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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 9603412" data-attributes="member: 508">In yesterday's "Dreams of Erthe" campaign session, the PCs:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Had to skirt a forest since their wood colossus was too big to go through the forest without stopping to dislodge trees</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">As a result, encountered a lone drow young woman sitting on a rock watching the sunset; the elf sorcerer noticed he could partially see through her and warned everyone she was a ghost</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Were warned by the ghost to flee before Eldoranda showed up when the sun went down, because she'd try to kill them</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Hung around to talk to the ghost (learning she'd just graduated from the training temple and was looking forward to service in a new city as a cleric of the God of Knowledge), as other ghosts, apparitions, and eventually Eldoranda manifested - at which point they learned Eldornada was a banshee and they probably should have heeded the ghost's warning</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Lost the human spellsword, dwarf cleric, halfling guide, and human bard (girlfriend of the PC human bard/rogue) - plus their dinosaur mounts - to the banshee's wail</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Slew the banshee with a combination of a blade barrier spell, a flame strike spell, and a sunburst spell, after which time the apparitions began to attack</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Had the half-orc cleric/paladin leap out of the wood colossus' attic-head, float to the ground with his magic shield's feather fall effect, and use weaponized healing spells against the apparitions(with aid from the elf sorcerer's magic missile spells) to slay the apparitions</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Got the rest of the story from the ghosts: each had been slain after graduating from the training school for female drow clerics and entering a shrine which was to teleport them to the temple aligned with their patron deity; each had been slain from behind and didn't see their killer, but couldn't move on until justice had been done</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Placed the slain PCs/NPCs/mounts in stasis in the wood colossus and headed for the training temple, where they got the human bard/rogue's blindness restored (friendly fire from the elf's sunburst spell)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The next day, had the half-orc cast raise dead and resurrection spells on the slain PCs/NPCs, then asked to interrogate the male cleric who lived in a hut just outside the temple, but was told he was out gathering firewood (he had accompanied each of the slain girls to the shrine after graduation, but was unlikely to know the killer's identity as he was born blind)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Prepared an interrogation room for him when he arrived, casting a zone of truth spell (but, unknown to him, he was much higher in level than he pretended to be and he made his Will save easily, allowing him to lie with impunity)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Got the "blind" cleric's story, wherein he disavowed any knowledge of the girls' deaths and tried blaming it on bugbears said to inhabit the forest</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Investigated the cleric's hut (it was clean of incriminating evidence), and had him lead them to the shrine in question, to which he agreed</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Checked out the shrine, noticing the plinth inside was magical, but none of the carved wooden deity figures were (you placed the appropriate carving onto the plinth and then said the command word inscribed on the back wall to activate the teleport spell)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Asked the "blind" cleric if he'd carved the deity statues, he said no, but they noticed the statues were striking similar to the ones back at the temple, which they knew he had carved</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Watched as the spellsword, sick of dancing around the accusations, straight-out accused the "blind" cleric of having slain the drow clerics after leading them to the shrine</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Ended up in pitched battle against an 18th-level drow cleric and his summoned night hag assistant, and the cleric blamed the girls for their own deaths, claiming they had to be punished for enticing him when they went to the nearby pond to bathe (while he watched from the forest aided by his eyes of the eagle, which he had always claimed to wear solely to prevent others from being disturbed by his "empty eye sockets" - which he occasionally faked with illusion spells to carry on the pretense)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Took out the night hag by dismissing the summoning spell</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Knocked the "blind" cleric out with a combination of a horrid wilting spell and the swords of the spellsword and bard/rogue, then bound him up and returned him to the training temple to confess to his crimes</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Got the temple leaders to agree to allow the PCs to bring him to the ghosts of the young women he'd slain and leave his punishment to them</li> </ul>(Yeah, he's dead now, and the ghosts have all passed on to their normal afterlives.)And then, after the players all thought the adventure was over, I took them through a dreamscape scenario that occurred that evening, in which the PCs:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Were approached in the Dreamlands by a female moogle who offered to bring them to someone who needed to see them immediately</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Found out it was Andrea Jandoval, the spellsword's arcane instructor whose body they'd been sent to fetch, believing her to be dead - she was not only still alive, but a dreamwalker like themselves</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Learned she'd only tricked them to the Forbidden Lands because of divination spells that hinted they were the five people who would stop a planet-threatening event from occurring</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Found out the Forbidden Lands are filled with undead, mostly liches and necropolitans and the occasional vampire, and that she'd pretended she wished to join them in undeath, slowly forging her phylactery while she tried to learn more about the big threat</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Were told the Forbidden Lands are ruled by the Conclave of Skulls, housed in an area where only the undead could go and survive</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Learned this was Andrea's last day alive; she had to perform the ritual to become a lich because the other undead were getting suspicious; she told them how to enter the Forbidden Lands, to pretend they didn't know her but to pretend to seek to become undead as well, and she'd try to learn the planet-level danger and pass word to them, but if she failed they might have to become undead themselves to gain access to the Conclave of Skulls and learn of the plot for themselves</li> </ul>Next adventure, their halfling guide finally gets them to the end of the road: the drow city where he dropped off Andrea after crossing the continent with her to get her to the Forbidden Lands.Johnathan</blockquote>

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