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Raiders of the Overreach
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<blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 7984106" data-attributes="member: 508"><p><strong>ADVENTURE 20: REVIN IT UP</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: 6 May 2020</p><p></p><p>- - -</p><p></p><p>"Here it is: the capital of Revin," announced Buckleby the gnome as Cramer brought the horse-drawn wagon to a stop. "I'll get off here and make arrangements for an audience with the king, while you guys hit the shops. I'll catch up with you later, okay?"</p><p></p><p>"We need anything?" Utred asked. They had plenty of provisions and he himself was already a walking arsenal of weapons.</p><p></p><p>"I wouldn't mind picking up a few potions," Marlo answered. "Plus, we've got plenty of money now - it can't hurt to see what's available." Utred grunted noncommittally as Cramer led the horse to the merchant district. They got some strange looks as they drove past - particularly Jhasspok, but as he was sitting peacefully in a wagon with a human, a gnome, and two dwarves and they didn't seem disturbed at being in the immediate proximity of what basically amounted to a six-foot-tall dinosaur, they didn't panic. And Jhasspok just stared right back at them.</p><p></p><p>A particular shop caught Cramer's eye and he brought the horse to a stop. "Let's try in here," he suggested, tying the horse's reins to a pole and disembarking. The shopkeeper was pleased to see the new customers - and then suddenly wary when Jhasspok trundled in behind the other four. As the dwarves headed over to check out the few weapons on display and Marlo looked at a magical girdle guaranteed to boost one's combat stamina, Jhasspok walked straight up to the shopkeeper. "Do you sell dried dung beetles?" he inquired. "Or fried spiders?"</p><p></p><p>The shopkeeper swallowed hard before answering the lizardfolk. "We...we don't sell comestibles," he squeaked. When that just earned him a puzzled look, he modified his answer, after guessing why the lizardfolk was asking the question in the first place: "Food. We don't sell food. Just some potions, is all."</p><p></p><p>Jhasspok shrugged and turned away, as Marlo made the purchase of a <em>girdle of health</em>. Cramer, however, was staring at an odd object on a shelf that was staring right back at him. Seeing the burly lizardfolk approach, he said, "Hey, Jhasspok, come take a look at this." It was an eyeball, human by all appearances, just sitting on the shelf, looking at them. Cramer took a step to the left and then moved back to the right and the eyeball spun to keep him in its sight at all times. "I wonder what it's for," the gnome cleric mused. "To prevent theft, maybe?"</p><p></p><p>"I thought he said they didn't sell food here," replied Jhasspok, thoroughly confused and slightly upset at having apparently been lied to. Eyeballs were delicious! He turned back to the shopkeeper. "How much for the eyeball?" he asked, pulling a slave-token from his pouch.</p><p></p><p>"Eyeball? What eyeball?"</p><p></p><p>"The one on the shelf over there," replied Jhasspok, pointing over at Cramer, who was still watching the eyeball follow his every move. "And do you have any more than just the one?"</p><p></p><p>Jhasspok watched as the blood drained out of the shopkeeper's face. "Out!" he called. "Everybody out! The shop's closed!" He ushered everyone to the door, looking back nervously at the shelf where the eyeball had been - and was no longer.</p><p></p><p>"What got into him?" asked Marlo in irritation as she buckled on her new girdle over her robes - which were worn over the ironsilk clothes she'd obtained in the Overreach. For a sorcerer, they offered significant protection without getting in the way of her spellcasting. And with the thick belt in place, she realized she <em>did</em> feel a bit tougher - like she could handle herself in combat if it came down to it.</p><p></p><p>She got her chance almost immediately, when a pair of hand crossbow darts went flying her way, one whizzing past her ear and the other embedding itself in the side of her neck. She cried out in pain and surprise, instinctively plucking the dart from her neck - it had hit high up, just below and behind her ear - and with a queasy feeling saw the poison coating the tip of the weapon. Khari, standing beside her, whirled around and saw a leather-clad human woman across the street, her left arm still pointed in Marlo's direction after having fired her shot. With a battle-roar, the dwarf charged the young woman, smashing her in the ribs with his dwarven warhammer as she fumbled to reload another dart into her hand crossbow.</p><p></p><p>With Khari taking care of one of her attackers, Marlo spun in the direction the other dart had come from and fired an <em>empowered magic missile</em> at the other foe, this one also a human woman in dark combat leathers, with only a slightly lighter hair color differentiating her from her partner (and possible sister: they looked an awful lot alike).</p><p></p><p>From the side of a building across the street stepped a half-elf wielding a composite shortbow. He aimed at the target across from him, one of the two identical-looking gnomes (they both looked like Cramer, but the second one was just a bored Utred playing around with his <em>hat of disguise</em>). The arrow raced across the street but missed its target, plunking into the closed door of the shop the heroes had just exited. Jhasspok had been watching the door; the shopkeeper put up a "CLOSED" sign (not that the illiterate lizardfolk could read the word posted on the sign) and lowered a covering over the glass window in the shop's door - he didn't even want to see what was going on outside his shop. But the arrow alerted the confused lizardfolk that there was apparently combat going on around him; turning around, he saw a snake slithering up to Cramer - one of them, anyway, there were now apparently two of him - and striking at him like a cobra. The gnome danced back a step, narrowly avoiding being bitten.</p><p></p><p>Without conscious thought, Jhasspok stepped forward, leaned down (his tail out erect behind him for balance), and snapped at the striking snake, biting down at it with his impressive row of sharp teeth. He felt it die in his mouth and regretted he didn't have time to devour it fully; for one thing, there were other enemies to fight but more importantly the serpent was nearly as long as Jhasspok was and eating all of it would take a bit of time. Still, he called out dibs on the dead snake, even though since exiting the shop he'd had a sudden taste for human eyeballs.</p><p></p><p>As Utred - still appearing like a carbon-copy Cramer - raced across the street to attack the half-elf who had shot the arrow at him, the sound of spellcasting from above warned the group of a likely-invisible wizard up in the air nearby. But then a burly half-orc ran out from a narrow alleyway between two buildings and charged at Utred, whose <em>Elderwood flaming longsword</em> currently looked to be gnome-sized in his hands but had just dealt a dwarf-sized amount of damage to the half-elf ranger he was currently fighting. The half-orc had a blade of his own, a bastard sword by the look of it, and he sent it crashing into Utred's side. Disturbingly, the sword's blade had cracks along its length and Utred's blood flowed through the cracks, causing the blade to start pulsing like a heartbeat. Somebody in the vicinity was also babbling in an Abyssal tongue and Utred, with a start, suddenly realized it wasn't the half-orc like he'd supposed but the bastard sword itself!</p><p></p><p>Cramer stepped into the street and cast a <em>sound burst</em> spell behind the half-elf and half-orc, catching them in the spell's radius but keeping Utred well out of the area of effect. The half-elf stiffened, stunned into immobility for a moment by the spell; the half-orc not so much.</p><p></p><p>Meanwhile, the twin rogues flanked Khari, approaching from opposite sides with short swords out for hand-to-hand combat. The dwarf managed - just barely - to dodge both incoming attacks, then randomly chose a target and brought his warhammer crashing into her leg, nearly causing her to stumble. Marlo targeted the sister behind the dwarf with another <em>empowered magic missile</em> spell and she collapsed to the ground, unconscious.</p><p></p><p>Jhasspok left the tasty snake behind and charged the half-elf with his battleaxe. The ranger, still coming out of the dazedness caused by Cramer's spell, was practically cut in half by the power of the lizardfolk's blow; he fell to the ground in a shower of blood, the two pieces of his body held together by a mere flap of skin and loops of intestines. Utred spun in place and attacked the half-orc, who dodged more out of luck than anything else, for the dwarf's magic blade wasn't really in the place it appeared to be, courtesy of the <em>hat of disguise</em> Utred still wore.</p><p></p><p>But then the real Cramer cried out in pain; he'd been stabbed - in the back, of course; these were not honorable opponents they were facing - by a sword whose blade sent waves of agonizing pain through the little gnome's body as it pierced his flesh. The unseen assassin materialized as she struck, her <em>invisibility</em> spell shattering upon the moment of attack. She stifled a cry of pain herself, for her weapon was a <em>vicious short sword</em>, dealing extra pain to those it hit at the cost of extracting half that amount of pain from the wielder herself. Still, the assassin found it often to be a fair trade-off, for she'd slain many a victim with her magic weapon and any pain it brought her was healed easily enough.</p><p></p><p>Snarling an oath, the half-orc sent his babbling, bloodthirsty blade swinging at Utred's head; the barbarian easily dodged the clumsy strike, then swung his <em>Elderwood flaming longsword</em> in return, also failing to connect. But Jhasspok was there, willing to aid this second Cramer - although he also failed to connect with the battleaxe that had just been so deadly to the half-elf ranger; the three combatants were swinging their weapons wildly and it would have been somewhat comical had their very lives not been on the line.</p><p></p><p>Cramer backed away from the assassin and cast a <em>spiritual weapon</em> spell, sending the floating quarterstaff that appeared before him crashing into her midsection, sending the air from her lungs. At the same time, the remaining female rogue tried gutting Marlo for what she had imaged had been the killing blow to her sister; Marlo dodged back out of the way just in time and would have responded with a spell had Khari not slain her on the spot with a powerful blow to the side of her head with his warhammer. Her skull crushed to a pulp, she fell to the ground and unlike her sister stopped breathing at once.</p><p></p><p>Marlo instead targeted the assassin who had backstabbed Cramer and who was now fending off a floating quarterstaff made of solid force. The sorcerer decided to send some more bits of force energy her way in the form of <em>magic missiles</em>, each satisfactorily striking without fail. But then, upon hitting their target, the assassin immediately disappeared - whether having gone invisible or teleporting away Marlo couldn't tell. Cramer, playing a hunch, cast an <em>invisibility purge</em> spell centered upon himself and the assassin popped back into view, now some 30 feet directly overhead. His <em>spiritual quarterstaff</em> flew up to the flying assassin, continuing its unguided attack although failing to connect. Marlo sent another <em>empowered magic missile</em> spell streaking up her way for good measure.</p><p></p><p>The half-orc broke the streak of combat misses by hitting Utred in the arm with his bloodthirsty blade; the dwarven barbarian noted the sword seemed more powerful than when the half-orc had started wielding it - it was somehow feasting upon Utred's blood like a vampire! But then Khari, having no more rogues to spar with, ran around the small building and approached the half-orc from behind, his warhammer out and ready to do more damage. The half-orc sensed his approach and re-positioned himself, well aware he was now outnumbered three to one. Jhasspok made a feint with his battleaxe and managed to get in a bite from the half-orc's unarmored right bicep.</p><p></p><p>And then, suddenly, the mid-day sky darkened all at once; where just moments before the sun had shone down brightly on the open marketplace - an area that had become oddly vacant save for the combatants once the attack had begun - it was now suddenly overcast. Sparing a momentary glance up into the sky, Jhasspok saw a dark cloud (an <em>obscuring mist</em> spell, not that the lizardfolk recognized it as such) hanging in the sky. He thereafter ignored it, bringing his focus back at the fight at hand; Marlo wasn't quite as able to ignore it, as the <em>obscuring mist</em> prevented her from targeting the flying assassin with any more <em>magic missile</em> spells, as she couldn't see into the cloud of dark vapors to find her victim. But Jhasspok didn't miss much by his momentary loss of concentration, for Utred slew their half-orc foe almost immediately thereafter, the bastard sword making slurping noises as it fell into the pool of blood the slain foe was spilling from the gash in his neck from Utred's final strike. The sword was there for the taking, its hilt lying in the half-orc's lifeless fingers, but it was unnerving enough that none of the arena slaves was tempted to try to pick it up.</p><p></p><p>Unable to see the flying assassin, Cramer took a moment of respite from combat to cast a <em>shield of faith</em> upon himself; the <em>spiritual quarterstaff</em>, likewise unable to see its target, dutifully returned to the gnome cleric's side until it could. Khari, now once again without any enemies on the ground to fight, grabbed up the half-elf's composite longbow and fired an arrow up into the <em>obscuring mist</em>; he couldn't see through the thick vapors - even with his dwarven darkvision - but it was always worth a shot and he might even get lucky. (He didn't.) Marlo also took a moment to swig down a <em>potion of cure moderate wounds</em>, feeling the bleeding gash in her neck heal up. Jhasspok used his moments out of combat to pry the eyes out of the corpses of the half-elf and half-orc with his claws, examining their different colors and wondering which would taste better. (It turned out eye color had no bearing on their taste - good to know.)</p><p></p><p><em>Invisible</em> once again, the assassin suddenly became visible when she brought her <em>vicious short sword</em> stabbing Khari from behind, having dropped out of her <em>obscuring mist</em> cloud unseen. She sighed at the complete failure of the would-be assassins she'd taken on as potential recruits for this mission - apparently none of them had been worthy enough to join her Guild. Didn't that just figure? But then she was on the defensive as Utred charged up to her, his green-flamed sword flying in her direction.</p><p></p><p>Cramer cast a <em>fly</em> spell on himself and approached the assassin now trading blows with...apparently with himself, although that just meant Utred was goofing around with his <em>hat of disguise</em> again. The gnome cleric's <em>spiritual quarterstaff</em> swung at the assassin but she ducked beneath its arc of movement and avoided being clocked in the side of the head. She wasn't as lucky avoiding Khari's warhammer, though - nor could she ever hope to avoid an <em>empowered magic missile</em> spell and it was this which eventually brought her down, unconscious but still breathing.</p><p></p><p>As Cramer and Marlo bound the only two foes still left alive after this sudden ambush, the other three checked the dead bodies for possible loot. Nobody wanted to touch the slain half-orc's bastard sword, especially after Cramer cast a <em>detect evil</em> spell and pronounced the blade to be evil. The gnome removed a ring from the finger of the flying assassin and pulled a sheet of parchment from a scroll case she had at her belt. Expecting it to be a spell scroll, he was surprised to see a portrait of the five of them drawn in ink, with a bunch of coded words (in letters from different alphabets) around the drawing. Flipping the parchment over, he saw more unreadable words and a sketch of the symbol for House Jalamir, which the slaves each wore in tattoo form on their backs. Even without knowing what any of the words said, it was likely this paper was being used to identify the five arena slaves so these strangers would know who to attack - somebody had apparently paid to have assassins kill the five heroes while they were on the surface! Then, seeing the two leather-clad women were bound securely, Cramer cast just enough healing on them to restore them to wakefulness.</p><p></p><p>"So, an assassination attempt, huh?" he asked the rogue. "Who paid you to kill us?" The woman glared at the gnome but refused to say a word; in any case, he had it all wrong - even had they managed to slay all five of their targets the recruits wouldn't share in any reward, as entry into the Guild would have been reward enough for this mission to prove their worthiness. The fact she'd failed to impress the Guild weighed on the woman's soul more than the death of her sister.</p><p></p><p>When the rogue failed to be communicative, the gnome moved on to the full-fledged assassin. She had a rather interesting feature: a tattoo of an eye upon the back of each hand. "You feel like talking?" Cramer prompted.</p><p></p><p>"Sure," sneered the <strong>Observer</strong>. "What do you want to talk about? It's lovely this time of year, don't you think?"</p><p></p><p>Cramer held the parchment with their likenesses in front of her face. "How about this?" he suggested. "Who paid you to kill us?"</p><p></p><p>"Nobody," the Observer said with a smirk. "You don't get paid until the job's done."</p><p></p><p>"Okay," amended the gnome, "who offered to pay you to kill us?"</p><p></p><p>"A much better question," replied the Observer, "but one which I decline to answer."</p><p></p><p>"Let's just kill her," grunted Utred. He'd taken off the <em>hat of disguise</em>, realizing he looked much more intimidating in his true form than as a three-foot-tall gnome.</p><p></p><p>"Like that will stop me," smirked the woman. "I'm important enough that I'll be back - and sooner than you think, more than likely."</p><p></p><p>"How could she come back after we kill her?" asked Jhasspok, clearly confused. Marlo briefly explained about resurrection magic, and if this Observer was a powerful member of an Assassins Guild they'd have the money to pay to have her restored to life.</p><p></p><p>"Then why don't we let her live?" Jhasspok reasoned.</p><p></p><p>"I like the way this one thinks," smirked the Observer.</p><p></p><p>"Then she'll be able to continue to try to kill us," Marlo pointed out, trying and failing to keep the tone of exasperation out of her voice - Jhasspok was a nice enough lizardfolk, but his naivety could be frustrating at times.</p><p></p><p>"Not like this," Jhasspok countered, pulling on the Observer's bound hands until she fell face-first onto the ground. The lizardfolk planted a clawed foot upon her hands, pinning them into place, and then before anyone could stop him he brought his battleaxe crashing down, severing both hands just above the wrist in one blow. As Cramer scrambled to heal the stumps before she bled out, Jhasspok pulled the severed hands from the ropes binding them together and idly wondered if the tattoo of an eye would taste anything like an actual eyeball. "Now she can't cast spells and she can't hold weapons."</p><p></p><p>The Overseer's face was pale from this sudden attack but she quickly did her best to retain her composure. "This--this can be fixed, too," she said, although it seemed just a little as if she were trying to convince herself. "Anything you do to me can be undone if you have the right resources." She glared at Cramer. "And we do," she added.</p><p></p><p>"This isn't getting us anywhere," Marlo decided. "Let's just bring these two with us and turn them over to the king. Then it's his problem to deal with." That plan had some nice benefits: not only did it relieve the heroes from having to tend to the Overseer and the rogue themselves, it allowed the kingdom of Revin to use the Overseer as a trap to catch the Assassins Guild members who would eventually attempt to free her, if the kingdom was warned ahead of time of the full situation.</p><p></p><p>Before too much longer, Buckleby caught up with the five heroes. "I've gotten you an audience," he told them. "We can--<em>holy crap, what happened here?"</em> After a quick explanation about the assassination attempt, the heroes loaded their two bound prisoners onto the wagon and Buckleby guided Cramer into driving the wagon to the castle - not that it was difficult to find, as it towered over the other buildings in the capital city.</p><p></p><p>Marlo, as usual, became the spokeswoman for the group of heroes, the silver <em>circlet of persuasion</em> perched on her brow as she explained about Overreach, the impending attack upon Greenvale, and their own involvement in shutting down the encroachment from the Far Realm that had overtaken the village of Grover's Comb and threatened to eventually overtake the world. The king of Revin was suitably impressed; so much so, in fact, that he had 20,000 pieces of gold removed from the royal treasury to be gifted to the heroes for having saved Grover's Comb. He also agreed to join in the alliance with Greenvale and to take the Overseer into custody in the deepest dungeons of the castle.</p><p></p><p>"The Assassins Guild has been an ongoing concern," the king lamented. "It is said to be led by a drow woman - one I would imagine has ties to this Overreach city you describe. I would imagine she has ways to scry upon you," he warned, and the slaves could only imagine how easy it would be to tap into the slave tattoos they each wore; a good thing House Ky'hulcressen's agents in Greenvale had altered the tattoos to make it seem as if the slaves were doing something innocuous if the tattoos were used to scry upon them. But then, Cramer realized, even if the scried-upon images were faked the tattoos could still likely be used to determine the slaves' whereabouts. Something else to worry about! "I can only imagine the Assassins Guild, and the Thieves Guild working with them, will aid - or attempt to, in any case - the Overreach forces in the coming war," added the king.</p><p></p><p>"At least we're forewarned about their potential threat, Your Majesty," replied Marlo. "For that, we thank you."</p><p></p><p>"Where will you go from here?" asked the king.</p><p></p><p>Cramer pulled out the map they'd been using and looked it over. "From here," he said, "we move on to Dracovania, Your Majesty."</p><p></p><p>"Be warned further, then," advised the king, looking at Marlo. "<strong>The Dragon King of Dracovania</strong> is an elderly red dragon, as foul and greedy as most of his species. Entering his lands will be dangerous to you all."</p><p></p><p>"Maybe we should just skip that one," suggested Khari.</p><p></p><p>"No, I think we should give it a chance," reasoned Marlo. "I think we'd rather have a powerful dragon on our side in the coming war than have him poised to attack us when we're busy fighting off the drow armies."</p><p></p><p>"There is wisdom in what you say," conceded the king. "I pray you be careful, just the same."</p><p></p><p>"We will, Your Majesty," promised Marlo.</p><p></p><p>- - -</p><p></p><p>Cramer ended up with the Overseer's <em>ring of invisibility</em>, while Marlo took her <em>boots of levitation</em>. (It turned out she hadn't been flying during the fight, merely levitating up and down.) Khari claimed the half-elf ranger's <em>+1 composite shortbow</em>; it has a Strength 14 requirement so he'll be able to add +2 to the damage when he uses it. And Utred and Cramer have come up with a combination move: Cramer can turn invisible with his ring while Utred, using his <em>hat of disguise</em>, takes on the gnome's appearance. Then anyone trying to mess with a little gnome will end up dealing with a dwarven barbarian with triple-digit hit points instead - surprise!</p><p></p><p>By the way, the Overseer's eye tattoos allowed her to scry when she placed her hands over her eyes - that was what the deal was with that eyeball in the shop at the beginning. The shopkeeper apparently knew about the Overseer and her Assassins Guild and didn't want to be caught in the middle of anything.</p><p></p><p>We're all close enough to 8th level that we should be leveling up after the next adventure. And we'll be facing a red dragon kingdom - that ought to be interesting!</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Richards, post: 7984106, member: 508"] [B]ADVENTURE 20: REVIN IT UP[/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: 6 May 2020 - - - "Here it is: the capital of Revin," announced Buckleby the gnome as Cramer brought the horse-drawn wagon to a stop. "I'll get off here and make arrangements for an audience with the king, while you guys hit the shops. I'll catch up with you later, okay?" "We need anything?" Utred asked. They had plenty of provisions and he himself was already a walking arsenal of weapons. "I wouldn't mind picking up a few potions," Marlo answered. "Plus, we've got plenty of money now - it can't hurt to see what's available." Utred grunted noncommittally as Cramer led the horse to the merchant district. They got some strange looks as they drove past - particularly Jhasspok, but as he was sitting peacefully in a wagon with a human, a gnome, and two dwarves and they didn't seem disturbed at being in the immediate proximity of what basically amounted to a six-foot-tall dinosaur, they didn't panic. And Jhasspok just stared right back at them. A particular shop caught Cramer's eye and he brought the horse to a stop. "Let's try in here," he suggested, tying the horse's reins to a pole and disembarking. The shopkeeper was pleased to see the new customers - and then suddenly wary when Jhasspok trundled in behind the other four. As the dwarves headed over to check out the few weapons on display and Marlo looked at a magical girdle guaranteed to boost one's combat stamina, Jhasspok walked straight up to the shopkeeper. "Do you sell dried dung beetles?" he inquired. "Or fried spiders?" The shopkeeper swallowed hard before answering the lizardfolk. "We...we don't sell comestibles," he squeaked. When that just earned him a puzzled look, he modified his answer, after guessing why the lizardfolk was asking the question in the first place: "Food. We don't sell food. Just some potions, is all." Jhasspok shrugged and turned away, as Marlo made the purchase of a [I]girdle of health[/I]. Cramer, however, was staring at an odd object on a shelf that was staring right back at him. Seeing the burly lizardfolk approach, he said, "Hey, Jhasspok, come take a look at this." It was an eyeball, human by all appearances, just sitting on the shelf, looking at them. Cramer took a step to the left and then moved back to the right and the eyeball spun to keep him in its sight at all times. "I wonder what it's for," the gnome cleric mused. "To prevent theft, maybe?" "I thought he said they didn't sell food here," replied Jhasspok, thoroughly confused and slightly upset at having apparently been lied to. Eyeballs were delicious! He turned back to the shopkeeper. "How much for the eyeball?" he asked, pulling a slave-token from his pouch. "Eyeball? What eyeball?" "The one on the shelf over there," replied Jhasspok, pointing over at Cramer, who was still watching the eyeball follow his every move. "And do you have any more than just the one?" Jhasspok watched as the blood drained out of the shopkeeper's face. "Out!" he called. "Everybody out! The shop's closed!" He ushered everyone to the door, looking back nervously at the shelf where the eyeball had been - and was no longer. "What got into him?" asked Marlo in irritation as she buckled on her new girdle over her robes - which were worn over the ironsilk clothes she'd obtained in the Overreach. For a sorcerer, they offered significant protection without getting in the way of her spellcasting. And with the thick belt in place, she realized she [I]did[/I] feel a bit tougher - like she could handle herself in combat if it came down to it. She got her chance almost immediately, when a pair of hand crossbow darts went flying her way, one whizzing past her ear and the other embedding itself in the side of her neck. She cried out in pain and surprise, instinctively plucking the dart from her neck - it had hit high up, just below and behind her ear - and with a queasy feeling saw the poison coating the tip of the weapon. Khari, standing beside her, whirled around and saw a leather-clad human woman across the street, her left arm still pointed in Marlo's direction after having fired her shot. With a battle-roar, the dwarf charged the young woman, smashing her in the ribs with his dwarven warhammer as she fumbled to reload another dart into her hand crossbow. With Khari taking care of one of her attackers, Marlo spun in the direction the other dart had come from and fired an [I]empowered magic missile[/I] at the other foe, this one also a human woman in dark combat leathers, with only a slightly lighter hair color differentiating her from her partner (and possible sister: they looked an awful lot alike). From the side of a building across the street stepped a half-elf wielding a composite shortbow. He aimed at the target across from him, one of the two identical-looking gnomes (they both looked like Cramer, but the second one was just a bored Utred playing around with his [I]hat of disguise[/I]). The arrow raced across the street but missed its target, plunking into the closed door of the shop the heroes had just exited. Jhasspok had been watching the door; the shopkeeper put up a "CLOSED" sign (not that the illiterate lizardfolk could read the word posted on the sign) and lowered a covering over the glass window in the shop's door - he didn't even want to see what was going on outside his shop. But the arrow alerted the confused lizardfolk that there was apparently combat going on around him; turning around, he saw a snake slithering up to Cramer - one of them, anyway, there were now apparently two of him - and striking at him like a cobra. The gnome danced back a step, narrowly avoiding being bitten. Without conscious thought, Jhasspok stepped forward, leaned down (his tail out erect behind him for balance), and snapped at the striking snake, biting down at it with his impressive row of sharp teeth. He felt it die in his mouth and regretted he didn't have time to devour it fully; for one thing, there were other enemies to fight but more importantly the serpent was nearly as long as Jhasspok was and eating all of it would take a bit of time. Still, he called out dibs on the dead snake, even though since exiting the shop he'd had a sudden taste for human eyeballs. As Utred - still appearing like a carbon-copy Cramer - raced across the street to attack the half-elf who had shot the arrow at him, the sound of spellcasting from above warned the group of a likely-invisible wizard up in the air nearby. But then a burly half-orc ran out from a narrow alleyway between two buildings and charged at Utred, whose [I]Elderwood flaming longsword[/I] currently looked to be gnome-sized in his hands but had just dealt a dwarf-sized amount of damage to the half-elf ranger he was currently fighting. The half-orc had a blade of his own, a bastard sword by the look of it, and he sent it crashing into Utred's side. Disturbingly, the sword's blade had cracks along its length and Utred's blood flowed through the cracks, causing the blade to start pulsing like a heartbeat. Somebody in the vicinity was also babbling in an Abyssal tongue and Utred, with a start, suddenly realized it wasn't the half-orc like he'd supposed but the bastard sword itself! Cramer stepped into the street and cast a [I]sound burst[/I] spell behind the half-elf and half-orc, catching them in the spell's radius but keeping Utred well out of the area of effect. The half-elf stiffened, stunned into immobility for a moment by the spell; the half-orc not so much. Meanwhile, the twin rogues flanked Khari, approaching from opposite sides with short swords out for hand-to-hand combat. The dwarf managed - just barely - to dodge both incoming attacks, then randomly chose a target and brought his warhammer crashing into her leg, nearly causing her to stumble. Marlo targeted the sister behind the dwarf with another [I]empowered magic missile[/I] spell and she collapsed to the ground, unconscious. Jhasspok left the tasty snake behind and charged the half-elf with his battleaxe. The ranger, still coming out of the dazedness caused by Cramer's spell, was practically cut in half by the power of the lizardfolk's blow; he fell to the ground in a shower of blood, the two pieces of his body held together by a mere flap of skin and loops of intestines. Utred spun in place and attacked the half-orc, who dodged more out of luck than anything else, for the dwarf's magic blade wasn't really in the place it appeared to be, courtesy of the [I]hat of disguise[/I] Utred still wore. But then the real Cramer cried out in pain; he'd been stabbed - in the back, of course; these were not honorable opponents they were facing - by a sword whose blade sent waves of agonizing pain through the little gnome's body as it pierced his flesh. The unseen assassin materialized as she struck, her [I]invisibility[/I] spell shattering upon the moment of attack. She stifled a cry of pain herself, for her weapon was a [I]vicious short sword[/I], dealing extra pain to those it hit at the cost of extracting half that amount of pain from the wielder herself. Still, the assassin found it often to be a fair trade-off, for she'd slain many a victim with her magic weapon and any pain it brought her was healed easily enough. Snarling an oath, the half-orc sent his babbling, bloodthirsty blade swinging at Utred's head; the barbarian easily dodged the clumsy strike, then swung his [I]Elderwood flaming longsword[/I] in return, also failing to connect. But Jhasspok was there, willing to aid this second Cramer - although he also failed to connect with the battleaxe that had just been so deadly to the half-elf ranger; the three combatants were swinging their weapons wildly and it would have been somewhat comical had their very lives not been on the line. Cramer backed away from the assassin and cast a [I]spiritual weapon[/I] spell, sending the floating quarterstaff that appeared before him crashing into her midsection, sending the air from her lungs. At the same time, the remaining female rogue tried gutting Marlo for what she had imaged had been the killing blow to her sister; Marlo dodged back out of the way just in time and would have responded with a spell had Khari not slain her on the spot with a powerful blow to the side of her head with his warhammer. Her skull crushed to a pulp, she fell to the ground and unlike her sister stopped breathing at once. Marlo instead targeted the assassin who had backstabbed Cramer and who was now fending off a floating quarterstaff made of solid force. The sorcerer decided to send some more bits of force energy her way in the form of [I]magic missiles[/I], each satisfactorily striking without fail. But then, upon hitting their target, the assassin immediately disappeared - whether having gone invisible or teleporting away Marlo couldn't tell. Cramer, playing a hunch, cast an [I]invisibility purge[/I] spell centered upon himself and the assassin popped back into view, now some 30 feet directly overhead. His [I]spiritual quarterstaff[/I] flew up to the flying assassin, continuing its unguided attack although failing to connect. Marlo sent another [I]empowered magic missile[/I] spell streaking up her way for good measure. The half-orc broke the streak of combat misses by hitting Utred in the arm with his bloodthirsty blade; the dwarven barbarian noted the sword seemed more powerful than when the half-orc had started wielding it - it was somehow feasting upon Utred's blood like a vampire! But then Khari, having no more rogues to spar with, ran around the small building and approached the half-orc from behind, his warhammer out and ready to do more damage. The half-orc sensed his approach and re-positioned himself, well aware he was now outnumbered three to one. Jhasspok made a feint with his battleaxe and managed to get in a bite from the half-orc's unarmored right bicep. And then, suddenly, the mid-day sky darkened all at once; where just moments before the sun had shone down brightly on the open marketplace - an area that had become oddly vacant save for the combatants once the attack had begun - it was now suddenly overcast. Sparing a momentary glance up into the sky, Jhasspok saw a dark cloud (an [I]obscuring mist[/I] spell, not that the lizardfolk recognized it as such) hanging in the sky. He thereafter ignored it, bringing his focus back at the fight at hand; Marlo wasn't quite as able to ignore it, as the [I]obscuring mist[/I] prevented her from targeting the flying assassin with any more [I]magic missile[/I] spells, as she couldn't see into the cloud of dark vapors to find her victim. But Jhasspok didn't miss much by his momentary loss of concentration, for Utred slew their half-orc foe almost immediately thereafter, the bastard sword making slurping noises as it fell into the pool of blood the slain foe was spilling from the gash in his neck from Utred's final strike. The sword was there for the taking, its hilt lying in the half-orc's lifeless fingers, but it was unnerving enough that none of the arena slaves was tempted to try to pick it up. Unable to see the flying assassin, Cramer took a moment of respite from combat to cast a [I]shield of faith[/I] upon himself; the [I]spiritual quarterstaff[/I], likewise unable to see its target, dutifully returned to the gnome cleric's side until it could. Khari, now once again without any enemies on the ground to fight, grabbed up the half-elf's composite longbow and fired an arrow up into the [I]obscuring mist[/I]; he couldn't see through the thick vapors - even with his dwarven darkvision - but it was always worth a shot and he might even get lucky. (He didn't.) Marlo also took a moment to swig down a [I]potion of cure moderate wounds[/I], feeling the bleeding gash in her neck heal up. Jhasspok used his moments out of combat to pry the eyes out of the corpses of the half-elf and half-orc with his claws, examining their different colors and wondering which would taste better. (It turned out eye color had no bearing on their taste - good to know.) [I]Invisible[/I] once again, the assassin suddenly became visible when she brought her [I]vicious short sword[/I] stabbing Khari from behind, having dropped out of her [I]obscuring mist[/I] cloud unseen. She sighed at the complete failure of the would-be assassins she'd taken on as potential recruits for this mission - apparently none of them had been worthy enough to join her Guild. Didn't that just figure? But then she was on the defensive as Utred charged up to her, his green-flamed sword flying in her direction. Cramer cast a [I]fly[/I] spell on himself and approached the assassin now trading blows with...apparently with himself, although that just meant Utred was goofing around with his [I]hat of disguise[/I] again. The gnome cleric's [I]spiritual quarterstaff[/I] swung at the assassin but she ducked beneath its arc of movement and avoided being clocked in the side of the head. She wasn't as lucky avoiding Khari's warhammer, though - nor could she ever hope to avoid an [I]empowered magic missile[/I] spell and it was this which eventually brought her down, unconscious but still breathing. As Cramer and Marlo bound the only two foes still left alive after this sudden ambush, the other three checked the dead bodies for possible loot. Nobody wanted to touch the slain half-orc's bastard sword, especially after Cramer cast a [I]detect evil[/I] spell and pronounced the blade to be evil. The gnome removed a ring from the finger of the flying assassin and pulled a sheet of parchment from a scroll case she had at her belt. Expecting it to be a spell scroll, he was surprised to see a portrait of the five of them drawn in ink, with a bunch of coded words (in letters from different alphabets) around the drawing. Flipping the parchment over, he saw more unreadable words and a sketch of the symbol for House Jalamir, which the slaves each wore in tattoo form on their backs. Even without knowing what any of the words said, it was likely this paper was being used to identify the five arena slaves so these strangers would know who to attack - somebody had apparently paid to have assassins kill the five heroes while they were on the surface! Then, seeing the two leather-clad women were bound securely, Cramer cast just enough healing on them to restore them to wakefulness. "So, an assassination attempt, huh?" he asked the rogue. "Who paid you to kill us?" The woman glared at the gnome but refused to say a word; in any case, he had it all wrong - even had they managed to slay all five of their targets the recruits wouldn't share in any reward, as entry into the Guild would have been reward enough for this mission to prove their worthiness. The fact she'd failed to impress the Guild weighed on the woman's soul more than the death of her sister. When the rogue failed to be communicative, the gnome moved on to the full-fledged assassin. She had a rather interesting feature: a tattoo of an eye upon the back of each hand. "You feel like talking?" Cramer prompted. "Sure," sneered the [B]Observer[/B]. "What do you want to talk about? It's lovely this time of year, don't you think?" Cramer held the parchment with their likenesses in front of her face. "How about this?" he suggested. "Who paid you to kill us?" "Nobody," the Observer said with a smirk. "You don't get paid until the job's done." "Okay," amended the gnome, "who offered to pay you to kill us?" "A much better question," replied the Observer, "but one which I decline to answer." "Let's just kill her," grunted Utred. He'd taken off the [I]hat of disguise[/I], realizing he looked much more intimidating in his true form than as a three-foot-tall gnome. "Like that will stop me," smirked the woman. "I'm important enough that I'll be back - and sooner than you think, more than likely." "How could she come back after we kill her?" asked Jhasspok, clearly confused. Marlo briefly explained about resurrection magic, and if this Observer was a powerful member of an Assassins Guild they'd have the money to pay to have her restored to life. "Then why don't we let her live?" Jhasspok reasoned. "I like the way this one thinks," smirked the Observer. "Then she'll be able to continue to try to kill us," Marlo pointed out, trying and failing to keep the tone of exasperation out of her voice - Jhasspok was a nice enough lizardfolk, but his naivety could be frustrating at times. "Not like this," Jhasspok countered, pulling on the Observer's bound hands until she fell face-first onto the ground. The lizardfolk planted a clawed foot upon her hands, pinning them into place, and then before anyone could stop him he brought his battleaxe crashing down, severing both hands just above the wrist in one blow. As Cramer scrambled to heal the stumps before she bled out, Jhasspok pulled the severed hands from the ropes binding them together and idly wondered if the tattoo of an eye would taste anything like an actual eyeball. "Now she can't cast spells and she can't hold weapons." The Overseer's face was pale from this sudden attack but she quickly did her best to retain her composure. "This--this can be fixed, too," she said, although it seemed just a little as if she were trying to convince herself. "Anything you do to me can be undone if you have the right resources." She glared at Cramer. "And we do," she added. "This isn't getting us anywhere," Marlo decided. "Let's just bring these two with us and turn them over to the king. Then it's his problem to deal with." That plan had some nice benefits: not only did it relieve the heroes from having to tend to the Overseer and the rogue themselves, it allowed the kingdom of Revin to use the Overseer as a trap to catch the Assassins Guild members who would eventually attempt to free her, if the kingdom was warned ahead of time of the full situation. Before too much longer, Buckleby caught up with the five heroes. "I've gotten you an audience," he told them. "We can--[I]holy crap, what happened here?"[/I] After a quick explanation about the assassination attempt, the heroes loaded their two bound prisoners onto the wagon and Buckleby guided Cramer into driving the wagon to the castle - not that it was difficult to find, as it towered over the other buildings in the capital city. Marlo, as usual, became the spokeswoman for the group of heroes, the silver [I]circlet of persuasion[/I] perched on her brow as she explained about Overreach, the impending attack upon Greenvale, and their own involvement in shutting down the encroachment from the Far Realm that had overtaken the village of Grover's Comb and threatened to eventually overtake the world. The king of Revin was suitably impressed; so much so, in fact, that he had 20,000 pieces of gold removed from the royal treasury to be gifted to the heroes for having saved Grover's Comb. He also agreed to join in the alliance with Greenvale and to take the Overseer into custody in the deepest dungeons of the castle. "The Assassins Guild has been an ongoing concern," the king lamented. "It is said to be led by a drow woman - one I would imagine has ties to this Overreach city you describe. I would imagine she has ways to scry upon you," he warned, and the slaves could only imagine how easy it would be to tap into the slave tattoos they each wore; a good thing House Ky'hulcressen's agents in Greenvale had altered the tattoos to make it seem as if the slaves were doing something innocuous if the tattoos were used to scry upon them. But then, Cramer realized, even if the scried-upon images were faked the tattoos could still likely be used to determine the slaves' whereabouts. Something else to worry about! "I can only imagine the Assassins Guild, and the Thieves Guild working with them, will aid - or attempt to, in any case - the Overreach forces in the coming war," added the king. "At least we're forewarned about their potential threat, Your Majesty," replied Marlo. "For that, we thank you." "Where will you go from here?" asked the king. Cramer pulled out the map they'd been using and looked it over. "From here," he said, "we move on to Dracovania, Your Majesty." "Be warned further, then," advised the king, looking at Marlo. "[B]The Dragon King of Dracovania[/B] is an elderly red dragon, as foul and greedy as most of his species. Entering his lands will be dangerous to you all." "Maybe we should just skip that one," suggested Khari. "No, I think we should give it a chance," reasoned Marlo. "I think we'd rather have a powerful dragon on our side in the coming war than have him poised to attack us when we're busy fighting off the drow armies." "There is wisdom in what you say," conceded the king. "I pray you be careful, just the same." "We will, Your Majesty," promised Marlo. - - - Cramer ended up with the Overseer's [I]ring of invisibility[/I], while Marlo took her [I]boots of levitation[/I]. (It turned out she hadn't been flying during the fight, merely levitating up and down.) Khari claimed the half-elf ranger's [I]+1 composite shortbow[/I]; it has a Strength 14 requirement so he'll be able to add +2 to the damage when he uses it. And Utred and Cramer have come up with a combination move: Cramer can turn invisible with his ring while Utred, using his [I]hat of disguise[/I], takes on the gnome's appearance. Then anyone trying to mess with a little gnome will end up dealing with a dwarven barbarian with triple-digit hit points instead - surprise! By the way, the Overseer's eye tattoos allowed her to scry when she placed her hands over her eyes - that was what the deal was with that eyeball in the shop at the beginning. The shopkeeper apparently knew about the Overseer and her Assassins Guild and didn't want to be caught in the middle of anything. We're all close enough to 8th level that we should be leveling up after the next adventure. And we'll be facing a red dragon kingdom - that ought to be interesting! [/QUOTE]
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