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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 9538187" data-attributes="member: 508">ADVENTURE 67: CALLING FOR A WRECKERPC Roster: Ageratum Purslane, halfling rogue 16             Alistair Mandelberen Pastlethwaite, human sorcerer 16             Chaevaris Noarunal, elf archer 16             Harlan Starblade, half-elf paladin 16NPC Roster:Orchid, elf druid 16Game Session Date: 18 December 2024 - - -The Lucky Dave pulled into port the following day.  Upon returning from their underwater excursion, the heroes had been informed that another ship had sailed past, with the incredulous crew seemingly surprised to see the Lucky Dave still up and afloat - as if they'd fully expected it to have been scuttled and sunk like the previous three ships that had tracked this course from Greyhawk City across the Nyr Dyv.Now Harlan led the group through the streets of the port of call, headed for a warehouse that Atherton's contacts had hinted was the likely place where any of his stolen cargo would have been taken.  The heroes' plan was simple: gain access to the warehouse interior, see if they could spot any cargo marked with the Pastlethwaite logo, and if any were present, it was evidence of the warehouse's involvement in the ship-sinking and cargo theft scheme.Approaching within sight of the warehouse, Alistair sent his grackle familiar Ambrose ahead to scout out the place.  He returned to report back that there were actually three buildings making up a series of warehouses, neither of them with skylights or entryways from above, and only the middle one - the sole two-story building of the three - having any types of windows, in its case a set of two portholes looking out over a nearby canal.  Ambrose couldn't get a good look through the portals as he flew by, but he could see the interior seemed to have been lit with lanterns, and the portholes - up on the second level - overlooked an upper level that looked down over the first floor."It would seem," surmised Alistair, "that the central building, being the largest of the three, has the greater chance of holding my brother's missing cargo.  I think we should start there.""Agreed," replied Harlan.  "Do you want to go for the straight-on approach?  Of the five of us, you look the most unlikely to be a busybody adventurer."  It was true; Alistair's current occupation as an adventuring sorcerer had not changed the fact that he dressed like a well-to-do nobleman, whereas the symbol of Pelor Harlan wore upon his armor and plate mail identified him as a holy paladin - not one likely to want to be seen doing business with shady merchants possibly dealing in stolen goods.  Orchid's attire (and wooden staff) clearly pegged her as a druid, and the bespoke armor worn by Ageratum and Chaevaris - composed of intertwined plant matter - gave them a most unusual appearance, even if their weapons didn't automatically mark them as adventurers.  The only weapon Alistair wore, on the other hand, was a rapier at his hip, and that was often merely an adornment worn by aristocrats to mark them as such."I think so," agreed Alistair.  "I shall be a shady dealer on the lookout for a good price."  He cast a flame arrow spell upon the group's assembled ammunition as he spoke."I can be right behind him, invisible," added Ageratum, slapping the magic bracelet on her wrist and fading from view.Alistair cast a Rary's telepathic bond spell on the group and tested it out to make sure everyone was in mental contact.  Then Orchid cast her longstrider spell and wildshaped into an albatross - quite an innocuous-looking bird in this port town.  She then took to the air, flying in circles above the rooftop of the central warehouse building."I'll be invisible, on my carpet," added Chaevaris, unfurling her magic rug and stepping aboard it as it hovered just above the ground.  "Harlan, do you want to join me?"  The archer activated her own ring of invisibility and both she and the carpet of flying faded from view, leaving Harlan apparently sitting cross-legged in midair after he got aboard and settled himself comfortably.  "Alistair, I wonder if you might...?" he asked.  The sorcerer smiled and cast a greater invisibility spell on the paladin and heard a swoosh of air as the carpet levitated straight up as the archer piloted it to the rooftop.  Then Alistair, with an invisible halfling trotting along behind him, strode purposefully down the street, heading for the main door of the central warehouse building.On his way, he was accosted by a half-orc in studded leather armor, leaning over a low fence between the central warehouse and the building immediately to the north of it.  "C'n I 'elp you?" he asked in a thick accent."Ah, yes, I would hope so," affirmed Alistair.  Then he lowered his voice and said, "I was told this is a good place to make a few...indiscreet purchases.""Whatcher lookin' fer?" the half-orc prompted."Well, that rather depends upon what merchandise you have available, and the prices of the aforementioned merchandise."  The half-orc ran that sentence, with its larger-than-he-was-used-to words, through his head and nodded his approval.  "G'won, then, knock away.  Them that're inside'll take good care o' ye."Alistair nodded and knocked loudly upon the warehouse door.  He could hear movement within, and after about a minute the door was slid sideways to the north, revealing a trio of half-orcs, two decked out in studded leather armor like the chap the nobleman had just chatted with outside on the other side of the fence, and the third wearing a slightly more stylish outfit, as befit middle management: a gray vest over a white shirt, with gray breeches and heavy leather work boots.  Behind him stood a human laborer; the manager said, "as we discussed" to him and then turned his attention to Alistair.  "Can I help you?" he asked.  Alistair noticed the two other half-orcs had their hands near the longswords they wore on their hips."I was told a man could purchase an item or two from you at, shall we say, prices somewhat lower than one could expect upon the open market," Alistair explained, adding, "And that you were known for your...discretion vis-a-vis such purchases."  As he dissembled, Ageratum snuck by everyone and walked straight up the side wall, using her (currently invisible) cloak of arachnida.  There was a set of stairs leading up to the platform overlooking the length of the warehouse, but she walked along the edge of the platform, looking down at the markings on the crates stacked below her.  Sure enough, the crates not only bore the Pastlethwaite emblem, but there was a crew of three more humans unpackaging the Pastlethwaite goods and placing them inside other crates that bore no such markings.  <Caught 'em red-handed - they've got your brother's goods, all right,> Ageratum confirmed over the Rary's telepathic bond, explaining what all she'd spotted going on."Well, we might be able to help you on those fronts," agreed Mr. Bellamy, the half-orc first mate of a pirate ship engaged in the theft of goods traveling on the Nyr Dyv.  "Come on in, and we can discuss exactly what it is you're looking for."  He indicated for Alistair to enter the warehouse and head up the stairs to the upper level, but the sorcerer didn't particularly like the glint of anticipation in the half-orc's eyes, nor the way the two security men gripped the hilts of their swords, as if they were ready to put them to good use once Alistair stepped inside, out of view of anyone on the street.So, rather than comply, Alistair pulled the metamagic rod from an inner vest pocket and sent a maximized chain lightning spell crackling over to Mr. Bellamy, arcing over to hit the other two half-orcs and the human laborer who'd turned aside.  As the spell went off, Alistair was a bit surprised to feel a bit of resistance coming from the human laborer, but he overcame it and all four men were blasted by streams of electricity.  However, much to Alistair's surprise, none of them were brought down by the attack, and furthermore, the spell not only zapped the laborer but spilt him into two distinct beings, one of them a long-horned, red-skinned devil with lengthy thighs and calves almost giving him the appearance of a humanoid cricket with a scarlet hue.  Despite his surprise, Alistair detailed what had occurred to his friends over the mental link.Orchid's response was almost instantaneous: after conferring with Alistair over the telepathic link as to the devil's location in the warehouse before him, she wildshaped again to an earth elemental, tucking herself into a ball as she plummeted through the roof directly above the devil and the human from which he'd sprung.  But, quite surprisingly, they both had the presence of mind to dash away from each other, leaving the 12-foot-tall Orchid to smash into the warehouse floor, having harmed none but herself.One of the security men had apparently had enough and moved to rush away from the scene; unfortunately, he chose to run right past Alistair in his haste to escape and found out the nobleman's rapier was not in fact ornamental.  He staggered from the swift strike of Alistair's blade, barely remaining on his feet.  The other ran up to Alistair as well, but it was with his longsword in hand, going in for the attack.  Alistair riposted the first such swing but the second cut through the sleeve of his robe of the archmagi, drawing a line of blood that made the sorcerer scowl in irritation (not so much for the wound but in the mending and prestidigitation spells it would take to repair the cut in his expensive garment and remove the bloodstain).  Two more half-orc guards from the eastern side of the warehouse ran up, headed for the earth elemental who had just crashed through the roof and was pulling herself to her feet.  And the guard outside opened a gate in the fence and made his way towards Alistair as well, his own longsword out and ready to do battle.Harlan could see the red devil through the hole in the roof and, although he couldn't exactly identify the exact type, knew it to be some sort of fiend from the lower depths - that was enough for him!  He leapt from Chaevaris's carpet through the hole in the roof, landing alongside the fiend with his Starblade held point-down, stabbing deep into the devil's shoulder.  It cried out in pain as the sword's holy blade ripped through flesh and muscle.  As he pulled the blade from the fiend's flesh, he was surprised to see it still standing - it had just taken quite a bit of damage!  But Harlan was pleased to see it apparently did not have the ability to see those outside the range of normal vision, for it failed to lock onto the paladin, still cloaked in Alistair's greater invisibility spell.There was a blur of motion at the far end of the upper level as Captain Corlican, the leader of the pirate ship upon which Mr. Bellamy served as his first mate when they weren't on land overseeing this portion of their thievery, leaped over the railing and continued flying over the level below, skimming just over the top of a high pile of crates.  Chaevaris saw a human laborer through the hole in the roof and quickly aimed an arrow his way, shooting it directly through an eye and out again through the back of his skull.  He fell lifelessly to the floor where he stood.Mr. Bellamy activated a ring of invisibility of his own and faded from view.  Unseen, he headed to the stairs, seeking to avoid being targeted by any more of those lightning spells - that last one had taken quite a bit out of him and he had no desire to repeat the experience!  The commoners doing the crate-repacking also fled, but they had to run around piles of crates to the east and then north to get to a side door leading out of the warehouse building.The red devil - unknown to any of the heroes, actually a shapeshifting protean scourge capable of splitting into two bodies - backed away from Harlan, not knowing the paladin's exact location but not wanting to be stabbed again by whatever had just stabbed him.  But in doing so he was well within the reach of Orchid in her earth elemental form, as she sent a boulder-sized fist crashing into the side of his head.  He staggered away, fading from view as he did so, courtesy of an innate ability to turn invisible.  The human laborer from which he had split likewise turned invisible and moved over beside the protean scourge - the other half of its two-bodied existence.Ageratum had seen the two fade from view and rummaged around in her numerous packs and pockets, pulling out and unstoppering a flask of dust of appearance and flinging its contents in the direction of the spaces where they'd just been when they disappeared.  The magic flakes coated the bodies of the two invisible beings (and, unknowingly to the little halfling, just missing the equally invisible Harlan Starblade), covering them in a glittery outline that allowed everyone to know their exact locations.Alistair stepped back from the half-orc stabbing at him and let loose with another chain lightning spell, this one targeting the red devil as the primary and arcing off to the four half-orc security forces he could see, as well as the human he thought of as the "host organism" that had spawned the red-skinned fiend.  The blast was enough to finally slay the protean scourge, and it took the two half-orcs that had already experienced one such blast before; the two who had moved up from the back were still up and fighting.  And the human laborer - or rather, the human form the other half of the protean scourge was wearing as a disguise - was also still up and about, a much tougher foe than his appearance would imply.Orchid spun about and cast a wall of thorns spell, encompassing the laborers and security forces to the east of her, including the half-orc captain flying overhead. To her surprise, the thorny branches parted to make way for Captain Corlican and he flew effortlessly outside of their reach.  The druid scowled, recognizing the effects of a freedom of movement spell when she saw one.  But where had a half-orc in chain mail armor get a freedom of movement spell?  Surely he hadn't cast it himself?  Sadly the druid, having spent most of her life in the forests near her home, was unaccustomed to both the celestial armor he wore that gave him the power of flight and the magical ring granting him the ability to pass without effort through even her wall of thorns spell.  The half-orcs struggled to free themselves from their nettles, found out doing so actually made things worse, and settled down immediately.Alistair found himself fending off the attacks of the half-orc guard from behind the fence, once again parrying the first attack only to be taken in by the second.  But the hit was a mild one, not worthy of the need for healing until this battle was over with, in the nobleman's assessment.  Harlan, in the meantime, threw himself at the sparkly outline of the human form of the protean scourge, bringing his Starblade in for a lateral cut that opened a gash in the human's side.  Then the captain flew over above Harlan, tossing down an object that exploded on impact with the floor, buffeting Harlan and Orchid with a blast of force energy.  But the imprisoning hemisphere of force that would have trapped them inside failed to materialize, Orchid's overly-large earth elemental form being too big to allow it to take shape.Chaevaris flew her carpet across the hole in the roof and caught sight of Captain Corlican flying along the upper level.  Quick as a wink, she had an arrow lined up on her bow and she shot him through the right eye, slaying him instantly.  His body crashed onto the upper floor, sliding across the floor from his flight momentum, until he ended up right beside Mr. Bellamy, who decided to reverse course and try to make his way outside through the open sliding door after all.  He clomped down the steps in his heavy boots and ran outside, right past Alistair, who heard him pass but didn't have time to swipe at him with his rapier.  He did, however, warn his friends that someone was escaping invisibly outside, possibly to fetch reinforcements.  Unseen by the heroes, one commoner actually did escape, by running through an outer door leading directly to the canal; he ended up falling into the water but counted himself lucky to have escaped with his hide intact.The protean scourge half still surviving stepped away from Harlan and cast a disintegrate spell not at the half-elf paladin, but at the perceived greater threat: Orchid, currently a 12-foot-tall spellcaster made of solid stone.  The green ray struck her in the side and did in fact cause her a lot of pain, but it failed to slay her outright, as had been the intention.  However, she was forced to immediately cast a heal spell upon herself if she intended to be able to finish out this fight.  Then Ageratum sprang at the scourge from above, leaping down and stabbing out with her short sword.  The invisible halfing's blade siphoned off a bit of the scourge's strength for good measure, in addition to stabbing deeply into his body.  Unable to see the invisible, the scourge missed the evil smirk of glee on the halfling's unseen face as she wrenched the blade back out of its side.Alistair stepped away from the half-orc attacking him and let fly with a cone of cold, figuring that would hit not only his immediate foe but also (hopefully) whoever had made it past him invisibly.  The half-orc before him fell, but Alistair could still hear the staggering footsteps of his invisible foe still trying to escape, and the scourge (who'd also been within the range of attack) was still up as well.  Ageratum, as luck would have it, had been just outside the blast's area of attack, not that the sorcerer would have been able to know she was even there.Harlan went full-bore with his attacks upon the remaining half of the protean scourge, charging his first strike with Pelor's smiting energy reserved for the foulest of foes.  He brought the glittering silhouette to its knees, and then the opportunistic halfling finished it off with a strike from her own blade.  Upon death, it reverted back to its true form, a copy of the long-legged "red devil" the heroes had first seen splitting off from this human form.  Alistair, in the meantime, chased after Mr. Bellamy and fired off a second cone of cold spell that sent him falling lifelessly to the street.  That left only those imprisoned in the wall of thorns spell, and Chaevaris picked them off easily enough with her arrows before Orchid wildshaped back into her elven form and dismissed her spell.  The dead bodies fell where they stood once the thorn-briars were no longer there to hold them in place.Alistair went to fetch his brother and his crew to return his stolen property back to the Lucky Dave, while a gleeful Ageratum stripped the slain foes of anything of value they wore or used.  Alistair confirmed the magical nature of quite a bit of the jewelry upon his return.  The others couldn't help but notice he'd repaired the rents and bloodstains in his robe of the archmagi while he'd been out, worrying as always about his outward appearance. - - -We, the players, were once again a bit put out at some of Dan's off-the-cuff decisions, which always seem to protect the foes he's pitted against our PCs or otherwise act to our detriment.  (Sometimes - not always, mind you, but on too many occasions for it not to ever be a thing - it seems like his automatic default is "Nope, you fail" in whatever it is we're trying to do, and then we have to point out in the rulebooks where what we're trying to do is the normal way of doing that thing in the game.)  In this session, we thought it rather odd that the protean scourge and its original body both managed to escape all damage from a 12-foot-tall earth elemental (and the pieces of roof it brought down with it) falling from directly overhead, and for which neither of them had any warning; in his defense, Dan argued that he treated it like a blade barrier spell and gave them both a Reflex save to avoid any damage, which was an odd comparison, we thought).  And had either Logan or I been DMing, we both would have allowed Harlan's "leap from above" attack on the protean scourge to deal the +2d6 damage to his sword-strike from having leaped down from 20 feet above; Dan ruled otherwise - no extra damage allowed.  He also seemed to suddenly grant Captain Corlican the Deflect Arrows feat on the spot...after Logan had had Chaevaris deal him 113 points of precision damage (an archer class feature, similar to sneak attack damage) with a successful called shot to the eye.  That stunk enough that we all complained, and after reading through the Deflect Arrows description Dan admitted the half-orc had no reason to have seen the attack coming beforehand and allowed the original damage (and the captain's subsequent death) to stand.  Anyway, it was a decently-written adventure, featuring a monster (the protean scourge) we'd never encountered before, and using a Paizo Flip-Mat we'd never used before, so other than the contentious rulings we managed to have a good time.We are, however, looking forward to this campaign's finish and the releasing of the DM reins back to Logan for our Wednesday night sessions.</blockquote>

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