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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 9568557" data-attributes="member: 508">ADVENTURE 70: FIREWORKS FOR THE HEROESPC 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: 22 January 2025 - - -The day began with a knock upon the door of the headquarters of the Trained Professional Adventurers.  Opening the door, Ageratum saw a messenger from the city, who announced he had an invitation from the Duchy of Ulek.  He passed over a folded and sealed bit of parchment, which the little halfling deftly opened up with her dagger.  "I'm to wait for a response," the messenger stated, as the other heroes came forward to see what the fuss was all about.Sure enough, it was an invitation for an afternoon reception in the heroes' honor in two days' time, at the Ulek embassy in Ghourmand Vale, and it was signed by Tegan Grenowin, the brother of the Duke of Ulek.  Looking among themselves, Harlan spoke for the group: "We'd be honored to attend."Then the messenger handed over another, smaller envelope.  Opening it, Ageratum saw it was an invitation to visit Carlton Hogarth's clothier shop in town that afternoon, to be fitted with matching cloaks for the reception.  Harlan thanked the messenger and sent him on his way."I don't know if I like the idea of matching cloaks," grumbled Ageratum.  "I already have a fancy outfit I can wear.""I agree," added Alistair.  "I don't wish to attend a gala in our honor wearing...clothes off the shelf."  He visibly shuddered at the thought."Hogarth's is pretty high-end," pointed out Orchid.  "And these will be tailored to fit each of us.  We should at least go and see what they look like.""I suppose," grumbled the young noblemen.  As a result, soon afterward the five heroes were on their mounts - a celestial pegasus for Harlan, a carpet of flying for Chaevaris, and mere horses and ponies for the others - riding the short distance into the town proper.Riding through the streets, the group was suddenly rocked by a massive explosion.  "It came from that direction!" pointed out Chaevaris, indicating an unusually-colored plume of smoke rising up from a pair of buildings ahead.  It was a perfumery and a mining supply store, two rectangular buildings sharing a wall between them.  The multicolored smoke seemed to be coming from the back of the perfumery."I'll go check it out!" offered the archer, rising her magic carpet as Harlan cast bull's strength and magic circle against evil spells upon himself - there was no telling what might have been the cause of the explosion, so it was entirely possible that battle was imminent."Hang on, I'll go with you!" replied Ageratum, leaping from the saddle of her pony Munson onto the back of the flying carpet.  Alistair managed to cast haste and Rary's telepathic bond spells on the group of five before the two young women were off, over the rooftop of the mining equipment shop and around to the back, where the buildings butted up against a pier overlooking the river.  They each activated their means of attaining invisibility during the ride, Chaevaris taking the carpet outside the visible spectrum with her.  The buildings, they could see, were partially built into the sloping hillside; what looked to be single-story structures from the street side each actually had a basement level that led to the pier our back.  They could also see a pair of double doors from the perfumery's basement standing wide open, no doubt having been blown open by an explosion within, for the multicolored smoke was coming from the basement interior.<There's something behind the smoke - wavery, like a pane of glass,> Chaevaris told the others over the link.<I'll go check it out!> offered Ageratum, leaping down off the hovering carpet and running inside.  She could see the smoke was prevented from filling up the basement interior by a wall of force spell cast diagonally across the room over by the double doors - at least, until it was stopped by a table along the wall butting up against the mining supply shop.  She scampered up the wall to the corner by the ceiling, where she could get a better view.<There's a gnomish woman inside, holding a wooden staff,> the halfling reported to the others.  <She's got a big, blobby, reddish guy off to her side, and there's another guy made out of wrapped bandages with magical writing and stuff on them.  Both are about 8 to 10 feet tall, I'd say.><Can you guide me in if I dimension door the others with me?> Alistair asked.<Sure, aim for just on the other side of the front doors out by you, only...say, 20 feet lower,> the halfling estimated.  One dimension door spell later, Alistair, Ambrose, Orchid, Harlan, and Nova were there in the back of the perfumery basement.  The 8-foot-tall humanoid figure wrapped in bandages was in the process of putting on a robe and tying it shut, dropping the hood up over its head to partially obscure its features before walking up to the wall of force.  The gnome was leaning on her wooden staff and coughing; apparently, she'd breathed in some of the smoke before sealing off most of the basement behind a wall of force."Are you all right?" asked Orchid, as Alistair cast a greater invisibility spell upon himself and faded from view - he didn't like the look of the reddish giant, which fit the description of an alchemical golem, although he'd never seen one personally.  But if that's what it was, he seemed to recall it was immune to pretty much all spells except neutralize poison - although he couldn't recall what effect casting that spell on it would have.  Still, he passed on his suspicions over the mental link.  Ambrose took the opportunity to fly across the room and alight upon a table along the western wall, where he could spy on everyone in the large basement room all at once.<I'm picking up signs of evil auras - two of them, to be precise,> Harlan called out over the link.  He looked at each of the three strangers, trying to determine where the evil was coming from.  If the big red guy was in fact a golem, it likely wasn't evil - just an unthinking construct, without a soul or the ability to be either good or evil.  That left the gnome and the grisgol as the likely culprits."There was an accident," replied the gnome after finishing her coughing fit.  "But we're all okay now," she added.  Orchid's eyes narrowed in irritation, as the gnome didn't seem entirely sincere - was she trying to hide something?"What are these two constructs?" the elven druid pressed."Ploof here is an alchemical golem," replied Gladys Giltgoiter, confirming Alistair's suspicions.  "He's my assistant.  The grisgol is merely a client."  That made Orchid frown even harder - why would a bandaged-covered construct want to buy perfume?  She brought the words to a baleful polymorph spell to the forefront of her mind, ready to "bunnify" the elderly gnome if she tried anything.Gladys turned back to the blasted-open double doors and deactivated her wall of force.  Hovering invisibly out over the pier on her carpet of flying, Chaevaris watched the gnome, bringing an arrow up to her longbow just in case.  Ageratum shifted position, walking along the wall by the ceiling over by the double doors.  She watched as the grisgol strode through the open doorway beneath her, headed out onto the pier. Alistair warned the others as he quietly walked, still invisible, over by the gnome.  He quickly stepped aside when Gladys suddenly spun about, hands out in a spellcasting stance, as she cast a mass suggestion spell aimed at Orchid and Harlan - the only two she could see besides Nova, and she doubted the pegasus would understand her words.  "I suggest you all go back upstairs and leave us, as your aid is not needed here!" she all but snarled.  Fortunately, Harlan was immune to such mind-altering effects as a result of his magic circle against evil spell, and Orchid's mind was strong enough to ignore the magic command.  However, she recognized it as an attempt by the gnome to impose her will upon the elf, and she took that to be a magical attack.  As a result, she fired her readied baleful polymorph spell at the gnome, only to find out Gladys' mind was just as strong as was her own.  The spell had no effect, but combat was now on!  She warned her friends of the attempted attack over the link."Ploof: defend!" called out Gladys, and the alchemical golem stepped forward to comply.  It opened its hideous mouth and spewed forward a spray of misty acid in a cone before it, catching Harlan and Nova in its area of effect, the paladin catching it full-on while the pegasus flapped his wings and managed to keep the misty acid at bay.  But Gladys had turned her back to the double doors, and Chaevaris took full advantage of that, firing off the arrow she had nocked and readied.  It hit the little gnome in the back, piercing her through the gut from behind.  The attack brought the elf back into full visibility, but it was worth it, judging how Gladys bent forward as if ready to vomit up blood.But before she could, Ageratum sent a flurry of rapid-fire sling bullets driving into her, two of them driving deep into her skull and shattering bone while the others hit her arms and back.  She collapsed in a spray of blood, much of which landed on a quite astonished Alistair.  "I say!" gasped the invisible sorcerer, aghast at being covered in a dead gnome's blood.Nova struck out with his hooves at Ploof, but missed; the alchemical golem took a swing at the celestial pegasus and likewise failed to connect.  Not so Harlan, whoever, who brought his Starblade swinging back and forth to score open gashes across the golem's chest.  The reddish skin, the paladin couldn't help but notice, looked like it was covered in pustules ready to burst open, and he was glad its saggy skin was hard enough that his flaming blade didn't automatically free gouts of acid with each strike.The grisgol by this time had made it onto the barge, Alistair following, for he knew his various attack spells would be absolutely useless against a golem.  He cast a scorching ray at the creature as it stepped through the flaps of the canvas covering the barge like a tarp, figuring a creature wearing rune-covered bandages was likely somewhat flammable.  But here he had miscalculated, for the grisgol was basically a golem in all but name, immune to all spells save for erase - a spell the sorcerer not only didn't know but hadn't even heard of; as a sorcerer who took to spellcasting naturally, he had no use for spellbooks.  The gouts of flame struck without fail, but had no effect whatsoever.  Alistair heard a flapping sound and saw Ambrose fly out of the perfumery basement, preferring the open air to a stuffy room with an acid-spraying golem.But Orchid approached the golem, casting her neutralize poison at it.  It jolted as if in shock, then its movements slowed considerably - and now the elf knew what effect such a spell had on an alchemical golem.  Well, it was something, at least.  Ploof swung a misshapen fist at Harlan, still mounted upon Nova, but the blow was slow enough the half-elf managed to roll away from it, minimizing the damage somewhat.  Then Chaevaris flew her carpet forward and shot an adamantine arrow into the golem, and it sunk in to the feathered fletching at the end of the shaft.  She made a mental note to stick with adamantine arrows against this thing.<It'll take forever to whittle this thing down to pieces!> the archer advised her friends.  <But I have an idea!>  She then passed on her recommendations and the halfling grinned at the audacity of the ploy.  Running across the ceiling, she stopped when she was directly above the alchemical golem.  Then, pulling a glass vial of sovereign glue from her belt, she used a web spell from her magic cloak to adhere it in place before scampering away to safety.  <Ready!> she called over the link as Harlan continued with his sword-strikes, slicing open its lumpy skin but avoiding the resulting acid dribbles and spurts.Alistair, on the pier, noticed the barge was drifting away and picking up speed, headed west along the river.  He leaped aboard before it could get away, bent down, and laid a hand upon the bottom of the vessel.  Then he cast a shrink item spell, hoping to reduce a chunk of its wooden hull and thus form a large rent which would quickly fill the barge with water, sinking it.  But the spell had absolutely no effect, for the barge had no mechanical means by which it could be steered; it was a craft powered entirely by magic, and thus was immune to the sorcerer's size-altering spell.  Chaevaris heard his uncharacteristic curses over the link and turned the carpet his way to follow, returning to invisibility on the way.Orchid, in the meantime, was putting the finishing touch upon Chaevaris's scheme to deal with the alchemical golem.  Casting a reverse gravity spell on the spot where the golem stood, she forced him to fly up to the ceiling, where the impact crushed the glass vial of sovereign glue webbed in place, effective adhering the top of his misshapen head to the ceiling.  The golem was now unable to slam anyone with his fists, nor could his breath weapon be used - the reverse gravity effect would simply send it spraying upwards.  The construct had not been destroyed, but it had been effectively neutralized.Chaevaris piloted her carpet into the open canvas flap of the barge's exterior top structure and activated her necklace, opening the extradimensional door on an interior canvas wall.  On her command, Carruthers stepped forth and swung a massive fist at the grisgol, who, although piloting the barge down the river, saw the rival construct out of the corner of its eye and dodged the strike.  Then Ageratum teleported on board, having used the thieves' coil to do so; after all, the gnome was dead and the alchemical golem was now little more than a piñata, so this was where the action was for the moment.  She was still invisible (as were Chaevaris and Alistair), so as far as the grisgol was concerned, it was just the two constructs on board.  It swung its own fist at the shield guardian, but Carruthers slapped it away with his own, substantially more solid arm."Orchid!" called Harlan, leaning over to pull her onto Nova's back as they passed her and the celestial pegasus ran out the double doors.  They took to the air, headed after the fleeing barge.  Unseen behind them, a male gnome, Gladys' cousin Hilmer Marlknutts, the owner of the mining supply shop next door, ran out of his own basement doors to see what was all going on; he'd been upstairs when the explosion occurred and was just now getting to the scene after running as fast as his little gnomish legs could take him.  He never expected to see a pegasus run out of Gladys' basement workshop, but the evidence was there before his eyes.Knowing full well there was nothing his spells could do against the grisgol or the barge (which the bandage-wrapped construct was still somehow piloting, likely by the force of its mind or something), Alistair cast a detect magic spell and saw there was an aura of magic coming from a drawstring pouch hanging from the grisgol's belt, as well as the ambience magical auras coming from the grisgol itself and the barge.  He also picked up the auras giving the general locations of the invisible archer and rogue.  <There's something magical in his sack,> Alistair informed the others over the link.<On it!> declared Chaevaris, shooting the drawstring with her next arrow, causing the bag to fall to the floor of the barge, where it was quickly snatched up by Ageratum, becoming invisible when she stuffed it into her armor.  <Got it!> the halfling announced.That was Orchid's cue to bring the barge to a halt.  Unknowingly, she used the same basic strategy Alistair had tried, but her wood shape spell worked perfectly fine upon magical items made of wood.  She cast the spell such that a wide rent opened up in the barge's floor directly beneath the grisgol's feet; with a splash he fell through the barge's bottom as water started bubbling up through the sudden rent."Everyone out!" Alistair cried aloud.  Carruthers stepped back into the extradimensional door and Chaevaris returned the door to the interior of her necklace, then piloted the carpet back out of the barge's canvas enclosure.  Ageratum used her thieves' coil to teleport back onto the pier, while Alistair cast another dimensional door to do the same.  When Nova landed back on the pier, the male gnome demanded, "What's going on here?  What blew up?""There was an explosion during the creation of potions in the lab," Harlan explained, which was entirely true.  He didn't feel like explaining that they'd slain Gladys and taken out her golem assistant; as for the grisgol, it was last seen walking along the river bottom, going along with the flow, apparently having decided to cut its losses and leave the scene.  Then the paladin frowned, having picked up the distinct taint of evil in the gnome's aura.  "Why?  Were you involved in the wizard's potion business?"  His stern demeanor showed he would brook no attempts at interference and would not take kindly to liars."No, no," stammered the gnome.  "It seems like you have everything well in hand."  He returned to his own half of the building, not wishing to tangle with an irritated paladin and an elven druid - little did he know there were three other invisible adventurers on the pier with him, watching his every move."So what exactly went on here?" Chaevaris demanded once the five heroes had gone back into the basement of the perfumery."We bagged a bunch of potions and magical oils and such," answered Ageratum, showing the contents of the bag she'd taken from the grisgol, thinking that was what had been asked."No, I mean why did she attack us?" the archer clarified."She was evil," the halfling replied, which was all of the reason she needed.  "Hey, do you think any of this alchemical apparatus is worth anything?""She...didn't really attack us," Orchid admitted.  "She tried casting a suggestion spell on us to get us to leave."  Harlan had been frowning since dealing with Hilmer outside on the pier, and his frown intensified at the druid's words, then even more so as he looked over some papers on one of the tables where Gladys had alchemical equipment bubbling away."What is it, Harlan?" asked Alistair."These are bills of sale," the paladin explained.  "That bandaged construct had been sent to pick up potions ordered and paid for by some spellcaster.  Gladys was apparently a perfumer, but she sold magical potions and oils on the side.""...That's not exactly what I would call evil," Alistair said.  He felt a bit of discomfort forming in the pit of his stomach."No, it is not," agreed Harlan.  He took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, trying to regain a sense of calm.  "Do you know what we did here?  We entered a legitimate place of business - granted, to see if we could offer assistance after the explosion - but were told no aid was needed and we should leave.  And then we killed the owner" - he paused while looking up at the alchemical golem hanging from his head from the ceiling - "and did that to her golem, for the crime of performing perfectly legal business.""And then we sank the boat of a client and stole the goods his master had already paid for," added Alistair.  "We're murderers.  And thieves.""So?" demanded Ageratum.  "She was evil!"  She honestly couldn't see what all the fuss was about - why couldn't her friends see what was so patently obvious?"That doesn't matter," insisted Harlan.  "You can't go around killing people because they're evil.  That deprives them of the chance of changing their views, of atoning for their sins and walking the path of righteousness.""We knew Kasselban Picksmart was evil when we first met him," Alistair said.  "But that didn't mean we could just kill him!""But we did kill him!" argued Ageratum."Yes, years later, but only after he summoned demons to the Material Plane and started sacrificing miners to them!  That's the difference between being evil and doing evil!  Gladys gave us no provocation to attack her, let alone kill her!""We're going to need to undergo atonement," suggested Harlan."Agreed," replied Alistair.  He turned to Orchid.  "And we'll have to offer to reincarnate her - hopefully she'll agree, otherwise we'll need to spring for a full resurrection.  And we'll need to return the potions and oils we took from the grisgol.  Oh!  The barge!  I'll have Carruthers lift it up from where we sank it, and Orchid can cast another spell to close up the hole in the floor...."Ageratum held onto the bag of stolen goods protectively.  "I'm not returning any of this!" she insisted.  "She was evil!"  Just how many different ways could she explain it?"Fine, keep them," said Alistair - he could easily teleport to Greyhawk City and purchase replacements to make up for the ones their stubborn halfling refused to give up.  "Oh, we'll need to get some universal solvent to get, uh, Ploof there back down, too."  The list of things they'd have to do in order to undo all the damage they'd done was getting longer and longer.  "I don't think we'll be able to make that gala in two days," he suggested."I doubt it," agreed Harlan.  "It's probably for the best - I don't particularly feel like being lauded as a hero.""Nor I," agreed Alistair. - - -This adventure brought about a whole lot of issues that may well bring about the end of this campaign.  Dan wrote up an adventure using some monsters he'd just read about - he only recently picked up Monster Manuals 2-4 - but didn't really stop to think about how difficult they'd be for our particular group to deal with - my PC cast a haste and Rary's telepathic bond spells up front, but then had absolutely nothing he could do for the rest of the adventure.  (I credit my son Logan for coming up with the creative way to deal with the alchemical golem.)  But the big problem was he didn't give us a reason to fight these foes; all it would have taken was for Gladys to say something like, "They know about my secret potion business -- kill them!" and we'd have been perfectly justified in fighting back.  But as it was, after she told us all to leave we really should have, and the only reason we didn't was for a metagame reason: surely he didn't design this scenario for us to show up and then leave?  So we stretched mass suggestion as a combat spell, and then afterwards realized we were really the bad guys in this whole scenario.But Vicki stormed out after the session when Logan and I started voicing our concerns; she took it as the two of us "picking" on her husband, and she's since decided she's "done with Wednesday night gaming."  Of course, I think a big part of that is she likes to be in bed reading by 9 PM and Dan's sessions are rarely done in enough time for her to do so, so this may have been somewhat of a target of opportunity for her.  But Harry stopped trusting Dan as an impartial DM when he had four frost giants try to sunder Harlan's Starblade in one round, despite the obvious logistical issues with four Large creatures being all able to get to his wielded weapon (while he was astride a pegasus, no less) without getting in each other's way.  As a result, Harry's had Harlan hoard all his money, thinking he may need to buy a new replacement sword at a moment's notice.So Dan and I discussed his campaign at work on Thursday, and he admitted he didn't really have any overarching plotline going on (his main storyline ended when we took out Jasmund Singh and the Blood Mirror was no longer an issue), and we could conclude the campaign at any time.  I pointed out we all felt we needed atonement spells and the returning of Gladys's potions (and life) to make things right, and that while we felt this adventure was pretty much a failure, we were coming up with a way to get our PCs back on track so we could continue playing.  Bottom line: we wanted the campaign to end when Dan was ready for the campaign to end, while Dan's ready to cancel it if nobody's having any fun.So on Saturday, when we all met up again to go through my campaign, we started the session with a discussion about the way ahead for Dan's campaign and the campaign Logan put on hold two and a half years ago to let Dan try his hand in the DM chair.  Bottom line: the "Ghourmand Vale" campaign is on hold, Dan's going to decide whether to start it back up, kill it now, or maybe come up with a final "wrap up the campaign" adventure.  In the meantime, Vicki's holding out for no more evening gaming, so we're looking at possibly confining ourselves to Saturday sessions, which is when I run my campaign (on every other Saturday, as a target - bumped as needed).  We might plug in the other campaign - Dan's or Logan's, as the case may be - in the Saturdays when I'm not running a session, or we might limit it to one Saturday a month for each campaign (which will really slow things down!), but we'll see.  Vicki turned down the offer to meet this Wednesday to roll up PCs for Logan's upcoming campaign, which she at least has expressed interest in joining (ditto with my upcoming follow-on campaign to the current one I'm running), so she's not ready to quit on us as a player, even though that would certainly get her home for her self-appointed bedtime.Then today, Dan said he's now thinking of doing a three-adventure coda to the campaign, but he still wants several weeks of hiatus to figure out the adventure details and to give Vicki some distance from last Wednesday's game - a "cooling off" period, as it were.  He even thinks he might be able to talk her into three more Wednesday night sessions if she knows ahead of time they'll be the last three ever.Time will tell how we press on from here.  But we all had a great time on Saturday in my campaign, so at least no friendships have been permanently harmed over this - and that's more important than any D&D campaign.</blockquote>

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