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Raiders of the Overreach
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<blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 8173419" data-attributes="member: 508"><p><strong>ADVENTURE 34 - A BAD DAY TO BE A DWARF</strong></p><p></p><p>PC Roster:</p><p style="margin-left: 20px">Cramer Appleknocker, gnome cleric 11</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Jhasspok, lizardman 3/barbarian 3/fighter 5</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Khari Hammerslammer, dwarf fighter 11</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Marlo Pendragon, human sorcerer 11</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Utred "Buckets" Butterflinger, dwarf barbarian 11</p><p></p><p>Game Session Date: 6 January 2021</p><p></p><p>- - -</p><p></p><p>Lauren had sent Cramer a <em>sending</em> spell during the trek back to Overreach with N'zorthal, informing him that the preparations had been made to allow the five new citizens of House Jalamir to fulfill their part of the agreement: to enter Dwarven Hell and rescue the Mithral Mage, the man the various factions of the Seekers of Eternity venerated, either as the original founder of their organization or, in the case of one sect, as a god. "That's something you're not asked to do every day," the gnome cleric remarked, "rescue a god from Hell."</p><p></p><p>"Not much of a god if he can't find his own way out of Hell," Utred remarked.</p><p></p><p>"Yeah, well, Lauren's grandfather Arcturus doesn't believe any of that business about him being a god," pointed out Marlo. "He's just a wizard, although apparently a pretty powerful one."</p><p></p><p>"Not just a wizard, though - he's also a lich," reminded Cramer. "Accidental or not, he's undead and we'd best be careful dealing with him."</p><p></p><p>Almost immediately upon their return to Overreach they parted ways with the mind flayer Administer of Discipline and headed over to House Ky'hulcressen, where they were sent through the Plane of Shadows via the permanent <em>shadow gate</em> and ended back in the surface city of Greenvale. There they were met and brought before a group of Mithral Redeemers - the faction of the Seekers to which Arcturus belonged - and shown the preparations on which they had been working so diligently.</p><p></p><p>"It's...a metal lobster," Khari said, his brows furrowed in confusion. "Are we supposed to take it with us or something?"</p><p></p><p>"It will actually be taking <em>you</em> with <em>it</em>," replied one of the wizards who had been working on the device. "I take it you're not familiar with the <em>Apparatus of Kwalish</em>?" None of the five was familiar with the term. The wizard explained the lobster-shaped contraption before them was patterned after an underwater exploratory device originally created by the wizard <strong>Kwalish</strong>. "We've made some modifications," he said proudly. "It has several <em>contingency</em> spells loaded onto it, which will automatically trigger at the appropriate times. It has a <em>Mordenkainen's magnificent mansion</em> spell keyed to its interior, so despite its external size all five of you will fit within - two of you will pilot the vehicle while the other three remain inside the interior mansion. It has <em>energy immunity</em> - attuned to fire, of course - to activate when it comes in contact with the liquid mithral, and a--"</p><p></p><p>"Wait a minute," interrupted Cramer. "Did you say 'liquid mithral?'"</p><p></p><p>"Yes, of course. There's an irregular <em>planar gate</em> that activates in a mine in the Baator's Breath Mountains, occasionally linking this world with Dwarven Hell. Molten mithral often flows through the rift between the worlds when the <em>planar gate</em> is opened. In any case, as I was saying, it has a <em>find the path</em> spell that will show the pilots the location of the Mithral Mage once you enter Dwarven Hell, an <em>Otiluke's resilient sphere</em> to encapsulate the area where the Mithral Mage is imprisoned, and a <em>wish</em> spell to remove the molten mithral from within the confines of the <em>resilient sphere</em>, allowing you to exit the <em>Apparatus</em> and free him. Once this has been activated, you will have 26 minutes to free the Mithral Mage and escape before the <em>resilient sphere</em> collapses and the liquid mithral sea falls back upon you."</p><p></p><p>"So how will we get this device to the Baator's Breath Mountains?" asked Marlo. It looked too big and bulky to put onto a cart and she couldn't imagine them "walking" it to the mountains on its lobster legs.</p><p></p><p>"Once you're all inside, the <em>Apparatus of Kwalish</em> will be teleported to Ashfall - the kingdom where the mithral mine is located - and then it will <em>ethereal jaunt</em> to the designated mine. There you will remain, ethereally, until you see the dwarven miners fleeing from an opening rift, at which time you will return to the Material Plane and scuttle into the rift to the Mithral Sea of Dwarven Hell."</p><p></p><p>"So that's how we get to Dwarven Hell to free the Mithral Mage," Cramer repeated. "How do we get back out? Wait for another rift?"</p><p></p><p>"No, that's a little weirder," replied the wizard. Cramer raised his eyebrows in disbelief, as so far this whole scheme seemed pretty weird. "Normally, the Mithral Sea is warded against all forms of teleportation, including those of extraplanar means, but Lauren clearly foresaw Marlo using a scrolll of <em>plane shift</em> to escape in her vision, so that's how you'll be escaping after you free the Mithral Mage." He handed a scroll tube to the sorceress, who opened it and began studying its contents with a <em>read magic</em> spell, to make sure it was what it was supposed to be and that she'd be able to use it correctly when the time came.</p><p></p><p>"So, I assume everything's ready for us to depart?" asked the gnome.</p><p></p><p>"Ready when you are," the wizard agreed.</p><p></p><p>"I'll want to prepare my spells first," Cramer replied, closing his eyes and clearing his mind for his daily prayers to Fharlanghn. Surprisingly, as he made his selections of which spells he thought would be the most advantageous for the mission, he felt a gently mental tugging towards a spell he had never asked to receive before. However, not wanting to go against Fharlanghn's wishes, he added a <em>magic circle against chaos</em> spell to his mental repertoire.</p><p></p><p>"Who's driving?" asked Utred as the back "hatch" - by the lobster's tail - was opened and the group started piling inside.</p><p></p><p>"Marlo and I, as usual," the gnome replied.</p><p></p><p>"This is likely gonna be a bit different than steering a horse and wagon," Khari pointed out.</p><p></p><p>"No arguments there," Cramer said. "But the normal interior is somewhat cramped, and Marlo and I take up the least amount of room." It was true, too - the little gnome and the rather small human were the shortest of the group, especially when compared to the burly dwarves and the hulking lizardfolk. "You three settle into the <em>Mordenkainen's magnificent mansion</em> - we'll handle it from out here." Utred shrugged and led the other two into the extradimensional space off to the side of the <em>Apparatus</em> interior. Only once they were inside did Cramer admit to his copilot, "Like I'd trust any of that lot to get us to where we need to go!"</p><p></p><p>Inside the extradimensional rooms, there were no complaints from Jhasspok or the dwarves, for the <em>mansion</em> was stocked with delicious food and all manners of comfortable furniture. "We ought to travel like this all the time!" enthused Khari, chewing on a cold chicken leg. He proffered another to Jhasspok, explaining it away as "skyfish." The lizardfolk asked no further questions, devoting his full attention to the meal before him.</p><p></p><p>Getting into the Mithral Sea went exactly as planned, although Marlo and Cramer saw the occasional glimpses of dwarven faces twisted into grimaces of extraordinary pain through their forward viewports. "It's a layer of Hell, remember," Cramer reminded the sorceress. "They all no doubt earned this afterlife."</p><p></p><p>"It's still horrible," Marlo remarked, her own face twisted in a grimace of distaste.</p><p></p><p>Through the magic of the <em>find the path</em> spell, steering the <em>Apparatus of Kwalish</em> in the right direction was no more difficult than following the trail of glowing arrows showing which way to go. They traversed countless passageways and submerged tunnels, eventually dropping down into a crater at the bottom of the Mithral Sea. The string of magical arrow signs vanished once the craft touched bottom, leading Cramer to announce, "We must be here." Sure enough, more of the automatic spells started kicking in, forming an <em>Otiluke's resilient sphere</em> around the entire crater and the molten mithral flowing upwards to escape the bubble of air now surrounding their magical craft.</p><p></p><p>After shooing the other three out of the <em>Mordenkainen's magical mansion</em> - and grabbing a couple of chicken legs for herself and Cramer, who missed out on the free food thus far - Marlo cast a new spell she'd only recently mastered. <Can you hear me okay?> she thought to the others.</p><p></p><p>"Aaaah!" cried Jhasspok suddenly, holding the sides of his temples between his clawed hands. "A voice in my head!"</p><p></p><p><That's just me, Jhasspok - it's Marlo! I cast a <em>Rary's telepathic bond</em> spell on us all - now we can send telepathic messages to each other without anyone else hearing.></p><p></p><p><You're coming in loud and clear,> announced Cramer, then began casting <em>detect undead</em> and <em>magic vestment</em> spells upon himself and <em>align weapon</em> spells upon Khari's <em>earthglide warhammer</em>, Jhasspok's battleaxe, and Utred's greataxe.</p><p></p><p><I can hear you, too,> replied Utred.</p><p></p><p><Yeah, me too,> Khari thought over the link.</p><p></p><p>"Okay, time's a-wastin'," Cramer told the others, unsealing the hatch.</p><p></p><p>Khari was the first of the group to step out into Dwarven Hell. Although the <em>wish</em> spell had removed most of the molten metal, there were still pools of the stuff around, including two of considerable size. As the others stepped out of the craft, the Hammerslammer dwarf looked around at the crater's interior, seeing perfectly well with his darkvision. There wasn't much to see - not at first, in any case. But as he stepped between the two largest pools of liquid mithral, a massive form surged up from the pool to his right, forming a flaming body of only the most rudimentary humanoid build. A flaming fist came crashing down at the dwarf, but Khari dodged around the blow and swung his warhammer into the burning fires of the creature's hand.</p><p></p><p>In a flash, Jhasspok was at the dwarf's side, adding his own weapon to the fray. But the reptile was unable to avoid the hellfire elemental's attack and the blow left singed and blackening scales all along Jhasspok's side where he'd been struck.</p><p></p><p>With the advantage of seeing ahead of time what he'd be facing and the combat expertise to realize which of his many weapons would be the best approach against this enemy, Utred loaded an arrow into his <em>frost longbow</em> and sent it flying up at the hellfire elemental's head, well above the heads of Jhasspok and Khari. Unfortunately, he saw the arrow incinerate almost immediately upon contact and couldn't be entirely sure if the <em>frost</em> damage from his cold-infused arrow had even done any good against the towering beast. Frowning, he put the longbow away and pulled out his trusty greataxe.</p><p></p><p>The massive elemental swung both its fists above its towering head and brought them down upon Jhasspok. The lizardfolk tried in vain to block the blow with his shield but the elemental was too big for such a strategy to have much of an effect. Most of Jhasspok's scales were now blackened and sizzling, their tips burning like embers. And then, with another roar of flames, a second towering elemental rose up out of the other pool.</p><p></p><p>Marlo instinctively cast an <em>invisibility</em> spell upon herself and decided to let "the boys" handle the combat while she worried about their primary mission: finding the Mithral Mage. Despite her human eyesight, there was enough light in the air-filled crater from the two blazing hellfire elementals for her to see just fine. And sure enough: there was a cave opening in the side of the crater wall just ahead, past the two pools of molten mithral from which the elementals had risen.</p><p></p><p>Cramer stepped forward behind Jhasspok and touched him on the tail, imbuing the lizardfolk with a <em>protection from fire</em> spell that would hopefully prevent him from being fried to a crisp there on the spot. Khari, beside the reptile, kept swinging his warhammer at the blazing foe, wishing he could reach more than the creature's extremities when it brought its long arms down to strike at one of them here on the ground. But standing in the middle of a pool of molten mithral was a pretty effective way of ensuring nobody got too close. Jhasspok was in the same position, but he kept swinging his battleaxe for all he was worth, determined to rid Dwarven Hell of this particular fire elemental at least.</p><p></p><p>Utred took it upon himself to take care of the second elemental. Charging at full speed with a dwarven battle-roar on his lips, he took a hit from the flaming beast before he could bring his greataxe to bear, but when he did he felt he had managed to deal the creature a fair bit of damage, even if it was difficult to see actual wounds on a body composed of flames. The creature retaliated against the dwarven barbarian, while the other one divided its attacks between Jhasspok and Khari - likely the only thing keeping the lizardfolk alive at this point.</p><p></p><p>Marlo, still exploring invisibly, added a <em>magic circle against evil</em> on the list of spells currently active upon her person. She took the long way around the second hellfire elemental, skirting all the way around its pool of liquid metal. Cramer cast the very same spell upon Khari, realizing their close proximity meant the spell would effectively cover himself, the dwarf, and the lizardfolk as well. The three front-line combatants continued their assault upon the two hellfire elementals, while they in turn sent their flaming fists crashing down upon these living intruders upon the surface of Dwarven Hell. Jhasspok dropped to one knee from this latest attack and Cramer belatedly realized if he didn't apply some healing to the lizardfolk soon he was likely to be slain.</p><p></p><p>But then an attack came from an unexpected vector. Marlo, seeing how poorly the melee was going, popped back into visibility as she cast a <em>lightning bolt</em> spell that went crashing through the forms of both hellfire elementals. They roared in pain, the sudden assault causing the first elemental to explode in a gout of flame and disappear from view, its fires apparently extinguished forever. That gave Cramer the opening he needed to dart forward and cast a much-needed <em>heal</em> spell upon Jhasspok, who seriously looked to be on his last legs. The positive energy revitalized the lizardfolk at once, as the singed scales started falling from him like leaves from a wind-blasted tree, leaving fresh, new scales gleaming in their place.</p><p></p><p>But combat wasn't yet over. The hellfire elemental they'd been fighting having been slain, Khari and Jhasspok rushed over by Utred to help the barbarian deal with the one he'd been taking on by himself. Together, the three of them weakened the elemental enough that Marlo was able to slay it with another <em>lightning bolt</em> spell. "You guys okay?" she asked, but they were pretty much all too busy at this point swigging down healing potions to answer.</p><p></p><p>Advancing forward towards the cave, Cramer's <em>detect undead</em> spell suddenly "pinged," letting him know there were undead within range. "I think the Mithral Mage is in there!" he told the others. Utred scooped up the diminutive gnome from behind him and transferred him to the barbarian's back, a combat stance they'd used many times in the past - allowing Cramer to take advantage of the dwarven barbarian's greatly enhanced speed while for his part Utred barely even felt the added weigh he was carrying.</p><p></p><p>Sure enough, there in the cave was the Mithral Mage - or what the group assumed was him, given it was a shiny, gleaming skeleton encased in chains: thick, metal chains which were clamped not only around the skeleton's neck and wrists but also went through his rib cage. But standing before the metal skeleton was a dwarven form wearing reddish hellsteel armor, wielding a <em>flaming hellsteel greataxe</em>. Besides the armor, he wore a metal collar the same color and style as the chains imprisoning the Mithral Mage.</p><p></p><p>Khari went rushing in, whacking the half-fiend dwarf in the side of the head with his warhammer. Jhasspok followed suit with his battleaxe, taking a retaliatory strike from the dwarf's weapon as he passed by him, trying to open a spot for Utred to rush in, so they could attack the guardian from three sides. Utred failed to disappoint, rushing into the open area and bringing Cramer along for the ride. Rushed by three enemies, the half-fiend dwarf took a step off to the side and brought forth an <em>unholy blight</em> down upon all four of the men; Marlo was still safely outside the cave entrance, in the much bigger crater opening. Not surprisingly, the good-hearted Khari suffered the worst of the group from the guardian's magical assault.</p><p></p><p>Marlo activated her <em>boots of levitation</em> rising up into the air just high enough to fire an <em>empowered lightning bolt</em> over the heads of her friends and strike only the half-fiend dwarf. Cramer, however, was concentrating on his <em>detect undead</em> spell and was practically staggered by the feedback he got when he focused directly upon the Mithral Mage. There was absolutely no doubt in the gnome's mind the skeletal lich was undead - he was the most powerful form of undead the cleric had ever encountered!</p><p></p><p>Khari brought the dwarven defender down with a series of blows from his warhammer, giving the fallen guardian a good blow to the head once he was down just to be safe. Then they moved forward to examine the cave's prisoner.</p><p></p><p>The silvery flames burning in the otherwise hollow eye sockets of the Mithral Mage "blinked" once in surprise at it exclaimed, "You're not my brother's champions!"</p><p></p><p>"Brother?" asked Cramer. "Uh, no idea about that. We're here to rescue you, though, because you play an important role in a prophecy." He briefly explained about the Dying One and how "the metal man from Hell" was one possible way of preventing the Dying One from returning to his full power and destroying the world.</p><p></p><p>"By all means - I have no wish for this world to be destroyed!" exclaimed the Mithral Mage. "I have some things that will need to be taken care of, but I will gladly aid you in defeating this Dying One in exchange for freeing me!"</p><p></p><p>Unfortunately, freeing the Mithral Mage from his chains turned out to be rather difficult, for the group had no way to destroy the enchanted chains binding the metal lich. "You'd have thought Lauren might have foreseen this!" grumbled Cramer.</p><p></p><p>"There is another way," pointed out the Mithral Mage.</p><p></p><p>"Yeah? How?" snapped the gnome cleric, well aware that time was passing quickly and pretty soon the whole crater would be once again flooded with molten mithral - and if they hadn't freed the prisoner by then, their chances were nil in getting this part of the prophecy completed.</p><p></p><p>"Kill me," replied the Mithral Mage. Upon seeing Marlo's querulous look, he stated simply, "I'm a lich. Slay me and my soul will return to my phylactery - which is safely on the Material Plane, not upon this dreary level of Hell. Within a week, I'll have reformed my body, and then we can be safely about our joint business." <em>And,</em> he thought to himself, <em>I won't have to get involved in their schemes unless they track me down again</em>. This talk about the severed head of an illithid Elder God having survived a decapitation from Wee Jas was, he supposed, technically possible - but highly improbable. With luck, he'd be able to research the veracity of these strange people's claims on his own before deciding on whether or not to take part in their crazy schemes.</p><p></p><p><Guys?> Cramer asked over the telepathic link. <What do you think? Can we trust him?></p><p></p><p>"Aaaah!" cried Jhasspok, once again startled to hear a voice in his head from out of nowhere. The Mithral Mage turned his head to look quizzically at the lizardfolk, but no explanation was forthcoming.</p><p></p><p><I got nothin' better to suggest,> pointed out Utred.</p><p></p><p><Time's running out,> added Marlo.</p><p></p><p>"Okay," agreed the gnome cleric. "Guys: kill him."</p><p></p><p>It took a bevy of physical attacks and combat spells to bring down the Mithral Mage, but for his part he just stood there and took it. Eventually, his skull fell backwards and the silvery flames from his eye sockets went out, his mithral-coated skeleton collapsing in a pile with the enchanted adamantine chains binding him in place. "Pity we can't take any of this with us," remarked Utred. "Mithral and adamantine - they're both worth plenty!"</p><p></p><p>"Yeah, well so are our hides!" replied Cramer from the barbarian's back. "Come on - let's get out of here!" Utred complied, but not before bending over the slain half-fiend dwarf's body and grabbing up his <em>flaming hellsteel greataxe</em>. "What are you planning on doing with that?" the cleric asked. "Don't you have enough weapons already?" The barbarian stifled a chuckle; "enough weapons" - what a crazy concept!</p><p></p><p>Jhasspok raced over to where they had battled the hellfire elementals and retrieved one of his own sloughed-off scales. Then, succumbing to intense curiosity, he bit into it, wondering what he might taste like. He was disappointed; apparently he tasted dry and burned.</p><p></p><p>"Are you quite through?" Marlo asked, unrolling her <em>plane shift</em> spell scroll.</p><p></p><p>"Wait, are we just abandoning the lobster thing here?" asked Khari, looking worriedly at the <em>Apparatus of Kwalish</em>.</p><p></p><p>"No choice," Marlo answered. "It's far too big for me to take with us. The wizards are well aware this was a one-way mission for their vehicle, and that they'd never see it again."</p><p></p><p>"Bummer," Khari sighed, thinking about the rest of the banquet lying untouched inside. Those had been good chicken legs!</p><p></p><p>Marlo began reading the words from her scroll when Cramer got the frantic sensation that he absolutely needed to cast a <em>magic circle against chaos</em> spell upon himself - and immediately! He rattled off the words to the spell, finishing it up just as Marlo's spell took effect. A burst of energy exploded around the heroes and their bodies slipped out of Dwarven Hell...</p><p></p><p>...but instead of returning to the Material Plane as Marlo had expected, they were in a strange land, filled with sights that staggered the imagination. Colored smoke drifted listlessly across the sky, occasionally breaking up into sharp-paned shards before flapping off into nothingness. The ground beneath them was spongy and rippled softly of its own accord, rising and lowering the heroes as if they were each on separate ships at sea. A flash of blue lightning exploded up from a mountain in the distance, before the mountain lost its cohesion and drifted off in a cloud of brightly-colored bubbles, each changing through a variety of hues in rapid succession before popping.</p><p></p><p>"Where are we?" asked Jhasspok, looking around in puzzlement. He knew the surface world was very different from the Underdark where he'd been hatched and raised, but this was completely different even by "surface world" standards.</p><p></p><p>Marlo just shook her head, not knowing how to answer the lizardfolk. "Somewhere far away," she said, her voice barely a whisper as she added, "in some far...Far Realm...."</p><p></p><p>- - -</p><p></p><p>And that's where we left off, not only for this gaming session but for the next few months. Harry and Joey will be out of school sometime in May or early June, so we'll be able to pick up our two campaigns then. But right now the supposition is that the only reason Marlo was even able to successfully cast a <em>plane shift</em> spell that allowed the heroes to exit Dwarven Hell was due to deific support from the Dying One, her secret patron. There's a very good chance that Marlo's status as a secret worshiper of the Dying One may come out into the open in the next adventure; all of the players are of course well aware of the secret but none of the other PCs know. Either way, it looks like the next session is going to be "a bad day to be Marlo Pendragon!"</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Richards, post: 8173419, member: 508"] [B]ADVENTURE 34 - A BAD DAY TO BE A DWARF[/B] PC Roster: [INDENT]Cramer Appleknocker, gnome cleric 11[/INDENT] [INDENT] Jhasspok, lizardman 3/barbarian 3/fighter 5[/INDENT] [INDENT] Khari Hammerslammer, dwarf fighter 11[/INDENT] [INDENT] Marlo Pendragon, human sorcerer 11[/INDENT] [INDENT] Utred "Buckets" Butterflinger, dwarf barbarian 11[/INDENT] Game Session Date: 6 January 2021 - - - Lauren had sent Cramer a [I]sending[/I] spell during the trek back to Overreach with N'zorthal, informing him that the preparations had been made to allow the five new citizens of House Jalamir to fulfill their part of the agreement: to enter Dwarven Hell and rescue the Mithral Mage, the man the various factions of the Seekers of Eternity venerated, either as the original founder of their organization or, in the case of one sect, as a god. "That's something you're not asked to do every day," the gnome cleric remarked, "rescue a god from Hell." "Not much of a god if he can't find his own way out of Hell," Utred remarked. "Yeah, well, Lauren's grandfather Arcturus doesn't believe any of that business about him being a god," pointed out Marlo. "He's just a wizard, although apparently a pretty powerful one." "Not just a wizard, though - he's also a lich," reminded Cramer. "Accidental or not, he's undead and we'd best be careful dealing with him." Almost immediately upon their return to Overreach they parted ways with the mind flayer Administer of Discipline and headed over to House Ky'hulcressen, where they were sent through the Plane of Shadows via the permanent [I]shadow gate[/I] and ended back in the surface city of Greenvale. There they were met and brought before a group of Mithral Redeemers - the faction of the Seekers to which Arcturus belonged - and shown the preparations on which they had been working so diligently. "It's...a metal lobster," Khari said, his brows furrowed in confusion. "Are we supposed to take it with us or something?" "It will actually be taking [I]you[/I] with [I]it[/I]," replied one of the wizards who had been working on the device. "I take it you're not familiar with the [I]Apparatus of Kwalish[/I]?" None of the five was familiar with the term. The wizard explained the lobster-shaped contraption before them was patterned after an underwater exploratory device originally created by the wizard [B]Kwalish[/B]. "We've made some modifications," he said proudly. "It has several [I]contingency[/I] spells loaded onto it, which will automatically trigger at the appropriate times. It has a [I]Mordenkainen's magnificent mansion[/I] spell keyed to its interior, so despite its external size all five of you will fit within - two of you will pilot the vehicle while the other three remain inside the interior mansion. It has [I]energy immunity[/I] - attuned to fire, of course - to activate when it comes in contact with the liquid mithral, and a--" "Wait a minute," interrupted Cramer. "Did you say 'liquid mithral?'" "Yes, of course. There's an irregular [I]planar gate[/I] that activates in a mine in the Baator's Breath Mountains, occasionally linking this world with Dwarven Hell. Molten mithral often flows through the rift between the worlds when the [I]planar gate[/I] is opened. In any case, as I was saying, it has a [I]find the path[/I] spell that will show the pilots the location of the Mithral Mage once you enter Dwarven Hell, an [I]Otiluke's resilient sphere[/I] to encapsulate the area where the Mithral Mage is imprisoned, and a [I]wish[/I] spell to remove the molten mithral from within the confines of the [I]resilient sphere[/I], allowing you to exit the [I]Apparatus[/I] and free him. Once this has been activated, you will have 26 minutes to free the Mithral Mage and escape before the [I]resilient sphere[/I] collapses and the liquid mithral sea falls back upon you." "So how will we get this device to the Baator's Breath Mountains?" asked Marlo. It looked too big and bulky to put onto a cart and she couldn't imagine them "walking" it to the mountains on its lobster legs. "Once you're all inside, the [I]Apparatus of Kwalish[/I] will be teleported to Ashfall - the kingdom where the mithral mine is located - and then it will [I]ethereal jaunt[/I] to the designated mine. There you will remain, ethereally, until you see the dwarven miners fleeing from an opening rift, at which time you will return to the Material Plane and scuttle into the rift to the Mithral Sea of Dwarven Hell." "So that's how we get to Dwarven Hell to free the Mithral Mage," Cramer repeated. "How do we get back out? Wait for another rift?" "No, that's a little weirder," replied the wizard. Cramer raised his eyebrows in disbelief, as so far this whole scheme seemed pretty weird. "Normally, the Mithral Sea is warded against all forms of teleportation, including those of extraplanar means, but Lauren clearly foresaw Marlo using a scrolll of [I]plane shift[/I] to escape in her vision, so that's how you'll be escaping after you free the Mithral Mage." He handed a scroll tube to the sorceress, who opened it and began studying its contents with a [I]read magic[/I] spell, to make sure it was what it was supposed to be and that she'd be able to use it correctly when the time came. "So, I assume everything's ready for us to depart?" asked the gnome. "Ready when you are," the wizard agreed. "I'll want to prepare my spells first," Cramer replied, closing his eyes and clearing his mind for his daily prayers to Fharlanghn. Surprisingly, as he made his selections of which spells he thought would be the most advantageous for the mission, he felt a gently mental tugging towards a spell he had never asked to receive before. However, not wanting to go against Fharlanghn's wishes, he added a [I]magic circle against chaos[/I] spell to his mental repertoire. "Who's driving?" asked Utred as the back "hatch" - by the lobster's tail - was opened and the group started piling inside. "Marlo and I, as usual," the gnome replied. "This is likely gonna be a bit different than steering a horse and wagon," Khari pointed out. "No arguments there," Cramer said. "But the normal interior is somewhat cramped, and Marlo and I take up the least amount of room." It was true, too - the little gnome and the rather small human were the shortest of the group, especially when compared to the burly dwarves and the hulking lizardfolk. "You three settle into the [I]Mordenkainen's magnificent mansion[/I] - we'll handle it from out here." Utred shrugged and led the other two into the extradimensional space off to the side of the [I]Apparatus[/I] interior. Only once they were inside did Cramer admit to his copilot, "Like I'd trust any of that lot to get us to where we need to go!" Inside the extradimensional rooms, there were no complaints from Jhasspok or the dwarves, for the [I]mansion[/I] was stocked with delicious food and all manners of comfortable furniture. "We ought to travel like this all the time!" enthused Khari, chewing on a cold chicken leg. He proffered another to Jhasspok, explaining it away as "skyfish." The lizardfolk asked no further questions, devoting his full attention to the meal before him. Getting into the Mithral Sea went exactly as planned, although Marlo and Cramer saw the occasional glimpses of dwarven faces twisted into grimaces of extraordinary pain through their forward viewports. "It's a layer of Hell, remember," Cramer reminded the sorceress. "They all no doubt earned this afterlife." "It's still horrible," Marlo remarked, her own face twisted in a grimace of distaste. Through the magic of the [I]find the path[/I] spell, steering the [I]Apparatus of Kwalish[/I] in the right direction was no more difficult than following the trail of glowing arrows showing which way to go. They traversed countless passageways and submerged tunnels, eventually dropping down into a crater at the bottom of the Mithral Sea. The string of magical arrow signs vanished once the craft touched bottom, leading Cramer to announce, "We must be here." Sure enough, more of the automatic spells started kicking in, forming an [I]Otiluke's resilient sphere[/I] around the entire crater and the molten mithral flowing upwards to escape the bubble of air now surrounding their magical craft. After shooing the other three out of the [I]Mordenkainen's magical mansion[/I] - and grabbing a couple of chicken legs for herself and Cramer, who missed out on the free food thus far - Marlo cast a new spell she'd only recently mastered. <Can you hear me okay?> she thought to the others. "Aaaah!" cried Jhasspok suddenly, holding the sides of his temples between his clawed hands. "A voice in my head!" <That's just me, Jhasspok - it's Marlo! I cast a [I]Rary's telepathic bond[/I] spell on us all - now we can send telepathic messages to each other without anyone else hearing.> <You're coming in loud and clear,> announced Cramer, then began casting [I]detect undead[/I] and [I]magic vestment[/I] spells upon himself and [I]align weapon[/I] spells upon Khari's [I]earthglide warhammer[/I], Jhasspok's battleaxe, and Utred's greataxe. <I can hear you, too,> replied Utred. <Yeah, me too,> Khari thought over the link. "Okay, time's a-wastin'," Cramer told the others, unsealing the hatch. Khari was the first of the group to step out into Dwarven Hell. Although the [I]wish[/I] spell had removed most of the molten metal, there were still pools of the stuff around, including two of considerable size. As the others stepped out of the craft, the Hammerslammer dwarf looked around at the crater's interior, seeing perfectly well with his darkvision. There wasn't much to see - not at first, in any case. But as he stepped between the two largest pools of liquid mithral, a massive form surged up from the pool to his right, forming a flaming body of only the most rudimentary humanoid build. A flaming fist came crashing down at the dwarf, but Khari dodged around the blow and swung his warhammer into the burning fires of the creature's hand. In a flash, Jhasspok was at the dwarf's side, adding his own weapon to the fray. But the reptile was unable to avoid the hellfire elemental's attack and the blow left singed and blackening scales all along Jhasspok's side where he'd been struck. With the advantage of seeing ahead of time what he'd be facing and the combat expertise to realize which of his many weapons would be the best approach against this enemy, Utred loaded an arrow into his [I]frost longbow[/I] and sent it flying up at the hellfire elemental's head, well above the heads of Jhasspok and Khari. Unfortunately, he saw the arrow incinerate almost immediately upon contact and couldn't be entirely sure if the [I]frost[/I] damage from his cold-infused arrow had even done any good against the towering beast. Frowning, he put the longbow away and pulled out his trusty greataxe. The massive elemental swung both its fists above its towering head and brought them down upon Jhasspok. The lizardfolk tried in vain to block the blow with his shield but the elemental was too big for such a strategy to have much of an effect. Most of Jhasspok's scales were now blackened and sizzling, their tips burning like embers. And then, with another roar of flames, a second towering elemental rose up out of the other pool. Marlo instinctively cast an [I]invisibility[/I] spell upon herself and decided to let "the boys" handle the combat while she worried about their primary mission: finding the Mithral Mage. Despite her human eyesight, there was enough light in the air-filled crater from the two blazing hellfire elementals for her to see just fine. And sure enough: there was a cave opening in the side of the crater wall just ahead, past the two pools of molten mithral from which the elementals had risen. Cramer stepped forward behind Jhasspok and touched him on the tail, imbuing the lizardfolk with a [I]protection from fire[/I] spell that would hopefully prevent him from being fried to a crisp there on the spot. Khari, beside the reptile, kept swinging his warhammer at the blazing foe, wishing he could reach more than the creature's extremities when it brought its long arms down to strike at one of them here on the ground. But standing in the middle of a pool of molten mithral was a pretty effective way of ensuring nobody got too close. Jhasspok was in the same position, but he kept swinging his battleaxe for all he was worth, determined to rid Dwarven Hell of this particular fire elemental at least. Utred took it upon himself to take care of the second elemental. Charging at full speed with a dwarven battle-roar on his lips, he took a hit from the flaming beast before he could bring his greataxe to bear, but when he did he felt he had managed to deal the creature a fair bit of damage, even if it was difficult to see actual wounds on a body composed of flames. The creature retaliated against the dwarven barbarian, while the other one divided its attacks between Jhasspok and Khari - likely the only thing keeping the lizardfolk alive at this point. Marlo, still exploring invisibly, added a [I]magic circle against evil[/I] on the list of spells currently active upon her person. She took the long way around the second hellfire elemental, skirting all the way around its pool of liquid metal. Cramer cast the very same spell upon Khari, realizing their close proximity meant the spell would effectively cover himself, the dwarf, and the lizardfolk as well. The three front-line combatants continued their assault upon the two hellfire elementals, while they in turn sent their flaming fists crashing down upon these living intruders upon the surface of Dwarven Hell. Jhasspok dropped to one knee from this latest attack and Cramer belatedly realized if he didn't apply some healing to the lizardfolk soon he was likely to be slain. But then an attack came from an unexpected vector. Marlo, seeing how poorly the melee was going, popped back into visibility as she cast a [I]lightning bolt[/I] spell that went crashing through the forms of both hellfire elementals. They roared in pain, the sudden assault causing the first elemental to explode in a gout of flame and disappear from view, its fires apparently extinguished forever. That gave Cramer the opening he needed to dart forward and cast a much-needed [I]heal[/I] spell upon Jhasspok, who seriously looked to be on his last legs. The positive energy revitalized the lizardfolk at once, as the singed scales started falling from him like leaves from a wind-blasted tree, leaving fresh, new scales gleaming in their place. But combat wasn't yet over. The hellfire elemental they'd been fighting having been slain, Khari and Jhasspok rushed over by Utred to help the barbarian deal with the one he'd been taking on by himself. Together, the three of them weakened the elemental enough that Marlo was able to slay it with another [I]lightning bolt[/I] spell. "You guys okay?" she asked, but they were pretty much all too busy at this point swigging down healing potions to answer. Advancing forward towards the cave, Cramer's [I]detect undead[/I] spell suddenly "pinged," letting him know there were undead within range. "I think the Mithral Mage is in there!" he told the others. Utred scooped up the diminutive gnome from behind him and transferred him to the barbarian's back, a combat stance they'd used many times in the past - allowing Cramer to take advantage of the dwarven barbarian's greatly enhanced speed while for his part Utred barely even felt the added weigh he was carrying. Sure enough, there in the cave was the Mithral Mage - or what the group assumed was him, given it was a shiny, gleaming skeleton encased in chains: thick, metal chains which were clamped not only around the skeleton's neck and wrists but also went through his rib cage. But standing before the metal skeleton was a dwarven form wearing reddish hellsteel armor, wielding a [I]flaming hellsteel greataxe[/I]. Besides the armor, he wore a metal collar the same color and style as the chains imprisoning the Mithral Mage. Khari went rushing in, whacking the half-fiend dwarf in the side of the head with his warhammer. Jhasspok followed suit with his battleaxe, taking a retaliatory strike from the dwarf's weapon as he passed by him, trying to open a spot for Utred to rush in, so they could attack the guardian from three sides. Utred failed to disappoint, rushing into the open area and bringing Cramer along for the ride. Rushed by three enemies, the half-fiend dwarf took a step off to the side and brought forth an [I]unholy blight[/I] down upon all four of the men; Marlo was still safely outside the cave entrance, in the much bigger crater opening. Not surprisingly, the good-hearted Khari suffered the worst of the group from the guardian's magical assault. Marlo activated her [I]boots of levitation[/I] rising up into the air just high enough to fire an [I]empowered lightning bolt[/I] over the heads of her friends and strike only the half-fiend dwarf. Cramer, however, was concentrating on his [I]detect undead[/I] spell and was practically staggered by the feedback he got when he focused directly upon the Mithral Mage. There was absolutely no doubt in the gnome's mind the skeletal lich was undead - he was the most powerful form of undead the cleric had ever encountered! Khari brought the dwarven defender down with a series of blows from his warhammer, giving the fallen guardian a good blow to the head once he was down just to be safe. Then they moved forward to examine the cave's prisoner. The silvery flames burning in the otherwise hollow eye sockets of the Mithral Mage "blinked" once in surprise at it exclaimed, "You're not my brother's champions!" "Brother?" asked Cramer. "Uh, no idea about that. We're here to rescue you, though, because you play an important role in a prophecy." He briefly explained about the Dying One and how "the metal man from Hell" was one possible way of preventing the Dying One from returning to his full power and destroying the world. "By all means - I have no wish for this world to be destroyed!" exclaimed the Mithral Mage. "I have some things that will need to be taken care of, but I will gladly aid you in defeating this Dying One in exchange for freeing me!" Unfortunately, freeing the Mithral Mage from his chains turned out to be rather difficult, for the group had no way to destroy the enchanted chains binding the metal lich. "You'd have thought Lauren might have foreseen this!" grumbled Cramer. "There is another way," pointed out the Mithral Mage. "Yeah? How?" snapped the gnome cleric, well aware that time was passing quickly and pretty soon the whole crater would be once again flooded with molten mithral - and if they hadn't freed the prisoner by then, their chances were nil in getting this part of the prophecy completed. "Kill me," replied the Mithral Mage. Upon seeing Marlo's querulous look, he stated simply, "I'm a lich. Slay me and my soul will return to my phylactery - which is safely on the Material Plane, not upon this dreary level of Hell. Within a week, I'll have reformed my body, and then we can be safely about our joint business." [I]And,[/I] he thought to himself, [I]I won't have to get involved in their schemes unless they track me down again[/I]. This talk about the severed head of an illithid Elder God having survived a decapitation from Wee Jas was, he supposed, technically possible - but highly improbable. With luck, he'd be able to research the veracity of these strange people's claims on his own before deciding on whether or not to take part in their crazy schemes. <Guys?> Cramer asked over the telepathic link. <What do you think? Can we trust him?> "Aaaah!" cried Jhasspok, once again startled to hear a voice in his head from out of nowhere. The Mithral Mage turned his head to look quizzically at the lizardfolk, but no explanation was forthcoming. <I got nothin' better to suggest,> pointed out Utred. <Time's running out,> added Marlo. "Okay," agreed the gnome cleric. "Guys: kill him." It took a bevy of physical attacks and combat spells to bring down the Mithral Mage, but for his part he just stood there and took it. Eventually, his skull fell backwards and the silvery flames from his eye sockets went out, his mithral-coated skeleton collapsing in a pile with the enchanted adamantine chains binding him in place. "Pity we can't take any of this with us," remarked Utred. "Mithral and adamantine - they're both worth plenty!" "Yeah, well so are our hides!" replied Cramer from the barbarian's back. "Come on - let's get out of here!" Utred complied, but not before bending over the slain half-fiend dwarf's body and grabbing up his [I]flaming hellsteel greataxe[/I]. "What are you planning on doing with that?" the cleric asked. "Don't you have enough weapons already?" The barbarian stifled a chuckle; "enough weapons" - what a crazy concept! Jhasspok raced over to where they had battled the hellfire elementals and retrieved one of his own sloughed-off scales. Then, succumbing to intense curiosity, he bit into it, wondering what he might taste like. He was disappointed; apparently he tasted dry and burned. "Are you quite through?" Marlo asked, unrolling her [I]plane shift[/I] spell scroll. "Wait, are we just abandoning the lobster thing here?" asked Khari, looking worriedly at the [I]Apparatus of Kwalish[/I]. "No choice," Marlo answered. "It's far too big for me to take with us. The wizards are well aware this was a one-way mission for their vehicle, and that they'd never see it again." "Bummer," Khari sighed, thinking about the rest of the banquet lying untouched inside. Those had been good chicken legs! Marlo began reading the words from her scroll when Cramer got the frantic sensation that he absolutely needed to cast a [I]magic circle against chaos[/I] spell upon himself - and immediately! He rattled off the words to the spell, finishing it up just as Marlo's spell took effect. A burst of energy exploded around the heroes and their bodies slipped out of Dwarven Hell... ...but instead of returning to the Material Plane as Marlo had expected, they were in a strange land, filled with sights that staggered the imagination. Colored smoke drifted listlessly across the sky, occasionally breaking up into sharp-paned shards before flapping off into nothingness. The ground beneath them was spongy and rippled softly of its own accord, rising and lowering the heroes as if they were each on separate ships at sea. A flash of blue lightning exploded up from a mountain in the distance, before the mountain lost its cohesion and drifted off in a cloud of brightly-colored bubbles, each changing through a variety of hues in rapid succession before popping. "Where are we?" asked Jhasspok, looking around in puzzlement. He knew the surface world was very different from the Underdark where he'd been hatched and raised, but this was completely different even by "surface world" standards. Marlo just shook her head, not knowing how to answer the lizardfolk. "Somewhere far away," she said, her voice barely a whisper as she added, "in some far...Far Realm...." - - - And that's where we left off, not only for this gaming session but for the next few months. Harry and Joey will be out of school sometime in May or early June, so we'll be able to pick up our two campaigns then. But right now the supposition is that the only reason Marlo was even able to successfully cast a [I]plane shift[/I] spell that allowed the heroes to exit Dwarven Hell was due to deific support from the Dying One, her secret patron. There's a very good chance that Marlo's status as a secret worshiper of the Dying One may come out into the open in the next adventure; all of the players are of course well aware of the secret but none of the other PCs know. Either way, it looks like the next session is going to be "a bad day to be Marlo Pendragon!" [/QUOTE]
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