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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 9750243" data-attributes="member: 508">ADVENTURE 3: THIS IS HELLPC Roster:Amris Goodwitch, celestial elf witch (wizard) 2                     Avoroth Bleakborn, fiendish human cleric 2                     Gonkle Bu'Onk, fiendish orc fighter 2                     Wilbur Von Schattenwalde, shadow human druid 2Game Session Date: 3 September 2025 - - -Having returned to Elsewhere with the body of Asharen, the missing planar scout accidentally left behind years ago when she failed to return to the plane-shifting town before Shift Day, the group opted to make a day of it.  Wilbur began the bonding process with the dire fell fox, who - after the shadow druid cast a speak with animals spell - informed him her name was Tamaskan.  The others were discussing their future plans when they were approached by a simply gorgeous, young-looking elf.  Her hair looked to have been crafted of pure, spun sunlight, so brightly did it shine even while underneath a wide-brimmed hat.  "Ah, there you are, Amris," she said."Instructor," Amris replied.  Aurora Sunbeam had been her arcane instructor for the majority of her spellcasting career; a member of a sect of witches who had some delvings into the druidic mysteries."Thank you for returning Asharen's body," she said.  "As a member of our coven, we wish to inter her with the other fallen members of our group.  However, there is the subject of her belongings."  Despite himself, Avoroth flinched; he absolutely did not want to turn over the broken device Asharen had created, that apparently not only tracked the current position of Elsewhere but could even predict its future journeys.  He was certain there were hints as to its inner workings in the slain woman's journals; furthermore, he was absolutely certain he'd be able to decipher the intricacies of its mechanisms and get it back into working order, given enough time to study the device."I understand the importance of keeping our planar scouts well-defended and well-armed," she assured the group.  "For that reason, I have no issue with her staff being passed along to one of your number."  She actually frowned a bit at that statement, not really thrilled with a mere druid having taken custody of Asharen's shadowflame runestaff instead of it going to a full member of her own coven, but even she realized Amris was merely at the beginning of her arcane journey and was not yet ready to join.  In time, though...."However," and here she looked directly at Avoroth, "I am sure you can undertand Asharen's diary and the remnants of the Elsewhere Compass are too important to risk losing in the field."  Before the cleric could voice an objection, she added, "But of course, you will be allowed to study them during the times you return from duty."  Avoroth seethed inside, but he was forced to admit the logic behind her request - it would be a terrible tragedy to lose the Elsewhere Compass before he could get it working again, and the town was the safest place to keep it."Very well," the cleric of Boccob replied.  "But I should like to spend the rest of today examining them both before we return to the field."  Aurora instantly agreed.After completing his bonding ritual with Tamaskan, Wilbur told the rest of his group what the dire fell fox had told him: there was a cave where she and Asharen had lived in for the past three months.  There was supposed to be a treasure hidden there, but the planar scout had been unable to unearth it during their time there.  "Seems like a worthy first objective during our tour of duty," Wilbur explained.  "We're being sent out to check out the local environment, in any case.""Agreed," replied Avoroth curtly.  "We can leave tomorrow, at first light, if you wish - but today I will be examining the Elsewhere Compass.""Actually..." interrupted Gonkle.  He went on to explain that as this layer of Hell actually had a varying day and night cycle - unlike the endless midnight they'd lived under during their recent year-long stay on a layer of Mount Celestia - he'd rather wait until twilight the next day, so the bright daylight didn't hurt his eyes."Fine," instantly agreed Avoroth.  "That will give me more time to study the device.  Until tomorrow at dusk, then."  And with that, the cleric was gone."So," asked Wilbur the following day, when the Hellish sun was setting in the distance, "did you get your doohickey up and running?""It will be a matter of time before it's back to proper operations," snapped the grumpy cleric.  "Not only is the device broken, but the descriptions of its workings are scattered throughout the woman's journals...you'd think she'd have taken the precautions of diagraming everything out in one place, but no...."  Then he saw the shadow druid's smirk and realized he'd merely been joshing the cleric, not expecting him to have accomplished his task in so short a time.  "Let's be off," Avoroth said.After finally leaving the borders of Elsewhere - they'd discovered Asharen within the fields of crops surrounding the town - they noticed the terrain had sharply changed to a barren, rocky landscape.  They selected a lone, twisted husk of a tree to be used as their "marker" - Avoroth used his dagger to carve a simple emblem (a star with an arrow pointing straight above it, indicating "North Star," the unofficial name he'd given their quartet of fledgling planar scouts); none of them could teleport there quite yet, but any other scouts with such an ability to do so could use that as a known area just outside the boundaries of Elsewhere's local town limits.After a few miles of trekking through the literally hellish landscape, they heard voices in the distance, frantically calling out names in the Infernal language.  "Sparky!"  "Ember!"  "Sinfeaster!""Oh, crap," grumbled Avoroth."What?" asked Gonkle, who, despite his fiendish heritage, did not speak the Infernal language."Those three hell hounds we helped slay the other day," the Boccobian cleric explained.  "There's a search party out looking for them.""Pivot: recon," Amris commanded to her owl familiar.  With a silent flap of his wings, the celestial owl took to the hellish skies.Before long, a band of six fiendish goblins crested a rise just ahead.  They were approaching the four planar scouts from directly ahead; Avoroth realized if they continued on their present course, they'd no doubt stumble onto the crop fields of Elsewhere, and then the town itself.  He also realized of the scouts, he and Amris were the only two who spoke Infernal, and it would be best if he didn't leave things up to a flighty elf...it looked like, once again, if he wanted something done right he'd have to do it himself - it was a constant burden of being so superior to everyone around him."Who the Hell are you?" Avoroth snarled in the goblins' direction.  No doubt Amris would have tried something stupid like exchanging pleasantries with the fiendish goblins; she might know the language but she had no idea about how things were done on the fiendish planes.  One always began with a show of strength.  "What the Hell are you doing?""We're looking for three escaped hell hounds," growled back the lead goblin.  "And so are you, now - you work for us, or the wrath of Grelthax the Vile will fall on you as well.""Pretty big talk for such a puny goblin," retorted Avoroth.  "Especially since we outnumber you.""Pfah!" spat the goblin leader.  "There are six of us and only three of you - and one of you's an Uplander!  What the Hell are you doing traveling with an Uplander?"Avoroth recognized the infernal term for a celestial being, and realized he meant Amris.  He also noted the goblin's count was off by one and assumed he hadn't spotted the shadowy druid - Wilbur could wrap himself in shadows fairly effectively, even when not attempting to do so.  "You mean our slave?" he sneered, nodding his head in Amris's direction.  "She's not as completely worthless as she might look.  And with our fox, that makes four of us" (he opted not to count Wilbur in their number - why give them a heads up to his existence?) "against the three of you.  You note I'm assuming it takes two of you to make a full person, and I'm probably overestimating your worthiness at that.  So call it four against two.""Screw that - attack!" called the goblin leader.  He and two others began running forward, while the other three fitted arrows to their shortbows.  That suited Avoroth just fine, as he'd already worked out they were too close to the border of Elsewhere to be allowed to live for long.  He stepped forward and readied his quarterstaff, letting the goblins come to him.Wilbur cast a magic fang spell upon Tamaskan and cautiously advanced, weapon at the ready.  The dire fell fox charged the goblin leader, knocking him over and ripping at his exposed throat.  Just that quickly, the fiendish goblin scouting team was down one member; it was all Avoroth could do not to laugh.A second goblin warrior advanced upon Tamaskan, screaming vile obscenities that made Amris blush.  Its weapon struck the fox on her back, curring open a gash that bled into her fur.  The third went for Avoroth, dodging the cleric's quarterstaff and carving a gash in his leg.  Avoroth started swearing himself, but he did so in the Common tongue; he might have been born on a fiendish plane and studied the language and customs, but Infernal was not his native tongue.Gonkle ran up to aid Avoroth, swinging a blow down at the goblin's head with his warhammer.  But the little warrior dodged the blow with practiced ease.  By then, the goblin archers had all aimed at their targets and let fly with their arrows in unison.  Two went whizzing by harmlessly, but Amris was struck a glancing blow on the side of her arm as the arrow went by, staining her sleeve with blood.  She returned fire with a magic missile spell while Pivot swooped down upon him from behind, and the twin attacks left the little archer staggering on his feet, struggling to remain standing.Avoroth, furious now, slammed the side of his quarterstaff into the face of the goblin warrior who had the effrontery to strike his better, breaking his nose with a satisfyingly wet sound.  Wilbur charged after the goblin but missed with his own weapon.  Tamaskan, in the meantime, went running after the second goblin warrior, bloodying him up a bit and ducking the return attack.  The broken-nosed goblin had no better luck trying to hit Avoroth a second time; his weapon clacked upon the cleric's wooden staff, bouncing off harmlessly.  But he did manage to avoid Gonkle's next attack - it was turning into a bit of a scrum, with three of the heroes all after the one goblin warrior.The one archer tried hitting Pivot with his club and only succeeded in knocking himself out, while the other two archers fired off arrows but once again failed to hit their targets.  Amris fired off another magic missile at one of the archers and her familiar, seeing this, targeted him as well with his talons.  They managed to practically knock him out as well, leaving him trying to keep his balance instead of falling flat on his face.Avoroth missed another strike against the bloody-faced goblin warrior, and Wilbur's attack fared no better - sometimes, it seemed, enemies who were that short had an unfair advantage against those who had trained sparring against normal-sized people.  But then Tamaskan joined in the fight, slamming the warrior to the hard ground and biting down hard at the base of his neck.  He stopped moving after that.But now the sole remaining goblin melee fighter set his sights on Avoroth and attacked.  He didn't get very far; Gonkle clobbered him with his warhammer and he went down hard.  Of the two remaining archers, one clobbered himself trying to shoo off Pivot, and the other one continued to prove his utter worthlessness by failing to hit a target for the third time in a row.  Wilbur charged at him and took him out with one hit from his scimitar.Avoroth cast a cure light wounds spell upon himself and set the others to slitting throats to ensure the goblins were well and truly dead.  "Leave us two for interrogations," he said.  He cast cure minor wounds spells on the two they'd saved for questioning (the cleric made sure those who had attacked him were not among their number - they had earned their deaths) to prevent them from slipping away due to their wounds.  Gonkle slapped them awake after they'd been stripped of their weapons (crappy goblin manufacture, he noted - not worth keeping, even if they were way too small in any case) and Avoroth led the interrogations with a gleam in his black, sharklike eyes.  The goblins folded almost immediately, and the group learned the goblin camp was one of many belonging to Grelthax the Vile, a particularly nasty barbed devil.  Their camp was a couple days' travel to the northeast.  ("Good," surmised Avoroth.  "Another scouting team's problem, then.")  It took a month for Grelthax to hit all of the camps under his rule, and he wasn't due to return to the goblins' camp for another couple of weeks, by which time the goblins had hoped to find and return his three pet hell hounds, who had jumped their leashes and escaped from the goblins' supervision.  If he found out his three "babies" were gone, he'd likely slaughter the entire camp."Well, I have good news and bad news for you, then," advised Avoroth.  "The bad news: we killed your three precious hell hounds and left their corpses to rot in the rancid, hellish air.  The good news, however, is that you won't receive any punishment at all from Grelthax.""Because you're going to kill us," surmised the goblin, looking ahead to their likely fates."Because we're going to kill you," affirmed Avoroth with a sharklike grin.  He gave a nod to Gonkle, who raised his warhammer on high."Just as well," sighed the first goblin.  "You couldn't do anything half as bad as what--"  He never got to finish his sentence; Gonkle's warhammer finished it for him.  Amris looked uncomfortable at the slaying of helpless prisoners.  "Think of it as a mercy killing," advised Avoroth, before adding, "...slave," with a smirk.  Amris just continued glowering at him.Then she jolted upright as Pivot, flying reconnaissance once more after the fight against the goblins had been completed, announced over the link he shared with his mistress that three people were approaching.  She warned the others, and they began dragging the goblin corpses behind some nearby rocks.  Here the goblins' small stature came in handy, as it didn't take a very big rock to hide a goblin body.The clomping of marching footsteps in unison presaged the arrival of three hobgoblins.  Avoroth put it upon himself to do the talking for the group.  "Who the Hell are you?" he snarled.  The hobgoblins ignored him, marching angrily forward.  Gonkle stepped protectively in front of Avoroth, holding his warhammer in a readied stance.  Amris used her familiar doll to channel a touch of fatigue spell onto her owl familiar, even though Pivot was still flying overhead.Finally, the group was close enough for the hobgoblins to reply.  "Where are the little ones?" he snarled in the Infernal tongue."No idea," replied Avoroth.  "You should learn to keep better track of your children.""I thought I might have heard someone going that way..." advanced Amris, pointing off to the east and hoping to lead the trio away from Elsewhere...and the hidden bodies of the six slain goblin troops they were obviously looking for."Six goblins, headed your way - you couldn't have missed them.  If they'd have met up with you, they'd have pressed you into service."  He turned to the two warriors under his command.  "They killed the goblins.  Kill them!"  With that, the warlock leader cast an eldritch blast of energy at Gonkle.  "Start with the orc - maybe he'll have enough trinkets on him to appease the Overlord."Wilbur hurriedly cast a cure light wounds spell on Tamaskan.  (Somehow, Avoroth hadn't deemed it necessary to see to the wounds of a mere animal, despite her proven combat prowess and usefulness to the group at large.)  The dire fell fox snarled and readied herself for combat as the two hobgoblin warriors moved up to strike.  Avoroth and Gonkle took up defensive postures, weapons at the ready.  Then Pivot came diving down out of nowhere to attack the warlock's face, scraping at his exposed skin with his talons and releasing the readied touch of fatigue spell.  But the hobgoblin shrugged off the spell's intended effects, remaining as strong as ever.Amris, disappointed but not depressed, carried on the fight with a magic missile to the hobgoblin leader's face.  That, at least, he couldn't stoically resist!  He responded by shrouding himself in a darkness spell, moving around his henchmen so they wouldn't be impeded.  He himself seemed fully able to see within the magical darkness, stepping over the uneven ground with an uncanny surefootedness.Wilbur charged forward in a burst of speed, dodging a hobgoblin's longsword but likewise missing with his own scimitar attack.  Tamaskan leaped forward and snapped at the same hobgoblin, to no better effect.  He cut into her flank with his longsword, eliciting a howl of pain, while the other one went for Avoroth but missed.  The cleric's follow-on strike with his quarterstaff likewise failed to hit, however - as did Gonkle's attempted warhammer bash.  Amris, all out of magic missile spells, used an acid splash spell against the nearest hobgoblin warrior, burning his face.Safe inside his hemisphere of darkness, the hobgoblin warlock cast another eldritch blast, this time striking Wilbur.  (Unlike the goblins earlier, he seemed to have no trouble focusing upon the shadow-clad druid.)  Wilbur cut down a warrior with his scimitar, then whirled to face the warlock hidden in the bubble of darkness while Tamaskan focused upon the remining warrior.  He attacked Gonkle but missed, and Avoroth likewise missed in his attempt to whack him on the head with the end of his staff.  But while he had been dodging the cleric's weapon, Gonkle shifted his stance to the side and brought his weapon-head crashing down upon the bald pate of the enemy, dropping him instantly.Amris tried casting an acid splash spell at the warlock hidden inside the bubble of darkness, and the sounds of cursing coming from inside told her she'd been successful.  The darkness suddenly advanced her way and engulfed her at top speed, as the warlock charged her; unseen inside his impenetrable darkness, he'd pulled the keen unholy falchion he wore on his back and it was only by the purest luck that his strike missed, for if it had hit she'd have almost surely died.  But now with the two warriors down, there was just the warlock left to fight, and as one, the others rushed into the bubble of darkness with weapons drawn and waving about.  Several of the wild blows struck true, but it was Gonkle who landed the killing strike.  Once it was apparent the darkness effect wasn't going to immediately go away upon the warlock's death, they exited the ebon hemisphere and stripped what items of value they could from the slain warriors until the darkness invocation ran through its normal duration and eventually expired.  The warlock wore studded leather armor (magical in nature, Amris declared after casting a detect magic spell) that offered better protection than the shadow druid's own combat leathers, so he swapped out the old for the new.  Gonkle took the fiendishly powerful falchion, being one of the only two of the group who could safely wield it (and Avoroth having no desire to go through the combat training to learn to properly wield the damn thing)."Well then," said Avoroth once the group had determined the hobgoblin warriors had nothing more of any value on them, "let's continue on our way.  The cave was this way, correct?""Yep," conceded Wilbur, healing his dire fell fox's wounds with the application of a curative spell.  "Tamaskan, lead the way."Tamaskan was more than happy to do so, and the others followed in her wake. - - -The dice were rather unfair to us during this session, as the players almost universally rolled low and Logan, the DM, got four threats, one of which became a confirmed crit.  But the last attack roll against Amris just barely missed her and she survived the encounter alive; had it hit, she'd have taken 2d4 + 2d6 points of damage, and if it had been a critical hit (it crits on a 15 or higher), that would have likely slain her outright.  But now Gonkle's got the weapon - I feel better having its power on our side, not being used against us.</blockquote>

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