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Story Hour
Ghourmand Vale (3.5 campaign)
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<blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 9027334" data-attributes="member: 508"><p><strong>ADVENTURE 23: ABOLETH OR NOT</strong></p><p></p><p>PC Roster:</p><p style="margin-left: 20px">Ageratum Purslane, halfling rogue 7</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Alistair Mandelberen Pastlethwaite, human sorcerer 7</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Chaevaris Noarunal, elf archer 7</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Harlan Starblade, half-elf paladin 7</p><p></p><p>Game Session Date: 10 May 2023</p><p></p><p> - - -</p><p></p><p>After returning Blorkane Trotter's stolen loot to the wizard - loot that had been taken by the local thieves guild, and which the Trained Professional Adventurers had stolen right back from them from their own Guild Headquarters - Harlan pressed him for details about his missing sister. After all, rescuing missing sisters was right up there on his list of heroic paladin exploits, the very type of thing to which a worthy paladin of Pelor should be applying himself and his talents.</p><p></p><p>"She's been missing for some time now," Blorkane informed the group. "Taken by an aboleth. But I've got a book of maps here" - and here he took one of the tomes which the heroes had recovered for him and flipped through its pages until he found the one he wanted - "showing a series of underground rivers and streams connecting to larger subterranean bodies of water." He laid a greasy finger upon a particular spot. "This, I believe, is the summer lair of the aboleth who has kidnapped my sister, Porceline." Harlan looked at the location with interest. Chaevaris and Alistair glanced over at it in curiosity, expecting this was where they'd next be headed. Ageratum furrowed her brow and wonder to herself what kind of parents would name their daughter "Porceline Trotter."</p><p></p><p>"If you're willing to go rescue her, I'll donate these items for your use," Blorkane said, placing a number of recovered items onto the table into a small pile. There was a <em>potion of water breathing</em>, a <em>wand of dispel magic</em> that he said had 13 more uses available, an arcane scroll containing the spell <em>protection from evil</em>, a tome of aboleth lore entitled <em>Lords of the Dark Water</em>, and the aforementioned subterranean waterway map book.</p><p></p><p>"If I'm reading this correctly," Harlan observed, "this summer lair is about half a day's travel from here by horseback."</p><p></p><p>"We'll want to bring someone along to watch over our horses," pointed out Chaevaris. "Especially if we're going to be traveling underwater once we get to the lair."</p><p></p><p>"Well, one of us will be able to breathe underwater," Ageratum added. "There's only one potion - we'll need to pick up three more if we're all going to be underwater for any length of time."</p><p></p><p>"We could ask Holyrood Carp to accompany us," Alistair suggested, answering the first of their concerns. "I'm sure he wouldn't mind staying with our mounts."</p><p></p><p>"And we can pick up three more potions in the morning, before we head out," said Chaevaris.</p><p></p><p>"In the morning?" spluttered Blorkane. "But my sister--"</p><p></p><p>"Your sister has been missing for some time now," Harlan interrupted the heavyset mage. "It's the middle of the night, we don't have all of the potions we'll need, we'll need to talk to Carp before we head out to see if he'll accompany us, and - most importantly - we will make a poor showing of any attempted rescue if we don't get some sleep beforehand. Besides," he reasoned, "if the aboleth hasn't already turned her into one of its skum servitors by now, it's unlikely he'll do so in the time it will take us to get to his lair. And if he already has, then there's no further harm in waiting until morning to head out. We'll leave as soon as possible in the morning; you have my word on that."</p><p></p><p>Blorkane sighed and nodded his understanding. "Very well," he agreed. "It's just that my sister and I are very close. I'm sure you understand." Harlan acknowledged that he understood completely and the band of four heroes took their leave of the worrying wizard.</p><p></p><p>The next morning, after a sufficient amount of sleep (for those who slept; Chaevaris underwent her nightly elven reverie instead), the heroes were a bustle of activity. Ageratum figured out the cost of three <em>potions of water breathing</em>, divided the figure by four, and got that much money from each of the heroes, then went to go see to their purchase. Alistair went to hit up Holyrood Carp, who agreed wholeheartedly to accompany the Trained Professional Adventurers on their latest mission - in fact, he was ecstatic about the possibility of being able to craft a song about their exploits from a first-hand vantage. Harlan continued poring over the maps while Chaevaris examined the tome of aboleth lore. But once everything was in readiness, five figures rode their mounts southeast out of Ghourmand Vale, heading to the location where Blorkane's maps said the aboleth kept his summer lair.</p><p></p><p>The lair was easy enough to find, once their half-day trek was at its end - the entrance was an open cave, right where they had expected to find it, at the start of hill country at the edge of a wooded forest. They found a forest glade not too far away, where the horses could drink their fill at a brook and Carp had a fallen log to serve as a seat while he watched over the mounts. "Best of luck to you, gentlemen, ladies!" the bard exclaimed. "I shall look forward to hearing the tale of your latest exploits!"</p><p></p><p>Harlan led the group back towards the cave, where they decided to load themselves up with their pre-combat spells before even entering. Harlan cast a <em>protection from evil</em> spell upon himself and another upon Alistair. (The young sorcerer's chest filled with pride at the thought it was because the paladin deemed him the most valuable member of the team; in reality, the half-elf had recognized that of the four of them, Alistair was the one with the weakest mental strength and thus the most likely to be enslaved by an aboleth's mighty willpower.) Alistair cast both a <em>mage armor</em> and a <em>shield</em> spell upon himself, then cast a <em>flame arrow</em> spell upon the group's assembled ammunition. He also summoned his <em>unseen servant</em> Ogilvy, passing on a small sack of shrunken boulders to his loyal manservant and two others to Ageratum. The halfling pulled out the stone with the permanent <em>light</em> spell cast upon it from her box of thievery, and Chaevaris placed it inside her bullseye lantern, then handed it to Ogilvy - once again, the <em>unseen servant</em> would be providing the light by which they would see. Upon Harlan's suggestion, they opted not to drink down their <em>potions of water breathing</em> until right before they encountered the underground stream they'd be entering; the potions would only last for so long and it would be foolish to use up any time before it was actually needed. Then, signaling the others to follow, the half-elf paladin entered the blackness of the cave.</p><p></p><p>They didn't get too far into the initial tunnel before they could make out the sounds of voices and the unmistakable clamor of weapons striking armor and shields. The voices sounded dwarven, although none of the heroes spoke that tongue - still, it was a distinctive enough language that they were certain that was what was being spoken even without understanding any of the individual words. The tunnel opened up into a wider cavern, and as the light from Chaevaris's lantern spilled into the chamber, the group could see before them five gray-skinned dwarves - duergar - sparring among themselves and drinking heavily at the same time. It was easy to see this was no life-and-death struggle but a playful practice session, with duergar hammers striking duergar chainmail, but usually with not enough force for either combatant to spill their tankard of ale.</p><p></p><p>Still, Harlan's paladin senses informed him the auras of the five playful figures before him all reeked of evil, and he was well aware of the duergar reputation as slavers; aboleths were noted slavers as well, so it was entirely possible these duergar were in league with the aboleth said to lair here. Without any hesitation, Harlan charged into the chamber before the duergar had even, in their drunken state, noted the presence of the top-siders' sudden illumination in their makeshift arena. The paladin's blade, breaking into flames as he swung it into the closest duergar's side, cut down his foe and had him bleeding out on the cavern floor with one strike - although the presence of the <em>Blood Mirror</em> meant the gray dwarf's wounds would quickly heal over and he would be stabilized before bleeding out completely.</p><p></p><p>Ageratum rushed into the chamber next, stabbing a startled duergar in the lower back before he even had a chance to register her presence. Then he too was on the stone cavern floor, unconscious but stabilized due to the presence of the <em>Blood Mirror</em>. Still, the crafty smile on the little halfling's lips told she knew the <em>Blood Mirror</em> was only granting them a few seconds of extra life - she'd be sure their throats were slit once all of them had been dealt with.</p><p></p><p>Alistair stepped forward and cast a <em>magic missile</em> spell at a duergar farther back, sending all four missiles into the drunken gray dwarf's face. The surprise attack caused him to spray out his mouthful of ale - for which the sorcerer was particularly glad he had stayed far enough out of weapons range that he was also out of ale-spew range - before falling to the ground as well, all but dead. Ogilvy stepped up beside his master, shining his lantern light into the cavern and catching the two remaining gray dwarves in its beam.</p><p></p><p>That was enough for Chaevaris to step up beside Alistair and send an arrow straight through the throat of one of the duergar. He fell over, dead in a heartbeat, the damage too much for even the <em>Blood Mirror</em> to stabilize.</p><p></p><p>Just that quickly, the duergar's amiable combat-and-ale session had ended in a bloody scrum, and the realization shook all of the drunken haze out of the last gray dwarf's body. Faced with four potential enemies (for he could see the lantern was just floating there in midair by itself, not being held by a fifth foe), he made an instant decision and made a bee-line for the stream of water flowing along the far side of the combat arena cavern. He waded into the water, trying to escape...only to find he'd been trailed by Harlan Starblade, who slipped his <em>flaming burst longsword</em> between his ribs until the tip of the blade stuck out from his stomach. Choking blood, the duergar's life flashed before his eyes as he collapsed into blessed unconsciousness. He didn't feel it as Harlan dragged him out of the water, not wanting a floating corpse to warn anyone downstream that there was danger about. He also was spared the sight of Ageratum Purslane doggedly moving from duergar to duergar, slitting throats as needed to ensure the <em>Blood Mirror</em> wouldn't save the lives of those not worth saving. And, perhaps most mercifully of all, he was unaware when the halfling's blade sliced his own throat into two, allowing his life's blood to spill down his neck as he died a final death.</p><p></p><p>Chaevaris removed what jewelry looked to be valuable from the duergar corpses: a few nice rings, mostly, none of which Alistair's <em>detect magic</em> spell registered as magic. They also each had a few small jars of an odd ointment on their person, which the sorcerer deemed intriguing enough to examine; the substance smelled rather strongly of fish, although the paste had a violet color quite out of place for anything derived from a fish, as far as Alistair was aware. Ageratum noted the same smell coming from the mouths of the duergar whose throats she'd been cutting, so apparently whatever the paste was, it was meant to be taken orally. Still, none of the heroes wanted to experiment with an unknown substance in the middle of a rescue mission, so the vials all went inside Ageratum's <em>bag of holding</em> for later perusal.</p><p></p><p>With Ogilvy shining the bullseye lantern about the cavern, the group saw some movement over in the corner and discovered it to be a few growths of violet fungus. Harlan kept them at bay by dragging a duergar corpse over by them and blocking the way to the rest of the cavern with his body. The paladin reasoned the slow-moving fungus wouldn't be able to climb over the gray dwarf's body, and they'd likely be more interested in absorbing what nutrients they could from it while it decayed in any case. Regardless, they could expect the violet fungus would not be bothering them as they explored down the stream.</p><p></p><p>"I suppose it's time for our potions," suggested Alistair, opening his <em>potion of water breathing</em> and drinking it down. The others followed suit, and then Harlen led them wading into the stream. He could see it flowed into a cavern wall ahead, no doubt filling a narrow tunnel. As they approached, the slope of the floor increased and the flow of the water increased as well. Not wanting to be helpless passengers down a fast-flowing stream with no means of steering - especially since Chaevaris's keen elven ears picked up what she thought was the roar of a waterfall ahead - the group stood their ground for a moment and thought up alternatives. Ageratum finally came up with a solution to their dilemma, by activating her <em>cloak of arachnida</em> and climbing up to the ceiling of the tunnel, with one end of a a 50-foot length of rope tied around her narrow waist. The water pulled the rope out ahead of the inverted halfling, allowing purchase for the other three heroes as they traversed the stream ahead of her. With any luck, despite the water's tug it wouldn't dislodge the halfling from the ceiling and her three companions could prevent themselves from falling over any waterfalls by hanging onto the rope. As Ageratum advanced along the ceiling - and breathing was no longer a problem if the passageway became totally submerged - the other three could ensure they advanced no faster than she did.</p><p></p><p>Sixty feet further down the subterranean stream, they encountered the waterfall, which spilled into a larger cavern, easily three or four times as big as the duergar combat cavern had been. The beam of light from Ogilvy's held lantern showed the group there were three rock "islands" poking up from the body of water before them (for the entire cavern was flooded, with a pocket of air along the top 40 feet or so to the cavern's ceiling) and two other waterfalls spilling water into the cavern's pool of water. There were apparently some other passageways or a stream or streams exiting the pool from below the waterline, for the surface level of the pool was not rising in any noticeable way. And fortunately, the opening where the waterfall rushed into the pool below - a drop of some 15 feet to the waterline - was tall enough for Ageratum to breathe air while she stood on the tunnel ceiling; the potion allowed her to breathe the water just fine, but she found breathing water to just be <em>weird</em>.</p><p></p><p>Harlan had been in the lead along the rope, and thus he was the first to climb down the rope into the pool, which he found was less than five feet deep at the bottom of the cascading water. He detected for evil as he approached the pool, and sure enough, there were several distinct emanations approaching his way: as they surfaced, he could see it was six skum coming from all directions and a chuul off to his left. The paladin waded east and attacked the closest skum - a slime-covered humanoid whose once-human features were now closer to that of a fish - with his flaming longsword, glad to see that the magical flames springing from his blade were not hampered by all the water flowing around and spraying over him. The skum fell over with one strike from the paladin's blade, falling unconscious and becoming stable from the nearness of the <em>Blood Mirror</em>.</p><p></p><p>Ageratum, still perched upon the tunnel ceiling, pulled out one of Alistair's shrunken boulders and tossed it at another approaching skum, but her throw was way off - it was difficult throwing while upside-down! The pebble hit the surface of the water, enlarged to its full size, and sank to the bottom of the pool.</p><p></p><p>Alistair, second behind Harlan on the rope, cast a <em>magic missile</em> spell that took out the skum Ageratum had missed with her magic pebble. Ogilvy moved up beside his master, keeping the lantern's beam above water. Chaevaris was right behind Alistair, but she decided not to join him and Harlan in the pool below - up here at the top of the waterfall was just fine. Pulling out her <em>immovable rod</em> and activating it at belt height, she used it to lean against so she'd have a steady perch for shooting her bow despite the water cascading behind her legs, trying to push her into the cavern. She shot an arrow at the chuul, deeming it to be the greatest threat, but her arrow glanced off its hardened carapace.</p><p></p><p>Another skum swam up to Harlan, biting and clawing with the sharp nails on each of its four appendages. The half-elf managed to fend off most of the attacks, but one set of claws managed to get past his defenses. Two more swam up to attack Alistair, but none of their attacks managed to pierce the sorcerer's magical protection. Another skum swam up to join the melee but was similarly unsuccessful. Despite not wearing a scrap of armor, between Alistair's <em>mage armor</em> and <em>shield</em> spells, it was as if the sorcerer wore armor as heavy (and effective) as Harlan's.</p><p></p><p>The chuul moved up, snapping its lobsterlike pincers around Harlan's waist and pulling him in towards its chitinous body. Eight waving tentacles dangled from its mouthparts, ready to try to paralyze its half-elven prey. Chaevaris recalled reading in <em>Lords of the Dark Water</em> that chuuls often worked with aboleths, but just as she was aiming an arrow at the lobster-thing a flash of movement caught her eye and she spotted an aboleth rising up to the surface from between the two rightmost rock islands. Then movement back over by the chuul turned her attention that way, only to see Harlan had channeled holy energy through his blade and smote the chuul, cracking its carapace where the blade struck. Ageratum ran along the side wall and dropped behind the chuul, slamming her blades into its back on the way down and sinking them all the way to the hilt. Alistair also sent a <em>magic missile</em> spell at the chuul, wishing to free Harlan before he could be paralyzed and taken out of this fight - a fight the Trained Professional Adventurers all realized could use the power of his flaming blade. However, by casting the spell the sorcerer left himself open to attack and one of the skum made full use of his inattentiveness, ripping a series of parallel scars across his chest with a pair of foreclaws. Ogilvy tried dropping a shrunken boulder upon the offending skum, but it missed.</p><p></p><p>Fortunately, Chaevaris activated her <em>boots of speed</em> and fired off a series of arrows down at the chuul, peppering it until it sank beneath the water, unconscious and stabilized. She even had time to fire off another arrow at a skum, killing it outright with a well-placed blow to the head.</p><p></p><p>Three more skum ganged up on Alistair, who recalled why he did not like front-line fighting: there were too many foes to deal with! He dodged the attacks of two of the fish-people, only to have the third bite down on his shoulder with a set of teeth that would not have been out of place in the mouth of a piranha. Another skum went for Harlan but was much less successful, the paladin easily pushing it away with his shield.</p><p></p><p>The aboleth, in the meantime, had made a lazy U-turn in the water and, in a burst of speed, catapulted itself up onto the leftmost rock island. Then it did something completed unexpected: it pulled back its head and its body vanished, revealing a woman fitting the description of Porceline Trotter, wearing what was apparently an aboleth version of a <em>cloak of the manta</em>. She busied herself casting some sort of spell, although which particular one none of the heroes was able to determine. However, a second aboleth swam up onto the middle rock island, this one much bigger than Porceline's illusory version.</p><p></p><p>Harlan swung his flaming blade at the skum attacking him, while Ageratum, not at all trusting that Porceline wasn't in league with the aboleth (why else would she be swimming freely and using a magic cloak that gave her the appearance of an aboleth herself?), used her own magic cloak to cast a <em>web</em> spell at Blorkane's sister. The strands were anchored along the front and back walls of the cavern, and the halfling's targeting had been spot on, catching her in the middle of the webs. Try as she might, Porceline couldn't move from the spot at which she stood, nor could she move her hands for any further spellcasting. Ageratum smiled quietly to herself and congratulated herself for a job well done - they could afford to ignore the female wizard for now and concentrate on the aboleth and its remaining skum allies.</p><p></p><p>Alistair cast a <em>scorching ray</em> at the aboleth, and then noticed it was a bit slow to react to the flames burning its body. He focused his attention on the tentacled fish and realized it wasn't really there at all - the thing was an illusion! He called out his findings to his friends, knowing full well that knowing it was a fake would aid them in seeing it as a fake themselves. Ogilvy raised another pebble over the head of a skum and let go, but the fast-moving fish-man had darted out of the way by the time the stone hit the water's surface and the boulder resumed its full size.</p><p></p><p>Chaevaris's next arrow caught a skum in the chest and staggered him; the one after that knocked another skum into unconsciousness; and her third shot missed entirely. The staggered skum sank beneath the water's surface, pulling at the arrow in its chest. Another resumed its attacks upon Harlan, but couldn't get past the paladin's shield to put its teeth and claws to use. And up on the leftmost island, Porceline continued to struggle ineffectively against her sticky bonds.</p><p></p><p>History seemed to repeat itself when another aboleth leaped up onto the middle rock and resumed the position the first, illusory, one had taken. Alistair assumed this was the real one that had cast some sort of illusory double to draw off a few spells before joining combat itself. It focused its impressive intellect upon Harlan, trying to <em>dominate</em> the paladin into doing its bidding. It was surprised when the half-elf made no effort to resist, yet seemed unaffected - and then the tentacled fish-thing realized he must be shielded from such effects by a <em>protection from evil</em> spell (as indeed he was). But Harlan must have at least been aware of the attempt, for his retaliation was sudden and decisive: rushing past the skum he'd been fighting (and easily bypassing its clumsy attacks as he raced by), he dodged a tentacle strike by the aboleth as he leaped up onto the rock and swung his flaming blade at the fish-thing trying to compel him to obey its mental commands. The aboleth turned its glistening body at the last possible moment and Harlan's blade missed its mark.</p><p></p><p>Ageratum ran across the webs she'd brought into being - her magic cloak allowing her to avoid getting stuck or tangled in them herself - and used the higher perch to stab down at one of the remaining skum. Unfortunately for the little halfling, it managed to duck down below the water's surface before her blade could strike true.</p><p></p><p>Alistair moved a bit to the side to get out of clawing range of the nearest skum and fired off another <em>scorching ray</em> spell, this one striking true and giving off a sizzling, fishy smell the sorcerer was fairly sure no illusion spell could duplicate so accurately. Nearby, Ogilvy missed with another pebble-boulder being dropped onto a skum - but he was littering the pool floor nicely with boulders. The skum made a rush for Alistair, but the sorcerer handily dodged out of the way in time.</p><p></p><p>Chaevaris pumped three more arrows at the aboleth in rapid-fire sequence, hitting her target with two of them. In retaliation, the aboleth reached out at the elf with its impressive mind and the archer felt her own will giving way to that of her new master. <Kill the armed paladin!> it demanded directly into Chaevaris's mind, and the archer notched a new arrow into her bow and moved to obey. But by then Harlan had stabbed the aboleth in between two of its three eyes with his <em>flaming burst longsword</em>, knocking it instantly unconscious. Just like that, Chaevaris felt the alien compulsion fade away before she had had time to act on it. And then Ageratum had leapt from the web to the middle rock and was stabbing the thing in its narrow eyes, making sure it was dead and no longer a threat.</p><p></p><p>Alistair cast a <em>magic missile</em> spell at a fleeing skum, and by now it was just a clean-up action; the skum knew their master had been slain and that they were outmatched without him. Chaevaris looked over at Porceline, still trying to escape from the webs and giving a cry of horror when she saw the aboleth had been slain. Fitting another arrow into place, Chaevaris took careful aim and sent the shaft flying straight at the female wizard. "Elfy!" Alistair cried out in horror. "We're supposed to be rescuing her, not killing her! What are we going to tell Blorkane?"</p><p></p><p>"Relax," the archer chided the upset sorcerer. "I used a <em>sleep</em> arrow. She's out cold, not dead."</p><p></p><p>"But that could be easily fixed," offered Ageratum, holding a wicked-looking blade in each hand. Alistair knew full well one of them had an enchantment making it particularly dangerous to human foes.</p><p></p><p>"Miss Purslane!" Alistair cried out. "Not you too!" But Ageratum merely deactivated her <em>web</em> spell and let Porceline fall to the rock island where she stood. A quick <em>detect magic</em> spell allowed Alistair to determine what items the wizard had were of a magical nature (the <em>cloak of the masters</em> she wore, a <em>ring of protection</em>, and an amulet from around her neck); Ageratum removed each item as Alistair identified them as magic, and then Harlan bound her tightly with the length of rope Ageratum had worn around her waist. Then, with their potions still active, the heroes dove down to explore the underwater cave from which the aboleth had exited, but they were surprised to see while it opened up into a cave - the back half of which was on dry land - there was no treasure there to be found.</p><p></p><p>"That's not right," Chaevaris said with a frown. "Aboleths are notorious for collecting large amounts of treasure, at least according to that book of Blorkane's!" Then, on a hunch, she turned to Ageratum and said, "Let me see that necklace." Flipping it around, she saw the word "brother" had been engraved on the back. Slipping the chain around her neck, Chaevaris called out "Brother!" - to have a door suddenly appear along the back wall of the cave.</p><p></p><p>The four heroes explored the interior of the dwelling on the other side of the door. It was, Alistair realized, very similar to a <em>Mordenkainen's magnificent mansion</em> spell, although he'd only heard tales of such things. There were four separate bedrooms, each with its own bathing chamber (and the two in the front also had separate dressing rooms; the women immediately decided those were their rooms, and Harlan and Alistair could have the two rooms in the back). There was also a small library, a lounge area, a full dining hall, a kitchen, and a larder and separate storage room for herbs. The aboleth's treasure was stored in chests in the lounge area, consisting of 8,200 pieces of gold and several arcane sticks of <em>incense of meditation</em>. One of the books in the library area caught Harlan's attention: it was a <em>libram of gainful exercise</em>. But Alistair was more interested in the empty bookshelves. "Look, Elfy!" he called to Chaevaris. "There's enough room for the entire Elfy Danger Silverleaf collection!"</p><p></p><p>Harlan revived Porceline, who was surprised to find herself bound tightly. She cursed the heroes for having slain the aboleth, <strong>Karagath</strong>, which she claimed had been an excellent arcane tutor. When Alistair made the mistake of asking why she didn't simply have her own brother, a renowned wizard himself, tutor her in the wizardly arts, she cursed even louder. "That fat pig!" she spat. "He has a bloated opinion of his own spellcraft mastery, and an outdated view on a woman's place in the home! He expected me to do all of the housework, cooking and cleaning for him while he spent his time on his own wizardly studies! I hate him!"</p><p></p><p>"What are we going to do with her?" Alistair asked. "We can't very well just turn her over to Blorkane."</p><p></p><p>"We could kill her," Ageratum suggested. Then, seeing the astonished looks she was getting from her comment, she added, "What? She was willingly in league with an aboleth, who not only kidnaps people, but turns them into fish-men, and <em>dominates</em> others into doing its business!"</p><p></p><p>"He did try to have me kill you, Harlan," Chaevaris admitted.</p><p></p><p>"We'll bring her to the Stone Keep," Harlan decided. "The clerics there can determine her guilt, and deal out any punishments deemed appropriate." That seemed fair, although Ageratum seemed a bit dejected that nobody seemed to like her "Let's just kill her and be done with it" plan.</p><p></p><p>"Fine," the halfling sighed, putting away her short swords. "Let's get back to Carp, then, so we can dump her on the clerics."</p><p></p><p> - - -</p><p></p><p>So the Trained Professional Adventurers now have a mobile headquarters they can take with them when they travel - that will no doubt come in handy! And we all made it to 8th level at the end of this adventure.</p><p></p><p>As for the jars of ointment, that was something Dan had created for this adventure. Crafted from violet fungus extract (I'm not sure why), they allowed anyone who ate a dose to hold their breath for twice as long as normal. I suppose that was for in case we had forgotten to purchase additional <em>potions of water breathing</em>.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Richards, post: 9027334, member: 508"] [B]ADVENTURE 23: ABOLETH OR NOT[/B] PC Roster: [INDENT]Ageratum Purslane, halfling rogue 7[/INDENT] [INDENT] Alistair Mandelberen Pastlethwaite, human sorcerer 7[/INDENT] [INDENT] Chaevaris Noarunal, elf archer 7[/INDENT] [INDENT] Harlan Starblade, half-elf paladin 7[/INDENT] Game Session Date: 10 May 2023 - - - After returning Blorkane Trotter's stolen loot to the wizard - loot that had been taken by the local thieves guild, and which the Trained Professional Adventurers had stolen right back from them from their own Guild Headquarters - Harlan pressed him for details about his missing sister. After all, rescuing missing sisters was right up there on his list of heroic paladin exploits, the very type of thing to which a worthy paladin of Pelor should be applying himself and his talents. "She's been missing for some time now," Blorkane informed the group. "Taken by an aboleth. But I've got a book of maps here" - and here he took one of the tomes which the heroes had recovered for him and flipped through its pages until he found the one he wanted - "showing a series of underground rivers and streams connecting to larger subterranean bodies of water." He laid a greasy finger upon a particular spot. "This, I believe, is the summer lair of the aboleth who has kidnapped my sister, Porceline." Harlan looked at the location with interest. Chaevaris and Alistair glanced over at it in curiosity, expecting this was where they'd next be headed. Ageratum furrowed her brow and wonder to herself what kind of parents would name their daughter "Porceline Trotter." "If you're willing to go rescue her, I'll donate these items for your use," Blorkane said, placing a number of recovered items onto the table into a small pile. There was a [I]potion of water breathing[/I], a [I]wand of dispel magic[/I] that he said had 13 more uses available, an arcane scroll containing the spell [I]protection from evil[/I], a tome of aboleth lore entitled [I]Lords of the Dark Water[/I], and the aforementioned subterranean waterway map book. "If I'm reading this correctly," Harlan observed, "this summer lair is about half a day's travel from here by horseback." "We'll want to bring someone along to watch over our horses," pointed out Chaevaris. "Especially if we're going to be traveling underwater once we get to the lair." "Well, one of us will be able to breathe underwater," Ageratum added. "There's only one potion - we'll need to pick up three more if we're all going to be underwater for any length of time." "We could ask Holyrood Carp to accompany us," Alistair suggested, answering the first of their concerns. "I'm sure he wouldn't mind staying with our mounts." "And we can pick up three more potions in the morning, before we head out," said Chaevaris. "In the morning?" spluttered Blorkane. "But my sister--" "Your sister has been missing for some time now," Harlan interrupted the heavyset mage. "It's the middle of the night, we don't have all of the potions we'll need, we'll need to talk to Carp before we head out to see if he'll accompany us, and - most importantly - we will make a poor showing of any attempted rescue if we don't get some sleep beforehand. Besides," he reasoned, "if the aboleth hasn't already turned her into one of its skum servitors by now, it's unlikely he'll do so in the time it will take us to get to his lair. And if he already has, then there's no further harm in waiting until morning to head out. We'll leave as soon as possible in the morning; you have my word on that." Blorkane sighed and nodded his understanding. "Very well," he agreed. "It's just that my sister and I are very close. I'm sure you understand." Harlan acknowledged that he understood completely and the band of four heroes took their leave of the worrying wizard. The next morning, after a sufficient amount of sleep (for those who slept; Chaevaris underwent her nightly elven reverie instead), the heroes were a bustle of activity. Ageratum figured out the cost of three [I]potions of water breathing[/I], divided the figure by four, and got that much money from each of the heroes, then went to go see to their purchase. Alistair went to hit up Holyrood Carp, who agreed wholeheartedly to accompany the Trained Professional Adventurers on their latest mission - in fact, he was ecstatic about the possibility of being able to craft a song about their exploits from a first-hand vantage. Harlan continued poring over the maps while Chaevaris examined the tome of aboleth lore. But once everything was in readiness, five figures rode their mounts southeast out of Ghourmand Vale, heading to the location where Blorkane's maps said the aboleth kept his summer lair. The lair was easy enough to find, once their half-day trek was at its end - the entrance was an open cave, right where they had expected to find it, at the start of hill country at the edge of a wooded forest. They found a forest glade not too far away, where the horses could drink their fill at a brook and Carp had a fallen log to serve as a seat while he watched over the mounts. "Best of luck to you, gentlemen, ladies!" the bard exclaimed. "I shall look forward to hearing the tale of your latest exploits!" Harlan led the group back towards the cave, where they decided to load themselves up with their pre-combat spells before even entering. Harlan cast a [I]protection from evil[/I] spell upon himself and another upon Alistair. (The young sorcerer's chest filled with pride at the thought it was because the paladin deemed him the most valuable member of the team; in reality, the half-elf had recognized that of the four of them, Alistair was the one with the weakest mental strength and thus the most likely to be enslaved by an aboleth's mighty willpower.) Alistair cast both a [I]mage armor[/I] and a [I]shield[/I] spell upon himself, then cast a [I]flame arrow[/I] spell upon the group's assembled ammunition. He also summoned his [I]unseen servant[/I] Ogilvy, passing on a small sack of shrunken boulders to his loyal manservant and two others to Ageratum. The halfling pulled out the stone with the permanent [I]light[/I] spell cast upon it from her box of thievery, and Chaevaris placed it inside her bullseye lantern, then handed it to Ogilvy - once again, the [I]unseen servant[/I] would be providing the light by which they would see. Upon Harlan's suggestion, they opted not to drink down their [I]potions of water breathing[/I] until right before they encountered the underground stream they'd be entering; the potions would only last for so long and it would be foolish to use up any time before it was actually needed. Then, signaling the others to follow, the half-elf paladin entered the blackness of the cave. They didn't get too far into the initial tunnel before they could make out the sounds of voices and the unmistakable clamor of weapons striking armor and shields. The voices sounded dwarven, although none of the heroes spoke that tongue - still, it was a distinctive enough language that they were certain that was what was being spoken even without understanding any of the individual words. The tunnel opened up into a wider cavern, and as the light from Chaevaris's lantern spilled into the chamber, the group could see before them five gray-skinned dwarves - duergar - sparring among themselves and drinking heavily at the same time. It was easy to see this was no life-and-death struggle but a playful practice session, with duergar hammers striking duergar chainmail, but usually with not enough force for either combatant to spill their tankard of ale. Still, Harlan's paladin senses informed him the auras of the five playful figures before him all reeked of evil, and he was well aware of the duergar reputation as slavers; aboleths were noted slavers as well, so it was entirely possible these duergar were in league with the aboleth said to lair here. Without any hesitation, Harlan charged into the chamber before the duergar had even, in their drunken state, noted the presence of the top-siders' sudden illumination in their makeshift arena. The paladin's blade, breaking into flames as he swung it into the closest duergar's side, cut down his foe and had him bleeding out on the cavern floor with one strike - although the presence of the [I]Blood Mirror[/I] meant the gray dwarf's wounds would quickly heal over and he would be stabilized before bleeding out completely. Ageratum rushed into the chamber next, stabbing a startled duergar in the lower back before he even had a chance to register her presence. Then he too was on the stone cavern floor, unconscious but stabilized due to the presence of the [I]Blood Mirror[/I]. Still, the crafty smile on the little halfling's lips told she knew the [I]Blood Mirror[/I] was only granting them a few seconds of extra life - she'd be sure their throats were slit once all of them had been dealt with. Alistair stepped forward and cast a [I]magic missile[/I] spell at a duergar farther back, sending all four missiles into the drunken gray dwarf's face. The surprise attack caused him to spray out his mouthful of ale - for which the sorcerer was particularly glad he had stayed far enough out of weapons range that he was also out of ale-spew range - before falling to the ground as well, all but dead. Ogilvy stepped up beside his master, shining his lantern light into the cavern and catching the two remaining gray dwarves in its beam. That was enough for Chaevaris to step up beside Alistair and send an arrow straight through the throat of one of the duergar. He fell over, dead in a heartbeat, the damage too much for even the [I]Blood Mirror[/I] to stabilize. Just that quickly, the duergar's amiable combat-and-ale session had ended in a bloody scrum, and the realization shook all of the drunken haze out of the last gray dwarf's body. Faced with four potential enemies (for he could see the lantern was just floating there in midair by itself, not being held by a fifth foe), he made an instant decision and made a bee-line for the stream of water flowing along the far side of the combat arena cavern. He waded into the water, trying to escape...only to find he'd been trailed by Harlan Starblade, who slipped his [I]flaming burst longsword[/I] between his ribs until the tip of the blade stuck out from his stomach. Choking blood, the duergar's life flashed before his eyes as he collapsed into blessed unconsciousness. He didn't feel it as Harlan dragged him out of the water, not wanting a floating corpse to warn anyone downstream that there was danger about. He also was spared the sight of Ageratum Purslane doggedly moving from duergar to duergar, slitting throats as needed to ensure the [I]Blood Mirror[/I] wouldn't save the lives of those not worth saving. And, perhaps most mercifully of all, he was unaware when the halfling's blade sliced his own throat into two, allowing his life's blood to spill down his neck as he died a final death. Chaevaris removed what jewelry looked to be valuable from the duergar corpses: a few nice rings, mostly, none of which Alistair's [I]detect magic[/I] spell registered as magic. They also each had a few small jars of an odd ointment on their person, which the sorcerer deemed intriguing enough to examine; the substance smelled rather strongly of fish, although the paste had a violet color quite out of place for anything derived from a fish, as far as Alistair was aware. Ageratum noted the same smell coming from the mouths of the duergar whose throats she'd been cutting, so apparently whatever the paste was, it was meant to be taken orally. Still, none of the heroes wanted to experiment with an unknown substance in the middle of a rescue mission, so the vials all went inside Ageratum's [I]bag of holding[/I] for later perusal. With Ogilvy shining the bullseye lantern about the cavern, the group saw some movement over in the corner and discovered it to be a few growths of violet fungus. Harlan kept them at bay by dragging a duergar corpse over by them and blocking the way to the rest of the cavern with his body. The paladin reasoned the slow-moving fungus wouldn't be able to climb over the gray dwarf's body, and they'd likely be more interested in absorbing what nutrients they could from it while it decayed in any case. Regardless, they could expect the violet fungus would not be bothering them as they explored down the stream. "I suppose it's time for our potions," suggested Alistair, opening his [I]potion of water breathing[/I] and drinking it down. The others followed suit, and then Harlen led them wading into the stream. He could see it flowed into a cavern wall ahead, no doubt filling a narrow tunnel. As they approached, the slope of the floor increased and the flow of the water increased as well. Not wanting to be helpless passengers down a fast-flowing stream with no means of steering - especially since Chaevaris's keen elven ears picked up what she thought was the roar of a waterfall ahead - the group stood their ground for a moment and thought up alternatives. Ageratum finally came up with a solution to their dilemma, by activating her [I]cloak of arachnida[/I] and climbing up to the ceiling of the tunnel, with one end of a a 50-foot length of rope tied around her narrow waist. The water pulled the rope out ahead of the inverted halfling, allowing purchase for the other three heroes as they traversed the stream ahead of her. With any luck, despite the water's tug it wouldn't dislodge the halfling from the ceiling and her three companions could prevent themselves from falling over any waterfalls by hanging onto the rope. As Ageratum advanced along the ceiling - and breathing was no longer a problem if the passageway became totally submerged - the other three could ensure they advanced no faster than she did. Sixty feet further down the subterranean stream, they encountered the waterfall, which spilled into a larger cavern, easily three or four times as big as the duergar combat cavern had been. The beam of light from Ogilvy's held lantern showed the group there were three rock "islands" poking up from the body of water before them (for the entire cavern was flooded, with a pocket of air along the top 40 feet or so to the cavern's ceiling) and two other waterfalls spilling water into the cavern's pool of water. There were apparently some other passageways or a stream or streams exiting the pool from below the waterline, for the surface level of the pool was not rising in any noticeable way. And fortunately, the opening where the waterfall rushed into the pool below - a drop of some 15 feet to the waterline - was tall enough for Ageratum to breathe air while she stood on the tunnel ceiling; the potion allowed her to breathe the water just fine, but she found breathing water to just be [I]weird[/I]. Harlan had been in the lead along the rope, and thus he was the first to climb down the rope into the pool, which he found was less than five feet deep at the bottom of the cascading water. He detected for evil as he approached the pool, and sure enough, there were several distinct emanations approaching his way: as they surfaced, he could see it was six skum coming from all directions and a chuul off to his left. The paladin waded east and attacked the closest skum - a slime-covered humanoid whose once-human features were now closer to that of a fish - with his flaming longsword, glad to see that the magical flames springing from his blade were not hampered by all the water flowing around and spraying over him. The skum fell over with one strike from the paladin's blade, falling unconscious and becoming stable from the nearness of the [I]Blood Mirror[/I]. Ageratum, still perched upon the tunnel ceiling, pulled out one of Alistair's shrunken boulders and tossed it at another approaching skum, but her throw was way off - it was difficult throwing while upside-down! The pebble hit the surface of the water, enlarged to its full size, and sank to the bottom of the pool. Alistair, second behind Harlan on the rope, cast a [I]magic missile[/I] spell that took out the skum Ageratum had missed with her magic pebble. Ogilvy moved up beside his master, keeping the lantern's beam above water. Chaevaris was right behind Alistair, but she decided not to join him and Harlan in the pool below - up here at the top of the waterfall was just fine. Pulling out her [I]immovable rod[/I] and activating it at belt height, she used it to lean against so she'd have a steady perch for shooting her bow despite the water cascading behind her legs, trying to push her into the cavern. She shot an arrow at the chuul, deeming it to be the greatest threat, but her arrow glanced off its hardened carapace. Another skum swam up to Harlan, biting and clawing with the sharp nails on each of its four appendages. The half-elf managed to fend off most of the attacks, but one set of claws managed to get past his defenses. Two more swam up to attack Alistair, but none of their attacks managed to pierce the sorcerer's magical protection. Another skum swam up to join the melee but was similarly unsuccessful. Despite not wearing a scrap of armor, between Alistair's [I]mage armor[/I] and [I]shield[/I] spells, it was as if the sorcerer wore armor as heavy (and effective) as Harlan's. The chuul moved up, snapping its lobsterlike pincers around Harlan's waist and pulling him in towards its chitinous body. Eight waving tentacles dangled from its mouthparts, ready to try to paralyze its half-elven prey. Chaevaris recalled reading in [I]Lords of the Dark Water[/I] that chuuls often worked with aboleths, but just as she was aiming an arrow at the lobster-thing a flash of movement caught her eye and she spotted an aboleth rising up to the surface from between the two rightmost rock islands. Then movement back over by the chuul turned her attention that way, only to see Harlan had channeled holy energy through his blade and smote the chuul, cracking its carapace where the blade struck. Ageratum ran along the side wall and dropped behind the chuul, slamming her blades into its back on the way down and sinking them all the way to the hilt. Alistair also sent a [I]magic missile[/I] spell at the chuul, wishing to free Harlan before he could be paralyzed and taken out of this fight - a fight the Trained Professional Adventurers all realized could use the power of his flaming blade. However, by casting the spell the sorcerer left himself open to attack and one of the skum made full use of his inattentiveness, ripping a series of parallel scars across his chest with a pair of foreclaws. Ogilvy tried dropping a shrunken boulder upon the offending skum, but it missed. Fortunately, Chaevaris activated her [I]boots of speed[/I] and fired off a series of arrows down at the chuul, peppering it until it sank beneath the water, unconscious and stabilized. She even had time to fire off another arrow at a skum, killing it outright with a well-placed blow to the head. Three more skum ganged up on Alistair, who recalled why he did not like front-line fighting: there were too many foes to deal with! He dodged the attacks of two of the fish-people, only to have the third bite down on his shoulder with a set of teeth that would not have been out of place in the mouth of a piranha. Another skum went for Harlan but was much less successful, the paladin easily pushing it away with his shield. The aboleth, in the meantime, had made a lazy U-turn in the water and, in a burst of speed, catapulted itself up onto the leftmost rock island. Then it did something completed unexpected: it pulled back its head and its body vanished, revealing a woman fitting the description of Porceline Trotter, wearing what was apparently an aboleth version of a [I]cloak of the manta[/I]. She busied herself casting some sort of spell, although which particular one none of the heroes was able to determine. However, a second aboleth swam up onto the middle rock island, this one much bigger than Porceline's illusory version. Harlan swung his flaming blade at the skum attacking him, while Ageratum, not at all trusting that Porceline wasn't in league with the aboleth (why else would she be swimming freely and using a magic cloak that gave her the appearance of an aboleth herself?), used her own magic cloak to cast a [I]web[/I] spell at Blorkane's sister. The strands were anchored along the front and back walls of the cavern, and the halfling's targeting had been spot on, catching her in the middle of the webs. Try as she might, Porceline couldn't move from the spot at which she stood, nor could she move her hands for any further spellcasting. Ageratum smiled quietly to herself and congratulated herself for a job well done - they could afford to ignore the female wizard for now and concentrate on the aboleth and its remaining skum allies. Alistair cast a [I]scorching ray[/I] at the aboleth, and then noticed it was a bit slow to react to the flames burning its body. He focused his attention on the tentacled fish and realized it wasn't really there at all - the thing was an illusion! He called out his findings to his friends, knowing full well that knowing it was a fake would aid them in seeing it as a fake themselves. Ogilvy raised another pebble over the head of a skum and let go, but the fast-moving fish-man had darted out of the way by the time the stone hit the water's surface and the boulder resumed its full size. Chaevaris's next arrow caught a skum in the chest and staggered him; the one after that knocked another skum into unconsciousness; and her third shot missed entirely. The staggered skum sank beneath the water's surface, pulling at the arrow in its chest. Another resumed its attacks upon Harlan, but couldn't get past the paladin's shield to put its teeth and claws to use. And up on the leftmost island, Porceline continued to struggle ineffectively against her sticky bonds. History seemed to repeat itself when another aboleth leaped up onto the middle rock and resumed the position the first, illusory, one had taken. Alistair assumed this was the real one that had cast some sort of illusory double to draw off a few spells before joining combat itself. It focused its impressive intellect upon Harlan, trying to [I]dominate[/I] the paladin into doing its bidding. It was surprised when the half-elf made no effort to resist, yet seemed unaffected - and then the tentacled fish-thing realized he must be shielded from such effects by a [I]protection from evil[/I] spell (as indeed he was). But Harlan must have at least been aware of the attempt, for his retaliation was sudden and decisive: rushing past the skum he'd been fighting (and easily bypassing its clumsy attacks as he raced by), he dodged a tentacle strike by the aboleth as he leaped up onto the rock and swung his flaming blade at the fish-thing trying to compel him to obey its mental commands. The aboleth turned its glistening body at the last possible moment and Harlan's blade missed its mark. Ageratum ran across the webs she'd brought into being - her magic cloak allowing her to avoid getting stuck or tangled in them herself - and used the higher perch to stab down at one of the remaining skum. Unfortunately for the little halfling, it managed to duck down below the water's surface before her blade could strike true. Alistair moved a bit to the side to get out of clawing range of the nearest skum and fired off another [I]scorching ray[/I] spell, this one striking true and giving off a sizzling, fishy smell the sorcerer was fairly sure no illusion spell could duplicate so accurately. Nearby, Ogilvy missed with another pebble-boulder being dropped onto a skum - but he was littering the pool floor nicely with boulders. The skum made a rush for Alistair, but the sorcerer handily dodged out of the way in time. Chaevaris pumped three more arrows at the aboleth in rapid-fire sequence, hitting her target with two of them. In retaliation, the aboleth reached out at the elf with its impressive mind and the archer felt her own will giving way to that of her new master. <Kill the armed paladin!> it demanded directly into Chaevaris's mind, and the archer notched a new arrow into her bow and moved to obey. But by then Harlan had stabbed the aboleth in between two of its three eyes with his [I]flaming burst longsword[/I], knocking it instantly unconscious. Just like that, Chaevaris felt the alien compulsion fade away before she had had time to act on it. And then Ageratum had leapt from the web to the middle rock and was stabbing the thing in its narrow eyes, making sure it was dead and no longer a threat. Alistair cast a [I]magic missile[/I] spell at a fleeing skum, and by now it was just a clean-up action; the skum knew their master had been slain and that they were outmatched without him. Chaevaris looked over at Porceline, still trying to escape from the webs and giving a cry of horror when she saw the aboleth had been slain. Fitting another arrow into place, Chaevaris took careful aim and sent the shaft flying straight at the female wizard. "Elfy!" Alistair cried out in horror. "We're supposed to be rescuing her, not killing her! What are we going to tell Blorkane?" "Relax," the archer chided the upset sorcerer. "I used a [I]sleep[/I] arrow. She's out cold, not dead." "But that could be easily fixed," offered Ageratum, holding a wicked-looking blade in each hand. Alistair knew full well one of them had an enchantment making it particularly dangerous to human foes. "Miss Purslane!" Alistair cried out. "Not you too!" But Ageratum merely deactivated her [I]web[/I] spell and let Porceline fall to the rock island where she stood. A quick [I]detect magic[/I] spell allowed Alistair to determine what items the wizard had were of a magical nature (the [I]cloak of the masters[/I] she wore, a [I]ring of protection[/I], and an amulet from around her neck); Ageratum removed each item as Alistair identified them as magic, and then Harlan bound her tightly with the length of rope Ageratum had worn around her waist. Then, with their potions still active, the heroes dove down to explore the underwater cave from which the aboleth had exited, but they were surprised to see while it opened up into a cave - the back half of which was on dry land - there was no treasure there to be found. "That's not right," Chaevaris said with a frown. "Aboleths are notorious for collecting large amounts of treasure, at least according to that book of Blorkane's!" Then, on a hunch, she turned to Ageratum and said, "Let me see that necklace." Flipping it around, she saw the word "brother" had been engraved on the back. Slipping the chain around her neck, Chaevaris called out "Brother!" - to have a door suddenly appear along the back wall of the cave. The four heroes explored the interior of the dwelling on the other side of the door. It was, Alistair realized, very similar to a [I]Mordenkainen's magnificent mansion[/I] spell, although he'd only heard tales of such things. There were four separate bedrooms, each with its own bathing chamber (and the two in the front also had separate dressing rooms; the women immediately decided those were their rooms, and Harlan and Alistair could have the two rooms in the back). There was also a small library, a lounge area, a full dining hall, a kitchen, and a larder and separate storage room for herbs. The aboleth's treasure was stored in chests in the lounge area, consisting of 8,200 pieces of gold and several arcane sticks of [I]incense of meditation[/I]. One of the books in the library area caught Harlan's attention: it was a [I]libram of gainful exercise[/I]. But Alistair was more interested in the empty bookshelves. "Look, Elfy!" he called to Chaevaris. "There's enough room for the entire Elfy Danger Silverleaf collection!" Harlan revived Porceline, who was surprised to find herself bound tightly. She cursed the heroes for having slain the aboleth, [B]Karagath[/B], which she claimed had been an excellent arcane tutor. When Alistair made the mistake of asking why she didn't simply have her own brother, a renowned wizard himself, tutor her in the wizardly arts, she cursed even louder. "That fat pig!" she spat. "He has a bloated opinion of his own spellcraft mastery, and an outdated view on a woman's place in the home! He expected me to do all of the housework, cooking and cleaning for him while he spent his time on his own wizardly studies! I hate him!" "What are we going to do with her?" Alistair asked. "We can't very well just turn her over to Blorkane." "We could kill her," Ageratum suggested. Then, seeing the astonished looks she was getting from her comment, she added, "What? She was willingly in league with an aboleth, who not only kidnaps people, but turns them into fish-men, and [I]dominates[/I] others into doing its business!" "He did try to have me kill you, Harlan," Chaevaris admitted. "We'll bring her to the Stone Keep," Harlan decided. "The clerics there can determine her guilt, and deal out any punishments deemed appropriate." That seemed fair, although Ageratum seemed a bit dejected that nobody seemed to like her "Let's just kill her and be done with it" plan. "Fine," the halfling sighed, putting away her short swords. "Let's get back to Carp, then, so we can dump her on the clerics." - - - So the Trained Professional Adventurers now have a mobile headquarters they can take with them when they travel - that will no doubt come in handy! And we all made it to 8th level at the end of this adventure. As for the jars of ointment, that was something Dan had created for this adventure. Crafted from violet fungus extract (I'm not sure why), they allowed anyone who ate a dose to hold their breath for twice as long as normal. I suppose that was for in case we had forgotten to purchase additional [I]potions of water breathing[/I]. [/QUOTE]
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