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The Kordovian Adventurers Guild
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<blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 7431453" data-attributes="member: 508"><p><strong>ADVENTURE 48: DANGEROUS PREY</strong></p><p></p><p>PC Roster: <p style="margin-left: 20px">Binkadink Dundernoggin, gnome fighter 14</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Castillan Ivenheart, elf bounder 14</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Darrien, half-elf ranger 14</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Finoula Cloudshadow, elf ranger 14</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Gilbert Fung, human wizard 14</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Hagan, half-orc sorcerer 14</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Ingebold Battershield, dwarven cleric 13</p><p></p><p>Game Session Date: 26 May 2018</p><p></p><p> - - - </p><p></p><p>The group had just finished off the <em>heroes' feast</em> prepared by Ingebold, their traditional beginning to the day ever since the dwarven cleric had first been able to cast the spell. Now they assembled in the courtyard of Battershield Keep, deciding on what to do with their day.</p><p></p><p>Aerik approached the group, a worried look upon his face. "I'm worried about King Galrich," he began. "He's been muzzy-headed all week. Confused. Distracted. Talks t' them what ain't even there. I dunno what all we c'n do fer 'im, but it seems t' be gettin' worse."</p><p></p><p>"It's likely just normal aging," suggested Finoula. "The king is getting on up in years, especially for a half-orc."</p><p></p><p>Hagan pointed to the silver circlet he wore on his brow. "We were sent to fetch this," he said, "to help him with his mental faculties. It didn't work on him at all."</p><p></p><p>"Well, I dunno what we oughtta be doin' about him," sighed Aerik. He turned to his daughter. "Ye think mebbe a <em>heal</em> spell...?"</p><p></p><p>Ingebold shook her head sadly. "It cannae heal damage done through simple agin'," she explained. "Else ye could just <em>heal</em> yerself back t' bein' young again whenever yer body got too old." Aerik nodded in understanding, then went back inside to check on his wife.</p><p></p><p>Just then, a flapping of wings preceded the arrival of a small, nearly invisible creature. Instinctively, the combat-oriented adventurers grabbed for their weapons, but the creature offered no particular threat. It was humanoid in build but its tiny body - it was smaller even than Binkadink - seemed to be composed of air currents. Gilbert identified it at once as an air mephit, and the leather satchel it wore over its shoulder identified its profession. "It a messenger," the portly mage explained to the group.</p><p></p><p>As if proving the wizard's assertion, the air mephit pulled a sealed letter from its satchel, which it dutifully handed over to Finoula. The elf took the parchment, which was folded over and sealed with a blob of red wax. A stylized "A" had been pressed into the wax.</p><p></p><p>"Someone send you love notes?" theorized Gilbert.</p><p></p><p>"Aithanar's not going to like that," pointed out Darrien.</p><p></p><p>"What's it say?" asked Binkadink, normally one to join in the teasing but more curious about the message's contents. Finoula popped through the wax with a finger, opened the letter, and read aloud:</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Upon the elf having finished reading the letter aloud, the mephit reached into his satchel again and passed a small tuning fork over to Finoula. "Strike this upon a hard object, and it will take you to Anduviel," he explained.</p><p></p><p>"Hold on!" called out Gilbert, habitually not trusting anything to be as simple as it looked. "Don't activate it yet!" Finoula gave him a frown that explained she wasn't born yesterday.</p><p></p><p>"Who this Anduviel?" Gilbert demanded.</p><p></p><p>"I do not know him personally," admitted the mephit. "I'm merely a messenger. I know no more than do you."</p><p></p><p>"May I?" asked Ingebold, holding out her hand. Finoula passed the letter over to her Battle-Sister. Raising it up to the sun, the cleric said, "There's a watermark on the parchment." Holding it closer, she examined it further. "There's a trick used by those among the celestial planes," she explained. "They often use holy water in their writings, to prevent undead or fiends from the lower planes from handling their messages."</p><p></p><p>"Is that holy water?" asked Hagan.</p><p></p><p>"I cannae tell fer sure," admitted Ingebold. "But it seems t' be."</p><p></p><p>"Is there anything else required of me?" asked the air mephit. Gilbert dismissed him with a wave, and he flew off.</p><p></p><p>"Are we doing this?" asked Finoula. "It could be legitimate, or it could be a trap."</p><p></p><p>"Either way," observed Binkadink, "there's only one way to find out." Thus decided, the group gathered up their familiars and animal associates - Wezhley, Mudpie, Grumps Junior, Wrath, and Obvious - and everyone bunched up together. "I'm not sure of the area of effect on this thing," Finoula admitted. Then she struck the tuning fork against the side of her longsword <em>Tahlmalaera</em>, and the floor dropped out from the group.</p><p></p><p>At least, that's what it felt like. However, they only seemed to drop an inch or so - and yet, their surroundings had changed immediately. The group now stood on a flat plane seemingly carved of solid stone, inside some sort of magic circle inscribed directly into the stone. Light spilled down overhead from an unseen source.</p><p></p><p>"Anduviel lives here?" asked Castillan incredulously.</p><p></p><p>"Trap," observed Gilbert. "Should have known."</p><p></p><p>There was a small boulder nearby, upon which sat a sealed envelope, anchored in place by a stone to keep it from blowing away. It was sealed with the same red wax as the message the air mephit had delivered to Finoula. Assuming this one was also intended for her, the silver-haired elf picked it up, broke the seal, and read its contents aloud:</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>"Well, that just figures," grumbled Castillan.</p><p></p><p>"I'm sorry, guys," apologized Finoula. "I got us into this mess."</p><p></p><p>"Not at all," insisted Hagan. "We all agreed to give the tuning fork a try - it was a group decision."</p><p></p><p>"Hey!" interrupted Gilbert. "<em>Heroes' feast</em> spell effects - they no longer working."</p><p></p><p>"What? How can you tell?" demanded Darrien.</p><p></p><p>"I a wizard," scoffed Gilbert. "I can tell." Experimentation soon showed that permanent magical effects - like those bound into the group's various enchanted weapons - still worked fine. Gilbert couldn't test it, but he claimed his magically-enhanced vision which allowed him to detect undead was still active. "It a good thing we wait to cast prep spells," he observed.</p><p></p><p>"What about my staff?" asked Hagan. He carried a <em>staff of fire</em> with him, a perfect tool for a sorcerer who firmly believed the best spells were those which could be used to blow stuff up. "You think I can still use the higher-powered spells from it? Or will those be suppressed until the later zones?"</p><p></p><p>"Don't waste charge testing it out," suggested Gilbert. "Wands and staffs - they probably fine. Those spells basically already cast, just waiting to be set off. But we save them until we need them.</p><p></p><p>"In the meantime," suggested Castillan, "let's split up and see if we can find the gate out of here." He wandered off in one direction; Darrien and Grumps Junior chose the opposite way and each soon discovered an invisible <em>wall of force</em> blocking further travel in that direction.</p><p></p><p>Binkadink pulled a couple of potions of <em>delay poison</em> from his collection and drank one down while feeding the other to Obvious. "You never know," he said to his jackalope mount, then climbed up into the saddle.</p><p></p><p>Ingebold cast a <em>detect magic</em> spell and looked at the invisible boundaries of their prison. The magical wall extended 30 feet above their heads in all directions and seemed to form a rectangle with the magic circle where they'd <em>gated</em> in at its center. Hagan cast the same spell and checked out a different direction from where Ingebold was looking. "Found it!" he called out, indicating a section of wall along the short end of the rectangle, in the northeastern corner if the group had been facing north when they arrived. He approached it cautiously, and once he was within about 20 feet it became visible - a swirling vortex of colors that prevented anyone from seeing what was on the other side.</p><p></p><p>The group converged on the portal. "Who want to go in first?" asked Gilbert.</p><p></p><p>"I'll go," replied Darrien. He stuck his head in first and saw a forested land before him. But when he tried pulling his head back to tell the others, he found he couldn't - the portals apparently allowed one-way travel only. Lacking any further options, he walked all the way through the portal and into Zone 1. Grumps Junior followed immediately behind, and they both stepped forward so they wouldn't be bumped into by those coming behind them.</p><p></p><p>This new zone seemed comprised of a forest glade, with a dirt path winding beside a narrow pond and splitting into several forks up ahead and to the left. Darrien pulled out his <em>ebony fly</em> and activated it, then climbed onto its back and sent it flying - but not too high, because he assumed the "ceiling height" here was no higher than it was in the previous area. Grumps jogged to keep up with his airbound master as he went to explore the boundaries to the left of the portal, hoping the exit would show up once he was in sufficient proximity. The rest of the group, once they had entered the zone, headed north.</p><p></p><p>Gilbert put a hand on Mudpie's rough shoulder, halting his progress forward. "We take time out for spell," he told his earth elemental familiar, before casting an <em>expeditious retreat</em> spell upon the both of them. "Don't want to be at back of group when Anduviel and his mastiffs show up," he whispered to his familiar.</p><p></p><p>"I heard that!" Finoula called back to the wizard, then continued onwards with her wolf at her side.</p><p></p><p>"Wasn't trying to be sneaky about it!" Gilbert called back. Finoula was well aware of the <em>longstrider</em> spell she had prepared for herself that morning, but now she knew she'd feel guilty if she were to cast it on herself.</p><p></p><p>Binkadink sent Obvious hippity-hopping ahead and his jackalope opted to veer left at a fork in the path - which caught the two of them up in a nearly-invisible web spun between the trees on either side of the path. The little gnome soon cleared them with the blade of his magical glaive, but a glimpse of movement from the trees to his upper left allowed him to see the large spider crawling down from among the branches to see what it had caught in its web. It didn't have very long for anticipation, though, for another slash of the glaive brought the hungry arachnid falling to the ground below in two pieces.</p><p></p><p>Darrien had seen the fight from his aerial perch on his <em>ebony fly</em>. Furthermore, he saw the path Obvious had taken led to a large pit, and from his vantage point he could see what was there in the pit waiting for them. "Pit in the corner!" he called down to the others, pointing in what they'd decided would be northwest. "Big hairy spider in the pit!" he added.</p><p></p><p>By then, Ingebold and Hagan - who had both been concentrating on their <em>detect magic</em> spells, so they could spot the magical gates from a greater distance than the 20-foot proximity triggers, had determined the area over by the pit was the likely location of the next gate - it was the only area their magical vision hadn't reached.</p><p></p><p>Binkadink spurred Obvious on; the jackalope needed little prompting. Bouncing down the path, the antlered rabbit leaped gracefully into the 15-foot pit, acing a four-point landing and allowing his rider to stab deep into the spider's body with his glaive. This spider, while about the same size as the one in the trees, nevertheless looked much bigger for its leg-hair was much thicker and its abdomen wider. But it died just as quickly as its treetop counterpart had. Then Binkadink noticed the swirling vortex of colors along the back wall of the pit; odd that he hadn't noticed it before, or was it that it hadn't appeared until he and Obvious had landed in the pit's bottom? Odd that it hadn't been triggered by the large spider....</p><p></p><p>"Maybe it's a gate guardian, and they don't trigger the gates," suggested Castillan.</p><p></p><p>"Maybe the gates are only triggered by visitors from another plane of existence," offered Binkadink.</p><p></p><p>"Maybe who cares?" added Gilbert. "Let's go see what ahead of us and not waste time! We being hunted, remember?"</p><p></p><p>Darrien sent his fly through the gate, ducking so he wouldn't bump his head on the magical portal. The next zone seemed almost to be a continuation of the previous one, complete with a dirt road or path winding up through a hilly landscape. There were significantly less trees about, though - and a lot more boulders. Leading his flying mount higher so he could get a better overall view, Darrien spotted a prone form up ahead. It was a man, or something very much the size and shape of a rather large man, lying facedown in the dirt by the side of the path. Beyond him, a cave opened into darkness beyond. Steering with his knees, Darrien sent the fly towards the fallen man.</p><p></p><p>Stepping through the gate, Ingebold saw where Darrien was going and, her <em>detect magic</em> spell still active, she saw that the prone form held something magical in his left hand. "It's a slingshot," Castillan said, identifying the object once Ingebold had pointed it out. He headed towards the prone man, leaping straight up the near-vertical slopes with his bounder training. Behind him, Finoula, Gilbert, and the others started taking the path to the left that wound around the steep slope of the hill.</p><p></p><p>Obvious had no trouble following Castillan's course in a single leap up the hill, and thus Binkadink arrived at the scene almost as soon as Darrien had, but while the ranger had his fly hover in place, Binkadink opted to poke the body with the tip of his glaive - not hard, not enough to break the skin, but hopefully enough to hurt a bit if he was just faking. But the gnome's oversized nose could already pick up the scent of putrefaction coming from the corpse; he'd apparently already been dead for a week or more.</p><p></p><p>"I wouldn’t do that if I were you," said a gravelly voice behind the corpse. "You'll only make him mad, and he'll have to give you a pounding when he wakes up."</p><p></p><p>Binkadink looked over to see who had spoken, and it took him a moment to realize one of the boulders in the area was the one responsible. In fact, he'd heard of these creatures...galeb duhrs, they were called.</p><p></p><p>Castillan arrived on the scene. "What happened here?" he asked the galeb duhr, having heard it speak to Binkadink.</p><p></p><p>"My master, <strong>Gurnbolt</strong>, got into a fight with another goliath," the rock creature replied. "Then, all of a sudden, this wall blocked us off from each other. The other goliath went away, and my master here decided to rest up from the <em>poison</em> spell."</p><p></p><p>"<em>Poison</em> spell?" repeated Binkadink.</p><p></p><p>"Yeah, they were fighting each other with spells. Gurnbolt does that sometimes."</p><p></p><p>"How long has he been...sleeping?" asked Binkadink.</p><p></p><p>"Couple of weeks," replied the galeb duhr. "He does it all the time. Sleep, I mean. I always look after him while he's sleeping. We don't sleep, galeb duhrs, that is."</p><p></p><p>"Tell me about the slingshot," prompted Castillan. "It looks like it's magical."</p><p></p><p>"It is. Gurnbolt can shrink down rocks and shoot them at his enemies, and once the rock hits, bam, back to its original size. He uses it on me sometimes. It's fun."</p><p></p><p>"I can see where it would be," agreed Castillan, realizing how useful a weapon Gilbert and Mudpie would find it. And this Gurnbolt fellow wasn't going to be needing it ever again....</p><p></p><p>"Can I see it?" the bounder continued.</p><p></p><p>"I wouldn't mess with it. Gurnbolt can get pretty cranky when he first wakes up. You'd better wait until he wakes up on his own, though - he doesn't like being waken up, either."</p><p></p><p>By then Gilbert and Mudpie had approached, their faster rate of travel speeding their way up the hill - for the wizard had had his earth elemental familiar "swim" through the rock with his head above the surface so Gilbert could stand upon it. They'd caught the last bit of the conversation. "I hate to tell you this, but that guy dead, not sleeping," Gilbert said bluntly.</p><p></p><p>"Nonsense," replied the galeb duhr, turning to argue with the heavyset wizard. Castillan took the opportunity to snatch the wooden slingshot from the dead goliath's hand, then took off at a shot for the cave entrance, where he assumed the next gate was located.</p><p></p><p>"Hey!" the galeb duhr cried, moments after the bounder had left. "Thieving little sneak!" He made a gesture with a stumpy stone arm and two of the nearby boulders started sprouting limbs.</p><p></p><p>"He just borrowing it," Gilbert lied. "He be sure to bring it back next time he come by this way." But by then Hagan had arrived on the scene and figured out what had happened. "I apologize for our friend's behavior," he said to the rock creature. "But your master there is truly dead, not just sleeping."</p><p></p><p>"It's true," rumbled Mudpie. "These fleshbags like to sleep, it's true, but not for that long at a time. And this one is starting to rot." The galeb duhr - as well as his pair of animated boulders - was motionless for a long time while he thought it over. But it was easier to believe coming from a rock creature like Mudpie, who was also obviously serving in the capacity as a wizard's familiar, than it was from one of the flesh-and-bone types.</p><p></p><p>"In that case," said the galeb duhr, "I will stand watch over him until he returns completely to the earth."</p><p></p><p>"You could come with us," offered Hagan.</p><p></p><p>"I will stay with my master," the galeb duhr repeated.</p><p></p><p>"Come on - we got to go," insisted Gilbert. "Am I only one here who remember we all being hunted by madman?" He ushered the others into the cave.</p><p></p><p>Sure enough, the gate to the next zone was at the end of the cave - as Castillan had discovered upon fleeing through it with the stolen slingshot. He entered a world of bitter-cold winds and snow-covered pines. A frozen stream beneath him threatened to send him flying, but his bounder training kicked in and he quickly regained his balance.</p><p></p><p>Darrien came in behind him. Upon feeling the biting cold, he landed his fly long enough to rummage through his pack and get out his winter gear - at least his coat and a pair of gloves. Then he remounted the <em>ebony fly</em> and was back in the air, seeking out the next exit.</p><p></p><p>The others were arriving through the portal. Obvious went sliding on the ice upon arrival, and Binkadink - after first feeding his mount a potion of <em>endure elements</em> - had the jackalope kick snow onto the frozen stream directly in front of the portal so those behind would have a better footing. Of course, when Gilbert entered the zone this was process still undergoing and he got a face full of flying snow. "Gah!" he cried out, moving to the side to get out of the path of Obvious's efforts.</p><p></p><p>Castillan, shivering, decided he wanted out of this cold place as quickly as possible. With his bounder training he was able to move over the ice at his normal speed, so he assigned himself the task of checking out the far end of the frozen lake. To do so he plowed between pines, shoving branches out of his way without significantly slowing down. The others chose to take the snow-covered trail, as it offered better footing than along the frozen stream.</p><p></p><p>Binkadink and Obvious, following the trail, were the first to be attacked. What had at first looked to be a simple patch of snow suddenly lashed out at the jackalope's leg, slamming into the limb with surprising force while draining off some of the heat energy of the warm-blooded mammal and his rider alike. Binkadink saw the attack and realized this was likely a white pudding, an arctic version of the black puddings they'd fought before. Recalling how black puddings split into two when you hit them with a blade, the fighter opted against his usual glaive attack and pulled out his greatclub, smashing down at the white ooze.</p><p></p><p>However, this was no mere white pudding, but rather a snowflake ooze - a strange creature whose ever-changing body construction was filled with many open pockets of air, giving the creature a partially hollow form. The greatclub crushed through these airy filaments, causing the ooze to split into two smaller beings - the very thing Binkadink had hoped to avoid! Fortunately, after switching back to his glaive he managed to slay the original creature, and Finoula took out the other one with her <em>flaming whip of thorns</em>, the fire from her latter weapon dealing the amorphous creature extra damage to its crystalline lattice form.</p><p></p><p>Hagan held back with Gilbert and Mudpie as the others advanced across the zone, consulting. "It worth a try," Gilbert admitted, so Hagan used a couple of charges from his <em>staff of fire</em> to create a small <em>wall of fire</em> across the area where the portal opened into the zone. "I made it facing out this way," the sorcerer said. "Maybe it will thaw out some of the frozen stream, and when Anduviel and his mastiffs pop in here, they'll not only get burned up, but then they'll get dunked into freezing water. That ought to slow them down a bit!" Then the spellcasters and their familiars hurried to catch up to the others, Darrien having found the next portal as usual. (The aerial flight speed of his <em>ebony fly</em> was coming in very handy!)</p><p></p><p>The next zone brought with it a return to normal temperatures; Darrien landed his fly again and stowed his cold weather gear. This was another woodlands environment, but one cut diagonally across by a raging river ending in a roaring waterfall. Several large boulders made for a potential way across the river, but they were set far enough away that jumping wouldn't be a sure thing for anyone but Castillan and Obvious of the group. And to make matters even more difficult, they weren't alone - there was a fully-grown dire bear standing at the waterfall's edge, searching for fish.</p><p></p><p>Castillan started along the right side, keeping a hand touching the <em>wall of force</em> that bound them into this environment, idly wondering how the river was kept running if they were all encased in an invisible rectangle. His searching brought him into the field of vision of the dire bear, who decided then and there that an elf would serve as well - if not better - than a fish for his meal. Wading to the water's edge, he pulled himself onto the shore and ran over to the bounder, catching him in a set of claws and pulling him into a hug. Castillan chided himself for ranging so far away from the rest of his group, and thus rather than fight the bruin alone he decided to flee. Fleeing was easy, even when caught up in a dire bear's embrace; with a quick double-tap of his ring, he had <em>dimension doored</em> across the zone over to the far side of the river, about halfway down the length of the long side of their rectangular prison.</p><p></p><p>Darrien sent his <em>ebony fly</em> in the bear's direction, careful to keep to a high enough elevation to remain out of the great beast's reach. Then he peppered it with a few shots from his <em>Arachnibow</em>. While the dire bear was thus occupied, Binkadink had Obvious ride up behind it and the gnome stabbed deep into the bear's flank with his glaive. Whirling in anger, the bear slashed out at Obvious with a set of wicked claws, scoring deep grooves across the jackalope's right front leg. Binkadink immediately leaped from the saddle to the jackalope's left, hollering and waving his glaive to attract the bear's attention, while calling for Obvious to flee. "Go find Ingebold!" he commanded in the burrowing-mammal language they shared, and the jackalope knew from past experience that the little dwarf had healing hands that had often closed his wounds in the past. He hobbled off in her direction, leaving Binkadink and Darrien to finish off the dire bear.</p><p></p><p>Hagan, after entering the zone and seeing the river before him, opted to cast a <em>fly</em> spell upon himself and cross it in that manner. Grumps Junior swam across, while Darrien rode his fly to the other side. After Ingebold healed Obvious, the grateful jackalope grabbed her in his teeth by the back of her cloak and with Binkadink once again in the saddle, the overburdened jackalope still had no trouble leaping from boulder to boulder across the raging river. Finoula and Wrath opted to climb down the side of the waterfall, cross the shallow pool at the bottom, and climb back up again. But Gilbert had no such option with Mudpie; the earth elemental refused to enter the water, and even at a height close to Binkadink's he was far too heavy for the <em>ebony fly</em> to ferry across. This problem was solved by having Darrien pick up the slingshot from Castillan, fly it over to Gilbert, and have him use it on his familiar. Once Mudpie had been shrunk to the size of a pebble and placed in his master's pocket, the <em>ebony fly</em> was able to pick up Gilbert in his legs while Darrien steered them back to the other side of the river. And sure enough, the portal to the next zone was there in the corner, waiting and open now that the group had assembled nearby.</p><p></p><p>"Everybody wait right there!" Gilbert called as he was ferried across the river. Once the entire group was reassembled, he cast a <em>haste</em> spell on everyone. "Okay, we good now," he replied. "Let's get out of here - fast!"</p><p></p><p>The next zone was a jungle environment with another, smaller river - this one winding back and forth like a snake in a gorge ten feet deep. Solid-looking tree trunks had been placed as makeshift bridges in two places across the gorge. Darrien wasted no time flying straight across the zone, heading for the far end where he imagined the next portal might be. There had been no sign of Anduviel yet, but who knew how far he was behind them? (The answer, unknown to the adventurers, was that he had by now entered the gauntlet at the beginning and was already working his way through Zone 1, making excellent speed since he already knew where the portals were all located.)</p><p></p><p>Gilbert took a moment to cast a <em>stoneskin</em> spell upon himself and Mudpie, now that it was available. Then he went along the right-hand side of the enclosed rectangle, followed behind by Finoula, Wrath, and Grumps Junior, who had "adopted" the elven ranger as a replacement master since Darrien kept leaving him behind. Binkadink and Obvious went that way, too, but the jackalope's greater speed had them passing the others in no time flat.</p><p></p><p>From the air, Darrien spotted a flash of movement as Obvious passed by a wind in the river gorge. A pile of vegetation had turned at his approach. "Plant monster!" he called down to the others, pointing in the creature's general location.</p><p></p><p>The warning came too late; in a flash, a tendril of vines snaked out at Gilbert, slashing him unexpectedly. Fortunately, the blow was mostly absorbed by the wizard's <em>stoneskin</em> spell. But Hagan was flying by and saw the attack, so he cast a <em>wall of fire</em> along the plant-monster's feet, along the side of the gorge but out of the river. The plant went up in flames.</p><p></p><p>Finoula held her amulet in hand and activated it, transforming herself into a bolt of lightning that went blasting through the tendriculos and reforming her elven body on the far side of the gorge. Seeing the battle going on behind them, Binkadink and Obvious halted their search for the next portal and leaped over the gorge beside Finoula. The gnome stabbed his glaive into the plant's body mass, carving away vines with the blade. This caused the flaming creature to turn to face Binkadink, allowing Gilbert and Wrath to pass by without incident. Grumps Junior, however, turned back the way he had come and got further away from the rest of the group.</p><p></p><p>The tendriculos lashed out at Binkadink and Obvious, scoring a line of pain across the jackalope's neck. But then Binkadink slew it with a final strike of his glaive; the thing had been slowly encompassed by flames from the <em>wall of fire</em> in any case so it had really only been a matter of time. Then it was just a matter to help herd Grumps Junior back towards the rest of the group; Darrien in the meantime had discovered the portal in the extreme northwest section of the zone.</p><p></p><p>Zone 6 had apparently been the scene of a great battle at some point in the past, judging by the fallen bodies, smashed buildings and weapons of siegecraft, and the massive catapult stones littered about. "I'll check the left side!" called out Darrien, steering his <em>ebony fly</em> along the western boundary. Castillan headed toward the center, leaping over fallen debris in his way just because he could. Binkadink and Obvious followed the bounder's path, the jackalope once again carrying Ingebold by the scruff of the neck to speed her way. Gilbert took a slightly more erratic path; seeing the 10-foot-diameter catapult stones was too irresistible, so he used his new slingshot to shrink three of them to pebble size and collect them into a pocket.</p><p></p><p>Flying along the perimeter, it didn't take Darrien long to find the next portal; unfortunately, his close proximity also caused a pile of discarded weapons to start flying through the air. The living <em>blade barrier</em> spell advanced and Darrien sent his aerial mount up to a higher elevation; the animated weapons then headed over towards Castillan.</p><p></p><p>Finoula used her <em>lightning amulet</em> to get her to within striking distance of the animated weapons, then struck out with her <em>flaming whip of thorns</em>. Ingebold joined in with a <em>flame strike</em> spell that blasted the whirling blades from above. Binkadink finished it off with a sideways swing of his magical glaive, sending the pitted and rusted weapons flying away in all directions as the spell energy binding them together was sundered. With no further obstacles in their way, the group went through the next portal.</p><p></p><p>Another forested land awaited the group in Zone 7, this time with a large clearing in the middle and two intersecting paths creating four roads out from the clearing, of which the southernmost was the arrival point. A stone obelisk rose up in the middle of the clearing, covered in runes and glyphs. "Betcha the exit portal's at the end of one of these roads!" Hagan called, while flying to check out the western road. Finoula and Wrath took the easternmost path, while Darrien on his <em>ebony fly</em> went all the way to the end of the northernmost path; in each case their proximity failed to activate an exit portal. "It's got to be in the trees somewhere!" Finoula called.</p><p></p><p>Castillan and Ingebold, in the meantime, were investigating the obelisk. The bounder picked out a couple of repeating runes, which he knew stood for "lightning" and "protection." Ingebold did him one better by casting a <em>read magic</em> spell and determining exactly the obelisk's purpose: it was a lightning rod of sorts; any electrical attack spells cast in this zone would alter course and head directly to the obelisk, where the spell would be harmlessly dissipated. "No <em>chain lightning</em> spells after all," the dwarf called to Hagan, who was visibly disappointed - it was just about his all-time favorite attack spell.</p><p></p><p>The bounder pulled out his <em>stonecarver dagger</em>. "Of course," he said, "that doesn't have to be the case."</p><p></p><p>"Go on ahead, then," encouraged Ingebold. Castillan used his magical dagger to cut through the stone of the obelisk, obscuring and defacing the glyphs and runes on all four surfaces.</p><p></p><p>Gilbert, however, had been scanning about. "This Zone 7," he called to the others. "We all have our most powerful spells here. I think maybe we make a stand here. It pretty peaceful - no obvious monsters trying to kill us - and who know what Zone 8 or Zone 9 like?"</p><p></p><p>"What do you suggest?" asked Hagan. "I could put another <em>wall of fire</em> where the portal dumped us out here."</p><p></p><p>"That a good start," admitted Gilbert. "Then Ingebold, how about a <em>blade barrier</em> in the same spot? They just spell effects, the fire not bother the blades and the blades not bother the flames; when Anduviel pop up, he get both spells on him at once!" Hagan and Ingebold complied as everyone stepped back out of range.</p><p></p><p>"Now I add my own spell," Gilbert said, casting an <em>Evard's black tentacles</em> spell in a semicircle centered on the <em>wall of fire</em> spell. He cackled in delight at his own deviousness. "Anduviel not know what hit him!"</p><p></p><p>At that moment, Anduviel and his two nethersight mastiffs were climbing out of the freezing water in Zone 3, after having found themselves engulfed in flames upon their arrival, courtesy of Hagan's initial <em>wall of force</em> spell. A wide grin spread across the astral stalker's black face as he imagined how much he'd enjoy taking the heads of his latest prey. Then he was off in a flash, following his hounds as they closed in on their prey. They couldn't be too much farther ahead....</p><p></p><p>Back in Zone 7, they had enhanced their plan of attack even further. Ingebold cast a <em>freedom of movement</em> spell upon Binkadink, allowing him to enter the area of the <em>Evard's black tentacles</em> spell without being caught up in the tentacles' embrace himself. Darrien had his fly positioned on the <em>wall of force</em> directly above the entry portal; furthermore, Gilbert had passed on to him the slingshot and his three pieces of pebble-sized catapult ammunition.</p><p></p><p>In the meantime, Finoula scouted out the exit portal. They had no idea what they'd be fighting; for all they knew, Anduviel was a pit fiend who would easily pass through their defenses and they might be needing a quick way out of the current zone. She found it in the northwestern corner, but not without first triggering an arrow trap their host had apparently left for them.</p><p></p><p>Then there was nothing to do but to assume their attack positions. Binkadink stood just outside the range of Gilbert's spell, ready to run in among the tentacles with his glaive. Hagan stood to the side, ready to cast a <em>magic missile</em> spell at anything that exited the <em>wall of fire</em>; it wasn't his most powerful spell, but it was practically guaranteed damage that not many creatures could shrug off. Finoula had her whip and longsword out and ready; she couldn't enter the <em>Evard's black tentacles</em> spell area of effect herself, but she was ready to attack anything that made it out of there. The animal companions were herded behind the defaced obelisk, out of harm's way, while Castillan and Ingebold stood beside them, a ready reserve force as needed. Gilbert and Mudpie - the latter now his normal size - stood before the obelisk, a general and his aide observing the movement of his troops.</p><p></p><p>They didn't have long to wait. Anduviel and his twin mastiffs entered the zone simultaneously, gathering from the roars of surprise and pain that emanated all at once. The flames of Hagan's spell burned them, the whirling blades of force from Ingebold's spell cut into them, and the grasping appendages from Gilbert's spell caught Anduviel and one of his nethersight mastiffs in their ebon embrace.</p><p></p><p>But one of the mastiffs avoided the ebon tentacles and, roaring in pain, sprinted through the spell effect in an effort to get to freedom. However, from his high perch, Darrien hit the canine in the head with a slingshot stone - which, upon striking the mastiff, returned to its normal size and crushed the beast under its enormous weight.</p><p></p><p>A moment later and the other nethersight mastiff escaped from the tentacles' embrace. It made it out of the spells' area of effect before Darrien could load up the next pebble-sized boulder into the slingshot, and the beast raced over to the nearest enemy it could see: Hagan. The half-orc got his <em>magic missile</em> spell off before he was bitten by the pain-crazed mastiff. But judging by the wounds all along the beast's flank, Hagan assumed it was on its last leg; he took a step backwards and cast another <em>magic missile</em> spell, killing it with the five energy darts shooting from his fingertips.</p><p></p><p>That left only Anduviel himself, who roared in equal parts pain, anger, and frustration as he fruitlessly attempted to break free of the rubbery tentacles holding him in place to be burned and sliced by twin spell effects. To make matters worse, Binkadink raced into the field of thrashing tentacles, swinging his glaive in a sideways arc that cut the astral stalker in the midsection. Unable to see his foe through the flames, the gnome nonetheless could feel where his glaive met resistance. "He's right in front of me!" the gnome called. "Ingebold: another <em>flame strike</em>! I can take it!"</p><p></p><p>Ingebold hesitated only a moment; while she disliked casting combat spells that encompassed her own friends as well, she knew the little gnome knew his own limits, and knew as well that her spell dealt part holy damage, which wouldn't harm Binkadink in the least. Calling upon the power of Moradin, she caused a pillar of holy fire to encompass the gnome and his unseen foe. The gnome quickly backpedaled, but that was just because the astral stalker's form was emerging from within the <em>wall of fire</em>, but it was a dying form still bound up in jet-black tentacles that fell forward. "Hate...you...so ...much..." Anduviel managed to say before he died.</p><p></p><p>The group's three major spellcasters deactivated their spells and Anduviel plopped to the ground. He was nothing the group had ever seen before, with pitch-black skin marred with numerous cuts and gouges competing with burn scars from the spells he'd been caught in before his demise. His blood was as red as their own, as it seeped onto the ground from numerous sources.</p><p></p><p>"He's not even armed," Finoula observed.</p><p></p><p>"He doesn't need to be," replied Binkadink. "Just check out those claws." Indeed, the astral stalker had a set of claws growing from his fingertips that would have done a dinosaur proud.</p><p></p><p>"Let's go," suggested Gilbert. "We still got two more zones to get through."</p><p></p><p>"At least we don't have to hurry any more," pointed out Hagan. And they didn't; the next zone was a desert area containing not only a colossal scorpion but a mound of unclaimed treasure; the scorpion gave them a bit of trouble only in that it refused to die quickly, but good tactics eventually won out. The treasure gave them trouble mainly in that there was so much of it and their extradimensional space - Ingebold's <em>portable hole</em>, into which they normally threw any treasure they planned to sort out later - was inaccessible. They made do with piling it onto cloaks and coats and dragging it along. Darrien scouted out the next portal, and then they dragged it through the next zone, an underground lair guarded by a pair of inferno spiders.</p><p></p><p>Passing through the exit portal of Zone 9, it looked like they were right back where they had started from: an endless plane of smooth stone and a magic circle carved into the floor. "You have got to be kidding me!" complained Castillan.</p><p></p><p>"No, it's okay - it's different," pointed out Finoula. "Look - there's no rock where the second message was left."</p><p></p><p>"So what do we do? Just step into the circle?" asked the bounder.</p><p></p><p>"That most likely. You go first, elf." And Gilbert gave Castillan a push that sent him into the magic circle, where he promptly disappeared. Then, shrugging, he stepped inside with Mudpie and disappeared as well. Everyone else followed - and they all found themselves back where they had activated the tuning fork: in the courtyard of Battershield Keep.</p><p></p><p>"You're a real jerk sometimes," said Castillan, giving Gilbert a good pounding on his meaty shoulder before helping count up all of the treasure they'd managed to take from Zone 8.</p><p></p><p> - - - </p><p></p><p>This adventure was an idea I had wanted to try, especially once Logan and I had accumulated a bunch of the Pathfinder Flip-Mats. I had no idea how much of a head-start I should have Anduviel give the PCs, so I went with 20 rounds when writing up the adventure. In hindsight, it would have been a more exciting battle had I shortened it to just 10 rounds - then they'd have had to fight their hunters in a much lower-numbered zone where they wouldn't have had their more powerful spells at hand. But we still had a good time.</p><p></p><p>Rather than play at the table in my man-cave, however, we switched things up and played on the coffee table in our family room downstairs. The session started with my cardboard Battershield Keep model on a blank battle map until they activated the tuning fork, then the keep was removed and replaced with the magic circle and the map became Zone 0. Zone 1 was placed on the floor beside the coffee table, and Zone 2 next to it; as they progressed through the zones I set each successive map in line down the hallway towards the man-cave. We spent a lot of time on the floor this adventure, rolling our dice into a felt-bottomed Yahtzee container that we passed around to whoever needed it. The session went from around noon to after 6:30 PM; I ended up hand-waving us through Zones 8 and 9 since the objective of the adventure - kill Anduviel and the nethersight mastiffs - had been met and it was getting late.</p><p></p><p>We also took a brief intermission mid-session to rescue a pair of baby cardinals that had fallen through our window well grating outside the family room. I chased them towards the window with a snow shovel (after numerous attempts of scooping them up with a pile of leaves in the shovel and trying to get them out of the window well proved fruitless - they kept flying off the sides of the shovel and back down into the well), where Vicki and Joey each grabbed one and took them through the house to our backyard and set them free.</p><p></p><p>Incidentally, the reason Ingebold got bumped up to "PC" status in the roster at the top of this entry is because my step-granddaughter <strong>Samantha</strong> (the daughter of my wife's oldest daughter) was visiting us during her vacation time, so we briefed her up on Ingebold's past history and had her run the dwarven cleric as her own PC for this session. (Vicki was pleased to not be the only female gamer in our group for once.)</p><p></p><p> - - - </p><p></p><p>T-Shirt Worn: A Pink Floyd "Dark Side of the Moon" T-shirt, to represent the "out there" aspect of the pocket dimension chain. (I was going to wear one of my two "Duck Dynasty" T-shirts to represent the "hunter" aspect of the astral stalker, but they were both in the wash.)</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Richards, post: 7431453, member: 508"] [b]ADVENTURE 48: DANGEROUS PREY[/b] PC Roster: [INDENT]Binkadink Dundernoggin, gnome fighter 14 Castillan Ivenheart, elf bounder 14 Darrien, half-elf ranger 14 Finoula Cloudshadow, elf ranger 14 Gilbert Fung, human wizard 14 Hagan, half-orc sorcerer 14 Ingebold Battershield, dwarven cleric 13[/INDENT] Game Session Date: 26 May 2018 - - - The group had just finished off the [i]heroes' feast[/i] prepared by Ingebold, their traditional beginning to the day ever since the dwarven cleric had first been able to cast the spell. Now they assembled in the courtyard of Battershield Keep, deciding on what to do with their day. Aerik approached the group, a worried look upon his face. "I'm worried about King Galrich," he began. "He's been muzzy-headed all week. Confused. Distracted. Talks t' them what ain't even there. I dunno what all we c'n do fer 'im, but it seems t' be gettin' worse." "It's likely just normal aging," suggested Finoula. "The king is getting on up in years, especially for a half-orc." Hagan pointed to the silver circlet he wore on his brow. "We were sent to fetch this," he said, "to help him with his mental faculties. It didn't work on him at all." "Well, I dunno what we oughtta be doin' about him," sighed Aerik. He turned to his daughter. "Ye think mebbe a [i]heal[/i] spell...?" Ingebold shook her head sadly. "It cannae heal damage done through simple agin'," she explained. "Else ye could just [i]heal[/i] yerself back t' bein' young again whenever yer body got too old." Aerik nodded in understanding, then went back inside to check on his wife. Just then, a flapping of wings preceded the arrival of a small, nearly invisible creature. Instinctively, the combat-oriented adventurers grabbed for their weapons, but the creature offered no particular threat. It was humanoid in build but its tiny body - it was smaller even than Binkadink - seemed to be composed of air currents. Gilbert identified it at once as an air mephit, and the leather satchel it wore over its shoulder identified its profession. "It a messenger," the portly mage explained to the group. As if proving the wizard's assertion, the air mephit pulled a sealed letter from its satchel, which it dutifully handed over to Finoula. The elf took the parchment, which was folded over and sealed with a blob of red wax. A stylized "A" had been pressed into the wax. "Someone send you love notes?" theorized Gilbert. "Aithanar's not going to like that," pointed out Darrien. "What's it say?" asked Binkadink, normally one to join in the teasing but more curious about the message's contents. Finoula popped through the wax with a finger, opened the letter, and read aloud: Upon the elf having finished reading the letter aloud, the mephit reached into his satchel again and passed a small tuning fork over to Finoula. "Strike this upon a hard object, and it will take you to Anduviel," he explained. "Hold on!" called out Gilbert, habitually not trusting anything to be as simple as it looked. "Don't activate it yet!" Finoula gave him a frown that explained she wasn't born yesterday. "Who this Anduviel?" Gilbert demanded. "I do not know him personally," admitted the mephit. "I'm merely a messenger. I know no more than do you." "May I?" asked Ingebold, holding out her hand. Finoula passed the letter over to her Battle-Sister. Raising it up to the sun, the cleric said, "There's a watermark on the parchment." Holding it closer, she examined it further. "There's a trick used by those among the celestial planes," she explained. "They often use holy water in their writings, to prevent undead or fiends from the lower planes from handling their messages." "Is that holy water?" asked Hagan. "I cannae tell fer sure," admitted Ingebold. "But it seems t' be." "Is there anything else required of me?" asked the air mephit. Gilbert dismissed him with a wave, and he flew off. "Are we doing this?" asked Finoula. "It could be legitimate, or it could be a trap." "Either way," observed Binkadink, "there's only one way to find out." Thus decided, the group gathered up their familiars and animal associates - Wezhley, Mudpie, Grumps Junior, Wrath, and Obvious - and everyone bunched up together. "I'm not sure of the area of effect on this thing," Finoula admitted. Then she struck the tuning fork against the side of her longsword [i]Tahlmalaera[/i], and the floor dropped out from the group. At least, that's what it felt like. However, they only seemed to drop an inch or so - and yet, their surroundings had changed immediately. The group now stood on a flat plane seemingly carved of solid stone, inside some sort of magic circle inscribed directly into the stone. Light spilled down overhead from an unseen source. "Anduviel lives here?" asked Castillan incredulously. "Trap," observed Gilbert. "Should have known." There was a small boulder nearby, upon which sat a sealed envelope, anchored in place by a stone to keep it from blowing away. It was sealed with the same red wax as the message the air mephit had delivered to Finoula. Assuming this one was also intended for her, the silver-haired elf picked it up, broke the seal, and read its contents aloud: "Well, that just figures," grumbled Castillan. "I'm sorry, guys," apologized Finoula. "I got us into this mess." "Not at all," insisted Hagan. "We all agreed to give the tuning fork a try - it was a group decision." "Hey!" interrupted Gilbert. "[i]Heroes' feast[/i] spell effects - they no longer working." "What? How can you tell?" demanded Darrien. "I a wizard," scoffed Gilbert. "I can tell." Experimentation soon showed that permanent magical effects - like those bound into the group's various enchanted weapons - still worked fine. Gilbert couldn't test it, but he claimed his magically-enhanced vision which allowed him to detect undead was still active. "It a good thing we wait to cast prep spells," he observed. "What about my staff?" asked Hagan. He carried a [i]staff of fire[/i] with him, a perfect tool for a sorcerer who firmly believed the best spells were those which could be used to blow stuff up. "You think I can still use the higher-powered spells from it? Or will those be suppressed until the later zones?" "Don't waste charge testing it out," suggested Gilbert. "Wands and staffs - they probably fine. Those spells basically already cast, just waiting to be set off. But we save them until we need them. "In the meantime," suggested Castillan, "let's split up and see if we can find the gate out of here." He wandered off in one direction; Darrien and Grumps Junior chose the opposite way and each soon discovered an invisible [i]wall of force[/i] blocking further travel in that direction. Binkadink pulled a couple of potions of [i]delay poison[/i] from his collection and drank one down while feeding the other to Obvious. "You never know," he said to his jackalope mount, then climbed up into the saddle. Ingebold cast a [i]detect magic[/i] spell and looked at the invisible boundaries of their prison. The magical wall extended 30 feet above their heads in all directions and seemed to form a rectangle with the magic circle where they'd [i]gated[/i] in at its center. Hagan cast the same spell and checked out a different direction from where Ingebold was looking. "Found it!" he called out, indicating a section of wall along the short end of the rectangle, in the northeastern corner if the group had been facing north when they arrived. He approached it cautiously, and once he was within about 20 feet it became visible - a swirling vortex of colors that prevented anyone from seeing what was on the other side. The group converged on the portal. "Who want to go in first?" asked Gilbert. "I'll go," replied Darrien. He stuck his head in first and saw a forested land before him. But when he tried pulling his head back to tell the others, he found he couldn't - the portals apparently allowed one-way travel only. Lacking any further options, he walked all the way through the portal and into Zone 1. Grumps Junior followed immediately behind, and they both stepped forward so they wouldn't be bumped into by those coming behind them. This new zone seemed comprised of a forest glade, with a dirt path winding beside a narrow pond and splitting into several forks up ahead and to the left. Darrien pulled out his [i]ebony fly[/i] and activated it, then climbed onto its back and sent it flying - but not too high, because he assumed the "ceiling height" here was no higher than it was in the previous area. Grumps jogged to keep up with his airbound master as he went to explore the boundaries to the left of the portal, hoping the exit would show up once he was in sufficient proximity. The rest of the group, once they had entered the zone, headed north. Gilbert put a hand on Mudpie's rough shoulder, halting his progress forward. "We take time out for spell," he told his earth elemental familiar, before casting an [i]expeditious retreat[/i] spell upon the both of them. "Don't want to be at back of group when Anduviel and his mastiffs show up," he whispered to his familiar. "I heard that!" Finoula called back to the wizard, then continued onwards with her wolf at her side. "Wasn't trying to be sneaky about it!" Gilbert called back. Finoula was well aware of the [i]longstrider[/i] spell she had prepared for herself that morning, but now she knew she'd feel guilty if she were to cast it on herself. Binkadink sent Obvious hippity-hopping ahead and his jackalope opted to veer left at a fork in the path - which caught the two of them up in a nearly-invisible web spun between the trees on either side of the path. The little gnome soon cleared them with the blade of his magical glaive, but a glimpse of movement from the trees to his upper left allowed him to see the large spider crawling down from among the branches to see what it had caught in its web. It didn't have very long for anticipation, though, for another slash of the glaive brought the hungry arachnid falling to the ground below in two pieces. Darrien had seen the fight from his aerial perch on his [i]ebony fly[/i]. Furthermore, he saw the path Obvious had taken led to a large pit, and from his vantage point he could see what was there in the pit waiting for them. "Pit in the corner!" he called down to the others, pointing in what they'd decided would be northwest. "Big hairy spider in the pit!" he added. By then, Ingebold and Hagan - who had both been concentrating on their [i]detect magic[/i] spells, so they could spot the magical gates from a greater distance than the 20-foot proximity triggers, had determined the area over by the pit was the likely location of the next gate - it was the only area their magical vision hadn't reached. Binkadink spurred Obvious on; the jackalope needed little prompting. Bouncing down the path, the antlered rabbit leaped gracefully into the 15-foot pit, acing a four-point landing and allowing his rider to stab deep into the spider's body with his glaive. This spider, while about the same size as the one in the trees, nevertheless looked much bigger for its leg-hair was much thicker and its abdomen wider. But it died just as quickly as its treetop counterpart had. Then Binkadink noticed the swirling vortex of colors along the back wall of the pit; odd that he hadn't noticed it before, or was it that it hadn't appeared until he and Obvious had landed in the pit's bottom? Odd that it hadn't been triggered by the large spider.... "Maybe it's a gate guardian, and they don't trigger the gates," suggested Castillan. "Maybe the gates are only triggered by visitors from another plane of existence," offered Binkadink. "Maybe who cares?" added Gilbert. "Let's go see what ahead of us and not waste time! We being hunted, remember?" Darrien sent his fly through the gate, ducking so he wouldn't bump his head on the magical portal. The next zone seemed almost to be a continuation of the previous one, complete with a dirt road or path winding up through a hilly landscape. There were significantly less trees about, though - and a lot more boulders. Leading his flying mount higher so he could get a better overall view, Darrien spotted a prone form up ahead. It was a man, or something very much the size and shape of a rather large man, lying facedown in the dirt by the side of the path. Beyond him, a cave opened into darkness beyond. Steering with his knees, Darrien sent the fly towards the fallen man. Stepping through the gate, Ingebold saw where Darrien was going and, her [i]detect magic[/i] spell still active, she saw that the prone form held something magical in his left hand. "It's a slingshot," Castillan said, identifying the object once Ingebold had pointed it out. He headed towards the prone man, leaping straight up the near-vertical slopes with his bounder training. Behind him, Finoula, Gilbert, and the others started taking the path to the left that wound around the steep slope of the hill. Obvious had no trouble following Castillan's course in a single leap up the hill, and thus Binkadink arrived at the scene almost as soon as Darrien had, but while the ranger had his fly hover in place, Binkadink opted to poke the body with the tip of his glaive - not hard, not enough to break the skin, but hopefully enough to hurt a bit if he was just faking. But the gnome's oversized nose could already pick up the scent of putrefaction coming from the corpse; he'd apparently already been dead for a week or more. "I wouldn’t do that if I were you," said a gravelly voice behind the corpse. "You'll only make him mad, and he'll have to give you a pounding when he wakes up." Binkadink looked over to see who had spoken, and it took him a moment to realize one of the boulders in the area was the one responsible. In fact, he'd heard of these creatures...galeb duhrs, they were called. Castillan arrived on the scene. "What happened here?" he asked the galeb duhr, having heard it speak to Binkadink. "My master, [b]Gurnbolt[/b], got into a fight with another goliath," the rock creature replied. "Then, all of a sudden, this wall blocked us off from each other. The other goliath went away, and my master here decided to rest up from the [i]poison[/i] spell." "[i]Poison[/i] spell?" repeated Binkadink. "Yeah, they were fighting each other with spells. Gurnbolt does that sometimes." "How long has he been...sleeping?" asked Binkadink. "Couple of weeks," replied the galeb duhr. "He does it all the time. Sleep, I mean. I always look after him while he's sleeping. We don't sleep, galeb duhrs, that is." "Tell me about the slingshot," prompted Castillan. "It looks like it's magical." "It is. Gurnbolt can shrink down rocks and shoot them at his enemies, and once the rock hits, bam, back to its original size. He uses it on me sometimes. It's fun." "I can see where it would be," agreed Castillan, realizing how useful a weapon Gilbert and Mudpie would find it. And this Gurnbolt fellow wasn't going to be needing it ever again.... "Can I see it?" the bounder continued. "I wouldn't mess with it. Gurnbolt can get pretty cranky when he first wakes up. You'd better wait until he wakes up on his own, though - he doesn't like being waken up, either." By then Gilbert and Mudpie had approached, their faster rate of travel speeding their way up the hill - for the wizard had had his earth elemental familiar "swim" through the rock with his head above the surface so Gilbert could stand upon it. They'd caught the last bit of the conversation. "I hate to tell you this, but that guy dead, not sleeping," Gilbert said bluntly. "Nonsense," replied the galeb duhr, turning to argue with the heavyset wizard. Castillan took the opportunity to snatch the wooden slingshot from the dead goliath's hand, then took off at a shot for the cave entrance, where he assumed the next gate was located. "Hey!" the galeb duhr cried, moments after the bounder had left. "Thieving little sneak!" He made a gesture with a stumpy stone arm and two of the nearby boulders started sprouting limbs. "He just borrowing it," Gilbert lied. "He be sure to bring it back next time he come by this way." But by then Hagan had arrived on the scene and figured out what had happened. "I apologize for our friend's behavior," he said to the rock creature. "But your master there is truly dead, not just sleeping." "It's true," rumbled Mudpie. "These fleshbags like to sleep, it's true, but not for that long at a time. And this one is starting to rot." The galeb duhr - as well as his pair of animated boulders - was motionless for a long time while he thought it over. But it was easier to believe coming from a rock creature like Mudpie, who was also obviously serving in the capacity as a wizard's familiar, than it was from one of the flesh-and-bone types. "In that case," said the galeb duhr, "I will stand watch over him until he returns completely to the earth." "You could come with us," offered Hagan. "I will stay with my master," the galeb duhr repeated. "Come on - we got to go," insisted Gilbert. "Am I only one here who remember we all being hunted by madman?" He ushered the others into the cave. Sure enough, the gate to the next zone was at the end of the cave - as Castillan had discovered upon fleeing through it with the stolen slingshot. He entered a world of bitter-cold winds and snow-covered pines. A frozen stream beneath him threatened to send him flying, but his bounder training kicked in and he quickly regained his balance. Darrien came in behind him. Upon feeling the biting cold, he landed his fly long enough to rummage through his pack and get out his winter gear - at least his coat and a pair of gloves. Then he remounted the [i]ebony fly[/i] and was back in the air, seeking out the next exit. The others were arriving through the portal. Obvious went sliding on the ice upon arrival, and Binkadink - after first feeding his mount a potion of [i]endure elements[/i] - had the jackalope kick snow onto the frozen stream directly in front of the portal so those behind would have a better footing. Of course, when Gilbert entered the zone this was process still undergoing and he got a face full of flying snow. "Gah!" he cried out, moving to the side to get out of the path of Obvious's efforts. Castillan, shivering, decided he wanted out of this cold place as quickly as possible. With his bounder training he was able to move over the ice at his normal speed, so he assigned himself the task of checking out the far end of the frozen lake. To do so he plowed between pines, shoving branches out of his way without significantly slowing down. The others chose to take the snow-covered trail, as it offered better footing than along the frozen stream. Binkadink and Obvious, following the trail, were the first to be attacked. What had at first looked to be a simple patch of snow suddenly lashed out at the jackalope's leg, slamming into the limb with surprising force while draining off some of the heat energy of the warm-blooded mammal and his rider alike. Binkadink saw the attack and realized this was likely a white pudding, an arctic version of the black puddings they'd fought before. Recalling how black puddings split into two when you hit them with a blade, the fighter opted against his usual glaive attack and pulled out his greatclub, smashing down at the white ooze. However, this was no mere white pudding, but rather a snowflake ooze - a strange creature whose ever-changing body construction was filled with many open pockets of air, giving the creature a partially hollow form. The greatclub crushed through these airy filaments, causing the ooze to split into two smaller beings - the very thing Binkadink had hoped to avoid! Fortunately, after switching back to his glaive he managed to slay the original creature, and Finoula took out the other one with her [i]flaming whip of thorns[/i], the fire from her latter weapon dealing the amorphous creature extra damage to its crystalline lattice form. Hagan held back with Gilbert and Mudpie as the others advanced across the zone, consulting. "It worth a try," Gilbert admitted, so Hagan used a couple of charges from his [i]staff of fire[/i] to create a small [i]wall of fire[/i] across the area where the portal opened into the zone. "I made it facing out this way," the sorcerer said. "Maybe it will thaw out some of the frozen stream, and when Anduviel and his mastiffs pop in here, they'll not only get burned up, but then they'll get dunked into freezing water. That ought to slow them down a bit!" Then the spellcasters and their familiars hurried to catch up to the others, Darrien having found the next portal as usual. (The aerial flight speed of his [i]ebony fly[/i] was coming in very handy!) The next zone brought with it a return to normal temperatures; Darrien landed his fly again and stowed his cold weather gear. This was another woodlands environment, but one cut diagonally across by a raging river ending in a roaring waterfall. Several large boulders made for a potential way across the river, but they were set far enough away that jumping wouldn't be a sure thing for anyone but Castillan and Obvious of the group. And to make matters even more difficult, they weren't alone - there was a fully-grown dire bear standing at the waterfall's edge, searching for fish. Castillan started along the right side, keeping a hand touching the [i]wall of force[/i] that bound them into this environment, idly wondering how the river was kept running if they were all encased in an invisible rectangle. His searching brought him into the field of vision of the dire bear, who decided then and there that an elf would serve as well - if not better - than a fish for his meal. Wading to the water's edge, he pulled himself onto the shore and ran over to the bounder, catching him in a set of claws and pulling him into a hug. Castillan chided himself for ranging so far away from the rest of his group, and thus rather than fight the bruin alone he decided to flee. Fleeing was easy, even when caught up in a dire bear's embrace; with a quick double-tap of his ring, he had [i]dimension doored[/i] across the zone over to the far side of the river, about halfway down the length of the long side of their rectangular prison. Darrien sent his [i]ebony fly[/i] in the bear's direction, careful to keep to a high enough elevation to remain out of the great beast's reach. Then he peppered it with a few shots from his [i]Arachnibow[/i]. While the dire bear was thus occupied, Binkadink had Obvious ride up behind it and the gnome stabbed deep into the bear's flank with his glaive. Whirling in anger, the bear slashed out at Obvious with a set of wicked claws, scoring deep grooves across the jackalope's right front leg. Binkadink immediately leaped from the saddle to the jackalope's left, hollering and waving his glaive to attract the bear's attention, while calling for Obvious to flee. "Go find Ingebold!" he commanded in the burrowing-mammal language they shared, and the jackalope knew from past experience that the little dwarf had healing hands that had often closed his wounds in the past. He hobbled off in her direction, leaving Binkadink and Darrien to finish off the dire bear. Hagan, after entering the zone and seeing the river before him, opted to cast a [i]fly[/i] spell upon himself and cross it in that manner. Grumps Junior swam across, while Darrien rode his fly to the other side. After Ingebold healed Obvious, the grateful jackalope grabbed her in his teeth by the back of her cloak and with Binkadink once again in the saddle, the overburdened jackalope still had no trouble leaping from boulder to boulder across the raging river. Finoula and Wrath opted to climb down the side of the waterfall, cross the shallow pool at the bottom, and climb back up again. But Gilbert had no such option with Mudpie; the earth elemental refused to enter the water, and even at a height close to Binkadink's he was far too heavy for the [i]ebony fly[/i] to ferry across. This problem was solved by having Darrien pick up the slingshot from Castillan, fly it over to Gilbert, and have him use it on his familiar. Once Mudpie had been shrunk to the size of a pebble and placed in his master's pocket, the [i]ebony fly[/i] was able to pick up Gilbert in his legs while Darrien steered them back to the other side of the river. And sure enough, the portal to the next zone was there in the corner, waiting and open now that the group had assembled nearby. "Everybody wait right there!" Gilbert called as he was ferried across the river. Once the entire group was reassembled, he cast a [i]haste[/i] spell on everyone. "Okay, we good now," he replied. "Let's get out of here - fast!" The next zone was a jungle environment with another, smaller river - this one winding back and forth like a snake in a gorge ten feet deep. Solid-looking tree trunks had been placed as makeshift bridges in two places across the gorge. Darrien wasted no time flying straight across the zone, heading for the far end where he imagined the next portal might be. There had been no sign of Anduviel yet, but who knew how far he was behind them? (The answer, unknown to the adventurers, was that he had by now entered the gauntlet at the beginning and was already working his way through Zone 1, making excellent speed since he already knew where the portals were all located.) Gilbert took a moment to cast a [i]stoneskin[/i] spell upon himself and Mudpie, now that it was available. Then he went along the right-hand side of the enclosed rectangle, followed behind by Finoula, Wrath, and Grumps Junior, who had "adopted" the elven ranger as a replacement master since Darrien kept leaving him behind. Binkadink and Obvious went that way, too, but the jackalope's greater speed had them passing the others in no time flat. From the air, Darrien spotted a flash of movement as Obvious passed by a wind in the river gorge. A pile of vegetation had turned at his approach. "Plant monster!" he called down to the others, pointing in the creature's general location. The warning came too late; in a flash, a tendril of vines snaked out at Gilbert, slashing him unexpectedly. Fortunately, the blow was mostly absorbed by the wizard's [i]stoneskin[/i] spell. But Hagan was flying by and saw the attack, so he cast a [i]wall of fire[/i] along the plant-monster's feet, along the side of the gorge but out of the river. The plant went up in flames. Finoula held her amulet in hand and activated it, transforming herself into a bolt of lightning that went blasting through the tendriculos and reforming her elven body on the far side of the gorge. Seeing the battle going on behind them, Binkadink and Obvious halted their search for the next portal and leaped over the gorge beside Finoula. The gnome stabbed his glaive into the plant's body mass, carving away vines with the blade. This caused the flaming creature to turn to face Binkadink, allowing Gilbert and Wrath to pass by without incident. Grumps Junior, however, turned back the way he had come and got further away from the rest of the group. The tendriculos lashed out at Binkadink and Obvious, scoring a line of pain across the jackalope's neck. But then Binkadink slew it with a final strike of his glaive; the thing had been slowly encompassed by flames from the [i]wall of fire[/i] in any case so it had really only been a matter of time. Then it was just a matter to help herd Grumps Junior back towards the rest of the group; Darrien in the meantime had discovered the portal in the extreme northwest section of the zone. Zone 6 had apparently been the scene of a great battle at some point in the past, judging by the fallen bodies, smashed buildings and weapons of siegecraft, and the massive catapult stones littered about. "I'll check the left side!" called out Darrien, steering his [i]ebony fly[/i] along the western boundary. Castillan headed toward the center, leaping over fallen debris in his way just because he could. Binkadink and Obvious followed the bounder's path, the jackalope once again carrying Ingebold by the scruff of the neck to speed her way. Gilbert took a slightly more erratic path; seeing the 10-foot-diameter catapult stones was too irresistible, so he used his new slingshot to shrink three of them to pebble size and collect them into a pocket. Flying along the perimeter, it didn't take Darrien long to find the next portal; unfortunately, his close proximity also caused a pile of discarded weapons to start flying through the air. The living [i]blade barrier[/i] spell advanced and Darrien sent his aerial mount up to a higher elevation; the animated weapons then headed over towards Castillan. Finoula used her [i]lightning amulet[/i] to get her to within striking distance of the animated weapons, then struck out with her [i]flaming whip of thorns[/i]. Ingebold joined in with a [i]flame strike[/i] spell that blasted the whirling blades from above. Binkadink finished it off with a sideways swing of his magical glaive, sending the pitted and rusted weapons flying away in all directions as the spell energy binding them together was sundered. With no further obstacles in their way, the group went through the next portal. Another forested land awaited the group in Zone 7, this time with a large clearing in the middle and two intersecting paths creating four roads out from the clearing, of which the southernmost was the arrival point. A stone obelisk rose up in the middle of the clearing, covered in runes and glyphs. "Betcha the exit portal's at the end of one of these roads!" Hagan called, while flying to check out the western road. Finoula and Wrath took the easternmost path, while Darrien on his [i]ebony fly[/i] went all the way to the end of the northernmost path; in each case their proximity failed to activate an exit portal. "It's got to be in the trees somewhere!" Finoula called. Castillan and Ingebold, in the meantime, were investigating the obelisk. The bounder picked out a couple of repeating runes, which he knew stood for "lightning" and "protection." Ingebold did him one better by casting a [i]read magic[/i] spell and determining exactly the obelisk's purpose: it was a lightning rod of sorts; any electrical attack spells cast in this zone would alter course and head directly to the obelisk, where the spell would be harmlessly dissipated. "No [i]chain lightning[/i] spells after all," the dwarf called to Hagan, who was visibly disappointed - it was just about his all-time favorite attack spell. The bounder pulled out his [i]stonecarver dagger[/i]. "Of course," he said, "that doesn't have to be the case." "Go on ahead, then," encouraged Ingebold. Castillan used his magical dagger to cut through the stone of the obelisk, obscuring and defacing the glyphs and runes on all four surfaces. Gilbert, however, had been scanning about. "This Zone 7," he called to the others. "We all have our most powerful spells here. I think maybe we make a stand here. It pretty peaceful - no obvious monsters trying to kill us - and who know what Zone 8 or Zone 9 like?" "What do you suggest?" asked Hagan. "I could put another [i]wall of fire[/i] where the portal dumped us out here." "That a good start," admitted Gilbert. "Then Ingebold, how about a [i]blade barrier[/i] in the same spot? They just spell effects, the fire not bother the blades and the blades not bother the flames; when Anduviel pop up, he get both spells on him at once!" Hagan and Ingebold complied as everyone stepped back out of range. "Now I add my own spell," Gilbert said, casting an [i]Evard's black tentacles[/i] spell in a semicircle centered on the [i]wall of fire[/i] spell. He cackled in delight at his own deviousness. "Anduviel not know what hit him!" At that moment, Anduviel and his two nethersight mastiffs were climbing out of the freezing water in Zone 3, after having found themselves engulfed in flames upon their arrival, courtesy of Hagan's initial [i]wall of force[/i] spell. A wide grin spread across the astral stalker's black face as he imagined how much he'd enjoy taking the heads of his latest prey. Then he was off in a flash, following his hounds as they closed in on their prey. They couldn't be too much farther ahead.... Back in Zone 7, they had enhanced their plan of attack even further. Ingebold cast a [i]freedom of movement[/i] spell upon Binkadink, allowing him to enter the area of the [i]Evard's black tentacles[/i] spell without being caught up in the tentacles' embrace himself. Darrien had his fly positioned on the [i]wall of force[/i] directly above the entry portal; furthermore, Gilbert had passed on to him the slingshot and his three pieces of pebble-sized catapult ammunition. In the meantime, Finoula scouted out the exit portal. They had no idea what they'd be fighting; for all they knew, Anduviel was a pit fiend who would easily pass through their defenses and they might be needing a quick way out of the current zone. She found it in the northwestern corner, but not without first triggering an arrow trap their host had apparently left for them. Then there was nothing to do but to assume their attack positions. Binkadink stood just outside the range of Gilbert's spell, ready to run in among the tentacles with his glaive. Hagan stood to the side, ready to cast a [i]magic missile[/i] spell at anything that exited the [i]wall of fire[/i]; it wasn't his most powerful spell, but it was practically guaranteed damage that not many creatures could shrug off. Finoula had her whip and longsword out and ready; she couldn't enter the [i]Evard's black tentacles[/i] spell area of effect herself, but she was ready to attack anything that made it out of there. The animal companions were herded behind the defaced obelisk, out of harm's way, while Castillan and Ingebold stood beside them, a ready reserve force as needed. Gilbert and Mudpie - the latter now his normal size - stood before the obelisk, a general and his aide observing the movement of his troops. They didn't have long to wait. Anduviel and his twin mastiffs entered the zone simultaneously, gathering from the roars of surprise and pain that emanated all at once. The flames of Hagan's spell burned them, the whirling blades of force from Ingebold's spell cut into them, and the grasping appendages from Gilbert's spell caught Anduviel and one of his nethersight mastiffs in their ebon embrace. But one of the mastiffs avoided the ebon tentacles and, roaring in pain, sprinted through the spell effect in an effort to get to freedom. However, from his high perch, Darrien hit the canine in the head with a slingshot stone - which, upon striking the mastiff, returned to its normal size and crushed the beast under its enormous weight. A moment later and the other nethersight mastiff escaped from the tentacles' embrace. It made it out of the spells' area of effect before Darrien could load up the next pebble-sized boulder into the slingshot, and the beast raced over to the nearest enemy it could see: Hagan. The half-orc got his [i]magic missile[/i] spell off before he was bitten by the pain-crazed mastiff. But judging by the wounds all along the beast's flank, Hagan assumed it was on its last leg; he took a step backwards and cast another [i]magic missile[/i] spell, killing it with the five energy darts shooting from his fingertips. That left only Anduviel himself, who roared in equal parts pain, anger, and frustration as he fruitlessly attempted to break free of the rubbery tentacles holding him in place to be burned and sliced by twin spell effects. To make matters worse, Binkadink raced into the field of thrashing tentacles, swinging his glaive in a sideways arc that cut the astral stalker in the midsection. Unable to see his foe through the flames, the gnome nonetheless could feel where his glaive met resistance. "He's right in front of me!" the gnome called. "Ingebold: another [i]flame strike[/i]! I can take it!" Ingebold hesitated only a moment; while she disliked casting combat spells that encompassed her own friends as well, she knew the little gnome knew his own limits, and knew as well that her spell dealt part holy damage, which wouldn't harm Binkadink in the least. Calling upon the power of Moradin, she caused a pillar of holy fire to encompass the gnome and his unseen foe. The gnome quickly backpedaled, but that was just because the astral stalker's form was emerging from within the [i]wall of fire[/i], but it was a dying form still bound up in jet-black tentacles that fell forward. "Hate...you...so ...much..." Anduviel managed to say before he died. The group's three major spellcasters deactivated their spells and Anduviel plopped to the ground. He was nothing the group had ever seen before, with pitch-black skin marred with numerous cuts and gouges competing with burn scars from the spells he'd been caught in before his demise. His blood was as red as their own, as it seeped onto the ground from numerous sources. "He's not even armed," Finoula observed. "He doesn't need to be," replied Binkadink. "Just check out those claws." Indeed, the astral stalker had a set of claws growing from his fingertips that would have done a dinosaur proud. "Let's go," suggested Gilbert. "We still got two more zones to get through." "At least we don't have to hurry any more," pointed out Hagan. And they didn't; the next zone was a desert area containing not only a colossal scorpion but a mound of unclaimed treasure; the scorpion gave them a bit of trouble only in that it refused to die quickly, but good tactics eventually won out. The treasure gave them trouble mainly in that there was so much of it and their extradimensional space - Ingebold's [i]portable hole[/i], into which they normally threw any treasure they planned to sort out later - was inaccessible. They made do with piling it onto cloaks and coats and dragging it along. Darrien scouted out the next portal, and then they dragged it through the next zone, an underground lair guarded by a pair of inferno spiders. Passing through the exit portal of Zone 9, it looked like they were right back where they had started from: an endless plane of smooth stone and a magic circle carved into the floor. "You have got to be kidding me!" complained Castillan. "No, it's okay - it's different," pointed out Finoula. "Look - there's no rock where the second message was left." "So what do we do? Just step into the circle?" asked the bounder. "That most likely. You go first, elf." And Gilbert gave Castillan a push that sent him into the magic circle, where he promptly disappeared. Then, shrugging, he stepped inside with Mudpie and disappeared as well. Everyone else followed - and they all found themselves back where they had activated the tuning fork: in the courtyard of Battershield Keep. "You're a real jerk sometimes," said Castillan, giving Gilbert a good pounding on his meaty shoulder before helping count up all of the treasure they'd managed to take from Zone 8. - - - This adventure was an idea I had wanted to try, especially once Logan and I had accumulated a bunch of the Pathfinder Flip-Mats. I had no idea how much of a head-start I should have Anduviel give the PCs, so I went with 20 rounds when writing up the adventure. In hindsight, it would have been a more exciting battle had I shortened it to just 10 rounds - then they'd have had to fight their hunters in a much lower-numbered zone where they wouldn't have had their more powerful spells at hand. But we still had a good time. Rather than play at the table in my man-cave, however, we switched things up and played on the coffee table in our family room downstairs. The session started with my cardboard Battershield Keep model on a blank battle map until they activated the tuning fork, then the keep was removed and replaced with the magic circle and the map became Zone 0. Zone 1 was placed on the floor beside the coffee table, and Zone 2 next to it; as they progressed through the zones I set each successive map in line down the hallway towards the man-cave. We spent a lot of time on the floor this adventure, rolling our dice into a felt-bottomed Yahtzee container that we passed around to whoever needed it. The session went from around noon to after 6:30 PM; I ended up hand-waving us through Zones 8 and 9 since the objective of the adventure - kill Anduviel and the nethersight mastiffs - had been met and it was getting late. We also took a brief intermission mid-session to rescue a pair of baby cardinals that had fallen through our window well grating outside the family room. I chased them towards the window with a snow shovel (after numerous attempts of scooping them up with a pile of leaves in the shovel and trying to get them out of the window well proved fruitless - they kept flying off the sides of the shovel and back down into the well), where Vicki and Joey each grabbed one and took them through the house to our backyard and set them free. Incidentally, the reason Ingebold got bumped up to "PC" status in the roster at the top of this entry is because my step-granddaughter [b]Samantha[/b] (the daughter of my wife's oldest daughter) was visiting us during her vacation time, so we briefed her up on Ingebold's past history and had her run the dwarven cleric as her own PC for this session. (Vicki was pleased to not be the only female gamer in our group for once.) - - - T-Shirt Worn: A Pink Floyd "Dark Side of the Moon" T-shirt, to represent the "out there" aspect of the pocket dimension chain. (I was going to wear one of my two "Duck Dynasty" T-shirts to represent the "hunter" aspect of the astral stalker, but they were both in the wash.) [/QUOTE]
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