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: 9708933" data-attributes="member: 508">ADVENTURE 73: SCRATCHING THE LICHPC 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: 16 July 2025 - - -"So, what do we know?" asked Harlan."Our cubic gate - the one we got from Blorkane - is a lich's phylactery," replied Alistair."Only it does not currently hold a lich's life-energy," added Orchid.  "Whatever lich used this as his phylactery, he's already reformed an undead body.""Which probably means he'll be headed over to us to get his phylactery back," pointed out Ageratum.  "That's what I'd do, if I were a lich.""Do we know whose phylactery this is?" asked Chaevaris."No, replied Alistair, "but there's only one lich we personally know of whose phylactery this might be: that lich that was reforming up in the D’Veih estate.""But Harlan destroyed him!" argued Ageratum."And he likely reformed, since his phylactery was intact," Alistair countered.  "It's not how phylacteries normally work - there normally has to be a collection of bones kept within so far from the phylactery for the lich to grow a new body - but this lich might have had some sort of contingency spells in effect; maybe he only reforms his new undead body where his old one was destroyed, and then only when his phylactery is brought within range.""But wasn't it inside the necklace?" demanded Chaevaris, her brow wrinkling in thought.  The members of the Trained Professional Adventurers had habitually stored the cubic gate inside the extradimensional space linked to the magic necklace the elven archer wore about her neck, to keep it safe from those who would steal it; it was, after all, quite valuable as a conduit connecting six different planes of existence."A specifically worded contingency spell...." surmised Alistair, letting the sentence drift off.  Then he shrugged, and added, "We could at least go check out the D'Veih estate and see if it's that particular lich.  If it is, we can take hopefully him out in a surprise attack.  Otherwise, we wait for him to attack us, likely when we're unprepared.""Agreed," decided Harlan.  "The last time we were attacked in our home, it cost Purly his life."  He turned to the young sorcerer.  "Can you teleport us there?""Sure, if everyone's ready."  At their assent, the nobleman gathered everyone close together, envisioned the clumps of trees not too far from the D'Veih estate, and said the arcane syllables that sent them across the miles into their leafy shade.  From their hiding place, they could see the place had changed quite a bit since their last visit: the ruined chateau, which Orchid had sundered with an earthquake spell, had been removed, as had the stone walls surrounding the estate and the outbuildings surrounding the square tower.  Now just the tower loomed in an open field, making it much harder to sneak up upon."I have an idea," suggested Orchid, and began the lengthy spellcasting that would summon forth an elemental swarm.  Within a half hour, a total of seven earth elementals had sprung up from the ground: five of them standing a good 16 feet tall, another twice that size, and the seventh reaching no less than 36 feet in height.  "I think that's all that are coming," the druid told the others."Then prepare your combat spells," commanded Harlan.  He cast the spells protection from evil, bull's strength, and eagle's splendor upon himself and a bless spell on the group, while Alistair imbued their assembled projectile weaponry with a flame arrow spell and then cast three overlapping Rary's telepathic bond spells to link them all - even the elementals - with a means of silent communication.  The sorcerer then can a haste spell upon them all as well.  Orchid cast her standard longstrider spell upon herself, and then imbued each of the heroes and Nova with barkskin and freedom of movement spells.  She then cast a mass bear's endurance spell and granted herself and Ageratum - the two most likely to need it - a death ward spell.  Ageratum rubbed a vial of oil of magic vestment on herself (drawing a few surreptitious glances from Alistair) and then activated her bracelet of greater invisibility.  Chaevaris simply mounted her carpet of flying and readied an arrow into her magic longbow, then activated her ring of invisibility and likewise faded from view.Then Orchid gave the elementals their orders and they all sank back into the ground, earth gliding their way to their individual targets.  Each of the five smaller elementals had been assigned one of the human guards, while the two larger ones were to earth glide directly beneath the tower and then, unable to pass through worked stone like they could through natural stone and soil, burst their way up through the floor.  The smaller of these two would then smash open the front doors.  Alistair waited until he saw the earth elementals rise up and attack the mercenaries, which was his signal to teleport the group of heroes - minus Harlan and Nova, who took to the skies on their own - over to the front of the tower keep.As the half-elf paladin flew forward on his winged mount, he detected the certifiable presence of evil coming from the auras of the two human guardsmen within range.  He had his Starblade out and at the ready as they approached, but the fighters hadn't even noticed the presence of the approaching paladin on his celestial pegasus, as they were too busy getting pummeled by earth elementals over twice their own size.Ageratum raced forward past the elemental and the guard duking it out by the smashed-open front doors, gave the fighter a stab with her human bane short sword for good measure in passing, and, still invisible, dashed inside the keep, past the two biggest earth elementals.  There was a gaping hole on the floor and an overturned table in the middle of the chamber - the entire bottom level was one big room - but her attention was drawn to a sixth fighter in heavy plate mail armor, threatening a human woman on a bed in the far corner, whose bloodied face indicated she'd already suffered plenty from his attention.  Narrowing her eyes in disdain, the enraged halfling raced forward, her human bane short sword ready to deal vengeance on the victim's behalf.Chaevaris, also invisible on her carpet of flying, piloted into the keep behind and above the little halfling, and fired off an arrow at the threatening fighter in the corner, smashing her arrow against the far wall in an uncharacteristic failure to hit what she'd targeted.  Out on the keep's front lawn, Orchid cast a flame blade spell and finished off the fighter just outside the double doors to the tower keep, slaying him instantly after the beating he'd taken from the elemental's fists and Ageratum's sword blade. Nova, in the meantime, charged one of the fighters behind the keep, allowing Harlan's blade to drop the mercenary into an unconscious heap at the feet of the elemental he'd been fighting.  The celestial pegasus finished his master's work by kicking in his head with a sharp edge of his front hoof, then took to the skies again, flying around to the front of the building.Ageratum charged the armor-clad mercenary, sliding her human bane short sword in between the plates and stabbing it in as deep as it would go. When she pulled it back out, he collapsed on the keep's stone floor, blood gushing from his wound.  She took a moment to slit his throat while he was helpless before her, and then looked over to his victim to see if she needed any help.  But she merely sat up, smiled, and turned to mist.<Vampire!> Ageratum called to her friends over the telepathic link.As the earth elementals pressed on with their attacks against the remaining mercenary soldiers outside, Chaevaris flew her magic carpet to the back wall of the keep, looking for - and finding, after a mere moment's search - the trigger mechanism for the secret door she recalled was back there somewhere.  A section of the wall pivoted open, revealing a set of wide stairs leading down into darkness (and, the archer well recalled, a star-shaped temple devoted to Asmodeus).  The archer entered the stairwell, dropping back into invisibility as she did so by reactivating her ring.Orchid wildshaped into an eagle and landed upon the broad shoulder of the greater earth elemental, who she then commanded to head down the stairs, the slightly smaller elemental following in the larger one's wake.  Alistair entered the tower keep, saw the vampiric mist (also heading toward the stairwell), and cast a darkvision spell upon himself so he'd be able to see in the pitch blackness of the temple below.  Harlan and Nova entered behind him and he took a moment to enhance the paladin's vision in the same manner.Upon reaching the entry doors to the temple, the greater earth elemental kicked it open and the doors went flying.  The lich, Juan Maure, was standing at the back of the temple, and although he was too far away to see who had just entered his temple, there was no mistaking the sounds of the wooden doors being splintered asunder.  He stepped forward until he could make out the hulking form of the greater earth elemental - with some sort of bird on its shoulder, like a pirate's parrot? - and began casting an unknown spell, likely a preparation for battle.Chaevaris sent her carpet forward into the temple, and then stifled a cry of pain as the effects of a forbiddance spell effect wracked her lithe body.  The lich took the opportunity to cast a ray of enfeeblement spell - apparently, he could see her just fine, despite her current invisible state - but she dodged the beam of strength-draining energy.  But she whipped out a piece of cloth she had rolled up inside her armor, stuck it on the tip of an arow, and fired it at the back of the temple, not anywhere near the lich.  When it struck, the bonfire Alistair had cast a shrink item spell days before resumed its normal form, and just like that there was enough light for those without darkvision to see by within the temple's interior.  Alistair headed towards the stairs, surprised to see illumination below.  But he slowed when he got close to the top of the stairs, standing just behind the vaporous vampire.  Harlan and Nova sped past, the paladin eager to do battle with the lich.<You can handle her?> he asked the young sorcerer as they sped past.<I've got her,> Alistair reassured the paladin.Down in the temple, Orchid mentally coaxed the greater earth elemental forward - in truth, it didn't need much coaxing - and the two suffered the effects of the forbiddance spell effect the lich had placed on the underground structure's interior.  But the druid, still in eagle form, cast a sunburst spell at the lich, realizing his undead nature made him particularly vulnerable to that spell.  Unfortunately, he resisted the majority of the spell's effects, and as a result was not blinded as Orchid had hoped.  But by then the massive elemental was within arm's reach of the lich, and he hurriedly backed further down the back wall of the temple along one of the "arms" of the structure's star shape.  The other elemental followed the taller one's course, entering the field of the forbiddance effect and suffering the damage in silence, almost as if practically unaware of its existence.The vampire started drifting down the stairs, but Alistair quickly put a stop to that with a well-placed maze spell.  Just like that, the mist vanished, caught up in an extradimensional labyrinth which would hopefully keep the vampire busy while the team took down the lich.The lich, however, wasn't going down easily.  He cast a prismatic spray spell and another, quickened spell in rapid succession, catching Orchid and the two elementals in the rainbow of flashing rays.  Orchid and her elemental mount each were blasted by a small amount of fire, while the other humanoid rock-beast fell sway to an insanity effect, making its future actions completely unpredictable.But then Nova came flying into the temple interior.  He and Harlan were struck by the forbiddance spell effect but barely gave it any notice as they flew up to within striking distance.  The paladin's Starblade came swinging at the lich's head, and Harlan channeled Pelor's smiting energy through the blade.  The sword looked to slide completely through the undead spellcaster's neck, but the lich was unscathed; only then did Harlan realize, with a groan of disappointment, that his undead foe was under the effects of a displacement spell.  He warned the others of his findings over the telepathic link.  Nova kicked out with a sharp hoof but likewise missed the lich's unknown, actual position.Ageratum ran down the stairs, entered the temple, suffered the effects of the forbiddance defenses, and scampered up a wall with her spider climbing ability, courtesy of her cloak of arachnida.  Chaevaris aimed her next arrow at the lich but held off on firing it, knowing to do so now would likely be to shoot at a spot where he wasn't actually standing.  But she'd be ready as soon as they found a way against his defenses.That didn't take too long at all, as Orchid, a druid capable of casting the most powerful spells known to her druidic circle, went with a rather simple spell against the lich: a faerie fire spell she knew could affect him without her knowing his exact location.  Sure enough, he was soon outlined in a faint glow - which stood out just fine in the shadowy illumination of the bonfire blazing at the back of the temple, at the top "point" of the star - only to have the largest elemental slam its massive fists at him from behind, while Chaevaris loosed her arrow his way.  Unfortunately for her, the only damage her arrow did to the lich was the slight singeing from the flame arrow spell effect, for his skeletal form was all but impervious to the piercing shot of an arrow.But that didn't really matter all that much, for the lich's next action was to try to cast another combat spell at his foes, and he was smashed again by the greater earth elemental's boulderlike fist and then Harlan (who found himself under attack from the elemental under the effects of the lich's insanity spell - only to have the attack fail when the summoned elemental couldn't pierce through the paladin's protection from evil spell) brought the lich down with an overhand swing of his Starblade.  And just like that, Juan Maure was no more - although the presence of the cubic gate phylactery would allow him to remanifest, given time.<What's going on?  It got quiet down there!> Alistair called over the link.  He was still at the top of the stairs, awaiting the vampire's eventual expulsion from his maze spell.<The lich is dead,> Chaevaris informed him.  <Now I'm getting the cubic gate out of our extradimensional dwelling so the elementals can smash it to pieces before they depart this plane.><Good thinking, Elfy!  When you're done with that, there's a vampire awaiting our eventual attention.>It took several minutes for the vampire to work her way out of the extradimensional labyrinth, but by the time she did she found herself surrounded by a quintet of heroes set on her destruction.  Orchid's sunbeam spells did most of the work, leaving her quite dead."Well, that didn't take too long," commented Harlan, dismounting from his celestial pegasus."Wait, we're not done yet!" objected Ageratum.  "I wanna explore the rest of the temple, and we still have to loot the stiffs!"  It was well worth the group's time to follow the greedy little halfling's instincts, for she uncovered a massive amount of treasure stored in the temple, and after they exited the keep and removed the weapons and armor from the mercenaries - none had survived their encounters with the earth elementals - she estimated a total gold piece value well into six digits.  "I'll bet that's around 40 or 50 thousand pieces of gold - each!" she enthused.  They piled everything into the extradimensional dwelling (Alistair activated their shield guardian Carruthers to aid in the gathering of the treasures), and then the sorcerer teleported everyone back to their headquarters in Ghourmand Vale."If we wanted to, we could retire with this much loot!" Ageratum volunteered."It's more money than I'm liable to be able to spend any time soon," admitted Orchid."Be that as it may," admonished Alistair, "it's still a dangerous world out there.  One never knows when the local populace might need the assistance of a group of Trained Professional Adventurers!""And if and when they do," promised Harlan, "we'll be ready to lend them our aid." - - -And that brought this campaign to an end.  Next week, at our normal Wednesday night start time of 6:30 PM, my son Logan will start up his next D&D 3.5 campaign, "The Middle of Elsewhere."</blockquote>

Verification