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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 7576571" data-attributes="member: 508">ADVENTURE 39: NIGHT TERRORSPC Roster:  Daleth Stormsea, elf wizard 11             Galen Thorne, human paladin 13             Kaspar Hardstrike, elf monk 13             Orion Nightsky, halfling rogue 12             Syngaard, human fighter 13Game Session Date: 6 March 2019 - - - Syngaard was thrashing around in bed again, a despondent moan escaping his lips.  In his dream, he was standing in a forest clearing, listening to the crackle of flames as the cabin he'd built was engulfed in the conflagration, taking with it the body of his dead wife.  Hope was cradled in his arms, swaddled in a blanket, one of the few items he'd taken from the cabin before setting it ablaze.  "Mezz..." Syngaard sighed aloud."Shhh, shhh, it's okay," said a woman's voice, cradling the bald man in her arms."Mezz," Syngaard whimpered, slowly leaving the recurring dream behind and waking in a darkened bedroom."I know," Cori replied in a whisper.  "I know.  But it's all over.  She's gone on to a better life.  But you'll see her again, in time."Syngaard accepted the embrace and comfort of the woman in bed beside him, but even in his sleep-addled state he knew what Cori had said wasn't necessarily true.  Thanks to the accursed Mithral Mage, when Syngaard died his soul wouldn't pass on from this world to be reunited with his dead wife - it would be trapped here, entangled in Alexandros's phylactery.  Helpless tears leaked out from his eyes at the thought."Sleep now," soothed Cori.  It wasn't unusual for the burly fighter to have such dreams - when he slept, his mind seemed trapped in the moment of his wife's death.  It was, she knew, why he preferred sleeping in her bed; she was able to comfort him at such times.  The woman had no misconceptions about why Syngaard preferred her over the other girls in Mama Kat's establishment: it was her red hair, the same color and length as that of Syngaard's dead wife.  Cori continued stroking the bald head of the man lying next to her, making soothing noises until his breathing told her he'd fallen back to sleep - and hopefully to a more restful one this time.  She then let out a sigh of her own.  Some day, she thought, he'll let the memories of his dead wife fade away, and realize there are other women here on this world worthy of being loved.  Maybe one day I'll finally get him to do more than just sleep in this bed we share....Cori was just falling back to sleep herself when Syngaard gave a gasp and sat straight up in bed.  "What the Hell--?" he cried out."What is it?" Cori asked.  This didn't sound like another of his nightmares.  It wasn't: Syngaard had just received a telepathic message directly into his mind, waking him instantly: <Precognitive alarm activation: there will be an attack on the tavern in five minutes.>Syngaard swung his feet off the side of the bed and fumbled for a tindertwig from the box on the nightstand.  Flicking it into a tiny flame, he lit one of the scented candles Cori kept there.  "What is it?" she asked again."Attack about to happen at the tavern.  Something about cogs - constructs or something, I guess.  C'mon - help me into my armor."  Syngaard slipped on his pants and shirt, then shrugged into his mithral breastplate and allowed Cori to help buckle it into place.  He strapped on the metal pieces that covered his thighs and arms and slipped on his heavy boots.  He'd just put on his gauntlets and strapped on his weapon-belt with the scimitar hanging in its scabbard, and Cori was reaching under the bed for his morningstars, when there was a creak from the bedroom door.  Syngaard and Cori both looked over at the door - the only way into or out of the bedroom - and saw an armored man framed in the now-open doorway.  He had a gleaming longsword in his right hand, and in the flickering candlelight the intruder's skin looked exceptionally pale and his eyes appeared red, like a wolf's."Ah, you're awake," he said, a smile forming on the sides of his mouth.  "That will make this more...interesting."Meanwhile, the second floor of the Enchanted Flagon was a bundle of excited movement.  The other conscripts had each received the same telepathic message warning of an impending attack and were gearing up.  For the elves, this was merely a matter of slipping on their clothes: a wizard's robes for Daleth and loose-fitting garments for Kaspar, allowing him the full movement required as a monk.  Orion donned her own halfling-sized mithral breastplate, whistling for her dog as she did so.  Carl materialized in the corner of the room and she quickly slipped her bag of blades into place at the side of his ghost touch saddle.  Then she leaped onto the saddle and sent Carl to the tavern below in the quickest way possible: straight through the floor, via a jaunt to the Ethereal Plane.When they were level with the tavern's floor they phased back into the Material Plane and found Galen already there in full armor.  "That was fast!" Orion said, impressed with how quickly the paladin had gotten into full gear - and his plate mail took longer to don than did her own breastplate."I was already up," Galen admitted - with his ring of sustenance, he needed a mere two hours of sleep each night and had yet to retire when the telepathic alarm activated.  "Any idea what to expect?""None," admitted Orion, unsheathing her flaming short sword from her perch on Carl's saddle.  "That new alarm system Skevros added sends a message a few minutes back in time after someone triggers it, but he said it would be too difficult to give specifics.  So it's just the generic warning.  Could be anything."Galen grunted in acknowledgement and called to his own mount from across the planes, wanting to be ready for the worst just in case.  Burt manifested at once in the middle of the tavern.  Just then Dow appeared from the back room, having exited the Mordenkainen's magnificent mansion Skevros had erected there on a permanent basis.  "Daddy says to be ready!" said the homunculus.  Since she was currently inside the astral golem Skevros had built for her, she appeared to be a normal human woman - an elegant noblewoman with shining black hair, this time.  "He's at the manor in the Azure Glade and he got an alarm warning that there would be an attack there, the same as here!""Shall we join him there?" asked Galen."No, he'll handle things there, he said.  He wants you to hold off the attack here.  Where's Syngaard?""Where is he ever?" scoffed Orion.  "Back at that whore house he lives in.  Probably being rebuffed by even the ugliest of the whores, if she's got even the tiniest amount of self-respect."The front door of the tavern opened at that moment and Kaspar dashed in.  He took the appearance of a dire lion and a ghost dog in stride, Burt and Carl having long since been a part of their odd little band.  "Is Daleth still upstairs?" he asked.  "He should have been the first one down - he has less gear than any of the rest of us!"  But Daleth was indeed still upstairs; he'd exited his bedroom and closed the door behind him when he noticed mist seeping beneath the door that led to the balcony directly above the tavern's front door.  That was unusual; even on foggy days the closed door usually kept it at bay - this seemed to be deliberate.  Mentally running through his prepared spells, he found what he'd been seeking and cast a dispel magic at the fog seeping beneath the door.  It coalesced into a human woman dressed in black leather armor.  "Todd!" he called out, but the pseudodragon was already in motion, striking out with the stinger at the end of his scorpionlike tail.  The stinger hit the young woman in the side of the neck, she looked up in surprise (not only at having been stung but also at having been yanked out of her gaseous form) - and then her eyes rolled back in her head and she crashed to the floor, sleeping soundly.  "Good work!" Daleth said to his familiar and Todd purred in contentment."What was that?" Galen asked, looking up at the ceiling where the thumping sound had come from.  Instinctively, he cast forth his senses and picked up a strong source of evil coming from above; he followed with the casting of a magic circle against evil spell.  But Kaspar was already dashing back out through the front door.  Rather than running around behind the tavern and up the stairs, he raced straight up the side of the building's wall, his slippers of spider climbing making that the quickest path up to the balcony.  And once up there, he could see three distinct masses of fog, each somewhat humanoid in shape, either seeping under the door to the building's interior or waiting to do so.  Unsure of being able to harm fog with even the most powerful of his strikes, he assumed a defensive stance and prepared himself to lash out should any of the forms regain substance.Back at Mama Kat's, Cori wasn't going to stand for anyone bursting into her room.  "You get out of here!" she demanded.Vladir smiled widely again, pointing his sword at Syngaard, who had unsheathed his human bane scimitar - although he was beginning to doubt this intruder was still human anymore.  "Gladly, my dear," the vampire agreed.  "Just as soon as I slay this waste of breath!""Stay back!" Syngaard called behind him to Cori, but she knew better than to get in the way of a sword fight.  The two warriors traded blows, the vampire's blade sliding off Syngaard's shield and the scarred human's weapon failing to pierce the vampire's armor.  Then Syngaard amended his orders.  "Cori!" he called.  "Grab my Dick!"As Cori scampered across the bed, Syngaard changed his stance so he was standing sideways, allowing Cori to reach into his pants pocket from behind and remove the figurine of wondrous power he kept in there.  She rubbed her hand across the bronze statuette, then pressed herself against the back wall as the griffon expanded to its full size - his front talons on the floor and his rear legs on the bed, threatening to collapse it with his weight.  Dick snapped at the vampire with his beak, but the griffon was hindered by the cramped space and Vladir easily avoided the attack.  Syngaard and the vampire swung their weapons at each other, but found the crowded conditions of the bedroom unconducive to melee skirmishes.  Cori dove under the bed where she thought she'd be safest.Back on the balcony above the Enchanted Flagon, one of the misty shapes formed a pair of red, glowing eyes and tried dominating Kaspar into doing its bidding - but the monk's willpower was too great to be overcome in such a manner.  Kaspar struck his right fist - the one wearing the tenryutsume - into the mist, aiming for the red eyes, and Lokir was surprised to find he could be hurt while still in his mist form.  Then the vampire got another surprise, for Galen and Burt had raced back outside the tavern and the dire lion had easily leaped up to the second-story landing.  Burt bit Lokir as he was still assuming his solid form, while Galen brought his sword of Zehkar to bear, stabbing deep into the vampire's chest and channeling the power of Hieroneous through his blade.One of the other misty forms seeped underneath the balcony door and between Daleth's feet, taking shape behind him.  The vampire sorceress, Sanguina, cast a scorching ray at the elven wizard, but only one of the two burning orbs hit him.  Spinning to face this sudden attacker, Daleth set himself up for another surprise attack from another enemy who had seeped beneath the balcony door in mist form.  This was Thorvin, who resumed solid form and led with a smite good attack on the elf, cutting a line of pain across the wizard's side with his blade.Orion and Carl passed through the floor behind the sorceress and Carl returned them to the Material Plane, allowing his halfling mistress to sneak attack the undead woman, Orion's magically-enhanced eyes allowing her to see the lines of negative energy coursing through Sanguina's body like veins.  While the vampiric spellcaster was thus occupied, Daleth backed into Kaspar's room and cast a greater invisibility spell upon himself and Todd.  The pseudodragon then took the opportunity to stab out at Thorvin, but he missed with his tail-strike - not that it was likely his sleep poison would harm a vampire in any case (although the pseudodragon noted this fighter's skin wasn't as pale as the sorceress's - maybe he wasn't a vampire after all?).Kaspar hit Lokir several times with a flurry of blows, causing the vampire to revert back to mist and flow under the balcony door, into the hallway where Orion and Carl were fighting Sanguina.  The vampire sorceress backed away from the halfling and the ghost dog into Daleth's room, casting a see invisibility spell on herself; she'd been assigned the elf wizard as her victim and wasn't about to report failure.  Upon Orion's urging, Carl faded back into the Ethereal Plane and passed through the wall to Daleth's room, the two of them positioned unseen behind Sanguina.Thorvin had lost sight of Daleth, but that didn't matter: he'd been assigned the paladin of Hieroneous in any case.  Unaware that his intended victim was riding his dire lion out on the balcony at that very moment, Thorvin charged into Galen's room, only to find it empty.  Galen opened the balcony door - even when locked, it opened at the touch of the iron rings the conscripts all wore - and sent Burt tearing down the hallway in search of invaders.  They charged into Sanguina through the open doorway to Daleth's room, Burt catching the female vampire between his massive teeth.  Galen channeled another smite evil strike through his magic longsword, causing the vampiress to scream in pain.But now Daleth and Todd re-entered the fight, both still covered by the elf's greater invisibility spell.  Daleth tried casting a control undead spell on Lokir, liking the thought of dominating a vampire since vampires were so keen on dominating others, but Lokir managed to avoid the spell's effects.  Todd's stinger attack against Thorvin was no more successful, despite the fact that the fighter seemed oblivious to the pseudodragon's invisible attack; the man's armor prevented the stinger from piercing flesh.Then Kaspar entered through the balcony door behind Galen and Burt.  He used an unconventional approach; despite having several different ways of getting into the scrimmage, he activated his amber amulet of vermin and John, his giant stag beetle, manifested behind Lokir, clamping his powerful mandibles around the vampire's waist.Syngaard, in the meantime, was bleeding from several wounds, Vladir being impressively capable with his blade.  But while Syngaard had managed to give back as good as he got - he'd had Cori toss him his trusty morningstar after it was apparent that Vladir wasn't going to be dealt any additional damage from the magic scimitar's human bane enhancements - Vladir seemed to be slowly healing his wounds while Syngaard would need to take a moment to swig down a healing potion if he wanted his own wounds to close up.  But then, when fighting a vampire, having bleeding wounds wasn't necessarily a bad thing - more than once Syngaard had noticed the vampire's attention being drawn to the blood trickling down the side of the bald fighter's face, where the longsword had carved him a nice, new scar.Dick had proven to not be much help in the cramped quarters of Cori's bedroom, so Syngaard had set him on guard duty, keeping the vampire from getting to Cori.  This the griffon did by dint of his bulk, although Vladir didn't seem all that interested in Cori in any case - he'd focused his attention on Syngaard from the first moment he'd entered the room."It's just a matter of time," Vladir smirked, getting the tip of his sword past Syngaard's defenses and nicking his forearm, just past the gauntlet he wore.  "We seem to be fairly evenly matched in skill, but I fear I have much more endurance than your frail, human frame can boast.""Oh yeah?" Syngaard replied, wishing he was quick enough to come up with a witty rejoinder - not that he had any idea of what a "rejoinder" was, in any case, or would recognize the word if he heard it spoken aloud.  But that didn't matter; what he lacked in book-learning he made up for in street-smarts, and all of a sudden an idea popped into his head.  "Cori!" he yelled.  "Come get this!"  Then, while the red-headed woman crawled out from beneath the bed, Syngaard held his shield up high before him, not in a defensive maneuver at all but just so he could get his left hand near enough to his neck.  Then, grabbing the wooden holy symbol of Pelor that Mezz had worn for as long as he'd known her - and which he had taken from her body before setting the cabin ablaze - he yanked the cord hard, breaking it free from his neck.  He passed it back to Cori, who had the presence of mind to hold it up high, pointed at Vladir.  "Back, beast!" she called - and the vampire hissed, flinching before the holy symbol.  Vladir took a step back and Syngaard followed, bringing his morningstar slamming painfully into the vampire's side.Lokir was pinned tightly between John's mouthparts but didn't seem overly concerned about it - if it became necessary, he could always revert to mist.  Casting an unholy blight spell, he caused a greasy darkness to overcome those in his vicinity not tainted with evil: John, Galen, Burt, Kaspar, the invisible Daleth, and the still-sleeping rogue Todd had knocked into blissful slumber after Daleth had dispelled her gaseous form effect.  Lokir managed to shrug out of the beetle's grip as he watched his spell take effect on his enemies.  The spell was enough to knock Daleth into unconsciousness, although nobody was able to see it but Sanguina - and she was too busy being chewed upon by Burt to notice.  The vampire sorceress slammed the side of the dire lion's maned head, draining the great cat of a portion of his life energy.  Orion performed another sneak attack on Sanguina, sliding back into the Material Plane with Carl and driving her flaming short sword deep into the vampire's side.  Thorvin saw Galen, his target, astride the dire lion mauling Sanguina and turned to charge down the hallway in their direction.  He channeled a smite good attack through his blade - but then tripped on Daleth's invisible form where he lay unconscious in the hallway, throwing off his aim.  Thorvin's blade smote nothing but the wooden floor.Galen's blade finished off Sanguina, whose body dissipated into mist upon her death and flowed down the hallway, towards the balcony.  In the midst of battle, Galen knew there was no way to track it back to her lair; his understanding of vampires was that they'd go straight back to their coffins to heal when slain, so the paladin was certain they'd have an opportunity to see the vampire sorceress again.  Instead, he focused on Thorvin, whose clumsy attack had brought him within range of the sword of Zehkar.  Burt, angered that the vampiress he'd had firmly in his jaws had escaped, roared in fury.Galen's blade hit Thorvin and the paladin was surprised to see blood flow from the wound - apparently at least this enemy wasn't a member of the undead (although his aura was just as evil as the vampires who'd attacked the conscripts this night).  Todd struck Thorvin in the neck with his stinger, but the venom failed to knock out the armored warrior.  But one of the electrified daggers from Orion's bag of blades went flying down the hallway, catching Thorvin on the other side of his neck.  Blood gushed down from the wound; the halfling's throw had been spot on, dealing severe damage.  Feeling he'd do best to flee and live to see another dawn, Thorvin backed away and drank down another potion of gaseous form, heading down the hallway to the back door leading to the stairs.John and Kaspar attacked Lokir simultaneously, causing the vampire cleric to have to cast an inflict wounds spell upon himself to recover.  But then Galen channeled a blast of positive energy through his illumium scabbard, striking the undead cleric and exploding him into involuntary mist.Todd landed on the floor beside Daleth's unconscious form and felt for the invisible wizard's belt, counting the potion vials kept there.  He pulled out the second one (which if memory served was a healing concoction), pulled out the cork with the stinger on his tail - it popped like a champagne bottle being opened - and poured it down his master's throat.  Daleth sputtered and sat up, awakened back to consciousness.  Then, looking about him and puzzling out what had happened while he was out, he channeled a scorching ray through his metamagic rod and blasted the human-shaped mist headed for the back door.  The spell knocked out Thorvin, who reverted back to human form but remained floating in mid-air, the power of his gaseous form potion keeping him aloft until it wore off.But the conscripts at the Enchanted Flagon had run out of enemies to fight.  Galan examined the aura of the sleeping rogue woman and found it untainted by evil, so he helped her awake and got her story.   The woman, Nikara, was a Durnhillian rogue who had been dominated by the vampires to do their bidding.  She was also able to tell them that Thorvin Bleakheart was the still-living brother of the vampire cleric, Lokir Bleakheart.  Kaspar examined the back of Thorvin's neck; it was easy, with the unconscious human floating in mid-air.  Sure enough, he bore the crimson hourglass tattoo of the vampiric sect of the Seekers of Eternity."Oh, crap - Syngaard!' said Orion suddenly.  In the heat of battle, they'd forgotten all about the scarred fighter who chose to dwell away from the rest of them.  But Syngaard had done okay for himself, aided as he was by Cori wielding Mezz's holy symbol of Pelor.  Vladir couldn't help but back away from it, giving Syngaard ample opportunity to get in a few licks with his morningstar, until the vampire finally exited Mama Kat's establishment and dissipated into mist, blowing away in the slight breeze.  The bald fighter couldn't be sure, but he thought he heard a quiet "I'll be back!" among the night noises."Good job!" Syngaard nodded to Cori, and the redhead flushed with the praise.  The fighter folded his hands over Cori's, trapping the holy symbol in her grasp.  "I'll leave this with you, for protection - and Dick as well," he assured her.  "But I gotta go see if the others are okay.  I'll be back!" he promised, then dashed off into the night.Syngaard entered the Enchanted Flagon from the front door as Skevros was coming in through the back, via the extradimensional gate linking the two manors.  He looked scorched and battle-weary.  Karen was standing there with a mug of ale, but to Syngaard's disappointment she brought it to the king's adviser.  Skevros drank it down with a nod of thanks."I fought off the leader of the vampiric Seekers at Wrencrofft Manor," Skevros announced.  "Again, actually - the leader was the same one who had taken the form of a dracolich when the city was under attack.""So what was this - an assassination attempt?" asked Orion."I can only hope that's all it was," Skevros sighed.  "But I fear it may have been a diversionary tactic to keep us busy and to prevent us from interfering with some other sinister plot."A sudden look of terror crossed Syngaard's face and he went rushing past the king's adviser and into the extradimensional manor, returning a moment later after having checked on the other two inhabitants of the pocket dimension.  "Hope and Maria are both okay - they're sound asleep," he said.  He motioned to Karen for an ale of his own; after a scare like that, he needed one!"I fear we haven't seen the last of those two vampires who escaped us in mist form," said Galen."Three," Syngaard corrected, taking Vladir into account.  "What're we gonna do with them two?" he asked, pointing to Nikara and Thorvin.  The latter had been securely bound with ropes to a chair and Galen had even attended to the worst of his wounds, but Thorvin had not yet awakened from his ordeal.  Skevros had further questions for the Seeker, but he was content to wait a moment for his answers."You are free to go," Skevros said to Nikara after having heard her part in all of this.  "You, I fear, were naught but an unwilling pawn.""Yeah, well, I still don't think I'll feel safe around here, knowing those vampires could return at any time," the female thief replied.  "I think I might head on north, to Ashfall, at least until all of this blows over.  Thanks for freeing me from them."  "Nothin' says 'thanks' like cold, hard cash," pointed out Syngaard, looking up from his mug of ale.  Nikara just stared at him; then, without a word, she undid her leather belt and pulled it free, fumbling around with a hidden flap on the inside and pulling out several coins.  She tossed them onto the table, then turned and walked out the front door, threading her belt back into place through the loops of her armor."Hey, mithral!" Syngaard said, picking up one of the five thick coins on the table.  "Not bad!""Syngaard!" chided Orion.  "Heroes don't charge victims for their rescue!""What?" Syngaard asked.  "We all fought for our lives, and this wasn't no payin' mission this time!  Only seems right we get compensated one way or another."  Then he finished up his ale and headed back to Mama Kat's - Dick would revert back to statuette form before too long, and he didn't want Cori feeling unprotected before he got back there. - - - Once again, Syngaard's distant dwelling place (it's actually just down the street, but that's far enough) meant he was separated from the rest of the conscripts for the majority of this adventure.  I just think it's fitting that he saved his bacon by using Mezz's holy symbol of Pelor - that's something I had purchased back at character creation as "window dressing," never expecting it would have an actual role to play in-game.  That was pretty cool!And for the record, Syngaard might work as a bouncer in a whore house, but he works purely for room and board - he doesn't "sample the wares," as it were.  He's pretty messed up over Mezz's death, even a year and more after the fact; he's not interested in other women at this point and it's possible that might hold true indefinitely, Cori's feelings on the matter notwithstanding.Before we started this session, Harry and I spent some of our hard-earned coin: he in upgrading Kaspar's tenryutsume to include the holy weapon ability, and me in upgrading Syngaard's +1 morningstar to a +3.</blockquote>

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