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<blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 8373981" data-attributes="member: 508"><p><strong>ADVENTURE 39: THE ROAD TO THE GOLDEN CITY</strong></p><p></p><p>PC Roster: </p><p style="margin-left: 20px">Cramer Appleknocker, gnome cleric 13</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Jhasspok, lizardman 3/barbarian 3/fighter 7</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Khari Hammerslammer, dwarf fighter 13</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Marlo Pendragon, human sorcerer 13</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Utred "Buckets" Butterflinger, dwarf barbarian 13</p><p></p><p>Game Session Date: 11 August 2021</p><p></p><p> - - -</p><p></p><p>"We all know how to get to Brunniir," argued Cramer Appleknocker. "We've seen it, in the distance, when we crossed through the Path of Shadows."</p><p></p><p>"Can't go that way," insisted Khari Hammerslammer, crossing his arms across his chest and putting on his most stubborn expression. "Brunniir is under siege by all kinds of incorporeal undead - we'd never make it through them all."</p><p></p><p>"I can turn them," argued the gnome, holding up his holy symbol of Fharlanghn, God of Travel.</p><p></p><p>"Not that many, you can't," answered Khari. "Nobody could. We'd need an army of clerics."</p><p></p><p>"I assume you have another way to get us there, then?" suggested Marlo, seeing a similar look of stubbornness crossing Cramer's face. More than anything else, she wanted to prevent the two from planting themselves into their respective beliefs and refusing to budge. "What did the visions tell you?" This was a subtle reminder to Cramer that Khari had information none of the others currently possessed, put there decades ago and psionically locked away in the dwarf's head.</p><p></p><p>"We do our traveling on the Material Plane, through the Underdark tunnels, to get to where Brunniir <em>used</em> to sit. <em>Then</em> we transition to the Plane of Shadows, where the Golden City now resides."</p><p></p><p>Jhasspok was confused. "I thought we wanted to go to Brunniir, not the Golden City," he said, reptilian brows furrowed.</p><p></p><p>"Hush, Jhasspok," chided Marlo. "Brunniir <em>is</em> the Golden City."</p><p></p><p>"That'll takes weeks!" argued Cramer. "My way's quicker."</p><p></p><p>"Your way gets us all killed."</p><p></p><p>Cramer looked over to the others. Utred hadn't said a word but he walked over and stood beside his fellow dwarf, his burly arms crossed and his scowling face showing he too could be as stubborn as any other member of his hard-headed race. Jhasspok stood beside his two melee partners and, belatedly seeing they were both crossing their arms, did so himself. (Apparently it was now a thing they did. Good to know.)</p><p></p><p>Marlo, ever the peacemaker, offered up, "If his way is safer in the long run, and the psionic message was sent to him by someone from Brunniir - or who at least knows more about Brunniir than we do at present - it makes sense that--"</p><p></p><p>"Okay, fine!" surrendered Cramer, seeing there was no way he was going to win this argument against such a united front. "Fine! But we'll need to stock up on provisions if we're going to be traipsing around through Underdark tunnels for a week."</p><p></p><p>There were plenty of provisions to be had in the drow surface city of Greenvale; while Marlo and Cramer saw about supplying enough food for the five of them (and Jhasspok stocked up on his favorite dried insect snacks, which he was sure the others would overlook if he left the provisions entirely in their hands), Utred made sure there was likewise an ample supply of ale for the trip. Then, fully provisioned and ready to go, Khari led the party the long way through the Underdark tunnels, following the fleeting images flashing through his head.</p><p></p><p>The first day was uneventful. When it came time to make camp, Marlo cast a <em>rope trick</em> spell, got everyone into its extradimensional space, and then pulled up the rope behind her. Just that easy, they had a safe place to spend the night without even needing to set out guards in shifts.</p><p></p><p>It was on the second day of travel they encountered their first danger. Walking along an Underdark tunnel, the dwarves were the first to notice the vibrations coming through their feet. "Something's burrowing beneath us," Utred said.</p><p></p><p>"Something big," added Khari.</p><p></p><p>"Feels like it's heading our way," Utred said, readying his greataxe to strike at anything that might pop its head up and try to eat them. Khari held his <em>earthglide warhammer</em> at the ready as well and Jhasspok held his battleaxe in preparation for combat. Marlo cast an <em>invisibility</em> spell and used her boots to <em>levitate</em> nearly to the tunnel's ceiling. Cramer cast a <em>shield of faith</em> spell upon himself. Mentally, Utred ran through several possibilities of what might be headed their way: bulette, thoqqua, delver....</p><p></p><p>"Purple worm!" cried out Khari as the stone wall beside him exploded outwards in a hail of rock shards and shrapnel. He sent his warhammer crashing into the creature's armored head, but that only focused the great worm's attention on him as its first potential target. Its massive maw opened and a circle of sharp teeth engulfed the dwarven fighter, pulling Khari deep into the creature's mouth. Utred dashed forward, striking at the side of the worm's head with his greataxe, while Jhasspok raced across the space between them, leaping over Utred to land on the creature's head and bring his own axe-blade digging deep into the worm's armored flesh.</p><p></p><p>Inside the creature's mouth, Khari decided against trying to scramble his way back out of the huge maw, deciding he could deal just as much damage to the beast inside it as well as outside it. He let fly with his warhammer, cracking a few teeth at the root. If the fool thing was going to try to swallow him down, he'd make it pay for every inch he was dragged down its gullet!</p><p></p><p>From her position up by the tunnel's ceiling, Marlo suddenly popped back into view as she cast an <em>empowered scorching ray</em> spell at the massive worm. Not wanting to hit Jhasspok, who stood balanced upon its head, she aimed her streams of fire further back down the creature's length, where it first exited the hole it had burrowed through the side of the tunnel wall. And then Cramer followed suit with one of his most powerful spells, <em>destruction</em>. The purple worm struggled under the effects of the gnome's spell, and while it managed to avoid complete disintegration the spell's energies were enough to slay the beast entirely.</p><p></p><p>"You okay in there?" Marlo called out to Khari, wishing she'd had time to cast a <em>Rary's telepathic bond</em> spell before combat had begun.</p><p></p><p>Khari's response was muffled, not surprising given he was a good deal down the dead worm's gullet. "I'm okay!" he called back. Then there was no further response for some time; while everyone else waited for the dwarven fighter to exit on his own, Jhasspok took advantage of the delay to cut off a few thick strips of worm meat. He offered to cut a few extra strips for the others, but once again the silly mammals had very specific opinions about precisely which "meat" constituted "meat" and worm muscle apparently hadn't made the list. He just shook his head at their foolishness.</p><p></p><p>"You planning on coming out anytime soon?" Marlo called, wondering what was taking Khari so long. When there was no answer, she turned to Cramer. "I think he's in trouble in there!" she worried. Cramer just rolled his eyes, wondering exactly what kind a trouble a dwarven fighter could get into inside a dead worm. Succumb to acidic vapors? He begrudgingly started to climb up to the slain worm's mouth, trying to slip past its broken teeth to try to go find their missing dwarf when Khari popped his head back out. He held up a few shiny rocks. "I found some unrefined gemstones inside its innards!" he exclaimed, a proud expression on his face. Now it was Marlo's turn to shake her head in disbelief, for she couldn't imagine herself digging through a worm's intestinal tract to dig out some semiprecious stones, no matter what their inherent value might be. </p><p></p><p>The rest of that day was relatively uneventful, as was the next, and the one after that. Cramer's little legs soon got tired of all the walking, but Utred helped him out by occasionally letting him ride in the harness they'd constructed, where Cramer became just one more thing the burly dwarven barbarian wore on his back.</p><p></p><p>On the fifth day the group ran into their next living opponent. The tunnels Khari led them through had opened into a wide cavern bisected perpendicularly by a wide chasm that stretched from one end to the other. "We need to get across it," Khari informed the group.</p><p></p><p>Jhasspok looked at the width of the gap. "I can jump across it, easy," he stated, and started walking back the way he had come to give himself plenty of lead space in which to build up speed. Marlo, in the meantime, cast a <em>fly</em> spell on Utred from a scroll. "Stick the gnome in the harness and you can both get across," she suggested. That sounded like a fine idea to Cramer, who was always willing to let Utred do his traveling for him. Climbing onto the barbarian's shoulders and wriggling into the harness, Cramer held on tight as Utred started flying across the chasm.</p><p></p><p>And that's when he realized the chasm was much deeper than it had first appeared. While at first glance it had looked to be only about 10 feet deep, in reality it was much deeper than that - only all but the top 10 feet were filled with the amorphous body of an elder black pudding! As the dwarf and gnome flew over the chasm, an oily pseudopod darted up from the gap and struck the pair of them, burning the barbarian with its acidic touch.</p><p></p><p>Seeing their friends under attack, Khari approached the edge of the chasm and fired an arrow at the pudding with his <em>frost longbow</em>. The arrow was completely absorbed into the ooze's body, leaving only a slight patch of frost on its surface to show where the arrow had been swallowed up. Jhasspok started sprinting to the edge of the chasm, not to leap the gap as originally planned but to attack the fat tentacle thing engulfing Utred and Cramer. He launched himself into the air, swinging his battleaxe at the offending appendage, but by the time the lizardfolk had gotten there his friends had already escaped, courtesy of a <em>dimension door</em> spell the gnomish cleric cast upon the two of them. They ended back up at the cavern's entrance by Marlo, while Jhasspok found himself sinking into an enormous, sticky pool of acidic ooze. He had already sunk up to his knees when the black pudding sent a wave of its pliable body over the lizardfolk's head, engulfing him completely.</p><p></p><p>Marlo cast an <em>empowered scorching ray</em> spell at the enormous black pudding, burning off a few layers of its amorphous body. Utred grabbed up a bow and started shooting arrow after arrow into the pudding's body, each arrow sinking into the thing's mass to be wholly consumed. Khari followed Jhasspok's lead and leaped onto the thing's body, slamming at it with his warhammer as he sunk into it past the tops of his boots.</p><p></p><p>Having been impressed with the spell's efficacy in slaying the purple worm, Cramer cast a <em>destruction</em> spell at the elder black pudding. This time, the spell completely overwhelmed the ooze's physical structure and its entire body dissolved away to nothingness. Jhasspok and Khari, left behind, fell the rest of the way to the bottom of the chasm, although Khari avoided striking the bottom like Jhasspok did by activating his <em>earthglide warhammer</em>, sinking into the rock below and then altering course to pop back up at the top of the far side of the ledge. The outer scales had been burned from Jhasspok's body, leaving the layer beneath glistening wet and hardening in the Underdark air.</p><p></p><p>Utred still had the <em>fly</em> spell active, so he ferried everyone else over and the group continued their trek. </p><p></p><p>On the final day of their week-long journey, Khari eventually led them into a vast chamber, likely the very bottom of a deep chasm some hundreds of feet wide. "This is it," he said proudly, pointing to an odd stone structure just ahead, a roughly circular stone some 5 feet tall, upon which stood a smaller circle, also about 5 feet high. Growing atop these stacked circles were three stalagmites, pointing up at the unseen ceiling too far overhead for the dwarves to see even with their darkvision. "That structure leads to Brunniir," he said, knowing instinctively that the central stalagmite was the keyhole through which he could get the five of them to the Golden City.</p><p></p><p>The illumination from their <em>slave-light cloaks</em> flickered and dimmed as they approached the stone structure, causing a small amount of consternation to cross the faces of the heroes. Unbeknownst to them, this was the result of a bit of shadow energy seeping out from the <em>planar gate</em> just ahead. But Khari was too excited to finally reach their goal to worry overly about their illumination (and as a dwarf, he could rely upon his darkvision as needed), so he <em>earthglided</em> up the circular structure and examined the central stalagmite. Closing his eyes, he concentrated on visualizing the key into existence.</p><p></p><p>As a result, he missed the moment when the undead first appeared.</p><p></p><p>These particular undead had been hanging around the area since the moment, centuries ago, that Brunniir had first been shunted from the Material Plane to the Plane of Shadows. They were attracted by the slow leak of shadow energy that permeated from the <em>planar gate</em> and thus never strayed too far. The first undead to appear was a cloud of mist seemingly composed of hundreds of skulls. After having manifested into a partially-corporeal existence, it lashed out with its collective mind and sent a burst of psionic energy at the dwarf still on the cavern floor. Utred cried out in sudden pain from the <em>psychic crush</em> but gritted his way through the pain and avoided the horrendous damage the attack could do to those not properly shielded from it.</p><p></p><p>Jhasspok, spotting the sudden foe, leaped across the span between them in his loping gait and brought his battleaxe swinging into the misty pile of skulls. He managed to get lucky with his blade, catching the incorporeal menace at just the right time and the right angle to actually cut through some of its physical substance, causing a number of the skulls to howl out in pain. Other skulls snapped out at the lizardfolk in retaliation, their teeth catching the reptile's scales.</p><p></p><p>Then three wraiths rose up from the cavern floor, surrounding Marlo, Cramer, and Utred. They lashed out at the surprised heroes, their clawed hands passing through the physical bodies of human, gnome, and dwarf alike, to little real effect. However, Marlo shrieked in surprise at their sudden appearance and took a step back - just far enough away to cast an <em>empowered magic missile</em> spell at the closest wraith.</p><p></p><p>Then two more shadowy figures rose up from the ground behind Utred. One of the greater shadows struck the barbarian, draining him of a portion of his strength and fueling his rage. Utred spun in place and struck at the greater shadow with his greataxe, his blade passing through the creature's body but seeming to have affected it at least somewhat.</p><p></p><p>Cramer was surrounded by undead and had an opportunity to try to turn them away, but the blast that caller in darkness had used against Utred had the little gnome spooked. Realizing he was their only source of healing (besides a few potions the others might have on hand), he stepped away from the wraith attacking him and cast a <em>death ward</em> spell on himself from the relative safety of using Marlo as a human shield. Then, convinced he was no longer in danger from instant obliteration from whatever attack the cloud of misty skulls had used, he looked about to see how best he could attack the various undead plaguing his team.</p><p></p><p>Khari went charging back down from the stone platform, his <em>earthglide warhammer</em> swinging through the nearest shadow. But his weapon glided through the undead thing, all right - seemingly without any effect. How he hated incorporeal undead!</p><p></p><p>The caller in darkness floated away from Jhasspok and hit the lizardfolk with a <em>psychic crush</em> attack. Had the hulking reptile not been able to gut his way through the psionic attack, he'd have dropped instantly to the ground, bleeding out from an internal hemorrhage. But he shook his head to clear it and pressed forward with his attacks, once again taking a few bites for his efforts but luckily hitting the incorporeal cloud in just the right way to affect it with his weapon's blade and his own teeth.</p><p></p><p>Over in the other clump of combatants, the wraiths tried again with their incorporeal attacks, and this time the one attacking Marlo managed to siphon off some of her life energy; she felt a distinct coldness pass through her body, leaving her vitality drained. She backed off again and hit another wraith with an <em>empowered magic missile</em> spell, knowing the force energy had no chance of missing and would affect even an incorporeal foe. The shadows concentrated their attacks on the two dwarves, and Khari felt a coldness penetrate his body as a portion of the strength in his limbs was drained away.</p><p></p><p>Utred's greataxe finally took out the first of the greater shadows and he cleaved the blade into the other one. Cramer scooted out from behind Marlo and positioned himself in the middle of the clump of wraiths and shadows, casting a <em>mass cure serious wounds</em> spell that sent healing energy into everyone but Jhasspok and the caller in darkness. Those heroes with physical wounds were healed up, while their undead foes were eaten away by the positive energy emanating from the gnome cleric. The blast was enough to slay one of the wraiths outright.</p><p></p><p>Khari continued swinging his warhammer at the undead figures, frustrated beyond belief that it seemed to pass through them harmlessly - what was he doing wrong? Jhasspok at least seemed to be doing damage against his foe with his battleaxe, but the dwarf suspected the lizardfolk would not be able to explain what it was he was doing differently to have such an effect. Odds are, it was simply good luck on the part of the lizardfolk and bad luck on his own part.</p><p></p><p>The caller in darkness floated away from Jhasspok again and this time tried a different tactic. Eschewing its <em>psionic crush</em> attack which had been completely ineffectual thus far against these mortal foes, it sent a <em>death urge</em> directly into the lizardfolk's primitive mind. Raging at the circumstances, the lizardfolk brought his battleaxe up over his head for a powerful swing - and then brought it crashing into his own thigh, slicing through scales, muscle, and flesh and cutting deep into the bone. It was as if a simple switch had been activated in Jhasspok's head, redirecting his rage and hatred away from the cloudy mass of insubstantial skulls and into himself. He staggered from his self-inflicted wound, falling to the floor as he tried to pull the axe-head from his leg so he could attack himself again.</p><p></p><p>The wraiths continued attacking Marlo and Utred, meeting up with little success. The sorceress cast another <em>empowered magic missile</em> at one of the wraiths, not wanting to try a more powerful spell that could easily have no effect upon the incorporeal foe. Khari cried out as the remaining greater shadow further drained him of his strength; already the warhammer was feeling heavy in his hands and he knew with another couple of these attacks he'd no longer be able to lift its weight. Fortunately, before that could happen Utred slew the shadow, leaving no more creatures capable of such an attack still active on the battlefield.</p><p></p><p>Cramer moved closer to the downed Jhasspok and cast a <em>mass cure medium wounds</em> spell. The deep gash in Jhasspok's thigh sealed up and the surge of positive energy was enough to slay the caller in darkness and one of the last two remaining wraiths. Jhasspok was glad to see the floating skulls dissipate into nothingness, although he was somewhat disappointed he wasn't the one to have killed them; at least whatever temporary madness that had caused him to want to kill himself had passed. He limped up to a standing position and looked around for other foes to slay. There was just one remaining wraith, and while the dwarves swung at it with their weapons it was another spell from Cramer - a <em>cure critical wounds</em> he had to activate with a touch of his hand - that finished it off.</p><p></p><p>Jhasspok needed some additional healing before he could walk normally again (Utred kidded him that he'd seemingly taken the most damage all this past week from his own weapon), and then the group climbed up the stacked circular stones that Khari insisted led to Brunniir. Once again visualizing a key, the others gasped in astonishment when a glowing key <em>did</em> suddenly manifest in Khari's hand. He pushed the key - as incorporeal as the undead creatures they'd just defeated - into the stone of the central stalagmite and just like that, the five adventurers disappeared from the cavern.</p><p></p><p>Cramer looked about him in wonderment. There was no doubt about it: they now stood within the Golden City. "Ye made it!" cried out a hearty voice. Looking in the direction from which the voice had come, the group saw a group of dwarven guards approach them. "Then our message made it through! Come with us, we'll take ye to the Elders of the City!"</p><p></p><p>The Elders had quite a story to relay. While popular belief was that Brunniir had vanished to flee the imminent end of the world so at least they would survive the destruction of the planet, in fact they had moved the Golden City to the Plane of Shadow so they could hide it from the followers of the Dying One while they researched a way to prevent the Elder God's return and the subsequent end of the world Its return to the Material Plane would bring about. "Our greatest blacksmith was working on a weapon that could destroy the Writhing Gates that link the Dying One to the world," declared one of the Golden City's Elders. "Unfortunately, the besiegers of the city have used the instability of the Plane of Shadows to separate the workshop-vault where his work was stored from the rest of the city."</p><p></p><p>"Wait, they can do that?" asked Cramer incredulously.</p><p></p><p>"It was broken off like an iceberg calving," affirmed the Elder. "The city has been under constant attack since we brought it here to this plane, many centuries ago." Then he turned to Utred Butterflinger and looked him straight in the eye. "As the blacksmith's grandson, you should be able to open the vault. But first, you'll have to find your way to it, through a vast army of undead."</p><p></p><p>Utred blew out a breath. "Great," he said. "How soon do we begin?"</p><p></p><p> - - -</p><p></p><p>So this adventure was basically just a string of encounters - opportunities for Logan to throw some Underdark creatures at us because the timing was right. That was fine, as we all enjoyed the combats. Well...all, that is, up until that last one. Harry was getting pretty peeved that he didn't get to connect even once with any of the incorporeal undead - he rolled his d20s high enough to hit them, but then always lost the 50% miss chance when fighting incorporeal creatures with corporeal weapons. We had to point out to him that just by being there he was helping to "soak up" some attacks that, had they been focused on the rest of us, might have prevented us from winning the fight. I think his brain understood that, but his heart wanted to have inflicted even some damage on one of the wraiths or shadows. (And I can't really blame him, either - the Dice Gods are nothing if not fickle.)</p><p></p><p>And I really hated having to try to kill myself, even if it was only for one round. Stupid psionic creatures with their stupid psionic attacks! Oh, that reminds me: on that front, it looks like Logan has convinced Harry that it would be worth his while to have Khari take at least one level as a psychic warrior, since he has those free power points floating around from his bonus Wild Talent psionic feat. Apparently there's a psychic warrior power he'll be able to use three times a day that will add +2 to his weapon damage. So Khari will likely take a level of psychic warrior as soon as we hit 14th level (possibly as early as the end of the next adventure - we're pretty close), and then take fighter levels from that point on. I guess we'll see.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Richards, post: 8373981, member: 508"] [B]ADVENTURE 39: THE ROAD TO THE GOLDEN CITY[/B] PC Roster: [INDENT]Cramer Appleknocker, gnome cleric 13[/INDENT] [INDENT] Jhasspok, lizardman 3/barbarian 3/fighter 7[/INDENT] [INDENT] Khari Hammerslammer, dwarf fighter 13[/INDENT] [INDENT] Marlo Pendragon, human sorcerer 13[/INDENT] [INDENT] Utred "Buckets" Butterflinger, dwarf barbarian 13[/INDENT] Game Session Date: 11 August 2021 - - - "We all know how to get to Brunniir," argued Cramer Appleknocker. "We've seen it, in the distance, when we crossed through the Path of Shadows." "Can't go that way," insisted Khari Hammerslammer, crossing his arms across his chest and putting on his most stubborn expression. "Brunniir is under siege by all kinds of incorporeal undead - we'd never make it through them all." "I can turn them," argued the gnome, holding up his holy symbol of Fharlanghn, God of Travel. "Not that many, you can't," answered Khari. "Nobody could. We'd need an army of clerics." "I assume you have another way to get us there, then?" suggested Marlo, seeing a similar look of stubbornness crossing Cramer's face. More than anything else, she wanted to prevent the two from planting themselves into their respective beliefs and refusing to budge. "What did the visions tell you?" This was a subtle reminder to Cramer that Khari had information none of the others currently possessed, put there decades ago and psionically locked away in the dwarf's head. "We do our traveling on the Material Plane, through the Underdark tunnels, to get to where Brunniir [i]used[/i] to sit. [I]Then[/I] we transition to the Plane of Shadows, where the Golden City now resides." Jhasspok was confused. "I thought we wanted to go to Brunniir, not the Golden City," he said, reptilian brows furrowed. "Hush, Jhasspok," chided Marlo. "Brunniir [I]is[/I] the Golden City." "That'll takes weeks!" argued Cramer. "My way's quicker." "Your way gets us all killed." Cramer looked over to the others. Utred hadn't said a word but he walked over and stood beside his fellow dwarf, his burly arms crossed and his scowling face showing he too could be as stubborn as any other member of his hard-headed race. Jhasspok stood beside his two melee partners and, belatedly seeing they were both crossing their arms, did so himself. (Apparently it was now a thing they did. Good to know.) Marlo, ever the peacemaker, offered up, "If his way is safer in the long run, and the psionic message was sent to him by someone from Brunniir - or who at least knows more about Brunniir than we do at present - it makes sense that--" "Okay, fine!" surrendered Cramer, seeing there was no way he was going to win this argument against such a united front. "Fine! But we'll need to stock up on provisions if we're going to be traipsing around through Underdark tunnels for a week." There were plenty of provisions to be had in the drow surface city of Greenvale; while Marlo and Cramer saw about supplying enough food for the five of them (and Jhasspok stocked up on his favorite dried insect snacks, which he was sure the others would overlook if he left the provisions entirely in their hands), Utred made sure there was likewise an ample supply of ale for the trip. Then, fully provisioned and ready to go, Khari led the party the long way through the Underdark tunnels, following the fleeting images flashing through his head. The first day was uneventful. When it came time to make camp, Marlo cast a [I]rope trick[/I] spell, got everyone into its extradimensional space, and then pulled up the rope behind her. Just that easy, they had a safe place to spend the night without even needing to set out guards in shifts. It was on the second day of travel they encountered their first danger. Walking along an Underdark tunnel, the dwarves were the first to notice the vibrations coming through their feet. "Something's burrowing beneath us," Utred said. "Something big," added Khari. "Feels like it's heading our way," Utred said, readying his greataxe to strike at anything that might pop its head up and try to eat them. Khari held his [I]earthglide warhammer[/I] at the ready as well and Jhasspok held his battleaxe in preparation for combat. Marlo cast an [I]invisibility[/I] spell and used her boots to [I]levitate[/I] nearly to the tunnel's ceiling. Cramer cast a [I]shield of faith[/I] spell upon himself. Mentally, Utred ran through several possibilities of what might be headed their way: bulette, thoqqua, delver.... "Purple worm!" cried out Khari as the stone wall beside him exploded outwards in a hail of rock shards and shrapnel. He sent his warhammer crashing into the creature's armored head, but that only focused the great worm's attention on him as its first potential target. Its massive maw opened and a circle of sharp teeth engulfed the dwarven fighter, pulling Khari deep into the creature's mouth. Utred dashed forward, striking at the side of the worm's head with his greataxe, while Jhasspok raced across the space between them, leaping over Utred to land on the creature's head and bring his own axe-blade digging deep into the worm's armored flesh. Inside the creature's mouth, Khari decided against trying to scramble his way back out of the huge maw, deciding he could deal just as much damage to the beast inside it as well as outside it. He let fly with his warhammer, cracking a few teeth at the root. If the fool thing was going to try to swallow him down, he'd make it pay for every inch he was dragged down its gullet! From her position up by the tunnel's ceiling, Marlo suddenly popped back into view as she cast an [I]empowered scorching ray[/I] spell at the massive worm. Not wanting to hit Jhasspok, who stood balanced upon its head, she aimed her streams of fire further back down the creature's length, where it first exited the hole it had burrowed through the side of the tunnel wall. And then Cramer followed suit with one of his most powerful spells, [I]destruction[/I]. The purple worm struggled under the effects of the gnome's spell, and while it managed to avoid complete disintegration the spell's energies were enough to slay the beast entirely. "You okay in there?" Marlo called out to Khari, wishing she'd had time to cast a [I]Rary's telepathic bond[/I] spell before combat had begun. Khari's response was muffled, not surprising given he was a good deal down the dead worm's gullet. "I'm okay!" he called back. Then there was no further response for some time; while everyone else waited for the dwarven fighter to exit on his own, Jhasspok took advantage of the delay to cut off a few thick strips of worm meat. He offered to cut a few extra strips for the others, but once again the silly mammals had very specific opinions about precisely which "meat" constituted "meat" and worm muscle apparently hadn't made the list. He just shook his head at their foolishness. "You planning on coming out anytime soon?" Marlo called, wondering what was taking Khari so long. When there was no answer, she turned to Cramer. "I think he's in trouble in there!" she worried. Cramer just rolled his eyes, wondering exactly what kind a trouble a dwarven fighter could get into inside a dead worm. Succumb to acidic vapors? He begrudgingly started to climb up to the slain worm's mouth, trying to slip past its broken teeth to try to go find their missing dwarf when Khari popped his head back out. He held up a few shiny rocks. "I found some unrefined gemstones inside its innards!" he exclaimed, a proud expression on his face. Now it was Marlo's turn to shake her head in disbelief, for she couldn't imagine herself digging through a worm's intestinal tract to dig out some semiprecious stones, no matter what their inherent value might be. The rest of that day was relatively uneventful, as was the next, and the one after that. Cramer's little legs soon got tired of all the walking, but Utred helped him out by occasionally letting him ride in the harness they'd constructed, where Cramer became just one more thing the burly dwarven barbarian wore on his back. On the fifth day the group ran into their next living opponent. The tunnels Khari led them through had opened into a wide cavern bisected perpendicularly by a wide chasm that stretched from one end to the other. "We need to get across it," Khari informed the group. Jhasspok looked at the width of the gap. "I can jump across it, easy," he stated, and started walking back the way he had come to give himself plenty of lead space in which to build up speed. Marlo, in the meantime, cast a [I]fly[/I] spell on Utred from a scroll. "Stick the gnome in the harness and you can both get across," she suggested. That sounded like a fine idea to Cramer, who was always willing to let Utred do his traveling for him. Climbing onto the barbarian's shoulders and wriggling into the harness, Cramer held on tight as Utred started flying across the chasm. And that's when he realized the chasm was much deeper than it had first appeared. While at first glance it had looked to be only about 10 feet deep, in reality it was much deeper than that - only all but the top 10 feet were filled with the amorphous body of an elder black pudding! As the dwarf and gnome flew over the chasm, an oily pseudopod darted up from the gap and struck the pair of them, burning the barbarian with its acidic touch. Seeing their friends under attack, Khari approached the edge of the chasm and fired an arrow at the pudding with his [I]frost longbow[/I]. The arrow was completely absorbed into the ooze's body, leaving only a slight patch of frost on its surface to show where the arrow had been swallowed up. Jhasspok started sprinting to the edge of the chasm, not to leap the gap as originally planned but to attack the fat tentacle thing engulfing Utred and Cramer. He launched himself into the air, swinging his battleaxe at the offending appendage, but by the time the lizardfolk had gotten there his friends had already escaped, courtesy of a [I]dimension door[/I] spell the gnomish cleric cast upon the two of them. They ended back up at the cavern's entrance by Marlo, while Jhasspok found himself sinking into an enormous, sticky pool of acidic ooze. He had already sunk up to his knees when the black pudding sent a wave of its pliable body over the lizardfolk's head, engulfing him completely. Marlo cast an [I]empowered scorching ray[/I] spell at the enormous black pudding, burning off a few layers of its amorphous body. Utred grabbed up a bow and started shooting arrow after arrow into the pudding's body, each arrow sinking into the thing's mass to be wholly consumed. Khari followed Jhasspok's lead and leaped onto the thing's body, slamming at it with his warhammer as he sunk into it past the tops of his boots. Having been impressed with the spell's efficacy in slaying the purple worm, Cramer cast a [I]destruction[/I] spell at the elder black pudding. This time, the spell completely overwhelmed the ooze's physical structure and its entire body dissolved away to nothingness. Jhasspok and Khari, left behind, fell the rest of the way to the bottom of the chasm, although Khari avoided striking the bottom like Jhasspok did by activating his [I]earthglide warhammer[/I], sinking into the rock below and then altering course to pop back up at the top of the far side of the ledge. The outer scales had been burned from Jhasspok's body, leaving the layer beneath glistening wet and hardening in the Underdark air. Utred still had the [I]fly[/I] spell active, so he ferried everyone else over and the group continued their trek. On the final day of their week-long journey, Khari eventually led them into a vast chamber, likely the very bottom of a deep chasm some hundreds of feet wide. "This is it," he said proudly, pointing to an odd stone structure just ahead, a roughly circular stone some 5 feet tall, upon which stood a smaller circle, also about 5 feet high. Growing atop these stacked circles were three stalagmites, pointing up at the unseen ceiling too far overhead for the dwarves to see even with their darkvision. "That structure leads to Brunniir," he said, knowing instinctively that the central stalagmite was the keyhole through which he could get the five of them to the Golden City. The illumination from their [I]slave-light cloaks[/I] flickered and dimmed as they approached the stone structure, causing a small amount of consternation to cross the faces of the heroes. Unbeknownst to them, this was the result of a bit of shadow energy seeping out from the [I]planar gate[/I] just ahead. But Khari was too excited to finally reach their goal to worry overly about their illumination (and as a dwarf, he could rely upon his darkvision as needed), so he [I]earthglided[/I] up the circular structure and examined the central stalagmite. Closing his eyes, he concentrated on visualizing the key into existence. As a result, he missed the moment when the undead first appeared. These particular undead had been hanging around the area since the moment, centuries ago, that Brunniir had first been shunted from the Material Plane to the Plane of Shadows. They were attracted by the slow leak of shadow energy that permeated from the [I]planar gate[/I] and thus never strayed too far. The first undead to appear was a cloud of mist seemingly composed of hundreds of skulls. After having manifested into a partially-corporeal existence, it lashed out with its collective mind and sent a burst of psionic energy at the dwarf still on the cavern floor. Utred cried out in sudden pain from the [I]psychic crush[/I] but gritted his way through the pain and avoided the horrendous damage the attack could do to those not properly shielded from it. Jhasspok, spotting the sudden foe, leaped across the span between them in his loping gait and brought his battleaxe swinging into the misty pile of skulls. He managed to get lucky with his blade, catching the incorporeal menace at just the right time and the right angle to actually cut through some of its physical substance, causing a number of the skulls to howl out in pain. Other skulls snapped out at the lizardfolk in retaliation, their teeth catching the reptile's scales. Then three wraiths rose up from the cavern floor, surrounding Marlo, Cramer, and Utred. They lashed out at the surprised heroes, their clawed hands passing through the physical bodies of human, gnome, and dwarf alike, to little real effect. However, Marlo shrieked in surprise at their sudden appearance and took a step back - just far enough away to cast an [I]empowered magic missile[/I] spell at the closest wraith. Then two more shadowy figures rose up from the ground behind Utred. One of the greater shadows struck the barbarian, draining him of a portion of his strength and fueling his rage. Utred spun in place and struck at the greater shadow with his greataxe, his blade passing through the creature's body but seeming to have affected it at least somewhat. Cramer was surrounded by undead and had an opportunity to try to turn them away, but the blast that caller in darkness had used against Utred had the little gnome spooked. Realizing he was their only source of healing (besides a few potions the others might have on hand), he stepped away from the wraith attacking him and cast a [I]death ward[/I] spell on himself from the relative safety of using Marlo as a human shield. Then, convinced he was no longer in danger from instant obliteration from whatever attack the cloud of misty skulls had used, he looked about to see how best he could attack the various undead plaguing his team. Khari went charging back down from the stone platform, his [I]earthglide warhammer[/I] swinging through the nearest shadow. But his weapon glided through the undead thing, all right - seemingly without any effect. How he hated incorporeal undead! The caller in darkness floated away from Jhasspok and hit the lizardfolk with a [I]psychic crush[/I] attack. Had the hulking reptile not been able to gut his way through the psionic attack, he'd have dropped instantly to the ground, bleeding out from an internal hemorrhage. But he shook his head to clear it and pressed forward with his attacks, once again taking a few bites for his efforts but luckily hitting the incorporeal cloud in just the right way to affect it with his weapon's blade and his own teeth. Over in the other clump of combatants, the wraiths tried again with their incorporeal attacks, and this time the one attacking Marlo managed to siphon off some of her life energy; she felt a distinct coldness pass through her body, leaving her vitality drained. She backed off again and hit another wraith with an [I]empowered magic missile[/I] spell, knowing the force energy had no chance of missing and would affect even an incorporeal foe. The shadows concentrated their attacks on the two dwarves, and Khari felt a coldness penetrate his body as a portion of the strength in his limbs was drained away. Utred's greataxe finally took out the first of the greater shadows and he cleaved the blade into the other one. Cramer scooted out from behind Marlo and positioned himself in the middle of the clump of wraiths and shadows, casting a [I]mass cure serious wounds[/I] spell that sent healing energy into everyone but Jhasspok and the caller in darkness. Those heroes with physical wounds were healed up, while their undead foes were eaten away by the positive energy emanating from the gnome cleric. The blast was enough to slay one of the wraiths outright. Khari continued swinging his warhammer at the undead figures, frustrated beyond belief that it seemed to pass through them harmlessly - what was he doing wrong? Jhasspok at least seemed to be doing damage against his foe with his battleaxe, but the dwarf suspected the lizardfolk would not be able to explain what it was he was doing differently to have such an effect. Odds are, it was simply good luck on the part of the lizardfolk and bad luck on his own part. The caller in darkness floated away from Jhasspok again and this time tried a different tactic. Eschewing its [I]psionic crush[/I] attack which had been completely ineffectual thus far against these mortal foes, it sent a [I]death urge[/I] directly into the lizardfolk's primitive mind. Raging at the circumstances, the lizardfolk brought his battleaxe up over his head for a powerful swing - and then brought it crashing into his own thigh, slicing through scales, muscle, and flesh and cutting deep into the bone. It was as if a simple switch had been activated in Jhasspok's head, redirecting his rage and hatred away from the cloudy mass of insubstantial skulls and into himself. He staggered from his self-inflicted wound, falling to the floor as he tried to pull the axe-head from his leg so he could attack himself again. The wraiths continued attacking Marlo and Utred, meeting up with little success. The sorceress cast another [I]empowered magic missile[/I] at one of the wraiths, not wanting to try a more powerful spell that could easily have no effect upon the incorporeal foe. Khari cried out as the remaining greater shadow further drained him of his strength; already the warhammer was feeling heavy in his hands and he knew with another couple of these attacks he'd no longer be able to lift its weight. Fortunately, before that could happen Utred slew the shadow, leaving no more creatures capable of such an attack still active on the battlefield. Cramer moved closer to the downed Jhasspok and cast a [I]mass cure medium wounds[/I] spell. The deep gash in Jhasspok's thigh sealed up and the surge of positive energy was enough to slay the caller in darkness and one of the last two remaining wraiths. Jhasspok was glad to see the floating skulls dissipate into nothingness, although he was somewhat disappointed he wasn't the one to have killed them; at least whatever temporary madness that had caused him to want to kill himself had passed. He limped up to a standing position and looked around for other foes to slay. There was just one remaining wraith, and while the dwarves swung at it with their weapons it was another spell from Cramer - a [I]cure critical wounds[/I] he had to activate with a touch of his hand - that finished it off. Jhasspok needed some additional healing before he could walk normally again (Utred kidded him that he'd seemingly taken the most damage all this past week from his own weapon), and then the group climbed up the stacked circular stones that Khari insisted led to Brunniir. Once again visualizing a key, the others gasped in astonishment when a glowing key [I]did[/I] suddenly manifest in Khari's hand. He pushed the key - as incorporeal as the undead creatures they'd just defeated - into the stone of the central stalagmite and just like that, the five adventurers disappeared from the cavern. Cramer looked about him in wonderment. There was no doubt about it: they now stood within the Golden City. "Ye made it!" cried out a hearty voice. Looking in the direction from which the voice had come, the group saw a group of dwarven guards approach them. "Then our message made it through! Come with us, we'll take ye to the Elders of the City!" The Elders had quite a story to relay. While popular belief was that Brunniir had vanished to flee the imminent end of the world so at least they would survive the destruction of the planet, in fact they had moved the Golden City to the Plane of Shadow so they could hide it from the followers of the Dying One while they researched a way to prevent the Elder God's return and the subsequent end of the world Its return to the Material Plane would bring about. "Our greatest blacksmith was working on a weapon that could destroy the Writhing Gates that link the Dying One to the world," declared one of the Golden City's Elders. "Unfortunately, the besiegers of the city have used the instability of the Plane of Shadows to separate the workshop-vault where his work was stored from the rest of the city." "Wait, they can do that?" asked Cramer incredulously. "It was broken off like an iceberg calving," affirmed the Elder. "The city has been under constant attack since we brought it here to this plane, many centuries ago." Then he turned to Utred Butterflinger and looked him straight in the eye. "As the blacksmith's grandson, you should be able to open the vault. But first, you'll have to find your way to it, through a vast army of undead." Utred blew out a breath. "Great," he said. "How soon do we begin?" - - - So this adventure was basically just a string of encounters - opportunities for Logan to throw some Underdark creatures at us because the timing was right. That was fine, as we all enjoyed the combats. Well...all, that is, up until that last one. Harry was getting pretty peeved that he didn't get to connect even once with any of the incorporeal undead - he rolled his d20s high enough to hit them, but then always lost the 50% miss chance when fighting incorporeal creatures with corporeal weapons. We had to point out to him that just by being there he was helping to "soak up" some attacks that, had they been focused on the rest of us, might have prevented us from winning the fight. I think his brain understood that, but his heart wanted to have inflicted even some damage on one of the wraiths or shadows. (And I can't really blame him, either - the Dice Gods are nothing if not fickle.) And I really hated having to try to kill myself, even if it was only for one round. Stupid psionic creatures with their stupid psionic attacks! Oh, that reminds me: on that front, it looks like Logan has convinced Harry that it would be worth his while to have Khari take at least one level as a psychic warrior, since he has those free power points floating around from his bonus Wild Talent psionic feat. Apparently there's a psychic warrior power he'll be able to use three times a day that will add +2 to his weapon damage. So Khari will likely take a level of psychic warrior as soon as we hit 14th level (possibly as early as the end of the next adventure - we're pretty close), and then take fighter levels from that point on. I guess we'll see. [/QUOTE]
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