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Raiders of the Overreach
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<blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 7890800" data-attributes="member: 508"><p><strong>ADVENTURE 6: PASSIVE AGGRESSION</strong></p><p></p><p>PC Roster:</p><p style="margin-left: 20px">Cramer Appleknocker, gnome cleric 2</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Jhasspok, lizardfolk 2</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Khari Hammerslammer, dwarf fighter 2</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Marlo Pendragon, human sorcerer 2</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Utred "Buckets" Butterflinger, dwarf barbarian 2</p><p></p><p>Game Session Date: 8 January 2020</p><p></p><p>- - -</p><p></p><p>"I'm not taking a guard shift!" argued Cramer Appleknocker. "There are four of you - if you each take a two-hour shift, that's a full eight hours. Problem solved!"</p><p></p><p>"Yeah, or we could divide it up five ways and each get a shorter shift," rebutted Utred. "Why don't you need to pull your weight?"</p><p></p><p>"I'm a cleric! I need a full night's rest - preferably uninterrupted - if I'm going to be able to prepare my spells in the morning. You do want me to be able to heal you, don't you?"</p><p></p><p>"But what about Marlo?" asked Khari. "She casts spells - doesn't she need her sleep, the same as you?"</p><p></p><p>"Don't worry about it," scoffed Marlo. "Let him get his beauty sleep - it looks like he needs it, in any case. I'll take the first shift - that way, I'll still get a solid block of sleep instead of getting interrupted in the middle of the night for guard duty. I'll be fine."</p><p></p><p>"If you're sure...." said Khari.</p><p></p><p>"I'm sure."</p><p></p><p>"Then I'll take second shift," the Hammerslammer dwarf offered. "Wake me in two hours." He went over to one of the two tents they'd found in the wagon of goods they'd taken from the caravan earlier that day - the larger one, which they'd designated the men's tent. Utred and Cramer followed suit, the two dwarves stripping off their armor before climbing into the canvas enclosure. The smaller tent was left just for Marlo, while Jhasspok found the whole concept of erecting a portable house made of fabric completely nonsensical - he slept on the ground beside the wagon, where he could hear all of the new sounds of the forest nearby: the chirping of insects, the flapping of wings from the unseen bats, the soft nickering of the horse whose bridle they'd tied to the wagon, the distant call of something Cramer had called "loons" - whatever they were.</p><p></p><p>The next two hours passed by in relative silence, save for the background noises and the occasional snore coming from the men's tent. After judging her shift had ended by the position of the full moon, Marlo shook Khari awake and crawled off to her own small tent. The dwarf put his armor back on and spent some time by the fire, building it back up enough to keep him warm while he cleaned the dried blood from his warhammer. He'd wake the lizardfolk when his shift was up.</p><p></p><p>But it never quite came to that, for about halfway through his guard shift Khari heard the unmistakable sound of a twig snapping from the forest behind him. Turning, he squinted into the darkness of the forest, his dwarven darkvision picking out the silhouette of a female elf hiding between the trees, peering out at him. Her eyes were wide open in surprise; apparently she hadn't intended revealing her presence in this way.</p><p></p><p>Khari wasn't the smartest dwarf by any means but he knew enough to alert the others in case of potential danger - and an elf sneaking up on them in the middle of the night certainly qualified. "WAKE UP - INTRUDER!" bellowed the dwarven fighter before charging straight for the elven woman. He sent his warhammer crashing toward her head but she nimbly stepped back, dodging the swinging weapon. Khari noticed her eyes were glowing and wondered idly what that might mean - was she under some kind of spell effect? <em>Domination</em> of some sort, maybe?</p><p></p><p>Too late to cast the <em>silence</em> spell she'd hoped to cover the encampment and confused by the results of the <em>detect evil</em> spell she'd cast upon her own vision (<em>How could a dwarf's <u>beard</u> be evil?</em> she wondered, picking up the waves of malevolence emanating from N'zorthal's tentacle hiding beneath Khari's beard), the elf attacked the burly dwarf with her own weapon: a light mace. Her swing struck only Khari's shield, eliciting a clamor she likewise would have preferred not making - so much for stealthiness!</p><p></p><p>Utred had been awakened by Khari's cry and wasn't quite sure if he'd imagined it or not - but then he heard the unmistakable sound of a metal weapon clanging off a steel shield. Not bothering to don his armor, he grabbed up his own shield and the closest one-handed weapon at hand - his own warhammer - and ran toward the sounds of battle. His path took him by Marlo's tent so he stuck his head inside and yelled at her to get up - tired after her two-hour guard shift, she'd slept through Khari's initial warning.</p><p></p><p>Staggering out of her little tent, Marlo looked to see what the fuss was all about and by the light of the full moon she saw Khari fighting an elf in the forest on the other side of the dirt road they'd been following. The sorceress cast a <em>magic missile</em> from one of the spell-slots still available to her from the previous day. The spell covered the distance between the two women in a mere moment, unerringly striking the armor-clad elf.</p><p></p><p>Cramer cast a <em>shield of faith</em> as he crawled from the larger tent. Jhasspok woke up and stood dazedly, looking about him trying to make sense of his surroundings - it was his first night on the surface world and at first everything seemed too strange for his lizard brain to handle. "Attack the elf!" commanded the gnome. Finding the intended target, Jhasspok ran across the dirt road to do just that, his tail held out vertically behind him for balance. Fortunately, the lizardfolk wore no armor so he'd merely had to pick up his turtle shell shield and his short sword to be fully ready for combat.</p><p></p><p>Khari attacked the woman again, swinging and missing. She responded by taking a step back out of immediate reach, casting a <em>light</em> spell on a pebble in her hand, and flinging it straight up into the air. It landed near the dirt road passing by the slaves' campsite for the night. <em>A signal for reinforcements</em>, surmised Utred, quite accurately as it turned out.</p><p></p><p>By then the rest of the slaves had converged on the elf. She turned out to be quite adept at avoiding their attacks, though - almost comically so. Jhasspok tried a bear-hug grapple that she slithered out of somehow, leaving the surprised lizardfolk falling to a heap at her feet. Both dwarves swung their warhammers at her head, only to have her duck at the last moment each time. She raised her hand in a "I just want to talk" gesture after Marlo struck her with another <em>magic missile</em> spell and the group held back to hear what she might have to say, but the only words that spilled from her mouth immediately thereafter were those of a healing spell. Cramer by that time was close enough to note the silvery crescent moon medallion around her neck and recognized it as the holy symbol of the elven deity Correlon Larethian. But she continued to evade their attacks, gradually moving to the south as she did so.</p><p></p><p>Finally, she turned and fled at full speed - but was outrun by a now-furious Utred, whose fist-punch to the back of her head sent her reeling, unconscious, to the forest floor. "Finally!" he grunted to himself, before picking up the sounds of reinforcements coming from the south, along the dirt road. They still seemed some distance away, so the group had time to prepare for their arrival.</p><p></p><p>But the five slaves were far from a well-oiled machine when it came to tactical combat planning; everyone had their own ideas. "Let's ambush 'em!" suggested Utred and that sounded like a good plan to all, but each slave decided on his or her own how best to meet that goal. Jhasspok leaned down and picked up the unconscious elf, hoping to draw the reinforcements into attacking him if they thought they'd have to overcome the lizardfolk to rescue their cleric. Then the others could pop out from their hiding places behind trees, attacking the unsuspecting reserves. Khari hid behind a tree, ready to do just that. Cramer, however, waited for them over by the dropped pebble with the <em>light</em> spell, while Utred went back over to their encampment to make sure none of these newcomers to the field of battle got it into their heads to swipe the rest of their stuff. And Marlo crossed the dirt road again to hide behind her own small tent. She took the opportunity to ready her light crossbow since she was nearly out of her more powerful spells, having used up quite a bit of her daily allotment earlier the previous morning when attacking the caravan.</p><p></p><p>Four figures appeared along the road from the south, looking to be elves as well. Jhasspok by this time had gotten tired of carrying around an unconscious elf in chain mail and had plopped her down onto the back of the wagon at their camp. One of the approaching elven warriors - another woman - headed his way, trying to rescue her leader. Jhasspok turned to face the attacker and raised his shield to ward off the incoming blow but the elf was tricky and her blade went whizzing by in an arc to strike the lizardfolk from an unexpected direction. Jhasspok hissed in pain as the blade carved a path of blood across his scales.</p><p></p><p>Another elven warrior spotted Utred and Khari among the trees and altered his path to go strike the Hammerslammer dwarf. His blade struck Khari's shield with a clang and was diverted away. The other two elves rushed forward, approaching Jhasspok with hopes of surrounding the lizard-monster with overwhelming force. But Jhasspok was having none of that; with a leap forward, he snapped his jaws over the soft flesh of the female warrior's neck, ripping out her throat - and then spitting it back out in disgust, for it tasted <em>nothing</em> like fish!</p><p></p><p>Khari battled the elf who had singled him out, getting in a good strike with his warhammer that had the elf swooning. Utred ran up beside Jhasspok and swung his own weapon at one of the other approaching elves, while Marlo scampered up a tree and shot a <em>ray of frost</em> spell - she was too depleted of spell energy to cast the more powerful <em>magic missiles</em> - at Utred's foe.</p><p></p><p>Then Cramer cast a <em>command</em> spell and called out - in fluent Elven - "Fall!" to the elf standing before Jhasspok. The elf obeyed, dropping to the ground, and the cleric called for the lizardfolk to attack the now-prone enemy. Jhasspok obeyed at once, bloodying the elf (who likewise tasted nothing like fish, much to the lizardfolk's disappointment - he'd been kind of hoping the female elf had been a fluke).</p><p></p><p>With another solid blow to the temple, Khari dropped his foe like a log. The sole remaining elf looked about him, saw the five-against-one odds, and dropped his blade. "I surrender!" he called out in the Common tongue. He then figuratively spilled his guts so he wouldn't have them spilled literally.</p><p></p><p>According to the elven warrior, they had come to attack the very caravan the five Jalamir slaves had attacked earlier that day, for it had been headed to Greenvale but the members of the caravan had failed to pay their "toll." The elves of the Elderwood - of which these five elves were members - had enacted an embargo on Greenvale while they investigated a rumored connection between Greenvale and the drow of Overreach. ("Overreach!" cried Jhasspok when he heard the city of his hatching mentioned.) The elves were certain there was a connection of some sort between the two communities, for both had ironsilk - a rare commodity in the world, known by very few. With their embargo in place, the Elderwood elves had been "persuading" the human kingdoms to stop trading with Greenvale, banditry being just one way of doing so.</p><p></p><p>"We could look into that connection for you," suggested Cramer, eager to find out more about Overreach. The more he knew of his captors, he reasoned, the better he'd eventually be able to escape from their yoke.</p><p></p><p>"No need - we already have an agent in place in Greenvale," replied the elf. Then his eyes narrowed in suspicion as he noticed, for the first time, the cloaks the five slaves wore. These were the <em>slave-light cloaks</em> they'd taken from the assassins back in Overreach who had tried slaying the ironsilk weaver from House Ky'hulcressen; the elf recognized them as having belonged to the elite infiltration team the Elderwood forces had sent into Overreach, of which his own brother had been a member. "Where did you get those cloaks?" he demanded.</p><p></p><p>"We took them from the bodies of elves slain in Overreach," replied Jhasspok truthfully - he just left out the part where it had been the five Jalamir slaves themselves who had slain the elf assassins in the first place. The elf's eyes narrowed in suspicion and his jaw clenched at the thought that his brother was likely dead.</p><p></p><p>"So what are you planning on doing with us?" the elf demanded, looking down at the unconscious form of his male companion on the ground at Khari's feet, whose ragged breathing denoted he at least was still alive - unlike the two warriors Jhasspok had slain and partially eaten.</p><p></p><p>"We won't kill you," promised Cramer, bending down to cast a <em>cure minor wounds</em> spell upon the downed warrior to stabilize him; he'd previously done the same thing to the unconscious cleric laying on the back of the wagon. But then he motioned for Jhasspok to fetch the cleric and bring her here, while Khari hefted the weight of the warrior he'd knocked out. Cramer touched the illithid tentacle curling up from the <em>ring gate necklace</em> he wore around his neck and sent a telepathic call to N'zorthal. The Writhing Gate opened behind the unarmed elf.</p><p></p><p>"...but you might wish we had," Cramer finished, pushing their captured prisoner to stumble backwards through the Writhing Gate. Then, at the gnome's orders, Jhasspok and Khari pitched their unconscious burdens into the Writhing Gate as well. It winked back out after receiving its third elven offering and Marlo silently wondered if they would receive a vision of the Dying One on their way to the Underdark.</p><p></p><p>"Glad that's done with," growled Utred, dropping his shield and weapon by the flap of the tent and crawling back inside. "I'm beat."</p><p></p><p>"It's your shift now, Jhasspok," said Khari, pulling off his armor and getting ready to climb into the tent as well. "Wake up Utred in two hours, okay?"</p><p></p><p>"When is that?" Jhasspok asked.</p><p></p><p>Khari thought about it. "When the moon's about there," he said, pointing to the top of a clump of trees.</p><p></p><p>"Moon?" asked the lizardfolk. He'd never heard the word.</p><p></p><p>"The moon! That big round thing!" Khari snarled, pointing up at the celestial orb ruling over the night sky.</p><p></p><p>"Oh! That!" replied Jhasspok, looking up at it. "I thought it was a really big pearl." Khari just shook his head in disbelief and climbed into the tent. He shook it again when he found Cramer had somehow beaten him inside and was already snoring. <em>Little dude's serious about his sleep!</em>, thought the fighter.</p><p></p><p>Jhasspok squatted down by the fire and sat virtually motionless for the next three hours (for Khari's ability to calculate time via celestial navigation wasn't a finely-tuned skill, more of a vague guesstimate), his ears listening for danger while his eyes stared at the Really Big Pearl in the night sky. (Khari hadn't told him he'd go blind if he stared at it, like Utred had warned him about the <em>fireball</em> sun, so Jhasspok assumed it was okay to do so.) His guard shift was uneventful, as was Utred's, and Khari's miscalculation got the other slaves the extra sleep they'd missed out on during their combat excursion in the middle of the night. Cramer woke up in the morning light fully refreshed and began preparing his spells for the day.</p><p></p><p>"So, we continuing on to Greenvale?" asked Utred, looking at the map they'd taken from the caravan driver. The road through the forest would take them to the mountains, where Greenvale was indicated by a black dot.</p><p></p><p>"It's as good a place as any to check out," Marlo offered.</p><p></p><p>"Yeah, I want to see about this connection to Overreach," Cramer added. After a quick breakfast, they hitched their horse up to the wagon and headed in the direction of Greenvale.</p><p></p><p>Late morning saw them standing before an imposing wall stretching across the road. Made of stone, it stood a full 100 feet tall, the upper third or so containing carvings of what Cramer explained were members of the elven pantheon of deities. Utred and Khari looked at the wall with distrust; they seemed disturbed by its very existence. "What's the matter?" Marlo asked, noticing their discomfort.</p><p></p><p>"That wall ain't natural," Utred explained. "Well, I suppose it's 'natural,' just unnaturally so."</p><p></p><p>"That doesn't make any sense," complained Marlo.</p><p></p><p>"Best way I can explain it."</p><p></p><p>"Yeah, it just ain't right somehow," Khari added, not able to take his eyes from it as they approached.</p><p></p><p>There was an open gate in the wall before the road, beside which stood two elven guards in green ironsilk breastplates. Marlo pulled her robes tight around her, ensuring her own ironsilk armor which she wore underneath wasn't visible. The elven guards were distinctive in that one had sky blue eyes and hair to match, while the other had hair and eyes of a deep violet. Unlike the combative attitudes of the elves the slaves had encountered the night before, these elven guards had a much friendlier disposition.</p><p></p><p>"Welcome to Greenvale," greeted one with a smile and a sparkle in his eyes. If he was the least bit surprised to see a hulking lizardfolk traveling in the company of a gnome, a human, and two dwarves he gave no indication of it. "Allow me to explain the code of conduct for visitors in our fair city." Cramer listened distractedly from the driver's seat of the wagon, his attention focused on the gate behind the guards. It didn't look like an opening in the stone wall so much as a magical <em>gate</em> or an upright <em>teleportation circle</em>. The little gnome anticipated that stepping through it could take them much farther away than just directly to the other side of the stone wall.</p><p></p><p>"The rules for visitors are simple," continued the guard. "No magic is to be used inside Greenvale except for self-defense or the defense of others. Only the Common tongue is to be spoken within the trade district in order to deter underhanded dealings. No harming of others, save for in the case of self-defense or the defense of another. No attempting to climb the walls. No entry into other districts without an escort. The penalties of said actions range from a fine to imprisonment, or eternal banishment from the city if the criminal refuses either previous penalty." He smiled again at the slaves. "Are there any questions?"</p><p></p><p>There were not. The guards stepped aside and the slaves led their horse-drawn wagon through the gate into the trade district.</p><p></p><p>The effects of the embargo were immediately apparent as the slaves wandered the trade district. Despite the tightly-packed buildings (seemingly of either human design or an architectural style evocative of an elven mimicry of human design), the district had a desolate, abandoned feel to it. There were wide, open spaces seemingly designed for trade stalls or goods-wagons, but neither were currently in residence. It was, after all, difficult to do much in the way of trade if the traders from outside the city were being encouraged to stay away.</p><p></p><p>As the group meandered around the city, Utred and Marlo heard a muffled cry.</p><p></p><p>"What was that?"</p><p></p><p>"What? I didn't hear anything."</p><p></p><p>"A cry!"</p><p></p><p>"From where?"</p><p></p><p>"Over there!" Khari rushed in the direction Marlo had pointed, his warhammer out and ready for action. Jhasspok paced his dwarven fighter friend, pulling out ahead of him when he saw the elven woman lying in a pool of blood on the cobbled street of an alleyway, an elven soldier standing over her wielding a sword sheathed in green flames. The soldier wore the same type of chainmail uniform as the warriors they'd fought the night before. Cramer swore an oath under his breath, pulled up on the reins, and hopped down from the wagon, casting a <em>longstrider</em> spell on himself as he headed after the others. Marlo and Utred followed the gnome, leaving the horse and wagon unattended in the nearly empty trading quarter of the city.</p><p></p><p>The elf saw the approaching slaves and snarled, "Stay out of this! It doesn't concern you!" Then he, like the captured soldier the night before, recognized the <em>slave-light cloaks</em> that had belonged to the Elderwood infiltration team. With a glare at, he assumed, the infiltrators' killers, he charged Utred, cutting and burning the dwarf with his green-flamed longsword.</p><p></p><p>But then Jhasspok and Khari were upon the elf, the lizardfolk swinging his short sword and snapping with his sharp teeth and the dwarf bludgeoning with his warhammer. In a matter of mere moments the soldier was down from the concentrated attack. Cramer headed over to the elven woman, healing her with a spell. As she awakened, the cleric helped her to sit up and asked her why she'd been attacked.</p><p></p><p>The woman was slow to answer. Finally she replied, "Perhaps you should talk to the guards about that." That was really no answer at all.</p><p></p><p>Jhasspok took the green-flamed longsword from the soldier's dead hand and swung it experimentally, nodding approvingly. "It is a good weapon," he said. "And the flames match my cloak." Indeed, the lizardfolk had early on turned the illusory flames seemingly covering his <em>slave-light cloak</em> an emerald green, the better to match the reptile's scales. But then, with a sigh, he handed the sword over to Utred. "You should have it, if you want it," he said. "You took the attack from its previous owner."</p><p></p><p>"I do want it," the dwarf replied, taking the proffered weapon. Utred Butterflinger might have been born into a clan of dwarven farmers but he was a weapon-wielding barbarian at heart. It boded well for him, he thought, that the first longsword he added to his arsenal was magical in nature.</p><p></p><p>Two elven guards approached the group. Cramer, sensing an impending accusation of having broken Greenvale's code of conduct, began to explain they had been attacked but the lead guard raised a hand. "<strong>Tock</strong> saw everything," he said, as if that were all the explanation needed. The Jalamir slaves looked at each other in puzzlement until a clockwork pseudodragon flew down from the rooftops. This, apparently, was Tock. It landed on the cobblestones and arched its mechanical neck to look up at the slaves. They could hear a slight whirring noise from the creature - the sound of gears moving. Cramer, with the intrinsic gnomish appreciation for intricate mechanical devices, couldn't help but be impressed at the sight.</p><p></p><p>"I think you should come with us," said the guard in a non-hostile manner. "Just to answer a few questions." He held out a lead box and motioned silently for the slaves to remove their <em>ring gate necklaces</em> and place them within.</p><p></p><p>"Oh?" asked Cramer, suddenly wary but not hesitating for a second to get rid of the illithid tentacle making contact with the skin of his neck. The other three slaves dropped their necklaces into the box and the elf handed it to his partner for safekeeping.</p><p></p><p>"Just standard procedure," promised the guard, smiling broadly. "And depending on your answers, I think we may very well be able to help with your 'problem'.'" As if to emphasize his meaning, the guard slapped Utred on the middle of his back - smack-dab on the Jalamir tattoo that had been branded into place when he'd been taken as a slave.</p><p></p><p>Cramer caught the implications at once. "By all means," he said, his smile suddenly as big as the guard's.</p><p></p><p>- - -</p><p></p><p>This adventure, if nothing else, showed us the fickle nature of the Dice Gods. We took forever taking down a simple, low-level elven cleric in a five-against-one fight, were almost as a result ready to flee from what turned out to be four 1st-level warriors (we thought they'd likely give us as much trouble as the cleric had, only now we'd be up against four of them all at once), and then took down a much higher-level soldier at the end like he was a chump.</p><p></p><p>Dan's all excited at the prospect of Cramer (and the others) escaping slave-hood, but whatever happens we do realize we'll likely have to return to Overreach. Cramer still needs to rescue his cleric mentor, <strong>Honeycomb Buzzwort</strong>, and we probably ought to do our best to rescue the slaves we captured for the drow: not only the Elderwood bandits from this adventure but the halfling paladin, dwarven ranger, and human fighter we sent into slavery last adventure. And I'm sure Cramer wouldn't mind putting slavemaster Calish Jalamir and N'zorthal the mind flayer to death, either.</p><p></p><p>We all leveled up to 3rd at the end of this adventure. Unfortunately, this is Jhasspok's "dead" level, the third of three he has to pay as just a lizardfolk - and the one without an increase to Hit Dice, so that means no additional hit points, no increase in Base Attack Bonus or saves or anything (not even his token 1 skill point per level). Once we make it to 4th level I'll finally get to add a character class to him.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Richards, post: 7890800, member: 508"] [B]ADVENTURE 6: PASSIVE AGGRESSION[/B] PC Roster: [INDENT]Cramer Appleknocker, gnome cleric 2[/INDENT] [INDENT] Jhasspok, lizardfolk 2[/INDENT] [INDENT] Khari Hammerslammer, dwarf fighter 2[/INDENT] [INDENT] Marlo Pendragon, human sorcerer 2[/INDENT] [INDENT] Utred "Buckets" Butterflinger, dwarf barbarian 2[/INDENT] Game Session Date: 8 January 2020 - - - "I'm not taking a guard shift!" argued Cramer Appleknocker. "There are four of you - if you each take a two-hour shift, that's a full eight hours. Problem solved!" "Yeah, or we could divide it up five ways and each get a shorter shift," rebutted Utred. "Why don't you need to pull your weight?" "I'm a cleric! I need a full night's rest - preferably uninterrupted - if I'm going to be able to prepare my spells in the morning. You do want me to be able to heal you, don't you?" "But what about Marlo?" asked Khari. "She casts spells - doesn't she need her sleep, the same as you?" "Don't worry about it," scoffed Marlo. "Let him get his beauty sleep - it looks like he needs it, in any case. I'll take the first shift - that way, I'll still get a solid block of sleep instead of getting interrupted in the middle of the night for guard duty. I'll be fine." "If you're sure...." said Khari. "I'm sure." "Then I'll take second shift," the Hammerslammer dwarf offered. "Wake me in two hours." He went over to one of the two tents they'd found in the wagon of goods they'd taken from the caravan earlier that day - the larger one, which they'd designated the men's tent. Utred and Cramer followed suit, the two dwarves stripping off their armor before climbing into the canvas enclosure. The smaller tent was left just for Marlo, while Jhasspok found the whole concept of erecting a portable house made of fabric completely nonsensical - he slept on the ground beside the wagon, where he could hear all of the new sounds of the forest nearby: the chirping of insects, the flapping of wings from the unseen bats, the soft nickering of the horse whose bridle they'd tied to the wagon, the distant call of something Cramer had called "loons" - whatever they were. The next two hours passed by in relative silence, save for the background noises and the occasional snore coming from the men's tent. After judging her shift had ended by the position of the full moon, Marlo shook Khari awake and crawled off to her own small tent. The dwarf put his armor back on and spent some time by the fire, building it back up enough to keep him warm while he cleaned the dried blood from his warhammer. He'd wake the lizardfolk when his shift was up. But it never quite came to that, for about halfway through his guard shift Khari heard the unmistakable sound of a twig snapping from the forest behind him. Turning, he squinted into the darkness of the forest, his dwarven darkvision picking out the silhouette of a female elf hiding between the trees, peering out at him. Her eyes were wide open in surprise; apparently she hadn't intended revealing her presence in this way. Khari wasn't the smartest dwarf by any means but he knew enough to alert the others in case of potential danger - and an elf sneaking up on them in the middle of the night certainly qualified. "WAKE UP - INTRUDER!" bellowed the dwarven fighter before charging straight for the elven woman. He sent his warhammer crashing toward her head but she nimbly stepped back, dodging the swinging weapon. Khari noticed her eyes were glowing and wondered idly what that might mean - was she under some kind of spell effect? [I]Domination[/I] of some sort, maybe? Too late to cast the [I]silence[/I] spell she'd hoped to cover the encampment and confused by the results of the [I]detect evil[/I] spell she'd cast upon her own vision ([I]How could a dwarf's [U]beard[/U] be evil?[/I] she wondered, picking up the waves of malevolence emanating from N'zorthal's tentacle hiding beneath Khari's beard), the elf attacked the burly dwarf with her own weapon: a light mace. Her swing struck only Khari's shield, eliciting a clamor she likewise would have preferred not making - so much for stealthiness! Utred had been awakened by Khari's cry and wasn't quite sure if he'd imagined it or not - but then he heard the unmistakable sound of a metal weapon clanging off a steel shield. Not bothering to don his armor, he grabbed up his own shield and the closest one-handed weapon at hand - his own warhammer - and ran toward the sounds of battle. His path took him by Marlo's tent so he stuck his head inside and yelled at her to get up - tired after her two-hour guard shift, she'd slept through Khari's initial warning. Staggering out of her little tent, Marlo looked to see what the fuss was all about and by the light of the full moon she saw Khari fighting an elf in the forest on the other side of the dirt road they'd been following. The sorceress cast a [I]magic missile[/I] from one of the spell-slots still available to her from the previous day. The spell covered the distance between the two women in a mere moment, unerringly striking the armor-clad elf. Cramer cast a [I]shield of faith[/I] as he crawled from the larger tent. Jhasspok woke up and stood dazedly, looking about him trying to make sense of his surroundings - it was his first night on the surface world and at first everything seemed too strange for his lizard brain to handle. "Attack the elf!" commanded the gnome. Finding the intended target, Jhasspok ran across the dirt road to do just that, his tail held out vertically behind him for balance. Fortunately, the lizardfolk wore no armor so he'd merely had to pick up his turtle shell shield and his short sword to be fully ready for combat. Khari attacked the woman again, swinging and missing. She responded by taking a step back out of immediate reach, casting a [I]light[/I] spell on a pebble in her hand, and flinging it straight up into the air. It landed near the dirt road passing by the slaves' campsite for the night. [I]A signal for reinforcements[/I], surmised Utred, quite accurately as it turned out. By then the rest of the slaves had converged on the elf. She turned out to be quite adept at avoiding their attacks, though - almost comically so. Jhasspok tried a bear-hug grapple that she slithered out of somehow, leaving the surprised lizardfolk falling to a heap at her feet. Both dwarves swung their warhammers at her head, only to have her duck at the last moment each time. She raised her hand in a "I just want to talk" gesture after Marlo struck her with another [I]magic missile[/I] spell and the group held back to hear what she might have to say, but the only words that spilled from her mouth immediately thereafter were those of a healing spell. Cramer by that time was close enough to note the silvery crescent moon medallion around her neck and recognized it as the holy symbol of the elven deity Correlon Larethian. But she continued to evade their attacks, gradually moving to the south as she did so. Finally, she turned and fled at full speed - but was outrun by a now-furious Utred, whose fist-punch to the back of her head sent her reeling, unconscious, to the forest floor. "Finally!" he grunted to himself, before picking up the sounds of reinforcements coming from the south, along the dirt road. They still seemed some distance away, so the group had time to prepare for their arrival. But the five slaves were far from a well-oiled machine when it came to tactical combat planning; everyone had their own ideas. "Let's ambush 'em!" suggested Utred and that sounded like a good plan to all, but each slave decided on his or her own how best to meet that goal. Jhasspok leaned down and picked up the unconscious elf, hoping to draw the reinforcements into attacking him if they thought they'd have to overcome the lizardfolk to rescue their cleric. Then the others could pop out from their hiding places behind trees, attacking the unsuspecting reserves. Khari hid behind a tree, ready to do just that. Cramer, however, waited for them over by the dropped pebble with the [I]light[/I] spell, while Utred went back over to their encampment to make sure none of these newcomers to the field of battle got it into their heads to swipe the rest of their stuff. And Marlo crossed the dirt road again to hide behind her own small tent. She took the opportunity to ready her light crossbow since she was nearly out of her more powerful spells, having used up quite a bit of her daily allotment earlier the previous morning when attacking the caravan. Four figures appeared along the road from the south, looking to be elves as well. Jhasspok by this time had gotten tired of carrying around an unconscious elf in chain mail and had plopped her down onto the back of the wagon at their camp. One of the approaching elven warriors - another woman - headed his way, trying to rescue her leader. Jhasspok turned to face the attacker and raised his shield to ward off the incoming blow but the elf was tricky and her blade went whizzing by in an arc to strike the lizardfolk from an unexpected direction. Jhasspok hissed in pain as the blade carved a path of blood across his scales. Another elven warrior spotted Utred and Khari among the trees and altered his path to go strike the Hammerslammer dwarf. His blade struck Khari's shield with a clang and was diverted away. The other two elves rushed forward, approaching Jhasspok with hopes of surrounding the lizard-monster with overwhelming force. But Jhasspok was having none of that; with a leap forward, he snapped his jaws over the soft flesh of the female warrior's neck, ripping out her throat - and then spitting it back out in disgust, for it tasted [I]nothing[/I] like fish! Khari battled the elf who had singled him out, getting in a good strike with his warhammer that had the elf swooning. Utred ran up beside Jhasspok and swung his own weapon at one of the other approaching elves, while Marlo scampered up a tree and shot a [I]ray of frost[/I] spell - she was too depleted of spell energy to cast the more powerful [I]magic missiles[/I] - at Utred's foe. Then Cramer cast a [I]command[/I] spell and called out - in fluent Elven - "Fall!" to the elf standing before Jhasspok. The elf obeyed, dropping to the ground, and the cleric called for the lizardfolk to attack the now-prone enemy. Jhasspok obeyed at once, bloodying the elf (who likewise tasted nothing like fish, much to the lizardfolk's disappointment - he'd been kind of hoping the female elf had been a fluke). With another solid blow to the temple, Khari dropped his foe like a log. The sole remaining elf looked about him, saw the five-against-one odds, and dropped his blade. "I surrender!" he called out in the Common tongue. He then figuratively spilled his guts so he wouldn't have them spilled literally. According to the elven warrior, they had come to attack the very caravan the five Jalamir slaves had attacked earlier that day, for it had been headed to Greenvale but the members of the caravan had failed to pay their "toll." The elves of the Elderwood - of which these five elves were members - had enacted an embargo on Greenvale while they investigated a rumored connection between Greenvale and the drow of Overreach. ("Overreach!" cried Jhasspok when he heard the city of his hatching mentioned.) The elves were certain there was a connection of some sort between the two communities, for both had ironsilk - a rare commodity in the world, known by very few. With their embargo in place, the Elderwood elves had been "persuading" the human kingdoms to stop trading with Greenvale, banditry being just one way of doing so. "We could look into that connection for you," suggested Cramer, eager to find out more about Overreach. The more he knew of his captors, he reasoned, the better he'd eventually be able to escape from their yoke. "No need - we already have an agent in place in Greenvale," replied the elf. Then his eyes narrowed in suspicion as he noticed, for the first time, the cloaks the five slaves wore. These were the [I]slave-light cloaks[/I] they'd taken from the assassins back in Overreach who had tried slaying the ironsilk weaver from House Ky'hulcressen; the elf recognized them as having belonged to the elite infiltration team the Elderwood forces had sent into Overreach, of which his own brother had been a member. "Where did you get those cloaks?" he demanded. "We took them from the bodies of elves slain in Overreach," replied Jhasspok truthfully - he just left out the part where it had been the five Jalamir slaves themselves who had slain the elf assassins in the first place. The elf's eyes narrowed in suspicion and his jaw clenched at the thought that his brother was likely dead. "So what are you planning on doing with us?" the elf demanded, looking down at the unconscious form of his male companion on the ground at Khari's feet, whose ragged breathing denoted he at least was still alive - unlike the two warriors Jhasspok had slain and partially eaten. "We won't kill you," promised Cramer, bending down to cast a [I]cure minor wounds[/I] spell upon the downed warrior to stabilize him; he'd previously done the same thing to the unconscious cleric laying on the back of the wagon. But then he motioned for Jhasspok to fetch the cleric and bring her here, while Khari hefted the weight of the warrior he'd knocked out. Cramer touched the illithid tentacle curling up from the [I]ring gate necklace[/I] he wore around his neck and sent a telepathic call to N'zorthal. The Writhing Gate opened behind the unarmed elf. "...but you might wish we had," Cramer finished, pushing their captured prisoner to stumble backwards through the Writhing Gate. Then, at the gnome's orders, Jhasspok and Khari pitched their unconscious burdens into the Writhing Gate as well. It winked back out after receiving its third elven offering and Marlo silently wondered if they would receive a vision of the Dying One on their way to the Underdark. "Glad that's done with," growled Utred, dropping his shield and weapon by the flap of the tent and crawling back inside. "I'm beat." "It's your shift now, Jhasspok," said Khari, pulling off his armor and getting ready to climb into the tent as well. "Wake up Utred in two hours, okay?" "When is that?" Jhasspok asked. Khari thought about it. "When the moon's about there," he said, pointing to the top of a clump of trees. "Moon?" asked the lizardfolk. He'd never heard the word. "The moon! That big round thing!" Khari snarled, pointing up at the celestial orb ruling over the night sky. "Oh! That!" replied Jhasspok, looking up at it. "I thought it was a really big pearl." Khari just shook his head in disbelief and climbed into the tent. He shook it again when he found Cramer had somehow beaten him inside and was already snoring. [I]Little dude's serious about his sleep![/I], thought the fighter. Jhasspok squatted down by the fire and sat virtually motionless for the next three hours (for Khari's ability to calculate time via celestial navigation wasn't a finely-tuned skill, more of a vague guesstimate), his ears listening for danger while his eyes stared at the Really Big Pearl in the night sky. (Khari hadn't told him he'd go blind if he stared at it, like Utred had warned him about the [I]fireball[/I] sun, so Jhasspok assumed it was okay to do so.) His guard shift was uneventful, as was Utred's, and Khari's miscalculation got the other slaves the extra sleep they'd missed out on during their combat excursion in the middle of the night. Cramer woke up in the morning light fully refreshed and began preparing his spells for the day. "So, we continuing on to Greenvale?" asked Utred, looking at the map they'd taken from the caravan driver. The road through the forest would take them to the mountains, where Greenvale was indicated by a black dot. "It's as good a place as any to check out," Marlo offered. "Yeah, I want to see about this connection to Overreach," Cramer added. After a quick breakfast, they hitched their horse up to the wagon and headed in the direction of Greenvale. Late morning saw them standing before an imposing wall stretching across the road. Made of stone, it stood a full 100 feet tall, the upper third or so containing carvings of what Cramer explained were members of the elven pantheon of deities. Utred and Khari looked at the wall with distrust; they seemed disturbed by its very existence. "What's the matter?" Marlo asked, noticing their discomfort. "That wall ain't natural," Utred explained. "Well, I suppose it's 'natural,' just unnaturally so." "That doesn't make any sense," complained Marlo. "Best way I can explain it." "Yeah, it just ain't right somehow," Khari added, not able to take his eyes from it as they approached. There was an open gate in the wall before the road, beside which stood two elven guards in green ironsilk breastplates. Marlo pulled her robes tight around her, ensuring her own ironsilk armor which she wore underneath wasn't visible. The elven guards were distinctive in that one had sky blue eyes and hair to match, while the other had hair and eyes of a deep violet. Unlike the combative attitudes of the elves the slaves had encountered the night before, these elven guards had a much friendlier disposition. "Welcome to Greenvale," greeted one with a smile and a sparkle in his eyes. If he was the least bit surprised to see a hulking lizardfolk traveling in the company of a gnome, a human, and two dwarves he gave no indication of it. "Allow me to explain the code of conduct for visitors in our fair city." Cramer listened distractedly from the driver's seat of the wagon, his attention focused on the gate behind the guards. It didn't look like an opening in the stone wall so much as a magical [I]gate[/I] or an upright [I]teleportation circle[/I]. The little gnome anticipated that stepping through it could take them much farther away than just directly to the other side of the stone wall. "The rules for visitors are simple," continued the guard. "No magic is to be used inside Greenvale except for self-defense or the defense of others. Only the Common tongue is to be spoken within the trade district in order to deter underhanded dealings. No harming of others, save for in the case of self-defense or the defense of another. No attempting to climb the walls. No entry into other districts without an escort. The penalties of said actions range from a fine to imprisonment, or eternal banishment from the city if the criminal refuses either previous penalty." He smiled again at the slaves. "Are there any questions?" There were not. The guards stepped aside and the slaves led their horse-drawn wagon through the gate into the trade district. The effects of the embargo were immediately apparent as the slaves wandered the trade district. Despite the tightly-packed buildings (seemingly of either human design or an architectural style evocative of an elven mimicry of human design), the district had a desolate, abandoned feel to it. There were wide, open spaces seemingly designed for trade stalls or goods-wagons, but neither were currently in residence. It was, after all, difficult to do much in the way of trade if the traders from outside the city were being encouraged to stay away. As the group meandered around the city, Utred and Marlo heard a muffled cry. "What was that?" "What? I didn't hear anything." "A cry!" "From where?" "Over there!" Khari rushed in the direction Marlo had pointed, his warhammer out and ready for action. Jhasspok paced his dwarven fighter friend, pulling out ahead of him when he saw the elven woman lying in a pool of blood on the cobbled street of an alleyway, an elven soldier standing over her wielding a sword sheathed in green flames. The soldier wore the same type of chainmail uniform as the warriors they'd fought the night before. Cramer swore an oath under his breath, pulled up on the reins, and hopped down from the wagon, casting a [I]longstrider[/I] spell on himself as he headed after the others. Marlo and Utred followed the gnome, leaving the horse and wagon unattended in the nearly empty trading quarter of the city. The elf saw the approaching slaves and snarled, "Stay out of this! It doesn't concern you!" Then he, like the captured soldier the night before, recognized the [I]slave-light cloaks[/I] that had belonged to the Elderwood infiltration team. With a glare at, he assumed, the infiltrators' killers, he charged Utred, cutting and burning the dwarf with his green-flamed longsword. But then Jhasspok and Khari were upon the elf, the lizardfolk swinging his short sword and snapping with his sharp teeth and the dwarf bludgeoning with his warhammer. In a matter of mere moments the soldier was down from the concentrated attack. Cramer headed over to the elven woman, healing her with a spell. As she awakened, the cleric helped her to sit up and asked her why she'd been attacked. The woman was slow to answer. Finally she replied, "Perhaps you should talk to the guards about that." That was really no answer at all. Jhasspok took the green-flamed longsword from the soldier's dead hand and swung it experimentally, nodding approvingly. "It is a good weapon," he said. "And the flames match my cloak." Indeed, the lizardfolk had early on turned the illusory flames seemingly covering his [I]slave-light cloak[/I] an emerald green, the better to match the reptile's scales. But then, with a sigh, he handed the sword over to Utred. "You should have it, if you want it," he said. "You took the attack from its previous owner." "I do want it," the dwarf replied, taking the proffered weapon. Utred Butterflinger might have been born into a clan of dwarven farmers but he was a weapon-wielding barbarian at heart. It boded well for him, he thought, that the first longsword he added to his arsenal was magical in nature. Two elven guards approached the group. Cramer, sensing an impending accusation of having broken Greenvale's code of conduct, began to explain they had been attacked but the lead guard raised a hand. "[B]Tock[/B] saw everything," he said, as if that were all the explanation needed. The Jalamir slaves looked at each other in puzzlement until a clockwork pseudodragon flew down from the rooftops. This, apparently, was Tock. It landed on the cobblestones and arched its mechanical neck to look up at the slaves. They could hear a slight whirring noise from the creature - the sound of gears moving. Cramer, with the intrinsic gnomish appreciation for intricate mechanical devices, couldn't help but be impressed at the sight. "I think you should come with us," said the guard in a non-hostile manner. "Just to answer a few questions." He held out a lead box and motioned silently for the slaves to remove their [I]ring gate necklaces[/I] and place them within. "Oh?" asked Cramer, suddenly wary but not hesitating for a second to get rid of the illithid tentacle making contact with the skin of his neck. The other three slaves dropped their necklaces into the box and the elf handed it to his partner for safekeeping. "Just standard procedure," promised the guard, smiling broadly. "And depending on your answers, I think we may very well be able to help with your 'problem'.'" As if to emphasize his meaning, the guard slapped Utred on the middle of his back - smack-dab on the Jalamir tattoo that had been branded into place when he'd been taken as a slave. Cramer caught the implications at once. "By all means," he said, his smile suddenly as big as the guard's. - - - This adventure, if nothing else, showed us the fickle nature of the Dice Gods. We took forever taking down a simple, low-level elven cleric in a five-against-one fight, were almost as a result ready to flee from what turned out to be four 1st-level warriors (we thought they'd likely give us as much trouble as the cleric had, only now we'd be up against four of them all at once), and then took down a much higher-level soldier at the end like he was a chump. Dan's all excited at the prospect of Cramer (and the others) escaping slave-hood, but whatever happens we do realize we'll likely have to return to Overreach. Cramer still needs to rescue his cleric mentor, [B]Honeycomb Buzzwort[/B], and we probably ought to do our best to rescue the slaves we captured for the drow: not only the Elderwood bandits from this adventure but the halfling paladin, dwarven ranger, and human fighter we sent into slavery last adventure. And I'm sure Cramer wouldn't mind putting slavemaster Calish Jalamir and N'zorthal the mind flayer to death, either. We all leveled up to 3rd at the end of this adventure. Unfortunately, this is Jhasspok's "dead" level, the third of three he has to pay as just a lizardfolk - and the one without an increase to Hit Dice, so that means no additional hit points, no increase in Base Attack Bonus or saves or anything (not even his token 1 skill point per level). Once we make it to 4th level I'll finally get to add a character class to him. [/QUOTE]
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