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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 9824229" data-attributes="member: 508">ADVENTURE 13: THE ONLY GOOD FORMIAN...PC Roster:  Amris Goodwitch, celestial elf witch (wizard) 5                     Avoroth Bleakborn, fiendish human cleric 5                     Gonkle Bu'Onk, fiendish orc fighter 5                     Wilbur Von Schattenwalde, shadow human druid 5Game Session Date: 10 December 2025 - - -The body of the formian lay on the desert sands before the assembled group, looking down at it from the saddles on their fiendish horses."It looks dead," observed Amris, noting the blood-stained sand beneath the creature's head."Good," replied Avoroth.  "It saves us the trouble of having to kill it.""It's one of those that doesn't have no mouth," remarked Gonkle."Indeed.  A taskmaster.  One of the worst of their kind," responded the Boccobian cleric.  Then something caught his eye: the blood on the claws of the formian's upper limbs, which served it as arms, and a hunk of bloody crystal lying nearby.  "It seems to have clawed the crystal from the base of its own skull, by hand.  A formian suicide.  Interesting."<Not...dead...> came a faint telepathic whisper, directly into the minds of the four heroes.  <Para...lyzed...>"It's still alive!" exclaimed Wilbur.<Save...the eggs....>"What eggs?" demanded Amris.  "Where?""Screw the eggs," snorted Avoroth, sneering down at the taskmaster formian.  "If we're to save any eggs, it will be for my breakfast!""No, let's hear him out!" argued Amris.  The cleric just rolled his eyes at the bleeding heart of the celestial elf he'd been saddled with as one of his scout party team, but he supposed it was safe enough; the taskmaster didn't look like it had the strength to raise its head, let alone come after any of them with its claws or venomous stinger.<Crystals...> continued the dying taskmaster.  <Found them...scattered across Mechanus.  Experimented.  Expanded...range of telepathy.  Good for...hivemind.  But...another mind...inside crystal...dark thoughts...too late to...stop it....>Through its halting, feeble telepathic broadcasts, the taskmaster explained the crystals started by enslaving the mind before destroying it completely, leaving the body an empty vessel for the crystal entity's mind.  Sometime after the crystal mind slew the formian queen, they were visited by a robed figure the taskmaster dubbed the "empty one" for their inability to feel a mind within it.  This "empty one" told the crystal mind of the party's village and its ability to travel the planes.  He helped orchestrate the assault on the village, and all he asked for in exchange was to kidnap the village's own "queen," the one called Mayor, and kill it."Sounds like our old pal, Timaeus Summerfrost," mused Wilbur."And if he were in an astral form, like he appeared before us, that might explain the formians' inability to sense a mind within," agreed Avoroth.  Despite himself, he was getting drawn into the dying taskmaster's story.  "What does this crystal mind want with Elsewhere?" he demanded.<Wants to spread...across the planes...> explained the formian.  <Kidnapped...victims...embedded with crystals...then returned...>  If anything, the creature' mental "voice" was getting weaker.<Grant me...quick death...> pleaded the taskmaster.  <In return...I will show you...layout and location...of formian outpost.  Save eggs...or destroy them...if you cannot defeat...compromised formians...slaves of the...crystal mind....>  And then, without waiting for the group's formal agreement, he sent out a final telepathic burst of mental information.  immediately, all four knew exactly where to find the formian nest, what it looked like in the interior, and the number of formian guardians looking over the captured prisoners from Elsewhere.  Then, fully exhausted, it lay twitching in the sand, still bleeding from the self-inflicted wounds at the back of its head.  "We will do our best to save the eggs at your nest," promised Amris.  "And if we can't defeat the compromised formians, we'll...destroy the eggs, as you asked, to prevent them from becoming crystal-mind slaves."At a nod from Avoroth, Gonkle dismounted from his steed Runtlemeat and dispatched the thing with an overhand blow with his falchion that severed the taskmaster's head clean off."Well, crap," grumbled Avoroth sourly.  "I almost feel sorry for the poor bastards.""Come on," urged Wilbur.  "The nest is still about two hours away."  They rode on in relative silence.The sandy desert eventually morphed into hilly terrain, with stones rising up from the sands and scrub brush.  But they all knew the exact rock outcropping under which the entrance to the nest was hidden.  As expected, there were two formian psychic warriors, along with a quartet of psion drones, guarding the exterior of the nest.  Before approaching, the group's spellcasters started casting the specific spells they relied upon for battle: bless, mage armor, and barkskin among them.  One change to the normal quotient of "prep spells" was Amris casting an enlarge person spell upon Gonkle.  The fiendish orc, now standing a full 12 feet tall, stepped away from the horse he was no longer technically riding and sprinted forward, swinging his falchion into the side of the nearest psychic warrior before he had time to react, driving the blade deep into the insect's carapace.Wilbur charged his fiendish horse Blackie forward, slamming his shillelagh-enhanced runestaff into the closest drone, cracking open the side of its thorax.  His dire fell fox Tamaskan was there at his side, biting the wounded drone and finishing him off.  Then Avoroth cast a new spell he'd never used before, a higher-level summon monster spell that brought forth a more powerful creature than he'd ever been able to summon forth before.  "I summon thee, Skitterfiend!" called the cleric, and materializing in between the two formian psychic warriors was a fiendish centipede larger by far than the two of them combined.  With an unholy shriek, the multilegged menace reared up and took a massive chunk out of the formian wounded by Gonkle's blade with his impressive mandibles.  Then Amris finished it off with a magic missile spell before it had any time to fight back.The three remaining psions all targeted Gonkle, easily the largest target of the original four heroes to show up and attack.  Each energy ray was charged up with a different type of energy - fire, cold, and electricity - and only the first two of those hit the massive orc.  Fortunately, his fiendish nature provided him partial protection from both cold and fire, and he laughed at their feeble attempts to harm him.Inside the nest, the psion leader - a warrior with glowing, red eyes - prepared for combat by manifesting inertial armor around himself.  As all of the formians in the nest were part of the same hivemind, he saw everything the formians outside in combat saw - as did the other four psions underground with him.The remaining psychic warrior advanced upon Skitterfiend, and the centipede took advantage of his greater size to bite down at the incoming formian before he could reach him.  But while the centipede pumped his own venom into the formian with his bite, the hivemind insect was immune to its effects.  Skitterfiend had no such venom immunity, but although the warrior's frantic stinger-stab penetrated the centipede's carapace, its effect was no match for the Hellish myriapod's hefty constitution, and it shrugged off the intended effects with little effort.Gonkle raced over to the next-closest foe, one of the psion drones.  His double-sized falchion cleaved the creature into two with a single stroke, and the orc leaned his head back and laughed a hearty laugh.  He'd just found his all-time favorite spell: enlarge person simply ruled!Wilbur and Tamaskan went after the next psion drone in line, but by now the hivemind had been alerted to the attackers' presence and they were better prepared to avoid contact, the psion dodging the shadow druid's weapon and the dire fell fox's snapping teeth.  Avoroth called forth a spiritual weapon and sent the floating quarterstaff barreling over to attack the sole remaining psychic warrior, currently being made into a tasty snack by Skitterfiend.  Amris rode her steed Flick into position and fired off a lightning bolt spell that blasted through the psychic warrior and one of the drones.  However, it was then she learned the formian makeup was particularly resistant to electricity-based attacks. The two psions recalibrated their energy rays to deal sonic damage and hit Gonkle with both.  But even that failed to wipe the grin off the orc's face, as he was having the time of his life towering over his opponents - what was a little pain?  Inside the nest, the other psion drones recalibrated their readied energy rays to sonic energy, seeing the effectiveness they had had against the giant orc topside.  Whoever entered the nest first was going to be in for a world of hurt all at once!  The nest leader protected itself with a biofeedback manifestation, which would lessen the impact of physical strikes against it.  If the formians outside were all slain, they would at least have served their main purpose: delaying the attackers long enough for the nest-interior forces to fully prepare themselves for battle, to maximize their chances of success against the intruders.The psychic warrior had apparently had enough of Skitterfiend and rushed over to attack Amris.  Skitterfiend, on the other hand, had not tired of fighting the formian and bit into his torso again, removing another chunk of hardened flesh and gobbling it down.  And Gonkle charged another drone, once again killing it with one blow and laughing his head off all the while.  Wilbur found his attacks upon the remaining drone did nothing more than distract it away from Tamaskan's own attacks, and the fire-tailed fox got in a solid bite against one of its forelimbs and brushed her fiery tail against its carapace, setting it ablaze.Avoroth, pleased to see Skitterfiend and his previously-cast spiritual weapon going full-bore against the psychic warrior, took a moment to ride Victor up behind Gonkle and slap him on the shoulder, channeling an unneeded spell through his Boccob's tome of knowledge and converting it into a cure medium wounds spell.  Gonkle, caught up in the joys of battle, barely even registered that his numerous wounds were healing up.Amris backed Flick away from the psychic warrior to hit it with an empowered magic missile spell that sent it reeling.  At about the same time, the sole remaining drone tried breaking away from Wilbur and Tamaskan when the fox's teeth snapped down upon its throat and ripped it out.  It died there on the sands outside the nest, part of it still on fire from Tamaskan's burning tail.While the lesser drones inside the nest held their energy rays at the ready, the leader scurried up to the cave entry and tossed an electrical energy bolt through Wilbur, Blackie, Gonkle, and Skitterfiend.  It made a mental note - to itself and all members of the hivemind - of the effectiveness of electrical attacks against these invaders.The psychic warrior went to stab at Amris with its stinger, and when that failed, it ran in an erratic pattern, trying to avoid the other combatants.  This seemed to be particularly unhivemind behavior, for it seemed to be trying to protect its life over dying for the benefit of the nest as a whole.  But it lucked out in that Gonkle and Wilbur had both noted the psion leader at the nest's entrance and charged it in unison, ignoring the fleeing psychic warrior completely.  But Tamaskan chased after it and put it down with a leap upon its back and a good chomp at the base of its neck.Avoroth urged Victor forward so he could channel a second cure moderate wounds spell into Gonkle's war-battered body, then took a moment to rechannel his spiritual weapon to go attack the psion leader.  Fortunately, as its form was a quarterstaff, the weapon was able to strike in like a spear, hitting the formian despite the other two larger foes already attacking it.  Skitterfiend, sensing its imminent departure from this plane, took a moment to grab up a dead formian drone in its massive mouthparts before it was time to wink back to its native plane.There was certainly no way for Amris to squeeze in past Gonkle and Wilbur to strike against the psion leader herself, but she didn't need to; pulling out her wand, she struck it with a magic missile spell almost as powerful as those she was able to cast herself.  And since all she had to do was get a glimpse of her foe, the missiles went streaking over to hit their target without any worries they might inadvertently hit either of her companions instead.The psion leader scrambled backwards back down the entry tunnel into the nest, but Gonkle, at his increased size, was able to poke it with the tip of his falchion as it scurried backwards.  Finally back in the safety of the nest, it healed itself with the manifestation of a body adjustment power.  Gonkle was ready to squeeze himself through the tunnel (even if he had to crawl down on his hands and knees to do so) but Wilbur, warned by some extrasensory intuition, held him back long enough for him to convert one of his unused spells into a summon nature's ally spell.  After calling across the planes for assistance, the shadow druid's pleas were answered by a shadow lion that appeared in the middle of the nest below.  He took the brunt of the energy rays cast by the readied psions.  Only then did Wilbur allow Gonkle to squeeze through the tunnel so he could engage in more formian slaughter.  And sure enough, he slew one of the psions with a single slash of his double-sized falchion, powered by arms twice their normal size.Tamaskan trotted back to Wilbur, proud of her recent kill.  Avoroth dropped down from Victor's saddle and entered the nest, the better to keep the bloodthirsty orc hale and hearty; he tended to disregard his wounds in the midst of his battle-lust.  The cleric also kept an eye on his spiritual weapon, sending it in before him to go whack at the red-eyed psion leader for good measure.  Then he saw a group of four Elsewhere denizens, lying in a corner of the nest, limbs bound and unmoving.  Avoroth ran over to check on them and three were still breathing, although the Mayor appeared to be dead.  All four had crystals embedded at the bases of their skulls, but hopefully they hadn't been there long enough to take permanent root.Skitterfiend rushed into the nest at the last moment and went to bite at a psion, but he returned to Hell before he could take a final bite from these delicious formians.  Amris dismounted from Flick and sent him to gather up with the other mounts (her familiar Pivot took charge of keeping the fiendish horses together topside), then cautiously entered the tunnel to the nest.  As soon as she saw a psion, she sent a magic missile its way, courtesy of her wand.The psions responded with more energy rays being blasted at those intruders who'd already entered the nest, with a preponderance aimed at Gonkle, deemed to be the biggest threat (in more ways than one).  The psion leader tried manifesting a forced share pain power upon Gonkle, such that some of the damage taken by the formian would be psionically shunted over to the orc, but Gonkle unconsciously managed to slap it away before it could take hold.  Then the shadow lion pounced upon the red-eyed formian, slashing with all four sets of claws and biting down upon its carapace, and suddenly the psion leader had other things to worry about.Wilbur, still outside the nest but able to see some of the fighting going on at the far end of the tunnel, summoned forth another ally to do his fighting for him, this time a dire wolf from the Plane of Shadows.  It bit at the nearest psion, to little effect.  But Gonkle slew another psion with one blow, even as Tamaskan ran down the tunnel and joined the fray.  Avoroth, lacking any more attack spells, grabbed up his quarterstaff in both hands and swung at the psion warrior, judging by its larger build and glowing, reddish eyes that it was the leader of the defense team here in the nest.  Amris stepped further into the nest and cast a Melf's acid arrow spell at the leader as well, covering him in a caustic spray that caused his carapace to blister and steam.The two remaining drones fired off energy rays, neither of which hit their intended targets.  Avoroth hit the psion leader with his staff, but not before he fired off an electrical energy bolt that encompassed the Boccobian cleric, the shadow lion, and Gonkle in its area of effect.   It was enough to send Avoroth falling backwards into unconsciousness and set Gonkle staggering on his feet, whereas the shadow lion easily evaded the power's effects by not being quite where the psion leader had thought him to be.The shadow dire wolf took out one of the last remaining psions by biting through its narrow neck, while the shadow lion missed while going for the other one.  Wilbur finally entered the nest, and saw that Avoroth was out cold, so he ran over to the downed cleric, grabbed the wand of cure light wounds from Avoroth's sheath at his belt, and used it to heal him to wakefulness.  Avoroth woke up grumpy - of course - irritated he'd been bested by an overgrown ant.Whatever the psion leader's next intended action would have been would never be known, for it finally succumbed to the acid still eating away at its carapace, and it died with its limbs still twitching.  Gonkle slew the final psion drone, looked around and saw there was nothing left to slaughter, and finally wiped the battle-smile from his tusked mouth.  It looked like fun time was finally over.The prisoners were awakened and freed, and - after a quick explanation as to what they were about to do and why it needed to be done as soon as possible - the crystal shards removed from their skulls.  Avoroth was on hand to apply healing immediately after their removal, and Gonkle had fun smashing the crystals after each extraction.  They even removed the crystal from the Mayor's head, but he was already dead.  They decided to stuff him inside the Heward's even handier haversack for transport back to Elsewhere, as the lack of air inside the extradimensional space wouldn't be an issue.But there were also a handful of formian eggs in a corner pocket of the nest, waiting to be hatched.  Avoroth was all for letting Gonkle smash them as well, but Amris wouldn't hear of it.  "We promised to save the eggs!" she insisted."A promise made to a dead formian who will not know whether or not we followed through with our promise," pointed out Avoroth."But we'll know!  I'll know!" insisted Amris, and the cleric waved his hand as if shooing away an irritating fly.  "As you wish," he sighed, not wanting to argue about it any longer.  He allowed the eggs to be stuffed inside his haversack as well, content with the thought that without any adult formians to train them after they hatched, Elsewhere would gain a small contingent of formian drone slaves."Is that everything?" asked Wilbur, eager to be back on their way to Elsewhere.  Gonkle sighed, having reverted back down to his normal size - it had been fun while it lasted, and he'd have to see if he could get Amris to have that spell ready for him for all of their future battles.  With a last look around the nest, which was empty save for the multiple upright teleportation circles like the ones the formians had been trying to assemble in the modron mines - and which, the group knew, could only be opened by the psionic powers of a formian - the assembled group of Elsewhere denizens climbed up through the tunnel and back outside, where the heroes remounted their horses and led the group back the way they'd come, across the transitive gear to the gear upon which sat the plane-shifting town of Elsewhere. - - - Joe didn't make it to the session again this time, so Dan ran both Wilbur and Gonkle.  And that "sudden intuition" Wilbur had about preventing Gonkle from running headfirst into the nest was nothing but a bit of metagaming on Dan's part: Logan had set up the nest interior over the desert map we had been using, and he laid out the interior formian defense force so he could keep track of where they were and what they were doing.  Dan, of course, saw the drones were all "aimed" at the tunnel entrance and thus Wilbur, who couldn't see the nest interior or the location of the guardians therein, got a "sudden inspiration" to send a summoned creature into the nest to soak up all the "readied action" damage before sending a PC down into danger.  But Dan's always been that way, preferring to bend any situation to the advantage of his own forces, a PC when he's a player and the monsters when he was a DM.  (It's why we tend to prefer him as a player rather than as a DM - he keeps trying to "win" D&D.)</blockquote>

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