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The Kordovian Adventurers Guild
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<blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 6910478" data-attributes="member: 508"><p><strong>ADVENTURE 24: SEVERED BLOODLINES</strong></p><p></p><p>PC Roster: <p style="margin-left: 20px">Binkadink Dundernoggin, gnome fighter 8</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Castillan Ivenheart, elf bounder 8</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Darrien, half-elf ranger 8</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Finoula Cloudshadow, elf ranger 8</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Gilbert Fung, human wizard 8</p><p></p><p>NPC Roster: <p style="margin-left: 20px">Aithanar Ivenheart, elf fighter 2</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Ingebold Battershield, dwarven cleric 8 (Moradin)</p><p></p><p>Game Session Date: 24 September 2016</p><p></p><p> - - - </p><p></p><p>While the members of the Kordovian Adventurers Guild were in town, a traveler came down from the mountains to the north. He told of a vast plain on the northern side of the Clatspur Range, where barbarian tribes held sway, a land containing a lake bigger than many seas - but of the greatest interest, especially to Binkadink Dundernoggin, recent owner of a masterwork gnomish glaive, was the tale of a group of blacksmiths and wizards just past the mountain range who specialized in the creation and upgrade of magic weapons.</p><p></p><p>"Let's go north!" pleaded the little gnome. "We've been south many times before, and we've been in the Vesve Forest quite a few times now, but we've never been through the Clatspurs!"</p><p></p><p>"The Ravencroft Sanatorium is in one of the mountains of the Clatspur Range," reminded Castillan.</p><p></p><p>"Yeah, like the closest mountain!" argued Binkadink. "I'm talking about going through the pass and checking out what's on the other side!"</p><p></p><p>"There's plenty more to see of the Vesve Forest," pointed out Finoula. "That place is huge! We could spend our entire careers searching through that forest."</p><p></p><p>"Who wants to do that?" argued Binkadink.</p><p></p><p>"We might find out where all those damned orcs and goblins are coming from," added Darrien. "That would be a definite plus."</p><p></p><p>"Aw, come on, guys," wheedled the gnome.</p><p></p><p>"Quit with th' teasin' already, you lot," chided Ingebold. "Ye kin see th' poor fella's gonna just about die of frustration if we don't go check out this weaponsmith group we heard about."</p><p></p><p>"I will!" agreed Binkadink. "Right here, on this very spot! And it'll all be on your heads."</p><p></p><p>"Can I have your stuff?" asked Darrien.</p><p></p><p>"What all this fuss about?" demanded Gilbert. "We go north, check out weapon guys. They have wizards there, maybe I trade some spells."</p><p></p><p>"Yes!" shouted Binkadink, then turned his attention to his masterwork glaive. "Don't you worry, I'm going to get you enchanted. You'll like that, won't you? Of course you will."</p><p></p><p>Gilbert shook his head in disbelief. "You a twisted little freak," he said.</p><p></p><p>"Maybe," agreed Binkadink. "But I'm a twisted little freak <em>who's going north to get my glaive enchanted!</em>" And he did a little jig, dancing in a circle holding his glaive as if it were his dancing partner.</p><p></p><p>Binkadink was in a state of near-ecstasy for the next full day. Riding along on his jackalope, he realized that each hippity-hop took him that much closer to getting a magic weapon. The others were lucky: most of the weapons they had run across in their adventuring careers thus far were sized for humans, elves, and dwarves; Binkadink well knew their chances of just happening across an enchanted gnomish glaive in the course of their adventures were practically nil. Nope, if he was going to get an enchanted blade, he was going to have to take matters into his own little hands.</p><p></p><p>By the morning of the second day, his ecstasy had hardened into a realization that it would be well over a week of travel to make it through the mountain pass, if what the visitor had said was accurate. He'd have to be patient, there was no way around it. And while the path thus far had them winding along the valleys between the mountains, he knew there would be places ahead where they'd be climbing up into higher elevations, where they'd be dealing with colder temperatures than those the gnome had been accustomed to.</p><p></p><p>But all of his thoughts about upgrading his glaive and the journey ahead were dashed from his mind once he saw the two horses running across the sky.</p><p></p><p>"Do you see that?" he asked Obvious in the language of burrowing mammals.</p><p></p><p>The jackalope snorted in laughter. "They can't do that!" he observed. "They're silly!"</p><p></p><p>"Apparently nobody told them they couldn't. Hey guys -- look!" The gnome pointed up at the sky ahead, where the two equine figures were banking in a turn and heading directly for the two-wagon train.</p><p></p><p>"Are those pegasi?" asked Finoula, looking up from atop her pony, Daisy. Wrath trotted along at her side as she shielded her eyes in the glare of the sun. "I don't see any wings." Darrien got out his <em>Arachnibow</em>, just in case they weren't pegasi, or weren't something else of an equally pleasant demeanor.</p><p></p><p>As the two groups converged, the sky-horses dropped in altitude, lowering themselves almost - but not quite - to the level of the road. The group - all but Gilbert, who preferred traveling in the comfort of the roof-topped Vistani wagon - could see these horses were built more like unicorns. They each had an ivory horn jutting from their forehead and silvery-white manes flowing behind them, and they even had tufts of beard in the manner of goats. But these creatures had draconic scales along their front legs, like no unicorn any of the group had ever seen, or even heard of, before. Both wagons came to a dead stop, as Finoula and Binkadink on their mounts did the same just ahead, and the horned sky-horses slowed slightly as they got within reach of the group.</p><p></p><p>Ironically, although Gilbert was the only one of the group the two equines couldn't see, it was he whom they addressed. Using some means of telepathic communication, they "spoke" in unison directly into the heads of the whole assembled group.</p><p></p><p><em><Gilbert Fung, time is of the essence – the life of your honorable mother is at stake! Prepare to return to her side at once!></em></p><p></p><p>"What the--" sputtered Gilbert, rushing out of the wagon's rear door to see what was going on. As he did so, the spirit ki-rin trotted - still several inches above the ground - past a startled Binkadink and Finoula on their respective mounts, past Ingebold and Darrien in the mule wagon, one on either side, and up towards Castor and Pollux at the front of the Vistani wagon. Castillan, who had once again been riding atop the roofed wagon, leaped down, standing beside Gilbert as the portly wizard rushed to meet the spirit ki-rin who had brought him dire warnings about his mother.</p><p></p><p>But before he could ask aloud any questions, the spirit ki-rin became insubstantial. Looking like misty outlines of their equine shapes, they drifted towards the black horses hooked up to the Vistani wagon. Then, their misty bodies narrowed and shrank, heading directly into the horses' nostrils.</p><p></p><p>Finoula, anticipating what was going to happen next, leaped off from Daisy and ran towards the Vistani wagon. "Everybody into the wagon!" she called, grabbing a startled Ingebold on her way. "Aithanar! Swap with Ingebold!" Without a moment's hesitation, the elven fighter leaped down from the seat of the Vistani wagon, helping Ingebold climb up when she got there.</p><p></p><p>"Stay with Aithanar, and keep him safe!" called Binkadink to his riding mount, as he extended his <em>gnomish stilt-boots</em> and raced to the back of the Vistani wagon, climbing in with Castillan and Darrien. "Come on!" he yelled to Gilbert.</p><p></p><p>"What they doing to horses?" asked the wizard in wonderment.</p><p></p><p>"You're going to be left behind if you don't hurry!" yelled Finoula, half dragging Gilbert to the back of the Vistani and stuffing him through the door. She jumped in and slammed the door shut as Castor and Pollux reared up, kicked their forelegs, and then leaped forward into the sky. Aithanar ducked as the Vistani wagon raced just above the mule wagon, the two pitch-black draft horses rising up into the sky, pulling the roofed wagon behind them. "Boojagga!" he called to a clearly frightened Ingebold at the reins.</p><p></p><p>Once at a sufficient height, the two horses banked and raced back the way the group had come. Although it had taken them a day and a half to get as far as they had, they could tell the trip back home would be significantly faster.</p><p></p><p>Inside the crowded wagon, Finoula fretted about Aithanar. "We probably should have told him to start on back home," she said. "I don't want to have to walk all the way back there once we've dealt with whatever this is about."</p><p></p><p>"He's a big boy -- he'll figure it out," reasoned Castillan.</p><p></p><p>"This about my mom," Gilbert reminded the group. "We worry about Aithanar after we deal with my mom."</p><p></p><p>"So where is your mom?" asked Darrien. "Any idea what's going on?"</p><p></p><p>"She back at home," snapped Gilbert. "We find out when we find out."</p><p></p><p>Time seemed to crawl inside the cramped wagon, with Gilbert worriedly going through his spell repertoire and wondering what they'd be facing when they returned to his parents' cottage. The others were curious how Gilbert's mother, an unassuming housewife, ranked a warning and rescue attempt from a pair of dragon-horses coming down from the sky. It was apparent Gilbert wasn't in a talking mood, but it was also apparent that he could use having something to do besides wait for the trip through the sky to conclude. Castillan broke the silence.</p><p></p><p>"So, Gilbert, any idea what those cloud-horse things were?"</p><p></p><p>"They ki-rin. My mom tell stories of them when I little."</p><p></p><p>"Ki-rin, okay. And, any ideas why they're helping us go rescue your mom? They seem pretty powerful; I don't imagine they just show up every time somebody's in danger. What's so special about your mom?"</p><p></p><p>"My mom just my mom."</p><p></p><p>"Is she, like, somebody famous?"</p><p></p><p>"She just my mom, okay? She a sorcerer. Not an adventurer, just a sorcerer. She wanted me become druid like my dad, but that not work out so good. And I don't have natural talent for magic like she does - I study spells from books. She a sorcerer, I a wizard."</p><p></p><p>"These ki-rin, are they from her homeland?" pressed Finoula. "I've never heard of them before."</p><p></p><p>"Yeah, they from where she born. Way over on other side of world."</p><p></p><p>"How long ago did she leave?" pressed Finoula.</p><p></p><p>"Long time ago! When she just little girl!" exploded Gilbert. "How about you save questions for my mom, ask her after she safe?" The others took the hint: Gilbert was too worried about his mother's safety to be distracted by a bunch of background questions. The heroes sat in an uncomfortable silence for the remainder of the trip. Finally, though, Ingebold ducked her head through one of the windows at her shoulder and called back to the others, "We're goin' down!"</p><p></p><p>Fortunately, this was a controlled descent. Just as sure-footed as the spirit ki-rin had been when the group had first encountered them in the mountains, Castor and Pollux dropped gracefully to just above the ground, then went a step further and returned their hooves to solid earth once again. With a slight bounce, the Vistani wagon touched down and the two horses slowed to a halt. Before the wagon had stopped moving, Gilbert was out the back door and around the side of the wagon. From this vantage point, he could see Castor and Pollux panting heavily, blowing clouds of smoke from their nostrils. Not surprisingly, the vapors took on the forms of a pair of familiar-looking equines, and the spirit ki-rin were once again in their normal forms - and still not quite touching the ground.</p><p></p><p><em><We dare approach no closer from the air, for fear of alerting your enemies to your presence,></em> they said in their twin voices. <em><Be cautious! Your enemies are already in your mother’s cottage.></em> And with that final telepathic warning, they turned in unison and cantered up into the sky.</p><p></p><p>"I know where we are!" exclaimed Gilbert. "This fishing pond, half mile from cottage!"</p><p></p><p>"Wh-- what in the world is going on, son?" asked a new voice.</p><p></p><p>As the others climbed out of the Vistani wagon and Ingebold jumped down from her perch - her legs shaky after being out in the front of the wagon as it flew across the sky - an older man approached. He wore patched robes of brown and green and held a simple fishing pole in his hand. Unkempt brown hair fading rapidly toward gray spilled out from his head and face.</p><p></p><p>"Dad!" greeted Gilbert in surprise. "Come on! Mom in trouble!" And with no further explanation, the wizard cast a <em>fly</em> spell upon himself and was gone.</p><p></p><p>Without time for introductions, the group of heroes started running in the direction Gilbert had taken, urging Verdant Gristwold, Gilbert's father, to come with them. He needed no argument, racing as fast as he could go up to the top of a hill that had shielded the low-flying wagon from the Fung cottage.</p><p></p><p>Binkadink, running as fast as a gnome in <em>stilt-boots</em> could run, cursed at having had to leave Obvious behind. "Here!" called Darrien, pulling out his new acquisition - an <em>ebony fly</em> he'd looted from one of the doppelgangers' rooms in Rimbule's keep - and calling out a command word. At once, a housefly the size of a pony manifested on the ground just ahead. "She's all yours!" Darrien offered.</p><p></p><p>"You sure?" asked the gnome as he leapt up onto the insect's back. But the fly buzzed off before the ranger could reply, and Binkadink rapidly caught up to, and passed, Gilbert in mid-air. "It that house!" pointed out the wizard as he was passed by gnome and fly - but Gilbert needn't have bothered; there was only one house in the direction they were flying, and the fact that there was a sinister-looking, black-clad man standing on the roof and two more prowling around the house from each side gave away the potential danger.</p><p></p><p>As Binkadink closed the distance, the roof-top assassin pulled a couple of items from inside his robes and flung them at the gnome's direction. The first one whizzed by his head, but the other hit him smack in the chest. It wasn't enough to penetrate the gnome's armor, and it didn't stay in one form long enough for Binkadink to get more than a quick glimpse in his peripheral vision that it looked like some kind of flat, metal sculpture of a spider with sharp, pointed legs sticking out in all directions, before it began morphing into the real thing. In a mere second, Binkadink found himself riding a pony-sized fly through the air at over triple the speed he could manage on the ground on his fastest day, only now with a large fiendish spider biting at his throat and injecting its fiendish venom.</p><p></p><p>Realizing the spider was much too close for his glaive to be of much use as a weapon, Binkadink swung it around beneath the fly's throat and caught the end in his other hand, then mentally ordered the fly to flip over while in flight. He had hoped to knock the spider from its perch, but no such luck - the blasted thing had a good grip on the fly's back and wasn't about to be dropped that easily. Binkadink's mind raced for a new plan - but then that turned out to be unnecessary when the fly crash-landed onto the Fung cottage's roof. The gnome went sprawling in a heap, the spider right beside him. And now here raced over the rooftop assassin, armed with a sturdy bo staff that came crashing down at the gnome's head. Binkadink dodged just in time, then sent his own glaive stabbing up at the ninja, managing to graze his side.</p><p></p><p>As Gilbert approached his mother's cottage, he could see Binkadink getting to his feet and trading blows with a black-clad ninja on the roof, while a large spider menaced the gnome from behind. Worse, there were two more ninja at the ground level, and as the wizard watched, each sprang up the wall and climbed onto the roof as easily as Gilbert had ever seen Castillan do the same. But they were at each end of the roof, whereas Binkadink was fighting over in the middle of the roof's front slope. Gilbert aimed to the right of the ninja with the bo staff, throwing a blast of <em>magic missiles</em> into his face as he sped past. But he had no real interest in the rooftop fight: his concern was for his mother, and the fastest way he knew of to get inside the cottage was to head for the hole in the center of the roof.</p><p></p><p>A woman from the Far East married to a man from the West, Harriet Fung had had the house Verdant built for the two of them - and then later three, once Gilbert was born - built in the shape of a large rectangle, with a rectangular hole in the middle. The entire front section was built in the style of the Western world, with chairs around a dining room table and a study for Verdant, with wooden doors closing off those rooms that weren't accessible through open doorways, while the back half was built with an Eastern aesthetic, with sliding wall panels and low tables for eating while kneeling on the floor. The rectangular section in the middle of the building was Harriet's meditation garden, a simple, dirt path winding through a pebbled ground with an oval reflective pool in one corner. Three of the sides were surrounded by a raised wooden floor, and wooden pillars at each corner marked the boundaries of this area of serenity.</p><p></p><p>Currently, Harriet Fung was bound to one of these pillars, the one in the northeastern corner of the pebble garden. A black-clad ninja held a blade to her throat, while directly before her stood another Eastern woman, one Gilbert had never seen before in his life. She was speaking in the singsong, almost musical language of Harriet Fung's homeland, a language the wizard had heard spoken in snippets over the course of his life, but one his mother had refused to teach to him, for she wanted her son to speak like those who lived around him rather than like someone from half a world away. Her face was an impassive mask, refusing to look at the plaque the other woman held in front of her.</p><p></p><p>With a start, Gilbert recognized it. It had been taken from the wall of the front dining room, and had Gilbert's handprints from when he was four years old in the middle of a baked clay slab, into which had been carved the words "I LOVE YOU MOMMY." Verdant had helped little four-year-old Gilbert make it as a gift for his mother over a decade and a half ago.</p><p></p><p>Up on the rooftop, Binkadink was holding his own against the nearest ninja and the fiendish spider, but now two more ninja were entering the combat. Three enemies were more than the little gnome could keep track of, and the newcomer on the left managed to get in a good strike with his short sword - which, judging by the way Binkadink felt immediately afterwards, had been poisoned.</p><p></p><p>Fortunately, help was at hand. The ninja approaching on the right never did get a chance to actually enter the fray, as he was downed by a series of arrows courtesy of Darrien and his <em>Arachnibow</em>. Darrien had slowed to a stop, allowing Finoula and Verdant to continue on ahead of him while he lined up his shots. Behind him, he could hear Ingebold's heavy breathing as she struggled to catch up to the rest of the group, hampered by heavy dwarven armor and stumpy dwarven legs.</p><p></p><p>But next on the scene was Castillan, his bounder training having allowed him to pull ahead of the others and race up the front wall of the cottage and climb up onto the roof in one seemingly effortless motion. He had veered left during his approach, such that he ended up behind the leftmost ninja who had stabbed Binkadink. Sensing the bounder's approach, the ninja broke off from attacking Binkadink to deal with this new threat.</p><p></p><p>Gilbert flew down through the building's central opening, coming to a landing immediately before the woman holding his plaque. When Harriet saw him, she cried out, "No! Run, Mudpie! Save yourself!" But the woman, <strong>Ryuko</strong>, had a <em>tongues</em> spell in effect and understood the strange Western language Harriet spoke. Her almond eyes widened in disbelief as she realized the heavyset half-breed standing before her was the child she had been questioning Harriet about. Ryuko's face curled into a sneer of contempt as she practically spat out syllables in her own language, which were immediately converted to the Common tongue of the region.</p><p></p><p>"Step no further!" Ryuko commanded, "or your mother's life is forfeit!" When she saw Gilbert pause in frustration, she continued. "You do not realize it, but back in Kozakura there has been a successful coup against the former Emperor. The new Emperor has decreed that all members of the previous ruling family are to be slain. And that includes your mother here, even though she is but a distant cousin. When we <em>teleported</em> in to accomplish our mission, we found signs that she had birthed a child, but I see now that you are but a contemptible half-breed, ineligible to rule from the Jade Throne. Therefore, your life will be spared, as well as those of your companions. I will return to the new Emperor with your mother's head as proof of her death. I warn you this: do not attempt to have your mother raised from the dead. We will be <em>scrying</em> here occasionally, and if we see her returned to life we will return with a much larger force – to slay her again, as well as you, all of your friends, and all of your neighbors. I trust you will not be so foolish as to cause this action to pass." Ryuko raised her voice, calling out to her minions. "Back to me! Prepare to depart with our proof!"</p><p></p><p>Up on the rooftop, Castillan ensured the ninja he'd been fighting had no chance to respond to the wu jen's summons, for his twin blades got past the assassin's guard, skewering him on the spot. Likewise, Binkadink finally bested the ninja with the bo staff he'd been fighting since his arrival on the rooftop. (The fly, he noticed, had crawled away from danger as soon as it had gotten its bearings.) As for the fiendish spider, it exploded in a puff of nauseous gas upon its death, the vile creature the second rooftop victim of Darrien's marksmanship with his <em>Arachnibow</em>.</p><p></p><p>During Ryuko's explanation, Gilbert had remained rooted to the spot, not wanting to have the ninja threatening his mother slit her throat as the result of any actions on his part. But he hadn't been helpless; he'd stealthily slipped his <em>wand of gaseous form</em> into his hand, and was even now judging the distance between himself and his mother. Could he touch his mother with the wand before the ninja threatening her could slit her throat? It was a question he'd been scared to have answered, but now it looked like he had no choice. He started forward, but in the blink of an eye the ninja's weapon sliced through Harriet's delicate throat. Her head remained in roughly the same location, only now it was being supported solely by the grip of the ninja holding her by her long, black hair.</p><p></p><p>"NO!" Gilbert screamed, unable to reach his mother in time - he'd hoped to turn her into mist, so she could escape on her own - and dropping back into a hasty Plan B: <em>Evard's black tentacles</em>. If he couldn't save his mother, he could make damn sure these bastards didn't escape with her head. And screw the warnings - his first action after slaying these assassins would be to have his mother restored to life, and to the Nine Hells with the consequences.</p><p></p><p>Two more ninja, who had been searching the cottage for clues as to Harriet's offspring, exited the rooms they were in at their field commander's summons. One stepped out of Gilbert's bedroom and stood right next to the decapitator; he ended up caught up in Gilbert's spell as rubbery, ebon tentacles sprang up from the floor to encompass the Eastern trio. The other had been searching the master bedroom; he exited to hear the clomping of footsteps on a wooden floor, and spun to face Finoula and Verdant as they arrived in the area, having had to go through the front door of the house and around to the left of the interior.</p><p></p><p>Ryuko cursed, unable to touch her ninja and <em>teleport</em> away. The ninja closest to her, seeing their predicament and putting the mission ahead of all other concerns, attempted to fling Harriet's head to his field leader, but the tightening tentacles ruined his throw - and Ryuko's own attempts to catch it. But seeing that she'd likely not be able to retrieve Harriet's head, Ryuko chose to <em>teleport</em> away to report the mission's success, even without the proof of a decapitated head. She reasoned to herself that she could always scry upon Harriet's headless body if the new Emperor needed proof. With a single arcane syllable, she vanished from the room.</p><p></p><p>Binkadink and Castillan dropped down into the meditation garden, careful to land in the half of the area not covered in writhing tentacles. The gnome had his glaive out and ready to slash out at either of the trapped ninja that might find a way out of the mass of tentacles, but the ebon appendages choked the life out of the two victims before they had a chance to escape. Seeing this, Gilbert deactivated the spell with a word. Behind him, Finoula slew the last of the ninja, and Verdant ran up to the body of his lifeless wife. Gilbert had retrieved her head and placed it gently next to the body.</p><p></p><p>Ingebold finally made it to the scene, completely out of breath, and the others filled her in on what had happened. "Can she be <em>raised</em>?" Gilbert demanded.</p><p></p><p>"Nay," replied Ingebold, sadly. "Not without...th' body needs t' be intact," she explained.</p><p></p><p>"Would bringing her back be the safest course of action?" broached Finoula. "If they'll be <em>scrying</em> on her and they see her, they'll just be back with a larger force...." The ranger hated bringing this up, and perfectly understood how she'd feel had it been her mother slain, but she still felt they needed to discuss the ramifications of their next move. She expected Gilbert to explode at her, but he just stood there, his hand on his chin, rubbing his beard.</p><p></p><p>"Gilbert...?" Finoula began.</p><p></p><p>"Be quiet. I thinking," Gilbert said softly. The others stood silently by his side, as Verdant held Harriet's delicate hand in his own. Then Gilbert's head snapped up, a wicked grin on his face. "Fly boy!" he called out to Darrien. "What we do with scroll we found in yuan-ti nest, with shield?"</p><p></p><p>"It's...I think we left it back at Battershield Keep, to be sold."</p><p></p><p>"You get on fly, fetch it, bring it back here!" Gilbert ordered. Darrien and Castillan went back outside to go fetch the ranger's <em>ebony fly</em>, still active from Binkadink's wild ride to the rooftop.</p><p></p><p>"What's the scroll?" asked Finoula, not remembering what spell had been on it, only that none of the group had been able to use it.</p><p></p><p>"It a druid spell: <em>reincarnate</em>!" Gilbert announced triumphantly. "Dad can cast it, Mom returns in new body, stupid Emperor's goons can <em>scry</em> all they want! -- they never see her!"</p><p></p><p>Verdant had to be talked into using the spell; as a druid, he understood the circle of life and that all things must die eventually. Still, he knew Harriet's death was a crushing blow on their only son.... He eventually decided he'd cast it, knowing if Harriet didn't want to return to life in a new body, her spirit could always decline the offer. "We'll leave it up to your mother, then," he told his son.</p><p></p><p>Darrien returned with the scroll, Verdant studied it - for he'd never cast the spell before, it being much more powerful than those he'd mastered thus far - and the group gathered around Harriet's body as he performed the spellcasting. Harriet's body began glowing with a spiritual energy, soon becoming too bright to look at directly. As the spell finished, the glow diminished and Harriet sat up in her new form.</p><p></p><p>Her hair was the same: a deep, glossy black, long and straight. She was still in the same kimono she'd been slain in, for the spell did nothing to alter the garments of the reincarnated soul, merely its body. Her skin was now an olive green; her painted nails long and sharp; several of her teeth were sharper than she was used to, and her voice was much deeper than Gilbert and Verdant were used to. "Husband?" she said. "What happen?"</p><p></p><p>Verdant helped his wife to her feet and they were both shocked to see his petite wife was now as tall as he was, and nearly as tall as Gilbert.</p><p></p><p>"You were...you were killed. A little," Verdant explained, gulping heavily and fearful that his wife would be less than pleased at the results of their attempt to restore her to life.</p><p></p><p>"And now I an orc," she commented, almost to herself. "Mudpie! This your idea?"</p><p></p><p>"Yes, Honorable Mother," Gilbert replied sheepishly, using his best "suck-up-to-the-parents" voice. "But I have <em>hat of disguise</em> you can wear! Just...maybe don't make you look like...you know, you."</p><p></p><p>Harriet blew out a sigh of exasperation. "If this what Fate have planned for me, who I to argue? But look! Blood all over favorite kimono! This never come out!"</p><p></p><p>"You're okay...looking like an orc woman?" asked Verdant.</p><p></p><p>"I still me inside!" replied Harriet, before furrowing her brow. "Only maybe we let neighbors know what happen, so they don't kill me when I show up at marketplace looking like orc who attack kingdom."</p><p></p><p>"What made you remember the scroll of <em>reincarnate</em>?" asked Binkadink.</p><p></p><p>"Purple Mage," answered Gilbert. "My mirror prophecy say, 'Some books always judged by their covers.' And then it say, 'Remember this upon apparent sudden death.' Only now, I realize it really 'a parent's sudden death.' It warning, not to bring mother back to life looking like she used to."</p><p></p><p>"It's kind of creepy, having our prophecies all come true like this," admitted Finoula.</p><p></p><p>"Tell me about it," grumbled Castillan. "I'm supposed to end up mating with an insect."</p><p></p><p> - - - </p><p></p><p>In the end, the players eventually decided that Harriet would keep Gilbert's <em>hat of disguise</em> so she wouldn't have to spend her whole life looking like an orc, especially in a kingdom that had been periodically attacked by orcs for the past dozen years or more. They also decided Harriet should wear the <em>ring of mind shielding</em> the PCs took from Rimbule's dead finger, on the theory that if Ryuko ever scries on Harriet Fung to see if she'd been returned to life, all she should get is "static," which might plausibly be caused by Harriet still being dead.</p><p></p><p>Of course, I decided once the events of Harriet's death and rebirth were made known to King Galrich, he immediately invited her to the castle for an introduction. Dan was initially a bit concerned that the half-orc king might be "putting the moves" on his PC's married mother, but I explained that Galrich had a longer-term goal in mind: he'd be teaching her the Orc language, so she could be sent on a mission to infiltrate a future band of orcs and goblins attacking the kingdom, specifically so she could escape with the survivors and see where they went once they retreated. Of course, since it will take Harriet quite some time to master the Orc language (especially considering she's mastered Common in the same pidgin version that Gilbert uses), this ploy is probably another 8-10 levels away.</p><p></p><p>Harriet's back story: she was a distant cousin to the Emperor of Kozakura, one of the lands of Kara Tur. When she was 12 or so, her family decided to marry her off to some 60-year-old whose family they wanted to bond into their own. Twelve-year-old Harriet (birth name unknown; I imagine "Harriet" was one of the first women she met when she got to the Western world and she adopted it for her own to help her blend in) ran away from home. She snuck aboard a merchant vessel (one of <strong>Cal Trop</strong>'s, one of Dan's PCs from our previous campaign in the same game world), was discovered by the cook, who took her under his wing and helped her hide, in exchange for her assistance preparing meals during the voyage. (I imagine those were some of the best meals the sailors had had on that whole voyage, as Harriet's quite the cook.) When she got to the Western world, she made her way steadily inland, gradually picking up snippets of the language, and she eventually settled down in Kordovia after having met an older man, Verdant Gristwold, who she'd end up marrying.</p><p></p><p>Incidentally, the PCs leveled up to 9th after this adventure, and that was the level Dan had planned for Gilbert to gain the Improved Familiar feat, with intentions of summoning a Small earth elemental he'd call "Mudpie." I worked that into Gilbert's back story, having decided it was a childhood nickname since toddler Gilbert liked playing in the mud. (That also explained the "I LOVE YOU MOMMY" plaque which tipped Ryuko off that there might be another potential threat to the Jade Throne out there somewhere.) Gilbert now knows the <em>polymorph</em> spell, so he's planning on having Mudpie become Medium or Large as the situation dictates, and Gilbert's gained himself a combat stand-in, much like Logan's wizard did with his own improved fire elemental familiar in our last campaign.</p><p></p><p> - - - </p><p></p><p>T-Shirt Worn: I have a T-shirt with an image called "Jade Warrior," featuring an Asian swordswoman in very minimal attire - basically, little more than what Red Sonja wears in the comic books, only with armored spikes on her shoulders. I chose this for several reasons: the adventure featured Gilbert Fung's mother, the equivalent of an Asian woman in the Oerth campaign setting, so it was thematically appropriate; but also because my wife is not particularly a big fan of this T-shirt, so I generally only get to wear it on rare occasions. This one certainly qualified.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Richards, post: 6910478, member: 508"] [b]ADVENTURE 24: SEVERED BLOODLINES[/b] PC Roster: [INDENT]Binkadink Dundernoggin, gnome fighter 8 Castillan Ivenheart, elf bounder 8 Darrien, half-elf ranger 8 Finoula Cloudshadow, elf ranger 8 Gilbert Fung, human wizard 8[/INDENT] NPC Roster: [INDENT]Aithanar Ivenheart, elf fighter 2 Ingebold Battershield, dwarven cleric 8 (Moradin)[/INDENT] Game Session Date: 24 September 2016 - - - While the members of the Kordovian Adventurers Guild were in town, a traveler came down from the mountains to the north. He told of a vast plain on the northern side of the Clatspur Range, where barbarian tribes held sway, a land containing a lake bigger than many seas - but of the greatest interest, especially to Binkadink Dundernoggin, recent owner of a masterwork gnomish glaive, was the tale of a group of blacksmiths and wizards just past the mountain range who specialized in the creation and upgrade of magic weapons. "Let's go north!" pleaded the little gnome. "We've been south many times before, and we've been in the Vesve Forest quite a few times now, but we've never been through the Clatspurs!" "The Ravencroft Sanatorium is in one of the mountains of the Clatspur Range," reminded Castillan. "Yeah, like the closest mountain!" argued Binkadink. "I'm talking about going through the pass and checking out what's on the other side!" "There's plenty more to see of the Vesve Forest," pointed out Finoula. "That place is huge! We could spend our entire careers searching through that forest." "Who wants to do that?" argued Binkadink. "We might find out where all those damned orcs and goblins are coming from," added Darrien. "That would be a definite plus." "Aw, come on, guys," wheedled the gnome. "Quit with th' teasin' already, you lot," chided Ingebold. "Ye kin see th' poor fella's gonna just about die of frustration if we don't go check out this weaponsmith group we heard about." "I will!" agreed Binkadink. "Right here, on this very spot! And it'll all be on your heads." "Can I have your stuff?" asked Darrien. "What all this fuss about?" demanded Gilbert. "We go north, check out weapon guys. They have wizards there, maybe I trade some spells." "Yes!" shouted Binkadink, then turned his attention to his masterwork glaive. "Don't you worry, I'm going to get you enchanted. You'll like that, won't you? Of course you will." Gilbert shook his head in disbelief. "You a twisted little freak," he said. "Maybe," agreed Binkadink. "But I'm a twisted little freak [i]who's going north to get my glaive enchanted![/i]" And he did a little jig, dancing in a circle holding his glaive as if it were his dancing partner. Binkadink was in a state of near-ecstasy for the next full day. Riding along on his jackalope, he realized that each hippity-hop took him that much closer to getting a magic weapon. The others were lucky: most of the weapons they had run across in their adventuring careers thus far were sized for humans, elves, and dwarves; Binkadink well knew their chances of just happening across an enchanted gnomish glaive in the course of their adventures were practically nil. Nope, if he was going to get an enchanted blade, he was going to have to take matters into his own little hands. By the morning of the second day, his ecstasy had hardened into a realization that it would be well over a week of travel to make it through the mountain pass, if what the visitor had said was accurate. He'd have to be patient, there was no way around it. And while the path thus far had them winding along the valleys between the mountains, he knew there would be places ahead where they'd be climbing up into higher elevations, where they'd be dealing with colder temperatures than those the gnome had been accustomed to. But all of his thoughts about upgrading his glaive and the journey ahead were dashed from his mind once he saw the two horses running across the sky. "Do you see that?" he asked Obvious in the language of burrowing mammals. The jackalope snorted in laughter. "They can't do that!" he observed. "They're silly!" "Apparently nobody told them they couldn't. Hey guys -- look!" The gnome pointed up at the sky ahead, where the two equine figures were banking in a turn and heading directly for the two-wagon train. "Are those pegasi?" asked Finoula, looking up from atop her pony, Daisy. Wrath trotted along at her side as she shielded her eyes in the glare of the sun. "I don't see any wings." Darrien got out his [i]Arachnibow[/i], just in case they weren't pegasi, or weren't something else of an equally pleasant demeanor. As the two groups converged, the sky-horses dropped in altitude, lowering themselves almost - but not quite - to the level of the road. The group - all but Gilbert, who preferred traveling in the comfort of the roof-topped Vistani wagon - could see these horses were built more like unicorns. They each had an ivory horn jutting from their forehead and silvery-white manes flowing behind them, and they even had tufts of beard in the manner of goats. But these creatures had draconic scales along their front legs, like no unicorn any of the group had ever seen, or even heard of, before. Both wagons came to a dead stop, as Finoula and Binkadink on their mounts did the same just ahead, and the horned sky-horses slowed slightly as they got within reach of the group. Ironically, although Gilbert was the only one of the group the two equines couldn't see, it was he whom they addressed. Using some means of telepathic communication, they "spoke" in unison directly into the heads of the whole assembled group. [i]<Gilbert Fung, time is of the essence – the life of your honorable mother is at stake! Prepare to return to her side at once!>[/i] "What the--" sputtered Gilbert, rushing out of the wagon's rear door to see what was going on. As he did so, the spirit ki-rin trotted - still several inches above the ground - past a startled Binkadink and Finoula on their respective mounts, past Ingebold and Darrien in the mule wagon, one on either side, and up towards Castor and Pollux at the front of the Vistani wagon. Castillan, who had once again been riding atop the roofed wagon, leaped down, standing beside Gilbert as the portly wizard rushed to meet the spirit ki-rin who had brought him dire warnings about his mother. But before he could ask aloud any questions, the spirit ki-rin became insubstantial. Looking like misty outlines of their equine shapes, they drifted towards the black horses hooked up to the Vistani wagon. Then, their misty bodies narrowed and shrank, heading directly into the horses' nostrils. Finoula, anticipating what was going to happen next, leaped off from Daisy and ran towards the Vistani wagon. "Everybody into the wagon!" she called, grabbing a startled Ingebold on her way. "Aithanar! Swap with Ingebold!" Without a moment's hesitation, the elven fighter leaped down from the seat of the Vistani wagon, helping Ingebold climb up when she got there. "Stay with Aithanar, and keep him safe!" called Binkadink to his riding mount, as he extended his [i]gnomish stilt-boots[/i] and raced to the back of the Vistani wagon, climbing in with Castillan and Darrien. "Come on!" he yelled to Gilbert. "What they doing to horses?" asked the wizard in wonderment. "You're going to be left behind if you don't hurry!" yelled Finoula, half dragging Gilbert to the back of the Vistani and stuffing him through the door. She jumped in and slammed the door shut as Castor and Pollux reared up, kicked their forelegs, and then leaped forward into the sky. Aithanar ducked as the Vistani wagon raced just above the mule wagon, the two pitch-black draft horses rising up into the sky, pulling the roofed wagon behind them. "Boojagga!" he called to a clearly frightened Ingebold at the reins. Once at a sufficient height, the two horses banked and raced back the way the group had come. Although it had taken them a day and a half to get as far as they had, they could tell the trip back home would be significantly faster. Inside the crowded wagon, Finoula fretted about Aithanar. "We probably should have told him to start on back home," she said. "I don't want to have to walk all the way back there once we've dealt with whatever this is about." "He's a big boy -- he'll figure it out," reasoned Castillan. "This about my mom," Gilbert reminded the group. "We worry about Aithanar after we deal with my mom." "So where is your mom?" asked Darrien. "Any idea what's going on?" "She back at home," snapped Gilbert. "We find out when we find out." Time seemed to crawl inside the cramped wagon, with Gilbert worriedly going through his spell repertoire and wondering what they'd be facing when they returned to his parents' cottage. The others were curious how Gilbert's mother, an unassuming housewife, ranked a warning and rescue attempt from a pair of dragon-horses coming down from the sky. It was apparent Gilbert wasn't in a talking mood, but it was also apparent that he could use having something to do besides wait for the trip through the sky to conclude. Castillan broke the silence. "So, Gilbert, any idea what those cloud-horse things were?" "They ki-rin. My mom tell stories of them when I little." "Ki-rin, okay. And, any ideas why they're helping us go rescue your mom? They seem pretty powerful; I don't imagine they just show up every time somebody's in danger. What's so special about your mom?" "My mom just my mom." "Is she, like, somebody famous?" "She just my mom, okay? She a sorcerer. Not an adventurer, just a sorcerer. She wanted me become druid like my dad, but that not work out so good. And I don't have natural talent for magic like she does - I study spells from books. She a sorcerer, I a wizard." "These ki-rin, are they from her homeland?" pressed Finoula. "I've never heard of them before." "Yeah, they from where she born. Way over on other side of world." "How long ago did she leave?" pressed Finoula. "Long time ago! When she just little girl!" exploded Gilbert. "How about you save questions for my mom, ask her after she safe?" The others took the hint: Gilbert was too worried about his mother's safety to be distracted by a bunch of background questions. The heroes sat in an uncomfortable silence for the remainder of the trip. Finally, though, Ingebold ducked her head through one of the windows at her shoulder and called back to the others, "We're goin' down!" Fortunately, this was a controlled descent. Just as sure-footed as the spirit ki-rin had been when the group had first encountered them in the mountains, Castor and Pollux dropped gracefully to just above the ground, then went a step further and returned their hooves to solid earth once again. With a slight bounce, the Vistani wagon touched down and the two horses slowed to a halt. Before the wagon had stopped moving, Gilbert was out the back door and around the side of the wagon. From this vantage point, he could see Castor and Pollux panting heavily, blowing clouds of smoke from their nostrils. Not surprisingly, the vapors took on the forms of a pair of familiar-looking equines, and the spirit ki-rin were once again in their normal forms - and still not quite touching the ground. [i]<We dare approach no closer from the air, for fear of alerting your enemies to your presence,>[/i] they said in their twin voices. [i]<Be cautious! Your enemies are already in your mother’s cottage.>[/i] And with that final telepathic warning, they turned in unison and cantered up into the sky. "I know where we are!" exclaimed Gilbert. "This fishing pond, half mile from cottage!" "Wh-- what in the world is going on, son?" asked a new voice. As the others climbed out of the Vistani wagon and Ingebold jumped down from her perch - her legs shaky after being out in the front of the wagon as it flew across the sky - an older man approached. He wore patched robes of brown and green and held a simple fishing pole in his hand. Unkempt brown hair fading rapidly toward gray spilled out from his head and face. "Dad!" greeted Gilbert in surprise. "Come on! Mom in trouble!" And with no further explanation, the wizard cast a [i]fly[/i] spell upon himself and was gone. Without time for introductions, the group of heroes started running in the direction Gilbert had taken, urging Verdant Gristwold, Gilbert's father, to come with them. He needed no argument, racing as fast as he could go up to the top of a hill that had shielded the low-flying wagon from the Fung cottage. Binkadink, running as fast as a gnome in [i]stilt-boots[/i] could run, cursed at having had to leave Obvious behind. "Here!" called Darrien, pulling out his new acquisition - an [i]ebony fly[/i] he'd looted from one of the doppelgangers' rooms in Rimbule's keep - and calling out a command word. At once, a housefly the size of a pony manifested on the ground just ahead. "She's all yours!" Darrien offered. "You sure?" asked the gnome as he leapt up onto the insect's back. But the fly buzzed off before the ranger could reply, and Binkadink rapidly caught up to, and passed, Gilbert in mid-air. "It that house!" pointed out the wizard as he was passed by gnome and fly - but Gilbert needn't have bothered; there was only one house in the direction they were flying, and the fact that there was a sinister-looking, black-clad man standing on the roof and two more prowling around the house from each side gave away the potential danger. As Binkadink closed the distance, the roof-top assassin pulled a couple of items from inside his robes and flung them at the gnome's direction. The first one whizzed by his head, but the other hit him smack in the chest. It wasn't enough to penetrate the gnome's armor, and it didn't stay in one form long enough for Binkadink to get more than a quick glimpse in his peripheral vision that it looked like some kind of flat, metal sculpture of a spider with sharp, pointed legs sticking out in all directions, before it began morphing into the real thing. In a mere second, Binkadink found himself riding a pony-sized fly through the air at over triple the speed he could manage on the ground on his fastest day, only now with a large fiendish spider biting at his throat and injecting its fiendish venom. Realizing the spider was much too close for his glaive to be of much use as a weapon, Binkadink swung it around beneath the fly's throat and caught the end in his other hand, then mentally ordered the fly to flip over while in flight. He had hoped to knock the spider from its perch, but no such luck - the blasted thing had a good grip on the fly's back and wasn't about to be dropped that easily. Binkadink's mind raced for a new plan - but then that turned out to be unnecessary when the fly crash-landed onto the Fung cottage's roof. The gnome went sprawling in a heap, the spider right beside him. And now here raced over the rooftop assassin, armed with a sturdy bo staff that came crashing down at the gnome's head. Binkadink dodged just in time, then sent his own glaive stabbing up at the ninja, managing to graze his side. As Gilbert approached his mother's cottage, he could see Binkadink getting to his feet and trading blows with a black-clad ninja on the roof, while a large spider menaced the gnome from behind. Worse, there were two more ninja at the ground level, and as the wizard watched, each sprang up the wall and climbed onto the roof as easily as Gilbert had ever seen Castillan do the same. But they were at each end of the roof, whereas Binkadink was fighting over in the middle of the roof's front slope. Gilbert aimed to the right of the ninja with the bo staff, throwing a blast of [i]magic missiles[/i] into his face as he sped past. But he had no real interest in the rooftop fight: his concern was for his mother, and the fastest way he knew of to get inside the cottage was to head for the hole in the center of the roof. A woman from the Far East married to a man from the West, Harriet Fung had had the house Verdant built for the two of them - and then later three, once Gilbert was born - built in the shape of a large rectangle, with a rectangular hole in the middle. The entire front section was built in the style of the Western world, with chairs around a dining room table and a study for Verdant, with wooden doors closing off those rooms that weren't accessible through open doorways, while the back half was built with an Eastern aesthetic, with sliding wall panels and low tables for eating while kneeling on the floor. The rectangular section in the middle of the building was Harriet's meditation garden, a simple, dirt path winding through a pebbled ground with an oval reflective pool in one corner. Three of the sides were surrounded by a raised wooden floor, and wooden pillars at each corner marked the boundaries of this area of serenity. Currently, Harriet Fung was bound to one of these pillars, the one in the northeastern corner of the pebble garden. A black-clad ninja held a blade to her throat, while directly before her stood another Eastern woman, one Gilbert had never seen before in his life. She was speaking in the singsong, almost musical language of Harriet Fung's homeland, a language the wizard had heard spoken in snippets over the course of his life, but one his mother had refused to teach to him, for she wanted her son to speak like those who lived around him rather than like someone from half a world away. Her face was an impassive mask, refusing to look at the plaque the other woman held in front of her. With a start, Gilbert recognized it. It had been taken from the wall of the front dining room, and had Gilbert's handprints from when he was four years old in the middle of a baked clay slab, into which had been carved the words "I LOVE YOU MOMMY." Verdant had helped little four-year-old Gilbert make it as a gift for his mother over a decade and a half ago. Up on the rooftop, Binkadink was holding his own against the nearest ninja and the fiendish spider, but now two more ninja were entering the combat. Three enemies were more than the little gnome could keep track of, and the newcomer on the left managed to get in a good strike with his short sword - which, judging by the way Binkadink felt immediately afterwards, had been poisoned. Fortunately, help was at hand. The ninja approaching on the right never did get a chance to actually enter the fray, as he was downed by a series of arrows courtesy of Darrien and his [i]Arachnibow[/i]. Darrien had slowed to a stop, allowing Finoula and Verdant to continue on ahead of him while he lined up his shots. Behind him, he could hear Ingebold's heavy breathing as she struggled to catch up to the rest of the group, hampered by heavy dwarven armor and stumpy dwarven legs. But next on the scene was Castillan, his bounder training having allowed him to pull ahead of the others and race up the front wall of the cottage and climb up onto the roof in one seemingly effortless motion. He had veered left during his approach, such that he ended up behind the leftmost ninja who had stabbed Binkadink. Sensing the bounder's approach, the ninja broke off from attacking Binkadink to deal with this new threat. Gilbert flew down through the building's central opening, coming to a landing immediately before the woman holding his plaque. When Harriet saw him, she cried out, "No! Run, Mudpie! Save yourself!" But the woman, [b]Ryuko[/b], had a [i]tongues[/i] spell in effect and understood the strange Western language Harriet spoke. Her almond eyes widened in disbelief as she realized the heavyset half-breed standing before her was the child she had been questioning Harriet about. Ryuko's face curled into a sneer of contempt as she practically spat out syllables in her own language, which were immediately converted to the Common tongue of the region. "Step no further!" Ryuko commanded, "or your mother's life is forfeit!" When she saw Gilbert pause in frustration, she continued. "You do not realize it, but back in Kozakura there has been a successful coup against the former Emperor. The new Emperor has decreed that all members of the previous ruling family are to be slain. And that includes your mother here, even though she is but a distant cousin. When we [i]teleported[/i] in to accomplish our mission, we found signs that she had birthed a child, but I see now that you are but a contemptible half-breed, ineligible to rule from the Jade Throne. Therefore, your life will be spared, as well as those of your companions. I will return to the new Emperor with your mother's head as proof of her death. I warn you this: do not attempt to have your mother raised from the dead. We will be [i]scrying[/i] here occasionally, and if we see her returned to life we will return with a much larger force – to slay her again, as well as you, all of your friends, and all of your neighbors. I trust you will not be so foolish as to cause this action to pass." Ryuko raised her voice, calling out to her minions. "Back to me! Prepare to depart with our proof!" Up on the rooftop, Castillan ensured the ninja he'd been fighting had no chance to respond to the wu jen's summons, for his twin blades got past the assassin's guard, skewering him on the spot. Likewise, Binkadink finally bested the ninja with the bo staff he'd been fighting since his arrival on the rooftop. (The fly, he noticed, had crawled away from danger as soon as it had gotten its bearings.) As for the fiendish spider, it exploded in a puff of nauseous gas upon its death, the vile creature the second rooftop victim of Darrien's marksmanship with his [i]Arachnibow[/i]. During Ryuko's explanation, Gilbert had remained rooted to the spot, not wanting to have the ninja threatening his mother slit her throat as the result of any actions on his part. But he hadn't been helpless; he'd stealthily slipped his [i]wand of gaseous form[/i] into his hand, and was even now judging the distance between himself and his mother. Could he touch his mother with the wand before the ninja threatening her could slit her throat? It was a question he'd been scared to have answered, but now it looked like he had no choice. He started forward, but in the blink of an eye the ninja's weapon sliced through Harriet's delicate throat. Her head remained in roughly the same location, only now it was being supported solely by the grip of the ninja holding her by her long, black hair. "NO!" Gilbert screamed, unable to reach his mother in time - he'd hoped to turn her into mist, so she could escape on her own - and dropping back into a hasty Plan B: [i]Evard's black tentacles[/i]. If he couldn't save his mother, he could make damn sure these bastards didn't escape with her head. And screw the warnings - his first action after slaying these assassins would be to have his mother restored to life, and to the Nine Hells with the consequences. Two more ninja, who had been searching the cottage for clues as to Harriet's offspring, exited the rooms they were in at their field commander's summons. One stepped out of Gilbert's bedroom and stood right next to the decapitator; he ended up caught up in Gilbert's spell as rubbery, ebon tentacles sprang up from the floor to encompass the Eastern trio. The other had been searching the master bedroom; he exited to hear the clomping of footsteps on a wooden floor, and spun to face Finoula and Verdant as they arrived in the area, having had to go through the front door of the house and around to the left of the interior. Ryuko cursed, unable to touch her ninja and [i]teleport[/i] away. The ninja closest to her, seeing their predicament and putting the mission ahead of all other concerns, attempted to fling Harriet's head to his field leader, but the tightening tentacles ruined his throw - and Ryuko's own attempts to catch it. But seeing that she'd likely not be able to retrieve Harriet's head, Ryuko chose to [i]teleport[/i] away to report the mission's success, even without the proof of a decapitated head. She reasoned to herself that she could always scry upon Harriet's headless body if the new Emperor needed proof. With a single arcane syllable, she vanished from the room. Binkadink and Castillan dropped down into the meditation garden, careful to land in the half of the area not covered in writhing tentacles. The gnome had his glaive out and ready to slash out at either of the trapped ninja that might find a way out of the mass of tentacles, but the ebon appendages choked the life out of the two victims before they had a chance to escape. Seeing this, Gilbert deactivated the spell with a word. Behind him, Finoula slew the last of the ninja, and Verdant ran up to the body of his lifeless wife. Gilbert had retrieved her head and placed it gently next to the body. Ingebold finally made it to the scene, completely out of breath, and the others filled her in on what had happened. "Can she be [i]raised[/i]?" Gilbert demanded. "Nay," replied Ingebold, sadly. "Not without...th' body needs t' be intact," she explained. "Would bringing her back be the safest course of action?" broached Finoula. "If they'll be [i]scrying[/i] on her and they see her, they'll just be back with a larger force...." The ranger hated bringing this up, and perfectly understood how she'd feel had it been her mother slain, but she still felt they needed to discuss the ramifications of their next move. She expected Gilbert to explode at her, but he just stood there, his hand on his chin, rubbing his beard. "Gilbert...?" Finoula began. "Be quiet. I thinking," Gilbert said softly. The others stood silently by his side, as Verdant held Harriet's delicate hand in his own. Then Gilbert's head snapped up, a wicked grin on his face. "Fly boy!" he called out to Darrien. "What we do with scroll we found in yuan-ti nest, with shield?" "It's...I think we left it back at Battershield Keep, to be sold." "You get on fly, fetch it, bring it back here!" Gilbert ordered. Darrien and Castillan went back outside to go fetch the ranger's [i]ebony fly[/i], still active from Binkadink's wild ride to the rooftop. "What's the scroll?" asked Finoula, not remembering what spell had been on it, only that none of the group had been able to use it. "It a druid spell: [i]reincarnate[/i]!" Gilbert announced triumphantly. "Dad can cast it, Mom returns in new body, stupid Emperor's goons can [i]scry[/i] all they want! -- they never see her!" Verdant had to be talked into using the spell; as a druid, he understood the circle of life and that all things must die eventually. Still, he knew Harriet's death was a crushing blow on their only son.... He eventually decided he'd cast it, knowing if Harriet didn't want to return to life in a new body, her spirit could always decline the offer. "We'll leave it up to your mother, then," he told his son. Darrien returned with the scroll, Verdant studied it - for he'd never cast the spell before, it being much more powerful than those he'd mastered thus far - and the group gathered around Harriet's body as he performed the spellcasting. Harriet's body began glowing with a spiritual energy, soon becoming too bright to look at directly. As the spell finished, the glow diminished and Harriet sat up in her new form. Her hair was the same: a deep, glossy black, long and straight. She was still in the same kimono she'd been slain in, for the spell did nothing to alter the garments of the reincarnated soul, merely its body. Her skin was now an olive green; her painted nails long and sharp; several of her teeth were sharper than she was used to, and her voice was much deeper than Gilbert and Verdant were used to. "Husband?" she said. "What happen?" Verdant helped his wife to her feet and they were both shocked to see his petite wife was now as tall as he was, and nearly as tall as Gilbert. "You were...you were killed. A little," Verdant explained, gulping heavily and fearful that his wife would be less than pleased at the results of their attempt to restore her to life. "And now I an orc," she commented, almost to herself. "Mudpie! This your idea?" "Yes, Honorable Mother," Gilbert replied sheepishly, using his best "suck-up-to-the-parents" voice. "But I have [i]hat of disguise[/i] you can wear! Just...maybe don't make you look like...you know, you." Harriet blew out a sigh of exasperation. "If this what Fate have planned for me, who I to argue? But look! Blood all over favorite kimono! This never come out!" "You're okay...looking like an orc woman?" asked Verdant. "I still me inside!" replied Harriet, before furrowing her brow. "Only maybe we let neighbors know what happen, so they don't kill me when I show up at marketplace looking like orc who attack kingdom." "What made you remember the scroll of [i]reincarnate[/i]?" asked Binkadink. "Purple Mage," answered Gilbert. "My mirror prophecy say, 'Some books always judged by their covers.' And then it say, 'Remember this upon apparent sudden death.' Only now, I realize it really 'a parent's sudden death.' It warning, not to bring mother back to life looking like she used to." "It's kind of creepy, having our prophecies all come true like this," admitted Finoula. "Tell me about it," grumbled Castillan. "I'm supposed to end up mating with an insect." - - - In the end, the players eventually decided that Harriet would keep Gilbert's [i]hat of disguise[/i] so she wouldn't have to spend her whole life looking like an orc, especially in a kingdom that had been periodically attacked by orcs for the past dozen years or more. They also decided Harriet should wear the [i]ring of mind shielding[/i] the PCs took from Rimbule's dead finger, on the theory that if Ryuko ever scries on Harriet Fung to see if she'd been returned to life, all she should get is "static," which might plausibly be caused by Harriet still being dead. Of course, I decided once the events of Harriet's death and rebirth were made known to King Galrich, he immediately invited her to the castle for an introduction. Dan was initially a bit concerned that the half-orc king might be "putting the moves" on his PC's married mother, but I explained that Galrich had a longer-term goal in mind: he'd be teaching her the Orc language, so she could be sent on a mission to infiltrate a future band of orcs and goblins attacking the kingdom, specifically so she could escape with the survivors and see where they went once they retreated. Of course, since it will take Harriet quite some time to master the Orc language (especially considering she's mastered Common in the same pidgin version that Gilbert uses), this ploy is probably another 8-10 levels away. Harriet's back story: she was a distant cousin to the Emperor of Kozakura, one of the lands of Kara Tur. When she was 12 or so, her family decided to marry her off to some 60-year-old whose family they wanted to bond into their own. Twelve-year-old Harriet (birth name unknown; I imagine "Harriet" was one of the first women she met when she got to the Western world and she adopted it for her own to help her blend in) ran away from home. She snuck aboard a merchant vessel (one of [b]Cal Trop[/b]'s, one of Dan's PCs from our previous campaign in the same game world), was discovered by the cook, who took her under his wing and helped her hide, in exchange for her assistance preparing meals during the voyage. (I imagine those were some of the best meals the sailors had had on that whole voyage, as Harriet's quite the cook.) When she got to the Western world, she made her way steadily inland, gradually picking up snippets of the language, and she eventually settled down in Kordovia after having met an older man, Verdant Gristwold, who she'd end up marrying. Incidentally, the PCs leveled up to 9th after this adventure, and that was the level Dan had planned for Gilbert to gain the Improved Familiar feat, with intentions of summoning a Small earth elemental he'd call "Mudpie." I worked that into Gilbert's back story, having decided it was a childhood nickname since toddler Gilbert liked playing in the mud. (That also explained the "I LOVE YOU MOMMY" plaque which tipped Ryuko off that there might be another potential threat to the Jade Throne out there somewhere.) Gilbert now knows the [i]polymorph[/i] spell, so he's planning on having Mudpie become Medium or Large as the situation dictates, and Gilbert's gained himself a combat stand-in, much like Logan's wizard did with his own improved fire elemental familiar in our last campaign. - - - T-Shirt Worn: I have a T-shirt with an image called "Jade Warrior," featuring an Asian swordswoman in very minimal attire - basically, little more than what Red Sonja wears in the comic books, only with armored spikes on her shoulders. I chose this for several reasons: the adventure featured Gilbert Fung's mother, the equivalent of an Asian woman in the Oerth campaign setting, so it was thematically appropriate; but also because my wife is not particularly a big fan of this T-shirt, so I generally only get to wear it on rare occasions. This one certainly qualified. [/QUOTE]
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