Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 9688212" data-attributes="member: 508">ADVENTURE 72: FILL THE BOXPC Roster: Ageratum Purslane, halfling rogue 17             Alistair Mandelberen Pastlethwaite, human sorcerer 17             Chaevaris Noarunal, elf archer 17             Harlan Starblade, half-elf paladin 17NPC Roster:Orchid, elf druid 17Game Session Date: 18 June 2025 - - -"I can hear the falls up ahead," said Harlan.  "Time for me to go scout the area."  He called out across the planes and Nova answered, appearing in mid-flight beside the magical watercraft El Brujo's grisgol servant had piloted to go pick up Gladys Giltgoiter's potions and oils weeks ago.  The skiff had since been sunk, raised, repaired, and now piloted five hours down the river, where the Trained Professional Adventurers were to meet El Brujo or his designated representative to hand over Gladys's wares.  (Of course, Ageratum still refused to hand over Gladys's wares, so Alistair had teleported to Greyhawk City to purchase replacements paid from his own pocketbook.)  Harlan leaped off the boat onto Nova's broad back and flew ahead, returning shortly to report the grisgol had been standing there alone by the falls, awaiting their arrival.Orchid brought the craft to a halt at the shore before the falls, anchoring it firmly with a rope tied around a nearby tree trunk, as Nova landed lightly on the shore.  The grisgol, a tattered construct crafted of the bits and pieces of materials left over from magic item creation, stood silent and forlorn, looking very much the worse for wear since the last time the adventurers had encountered it: back in Gladys's original perfume shop, where it had since walked below the surface of the river back home to El Brujo, to report the potionmaker had been slain and the eldritch giant's potions and oils made off with.But now the TPA was here to make amends; they'd reincarnated Gladys and were now trying to make things right with El Brujo.  Alistair approached the grisgol, who stood holding a scrap of parchment.  It read, "I lead to El Brujo, at your command."  The word "command" stood out, having been written more boldly."I gather we're to command the grisgol to take us to El Brujo," Alistair observed, and at his words the construct turned and started walking down a path through the surrounding forest.  The group followed.  Overall, the trip through the forested hills took about half an hour; Harlan rode upon Nova and Chaevaris sat atop her carpet of flying, with the others walking.As they approached what they took to be El Brujo's place of residence - a mansion carved out of the stone at the base of a cliff - the group began casting a few preparing-for-combat spells, just in case.  Alistair cast mage armor spells on Nova and Carruthers (the shield guardian had been released from the extradimensional space inside Chaevaris's necklace and carried the small chest with the magic liquids from Gladys), a flame arrow spell on the group's assembled ammunition, and a Rary's telepathic bond spell connecting the five heroes into a private communication network.  Harlan, still riding Nova as the celestial pegasus walked down the forest path with the others, cast a magic circle against evil spell upon himself, while Orchid cast barkskin spells upon herself, Harlan, Nova, and Ageratum.When they got to the cliff face, the grisgol opened the front door - much larger than any door in a human habitation, easily 30 feet tall - and led the group inside, down a wide passageway, to a reception hall with two rows of three columns flanking a checkerboard pattern in the center of the tiled floor before a throne, upon which sat a red-haired firbolg.  Four more of the bearded giants stood between the marble columns, all adorned in leather armor.  The entire chamber was lit by a green glow, which was more pronounced over the center of the checkerboard pattern."Ah, thank you, Marjorie," said the firbolg on the throne as the grisgol stepped forward and stood silently at his side.  "I see you have brought me my potions."That caused a bit of puzzlement among the heroes.  commented Ageratum over the link.  <That's no eldritch giant!><They are firbolgs,> Orchid explained.  <Wood giants - they get on rather well with druid clans, in my experience.><Are they evil?> Chaevaris asked, and Harlan, after examining their respective auras, replied that the one on the throne was, but the others were not.    But the paladin realized they had all been silently communicating over their telepathic link and nobody had actually answered the giant aloud.  "We have your potions and oils right here, courtesy of Gladys Giltgoiter," Harlan replied, indicating the chest Carruthers held before him."Excellent," replied the firbolg on the throne.  "Bring them to me."<Hang on a minute,> cautioned Alistair.  <I'll do it - I don't like the magical aura I'm getting from those tiles on the floor.>  He stepped over to Carruthers, took the chest from the shield guardian, and cast a dimension door spell to appear directly before the throne; it was one way not to walk across the tiles without looking suspicious.The firbolg rose up from the throne, which shut off the illusion that had been in effect while he was seated.  Instantly, El Brujo was revealed as the eldritch giant he truly was: 25 feet tall (compared the firbolg's mere ten feet of height), with magic rings on each hand and a magic necklace at his throat.  The throne behind him also shimmered and showed its true size, easily twice as big in each dimension as it had appeared earlier.  Alistair assumed the illusion effect had been built into the throne itself, masking whoever sat in it in whatever fashion desired."My servants will collect the chest," he boomed in a deep voice, and the nearest of the firbolgs left his post to do just that.  Alistair noticed he didn't step onto the checkerboard tile pattern to do so, but rather went on the outside of the ceiling's support pillars.  That merely strengthened the sorcerer's desire not to step onto the checkerboard himself."Now then, while you're here, I'd like to take a look at Maure's cube," added El Brujo.<What's he talking about?> wondered Ageratum.<Cube?> replied Alistair.  <The cubic gate?  No way!>  "What cube is that?" he asked El Brujo, straining his neck to look up to him from directly in front of the massive giant.  "And who's this 'Maure' fellow?""You are in possession of a cubic gate," insisted El Brujo.  "I wish to examine it.  Please do not try to convince me you do not know what I am talking about.""Ah, the cubic gate," replied Alistair.  "Yes, we have it, but I'm afraid it's back at our home."  It was, in fact, sitting inside the extradimensional dwelling inside the necklace Chaevaris wore, but the young nobleman wasn't about to admit to that; the group had long ago decided the device was too dangerous to be allowed to fall in the wrong hands, considering Kasselban Picksmart had allowed demons to enter the Material Plane when he had control of it."Are you absolutely certain?" pressed El Brujo.  "I would make it worth your while."  He nodded to the first firbolg, who reached behind a pillar and held out a magical staff.  "A staff of skulls, for the opportunity to examine your cubic gate.""I'm afraid not," replied Alistair.El Brujo nodded to another of his firbolg minions, who held out a magic rod.  "Perhaps a withering rod?" offered the eldritch giant.  When that was likewise turned down he had the other two firbolgs offer up a mithral mist chain shirt and a jet-black arrow of disintegration.  "I will not use the cubic gate for its primary purpose, merely as the heart of another grisgol," El Brujo affirmed.  "What do you say?  All four items for your cubic gate."<He's evil,> reminded Harlan over the link.  <We can't trust him not to use it to allow demons to enter our world.><I'm kind of interested in what that mithral mist chain shirt can do,> admitted Chaevaris.  <I've never heard of it before.><No doubt you'd look better in it than in that bush you insist upon wearing,> sniffed Alistair, once again taking the opportunity to scoff at the bespoke armor she and Ageratum wore, which was made of intertwined, living plant material.  <But no deal.>"I'm afraid we must respectfully decline," Alistair told El Brujo, and then dimension doored back behind Carruthers, in case the eldritch giant didn't take too well to being turned down."Very well," replied El Brujo with a wave of his hand.  "Good luck with the lich, then.""I'm sorry -- what?" asked Harlan.  But then he realized this "Maure" must be a lich, and the cubic gate his phylactery.  Maure must have been the lich that started reanimating in the D'Veih chateau where they'd fought the horned devil and his fiendish minions.  El Brujo confirmed the paladin's voiced suppositions with a smirk and a knowing nod.<Let's get out of here,> suggested Alistair.  <When we get back outside, we can stash Carruthers back inside the necklace and I can teleport us back to Ghourmand Vale.>  The group said their goodbyes and warily returned back the way they'd come, half expecting El Brujo to set his firbolg minions on them.  But he seemed content to allow them to leave, perhaps thinking to scry on them if and when Maure showed back up to recover his phylactery and fetch the cubic gate for himself after (or during) the battle.However, they group had no sooner stepped back outside of the cliffside manor when a cloud of thick mists rose up all around the group.  "Gather up!" called out Alistair, hoping to get everyone together in a tight enough group that he could teleport them to safety.  But no such luck; the group was separated from each other by the thick mists, and when they faded away several moments later, the heroes were no longer on Oerth - they were in Narakka, the former domain of Jasgund Singh, the rakshasa who had stalked them, trying to get ahold of the Blood Mirror Harlan carried on him."Oh, crap!" swore Chaevaris.  "Not this place again!""But we killed Jasgund Singh," insisted Alistair, looking over to Harlan.  "Can rakshasas come back to life on their own?""No," replied the half-elf paladin.  "Not that I'm aware of, in any case.""This place is pretty run-down," observed Ageratum.  "If the place is under new management, they haven't been taking care of it very well."  The halfling's observation was verifiably correct: the walls around Jasgund's estate were cracked, and the gates were partially open, one of them hanging onto its top hinges only.  The main building inside the compound didn't look to be in any better shape."Let's see what's up," suggested Chaevaris.  "Last time, we had to slay Jasgund to get back home."  She rose her carpet of flying to an elevation higher than that of the front wall and started moving it forward as she notched an arrow to her magic longbow.  Ageratum activated her bracelet of greater invisibility and raced forward, slipping through the gate opening.  The pavilion ahead was likewise decrepit looking, with its canvas rooftop in tatters, waving listlessly in the scant wind.Orchid cast a foresight spell upon herself, figuring that would give her the greatest protection overall.  Then she moved through the partially open gate herself."After you," commanded Alistair, then walked behind Carruthers as the construct entered the courtyard.  The sorcerer readied a new spell of his own: Mordenkainen's sword, which he planned to launch at the first potential foe he saw and then let it go about its business while he cast other spells about.Unbeknownst to any of the heroes, an invisible monster floated above the tattered pavilion.  This was a greater fihyr, with a spherical body covered in multiple eyes and a mouth filled with gnashing teeth, with numerous tentacles writhing in all directions, two main ones its primary attack appendages.  It started floating over to meet them as they stealthily approached, Ageratum entering the pavilion area and spider climbing up the corner by the rooftop.Harlan dismounted from Nova and went through the gate, his Starblade out and at the ready.  His celestial pegasus followed behind on foot.  Orchid wildshaped into a huge fire elemental, careful not to set fire to the palm trees as she strode by.  But at 32 feet tall, it was simplicity itself to step over the wall surrounding the pavilion.But then another creature entered the pavilion, this one from a door along the western wall.  It was a rakshasa, but it differed in appearance compared to Jasgund Singh.  It had the standard tiger's head and the hands on the wrong way, but this one was dressed in dark leather armor, over which a mithral shirt protected its torso, and its fur was as black as that of a panther.  It carried a short sword in one backwards hand and looked up at the fire elemental with a frown upon its feline face.  Ageratum spotted it at once, as did Ambrose, who had flown to the top of a nearby tree to provide reconnaissance.  Both alerted the others over the telepathic link still in place."Activate your spike stones," commanded Alistair, and Carruthers did so.  Instantly, spikes grew from the lengths of his forearms and the backs of his massive fists.  Anything he punched now was going to torn up as well as crushed!  Alistair followed it forward, but still couldn't see the rakshasa inside the pavilion area, and without being able to do so he couldn't sic his Mordenkainen's sword spell on it.Then another rakshasa entered the pavillion, from a door along the eastern interior wall.  This one had white fur but otherwise conformed to the standard rakshasa build, backwards hands and all.  It stepped into full view of Ageratum and Ambrose, but Alistair couldn't see this one either from his current position.  It cast a spell, and Ageratum found herself suddenly wracked by intense pain, as if all of her nerve endings had fired all at once.  It was all she could do to stifle the cry of pain that threatened to give away her position, and to stop herself from plummeting off the wall where she hid, still shielded by her greater invisibility spell effect.  But the spell the white rakshasa cast had been aimed at Orchid's fire elemental body, a disintegrate spell the druid managed to shrug off, taking a little bit of damage to her flaming form instead of being snuffed out permanently.  The rakshasa, an ak'chazar named Narakasura, growled under his breath in irritation at the spell's general ineffectiveness.Then the greater fihyr struck, returning to visibility as it sent a despair effect at Nova and Orchid.  Neither succumbed to the worst of those effects, either.Chaevaris flew forward on her carpet of flying, taking a quick aim at Narakasura and letting fly with a flaming arrow from her magic longbow.  It struck true - right in the rakshasa's left eye, as intended - and the humanoid tiger lost all vision in that eye, although the thundering effect failed to deafen him.Harlan remounted Nova and spurred the celestial pegasus forward over the pavilion wall, casting a bull's strength spell on himself to boost his combat effectiveness with his longsword.  Ageratum, doing her best to ignore the pain still wracking her body, leaped off the wall and straight at Narakasura, stabbing once with her magic short sword upon impact and again as she dropped to the ground.  But since her bracers had been upgraded to provide a greater invisibility spell effect, she remained unseen despite her attacks.  In addition, she knew just where to hit to drain a bit of strength from the ak'chazar rakshasa with her precise sword-strikes.Orchid swung at the white-furred rakshasa with her flaming fists, but failed to connect, and she was also overcome by a wave of pain that emanated from her foe.  Then the mithral-clad rakshasa, a naztharune named Mura, moved up to attack the fire elemental with his short sword.  Orchid swiped down at him as he approached, hitting him with a glancing blow that failed to set him ablaze as she'd hoped.  But his sword-swipes were similarly ineffective against the fiery druid in her current form.Then another naztharune rakshasa entered the pavilion area through the same door Narakasura had used.  This one, Bandar, flanked Orchid from the side opposite Mura, but likewise failed to do any damage to the towering elemental.Carruthers sent a spiked fist down at Narakasura, drawing blood.  Alistair finally got a look at one of the rakshasas through the open pavilion gate - it was Mura - and finally got to cast his Mordenkainen's sword spell, sending a glowing blade to attack the black-furred beast.The greater fihyr dropped altitude and became visible to a group of the heroes, who felt waves of fear rush down their spines at its horrific visage.  Fortunately, paladins were immune to such fear-based attacks, and Orchid managed to tamp down on her fears and ignore them.  Chaevaris and Ageratum, however, felt a moment of absolute panic and dropped everything they held, the archer turning her carpet of flying around and fleeing at top speed, and the halfling rogue running up the pavilion wall, across the roof, and down the other side of the villa before racing across the open courtyard as fast as her little legs would take her.  The greater fihyr then swung a tentacle at Orchid, who dodged the blow with ease.Then the fire elemental caught a bit of motion in her peripheral vision and saw the white-furred rakshasa beginning to cast a spell.  Narakasura dodged a blow from Carruthers, but couldn't as easily avoid a swing from the massive fire elemental, and he felt his fur start to set ablaze.  Then he finished his teleport spell and disappear from view - but the flickering light from the open doorway to the room at the east told he hadn't gone all that far away, and the flames from Orchid's slam had indeed set his fur on fire.  A feline roar of pain was accompanied by the thud of a heavy body falling prone.With the greater fihyr now fully visible and Harlan immune to its fear-based attacks, it only made sense that he would appoint himself as its slayer.  Urging Nova to charge forward, he caught the creature with his Starblade and sliced it open, causing a gush of blood to rain down onto the pavilion floor below.  Nova then added insult to injury by giving its spherical body a good kick with a sharp-edged hoof in passing.Orchid cast a fire storm spell, taking a hit from Mura's blade that she barely even noticed as she did so.  But the flames falling down from the sky burned Mura and the greater fihyr to a crisp.  Their charred bodies fell to the floor with satisfying whumps.  Now the sole remaining foe, Bandar lashed out with his blade at the fire elemental, but in his fury he failed to connect even once.  Carruthers slammed him hard in the back, but these rakshasas were made of stern stuff, and normal weapons - even the spiked fist of a shield guardian - failed to do as much damage as they would to an ordinary foe.  Alistair entered the pavilion behind Orchid, spotted the ak'chazar, and let loose with a chain lightning sell that set the rakshasas's fur standing on edge, but failed to kill him.Chaevaris and Ageratum both came to their senses at the same time, reversing course and going back to fetch the weapons they'd dropped in their panicked rush to escape the greater fihyr.  Alistair knew full well the shame they felt, for he'd succumbed to a similar effect when facing a ghost - and in front of his favorite author, no less!  Harlan had Nova swing around in midair and charge down at Bandar, slashing at the dark-furred rakshasa with his trusty Starblade.  This was finally enough to slay the naztharune, leaving Ageratum to "loot the stiffs" and gather up what treasure she could.  She pulled the mithral chain shirts from the naztharunes and went to go see what the white-furred rakshasa had on him, then let out a whoop of delight.  After beating out the flames burning up his wizardly robes, she found his backwards fingers covered in rings and dozens of jeweled necklaces ringing his throat.  "This guy's rich!" she chortled in glee, removing the jewelry from Narakasura's charred corpse."Better hurry it up!" called Alistair, looking worriedly about him and expecting to get swept up in mists at any moment.  He needn't have worried, however, for unlike when they slew Jasgund Singh, they weren't returned to their home plane upon the death of his demiplane inheritors; rather, they would have been stuck there indefinitely had it not been for the cubic gate they now knew to be a lich's phylactery.  One of the six sides was attuned to Oerth, and by using a key to their front door, Alistair was able to use it to drop them literally upon their own doorstep."I'm glad that's over with," sighed Chaevaris.  And she was absolutely right: this had been a last, reflexive hiccup in the link between Narakka and Oerth before being severed completely; the heroes would never again be drawn into that strange, desert demiplane. - - -We're fully expecting the next adventure - this campaign's last before Dan closes it up - to involve the lich Maure coming to find us to fetch his phylactery.  We'll find out whether our guesses are correct next Wednesday.  [Later edit: it looks like we won't be playing our last session in this campaign until 16 July - something came up and Dan and Vicki will be leaving earlier than expected on their trip to visit her dad.]Incidentally, Dan let us know that the grisgol, "Marjorie," is the same Marjorie we left tied to a tree way back in adventure #5.  Apparently, in the years since we last saw her, she advanced as a wizard of high enough level to become a lich, and then El Brujo found her phylactery and used it to power his current grisgol.  Whether "Marjorie the lich" still exists or has since been slain and is trapped inside her phylactery waiting to be "reborn" is a question to which we may never know the answer.</blockquote>

Verification