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Raiders of the Overreach
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<blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 7972707" data-attributes="member: 508"><p><strong>ADVENTURE 18: HAPPY TRAILS</strong></p><p></p><p>PC Roster:</p><p style="margin-left: 20px">Cramer Appleknocker, gnome cleric 7</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Jhasspok, lizardman 3/barbarian 2/fighter 2</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Khari Hammerslammer, dwarf fighter 7</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Marlo Pendragon, human sorcerer 7</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Utred "Buckets" Butterflinger, dwarf barbarian 7</p><p></p><p>Game Session Date: 22 April 2020</p><p></p><p>- - -</p><p></p><p>The wagon was heavy when the heroes departed the Elderwood capital, loaded down with numerous chests filled with golden coins, a reward for having saved the life of King Omadan. So heavy, in fact, that Cramer insisted only he and Marlo ride in the front and the others walk beside. "We've only got the one horse and a four-day ride to Revin; we don't want to tucker the poor beast out!" he admonished. There was no real argument against it, either, for the two dwarves and the burly lizardfolk were each much heavier than either the little gnome or the petite human. Some of the coins had been spent on healing potions before they left the capital city, lessening the load somewhat, but there were still quite a lot left.</p><p></p><p>The first day's travel got the group as far as the Crossroad Keep. Utred was wary of the place - not surprising, as the last time they'd stayed there overnight they'd been attacked by the elven guardsmen and would have been set up as the slayers of Councilor Liadon had they not overcome the forces against them. But there was an entirely different set of elves on guard duty at the keep and word had already reached them how the five travelers had saved the life of the king; the arena slaves had no problems whatsoever during their overnight stay, finding themselves being toasted at the drinking establishment and practically treated like royalty themselves. "Now tha's mo' like it!" slurred Utred when he finally hit his borrowed bunk for the night.</p><p></p><p>But the next morning found the quintet back on the road again, heading west for Revin, Cramer's homeland. And shortly after noon on this second day of travel, the group arrived upon quite an unexpected scene: a human sitting in the middle of the road, bashing his feet with a wooden club.</p><p></p><p>"What are you <em>doing?</em>" demanded Marlo as Cramer brought the wagon to a halt beside the beleaguered man.</p><p></p><p>"Can't--go back!" the man replied, still hitting his feet. "Don't let me--go back!"</p><p></p><p>"Somebody stop him!" commanded Marlo. Jhasspok ran up and tackled the man, grabbing the wooden club from his hand and pinning him flat upon the road. "Okay, please explain to us what's going on," the sorcerer asked the pinned foot-basher.</p><p></p><p>"I got hurt an' was told to grab a healing potion, but I never learned my letters none and I musta grabbed the wrong one," <strong>Henrik</strong> explained. "Whatever was in that potion, it let me see what was goin' on for real, and I high-tailed it outta there!" He gulped visibly. "Only then I got winded from all the runnin', and I realized that potion's gonna wear off any time now and then I'll wanna go back! But don't let me go back!"</p><p></p><p>"You're trying to smash your feet so you won't be able to return to where you came from?" Marlo reiterated. "Is that really the best idea?" She looked sideways over at Cramer, giving him a silent expression that said, "And I thought Khari and Jhasspok were on the dim side!"</p><p></p><p>"I can't go back there--I can't!" wailed Henrik.</p><p></p><p>"Howzabout we knock you out and tie you up?" offered Khari, hefting his dwarven warhammer. "Then you couldn't go back."</p><p></p><p>"Would you?" pleaded Henrik. Khari raised his weapon as if to bring it crashing down on the crazed human's head but Cramer stepped between them and raised his hand. "Hold on, Khari, not just quite yet, please." He turned to Henrik. "If we tie you up so you can't go back to wherever it was you escaped from and promised to leave you in the wagon, would you be able to lead us back there so we can check it out?" Henrik gave it some thought and reluctantly agreed - as long as he didn't have to step back inside the marble palace.</p><p></p><p>Jhasspok let Henrik get up from the road and Utred escorted him to the back of the wagon, where he started binding his arms and legs with a sturdy length of rope. While Henrik was being successfully trussed up, he explained what he knew of the situation.</p><p></p><p>"There's this wizard, <strong>Absor</strong>, who runs the Cult of Celestial Bliss. Absor, he took all of us to the heavens, where we could see the whole world floatin' above us in the sky. Only with such a large group, the celestials noticed we was trespassing and chased us off. Now Absor only sends one of us at a time to slip past their notice. About once a week or so, it is."</p><p></p><p>"Is this making any sense to you?" Marlo asked Cramer.</p><p></p><p>The gnome cleric rubbed his bearded chin in thought. "It could be Bytopia," he mused. "That would explain the 'whole world' being above them in the sky - it's said to be a dual plane, one upside-down over the other." Marlo just scowled at the thought; she'd had enough of upside-down gravity planes in the Overreach to last her a lifetime.</p><p></p><p>Suddenly, Henrik gave a shake of his head, as if waking up. "Hey, what are you doing?" he asked Utred, who was putting the finishing touches on the knot he'd just tied around Henrik's wrists. ""Let me out of these ropes! I have to get back to Absor! Let me go--I have to get back!"</p><p></p><p>"Now what?" sighed Marlo to herself as Cramer cast a <em>magic circle against evil</em> spell on himself and approached the bound human. Once he got within a few steps of Henrik the man settled down again. "Okay, seriously, what's going on?" demanded Marlo.</p><p></p><p>"Here's what I think," replied Cramer. "Henrik here's under some kind of magical compulsion: a <em>geas</em> or <em>charm</em> or <em>domination</em> effect or something similar that's keeping him at this marble palace. Then he drinks the wrong potion - I'm guessing a <em>potion of protection from evil</em> or something similar - and his mind's suddenly his own again. He runs away, we find him, and just as Utred finished tying him up - good job there, by the way, Utred - the potion wore off. Now he wants to go back, until he fell within the range of my spell, which once again cleared his mind. Do you want to go back to the marble palace, Henrik?"</p><p></p><p>"No!"</p><p></p><p>"Yeah, I didn't think so." Cramer climbed back into the front of the wagon and motioned for Marlo to get in beside him. "Okay, here's what we're going to do, Henrik. You tell us how to get to this marble palace and we'll go have a talk with this Absor guy for you. You can stay here in the wagon, okay?" Henrik nodded nervously.</p><p></p><p>"Guy sure seems pretty scared of bliss," Khari muttered as the group moved forward, back the way Henrik had come before they found him.</p><p></p><p>"So who all's in this bliss cult?" Utred wanted to know. Henrik explained that besides the wizard leader and the two female adventurers who joined the cult, there were a total of ten commoners - like himself - who had been attracted to the concept of a gathering devoted to pure happiness.</p><p></p><p>"Tell us more about these two adventurers," commanded Cramer. He wanted to know what they'd be up against, besides confronting a wizard powerful enough to keep a dozen people in his thrall.</p><p></p><p>"<strong>Belaina</strong> is a swordswoman," Henrik explained, "and <strong>Helen</strong>'s a bard." Utred snorted at this last bit of information: Oh no, someone who might <em>sing</em> at them!</p><p></p><p>It didn't take long for the group to reach the white palace, which looked exactly as described: a one-story stone building crafted of white marble. As the wagon approached, Cramer cast <em>longstrider</em> and <em>detect evil</em> spells on himself and Marlo cast a <em>mage armor</em> spell on Jhasspok - for which the lizardfolk dutifully handed over one of his slave-tokens to the sorcerer. Marlo just took the token; it was easier than explaining to Jhasspok that payment wasn't necessary.</p><p></p><p>"There's evil ahead," Cramer whispered to the others as he brought the horse to a stop just outside the open doorway. The fact that he could definitely sense evil through the solid-looking marble walls led him to believe all was not as it seemed; staring intently at the building, he was able to pierce through the crafted illusion and see the "palace" for what it really was: a silk tent. He let the others in on his discovery and armed with that knowledge they too were able to see through the illusion.</p><p></p><p>"We have intruders among us!" came a raspy voice from inside. "Newcomers here to prevent our eternal bliss!" Cramer looked through the open doorway - there was no door - and saw half a dozen humans in simple robes standing in an antechamber. Behind them he saw a wizard, Absor no doubt, waving his hands about as if in the midst of spellcasting, while Helen and Balaina stood beside him.</p><p></p><p>"Looks like a fight!" enthused Khari, glad they'd just be getting on with it instead of trying to negotiate or anything. Using the power of his magic warhammer, he dropped below the surface of the ground and earth glided beneath the tent, popping up directly behind Absor, who gave no indication he knew there was now an armed and armored dwarf ready to bop him on the head with his warhammer. Jhasspok, in the meantime, ran around to the back of the tent, thinking he'd surprise Absor by ripping through the silk right behind him, taking him by surprise. The lizardfolk had to stifle his own hissing laughter, so excited was he at his clever ploy.</p><p></p><p>Marlo went straight to the attack, sending an <em>empowered magic missile</em> crashing into Balaina while stepping down from the front of the wagon. Helen began singing but then was cut off in mid-song; she'd cast a <em>silence</em> spell on Balaina and was temporarily within its effect. Utred ran straight into the tent, pushing his way past the robed commoners who, he saw, didn't even have any weapons in hand. They tried punching the burly dwarven barbarian but he ignored them, heading straight for Absor with his <em>Elderwood flaming longsword</em> out and ready.</p><p></p><p>Upon an unvoiced order - it arrived telepathically, directly into their heads - the robed cultists (whom Absor sneeringly referred to as "the rabble" to himself) turned away from Utred and swarmed over Marlo, pummeling the sorcerer with their fists. However, in doing so, three of them inadvertently entered the radius of Cramer's <em>magic circle against evil</em> spell and felt their own minds return; those three looked about confusedly, as if wondering what they were doing here. One of the others was knocked into unconsciousness as Marlo fought back, her <em>arcane blade</em> in hand.</p><p></p><p>But then Balaina ran forward and joined the crowd, the <em>silence</em> spell surrounding her causing all sounds to cease in her immediate vicinity. She kept her longsword sheathed, grabbing Marlo by the hair and flipping her to the ground, then pounding her a good one with a fist to the nose. Cramer immediately leaped down from the wagon and backed hurriedly away, but this was just to get outside the radius of the <em>silence</em> spell so he could cast additional spells of his own. This he did at once, casting a <em>spiritual weapon</em> spell that caused a shimmering quarterstaff to appear in the air above the little gnome's head. He could only see a tangle of legs on the other side of the wagon but that didn't matter; he'd gotten a good look at Balaina as she ran to attack Marlo and with a mental image of her in his head he sent his force-quarterstaff to the attack. One end of it crashed down onto the back of Balaina's head as she grappled with Marlo, trying to prevent the sorceress from being able to cast spells.</p><p></p><p>Absor stepped away from Utred, deftly dodging a hammer-blow from Khari as he did so. He moved his hands about again as if spellcasting, imbuing himself with added vigor for the duration of this fight against these unknown enemies. Khari thought for a moment Absor's actions reminded him of something, but just that quick whatever thought he'd had on the subject was gone. Still, he whirled around and brought the head of his weapon crashing into Absor's side, causing the wizard a great deal of pain.</p><p></p><p>On the other side of the tent, just behind Absor's new position, Jhasspok brought his battleaxe down in an overhead arc, thinking to slice through the thin layer of silk and the wizard in one stroke. But the fabric, it turned out, was ironsilk - much tougher than the lizardfolk had expected! Still his axe-head crashed down upon the wizard's shoulder through the ironsilk, and if the tent material wasn't cut through it was at least severely weakened - another strike in the same place and Jhasspok would likely have made himself a new entry-point.</p><p></p><p>Grappling with the fighter in a field of absolute silence, Marlo still had her <em>arcane blade</em> in hand and put it to good use, slashing along Balaina's forearm with the blade of the weapon; she didn't have the range of motion to stab with it as the fighter's hands were gripped hard around her wrists - it would have to do for now. But the commoners weren't content to let Balaina take care of Marlo; now that Cramer had stepped away, none of them were inside his <em>magic circle against evil</em> and all were dedicated to bringing down the spellcaster. Clenched fists rained down on Marlo from all directions, causing her vision to blur and black spots to form in her field of vision as she came close to blacking out. And then Balaina pulled out her own blade and stabbed at Marlo as well, catching her a glancing blow to the side as she maintained her grip on the sorcerer with her other hand.</p><p></p><p>Helen grabbed a dagger from her belt and threw it at Utred. It missed, and the barbarian took time out from his attack on Absor to give the bard a "Really?" look with nothing more than a lowered eyebrow and a disdainful frown. Then, changing his mind in mid-swing, he brought his longsword flashing out at the bard, dropping her instantly. <em>Thought so,</em> Utred smirked to himself quietly, refocusing his attacks on Absor.</p><p></p><p>Cramer's <em>spiritual quarterstaff</em> came crashing down upon Balaina's head again while he crawled underneath the wagon and bopped a commoner on the head with his mace. The cultist crumpled at once, but there were still plenty more of them in the scramble.</p><p></p><p>Absor stared down at Khari expectantly, as if anticipating the dwarven fighter would fall before him through the force of his glare. Khari felt a tingle in the back of his head as he fought off the unknown spell and again he felt the tickle of not-quite-recognition for a brief moment before it too was gone. But then he put it out of his mind and hit the wizard again with his warhammer.</p><p></p><p>With a rip, Jhasspok and his battleaxe were through the tent and right beside Absor. The lizardfolk snapped out with his teeth, ripping a chunk of flesh from the wizard's shoulder. With shock and a quite pleasant surprise, Jhasspok realized this wizard...actually tasted somewhat like fish! The realization stopped him up short but Utred was there to take up the slack, swinging his longsword at the wizard.</p><p></p><p>Marlo again managed to get her <em>arcane blade</em> into position to stab Balaina's arm. But by this time the commoner cultists, once again inside the effects of Cramer's <em>magic circle against evil</em> spell, regained their senses, opted to run away, left the radius of the spell, fell back under Absor's mental sway, and then reentered the field to try to attack Cramer only for the whole sequence to be repeated. The gnomish cleric found himself surrounded by indecisive cultists fleeing from him and turning around to attack him in sequence, the lot of them getting in each other's way. He decided to ignore them and made his way over to where Marlo was still fighting Balaina, each armed with her own blade and doing her best to stab the other - all within a complete field of absolute silence. Cramer whacked the fighter on the back of the head with his mace and let his <em>spiritual weapon</em> finish the job. Balaina succumbed to unconsciousness, her limp form dropping down upon Marlo, who gave her an angry kick in the ribs as she regained her feet.</p><p></p><p>A coy smile spread across Absor's face as he realized he was now in position to <em>mind blast</em> all three of his current attackers without nullifying the <em>charm</em> effect on his food supply. Jhasspok and Utred were immediately stunned into immobility, but Khari was once more unaffected. Absor couldn't believe the dwarf had once again resisted the overwhelming power of his mind - and had the temerity to keep attacking him with that warhammer of his!</p><p></p><p>Marlo moved fully into the tent and seeing Khari in desperate battle with Absor cast a <em>lightning bolt</em> spell through Utred to get to the wizard - she knew full well the barbarian could handle the damage, but the wizard was starting to look a little frail. The air shimmered around Absor as he manifested an <em>intellect fortress</em> around himself, shielding him from some of the damage of the electrical spell attack.</p><p></p><p>Cramer redirected his <em>spiritual weapon</em> on Absor, the quarterstaff shattering upon striking the wizard. But then Cramer's follow-on <em>sound burst</em> spell had better effect, staggering the wizard on his feet if not stunning him as the gnome had hoped.</p><p></p><p>Khari knew what he was up against now and swung his warhammer for all he was worth. The hammer's head collided with Absor's skull and he died while attempting to <em>plane shift</em> away. As he fell, his red hair flopped off his head, falling to the ground and landing as a yellow hat. That wasn't the only transformation, either; as Absor dropped lifelessly to the floor of the tent, his human form fell away and what landed was the unmistakable form of a mind flayer - and one, like N'zorthal, who was using <em>ring gates</em> around his facial tentacles, for the majority of the lengths of the appendages disappeared inside silver rings close to his face.</p><p></p><p>Jhasspok and Utred snapped back into standing wakefulness as the others were checking out Helen and Balaina for magic. The six cultists all stood around, confused; their minds were now their own after the death of Absor but they weren't sure what they should be doing. <em>Detect magic</em> spells told the spellcasters that Helen wore magic bracers on her arms and Balaina's shield was enchanted, as was a necklace she wore.</p><p></p><p>But Jhasspok and Utred walked into the room toward where Absor had been backing before Khari slew him and found a virtual trove: a <em>bag of holding</em> containing thousands of coins and a silver helmet. Utred's whoop of delight at the sight of the coins brought the others running into the room; Cramer noticed at once the scroll tubes, potion vials, and wand lying upon a small table but missed the book Marlo was quietly tucking into her robes - she'd recognized at once the hidebound book as another copy of <em>The Book of Uboros</em> and didn't want anybody taking this one away from her before she got a chance to thoroughly study it.</p><p></p><p>"We'll go through the treasure later," Cramer decided. "Right now, I want some answers from the cultists!" He applied minimal healing to the unconscious foes they'd knocked out - just enough to get them back to wakefulness and aware enough to see the weapons pointed their way by two battle-eager dwarves and a scary-looking lizardfolk.</p><p></p><p>"Got some questions for you," Cramer told them. The answers were forthcoming from Helen and the commoners; less so from Balaina, who Cramer knew from his <em>detect evil</em> spell was the only other one besides Absor himself who had shown to have the taint of evil on her soul.</p><p></p><p>Helen, it turned out, had been part of an adventuring team whose other member was a blue-haired elf. Absor'thal attacked the band, <em>dominated</em> Helen, and slew the elf, whose <em>hat of disguise</em> had shielded the fact she was a drow. The mind flayer also took the drow's magical ironsilk tent for his own. Balaina had joined the mind flayer willingly, agreeing to serve him if he would reveal what he knew - or could find out - about a wizard known only as "the Mithral Mage." (The fighter had an unusual tattoo on the back of her neck - an overturned hourglass - that Helen thought was somehow tied in with this Mithral Mage, but Balaina wouldn't say anything about it.) Absor'thal then formed his cult of bliss, taking everyone to Bytopia to get caught as a means of justifying the need to stealthily take just one cult member to "the celestial realms" at a time. When he did so, he ate the cultist's brain, leaving the body for Balaina to hide afterwards. (Sometimes Helen was pressed into service to assist Balaina, the mind flayer's <em>domination</em> coming into play to get her to do so.) Nobody questioned why these cult members never came back with Absor; why would anyone doubt the cultists would opt to stay in the blissful celestial realms if given the opportunity?</p><p></p><p>After getting all of the information he could from her (which wasn't much), Cramer executed Balaina on the spot. Helen took the commoners, including the wounded Henrik, away with her - they headed off in the opposite direction from which the Overreach slaves would be heading. But the group decided to remain in place overnight, staying in the ironsilk tent (after booting two pairs of cultists from two other rooms in the "tent-palace" who had apparently spent the whole battle finding a little "bliss" of their own; Marlo said quite firmly neither of those two rooms was going to be hers if they ended up camping out here for the night).</p><p></p><p>"Why the delay?" Utred asked.</p><p></p><p>"I want to interrogate Absor and I won't have a <em>speak with dead</em> spell ready until morning," Cramer replied. Utred just shrugged; he didn't see why they couldn't get back on the road and bring the dead illithid with them if the gnome wanted to talk to him so badly, but whatever. Marlo spent the afternoon in a side room she called as her own, reading through <em>The</em> <em>Book of Uboros</em>; the pages were nothing but a series of raised bumps but the sorcerer had already determined the silver helmet was a <em>helm of comprehend languages</em>; with it on her head and a <em>read magic</em> spell cast upon the book, she could make out what was written just fine.</p><p></p><p>The next morning, Cramer cast his spell. They'd discussed earlier what three questions they'd ask of the mind flayer's spirit. Once the spell had been cast, the gnome started with the first of the questions: "What is the third prophecy to prevent the Dying One's return?" Twice now they'd learned there was a third way, but the goblin with <em>The Book of Uboros</em> hadn't been able to understand it and the mural in the duergar tomb had a blank space where the third prophecy would have been shown, had they known it. The gnome leaned towards the corpse of the illithid expectantly, hoping he'd finally get an answer.</p><p></p><p>He did, although it wasn't anything like what he'd expected. "Even if the previous two attempts fail, one final <strong>Hope</strong> remains for the world. The girl who rides her father's <strong>Dick</strong> shall conspire with her father's enemies to save the world from destruction."</p><p></p><p>"--the Hell?" sputtered Marlo. "That's just disgusting."</p><p></p><p>Cramer pressed on with his second question. "How do we kill the neothelid we are supposed to stand against?" he asked. The neothelid, he knew, was the "pink worm" they'd have to fend off, according to one of the other two prophecies. Neothelids weren't particularly common creatures and the gnome had no idea if they had any special vulnerabilities or were particularly impervious against certain forms of attack.</p><p></p><p>"The same way one normally kills something." Well, that was good news, anyway - it didn't sound like the neothelid was going to be particularly difficult to slay; it wasn't like they could only use silver weapons against it or anything.</p><p></p><p>For the final question, Cramer decided to learn what he could about how the Dying One's history. "How did Wee Jas bring the Dying One to His current state?" he asked.</p><p></p><p>"She beheaded Him, and His faithful preserved Him," was the answer - not particularly informative, but it at least sounded like the Dying One would have in fact been slain (perhaps even permanently?) if those worshiping Him hadn't taken actions to extend His life as a severed head. Marlo's face was expressionless; she had already known of this, having read it in her copy of <em>The</em> <em>Book of Uboros</em>, but hadn't been able to tell the others without giving away her secret. And there was no way she was going to let them know she had her own copy of the book before she'd had an opportunity to examine it closely: read it several times through, at least.</p><p></p><p>"Okay, that's all we're getting from him," Cramer announced. "Everybody out of the tent - let's pack it up!" Marlo and the others stepped outside, the sorcerer frowning as the gnome turned to the front opening of the tent and said an arcane syllable or two. As the ironsilk tent started folding itself up, she realized Cramer must have done some magical investigating of his own yesterday afternoon and evening while she was having her first peek through her plundered book. The words he'd spoken were obviously some kind of command words, for the ironsilk tent kept folding in on itself until it was about the size of a small crate. Jhasspok hefted the cube of ironsilk and plopped it on the back of the wagon - which, Marlo noted, now only contained one of the many chests of coins it had held yesterday. "What happened to the other chests?" she asked.</p><p></p><p>"They're all in the <em>bag of holding</em>, which is inside this chest here!" Utred beamed proudly. He climbed up onto the wagon. "Which means we don't hafta hoof it anymore!"</p><p></p><p>Khari and Jhasspok leaped up onto the back of the wagon as Marlo took her seat in the front and Cramer sent the horse lumbering on its way towards Revin.</p><p></p><p>- - -</p><p></p><p>Jhasspok ended up with some decent loot from this adventure: Helen's <em>+4 bracers of armor</em> (surrendered willingly by the bard as payment for freeing her from the cult) will be a welcome addition for a lizardfolk who doesn't wear armor, and Balaina's <em>+1 glamored shield</em> was dropped into the adventure as treasure specifically because Jhasspok won't give up his turtle shell shield (because the mini I'm using for Jhasspok has one), so this way I can have Jhasspok change its appearance to a turtle shell shield and still get the benefit of its enhanced magical protection. (What a thoughtful DM!) Utred took the <em>hat of disguise</em>, Khari took an <em>amulet of natural armor</em> from Balaina, Marlo took the scrolls and the <em>wand of fox's cunning</em>, and Cramer ended up with the <em>helm of comprehend languages </em>(although I imagine Marlo will be "borrowing" it from time to time). Incidentally, while all of the players are aware Marlo stole <em>The Book of Uboros</em>, none of the PCs know anything about it.</p><p></p><p>And for those of you wondering about that third prophecy, it's a direct reference to our previous campaign (which is also kind of our concurrent campaign, since it's taking place during the same time frame as this one), "The Durnhill Conscripts." In that campaign, my human fighter Jace Syngaard had a little daughter, Hope, and a <em>figurine of wondrous power</em>, a <em>bronze griffon</em> he proudly named Dick. So Logan's set things up here such that if we bungle the first two prophesied ways to defeat the Dying One, we can always run a third, follow-on campaign where a now-grown Hope Syngaard rides her father's <em>bronze griffon</em> into battle directly against the Dying One.</p><p></p><p>Finally, I want to document the fact that neither Dan nor I missed the opportunity to refer to Henrik's "flat-footed AC" when we first saw him slamming his feet with a wooden club. Brilliant minds think alike!</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Richards, post: 7972707, member: 508"] [B]ADVENTURE 18: HAPPY TRAILS[/B] PC Roster: [INDENT]Cramer Appleknocker, gnome cleric 7[/INDENT] [INDENT] Jhasspok, lizardman 3/barbarian 2/fighter 2[/INDENT] [INDENT] Khari Hammerslammer, dwarf fighter 7[/INDENT] [INDENT] Marlo Pendragon, human sorcerer 7[/INDENT] [INDENT] Utred "Buckets" Butterflinger, dwarf barbarian 7[/INDENT] Game Session Date: 22 April 2020 - - - The wagon was heavy when the heroes departed the Elderwood capital, loaded down with numerous chests filled with golden coins, a reward for having saved the life of King Omadan. So heavy, in fact, that Cramer insisted only he and Marlo ride in the front and the others walk beside. "We've only got the one horse and a four-day ride to Revin; we don't want to tucker the poor beast out!" he admonished. There was no real argument against it, either, for the two dwarves and the burly lizardfolk were each much heavier than either the little gnome or the petite human. Some of the coins had been spent on healing potions before they left the capital city, lessening the load somewhat, but there were still quite a lot left. The first day's travel got the group as far as the Crossroad Keep. Utred was wary of the place - not surprising, as the last time they'd stayed there overnight they'd been attacked by the elven guardsmen and would have been set up as the slayers of Councilor Liadon had they not overcome the forces against them. But there was an entirely different set of elves on guard duty at the keep and word had already reached them how the five travelers had saved the life of the king; the arena slaves had no problems whatsoever during their overnight stay, finding themselves being toasted at the drinking establishment and practically treated like royalty themselves. "Now tha's mo' like it!" slurred Utred when he finally hit his borrowed bunk for the night. But the next morning found the quintet back on the road again, heading west for Revin, Cramer's homeland. And shortly after noon on this second day of travel, the group arrived upon quite an unexpected scene: a human sitting in the middle of the road, bashing his feet with a wooden club. "What are you [I]doing?[/I]" demanded Marlo as Cramer brought the wagon to a halt beside the beleaguered man. "Can't--go back!" the man replied, still hitting his feet. "Don't let me--go back!" "Somebody stop him!" commanded Marlo. Jhasspok ran up and tackled the man, grabbing the wooden club from his hand and pinning him flat upon the road. "Okay, please explain to us what's going on," the sorcerer asked the pinned foot-basher. "I got hurt an' was told to grab a healing potion, but I never learned my letters none and I musta grabbed the wrong one," [B]Henrik[/B] explained. "Whatever was in that potion, it let me see what was goin' on for real, and I high-tailed it outta there!" He gulped visibly. "Only then I got winded from all the runnin', and I realized that potion's gonna wear off any time now and then I'll wanna go back! But don't let me go back!" "You're trying to smash your feet so you won't be able to return to where you came from?" Marlo reiterated. "Is that really the best idea?" She looked sideways over at Cramer, giving him a silent expression that said, "And I thought Khari and Jhasspok were on the dim side!" "I can't go back there--I can't!" wailed Henrik. "Howzabout we knock you out and tie you up?" offered Khari, hefting his dwarven warhammer. "Then you couldn't go back." "Would you?" pleaded Henrik. Khari raised his weapon as if to bring it crashing down on the crazed human's head but Cramer stepped between them and raised his hand. "Hold on, Khari, not just quite yet, please." He turned to Henrik. "If we tie you up so you can't go back to wherever it was you escaped from and promised to leave you in the wagon, would you be able to lead us back there so we can check it out?" Henrik gave it some thought and reluctantly agreed - as long as he didn't have to step back inside the marble palace. Jhasspok let Henrik get up from the road and Utred escorted him to the back of the wagon, where he started binding his arms and legs with a sturdy length of rope. While Henrik was being successfully trussed up, he explained what he knew of the situation. "There's this wizard, [B]Absor[/B], who runs the Cult of Celestial Bliss. Absor, he took all of us to the heavens, where we could see the whole world floatin' above us in the sky. Only with such a large group, the celestials noticed we was trespassing and chased us off. Now Absor only sends one of us at a time to slip past their notice. About once a week or so, it is." "Is this making any sense to you?" Marlo asked Cramer. The gnome cleric rubbed his bearded chin in thought. "It could be Bytopia," he mused. "That would explain the 'whole world' being above them in the sky - it's said to be a dual plane, one upside-down over the other." Marlo just scowled at the thought; she'd had enough of upside-down gravity planes in the Overreach to last her a lifetime. Suddenly, Henrik gave a shake of his head, as if waking up. "Hey, what are you doing?" he asked Utred, who was putting the finishing touches on the knot he'd just tied around Henrik's wrists. ""Let me out of these ropes! I have to get back to Absor! Let me go--I have to get back!" "Now what?" sighed Marlo to herself as Cramer cast a [I]magic circle against evil[/I] spell on himself and approached the bound human. Once he got within a few steps of Henrik the man settled down again. "Okay, seriously, what's going on?" demanded Marlo. "Here's what I think," replied Cramer. "Henrik here's under some kind of magical compulsion: a [I]geas[/I] or [I]charm[/I] or [I]domination[/I] effect or something similar that's keeping him at this marble palace. Then he drinks the wrong potion - I'm guessing a [I]potion of protection from evil[/I] or something similar - and his mind's suddenly his own again. He runs away, we find him, and just as Utred finished tying him up - good job there, by the way, Utred - the potion wore off. Now he wants to go back, until he fell within the range of my spell, which once again cleared his mind. Do you want to go back to the marble palace, Henrik?" "No!" "Yeah, I didn't think so." Cramer climbed back into the front of the wagon and motioned for Marlo to get in beside him. "Okay, here's what we're going to do, Henrik. You tell us how to get to this marble palace and we'll go have a talk with this Absor guy for you. You can stay here in the wagon, okay?" Henrik nodded nervously. "Guy sure seems pretty scared of bliss," Khari muttered as the group moved forward, back the way Henrik had come before they found him. "So who all's in this bliss cult?" Utred wanted to know. Henrik explained that besides the wizard leader and the two female adventurers who joined the cult, there were a total of ten commoners - like himself - who had been attracted to the concept of a gathering devoted to pure happiness. "Tell us more about these two adventurers," commanded Cramer. He wanted to know what they'd be up against, besides confronting a wizard powerful enough to keep a dozen people in his thrall. "[B]Belaina[/B] is a swordswoman," Henrik explained, "and [B]Helen[/B]'s a bard." Utred snorted at this last bit of information: Oh no, someone who might [I]sing[/I] at them! It didn't take long for the group to reach the white palace, which looked exactly as described: a one-story stone building crafted of white marble. As the wagon approached, Cramer cast [I]longstrider[/I] and [I]detect evil[/I] spells on himself and Marlo cast a [I]mage armor[/I] spell on Jhasspok - for which the lizardfolk dutifully handed over one of his slave-tokens to the sorcerer. Marlo just took the token; it was easier than explaining to Jhasspok that payment wasn't necessary. "There's evil ahead," Cramer whispered to the others as he brought the horse to a stop just outside the open doorway. The fact that he could definitely sense evil through the solid-looking marble walls led him to believe all was not as it seemed; staring intently at the building, he was able to pierce through the crafted illusion and see the "palace" for what it really was: a silk tent. He let the others in on his discovery and armed with that knowledge they too were able to see through the illusion. "We have intruders among us!" came a raspy voice from inside. "Newcomers here to prevent our eternal bliss!" Cramer looked through the open doorway - there was no door - and saw half a dozen humans in simple robes standing in an antechamber. Behind them he saw a wizard, Absor no doubt, waving his hands about as if in the midst of spellcasting, while Helen and Balaina stood beside him. "Looks like a fight!" enthused Khari, glad they'd just be getting on with it instead of trying to negotiate or anything. Using the power of his magic warhammer, he dropped below the surface of the ground and earth glided beneath the tent, popping up directly behind Absor, who gave no indication he knew there was now an armed and armored dwarf ready to bop him on the head with his warhammer. Jhasspok, in the meantime, ran around to the back of the tent, thinking he'd surprise Absor by ripping through the silk right behind him, taking him by surprise. The lizardfolk had to stifle his own hissing laughter, so excited was he at his clever ploy. Marlo went straight to the attack, sending an [I]empowered magic missile[/I] crashing into Balaina while stepping down from the front of the wagon. Helen began singing but then was cut off in mid-song; she'd cast a [I]silence[/I] spell on Balaina and was temporarily within its effect. Utred ran straight into the tent, pushing his way past the robed commoners who, he saw, didn't even have any weapons in hand. They tried punching the burly dwarven barbarian but he ignored them, heading straight for Absor with his [I]Elderwood flaming longsword[/I] out and ready. Upon an unvoiced order - it arrived telepathically, directly into their heads - the robed cultists (whom Absor sneeringly referred to as "the rabble" to himself) turned away from Utred and swarmed over Marlo, pummeling the sorcerer with their fists. However, in doing so, three of them inadvertently entered the radius of Cramer's [I]magic circle against evil[/I] spell and felt their own minds return; those three looked about confusedly, as if wondering what they were doing here. One of the others was knocked into unconsciousness as Marlo fought back, her [I]arcane blade[/I] in hand. But then Balaina ran forward and joined the crowd, the [I]silence[/I] spell surrounding her causing all sounds to cease in her immediate vicinity. She kept her longsword sheathed, grabbing Marlo by the hair and flipping her to the ground, then pounding her a good one with a fist to the nose. Cramer immediately leaped down from the wagon and backed hurriedly away, but this was just to get outside the radius of the [I]silence[/I] spell so he could cast additional spells of his own. This he did at once, casting a [I]spiritual weapon[/I] spell that caused a shimmering quarterstaff to appear in the air above the little gnome's head. He could only see a tangle of legs on the other side of the wagon but that didn't matter; he'd gotten a good look at Balaina as she ran to attack Marlo and with a mental image of her in his head he sent his force-quarterstaff to the attack. One end of it crashed down onto the back of Balaina's head as she grappled with Marlo, trying to prevent the sorceress from being able to cast spells. Absor stepped away from Utred, deftly dodging a hammer-blow from Khari as he did so. He moved his hands about again as if spellcasting, imbuing himself with added vigor for the duration of this fight against these unknown enemies. Khari thought for a moment Absor's actions reminded him of something, but just that quick whatever thought he'd had on the subject was gone. Still, he whirled around and brought the head of his weapon crashing into Absor's side, causing the wizard a great deal of pain. On the other side of the tent, just behind Absor's new position, Jhasspok brought his battleaxe down in an overhead arc, thinking to slice through the thin layer of silk and the wizard in one stroke. But the fabric, it turned out, was ironsilk - much tougher than the lizardfolk had expected! Still his axe-head crashed down upon the wizard's shoulder through the ironsilk, and if the tent material wasn't cut through it was at least severely weakened - another strike in the same place and Jhasspok would likely have made himself a new entry-point. Grappling with the fighter in a field of absolute silence, Marlo still had her [I]arcane blade[/I] in hand and put it to good use, slashing along Balaina's forearm with the blade of the weapon; she didn't have the range of motion to stab with it as the fighter's hands were gripped hard around her wrists - it would have to do for now. But the commoners weren't content to let Balaina take care of Marlo; now that Cramer had stepped away, none of them were inside his [I]magic circle against evil[/I] and all were dedicated to bringing down the spellcaster. Clenched fists rained down on Marlo from all directions, causing her vision to blur and black spots to form in her field of vision as she came close to blacking out. And then Balaina pulled out her own blade and stabbed at Marlo as well, catching her a glancing blow to the side as she maintained her grip on the sorcerer with her other hand. Helen grabbed a dagger from her belt and threw it at Utred. It missed, and the barbarian took time out from his attack on Absor to give the bard a "Really?" look with nothing more than a lowered eyebrow and a disdainful frown. Then, changing his mind in mid-swing, he brought his longsword flashing out at the bard, dropping her instantly. [I]Thought so,[/I] Utred smirked to himself quietly, refocusing his attacks on Absor. Cramer's [I]spiritual quarterstaff[/I] came crashing down upon Balaina's head again while he crawled underneath the wagon and bopped a commoner on the head with his mace. The cultist crumpled at once, but there were still plenty more of them in the scramble. Absor stared down at Khari expectantly, as if anticipating the dwarven fighter would fall before him through the force of his glare. Khari felt a tingle in the back of his head as he fought off the unknown spell and again he felt the tickle of not-quite-recognition for a brief moment before it too was gone. But then he put it out of his mind and hit the wizard again with his warhammer. With a rip, Jhasspok and his battleaxe were through the tent and right beside Absor. The lizardfolk snapped out with his teeth, ripping a chunk of flesh from the wizard's shoulder. With shock and a quite pleasant surprise, Jhasspok realized this wizard...actually tasted somewhat like fish! The realization stopped him up short but Utred was there to take up the slack, swinging his longsword at the wizard. Marlo again managed to get her [I]arcane blade[/I] into position to stab Balaina's arm. But by this time the commoner cultists, once again inside the effects of Cramer's [I]magic circle against evil[/I] spell, regained their senses, opted to run away, left the radius of the spell, fell back under Absor's mental sway, and then reentered the field to try to attack Cramer only for the whole sequence to be repeated. The gnomish cleric found himself surrounded by indecisive cultists fleeing from him and turning around to attack him in sequence, the lot of them getting in each other's way. He decided to ignore them and made his way over to where Marlo was still fighting Balaina, each armed with her own blade and doing her best to stab the other - all within a complete field of absolute silence. Cramer whacked the fighter on the back of the head with his mace and let his [I]spiritual weapon[/I] finish the job. Balaina succumbed to unconsciousness, her limp form dropping down upon Marlo, who gave her an angry kick in the ribs as she regained her feet. A coy smile spread across Absor's face as he realized he was now in position to [I]mind blast[/I] all three of his current attackers without nullifying the [I]charm[/I] effect on his food supply. Jhasspok and Utred were immediately stunned into immobility, but Khari was once more unaffected. Absor couldn't believe the dwarf had once again resisted the overwhelming power of his mind - and had the temerity to keep attacking him with that warhammer of his! Marlo moved fully into the tent and seeing Khari in desperate battle with Absor cast a [I]lightning bolt[/I] spell through Utred to get to the wizard - she knew full well the barbarian could handle the damage, but the wizard was starting to look a little frail. The air shimmered around Absor as he manifested an [I]intellect fortress[/I] around himself, shielding him from some of the damage of the electrical spell attack. Cramer redirected his [I]spiritual weapon[/I] on Absor, the quarterstaff shattering upon striking the wizard. But then Cramer's follow-on [I]sound burst[/I] spell had better effect, staggering the wizard on his feet if not stunning him as the gnome had hoped. Khari knew what he was up against now and swung his warhammer for all he was worth. The hammer's head collided with Absor's skull and he died while attempting to [I]plane shift[/I] away. As he fell, his red hair flopped off his head, falling to the ground and landing as a yellow hat. That wasn't the only transformation, either; as Absor dropped lifelessly to the floor of the tent, his human form fell away and what landed was the unmistakable form of a mind flayer - and one, like N'zorthal, who was using [I]ring gates[/I] around his facial tentacles, for the majority of the lengths of the appendages disappeared inside silver rings close to his face. Jhasspok and Utred snapped back into standing wakefulness as the others were checking out Helen and Balaina for magic. The six cultists all stood around, confused; their minds were now their own after the death of Absor but they weren't sure what they should be doing. [I]Detect magic[/I] spells told the spellcasters that Helen wore magic bracers on her arms and Balaina's shield was enchanted, as was a necklace she wore. But Jhasspok and Utred walked into the room toward where Absor had been backing before Khari slew him and found a virtual trove: a [I]bag of holding[/I] containing thousands of coins and a silver helmet. Utred's whoop of delight at the sight of the coins brought the others running into the room; Cramer noticed at once the scroll tubes, potion vials, and wand lying upon a small table but missed the book Marlo was quietly tucking into her robes - she'd recognized at once the hidebound book as another copy of [I]The Book of Uboros[/I] and didn't want anybody taking this one away from her before she got a chance to thoroughly study it. "We'll go through the treasure later," Cramer decided. "Right now, I want some answers from the cultists!" He applied minimal healing to the unconscious foes they'd knocked out - just enough to get them back to wakefulness and aware enough to see the weapons pointed their way by two battle-eager dwarves and a scary-looking lizardfolk. "Got some questions for you," Cramer told them. The answers were forthcoming from Helen and the commoners; less so from Balaina, who Cramer knew from his [I]detect evil[/I] spell was the only other one besides Absor himself who had shown to have the taint of evil on her soul. Helen, it turned out, had been part of an adventuring team whose other member was a blue-haired elf. Absor'thal attacked the band, [I]dominated[/I] Helen, and slew the elf, whose [I]hat of disguise[/I] had shielded the fact she was a drow. The mind flayer also took the drow's magical ironsilk tent for his own. Balaina had joined the mind flayer willingly, agreeing to serve him if he would reveal what he knew - or could find out - about a wizard known only as "the Mithral Mage." (The fighter had an unusual tattoo on the back of her neck - an overturned hourglass - that Helen thought was somehow tied in with this Mithral Mage, but Balaina wouldn't say anything about it.) Absor'thal then formed his cult of bliss, taking everyone to Bytopia to get caught as a means of justifying the need to stealthily take just one cult member to "the celestial realms" at a time. When he did so, he ate the cultist's brain, leaving the body for Balaina to hide afterwards. (Sometimes Helen was pressed into service to assist Balaina, the mind flayer's [I]domination[/I] coming into play to get her to do so.) Nobody questioned why these cult members never came back with Absor; why would anyone doubt the cultists would opt to stay in the blissful celestial realms if given the opportunity? After getting all of the information he could from her (which wasn't much), Cramer executed Balaina on the spot. Helen took the commoners, including the wounded Henrik, away with her - they headed off in the opposite direction from which the Overreach slaves would be heading. But the group decided to remain in place overnight, staying in the ironsilk tent (after booting two pairs of cultists from two other rooms in the "tent-palace" who had apparently spent the whole battle finding a little "bliss" of their own; Marlo said quite firmly neither of those two rooms was going to be hers if they ended up camping out here for the night). "Why the delay?" Utred asked. "I want to interrogate Absor and I won't have a [I]speak with dead[/I] spell ready until morning," Cramer replied. Utred just shrugged; he didn't see why they couldn't get back on the road and bring the dead illithid with them if the gnome wanted to talk to him so badly, but whatever. Marlo spent the afternoon in a side room she called as her own, reading through [I]The[/I] [I]Book of Uboros[/I]; the pages were nothing but a series of raised bumps but the sorcerer had already determined the silver helmet was a [I]helm of comprehend languages[/I]; with it on her head and a [I]read magic[/I] spell cast upon the book, she could make out what was written just fine. The next morning, Cramer cast his spell. They'd discussed earlier what three questions they'd ask of the mind flayer's spirit. Once the spell had been cast, the gnome started with the first of the questions: "What is the third prophecy to prevent the Dying One's return?" Twice now they'd learned there was a third way, but the goblin with [I]The Book of Uboros[/I] hadn't been able to understand it and the mural in the duergar tomb had a blank space where the third prophecy would have been shown, had they known it. The gnome leaned towards the corpse of the illithid expectantly, hoping he'd finally get an answer. He did, although it wasn't anything like what he'd expected. "Even if the previous two attempts fail, one final [B]Hope[/B] remains for the world. The girl who rides her father's [B]Dick[/B] shall conspire with her father's enemies to save the world from destruction." "--the Hell?" sputtered Marlo. "That's just disgusting." Cramer pressed on with his second question. "How do we kill the neothelid we are supposed to stand against?" he asked. The neothelid, he knew, was the "pink worm" they'd have to fend off, according to one of the other two prophecies. Neothelids weren't particularly common creatures and the gnome had no idea if they had any special vulnerabilities or were particularly impervious against certain forms of attack. "The same way one normally kills something." Well, that was good news, anyway - it didn't sound like the neothelid was going to be particularly difficult to slay; it wasn't like they could only use silver weapons against it or anything. For the final question, Cramer decided to learn what he could about how the Dying One's history. "How did Wee Jas bring the Dying One to His current state?" he asked. "She beheaded Him, and His faithful preserved Him," was the answer - not particularly informative, but it at least sounded like the Dying One would have in fact been slain (perhaps even permanently?) if those worshiping Him hadn't taken actions to extend His life as a severed head. Marlo's face was expressionless; she had already known of this, having read it in her copy of [I]The[/I] [I]Book of Uboros[/I], but hadn't been able to tell the others without giving away her secret. And there was no way she was going to let them know she had her own copy of the book before she'd had an opportunity to examine it closely: read it several times through, at least. "Okay, that's all we're getting from him," Cramer announced. "Everybody out of the tent - let's pack it up!" Marlo and the others stepped outside, the sorcerer frowning as the gnome turned to the front opening of the tent and said an arcane syllable or two. As the ironsilk tent started folding itself up, she realized Cramer must have done some magical investigating of his own yesterday afternoon and evening while she was having her first peek through her plundered book. The words he'd spoken were obviously some kind of command words, for the ironsilk tent kept folding in on itself until it was about the size of a small crate. Jhasspok hefted the cube of ironsilk and plopped it on the back of the wagon - which, Marlo noted, now only contained one of the many chests of coins it had held yesterday. "What happened to the other chests?" she asked. "They're all in the [I]bag of holding[/I], which is inside this chest here!" Utred beamed proudly. He climbed up onto the wagon. "Which means we don't hafta hoof it anymore!" Khari and Jhasspok leaped up onto the back of the wagon as Marlo took her seat in the front and Cramer sent the horse lumbering on its way towards Revin. - - - Jhasspok ended up with some decent loot from this adventure: Helen's [I]+4 bracers of armor[/I] (surrendered willingly by the bard as payment for freeing her from the cult) will be a welcome addition for a lizardfolk who doesn't wear armor, and Balaina's [I]+1 glamored shield[/I] was dropped into the adventure as treasure specifically because Jhasspok won't give up his turtle shell shield (because the mini I'm using for Jhasspok has one), so this way I can have Jhasspok change its appearance to a turtle shell shield and still get the benefit of its enhanced magical protection. (What a thoughtful DM!) Utred took the [I]hat of disguise[/I], Khari took an [I]amulet of natural armor[/I] from Balaina, Marlo took the scrolls and the [I]wand of fox's cunning[/I], and Cramer ended up with the [I]helm of comprehend languages [/I](although I imagine Marlo will be "borrowing" it from time to time). Incidentally, while all of the players are aware Marlo stole [I]The Book of Uboros[/I], none of the PCs know anything about it. And for those of you wondering about that third prophecy, it's a direct reference to our previous campaign (which is also kind of our concurrent campaign, since it's taking place during the same time frame as this one), "The Durnhill Conscripts." In that campaign, my human fighter Jace Syngaard had a little daughter, Hope, and a [I]figurine of wondrous power[/I], a [I]bronze griffon[/I] he proudly named Dick. So Logan's set things up here such that if we bungle the first two prophesied ways to defeat the Dying One, we can always run a third, follow-on campaign where a now-grown Hope Syngaard rides her father's [I]bronze griffon[/I] into battle directly against the Dying One. Finally, I want to document the fact that neither Dan nor I missed the opportunity to refer to Henrik's "flat-footed AC" when we first saw him slamming his feet with a wooden club. Brilliant minds think alike! [/QUOTE]
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