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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 9189205" data-attributes="member: 508">ADVENTURE 37: HEART OF DARKNESSPC Roster: Ageratum Purslane, halfling rogue 10             Alistair Mandelberen Pastlethwaite, human sorcerer 10             Chaevaris Noarunal, elf archer 10             Harlan Starblade, half-elf paladin 10NPC Roster:Orchid, elf druid 10Game Session Date: 1 November 2023 - - -The two boats traveled down the Underdark river, side by side.  Each held three dwarven boatmen and two of the dwarven luggers, while the five human mappers who were heading the expedition were split between the two craft.  So too were the members of the Trained Professional Adventurers, with Harlan, Ageratum, and Orchid on one boat and Alistair and Chaevaris on the other; Ambrose sat perched upon his master's shoulder as usual and Carruthers was inside the extradimensional space currently tucked away inside the archer's magic necklace.The pace down the river had been rather erratic, for while the current was fairly slow the mappers called for a halt quite often, having the boatmen drop anchor to keep the craft in place while they sketched out a detail they wanted to include into their maps.  There were bullseye lanterns facing forward and to each side, giving the humans enough light to see about 60 feet in those directions, enough for their mapping purposes.  And the current was slow enough that they'd have plenty of time to reposition the boats if it became necessary, but so far the river's width had held steady enough for them to travel along side by side.Alistair was less worried about the river's width as he was about the tunnel's ceiling height; he was well aware they were underground and he was fairly certain underground rivers often filled up the passageways through which they traversed.  So far there was no worries on that front, as the ceiling of the tunnel was about 100 feet overhead and didn't look to be dropping any time soon.  But if they ended up with the river reaching the ceiling, the sorcerer wasn't sure what they'd do, for they didn't have a means of breathing water save for Orchid's water breathing spell, and as he understood it the more people who shared in that spells' effect, the shorter the duration for all involved.  She'd already cast it on the other four adventurers, claiming she could do without for she'd wildshape into something aquatic if it came to that, but there were the five other humans and the ten dwarves to think about.  He supposed, given enough forewarning, they could shuffle them into the extradimensional space (the access door could be placed on the shield guardian's tower shield) and have Carruthers walk along the river bottom until he hit a pocket of air again, but Alistair was sure the mappers would grumble about not being able to accurately depict the underwater passages on their maps.The sounds of battle drove the young sorcerer out of his ruminations.  As the two folding boats started moving forward again they could see a stone bridge spanning the passageway ahead, about 40 feet above the surface of the water.  The ceiling was easily another 60 feet above that, lost in the shadows, but up on the bridge were a set of figures lined up in rows of combat.  To the right were larger figures, each about the size of an elf, while their enemies were much smaller, more Ageratum's size.  It wasn't until the boats drifted closer that the heroes could make out the combatants: a dozen drow elves against an equal number of svirfneblin.  There was also a low, background roar coming from that direction, likely an indication of a waterfall not too far beyond the bridge.At a called command, both boats dropped anchor, preventing them from getting any closer to the active combat, and the mappers and luggers moved to the backs of their respective vessels, as far away from the danger as possible.  While the front line of drow used their bows on the svirfneblin, the back line looked to be applying poison to their own arrows, ready to follow suit.Harlan called out across the planes and his celestial pegasus Nova answered the call.  "You're with me, Ageratum!" he cried, swinging his leg across Nova's back and leaning over to help pull the little halfling up behind him.  Once in place, Ageratum activated her magic bracelet and slid into invisibility.  Alistair reached a hand out to touch Chaevaris and cast a dimension door spell that took them - and Ambrose - behind the svirfneblin lines, for he already knew which side the heroes were on in a battle between the deep gnomes and the dark elves - they'd just rescued a small band of svirfneblin from derro and mind flayer bondage the previous day.  From this vantage point, he could see the front line of svirfneblin rush forward to attack the drow before them with their pointed picks; one of the drow fell over, dead from this initial combat charge.  The svirfneblin back row pointed their light crossbows at the drow, able to shoot over their comrades' heads to strike the taller dark elves.  Another drow dropped, a bolt piercing his eye.But Chaevaris, with her elven eyesight, was able to see up onto the cavern ceiling above the bridge and saw a pair of driders directly overhead the bridge battle.  One locked eyes with her and cast a ray of enfeeblement spell down at her, striking her straight on her breastbone and sapping the power from her muscles; as a result of the draining spell, she could hardly even carry her composite longbow in one hand, let alone be able to pull back the bowstring far enough to let fly with an arrow.  Just that quickly, she'd been cut off from using her most powerful weapon.But that didn't mean she was useless!  With her left hand, she lifted the necklace and called out the command word, forming a door upon the side of the tunnel just behind the bridge on the svirfneblin's side of the battle.  She opened the door, and there in the doorway stood Carruthers, ready for action.  "Come out and attack the dark-skinned elves!" cried Alistair, looking over at his shield guardian.  "And keep Chaevaris safe from harm!" he added, having seen the elven archer get hit by the drider's spell.  Caruthers stepped out onto the stone passageway behind the bridge and took a protective stance before Chaevaris.Back on one of the folding boats, Orchid cast a transmute rock to mud spell on the section of bridge ahead where the drow all stood.  The dark elves cried out as the stone beneath their feet gave way, dropping them into the waters below - all but one of them, who was unlucky enough to have been standing far enough back that he hit solid ground 40 feet beneath the bridge, crushing himself instantly.  Of the drow who had fallen in the water, all but one of them looked to have been slain by the fall as well, despite a far less solid surface waiting to greet them; only one struggled to keep his head above water while hanging on to his weapons.Orchid slipped over the side of the vessel, ready to wildshape into an octopus to go attack any survivors.  But then she saw another form in the water under the bridge: a scrag, by the look of it, biting off limbs of the slain drow and having himself a grand old feast.  She held off transforming into an octopus for now, treading water to see if the sole remaining drow was going to be a problem or if the aquatic troll would take care of him for her.But there were more driders up on the ceiling besides the two Chaevaris had spotted.  One of the four cast a blindness/deafness spell down at Alistair, having deduced from his clothing - more specifically, his complete lack of armor - that he was some sort of spellcaster and thus should be taken out quickly.  Alistair felt the spell try to rob him of his sight, but fought it off with the power of his own mind, blinking the black dots at the edge of his eyesight away before they could encompass the whole of his vision.  Then he pointed his metamagic rod of maximize spell up at the offending drider and channeled a scorching ray spell through it, engulfing the spider-drow hybrid in burning flames.  He cried out in pain but continued clinging upside-down on the cavern ceiling, although he didn't look to have a whole lot of fight left in him."To safety, Ambrose!" Alistair called out and his grackle familiar took wing, flapping back over to the folding boats.From the back of the celestial pegasus even now rising into the air on flapping wings, Ageratum pointed her wand of magic missile at another drider and tried activating it, but she failed - and worse yet, wasn't quite sure what she was doing wrong.  At the very least, her failed attempt didn't use up one of the wand's charges or return her invisible form to full visibility, but she'd have preferred blasting the spider-thing with the wand, when all was said and done.But Nova flew directly at the drider Ageratum had targeted, kicking out with a hoof as he got within range.  But it was an awkward attack, what with the drider standing upside-down on the ceiling and the pegasus needing to stay far enough away from the ceiling to avoid slamming his wings into the stone above, and the hoof-strike missed its target.  Harlan fared no better when he swung at the drider with his longsword, as the spider-hybrid was much more maneuverable on the cavern ceiling than the paladin making sure he kept his perch on the pegasus's back when he swung with his weapon - after all, he had no desire to go plunging to the river below and become a potential scrag snack!  (There was actually little worry there, as the scrag had an all-you-can-eat drow flesh banquet before him and was making the best of it.)The svirfneblin loaded up their crossbows and fired at two of the driders above them, six shooting at one drider and another six shooting at the other.  At that range, only one bolt hit its target, and the drider seemed unimpressed with the light wound he received, brushing the offending bolt away as if it were lint.  But he fired a magic missile spell down at the svirfneblin who had hit him, frowning in irritation when the spell fizzled out before striking the deep gnome, for the pick-wielding fighter had the natural resistance against spells shared by all of his people.Chaevaris, trying but unable to pull back her bowstring in her weakened state, blew out a breath of frustration and stepped inside the extradimensional doorway, determined to at least not make herself more of a target than she already was.  Carruthers, unable to see any drow to attack, followed his second set of instructions and blocked access to the doorway with his bulky body.Deciding an octopus would be of limited use given the current situation, Orchid wildshaped into a more familiar form: that of a dire bat.  Flapping her glistening wings, she pulled herself up out of the river water and took to the air, flying over towards Nova and his two riders.  They were facing off against one drider who had wandered away from the area directly over the bridge, while another was headed their way and the other two were focused on the figures directly below them.  One drider cast a scorching ray spell down at Alistair, who nimbly dodged out of the way with an involuntary "I say!" escaping his lips as he did so.  The rearmost drider facing off against Harlan cast a blindness/deafness spell at the half-elf paladin, but it was no more effective than the one cast at Alistair earlier.Another drider decided to try a different approach.  Rather than attack the enemy spellcasters directly, he targeted a silence spell at the ground beside Alistair's feet.  The young nobleman, however, knew exactly what had caused the sudden cessation of all combat sounds around him, deduced it was not centered on him (he reasoned he'd have felt the effects had it been), and started running in a straight line away from the area of effect.  Once he started hearing noises again, he cast a cone of cold spell up at the two driders directly above.  The one he'd hit with his scorching ray spell earlier dropped like a stone, crashing lifelessly on the bridge behind the svirfneblin, while the other survived the attack but was covered in a layer of frost that told the sorcerer his spell had been effective against him as well.Ageratum stood on Nova's rear, passed by Harlan (on his left, so as not to mess up his sword strikes), and used Nova's head as a springboard to leap up at the ceiling, doing a tuck and roll as she did so, allowing her to "land" on her feet on the ceiling, supported by the spider climb power of her cloak of arachnida.  It would have been quite something to see, had she been visible when she did so.  But once on the ceiling, she ran around the drider facing off against Harlan and Nova in a long arc, getting herself into position to strike from behind - and under, given the height disparity between the drider and the halfling.  As Orchid flew up to the drider and snapped at him with her bat-teeth (missing, but causing enough of a distraction for Ageratum to take advantage of), the little halfling stabbed up between the drider's arachnoid back legs, the blade of her short sword sliding deep into the swollen, spidery abdomen.  At the same time, Harlan's holy flaming burst longsword got past the same drider's defenses and cut a gash of pain across his front torso.  Distracted by so many attacks from so many different directions, the drider even let a hoof get past his defenses, Nova managing to kick him in the side of the head while trying to hover in relatively one place so his master could use his sword to best advantage."That one!" called out one of the deep gnomes in his own language, pointing at the frost-covered drider directly above them.  Twelve gnomish crossbows pointed up at the drider, and twelve bolts went flying up at him all at once.  Several struck him, but none managed to penetrate his spidery chitin.  Ignoring the svirfneblin as irrelevant, the drider instead opted for some payback in Alistair's direction, casting down a lightning bolt spell that caused the hair not bound in a fashionable ponytail to stand out from the sorcerer's head.  Alistair bit back any cries of pain, not wanting to give the spellcasting drider the satisfaction and fairly certain that Elfy "Danger" Silverleaf wouldn't have cried out from a simple lightning bolt spell.  But Chaevaris saw the attack and realized there was still a part she could play in this battle; unhooking a potion vial from her belt, she unstoppered the cork at the top and ran over to Alistair, lifting it to his lips.  As the potion of cure moderate wounds went down his throat, he could feel the worst of his wounds healing up."Thanks, Elfy!" Alistair called.  Chaevaris ran a hand over the sorcerer's head, smoothing down the hair standing up on that side, and said, "Go get him!" as she pointed up at the drider above.Orchid cast a flame strike at the closest drider, who, standing inverted on the ceiling, got the uncomfortable blast of holy fire raining down upon his vulnerable underside.  He tried to cast a fireball spell in return, but in doing so left himself up to attacks from all sides: Nova's flashing hoof and Harlan's swinging blade both missed, but in avoiding those the drider left himself open to an attack from behind by Ageratum, who stabbed him once again deep in his underside with her narrow blade.  He cried out in pain and dropped from the ceiling, to splash lifelessly into the river water a hundred feet below him.  Bobbing to the surface nearby was the scrag, floating on his back and patting his distended belly happily, after having devoured the flesh from all of the drow to have fallen - literally - in combat.The other drider cast a hold person spell at Harlan, but he easily shook off the intended effects as Nova spun to face this next threat.  Ageratum readied herself for a sprint across the cavern ceiling in this other drider's direction, but she held back to let the celestial pegasus get there first.  Nova flew forward, kicking at the drider in passing as Harlan swung his blade at the spider-hybrid, but both attacks missed.  But sure enough, by focusing his attention on the bigger threats, the drider overlooked the smaller one, and that was the one that killed him, for Ageratum stabbed at the thing in his belly and gutted him where he stood before he had even become aware of her presence.  He too dropped to the waters below, leaving but a single drider remaining.Alistair anticipated bringing that last one down, focusing a scorching ray spell through his metamagic rod.  But the drider's inherent resistance to spells caused the spell to fizzle upon impact, much to the sorcerer's disappointment.  Another twelve svirfneblin crossbows twanged below and a dozen bolts went flying up at the drider, none of them hitting with enough force to do any real damage.  The drider cast a second lightning bolt spell down at Alistair, who took the hit as stoically as Elfy "Danger" Silverleaf himself would have.Still in dire bat form, Orchid cast a produce flame spell and a small ball of fire manifested in one bat foot.  She kicked it towards the offending drider, as another ball of flame manifested in the same foot.  The thrown ball hit the drider, singeing a patch of chitinous armor, before Ageratum came racing up behind him along the ceiling, stabbing him in the abdomen with her sword.  Then Nova charged through the air and Harlan channeled Pelor's smiting energy into his sword, striking the evil drider for all he was worth.  All he was worth was apparently good enough, for the blade sliced into the drider's torso and slew him instantly, causing him to drop to the river below.  The scrag, hands still rubbing his over-full belly, looked over at the dead drider with curiosity but was too full to go feed any further.Alistair slicked back his staticky hair as best he could as he approached the svirfneblin.  "I say, " he began, "do any of you speak the Common trade tongue?"Apparently they did.  "Nice job on the bridge," griped one of the deep gnomes, indicating the 20-foot gap in the bridge ahead, where Orchid's transmute rock to mud spell had cut through the span from one side to the other.At that, Alistair sputtered with barely-contained rage.  "Of all the ungrateful--!" he began.  Chaevaris stepped forward to keep the sorcerer from moving any closer to the svirfneblin, for she had noticed his hand stray to the rapier he wore at his side in true nobleman fashion.  "We just saved you from a force of drow and driders, and you're complaining about the damage to the bridge?  I saw how ineffectual you were against those driders - if it hadn't been for us saving your pathetic bottoms, you'd all be dead meat by now!"Orchid landed on the bridge by the deep gnomes and resumed her elven form.  "I'm sorry," she began.  "I don't have the means to fix the bridge today, but tomorrow I can--"Alistair cut her off in mid-sentence, something he normally would not do were his blood not boiling.  As a result, Orchid didn't get to offer her plan to prepare a transmute mud to rock spell the following day, for Alistair roared, "Nothing of the sort!  By no means are we aiding these little ingrates any further!"  He spun on the svirfneblin who had griped at him about the bridge.  "How did this bridge get built in the first place?" he demanded."Our grandfathers' grandfathers--" began the svirfneblin, before Alistair cut him off as well."Then if your people built it once, they can bloody well build it again!" he yelled.  "And if a war party of drow and driders come upon you while you're attending to your precious bridge, don't come whining to us about it!  We saved a group of your people yesterday from some brain-gobbling mind flayers, and today we saved each and every one of you, but we'll be sure to think twice about coming to the aid of any deep gnomes we encounter from now on!  I hope you're satisfied with yourselves - you've set relationships with the surface races back who knows how far?  Now get out of here, before you really get me mad!"  He made as if to start spellcasting at the deep gnomes, and they, properly chastised and not wanting to take any chances from the crazy human with the frizzy hair, turned and fled back away from the bridge.  "That's right, you'd BETTER run, you pathetic--no-good--"  Words finally failed the sorcerer, and Ambrose alit upon his shoulder, having felt his master's distress from back in the folding boat."They're gone," the grackle advised his master, and Alistair bent forward, red-faced and hands on his knees, to catch his breath after his tirade.Nova landed on the bridge and Harlan dismounted.  Looking at the far side of the bridge, he could see a waterfall crashing down not far down the river ahead.  Furthermore, the river narrowed just past the bridge, so the boats couldn't continue side by side even if there hadn't been a waterfall just ahead.  Fortunately, there was a patch of solid land under the bridge along the drow side, so the boatmen should be able to steer their craft, one by one, to the side and then deactivate the folding boats to pocket size after everyone had disembarked.  There looked to be a set of natural stone steps leading down the side of the waterfall, at the bottom of which the river picked back up.  They should be able to pick up their route from there."Let's go," suggested Harlan, placing a hand upon Alistair's shoulder.  The sorcerer gave a final glare down the passageway down which the svirfneblin had gone, and nodded at the paladin.  He ushered Carruthers back into the extradimensional space, Chaevaris placed the door back into her necklace, and then Alistair cast another dimensional door to move the rest of the group down to the ground by the waterfall as Harlan rode Nova to meet them and the dwarves started maneuvering the folding boats into place."Stupid svirfneblin," muttered Alistair while he waited for the mappers, luggers, and boatmen to catch up. - - -I was really, really ticked off at the svirfneblin attitude after we'd rescued their butts, especially when it was demonstrated round after round that they could barely do any damage at all to the driders.  (They admittedly seemed to fare fairly well against the drow.)  Dan admitted he'd had the deep gnomes show a complete lack of appreciation of our efforts on their behalf because he thought it would be funny and it would probably tick me off.  (He was right - it did.)  And Logan was pretty bummed to have his archer PC taken out of the fight with a single ray of enfeeblement spell (no save, and Dan rolled maximum damage, bring her strength from a 13 to a 5), so it's a good thing he had Orchid to run.  (I also offered him Carruthers to run, but he was likewise ineffective in a fight with driders on the ceiling.)</blockquote>

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