The Adventures of Baabby and Sam - a Skylanders Campaign

Richards · Feb 11, 2017

This is going to be an altogether different campaign that anything I - or my son Logan, who will be DMing - have ever attempted.

Some background: my wife's nephew, Harry, has lived with us since he was a mere two and a half months old. He's now 10 years old and in the 4th grade. I ran a 9-year D&D 3.5 campaign (link: Wing Three Story Hour) for Logan and the family of one of my co-workers, and when that ended we started up our current campaign (link: Kordovian Adventurers Guild Story Hour). The first campaign was specifically designed to introduce my co-worker's 8-year-old son to D&D, and somewhere around year 6 of that campaign we added in my co-worker's youngest son, who by then had turned 8 years old himself. I always figured once Harry turned 8 (or thereabouts), he'd join our gaming group as well.

Things didn't turn out that way. Despite frequent invitations, Harry has always opted to stay home when Logan and I would head over to my co-worker's house for a D&D game session. Part of his refusal is because most times when Logan and I would go off to play (generally from noon to 5-6 PM on a Saturday), he and my wife Mary would go on what he calls a "date" - generally, a trip to the toy/electronic store and a lunch out at a local steak place. Mary would often pick him up a new Skylanders figure as part of their "date" and then he'd be content for the rest of the day, playing with his new character in the games.

(For those unfamiliar with Skylanders, it's a series of video games that comes with a portal that holds a number of these Skylanders figures - put the figure on the portal and the corresponding character shows up in the game for you to run. It's a brilliant concept, guaranteeing the company a near endless stream of money since they come out not only with a new edition of the game every year but also dozens of new characters for purchase. You don't need all of the characters to be able to play the game, but the more you have the more options you have in the game.)

Anyway, Harry's been a Skylanders fanatic since the first edition, "Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure," came out in 2011. (This was followed by "Skylanders Giants," "Skylanders Swap Force," "Skylanders Trap Team," "Skylanders Superchargers," and last year's "Skylanders Imaginators.") How big of a fan, you ask? Not only does he have all of the editions and a goodly chunk of the available characters, but he also has Skylanders bed sheets, blankets, and curtains in his room, a half dozen Skylanders stuffed animals, all of the McDonald's Happy Meal Skylanders tie-in toys, three or four Skylanders T-shirts, a Skylanders backpack, half a dozen Skylanders novels...and two separate Skylanders board games that we created ourselves. (Our original board game was based on the first edition of the video game and then we created "Giants" and "Swap Force" additions to the game as they came out. "Trap Team" was sufficiently different that it warranted a new board game.)

But Logan and I realized that Skylanders was an opportunity to introduce Harry to D&D. Not that we're trying to force him into playing D&D with us, but it's a pastime that's provided Logan and I (and Logan's older brother, Stuart) years of entertainment and we hate to see him miss out if it's something he'd like to do with us. Up until now, I think he's seen D&D pretty much as just a much-slower, tabletop version of World of Warcraft. But when we mentioned that the DM creates whatever kind of game world he wants, and Harry questioned whether "Skylanders D&D" was possible and was told it certainly was, he vowed to give it a try. We decided, since I've been the DM for our D&D campaigns for the past decade and more, this would be a perfect opportunity for Logan to try his hand at DMing a campaign. (Plus, Logan occasionally plays Skylanders video games with Harry and thus is much better versed in the history of the game world - I only know what little I know about the Skylanders universe from what I've gleamed from the novels I've read to Harry at bedtime.)

So last week I gave him a verbal rundown of the D&D character classes. He decided he wanted to be a barbarian (specifically, a "baabarian - which is apparently a thing in the Skylanders universe: a tough, humanoid sheep with a penchant for two-handed melee weapons), but he also wanted to be able to cast healing spells. So there was our first campaign decision: I had heard of gestalt character rules, so I did some research on the SRD site and got the gist of how gestalt PCs work. When we tried to come up with an appropriate name for his barbarian/cleric sheep-man, Harry came up with "Baabby" (pronounced just like "Bobby") which I, an inveterate pun-lover, couldn't help but love.

Since I'd be the only other player in this game, I decided I'd let Harry pick out my two character classes for me - I have every intention of being the mere sidekick in our little duo. He wanted me to be able to shoot a bow and open locked and trapped treasure chests, so I ended up with a gestalt ranger/rogue. For a race, I decided I'd be something other than a humanoid sheep (no sense in diluting Baabby's originality), and since "baabarians" are usually bad guys but Harry was going to run a good one (we decided on chaotic good), I opted to take another "bad guy" character from Skylanders and run him as a good guy. There are two enemies in Skylanders that are humanoid crows: Cross Crow (who uses a crossbow) and Tae Kwan Crow (a martial artist enemy from an earlier edition who's since become a good guy in the latest game); I decided I'd be Cross Crow's cousin, Sam Crow. (Pun explanation for those who aren't followers of the "Sons of Anarchy" TV show: SAMCRO stands for "Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club Redwood Original" - Redwood being the fictional California county where most of the series took place.) As an added pun, I decided Sam was a former member of a bow-hunters club, the "Sons of Archery."

So, now we have our two gestalt characters. I did up initiative cards for Baabby and Sam (for Sam, I just used a picture of Cross Crow; for Baabby I grafted a Skylanders sheep head onto the body of Ookla the Mok from the old "Thundarr the Barbarian" cartoon), as well as for a bunch of low-level Skylanders enemies: chompies, a chompy pod, flame imps, and eight different elemental spell punks. Likewise, I made a stand-up token for the two PCs and a bunch of the low-level monsters. Logan's going to be designing the first adventure, which we'll run through either tomorrow or sometime next weekend.

So if Harry has a good time playing "Skylanders D&D," this will be a recurring thing for us. Since these Skylanders adventures will be designed to be short (we're thinking about an hour and a half, tops), it shouldn't be too difficult to run a Skylanders adventure on the weekends that we don't get to play through a Kordovian adventure. Conversely, if Harry isn't impressed with tabletop gaming, we'll have given it our best shot and I'll feel better knowing he at least gave it a try.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Richards · Feb 19, 2017

ADVENTURE 1: THE CHOMPY MINES

PC Roster:

Baabby, humanoid sheep barbarian/cleric (life) 1
Sam Crow, humanoid crow ranger/rogue 1

Game Session Date: 18 February 2017

- - -

Baabby was a tall humanoid sheep, even taller than normal for those of his kind. And unlike the rest of the "baabarians" he had hung around with for most of his life in the flock, he was afflicted with both a deep-hearted sense of inherent goodness and an insatiable curiosity about what was out there in the wider world. When the opportunity came to strike out on his own, he did so - without a single look back.

Sam Crow was somewhat typical for his kind: short, with a deeply ingrained desire to keep himself from physical harm whenever possible. Once word had gotten out that the infamous villain Cross Crow - a respected figure among those with less-than-respectable natures themselves, and a celebrity to whom Sam had claimed on many occasions to everyone within earshot to be closely related - was coming to town, Sam realized it was time for him to skedaddle before his false claims caught up with him. He hastily left the Sons of Archery to go hang around somewhere he - and his lies - had never been heard of before.

When the two bumped into each other on the road they each sensed a kindred spirit and opted to travel together. This is the story of their adventures.

- - -

"Help!" cried a voice from the nearby forest.

"Baabby -- someone needs help!" offered up Sam. "You know what that means: there's danger nearby! Come on -- let's head in the opposite direction!" Baabby's only response was to race toward the cries for assistance, hefty greataxe in hand. Cursing quietly to himself (and realizing if there was danger about, he was much safer near the hulking baabarian), Sam Crow reluctantly followed.

"Help! Somebody help us!" continued the cries. As the two mismatched adventurers approached, they saw it was a small group of Mabu miners. The Mabu were the predominant species in these parts of the Skylands: shorter than even Sam Crow, they had bearlike features and were generally so dang cuddly-looking you just wanted to snuggle up to one.

"Whaat's the problem?" asked Baabby.

"There are chompies in our mines!" explained the head Mabu. "They're attacking anybody who goes near!"

"Chompies?" repeated Sam Crow. "C'mon, Baabby: LET"S GET OUT OF HERE!"

"Hold on," advised Baabby, grabbing Sam by the shoulder before he could run off. "These people need our help."

Sam Crow let out a breath of exasperation. "Fine!" he griped. He hadn't known the baabarian for long, but he knew how stubborn Baabby could be once he set his mind to something. The miners pointed the way towards their mine, and Baabby headed there with a grumbling Sam in tow.

Just before the mine entrance, there was a clearing in the forest. Sure enough, roaming around the clearing were eight chompies: squat, mobile plant creatures with a wide mouth filled with thorn-teeth and two eyestalks jutting above their rotund head-bodies. Since the adventurers had made no attempt to move silently through the forest, the five nearest were aware of the duo as soon as they entered the grove. Turning to face them, they instinctively made the "chomping" gestures with their mouths as they approached, waddling on their stumpy legs.

Baabby stepped forward and held his greataxe at the ready. As soon as the first chompy stepped into range, he swung a mighty blow. Judging from the leafy material exploding outwards in all directions, it rather looked like someone had taken a weed-whacker to a head of lettuce.

"Pffft!" scoffed Sam, rolling his eyes at how easily these chompies could be taken down. He sighted an arrow at the next in line. "I got this one!" he called out confidently - before he sent the arrow whizzing right between the creature's eyestalks without even touching it. It would have been a spectacular shot had that been what the crow had been trying to do - instead of having tried to shoot it smack-dab in its squat little body. "Awwww!" he cried desolately.

Of the four chompies from the original group of five that had approached, three moved forward to attack the adventuring duo, neither of them quite managing to bite their targets. The fourth, however, did an about-face and waddled back away from Baabby and Sam as fast as its stumpy legs would take it. "Ha!" cried Sam. "Look at that, Baabby -- you've got it so scared it's running away!" But the crow's cocky smile turned sour when he saw the chompy hadn't been running away after all; rather, it was grabbing reinforcements. The three other chompies back by the mine entrance, alerted to enemies by its friend, spun back to the threat and all four raced back into battle.

Baabby swung his greataxe and practically exploded another chompy, while Sam once again managed to almost hit another chompy. This one returned the favor, but was much more successful with its attack. "Aaaagh--I'm being chewed!" complained Sam Crow as the chompy gnawed on the humanoid crow with its thorn-teeth. "Help me, Baabby!" Baabby, dealing with another chompy on his own, was unable to help. Forced to fight his own battle, Sam Crow pulled the short sword from the scabbard at his hip and stabbed at the chompy trying to eat him. He skewered it like a shish-ka-bob and cried out in glee. Then, seeing the second wave of chompies approaching, Sam Crow ran to a nearby rock and scampered up it, hoping to be able to shoot down at the little plant monsters from a higher point of safety.

Baabby finished off his third chompy and headed over toward the rock Sam was perched upon. The last four chompies split up, two heading for the baabarian and two veering off to Sam's rock. The two snapped at Baabby, but the nimble baabarian easily avoided their bites. Up on the rock, Sam Crow switched back to his shortbow, thinking this was going to be like shooting fish in a barrel -- before sending an arrow thunking down straight into the ground. The chompies, in turn, started leaping up as high as they could, their snapping jaws clamping down on the frazzled crow. "Hey, stop it!" cried Sam. "You're chompies, not jumpies! No fair!"

Baabby likewise took a few hits from the two chompies he was fighting, their thorn-teeth sinking deep into his flesh with each successful bite. But while their bites definitely hurt - even drawing blood - Baabby's greataxe could do a lot more damage than their thorny teeth could. Each time, it was a single blow from his greataxe that took out a chompy. After dealing with his two, he headed over to Sam's rock perch - the crow hadn't managed to hit either of the two chompies he'd been fighting, not even once - and helped his partner by slicing up the plant monsters with his blade. Once Baabby had taken care of those last two, Sam Crow climbed down from his perch. "Good job," he said to the baabarian.

Looking around, there were no other chompies about, so Baabby took the time to cast a few healing spells. Holding onto the Life Amulet he wore around his neck, he channeled healing energy into a massive hand and applied it to the wounds the two adventurers had sustained. In each case, the wounds healed over, until the pair was as good as new. "Sweet!" cried Sam Crow, heading to the mine entrance. "Let's go in! Uh, you first, though," he amended.

Baabby strode confidently through the mine entrance, Sam Crow just behind him. Turning a corner, they saw four more chompies approaching. "Aw, no, not more of them!" complained Sam, shooting at one and actually hitting him on the first try for once. Baabby didn't waste any time with words, merely stepping up to one, killing it with one blow, and then killing another with the return swing of his greataxe. Sam Crow's beak gaped open; here he had been so proud of downing a chompy with a single arrow, and then that hulking brute had to go show him up like that! It just wasn't fair! Sam sulked even harder when Baabby calmly stepped up to the last remaining chompy and took it out after it had had only one chance to snap its thorns at him.

There were a few crates just up ahead. Sam Crow gave them the once-over, eager to prove his usefulness by checking the containers for traps. Finding nothing in the way of traps, he announced they were safe and Baabby stared opening them. Most contained mining tools - picks, shovels, and the like - but they also found four potions of cure light wounds, which Sam quickly grabbed up. Then, with a look of much deliberation, he passed two of them over to the humanoid sheep. "Here," he said.

"These aren't ours," pointed out Baabby.

"True," admitted Sam. "But I'm sure the miners won't mind if we take them for now. We'll only use them if we need them. And if we don't need them, we can always give them back." Seeing the logic, Baabby shook his shaggy head and put his two potions in containers on his belt where he could get to them quickly as needed, while Sam Crow did likewise, silently pleading desperately with fate for the miners to let them keep them.

"Look: traacks!" said Baabby, pointing down at the floor of the mine. Sam was surprised the baabarian would be able to find any tracks in the stone floor of the mine - and he definitely didn't want to see whatever monster was big enough to leave discernable tracks in solid stone! - but then he saw what Baabby was talking about. A pair of railroad tracks led deeper into the mine, no doubt put there so the miners could use carts to haul away the rock they dug out. Following the tracks, the duo found they split off and went in two different directions: and that two more chompies were rapidly (for them) approaching from each direction!

"I'll take the two straight ahead!" said Sam Crow, lining up an arrow at one of the chompies coming from directly in front of him. It was a snap decision based on several factors, the main ones being that the two chompies straight ahead were much farther away than the pair off to the right, who could get to the crow much quicker. Better to let Baabby deal with them!

And deal with them is exactly what Baabby did. With two swings of his greataxe, he had two dead chompies at his feet. Sam managed to take out one of his own designated foes with one arrow shot, leaving only one chompy left alive of the four who had approached just seconds ago. Baabby stepped forward to go deal with it, making himself the chompy's primarily target - which suited Sam Crow just fine.

Baabby almost casually dispatched the chompy, then turned the corner and saw a new threat: it was a plant creature somewhat like an oversized chompy, only without the chompy's eyestalks, thorns, or stumpy feet. It had a ring of leaves around it and a maw that gaped open at the top. As Baabby - and Sam, who had moved up closer to his friend now that it was safe - watched in amazement, its maw opened up and disgorged another chompy, which immediately sprang into action, biting at Baabby. The hulking baabarian killed it with a single stroke of his axe, while Sam heard the sounds of another chompy approaching from behind them, around the corner in the other direction the tracks took.

"There's more chompies coming behind us!" warned the crow. "Do you want me to go take care of them, or should I help you with that thing?"

"You go take care of them," advised Baabby. "I got this one." Dutifully, Sam went back to the other track and saw a single chompy headed toward him. He lined up his shot, let fly with his arrow - and missed yet again. The crow snarled in frustration, grateful at least that his powerful friend hadn't seen him botch the shot. Baabby, however, was too busy to worry about such things. He was carving up the chompy pod, trying to cut it down before it could belch forth any more chompies. He didn't kill it until after it had disgorged one more chompy, but then he managed to slay them both, taking some damage from the chompy's bite before he killed it. Then, seeing the chompy pod had been placed at a dead end in the mine, he followed the way Sam Crow had gone, in case his crow companion needed any help.

Not surprisingly, Baabby's crow companion did need some help. Sam had shot at the chompy again, and missed, again, and now the chompy was busy trying to chew its way through the crow's body. Sam had been forced to forego his bow attacks and try to fight the thing off with his short sword. He finally managed to do so, just as Baabby stormed past him to see what other menaces might be present down this section of mine. As the sheep trudged down the mine, he saw a familiar shape: another chompy pod, this one currently in the process of spitting forth yet another chompy. Baabby cut the chompy in two on his way to the chompy pod, and as Sam Crow approached, he saw another figure even further down the mineshaft. This one was about the same size as a chompy, but it hovered just above the ground and was wearing a hooded robe. Fortunately, his back was turned and his attention was focused on something in front of him, so he didn't yet seem to know about the intruding adventurers.

Sam Crow made a quick assessment of the distances involved and opted to shoot at the chompy pod as he approached the figure further on. For a change, he hit on the first try, but then the chompy pod was easily four times as big as his hulking friend Baabby - and thus a lot harder to miss. Baabby stepped up to the chompy pod and swung down at the plant with his greataxe, chopping a whole section of it off.

And then, as the wounded chompy pod made shrieking cries of pain, the robed figure spun around. Sam saw two beady, glowing eyes shining from beneath the figure's hood, as its hands suddenly glowed with green energy. Thrusting its hands forward, it sent a green ball of energy blasting down the mineshaft - and striking the back of the chompy pod.

"What?" asked Sam Crow, confused at the enemy's seeming attack on what the crow had assumed was one of his allies. But then, as the chompy pod's body glowed with green energy and the chunk of its body that Baabby had just chopped off began growing back, Sam figured out what was going on. "Hey, no fair! He's healing the chompy pod!" he cried.

True enough, the chompy pod was now stronger than it had been just a few seconds ago, when Baabby had chopped a good chunk of it off. But no matter: what the baabarian had done once, he could do again! And Baabby continued to do just that, swinging his mighty axe and cutting the chompy pod to ribbons.

Sam Crow, meanwhile, focused all of his archery skills - for he was skilled, even if his success rate in combat thus far was less on the "impressive" end of the scale and more towards the "embarrassing" end - and sent an arrow flying at the floating mage, whose Life symbol on the front of his robe identified it as a Life spell punk. Sam's arrow hit the spell punk, and it once again caused two glowing orbs of green energy to form around its hands, then coalesce into a larger one. It sent this shooting down the mineshaft, but as by this time Baabby had already slain the second chompy pod, neither adventurer was sure of what it was meant to do. They'd never find out, for if it had been aimed at Baabby, it missed. Sam Crow shot another arrow at the spell punk, and this one brought him down.

The mineshaft behind where the spell punk had fallen was another dead end, and as this covered the entirety of the mine thus far, the two adventurers congratulated themselves on a job well done. But while Sam Crow was taking time to literally pat himself on the back, Baabby walked up to the dead end tunnel and peered inquisitively at the far wall.

"What's up?" asked Sam Crow.

"Look at this," Baabby replied. Sticking out of the wall was the hilt of a sword - a rather large sword, judging by the size of the hilt. "Let me see," advised Sam stepping on tippy-toes to get a better look at the sword hilt projecting from the wall. "It doesn't look like it's trapped," he commented. "I wonder how it got stuck in here?"

Baabby strapped his greataxe back in place on his broad back and stepped up to the back wall. Then, grabbing the imbedded sword by its hilt, he gave a mighty tug - and the sword came effortlessly gliding out of the stone wall.

"Whoa, look at it!" said Sam Crow in admiration. It was a massive greatsword, obviously well-forged, with ancient-looking carvings cut entirely through the center of the sword's blade: eight in all. The crow easily identified one of the "negative space" carvings as an older version of the Life symbol that Baabby wore on the amulet around his neck. With a little squinting and some imagination, he could make out older versions of the symbols of the other seven elements: air, earth, fire, magic, tech, undead, and water.

"This is a very powerful weapon!" declared Sam Crow. "It's going to need somebody with a lot of strength to wield it. Therefore, it should obviously go to me!"

Baabby just looked down at his companion with an "are you crazy?" expression on his face.

"Ah, I'm only kidding!" admitted Sam Crow. "The silly thing probably weighs more than I do! C'mon, let's go tell those Mabu miners we took care of their chompy problem for them!"

The Mabu were as grateful for the adventurers' help as the humanoid crow could have hoped for - and then some. Not only did they let the duo keep the healing potions they'd found among the crates, they also handed over a bag of 500 gold coins apiece to them.

"Whoa, thanks!" said Sam Crow wholeheartedly. Maybe there was something to this hero business after all! But if he was going to continue to be successful at it, it would probably be a good idea to stick close to his new hulking baabarian friend.

- - -

Best news first: this was fun for all involved! Logan had a blast coming up with the adventure and really enjoyed his first DMing session. (He's proven over the years he has an even better grasp of the 3.5 rules than I do, so I knew he'd do a good job on that front.) He opted to use some of my Paizo game maps for the battlemats for this adventure: one side of the "Giant Lairs" flip-maps for the area just outside the mine, and five of the smaller map sections from the GameMastery "Mines" map pack for the mine's interior.

For my part, this was the first time I got to be a player instead of the DM in literally years. Not that I'm complaining, mind you - I love DMing, but it was nice getting to be on the other side for a change.

And Harry, as Logan and I had hoped, had a blast! It probably didn't hurt that his very first attack roll with his very first set of dice was a natural "20" confirmed as a critical hit with a greataxe, dealing a combined total of 40 points of damage. (Logan, quite wisely I thought, decreed that chompies are "crittable" despite being creatures of the plant type; after all, we weren't shooting for an accurate-to-the-nth-degree 3.5 rules set, but a fun time for a 10-year-old.) As Logan had designed the chompies - which can only take one hit in the Skylanders videogames - as creatures with 2 hp each, it's no wonder the chompy practically exploded. Harry thought that was hilarious, yet found my own complete miss with my own first attack to be even funnier. But he's already gotten a pretty good grasp of the rules, knowing the difference between the different polyhedral dice and when you use which. We had him do all the math for the damage, so it's reinforcing his math skills, and he already figured out that there's no point in using Power Attack against the chompies, whereas with the chompy pods (and their extremely low AC, due to their immobility) it's a definite boon. And boy, was Cleave ever a good choice for his second feat! (We're using the "human" racial bonuses for our humanoid animal PCs, so we each started with two feats.) He managed to kill two chompies in one round at least twice in this adventure.

And talk about role-playing! Harry created a "Baabby" voice for his character, and continued to use that voice for the whole session, whether he was actually being in character or simply asking questions of the DM. "Whaaat do I see around the corner?" he'd ask Logan, even though in-game Baabby wasn't actually saying a word. I guess he's an immersion actor!

In any case, we had a good time with this, and Harry's informed us he's ready for more adventures. Next Saturday we have a Kordovian game session scheduled so we told him we might have to wait two weeks, but Harry reminded us that just because we'll be playing a Kordovian adventure on Saturday doesn't mean we can't have a Skylanders adventure on Sunday. So we're leaving it up to how soon Logan can have another adventure ready to go.

Richards · Feb 28, 2017

ADVENTURE 2: TROLL PIRATE RAID

PC Roster:

Baabby, humanoid sheep barbarian/cleric (life) 1
Sam Crow, humanoid crow ranger/rogue 1

Game Session Date: 26 February 2017

- - -

It was the following day that a trio of Mabu invited Baabby and Sam to a celebration of their successful defeat of the chompies infesting the nearby mine. "A celebration? For me?" Sam enthused. "This is awesome! Oh, uh, and I guess it's for you too, Baabby -- you kind of helped." The baabarian just frowned down at his little crow friend and Sam quickly decided to change the subject.

"So, how much further is the town we're headed to?" he asked one of the Mabu escorting them to their celebration.

"It's just over this next hill," replied the Mabu as they crested the very same hill. "Hmm," he added. "That's weird."

"Whaat's weird?" asked Baabby in his sheepish drawl.

"That airship's not usually there." Looking down at the town, the group could see an airship hovering just over the middle of the town square, 30 feet above a fountain. As they looked, there were flashes of reddish light coming from between some of the buildings.

"Come on!" cried Baabby, gripping his new magic greatsword as he - once again - raced straight into potential danger.

"Are you sure about this?" argued Sam Crow as he struggled to keep up. Behind the duo, their three Mabu escorts tried their best to catch up on their stumpy little legs. As they approached the town, they could see two troll archers on the rooftops of the buildings and another four on the ground. From their vantage point they couldn't see who was on the airship, but Sam was willing to bet they were more trolls.

"Baabby -- trolls!" he warned his companion. "LET"S GET OUT OF HERE!"

"These people need our help!" Baabby countered, running up to the nearest troll. He was armed with a massive monkey wrench and used it to swing at the baabarian, but Baabby ducked his blow and hit him with his greatsword, knocking him over. Sam, in the meantime, saw the troll on the nearest rooftop doing something with his shortbow, that ended up with something long and red at the end of his arrow. Not wanting to wait to see what this weird weapon would do, Sam took aim with his own shortbow and shot the rooftop troll. He got him - on his first attempt, too! - and the troll toppled off the roof to the ground below. His weapon made a little explosion before it fell to the ground with its wielder.

Suddenly, both Baabby and Sam were standing in circles of red light. "Whaat's this?" Baabby asked.

"Who knows?" replied Sam. "But let's not stay here long enough to find out!" They ran closer to the town square and the fountain, only to be intercepted by two more trolls with monkey wrenches. Baabby took one down with another swing of his greatsword, but then got beaned on the head with the other troll's wrench. The baabarian actually saw birds flying around his head as he staggered under the blow.

Sam, in the meantime, had lined up another shot at the other rooftop troll. He was all the way across the square on the other side of the fountain, but Sam thought he could get him. As it turned out, he was wrong - although he did a simply spectacular job at striking the roof just below the troll's feet.

The troll fighting Baabby got in another lucky shot, and the baabarian gave a bleating cry of pain as he fell over, unconscious. Seeing his massive friend downed by a troll - a troll, of all things! - infuriated the young crow. He'd had a hard time with trolls all his life: one particular troll used to always steal young Sam's lunch money. The crow raced across the street, leaped over his unconscious friend, and grabbed up a potion from the baabarian's belt. Unpopping the cork, he poured the contents down Baabby's throat, and the baabarian sat up, healed from the worst of the damage.

"Hey!" he said to his friend. "Why'd you use one of my potions?"

"No time to worry about such things!" insisted Sam. "Worry about him instead!" And he pointed at the troll whose monkey wrench had knocked the hulking warrior into unconsciousness in the first place, who was grinning an evil grin and advancing upon the two - but upon Baabby first, for the crafty crow had ensured he had his bulky friend between him and the troll when he administered the healing potion. Baabby quickly jumped to his feet and readied his greatsword for the attack that was coming. As the troll advanced, eager to repeat his head-bonking success, Baabby struck out at him with the blade of his weapon. It would have been an awesome blow, had it hit - but the baabarian made an uncharacteristic swing and a miss.

A sudden explosion caught both adventurers off guard. The rooftop troll had shot at them with an arrow that had a stick of dynamite at its end, and it had hit both of them in its blast radius. Then, almost immediately, red light shone down from above. Finding themselves standing in red circles once again, the two dashed off in different directions. Baabby merely stepped to the side and attacked the troll with his sword again, and missed again. (The recent blow to his head must have messed up his reflexes or something.) Sam, meanwhile, ran to the side of the fountain, where he could at least put the hovering airship between him and whatever it was that was targeting them from the sky with red circles of light. That gave the crow another shot at the archer troll on the rooftop. Another shot, and another miss! But he was still glad they had moved, for the spots they had each just vacated suddenly got blasted from some unseen foe above them.

"We gotta stay away from those circles!" suggested Sam, shooting another arrow at the rooftop troll and missing yet again.

Baabby made a dash to the fountain, ending up underneath the hovering airship next to his archer friend. The troll followed suit, swinging with his wrench and clonking Baabby on the side of the head another time. Reeling with pain, Baabby cut down the irritating troll with his sword, and just in time, too, for he was getting woozy from the blows. He had just enough time to cast a healing spell upon himself before passing out. Fortunately, the cascading fountain was between him and the rooftop troll, so that enemy couldn't fire at the humanoid sheep.

"You got this guy?" Baabby asked his little partner.

"Yeah, yeah, I got him," agreed Sam irritably, angry at himself for not having gotten him yet.

"Then I'm going to go check in there," said Baabby, pointing to a nearby building. He wasn't sure who or what might be in it, but these trolls had to be here for some reason. Dashing across the street, he yanked open the door of the building and stepped inside, safe from the airborne enemy targeting them with red circles and, once he closed the door behind him, from the rooftop archer as well. But the building was empty of people; it was a simple one-room cottage whose owner was apparently away.

Sam Crow finally got off a lucky shot and hit the second rooftop troll archer, and his body plummeted over the side of the rooftop and onto the ground just below. Baabby raced out of the cottage and past Sam, down the road a bit and swung open the double doors of the next building in line. There were four inhabitants in this building: two Mabu and two trolls. One of the trolls was menacing the frightened Mabu, who hunkered in the corner and whined fitfully. The other troll tore apart the room, as if looking for something. Fortunately, neither troll had noticed Baabby opening the doors.

Sam ran up to his friend, peered inside the building, and fired a shot at the troll doing the exploring. Baabby then leaped into the room and took out the other troll with his greatsword.

"Oh, thank you, thank you!" offered the frightened Mabu.

"Whaat were the trolls doing here?" asked Baabby. "Whaat were they looking for?"

"They-- they said they were looking for the Museum of Mystical Mysteries," replied one frightened Mabu. "We tried to tell them that there was no such place that we knew of, but they didn't believe us!"

"I've never heard of such a place," admitted Sam.

"Oh, it exists," replied the Mabu. "Or at least it used to. But nobody's seen it for years, not since the mysterious fog covered up the Forest of Despair!"

"I don't like the sound of that," said Sam to himself.

"Is this museum in the Forest of Despair?" asked Baabby.

"Well, it was," admitted the Mabu.

"So why didn't you just tell the trolls that, so they'd leave you alone?" asked Sam.

"I didn't like them. They were very rude." Having gotten all of the information they were likely to get from the two Mabu, Baabby and Sam moved on to the next building. On the way, Sam stopped at the fallen archer troll's body to check out the weapon. It was a strange-looking shortbow, with all kinds of mechanical contraptions grafted onto it and the words "DYNABOW 2.0" stamped into the metal just above where you gripped it. Looking it over, the curious crow figured out how it worked: if you flipped a switch here and held it steady, it would enhance the tip of an arrow already ready to fire with the equivalent of a stick of dynamite. Grabbing up the weapon for himself, Sam ran to catch up with Baabby, who had just swung open the doors to the next building, the largest of those ringing the fountain at the town's center. A sign by the door announced that it was the Mayor's office.

Inside were four trolls menacing a distinguished-looking Mabu - as evidenced by his top hat and fancy suspenders. Sam shot at one troll, taking him down. Baabby rushed in and got another with his sword, leaving two. These were armed with monkey wrenches, and they stepped up to wallop the duo. One got in a blow that sent Sam Crow crashing to the floor, unconscious, leaving Baabby facing two-to-one odds. The baabarian knew if they managed to knock him out as well, the Mabu in the town would have nobody left to defend them.

"We're looking for the Museum of Mystical Mysteries," snarled one of the trolls. "Tell us where it is, or we'll take care of you as well!"

Baabby thought fast. "I don't know where it is," he said. But then, pointing down at Sam's unconscious form, he added, "But he does."

The trolls thought it over. "Okay, wake him up," they allowed. Baabby grabbed a healing potion from Sam's belt and poured it down the crow's beak. Sam sat up, groggy. "What's going on?" he asked. Then, realizing how he'd been revived, he added, "Hey! Why'd you use one of my potions?"

Baabby ignored the second question entirely. "They want you to lead them to the museum," he said, giving his partner a wink after making sure neither of the trolls would be able to see him do it.

"O-o-o-o-oh, the museum," said Sam, getting to his feet. "Okay, follow me!" And he rushed out the door, spun around, and put an arrow in his Dynabow 2.0, ready to send an arrow flying straight into the face of the first troll to pop his head out of the door.

"This way, guys!" said Baabby helpfully, following Sam out the door and turning in the opposite direction. He got ready to swipe at the second troll to pop his head out of the door.

The heroes' plan worked just as they had hoped. Sam shot the first troll to step outside of the Mayor's office, and Baabby took care of the second a few seconds later. Then they both ran back into the Mayor's office, since they'd each gathered a red circle from above while they had been standing there.

"Here," said the distinguished-looking Mabu, who turned out to be the town mayor. He passed over two healing potions to Sam Crow. "You look like you could use these."

"Thanks!" said Sam, taking the two and downing one of them on the spot. "Ah, that's good stuff!" he declared, wiping a wing across his beak. Baabby walked over and accepted the other healing potion, drinking it down as well.

"So these trolls are looking for a Museum?" asked Baabby.

"Yes, that's right," affirmed the Mayor. "The Museum of Mystical Mysteries, over in the Forest of Despair."

"So why are they tearing apart your town?" asked Sam.

"I gather they're looking for a map," replied the Mayor. "Or anything else they can use."

"Do you have anything we can use to get up to that airship?" asked Sam. "I betcha that's where the leader of this little troll raid is at."

"Why, yes, I believe we still have a bounce pad in storage at the General Store."

"And that would be...?" prompted Sam.

"The next building over." The Mayor then explained the building beyond the General Store was the tavern, and another building to the south was a potion shop.

"We should go find that bounce pad in the General Store," suggested Baabby.

"Yeah, we should," agreed Sam. "...But let's go check out the tavern first."

"Why?"

"I just like taverns!" exclaimed Sam. "Let's go!" They raced down the street, being targeted by red circles during their run but avoiding the subsequent explosions. Baabby opened the door to the tavern, exposing one troll about to go into a back room and another one up at the bar, standing before two frightened Mabu bartenders. "I got this one," announced Sam, sending an arrow into the troll drinker's back, which sent him - and, sadly, his drink - crashing to the floor. Baabby raced after the other troll, following him into a back bedroom, where the troll was quickly dispatched with the baabarian's greatsword. The grateful Mabu bartenders gave each of the heroes a quick bite of restorative food and a favorite local drink, and then the duo was on its way once again, this time backtracking to the General Store.

"I don't like these red circles!" announced Sam irritably as they were once again targeted from unseen forces high above them. He squinted up into the sky above the airship, but accidentally stared straight into the sun and had to squeeze his eyes shut. Baabby had in the meantime opened the door to the store, revealing another quartet of trolls: two wrench-wielders and two archers. The sheep-man raced into the melee with his greatsword swinging, cutting down a wrench-wielder before he could bonk Baabby on the noggin. Sam cleared his vision quick enough to shoot one of the archers, then hurriedly stepped into the crowded store and closed the door behind him. A small explosion erupted in the space right outside the door where he had just stood.

The crowded store worked to Baabby's advantage; he managed to bring one troll down and then cleave the other in a continuation of his first swing. Then, after a quick search, the baabarian found the bounce pad in a back storeroom.

Sam had heard of such devices: they were basically small trampolines engineered to send a jumper to a certain height. Voting that Baabby drag it with him - "Because you're much stronger!" assured the crow - Sam ran back outside, with his baabarian companion lugging the bounce pad under one arm. He plopped it next to the fountain, aligned just to the side of the hovering airship.

"Do you want to go first?" offered Sam Crow.

"No," answered Baabby. "After you, Sam."

Crestfallen, Sam took a running start and jumped onto the bounce pad. It sent him flying 30 feet into the air, to land on the deck of the airship. I hope there aren't a lot of enemies up there! Sam had thought on his way up. By the time he had landed, he saw that you don't always get what you wish for - and this was definitely one of those times!

Sam stood surrounded by four trolls on the deck with him...and was standing in the middle of a red circle of light, he saw with a bit of worry. Fortunately, the two archers were facing the front of the ship and thus hadn't seen him. Unfortunately, the two wrench-wielders standing just before the two sets of stairs leading up to the back deck of the airship were also facing the front, and could see him just fine. And so could an even larger, fiercer-looking troll on the back deck, standing before the vessel's steering wheel with a technology-enhanced staff in one hand. Assuming this larger, fiercer troll was either the ship's captain or at least the helmsman, and if Sam took him out it might be a major disappointment to the rest of the trolls on board, he fired off an arrow with his new Dynabow 2.0. Since he hadn't had time to charge it with explosives, this was just a regular arrow. It launched from the bow...dashed across the deck...and hit the fierce-looking troll on the side of the face.

Which ripped half of his face off.

Which then fell to the ground with a plop.

"Hey!" exclaimed one of the archer trolls, spinning around at the commotion. "You're not a troll!"

"Um, yes I am!" argued Sam Crow, desperately trying to bluff his way out of the situation. "I'm a secret troll agent, disguised as a crow, so I can...uh...infiltrate the town, see, and...."

"Not you," interrupted the troll. "Him!"

Sam turned to see where the troll was pointing, and found himself looking at the troll captain, or troll helmsman, or whatever the guy behind the steering wheel was called. Only now he could see the guy was no troll at all. Sam's arrow had dislodged a rubber mask he had been wearing, which had ripped in half and fallen to the deck. Abandoning the rest of his disguise, the captain/helmsman/whatever dropped his phony techno-staff, flung off the full-length coat he'd been wearing, revealing himself as...

"...A tech spell punk!" cried the surprised troll crew members.

"Yes!" exclaimed Sam, as Baabby landed on the deck near where he'd first landed, after making his own jump onto the bounce pad. "An impostor! This is an outrage to troll dignity! Even to us trolls disguised as crows...and sheep!" he hastily appended. "Let's get him!" And then he stepped to the side, allowing the troll wrench-wielders to attack the tech spell punk who had tricked them into thinking he was their troll boss.

The tech spell punk raised a pointed claw in the air, and an explosion of energy shot up into the air and then struck the red circle where Sam had stood. As this was on board the airship, this caused a chunk of ship to go missing and fall to the ground below. The ship shuddered and began sinking lower in the air above the fountain. Sam shot another arrow at the spell punk, and this one finished off what the first arrow had started. The spell punk fell to the deck of the ship, dead.

"Um, I hope one of you guys can fly this thing," Baabby said. One of the trolls dropped his monkey wrench and grabbed the wheel, trying to steer the damaged vessel. "Let's get out of here!" said Sam, and for once Baabby agreed. One at a time, they each jumped off the airship, landing safely on the bounce pad and stepping off to the ground by the fountain. The airship lumbered by overhead, passing by the buildings and heading over a grove of trees, where it was lost to view.

"I don't think they're going to be able to get it flying right in time," said Baabby - mere seconds before the sound of a loud CRUNCH! proved him absolutely correct.

"Well, that should be that," said Sam Crow proudly, slapping his wings together.

"We're not done yet," replied Baabby.

"We're not?"

"No, we have to put the bounce pad baack where we got it from," answered Baabby. Sam let out a sigh of exasperation, but helped his friend bring the bounce pad back to the storeroom of the General Store where they had found it.

"I guess our saving-the-mine celebration party's been canceled due to this troll pirate raid," sighed Sam disconsolately.

"On the contrary," bellowed the Mayor, stepping out of his office and into the street by the duo. "Now we have two reasons to celebrate!" And he handed over two large bags of gold coins to the heroes who had saved his town from the troll pirates. "Let's head over to the tavern -- they have the cake ready for the celebration!"

"All right!" said Sam Crow. "Being a hero is awesome!"

"I like cake," agreed Baabby.

- - -

This adventure used Paizo's "Town Square" flip-map as well as a two-piece airship map from its "Armada" Map Pack. And as a result of having gone through this adventure, both Baabby and Sam advanced to 2nd level after it was finished.

Harry didn't roll quite as hot with his dice this time around - he rolled an "8" three times in a row while attacking trolls, which with his +4 to hit in melee combat was just one number short of hitting them! But he didn't let it ruin his experience, and the fact that he got a natural "20" at least once helped matters along that front.

Thinking ahead, Harry's already surmised that there's likely to be a magic spell punk in charge of looking for the Museum of Mystical Mysteries, which makes logical sense to me. Logan's already informed us that the next two adventures he has planned will be called "The Forest of Despair" and "The Museum of Mystical Mysteries," so we'll find out for ourselves before too long.

Richards · Mar 11, 2017

ADVENTURE 3: THE FOREST OF DESPAIR

PC Roster:

Baabby, humanoid sheep barbarian/cleric (life) 2
Sam Crow, humanoid crow ranger/rogue 2

Game Session Date: 4 March 2017

- - -

"That was a great party!" said Sam enthusiastically. Baabby just nodded his agreement and kept walking at his brisk pace, forcing Sam to almost run to keep up. "Wasn't that a great party, Baabby?" Sam insisted. "The cake, the balloons, the genuine appreciation of an entire town...I could get to like being a hero!"

"It was a great paarty," Baabby conceded, still headed in a beeline for the forest up ahead.

"Um, hey, look at that mist ahead," said Sam, finally getting his head out of the clouds and noticing where his noble sheep-man partner had been leading them unerringly.

"They said there was mist in the Forest of Despair," Baabby reminded his little crow partner. "It's been there for years, remember?"

"Yeah, yeah, I remember. I just thought, you know, maybe we could wait for a bit before we do something as foolish as willingly go into a forest called the Forest of Despair. Couldn't we, maybe, go visit the Forest of Really Friendly Bunnies? Or the Forest of Rainbows and Puppies and Cute Little Kitties..." Seeing the expression on Baabby's face, Sam gave up his attempts at humor. "Okay," he agreed. "The Forest of Despair it is."

The mist was so thick the two heroes could only see about 30 feet ahead of them. There was a natural pathway through the trees, and as usual, Sam let Baabby take the lead. The baabarian trudged through the forest, stepping over logs and ducking beneath low-hanging tree limbs, his magic greatsword held in readiness. He didn't have long to wait before putting his sword to good use, for popping up behind a log were what looked to be two long finger-bones - with black, blinking eyes at the end of each!

"Wh-what?" asked Sam, hardly believing his eyes. Then the creature stood up and the heroes got a good look at it. It had a stocky, round body with white, bony projections covering its torso like a pair of ribs worn on the outside. What had first looked like giant finger-bones proved to be long eyestalks, and the majority of the creature's torso opened up into a gaping maw with long, thorny spines for teeth.

"It's a chompy!" cried Sam. "Let's get 'im!" Sam knew from personal experience that these chompies were real pushovers.

Baabby stepped forward and swung his blade at the odd-looking chompy. Surprisingly, the creature ducked under the blade and it passed harmlessly over the chompy's eyestalks.

"Ha! You missed!" chuckled Sam, drawing his bow and taking aim at the little black-and-white chompy. He let fly with the arrow...and it, too, sailed over the chompy's head. "Hey!" groused Sam. "No fair!"

In return, the bone chompy jumped up and snapped its bony thorn-teeth at Baabby. Then another bone chompy stepped forward from the mist. This one also approached Baabby, who had stepped the furthest into the Forest of Despair. However, despite the heroes' initial failures, Baabby soon returned to form. He swung again at the bone chompy that had tried to bite him, cutting through its body and continuing on into the body of the other one. The second chompy cried out in pain - for the first time, the heroes were facing a chompy they had failed to slay with one strike. Attracted by the cries of the wounded bone chompy, two more such creatures stepped out of the mist.

Sam, however, had noticed something odd about the fog: it was thicker, and darker, in little strands that were interspersed throughout the all-encompassing mist. As an experiment, Sam pulled out a monkey wrench he'd taken from the body of a slain troll and poked at the dark strand of mist. When nothing happened, he reached out and dared to touch it with his bare hand - and felt a zap of life-draining energy absorb a small portion of his life force. "Hey!" he cried out in alarm.

Baabby took no notice of Sam's fog-poking experiments; he had bone chompies to slay! Faced with three such enemies, he managed to kill two of them on his own before Sam took notice and shot the other one with his bow. "Got one!" Sam called out.

"Got three," Baabby replied. "Let's check out the rest of the forest."

"If we must," grumbled Sam, but he moved ahead to check it out.

Up ahead a bit, Sam could make out two more bone chompies moving about on their stumpy little legs. He ducked back to tell Baabby what he'd seen, and together the two snuck forward. "I got this one!" said Sam, using his bow to shoot a bone chompy standing under a tree while Baabby ran up to attack the other with his greatsword. Both were quickly dispatched, but another two came forward out of the mist to take their place. Baabby stepped up to deal with one of the newcomers, when he noticed the ground under his feet was crunchy. Looking down, he saw he was standing in a pile of broken crystals. "That's weird," he said to himself, then devoted his attention to the battle at hand - which he won quite easily.

Sam shot at the last bone chompy with another arrow from his shortbow, but missed. The bone chompy raced up to the startled crow and bit him with his thorn-teeth. Sam responded with three words he'd been using a lot lately: "Help me, Baabby!" The baabarian ran over to his friend and killed the bone chompy that had been biting him. "Thanks!" said Sam. "Say, I have an idea: LET'S GET OUT OF HERE!"

"We need to check this place out," calmly replied Baabby. "Don't be so afraid all the time."

"I can't help it - I'm a crow!" replied Sam. "I don't usually admit this, but I'm actually part chicken, on my mother's side."

"Come over here and look at these crystals," said Baabby, ignoring Sam's discussion of his family tree.

Sam followed his friend over to the pile of shards, then bent down to examine them closely. "These are all smashed up and worthless!" he complained - he'd secretly been hoping the Forest of Despair had expensive diamonds just lying around for anyone to help themselves to. But no such luck.

Baabby looked at the pile of crystal shards. They were all aimed in the same direction. The baabarian looked over in that direction, but could see only the strange fog with those weird streaks of extra-darkness scattered throughout. Nevertheless, he strode over in that direction with Sam calling for him to wait for him. Whether or not he was really part chicken, he definitely did not want to be left alone in a creepy Forest of Despair!

As the two traveled to the southeast, they heard a strange whistling sound. "What's that?" asked Sam, looking around fearfully in all directions.

"I'm not sure," admitted Baabby.

"Wait a minute," said Sam, looking over at his burly friend. He cocked his head to the side, listening intently. "It's coming from you!" he accused.

"Me? I'm not whistling!"

"Maybe not -- but your sword is!" Holding his sword in front of him, Baabby could see that Sam was right: there was a wind blowing some of the fog into one of the holes of his sword - specifically, the one in the ancient symbol of the Undead element. As the fog swirled into the symbol-space, it made a whistling noise.

"This is weird," admitted Baabby.

The two continued on down the path they were following between the trees. Before long, they found a strange figure standing in front of a tall, clear crystal structure with smaller crystals jutting out of it in all directions - rather like a crystalline cactus. The dark strands of life-draining fog seemed to be seeping from the crystal. The figure in front of it gave off a terrible stench, like rotting meat. This wasn't too surprising, once the heroes got close enough to see that the figure was made of rotting meat himself.

"It's a Rotting Robbie!" exclaimed Baabby.

"What are you talking about?" demanded Sam Crow. "That's a zombie!"

"They're called Rotting Robbies," argued Baabby.

"What, they're all named Robbie?" demanded Sam. "That's just silly." The zombie - or Rotting Robbie, take your pick - made no notice of their argument, standing mostly motionless in place as if guarding the crystal cactus. Baabby strode up to it and cut at it with his greatsword, and that finally got it to respond: it slashed at the baabarian with its sharp claws.

Sam shot an arrow at it, and while it sunk into the undead creature's body down to the shaft, the zombie barely seemed to notice. Deciding that arrows didn't do it much damage but Baabby's greatsword certainly did, Sam grabbed the short sword from the scabbard at his belt and circled around to the side of the zombie. As Baabby and Sam got closer to the zombie while fighting it, they could see a round shape some ways behind it. This was an arched structure with a 20-foot circle of darkness in its center.

Again the zombie scratched at Baabby, but the baabarian dodged its clumsy attacks and struck at it with his greatsword, killing it. As the zombie fell lifelessly to the ground, Baabby and Sam inspected the crystal cactus-thing. It was standing on a circular bit of stone almost 20 feet in diameter; on closer examination, it was sticking through the stone circle, piercing it through the middle. Looking back from the pierced stone to the black circle in the upright stone platform, Sam guessed that the stone circle had been struck by the giant crystal when it was plugging up the black circle, and had been knocked to its present position.

"So where did the big crystal come from?" asked Baabby.

"I guess from...the sky?" speculated Sam.

"Do you think I should try breaking the crystal with my sword?" asked Baabby.

"If you want to," agreed Sam. "But hold on a minute!" He backed up a good 20 feet, just in case this wasn't a particularly good idea. Once he guessed he'd be out of the way of any blast zone, he gave his baabarian friend a thumbs up. "Go ahead!" he called.

Baabby swung his magic greatsword at the crystal cactus with all of his might, and upon touching it, it reverberated with a massive noise like the world's largest gong being struck by the world's largest gong-banger by the world's strongest man. The crystal shattered and the whistling wind turned into a veritable torrent, as the mists encompassing the Forest of Despair raced into Baabby's sword, completely filling up the Undead symbol carved into his blade.

"Whoa!" cried Sam.

"Wow!" cried Baabby.

"WHO TOOK ALL OF MY MISTS?" cried a horrid voice from somewhere north of the heroes.

Now that the forest was no longer covered in fog, the two heroes could see an armored warrior come stomping through the woods. He held a mighty war axe in his hands and a furious expression on his face. And that wasn't all about his face: judging from its ghastly yellow-green complexion and the way his skin was pulled tight onto his skull, this fellow was no more alive than had been Rotting Robbie.

"Go get him, Baabby!" suggested Sam, while staying exactly where he was himself. That wasn't just from fear, though - the crow was trying to remember how to work the explosive part of his Dynabow 2.0. He held down a switch with his thumb, and watched as the arrow already nocked and ready to be shot started magically being filled with explosive energy. "Oh yeah," the crow mumbled to himself, remembering how it worked.

Baabby stepped forward, then took a striking stance and waited for the armored guy to step within range. "NOBODY STEALS FROM BARON DESPAIR AND LIVES!" threatened the undead warrior. Sam gulped in fear a bit, but let his arrow fly. It struck Baron Despair and exploded. He staggered a little from the explosion, and Baabby took the opportunity to cut deep into his armor with his greatsword. Then he stepped back again, making the Baron -who, in his clunky armor, wasn't as fast as the baabarian - come to him.

Baron Despair did come to Baabby, but was struck by the sheep-man's sword before he could get in a strike of his own with his war axe. Sam circled to his left, setting himself up for a normal arrow-shot; he shot, but the arrow merely clinked off the warrior's thick, metal armor. Gulping in fear, the crow backed up to the edge of the trees - and saw a bunch of green lights, kind of like the glow of fireflies, glowing at him from among the trees.

Baron Despair stepped up to the frightened crow and swung his axe, causing Sam to cry out in pain. Baabby stepped forward to defend his friend, cutting down at the Baron with all of his might. His sword cut through the Baron's armor, into his shoulder, and halfway through his chest and back, causing the Baron to drop his own war axe. "YOU...DARE...?" began Baron Despair, but never got to finish his sentence, for he crashed to the ground, dead.

"Thanks, Baabby!" said Sam, glad to have been spared any further damage by the Baron's war axe. The baabarian took the opportunity to cast some healing spells, getting the heroes back closer to their full strength. They'd not only each taken damage from their enemies, but also from the life-sapping mist that had filled the Forest of Despair for the past couple of years. Sam was glad to see the end of the mist, and was intrigued by the Undead symbol now filled in on Baabby's new greatsword. "You know," he marveled, "if we can find a way to fill in all seven of the other symbols, you'll probably have the most powerful sword in all of Skylands!"

Before Baabby could answer, a horde of ghosts erupted from the trees - what Sam had thought were fireflies were actually the glowing eyes of the floating spirits. "GHOSTS!" cried Sam. "LET'S GET OUT OF HERE, BAABBY!"

"Thaaaaaank yoooou," moaned the ghosts. "Yooou haaaaaave freeeed usssss!"

Sam did an immediate about-face. "Oh!" he said. "Friendly ghosts! Yes, you're quite welcome! Baabby and me, we help people like you all the time! Heroes - that's us!"

"Freed you?' asked Baabby. "From who? Baron Despair?"

"Yessss," replied one of the ghosts - a figure with a hood and a long beard, Sam noticed; probably a wizard or a sage. "He waaas impriiiiisoned for yeeeears on the ooooother siiiiiide of the elemeeeeental gaaaate," said the ghost-wizard. "Wheeeeen the cryyyyystal smaaaaaashed throoooough the gaaate, heeeee waaaaaas releeeeeeased."

"So where will you go now?" asked Baabby.

"Baaaack to our hoooomes," replied the ghost-wizard, pointing to the elemental gate, the other side of which was an Undead village where the ghosts had lived before being trapped in the Forest of Despair. "But yoooou muuuuust huuuuuuurry, to the Museeeeeeum, befoooooore yooooour enemieeeeees geeeeet theeeeere!"

"Which way's the Museum?" asked Sam, hastily adding, "Just point, it'll be quicker." The ghost pointed north, as his fellow ghosts all started drifting through the black circle in the middle of the elemental gate. Now that the mists had been absorbed into Baabby's sword, the elemental gate was functioning normally once again.

A sudden shadow overtook Baabby and Sam. Looking up, they could see a battered-but-hastily-repaired airship floating over the tops of the trees. It was flying a little crooked, but the fact that it was flying at all was a concern, given that this was the troll pirate ship that had been looking for the Museum of Mystical Mysteries back in town. Now it was moving slowly over the adventurers, heading north, no doubt to the Museum.

"Let's go!" cried Baabby, grabbing up his greatsword and racing after the airship.

"But-- but we didn't get any treasure! Or congratulatory parties in our honor!" whined Sam. "At least back in town, they gave us cake!"

"Come on!" yelled Baabby, heading over a hill to the north. Sam reluctantly followed. "Stupid forest!" he complained to nobody in particular.

- - -

Next adventure, we'll apparently finally get to see this Museum of Mystical Mysteries for ourselves.

Some Skylanders backstory for those (who, like me) haven't spent any ranks in Knowledge (Skylanders): back in the "Skylanders: Trap Team" game (two games previous), Kaos - the main enemy in the game - blew up a prison made of "traptanium" to rescue the bad guys held within. The traptanium crystal shards went flying all throughout the Skylands, which are a bunch of floating islands, some the size of continents and others only as big as a rowboat. Logan took that pre-established "fact" of the video game universe and tied this adventure into it: the "crystal cactus" and the shards scattered in the Forest of Despair are all traptanium from the prison explosion.

Bone chompies exist in the Skylanders universe, and although chompies are plants, bone chompies are basically skeletal chompies, which makes no sense. Logan turned them into plants that absorbed a lot of undead energy and thus began growing bonelike fragments on their exteriors - which, in game, granted them a slightly better armor class and the damage reduction of a skeleton. Harry's enjoying these adventures because they allow him to run his own Skylanders character through the Skylanders universe; I'm enjoying watching Logan make design decisions to incorporate the square peg of the Skylanders universe into the round hole of the 3.5 D&D system. (And spending time with my son and my nephew is always a plus.)

Richards · Mar 13, 2017

ADVENTURE 4: THE MUSEUM OF MYSTICAL MYSTERIES

PC Roster:

Baabby, humanoid sheep barbarian/cleric (life) 2

Sam Crow, humanoid crow ranger/rogue 2

Game Session Date: 11 March 2017

- - -

"So," said Baabby. "This is the Museum of Mystical Mysteries."

"Yep," agreed Sam. "That's what the sign says, all right." The two had run helter-skelter through the forest, trying - and failing - to beat the troll airship to the part of the Forest of Despair holding the museum. The airship was listing to port on the ground off to the left of the museum building, with no signs of current inhabitation. The trolls must have beaten them here!

"Let's go in," said Baabby, opening the doors and stepping inside. Resigning himself to reluctant heroics, Sam followed his friend.

"Greetings," said a statue of a bearded man in a hooded robe at the far end of the entrance. He was standing between a pair of doors, with two other doors on the walls to his east and west. Furthermore, he looked somewhat familiar; it took Sam a moment to realize this 10-foot-tall statue was a representation of the ghost they'd just talked to in the forest.

"Welcome to the Museum of Mystical Mysteries. You are the seventh and eighth visitors since the museum's recent reopening," added the statue.

"Uh oh," said Sam. "You know what that means?"

"Whaat?" asked Baabby.

"It means there were six trolls ahead of us - and they're somewhere in the museum, right now! And you know what that means?"

"Whaat?" repeated Baabby.

"It means, LET'S GET OUT OF HERE!"

Baabby grabbed Sam by the scruff of his collar as he ran past. "We need to staay and fight," he admonished his little crow friend. Seeing that Sam wasn't going to flee after all, he turned to the statue and tried asking it questions: after all, if this was the Museum of Mystical Mysteries, there was a good chance that the statuary was actually interactive instead of just spouting out pre-programmed lines. "Who were the other six visitors before us?" the baarbarian asked the statue.

"They said they were maintenance workers, here to make sure everything was in working order here at the museum," replied the statue.

"Those lying weasels!" exclaimed Sam. "Where did they go?" he asked the statue.

"They split up and went to various parts of the museum."

"What parts are those?" asked Sam.

"To my left is the Picture Gallery," explained the statue. "Behind me is the Main Oddities Gallery, and to my right are the stairs leading up to the Rift-Weavers Display and the Hall of Crystal Statues."

"Okay," said Sam, making up his mind. "Let's each take a door on the side of the statue, since they're both leading the same way. When I say 'three,' we'll both open our doors and rush whatever's out there. Ready?"

"Ready," agreed Baabby, one hand on his doorknob and the other holding his magical greatsword.

"One, two, three!" called out Sam. Baabby immediately flung open his door and rushed to the hallway beyond, spotting two trolls nearby wielding monkey wrenches. Sam, in the meantime, had opted not to open his door until his much braver companion Baabby had scoped out the dangers for him. With his head to the closed door, Sam listened as Baabby rushed up to the nearest roll and then readied an attack. Not hearing any cries of distress from his friend, Sam decided it was safe enough and popped his head out of his own door, immediately spotting the two wrench-wielding trolls spinning around to deal with Baabby but also a third troll, this one an archer like himself, further down the hallway to the crow's right. Pulling an arrow to his Dynabow 2.0, Sam sent it flying down the hallway...to miss the troll archer completely. "Bummer!" cried Sam.

The nearest wrench-wielder rounded on Baabby, who had prepared for such an eventuality and swung his greatsword at the green-skinned foe. Unfortunately, Baabby's first attack was no more successful than Sam's had been. But the troll did just fine on his first attempt, bonking the sheep-man a good one on the top of his head with his oversized wrench. "Ow!" called out Baabby, as the second troll moved up to attack the baabarian as well and the troll archer sent an arrow that likewise missed Sam.

Baabby responded to the troll's successful attack with a successful attack of his own, cutting the troll down with one swing and then advancing towards the second wrench-wielder. Sam, in the meantime, shot the troll archer and brought him down with one arrow. Good, I'm tied with Baabby! he thought, before realizing that that record wouldn't hold true for long! Sure enough, the second troll came within reach of Baabby's sword only for it to practically cut right through him. His wrench fell to the ground with a clatter, which sent another troll, who had been exploring a side chamber, in to investigate. Baabby took care of him as well in no time flat, and then the two heroes went quietly through the ground level of the museum, looking for the other two trolls. They found nobody, but then heard a crash of breaking glass coming from upstairs.

"This way!" called Baabby, leading a charge up the stairs to the second floor. Sam reluctantly followed.

On the second floor, inside a room labeled the Rift-Weavers Display, there were two trolls, one holding a large greatsword covered with eight runes running down the length of the blade. "With this sword," he chortled, "I can rule all of Skylands!"

Sneaking in for a closer look, Sam managed to get a good peek at the sword - and noticed something the trolls had not: the eight runes on the sword's blade were all stickers; some were starting to peel off at the edges. But other than that small detail, the sword was nearly an exact match for the magical greatsword Baabby had unearthed in the chompy-infested mines.

Sam sent an arrow into the room, catching the sword-wielding troll a glancing blow that did nothing more than reveal the presence of enemies. Spinning around, the wrench-wielding troll accompanying the troll with the sword stepped outside the display room and stopped short upon seeing Sam and Baabby. "Hey," he said, "aren't you two the same guys what was on the airship?"

"That's right," admitted Sam hurriedly. "We're the troll disguise experts, sent to help infiltrate the local inhabitants..."

"Hey!" exclaimed the sword-wielding troll while pointing at Baabby. "He's got a sword just like mine!"

"A clever, fake sword," improvised Sam, "so if anybody tries to take the real sword from you, they'd, um, get confused and possibly go after the wrong one..."

"But we got the real sword now," pondered the troll, "so why are you still wearing your disguises?"

Baabby had had enough of the attempts at subterfuge. He ran up and brought his sword crashing down on the wrench-wielding troll, dropping him in an instant. Sam shot an arrow at the would-be troll conqueror, but missed. As Baabby and the remaining troll traded blows with their respective swords, the true magic sword was quickly revealed. The troll dropped his museum replica with a disappointed expression on his face before falling to the floor, dead.

"We did it!" exclaimed Sam. "We took down all six trolls by ourselves!" They decided to check the rest of the second floor out, just in case any other trolls had somehow snuck in here, and they started with the Rift-Weavers Display, where they learned the sword Baabby had found in the mines was the legendary Rift-Weaver's Blade. A quick perusal of the rest of the second floor found only administrative offices, a bathroom, a lecture hall, some stairs leading up to the third level, and the Hall of Crystal Statues. These statues were of various animals - except for one, who was a very lovely-looking fairy. Walking up to her, the heroes noted her sad expression. Sam wished at once there was something he could do for her, but she was just a statue, like the others in the display. "I wonder why they carved her all sad?" Sam wondered aloud.

"I don't think she's caarved," noted Baabby. On a whim, he had held his sword up to his eyes and was peering through one of the rune-holes in his blade - the magic rune, as that seemed the most likely to be useful. Viewed in this fashion, the statues appeared as if they were still alive, just unmoving. "I think somebody turned these aanimals - and the fairy - into statues," Baabby hypothesized.

"Greetings," said a familiar voice from downstairs. "Welcome to the Museum of Mystical Mysteries. You are the ninth through sixteenth visitors since the museum's recent reopening."

Sam did a quick finger-count on his feathers. "Eight more!" he hissed to Baabby. "You think it's more trolls?"

The baabarian gave it a moment's thought. "There are the traditional eight elements on my sword," he said. "And we've met up with two spell punks already, looking for this blade."

Sam caught on immediately. "Eight spell punks?" he cried. "I'm not kidding, this time, Baabby -- WE'VE GOT TO GET OUT OF HERE!"

"They'll have to come by the stairs," reasoned Baabby, grabbing Sam and running back towards the staircase. If they could jam them up at the top of the stairs, where only one or maybe two could fight them at a time, they might stand a chance....

He only got about halfway to the stairwell when the first two spell punks glided around the corner. Judging by the emblems on their robes, these were the air and fire spell punks, neither of which the heroes had ever encountered before. The air spell punk got a look at the sword in Baabby's hand and yelled, "The sword - he's got it!" before diving into the administrative hallway, out of view. The fire spell punk raised a claw and pointed it at the hulking baabarian. Instantly, a small, orange sphere of energy flashed down the hallway and hit Baabby, engulfing him in a small explosion of flames. Baabby yelled in pain as Sam closed the difference between them and got off a shot with his bow. It hit the fire spell punk, but didn't drop him as Sam had hoped. In fact, the arrow seemed to strike the floating creature and then bounce off of it; it almost looked like there was a vapory layer floating around the fire spell punk that had deflected the crow's arrow. "No fair!" groused Sam.

Baabby ran up to swing his greatsword at the fire spell punk, but the air spell punk ducked back around the corner and shot a blast of air at the baabarian. Baabby wouldn't have guessed that a blast of concentrated air would hurt so bad, but it did! He grunted in pain, but didn't let that stop his greatsword from coming down on the fire spell punk's head. "One down!" he called triumphantly as the fire spell punk crashed to the ground, dead.

Sam ran closer and shot at the air spell punk, once again hitting him but once again not dropping him to the ground. The spell punk fired a blast of energy at Sam, but missed. Sam shot another arrow at the spell punk, but missed. While all of this missing was going on, Baabby had dodged around a display cabinet and cast a healing spell on himself, restoring some of the vigor that had been drained by the spell punks' various blasts. Then he rushed the air spell punk, bringing him down as well. "That's two!" called the baabarian to his friend. "Come on, the others must be downstairs!"

Sam marveled at Baabby's lack of hesitation in throwing himself directly into danger. They now knew the forces of evil had been looking for the museum in order to find the Rift-Weaver's Blade, and since Baabby already had the sword the spell punks wouldn't find it if the heroes left, so Sam was all for climbing out a window with Baabby and scampering away as fast as they could go. But no, Baabby always had to do the right thing! That sheep-man could be so much trouble sometimes, Sam couldn't imagine why he still hung around him.

Back down on the ground floor, Baabby and Sam encountered both the water and life spell punks, who had just been about to head upstairs themselves. One powerful leap brought Baabby into their midst, and one powerful swing of his sword cut the life right out of both spell punks. "That's four!" said Baabby as the bodies dropped to the floor. Sam realized now he wouldn't find out what powers a water spell punk had, but then decided he really didn't need to know. And Baabby's slay-two-foes-with-one-swing maneuver reminded the crow why he hung around with Baabby: the baabarian was a mighty handy friend to have around!

Stepping back into the main hallway of the ground level, the two heroes narrowly missed being struck by a beam of red light. Looking up, they saw a grinning tech spell punk - but only for a moment, for a magic spell punk flew up next to him and the tech spell punk immediately disappeared from view. "He turned him invisible!" complained Sam. "No fair!"

Sam shot off an arrow from his Dynabow 2.0, after having prepped it for an explosion. He targeted the spot where the tech spell punk had just been, hoping to hit him before he had a chance to leave. The explosion must have hit him, for the crow heard two distinct cries of pain - the other one being the magic spell punk, who had been caught in the radius of the explosion's effect. Baabby ran up and readied his sword for an attack, and got blasted by the invisible tech spell punk - who popped back into visibility upon firing his narrow laser-ray. Sam took the opportunity to shoot at the now-visible tech spell punk but missed, and then the magic spell punk flew over to his partner and turned him invisible again.

"Their powers only work on others, not themselves!" reasoned Baabby, running up to attack the magic spell punk with his sword. After all, why else wouldn't the magic spell punk turn himself invisible as well? Despite backing up away from the baabarian - or perhaps just wishing to put distance between him and his tech buddy, in case Sam shot another explosive arrow at the two of them - the magic spell punk couldn't evade Baabby's greatsword, which cut a gash across the spell punk's chest.

Sam shot at the invisible tech spell punk and missed; the tech spell punk popped back into view and hit Sam with his laser-ray. But by then Baabby had cut down the magic spell punk, and without his partner's invisibility to aid him, the tech spell punk didn't last too much longer against the two heroes.

Baabby and Sam each took a moment to guzzle down a potion of cure moderate wounds they had purchased after their celebration party back at the town. Then, revitalized, they headed over to the Picture Gallery to go find the last two spell punks.

Only they didn't get that far. They made it as far as just past the Main Oddities Display before a strange creature waddled up to them. This looked just like one of the bone chompies the heroes had fought in the Forest of Despair, only while those had been chompy plants with bone extrusions on their outer surfaces, these were just the bony extrusions - actual skeletal chompies, if chompies actually had skeletons. Behind the first of these skeletal chompies strode two more, each snapping their bone-teeth.

Baabby swung hard with his greatsword, expecting to cut the first chompy skeleton in two. However, despite it being a direct hit, it hardly fazed the skeleton - which, Baabby noted, seemed to be covered in a hard, stony substance. Looking past his current foe at the two coming up behind it, Baabby saw another of the creatures was seemingly covered in stone, while the third seemed to be just plain, normal bone. Once the earth spell punk and the undead spell punk hovered into view behind their chompy skeleton fighting force, it all came into focus: the undead spell punk was probably summoning these undead foes, and the earth spell punk was protecting them with a stony plating.

"If you kill a spell punk, its effects end!" yelled Baabby to his partner. Sam opted to scoot back out of range of snapping chompy skeleton teeth while he pondered this. So if he killed the undead spell punk, the chompy skeletons might go away, but if he killed the earth spell punk, the chompy skeletons would lose their stony protection - protection which, Sam noticed, the undead spell punk shared as well. That made his choice easier: leaping up onto a three-foot-high display case, he shot an arrow at the earth spell punk, hitting it but once again not bringing it down. Oh well.

Baabby struck again at the chompy skeleton he had hit rather ineffectually the first time, chipping off another tiny piece of rock from its protective coating. Then he backed rapidly away. Was the powerful sheep-man frightened of a trio of chompy skeletons?

No, he was just getting them into place. As two of them approached him (the other veered off to go snap at Sam), he lifted his Life Amulet and sent forth a wave of life energy at the undead creatures. They exploded into pieces upon contact.

In the meantime, the earth spell punk demonstrated another of his earth-based powers: holding up a claw, he focused his concentration and caused a stalactite to appear and then shoot off in Sam's direction. It hit, amidst a squawk of pain and a flurry of feathers, almost knocking the crow from his perch. The undead spell punk lifted a claw of his own and opened a small portal in the air above his head, causing another chompy skeleton to plop down onto the floor and go racing toward Baabby. It clamped down on the sheep-man with its bony teeth, but Baabby blasted out again with his Life Amulet, disintegrating the chompy skeleton and the one that had been snapping at Sam. The undead spell punk had also been in the blast radius but seemed unaffected, indicating that the spell punk wasn't itself an undead creature.

Sam finally took out the earth spell punk with an explosive arrow, causing the undead spell punk's stoneskin effect to dissipate. "That oughtta make it easier to hit him, Baabby!" Sam called down - and he was proven correct almost immediately as the baabarian's Rift-Weaver's Blade cut the life right out of the undead spell punk.

"We did it!" declared Baabby. Sam realized that the "we" was about 75% Baabby and maybe 25% Sam, but he didn't mind - they'd made it through another adventure intact, and he was more than happy to let Baabby take 75% of the kills if it exposed him to 75% of the danger as well. "Let's go check back with that fairy!" Sam suggested.

The fairy hadn't moved, nor had any of the animal statues. The heroes decided to check out the third floor, which was really just the upper part of a tower, and was thus all one big room. It was a sort of lounge area, with an eight-sided crystal floating above a table under a glass dome. An information card next to the crystal explained that this had at one time been covered with the eight runes of the original eight elements - air, earth, fire, life, magic, tech, undead, and water - but that the runes were no longer visible. This fact was instantly proven wrong by the fact that the heroes could see a rune on one of the eight facets of the spinning crystal; not surprisingly, the undead rune - the same rune emblem that was filled in on Baabby's sword.

"That crystal's tied in to your sword somehow," theorized Sam.

"Should I try to break it?" asked Baabby.

"Break it?" exclaimed Sam. "You baabarians sure like to break things! Well, since we don't know what to do, let's hold breaking it for last, since that's an action that's kind of hard to undo. How about looking at it through your magic rune hole first?" Baabby did so. "Everything looks normal," he said.

"Hmm," thought Sam aloud. "Maybe try touching your sword to the crystal?" Baabby carefully lifted the glass dome from the crystal, exposing it to the open air. It continued spinning at its original, slow pace. Baabby lifted his greatsword and carefully tapped its blade against the crystal.

In an instant, both Baabby and Sam were whisked away. Sam didn't even get a chance to finish the thought, Teleportation magic! before the two heroes were suddenly elsewhere.

- - -

Logan purchased a Paizo Flip-Mat for this adventure: "Museum," not surprisingly. We've found it helps to unfold the map and let it lie flat overnight before use, so we set it up last night and played through the adventure this morning after breakfast.

Richards · Mar 23, 2017

ADVENTURE 5: RIFT-WEAVER'S TRIAL

PC Roster:

Baabby, humanoid sheep barbarian/cleric (Life) 3
Sam Crow, humanoid crow ranger/rogue 3

Game Session Date: 19 March 2017

- - -

"Well, this is no good!" complained Sam Crow, looking over the edge of the floating island to which the adventuring duo had been teleported after Baabby touched his Rift-Weaver's Blade greatsword to a magic crystal in the Museum of Mystical Mysteries. Baabby and Sam were standing on a very narrow ledge about halfway up a very tall and very steep cliff, with only a very short stretch of level ground in either direction. Fortunately, behind them was a doorway cut into the side of the cliff leading deeper into the stone mountain. Carved above the doorway were the words:

THREE DOORS STAND BEFORE YOU
TWO OF THEM ARE FAMILY
ONE STANDS ALONE
ONLY THE FATHER SHALL TAKE YOU FORWARD

"Let's go in," said Baabby, with that stubborn determination in his voice that Sam was learning to dread.

"Well," the crow griped, "I guess it's either that or live the rest of our lives on that ledge." He reluctantly followed the sheep-man into the tunnel.

Sure enough, there were three doors at the end of a narrow corridor, each glowing a different color: red, green, and purple. "Which one should we try?" asked Baabby.

Sam cautiously approached the first door. Although the center of the door was a uniform reddish glow, it seemed to have a translucent covering in front of it. Sam gave a tentative tap with the hilt of his short sword, and it felt like glass, or a solid crystal. Already guessing that Baabby's sword would be the key to opening either of these doors, the crow touched the translucent barrier with his hand. Sure enough, the way was blocked. He checked the green and purple doors to verify they were the same and sure enough, they were.

"Which one?" repeated Baabby.

"Well, let's think about it," replied Sam. "We have three options: red, green, and purple. What did that carving above the door say about family?"

"'Two are family, one stands alone'," replied Baabby.

"So presumably, two are similar to each other and one is different. Which two are similar between red, green, and purple?"

Baabby thought about it for a moment. "Red's a primary color," he said.

"Yeah, and purple and green are secondary colors!" exclaimed Sam. "The red door's probably the one we want! Uh, you go first, Baabby," Sam suggested, stepping back behind the burly baabarian.

Baabby stepped forward and put his hand on the reddish door, feeling the crystal structure blocking his entrance. Pulling out his Rift-Weaver's Blade, he touched it to the crystal - and it sunk through it like a hot knife through butter. Slicing down with his greatsword, Baabby carved a rift in the invisible barrier and it fell away in two pieces. Then the baabarian stepped forward, disappearing through the red doorway.

"Baabby? You okay?" asked Sam, hesitant to follow his friend into danger. When he got no answer, he realized either something terrible had happened to Baabby - or else sound couldn't travel through the doorway. Hoping fervently that it was the second reason, the crow took a step through the red doorway and found himself in a new room. Baabby was standing just before him, looking at the three corridors in the wall before them.

From each corridor streamed a column of different-colored smoke, each coming from a brazier at the end of that particular short corridor. There was blue smoke coming from the leftmost corridor, green from the rightmost, and the central corridor - which was twice as wide as the others - streamed red smoke. In each case, the flames rising up from the braziers carved into the floors at the ends of the short tunnels matched the color of the smoke. There were also three more colored doors on the far wall behind the braziers, just like the three in the first corridor: a purple one behind the blue brazier, a red one behind the red brazier, and a green one behind the green brazier. And on the wall above the three short corridors was carved another clue:

THE DOOR BEHIND SHALL NEVER TAKE YOU FORWARD
LET THE FLAMES GUIDE YOU

"I don't like this, Baabby!" groused Sam. Normally, he'd have voiced a desire to "get out of here!" - but the only way out seemed to make it through this Rift-Weaver's Trial.

Sam looked at the doorway through which they'd just passed. From this side, it looked just like the front: a doorway bathed in reddish light, obscuring all vision of what was on the other side. But it was red - that was the important thing. "Well, we don't want the red-smoke corridor," reasoned Sam. "If we stick with red, it won't take us forward."

"So we have blue or green," surmised Baabby.

"Yep," agreed Sam. "There are two ways we can look at this. We could take the green one, because the smoke's green, the flames are green, and the door behind it is green. So it's all the same - it's 'true,' I guess."

"Uh huh," agreed Baabby. "And the other way to look at it?"

"Well," said Sam, "If you add the red door we just came through to the blue smoke, and mix red and blue, you get purple - so maybe the purple door's the way we want."

"Red won't take us forward," Baabby reminded his sidekick.

"Yeah, you're right," agreed Sam. "We'll take the green corridor. You first, Baabby."

Baabby led the way with confidence; Sam followed behind with reluctance. Approaching the green flames, Baabby startled his companion by stepping into the brazier - directly into the green flames. With a yell, the baabarian quickly stepped out of the brazier, patting out the areas where his armor has started to burn.

"What did you do that for?" demanded Sam, helping to pat out the green flames on Baabby's back.

"I was just trying something," admitted Baabby sheepishly. "But it didn't work. Okay, let's try that green door." He touched his blade to the door, cut through the invisible barrier, and the two stepped through it and into yet another new room. This one was empty but for the green doorway behind them and a normal pair of wooden doors over in the far corner.

"Hey! Normal doors!" exclaimed Sam. "Maybe this is the way out of here!"

"You have passed the first two tests in the Rift-Weaver's Trial," said a voice emanating from somewhere in the room. "Now only the third and final test stands before you..."

"Aw, blast!" complained Sam.

"...to verify you are the two heroes described in the Prophecy of the Sheep and the Crow."

"Ahem," coughed Sam. "I believe you mean, 'The Prophecy of the Crow and the Sheep.'" He smiled over at Baabby, who only scowled at him in return.

"I mean the Prophecy of the Sheep and Crow," corrected the unseen voice, causing Sam to cringe and wince - if he'd known the unseen voice could react to what he said, he'd have kept his silly beak shut! "You must prove your worthiness to wield the Rift-Weaver's Blade."

"Come on, Sam," said Baabby, striding up the doors without hesitation. He was eager to prove his worthiness to wield his magical greatsword.

"I dunno why I have to get dragged into this," complained Sam. "I'm not wielding the stupid sword."

"The previous wielder also had an apprentice," said the voice in the room.

"Great," grumbled Sam under his breath, hopefully low enough so the voice wouldn't hear. "Now I'm an apprentice." They opened the doors wide, finding behind them only a twisting corridor. At the first turn, the mounted head of a blue dragon faced them. "Ahead lies the Trial of Might," the dragon head intoned. Once Sam stepped through the doorway, the doors slammed shut behind him. Instinctively, he tried them - and just as he had thought they would be, they were locked tight.

They turned the corner past the blue dragon head, to find a green dragon head facing them from the opposite wall. "The consequences of failure are not always immediate," the green dragon said.

"Hey, here's an idea," piped up Sam. "Let's not fail!"

"Good plaan!" agreed Baabby.

They turned another corner and were faced with a red dragon's head mounted on the far wall. "When you vanquish your foe, the doors shall open," it said.

"That's the best news I've heard all day!" said Sam, hoping at least one of the doors would lead them back to the museum.

There was a set of wooden doors beyond the red dragon's head. "Hey, before we go into our big final test, do you want to heal up your wounds from that fire?" asked Sam.

"Naah," dismissed Baabby. "But if this is a Trial of Might, I might as well be as mighty as I can!" And the baabarian cast a bull's strength spell upon himself, causing his already-powerful muscles to bulge even further. He hefted his heavy greatsword, marveling that it felt somewhat lighter than it ever had before. Then he and Sam swung open the doors and stepped forward, one of them boldly and one rather hesitantly. (You can probably guess which was which.)

The room before them had three more of those colored doorways: red, green, and purple, just as before. But standing in the middle of the room was a suit of plate mail armor, standing motionlessly with its arms crossed across its chest. It was hard to tell whether anyone was even wearing it, it stood so stock-still.

"Um, hello?" called Sam. "We're supposed to be here for the Trial of Might?"

The armor suddenly flinched, adopting a shoulder-wide ready stance. Then it held its arms out toward the two heroes and wiggled its fingers in a universally-recognized "Bring it on - let's see what you got!" gesture.

"Go get 'im, Baabby!" enthused Sam, pushing the baabarian forward into the room. Or so he told himself, anyway; it's doubtful the crow was anywhere strong enough to push Baabby anywhere he didn't want to go. But Baabby had no hesitation; he raced up to the armored opponent and swung a mighty blow with his greatsword, scoring a scrape across the front of the armor's chest plate. Sam followed suit, running down the left side of the room and shooting an arrow at the armor, getting its arrowhead lodged in a joint between the shoulder and the neck. As he passed the green doorway, he could see misty-looking bars blocking the way through the door. The crow imagined the other doors were likewise barred, and that defeating this animated suit of armor would cause the bars to go away.

The armor ignored Sam's arrow and concentrated its attacks on the hulking baabarian standing before it. That only made sense to Sam: this was, after all, a Trial of Might and it wasn't Sam's might that was on trial here. An armored fist came crashing into the side of Baabby's head, causing him to lurch momentarily to his left before regaining his balance. He retaliated immediately, bringing the Rift-Weaver's Blade crashing down onto the armored foe, cutting a notch out of the armor covering his left shoulder.

Sam stood where he was, over by the corner of the room, and charged up his Dynabow 2.0, before releasing an explosive arrow that caught the animated plate mail in the back. The armor smacked Baabby again, this time only dealing a glancing blow, but Baabby's return swing carved a gash in the joint by the hip. Sam shot it again with a normal arrow - the Dynabow required a moment between explosive charges - and then Baabby's final swing caused the armor to go crashing to the ground.

"You have succeeded at the Trial of Might," intoned another unseen voice from somewhere in this room. "You are indeed the Sheep and the Crow, as prophesied. Step through either of the doors, and you will be reunited." As the duo watched, the misty bars covering the three doors changed form, becoming words: "Strength" over the red door, "Wisdom" over the purple door, and "Dexterity" over the green one.

"I'm going with 'Strength'," advised Baabby, stepping through the red doorway and vanishing from view. Sam felt compelled to follow his friend, but then, comforted by the voice's promise, walked instead through the green door. Sure enough, doing so led him through a green portal right beside a red one and Baabby was already there in this next room.

There was a statue in the middle of this room, and it swiveled along its base to face the adventurers. Baabby and Sam saw a family resemblance at once: it looked like an older version of the statue in the entryway to the Museum of Mystical Mysteries. "You are the second wielder of the Rift-Weaver's Blade," said the statue. "I had it built to combat and defeat a powerful evil that threatened all of Skylands. Now, that evil is gaining in power and must be defeated again. The sword's power has diminished over the years, but you, the prophesied Sheep and Crow, will be able to restore it to its full power and save Skylands from this enemy!"

The statue of what the heroes now realized had to be the Rift-Weaver himself raised a stone hand and gathered up mystical energy, then threw it in Baabby's direction. The trusting baabarian didn't even flinch, knowing this wasn't an attack but rather something beneficial. Indeed, the nimbus of energy funneled straight to Baabby's greatsword, coalescing and filling in the symbol of Magic on the Rift-Weaver's Blade.

"The apprentice must aid his master in his endeavors," said the statue, swiveling on its base to face Sam. "The previous apprentice was the fairy Sapphrina, now imprisoned in the Museum of Mystical Mysteries." Another aura of energy surrounded the statue's fist and was sent hurtling in Sam's direction. The crow definitely flinched, but this was likewise no attack but rather a boost to his Dynabow's power. Then the statue turned to face Baabby once again, pointing a finger to a doorway to the right. "Step into the magic circle on the floor in the room beyond to return to the Museum. There you must give the crystal that brought you here to the statue of my son. He will tell you the next step of your quest. Return here when you have regained the symbols of Life and Fire. Now go!"

Stepping onto the magic circle carved into the floor in the next room, the heroes found themselves back on the third floor of the museum. Baabby grabbed up the crystal from the table and they rushed downstairs. In the entryway, the baabarian touched the crystal to the statue, and it bent down to take it from Baabby. It held the crystal above its head and the stone dissolved away, its energy suffusing into the statue and imbuing it with knowledge and power.

"With every pair of elemental symbols you regain, your sword will gain in power," the statue advised. "But this place is no longer safe. The trolls left behind a damaged airship," it said, stepping down from its plinth and heading for the front door. "I will repair it at once. Bring Sapphrina with you, and take the airship to the Serpent Isles. Seek there the Cave of Crystal Statues - the Medusa there will aid you. Now go!"

"I'll go grab Sapphrina!" offered Sam, rushing to the stairs.

"I'll help fix the airship," said Baabby, hefting his greatsword in a powerful fist. Then the two heroes each ran off in a different direction - but each unerringly heading to their shared destiny.

- - -

Logan used an early entry in the Pathfinder Flip-Mat series for this adventure: "Arcane Dungeons." He built the Trial to correspond with the disjointed rooms on the one side of the map; we didn't even use the other side, which is all one big area. (Knowing Logan, he'll likely find a use for it in a later adventure.)

We now know a bit more of the back story of Baabby's greatsword, and we have a path ahead of us, although we have no ideas of the details of how we'll regain the lost symbols on the sword. But it started out as a +1 greatsword, and has been upgraded to a +2 greatsword now that Baabby's regained two of the symbols. Once he regains the Life and Fire symbols, it'll be a +3 greatsword and so on, eventually capping out at +5.

Sam's Dynabow 2.0, originally a masterwork shortbow, is now a full +1 weapon. It was granted its explosive powers by the tech spell punk the heroes encountered earlier (the one on the troll airship).

Harry was surprised at how quickly we went through this adventure, because up until now the adventures have been mostly combat-related; this was his first experience with a puzzle dungeon. Logan explained that the DM never knows how quickly the players will figure out the puzzles, and that had we been stumped the adventure could have taken a lot longer. But he even had eventualities for those turns of events: had we ever gone through a "wrong" door, we'd have been teleported right back to where we had been, but doing so would have granted the animated armor in the Trial of Might an additional Hit Die. So had we flubbed up at every turn, we'd have still made it to what Harry referred to as the "boss fight," but he'd have been 4 HD more powerful than he already was.

Personally, I'm glad it didn't come to that. And I'm sure Sam Crow feels likewise.

Richards · Apr 2, 2017

ADVENTURE 6: JOURNEY TO THE CRYSTAL CAVE

PC Roster:

Baabby, humanoid sheep barbarian/cleric (Life) 3
Sam Crow, humanoid crow ranger/rogue 3

Game Session Date: 1 April 2017

- - -

The damaged troll airship had been repaired by the statue which until recently had adorned the entryway to the Museum of Mystical Mysteries. Now, with the crystalline form of Sapphrina the fairy brought aboard, the heroes were ready to go.

"I seldom get to say this without you scowling at me," remarked Sam Crow, looking over at his baabarian friend, "but, LET'S GET OUT OF HERE!"

The airship rose up unsteadily from the ground, wobbling a bit as it finally reached a level plane of orientation, and then sailed off over the tree-tops.

"I hope you know where we're going," commented Sam, who, on dint of being aboard a flying ship, had recently designated himself Admiral Sam Crow.

"We're heading for the Serpent Isles," Baabby reminded his sidekick.

"Yeah, I know that, but I have no idea where they might be," replied an irritated Sam.

"It doesn't maatter," said Baabby. "As long as he knows."

"Indeed I do," replied the statue. "We should be there within the hour." And indeed the next three-quarters of an hour passed without incident, except for the occasional loud banging noises coming from the engine compartment below, which never failed to make Sam flinch. After a few bangs, though, the engine would usually settle down again...just long enough for the next sudden bang to jolt Sam all over again.

"Is there supposed to be smoke coming up from the floorboards?" asked Sam hesitantly. The statue looked down at the deck, then returned its gaze to the floating island coming into view before them.

"Well, I have good news and bad news," he replied. As both heroes turned to him with worried faces, he said, "Those are the Serpent Isles just ahead. We're definitely going to make it there."

"That must be the good news," decided Sam. "...What's the bad news?"

"I'm not sure how many pieces we'll be in when we land. BRACE FOR IMPACT!"

The bangs coming from belowdecks were joined by a wheezing noise and the unmistakable sound of an explosion. Black smoke now billowed behind them, as it seeped out both sides of the airships's front, where it had originally hit when it crash-landed by the museum.

"Typical troll craftsmanship," complained Sam as the continent-sized island rushed up ahead. It was one of the larger chunks of land that floated throughout the Skylands, this one big enough to hold a small ocean in its center, in the middle of which were scattered a clump of small islands. It was to one of these smaller islands that the statue was desperate steering, as the airship dropped altitude at an alarming rate.

With a sickening CRUNCH the airship hit the edge of a pebbly beach, just at the edge of the ocean. The back half was in the water, the front half on the beach - except that as an airship, it's probably more accurate to say the aft section was in the water while the foredeck was on land. But the important thing was the ship was still in one piece, and once the engines were shut off the banging noises stopped from the decks below.

The ship's passengers were all still in one piece, too, although the crash-landing had pitched them all forward, sprawling on the deck in an undignified fashion.

"Is everyone okay?" asked Baabby, getting back to his feet and helping his partner up.

"I'm fine," replied Sam, verifying that Sapphrina was still intact. Fortunately, the fairy statue had no cracks in her crystal form, and the stone statue from the museum hadn't smashed his way through the wooden deck when he fell.

"I'll attempt to make repairs," said the mobile statue. "But no guarantees."

"Where's the Cave of the Crystal Medusa?" asked Baabby, not letting a little thing like the possible loss of their only mode of transportation distract him from his primary mission. The statue pointed off to the left of the airship (wait - the port side!), where Baabby could see a rocky cliffside in the distance, a short way up the beach. "Let's go, Sam!" he cried enthusiastically, leaping over the edge of the railing and onto the pebbly beach.

"I'm coming, I'm coming," griped Sam, climbing down a bit less enthusiastically than his partner. He landed next to Baabby and surveyed the land before them. There wasn't much to see: ocean to the left, pebbly shore straight ahead, cliffs off to the right in the distance. Here and there on the beach were scattered clumps of seaweed, and - more excitingly to the avaricious crow - glints of what looked like the occasional gem in amongst the pebbles of the beach.

Baabby strode forth in a beeline to the cliffs ahead, while Sam bent to examine the nearest gem. He picked it up, but it was nothing extraordinary - certainly not very valuable, in any case. He sighed in frustration and tossed it aside.

Suddenly, a clump of seaweed Baabby had just walked by rose up. As it rose, it almost seemed to inflate, changing from an inert clump of flat seaweed to the rotund, familiar form of a chompy! All along the beach, other clumps of seaweed rose up, taking on the forms of what the heroes later decided to call "kelp chompies."

"Hey! No fair!" complained Sam as two headed his way. "You know, mutton is very nourishing, and it tastes much better than most poultry dishes...." He let his suggestion trail off once he realized that first of all, the kelp chompies weren't paying him any attention (and probably didn't even understand his words); but more importantly, Baabby wasn't rising to the bait. What fun was teasing your partner if he wasn't even annoyed by it?

Baabby had four kelp chompies converging on him, but he said nothing. Instead, he hefted his Rift-Weaver's Blade in his hands and made a powerful side-swing that chopped through the first kelp chompy like it wasn't there and continued on to bisect the one standing next to it. As had almost become a tradition with the mighty baabarian, one swing of his magic greatsword meant two enemies slain.

Sam wasn't quite up to his friend's level of power, but he was learning to hold his own. Taking a step back to avoid the snapping spine-teeth of the nearest kelp chompy, Sam let fly with an arrow that skewered the little plant-monster and caused it to "deflate" back into a pile of unmoving seaweed - only the little crow had the feeling that particular pile of seaweed wouldn't ever be moving again!

Baabby fought off the other two that had waddled up to him, and Sam likewise shot at the other one who was biting at him. But even with these first six slain, another six were wandering up from further down the beach - and, more worryingly, there were more clumps of seaweed being brought to shore by the waves! Sam infused his Dynabow 2.0 with explosive energy and managed to kill three kelp chompies all bunched together in a group, but saw from the corner of his eye that the first of these new clumps were being washed ashore - only to rise up as new kelp chompies.

"There are more of them!" Sam cried.

"I'm on it!" called back Baabby, finishing off the kelp chompies that had waddled his way. Then, seeing there were only two currently on the beach and each one was far enough from Sam that the little crow could probably handle himself for awhile, the burly baabarian started wading into the ocean. As the waters rose up to his neck, he took a deep breath and continued his pace.

Sam ran to the halfway point between the two kelp chompies on the beach, taking aim at one but fumbling the shot with an ill-timed sneeze. The arrow stabbed down at the pebbly sand by the crow's feet as the hungry kelp chompies approached, teeth snapping. Sam was forced to draw his short sword as the two kelp chompies snapped and bit at him, several of the bites hitting their targets. "Ow!" cried Sam Crow. "No fair!"

Underwater, Baabby had found what he had been looking for - since the kelp chompies were coming from the sea, it only made sense that there were aquatic chompy pods out here somewhere. The first of them was visible just ahead, so the sheep-man started heading in that direction, not in the least bothered by the fact that his pace wasn't as fast underwater as it was on land. After all, where was the chompy pod going to go? They were immobile, depending upon the mobile chompies they spit forth for defense. But as the chompy pod before him did just that, Baabby smiled to himself as he saw that the kelp chompy thus disgorged had a hard time staying underwater - it rose to the top of the ocean's surface and started paddling frantically towards land. It didn't seem like he was in any particular danger down here at all!

Realizing the drag of the water would slow down his sword-strike, Baabby put every ounce of strength into it he had. And what a result! The aquatic chompy pod practically exploded beneath the power of the baabarian's greatsword, chunks of it falling to all sides to be washed harmlessly away by the waves. With a quiet smile of satisfaction, Baabby started making his way to the area where there had to be another chompy pod, based on the directions the sea-borne ones had been floating in.

By the time Baabby had taken care of the second chompy pod - and just in time, too, for his single gulp of air was giving out - Sam had taken care of the kelp chompies bothering him and had resumed his use of the bow, starting to take out those farther away (which was where he preferred his enemies: farther away from him!). The baabarian waded up out of the ocean to see the second-to-last kelp chompy get taken out by one of Sam's arrows, and another one getting bitten by a large snake that had slithered up from the direction of the caves. Its mouth opened wide and wicked fangs stabbed down at the kelp chompy, killing it instantly.

But the snake apparently wasn't in the mood for a salad, for it spit the dead kelp chompy right out again and looked about for a more nourishing meat dish. Seeing a sheep-man approaching, the serpent slithered over to the walking meal and bit it. Baabby felt the snake's fangs stab into his skin and inject some type of venom, but his powerful baabarian constitution allowed him to shrug off whatever debilitating effects the poison might have had. Instead, he sent his greatsword crashing into the serpent's skull, making the snake suddenly wish to reappraise its choice of dinner. Sam, in a good position to set fly with an explosive arrow, did just that, taking a little chunk of scales off its left side. (No wait, its port side - no, never mind, it's a snake, not a ship! Its left side, then.) Baabby finished it off with another powerful swing of the Rift-Weaver's Blade, and the snake fell dead to the sandy beach.

"Let's go," said Baabby nonchalantly, as if having to slay a dozen or more chompies and a giant snake were all part of a normal day's events. Sam hurried to keep pace with his burly friend.

Soon, the cliffs rose to the side of the beach and Baabby spotted a cave opening along the bottom of a near-vertical stone wall. "Let's check in there," he suggested. There was a faint light inside the cave, probably not bright enough to read by but at least providing enough light to allow them to see. The cave had little side branches all along its winding length, and in the first such side branch to the left, the heroes saw a column of buttery-yellow crystal. It was smooth, like amber, and reached from the ground all the way to the cavern ceiling. A yellowish illumination emanated from the crystal column.

"Well, I'm guessing this is the Cave of Crystal Statues," whispered Sam. "But what's it a statue of? A column?"

"Let's look around some more," suggested Baabby.

In another alcove they found a greenish-glowing crystal column, and another that glowed a bluish hue one side-cavern over. But it was the fourth one that ended up being the most exciting. Whereas the others were all translucent - you could see through them to see the cavern walls behind them - this one was misty and murky. Furthermore, there seemed to be something inside of it: a feminine form with wavy, spiky hair.

"Hey, Baabby -- I think there's somebody inside this statue!" Sam called to his friend. "Maybe you can smash it--Hey!" The crow jumped back as the purplish crystal suddenly lunged out at him. In doing so, it left behind the woman it had previously engulfed: Crystal the Medusa, who many people thought was called the Crystal Medusa. She had crystalline snakes in place of her hair - each snake a different color, making it look rather like there was a rainbow leaking out of her scalp. Each of the snakes had its eyes closed - something normal serpents, which lacked eyelids, were incapable of doing. But, as the heroes were to soon learn, these were no normal serpents.

But first, they had to deal with this ooze-monster that was dripping off of Crystal's body and sliding over towards Sam. Sam shot at it with an arrow, which was absorbed into the ooze's body and looked to get corroded away in an instant.

If Baabby had any hesitation about plunging the Rift-Weaver's Blade into an acidic crystal ooze, his actions spoke otherwise. With a mighty grunt of effort, he sent his magical greatsword crashing down into the hardened-liquid ooze, cutting a deep groove into its body. "It's kind of like taaffy!" the baabarian said.

"Mmmm, I like taffy!" replied Sam. "You ever have the kind that tastes like mint? Those are good - but how about the ones that taste like bananas? I think I like those the best!"

"Tell me later!" suggested Baabby to his easily-distracted partner. Then he swung his blade down at the crystal ooze in an overhand blow that cut another groove deep into its body, making an "X" shape with his previous blow, which had yet to reform. The ooze convulsed a little and then seemed to dissolve there on the floor, dribbling away into nothingness.

"Oh, thank you for saving me!" said Crystal. "I think that thing was trying to eat me!" Then she looked at Baabby's greatsword with a frown. "Say, I recognize that sword! You aren't Xacho's apprentices, are you? But no, why would he have his apprentices--" She cut herself off in mid-sentence, veering her one-sided conversation in a different direction altogether. "Say, I wonder what year it is?"

"Um," began Sam, not sure how to deal with this strange Medusa. He was glad that looking at her (or her looking at him? - he was a little unsure of how that was supposed to work) didn't turn him to stone, although the fact that her hair-serpents all had their eyes closed gave him some suspicions on that front. "Maybe you've heard of us? We have a prophecy and everything: the Crow and the Sheep!"

"The Sheep and the Crow!" said both Baabby and Crystal simultaneously.

"Whatever," grumbled Sam. "Some people prefer it the other way around...."

"I'm grateful for your assistance," said Crystal. "But why are you here? Which one of you is sick, and in need of crystallization?"

"Um, nothing like that," said Sam, making sure none of her hair-serpents got any ideas and peeked their eyelids open. "Quite the opposite, in fact. We have this fairy friend, see, named Sapphrina, who's been turned into a crystal statue, and we were told you might be able to turn her back."

"Oh," said Crystal. "Oh, I see. Well, yes, I suppose I could...." She turned her head and stroked one of her hair-serpents - one, Baabby and Sam couldn't help but notice, that was the exact same shade of blue as the crystal statue of Sapphrina they had left back on the troll airship.

"Great!" agreed Sam. "So, do we bring her to you, or bring you to her, or how does this work?"

"Oh, don't worry!" Crystal said, still talking to her blue serpent. "You'd grow back soon enough!"

"Huh?" said Baabby to Sam.

"Are you following this?" asked Sam to Baabby.

"Very well," stated Crystal with an air of finality. "I'll do it. But I won't do it for free. If you want me to free Sapphrina from her statue form, there's something I need you two to do for me first."

"Of course there is," sighed Sam.

"I need a piece of the Ocean's Heart," said the Medusa. "Not that big of a piece, just about so big" - and she held her hands out as if holding a loaf of bread or something similarly-sized.

"And where's this Ocean's Heart?" asked Baabby.

"Why, it's where you'd expect it to be - at the bottom of the ocean!" explained Crystal. "But don't worry - you won't have to dive down to get it. There are caverns all around this area. One of them leads to an area just below the Ocean's Heart. You'll be able to carve a bit of it off from just beneath it."

"I don't suppose these caverns are filled with monsters, by any chance, are they?" asked Sam, not really wanting to hear the answer.

"Why, of course they are!" exclaimed Crystal, seemingly surprised at such a silly question.

"Of course they are," sighed Sam.

"Bring me a piece of the Ocean's Heart and I'll restore you friend," promised Crystal. "The entrance to the cave you need it just down the cliff from here, in a patch of water with a greenish tinge - the cave opening is underwater."

"Of course it is," sighed Sam.

"Let's go!" said Baabby, not bothered in the least by this turn of events. Adventure beckoned, and he for one was eager to answer its call.

Sam, not so much - but he dutifully followed his friend back out of the cave and down the rocky beach, in search of the greenish-tinged water that would lead to their next big adventure.

- - -

Logan picked up six sheets of paper from our local Michael's craft store: three with a pebble pattern and three blue-marble ones that looked like they might be waves as seen from above. Then he had me make a Word document that was a 1" grid, and I printed off six such copies onto the Michael's craft paper. Then he cut one edge of the pebble paper sheets, such that, when laid over the "water" paper, he formed a little beach scene. That's where the troll airship crashed and where our PCs fought the kelp chompies. (Incidentally, kelp chompies don't exist in the Skylanders game - they're something Logan came up with for our D&D version of the Skylanders universe.) For the Medusa's cavern, he used four Pathfinder Map Cards from their "Ambush" set. And the troll airship was once again the same two Map Cards from their "Armada" set.

Harry dealt incredible amounts of damage with Baabby's greatsword, as usual. In the fight with the crystal ooze, it attacked Sam and missed, Baabby did 19 points of damage with a greatsword Power Attack, then Sam shot an arrow at it for 7 points of damage, then it attacked Baabby and missed, and then Baabby dealt it 22 more points of damage. Logan was surprised it went down so quickly. (Invariably, all DMs get to experience similar moments for themselves.) Harry, used to video games, asked which of the monsters we fought was the "boss fight," and was surprised to hear that in D&D there isn't always a "boss fight" in every adventure.

But this adventure sent both PCs to 4th level! Harry was psyched about that. We'll have to level them up later this weekend; as I type this, he's happily watching "Legend of Zelda" YouTube videos.

Richards · Apr 15, 2017

ADVENTURE 7: QUEST FOR THE OCEAN'S HEART

PC Roster:

Baabby, humanoid sheep barbarian/cleric (Life) 4
Sam Crow, humanoid crow ranger/rogue 4

Game Session Date: 9 April 2017

- - -

Baabby and Sam finally made their way through the jungle path and found themselves back on a rocky beach. This was different rocky beach than the one where their troll airship had crash-landed, but it had the same look about it: ocean waves lazily lapping up onto shore, rounded pebbles scattered among the countless grains of sand, four kelp chompies waddling up to go take bite-sized chunks out of the fearless heroes....

"Hey!" yelled Sam, shooting an arrow at the nearest approaching kelp chompy. "No fair!" Fortunately, he hit on his first try and the plant-monster plopped over onto its back, dead.

"I got this one!" said Baabby, running up to swing his magic greatsword at a kelp chompy over on the left. It was a beautiful swing, too: the sword sliced through the air with an audible hiss, as the muscles on the arms of the powerful baabarian rippled impressively, showing that Baabby was putting his every ounce of strength into the swing. Unfortunately, the swing was also a miss, for the chompy ducked its eyestalks down underneath the greatsword at the last possible second and the Rift-Weaver's Blade whizzed by harmlessly overhead.

"Oh yeah?" laughed Sam, lining up his next shot at the second chompy to come toddling his way. "When?"

Baabby didn't waste any further breath on talking; he focused all of his concentration - and his not-inconsiderable strength - on making his next swing count. And did he ever! The sword came crashing down into the kelp chompy's side, easily slicing him in two and then doing the same to the other one who had wandered up, thorn-teeth snapping away. With one swing, two chompies went flying into the air, bits of their chopped-up bodies flying in an arc and landing on the beach like a tossed salad. Baabby turned and grinned at his companion, but Sam was too busy taking down the fourth kelp chompy with another arrow-shot to notice.

Once the pebbly beach was once again free of kelp chompies, though, Sam voiced a concern that had been running through both heroes' minds. "You think there's a chompy pod out there somewhere, Baabby?" he asked.

"One way to find out," said Baabby, racing into the waves. There was a patch of green in the water just ahead, just like Crystal the Medusa had said there would be, signifying the underwater entrance to the cave system where they'd find the Ocean's Heart - a massive crystal that she needed a piece of in order to return the crystallized fairy Sapphrina to normal flesh and blood. As he ducked his head under the waves, Baabby turned to the greenish patch and saw it was only a thick mass of algae, floating on the surface of the ocean like a wet, fuzzy rug. The baabarian saw no chompy pods, but he did see the underwater cave entrance they were looking for - as well as two strange monsters. These were nautiloids: odd, aquatic creatures with a snail's shell in the back; a head like a sawfish, with a long, pointed snout containing side-blades down its length; and two stumpy legs to allow it to run at enemies. The nautiloids saw Baabby and apparently decided he fit the description of "enemy," for they both started heading his way, snouts aimed to maim.

Baabby, still holding the breath he'd taken before immersing himself under the waves, swung his Rift-Weaver's Blade into the side of the nearest nautiloid. After the massive damage he'd caused to the kelp chompies, he was somewhat surprised to see that one sword-slice didn't necessarily mean instant death to these creatures. Worse yet, they could do considerably more damage than a kelp chompy could, as the second nautiloid ably demonstrating by charging the sheep-man and stabbing at him with his sharpened snout.

"Hang on, Baabby, I'm coming!" shouted Sam on the beach. He tried doing something he'd never tried before, casting a longstrider spell upon himself. The magic felt almost like second nature to him, allowing him to travel a bit faster than normal down the pebbly beach and into the waves to go help his friend (who, if the little crow was honest with himself, probably wasn't in desperate need of Sam's help in any case - but it was still nice to be useful!).

Baabby brought his sword around and chopped down at the charging nautiloid, cracking open its shell and slaying it outright. Over to the right, Sam - now underwater himself - shot an arrow at the second nautiloid and actually hit it, but he noticed his arrows weren't going as far - or as fast - as they did in the open air. Not wanting to let out the breath he'd taken before jumping into the ocean, Sam contented himself with a silent "No fair!" this time. As for the nautiloid, he was still alive and very much in the fight - but only for as long as it took Baabby to take another swing at him, and then he was as dead as his slain partner.

Using hand signals, Baabby signaled that the heroes should enter the cave and Sam signaled that he agreed completely with that excellent plan but that Baabby should definitely go first. Without any hesitation whatsoever, the sheep-man entered the dark cave opening. Sam Crow followed, with just enough hesitation to keep him hanging back out of harm's way until he saw it was safe to go in.

"It's safe," commented Baabby, standing up to his full height - and rising his head up out of the water. A short way past the cave opening, the cavern system's ceiling rose up such that there was a pocket of breathable air within. And the water was only up to the baabarian's waist. Spluttering and coughing, Sam rose up next to his partner and was dismayed to see the water might only reach his tall partner's waistline but it came up almost to the little crow's armpits. "Hey!" he squawked. "No fair!"

"Climb up here, then," advised Baabby, showing his companion the rocky floor on either side of the cave passageway, as well as the occasional rock poking up out of the water. "That's better," agreed Sam, shaking himself to dry off his feathers. "I'm a crow, not a duck!" He looked around, noticing for the first time that he could actually see at all in this completely submerged cavern system. "Hey, phosphorescent fungus!" he said, noting clumps of the stuff growing in nooks and crannies along the walls. "I like me some phosphorescent fungus!" the crow enthused. "You know you're in a classy cave system when the walls glow for you! It reminds me of my night light back home!"

"You sleep with a night light?" asked Baabby.

"Back when I was a kid!" Sam hurriedly explained, specifically leaving out "...and for several years after that. In fact, up until a few weeks ago." No need for Baabby to know anything about that!

Suddenly, two more kelp chompies floated down the narrow channel toward the two heroes. Baabby, still in the water, could feel the current pushing towards him, as if eager to exit the cave system and enter the larger ocean behind him. Sam took aim and killed one chompy as it approached, and Baabby took care of the other one as the currents carried him directly into reach of the baabarian's greatsword. "Let's go," said Baabby, wading upstream the way the chompies had come. Sam hopped from rock to rock and followed his fearless associate.

There was a fork up ahead, with the current coming from the left-hand passageway. However, it was from the right-hand passageway that another pair of kelp chompies approached, waddling along the rocky sides of the cave before leaping into the water to get to the sheep-man. Sam, trusting in Baabby's ability to handle himself against a single chompy, took aim at the farther one, killing him with one arrow. And sure enough, one blow from the Rift-Weaver's Blade was all it took for another serving of chompy salad to go floating down the stream in chunks.

Figuring there must be a chompy pod down the right-hand passageway, Baabby and Sam investigated it and sure enough, the passage was a dead end - explaining why the current hadn't been flowing from that direction - and there sat a chompy pod, writhing as if about to burst forth with another kelp chompy at any moment. Baabby raced toward the pod with his greatsword pulled back for a mighty blow, and he cut the plant practically in half with one swing. Sam shot an arrow into it for good measure, but he was pretty sure that it was already dead after Baabby's mighty chop with his magic blade.

But then, as the pod drooped and fell away into the water, Sam got a good look at something hidden in the shadows behind it. It looked like-- was it?-- it was! A rusty old chest, with a rusty old lock falling off of it! Sam raced over to the chest, pulled off the broken lock, and whipped the lid up. Inside were thousands upon thousands of gold coins, glittering in the soft light.

"All right!" whooped Sam. "There must be 5,000 gold pieces here, Baabby! You know what that means? Three thousand for me and two thousand for you! We're rich!"

"I think you got your sums wrong," said Baabby.

"Okay then, two thousand for you and three thousand for me!" said Sam. But the baabarian wasn't so easily fooled, and Sam was eventually forced to split the treasure so each hero got 2,500 gold pieces. They each poured their share into the extradimensional pockets sewn into their armor and were ready to go.

Backtracking down the tunnel to the T-intersection, they continued on straight, down the path they'd have taken had they originally chosen to go left. (But Sam for one was glad they'd taken care of the chompy pod to the right first off - no sense in letting it continue to spit enemies at them, even if they were easily slain!) Two nautiloids approached the heroes as they traversed the narrow cavern corridor, but they were easily dispatched. They turned a corner, continuing to go against the current - although there was enough room on either side of the flowing water that the heroes could stay on dry land - only to find their way blocked by still more nautiloids and a pair of kelp chompies.

"Are these guys lost, or is there another chompy pod around here someplace?" groaned Sam.

"We'll find out when we find out," offered Baabby philosophically, as he raced up to slice into his enemies. Sam stayed where he was, pumping his Dynabow 2.0 full of explosive energy before letting loose an arrow that took out both chompies in one blast of fiery energy. "This chompy salad is extra crispy," he chuckled. But while Sam had taken care of the weaker foes, Baabby was once again showing off his combat prowess by slaying both nautiloids with a powerful blow, then speeding forward to take out the chompy pod he could see up ahead. Sam bit back sarcastic comments in an effort to keep up. Even with his longstrider spell active, it was sometimes difficult to keep up with his adrenaline-fueled baabarian friend!

By the time Sam caught up to Baabby the sheep-man had finished off the chompy pod. There was another side branch up ahead, as the heroes approached a T-intersection from one of its sides. Looking down the side-corridor, which was the direction from which the water flowed, the heroes spotted what was apparently their goal: the glowing crystal in the ceiling must be the Ocean's Heart! It was dripping water, which crashed to the floor like a waterfall; "Ocean's Heart" was apparently a good name for the gemstone, for it seemed to be the generating force for the ocean's waters at the center of this particular floating island.

Of course, the Ocean's Heart wasn't there just for the taking. Naturally, it was guarded by enemies that the heroes would have to overcome before they could chop a portion of the gemstone off for Crystal the Medusa. Naturally, these enemies weren't simple kelp chompies that could be slain with a single sword-thrust or arrow. Nope, that would have been too easy: these were two nautiloids and a new monster that neither of the heroes had seen before.

At first, they thought it was a shark patrolling the pool directly beneath the Ocean's Heart, for a telltale triangular fin rose up above the waterline to mark the creature's presence. But then the monster rose up to the top of the waterline, exposing a body shaped like a boomerang, with both ends pointed forward. It kept rising, and rising, until it was completely out of the water, levitating through the air above the water and still circling, circling, circling. At least that gave the heroes a good look at the creature: each of its forward points contained a circular mouth full of teeth, even though it had a normal shark "face" (complete with a normal mouth full of teeth) at the middle section of the boomerang shape. Why it had two extra mouths was anyone's guess.

Only the tube shark didn't keep Baabby and Sam guessing for very long. It sucked air through one of its forward mouths, sending the nearest nautiloid careening straight to its circular mouth. Then it spit the nautiloid right back out again, sending the sharp-snouted beast like an arrow straight at Baabby. Baabby was completely taken aback at this "missile weapon nautiloid" flying at him and cutting a deep gash along one woolly arm as it whizzed past. Sam let out his battle cry - "No fair!" - as he shot an arrow at the nautiloid as it streaked past, but even though the arrow met its target the nautiloid just seemed to shrug off the damage. However, in slicing the baabarian's arm its momentum was halted, and unfortunately, this left the hapless enemy within striking distance of Baabby's greatsword. One powerful cut of his blade and the nautiloid was no more.

But that didn't seem to faze the tube shark in the least. Using its other circular mouth, it sucked the second nautiloid in and spat it as Sam, eliciting another cry of "No fair!" from the little crow. After the impact, Sam scurried backwards and fired off an arrow at the pointy-snouted projectile weapon. As he was getting used to by now, the arrow hit but the nautiloid lived on. Sam looked up to Baabby to see if he could get his friend to take care of the nautiloid for him, but Baabby was already wading after the tube shark, greatsword in hand. It looked like Sam was on his own with the nautiloid!

The creature poked at Sam with its sword-nose again, forcing Sam to back up even further, until he found himself stuck in a small nook against the back wall with nowhere else to run. The nautiloid was too close for Sam to do much with his shortbow, so he reluctantly pulled the short sword from its scabbard and stabbed right back at his foe.

Meanwhile, seeing Baabby closing the distance between them, the tube shark decided to close the gap even further by levitating over towards the baabarian. As if to demonstrate he didn't need nautiloids as ranged weapons, one of his forward mouths took a bite out of the sheep-man's shoulder. Bleeding heavily, Baabby had to retreat around a corner for a breather, so he could cast a cure moderate wounds spell upon himself. But the tube shark followed, and his greater size allowed him to bite at Baabby with one circular mouth while the other one reached over the nautiloid's head and snapped at Sam. "Hey!" complained Sam.

But now the tube shark was within range of the Rift-Weaver's Blade again. Growling in anger, Baabby thrust out with his greatsword with all of his might, plunging the blade deep into the floating boomerang-shape. The tube shark roared in pain and focused his full attention on Baabby, biting him with both of his forward mouths. As Sam finally killed the nautiloid he was fighting with his short sword, he looked over to see how Baabby was faring - just in time to see him fall over, unconscious from the blood loss from numerous wounds.

Sam realized the tube shark would be spinning around to get him next, and he desperately didn't want to still be there when it did. So, since running away and leaving his friend to die wasn't an option (well, obviously it was still technically an option, but the little crow surprised himself by how quickly he'd dismissed it), he took a deep breath and dived into the water underneath the hovering tube shark. With any luck, it wouldn't know where he'd gone for a second or two, and that was all the time Sam needed to swim - okay, maybe not "swim" in the technical sense, but scrabbling along the bottom of the stream with both wings and both feet counted, didn't it?) - beneath the tube shark and pop up next to the unconscious baabarian. Sam grabbed for a healing potion at his belt, then shook his head with a mental What was I thinking? and replaced it where it belonged. Instead, he pulled out one of Baabby's healing potions, popped the cork, and poured its contents down the sheep-man's throat as the tube shark spun around, looking for its errant prey. With just enough time, Sam was able to leap to Baabby's far side just as the sheep-man was waking back up and the tube shark was pointed back at them. "Go get 'im, Baabby!" Sam called encouragingly, mentally congratulating himself for putting Baabby between himself and the big, scary, levitating (and dangerous!) monster.

If Baabby was offended by this selfish maneuvering, he didn't let on - not that he had any time, for he gave another powerful swing of his greatsword as the tube shark floated in for the kill, and it was the tube shark that ended up dying, not Baabby. The baabarian's sword-chop cut the creature in two, with one half of it - the main "head" and the left "boomerang arm" floating down to the right with the current, back the way the heroes had come, and the left "boomerang arm" floating slowly down the other way. "Whew!" breathed Sam. "I'm glad that's over with!"

Together, the two heroes stumbled up to check out the Ocean's Heart. It was embedded in the rocky ceiling, but not too high up that the Rift-Weaver's Blade couldn't reach it. But when Baabby swung his greatsword into the gem to break off a piece for Crystal the Medusa, his sword got stuck! For a brief moment, the gemstone stopped gushing water into the cavern system, but then Baabby gave the sword a tug and it came free, cutting away three chunks of the Ocean's Heart with it. They put two chunks into their backpacks, and Sam offered to carry the other one back to Crystal. But then Baabby gave a cry of surprise and looked at the blade of his greatsword. The Water symbol had filled up with what seemed to be a chunk of solid ice - he had gained another of the Element symbols on the Rift-Weaver's Blade!

"All right!" cheered Sam.

"We'd better heal up, just in case," suggested Baabby, casting healing spells on both of them until they were almost back to full strength. As it turned out, that would prove to be an excellent idea, for as the heroes started back the way they had come, a voice called out from behind them.

"Who-o-o-o-o...kil-l-l-l-l-ed...bro-o-o-o-ther?" said a voice that sounded like it had seldom - if ever - been used.

"Uh-oh," said Baabby.

"Oh, please-please-please let that be a nautiloid," replied Sam, wishing as hard as he'd ever wished for anything in his life.

But it was not to be. Rising up out of the water, with the chopped-off arm from what had apparently been his brother in one boomerang-mouth, came another tube shark. He dropped the bloody limb back in the water and raced over to the two heroes, hatred and anger burning in his beady little shark's eyes.

"I think I can say," said Sam, looking at the rapidly approaching monster, "without any fear of contradiction: LET'S GET OUT OF HERE!" He shot an explosive arrow at the rampaging tube shark, hoping to scare it off. But that ploy didn't work, and the heroes found themselves backing up towards the Ocean's Heart. Each hero went to a different side of the cascading water, and even Baabby opted to use a ranged weapon - Sam's old shortbow, relegated to "backup weapon" status and loaned to Baabby once the little crow had gained his Dynabow 2.0 - to try to do as much damage to the tube shark before it could move into biting range.

But as the tube shark approached, it used a maneuver the heroes had already forgotten about: despite not having any nautiloids handy to suck into one of its forward vacuum-mouths, the process worked just as easily on Sam Crow. Sam felt himself flying through the air on a crash course with a circular mouth full of sharp, pointed teeth. Instead of sucking him in and then spitting him back out as a missile weapon, the tube shark bit down hard on Sam's right wing as it entered his mouth. It hurt too much for Sam to even get out his traditional "No fair!"

But Baabby wasn't going to stand for his little friend being treated like that! Dropping the borrowed shortbow, the baabarian closed the distance to the tube shark with a tight, two-handed grip on his Rift-Weaver's Blade. He swung it into the side of the tube shark, dealing more damage in one blow than he'd ever managed before, for the blade was now enhanced as a frost weapon, courtesy of the now-filled Water element rune in the sword's blade. The tube shark howled in agony, releasing poor Sam from his grip.

Sam, half-submerged in the water, pulled an arrow from his quiver and sent it flying into the tube shark. It did nowhere near the same amount of damage as Baabby's greatsword, but that wasn't the point - in Sam's case, to even still be in the fight was quite an accomplishment.

Realizing the pipsqueak crow was of little threat to him, the tube shark once again concentrated his attacks on Baabby. It got in one good bite on the baabarian before Baabby skewered it on his blade, and for the second time that day a tube shark's corpse went floating down with the current of the water released from the Ocean's Heart.

Baabby took a moment to heal the worst of their wounds with the few healing spells he still had prepared, and then the two heroes skedaddled back the way they'd come. They both fervently wished they wouldn't meet up with any other creatures at all as they made their way back to Crystal the Medusa's cave.

Unfortunately, they didn't get their wish, for waiting on the pebbly beach for them was a creature neither had yet come across in their brief time adventuring together.

Fortunately, the creature in question was a simple snail, no bigger than the palm of the hand at the end of Sam's wing.

"Hey, little fellow!" said Sam, picking the snail up and staring into its twin eyestalks. "Would you like to be my animal companion?"

"Your aanimal compaanion?" repeated Baabby in his sheep-man accent. "Since when do you need an aanimal compaanion?"

"It's traditional for rangers to have an animal companion," retorted Sam. "I think it's about time I got an animal companion. Hey, I think I'll call you Shelldon!" he said, turning his attention back to the snail. "Do you want to be my animal companion. Shelldon?"

Shelldon, obviously, didn't answer - even if he was now an animal companion, it wasn't like he was a wizard's familiar or anything.

"Shelldon says he'd love to," reported Sam to Baabby.

"Oh, good," replied Baabby, rolling his eyes. Then, focusing back on the task at hand, he said, "Let's get back to Crystal's cave." Sam agreed that was a good idea - and so, apparently, did Shelldon.

- - -

Our PCs made it to 4th level right before this adventure, so we leveled them up. Sam opted to go from a 17 to an 18 Dexterity, which is helping him hit with his arrows a bit (even if his damage is the same). Harry opted to bump up Baabby's Intelligence to 12 - the same as Sam's - because he didn't like the idea of Sam being smarter than Baabby. Unfortunately, that was the only option that would have given him a change to an ability score bonus, and we couldn't talk him into bumping up his Strength or Constitution to help him on the baabarian side of things, or to Wisdom to aid the cleric side of things, because all of those ability scores were even and bumping any of them up would have no game benefits until 8th level (when the same ability score could be bumped up again).

So that was part of what attracted me to the idea of Sam getting a snail animal companion. I didn't want something fearsome that could actually be of combat benefit; the whole point is that Baabby's the star of this little series of adventures and Sam's just there as the sidekick. I figured a snail could always sit on Sam's shoulder and thus not get left behind, but he'd have no real practical purpose other than "nerfing" Sam a bit. Plus, I'm sure Sam can wring some amusement out of a having a snail to pretend to talk to.

Richards · Apr 17, 2017

ADVENTURE 8: THE MEDUSA'S HAIRCUT

PC Roster:

Baabby, humanoid sheep barbarian/cleric (Life) 4
Sam Crow, humanoid crow ranger/rogue 4

NPC Roster:

Sapphrina, fairy sorcerer 4

Game Session Date: 15 April 2017

- - -

"Hey, isn't that Crystal?" asked Sam, squinting his eyes against the sun. Sure enough, it was - and the Medusa had the diamond-hard statue of Sapphrina the fairy tucked underneath one arm.

"Hello," said Crystal as she approached the duo (trio, if you counted Shelldon - but nobody but Sam ever seemed to want to count Shelldon). "I thought I'd save you a bit of walking. Come on - we're going this way."

"Where are we going?" asked Sam. Baabby didn't seem at all concerned; he was just content knowing that they were heading wherever it was they needed to be heading.

"To a nearby gillman fishing village," replied Crystal. "It's not far."

"Oh, I see," said Sam, without having a clue as to why they needed to go to a gillman fishing village. The gillmen were friendly folks, mostly content with leading the simple lives of fishermen, although one of their number - Gill Grunt - had made it into the illustrious ranks of the Skylanders themselves.

Silence reigned for a few moments. Then Sam looked down at the gastropod sitting comfortably on his left shoulder and added, "Shelldon wants to know why we're heading towards a gillman fishing village."

Crystal hid a smile, seeing through the little crow's subterfuge. "I've helped them in the past, and helping Sapphrina will undo the help I've given the gillmen in the past. I need you two there to redo the help I'm about to undo."

"Oh," said Sam. "That makes sense." He slowed down a bit to allow Crystal to walk ahead of him, then looked down at his snail animal companion and made "she's crazy" motions with a finger by the side of his head. Shelldon, as usual, didn't respond.

The gillman fishing village wasn't very far away, and within minutes the trio (quartet, if you counted Shelldon, but you're probably not counting him either, are you?) stepped into a group of sturdy-looking wooden huts clustered around an enormous statue of a rearing serpent. Scattered around some of the huts were four statues of dinosaurs. The serpent and the dinosaurs were all the same color crystal as the statue of Sapphrina.

"Yipes! What are those?" asked Sam, looking at the ferocious-looking dinosaurs. Each had a mouth full of sharp teeth and wicked-looking claws, especially one particular curved claw on each foot.

"Deinonychi," replied Crystal.

"Really?" asked Sam, looking back and forth at the various dinosaurs. "Which one's Dino Mikey, and what are the other ones called?" Crystal chose to ignore the little crow-man and approached the gillman village elder to inform them what she was about to do. Worried looks crossed the villagers' faces, but they trusted Crystal's judgment - she had, after all, helped them out many times in the past - and if she said these two heroes could handle the serpent and the dinosaurs, who were they to judge otherwise?

"When I cut off the snake that's the same color as these statues, Sapphrina will return to life - but so will the dinosaurs and the sloth-serpent." The turquoise-colored snake in question gave a visible gulp; apparently a bit nervous about being cut off from the rest of its variously-colored kin growing from Crystal's scalp. Fortunately, its blindfold remained in place, as did those on the rest of Crystal's hair-serpents.

"Is thaat a potion shop?" asked Baabby, examining a sign in front of one of the huts.

"Why, it sure is!" declared one of the gillmen, stepping forward. "Would you like to buy a few potions?" It sounded like a pretty good idea; Baabby and Sam each picked up a couple of potions of cure serious wounds and Sam splurged on both a potion of resist fire and a potion of resist electricity. "You can never be too careful!" he said to the group at large, and then added "Shelldon agrees" for the benefit of those who didn't speak Snail.

There was also an armorer's shop in the small village, so the heroes decided to see what was for sale. Baabby walked away in a new +1 deep crabshell breastplate, and Sam ended up buying a suit of gray +1 studded leather armor that was enhanced with the scales of an elemental chameleon. He was a little worried that the armor was made of tube shark hide; hopefully he'd never meet up with another tube shark and have to explain why he was wearing armor made from the skin of one of their kind.

"So whaat's the plaan?" asked Baabby, after buckling on his new breastplate.

"I think we ought to do something about some of these Dino-Mikeys before we wake them up," said Sam, pulling out a 50-foot length of rope from his backpack and asking Baabby to do the same. Due to the distances between them, Sam was only able to tie up two of the four dinosaurs, but hopefully the ropes would keep them out of the fight for a bit - al least long enough for Baabby and Sam to take out some of the others. Sam had all kinds of trust in Baabby's ability to handle himself in battle, but he wasn't willing to enter a two-against-five fight if he could help it - especially when all five were so much bigger than both of the two!

"Okay, you stand here and get ready to whack this one as soon as he turns back to flesh and blood," suggested Sam. "We'll put Sapphrina behind you, where she's likely to be safest."

"Whaat about you?" asked Baabby.

"You see that hut way back there?" Sam asked, pointing to a little building at the far end of the small village. "I'm going to be right there, on the roof, where I can shoot the Dino-Mikeys from a nice, safe distance!" As Sam trudged over to his designated starting point, the gillmen all locked themselves into their huts until the battle was over. Crystal had a dagger in hand and had walked to the edge of the village where they had first approached - she was willing to sacrifice a hair-serpent (temporarily - it would grow back) but didn't want to get involved in a fight if she could avoid it. After all, cutting off one of her hair-serpents would shut off the power of the others to turn creatures to stone for a matter of some minutes, so Crystal would be all but defenseless during that time.

"Ready!" called Sam,an arrow nocked in his Dynabow 2.0.

"Ready!" called Baabby, his greatsword held in a two-handed grip, ready to swing.

"Shelldon says he's ready, too!" added Sam.

"Good luck!" called Crystal, slicing away the turquoise hair-serpent at the root with her dagger. Once cut away from her head, the serpent seemed to dissolve into thin air. The outer, diamond-hard surfaces of the statues were dissolving away as well, revealing the flesh-and-blood creatures hidden within. Before any of the formerly-petrified creatures could react, the heroes struck.

Baabby, unfortunately, made such an effort trying to get every ounce of strength behind his sword-swing that he lost sight of his target's location and actually missed. The dinosaur beside him was somewhat surprised to return to life with a sheep-man swinging a massive greatsword deep into the ground by his side. Sam, who had powered up an explosive arrow, let fly and hit the side of the dinosaur nearest him. He grinned at his awesome targeting - and then gulped as the dinosaur spun to face him, a look of extreme anger crossing its reptilian face.

Suddenly, everyone was in motion. Baabby pulled his greatsword out of the deep channel he'd cut in the ground and swung it again at the dinosaur standing by him, but the moment of surprise had been ruined and the dinosaur easily stepped aside from the baabarian's blow. Behind Baabby, Sapphrina looked about her in surprise, wondering where - and when - in the world she was. The sloth-serpent in the middle of the village plopped to the ground and looked around, hissing. And while the two bound deinonychi struggled with their ropes, the one Sam had shot had no similar restraints: he went bounding across the distance between him and the crow-man. Sam managed to hit him with a regular arrow during his brief travel time, but then the deinonychus was snapping at him with his wicked teeth.

Baabby put all of his strength into another swing with the Rift-Weaver's Blade and this time he not only connected but chopped halfway through the dinosaur's body. He pulled his sword out as the creature toppled to the ground, dead.

"What's going on?" asked Sapphrina.

"You were turned to crystal, but so were these monsters!" explained Baabby. "The only waay to release you was to release them, too!"

"Got it!" replied Sapphrina. "We'll talk later!" And then she flew over to the baabarian and touched him on the shoulder. Baabby felt a surge of power rush through his whole body, as the bear's endurance spell took effect. Ignoring the bound dinosaur behind him to his right, he leaped onto the roof of the nearest hut and pulled himself up. Maybe Sam was on to something: why not stay up out of range and take care of business with ranged weapons? He pulled Sam's old shortbow from his back and readied an arrow.

The dinosaur that Sam had shot twice now surprised the crow-man by leaping onto the sturdy wood roof of the hut he'd selected as his safe battle place. "Hey! No fair!" called out the crow ranger. The deinonychus snapped at Sam with its wicked teeth again and Sam was forced to abandon the rooftop. He raced away towards a clump of trees, then snapped back and shot the deinonychus for a third time. The arrows were causing the creature pain, anger, and grief, but weren't killing him as quickly as the little crow had hoped!

One of the bound dinosaurs finally bit his way out of the ropes and got to its feet. Across the village, the other still struggled to do the same. Sapphrina flew to Baabby's rooftop and surprised the baabarian with another spell: enlarge person. Baabby and his equipment grew to over a dozen feet in height - he could tell it was going to be nice having the fairy on the team!

But being a bigger sheep-man also meant being a bigger target. The serpent slithered over and struck out at Baabby, its fangs piercing the flesh of his upper arm. Baabby could feel venom coursing through the wound but he shrugged off whatever effects it might have had and bashed the snake in the face for its effrontery. Hopefully, there wasn't enough time for too much venom to have been pumped into his system. But Baabby followed up with a swing of the Rift-Weaver's Blade that cut deep into the serpent's side. It hissed like a tea kettle and backed off. But after doing so the serpent was suddenly attacked by the deinonychus that had escaped from its ropes; apparently serpent made just as good a breakfast as sheep-man. The serpent swung around and struck at the deinonychus, sinking its fangs deep into the side of the dinosaur's throat. The sloth-serpent released its grasp on the deinonychus and the dinosaur staggered away, its new lease on life not exactly everything it might have hoped for.

Sam's favorite foe seemed to have a lock on him. It leaped down from the rooftop, swiftly covered the distance between them, and sliced the leather-clad crow with its sickle-shaped toe-claw. Sam staggered back a few steps and managed to shoot the deinonychus again, but even after this fourth shot the stupid monster still wasn't dead. Sam realized he was in a bad position; with both of them on the ground, there was nowhere for the crow to go that the deinonychus couldn't follow - and get in multiple attacks with its teeth and claws. Sam briefly considered running into one of the huts, but then remembered they'd told the gillmen to lock themselves in. That wasn't going to work!

Fortunately, Sapphrina saw Sam's predicament and flew across the battlefield to help him. She was a sorceress, so she couldn't heal him like Baabby could, but she did have spells at hand that would help. Dropping down low enough to touch Sam on the head, she cast a bear's endurance spell on him that would hopefully give him a few more moments against his foe before dropping unconscious.

Baabby shot an arrow at the snake and leaped down from the roof, moving over behind the deinonychus still bound up in ropes. As it looked like it was about to free itself any moment, this seemed a particularly good time to take care of that threat. But first, Baabby waited to see if the serpent would continue attacking the dinosaur it had bitten or turn to try to get him again.

The deinonychus that had been fighting the sloth-serpent decided to run away and live to fight again another day and it did so, albeit in slow motion - revealing the reason for the snake's name. The other deinonychus still in the fight went after Sam again, determined to bring the little crow down. "I taste terrible!" called out Sam, trying to reason with the hungry beast. "It's a perfectly logical assumption to think that I taste like chicken, but I don't! I taste like--" and here Sam scrambled to come up with an unsavory bird "--vulture!" The ploy didn't work; Sam ended up getting bitten and scratched by all four sets of claws. He practically wobbled away, still jabbering at the monster, hoping to draw it away from Sapphrina, who in flying low enough to cast the bear's endurance spell on him had put herself in harm's way.

"You know, I'll bet if you look around you can find some dead dinosaurs around here you can eat!" babbled Sam. "Cannibalization doesn't count if you're a dinosaur - I'm pretty sure I read that somewhere!"

Rather than crawl after its slow-fleeing prey, the serpent turned again and faced Baabby. He was crouching down behind the still-bound deinonychus, waiting to see what the snake would do. When it started slithering his way, Baabby sprang into action. One swipe of the Rift-Weaver's Blade into the body of the deinonychus just now ripping through the rope keeping it in place and there was one less monster to worry about in the gillman fishing village. Then Baabby continued his strike, whipping his greatsword around and slicing into the snake's body in one graceful movement. The snake hissed again in pain - which was enough to alert the slow-fleeing deinonychus that maybe sticking around wasn't such a bad idea after all! That giant sheep-man kept killing creatures, but he never stopped to eat what he had killed! Maybe the dinosaur could have himself some serpent breakfast after all....

As for the serpent, it had apparently come to a conclusion: the oversized sheep-man needed to die! It focused its full attention on Baabby, striking out again and sliding its venomous fangs into Baabby's neck. The baabarian cried out in pain and dropped his greatsword, trying to pull the snake away from his neck. His legs buckled, the baabarian swayed, and then Baabby crashed to the ground, unconscious. Fortunately, before the snake could position itself to start trying to swallow Baabby from one end, the venom-slowed deinonychus showed back up, using a sickle-claw to score a wound in the snake's body.

Sam and his dino-enemy traded another round of one arrow vs. a barrage of snapping teeth and striking claws, and once again Sam came out the worst in that deal. But glancing over at Baabby, Sam called for Sapphrina to go feed him a healing potion from the baabarian's belt. As the fairy flew off to do so, Sam raced in that direction himself, hoping to get close enough to Baabby when he woke back up to get some healing himself. He swigged his own newly-purchased potion of cure serious wounds as he ran, part of his greedy mind wondering if he'd get a discount from the gillmen if he returned the potion bottle once he was done with it, while the rest of his mind panicked, expecting the blasted dinosaur to catch up with him at any moment.

The moment came soon enough. Sprinting after his fleeing prey, the deinonychus caught up with Sam and swiped a toe-claw at him, scoring the crow across his back, just below the backpack. "Why are you so fast?" complained Sam. "Are you wearing Dino-Nikes or something?" But then he fell flat to the ground, allowing the dinosaur to leap over him. Sam crouched back up and shot an arrow into the dinosaur's back, which irritated it to no end - but still didn't make it fall.

The slowed dinosaur bent down and bit into the snake's body, deciding there was no need to actually wait for the snake to be dead for breakfast to begin. Sapphrina took the opportunity to pull a potion of cure serious wounds from Baabby's belt and pour it down his throat. The shaggy baabarian woke, dazed, but then cleared his head with an effort of willpower and leaped back into battle. Still, he didn't forget his manners: "Thaanks!" he called out to Sapphrina as he sent his blade swinging deep into the serpent's body. The dinosaur, rather than teaming up with Baabby to take out the serpent first and foremost, snapped its teeth at the baabarian, concerned that the sheep-man was after his breakfast. The snake took the opportunity to crawl away from the two brawling brutes, slithering to the south, where other sounds of battle raged. Baabby slammed his greatsword into the envenomed deinonychus, sending it spinning away.

Sam's dancing partner spun around and struck out again with the claws on its feet, sending black feathers flying everywhere. "Ow!" cried Sam. He sent another arrow flying into the creature - it had to have been his sixth thus far - and the monster still wouldn't die! "Oh, come on!" complained the archer.

But then the deinonychus got a surprise, for the sloth-serpent had slithered up behind it just as it was going to finish off its little crow meal. The snake struck out at the dinosaur, biting it on the back of its neck. But then the snake got a surprise, for Baabby had followed it south and a final swing of the Rift-Weaver's Blade took the snake's head from its body.

And Sapphrina had followed Baabby, her fairy wings carrying her through the air at a height to keep her out of the reach of dinosaurs and snakes. She blasted the deinonychus so intent upon eating Sam - and dropped it with a single spell.

"Wow!" exclaimed Sam, amazed that one spell from their new fairy friend killed the Dino-Mikey where six arrows had failed to do the job. "What spell was that?"

"A ray of frost," admitted Sapphrina. "It's really my only attack spell."

"No fair!" complained Sam. "I get full credit for that kill!" And then, seeing there was still one combatant left on the enemy side still somewhat in the fight, he raced north and put an arrow into the neck of the deinonychus that had traded bites with the sloth-serpent. He had really, really hoped that his arrow would have taken down the dinosaur, but no such luck. Baabby finished it off with his greatsword, as usual. Then, the threat ended, he started banging on doors, letting the gillmen know it was safe to come out from their wooden huts.

"I can see you two are quite the formidable force," said Sapphrina, hoping to soothe some ruffled feathers. "It's no wonder you were chosen to wield the Rift-Weaver's Blade after Xacho. And you've already gathered three of the runes on your own? Very impressive! Do you know what they all do?"

"Well, the water rune adds cold damage to my sword-strikes," began Baabby. "And the undead rune makes it easier to slay undead."

"That's right," agreed Sapphrina. "It allows you to overcome the inherent damage reduction found on many undead creatures." Neither Sam nor Baabby were quite sure just what she meant by that, but they let it slide.

"We haven't figured out the magic rune yet," admitted Sam.

"Why, that's the most important one!" exclaimed the fairy. "This is the Rift-Weaver's Blade, remember - the magic rune allows you to weave rifts to other places. I can show you how all of that works."

"Thank you," said Baabby, ever aware of proper manners.

"You know," bragged Sam, "there's a legend about us already: 'The Prophecy of the Crow and the Sheep'."

"'The Sheep and the Crow'," corrected Baabby and Sapphrina in unison.

"Well, some people prefer it the other way around," grumbled Sam.

"So whaat now?" asked Baabby.

"Well, it would probably be a good idea to go find the rest of your runes," said Sapphrina. "You'll need your sword at full power if you're going to take on the enemy prophesied to escape from his bonds and threaten all of Skylands." The fairy looked around her. "Where exactly are we, anyway?"

"We're on one of the Serpent Isles," said Sam. "We have an airship over on a beach not far from here. Hopefully it'll be fixed by now."

"Fixed?" asked Sapphrina.

"Yeah, it kind of craashes," said Baabby.

"A lot," added Sam.

"Well then, let's go see if it's ready to make sail," said Sapphrina, motioning for Baabby to lead the way. "The three of us have a lot to do!"

Baabby led the way out the village, the Rift-Weaver's Blade resting over one powerful shoulder. They didn't make it more than a dozen steps before Sam amended, "...You mean the four of us. Don't forget Shelldon."

- - -

We used a fold-out map from the D&D Miniatures game, the "Evermelt" map that came with the "Legend of Drizzt" scenario pack you got with the Gargantuan White Dragon mini, for the gillman fishing village. And Harry, ever the analyst, noted this was the first adventure that was just one big fight. He also made note of the fact that Sam hasn't been knocked unconscious since our second adventure.

This is probably a good point to mention some of our house rules. Logan's implemented a rule whereby anyone who drops to negative hit points automatically stabilizes at -1 hp, and they can roll a d10 each round to see if they spontaneously wake up at 0 hp on their own. It's his way of trying to eliminate the possibility of PC death from the game while still having consequences for letting yourself get too low on hit points. And with only two PCs, the loss of one could wipe out the whole campaign easily (especially a campaign tracking the progress of two prophesied heroes - kind of hard to switch PCs midstream!).

Another thing we do is treat each game session as a completely new day, regardless of how much time has passed in-game. So despite the fact that some adventures take place literally minutes after the events of the previous adventure, Harry gets to pick a full complement of spells for Baabby. (So do I for that matter, but with only one 1st-level ranger spell thus far it's easy just to have longstrider on standby as needed.)

As for Sapphrina, she's there primarily as a guide, able to clue us in on important history and background information as needed. Logan built her as a sorcerer, and gave her primarily buff spells to make Baabby an even more impressive combat machine. (So far, Baabby tends to use just about all of his cleric spells on healing, so this allows the party to benefit from the effects of some of the spells he's not otherwise casting.) She's not got many hit points herself, so she definitely will be avoiding combat, leaving Baabby and Sam to take care of that front.

Richards · Apr 23, 2017

ADVENTURE 9: THE LIFE-GIVER'S GROVE

PC Roster:

Baabby, humanoid sheep barbarian/cleric (Life) 4
Sam Crow, humanoid crow ranger/rogue 4

NPC Roster:

Sapphrina, fairy sorcerer 4

Game Session Date: 22 April 2017

- - -

Two days later, the adventurers approached another Skylands floating island in their troll airship. When they had returned to the vessel after leaving the gillman fishing village, they had found it fully repaired by the animated statue that Sapphrina identified as a likeness of Xacho's son. They had immediately set course for a two-day trip to an island the fairy said contained the Life-Giver's Grove, their next destination and, not coincidentally, the location where Baabby could gain the powers of the Life Rune for the Rift-Weaver's Blade.

It had been an interesting two days. Sapphrina, despite having been trapped as an inanimate crystal statue for hundreds of years, was a veritable font of information. She explained that her master, Xacho, was the creator and first wielder of the Rift-Weaver's Blade; that it had originally been called the Sword of the Elements; that he had formed a group of magical scholars who called themselves the Rift-Weavers, after the rifts they had learned to carve into reality; that Xacho had sealed a great evil inside a rift, and that should the Rift-Weaver's Blade ever be destroyed the great evil would surely escape to threaten all of Skylands; that there were others attempting to aid the great evil in escaping the rift in which he was imprisoned; and that over time the Rift-Weavers became known throughout the Skylands as Portal Masters. Even Sam had heard of Portal Masters: the most powerful good Portal Master was Eon, who helped the Skylanders combat the machinations of Kaos, an evil Portal master who wished to destroy the Core of Light which kept darkness at bay throughout the Skylands.

Sapphrina also let it drop that she was capable of enhancing weapons with magical properties, which overjoyed Sam to no end - up until she mentioned she did so by absorbing coins and transforming the energy thus gained into the magical effects she desired. Still, Sam paid her 2,000 of his gold coins to have her upgrade his Dynabow 2.0, so that he could fire explosive arrows while moving and also increase the power of the explosions a bit. He said a sad farewell to his pile of coins as they vanished, but was pleased with the upgrade to his primary weapon.

"So whaat are you going to call it now?" asked Baabby. "Dynabow 2.5?"

"Nah," replied Sam. "I'm going all the way to Dynabow 3.0 - that way it still rhymes."

Sapphrina also warned the duo that she couldn't touch the Rift-Weaver's Blade, upon pain of possible death. Fairies, she explained, were especially attuned to the elements, and the extreme elemental power of the magical greatsword could easily overwhelm her.

"Yipes!" exclaimed Sam. "That's...kinda not so good." Then, to change the subject, he asked her about their destination.

"The Life-Giver's Grove is part of a vast forest covering nearly the entirety of a small floating island," the fairy explained. "It's guarded by literally thousands of protectors who keep it safe from harm."

"Whaat kind of protectors?" asked Baabby.

"Chompies," replied Sapphrina.

"Oh, this ought to be fun!" exclaimed Sam.

The airship landed without incident for once, and Baabby and Sam strode down the gangplank, Sapphrina flying behind them. They were met almost immediately by forest and Sapphrina was forced to lower her elevation in order to not fly into low-hanging branches. They followed a winding path, and then Sam saw a pair of eyestalks peering out at them from behind the foliage to their left.

The chompy stepped out onto the path in front of the heroes. Then, incredibly, it did something neither hero had expected: it spoke!

"Help!" it cried, its stumpy arms waving in consternation. "Save us!"

"Well, this is new," commented Sam, not sure of what to make of a talking chompy and not sure if he trusted this not to be a trap. He kept an arrow nocked into his Dynabow 3.0 just in case, and asked, "Do we trust this guy?"

"Of course," replied Sapphrina, surprised at the question. "They're the guardians of the Life-Giver's Grove."

"Let's follow him," said Baabby, immediately putting his full trust into Sapphrina's judgment. Sam wasn't quite so quick to follow his friend's lead in trusting the chompy, but he followed the others as they followed the chompy to a small clearing. "Keep your eyes peeled," Sam advised Shelldon, riding on his usual place on the little crow's left shoulder.

The chompy came to a halt before three more of his kind and explained the newcomers were heroes.

"Hooray!" called one of the chompies.

"We're saved!" cried another one. Sam was amazed; he'd never in his wildest dreams envisioned chompies being happy to see him and his hulking baabarian friend, given the dozens of chompies they'd slain over the course of their recent adventures. "This is a weird day," he mentioned to Shelldon; the snail didn't disagree.

"Who's been attaacking you?" asked Baabby, looking around for potential enemies.

"Undead! Horrible, horrible undead!" cried the chompy guide who'd brought them here.

"Where is the rest of your number?" asked Sapphrina.

"We're all that's left!" cried the chompy guide. "And we can't leave now, because Leafy's started to take root!" Sure enough, one of the chompies no longer had visible legs - they'd dug deep into the ground, rooting him in place. "Once he transforms into a chompy pod, we'll be able to expand our numbers once again - but until then, we're vulnerable to the undead who have been wiping us out!"

Sam gulped and looked around for enemies just as Baabby had done. "How many undead are around here?" he whispered, not wanting these hordes of undead forces to hear him and come running.

"At least--six!" replied the chompy guide, shuddering at the thought of so many enemies.

"Six?" gasped Sam, aghast at how powerful these undead must be for six of their number to have wiped out thousands of chompy guardians. But then he recalled how easy it was to kill a chompy; Baabby habitually killed several at once with a single stroke of his greatsword, and even the crow archer had managed to slay a chompy with a single arrow. (Annoyingly, the creatures they'd been fighting lately required many, many arrows to bring them down!)

"We'll take caare of them for you!" promised Baabby, leading the way back the way they'd come and moving further into the forest. Sam and Sapphrina followed.

Before too long, they got their first sight of the undead menace. They were four bone chompies and two humanoid skeletons wielding bows and arrows made of bone. "Bone 'n' arrows!" Baabby identified them.

"That's what you call them?" asked Sam, skeptical. "Why not just skeletons?"

"Because they're called bone 'n' arrows!" insisted Baabby. Sam just shrugged and took aim at the nearest skeletal archer (that's what he was going to call them). He charged it up with explosive energy, eager to see what his upgraded Dynabow 3.0 could do - and in his eagerness, fumbled the shot. The arrow went high and exploded after hitting a low-hanging branch. "Hey!" complained the former member of the Sons of Archery. "No fair!"

Sapphrina, in the meantime, put a hand upon Baabby's shoulder and cast an enlarge person spell on him. Instantly, the already-hulking baabarian hulked like he'd never hulked before - for there he stood, nearly 13 feet tall, having to crouch over to keep his head from getting entangled in the branches. His Rift-Weaver's Blade had doubled in size as well and he was eager to test out its damage potential at this new size.

He didn't have long to wait. A pair of bone chompies advanced, sharp teeth clicking together as if eager to strip the flesh off the baabarian's hide (or at least his knees, which was about all they could reach). Baabby swung his greatsword into the first chompy, cutting it completely in two as his blade rushed into the skeletal body of its neighbor, doing likewise. The baabarian chuckled in delight - he could tell having Sapphrina around was going to be fun!

The skeletal archer Sam had shot at sent an arrow of bone across the distance between the heroes, striking Baabby - the group's largest target by far - in the shoulder. The grinning sheep-man hardly even seemed to notice as he advanced upon the bone 'n' arrow.

"You're next!" said Sapphrina, flying over to Sam and casting a spell upon him. "All right!" cried Sam, eager to double in size like Baabby had done and be able to strike out with extra strength and power. Instead, he saw the world around him get larger, as his feathered body shrunk to half its size. Shelldon, however, did not shrink and he became an unwieldy weight upon the little crow's shoulder; Sam had to shift him to his head for balance, wearing him like a warrior's helmet.

"What just happened?" demanded Sam, embarrassed by the squeaky little voice that came out of his beak. "Did your spell backfire?"

"No, this is a good thing," advised Sapphrina. "You'll be glad to be small, believe me!" Sam wasn't so sure about that; now even the bone chompies were taller than he was! But he shot off an arrow at the skeletal archer that had just shot Baabby, and his targeting capability was noticeably enhanced at this size; after all, the target he was trying to hit suddenly seemed much bigger to him! "Hmm," considered the crow-man, watching as his arrow struck true but failed to do any real damage to its target. Sam scampered behind Baabby, over to the other side of the clearing so that the two remaining bone chompies wouldn't get him.

That part of his plan worked; what Sam hadn't considered that by casting the reduce person spell on him, Sapphrina had flown low to the ground and made herself a perfectly fine target. One bone chompy snapped at the fairy sorceress, clamping onto an arm with its sharp, pointed teeth. Sapphrina barely had time to cry out in pain before the Rift-Weaver's Blade came slicing down, cutting the bone chompy in two. Likewise, the fairy barely had time to get out a mumbled thanks to Baabby before his greatsword was slicing the other approaching bone chompy's body in twain as well. Bigger sword, greater strength, and a larger reach - this enlarge person business is FUN! thought Baabby.

So far, the group had only been dealing with one bone 'n' arrow, but as Baabby advanced upon him he saw a second one perched on a tree stump off to the right. They were too far apart for the baabarian to be able to attack both, even with the enhanced reach of his greatsword, so he stuck to his original target. Sapphrina, meanwhile, staggered along a different path and called out to Sam. "Over here!" she said, and the little archer went to investigate. There, standing in front of a large pit of some kind, was an undead spell punk! Baabby and Sam had encountered one of these strange little creatures back in the Museum of Mystical Mysteries, so Sam knew they could summon bone chompies from thin air. The archer took aim and sent an explosive arrow flying in the direction of the spell punk - and this time his aim was true. The spell punk, floating over the ground, was momentarily encompassed by a small gout of flame and smoke, and his robes were blackened and singed when the smoke dissipated. "What? Who?" he sputtered, having failed to see the half-size Sam Crow down one of the paths leading to the crater.

Both bone 'n' arrows got in clean shots on Baabby as he raced to his target, but that didn't stop him from taking the skull clean off of the original archer who had first shot at the group of heroes. That one clattered to the ground in a pile of bones, while the other took aim at the baabarian again and fired another round.

"Aha!" cried the undead spell punk suddenly, having spotted his foe at last. He raised his pointed limbs and sent a ball of grayish energy hurling in Sam's direction. But fortunately for the crow he was a much smaller target than normal and it was easy enough to dodge the attack. Sam replied with an arrow - a regular one, as his Dynabow 3.0 still needed time to recharge its explosive energy - that sent the spell punk staggering on its last breath.

But then the hovering mage caught sight of Baabby and his enchanted greatsword, and all thoughts of his own personal discomfort were set instantly aside. "The great blade!" he cried aloud, "I must have it, for my master!" Dazed, he flew off in a drunken fashion towards Baabby, channeling another gray-energy-ball attack as he did so. The energy hit Baabby in the back, siphoning away some of his very life force. He spun to face this new threat, turning his back on the remaining bone 'n' arrow (who took the opportunity to send another bone shaft into Baabby's broad back), and charged at the undead spell punk. The floating combatant didn't stand a chance, and his robes fluttered to the ground in two pieces after Baabby's swing cut the little fellow in half.

"Aw, I was going to kill that thing!" squeaked Sam in irritation, running over to Baabby's location and seeing that once again all of his whittle-down-the-enemy groundwork had been set up just to have somebody else make the final blow. In anger, he fired off a shot at the remaining skeletal archer. It hit, but the skeleton remained standing just long enough for Baabby to run it through with the Rift-Weaver's Blade. "Figures!" squeaked Sam.

With the enemies all slain, Baabby took the opportunity to cast some healing spells on those who needed them. Then the chompy waddled up. "Oh, thank you! Thank you!" it gushed. "You have slain the horrible, horrible undead! Thank you!" It then offered to escort them to the Life-Giver's Grove, where Baabby would be able to gain the Life Rune for his Rift-Weaver's Blade.

Following the little chompy (and regaining their normal sizes as the fairy's spells wore off), Baabby and Sam saw their little guide's eyestalks go bolting straight up in surprise. "Eep!" it exclaimed. "It was a diversion!" Rushing up alongside the chompy to see what all of the commotion was about, the heroes looked into the clearing just ahead, where they saw five figures scattered around a large tree. They each had bluish-green skin and long, pointed ears; four of them - the males - each held a longspear, while the sole female wore a witch's robes.

"Drow!" cried out the chompy. "They're attacking the Life-Giver!"

"Where?" asked Sam, looking around for the Life-Giver but failing to spot him. He imagined a wizened old man with a long, white beard, probably wearing tattered robes and holding a wooden staff. "All I see are five drow around a tree!"

"The tree is the Life-Giver!" hissed Sapphrina, trying to keep her voice down. But it was too late; the chompy's excited exclamations had caught the attention of the sharp-eared drow, who all turned in the direction of the heroes. "Get them!" commanded the drow witch and the spearmen moved to comply. With another "Eep!" the chompy rapidly shuffled backwards, behind the rest of the heroes.

Sam immediately shot one of the advancing drow spearmen with an explosive arrow and was pleased to see him actually fall to the ground, dead. "Hey! I actually got one!" he cried triumphantly, surprised at his unexpected success.

Sapphrina, seeing how effective her ploy had been in the last battle, cast an enlarge person spell on Baabby. The sheep-man grinned as he doubled his size, taking a single step forward and slicing down another drow spearman like a farmer scything wheat. The other two spearmen advanced on Baabby, obviously taking him as their biggest threat. The witch, in the meantime, hiked up her robe with one hand and advanced on the trio of heroes. Dropping her hem, she shot both hands out at them and a sheet of flames came bursting forth from her fingertips, engulfing them in flames. Sam cried out in pain; Baabby barely grunted in acknowledgement of the damage he'd sustained; but Sapphrina swayed and nearly fell, her skin blistering from the attack.

Baabby, who had intended to take out the spearmen by himself, changed tactics in mid-swing and redirected the Rift-Weaver's Blade to the drow witch, herself the greatest threat to the heroes. His blade hit true, and continued its arc to slice into the side of one of the drow spearmen as well. Once again, Baabby had cut down two enemies with one strike of his magic blade.

"Show off," muttered Sam to himself.

That left a single drow spearman remaining in the fight. He moved as if to attack Baabby, then thought better of it and high-tailed it in the opposite direction.

"Hey! He's getting away!" yelled Sam, firing off an arrow at the fleeing drow with no effect. But there was nothing for it; the drow was running faster than the heroes would be able to follow, and more importantly, Sapphrina needed healing - now!

Baabby cast his most powerful healing spell on Sapphrina, causing the blisters on her fair skin to disappear. "Thank you," she said to the baabarian, who once again had returned to his normal size at the end of her spell's duration.

"Let's go check out that tree," suggested Baabby.

There was a doorway of sorts on one side of the tree's trunk, which the drow witch had been investigating when they approached. It led down beneath the massive tree's roots, but there was nothing mystical or enchanted about the natural opening beneath the tree. It would make a good place for a fox or a badger to make its home, but nothing more.

"Hey, try sticking your sword in there," suggested Sam. "Maybe it'll work like a key."

It did more than that. When Baabby stuck the Rift-Weaver's Blade into the depression underneath the tree's trunk it ripped a hole through the fabric of reality, revealing an extra-dimensional portal within. "Now we're talking!" enthused Sam.

"Let's go!" said Baabby, practically leaping through the portal he'd just opened.

The others followed their enthusiastic baabarian friend. They found the other side of the portal to be a very small floating island, a mere dozen or so paces from end to end. They entered through a stone arch rising up from one end of the island, before them was a hulking brute of a drow, easily a dozen feet tall, his massive back turned to the heroes. He held a spiked shield in each hand, covering his arms up to the elbows.

"A goliath drow!" said Baabby as way of introduction to the others; he let his Rift-Weaver's Blade do his actual introduction to the goliath drow before him, carving a deep gouge across the monster's spine. Sam took a step to the side so as not to hit Baabby, and let loose with an explosive arrow that practically knocked the brute off his feet. In a matter of a few seconds, the mighty goliath drow had gone from full strength to on his last legs - and wobbly legs at that!

Sapphrina cast a final enlarge person spell on Baabby, increasing his own size to that of the foe he faced. However, as the brute spun around in rage and pain, he was encompassed by a greenish glow and his wounds immediately began healing up. "Hey! No fair!" complained Sam. "How's he doing that?"

The answer became apparent once the heroes saw the life spell punk floating behind its massive bodyguard. "Go get 'em!" the hovering mage called to his partner. The goliath drow snarled in response and struck out with his spiked shields, but Baabby was ready for the attack and managed to duck beneath them, infuriating the giant drow even further.

Then, to make matters even worse, Baabby decided to show his foe exactly how it was done. Entering a baabaric rage himself, Baabby channeled every ounce of strength into a crushing blow from his Rift-Weaver's Blade. Muscles straining, he brought the greatsword crashing down onto the goliath drow, cutting through his armor, through his shoulder, and halfway through his apelike chest before the sword finally came to a halt. The baabarian had to put his own foot onto the slain enemy's chest and give his sword a great tug to get it out of the goliath drow's corpse before it went crashing to the ground.

Sam shot a normal arrow at the life spell punk, who stared in shock at how quickly his battle-partner had been taken out of the fight. Sapphrina flew off the edge of the little island, sending a ray of frost spell at the spell punk. Both attacks hit the floating mage, but he shrugged them off by absorbing natural power from the island, healing over his wounds. Then he gathered up a greenish ball of energy from the very air and sent it hurtling in Baabby's direction. It hit the baabarian square on, and he grunted from the magical assault. But then he retaliated with a swipe of his sword that just barely cut through the spell punk's robe as it hurriedly backed away. Sam shot an explosive arrow at the spell punk, but again it healed itself almost automatically. Then it repeated its attack on Baabby, again sending a ball of green energy flying his way. This time he missed, Baabby turning away at the last moment.

But that was the last of the missing for the rest of the fight. Sapphrina cast another ray of frost at the spell punk and hit. Sam shot a normal arrow at the spell punk and hit. Baabby stepped up and hit the spell punk with his greatsword, and this was one attack too many for the floating mage to withstand. "My master will avenge me..." he croaked as he died.

"Now whaat?" asked Baabby.

"Hold up your greatsword, like this," said Sapphrina, demonstrating through pantomime. Baabby raised the Rift-Weaver's Blade over his head in a one-handed grip, and just as the life spell punk had channeled the life energy of the extradimensional space to heal himself and the goliath drow in the battle moments ago, the fairy channeled the inherent power into the raised blade. Sam winced as a great light burst forth from the greatsword, momentarily blinding him. After blinking the spots away from his eyes, he saw the Life Rune had now joined the other three runes Baabby had gathered thus far: Magic, Undead, and Water.

"Haalfway there," the sheep-man said, grinning.

Returning to the Life-Giver's Grove, the group met back up with their chompy guide, who led them back to where Leafy had taken root. "It won't be long now!" enthused the chompies, noting Leafy had already nearly doubled in size as he began the metamorphosis that would end up with him becoming an immobile chompy pod. In celebration of the heroes' success, the other two chompies scampered off into the forest for a moment and returned dragging large cloth sacks behind them. "Here," they said, offering the sacks to the heroes.

Sam peered inside and saw the unmistakable glint of gold from the coins contained therein. "Talking chompies who give away treasure for a job well done?" he asked aloud. "You guys are the best chompies ever!

Perched up on the little crow's shoulder, Shelldon didn't disagree.

- - -

Logan used a couple of fold-out Pathfinder forest maps for the bits of forest where we had our various battles; the extradimensional space at the end was a card from the "Extradimensional Spaces" Map Pack set. He used a couple of toilet paper rolls and a paper towel roll to represent the Life-Giver, which was a kind of beacon tree that transmitted life energy to the Skylands in the vicinity.

And this adventure put the PCs over the limit into 5th level. The fact that Harry's been enjoying this campaign was evidenced by the fact that as soon as we were finished up he went running upstairs to tell my wife all about the events that transpired in-game.

The Adventures of Baabby and Sam - a Skylanders Campaign

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