Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 7494642" data-attributes="member: 508">ADVENTURE 53: RESCUE EXPEDITIONPC Roster:  Binkadink Dundernoggin, gnome fighter 15             Darrien, half-elf ranger 15             Finoula Cloudshadow, elf ranger 15             Gilbert Fung, human wizard 15             Hagan, half-orc sorcerer 15NPC Roster: Aithanar Ivenheart, elf fighter 3             Jinkadoodle Dundernoggin, gnome illusionist 5             Malrin Ivenheart, elf druid 7             MARCI, humanoid constructGame Session Date: 8 September 2018 - - - "Here we are," announced Jinkadoodle Dundernoggin, bringing the dragonfly vessel down to a landing in a clearing behind a grove of trees at the outskirts of Greyhawk City.  "I'll be back to pick you up at nightfall!"  The adventurers all clambered down the rope ladder along the side of the spelljamming vessel, Aithanar waving to them from the top deck as they departed.  Once the last one was down, the elven fighter started pulling the ladder back up as the gnome illusionist manning the helm inside brought the flying ship to a vertical liftoff."Heh heh heh," chuckled Binkadink, watching the ship depart."Uh oh - what you do, gnome?" demanded Gilbert Fung."Oh, nothing much," replied Binkadink.  "I may have accidentally spilled some sovereign glue on the seat of the helm before Jinkadoodle entered the bridge, and then accidentally used prestidigitation to make it blend into the seat so it was barely visible.""'Accidentally'," repeated Finoula, shaking her head.  "Your cousin's not going to like that very much.""Kind of the point," answered Binkadink - this was but the latest volley in an ongoing prank war the two cousins had been engaged in over the past several years.  Still, it was nice that they now targeted each other exclusively; early on, Binkadink had used his prestidigitation and ghost sound abilities to pull pranks on the rest of his adventuring group.The team walked towards the big city.  They had accumulated a decent amount of coinage over the last several months and had jointly decided it was time to get some upgrades to their equipment.  Greyhawk City had several well-known and dependable magic shops - as well as a few, like the shop owned by gnomes' Uncle Piddilink Dundernoggin, which often cut corners in the potion crafting and thereby brought about some unusual side effects."I'm heading to that armorer's on Anvil Avenue," Binkadink told the others.  "I can't use a shield when I'm wielding my glaive with two hands, but I've heard they've got this thing called a floating shield, which will hover around you.  Kind of like with a built-in unseen servant, I guess.  I'm gonna see about getting me one of those.""How big?" asked Darrien."Tower shield," the gnome fighter replied.  "I want something I can hide behind if needs be.""I'll come with you, then," remarked the half-elf ranger.  "I've been thinking about getting this armor further enhanced."  Darrien wore studded leather armor that had been enchanted by magic to provide a better resistance to weapon attacks than the supple leather would normally afford."I'll come along, too," piped up Finoula.  "I've been wanting to maximize the fortification on this suit of elven chain I've been wearing.  But I want to pick up some healing potions afterwards, as well.""I picking up potions, too," replied Gilbert.  "Maybe a few at Piddles' place, just to keep on good terms, but most I want to buy at respectable place that don't cut corners.""I'll leave the armor to you guys," Hagan said.  "I'm looking for one of those amulets that does the same deal, only without all the extra weight.""Those more or less add the magical protection directly to your skin, as if it were the armor, don't they?" asked Finoula."Works for me," replied Hagan.  Noticing Malrin hadn't joined in, the half-orc asked her what she might be buying.  "I have no idea," the elven druid admitted.  "I've never been to this big of a city before.  I'll probably just look around and see what's available."Behind them, MARCI followed silently.  Through multiple uses of the comprehend languages and tongues spells, Gilbert had previously determined that MARCI neither spoke nor understood the common tongue of the region, but instead communicated in some language the wizard had never heard of and never head spoken before.  MARCI indicated a willingness to learn the local language and was slowly picking up a word here and there.  She had also informed Gilbert that her healing abilities were reserved exclusively for humans; after a brief discussion - and an outright command, once he learned that would get the job done - MARCI agreed that the other members of the Kordovian Adventurers Guild would be considered "honorary humans."Once getting into the city proper the group dispersed in their various directions with an agreement to meet at a favorite tavern around noon for their midday meal.  Hours later, with their purchases made and their lunch just about finished, they were approached by a cloaked figure.  Once he got within earshot - and the group could see the beak poking out from his hood - the kenku said, "Guildmaster Bodkin wants a word with you when you're finished with your meal.""I got word that you guys were back in town," said Rale Bodkin after the kenku had ushered the adventurers into one of the meeting halls in the government quarter of the city.  "Looks like you swapped out some folks, though.  Traded in your dwarf chick for an elf chick, huh?  Good call."  Both Finoula and Malrin's eyes narrowed in irritation at the Guildmaster's offhand remarks, but Rale didn't seem to notice.  "And what's that - a construct chick?  You guys are getting weird!""That MARCI," Gilbert explained.  "We find it in woods.""I MARCI," the automaton reiterated.  As an unfortunate side effect of hanging around Gilbert Fung - the one true human among the Kordovian adventurers - as the construct learned the language, she was also learning Gilbert's simplified syntax and grammar."Hey, whatever.  I've got another job proposition for you, if you’re interested, though," said Rale.  "I don't know if you're aware of it, but Greyhawk City has an Adventurers Guild.  It's fairly low-key, and that's on purpose – a couple of decades back, the Guild we had at the time got into a tangle with a black dragon that destroyed the Guild Headquarters and a bunch of buildings on either side of it.  Lots of damage, lots of deaths, and most of the Guild members were killed, so when my pal Thunderwolf decided to start up a new one, the Lords of Greyhawk City made him keep it low profile."Anyway, the former Guild had made this deal with a bunch of dwarves who set up a mining operation on the Elemental Plane of Earth.  The Guild sent guards for the miners, to keep 'em all safe while they were doing their digging.  Thunderwolf carried on the tradition, and it's been pretty lucrative – I know, because I get a percentage of the take."The deal is, the Guild members rotate in and out of guard duty for a week at a time.  Problem is, the only way to get to the Elemental Plane of Earth is through a combination of plane shift and teleport spells, and that requires a pretty high-level caster.  Thunderwolf's only got two wizards who can cast those spells, so they swap out, every other week."Normally, the off-going adventuring team teleports back here with the week's take of gems and whatnot, and then the oncoming team heads on out to replace them.  Well, the team out there now never came back when their week was up.  The team of replacements went to go see what was up, and Thunderwolf even went with them.  But they haven’t been back either, and it's been two days now.  I dunno what's going on out there, but we don’t have anybody else in the Adventurers Guild who can get out to the Elemental Plane of Earth."So, here's my proposition – and I bet you can see what's coming, can't you?  You guys head on out to the Elemental Plane of Earth and see what happened to the other two teams.  If they're in trouble, you rescue them.  If they've been killed, you come back and let us know.  And if you don't come back, then this operation is done.  We can't afford to keep sending out people into unknown danger.  You guys would be the last team sent.  What do you say?"Gilbert looked around at the others for consensus before saying, "We in!""Good deal.  The job pays 20,000 gold, payable when you get back.  Couple of conditions, though.  First, we're going to have to debrief you under the effects of a zone of truth spell.  Not that I don't trust you guys, but there's nothing stopping you from plane shifting away, spending a day hanging out in some celestial paradise, and then bopping back here for your payment with a story about how they're all dead.  The Lords of Greyhawk aren't going to be taken for chumps.""That seems fair enough," agreed Hagan."Great, because I'm basically gambling 20,000 gold that you guys will be able to get our mining operation back on track."Binkadink turned to the heavyset mage.  "Hey, Gilbert, can you cast me a phantom steed spell?  If I'm going to be going to the Elemental Plane of Earth to take on something that can wipe out two Adventurers Guild parties, I don't think I want to bring Obvious along."Gilbert turned to face Rale.  "We got conditions as well.  We need--" he looked around the room, counting seven able bodies ready to go on this rescue expedition, "--eight copies of phantom steed spell on scrolls."  He figured he might as well score an extra one for him to study at his leisure, so he could master the spell on his own and add it to his permanent repertoire.Rale thought it over.  "It'll take me an hour or two to scrounge them up," he said, "but I'll get them for you - and we'll subtract their cost from the 20,000.""Deal," agreed Gilbert."Okay, then.  I'll send someone to get those scrolls for you" - and here he gestured to a waiting kenku who took off to do just that - "but in the meantime I can let you know what to expect on the Elemental Plane of Earth."  And the Guildmaster began giving the group details about the elemental plane: the increased gravity and how it made it that much harder to wield weapons properly, the effects the plane had on spellcasting, and so forth.  He also gave a brief rundown on the monsters encountered thus far by the dwarven miners and their adventuring bodyguards and gave them a detailed drawing of the Black Tower, the base of operations the miners and adventurers used while they were out in the Elemental Plane of Earth.  "That's your eventual destination," Rale said.  "When you plane shift in, you may be lucky and show up right there, or you could be hundreds of miles away, in any direction.  But once you're on-plane, a teleport spell ought to get you there to the Black Tower."When the kenku returned a little over an hour later with a handful of scroll tubes, he passed them over to Gilbert Fung, who anchored them in place on his ample belt.  "Good thing that belt's so big," commented Binkadink with a smirk."You shut stupid gnome mouth.""You guys ready to go, then?" asked Rale.  "Time may be of the essence and every minute counts, or they may already be dead from poison gas or something and there's no hurry at all.""Prep spells first," Gilbert commanded, and the spellcasters among their number got busy.  The two rangers each cast a barkskin spell upon themselves, while Gilbert set himself and Mudpie up with a shared mage armor spell and the whole group with a Rary's telepathic bond spell.  Hagan followed suit with a mage armor spell for himself and his weasel familiar, Wezhley.  Binkadink, on a whim and as a precaution, drank down a neutralize poison potion - one his Uncle Winkidew had marked with a asterisk on the label, meaning he hadn't taken any shortcuts with it and it should function exactly as advertised.  Then, with weapons drawn and ready, Gilbert cast the plane shift spell and the group disappeared from view.It was a good thing Binkadink's antlered helmet had been equipped with a pair of everburning torches, because there was absolutely no other light in the cavern in which the group appeared.  The flickering light from the gnome's helmet reflected off of numerous purple crystals growing along the cavern floor in clumps, some much bigger than others.  Darrien, Finoula, and Malrin immediately tensed up, certain they had seen some movement in the cavern; not surprisingly, these were the only three of the group with elven blood.  So when the two lightning crysmals moved in for the attack - one from either side of the cavern - they were the only three to immediately dodge out of the way.The first crysmal skittered up to Hagan and got in two strikes with its scorpionlike tail before the half-orc could even register the attack.  The stinger-tipped tail came to a very sharp point, as the entire creature seemed to have been carved from mobile crystal of various shimmering hues.  As the stinger penetrated Hagan's magically-enhanced hide, a blast of electricity accompanied each strike, leaving the sorcerer to stagger backwards on trembling legs.  He had the presence of mind to cast a Mordenkainen's sword spell as he stumbled away from the elemental beast, hoping the floating, magical sword of force energy would keep the crysmal at bay, but it got in a third strike with its tail as the sorcerer was still casting the spell.  But then the sword intervened between crysmal and victim, stabbing deep into the beast's crystal exoskeleton.At the same time, the other lightning crysmal struck out at Binkadink, scoring a hit as well.  Lightning-quick, the tail swung back and then dashed in for another strike, but the gnome was able to react in time to evade the second attack, ducking behind the protective barrier of his new floating shield.  Then he popped out from the other side, bringing his glaive down at the scorpionlike being to good effect.Darrien stepped between the first lightning crysmal and Hagan, shooting it with an arrow from his Arachnibow as he did so.  The arrow struck and seemed to cause a few cracks in the  crysmal's crystalline shell, but the cold damage didn't seem to have any effect.  Gilbert, seeing both crysmals engaged in battle, took the opportunity of not being immediately targeted to cast a shared stoneskin spell upon himself and Mudpie.Malrin had long since decided that if she was going to stay with this group, she'd devote herself primarily to keeping the others in the battle; the monsters they seemed to end up fighting were well out of her league - plus, the elven lass disdained combat, as she hated causing others pain, even if the "other" in question was something trying to eat her.  So she rushed over to Hagan's side and cast a cure moderate wounds spell on him - one that was sorely needed, by the looks of things.Finoula, her longsword Tahlmalaera in her right hand and her flaming whip of thorns in her left, leaped forward to aid Binkadink in fighting off the second lightning crysmal.  Both weapons flashed out, each scoring several hits in as many seconds; when the ranger put her mind to it, she was a combat machine!  But the group's actual machine, MARCI, was strictly noncombative - she approached Hagan and, much to the half-orc's surprise, touched him with the tip of a finger that caused a short prick of pain followed by a soothing, cooling feeling spreading through his body from the point of insertion.  MARCI retracted the hypodermic needle back into the tip of her finger, automatically initiating internal sterilizing procedures on the needle as she did so.A step or two away from MARCI and her half-orc patient, Darrien was now taking the brunt of the first lightning crysmal's attacks.  It stabbed at the ranger with its tail-stinger, hitting him on the wrist holding his magical bow and zapping him with electricity.  He managed not to drop the weapon, but was forced to take a step back, out of range.  Across the cavern, the other lightning crystal struck its tail out at Finoula, who in stepping forward to aid Binkadink was the closer of the two potential targets, due to the gnome's greater reach with his glaive.  Finoula likewise winced in pain as she took a stinger-strike to the side of the neck, causing her silvery hair to stand on end from the electrical discharge.Hagan, feeling much better than he had been a moment ago, steered his force-sword into the first crysmal's hide and followed with a magic missile spell of his own, since force attacks were doing so well against these creatures.  Both spells dealt significant damage to the lightning crysmal, although it gave no voice to its pain.  Darrien sent a flurry of arrows at the creature, each one striking without error and causing cracks to form at the points of impact.  A few shards of crystal chipped off the creature, to be lost among the violet formations scattered around the cavern's floor.With a final flurry of his magical glaive, Binkadink managed to kill the crysmal he and Finoula had been fighting.  Gilbert, just behind him, drank down the contents of a potion of resist electricity and was thus now almost ready to join the fight.  Malrin, in the meantime, seeing Hagan okay, rushed back to Finoula's side and provided her with a healing spell.  The ranger thanked her fellow elf and, seeing the other crysmal well under hand between Darrien and Hagan, took a grateful moment to catch her breath.  Rale hadn't been kidding: the extra weight of her weapons definitely made a difference here on the Elemental Plane of Earth!  MARCI walked up to Finoula and stabbed her in the neck with a forefinger - at the site of the crysmal's pincer attack - and injected her with a soothing substance that encouraged healing from within the body.The remaining crysmal lunged at Darrien, catching him in the side of the thigh, but then Hagan killed it with another magic missile spell.  "I ready now!" Gilbert interjected, then looked around and saw the battle had been finished without him.  Somewhat sheepishly, he cast a haste spell on the group; the spell would last long enough that it would likely be of use before too long.There were two tunnels out of the cavern; Darrien strolled up to the one closest to him, but it was just a dead end filled with some odd fungus.  "Don't get too close!" Gilbert advised, and the ranger kept his distance - no point in getting mixed up in some dangerous fungal attack when the Black Tower was obviously not that way.  Instead, Gilbert directed Mudpie to earth glide below the cavern's floor and check out the fungus from below, in case it was growing over another passageway they couldn't see.  As usual. MARCI stood by Gilbert's side, her preferred position when there was no other useful task for her at the moment.  Mudpie returned after his explorations, explaining that there was nothing hidden there; the passageway was just a simple dead end.The others had already started checking out the only other passageway out of the lightning crysmal cavern.  It was long and twisting, about 20 feet wide and nearly as tall.  The group of four had made it about halfway down the section of tunnel before it took a right turn out of view, when a pair of spidery appendages suddenly lunged out of the stone wall to their left.  Malrin screamed - she still wasn't used to being constantly attacked all the time - as the front half of an enormous spider emerged from the wall and bit at Binkadink, in the lead, with a pair of stony mandibles.  The gnome felt a stinging sensation in his left arm, by the shoulder where the earth element spider had bitten him, and assumed there was some sort of weird elemental poison running through his system; he was glad he'd swigged down that potion, just in case!At the rear of the formation (for he had only rushed forward after hearing the gasps of surprise and fear over the telepathic bond spell), Darrien shot at the stony spider with a barrage of arrows and saw areas of frost form where each one struck; this creature, at least, didn't seem immune to cold damage!  Finoula stood by one of the creature's forelegs and attacked it with her longsword and whip, but doing so felt like attacking a stalagmite, and she didn't feel like it had taken much damage from her blows.  But Hagan grinned at the opportunity to cast a chain lightning spell, one of his favorites, even if this time he didn't have any secondary targets to arc off onto.  The spider's body flinched under the electrical spell barrage.Gilbert raced up to beside Darrien, with Mudpie and MARCI in tow, just in time to see Binkadink lash out several times with his magical glaive, striking a foreleg, then arcing the blade over to stab at the creature's underside before changing his attack vector again and dashing his blade into another leg.  That seemed to do it for the spider; it was used to bursting out from hiding at wandering crysmals from its bubble-pocket on the other side of the wall and thought it might give these strange creatures a try when it sensed them walking along the tunnel floor, but no matter how tasty these creatures might be, sampling them surely wasn't worth the pain!  It earth glided back into its hole, where the adventurers couldn't hurt it anymore.Binkadink led the group around the bend of the tunnel, only to find it a dead end shortly thereafter.  "That does it," he reported back.  "The Black Tower isn't here.  We'll need to teleport in.""Got it," replied Hagan.  "Everybody gather up around me."  Once they'd done so, he visualized the Black Tower as it had been drawn in Rale's picture, and cast a teleport spell to get them there.The spell worked as advertised: the group found themselves in a cavern so vast they couldn't see the walls or ceiling, although twinkling lights above looked strangely like a star field; these were just lightly phosphorescent crystals embedded along the ceiling of the massive cavern.  But rising up directly before them was the 60-foot-tall Black Tower, the temporary headquarters of those from the Greyhawk Adventurers Guild while on guard duty for the dwarven miners they supported.And standing directly before the Black Tower as if expecting them stood an earth elemental at least 20 feet tall.<Is this an enemy?> asked Binkadink over the telepathic bond, holding his glaive at the ready to strike if necessary.<Go ask it!> suggested Darrien.<Do we attack?> asked Finoula, both of her weapons in hand.  At her side, Hagan prepared to fire off a magic missile spell if the thing attacked.  But Darrien opted not to wait around to see what it might do; he reached into a pocket and dropped his ebony fly to the ground, stepping over it so it grew up beneath him, placing him directly on its back once it had grown to full size.  Then he directed it to the top of the Black Tower, where he dismounted and got a good bead on the elemental from a high vantage point.  Malrin obviously saw the wisdom of such an approach, for she wildshaped into an owl and flapped laboriously to the top of the tower beside the half-elf ranger.  <Flying's a lot tougher here!> she commented over the link.Gilbert took the initiative.  Calling out in Terran, a language he shared with his own earth elemental familiar, he said, "Who your master?  We want to speak with him!"  Mudpie and MARCI stood on either side of him, watching to see what would happen.The earth titan responded in Terran, "Throw down your weapons and lay prone on the ground.  I won't kill you - but then I'll take you to my master, as slaves.""Yeah, that not gonna happen.  Here new idea: maybe we kill you, then go find master ourselves!"  That got things going: with a massive stride, the earth titan dashed forward and struck out at Finoula with a fist almost as big as she was.  But in the space of time it took him to do so, the adventurers struck out with their readied actions: Finoula's whip lashed at the thing's ankles as he approached and her sword swiped at its approaching, boulderlike fist; while five force missiles sprang from Hagan's fingertips to strike the elemental in its broad chest.  But none of the attacks altered the course of the elemental's fist, which clobbered Finoula in the side and sent her reeling.Binkadink was over on the far side of the group's formation and was about to rush forward to the attack when Gilbert called him back over the link.  <Bink!  Here!  Quick!> the wizard urged.  The gnome broke off from his intended attack, angered by the delay - after all, the little three-foot-tall gnome considered himself the group's "meat shield" and felt he belonged on the front lines in cases like this.  But then his irritation vanished immediately and a wicked smile spread across his face as he saw what Gilbert was offering him: his slingshot of rock shrinking.  <You know how to use this?>  Still under the effects of the haste spell, Binkadink rushed back up to the front lines, where the earth titan was trading blows with Finoula, and tapped it on the ankle with the slingshot.  In a mere second, the earth titan - all 20 feet of him - shrunk down to the size of a pebble.  Binkadink had to bend down to pick up the erstwhile foe, then held him up to his face.  "Aw, aren't you the cutest widdle thing?" he asked it.  Not fluent in Terran, the gnome was unsure of the pebble-sized earth elemental's actual response, but he was pretty sure he got the gist of it.  He handed it over to Gilbert, who popped it into his metal tinderbox for safe keeping."That was easy!" gushed the gnome.  He was all for fighting, but he liked pranks even more, and this was the best of both worlds!Gilbert pulled a sunrod from his pack and activated it.  Up on the roof of the Black Tower, Malrin cast a light spell on the tip of one of Darrien's arrows.  Then the half-elf ranger dropped down to the balcony ringing the top of the tower and stepped through an unlocked door.  Keeping the others informed of his progress over the telepathic link, he verified there was nobody still inside the Black Tower.  When he stepped through the front door, Malrin - still in owl form - flew back down to rejoin him and the others."You guys hear that?" Binkadink asked suddenly.  Everyone strained their ears; they could just barely make out the sounds of picks hitting stone from further down the vast cavern from the jutting tower - a direction the gnome randomly decided was south.  "That way!" the gnome pointed."I think it time for our phantom steeds," Gilbert decided, taking out the spell scrolls Rale had provided him.  After talking it over, he decided to activate five of the magical mounts, as Malrin preferred to remain in owl form and would hitch a ride on Finoula's shoulder as needed; MARCI was not programmed on riding a mount and would thus sit behind Gilbert on his phantom steed.  But Gilbert also had Mudpie sitting in the saddle before him; it was fortunate the earth elemental was still in his small size, although the magical equine made no show of distaste at being so overloaded.The steeds flew through the air, quite literally - the magic of the spells provided the steeds with aerial maneuverability, a fact that had Mudpie keeping his eyes firmly closed for the duration.  But as they approached the sounds of picks the ringing of metal on stone grew progressively louder, until they approached what must be the entrance of a mining operation.There were two parallel pits dug into the floor, the first one narrow and short and the other much wider, longer, and deeper.  Just beyond that was an uprising of stone, rather like a small hill; and beyond that stood a multicolored tent, 20 feet on a side.  Standing just outside the tent was a stone giant, but one much different than the ones the heroes had ever encountered: these were blocky, seemingly unfinished carvings brought to magical life.  The earth element stone giant turned at the approaching light sources in the otherwise nearly lightless expanse of cavern between the two groups; surprisingly, so did the small "hill."The stone giant ducked into the tent and then reappeared almost immediately; this was apparently a guard who had just given word to his master of the approaching group on their phantom steeds.  Binkadink was the first to approach him, sending his magical steed flying above the "hill" and then dropping low enough for the gnome to jab at the giant with his glaive.  But the magical blade slid off the giant's rock-hard skin, to no apparent effect.Hagan, ever the peacemaker when possible, tried to avoid combat at first.  "We seek only our friends, who you may have put to work for you in the mines beyond here," the half declared.  "Let us free them, and we'll be on our way without bloodshed.""Better yet, you can join them in slavery!" snarled the stone giant in passable Common.  Well, that made that perfectly clear; having tried, Hagan felt no remorse when he cast a magic missile spell directly in the stone giant guard's face.Beneath Hagan and his flying mount, the "hill" suddenly reared up, stretching out a pair of clawed flippers; this was a delver, one much bigger than those found on the Material Plane.   The flippers were a poor defense if it was trying to keep the heroes from advancing, as their phantom steeds could fly directly above him.  Malrin, still perched in owl form upon Finoula's shoulder, cast a flaming sphere at the delver, but surprisingly for one of its bulk it managed to dodge out of the way at the last moment.Finoula wheeled her aerial mount around and attacked the stone giant from behind, striking out with her flaming whip of thorns while the giant's attention was still focused on Binkadink.Darrien steered his own flying mount around the battle, landing his phantom steed in the clearing by the mine entrance.  While the sounds of picks striking stone were the loudest here, he still couldn't see any of the slaves working within.  There were two large dragons just outside the mine entrance, though, each the color of stone and attached to a two-wheeled wagon filled with gravel and small chunks of rock.  With snorts of surprise, the stone dragons ambled forth into battle, dragging their carts behind them.Gilbert plotted his strategy as he approached the tent from the air.  He centered his Evard's black tentacles spell just outside the side of the tent, such that it would catch not only the stone giant outside the tent but also whatever master and minions might be within.  Unless the tent's interior was extradimensional - definitely a possibility - he'd hopefully catch all of the group's enemies in the writhing tentacles before they'd even have a chance to make themselves seen.  Behind the heavyset wizard, MARCI held on tightly to his chest, not wanting to fall to the ground below and damage herself.Outside the tent, the stone giant took a step away from the tentacles clamoring for his legs, stepping outside the area of the spell's effect.  He swung at Binkadink with a greatclub that was obviously either a severed stalagmite or stalactite.  But gnomes were specially trained at anticipating attacks by giants, and Binkadink dropped his aerial steed below the swing just in time.Then, from out of the tent strode a second earth element stone giant, nearly identical to the first.  He too managed to make it outside the area of the rubbery, ebon tentacles and swung his own stone greatclub at Finoula.  This strike hit, causing the elven ranger to nearly fall off her phantom steed.  Malrin took no chances - she flapped off the ranger's shoulder and away from combat distance.Binkadink maneuvered his steed to the side a bit, setting himself to be able to cleave from one giant to the other with his glaive.  He gave his all in his first swing, allowing the weapon's extra weight on the Elemental Plane of Earth to aid the power of his strike.  He hit the giant and carved a deep groove into his torso, but failed to slay him outright as he had hoped.Hagan maneuvered his own steed to directly behind Binkadink's own mount, feeling the safest place to cast spells was with the gnome fighter between him and any potential foes.  Then the half-orc let loose with a chain lightning spell, striking at both of the giants.  He purposefully didn't target the delver, as the massive creature had yet to attack any of them and prove itself an enemy.  For all the sorcerer knew, it might be as much a prisoner as the Adventurers Guild members they'd come to rescue.  Both giants snarled in pain at Hagan's spell, but neither looked more than slightly hurt from the attack.And then Finoula brought both her weapons to bear against the second stone giant.  As she did so, the tent's open flap started dispersing a thick mist, which billowed through the intertwining black tentacles rising up from the stone floor of the cavern.  Screams suddenly emanated from inside the tent as the tentacles began crushing those they had caught in their grasp.  Gilbert's only response was to cast a magic circle against evil upon himself.Below Hagan and Binkadink, the delver backed up away from the approaching flaming sphere that Malrin was directing from the air.  Darrien had his phantom steed take flight again, and, at Binkadink's mental urging over the Rary's telepathic bond spell, he cast a freedom of movement spell on the little gnome.  But with the heroes lined up so nicely - Hagan directly behind Binkadink and Darrien right behind Finoula - the two stone giants each moved as one and plucked a crystal from the necklaces they wore.  Pointing the crystals at their enemies, each burned out as it delivered a lightning bolt at the four mounted heroes (and Wezhley, who shrieked in pain from upon Hagan's shoulder).Ignoring the pain from the electrical discharge, Binkadink turned to Darrien and said <Thanks!> in response to the ranger's freedom of movement spell.  Then he stepped off from the phantom steed and went plummeting into the field of waving tentacles just below him, leaving the flying mount riderless and motionless.  He landed in front of the tent's flaps and peered inside.  In the back of the room were two women - a human and an elf - being squeezed to death in the embrace of several black tentacles.  Each wore gauzy garments of silk and held a fan made of some fibrous material, likely fungus-based.<Gilbert!> Binkadink called.  <Release the tentacles spell - you're killing those we came to rescue!>  With an unspoken command, Gilbert dismissed the Evard's black tentacles spell, allowing the two women to drop to the ground in relief.  "Stay back here, where it's safe!" advised Binkadink, spinning about and dashing back out of the tent and into battle.Hagan cast another chain lightning spell at the two stone giants, hoping to overload the crystals in the amulets they wore (in much the same way Binkadink's necklace of fireballs had exploded around his neck in their recent battle in the arctic).  But no such luck; while the spell struck both giants, neither amulet exploded.Seeing a foe on the ground before him at last, the delver turned toward Binkadink and slashed out at the little gnome with the claws on a wide flipper.  The strike hit, coating the little fighter in a glob of sticky acid, which burned his skin.  From the safety of the air, Malrin redirected her flaming sphere to hit the delver, but once again the giant, sluglike creature dodged the magical attack.  Malrin hardly noticed; she landed back on Finoula's shoulder and delivered a healing spell to the ranger through her owl-talons.Darrien targeted with his Arachnibow and started shooting arrow after arrow at the second stone giant, seeing bursts of frost bloom on the giant's stony hide with each strike.  Below him, the stone drakes, deprived of their ground-based targets, started trying to chew their way out of the leather harnesses binding them to their two-wheeled carts.Leaning down from her aerial mount, Finoula activated her own lightning amulet, transforming her into a bolt of electricity that blasted through both earth element stone giants.  She reformed on the side of wall to the mines.  Above, her abandoned phantom steed stayed in its current position, awaiting further orders.The thick mist expanded and Ginsiki the dao resumed his true form: a genie whose skin was the color of stone.  But Gilbert Fung was ready for him: he cast a quickened Evard's black tentacles spell centered on the dao and catching both stone giant bodyguards and a flipper of the delver in its area of effect as well.  Ginsiki swore an oath in Terran and tried to extract himself from the entwining appendages to no effect; in desperation, he caused a wall of stone to rise up, bisecting the area of writhing tentacles - if he could only pull himself atop the 10-foot-tall wall, the tentacles would be unable to reach him and he could simply walk along its length to escape the spell.  But first he had to pull himself from the tentacles' embrace, and that was proving to be almost impossible.From her perch behind Gilbert, MARCI looked down at the scene before her.  Despite having no discernable facial expressions (and only one eye), it was apparent by the quizzical tilt of her head that she didn't have the slightest understanding of what was going on.Gilbert quickly ran through what he could recall from his study of extraplaanr beings about the abilities of dao.  He was pretty sure they could cast plane shift, so as a precaution he cast a dimensional anchor spell upon Ginsiki.  The increased level of cursing from the dao as he observed the green glow surrounding his form told Gilbert that Ginsiki realized what had just happened and that it had been a good spell for Gilbert to have cast.One of the earth element stone giants tried ineffectively to release himself from the tentacles winding tightly around his limbs, while his counterpart plucked another crystal from his necklace and blasted Binkadink with another lightning bolt.  But the gnome called his phantom steed down to him and had it fly him to the top of the wall of stone Ginsiki had erected.  From that vantage, the gnome stabbed down at the dao with his glaive."I've got an idea!" Binkadink called down to the earth genie.  "How about you surrender, release your prisoners to our care, and buy your miserable lives with wishes?"  The gnome was pretty sure genies - of whatever element - granted wishes, and he certainly had no compulsions about letting these guys live as long as they released their slaves.  Ginsiki merely struggled all that much harder, trying desperately to escape the tight embrace of the tentacles.  He ignored the gnome's offer, at least for the moment.  Binkadink didn't mind; they were in the position of power at the moment - he could wait.  In the meantime, he absently noticed the burning sensation was still with him and took the opportunity to scrape the delver's acid-blob from his skin.Hagan had tired of electrical attacks and cast a disintegrate spell at one of the giants, just for some variety.  It resisted the spell to some extent, but the half-orc could see the effort cost the stone giant a considerable amount of damage in any case.  And the delver pulled against the tentacles entwined against its flipper, but couldn't extract itself from Gilbert's spell.  Malrin was finally able to steer her flaming sphere spell directly into the delver's body, and for once it couldn't get out of the way in time.From his phantom steed, Darrien continued to pump arrow after arrow into one of the stone giants, and eventually it fell over, its head and shoulder sprouting half a dozen or more arrow shafts.  Its collapsing body was swallowed up by the rubbery tentacles of Gilbert's favorite spell.Finoula lined herself up and activated her lightning amulet again, sending her electrified body through the delver, dao, and remaining earth element stone giant, resuming her elven form well out of the area of effect of the Evard's black tentacles spell - and beyond any of the foes' ability to counterattack.  Ginsiki's cries of exasperation grew even more frantic as the genie tried and failed to escape the constricting appendages.  Gilbert didn't make anything better for the frustrated genie by casting an enervation spell at him, draining him of a goodly chunk of his life energy.  Beside the dao, the remaining stone giant tugged fruitlessly at his own rubbery bonds.Seeing the dao was not likely to surrender, Binkadink brought his glaive crashing down upon the genie's skull.  At the last possible second, the dao looked up, saw his doom approaching, and cried out, "I agr--" before the blade cut his skull in twain.  As the grasping tentacles pulled Ginsiki's lifeless form to the ground, Gilbert advised, <Pretty sure they only grant limited wish anyway.>Hagan reverted back to his trusty chain lightning spell, slaying the remaining giant and badly burning the delver.  That caused the delver to speak its first words - something even Gilbert hadn't known it could do - in the Terran language: "Release.  No kill.  I depart.  Not return.""Fair enough," Gilbert agreed in the creature's own language.  He dismissed the Evard's black tentacles spell, and at his urging, Malrin did likewise with her flaming sphere.  True to its word, the delver turned and headed off, away from the group.  That left only a pair of stone drakes, each the size of a horse but still attached to carts filled with stone.  They were easily dispatched.Binkadink entered the dao's tent and told the two women it was safe to come out now, while the others went into the mines.  There they found ten dwarven miners and five male adventurers, as well as Thunderwolf himself - all that was left of two adventuring teams and three dozen miners.  All were battered and bruised from the harsh conditions they'd endured under the dao's control.Thunderwolf thanked the group for their rescue.  When the tent unearthed all the gear that had been taken from the adventurers, the Guildmaster handed over the equipment of those who had been slain to the Kordovian team.  "I'm afraid this is it for a while," he said, looking among the assembled group.  "We lost both of our high-level wizards; we won't be able to return here any time soon.""Then that's it fer this expedition," observed one of the dwarven miners."Might be fer th' best," replied another.  "It'll be good t' spend some time at home fer awhile.""I don't suppose any of you would be interested..." began Thunderwolf, but Gilbert cut him off.  "We already got jobs, working for King Galrich."  It wasn't technically accurate, as Galrich had abdicated the throne to his stepdaughter Kaelanna some months before, but the wizard knew Thunderwolf and Galrich had adventured together years ago and that would put an end to the matter.As indeed it did.  "Fair enough," Thunderwolf sighed.  "I assume you have a way to get us all home?""Watch this," boasted Gilbert, casting a plane shift spell that dumped the group back to the Material Plane - although in the middle of a burning desert.  But Hagan took it from there, teleporting the group (in several trips) back to the Greyhawk City Adventurers Guild Headquarters.  Desdemona Honeytongue returned with him the first time to help teleport the rest of the group home.  The sun was just about at the horizon."We're not done with the Elemental Plane of Earth," vowed Thunderwolf.  "We'll rebuild our ranks, and get a team together capable of starting operations back up.  It might take us a few years, but we'll get there.""When ye do, ye let us know," advised the senior dwarven miner.  "We'll be ready.""I bushed," announced Gilbert.  "I think I send word to Jinkadoodle, tell him we spend night here, he pick us up in morning.  We give Rale full briefing tomorrow.""That might be for the best," agreed Binkadink, not sure he was ready to face his cousin so soon after having glued his breeches to the helm of the dragonfly vessel. - - - I don't have much to add to this adventure write-up other than I'm getting really, really tired of that Evard's black tentacles spell (and sucky rolls when my bad guys try to make their grapple checks to escape them)! - - - T-Shirt Worn:  A solid gray T-shirt, to represent the infinite areas of stone to be found on the Elemental Plane of Earth.</blockquote>

Verification