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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 9466458" data-attributes="member: 508">ADVENTURE 61: DRAWNPC Roster:  Ageratum Purslane, halfling rogue 15             Alistair Mandelberen Pastlethwaite, human sorcerer 15             Chaevaris Noarunal, elf archer 15             Harlan Starblade, half-elf paladin 15NPC Roster: Orchid, elf druid 15Game Session Date: 19 September 2024 - - -Two days after the destruction of the Dark and Light Club and the slaying of the shadow dragon just outside the ruins thus created, the citizens of Ghourmand Vale were getting back to normal.  Mackrel Slade and his company were looking into the cleric or clerics of Iuz responsible for the destruction of the popular nightclub but hadn't made a lot of progress.  On the plus side, shadow dragon meat had an unusual smokiness that made for an interesting difference in taste; after the Trained Professional Adventurers had "gifted" the carcass to the town, dragon barbecues had sprung up all over the Vale.But then a delegation from the neighboring kingdoms of Selene and Ulek arrived in town with worrisome news: a war band of orcs and ogres were heading this way, marching from the southeast during the day and making camp each night in whatever small town or hamlet had the misfortune of being in their way.  They were currently south of Courwood, and estimates put them likely at the small hamlet of Woodgap by the time they'd be ready to set up camp for the night.  Having heard of the battle prowess of the members of the Trained Professional Adventures, the delegation had a proposal: they wished to hire the TPA to "cut off the head" of the enemy forces by slaying their leadership, namely a half-orc barbarian named Mungo Blum, his two ogre mage bodyguards, a half-orc cleric named Tor Horklott, and a personal guard of eight barbarian ogres of particular strength and savagery.  They'd likely be camping overnight in Woodgap - or what they left of it, if they followed suit with their plundering thus far and burned it to the ground - a couple hours after darkness fell.  That would be the best time to strike."We've got the thieves' coil," Ageratum reminded everyone.  "It would be easy enough to teleport over there.""Easy enough if any of us had been to Woodgap before, and knew what it looked like," corrected Alistair.  He turned to Orchid, who had spent many years in various forests before joining their adventuring group.  "Ever been to Woodgap?" he asked."I'm afraid not," the druid apologized.  But that didn't end up being too much of a problem, for the delegation had a scout named Guido who had been there before.  It was decided that Guido would steer the thieves' coil to the forest just outside Woodgap, allowing the TPA to sneak up to the hamlet and see if they could isolate the horde's leadership."There are several things that must be done," pointed out the leader of the delegation.  "We not only need Mungo and his team slain, but we need a black ring he wears returned to us."  He went on to explain that this was a holy relic, the ring of the Pomarj, which allowed its wearer to summon an army three times a year.  Once this army had been taken care of - the combined forces of Ulek and Selene would be facing them in combat after their leadership had been taken out - they didn't want to have the same thing come about if some other nefarious sort got his hands on the ring.  "You are welcome to keep any of the other armor, weapons, and whatnot you gather from those slain, but we must have the ring returned to us.""That won't be a problem," assured Harlan.Alistair was confused.  "I thought orcs hated sunlight," he said.  "Why wouldn't they be traveling at night and sleeping during the daylight hours?""Likely the personal preferences of this Mungo chap," suggested a delegate from Ulek.  "He's a half-orc, so the sunlight wouldn't bother him so much.  Probably doesn't care a whit what his men would prefer, and they're all about following power - if this Mungo is strong enough to keep them in line, they'll put up with marching in sunlight if it means getting to kill and pillage."  Alistair just shrugged; it was as logical an answer as he was likely to get."We'll need to know what Mungo and Tor look like," pointed out Chaevaris.  "An army that size, there are likely to be plenty of half-orcs among them.""True," agreed the delegates.  "But they're likely the only two half-orcs sleeping in comfort in the buildings of Woodgap."  Nonetheless, he gave the heroes a brief description of the two half-orcs: Mungo wore leather armor, gauntlets, a magic belt, and the ring of the Pomarj, while Tor was usually decked out in full plate mail armor trimmed in fur, and carried a shield and a mace with a ruby-red business end.After agreeing upon the fee for their actions, the five heroes gathered up their gear and presented Guido with the thieves' coil at the appropriate time and explained its use to him.  Alistair cast a Rary's telepathic bond spell linking the five heroes together in a mental communication link.  Then they all scooted together with the magic rope around the lot of them (Ambrose was perched upon Alistair's shoulder, and Carruthers was safely inside the extradimensional dwelling house in Chaevaris' magic necklace; Nova wouldn't be summoned until they reached the forest outside Woodgap, but Shushitan stood beside his mistress), and Guido closed his eyes, visualized where he wanted to go, and activated the thieves' coil.  There was a brief moment of disorientation - not uncommon with teleportation magic - and then they found themselves at the outskirts of a wooded forest.  The smell of ashes and smoke hung heavy in the air.Drawn by the light of feebly burning fires, the heroes crept forward towards the edge of the forest.  Ahead stood the ruins of Woodgap, a dozen or so buildings, not many of them still intact.  Chaevaris, squinting into the post-twilight darkness, said over the telepathic link she could make out three ogres on guard duty.  Much further away were the campfires of the rest of the army, the orc and ogre forces sleeping on the hard ground wrapped in whatever blankets and bedrolls there were to go around.  Apparently, the buildings of the hamlet of Woodgap were reserved solely for the makeshift army's leadership, as they'd been briefed.Alistair ushered everyone deeper into the forest, so they could cast spells without being overheard.  Ambrose flew in wide circle all around them, ensuring there were no enemies nearby, then Alistair cast five darkvision spells on the heroes, allowing them all to see in the darkness perfectly fine.  He also cast an endure elements spell upon himself, keeping the cold winter temperatures from bothering him; Orchid cast that same spell upon herself and upon Chaevaris.  The druid also cast barkskin spells upon herself, Harlan, and Shushitan, and a mass bear's endurance on all five heroes.  Ageratum rubbed the contents of a vial of stone salve over herself, granting her the equivalent of a stoneskin spell.  Harlan cast his usual spells - bull's strength, eagle's splendor, and magic circle against evil - then called across the planes for his celestial pegasus.  Once Nova had manifested, Orchid cast a barkskin spell upon him, too, as the half-elf paladin climbed up onto his flying mount's broad back.<Hang on, I have one more spell I want to cast,> replied Alistair over the link.  veil spell, making the five of us look like orcs.  We'll have to remember we can't actually speak their language, but if we pretend we don't hear them if they call out to us, we may get away with the ruse.><What about Nova?> asked Orchid.  <They won't be fooled by an orc riding around on a pegasus.><I'll make him look like...an ogre mage,> suggested the sorcerer.  <They can fly, can't they?>  It was agreed they were all pretty sure ogre mages could fly, so Alistair cast his spell and they all ended up looking like orcs, Harlan appearing to be an orc riding upon the shoulders of an ogre mage.  Only Orchid still had her original appearance; she'd begged out of the spell, stating she wanted to wildshape into an animal form and Alistair wasn't entirely sure whether she'd still look like an orc if she were under a veil spell and then turned into, say, a snake.  An orc crawling around on his belly wasn't going to fool anyone!<Okay, Ambrose, go check out the buildings, see if you can find us Mungo.  He's probably in the largest building - that would likely the one he'd feel most appropriate for the leader of the army.>  The grackle flew off, while Orchid instructed Shushitan to stay in the forest with Guido.  The guide was more than happy to be left behind, and promised if the army became aware of the heroes' presence and started combing the woods, he'd scamper up a tree to remain unseen and then later escape to the southeast, the way the army had already come.  Otherwise, he'd be there in the forest, awaiting their return.Chaevaris and Ageratum activated their magic ring and bracelet, respectively, and slipped into invisibility.  <Climb aboard,> the archer offered.  <I'll drop you off by the first sleeping ogre we see, and you can slit his throat while he's sleeping.>  The archer obviously couldn't see it, but she was pretty sure she could actually feel the little halfling's wicked grin at the thought of the upcoming bloodshed, and she certainly felt it when Ageratum climbed up behind her on the carpet of flying, itself invisible while Chaevaris held its edge in her hand.  She lifted the carpet up and flew it over to the nearest ogre on guard duty, a bored looking fellow leaning on his spear, with a greatclub in his other hand.  Behind him was a hut with a partially-destroyed roof, inside which slept another ogre, blissfully unaware he'd been targeted as the bloodthirsty halfling's first kill for the night.Orchid wildshaped into an eagle and flew over the head of the ogre sentry; if he heard her flapping wings, he wasn't intrigued enough at the sound to go seeking her out against the night sky.  The druid flew across the scattering of buildings, over to the other side of the tiny hamlet.  She couldn't help but notice the fire pit just to the south of the largest building (which Ambrose was doing his best to check out), nor the fact that scattered around the flickering flames were limbs of the humans the orcs and ogres had slain in the hamlet before taking it for their own.Harlan and Nova came flying over next, and the ogre sentry did look up at them, surprised at the sound of much larger wings flapping and even further surprised to see a flying ogre mage with an orc riding upon his shoulders.  He called out to them in the Giant tongue, and Harlan ignored him, having no idea what he was saying, but it was probably some sort of query as to what they thought they were doing flying around like that at night.  When Harlan didn't respond, the ogre abandoned his post and followed the aerial pair, allowing Chaevaris to drop Ageratum into the now-unguarded hut and slit the throat of the sleeping ogre within.But Alistair didn't want the suspicious, loudmouth ogre waking everyone up - he needed him quiet, and fast!  A fireball spell or cone of cold spell might possibly take out the guard, especially if he channeled it through his metamagic rod of maximize spell, but the spells themselves were somewhat flashy and might alert the enemy as well as the yelling ogre was likely to do.  Then he hit upon a solution and cast a flesh to stone spell at the guard.  The ogre froze at once, still looking up at Harlan and Nova in their illusory forms, but now he'd continue to do so forever, for his body had calcified into that of a statue.  Alistair strained his ears but heard nobody stirring within the hamlet - that had been close!Ambrose saw what he'd been looking for through an open window - the half-orc leader Mungo asleep in a makeshift bed, being watched over by an ogre mage.  He called out he'd found him over the telepathic bond, alerting everyone of the location of their primary target.  (The fact the half-orc wore a large, black ring upon a finger identified him sufficiently to the grackle's satisfaction.)  Then he flew away from the large building, likely the town hall from the looks of it, and alit in the branches of a tree.  If his master had any other tasks for him, he could say so over the mental link; in the meantime, he was staying out of fireball range.Having dropped off Ageratum to her first assassination of the night, Chaevaris flew her magic carpet north, lining herself up with the ogre guarding the north exit of the town hall.  She set an arrow into her magic bow and took careful aim, lining up her shot perfectly.  But then Orchid called over the link for Harlan and Nova to scoot back away from the town hall, because she was about to cast a spell they didn't want to be caught up in.  Nova obediently flew back east, over by Alistair and away from the building and the third ogre guard on duty to the south, his back turned to the recently-formed statue and unaware of its significance.Orchid let fly with a spell she'd never tried before: transmute metal to wood, centered on the western half of the town hall, where Mungo slept.  Although the druid couldn't see the immediate effects of her spell, inside the town hall Mungo's famed weapon, a massive warhammer, turned to nearly useless wood, as did the rings worn by the three ogres within the spell's effects (the guard outside and two ogres sleeping within the huts he guarded), and Tor's plate mail as well.Having made her first kill for the night, Ageratum slipped from the small building and crept over to the next one, sad to find it empty.  So she headed west, over by the southern ogre guard.  Although still under the effects of the greater invisibility spell from her magic bracelet, she kept an empty building between them as she crept up, spider climbing up the building's side and over the top of its roof.Alistair cast a dimension door spell and ended up inside the town hall.  He peeked his head around a corner and saw the ogre mage standing guard over the sleeping Mungo, but he was bent down and examining the half-orc's signature weapon, amazed that it was now somehow made of wood.  Mungo was not going to be pleased about that!  But then Chaevaris loosed her arrow and caught the ogre guard outside the north side of the building in his right eye.  The arrow went through his thick skull with enough force that its front half protruded out the back of the brute's head; he plummeted to the ground with a grunt and a thud.  Chaevaris was now completely visible on her floating carpet, for those able to make her out in the starlight.Alistair heard whispering - it didn't sound like spellcasting to his practiced ear - and then loud cursing; apparently the ogre mage had awakened Mungo and he was not at all pleased to find his favorite weapon now all but useless.  But by then Orchid had flow into the building through the missing roof section to the east and cast a wall of thorns spell along the western half of the building.  Instantly, both Mungo and the ogre mage were caught up in twisting branches filled with pointed thorns sticking every which way, more or less immobilizing the two of them, although the ogre mage had turned himself invisible.  (The ogre mage-sized shape in the otherwise compact wall of thorns gave away his location, however.)Harlan and Nova flew over to the southern ogre guard - who had yet to notice his iron ring of protection was now wooden and useless - and attacked him with his longsword while Nova gave him a kick in the side for good measure.  The ogre roared in pain and spun about, swinging his massive greatclub up at the offending...ogre mage?  What in the Hell?  Why was he under attack by one of his own allies?Mungo's cries of rage and anguish had by this time awakened the other four ogres, who gathered up their greatclubs and started looking about for enemies.  Ageratum ran across the rooftop of the single-story hut (at least this one's roof was still intact) and launched herself at the southern ogre guard, stabbing her short sword into his side and riding it down to the ground as it carved a deep gash in his thick hide.  Blood spilled down his right side and he clamped his left hand over the wound while looking about to see who it was that had attacked him, for there was nobody in the immediate vicinity except the orc on the ogre mage's shoulders, and they were too high up to have stabbed him like that.  What the Hell was going on?Alistair stepped around the corner with his metamagic rod out and pointed at Mungo.  He cast a cone of cold through it, sending a massive cone of frost covering the western half of the gutted town hall, coating both the half-orc and his invisible ogre mage bodyguard in a layer of ice crystals.  From the way the larger of the two figures slumped forward and stopped moving, his body supported only by the thorny vines, it was apparent the ogre mage had been slain by the attack.  Well, good, although it would have been better if Mungo had succumbed as well.  But at least it didn't look like he was going anywhere, anytime soon.Chaevaris piloted her carpet through the open roof of the town hall and aimed another arrow through the thorns at Mungo, carefully lining up her shot and then releasing it.  The arrow struck perfectly true, piercing the half-orc's left eye and triggering a thundering effect that sent booming sonics through his system.  Just that quickly, Mungo Blum, warband leader of an army of orcs and ogres, was dead.<Nice shot, Elfy!> congratulated Alistair over the link.<Thanks!> Chaevaris replied, too proud of her shot to even notice the use of the nickname she'd hated at first (but was starting to appreciate, for the foolish young human still held the fictional character Elfy Danger Silverleaf in high regard and no doubt intended it as a compliment, in any case).Orchid cast a fire storm spell, sending a swarth of flames covering the rest of the buildings to the west, to include those with ogres in them.  The spell slew one ogre outright, and burned the others - as well as Tor, about to exit a burning building in wooden armor that was hampering his movements somewhat.  Harlan and Nova swooped down and the paladin brought down one of the ogres with a single slice of his Starblade, no doubt confusing the enemies who saw them as an orc and an ogre mage thanks to the veil spell.  Nova backtracked after that, flying over onto a nearby roof that looked sturdy enough to support their weight.Tor stepped outside the building in which he'd been sleeping and called the three remaining ogres over by him; they stood in a little graveyard, although they hardly seemed to notice.  The ogres instinctively dropped into a protective arc, one standing in front of the half-orc cleric and the other two on either side, ensuring their enemies would have to get past an ogre if they wanted to get to Tor.  But Ageratum, grinning her wicked grin, plucked a bead from her necklace of fireballs and tossed it in the middle of the formation, laughing aloud as it exploded into a fireball that encompassed all four of them.  So much for their protective formation!Alistair had squeezed through an opening in the southern part of the town hall just in time to see the halfling's stratagem and decided it was a fine one indeed, certainly worth emulating.  So he cast a delayed blast fireball (not bothering with a delay - why hold off on the fun?) that blasted all four right over again.  The three ogres died in the blast, while Tor held on by the barest of margins.  Then Chaevaris rode her carpet of flying up high enough to get a bead on Tor and shot him straight through the eye, killing him instantly.And then the last member of the protective guard - one the heroes had temporarily forgotten about - made his sudden appearance.  Dropping his invisibility as he attacked, the second ogre mage sent a cone of cold spell blasting directly into Harlan and Nova; Alistair and Ambrose were close enough to become engulfed as well.  But it was the last attack he'd ever make, for Orchid flew off to the side and caught him up in a sunbeam spell that permanently blinded him, and then Harlan tore him apart with blow after blow with his mighty longsword, cutting him up until he fell off the roof in a bloody heap on the cold, frozen ground.The army leadership slain as requested, the heroes had some quick cleanup work to do.  Orchid dismissed her wall of thorns spell so they could get to Mungo's body and claim his ring; Chaevaris activated the door to their extradimensional dwelling on a wall of the town hall so they could toss in anything that looked like it was valuable.  (Alistair cast a detect magic spell so they didn't miss out on anything that had a magical aura.)  This included Tor's ruby-headed mace, a heavy steel shield, a periapt of wisdom, Mungo's leather armor (which held a fortification effect much like the metal armor Harlan wore), an amulet of natural armor, a cloak of charisma, gloves of dexterity, and a belt of giant strength."Add in the 30,000 pieces of gold we're getting paid for this mission, and we made out like bandits!" enthused Ageratum."Not so loud!" shushed Orchid, looking nervously to the northwest, where the glowing campfires of the orc and ogre army could be seen in the distance."Ah, they're too far away to do anything about it!" scoffed the halfling, nodding to Chaevaris that everything worth taking had been tossed through their extradimensional door.  The archer caused the door to vanish back into her amulet, then led the way back to the forest to pick up Guido and Shushitan. - - - Dan might have gone a little heavy on the treasure in this adventure, because we split up the items our PCs could use (Ageratum got the +4 gloves of dexterity and the +4 ring of protection; Harlan got the +2 periapt of wisdom, the +4 belt of giant strength, and the +5 amulet of natural armor - they're both going to be a lot more powerful as a result, in the last five levels of this campaign!) and sold the rest.  But Alistair's first purchase with his share of the loot was a white robe of the archmagi, which he's had his eye on for some time now.</blockquote>

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