to be a lot more powerful as a result, in the last five levels of this campaign!) and sold the rest. But Alistair's first purchase with his share of the loot was a white robe of the archmagi, which he's had his eye on for some time now.