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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 9305340" data-attributes="member: 508">ADVENTURE 48: GET BACKPC Roster: Ageratum Purslane, halfling rogue 11             Alistair Mandelberen Pastlethwaite, human sorcerer 11             Chaevaris Noarunal, elf archer 11             Harlan Starblade, half-elf paladin 11NPC Roster:Orchid, elf druid 11Game Session Date: 27 March 2024 - - -The next morning, the five adventurers went straight to the Ghourmand Vale Temple of Boccob to talk to their head cleric, planning on offering their services to rid the hidden library they'd uncovered of the undead plaguing the place and return the books, tomes, and scrolls stored there.  In addition, they planned to allow the local scribes to copy the information found in the book that served as Andrew's phylactery, because they certainly were going to see to its destruction before they confronted the lich once again.Fate, however, had other plans, and none of the intentions of the Trained Professional Adventurers would see fruit that day.  First of all, the head cleric was not there in the temple; two mere acolytes had the run of the place, but they at least felt empowered to allow the adventurers before them to go take out the undead in the hidden library upon their authorization.  However, they said it could take a day or two to determine the authenticity of the phylactery/book, and then up to a week to do the proper divinations to determine whether the book's contents - which detailed the prophecy of upcoming "cessation of all magic" that had Andrew so concerned - were even worth copying down for posterity, or if they were just the rambling ravings of a lunatic."Very well," agreed Alistair, who held the book firmly in his possession and refused to release it from his grasp.  "I hope you understand one or more of us will remain with the book at all times until you have completed your assessment."  His unspoken thoughts were somewhere along the line of, "I personally don't trust you not to decide it would be easier to just keep this copy of the book intact, despite the fact that as a phylactery, it will serve as a place to house Andrew's soul when we kill him, which will allow him to remanifest as a lich."  Now that he knew he was a sorcerer, he was trying to learn more of Boccob, God of Magic and Knowledge (he'd been raised in the worship of Pelor, as had been all of the Pastlethwaites), and he didn't want to do anything to get on the bad side of the members of this local temple.A sudden slam from the two front doors had everyone turning to look their way.  The heroes had closed the doors upon entry into the temple - a simple, mostly one-room affair with bookcases lining the front and side walls and two areas in the back corners where no doubt secret doors allowed access to the clerics assigned there - but they were rattling in their housings, as if a strong wind were buffeting them from outside.Alistair's mind went directly to a possible attack.  "An invisible stalker?" he surmised.  "Do you think Andrew sent an invisible stalker to fetch back his phylactery?""It's a distinct possibility," admitted Harlan.  "Best we prepare for combat."  He concentrated his paladin's powers of aura-reading in the general direction of the doors.  "There is definitely evil beyond," he told the others, then cast a magic circle against evil spell upon himself as he moved to the side of the eastern door, ready to attack if anything burst its way in the temple.  Orchid moved up behind Harlan and cast a barkskin spell upon the paladin, while Chaevaris moved to the back of the temple, behind the desk where the two acolytes had been standing.  Pushing them behind her, she nocked an arrow into her bow and took steady aim at the front doors.  Ageratum activated her bracelet of invisibility and slipped out of view, then spider climbed her way to the ceiling above the western door, likewise ready to strike any enemies making it into the building.  Alistair cast a haste spell on all but Chaevaris, then had Ambrose hop down under the desk while he moved beside the archer and took aim at the doors with his metamagic rod."There are three distinct auras of evil," Harlan announced after confirming the fact through his paladin's vision.  "One is much stronger than the other two."  He then cast a bless spell upon the group, to better ready them for the imminent combat he felt had to be coming.  Orchid cast a death ward spell upon the paladin, expecting the doors to come flying open at any moment.But the evil outside the door was taking its own sweet time to actually do anything.  Alistair, well aware that the clock was ticking on the haste spell he'd cast upon the heroes, which at his current level of spellcasting expertise only lasted just under two minutes, finally suggested to Harlan that he open the doors and let the undead advance upon them in the doorway, certain the half-elf would be able to prevent them from getting into the temple.  After a few last spells (Harlan cat a bull's strength spell upon himself and Orchid cast a freedom of movement spell upon him), Harlan swung open both doors, to see three undead forms slowly taking shape before them: it was Andrew and the two undead "bouncers" from the hidden library, slowly reverting to a solid form after having used a wind walk spell to travel the distance from their lair.  While they were still taking form, Ageratum ran outside and planted herself beside one of the undead fighters, ready to attack it with her short sword once he was solid enough to do so, and Orchid cast a second freedom of movement spell upon herself.  Chaevaris and Alistair focused their attention on Andrew, standing a good ten feet behind his bodyguards, the archer with her arrow and the sorcerer with his lesser metamagic rod of maximize spell, through which he planned to send a scorching ray spell.Once the undead forms looked solid enough and started moving, Chaevaris released her arrow from the back of the Boccobian temple.  The arrow flew true and struck Andrew in the forehead, where the arrowhead shattered and fell to the ground, seemingly having done the lich no apparent harm.  Alistair fired off his spell and sent twin gouts of flame Andrew's way, engulfing the lich in a blast of fire that singed his bones, while Ageratum's sword swung out at the undead fighter beside her, cutting through his armor and into his thighbone.  But then, having assumed full corporeality, the full force of the mummies' aura of despair struck the heroes, temporarily freezing up all but Harlan (who was immune to all forms of fear effects) and Orchid (whose freedom of movement spell had the fortunate side effect of making her immune to paralyzation).However, for the next few moments, it was a three-against-two fight in the favor of the undead forces.  Harlan didn't let that concern him; he boldly stepped up to the mummy before him and swung several times with his Starblade at the undead thing, the smiting energy of Pelor in his first swing, cutting deep into desiccated flesh and bone time and again in a rapid-fire sequence.  The accumulated damage was enough to have taken down most of the other humanoid foes the paladin had encountered in his heroic career thus far, but the mummy fighter still stood.Orchid cast a wall of thorns spell, encompassing the two fighters along its front edge and burying Andrew in ten feet of spiny thickets in all directions.  Then the druid moved over by Ageratum, hoping to be able to protect the now-visible halfling while she was temporarily unable to move to defend herself.  Andrew, seemingly unhampered by the piercing thorns all about him, cast a summoning spell from a scroll and a towering earth elemental appeared near Orchid and Ageratum, fist already swinging down in an overhead slam aimed at the druid.  But before it could finish its deadly arc, it slammed into an invisible barrier of some sort: Harlan's magic circle against evil, which prevented it - or any part of it - from reaching the druid while she was within the radius of effect of the paladin's spell.The two mummy fighters struggled through the briars and brambles, each moving diagonally away from Harlan to reach the freedom outside the wall of thorns spell.  Harlan swung his flaming Starblade at the one immediately before him and connected, but still he refused to fall.  The half-elf moved over to his left, to keep up with the mummies, and dodged a blow from his primary opponent as he did so, but then channeled more of Pelor's smiting energy through his blade and finally cut down the first of the two mummies, who collapsed in a heap of armor and undead flesh before him.  The Starblade went unerringly from one undead body to the next, cutting through the second mummy's throat, but what would have been a mortal wound on a mortal foe was far less debilitating to an undead mummy.Before the Huge earth elemental could strike again, Orchid cast another freedom of movement spell, this one upon Ageratum, and it had the effect of instantly freeing her from her paralysis.  Then the druid scooted back closer to Harlan, getting back inside the range of his magic circle against evil spell.  The two of them were just inside the doorway to the temple, limiting the sides by which their enemies could try to strike them.But Andrew attacked them where they stood, by casting a blade barrier spell all along the front of the temple's interior, catching both heroes in a mass of whirling blades.  Orchid leapt back further into the temple instinctively, whereas Harlan wasn't as lucky - or as quick.  Flying blades swung at him from all directions, more than he could block with his shield or parry with his Starblade.The remaining mummy went to go attack Ageratum, passing by the open doorway as he did so.  Harlan struck out at him from amidst the mass of whirling blades, catching him by surprise, but not enough to throw the mummy's own attack off by much, for his own battered blade cut through the halfling's armor and into her shoulder, causing her whole arm to go numb as blood seeped from the wound.  Then, to make matters even worse, while she had been focused upon the mummy the earth elemental pounded down at her from above.  She, unfortunately, was just outside the range of Harlan's magic circle against evil spell, and the massive fists battered her to the ground, dropping her to her hands and knees.Chaevaris finally snapped out of her mental paralysis, activated her boots of speed, and got back into the swing of things.  Despite there now being a mass of whirling blades across the doorway and a wall of thorns further concealing Andrew, the elf could see enough of her foe to loose her three last undead bane arrows and a normal arrow after that, each fired with enough expertise to make it past both potential barriers without being battered away.  However, they barely seemed to have any effect upon the lich, causing the archer to realize she wasn't really going to be able to deal the undead spellcaster enough damage to get past his innate defenses.Ageratum slapped at her magic bracelet, resumed her state of invisibility, and scrambled up the outer wall of the temple, reaching the roof.  Just to be safe, she backed up enough to be where she felt she was beyond the earth elemental's massive reach.  She then fumbled at her belt, seeking out the healing potion she knew she kept there - for she was, at this point, in desperate need of some magical healing!Alistair, standing beside Chaevaris, also snapped out his paralysis and decided the various impediments - blade barrier and wall of thorns spells - couldn't stop a maximized magic missile spell, so he fired one of those off through his metamagic rod and sent it streaming over at the lich.  At the same time, Harlan extricated himself from the blade barrier spell and sent a flurry of sword-strikes at the mummy fighter, nearly cutting his undead flesh to ribbons.  No blood spilled from its wounds, but it was fairly obvious the fighter couldn't withstand much more of such punishment.Orchid, suspecting at this point it was greatly needed, cast a mass cure light wounds spell, which had the added advantage of dealing damage to undead flesh as well as healing up the wounds of those living bodies within the area of effect.  The rush of positive energy was enough to finally slay the second undead mummy, leaving Andrew alone on the battlefield as the heroes' sole remaining enemy.  But he quickly responded by casting an inflict wounds spell upon himself, the negative energy having a healing effect upon his undead form.The Huge earth elemental, by this time - either by Andrew's mental command or on its own initiative - lumbered down the alley to the west of the Boccobian temple, where a side door allowed access to the building's interior.  But Chaevaris, back behind the desk at the rear of the temple, decided if she couldn't directly harm Andrew, she could still bring another weapon into play, and caused another door to manifest on the back wall of the temple interior.  Sensing the elf's plan, Alistair called for Carruthers to exit their extradimensional dwelling and come help guard the temple against any and all enemies.  The door opened and the shield guardian stepped into the temple, ready to do his master's bidding, while the sorcerer directed his attention back at Andrew, firing off another maximized magic missile spell through his metamagic rod.  That was the last daily use of the metamagic rod; any further attack spells would rely upon the sorcerer's own arcane abilities as to how much energy he could channel into them.Up on the roof, Ageratum drank down her healing potion and ran over to just above the alley door, still invisible and planning on how best to attack the towering elemental.  Down before the open front doors of the Boccobian temple, Harlan realized the wall of thorns was no impediment to him while Orchid's freedom of movement spell was still in effect upon him, and, Starblade in hand, charged through the thickets, which parted for him before his approach.  He brought his holy flaming burst longsword crashing into Andrew's side.  The strike did nowhere near as much damage as Harlan had hoped - Andrew's undead bones were magically hardened against physical attacks - but the fact that the lich wasn't as safe here in the wall of thorns as he'd assumed had apparently shaken him up, for he pulled out another scroll and started casting the spell inscribed therein.  Harlan cut him again with his blade as he did so, but the antimagic field spell took effect immediately thereafter, and the paladin saw with dismay the flames go out along his sword's blade, felt the magical deflecting power of his shield diminish to nothingness, and could feel the magical enhancement to his physical strength get snuffed out like a candle as well.  Furthermore, he was no longer able to move effortless through the thorns which had somehow remained unaffected by the antimagic field.  Simply put, he was now stuck in here facing the lich on his own!Orchid cast a summon nature's ally spell which caused a Huge air elemental to manifest beside the earth elemental, and set it against the rocky foe, which had just kicked its way through the alleyway door, leaving it hanging in splinters.  (What it was planning on doing after that was anybody's guess, as its rocky body was far too big to fit through the now-open doorway.)  But the opening gave Chaevaris a good view of a foe she could possibly harm, and she sent a few arrows flying up over Carruthers' shoulder to strike the earth elemental.  Ageratum, deciding not to draw the massive earth elemental's attention back on her by attacking it after all - she figured the others had things well in hand on that front - ran back over to the southwest corner of the temple's roof and spider climbed her way down to the ground.Alistair blasted a lightning bolt spell at the earth elemental, while Orchid's summoned air elemental continued to pound at the thing's back with its fists made of whirling air.  The earth elemental ignored these attacks in its single-minded focus upon the foe before it: Carruthers, who it tried striking with its boulderlike fists, to no avail - fighting through such a (relatively) small doorway was next to impossible for it.  Carruthers demonstrated that he had no such concerns, pummeling the earth elemental with his own massive fists.  And Chaevaris kept up her ongoing arrow barrage, each one dealing little damage by itself but slowly whittling away at the earthen monstrosity.  Alistair sent another lightning bolt its way for good measure, damaging it even further.  But just as it looked ready to fall over, Orchid cast the killing blow, not with a spell - for she was pretty much out of attack spells at this time - but with a well-aimed arrow of her own from her frost longbow.  The arrow struck the elemental, causing a patch of frost to form around the wound-point, and then cracks raced all through its frame, causing it to collapse in a pile of rubble.  Fortunately, as a summoned creature, the rubble vanished almost instantly, preventing the alleyway access from being blocked.Over at the front of the temple, Ageratum threw a "pebboulder" at Andrew, watching it attain its full boulder size immediately upon entering the antimagic field, but even though it struck true it didn't seem to even faze the lich.  That's when she realized she didn't have any real way to harm the lich either - it was all up to Harlan at this point.And Harlan was well aware of this fact.  Knowing of the lich's extra-dense bones, he figured he'd have to deal it as much damage per strike as he could, which meant concentrating less upon accurate strikes and focusing more upon the strength of each blow.  Even without his bull's strength boosting him, the paladin was more than the equal of any strongman, and he pumped all he could into each blow, making them count.  It was a deadly back-and-forth fight, with the paladin's sword only barely seeming to hurt Andrew with each strike, while the lich used his claws to much better effect; now it was merely a matter of which of the two could hold out the longest against the other's attacks.  The antimagic field prevented Harlan from using his laying on of hands, which would have healed up the worst of his wounds - it was a test of endurance, one which the Pelorian paladin knew he could not fail, for if he succumbed to the lich's attacks, he feared the other heroes had no way by which to slay him before he regained his book and could become effectively immortal.But despite the lich's attacks faring much better against Harlan than the paladin's sword-strikes were doing against Andrew, Harlan had started this one-on-one melee with a much greater level of overall health and well-being than had Andrew, who'd already had several powerful attack spells hurled his way.  True, Andrew dealt Harlan more damage than Harlan was able to inflict upon him, but the paladin had a greater resource from which to draw, and in the end, that was what finally turned the tide.  Bleeding from a dozen wounds by that time, Harlan nevertheless managed to strike Andrew's head from his neck, the magically-depowered Starblade still a well-honed blade capable of such a blow.  The lich's headless body fell to a heap at Harlan's feet; the skull remained caught up in a patch of thorns until Orchid dismissed her spell.Once he was able to do so, Harlan send Pelor's healing energy to close the worst of his wounds, while Orchid ran back outside - the blade barrier was now down - to tend to him with her own healing spells.  Alistair looked down at the book he still held, and which the two Boccobian acolytes looked upon with curious greed, wondering what the pages inside had to say.  "I'm sorry," Alistair told them.  "My initial offer is hereby rescinded; as the phylactery now holds Andrew's spirit, we will be destroying it immediately, before he has a chance to remanifest.""But the knowledge contained within--" sputtered one of the acolytes, the first to find his voice."Will have to remain lost," replied Alistair, tossing the book onto the remains of the shattered alleyway door and casting a scorching ray spell at it that soon had it blazing.  It was hard to tell, but the sorcerer thought he heard the faraway cry of a tortured voice, although it may have just been his own imagination.  He fed the flames the remaining chunks of shattered wood from the door, getting a nice, blazing bonfire going - before casting a shrink item spell upon it once the pages of the book had been reduced to ashes.  Then he placed the resulting piece of fabric in his pocket; he'd been neglectful, and a shrunken bonfire would certainly have come in handy against the lich in his antimagic field."When the head cleric gets back, have him contact us if he wants us to slay the other undead in the hidden library we unearthed and return the books and scrolls stored there to your temple here," Alistair said to the two low-level clerics.  The acolytes, sullen at having the phylactery destroyed before them against their wishes, nonetheless agreed to pass on the message.  And the head cleric, once appraised of the situation, agreed at once to hire the Trained Professional Adventurers to clear out the hidden library of undead and bring the accumulated knowledge back with them.That plan, at least, went off without a hitch. - - -This game session was a little contentious, with Dan making some "immediate, top-of-the-head" rulings that somehow always seemed to work against us, only to have to backtrack once we showed him what the rules said about the matter at hand.  Still, he overruled the rules a few times even after the fact, which is how we had a temporary wall of thorns spell still up in the midst of an antimagic field, and why Harlan's smite evil attack which felled one mummy fighter was not allowed to be applied to the second mummy fighter, who was right there within range, when Harry pointed out Harlan had the Cleave feat.  Dan ruled the smite evil only affected the first mummy, even though with the Cleave feat it's the same swing that affects a second creature if the first foe falls.  (Dan argued that to do so would allow Harlan to "double up on damage" - a concept he turned completely on its head when he tried applying the blade barrier spell damage to Harlan on the round in which the spell was fist cast and he failed his save, but then again when it was Harlan's turn in the round; fortunately we were able to talk him out of that.)It also became apparent that we had seemingly gotten shorted on XP once Dan told us how much we had earned.  Andrew had cast a summon monster VII spell to bring forth that Huge earth elemental (and had cast an 8th-level spell, discern location, to find out where we'd gone after leaving with his phylactery, as he had no idea we were stationed in Ghourmand Vale).  Casting 8th-level spells means a Caster Level of 15 or higher, and with a +2 CR of a lich applied, that should have given us over 5,000 XP each just for Andrew.  But no, Andrew was just an 11th-level cleric, Dan told us - it turned out he'd misapplied how a temporarily increased Wisdom score (from an owl's wisdom spell) works, and gave Andrew the "bonus spells" of spell levels he couldn't even cast.  For the benefit of the Story Hour write-up, I turned those into spells cast from scrolls.Bottom line: we need to look after not only Dan's unfamiliarity with some of the rules, but also with his "adversarial DM" inclinations.  Oh, and yesterday he informed us this week's Wednesday and Saturday games need to be put on hold, as they have family visiting.  So our next game session in this campaign won't be until 10 April.</blockquote>

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