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The Kordovian Adventurers Guild
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<blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 7854651" data-attributes="member: 508"><p><strong>ADVENTURE 67: SALT IN THE WOUNDS</strong></p><p></p><p>PC Roster: </p><p style="margin-left: 20px">Binkadink Dundernoggin, gnome fighter 18</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Darrien, half-elf ranger 18</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Finoula Cloudshadow, elf ranger 18</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Gilbert Fung, human wizard 18</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Hagan, half-orc sorcerer 18</p><p></p><p>NPC Roster:</p><p style="margin-left: 20px">Caliandra, human sorcerer 13</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Malrin Ivenheart, elf druid 12</p><p></p><p>Game Session Date: 11 November 2019</p><p></p><p>- - -</p><p></p><p>"I'm sorry to hear that," commiserated Finoula.</p><p></p><p>"Yeah, well, I just figured you guys needed an explanation as to why I haven't been around for some time now," replied Castillan. "I was never really a big fan of my father - we never saw eye to eye on much - but now that he's gone, it's my duty as the oldest son to take care of the family stuff. The Ivenhearts <em>are</em> minor nobility, after all, for what that's worth."</p><p></p><p>"So you not available for adventuring stuff any more?" asked Gilbert Fung, cutting straight to the point.</p><p></p><p>"Not likely - at least, not very often, I'm afraid."</p><p></p><p>"But still okay that Malrin hang out with us?"</p><p></p><p>"Sure. <em>She's</em> free to do what she wants, unlike me."</p><p></p><p>"Glad to hear it," answered Malrin, who had no intention of ending her service to the kingdom via aiding her older brother's band of heroes.</p><p></p><p>Castillan gave a sly smirk over at Finoula, then added, "And there's no problem with Aithanar hanging around with you guys, either."</p><p></p><p>"And <em>I'm</em> glad to hear that," replied Finoula, stifling a smile of her own.</p><p></p><p>"Anyway, I better get back to the manor. There's a pile of business dealings I still need to make sense of." Castillan hugged his little sister and waved to the group before heading back out through the open portcullis of Battershield Keep, returning to Ivenheart Manor in the richer part of town. The adventurers went back into the main structure at the back of the keep, where Helga Battershield had a noonday meal ready to serve. They'd invited Castillan to stay and join them, but he well knew that after one of Helga's meals he wouldn't feel up to a walk back home - more like a nap in a hammock for a couple of hours.</p><p></p><p>About halfway through the meal there was a cry from the courtyard.</p><p></p><p>Rising up from the table, the heroes ran out from the dining area and saw a familiar face standing before them, although she'd definitely seen better days. Caliandra was a sorceress, part of an adventuring team put together by Lord Cavelthorne, a noble from Pelorvic, the kingdom directly south of Kordovia. Normally quite good-looking, her hair now was matted and her skin sallow and she seemed to have suffered a substantial (and likely very sudden) weight loss, for her cheekbones stood out on her face. "Help us--please!" she said, staggering to stay upright.</p><p></p><p>Darrien was there to catch her before she fell and helped her stand upright. In one hand she held a crumpled piece of parchment, completely blank - mere moments earlier it had held the arcane writings making up a <em>teleport</em> spell, the very spell which had allowed her to cross the miles between their two respective small kingdoms in an instant.</p><p></p><p>"What's happened?" asked Finoula, concern in her voice. "Are you okay?"</p><p></p><p>"Need--water," Caliandra choked out. Binkadink raced up with a goblet in hand and passed it over to the sorceress, who drank it down greedily. And then she began her tale.</p><p></p><p>"We recently discovered a hexagonal mirror in a dungeon not far from our hometown. The glass was darkened and it was difficult to see your reflection in it. We brought it back to Lord Cavelthorne so he could examine it and this morning he figured out its command word. But after activating it, the glass lightened – and a winged creature flew through it, into our world. It looked like a blocky, little, white gargoyle. It attacked Lord Cavelthorne, blasting him with a cone of salt crystals, blinding him."</p><p></p><p>"Salt mephit, sound like," interjected Gilbert Fung.</p><p></p><p>"Then another creature stepped through the mirror - this one as big as a man, but crystalline and chalky white - and it attacked Lord Cavelthorne, totally desiccating his body almost immediately, shriveling up his skin and stretching it like aged parchment. He-- he died there under its touch, and then almost immediately rose as some sort of undead. He was shambling around like a zombie, and then he and the other salt monsters attacked Vance when he tried to stop them. In the meantime, more of the winged creatures came through the mirror. We managed to keep the salt creatures at bay long enough for Jorg to smash the mirror, but by that time we were outnumbered – for the salt golem thing had split into two. I saw Jorg, Thomas, and Vance all get turned into those salt mummies and the salt golems were duplicating just about every time they killed someone, so - low on spells after trying to fight them off - I decided to come here for help. I used a <em>teleport</em> scroll we keep on hand for emergencies."</p><p></p><p>"What about Kizzie?" prompted Finoula. The halfling bard was the only member of Cavelthorne's troop Caliandra hadn't mentioned by name.</p><p></p><p>"I don't know - I lost sight of her. I hope she's okay."</p><p></p><p>"Gilbert?" Binkadink asked. "What are we dealing with here?"</p><p></p><p>The portly mage thought it over a moment. "Those definitely salt mephits - the winged ones. Others, not so sure about. But mirror probably gateway to Quasi-Elemental Plane of Salt. We talking invasion force, more than likely."</p><p></p><p>"Well, <em>that's</em> not good!" expressed Darrien. "We need to put a stop to it!"</p><p></p><p>"Mirror smashed by Jorg - that good start," replied Gilbert, pulling his <em>crystal ball</em> from a pocket of his robes. "We need to take care of these other creatures - not liking how they can split into two after killing people and turning them into undead." Gilbert had a remarkable hatred for undead creatures; so much so that he'd permanently enhanced his eyesight with magic so he could see the auras of undead monstrosities identifying them for what they were. With a practiced wave of his hand, he caused an image to form in the glass sphere he held: the interior of the hunting lodge that served as the headquarters for Cavelthorne's team of adventurers. Mentally controlling the magic sensor he'd brought into being, he caused the image in the <em>crystal ball</em> to explore throughout the building. "See four salt monsters - they all undead," he announced. "No mephits, no salt golems."</p><p></p><p>"Are any of them...halfling sized?" asked Caliandra hesitantly, not really wanting to hear the answer.</p><p></p><p>"No, they all human size - wait! Found her! She on roof. Looks like still alive." Caliandra heaved a sigh of relief.</p><p></p><p>"Well, let's go, then!" said Hagan. "I've got a good enough view of the place through the <em>crystal ball</em>, I can <em>teleport</em> us all there!"</p><p></p><p>"Hold up," admonished Gilbert. "Prep spells first!" He put the <em>crystal ball</em> back into his pocket and then rummaged in another one, pulling out his <em>slingshot of rock shrinking</em>. Then, fishing his earth elemental familiar - currently the size of a small pebble - from yet another pocket, he loaded Mudpie into the slingshot and fired him straight at the ground.</p><p></p><p>The impact ended the magical reduction in size and Mudpie grew - but to a size much larger than the other heroes had expected. The earth elemental standing before them now stood a full 16 feet tall.</p><p></p><p>"What--?" gasped Hagan, looking up at the creature who normally only reached up to the half-orc's chest.</p><p></p><p>"Oh yeah - I cast <em>polymorph other</em> on him, make him this big permanently. He be much better in combat this way."</p><p></p><p>"Yeah," agreed Hagan, "but I can't <em>teleport</em> him with the rest of us if he's this big! Shrink him back down!"</p><p></p><p>"Hmm, good point," acknowledged Gilbert. "Mudpie! Come back over here!" The elemental did as instructed and the heavyset mage tapped him with the magic slingshot, shrinking Mudpie back down to pebble size. "I release him to full size again once we get there," he said as he scooped up the earth elemental and placed him back into a robe pocket for safe keeping.</p><p></p><p>Once the spellcasters had completed their pre-combat rituals - plenty of <em>stoneskin</em>, <em>magic circle against evil</em>, and <em>barkskin</em> spells, as well as a <em>Rary's telepathic bond</em> and the odd <em>bear's endurance</em> or <em>cat's grace</em> - the team was ready to go. "You stay here this time," Hagan told his own familiar. "I don't want anything to happen to you if we're going to be fighting undead monsters." Wezhley crawled down off of his master's shoulder with a show of unhappiness but Helga soon coaxed him back to the dining area and the unfinished meal with a promise of a few choice morsels and suddenly the little weasel was perfectly fine with being left behind. Darrien and Finoula also opted to leave their animal companions behind, although Binkadink insisted on bringing Obvious with him.</p><p></p><p>"Think we all ready," announced Gilbert and everyone gathered around Hagan. The half-orc cast the <em>teleport</em> spell and they immediately found themselves on the back deck of Lord Cavelthorne's hunting lodge.</p><p></p><p>Caliandra backed up onto the back lawn, shielding her eyes from the glare of the sun and looking up at the roof to see if she could spot Kizzie Birdsong, while Darrien raced forward to the dual doors at the center of the lodge. He pulled the leftmost door open, standing behind it and using it as a shield, although he gripped his scimitar in his right hand and held it ready to strike out at any undead things that might exit the lodge.</p><p></p><p>Finoula raced up to the open door and looked within. There was an undead zombie thing wearing plate mail armor, spinning at the sudden draft from the door and shambling her way. She recognized the half-orcish features of Jorg, although his skin was desiccated like thin parchment stretched over the bones of his skull. With practiced ease, she pulled her <em>whip of thorns</em> from her belt, uncoiled it, and with a wordless command caused the thorns to extend from the weapon as its length burst into flames. Then, with a crack, she sent the whip lashing out at the salt mummy who had once been Jorg Battleborn.</p><p></p><p>Binkadink, mounted on his jackalope Obvious, sent him bounding around the side of the lodge to go enter through the front door, hoping to catch the undead Jorg in a pincer movement. He leaned forward to open the front doors, allowing Obvious to enter the foyer. There, up ahead, was Jorg getting whipped by Finoula and there, off to his right, was another armored mummy shambling his way: Vance Pelorian, judging by the Sun God's holy symbol hanging around the cleric's neck. But as Binkadink wheeled Obvious to face Vance, another salt mummy exited the trophy room where Lord Cavelthorne kept the animals he'd stalked, killed, and had stuffed as permanent displays of his hunting prowess. This, judging from his loose robes, was the undead corpse of Thomas the Seeker - only now the only thing he sought was the death of Binkadink and Obvious.</p><p></p><p>The gnome sent his glaive swinging at the animated human corpse, slashing a deep gash across Thomas's chest that Binkadink would have normally expected to send the creature's life-blood splashing away in an arc; instead, the mummy's interior was completely dry, releasing nothing but a spray of salt crystals. And then Vance reached the jackalope, reaching out for him with clawed fingers outstretched.</p><p></p><p>Further down the central hallway, Jorg swung a lethargic arm at Finoula but the nimble ranger ducked beneath the swing. She pulled <em>Tahlmalaera</em> from its sheath and prepared to stab into the mummy's torso, but before she could, Malrin opted to try casting a <em>create water</em> spell such that the liquid manifested directly above Jorg's head, thinking that a creature turned mainly to salt might well be vulnerable to a dose of flowing water. The elven druid couldn't have been more on the mark: the gallons of water splashed down upon Jorg's shambling corpse, eating away the desiccated flesh and causing the undead salt mummy to fall to the ground in a clatter of metal armor as he melted away in a sloppy puddle. Even Malrin was amazed at the effectiveness of the tactic, for <em>create water</em> was one of the simplest spells a druid ever learned - she'd never expected it to be that effective of a combat attack! (Now, having seen how effective it had been, she only regretted she didn't have more copies of that particular spell prepared.)</p><p></p><p>Hagan cast a <em>chain lightning</em> spell at Thomas and had it arc over to Vance, catching both in its electrical embrace. Gilbert stepped up beside him, casting a <em>shapechange</em> spell upon himself - the first time he'd ever given the spell a try - although he left it idle at the moment, leaving himself in his normal form but ready to transform at a moment's notice if the opportunity or need arose.</p><p></p><p><I've got the <em>decanter of endless water</em>!> called Finoula over the link, resheathing her longsword and pulling the magic decanter from her pack. <I'm going to use Malrin's tactic on the rest of these salt mummies!> Darrien ran behind his fellow ranger, realizing she'd possibly need some support if she was planning on activating it in its "geyser" mode. Together, they entered the central hallway and Darrien steadied Finoula as she activated the decanter by its "geyser" command word. A blast of water erupted from the container, which would have flung the elf backwards if Darrien hadn't grabbed her by the hips to keep her steady. The water sloshed over the undead form of Thomas the Seeker, and just as Jorg had done the erstwhile monk melted away into a puddle, his robes being pushed away by the force of the powerful stream of water.</p><p></p><p>Now facing only Vance, Binkadink whirled on the undead cleric and brought him down with a few rapid strikes of his glaive. Finoula aimed the geyser at the undead cleric for good measure, the jet of water dissolving his body as it had the other salt mummies.</p><p></p><p>During all of this combat, Caliandra had cast a <em>dimension door</em> spell to get up to the top of the roof, where she had spotted the halfling bard lying, exhausted, on the top of the building. Kizzie had climbed up the chimney from the fireplace in Lord Cavelthorne's study to escape from the undead form of their leader, the nobleman who had financed their guild of adventurers. They could still hear him through the chimney as he staggered in the unlit fireplace below, trying to get to the halfling he'd been chasing - and who he had partially drained of fluids before her escape. "There's still one more, in the study!" Caliandra called down to the others, and Finoula hunted down the salt mummy who had once been Lord Cavelthorne and slew him with the <em>decanter of endless water</em>. "Got him!" she called up the chimney, and Caliandra cast another <em>dimension door</em> spell to get the last two surviving members of their guild back down to ground level.</p><p></p><p>"That all of them," Gilbert announced after checking each of the rooms in the lodge and confirming there were no other salt creatures lurking about. "Where the others go - mephits and golems?"</p><p></p><p>"They headed down the road...toward the town square," Kizzie explained in gasps of breath. "I saw them...from my perch on the rooftop." Wordlessly, Hagan passed his waterskin over to the halfling and she drank gratefully.</p><p></p><p>"You guys need to go after them, before they turn any of the villagers into undead!" said Caliandra. "I'll stay here with Kizzie; we have a potion or two of healing stashed away and I'm just about out of spells anyway, so I wouldn't be of much help." Gilbert pulled his <em>crystal ball</em> back out of his pocket and concentrated on the town square, having been in that area himself earlier in his adventuring career; Hagan, having never been there before, needed a good view of the place if he was going to be able to <em>teleport</em> everyone to that location. "Gather around!" the half-orc commanded and once everyone had done so he cast the spell, transporting the group into the middle of the town square.</p><p></p><p>To say it was a chaotic spectacle wouldn't be doing it justice. People were screaming everywhere as they tried running into the buildings for safety, only to be herded away by the flying salt mephits and their breath weapons of stinging salt crystals. The facets moved as fast as a human despite their bulky build and a few had already successfully drained enough moisture from the villagers to desiccate them into an undead state, in some cases causing the facets to split into two as a result. And the newly-created salt mummies turned at once to attack their living neighbors, ignoring the invaders from the Quasi-Elemental Plane of Salt as potential targets.</p><p></p><p>Darrien grabbed an arrow from his quiver, nocked it into the <em>Arachnibow</em>, and sent it flying straight into the head of a flying mephit, killing it instantly. He then repeated the process, ignoring all other potential targets in every direction about him so he could concentrate on slaying the only enemies who could fly, as the mephits were the ones keeping the villagers from the safety of the various buildings. Each mephit Darrien slew opened access to an accessible safe haven for the frightened townsfolk nearby and they were quick to take advantage of it.</p><p></p><p>Finoula still wielded the <em>decanter of endless water</em> as a weapon, having seen firsthand how powerful it was against the salt mummies. She spotted the nearest of the undead and melted it into a wet puddle. That left the facets as potential targets and Binkadink set himself the task of slaying as many of them as he could. He sent Obvious charging into a group of the crystalline figures, slaying three of them in twice as many seconds with great slashes of his enchanted glaive. The facets were sliced into pieces, falling into further chunks as they hit the ground. But there were many other groups of facets threatening various townsfolk, who were scurrying about looking for a place of safety. Several of these poor souls were grabbed up by the salt-monsters, drained of their fluids and their very lives, their skin shriveling tightly onto their bones as they were transformed into salt mummies. More times than not, this resulted in the facet splitting into two, each creature the same size and strength of the original. It was easy to see that, left unchecked, this small invasion force could eventually expand into an army of facets covering the globe!</p><p></p><p>Gilbert's first action upon arriving in the town square wasn't to cast a spell but to shoot his pebble-sized earth elemental familiar at the ground by his feet with his <em>slingshot of rock shrinking</em>. Upon impact, Mudpie resumed his now-normal size of 16 feet in height and immediately set about pounding the nearest facets into dust with his massive, earthen fists.</p><p></p><p>The three remaining mephits who had made it through the <em>mirror gate</em> stopped harassing their victims once they saw the half-elf archer taking them down. They immediately changed targets, making bee-lines for these interlopers trying to put a stop to their fun. One flew straight at Darrien, sending a cone of salt crystals directly into the ranger's face, but Darrien had the presence of mind to close his eyes as he nocked another arrow into the <em>Arachnibow</em> by feel alone, then open his eyes after the breath weapon barrage had finished, just in time to cut the salt mephit down.</p><p></p><p>Some of the salt mummies noticed the heroes in the middle of the square who hadn't been there a moment before and started shambling in their direction. Malrin pulled her bow from her back and ignored the approaching mummies - they were moving rather slowly, after all - taking a bead on a nearby facet. They were the ones creating the salt mummies in the first place; take them down first and then the heroes could take out the mummies at their leisure, she reasoned.</p><p></p><p>Hagan cast another <em>chain lightning</em> spell, wiping out seven facets and a salt mummy in one fell swoop. Gilbert cast an <em>Evard's black tentacles</em> spell upon another group of four facets who were just about to drain a trio of frightened humans of the liquids in their bodies; the humans were caught up in the tentacles as well but Gilbert figured they'd likely last longer in his spell than they would being drained by facets - and even if the worst happened and they were crushed to death by the entangling appendages of his spell, that was preferable than being transformed into undead!</p><p></p><p>Mudpie smashed another facet outside the effects of his master's spell and the humans it had been threatening made it safely into a nearby building, slamming the door behind them. The remaining two salt mephits tried blocking them, but Darrien took them out with a pair of arrows, leaving only facets and salt mummies left to deal with.</p><p></p><p>Finoula was still doing her best to take out the salt mummies and her <em>decanter of endless water</em> was the perfect tool for the job - so far, none of the undead had last more than a few seconds under the blast of water from her magic decanter. Nearby, Binkadink was taking out handfuls of facets with his glaive, while Obvious sped him from group to group to allow him to slay as many of them as possible in the shortest amount of time he could.</p><p></p><p>The last four remaining facets all went after the gnome and his jackalope mount, rightly seeing them as their greatest personal threat. But it was at this time the heroes learned something important about the facets: just as absorbing the fluids of their victims allowed them to split into two, it was also apparently possible for several facets to merge back together into a larger form. This became apparent when the facets, all linked together in a hivemind similar to the heroes' own <em>Rary's telepathic bond</em> spell, called for help from the facets that were already beyond the town square and out of view, threatening other villagers farther away from the remaining four being harassed by the sudden arrival of the Kordovian heroes. This telepathic cry for help resulted in the facets farther away to start merging into one giant form: a quasi-elemental salt monolith, a massive, squat, vaguely humanoid creature standing some 25 feet tall or more, which came crashing through the trees to aid its fellow invaders.</p><p></p><p>Distracted by the sudden appearance of this new monstrosity, Finoula sprayed down another salt mummy with her decanter but failed to notice the approach of another of these undead, who brought its parched fist striking her from behind. Malrin, seeing the wielder of the <em>decanter of endless water</em> being taken away from her geyser duties (even if only temporarily), summoned a huge water elemental to carry out the same line of attack. Under the druid's orders, the water elemental simply ran through a pair of salt mummies, its watery form causing the undead creatures' bodies to lose all cohesion and collapse into runny piles of salt.</p><p></p><p>Hagan was also distracted by the arrival of the salt monolith, but only for a moment - and then he cast a <em>meteor swarm</em> spell at it. Four flaming missiles went streaking into the massive beast, crushing its chest and exploding into bursts of flames. Darrien spun about and sent a flurry of arrows streaking up at the monolith, but it seemed only the cold damage imbued upon the ammunition by the <em>Arachnibow</em> was having any effect.</p><p></p><p>Finoula deactivated the geyser with a command word, put the stopper on the end of the decanter, and then used her <em>lightning amulet</em> to transform herself into a bolt of living electricity, which she sent flying through the body of the salt monolith before assuming her elven form once again on the other side of the great beast. By this point the salt mummies were few in number and she was sure Malrin's water elemental could take care of them.</p><p></p><p>Mudpie killed another facet with his boulderlike fists while Binkadink slew the remaining four facets, each of which had turned to face the monolith as if ready to join its body and increase its size and power that much more. Obvious then hippity-hopped across the battlefield, getting his rider closer to the monolith so the gnome could bring his glaive to bear against the massive salt quasi-elemental.</p><p></p><p>The monolith performed some sort of magical attack linking itself to Hagan, who had thought himself well out of range of the monolith's reach. All at once, the half-orc felt his mouth go dry as his fluids started draining from his body in a manner he wouldn't have believed possible. He warned the others over the link of what was happening.</p><p></p><p>The last two remaining salt mummies moved up to attack but were then slain by the water elemental, who simply walked through them and dissolved them at once. Seeing no more undead on the battlefield, Malrin quickly dismissed the water elemental, allowing it to shift back to its home plane - given the monolith was draining fluids from Hagan at a distance, she didn't want to power it up by allowing it access to a creature whose entire body was made up of water, for who knew what effect that might have on the salt monolith? The last thing Malrin wanted was for it to absorb enough moisture for it to split into two like the facets had done!</p><p></p><p>Malrin then attacked the salt monolith with a direct spell attack: a <em>call lightning storm</em> spell which brought a bolt of lightning crashing down from the sky above to strike the massive, crystalline creature. Hagan, still suffering from the ongoing fluid drain, cast a <em>polar ray</em> spell at the salt monolith, hitting it where its head would normally be (although it had nothing in the form of an actual head, just some craggy blocks of salt crystals growing up from its massive shoulders).</p><p></p><p>And then Gilbert cast an <em>Otto's irresistible dance</em> spell at the salt quasi-elemental, causing it to start prancing about in place. As it capered, the cloud of salt particles which were constantly surrounding the creature as it moved got even worse; Binkadink leaped from Obvious's saddle so the jackalope could back off (as the salt was severely hurting his eyes). Mudpie backed off, not from any irritation but because he could see Finoula raising her hand to her amulet again and anticipated another lightning bolt blast straight through the body of the salt monolith once again. Finoula reformed into her elven body far enough away from the monolith to stay out of the range of the cloud of irritating particles. Darrien shot another bunch of arrows at the dancing foe; even though only the cold damage was causing the monolith any harm, the ranger was a firm believer that every little bit of damage they could bring to this menace was a good thing. Another bolt of lightning crashed down from the sky upon the dancing creature, a second blast from Malrin's spell.</p><p></p><p>Squinting, Binkadink braved entry into the salt cloud to bring his glaive to bear against the salt monolith, who was fortunately still caught up in Gilbert's spell and unable to even defend itself. But then Hagan made any further such attacks moot, for he slew the giant elemental with another <em>meteor swarm</em> spell. As the monolith came crashing to the ground in an explosion of salt crystals, the half-orc was pleased to feel the constant siphoning of his body's liquids suddenly cease all at once; he immediately grabbed for the waterskin at his hip and drank greedily.</p><p></p><p>Gilbert looked all about the town square, seeking out any remaining enemies, but it seemed they had taken care of all of the invaders from the Quasi-Elemental Plane of Salt. Belatedly, the portly mage dismissed his <em>Evard's black tentacles</em> spell; the facets it had entangled had been crushed to death, but so had the three townsfolk - regrettable but acceptable losses, Gilbert considered them. "That's it!" Darrien confirmed, after having done his own evaluation of the battlefield. "Come on - let's get back to Caliandra!"</p><p></p><p>"And Kizzie," Finoula pointed out, but it was obvious which of the two female adventurers Darrien was most concerned about; his crush on the human sorceress was a rather poorly-guarded secret. Still, Hagan gathered everyone up around him again and <em>teleported</em> the group back to Lord Cavelthorne's hunting lodge (after Gilbert had reduced Mudpie back to pebble size for ease of transport). There, they found both Kizzie and Caliandra looking a bit more healthy than they had recently appeared; the healing potions had done their work.</p><p></p><p>"Are you okay?" Darrien asked.</p><p></p><p>"We're fine," Kizzie answered, as Caliandra added, "We'll live."</p><p></p><p>"So what you do now?" asked Gilbert, cutting to the chase as always.</p><p></p><p>"We don't have the funds - or the resources ourselves - to <em>raise</em> Lord Cavelthorne or any of the others," Caliandra answered. "We'll have to take it up with our king, but I imagine we'll try to hire a few replacements and keep the guild going. It'll take some time for us to recover, but we'll build this guild back up. We probably won't be at your fighting level for some time, though."</p><p></p><p>"Yeah, that probably true," Gilbert agreed with as little grace as he usually gave any of his comments. "Well, we save your kingdom, possibly whole world! You need us come save you again, you know where to find us. Hagan! You ready for <em>teleport</em> back home?"</p><p></p><p>Hagan sighed and gathered the group back into formation once again. Finoula gave the other two women a quick hug and told them, "I'm sorry for your loss" before joining the rest of her team. Darrien said, "If we can do anything to help..."</p><p></p><p>"I know," replied Caliandra sadly. "But you'd better get going. Your fat-ass wizard's getting impatient."</p><p></p><p>"Our fat-ass wizard's always impatient," he told her and stepped over to stand by the others of his group. Hagan cast his <em>teleport</em> spell and the Kordovian adventurers were once again back at Battershield Keep. Hagan went at once to find Wezhley - only to have Helga shush him, for the little weasel was sound asleep on the dining table, his belly distended from all the food he'd been bribed with by the dwarven woman to distract him from his being left behind.</p><p></p><p>"Hey!" exclaimed Gilbert loudly, causing little Wezhley to stir in his slumber. "I forget to <em>shapechange</em> into other forms in heat of battle! Oh well, maybe next time...."</p><p></p><p>- - -</p><p></p><p>All I can say about this adventure is I never thought I'd see a 0-level spell instantly slay a creature with triple-digit hit points, but since the salt mummy description says they take 1d6 points of damage from a flask of water and the <em>create water</em> spell creates literally gallons of water at a time, it seemed appropriate to allow it to happen. So my lower-level creatures weren't much of a threat at all, leaving my quasi-elemental salt monolith as the only real danger to the PCs. But that's okay; we finished this adventure quickly enough as a result that we had enough time in the session to go through the next one as well.</p><p></p><p>I also decided to kill off Aroben Ivenheart as an in-game explanation as to why Castillan was no longer a part of the group. Jacob, his player, has pretty much decided it's not worth the drive on the one day a week he has off from work to game with us (and I can't really fault his logic - he's got his own gaming group now; in fact I think he DMs for them), so this way I've left the possibility open that if the opportunity ever arises Castillan's still around and might join in a given adventure. But we won't likely be seeing too much of him around.</p><p></p><p>- - -</p><p></p><p>T-shirt worn: My white "Walking Dead" shirt - white for the salt, "Walking Dead" for the salt mummies.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Richards, post: 7854651, member: 508"] [B]ADVENTURE 67: SALT IN THE WOUNDS[/B] PC Roster: [INDENT]Binkadink Dundernoggin, gnome fighter 18[/INDENT] [INDENT] Darrien, half-elf ranger 18[/INDENT] [INDENT] Finoula Cloudshadow, elf ranger 18[/INDENT] [INDENT] Gilbert Fung, human wizard 18[/INDENT] [INDENT] Hagan, half-orc sorcerer 18[/INDENT] NPC Roster: [INDENT]Caliandra, human sorcerer 13[/INDENT] [INDENT] Malrin Ivenheart, elf druid 12[/INDENT] Game Session Date: 11 November 2019 - - - "I'm sorry to hear that," commiserated Finoula. "Yeah, well, I just figured you guys needed an explanation as to why I haven't been around for some time now," replied Castillan. "I was never really a big fan of my father - we never saw eye to eye on much - but now that he's gone, it's my duty as the oldest son to take care of the family stuff. The Ivenhearts [I]are[/I] minor nobility, after all, for what that's worth." "So you not available for adventuring stuff any more?" asked Gilbert Fung, cutting straight to the point. "Not likely - at least, not very often, I'm afraid." "But still okay that Malrin hang out with us?" "Sure. [I]She's[/I] free to do what she wants, unlike me." "Glad to hear it," answered Malrin, who had no intention of ending her service to the kingdom via aiding her older brother's band of heroes. Castillan gave a sly smirk over at Finoula, then added, "And there's no problem with Aithanar hanging around with you guys, either." "And [I]I'm[/I] glad to hear that," replied Finoula, stifling a smile of her own. "Anyway, I better get back to the manor. There's a pile of business dealings I still need to make sense of." Castillan hugged his little sister and waved to the group before heading back out through the open portcullis of Battershield Keep, returning to Ivenheart Manor in the richer part of town. The adventurers went back into the main structure at the back of the keep, where Helga Battershield had a noonday meal ready to serve. They'd invited Castillan to stay and join them, but he well knew that after one of Helga's meals he wouldn't feel up to a walk back home - more like a nap in a hammock for a couple of hours. About halfway through the meal there was a cry from the courtyard. Rising up from the table, the heroes ran out from the dining area and saw a familiar face standing before them, although she'd definitely seen better days. Caliandra was a sorceress, part of an adventuring team put together by Lord Cavelthorne, a noble from Pelorvic, the kingdom directly south of Kordovia. Normally quite good-looking, her hair now was matted and her skin sallow and she seemed to have suffered a substantial (and likely very sudden) weight loss, for her cheekbones stood out on her face. "Help us--please!" she said, staggering to stay upright. Darrien was there to catch her before she fell and helped her stand upright. In one hand she held a crumpled piece of parchment, completely blank - mere moments earlier it had held the arcane writings making up a [I]teleport[/I] spell, the very spell which had allowed her to cross the miles between their two respective small kingdoms in an instant. "What's happened?" asked Finoula, concern in her voice. "Are you okay?" "Need--water," Caliandra choked out. Binkadink raced up with a goblet in hand and passed it over to the sorceress, who drank it down greedily. And then she began her tale. "We recently discovered a hexagonal mirror in a dungeon not far from our hometown. The glass was darkened and it was difficult to see your reflection in it. We brought it back to Lord Cavelthorne so he could examine it and this morning he figured out its command word. But after activating it, the glass lightened – and a winged creature flew through it, into our world. It looked like a blocky, little, white gargoyle. It attacked Lord Cavelthorne, blasting him with a cone of salt crystals, blinding him." "Salt mephit, sound like," interjected Gilbert Fung. "Then another creature stepped through the mirror - this one as big as a man, but crystalline and chalky white - and it attacked Lord Cavelthorne, totally desiccating his body almost immediately, shriveling up his skin and stretching it like aged parchment. He-- he died there under its touch, and then almost immediately rose as some sort of undead. He was shambling around like a zombie, and then he and the other salt monsters attacked Vance when he tried to stop them. In the meantime, more of the winged creatures came through the mirror. We managed to keep the salt creatures at bay long enough for Jorg to smash the mirror, but by that time we were outnumbered – for the salt golem thing had split into two. I saw Jorg, Thomas, and Vance all get turned into those salt mummies and the salt golems were duplicating just about every time they killed someone, so - low on spells after trying to fight them off - I decided to come here for help. I used a [I]teleport[/I] scroll we keep on hand for emergencies." "What about Kizzie?" prompted Finoula. The halfling bard was the only member of Cavelthorne's troop Caliandra hadn't mentioned by name. "I don't know - I lost sight of her. I hope she's okay." "Gilbert?" Binkadink asked. "What are we dealing with here?" The portly mage thought it over a moment. "Those definitely salt mephits - the winged ones. Others, not so sure about. But mirror probably gateway to Quasi-Elemental Plane of Salt. We talking invasion force, more than likely." "Well, [I]that's[/I] not good!" expressed Darrien. "We need to put a stop to it!" "Mirror smashed by Jorg - that good start," replied Gilbert, pulling his [I]crystal ball[/I] from a pocket of his robes. "We need to take care of these other creatures - not liking how they can split into two after killing people and turning them into undead." Gilbert had a remarkable hatred for undead creatures; so much so that he'd permanently enhanced his eyesight with magic so he could see the auras of undead monstrosities identifying them for what they were. With a practiced wave of his hand, he caused an image to form in the glass sphere he held: the interior of the hunting lodge that served as the headquarters for Cavelthorne's team of adventurers. Mentally controlling the magic sensor he'd brought into being, he caused the image in the [I]crystal ball[/I] to explore throughout the building. "See four salt monsters - they all undead," he announced. "No mephits, no salt golems." "Are any of them...halfling sized?" asked Caliandra hesitantly, not really wanting to hear the answer. "No, they all human size - wait! Found her! She on roof. Looks like still alive." Caliandra heaved a sigh of relief. "Well, let's go, then!" said Hagan. "I've got a good enough view of the place through the [I]crystal ball[/I], I can [I]teleport[/I] us all there!" "Hold up," admonished Gilbert. "Prep spells first!" He put the [I]crystal ball[/I] back into his pocket and then rummaged in another one, pulling out his [I]slingshot of rock shrinking[/I]. Then, fishing his earth elemental familiar - currently the size of a small pebble - from yet another pocket, he loaded Mudpie into the slingshot and fired him straight at the ground. The impact ended the magical reduction in size and Mudpie grew - but to a size much larger than the other heroes had expected. The earth elemental standing before them now stood a full 16 feet tall. "What--?" gasped Hagan, looking up at the creature who normally only reached up to the half-orc's chest. "Oh yeah - I cast [I]polymorph other[/I] on him, make him this big permanently. He be much better in combat this way." "Yeah," agreed Hagan, "but I can't [I]teleport[/I] him with the rest of us if he's this big! Shrink him back down!" "Hmm, good point," acknowledged Gilbert. "Mudpie! Come back over here!" The elemental did as instructed and the heavyset mage tapped him with the magic slingshot, shrinking Mudpie back down to pebble size. "I release him to full size again once we get there," he said as he scooped up the earth elemental and placed him back into a robe pocket for safe keeping. Once the spellcasters had completed their pre-combat rituals - plenty of [I]stoneskin[/I], [I]magic circle against evil[/I], and [I]barkskin[/I] spells, as well as a [I]Rary's telepathic bond[/I] and the odd [I]bear's endurance[/I] or [I]cat's grace[/I] - the team was ready to go. "You stay here this time," Hagan told his own familiar. "I don't want anything to happen to you if we're going to be fighting undead monsters." Wezhley crawled down off of his master's shoulder with a show of unhappiness but Helga soon coaxed him back to the dining area and the unfinished meal with a promise of a few choice morsels and suddenly the little weasel was perfectly fine with being left behind. Darrien and Finoula also opted to leave their animal companions behind, although Binkadink insisted on bringing Obvious with him. "Think we all ready," announced Gilbert and everyone gathered around Hagan. The half-orc cast the [I]teleport[/I] spell and they immediately found themselves on the back deck of Lord Cavelthorne's hunting lodge. Caliandra backed up onto the back lawn, shielding her eyes from the glare of the sun and looking up at the roof to see if she could spot Kizzie Birdsong, while Darrien raced forward to the dual doors at the center of the lodge. He pulled the leftmost door open, standing behind it and using it as a shield, although he gripped his scimitar in his right hand and held it ready to strike out at any undead things that might exit the lodge. Finoula raced up to the open door and looked within. There was an undead zombie thing wearing plate mail armor, spinning at the sudden draft from the door and shambling her way. She recognized the half-orcish features of Jorg, although his skin was desiccated like thin parchment stretched over the bones of his skull. With practiced ease, she pulled her [I]whip of thorns[/I] from her belt, uncoiled it, and with a wordless command caused the thorns to extend from the weapon as its length burst into flames. Then, with a crack, she sent the whip lashing out at the salt mummy who had once been Jorg Battleborn. Binkadink, mounted on his jackalope Obvious, sent him bounding around the side of the lodge to go enter through the front door, hoping to catch the undead Jorg in a pincer movement. He leaned forward to open the front doors, allowing Obvious to enter the foyer. There, up ahead, was Jorg getting whipped by Finoula and there, off to his right, was another armored mummy shambling his way: Vance Pelorian, judging by the Sun God's holy symbol hanging around the cleric's neck. But as Binkadink wheeled Obvious to face Vance, another salt mummy exited the trophy room where Lord Cavelthorne kept the animals he'd stalked, killed, and had stuffed as permanent displays of his hunting prowess. This, judging from his loose robes, was the undead corpse of Thomas the Seeker - only now the only thing he sought was the death of Binkadink and Obvious. The gnome sent his glaive swinging at the animated human corpse, slashing a deep gash across Thomas's chest that Binkadink would have normally expected to send the creature's life-blood splashing away in an arc; instead, the mummy's interior was completely dry, releasing nothing but a spray of salt crystals. And then Vance reached the jackalope, reaching out for him with clawed fingers outstretched. Further down the central hallway, Jorg swung a lethargic arm at Finoula but the nimble ranger ducked beneath the swing. She pulled [I]Tahlmalaera[/I] from its sheath and prepared to stab into the mummy's torso, but before she could, Malrin opted to try casting a [I]create water[/I] spell such that the liquid manifested directly above Jorg's head, thinking that a creature turned mainly to salt might well be vulnerable to a dose of flowing water. The elven druid couldn't have been more on the mark: the gallons of water splashed down upon Jorg's shambling corpse, eating away the desiccated flesh and causing the undead salt mummy to fall to the ground in a clatter of metal armor as he melted away in a sloppy puddle. Even Malrin was amazed at the effectiveness of the tactic, for [I]create water[/I] was one of the simplest spells a druid ever learned - she'd never expected it to be that effective of a combat attack! (Now, having seen how effective it had been, she only regretted she didn't have more copies of that particular spell prepared.) Hagan cast a [I]chain lightning[/I] spell at Thomas and had it arc over to Vance, catching both in its electrical embrace. Gilbert stepped up beside him, casting a [I]shapechange[/I] spell upon himself - the first time he'd ever given the spell a try - although he left it idle at the moment, leaving himself in his normal form but ready to transform at a moment's notice if the opportunity or need arose. <I've got the [I]decanter of endless water[/I]!> called Finoula over the link, resheathing her longsword and pulling the magic decanter from her pack. <I'm going to use Malrin's tactic on the rest of these salt mummies!> Darrien ran behind his fellow ranger, realizing she'd possibly need some support if she was planning on activating it in its "geyser" mode. Together, they entered the central hallway and Darrien steadied Finoula as she activated the decanter by its "geyser" command word. A blast of water erupted from the container, which would have flung the elf backwards if Darrien hadn't grabbed her by the hips to keep her steady. The water sloshed over the undead form of Thomas the Seeker, and just as Jorg had done the erstwhile monk melted away into a puddle, his robes being pushed away by the force of the powerful stream of water. Now facing only Vance, Binkadink whirled on the undead cleric and brought him down with a few rapid strikes of his glaive. Finoula aimed the geyser at the undead cleric for good measure, the jet of water dissolving his body as it had the other salt mummies. During all of this combat, Caliandra had cast a [I]dimension door[/I] spell to get up to the top of the roof, where she had spotted the halfling bard lying, exhausted, on the top of the building. Kizzie had climbed up the chimney from the fireplace in Lord Cavelthorne's study to escape from the undead form of their leader, the nobleman who had financed their guild of adventurers. They could still hear him through the chimney as he staggered in the unlit fireplace below, trying to get to the halfling he'd been chasing - and who he had partially drained of fluids before her escape. "There's still one more, in the study!" Caliandra called down to the others, and Finoula hunted down the salt mummy who had once been Lord Cavelthorne and slew him with the [I]decanter of endless water[/I]. "Got him!" she called up the chimney, and Caliandra cast another [I]dimension door[/I] spell to get the last two surviving members of their guild back down to ground level. "That all of them," Gilbert announced after checking each of the rooms in the lodge and confirming there were no other salt creatures lurking about. "Where the others go - mephits and golems?" "They headed down the road...toward the town square," Kizzie explained in gasps of breath. "I saw them...from my perch on the rooftop." Wordlessly, Hagan passed his waterskin over to the halfling and she drank gratefully. "You guys need to go after them, before they turn any of the villagers into undead!" said Caliandra. "I'll stay here with Kizzie; we have a potion or two of healing stashed away and I'm just about out of spells anyway, so I wouldn't be of much help." Gilbert pulled his [I]crystal ball[/I] back out of his pocket and concentrated on the town square, having been in that area himself earlier in his adventuring career; Hagan, having never been there before, needed a good view of the place if he was going to be able to [I]teleport[/I] everyone to that location. "Gather around!" the half-orc commanded and once everyone had done so he cast the spell, transporting the group into the middle of the town square. To say it was a chaotic spectacle wouldn't be doing it justice. People were screaming everywhere as they tried running into the buildings for safety, only to be herded away by the flying salt mephits and their breath weapons of stinging salt crystals. The facets moved as fast as a human despite their bulky build and a few had already successfully drained enough moisture from the villagers to desiccate them into an undead state, in some cases causing the facets to split into two as a result. And the newly-created salt mummies turned at once to attack their living neighbors, ignoring the invaders from the Quasi-Elemental Plane of Salt as potential targets. Darrien grabbed an arrow from his quiver, nocked it into the [I]Arachnibow[/I], and sent it flying straight into the head of a flying mephit, killing it instantly. He then repeated the process, ignoring all other potential targets in every direction about him so he could concentrate on slaying the only enemies who could fly, as the mephits were the ones keeping the villagers from the safety of the various buildings. Each mephit Darrien slew opened access to an accessible safe haven for the frightened townsfolk nearby and they were quick to take advantage of it. Finoula still wielded the [I]decanter of endless water[/I] as a weapon, having seen firsthand how powerful it was against the salt mummies. She spotted the nearest of the undead and melted it into a wet puddle. That left the facets as potential targets and Binkadink set himself the task of slaying as many of them as he could. He sent Obvious charging into a group of the crystalline figures, slaying three of them in twice as many seconds with great slashes of his enchanted glaive. The facets were sliced into pieces, falling into further chunks as they hit the ground. But there were many other groups of facets threatening various townsfolk, who were scurrying about looking for a place of safety. Several of these poor souls were grabbed up by the salt-monsters, drained of their fluids and their very lives, their skin shriveling tightly onto their bones as they were transformed into salt mummies. More times than not, this resulted in the facet splitting into two, each creature the same size and strength of the original. It was easy to see that, left unchecked, this small invasion force could eventually expand into an army of facets covering the globe! Gilbert's first action upon arriving in the town square wasn't to cast a spell but to shoot his pebble-sized earth elemental familiar at the ground by his feet with his [I]slingshot of rock shrinking[/I]. Upon impact, Mudpie resumed his now-normal size of 16 feet in height and immediately set about pounding the nearest facets into dust with his massive, earthen fists. The three remaining mephits who had made it through the [I]mirror gate[/I] stopped harassing their victims once they saw the half-elf archer taking them down. They immediately changed targets, making bee-lines for these interlopers trying to put a stop to their fun. One flew straight at Darrien, sending a cone of salt crystals directly into the ranger's face, but Darrien had the presence of mind to close his eyes as he nocked another arrow into the [I]Arachnibow[/I] by feel alone, then open his eyes after the breath weapon barrage had finished, just in time to cut the salt mephit down. Some of the salt mummies noticed the heroes in the middle of the square who hadn't been there a moment before and started shambling in their direction. Malrin pulled her bow from her back and ignored the approaching mummies - they were moving rather slowly, after all - taking a bead on a nearby facet. They were the ones creating the salt mummies in the first place; take them down first and then the heroes could take out the mummies at their leisure, she reasoned. Hagan cast another [I]chain lightning[/I] spell, wiping out seven facets and a salt mummy in one fell swoop. Gilbert cast an [I]Evard's black tentacles[/I] spell upon another group of four facets who were just about to drain a trio of frightened humans of the liquids in their bodies; the humans were caught up in the tentacles as well but Gilbert figured they'd likely last longer in his spell than they would being drained by facets - and even if the worst happened and they were crushed to death by the entangling appendages of his spell, that was preferable than being transformed into undead! Mudpie smashed another facet outside the effects of his master's spell and the humans it had been threatening made it safely into a nearby building, slamming the door behind them. The remaining two salt mephits tried blocking them, but Darrien took them out with a pair of arrows, leaving only facets and salt mummies left to deal with. Finoula was still doing her best to take out the salt mummies and her [I]decanter of endless water[/I] was the perfect tool for the job - so far, none of the undead had last more than a few seconds under the blast of water from her magic decanter. Nearby, Binkadink was taking out handfuls of facets with his glaive, while Obvious sped him from group to group to allow him to slay as many of them as possible in the shortest amount of time he could. The last four remaining facets all went after the gnome and his jackalope mount, rightly seeing them as their greatest personal threat. But it was at this time the heroes learned something important about the facets: just as absorbing the fluids of their victims allowed them to split into two, it was also apparently possible for several facets to merge back together into a larger form. This became apparent when the facets, all linked together in a hivemind similar to the heroes' own [I]Rary's telepathic bond[/I] spell, called for help from the facets that were already beyond the town square and out of view, threatening other villagers farther away from the remaining four being harassed by the sudden arrival of the Kordovian heroes. This telepathic cry for help resulted in the facets farther away to start merging into one giant form: a quasi-elemental salt monolith, a massive, squat, vaguely humanoid creature standing some 25 feet tall or more, which came crashing through the trees to aid its fellow invaders. Distracted by the sudden appearance of this new monstrosity, Finoula sprayed down another salt mummy with her decanter but failed to notice the approach of another of these undead, who brought its parched fist striking her from behind. Malrin, seeing the wielder of the [I]decanter of endless water[/I] being taken away from her geyser duties (even if only temporarily), summoned a huge water elemental to carry out the same line of attack. Under the druid's orders, the water elemental simply ran through a pair of salt mummies, its watery form causing the undead creatures' bodies to lose all cohesion and collapse into runny piles of salt. Hagan was also distracted by the arrival of the salt monolith, but only for a moment - and then he cast a [I]meteor swarm[/I] spell at it. Four flaming missiles went streaking into the massive beast, crushing its chest and exploding into bursts of flames. Darrien spun about and sent a flurry of arrows streaking up at the monolith, but it seemed only the cold damage imbued upon the ammunition by the [I]Arachnibow[/I] was having any effect. Finoula deactivated the geyser with a command word, put the stopper on the end of the decanter, and then used her [I]lightning amulet[/I] to transform herself into a bolt of living electricity, which she sent flying through the body of the salt monolith before assuming her elven form once again on the other side of the great beast. By this point the salt mummies were few in number and she was sure Malrin's water elemental could take care of them. Mudpie killed another facet with his boulderlike fists while Binkadink slew the remaining four facets, each of which had turned to face the monolith as if ready to join its body and increase its size and power that much more. Obvious then hippity-hopped across the battlefield, getting his rider closer to the monolith so the gnome could bring his glaive to bear against the massive salt quasi-elemental. The monolith performed some sort of magical attack linking itself to Hagan, who had thought himself well out of range of the monolith's reach. All at once, the half-orc felt his mouth go dry as his fluids started draining from his body in a manner he wouldn't have believed possible. He warned the others over the link of what was happening. The last two remaining salt mummies moved up to attack but were then slain by the water elemental, who simply walked through them and dissolved them at once. Seeing no more undead on the battlefield, Malrin quickly dismissed the water elemental, allowing it to shift back to its home plane - given the monolith was draining fluids from Hagan at a distance, she didn't want to power it up by allowing it access to a creature whose entire body was made up of water, for who knew what effect that might have on the salt monolith? The last thing Malrin wanted was for it to absorb enough moisture for it to split into two like the facets had done! Malrin then attacked the salt monolith with a direct spell attack: a [I]call lightning storm[/I] spell which brought a bolt of lightning crashing down from the sky above to strike the massive, crystalline creature. Hagan, still suffering from the ongoing fluid drain, cast a [I]polar ray[/I] spell at the salt monolith, hitting it where its head would normally be (although it had nothing in the form of an actual head, just some craggy blocks of salt crystals growing up from its massive shoulders). And then Gilbert cast an [I]Otto's irresistible dance[/I] spell at the salt quasi-elemental, causing it to start prancing about in place. As it capered, the cloud of salt particles which were constantly surrounding the creature as it moved got even worse; Binkadink leaped from Obvious's saddle so the jackalope could back off (as the salt was severely hurting his eyes). Mudpie backed off, not from any irritation but because he could see Finoula raising her hand to her amulet again and anticipated another lightning bolt blast straight through the body of the salt monolith once again. Finoula reformed into her elven body far enough away from the monolith to stay out of the range of the cloud of irritating particles. Darrien shot another bunch of arrows at the dancing foe; even though only the cold damage was causing the monolith any harm, the ranger was a firm believer that every little bit of damage they could bring to this menace was a good thing. Another bolt of lightning crashed down from the sky upon the dancing creature, a second blast from Malrin's spell. Squinting, Binkadink braved entry into the salt cloud to bring his glaive to bear against the salt monolith, who was fortunately still caught up in Gilbert's spell and unable to even defend itself. But then Hagan made any further such attacks moot, for he slew the giant elemental with another [I]meteor swarm[/I] spell. As the monolith came crashing to the ground in an explosion of salt crystals, the half-orc was pleased to feel the constant siphoning of his body's liquids suddenly cease all at once; he immediately grabbed for the waterskin at his hip and drank greedily. Gilbert looked all about the town square, seeking out any remaining enemies, but it seemed they had taken care of all of the invaders from the Quasi-Elemental Plane of Salt. Belatedly, the portly mage dismissed his [I]Evard's black tentacles[/I] spell; the facets it had entangled had been crushed to death, but so had the three townsfolk - regrettable but acceptable losses, Gilbert considered them. "That's it!" Darrien confirmed, after having done his own evaluation of the battlefield. "Come on - let's get back to Caliandra!" "And Kizzie," Finoula pointed out, but it was obvious which of the two female adventurers Darrien was most concerned about; his crush on the human sorceress was a rather poorly-guarded secret. Still, Hagan gathered everyone up around him again and [I]teleported[/I] the group back to Lord Cavelthorne's hunting lodge (after Gilbert had reduced Mudpie back to pebble size for ease of transport). There, they found both Kizzie and Caliandra looking a bit more healthy than they had recently appeared; the healing potions had done their work. "Are you okay?" Darrien asked. "We're fine," Kizzie answered, as Caliandra added, "We'll live." "So what you do now?" asked Gilbert, cutting to the chase as always. "We don't have the funds - or the resources ourselves - to [I]raise[/I] Lord Cavelthorne or any of the others," Caliandra answered. "We'll have to take it up with our king, but I imagine we'll try to hire a few replacements and keep the guild going. It'll take some time for us to recover, but we'll build this guild back up. We probably won't be at your fighting level for some time, though." "Yeah, that probably true," Gilbert agreed with as little grace as he usually gave any of his comments. "Well, we save your kingdom, possibly whole world! You need us come save you again, you know where to find us. Hagan! You ready for [I]teleport[/I] back home?" Hagan sighed and gathered the group back into formation once again. Finoula gave the other two women a quick hug and told them, "I'm sorry for your loss" before joining the rest of her team. Darrien said, "If we can do anything to help..." "I know," replied Caliandra sadly. "But you'd better get going. Your fat-ass wizard's getting impatient." "Our fat-ass wizard's always impatient," he told her and stepped over to stand by the others of his group. Hagan cast his [I]teleport[/I] spell and the Kordovian adventurers were once again back at Battershield Keep. Hagan went at once to find Wezhley - only to have Helga shush him, for the little weasel was sound asleep on the dining table, his belly distended from all the food he'd been bribed with by the dwarven woman to distract him from his being left behind. "Hey!" exclaimed Gilbert loudly, causing little Wezhley to stir in his slumber. "I forget to [I]shapechange[/I] into other forms in heat of battle! Oh well, maybe next time...." - - - All I can say about this adventure is I never thought I'd see a 0-level spell instantly slay a creature with triple-digit hit points, but since the salt mummy description says they take 1d6 points of damage from a flask of water and the [I]create water[/I] spell creates literally gallons of water at a time, it seemed appropriate to allow it to happen. So my lower-level creatures weren't much of a threat at all, leaving my quasi-elemental salt monolith as the only real danger to the PCs. But that's okay; we finished this adventure quickly enough as a result that we had enough time in the session to go through the next one as well. I also decided to kill off Aroben Ivenheart as an in-game explanation as to why Castillan was no longer a part of the group. Jacob, his player, has pretty much decided it's not worth the drive on the one day a week he has off from work to game with us (and I can't really fault his logic - he's got his own gaming group now; in fact I think he DMs for them), so this way I've left the possibility open that if the opportunity ever arises Castillan's still around and might join in a given adventure. But we won't likely be seeing too much of him around. - - - T-shirt worn: My white "Walking Dead" shirt - white for the salt, "Walking Dead" for the salt mummies. [/QUOTE]
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