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Story Hour
The Adventures of Baabby and Sam - a Skylanders Campaign
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<blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 7216530" data-attributes="member: 508"><p><strong>ADVENTURE 19: BETWEEN THE GATES OF ANUBISET</strong></p><p></p><p>PC Roster: <p style="margin-left: 20px">Baabby, humanoid sheep barbarian/cleric (Life) 10</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Sam Crow, humanoid crow ranger/rogue 10</p><p></p><p>NPC Roster: <p style="margin-left: 20px">Sapphrina, fairy sorcerer 10</p><p></p><p>Game Session Date: 2 September 2017</p><p></p><p> - - - </p><p></p><p>The heroes followed the Road of Skulls and eventually a great stone wall arose from the mists ahead. There was a moat of dark water before it, but a drawbridge of sorts - made from human leg bones, it looked like - was in the down position, allowing access to the double doors perched between two stone towers.</p><p></p><p>"You know, this used to be a river, but it got de-moated," quipped Sam. When neither of his friends commented on his pun, he mumbled, "Well, I'm sure Shelldon appreciated it."</p><p></p><p>The left tower held two mummy sentries, but the right tower seemed to be unoccupied. Sam was ready to take a shot at the mummies, but decided he'd better check with Sapphrina first. "Are those good mummies or bad mummies?" he asked, aware that the Death Masks the three heroes wore - which protected them from the undead energy inherent to the underworld that would otherwise kill the heroes over time - had been given to them by a friendly mummy from the kingdom of Anubiset.</p><p></p><p>"They should be good," replied the fairy. "Unless they're part of the occupying force."</p><p></p><p>"Well, let's just stroll up to the drawbridge and ask them," replied Sam, irritated that he couldn't tell the good guys from the bad guys in this crazy land. "Hey!" he called up to the mummies in the left tower. "We're here to help Queen Necrotifi! Can we come in?"</p><p></p><p>The mummies did not respond...but something did. "You must not be allowed to interfere!" came a creepy whisper of a voice. Looking around, the heroes saw three wraiths rise up from the ground around them.</p><p></p><p>This further irritated Sam Crow - while he knew for sure that these were part of the invading force and thus safe to attack, the three ghostlike shapes were far enough away from each other that he'd only be able to get one at a time within the blast radius of his explosive arrows. Bummer! But the archer let fly with two arrows, one charged with explosive energy and a normal one following it up. The first flew right through the wraith's body to explode harmlessly beyond it, while the second arrow seemed to strike the incorporeal form and at least do it some harm. But Sam greatly preferred flesh and blood foes that could be damaged with an arrow at all times, not only when you hit them just right.</p><p></p><p>The three wraiths converged, each focusing on a different hero. Baabby dodged from the outstretched hands of the wraith attacking him as best he could, but it reached inside the baabarian's body and siphoned off a portion of his life force. He responded as he did to most threats: with the power of the <em>Rift-Weaver's Blade</em>. It came crashing into the body of one wraith, causing it to dissipate into nothingness. The blade continued its arc into the body of another wraith, but this time the blade seemed to have no effect - such were the hazards of fighting incorporeal foes.</p><p></p><p>Sapphrina cast a <em>magic missile</em> spell at the wraith attacking her, the force energy of her attack accurately striking the undead form as she knew it would. The wraith stiffened at the attack, then seemed to freeze up even more, hovering in place motionlessly.</p><p></p><p>To attack the wraith facing him, Sam had to back up a bit, which put him within arm's reach of the wraith Sapphrina had just hit with her spell. However, it failed to take advantage of the crow-man's proximity, allowing Sam to send another pair of arrows at the wraith he was targeting. Once again, the explosive arrow passed harmlessly through his target, while the normal one seemed to hit.</p><p></p><p>Baabby attacked the motionless wraith, thinking that perhaps the Light Rune in his greatsword may have immobilized it when his sword seemed to pass through its body without harm. There was harm aplenty in this particular pass, though - the <em>Rift-Weaver's Blade</em> cut the immobilized undead into two and its body shattered into ghost fragments and disappeared. Once again, he used the momentum of his sword-strike to cleave into the other wraith, and good fortune allowed this attack to be as successful as the first - the sole remaining wraith was also destroyed by the power of the <em>Rift-Weaver's Blade</em>.</p><p></p><p>Sam looked back up at the mummy sentries, but they didn't seem to have even noticed the fight below the walls to Anubiset. "Hey!" he called up there again. "You guys paying attention up there? That ought to prove we're good guys - let us in!"</p><p></p><p>Sapphrina was squinting up at the immobile mummies. "...I think they're just illusions," she said.</p><p></p><p>"What?" demanded Sam. "Cast by who?"</p><p></p><p>"I think by her," replied Baabby, pointing up at the right-hand tower, where a dark shape could be seen crouching behind the tower's crenellations - all but the tips of her batlike wings, that is. "We don't mean you aany haarm!" he called up to her.</p><p></p><p>A pale face peered down over the top of the tower. "No, I guess not," she admitted, flapping her wings to raise her high enough to get a good look at the heroes. "I'm not supposed to let anybody in, upon orders of the invading--WAIT A MINUTE! ARE YOU GUYS SKYLANDERS?"</p><p></p><p>"Well, kind of," admitted Sam, adopting a humble pose.</p><p></p><p>"OHMYGOSHOHMYGOSHOHMYGOSH!" gushed the young vampire. "Do you know Roller Brawl? I'm like her biggest fan!"</p><p></p><p>"Well," admitted Sam, "I am close personal friends with the vampire who personally provided her with a lovely pink pair of magical gloves."</p><p></p><p>"I HAVE A PAIR JUST LIKE THOSE!" shrieked the vampiress. "Okay, I guess I can let you in - just don't let the invaders know, okay? How do you want to come in? Should I, like, fly down there and carry you over, or what?"</p><p></p><p>"I'm not sure you could lift me," replied Baabby.</p><p></p><p>"Well, maybe if the fairy gave me a hand, we could both carry you up over the wall...."</p><p></p><p>"Or, here's an idea," suggested Sapphrina, "How about just opening the doors?"</p><p></p><p>"Well, they're kind of busted," admitted the vampire. "The invaders knocked them down, and now they're just kind of propped in place. I'm afraid if you try to open them they'll fall over and the noise will attract the invaders. I can definitely carry the crow over, though: we vampires are pretty strong."</p><p></p><p>"Wait--vampire?" asked Sam, turning to his friends. "I'm not sure I want a vampire flying me over the wall," he admitted in a low voice. "What if she decides to bite me in midair?"</p><p></p><p>"You do look rather tasty," admitted the vampire, proving her hearing was much more powerful than Sam had thought. Almost as an instinct, he called up to her, "Oh, I am! But that's because I'm part roast turkey and gravy on my mother's side!"</p><p></p><p>"You aare not!" scoffed Baabby.</p><p></p><p>"That doesn't even make any sense!" chided Sapphrina, but Sam didn't care - he was too busy laughing at the ridiculousness of his claim.</p><p></p><p>"I'll tell you what," said the vampiress. "Use the door on the left - I think it's still got one hinge intact. Just be careful not to make any noise, okay?" The three heroes did as she suggested, making their way quietly through the doorway and putting the partially-broken door back into place behind them.</p><p></p><p>"I'm <strong>Misty</strong>," said the vampire as she landed on the ground beside them inside the walled city of Anubiset. Baabby made the introductions, then asked about the makeup of the invading forces.</p><p></p><p>"The main army is mostly wraiths," said Misty. "But there are three generals. The first one is called the Skittering Demon..."</p><p></p><p>"You can strike him from the list," said Sam, puffing out his chest. "We killed him."</p><p></p><p>"You did? Excellent! Then you only have two more to go. One's a snake lady, and the other's a deep crab."</p><p></p><p>"Deep craab?" asked Baabby. "My breastplate's made of deep craab shell."</p><p></p><p>"He's also called a wolf crab," Misty offered.</p><p></p><p>"Weird," admitted Sam. "I wonder if that's anything like a wolf spider?"</p><p></p><p>"What about Queen Necrotifi?" asked Sapphrina. "Is she all right?"</p><p></p><p>"The invaders tried to capture her, but she's evaded them so far." Misty looked around her. "I should get back to my post," she said. "Hey, if you guys are successful at driving off the invaders, do you think you could get Roller Brawl's autograph for me?"</p><p></p><p>"I'm sure that could be arranged," Sam promised, although he'd only ever heard of this Roller Brawl before, never met her. She was apparently an actual Skylander from the Undead team, a vampire girl herself, just like Misty. But hey, they were in tight with Master Eon - he could probably wrangle an autograph if they asked nicely.</p><p></p><p>"Awesome!" enthused Misty, taking flight back up to the top of the tower. "You guys are the best!"</p><p></p><p>"You know, we really are," admitted Sam, trying his best to look humble while boasting about his awesomeness.</p><p></p><p>"Quit flirting with the vampire!" chided Sapphrina. "Let's see if we can find the Queen."</p><p></p><p>"Well, some of us are," Sam amended, before following the fairy and the baabarian into the mists covering the city.</p><p></p><p>They didn't get very far before they were called by a stage-whispered, "Pssst!" Turning toward the sound, the heroes saw a pale-skinned woman wearing a crown of bones. "I overheard your talk with Misty," she said. "I'm Queen Necrotifi. And you are Xacho's apprentices?"</p><p></p><p>"Pleased to meet you, Your Maajesty," replied Baabby. "Aand yes, we work with Xacho." Sam looked down at the snail perched on his left shoulder - Xacho himself, after many centuries trapped in the form of a common snail.</p><p></p><p>"It's been a long time," added Sapphrina. "But I remember you from when you were a child, many centuries ago when I was here last, with Xacho."</p><p></p><p>"Yes, I thought that was you," said Queen Necrotifi, smiling. "I thank you for coming to aid my kingdom. The invading army has two main goals: capturing me, and finding the Undead Rift Gate. I've managed to avoid capture thus far, and they've assumed the Undead Rift Gate is somewhere in the palace, so they're focusing their attention there."</p><p></p><p>"But it isn't?" asked Sapphrina.</p><p></p><p>"No, that seemed like the first place they'd look. It's hidden in the stables behind an inn, about three blocks from here. You must find a way to protect it, or, failing that, destroy it to prevent them from getting their hands on it."</p><p></p><p>Sapphrina was about to inform the Queen that they wished to absorb some of the Undead energy on the other side of the gate, in order to reforge the Undead Rune in the <em>Rift-Weaver's Blade</em>, but before she could do so two undead shapes rose up from the ground. Each was twice the size of even Baabby; one rose up behind Queen Necrotifi and grabbed her around the waist, rising up into the air with his struggling captive. Before the others could stop the dread wraith, it had vanished into the mists headed toward the castle.</p><p></p><p>But the heroes had their hands full dealing with the other dread wraith, which struck out at Sam Crow, passing its claws through the archer's body and siphoning off some of his life energy. "Hey! No fair!" squawked Sam.</p><p></p><p>Sapphrina cast a <em>magic missile</em> spell at the undead form, causing it to cringe in pain, and Baabby swung his greatsword through the dread wraith's body, to little effect. Sam took a chance and shot three normal arrows at the thing in rapid succession, and pumped a fist in the air when the undead thing's body discorporated as a result. "I finally killed one!" he crowed.</p><p></p><p>"Now what do we do?" asked Sapphrina. "Go after Queen Necrotifi, or get to the Undead Rift Gate?"</p><p></p><p>"Gate first," decided Baabby. "She doesn't want it to faall into their haands - aand we need the undead energy. They won't kill the Queen until she tells them where the gate is, aand she's not likely to do thaat aany time soon."</p><p></p><p>"Makes sense," agreed the fairy. "The inn should be this way!" And she flew off in the direction the Queen had indicated, the hulking baabarian and lithe crow fast at her heels. (Well, they would have been, had she actually had any heels - as a Skylands fairy, her body tapered away below the waist like a genie's.)</p><p></p><p>There were three wraiths waiting for them by the inn, which was unnerving - was this just a coincidence, or had the dread wraiths overheard the heroes' conversation with the Queen before rising up from the ground and abducting her? The fact that one of the invading army's generals was perched upon the inn's roof made the "coincidence" hypothesis less likely.</p><p></p><p>Sam stared up at the figure, who was unlike anything he'd ever seen before in his life. From the waist up, she appeared to be a human woman, although one who had somehow picked up two extra sets of arms from somewhere. From the waist down, she was full snake. The little crow didn't realize it, but he was looking at the image of his first marilith demon.</p><p></p><p>"Hey, I like the extra arms - they must really come in handy!" he called up to her. "I take it you're one of the generals of the invading force - apparently, you must be in charge of the army!" He chuckled to himself, then added, "Don't mind me - my jokes are mostly armless!"</p><p></p><p>"I can see why my Master told me not to let you open your beak!" she called down. "Do you ever stop yapping?"</p><p></p><p>"Master?" asked Sam, ignoring her question by continuing to yap - which, in a way, actually answered her question in a rather indirect fashion. "Is it Don? It's Don, isn't it? Hey, next time you see him, be sure to call him 'Donny-Boy.' He really likes that. Oh, wait - you won't get a chance to see him again, because we're going to kill you!"</p><p></p><p>Baabby, however, was focused more on the dangers immediately at hand. Charging forward with a roar, he used the <em>Rift-Weaver's Blade</em> to carve right through the body of the first wraith, killing it instantly, then continuing on to swing at the second wraith in line. This time the baabarian missed, but he spun around and took a second swing at it and this one did the trick. He immediately tried cleaving his greatsword into the third wraith, but that was apparently hoping for too much, for the incorporeal form dodged his blow.</p><p></p><p>From the rooftop of the inn, the marilith demon cast a <em>flame strike</em> down at the heroes. She cackled in delight as all three heroes were engulfed by her spell and three separate cries of pain reached up to her ears. When the spell ended, Sapphrina was unconscious of the ground - for Skylanders fairies were susceptible to all types of energy damage - but Sam had an arrow pointed up at the six-armed demon in retaliation. The flames cleared from the <em>flame strike</em> spell, only for Sam's arrow to come flying up at her and explode in her face. Worse yet, while she was temporarily blinded by the flash of explosion, a normal arrow came flying up at her, to strike her in the side.</p><p></p><p>"Ignore the sheep!" commanded the marilith. "KILL THAT BLASTED CROW!" And then, to her chagrin, she was forced to back across the other side of the inn's roof, putting the roofline between her and Sam so the archer no longer had a line-of-sight on her.</p><p></p><p>Not for an arrow, perhaps, but Sam's constant babbling could still reach the marilith's ears. "Hey, you exploded pretty good there," the crow called. "You've got soot all over your face. I think I'll call you 'Sooty-Judy'!" While he was babbling, he was also crossing the street and clambering up the side of a building, pulling himself up to the roof. The sole remaining wraith moved to follow, but Baabby had his friend covered, and the <em>Rift-Weaver's Blade</em> went slicing into the undead form. Unfortunately, as is sometimes the case, this time it seemed to have no effect.</p><p></p><p>"Sooty-Judy?" called Sam from the rooftop, pulling out an arrow and allowing it charge up with explosive energy from the Dynabow 3.0. "Did I hurt your feelings or something? Talk to me, Sooty-Judy!"</p><p></p><p>"My name's <strong>Garnett</strong>!" the marilith yelled in frustration.</p><p></p><p>"Gaarnett?" asked Baabby, casting a <em>mass cure light wounds</em> spell that healed himself and Sam, revived Sapphrina, and dealt damage to the wraith chasing Sam. "Thaat's a weird name for a demon." By this time the wraith had flown up to the rooftop and was trying to claw out some of Sam's life energy, so the sarcastic crow was unable to add his own comment.</p><p></p><p>Seeing Sam in dire straits, Garnett leaped from atop the inn and levitated across the street, to land on the rooftop behind Sam. Sapphrina flew up and cast a <em>lightning bolt</em> that caught both Garnett and the wraith in its path. The wraith was instantly slain and the marilith screamed in uncharacteristic pain - surely demons should be able to deal with attack spells a bit better than this?</p><p></p><p>But by then, Sam's explosive arrow was fully charged. Unfortunately, he was now trapped on a small rooftop with his intended target, and there was nowhere for him to go where he wouldn't be smack-dab in the midst of the explosion's radius of effect. Actually...there was one way to pull it off. Looking down to see Baabby standing in the street behind him, Sam kicked off backwards from the roof, shooting his arrow on the way down while calling for Baabby to catch him. Garnett was engulfed in another explosion (causing her to scream in pain once again), and Baabby had just enough time to shift the <em>Rift-Weaver's Blade</em> to a one-handed grip, leaving him one hand to catch Sam by the scruff of his collar and guide him to the street. Sam staggered but remained on his feet. "Thanks, Baabby!" he called, then couldn't resist adding, "You're the best sidekick ever!"</p><p></p><p>"<em>You're</em> the sidekick!" Baabby reminded his sidekick.</p><p></p><p>"Oh yeah," Sam said. "I keep getting that mixed up."</p><p></p><p>"Guys! Check this out!" called Sapphrina from the rooftop, where Garnett's body had exploded into a blast of red dust, slain by Sam's explosive arrow. "No wonder she wasn't liking those energy attacks!" She picked up a handful of fairy dust and flung it into the air, where it drifted in the wind.</p><p></p><p>"I don't get it," admitted Sam.</p><p></p><p>"She was a fairy," explained Sapphrina. "We explode into colored fairy dust when we die - and you already know about our susceptibility to energy attacks."</p><p></p><p>Baabby turned to look at Sapphrina. "I didn't think there were such things as evil fairies."</p><p></p><p>"They're rare, but they exist," admitted Sapphrina. Baabby frowned in disappointment, as if just finding out that unicorns actually pooped or there was no such thing as a puppy-kitten.</p><p></p><p>"But we got loot!" said Sapphrina, passing around the goodies she'd taken from Garnett's body. Sam took the <em>amulet of natural armor</em> and Baabby took the <em>ring of protection</em>, leaving the fairy to wear the <em>bracers of armor</em>.</p><p></p><p>Then the trio set out to do what they'd come to the inn for. Entering the stables, they found a dilapidated door in the back - and sure enough, hidden behind it was the Undead Rift Gate. Baabby used the <em>Rift-Weaver's Blade</em> as a key to open the gateway, then they passed through it. Sapphrina channeled the undead energy within to fuel an Undead Rune, which took form on the greatsword's blade. Then they exited the way they'd come and Baabby used his sword to close the rift behind them.</p><p></p><p>"We need to destroy the gate," he said. "How do we do thaat?"</p><p></p><p>"I'm not really sure," admitted Sapphrina.</p><p></p><p>"I might have an idea," said Sam, casting a <em>speak with animals</em> spell - the first time he'd cast such a spell. "Well?" he asked the snail he still called Shelldon, even though they all knew this was the original Xacho who had once wielded the <em>Rift-Weaver's Blade</em>. "Any ideas?"</p><p></p><p>"It's possible," said the snail, "that a sufficient supply of energy of an opposing type may cause the Undead Rift Gate to implode in upon itself."</p><p></p><p>Turning to the others, Sam said, "I just had an idea that I totally came up with myself without any help from anybody else: what if we applied a sufficient supply of energy of an opposing type?" He smiled down at Shelldon, knowing full well that nobody was going to believe that this was Sam's idea and not Xacho's. He liked Shelldon; he wouldn't have made the try at credit-hogging if he thought anybody would actually believe him.</p><p></p><p>Baabby stroked the fleece on his chin and looked at the empty hole in his blade where the Life Rune used to be. "Where are we going to get the opposite energy?" he asked. Then he and Sapphrina looked at each other and came up with the idea simultaneously. "A turning!" they said in unison.</p><p></p><p>"A what now?" asked Sam.</p><p></p><p>"I'll chaannel positive energy aat the gate, like when I turn undead creatures," Baabby explained.</p><p></p><p>"You can turn undead creatures?" Sam asked. "I forgot you could do that. And come to think of it, I haven't seen you turning any of those undead creatures we've been <em>fighting all day!</em>"</p><p></p><p>"I kind of prefer to stick to my sword," admitted the baabarian.</p><p></p><p>"Well, it <em>is</em> a great sword," quipped Sam, and Sapphrina just rolled her eyes. But Baabby focused a blast of positive energy through the Life symbol he wore around his neck, channeled it into the Undead Rift Gate, and saw it fluctuate in size a few times before shrinking down inside itself and winking out of existence.</p><p></p><p>"Good thinking, Xacho," said Sapphrina, leaving no doubt that she hadn't for a moment believed Sam had come up with the plan.</p><p></p><p>"Well, that was easy," said Sam. "Can we get out of here now?"</p><p></p><p>"There's still one more general to deal with," reminded Baabby. But apparently there wasn't going to be a whole lot of difficulty in tracking down the "wolf crab" - for a voice came booming across the city: "IF YOU WANT TO SEE THE QUEEN ALIVE, RETURN TO THE FRONT GATES OF THE CITY AT ONCE!"</p><p></p><p>"Uh oh," said the fairy.</p><p></p><p>"Let's go!" called the baabarian as he started running back to the front gate. When they got there, they saw an enormous demon, of general humanoid build but with a wolf's head and an extra set of arms ending in crablike claws. Queen Necrotifi was caught in one of those crab-pincers, struggling to no avail to wriggle free.</p><p></p><p>"A glabrezu!" gasped Sapphrina.</p><p></p><p>"Hey there," called out Sam. "How ya doin'? We're having a pretty good day. How about you? Your day goin' pretty good?"</p><p></p><p>"Are you the ones responsible for the destruction of the Undead Rift Gate?" demanded the glabrezu.</p><p></p><p>"Who, us?" asked Sam, playing dumb - a role for which he was particularly suited. "A Rift Gate, you say? No, we're not responsible for any--wait! Did you say 'Rift Gate'? Oh yeah, we totally destroyed it - and lemme tell you, it was as easy to demolish as one of Donny-Boy's eyeball-tentacle thingies! Say, you don't happen to know Donny-Boy, do you? Big, stupid-looking goof, has eyeballs growing on the tips of his fingers...?"</p><p></p><p>"Then our entire reason for invading the underworld is now made pointless!" snarled the glabrezu, and while Sam was busy making an "Aw!" expression of fake sorrow, the demon casually tossed Queen Necrotifi over his shoulder. She flew over the city walls to splash into the moat beyond. With a flap of leathery wings, Misty abandoned her watch-post to go save her.</p><p></p><p>"But before we depart, I'll at least have the pleasure of ripping you limb from limb! And I'll take the sword back to my Master!" And with that, the glabrezu raced forward, crab pinchers clacking together like a pair of castanets. As the demon approached, Baabby cast a <em>blindness/deafness</em> spell on him, hoping to deprive him of his sight. But the glabrezu shrugged it off, and Baabby once again decided to put his trust in his <em>Rift-Weaver's Blade</em>, where it belonged. He dodged off to the side by a building, putting his back against a sturdy wall. This had two effects: it made the demon think the sheep-man was fearful (which might make the demon overconfident and careless), and it caused the glabrezu to have to veer off course to get at the baabarian - thus setting Sam up for a sneak attack as the two combatants flanked their foe.</p><p></p><p>Sapphrina knew her own abilities as a combatant, and headed off in the opposite direction, taking cover behind a tree. She cast a <em>haste</em> spell on the three heroes, realizing they could all benefit from extra attacks.</p><p></p><p>Sam went with his faithful combination of "explosive arrow followed by a normal arrow." Of course, he had forgotten to take into account a true demon's ability to ignore fire-based attacks, so the explosion wasn't as impressive a weapon as the little crow might have hoped for. But at least it proved they were fighting a demon, and not another evil fairy disguised as one using illusion magic!</p><p></p><p>Roaring in rage, the glabrezu attacked Baabby, snapping his pincers at the baabarian but failing to get him caught up in them, partly because Baabby was a more experienced fighter than Queen Necrotifi was, and partly because of his much greater strength. He countered with several jabs with the <em>Rift-Weaver's Blade</em>, taunting the demon (perhaps he'd been hanging around Sam too long?) with, "You waant my sword? You waant it? Well, here it is!" as he drove the blade into the glabrezu's demonic flesh.</p><p></p><p>The demon responded with a flurry of attacks: both crab claws, the claws on his smaller, more humanlike set of hands, and even a wicked bite with his lupine teeth. Baabby staggered under the onslaught, and his friends realized at once that the baabarian wouldn't survive many more such attacks.</p><p></p><p>"I've got to do something!" Sapphrina said, flying over to the combatants.</p><p></p><p>"But the thing's got wicked spell resistance!" Sam reminded her. "Any attack spell likely won't make it through!"</p><p></p><p>"Then I won't cast an attack spell!" she countered, flying up behind Baabby, slapping him on the shoulder, and applying a <em>stoneskin</em> spell on him.</p><p></p><p>"Thaanks!" Baabby called to his fairy friend, realizing she may have just turned the tide of battle. And then, looking up at his brutish foe, he allowed the rage to build inside his body, fueling the power of his limbs.</p><p></p><p>The <em>Rift-Weaver's Blade</em> went slicing up into the glabrezu's body, cutting a deep gash across his chest. Meanwhile, Sam had decided to stick to normal arrows since the explosions weren't doing what he might have hoped. Plus, he could fire more normal arrows a round, and by flanking with Baabby he was able to place them in strategic targets on the demon's body where they'd (hopefully) do more damage.</p><p></p><p>With the glabrezu concentrating on fighting off the two combatants, Sapphrina felt confident enough to try her hand at an attack spell. She chose a <em>lightning bolt</em>, but altered the energy type to sonic damage (Skylanders fairies could do that, they were very energy-attuned...which also made them susceptible to the various energy types), thinking there was a better chance that the glabrezu wouldn't have any resistances to that type of damage.</p><p></p><p>She was right; he didn't. But he did have an inherent resistance against all spells, no matter their type, and it served him well in this instance. "Well, drat!" cried Sapphrina, which was as close as she usually came to swearing.</p><p></p><p>It wasn't long, though, before the glabrezu collapsed to the ground, dead (almost trapping Baabby underneath him as he fell, but the baabarian leapt out just in time). "Got him!" called Baabby, allowing his rage to simmer now that the fight was done.</p><p></p><p>Or was it? For here came a vast horde of wraiths, all howling in rage. Sam raised a wing involuntarily, trying to ward off the impending attacks, but they never came - the wraiths flew right through the heroes' bodies, right through the wall surrounding Anubiset, and fled the scene, hopefully never to return.</p><p></p><p>Misty landed near the heroes, dropping off a dripping-wet Queen Necrotifi. "I told you we vampires are pretty strong," Misty said to the heroes, smiling.</p><p></p><p>"You are strong," admitted Sam. "...and pretty." And he gave the vampiress his sweetest smile.</p><p></p><p>"I, and the entire kingdom of Anubiset, thank you," said Queen Necrotifi. She clapped her hands, and a pair of mummy servitors approached, each carrying a heavy sack upon its back. At their Queen's beckoning, they dropped their bundles, allowing the heroes to see they were each filled to the brim with golden coins.</p><p></p><p>"And we thank you, Your Majesty," replied Sapphrina. "I'm glad we were able to help your kingdom...although we had to destroy the Undead Rift Gate, I'm afraid."</p><p></p><p>"No matter," dismissed the Queen. "It may well be for the best, if it will prevent such attacks upon our kingdom in the future." She accompanied the heroes back along the Road of Skulls, until they crossed the Bridge of Bones. There, she retrieved the Death Masks they heroes had been wearing, that had protected them in the underworld.</p><p></p><p>"The forces that attacked your kingdom, they served a being called the Devourer of Nightmares," explained Sapphrina before they left.</p><p></p><p>"We call him Don," added Sam.</p><p></p><p>"We're on a quest to destroy him," the fairy continued.</p><p></p><p>"Well, kill him good for me," replied Queen Necrotifi.</p><p></p><p>"Thaat's the plaan," said Baabby, and the three heroes went back to their airship, to take the next step in their quest.</p><p></p><p> - - - </p><p></p><p>Logan cobbled together a cool "Anubiset Gate" map by using a "Town Square" Flip-Mat that had a wall with two towers and covering up the land on one side with a moat, a drawbridge made of bones, and a bunch of hellish land tiles from the "Hellscapes" Map Pack. He also got to use the "Wolf Demon" miniature he'd picked up from a local game shop and painted himself; it's basically a glabrezu with the serial numbers filed off.</p><p></p><p>Logan also did a really good job of sneaking things by me, which became obvious in hindsight. The first of these was naming the "marilith" Garnett, which is a type of gemstone...as is a sapphire, from which the only other Skylanders fairy we know by name in this campaign derives her name. The other was referring to the glabrezu as a "wolf crab" - I totally did not make the connection to a glabrezu (which has features of both a wolf and a crab, despite its otherwise humanoid build). As I own a crab miniature which I had picked up for an adventure in our previous campaign, that's what I was expecting him to plop onto the battle mat. Well played!</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Richards, post: 7216530, member: 508"] [b]ADVENTURE 19: BETWEEN THE GATES OF ANUBISET[/b] PC Roster: [INDENT]Baabby, humanoid sheep barbarian/cleric (Life) 10 Sam Crow, humanoid crow ranger/rogue 10[/INDENT] NPC Roster: [INDENT]Sapphrina, fairy sorcerer 10[/INDENT] Game Session Date: 2 September 2017 - - - The heroes followed the Road of Skulls and eventually a great stone wall arose from the mists ahead. There was a moat of dark water before it, but a drawbridge of sorts - made from human leg bones, it looked like - was in the down position, allowing access to the double doors perched between two stone towers. "You know, this used to be a river, but it got de-moated," quipped Sam. When neither of his friends commented on his pun, he mumbled, "Well, I'm sure Shelldon appreciated it." The left tower held two mummy sentries, but the right tower seemed to be unoccupied. Sam was ready to take a shot at the mummies, but decided he'd better check with Sapphrina first. "Are those good mummies or bad mummies?" he asked, aware that the Death Masks the three heroes wore - which protected them from the undead energy inherent to the underworld that would otherwise kill the heroes over time - had been given to them by a friendly mummy from the kingdom of Anubiset. "They should be good," replied the fairy. "Unless they're part of the occupying force." "Well, let's just stroll up to the drawbridge and ask them," replied Sam, irritated that he couldn't tell the good guys from the bad guys in this crazy land. "Hey!" he called up to the mummies in the left tower. "We're here to help Queen Necrotifi! Can we come in?" The mummies did not respond...but something did. "You must not be allowed to interfere!" came a creepy whisper of a voice. Looking around, the heroes saw three wraiths rise up from the ground around them. This further irritated Sam Crow - while he knew for sure that these were part of the invading force and thus safe to attack, the three ghostlike shapes were far enough away from each other that he'd only be able to get one at a time within the blast radius of his explosive arrows. Bummer! But the archer let fly with two arrows, one charged with explosive energy and a normal one following it up. The first flew right through the wraith's body to explode harmlessly beyond it, while the second arrow seemed to strike the incorporeal form and at least do it some harm. But Sam greatly preferred flesh and blood foes that could be damaged with an arrow at all times, not only when you hit them just right. The three wraiths converged, each focusing on a different hero. Baabby dodged from the outstretched hands of the wraith attacking him as best he could, but it reached inside the baabarian's body and siphoned off a portion of his life force. He responded as he did to most threats: with the power of the [i]Rift-Weaver's Blade[/i]. It came crashing into the body of one wraith, causing it to dissipate into nothingness. The blade continued its arc into the body of another wraith, but this time the blade seemed to have no effect - such were the hazards of fighting incorporeal foes. Sapphrina cast a [i]magic missile[/i] spell at the wraith attacking her, the force energy of her attack accurately striking the undead form as she knew it would. The wraith stiffened at the attack, then seemed to freeze up even more, hovering in place motionlessly. To attack the wraith facing him, Sam had to back up a bit, which put him within arm's reach of the wraith Sapphrina had just hit with her spell. However, it failed to take advantage of the crow-man's proximity, allowing Sam to send another pair of arrows at the wraith he was targeting. Once again, the explosive arrow passed harmlessly through his target, while the normal one seemed to hit. Baabby attacked the motionless wraith, thinking that perhaps the Light Rune in his greatsword may have immobilized it when his sword seemed to pass through its body without harm. There was harm aplenty in this particular pass, though - the [i]Rift-Weaver's Blade[/i] cut the immobilized undead into two and its body shattered into ghost fragments and disappeared. Once again, he used the momentum of his sword-strike to cleave into the other wraith, and good fortune allowed this attack to be as successful as the first - the sole remaining wraith was also destroyed by the power of the [i]Rift-Weaver's Blade[/i]. Sam looked back up at the mummy sentries, but they didn't seem to have even noticed the fight below the walls to Anubiset. "Hey!" he called up there again. "You guys paying attention up there? That ought to prove we're good guys - let us in!" Sapphrina was squinting up at the immobile mummies. "...I think they're just illusions," she said. "What?" demanded Sam. "Cast by who?" "I think by her," replied Baabby, pointing up at the right-hand tower, where a dark shape could be seen crouching behind the tower's crenellations - all but the tips of her batlike wings, that is. "We don't mean you aany haarm!" he called up to her. A pale face peered down over the top of the tower. "No, I guess not," she admitted, flapping her wings to raise her high enough to get a good look at the heroes. "I'm not supposed to let anybody in, upon orders of the invading--WAIT A MINUTE! ARE YOU GUYS SKYLANDERS?" "Well, kind of," admitted Sam, adopting a humble pose. "OHMYGOSHOHMYGOSHOHMYGOSH!" gushed the young vampire. "Do you know Roller Brawl? I'm like her biggest fan!" "Well," admitted Sam, "I am close personal friends with the vampire who personally provided her with a lovely pink pair of magical gloves." "I HAVE A PAIR JUST LIKE THOSE!" shrieked the vampiress. "Okay, I guess I can let you in - just don't let the invaders know, okay? How do you want to come in? Should I, like, fly down there and carry you over, or what?" "I'm not sure you could lift me," replied Baabby. "Well, maybe if the fairy gave me a hand, we could both carry you up over the wall...." "Or, here's an idea," suggested Sapphrina, "How about just opening the doors?" "Well, they're kind of busted," admitted the vampire. "The invaders knocked them down, and now they're just kind of propped in place. I'm afraid if you try to open them they'll fall over and the noise will attract the invaders. I can definitely carry the crow over, though: we vampires are pretty strong." "Wait--vampire?" asked Sam, turning to his friends. "I'm not sure I want a vampire flying me over the wall," he admitted in a low voice. "What if she decides to bite me in midair?" "You do look rather tasty," admitted the vampire, proving her hearing was much more powerful than Sam had thought. Almost as an instinct, he called up to her, "Oh, I am! But that's because I'm part roast turkey and gravy on my mother's side!" "You aare not!" scoffed Baabby. "That doesn't even make any sense!" chided Sapphrina, but Sam didn't care - he was too busy laughing at the ridiculousness of his claim. "I'll tell you what," said the vampiress. "Use the door on the left - I think it's still got one hinge intact. Just be careful not to make any noise, okay?" The three heroes did as she suggested, making their way quietly through the doorway and putting the partially-broken door back into place behind them. "I'm [b]Misty[/b]," said the vampire as she landed on the ground beside them inside the walled city of Anubiset. Baabby made the introductions, then asked about the makeup of the invading forces. "The main army is mostly wraiths," said Misty. "But there are three generals. The first one is called the Skittering Demon..." "You can strike him from the list," said Sam, puffing out his chest. "We killed him." "You did? Excellent! Then you only have two more to go. One's a snake lady, and the other's a deep crab." "Deep craab?" asked Baabby. "My breastplate's made of deep craab shell." "He's also called a wolf crab," Misty offered. "Weird," admitted Sam. "I wonder if that's anything like a wolf spider?" "What about Queen Necrotifi?" asked Sapphrina. "Is she all right?" "The invaders tried to capture her, but she's evaded them so far." Misty looked around her. "I should get back to my post," she said. "Hey, if you guys are successful at driving off the invaders, do you think you could get Roller Brawl's autograph for me?" "I'm sure that could be arranged," Sam promised, although he'd only ever heard of this Roller Brawl before, never met her. She was apparently an actual Skylander from the Undead team, a vampire girl herself, just like Misty. But hey, they were in tight with Master Eon - he could probably wrangle an autograph if they asked nicely. "Awesome!" enthused Misty, taking flight back up to the top of the tower. "You guys are the best!" "You know, we really are," admitted Sam, trying his best to look humble while boasting about his awesomeness. "Quit flirting with the vampire!" chided Sapphrina. "Let's see if we can find the Queen." "Well, some of us are," Sam amended, before following the fairy and the baabarian into the mists covering the city. They didn't get very far before they were called by a stage-whispered, "Pssst!" Turning toward the sound, the heroes saw a pale-skinned woman wearing a crown of bones. "I overheard your talk with Misty," she said. "I'm Queen Necrotifi. And you are Xacho's apprentices?" "Pleased to meet you, Your Maajesty," replied Baabby. "Aand yes, we work with Xacho." Sam looked down at the snail perched on his left shoulder - Xacho himself, after many centuries trapped in the form of a common snail. "It's been a long time," added Sapphrina. "But I remember you from when you were a child, many centuries ago when I was here last, with Xacho." "Yes, I thought that was you," said Queen Necrotifi, smiling. "I thank you for coming to aid my kingdom. The invading army has two main goals: capturing me, and finding the Undead Rift Gate. I've managed to avoid capture thus far, and they've assumed the Undead Rift Gate is somewhere in the palace, so they're focusing their attention there." "But it isn't?" asked Sapphrina. "No, that seemed like the first place they'd look. It's hidden in the stables behind an inn, about three blocks from here. You must find a way to protect it, or, failing that, destroy it to prevent them from getting their hands on it." Sapphrina was about to inform the Queen that they wished to absorb some of the Undead energy on the other side of the gate, in order to reforge the Undead Rune in the [i]Rift-Weaver's Blade[/i], but before she could do so two undead shapes rose up from the ground. Each was twice the size of even Baabby; one rose up behind Queen Necrotifi and grabbed her around the waist, rising up into the air with his struggling captive. Before the others could stop the dread wraith, it had vanished into the mists headed toward the castle. But the heroes had their hands full dealing with the other dread wraith, which struck out at Sam Crow, passing its claws through the archer's body and siphoning off some of his life energy. "Hey! No fair!" squawked Sam. Sapphrina cast a [i]magic missile[/i] spell at the undead form, causing it to cringe in pain, and Baabby swung his greatsword through the dread wraith's body, to little effect. Sam took a chance and shot three normal arrows at the thing in rapid succession, and pumped a fist in the air when the undead thing's body discorporated as a result. "I finally killed one!" he crowed. "Now what do we do?" asked Sapphrina. "Go after Queen Necrotifi, or get to the Undead Rift Gate?" "Gate first," decided Baabby. "She doesn't want it to faall into their haands - aand we need the undead energy. They won't kill the Queen until she tells them where the gate is, aand she's not likely to do thaat aany time soon." "Makes sense," agreed the fairy. "The inn should be this way!" And she flew off in the direction the Queen had indicated, the hulking baabarian and lithe crow fast at her heels. (Well, they would have been, had she actually had any heels - as a Skylands fairy, her body tapered away below the waist like a genie's.) There were three wraiths waiting for them by the inn, which was unnerving - was this just a coincidence, or had the dread wraiths overheard the heroes' conversation with the Queen before rising up from the ground and abducting her? The fact that one of the invading army's generals was perched upon the inn's roof made the "coincidence" hypothesis less likely. Sam stared up at the figure, who was unlike anything he'd ever seen before in his life. From the waist up, she appeared to be a human woman, although one who had somehow picked up two extra sets of arms from somewhere. From the waist down, she was full snake. The little crow didn't realize it, but he was looking at the image of his first marilith demon. "Hey, I like the extra arms - they must really come in handy!" he called up to her. "I take it you're one of the generals of the invading force - apparently, you must be in charge of the army!" He chuckled to himself, then added, "Don't mind me - my jokes are mostly armless!" "I can see why my Master told me not to let you open your beak!" she called down. "Do you ever stop yapping?" "Master?" asked Sam, ignoring her question by continuing to yap - which, in a way, actually answered her question in a rather indirect fashion. "Is it Don? It's Don, isn't it? Hey, next time you see him, be sure to call him 'Donny-Boy.' He really likes that. Oh, wait - you won't get a chance to see him again, because we're going to kill you!" Baabby, however, was focused more on the dangers immediately at hand. Charging forward with a roar, he used the [i]Rift-Weaver's Blade[/i] to carve right through the body of the first wraith, killing it instantly, then continuing on to swing at the second wraith in line. This time the baabarian missed, but he spun around and took a second swing at it and this one did the trick. He immediately tried cleaving his greatsword into the third wraith, but that was apparently hoping for too much, for the incorporeal form dodged his blow. From the rooftop of the inn, the marilith demon cast a [i]flame strike[/i] down at the heroes. She cackled in delight as all three heroes were engulfed by her spell and three separate cries of pain reached up to her ears. When the spell ended, Sapphrina was unconscious of the ground - for Skylanders fairies were susceptible to all types of energy damage - but Sam had an arrow pointed up at the six-armed demon in retaliation. The flames cleared from the [i]flame strike[/i] spell, only for Sam's arrow to come flying up at her and explode in her face. Worse yet, while she was temporarily blinded by the flash of explosion, a normal arrow came flying up at her, to strike her in the side. "Ignore the sheep!" commanded the marilith. "KILL THAT BLASTED CROW!" And then, to her chagrin, she was forced to back across the other side of the inn's roof, putting the roofline between her and Sam so the archer no longer had a line-of-sight on her. Not for an arrow, perhaps, but Sam's constant babbling could still reach the marilith's ears. "Hey, you exploded pretty good there," the crow called. "You've got soot all over your face. I think I'll call you 'Sooty-Judy'!" While he was babbling, he was also crossing the street and clambering up the side of a building, pulling himself up to the roof. The sole remaining wraith moved to follow, but Baabby had his friend covered, and the [i]Rift-Weaver's Blade[/i] went slicing into the undead form. Unfortunately, as is sometimes the case, this time it seemed to have no effect. "Sooty-Judy?" called Sam from the rooftop, pulling out an arrow and allowing it charge up with explosive energy from the Dynabow 3.0. "Did I hurt your feelings or something? Talk to me, Sooty-Judy!" "My name's [b]Garnett[/b]!" the marilith yelled in frustration. "Gaarnett?" asked Baabby, casting a [i]mass cure light wounds[/i] spell that healed himself and Sam, revived Sapphrina, and dealt damage to the wraith chasing Sam. "Thaat's a weird name for a demon." By this time the wraith had flown up to the rooftop and was trying to claw out some of Sam's life energy, so the sarcastic crow was unable to add his own comment. Seeing Sam in dire straits, Garnett leaped from atop the inn and levitated across the street, to land on the rooftop behind Sam. Sapphrina flew up and cast a [i]lightning bolt[/i] that caught both Garnett and the wraith in its path. The wraith was instantly slain and the marilith screamed in uncharacteristic pain - surely demons should be able to deal with attack spells a bit better than this? But by then, Sam's explosive arrow was fully charged. Unfortunately, he was now trapped on a small rooftop with his intended target, and there was nowhere for him to go where he wouldn't be smack-dab in the midst of the explosion's radius of effect. Actually...there was one way to pull it off. Looking down to see Baabby standing in the street behind him, Sam kicked off backwards from the roof, shooting his arrow on the way down while calling for Baabby to catch him. Garnett was engulfed in another explosion (causing her to scream in pain once again), and Baabby had just enough time to shift the [i]Rift-Weaver's Blade[/i] to a one-handed grip, leaving him one hand to catch Sam by the scruff of his collar and guide him to the street. Sam staggered but remained on his feet. "Thanks, Baabby!" he called, then couldn't resist adding, "You're the best sidekick ever!" "[i]You're[/i] the sidekick!" Baabby reminded his sidekick. "Oh yeah," Sam said. "I keep getting that mixed up." "Guys! Check this out!" called Sapphrina from the rooftop, where Garnett's body had exploded into a blast of red dust, slain by Sam's explosive arrow. "No wonder she wasn't liking those energy attacks!" She picked up a handful of fairy dust and flung it into the air, where it drifted in the wind. "I don't get it," admitted Sam. "She was a fairy," explained Sapphrina. "We explode into colored fairy dust when we die - and you already know about our susceptibility to energy attacks." Baabby turned to look at Sapphrina. "I didn't think there were such things as evil fairies." "They're rare, but they exist," admitted Sapphrina. Baabby frowned in disappointment, as if just finding out that unicorns actually pooped or there was no such thing as a puppy-kitten. "But we got loot!" said Sapphrina, passing around the goodies she'd taken from Garnett's body. Sam took the [i]amulet of natural armor[/i] and Baabby took the [i]ring of protection[/i], leaving the fairy to wear the [i]bracers of armor[/i]. Then the trio set out to do what they'd come to the inn for. Entering the stables, they found a dilapidated door in the back - and sure enough, hidden behind it was the Undead Rift Gate. Baabby used the [i]Rift-Weaver's Blade[/i] as a key to open the gateway, then they passed through it. Sapphrina channeled the undead energy within to fuel an Undead Rune, which took form on the greatsword's blade. Then they exited the way they'd come and Baabby used his sword to close the rift behind them. "We need to destroy the gate," he said. "How do we do thaat?" "I'm not really sure," admitted Sapphrina. "I might have an idea," said Sam, casting a [i]speak with animals[/i] spell - the first time he'd cast such a spell. "Well?" he asked the snail he still called Shelldon, even though they all knew this was the original Xacho who had once wielded the [i]Rift-Weaver's Blade[/i]. "Any ideas?" "It's possible," said the snail, "that a sufficient supply of energy of an opposing type may cause the Undead Rift Gate to implode in upon itself." Turning to the others, Sam said, "I just had an idea that I totally came up with myself without any help from anybody else: what if we applied a sufficient supply of energy of an opposing type?" He smiled down at Shelldon, knowing full well that nobody was going to believe that this was Sam's idea and not Xacho's. He liked Shelldon; he wouldn't have made the try at credit-hogging if he thought anybody would actually believe him. Baabby stroked the fleece on his chin and looked at the empty hole in his blade where the Life Rune used to be. "Where are we going to get the opposite energy?" he asked. Then he and Sapphrina looked at each other and came up with the idea simultaneously. "A turning!" they said in unison. "A what now?" asked Sam. "I'll chaannel positive energy aat the gate, like when I turn undead creatures," Baabby explained. "You can turn undead creatures?" Sam asked. "I forgot you could do that. And come to think of it, I haven't seen you turning any of those undead creatures we've been [i]fighting all day![/i]" "I kind of prefer to stick to my sword," admitted the baabarian. "Well, it [i]is[/i] a great sword," quipped Sam, and Sapphrina just rolled her eyes. But Baabby focused a blast of positive energy through the Life symbol he wore around his neck, channeled it into the Undead Rift Gate, and saw it fluctuate in size a few times before shrinking down inside itself and winking out of existence. "Good thinking, Xacho," said Sapphrina, leaving no doubt that she hadn't for a moment believed Sam had come up with the plan. "Well, that was easy," said Sam. "Can we get out of here now?" "There's still one more general to deal with," reminded Baabby. But apparently there wasn't going to be a whole lot of difficulty in tracking down the "wolf crab" - for a voice came booming across the city: "IF YOU WANT TO SEE THE QUEEN ALIVE, RETURN TO THE FRONT GATES OF THE CITY AT ONCE!" "Uh oh," said the fairy. "Let's go!" called the baabarian as he started running back to the front gate. When they got there, they saw an enormous demon, of general humanoid build but with a wolf's head and an extra set of arms ending in crablike claws. Queen Necrotifi was caught in one of those crab-pincers, struggling to no avail to wriggle free. "A glabrezu!" gasped Sapphrina. "Hey there," called out Sam. "How ya doin'? We're having a pretty good day. How about you? Your day goin' pretty good?" "Are you the ones responsible for the destruction of the Undead Rift Gate?" demanded the glabrezu. "Who, us?" asked Sam, playing dumb - a role for which he was particularly suited. "A Rift Gate, you say? No, we're not responsible for any--wait! Did you say 'Rift Gate'? Oh yeah, we totally destroyed it - and lemme tell you, it was as easy to demolish as one of Donny-Boy's eyeball-tentacle thingies! Say, you don't happen to know Donny-Boy, do you? Big, stupid-looking goof, has eyeballs growing on the tips of his fingers...?" "Then our entire reason for invading the underworld is now made pointless!" snarled the glabrezu, and while Sam was busy making an "Aw!" expression of fake sorrow, the demon casually tossed Queen Necrotifi over his shoulder. She flew over the city walls to splash into the moat beyond. With a flap of leathery wings, Misty abandoned her watch-post to go save her. "But before we depart, I'll at least have the pleasure of ripping you limb from limb! And I'll take the sword back to my Master!" And with that, the glabrezu raced forward, crab pinchers clacking together like a pair of castanets. As the demon approached, Baabby cast a [i]blindness/deafness[/i] spell on him, hoping to deprive him of his sight. But the glabrezu shrugged it off, and Baabby once again decided to put his trust in his [i]Rift-Weaver's Blade[/i], where it belonged. He dodged off to the side by a building, putting his back against a sturdy wall. This had two effects: it made the demon think the sheep-man was fearful (which might make the demon overconfident and careless), and it caused the glabrezu to have to veer off course to get at the baabarian - thus setting Sam up for a sneak attack as the two combatants flanked their foe. Sapphrina knew her own abilities as a combatant, and headed off in the opposite direction, taking cover behind a tree. She cast a [i]haste[/i] spell on the three heroes, realizing they could all benefit from extra attacks. Sam went with his faithful combination of "explosive arrow followed by a normal arrow." Of course, he had forgotten to take into account a true demon's ability to ignore fire-based attacks, so the explosion wasn't as impressive a weapon as the little crow might have hoped for. But at least it proved they were fighting a demon, and not another evil fairy disguised as one using illusion magic! Roaring in rage, the glabrezu attacked Baabby, snapping his pincers at the baabarian but failing to get him caught up in them, partly because Baabby was a more experienced fighter than Queen Necrotifi was, and partly because of his much greater strength. He countered with several jabs with the [i]Rift-Weaver's Blade[/i], taunting the demon (perhaps he'd been hanging around Sam too long?) with, "You waant my sword? You waant it? Well, here it is!" as he drove the blade into the glabrezu's demonic flesh. The demon responded with a flurry of attacks: both crab claws, the claws on his smaller, more humanlike set of hands, and even a wicked bite with his lupine teeth. Baabby staggered under the onslaught, and his friends realized at once that the baabarian wouldn't survive many more such attacks. "I've got to do something!" Sapphrina said, flying over to the combatants. "But the thing's got wicked spell resistance!" Sam reminded her. "Any attack spell likely won't make it through!" "Then I won't cast an attack spell!" she countered, flying up behind Baabby, slapping him on the shoulder, and applying a [i]stoneskin[/i] spell on him. "Thaanks!" Baabby called to his fairy friend, realizing she may have just turned the tide of battle. And then, looking up at his brutish foe, he allowed the rage to build inside his body, fueling the power of his limbs. The [i]Rift-Weaver's Blade[/i] went slicing up into the glabrezu's body, cutting a deep gash across his chest. Meanwhile, Sam had decided to stick to normal arrows since the explosions weren't doing what he might have hoped. Plus, he could fire more normal arrows a round, and by flanking with Baabby he was able to place them in strategic targets on the demon's body where they'd (hopefully) do more damage. With the glabrezu concentrating on fighting off the two combatants, Sapphrina felt confident enough to try her hand at an attack spell. She chose a [i]lightning bolt[/i], but altered the energy type to sonic damage (Skylanders fairies could do that, they were very energy-attuned...which also made them susceptible to the various energy types), thinking there was a better chance that the glabrezu wouldn't have any resistances to that type of damage. She was right; he didn't. But he did have an inherent resistance against all spells, no matter their type, and it served him well in this instance. "Well, drat!" cried Sapphrina, which was as close as she usually came to swearing. It wasn't long, though, before the glabrezu collapsed to the ground, dead (almost trapping Baabby underneath him as he fell, but the baabarian leapt out just in time). "Got him!" called Baabby, allowing his rage to simmer now that the fight was done. Or was it? For here came a vast horde of wraiths, all howling in rage. Sam raised a wing involuntarily, trying to ward off the impending attacks, but they never came - the wraiths flew right through the heroes' bodies, right through the wall surrounding Anubiset, and fled the scene, hopefully never to return. Misty landed near the heroes, dropping off a dripping-wet Queen Necrotifi. "I told you we vampires are pretty strong," Misty said to the heroes, smiling. "You are strong," admitted Sam. "...and pretty." And he gave the vampiress his sweetest smile. "I, and the entire kingdom of Anubiset, thank you," said Queen Necrotifi. She clapped her hands, and a pair of mummy servitors approached, each carrying a heavy sack upon its back. At their Queen's beckoning, they dropped their bundles, allowing the heroes to see they were each filled to the brim with golden coins. "And we thank you, Your Majesty," replied Sapphrina. "I'm glad we were able to help your kingdom...although we had to destroy the Undead Rift Gate, I'm afraid." "No matter," dismissed the Queen. "It may well be for the best, if it will prevent such attacks upon our kingdom in the future." She accompanied the heroes back along the Road of Skulls, until they crossed the Bridge of Bones. There, she retrieved the Death Masks they heroes had been wearing, that had protected them in the underworld. "The forces that attacked your kingdom, they served a being called the Devourer of Nightmares," explained Sapphrina before they left. "We call him Don," added Sam. "We're on a quest to destroy him," the fairy continued. "Well, kill him good for me," replied Queen Necrotifi. "Thaat's the plaan," said Baabby, and the three heroes went back to their airship, to take the next step in their quest. - - - Logan cobbled together a cool "Anubiset Gate" map by using a "Town Square" Flip-Mat that had a wall with two towers and covering up the land on one side with a moat, a drawbridge made of bones, and a bunch of hellish land tiles from the "Hellscapes" Map Pack. He also got to use the "Wolf Demon" miniature he'd picked up from a local game shop and painted himself; it's basically a glabrezu with the serial numbers filed off. Logan also did a really good job of sneaking things by me, which became obvious in hindsight. The first of these was naming the "marilith" Garnett, which is a type of gemstone...as is a sapphire, from which the only other Skylanders fairy we know by name in this campaign derives her name. The other was referring to the glabrezu as a "wolf crab" - I totally did not make the connection to a glabrezu (which has features of both a wolf and a crab, despite its otherwise humanoid build). As I own a crab miniature which I had picked up for an adventure in our previous campaign, that's what I was expecting him to plop onto the battle mat. Well played! [/QUOTE]
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The Adventures of Baabby and Sam - a Skylanders Campaign
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