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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 9889557" data-attributes="member: 508">ADVENTURE 18: QUEST FOR THE ASCENDEDPC Roster: Amris Goodwitch, celestial elf witch (wizard) 6/witch of St. DuFrond 1                     Avoroth Bleakborn, fiendish human cleric 7                     Gonkle Bu'Onk, fiendish orc fighter 7                     Wilbur Von Schattenwalde, shadow human druid 7Game Session Date: 25 March 2026 - - -As the Valkyries descended upon the field of battle to collect the bodies of the fallen, their leader dismounted her own pegasus and approached the four heroes, looking distastefully at the skeletal horse Alabaster upon which Avoroth sat proudly.  She was a bit different in appearance than the other Valkyries, with silvery, batlike wings where the others' were covered in pure white feathers.  "My name is Serenity," she said in introduction.  "You are welcome to join us in the nearby mead hall, while we wait for your slain steed to return to life in the morning.""You don't look like a normal Valkyrie," observed Avoroth from his undead mount.Serenity smiled a wry grin.  "And I am not a normal Valkyrie," she agreed.  "I am an ascended succubus.""Interesting," remarked Amris.  As a resident of Elsewhere, she well knew one's birth heritage held no permanent sway on how a person turned out.  Gonkle was born on a fiendish plane, but he was pretty good-natured for an orc; Avoroth was likewise born on an evil plane, and he...well, maybe that was a bad example, she thought to herself.  Avoroth seemed to gain pleasure in proving he was as big of an ass as you might expect someone born in Hades to be."How far away is this mead hall?" asked Wilbur.  With Victor slain, he'd be walking or bumming a ride on the back of one of his companions' fiendish horses...unless he could ride with a Valkyrie on her pegasus.  That looked like a fun time!"Not far," replied Serenity.  "But it's in the opposite direction of that small city that suddenly plopped down in the middle of our barrier woods.  The very same woods that exist to keep random travelers - like yourselves - from wandering onto the Fields of Glory.""I don't know what you're talking about," lied Avoroth, about to spit out their standard cover story.  "We are part of a trade--""A trade consortium, yes, I'm aware," cut off Serenity with another grin.  Belatedly, Avoroth recalled that succubi, as demons, possessed the ability to communicate telepathically - the winged bitch was probably reading his mind right now!  But she continued, "We'd be willing to trade with your 'consortium' if you'd be willing to assist in tracking down and rescuing a kidnapped seer.""A kidnapped seer?" repeated Avoroth.  "Why hasn't a search and rescue force already been sent?  Or did you think it prudent to simply wait around and see if any interplanar traders would show up to do your rescuing for you?"Serenity's smile never faltered.  "These sorts of things usually only happen when someone needs to perform a quest.  Usually to prove one's trustworthiness.""How convenient," Avoroth scoffed, but Amris shushed him and said, "We'd be happy to rescue your kidnapped seer.  What can you tell us about the situation?""The seer is an elven woman, who was kidnapped by a band of fire giants who took her back down to Muspelheim, the fiery second layer of Ysgard.  In order for you to follow her there, you'll have to have runes of attunement painted upon your flesh to protect you from the layer's natural heat.  The entrance to Muspelheim is about an hour on foot from one of the farming villages that serves the Halls of Glory - the mead hall of which I spoke earlier.  The caves themselves have earned the name the 'Flame Serpent Caves,' as travelers are said to have seen flaming serpents within the magma pools scattered within the caverns.  And since the rough cavern interior is likely to preclude the use of mounts, the Valkyries will take care of your horses as you undergo the rescue attempt."  This didn't particularly sit well with Avoroth, for he greatly preferred his tireless undead mount to perform all the necessary trudging around, but he begrudgingly agreed to set out on foot with the others once they had had the runes of attunement applied at the Hall of Glory.Surprisingly, given the fiendish nature of the two remaining horses and the third being undead, the denizens of the Hall of Glory were rather taken with the group's steeds, no doubt due in part to their exotic nature.  The planar scouts subjected themselves to the necessary rune-painting upon their flesh - Wilbur noted it was very much like a magical version of woad, battle-paint applied by several warrior civilizations of which he was aware - and then, with a map to the Flame Serpent Caves in hand, set off on their rescue quest.The trek to the caves in question was uneventful, but Pivot, flying ahead, reported back to Amris there were three hulking figures guarding the entrance to the tunnel to Muspelheim: two anarchic girallons and a gray render.  The latter lacked the girallons' thick, white fur and extra pair of arms, and it had six insectoid eyes where the girallons each had the standard two eyes on a simian face, but other than that they were remarkably similar in build.  They stood at the top of a short cliff, with the path the scouts were following leading past it up to the cave opening."Prepare for combat," suggested Wilbur, casting a bevy of spells upon himself.  Avoroth and Amris did likewise, not the least of which was the witch casting an enlarge person spell upon Gonkle, increasing his size and stature to match that of his three foes.  The fiendish orc grinned his appreciation to the celestial elf witch, as that was his favorite spell among her repertoire, by far.Amris began combat by soaring up into the air - courtesy of a fly spell - and tossing a fireball spell down at the two girallons.  As the fiery explosion held the two primates' attention, Wilbur ran up and cast a spike growth spell covering most of the upper cliff area outside the cave, surrounding both girallons and nearly reaching to where the gray render stood.  Tamaskan ran up to protect her master, standing between Wilbur and the four-limbed apes, as the gray render took notice of the blast of flame engulfing its two charges and raced in their direction.  It ran through the hidden spikes of the shadow druid's spell, but didn't let that stop it in its charge.The nearest of the girallons leaped off the cliff to land beside Wilbur, cutting the bottoms of his feet as he trampled the spikes surrounding him at the top of the cliff, but if it caused him any pain he didn't let it show.  Instead, with a roar of aggressive intent, he slashed at the druid with a set of sharp claws.  The other girallon went to follow, but he was feeling the pain from the spikes and staggered slowly through the field, moving much more tentatively than his more aggressive counterpart.Gonkle, enlarged falchion in hand, went racing up the slope to join the girallons in combat.  He'd never fought these four-armed monkeys and was looking forward to the opportunity to kill something he'd never slain before in his short life.Avoroth cast a prayer spell upon the group of scouts, their animal allies, and the two girallons, the magic of the spell aiding him and his allies and hampering the two simian foes; the gray render, alas was too far away and just out of range.  But the cleric was pleased to have managed to affect as many individuals as he had, and this was the type of spell he preferred: the kind that boosted the combat abilities of his associates so they could go leap into melee combat like idiots, instead of him.  He took his own sweet time in advancing, not wishing to get too close to the far-reaching limbs of the four-armed gorillas.Wilbur attacked the closest girallon with his quarterstaff, upon which he'd cast a flame blade spell.  At the same time, Tamaskan bit at one of the great ape's legs and brushed her own flaming tail against its fur.  The hapless simian was soon engulfed in flames, its white fur singeing off as it frantically swatted at the flames.  And then the gray render went charging past, ignoring Wilbur and Tamaskan to get at the - quite literally - bigger threat of Gonkle.  The two massive forms collided, the gray render clamping down on the orc's shoulder with its sharklike teeth while tearing at his torso with its sharp claws.  But Gonkle retaliated with the blade of his falchion, carving deep into the render's stomach and emptying its intestines onto the dirt of the path; it died instantly, protecting its charges.  As for its charges, the two girallons both went for Wilbur, but the druid used his shadowy heritage to slip between the attacks, allowing them to pass by him as if he wasn't truly there.  Avoroth noted the one blazing on fire looked to be on its last legs and finished it off with a thrown dagger to the head, which hit the simian between the eyes and dropped him like a stone.Amris, hovering in the air out of reach, used her wand of magic missiles to fire off a charge at the remaining girallon, while Wilbur and Tamaskan focused their physical attacks upon him.  The girallon got in a few claw-strikes on the druid, but then Gonkle ran up and slew it outright with his oversize falchion.  Avoroth used his new wand of cure moderate wounds to heal up Gonkle's wounds, while Wilbur tended to his own lesser amount of damage with a healing potion.  Then the group was ready to enter the cave leading into Muspelheim.Amris cast an invisibility spell upon herself and Pivot and flew into the cave with her owl familiar, spotting two more girallons inside among the flickering, reddish light permeating the cavern passageways.  Wilbur stepped into the cave entryway, saw the two girallons at about the same time they spotted him, and the shadow druid cast a summoning spell, bringing two lions in from the Plane of Shadows.  Tamaskan stayed with her master as the two shadow lions manifested and one went for each of the two girallons in sight. forcing them to focus their attention upon the immediate threat.  But the shadow lions were no match for the girallons. each of which brought to bear a mouth full of sharp teeth and four sets of wicked claws, and each lion was slain before it had a chance to do more than its initial attack.  Just that quickly, they were reduced to mere shadows, drifting back to their home plane.  "Well, shoot," remarked Wilbur quietly to himself.Gonkle pushed him aside and charged down the passageway from the entry cave to the first girallon, striking the simian with his falchion to great effect.  Avoroth entered the entry cave and cast a spiritual weapon spell, sending the force-quarterstaff flying past Gonkle's head to strike his four-limbed foe in the noggin.  Amris returned to visibility when she cast a ray of enfeeblement spell at the other girallon, sapping it of much of its strength.  Wilbur moved up, casting a shillelagh spell upon his quarterstaff - his previously cast flame blade spell had run its course - and held it at the ready.  Tamaskan followed at her master's heels, ready to leap forward and strike when the druid did.The girallon engaging Gonkle did his best against the enlarged orc, while the other ambled forward on six limbs and struck at Amris, who flew back at the last moment and avoided a vicious claw-swipe.  Then Gonkle slew his foe with another deep thrust of the point of his weapon's blade into the simian's gut, skewering him completely through such that he needed to use a booted foot on the beast's chest to help pull his weapon back out.  The girallon crashed to the cavern floor, quite obviously dead.  Then the bloodthirsty orc looked about for something else to kill, and spotted the one fighting Amris.  An evil grin on his tusked face, the fiendish orc headed in their direction.  As he advanced, he noticed a tendril of flame rising up from a stream of magma just ahead - one of the cavern's flame serpents?Avoroth mentally redirected his spiritual quarterstaff to go attack the girallon attacking Amris, while advancing cautiously deeper into the cavern complex.  Amris continued backing away from the girallon, shooting it with her magic missile wand for good measure as she did so.  Wilbur caught up to the girallon and struck it with his quarterstaff, while avoiding the four-armed foe's attempts to retaliate.  Then Gonkle arrived on the scene, and that was that - he cut it to ribbons with his falchion, continuing to slice the beast as its corpse fell to the stone cavern floor, just for fun.Avoroth headed deeper into the caverns, map in hand.  "We need to go this way," he told the others, pointing to the southeast.  Heading in that direction meant passing by or even crossing a number of magma streams that split up the cavern floor.  The cleric made sure to keep his spiritual quarterstaff floating close at hand, ready to strike any of those flame serpents said to dwell in the magma.  Amris flew up towards the ceiling, easily bypassing the magma streams below, while Pivot kept pace.  Wilbur and Tamaskan took a different route, but one that led to the same large magma pool from which the various streams emanated in many different directions.Suddenly, a flaming tentacle lashed out and wrapped around Wilbur, and the druid at first imagined himself to be in the crushing embrace of a flame serpent.  Then the bulbous head of the magma octopus rose out of the pool, glaring at the captured human druid with a contemptuous stare.  There was a sudden flurry of activity from the group as they desperately tried to save Wilbur from an impromptu lava bath, even though Avoroth realized in the back of his mind that if the shadow druid were to perish, there was a very good chance he'd simply return to life the following day, having perished in battle - not on the fields of battle, true, but going down fighting nonetheless.  Tamaskan, her own fiery nature making her immune to the magma octopus's immense heat, bit at the flaming tentacle gripping her master, even as she instinctively knew her own flaming tail would do nothing against the creature literally swimming in a pool of magma.  Avoroth sent his spiritual quarterstaff to pummel the octopus's head while Gonkle rushed forward to slice at the imprisoning tentacle with his falchion, but it was a shocking grasp spell, channeled from Amris into Pivot, which the owl was able to transfer into the magma octopus with a simple touch of his talon, that slew the beast before it could drag Wilbur down into the magma pool and a quick death.  The druid dropped to hands and knees and crawled away as the dead octopus lost its grip strength and the tentacle gripping him slackened enough for him to escape.  As the monster's body sunk into the pool, its tentacle slid to follow in its wake."Are you coming?" asked Avoroth testily, his own acerbic way of asking if the druid was all right."Give me a minute," Wilbur replied, slowly regaining his feet.  Once gathered back together at the southeastern edge of the Cave of Flame Serpents - "the Cave of Flaming Octopus Tentacles," the cleric silently corrected in his head - the group moved on, past the edge of the area that had been mapped out for them.  They found a shallow chamber not too much farther in, capable of being partially blocked off with boulders, in which they were able to make camp before finally venturing forth into Muspelheim itself. - - -Joe was once again absent from this game session, with Dan running both Wilbur and Gonkle.  And Logan used Serenity, a central NPC figure from his initial D&D 3.5 campaign with this group, "The Durnhill Conscripts," in this adventure, proving that despite its extraplanar nature, "The Middle of Elsewhere" technically exists in the same campaign world as that one and Logan's campaign before this one, "Raiders of the Overreach."</blockquote>

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