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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 9560476" data-attributes="member: 508">ADVENTURE 69: HOME IS WHERE THE HATE ISPC 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: 15 January 2025 - - -The Ghourmand Vale headquarters of the Trained Professional Adventures was quiet, its non-elven members sound asleep and both elves deep in reverie.  Orchid had spent the previous day casting a hallow spell on the stone building - including the stables - incorporating a death ward spell into the mix.  For the entire next year, they would enjoy the benefits such spellcasting brought them: enhanced protection against evil forces, death effects, and the inability of anyone dying in the building from being raised as a member of the undead.And the spell had been cast just in time, for an hour past midnight, a gaseous form oozed beneath the door to the enclosed stables, flowed over to the door to Purly's room - where the animal handler was snoring in his bed - and slipped beneath that door as well.  The vaporous being, a whisper demon, then began its insidious attacks against the hapless groomsman.  The horses nickered and whinnied in fear of the unnatural presence of the demon, but their vocalizations went unnoticed.There was a much louder noise up on the keep's rooftop, when the second attacker, a sorrowsworn demon, landed heavily upon the roof.  Fully 15 feet tall, it crouched in place to try to see if anyone had heard its heavy landing, but Harlan, in the room below (the only room on the top floor, other than the open balcony that opened from his room), slept on.However, on the floor below, both elves were shaken out of their nightly reverie, a state much closer to full consciousness than the deep sleep under which the other adventurers had succumbed for the night.  Orchid rose from her bed and shook her timber wolf Shushitan awake as she quickly donned her armor and gathered up her gear, while Chaevaris grabbed up her bow and fired a thundering arrow at the corner of the hallway, certain the loud noise would alert the others of a potential intruder on the roof.  The arrow was only partially successful, for Ambrose on the floor below was immediately awakened, leaving Alistair and Ageratum still asleep on the second floor and Harlan dozing on the top floor.  But the grackle quickly awoke his master and the young sorcerer rose blearily from his bed, shrugging into his vest of charisma and robe of the archmagi while wondering aloud what the fuss was all about.The whisper demon having finished off its first victim, it went sliding beneath the side door to the living area of the four-story keep.  Standing motionless before the front door was Carruthers, the shield guardian, actively guarding the heroes against threats.  It registered the demon as a potential threat and turned to swing a massive fist its way, but it passed harmlessly through the incorporeal being.  Ignoring the shield guardian as not being alive, the whisper demon floated over to the twin sets of stairs at the back of the room, randomly choosing the eastern set and rising up to go to the next level above.  Carruthers stalked after the demon, trying fruitlessly to harm a creature made of insubstantial vapors.Up on the roof, the sorrowsworn demon assessed the likelihood of being able to smash its way through the roof and opted for an easier means of getting into the interior: by flying down a level with its batlike wings and bending its tall form to fit under the roof of the open balcony, at the far end of which it could see the door to Harlan's bedroom.  Crouching its way to the door, it kicked it in - and this finally woke the half-elf paladin from his slumber.Harlan jolted awake and found himself under immediate mental attack, as his mind flooded with feelings of despair.  Fortunately, the sight of a 15-foot-tall demon pushing its way into his room was a perfect incentive to ignore any potential ill feelings, and Harlan leaped to his feet and grabbed up his Starblade from the floor by his bed, doing his best to ignore the feelings of despair still nagging at the back of his mind.Ageratum finally awoke at the sound of Harlan's door being kicked in - the demon had splintered the wood and sent it flying into the bedroom in several pieces - and hastily threw on her armor and grabbed up her weapons, tapping her bracelet as she did so and sliding into greater invisibility.  Orchid, by this time, had run up the stairs to the fourth floor and opened up the door to Harlan's room across from the one the demon had kicked in, exposing herself to the demon's unnatural aura of despair in the process.  But she was able to shunt the despair aside and concentrate on sending a sunbeam spell at the hunched-over demon, striking it straight in the face.  It winced in pain, but she could tell her spell had failed to blind it, nor had it had the full effect.  No matter, though - the spell allowed for multiple sunbeams over time, and she might have a better result with a subsequent ray of blinding light.Shushitan had been racing up the stairs behind his mistress, but he ran into the demon's aura and spun about, returning to the safety around the corner, out of view.  He shivered at the feeling of the unholy radiance emanating from the demon's form.  As much as he enjoyed fighting by his mistress's side, it looked as if this was one battle he'd be sitting out.Chaevaris ran down the stairs and turned the corner, seeing the whisper demon at the far side of the back hallway.  She shot an arrow at it, hitting it directly but watching it pass harmlessly through the demon's insubstantial form.  Alistair burst from his room, saw the archer, and she called for him to come shoot a magic missile at the incorporeal mist-thing.  The sorcerer raced around the corner, saw the whisper demon (and was able to ignore the maddening, telepathic whispers it broadcast directly into his mind), and let fly with a magic missile spell, the force energy of the blast striking the gaseous demon's body as if it were fully corporeal.  Alistair knew a lot more powerful spells, but against an incorporeal foe, it looked like he'd be staying with what worked.  Carruthers then popped up from the stairs below and swung at the whisper demon to no effect, until the sorcerer told him to activate the spike stones spell stored in its arms.  Spikes immediately sprouted from its hands and forearms, and Alistair surmised the magical nature of its subsequent attacks might help it actually connect from time to time.Harlan stepped forward and swung his Starblade at the sorrowsworn demon once, twice, thrice - each strike hitting it square on but leaving him with the feeling it was somewhat protected from the full effects of his sword-strikes.  Still, it bled from its wounds, and that told the paladin it could be killed - if it took a little longer to do so, then so be it!  The demon retaliated with one of its own whispery attacks, trying to convince Harlan of the inevitability of his own demise at its hands, but the paladin was able to easily ignore the fear attack and press on unaffected.  Irritated at the ineffectiveness of its mental attack, the sorrowsworn demon slashed at the paladin with much better success.The whisper demon flew through Carruthers to get to Alistair, swiping at the sorcerer with its curved claws, but Alistair dodged to the side at the last moment.  "Go upstairs and aid Harlan against whatever he's fighting!" he called to Carruthers, thinking he and Elfy (and Ageratum - where was she?) could handle this gaseous demon on their own.  The shield guardian gave a final swipe at the whisper demon (and its magic-enhanced fists actually connected this time), before clomping up the eastern stairs to comply with its master's orders.Ageratum ran out of her room once Carruthers had raced past and turned the corner - straight into the whisper demon's radius of effect of its nonsensical whispers.  Her mind immediately clouded over, and she started babbling incoherently to the walls.Up in Harlan's bedroom, Orchid cast her second sunbeam at the sorrowsworn demon, and as she had hoped, this time she had much better success, for the demon's eyes whited out as blindness overtook it.  Chaevaris, in the meantime, activated her boots of speed and fired off a barrage of holy water arrows at the whisper demon, five in rapid succession, thinking the holy water passing through the fiend's insubstantial body should have some effect.  She was correct in her supposition, for the arrows impacted the demon much as if it had been corporeal.  Alistair pulled out his metamagic rod from his vest and fired off a maximized magic missile at the whisper demon.  Of course, at that distance the demon was able to slash out at the sorcerer with its incorporeal claws and the sorcerer felt a coldness within his body as the claws ripped at him.Harlan channeled Pelor's smiting energy into his blade and swung a series of blows at the sorrowsworn demon, catching him once or twice but not while the quickly-dissipating smiting energy emanated from his sword.  Still, he'd further hurt the fiend, and he made himself content with that.  Then the fiend stepped back out of immediate range of the paladin's blade and cast an unholy blight spell, catching Harlan and Orchid in its area of effect.  The paladin groaned as an oily sickness overtook his body, but he was determined not to let it stop him.Ageratum's mind, still in a confused state, caused her to give up the pointless babbling - and replace it with stabbing herself in the leg with the first weapon at hand, her dagger.  She felt the pain as the blade struck, but it was somehow far away, as if happening to someone else.Orchid tried a baleful polymorph spell against the sorrowsworn demon, think to "bunnify" it into a harmless form, but its will was too strong and the spell failed.  Then Harlan was at it again, having stepped forward with his blade swinging.  He tried another unsuccessful smite attack, but managed to deal the fiend some damage even though it evaded his most powerful attack.The whisper demon had latched onto Alistair as a primary target, lashing at the sorcerer with its insubstantial claws and carving him up from the inside.  Chaevaris quickly took aim with another holy water arrow and sent it flying through one of the fiend's eyes, partially blinding it.  Then Alistair blasted it with another maximized magic missile spell through his metamagic rod, the force energy further breaking down its tenuous body.  At that range, casting any type of spell was an invitation for the demon to claw at him, but Alistair was counting on their ability to take out the fiend before it could slay him, and so far it looked as if the young nobleman's gamble was paying off.Elsewhere, things were progressing in much the same way: Ageratum had failed to clear her mind of the whisper demon's maddening telepathic sendings and was continuing to stab herself (invisibly, so none of her friends could even see what she was doing), while upstairs, the sorrowsworn demon tried another mental attack at Harlan to incapacitate him, but the half-elf's mind was too strong to fall sway to those kinds of tricks.  But he had taken a bit of damage from the creature's claws, and Orchid took a moment from combat to cast a heal spell on the paladin, not only closing up his wounds but banishing the effects of the demon's aura of despair that had been lessening Harlan's attacks to some extent.Chaevaris finally slew the whisper demon with another holy water arrow, this one through its other eye, which fully blinded it before causing its gaseous body to dissipate into nothingness.  Seeing it dead, Alistair grabbed hold of the archer's wrist, said "Hang on, Elfy!" and cast a dimension door spell that teleported the two of them up to Harlan's bedroom.  They both fell within the range of the sorrowsworn demon's aura of loss, and Chaevaris was too shocked at the sudden mental assault to be able to fight it off completely, whereas Alistair, concentrating on making sure they ended up in the right place (and not 40 feet up in the air outside), hardly even noticed the attempt.  Meanwhile, upon the death of the whisper demon, Ageratum finally found her head clear and was able to think for herself once again; with a feeling of intense shame, she sheathed her bloody dagger and drank down a curative potion, not wanting her friends to see her own self-inflicted wounds.  Then she scrambled up the stairs towards Harlan's bedroom, eager to be of help if she could - and ran right into the aura of loss generated by the sorrowsworn demon.  Her battered mind focused upon the fact that this could very well be her last battle - what if she fell to the demons attacking their headquarters?  Would she even be missed?Harlan continued his attack with the Starblade, his keen flaming burst holy longsword - a blade almost specifically designed to combat fiends from the lower planes.  Once again he managed to get past the demon's defenses, opening up a trio of wounds on its arms and torso in rapid succession.  (The fact that it was now blind no doubt aided the paladin in his efforts.)  It lashed out at Harlan with its claws, but was hampered not only by its lack of sight but the cramped quarters in which it fought, the ceiling height only being 10 feet, a mere two-thirds of the fiend's own height.With a clomp at the front doorway, Carruthers arrived at Harlan's room as ordered and made a bee-line for the sorrowsworn demon who, by this time, was more than a bit sorry it had accepted this mission from that damned cleric of Iuz who wanted these heroes punished for desecrating his impromptu altar to his cambion lord during the attack upon the Dark and Light Club some weeks earlier.  (The fire storm spell Orchid brought down upon it soon thereafter did nothing to make it change its mind about the inadvisability of having taken on this particular job.)  Then Chaevaris aimed an arrow at one of its blinded eyes and hit with her normal accuracy, piercing the eye, brain, and skull in that order.  The sorrowsworn demon collapsed in an unliving heap upon Harlan's bedroom floor.Ageratum felt her mind return to its normal focus once again, with no unwanted thoughts of her own mortality.  The battle, it seemed, was over, with no one left for her to fight, but that was okay - she could still assist in a manner quite normal to her, by slitting the demon's throat to ensure it was well and truly dead."Purly!" Orchid gasped suddenly, and everyone ran downstairs to go check on their horse groomer.  They found him in his bed, dead by his own hand - he'd been convinced by the whisper demon's maddening thoughts to attack himself with his own weapon, in his case a small knife he normally used to cut apples for the horses he tended.  "The poor thing!" the elf cried, saddened at the death of their hireling.  "I can reincarnate him," she insisted.  "He won't come back in his same form, but at least he'll be back among the living!"As the druid prepared for the spell, Alistair gasped aloud as he came to another realization.  "My hair!" he cried, feeling his head with both hands.  The nobleman always wore his shoulder-length hair in a ponytail, tied (by Ogilvy, his unseen servant spell) in a black ribbon.  It had just come to his realization that he had been fighting demons with a horrible case of bed-head, his hair sticking out in all directions.  He then looked down at his current garb - his robe of the archmagi and vest of charisma thrown over his white nightshirt, with nothing upon his bare feet - and scrambled back up to his room before he died of embarrassment.As such, he missed out on the casting of the reincarnation spell: of Orchid calling out to Purly's slain spirit, asking if he wished to be returned to life even if it meant in a different body, of his determined assent, and of the glow his corpse gave off, nearly blinding everyone until he sat back up, once again among the living."What?" Purly asked, feeling everyone's stares in his direction.  He looked down at his hands, which seemed grayish in the light of the sole, flickering candle in his room."You're...an orc," Orchid said. - - -Dan had a 17th-level cleric of Iuz sitting in the wings, waiting to be brought into the fight...and then decided not to use him after all, as it was starting to get late and Vicki doesn't do too well once it starts approaching her normal bedtime.  He also had an allip ready to go, but that was before he realized one of the side effects of the hallow spell (which Logan had said at the end of the last gaming session he was going to have Orchid cast on the keep) is that you cannot be turned into an undead while within the area of effect of a hallow spell.  Purly, having killed himself at the whisper demon's direction, would normally have been transformed into an allip, but that obviously didn't - and couldn't - happen.  Good timing on the casting of the hallow spell!</blockquote>

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