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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 9398417" data-attributes="member: 508">ADVENTURE 56: TAPHRANOORGLUM'S DOLL HOUSEPC Roster:Ageratum Purslane, halfling rogue 13             Alistair Mandelberen Pastlethwaite, human sorcerer 13             Chaevaris Noarunal, elf archer 13             Harlan Starblade, half-elf paladin 13NPC Roster:Orchid, elf druid 13Game Session Date: 25 June 2024 - - -"I say," gasped Alistair, after clearing his lungs of the seawater he'd imbibed upon being dragged down in the dead kraken's tentacles, before being rescued by Harlan's celestial pegasus, Nova, who flew him back up to the deck of the Lady Gloria.  "I think I could do with a spot of healing, if you don't mind."  Orchid was there at once by his side with her staff of healing, attending to his wounds and then to those of the other heroes who had taken hits from the kraken's lashing and crushing tentacles.  It took some time for the kraken's control weather spell to run its course, but Alistair didn't mind the rolling decks so much now that he was above water where he could breathe, and his ribs weren't being crushed.  It was somewhat ironic that after a 19-day voyage on the water, it was a mere several hours before the end of their trip that the sorcerer's stomach finally got used to be jostled around so much.But as predicted, the island came within view a short time later.  Ageratum had already gathered up her thieves' coil and Caruthers had been stowed back inside Chaevaris's necklace, and the spellcasters busied themselves making sure any spells they wanted already in effect when they landed on the island were in place.  The Rary's telepathic bond spell was still in effect, as were Harlan's bull's strength and freedom of movement spells, as well as the potion of swimming Ageratum had gulped down.  But Alistair cast his morning mage armor spell on himself and a maximized flame arrow spell on the group's assembled ammunition; Orchid cast a longstrider spell on herself and barkskin spells on everyone, then finished with an air walk spell cast on Chaevaris at the archer's request.  Harlan cast a magic circle against evil spell on himself and signaled to Ageratum to go ahead and activate her magic rope.  "I'll meet you over there!" he promised, leaping up onto Nova's broad back and flying over towards the island after waving a farewell to the captain and his crew.Ageratum got everyone positioned with the rope encircling them and said the command word.  In an instant, they were teleported from the deck of the Lady Gloria to the sands of the beach on the island the halfling had been able to see from the ship.  As she put the thieves' coil away - now with just one charge remaining, that they intended to use to teleport back to Ghourmand Vale after rescuing the bard Holyrood Carp - Chaevaris scanned the skies and saw Harlan and Nova flying over, while the others looked about them to see their new locale.The beach was a narrow crescent, bounded by sandy dunes.  There was a path of sorts, made of haphazardly spaced flat stones, leading up and over one of the dunes; the others started down that path as Harlan and Nova flew a quick reconnaissance mission around the small island.  The pair landed as the rest of the group got to the end of the path, which led to a single-story building, much wider than it was deep.  "It's the only building on the entire island," Harlan reported as he dismounted from his aerial steed.  "Three ways in, from what I could see: an open doorway at either end, and the main entryway, here."  He indicated a sort of curved portico sticking out from the middle of one of the longer walls of the structure, where the stony path led from the beach."Then one would imagine Carp lies somewhere within," suggested Alistair.  "Shall we?"The group entered, taking the time to let Carruthers out of the extradimensional dwelling once Chaevaris activated the doorway onto the side of the wall, then deactivating it again once the shield guardian had exited.  Nova stayed just outside the building while the others cautiously entered.The first thing they noticed was that the entire structure was one big, empty room.  Directly ahead was a small table with a glass pitcher and three small tumblers, just as Carp had described in the dream that had led the adventurers here.  On the wall behind it was a small mirror, and to either side of the mirror stood a marble statue of a life-size human warrior, one wearing heavy armor and wielding a longsword, the other dressed in the fighting garb of a monk.  There was a long koi pond at either end of the building, with a separate, open-air room at the end leading outside."Not much to this place," Ageratum observed.  "Betcha anything there's a secret way down to a lower level."Harlan slowly approached the center of the room by the table, focusing his attention on the statue of the monk, seeing if it had any aura of evil about it.  Sure enough, the paladin could sense emanations of an evil nature coming from the statue, and he warned the others over the telepathic link.  Orchid cast a detect poison and approached the table, her focus on the pitcher of water, fearing it might be drugged, but it seemed harmless to her magically-enhanced senses.  Chaevaris air walked up into the room until her head almost hit the ceiling - the entire structure had a ceiling height of about 15 feet - and felt a sudden brush of something up against her mind.  She shrugged it off, but realized for a split second there, she was almost convinced she was terribly thirsty.  She warned the others over the link, but Orchid insisted there was nothing wrong with the water.Alistair cast a detect magic spell and went to examine the pitcher as Ageratum activated her bracelet of invisibility and snuck in along one side.  Ambrose flapped his wings nervously as he sat perched upon his master's right shoulder.  The little grackle couldn't pin it down, but something seemed off about this whole setup."Carruthers!" Alistair called out.  "Please be as good as to smash that glass pitcher on the table, there, if you would."  The shield guardian ambled up and did as instructed, shattering the pitcher between his massive hands.  Water spilled down onto the table and the marble floor.  At about the same time, the monk statue suddenly turned to flesh and said a strange word - "Inyago" - before stepping down off the 2-foot-tall plinth and moving forward.The next thing everyone knew, Ambrose was flapping himself to the ground, to land upon a pile of Alistair's clothing and gear; similar piles came falling to the ground where Chaevaris and Harlan had been.  Ageratum and Orchid looked frantically around them, but there were no signs of the other three heroes - they had just vanished into thin air, leaving all of their possessions behind.The monk skirted around Carruthers in an attempt to go strike Orchid, but the shield guardian, obeying his central orders to keep his master and those he traveled with safe, brought a massive fist down upon the monk as he passed.  Furthermore, Ageratum got a strike in with her human bane short sword that nearly crippled the monk as he passed within range of her blade.  The attack caused the halfling to pop back into full visibility, but as she had attacked from behind the monk, he still didn't see her. came Alistair's voice across the mental link.  <Can anybody hear me?><Loud and clear,> confirmed Chaevaris.  <Are you in an area of sudden blackness?><As am I,> added Harlan's voice.<Whatever happened to Carp has happened to us.  What about the others?  Ageratum?  Orchid?  Are you okay?><Busy!> replied Orchid, as she barely dodged the monk's fist strike, his aim no doubt thrown off by the unexpected hits he'd taken in getting over to the elven druid.  <Fighting the monk statue, who is now fully flesh and bone!>  As she was passing her message over the shared mental link, she was simultaneously striking back at the monk with her scimitar, hitting him in the side of the arm as he futilely tried to dodge her blows.Then the fighter statue became flesh as well.  He stepped down off of his plinth and headed for Carruthers, seeing him as the greatest threat.  His longsword clanged across the shield guardian's armored form, causing sparks to fly as metal hit metal.Ageratum stepped forward and stabbed her human bane short sword into the monk's lower back, killing him instantly.  She then darted off to the side, ending up directly behind the fighter attacking Carruthers.<Wherever I am, I can't seem to teleport out of it,> Alistair admitted over the Rary's telepathic bond spell.  <Also, I seem to be...in a state of undress.><Yeah, same here.><Likewise.>Carruthers whirled about and struck at the fighter, but he easily dodged under the massive fists being swung his way.  Orchid cast a contagion spell on her hand and touched the fighter, hoping to cause him a blinding sickness, but while the spell ran its course the man simply shrugged off the intended effects.  Nova, drawn into the building by the sounds of combat, raced up beside Carruthers and struck out at the fighter with his hooves, but the armored opponent dodged back out of the way in time, then turned his spin into a sideways swing of his blade, catching Orchid in the side.  But while his attention was focused upon the elf, the little halfling snuck up and caught him in the back of the leg with her human bane short sword.  Her blow also managed to siphon off some of his strength, a little trick the halfling had been practicing of late and was glad to be able to put to good use.While Nova and Carruthers once again failed to connect with their blows, Orchid took a step back and cast a produce flame spell on her hand.  A ball of flame appeared, which she threw in the fighter's face, singeing his eyebrows and reddening the skin where it hit.  He hit her twice in rapid succession with his sword, but it was obvious he was on his last legs, and another strike from behind by Ageratum caused him to topple lifelessly to the ground.  Just to be sure, the halfling, falling on old habits, slit his throat and then did likewise with the monk.<You know, I think we're in the mirror!><What?  Impossible, Elfy!  Did you see your own reflection in the mirror?><No, I was too high up.><Nor did I - my focus was on the pitcher and the three goblets.  There is an item called a mirror of life trapping, I believe, but you have to see your reflection to be caught up in its trap.><Well, do you have any better explanation for where we are?><...No.  I fear not.> Harlan admitted.  <Still, there's one way to find out for sure.  Orchid!  Ageratum!  Can one of you break the mirror when you get a chance, please?>Orchid was the closest to the mirror when the request came, and using the butt end of the hilt of her scimitar, she smashed the glass of the mirror.  All of a sudden, there was a pile of naked bodies at her feet.  Three of them she recognized at once, although this was more of them than she was used to seeing, but the other three were complete strangers.  And they were all dead, their emaciated bodies looking as if they'd starved to death, although they each had the telltale marks of savage beatings upon their desiccated flesh as well."If you would be as good as to turn your gazes away..." suggested Alistair, as he sidled over to the pile of his clothes and hastily began dressing himself.  Harlan and Chaevaris did likewise, and while Orchid did as requested, Ageratum snuck in a peek or two - or three - at the men.  (Okay, very possibly four or five, but no more than six, tops.)"That's much better!" exclaimed Alistair once he was back to fully dressed.  He looked over at Ageratum, but she was studiously busy with pulling off any items of value from the slain monk and fighter.  Besides the fighter's plate mail armor and longsword, she also held up an ornate ring and a pair of expensive diamonds, each on a chain.  "They were wearing these around their necks," the halfling pointed out.  Chaevaris opened the door to their extradimensional home and they pitched the loot inside, to go through later.  "Now then, I believe you said something about hidden means of going down to a lower level?""There's gotta be," Ageratum affirmed, and sure enough, she was right: both of the "koi ponds" turned out to be permanent illusions covering stairs leading down.  As the tops of the stairs were closest together and led down in opposite directions, the group decided to station Nova and Carruthers at the top of the northern set of steps while the heroes took the southern route; that way, they could be certain no one would be doubling back behind them as they explored.Orchid cast a mass bear's endurance on the five heroes as they went down the stairs, boosting their abilities to remain in combat.  Harlan was the first one down to the second level, and the first thing he saw was yet another staircase, this one set at a right angle leading further down to the east.  But figuring it made sense to fully explore one level at a time, he ignored the stairs for now and opened the door across from those stairs, finding inside a wizard's workshop, filled with all sorts of things needed for the creation and production of magical items.  No one was in there at the moment and there were no other doors leading out of the room, though, so he closed the door and returned to the hallway, explaining what he'd seen to the others.Orchid came down the stairs, turned the corner, and saw a human woman at the far end of the corridor.  Unsure if she was an enemy or someone under a domination effect (like they assumed was the case with Carp), she prepared to throw the flaming orb she held suspended over one open hand, the result of her previously-cast produce flame spell.  Chaevaris took up position beside the druid, aiming her longbow at the leather-clad human woman in case she tried anything.  From what she could see, the woman held a short sword in her hand, so the archer knew she'd be able to release her arrow in plenty of time if she decided to attack either of the elves.Ageratum was back to full invisibility by the time she hit the bottom of the steps, but whereas Harlan and the elves had gone right, she went left around the staircase.  Alistair followed in her wake, although it was entirely accidental because he couldn't see the invisible halfling.  But he took the opportunity to cast a shield spell on himself and Ambrose, who sat perched upon his shoulder once again.The human woman suddenly shouted, "There are intruders here, they got past the monk!" - then made some sort of motion at the wall behind her.  (Ageratum, stepping into view from the other side of the stairwell, saw it as opening a secret door.)  But Harlan charged down the hallway, the woman's words showing her to be an enemy, likely one of the ones responsible for Holyrood Carp's captivity.  He hit her with his Starblade, and he could feel the holy ability of his blade dealing extra damage to her, showing her inherently evil nature.  But over Harlan's shoulders came a ball of solid flame and an arrow, each striking the rogue (the arrow piecing her left eye and slaying her instantly).  She toppled backwards, opening the secret door she'd already activated and falling lifelessly into a narrow corridor just beyond.Orchid dashed through the secret door as Harlan pulled the woman's body out of the way; the corridor was empty save for a latch that obviously opened another secret door on the far side of the corridor.  Opening that latch, she saw a series of doorways along her left.  Another human woman, this one wearing the robes of a wizard, stood at the fourth or fifth door - this was likely the one the just-slain rogue had been warning.  The druid responded to this new threat by casting a baleful polymorph spell, and just that quickly the woman was gone, replaced by a fluffy white bunny rabbit.  The bunny twitched its whiskers in confusion and hopped about; apparently the spell had been so effective the woman's human intellect had been subsumed by her bunny form and she was now, for all intents and purposes, nothing more than a harmless rabbit.  "Bunnification successful!" Orchid called back to her allies.There was another door just north of the wizard's workshop and Chaevaris gave it a quick peek inside: it was a study, currently devoid of any inhabitants.  Closing the door, she followed Orchid's path into the next section of the lower level, with all of the doors, and opened the first.  It was a smaller room, a bedroom, but very sparse.  If the archer had to hazard a guess, this was the monk's quarters.  The second bedroom, she'd guess, was the rogue's, judging by the decor.  The third was the bedroom of a wizard, but the last two doors were locked.Fortunately, Ageratum was at hand.  While staying fully invisible, she applied her wand of knock to the doors and opened each of them.  They were cells, likely one of them where Carp was imprisoned when not otherwise being dominated.Harlan and Alistair missed out on all of the bedroom exploring, however, for they'd heard the sounds of footsteps at the stairs leading to an even lower level.  The paladin raced back down the way he'd come, eager to do battle with any enemies coming up from below, but when the first one showed itself it was not what either hero had expected, for the humanoid form had the features of a fish!  But they'd fought such creatures before: skum, which they knew were created by aboleths.  That made sense, for aboleths liked to dominate their slaves - Carp was probably the thrall of an aboleth!  Alistair cast a magic missile spell at the skum and surprisingly, slew it as he and Ambrose made their way down the hallway at a more leisurely pace than Harlan, who positioned himself at the top of these lower stairs and saw two more skum on their way up.  came a call across the telepathic bond, alerting the women of the upcoming threat.  They had been stripping the rogue's body of lootable items - armor, short sword, dagger - and tossing them into the extradimensional dwelling, and Chaevaris pushed on ahead when she saw a set of stairs leading down over at their end of things.  Assuming the level below met up with the stairs over by Harlan, the elven archer went downstairs, Ageratum at her heels.Harlan's flaming blade caught the second skum in the throat and he toppled backwards down the stairs; the one behind him tossed him contemptuously aside as he rushed up to take his fallen brother's place.  And more of the fish-things were lining up at the bottom of the steps to rise up and take on the intruders.Chaevaris and Ageratum got to the bottom of the stairs and saw the lowest level; sure enough, there were several skum lining up to take the stairs at the far end of the natural cavern comprising this level.  In the middle of the cavern was a fountain with some sort of fish-monster statue in its center, and standing before this monstrosity was the unmistakable form of Holyrood Carp.  He was facing east, where the cavern opened up to a wide pool of water containing another half dozen or so skum wading to shore.  There was some type of mist or fog in the center of this juncture, reaching up to the cavern ceiling, but it was thin enough to be able to see through, given the phosphorescent gems embedded in the cavern's rock walls, which gave the entire chamber an eerie, almost glowing quality.Carp seemed not to have noticed the two female members of the Trained Professional Adventurers coming down the stairs (although in his defense, Ageratum was still invisible), but they both saw him just fine: he seemed to be casting some sort of spell, but neither woman was adept enough in spellcraft to be able to determine just what spell it might have been.  Chaevaris shot an arrow behind the bard's back, aiming for one of the skum lining up at the far stairs, but she uncharacteristically missed her shot, and the arrowhead scraped along the stone floor of the cavern by the skum's webbed feet.  At the top of those stairs, Alistar stepped up behind Harlan and sent another magic missile spell into the fish-face of another skum, killing him instantly.  Another leaped up the stairs to snap its teeth at Harlan, but the paladin pushed him away with his shield.  As the skum raced back up the stairs to get to Harlan, it was surprised to see the shield no longer deflecting its body - which had somehow been pierced through the chest with the paladin's flaming sword.  It fell backwards, dead.Orchid came up behind Harlan, on the other side from Alistair, and tossed a flame-ball at another skum, hitting it but not killing it.  But Chaevaris had her next arrow locked on to Carp's body, ready to shoot if he tried anything.  (Given this was a friend, she aimed not at his eye but rather at his belly, and didn't have the bowstring pulled back as far as it could be - she wanted to incapacitate him if possible, not kill him.)  "Who do you serve?" she called out to the bard.Carp turned and faced her.  "Myself," he replied, smiling an evil smirk."Are you under control by an aboleth?""What a silly question," remarked Carp, not answering the "silly question" at all.  He took a step towards Chaevaris."Don't move!" warned the archer.But in the meantime, Ageratum had moved up, silent as a cat and as unseen as the wind.  When she got close enough, she flung the rope of entanglement at Carp, and he seemed somewhat surprised to see a uncoiling rope suddenly wrapping around him out of nowhere.  But he started casting a spell as the rope entwined around him, and seemed about to get it off in time.  But then Chaevaris released her bowstring and caught Carp in the gut, the arrow projecting out from the bard's belly, and whatever spell he'd been trying to cast fizzled away to nothing.Alistair backed up into the doorway of the workshop and slew another skum with a magic missile spell cast over Harlan's shoulder.  That left an open path down the stairs, and Harlan raced down it, seeing a bound but upright Carp standing beside a horrific-looking statue/fountain thing.  Ageratum and Chaevaris were on the far side of the bard.  Harlan raced up to Carp, and as soon as he got within 10 feet of him the magic circle against evil spell encompassed the bard and he stiffened as the mind that had been moving his body was suddenly cast out.  "It was a magic jar spell!" Carp cried.  "The aboleth's mind was in the diamond on the chain around my neck!"  Harlan grabbed the pendant from around the bard's neck and tossed it to the ground.Orchid had, by this time, come down the stairs and had heard the latest discourse.  She summoned a towering earth elemental using a summon nature's ally spell, commanding the creature to destroy the diamond.  It stomped on it with a foot carved from solid stone and it shattered - it would never be used to dominate anyone ever again.Chaevaris ran up by the fountain and targeted one of the three skum in the pool she could see with her next arrow, releasing it and putting the point through the middle of its piscine forehead.  It fell instantly, dead.  Ageratum ran up to the edge of the mist, seeing a pair of curved steps leading down into the water.  Fishing out her elemental gem, she tossed it over by the other skum in the pool and a wave exploded upwards, taking on the form of a water elemental as large as the earth elemental Orchid had summoned.  The water elemental called out, "I see the aboleth!" in his watery language - which Ageratum could understand perfectly, as she was wearing the magic helm that translated all languages for her.  She relayed the information to the others over the still-active telepathic link.  The water elemental, in the meantime, took out the nearest skum with a watery fist, crushing the fish-man's skull.But then the aboleth, Taphranoorglum, made its presence known by flying up out of the water like a breaching whale.  Unlike a whale, though, it remained hovering above the water, the result of a quickened fly spell.  The three-eyed fish-thing then immediately cast a chain lightning spell at Harlan, sending arcs of electricity flying off from the paladin to strike Carp, Ageratum, and Chaevaris, the only potential foes it could see, for Orchid was still around the corner and Alistair was still coming down the stairs, picking his way past the corpses of slain skum.The remaining skum in the pool of water all advanced upon the water elemental, trying to bite it with their teeth and clawing at it as well, but its fluid body resisted most of their attacks.  Alistair heard the commotion over the mental link and cast a greater invisibility spell on Ambrose as he stepped foot upon the lower cavern, thinking to load up his familiar with a combat spell he could then go deliver unseen to the aboleth.  Harlan, warning the others not to enter the mist (for he feared it was a mind fog spell that would only make them more susceptible to the aboleth's domination attempts), pulled out his longbow and shot an arrow at the hovering aboleth.  The flames from the bow being further advanced by the maximized flame arrow spell Alistair had cast earlier, the arrow struck true and flash-fried a section of the fish-thing's scales, filling the chamber with the smell of cooked fish.Orchid advanced by the fountain and got her first good look at an aboleth, then cast a wall of thorns spell at the water's level, imprisoning the tentacled fish-monster within their piercing branches.  Then, upon the druid's verbal orders, the earth elemental smashed the creepy fountain statue with the oddball human and fish features.  Chaevaris fitted another arrow to her longbow, aimed for the middle of the aboleth's three horizontal eyes, and let fly, piercing the orb smack-dab in the middle.  As the noise of thunder rolled over the aboleth's body, the archer could see that completely blinding this monster would take two more shots instead of the normal one!  No fair, having to deal with a three-eyed monster!Ageratum pulled out her wand of magic missiles and coaxed a shot out of it, striking the thorn-imprisoned aboleth.  It might not have been as powerful an attack as the archer's arrows, but every little bit helped.  Beneath the aboleth, the water elemental took out another two skum.But the aboleth wasn't dead yet.  It wriggled its tentacles, but if it had been trying to escape from the thorns it was unsuccessful.  (It had actually been casting a spell, although the heroes hadn't figured that out just yet.)  The action caused some of the thorns to pierce even deeper into the aboleth's scaled flesh, but it didn't seem to mind.  Below it, the remaining skum were doing all they could against the water elemental, but they weren't getting very far very fast.Alistair made his way by the fountain with the crumbled statue, saw Taphranoorglum imprisoned in the thorns, and decided to go for a straight combat spell instead of employing Ambrose just yet.  He fired off a chain lightning spell, intending to arc off the aboleth and take out the closest skum as well, as all but one of them were within range.  But that's when the sorcerer found out the aboleth had been doing some spellcasting of its own, for his spell hit the aboleth's spell turning spell and was turned right back at Alistair.  The full force of the electrical blast hit Alistair, and there were no arcs striking out at the skum - he'd merely managed to hurt himself in the attack.  (Ambrose had the good fortune to flap off his master's shoulder at the last possible moment.)  The sorcerer was naturally hurt by the lightning blast, but he was even more puzzled, for the spell turning spell - which is what he was certain was responsible for his chain lightning spell's sudden betrayal - was of a power level high enough that the sorcerer was just now getting strong enough to cast!  He'd had several discussions about aboleths with the wizard Blorkane back home - the portly mage seemed somewhat obsessed with them - but he'd never mentioned them being of so high of a spellcasting level!  Just who was this aboleth, anyway?Harlan shot another arrow at the aboleth, but he was no trained archer like Chaevaris, and the shot went wide.  Orchid cast a wall of fire spell across the front of the wall of thorns spell; she'd seen what had happened to Alistair's spell when he attacked the creature directly, and decided indirect fire damage was the way to go.  The smell of cooked fish only intensified, as the spell burned up three of the skum as well as Taphranoorglum.Chaevaris concentrated on the aboleth's lower eye, took careful aim, and took it out with her next shot.  The three-eyed fish-monster was now down to one eye, the very top one, and it was having a bit of difficulty lowering its head enough to be able to see the upstart intruders in the cavern below it.  Ageratum fished around for her necklace of fireball beads and plucked the most powerful bead she had of the three remaining.  Loading it up into her sling, she flung it at the aboleth, watching with a grin as the small fireball exploded against its head.  It wriggled for a moment as if trying to free itself from the thorns, but the combination of the fireball and the ongoing wall of fire finally cooked it where it hung.  Shortly thereafter, the water elemental slew the last remaining skum, leaving the heroes without any more foes to fight."Do you mind freeing me?" asked Carp, hopping around all trussed up in the rope of entanglement.  Ageratum said the command word that released the rope, and the bard rubbed his wrists.  "I cannot thank you enough for coming to my rescue!" he said, wincing in pain as he pulled Chaevaris's arrow from his stomach.  Orchid approached him with her staff of healing to repair the wound."Well, we were glad to be of service," remarked Harlan.  "Now then, Ageratum, if you'd like to stow the rope of entanglement and get out the thieves' coil, I think we're all about ready to return to Ghourmand Vale.""What?" cried the little halfling, aghast at the very thought.  "We can't leave yet!"A frown crossed Harlan's brow.  "Are there any other prisoners we've yet to meet up with?" he asked Carp."Nope, the others were all dominated until they opted to willingly serve the aboleth - I'm the only one left.""Not the point," insisted Ageratum.  "There's plenty of cool loot upstairs in the good bedrooms!"She was right, too, for the wizard's quarters held a carpet of flying, a staff of life, one application of sovereign glue, a vial of stone salve, and a bunch of journals.  And once she'd chased down the bunny and slit its throat, the human wizard returned to her normal form, allowing the crafty halfling to remove her magic ring of protection and bracers of armor and retrieve the magic rapier belted at her side.  Harlan dismissed Nova, and Chaevaris put Carruthers back inside her necklace as well.  Then, placing the rope around everyone, Ageratum said the command word that teleported everyone back to Ghourmand Vale."I'm famished!" announced Holyrood Carp.  "Anybody else feel up to some dinner?""Absolutely - I'm thinking fish," suggested Alistair.Oddly enough, so was everyone else. - - -This adventure had a lot of problems with the way Dan ran it, starting with his confusion about how mirrors of life trapping work (you have to see your own reflection in it to be sucked in, but he had it try to grab everyone within 30 feet, despite whether we were valid targets or not, and he seemed to think it was "shot" like a weapon with the command word, catching everyone it could and then turning itself back off); I asked him at work the next morning if he had a plan in case all five of us failed our Will saves (after pointing out his misconceptions), and his only answer would have been to halt the game for that session and figure it out by the next week.  So no real plan, then.Next, I was fairly sure he had accidentally misread the mystic theurge rules when he mentioned he'd made the aboleth a mystic theurge, but it turns out nope, he read through those rules and understood them correctly; he just thought throwing an aboleth wizard 10/cleric 3/mystic theurge 3 - a CR 23 creature! - against a party of 13th-level PCs was a smart move.  And then he didn't bother reading through the XP rules; seeing the table capped out at CR 20 threats he just used that and called it good.  As a result, we were heavily shortchanged on the XP front (again!), but I put my foot down and insisted that if he was going to be throwing CR 23 creatures at us, we needed to get full CR 23 XP for it.  The adventure took us all the way through the rest of 13th level, all the way through 14th level, and partway into 15th level, but by the rules you can't advance more than one level per adventure, so we got stuck at 104,999 XP each, one XP short of 15th level.  That means we level up to 14th level, run through the next adventure, and level up to 15th immediately afterwards.At this rate, this campaign will be over before we know it.  (Which is good, because Logan and I had to convince Harry to stick with it until the end, as he was ready to bail after this adventure.  Nothing like spending the first 40 minutes sitting in a mirror of life trapping watching the other players fight the combat, then have to fight an overpowered "final boss" with the terrain and spell selection guaranteed to nerf most of the PCs' combat abilities.  It's a good thing Dan hadn't found a way to nerf our archer's massive arrow damage, or this might have ended up a TPK!)</blockquote>

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