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The Adventures of Baabby and Sam - a Skylanders Campaign
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<blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 7082193" data-attributes="member: 508"><p><strong>ADVENTURE 7: QUEST FOR THE OCEAN'S HEART</strong></p><p></p><p>PC Roster: <p style="margin-left: 20px">Baabby, humanoid sheep barbarian/cleric (Life) 4</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Sam Crow, humanoid crow ranger/rogue 4</p><p></p><p>Game Session Date: 9 April 2017</p><p></p><p> - - - </p><p></p><p>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....</p><p></p><p>"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.</p><p></p><p>"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 <em>Rift-Weaver's Blade</em> whizzed by harmlessly overhead.</p><p></p><p>"Oh yeah?" laughed Sam, lining up his next shot at the second chompy to come toddling his way. "When?"</p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>"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.</p><p></p><p>Baabby, still holding the breath he'd taken before immersing himself under the waves, swung his <em>Rift-Weaver's Blade</em> 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.</p><p></p><p>"Hang on, Baabby, I'm coming!" shouted Sam on the beach. He tried doing something he'd never tried before, casting a <em>longstrider</em> 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!).</p><p></p><p>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. </p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>"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!"</p><p></p><p>"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!"</p><p></p><p>"You sleep with a night light?" asked Baabby.</p><p></p><p>"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!</p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>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 <em>Rift-Weaver's Blade</em> was all it took for another serving of chompy salad to go floating down the stream in chunks.</p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>"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!"</p><p></p><p>"I think you got your sums wrong," said Baabby.</p><p></p><p>"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.</p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>"Are these guys lost, or is there another chompy pod around here someplace?" groaned Sam.</p><p></p><p>"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 <em>longstrider</em> spell active, it was sometimes difficult to keep up with his adrenaline-fueled baabarian friend!</p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>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!</p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>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 <em>cure moderate wounds</em> 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.</p><p></p><p>But now the tube shark was within range of the <em>Rift-Weaver's Blade</em> 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.</p><p></p><p>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 <em>What was I thinking?</em> and replaced it where it belonged. Instead, he pulled out one of <em>Baabby's</em> 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.</p><p></p><p>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!"</p><p></p><p>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 <em>Rift-Weaver's Blade</em> 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 <em>Rift-Weaver's Blade</em>!</p><p></p><p>"All right!" cheered Sam.</p><p></p><p>"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.</p><p></p><p>"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.</p><p></p><p>"Uh-oh," said Baabby.</p><p></p><p>"Oh, please-please-please let that be a nautiloid," replied Sam, wishing as hard as he'd ever wished for anything in his life.</p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>"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.</p><p></p><p>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!"</p><p></p><p>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 <em>Rift-Weaver's Blade</em>. 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 <em>frost</em> 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.</p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>Fortunately, the creature in question was a simple snail, no bigger than the palm of the hand at the end of Sam's wing.</p><p></p><p>"Hey, little fellow!" said Sam, picking the snail up and staring into its twin eyestalks. "Would you like to be my animal companion?"</p><p></p><p>"Your aanimal compaanion?" repeated Baabby in his sheep-man accent. "Since when do you need an aanimal compaanion?"</p><p></p><p>"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 <strong>Shelldon</strong>!" he said, turning his attention back to the snail. "Do you want to be my animal companion. Shelldon?"</p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>"Shelldon says he'd love to," reported Sam to Baabby.</p><p></p><p>"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.</p><p></p><p> - - -</p><p></p><p>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).</p><p></p><p>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.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Richards, post: 7082193, member: 508"] [b]ADVENTURE 7: QUEST FOR THE OCEAN'S HEART[/b] PC Roster: [INDENT]Baabby, humanoid sheep barbarian/cleric (Life) 4 Sam Crow, humanoid crow ranger/rogue 4[/INDENT] 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 [i]Rift-Weaver's Blade[/i] 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 [i]Rift-Weaver's Blade[/i] 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 [i]longstrider[/i] 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 [i]Rift-Weaver's Blade[/i] 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 [i]longstrider[/i] 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 [i]cure moderate wounds[/i] 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 [i]Rift-Weaver's Blade[/i] 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 [i]What was I thinking?[/i] and replaced it where it belonged. Instead, he pulled out one of [i]Baabby's[/i] 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 [i]Rift-Weaver's Blade[/i] 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 [i]Rift-Weaver's Blade[/i]! "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 [i]Rift-Weaver's Blade[/i]. 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 [i]frost[/i] 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 [b]Shelldon[/b]!" 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. [/QUOTE]
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The Adventures of Baabby and Sam - a Skylanders Campaign
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