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<blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 6079863" data-attributes="member: 508"><p><strong>ADVENTURE 52 - INCURSION INTO THE BEASTLANDS</strong></p><p></p><p>PC Roster: <p style="margin-left: 20px">Akari, elven paladin of Hieroneous</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Delphyne Babelberi, human witch (wizard)</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Galrich Slayer, half-orc barbarian</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Rale Bodkin, human rogue</p><p></p><p>NPC roster: <p style="margin-left: 20px">Aerik Battershield, dwarven fighter</p><p></p><p>For this adventure, I decided to delve a little into the background of one of the characters in the Wing Three band. And then I got sneaky again and decided not to flesh out any of the PCs, but rather Tsukitora, Akari's griffon mount.</p><p></p><p> - - -</p><p></p><p>Four of the members of Wing Three had been out shopping, checking out a new weaponsmith's shop that had opened up on Blacksmith Street, on the outskirts of the Greyhawk City Market Square. Since Galrich was among their number, that meant Aerik was with them as well. They had each brought the bulk of their adventuring gear, in part so they could compare and contrast the quality of the weapons the new smith had to offer against those that they had been using. This particular smith had no dweomercraft, but quite a few of the weapons he churned out were of masterwork quality.</p><p></p><p>Suddenly, Akari felt an odd buzzing in his head. It was similar to the sensation he got when he opened his mind and called forth his griffon mount, Tsukitora, from the celestial realms where he lived his life when not called forth into battle. In fact, the more Akari thought about it, it was an almost identical feeling - almost as if his mount were calling him, instead of the other way around.</p><p></p><p>"Guys?" warned the paladin to his companions, raising a hand for attention as he opened the link and called forth Tsukitora. The others turned in astonishment as there, in the midst of the Market Square, manifested a bright light that coalesced into the form of a handsome griffon with feathers of a snowy white. Tsukitora gave forth a call, flapped open his wide wings, and enfolded the entire group of adventurers inside a feathery embrace. "What the--?" called out Galrich, unused to getting hugged by a griffon. Bystanders ran away from the great beast, unsure of what to think. It didn't seem to be attacking the quintet, but you could never be too careful....</p><p></p><p>And then, in the blink of an eye, they were gone. The griffon had vanished as quickly as it had appeared, taking the five adventurers with them. "Weird," commented the blacksmith, and went about his business. He'd heard there were some strange goings-on in this city, and it looked like the stories he'd heard were true.</p><p></p><p> - - - </p><p></p><p>In the blink of an eye, the group found themselves in a completely different world. Gone was the Market Square of Greyhawk City; in its place stood an expanse of mountainous terrain, looking down over a mighty forest. Gone, too, were the murky clouds threatening rain; instead, a yellow-white sun blazed in a cloudless sky of pure blue. It was brisk up here among the mountain-tops; Delphyne pulled her cloak around her shoulders. Seeing an opportunity, Rale put his arms around her shoulders as well, and for once she didn't complain.</p><p></p><p>Akari looked down at his feet, and saw a collection of sturdy sticks, some of them entire branches, woven into a large nest - Tsukitora's nest, the paladin realized at once, for the construction was big enough to hold his griffon quite comfortably. Tsukitora fidgeted uncomfortably, and the paladin started receiving a series of images through the empathic link he shared with his bonded mount. In rapid succession, he saw another griffon, this one with light brown feathers darkening at their tips; three eggs in a nest; Tsukitora and Akari riding into combat; one egg in a nest; Tsukitora under attack by the tan griffon and backing off; the tan griffon flying with an egg in its foreclaws; Tsukitora fighting three winged insects. Then only a deep feeling of sadness and confusion, and a silent plea for help.</p><p></p><p>"So, just what the hell is going on here, exactly?" asked Rale.</p><p></p><p>"Hang on, Tsukitora's explaining...kind of," replied Akari, patting the side of his mount's neck in reassurance. "I'll try to translate. This is his nest, where he lives between the times I summon him to Oerth. He lives here with his mate...let's call her '<strong>Hoshitaka</strong>,'" decided the elf, choosing a name that meant "Star-Hawk."</p><p></p><p>"Mate?" repeated Rale, then grinned and elbowed the griffon in the side. "All right, Tsukitora!"</p><p></p><p>"They had three eggs here in the nest the last time I summoned Tsukitora to help us fight," continued Akari, "but when he returned here, all but one of the eggs were gone. Hoshitaka soon returned, snapping at Tsukitora and driving him off, then grabbing up the last egg and flying away with it. Tsukitora followed, but was attacked when he got too close, so he backed off and followed her at a distance. Then he was attacked by three large insects, and by the time he had fought them off, Hoshitaka and their last egg were both out of sight. Tsukitora doesn't know where they went, and has no way to find them, nor does he understand why his mate is absconding with their eggs."</p><p></p><p>"Some kind of mind control?" asked Delphyne.</p><p></p><p>"Possibly," admitted the elf.</p><p></p><p>"I got a question," piped up Aerik.</p><p></p><p>"Yes?"</p><p></p><p>"Where the bloody hell are we?"</p><p></p><p>"This is the Beastlands," remarked Akari. "It's comprised of three different layers. This is the upper layer, Krigala. The centaur god, Skerrit, lives down there in the forest somewhere. Or maybe not that forest, but a forest somewhere on this layer. It's an infinite plane, after all."</p><p></p><p>"So what's the plan?" asked Rale. "How are we going to find Hoshitaka? You don't have a link with her like you do Tsukitora, do you?"</p><p></p><p>"No, I don't. We'll just have to have Tsukitora fly in the direction that Hoshitaka was going when he was attacked by the insects, and see if we can see anything from the air."</p><p></p><p>"Um, just how are we going to do that?" Galrich wanted to know. "Feron's got the <em>dollhouse</em>. We can't all five of us ride on your griffon at one time."</p><p></p><p>"I've got my <em>broom of flying</em>," Delphyne reminded the half-orc. "I can support one more besides myself."</p><p></p><p>"Dibs!" called out Rale before she had even finished her sentence.</p><p></p><p>"Okay, the other three of us will have to ride Tsukitora," said Akari. "He can handle two of us on his back; the third will have to be held in his foreclaws." Aerik just about turned white at the thought, and swallowed nervously at the thought of dangling by a griffon's claws hundreds of feet in the air, but stepped forward to volunteer rather than risk his liege.</p><p></p><p>"No, I got it," said Galrich, seeing the brave front Aerik was putting on for what it was. The stout dwarf was not a big fan of open heights.</p><p></p><p>And so it came to pass that Delphyne rode her flying broom with Rale perched behind her, holding on tight and loving every minute of it, while Akari sat between Tsukitora's broad, flapping wings and directed his mount, with Aerik behind him afraid to look down and Galrich dangling by the straps across his back which kept his various weapons in place. He had his longbow in hand with an arrow notched, just in case, and was obviously having the time of his life.</p><p></p><p>Tsukitora followed a sweeping dive down the mountains, skimming just over the forest below. A dead insect lay in the upper branches of a tree just ahead, showing where Tsukitora had been attacked earlier, and where the griffon had last seen his mate flying away with their egg. The group continued on in the same direction for half an hour or so, then Akari voiced his concern - "translating" the feelings he sensed from Tsukitora - that anything that would have taken over Hoshitaka's mind would likely have done so near where she was normally found, and they were straying out of the griffons' normal hunting territory. So they backtracked, and spent another hour sweeping the area, searching for anything that might lead them to the missing griffon.</p><p></p><p>In the end, it turned out that they only had to get close enough to find Hoshitaka, and then she took matters into her own talons. The tan griffon suddenly flew up from between the trees, followed by another trio of winged insects. Galrich got off the first strike with an arrow, which buried itself to the feathers between two plates of chitin on the lead bug's carapace. The creature staggered in mid air and flew erratically for a bit, but continued on with the attack.</p><p></p><p>This proved to be a difficult combat for the group, not only because they were unused to fighting aerial battles, but also because they didn't want to hurt Hoshitaka. As such, they concentrated their initial attacks on the winged insects, whose preferred method of aerial combat involved flicking spines from their tails in the same fashion as a manticore. Akari put <em>Deathstriker</em> to good use, and was pleased to learn that the magical hammer would return to his hand even if he had moved a significant distance after throwing the weapon. Delphyne tried <em>charming</em> Hoshitaka but failed - it seemed as if there were already some sort of mental dominance holding sway. After the last of the insects had been slain, Hoshitaka suddenly broke away from combat and started fleeing. Delphyne tried casting a <em>dispel magic</em> on the griffon, to no avail.</p><p></p><p>"I've got one more left!" she called out.</p><p></p><p>"Give it a shot!" called back Akari.</p><p></p><p>The young witch cast her last <em>dispel magic</em> spell of the day, and to everyone's relief, Hoshitaka started flying erratically, as if mentally shaking herself from an unwanted mental influence. She suddenly dived down to a clearing below and came to a graceful landing. The others followed suit. Tsukitora landed on his back legs, released Galrich from his grip, and raced over to his mate. The two griffons rubbed necks in greeting.</p><p></p><p>"Okay, so that's that," said Rale, sadly dismounting from Delphyne's broom. "Now what? I suppose we're going to track down whoever was dominating the griffon...?" Akari emphatically agreed, eager to find whoever had disrupted the life of his bonded mount. He was unable to communicate with Hoshitaka, but he was able to convey to Tsukitora the need for Hoshitaka to lead them to whoever was responsible for her mental dominance. She led the others through the thickets, and after a few moments peered out into a different clearing. Everyone followed her lead, peeking through the brush to an odd sight in the clearing beyond.</p><p></p><p>There was a canopy of sorts built of sticks and branches constructed over an opening that led into a small hill. Before this canopy, two centaurs and a satyr worked with a four-armed white ape - a girallon, the group knew from experience - to cut up slain game animals into chunks, which were then taken by small, dog-sized ant-creatures under the canopy and into the opening into the hill. As the group watched, five other creatures approached the clearing: another girallon walked beside an even larger ant-creature, this one the size of a pony. Walking single file ahead of them, displaying no fear whatsoever, three deer entered the clearing. They came to a stop before the centaurs and stood motionless as the centaurs slit their throats with sharp blades. As the deer fell lifelessly to the ground, the two girallons started ripping off the deer's limbs and setting them aside. One of the smaller ant-creatures scuttled out from underneath the canopy, grabbed a dismembered deer limb, and struggled with it back into the darkness of the hillside opening. Looking closely, the group could see another of the larger ant-things standing in the shadows of the canopy, observing the proceedings closely.</p><p></p><p>"Any idea what's going on?" whispered Rale to the others.</p><p></p><p>"I think those ant-things are formians," whispered back Delphyne. "There are many different types, some of them rumored to be able to dominate others. I'd say the bigger ones are the dominators, and those little guys are just worker drones. Apparently they're gathering food for the nest...which must be in that opening in the hill."</p><p></p><p>"So the griffon eggs are probably in there!" reasoned Akari. "I hope they haven't been eaten yet." Then another thought crossed his mind. "Are these formians local? I don't recall them living in the Beastlands."</p><p></p><p>"I don't remember," admitted Delphyne. "It's possible they're expanding their territory into other planes. In any case, if we're going to attack them, we'd better make preparations. We don't want to end up dominated ourselves."</p><p></p><p>Galrich noticed everyone was looking at him. "What?" he hissed. "I've only been dominated a couple of times! Well, okay, plus that once...shut up!"</p><p></p><p>"What about the centaurs and the satyr?" Delphyne wanted to know. "They're probably just as innocent in all this as Hoshitaka."</p><p></p><p>"Well, we'll try not to kill them," conceded Akari. "But they're going to be sent against us, so we'll have to defend ourselves. Let's concentrate our fire, as much as possible, against those two bigger formians, though - if we can take them out of the fight, we might be able to release their dominated slaves without harming them."</p><p></p><p>After a short span of time spent on buffing spells - including an <em>owl's wisdom</em> spell on Galrich, hopefully enough to boost his mental willpower to avoid being dominated - the group attacked on Rale's signal.</p><p></p><p>The formian taskmaster out in the open was the sudden recipient of a <em>fireball</em> spell, a hurled <em>Deathstriker</em>, and an arrow, all in sequence. He staggered from the sudden onslaught, but did not drop. Aerik and the griffons, lacking ranged attacks, crashed through the brush into the clearing, making as loud of a distraction as they could as they closed with the enemy.</p><p></p><p>The reaction was almost instantaneous. The female centaur whirled around and started casting a spell of her own, and Aerik and Tsukitora found the grass at their feet tangling around them, trying to bind them in place. The male centaur dropped the blade he had been using to slit the throats of willing deer, reared up, and grabbed a bow from his back in one smooth motion. He concentrated on the foes he could see, primarily the two griffons. The satyr pulled out a set of pan pipes and started playing, adding a sweet melody to the area of sudden carnage. And the two girallons bounded over to where the group stood peeking through the foliage, ready for combat.</p><p></p><p>At that point, the second formian taskmaster stepped out from under the canopy, standing beside the first. The two stood apart from the battle, using their dominated puppets to do their work for them. And since the first one had been dominating three deer who had since been slain, his mind could handle a couple of new puppets....</p><p></p><p>Galrich felt a familiar sensation tickling his mind before things got all muddled once again. He had raced forward into melee combat with the nearest girallon, when he suddenly cursed himself for his stupidity and took a swipe at Rale with his greatsword. <em>What was he thinking? The girallons were his friends, helping him to protect the Nest. Nothing was more important than protecting the Nest!</em></p><p></p><p>Rale had to stop his fight against the male centaur to defend himself from Galrich's sudden betrayal, and threw in a few curses himself. <em>One of these days</em>, he promised himself, <em>I'm going to get one of the Guild wizards to craft a magical helmet to prevent mental attacks from reaching its wearer, and Slayer's never going to be allowed to take the damn thing off his stupid orcish head!</em> He did his best to slam some sense into the half-orc's head, using the side of his shortsword since he knew Galrich could take a decent pounding without harm. Of course, that didn't sit too well with Aerik, who now wasn't sure which of the two had been dominated - he'd been too busy extracting himself from the centaur druid's <em>entangle</em> spell. Still, right or wrong, it was his duty to protect Galrich from harm until he could assume the throne of Kordovia, so he veered over to keep Rale at bay. The frustrated rogue did his best to explain the situation to Aerik, and since Rale was talking reasonably and Galrich was muttering "Protect the Nest!" to himself, Aerik did the first thing he could think of - he dropped his weapon and tackled his liege to the ground, simultaneously keeping him out of the fight and preventing him from attacking any of the other party members.</p><p></p><p>With Galrich taken care of, Rale was able to concentrate his efforts on the formian taskmasters, scowling to see that there were now two of them. Still, he could see which of the two was more badly damaged, so he and Delphyne pooled their efforts and took him out. Upon its death, Galrich's mind got all muddled up again, and he realized he had been fighting on the wrong team once again. He managed to explain his way out of Aerik's grappling embrace, and the two gathered up their weapons and headed back into the fray. As they did so, they saw one of the girallons bounding away, apparently also freed from its mental dominance and wanting nothing to do with all of this strangeness.</p><p></p><p>Akari had started work on taking out the other formian taskmaster, and despite its best efforts at gathering its remaining mental slaves into position to protect it, it too was slain in short order. This released the centaurs, satyr, and remaining girallon. The latter joined its mate in high-tailing it out of there, while the other three stayed around long enough to thank the groups for releasing them from their mental bondage. The druid pulled a <em>stone of good luck</em> from a leather thong around her neck and pressed it into Delphyne's hand, apparently assuming that as the only female in the group she must be the leader, and then the woodland trio departed as well.</p><p></p><p>Akari healed the adventurers of the worst of their wounds by laying on hands and calling upon the power of Hieroneous, and a few them swigged down a healing potion or two as well. (It was at times like this that they missed Cal when he wasn't adventuring with them.) Then they prepared to enter the hole in the side of the hill. Akari bade Tsukitora and Hoshitaka remain behind, concerned that they'd be cramped in an underground passageway, but the griffons were having none of it - their eggs were likely ahead, so they were coming along. Light sources were passed to those who needed them (Akari had long ago gotten a good deal by bulk-purchasing sun rods), and the group entered the cave opening and proceeded into the tunnel beyond.</p><p></p><p>The tunnel was about 20 feet wide and about 8 feet tall in the center. It went uphill for a short way before sloping deeper into the ground. The passageway curved to the right as it descended, and before the group had gone more than a hundred feet they met up with their first wave of enemies: four formian warriors, racing up to meet them. They were quickly followed by a second wave of a trio of formian workers, a dozen feet behind the warriors.</p><p></p><p>"How'd they know we were here?" Rale groused, weapons at the ready.</p><p></p><p>"Crap, I should have thought about that - they've probably got a hive mind," remarked Akari. "Kind of like everybody in the hive sees everything that all of the other formians can see."</p><p></p><p>"So the whole hive knows exactly where we are?" asked Rale, not too keen on this new development. But then there was no time for further discussion, as the formian warriors and workers were upon them. Still, these were smaller and less of a problem than the two taskmasters the group had dealt with up on the surface, and they were quickly dispatched by the melee fighters, the spellcasters opting to save their spells for any more powerful foes they might encounter down here.</p><p></p><p>The group continued on down the passageway. There were several side-chambers, some of them containing mold colonies and special fungus, others empty - the latter likely being where the workers and warriors dwelt when not otherwise needed. But the curving, descending main tunnel soon opened up into a large, circular area some 80 feet in diameter with a ceiling height of about 30 feet. Two colossal scorpions flanked another weird-looking formian, this one even slightly bigger than the taskmasters they'd encountered. A crude wall behind him seemed to cover over a small tunnel. Piled in front of this wall were the butchered chunks of various animals - and, they saw with delight, three griffon eggs.</p><p></p><p>At a silent, mental order, the first of the scorpions skittered up to meet the adventurers, its claws opened wide. Rale tried tumbling past it and into the room, but the scorpion was much quicker than any would have guessed, and it snapped him up between its pincers. Rale screamed as it crushed him, threatening to snip his torso in two.</p><p></p><p>Delphyne grabbed up her broom and flew into the chamber and above the fray, hoping to stay out of reach of the snapping pincers. But she failed to take the scorpions' tails into account, and was almost skewered by the rearmost one, who was apparently remaining behind as a guardian while the foremost scorpion dealt with the adventurers. She dodged on her broom, flying up to the very top of the ceiling and sending a <em>chain lightning</em> down at the formian myrmarch, causing arcs of electricity to jump to the two scorpions as well.</p><p></p><p>Akari leapt upon Tsukitora's back and allowed his griffon to fly him into the room, then leaped back down upon the broad back of the scorpion that held Rale in an ever-tightening grip. He stabbed down with <em>Hoardmaster</em>, but failed to penetrate the beast's chitin as much as he had hoped; a quick scan showed that none of the combatants in the room detected as evil, so the full magical enhancements of his longsword weren't able to come into play.</p><p></p><p>Rale, meanwhile, knew that he had time for one more action before he was likely cut in two by the massive scorpion's pincers. There was no way he was going to get out by his strength alone, which paled in comparison to the arachnid's grip. He briefly contemplated grabbing up a healing potion, but realized that was a stop-gap measure that would buy him mere seconds of further life. Then he smiled, grabbing up a different potion from his belt, popped off the stopper with his thumb, and managed to get it close enough to his mouth that he could bite down on it and lift his head back. As the contents of the <em>potion of gaseous form</em> slid down his throat, the scorpion's pincers clicked together, meeting each other. But by then, Rale was mere mist, which floated serenely over to the other side of the room.</p><p></p><p>In the meantime, Galrich and Aerik had attacked the lead scorpion with their weapons. Galrich, predictably, was likewise snagged up in the creature's other pincer, but the tough half-orc had plenty of life left in him and merely attacked the scorpion's pincers from where he was. Aerik, concerned that his liege was about to be snipped in twain, threw all of his attacks at that scorpion as well, and the creature skittered sideways in concern.</p><p></p><p>Seeing that Rale was safe - in fact, he was remanifesting into solid form in the shadows at the back of the cavern - Delphyne switched targets and unleashed a <em>fireball</em> spell at the scorpion that was currently holding Galrich in a death-grip. Fortunately, the beast was large enough that the young witch was confident she could cover the majority of the scorpion in her blast radius without affecting Galrich or Aerik. She was correct, and focused her attention on that scorpion from the relative safety of the top of the cavern. After all, she reasoned, even if the two scorpions were released from the formian myrmarch's control, they'd still likely fight off anyone who wanted to steal back the griffon eggs from their nest.</p><p></p><p>In any case, the myrmarch had problems of its own - namely, two furious griffons who saw it as the likely cause of their eggs' current dangerous situation. They dived at the insect, biting and ripping at it until the myrmarch had to bring the second scorpion in to rescue him from their assault.</p><p></p><p>That gave Rale the opening he'd been waiting for. Ever curious, the young rogue wondered just was so important that it was being walled up and guarded by the largest pair of scorpion's he'd ever set his eyes on. The wall looked hastily made, consisting of stones from the surface mortared together by a combination of what he assumed was mud and worker spittle. He pulled down the first few stones, and the way was easier from then on. Once he had made an opening large enough for him to squirm through, he did just that, and found a rubbery, pale white egg on the other side. <em>That's it?</em> he thought. <em>All this for a crummy egg?</em> The rogue lashed out at the egg with his boot, kicking a hole in its side and revealing a partially formed insect inside. Who knew what kind of stupid formian this one was? Still it was his favorite type of target - helpless - so he sliced it up with his twin blades.</p><p></p><p>Rale didn't get to see it, but the myrmarch's reaction to the unborn formian queen's death was instant. He went from a confident warrior doing his best to fight off two furious griffons to a quivering mass of panic in an instant. The pathetic bug did its best to curl itself up into a ball on the ground, and the griffons made short work of it thereafter.</p><p></p><p>In the meantime, Delphyne's prediction bore fruit, as the colossal scorpions, now released from their mental bondage, continued to fight for the safety of their nest. By this time, the combined melee might of Galrich, Aerik, and Akari had just about finished the first scorpion; Delphyne, sensing just how close it was to death, finished it off with a blast from her <em>wand of magic missiles</em>. Its body relaxed as it died, and Galrich was finally able to extricate himself from its pincers.</p><p></p><p>That left the remaining scorpion. It rushed out at the invaders, and the melee combatants ran to either side, opting to attack it between its legs rather than face those pincers head on. The griffons, having slain the myrmarch by this time, took to the air and leapt upon the vermin's back, clawing and biting it near the beginning of its tail. With so many allied combatants in the way, Delphyne opted to forgo her remaining <em>fireball</em> spell and pumped out a series of blasts from her <em>wand of magic missiles</em> - it took longer that way, but the end result was the same, and the second scorpion eventually collapsed to the ground in death.</p><p></p><p>Rale crawled back out over the partially-demolished wall, holding a small cube in his hand. "What's that?" asked Aerik, the closest to the rogue as he rejoined the group.</p><p></p><p>"No idea," admitted Rale. He passed it to Delphyne for her scrutiny. As she turned it over and over, examining each face, she commented, "These are symbols for the Elemental Planes."</p><p></p><p>"That's only four. So what are the other two?" asked Rale.</p><p></p><p>"This one might be the Prime Material Plane," she said. "And this one, I'm not sure. Is this the Beastlands, maybe?" Akari gave it a look, and confirmed her guess - that was, indeed, the traditional symbol for the Beastlands.</p><p></p><p>Piecing together what they could from the facts they had on hand, the group assumed that somehow, a nest of formians had gotten their hands on this <em>cubic gate</em> - possibly looted from an adventurer who had encountered their nest in his travels - and they opted to use it to begin a new nest in the Beastlands. Sending over a myrmarch, two taskmasters, a handful of warriors, winged warriors, and workers, and, most importantly, the egg of an unborn queen - who, despite her unhatched status, was still able to link the new colony together telepathically to form their hive mind - they had everything they needed to start a new formian colony right in Tsukitora's backyard. Only their direct intervention had prevented the formian race from establishing a beachhead in the Beastlands, which, if not stopped, could eventually have made them a permanent presence on the plane.</p><p></p><p>Akari dug through the pile of jumbled body parts - a first meal, no doubt, intended for the ravenous queen upon her imminent hatching, seeing as how the scorpions hadn't been allowed to touch it - and pulled free the three griffon eggs. Then the group carefully returned them to the surface, and stood guard over the third egg while Tsukitora and his mate Hoshitaka each hefted one in their foreclaws and flew back to their nest with them.</p><p></p><p>"Hey, what the Hell?" asked Rale, gazing up at the sun overhead. "It's still noon!"</p><p></p><p>"It's always noon here on Krigala," explained Akari.</p><p></p><p>"Weird," commented Rale with a look of disdain.</p><p></p><p>Tsukitora returned alone several minutes later, and Akari passed him the third and final egg. "Goodbye for now, old friend," he said, ruffling the feathers at the side of his mount's head. The snow-white griffon cawed in response, then grabbed up his egg, and with a flap of his mighty wings, took to the air. Akari watched him until he was no longer visible in the sky, then turned to Delphyne.</p><p></p><p>"Shall we?" he asked.</p><p></p><p>"Indeed we shall," she replied, pushing the side of the <em>cubic gate</em> that held the symbol of the Prime Material Plane. In an instant, the five adventurers were gone.</p><p></p><p>They didn't end up anywhere remotely close to Greyhawk City, but after resting up for the night, Delphyne prepared a <em>teleport</em> spell and they all made it back to Guild Headquarters in one piece.</p><p></p><p> - - - </p><p></p><p>There was one main reason I wrote this adventure: my local Target store had a bunch of plastic bugs on sale for a dollar each. I picked up two scorpions (each about 7 inches long and 5 inches wide, and that's with the tail curled up over the body) and a spider (built like a tarantula, with a 9-inch diameter legspan). So that's the main reason the formian incursion into the Beastlands began with a mated pair of celestial scorpions. And, equally eager to put my spider to good use, I inserted it into the very next adventure.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Richards, post: 6079863, member: 508"] [b]ADVENTURE 52 - INCURSION INTO THE BEASTLANDS[/b] PC Roster: [INDENT]Akari, elven paladin of Hieroneous Delphyne Babelberi, human witch (wizard) Galrich Slayer, half-orc barbarian Rale Bodkin, human rogue[/INDENT] NPC roster: [INDENT]Aerik Battershield, dwarven fighter[/INDENT] For this adventure, I decided to delve a little into the background of one of the characters in the Wing Three band. And then I got sneaky again and decided not to flesh out any of the PCs, but rather Tsukitora, Akari's griffon mount. - - - Four of the members of Wing Three had been out shopping, checking out a new weaponsmith's shop that had opened up on Blacksmith Street, on the outskirts of the Greyhawk City Market Square. Since Galrich was among their number, that meant Aerik was with them as well. They had each brought the bulk of their adventuring gear, in part so they could compare and contrast the quality of the weapons the new smith had to offer against those that they had been using. This particular smith had no dweomercraft, but quite a few of the weapons he churned out were of masterwork quality. Suddenly, Akari felt an odd buzzing in his head. It was similar to the sensation he got when he opened his mind and called forth his griffon mount, Tsukitora, from the celestial realms where he lived his life when not called forth into battle. In fact, the more Akari thought about it, it was an almost identical feeling - almost as if his mount were calling him, instead of the other way around. "Guys?" warned the paladin to his companions, raising a hand for attention as he opened the link and called forth Tsukitora. The others turned in astonishment as there, in the midst of the Market Square, manifested a bright light that coalesced into the form of a handsome griffon with feathers of a snowy white. Tsukitora gave forth a call, flapped open his wide wings, and enfolded the entire group of adventurers inside a feathery embrace. "What the--?" called out Galrich, unused to getting hugged by a griffon. Bystanders ran away from the great beast, unsure of what to think. It didn't seem to be attacking the quintet, but you could never be too careful.... And then, in the blink of an eye, they were gone. The griffon had vanished as quickly as it had appeared, taking the five adventurers with them. "Weird," commented the blacksmith, and went about his business. He'd heard there were some strange goings-on in this city, and it looked like the stories he'd heard were true. - - - In the blink of an eye, the group found themselves in a completely different world. Gone was the Market Square of Greyhawk City; in its place stood an expanse of mountainous terrain, looking down over a mighty forest. Gone, too, were the murky clouds threatening rain; instead, a yellow-white sun blazed in a cloudless sky of pure blue. It was brisk up here among the mountain-tops; Delphyne pulled her cloak around her shoulders. Seeing an opportunity, Rale put his arms around her shoulders as well, and for once she didn't complain. Akari looked down at his feet, and saw a collection of sturdy sticks, some of them entire branches, woven into a large nest - Tsukitora's nest, the paladin realized at once, for the construction was big enough to hold his griffon quite comfortably. Tsukitora fidgeted uncomfortably, and the paladin started receiving a series of images through the empathic link he shared with his bonded mount. In rapid succession, he saw another griffon, this one with light brown feathers darkening at their tips; three eggs in a nest; Tsukitora and Akari riding into combat; one egg in a nest; Tsukitora under attack by the tan griffon and backing off; the tan griffon flying with an egg in its foreclaws; Tsukitora fighting three winged insects. Then only a deep feeling of sadness and confusion, and a silent plea for help. "So, just what the hell is going on here, exactly?" asked Rale. "Hang on, Tsukitora's explaining...kind of," replied Akari, patting the side of his mount's neck in reassurance. "I'll try to translate. This is his nest, where he lives between the times I summon him to Oerth. He lives here with his mate...let's call her '[b]Hoshitaka[/b],'" decided the elf, choosing a name that meant "Star-Hawk." "Mate?" repeated Rale, then grinned and elbowed the griffon in the side. "All right, Tsukitora!" "They had three eggs here in the nest the last time I summoned Tsukitora to help us fight," continued Akari, "but when he returned here, all but one of the eggs were gone. Hoshitaka soon returned, snapping at Tsukitora and driving him off, then grabbing up the last egg and flying away with it. Tsukitora followed, but was attacked when he got too close, so he backed off and followed her at a distance. Then he was attacked by three large insects, and by the time he had fought them off, Hoshitaka and their last egg were both out of sight. Tsukitora doesn't know where they went, and has no way to find them, nor does he understand why his mate is absconding with their eggs." "Some kind of mind control?" asked Delphyne. "Possibly," admitted the elf. "I got a question," piped up Aerik. "Yes?" "Where the bloody hell are we?" "This is the Beastlands," remarked Akari. "It's comprised of three different layers. This is the upper layer, Krigala. The centaur god, Skerrit, lives down there in the forest somewhere. Or maybe not that forest, but a forest somewhere on this layer. It's an infinite plane, after all." "So what's the plan?" asked Rale. "How are we going to find Hoshitaka? You don't have a link with her like you do Tsukitora, do you?" "No, I don't. We'll just have to have Tsukitora fly in the direction that Hoshitaka was going when he was attacked by the insects, and see if we can see anything from the air." "Um, just how are we going to do that?" Galrich wanted to know. "Feron's got the [i]dollhouse[/i]. We can't all five of us ride on your griffon at one time." "I've got my [i]broom of flying[/i]," Delphyne reminded the half-orc. "I can support one more besides myself." "Dibs!" called out Rale before she had even finished her sentence. "Okay, the other three of us will have to ride Tsukitora," said Akari. "He can handle two of us on his back; the third will have to be held in his foreclaws." Aerik just about turned white at the thought, and swallowed nervously at the thought of dangling by a griffon's claws hundreds of feet in the air, but stepped forward to volunteer rather than risk his liege. "No, I got it," said Galrich, seeing the brave front Aerik was putting on for what it was. The stout dwarf was not a big fan of open heights. And so it came to pass that Delphyne rode her flying broom with Rale perched behind her, holding on tight and loving every minute of it, while Akari sat between Tsukitora's broad, flapping wings and directed his mount, with Aerik behind him afraid to look down and Galrich dangling by the straps across his back which kept his various weapons in place. He had his longbow in hand with an arrow notched, just in case, and was obviously having the time of his life. Tsukitora followed a sweeping dive down the mountains, skimming just over the forest below. A dead insect lay in the upper branches of a tree just ahead, showing where Tsukitora had been attacked earlier, and where the griffon had last seen his mate flying away with their egg. The group continued on in the same direction for half an hour or so, then Akari voiced his concern - "translating" the feelings he sensed from Tsukitora - that anything that would have taken over Hoshitaka's mind would likely have done so near where she was normally found, and they were straying out of the griffons' normal hunting territory. So they backtracked, and spent another hour sweeping the area, searching for anything that might lead them to the missing griffon. In the end, it turned out that they only had to get close enough to find Hoshitaka, and then she took matters into her own talons. The tan griffon suddenly flew up from between the trees, followed by another trio of winged insects. Galrich got off the first strike with an arrow, which buried itself to the feathers between two plates of chitin on the lead bug's carapace. The creature staggered in mid air and flew erratically for a bit, but continued on with the attack. This proved to be a difficult combat for the group, not only because they were unused to fighting aerial battles, but also because they didn't want to hurt Hoshitaka. As such, they concentrated their initial attacks on the winged insects, whose preferred method of aerial combat involved flicking spines from their tails in the same fashion as a manticore. Akari put [i]Deathstriker[/i] to good use, and was pleased to learn that the magical hammer would return to his hand even if he had moved a significant distance after throwing the weapon. Delphyne tried [i]charming[/i] Hoshitaka but failed - it seemed as if there were already some sort of mental dominance holding sway. After the last of the insects had been slain, Hoshitaka suddenly broke away from combat and started fleeing. Delphyne tried casting a [i]dispel magic[/i] on the griffon, to no avail. "I've got one more left!" she called out. "Give it a shot!" called back Akari. The young witch cast her last [i]dispel magic[/i] spell of the day, and to everyone's relief, Hoshitaka started flying erratically, as if mentally shaking herself from an unwanted mental influence. She suddenly dived down to a clearing below and came to a graceful landing. The others followed suit. Tsukitora landed on his back legs, released Galrich from his grip, and raced over to his mate. The two griffons rubbed necks in greeting. "Okay, so that's that," said Rale, sadly dismounting from Delphyne's broom. "Now what? I suppose we're going to track down whoever was dominating the griffon...?" Akari emphatically agreed, eager to find whoever had disrupted the life of his bonded mount. He was unable to communicate with Hoshitaka, but he was able to convey to Tsukitora the need for Hoshitaka to lead them to whoever was responsible for her mental dominance. She led the others through the thickets, and after a few moments peered out into a different clearing. Everyone followed her lead, peeking through the brush to an odd sight in the clearing beyond. There was a canopy of sorts built of sticks and branches constructed over an opening that led into a small hill. Before this canopy, two centaurs and a satyr worked with a four-armed white ape - a girallon, the group knew from experience - to cut up slain game animals into chunks, which were then taken by small, dog-sized ant-creatures under the canopy and into the opening into the hill. As the group watched, five other creatures approached the clearing: another girallon walked beside an even larger ant-creature, this one the size of a pony. Walking single file ahead of them, displaying no fear whatsoever, three deer entered the clearing. They came to a stop before the centaurs and stood motionless as the centaurs slit their throats with sharp blades. As the deer fell lifelessly to the ground, the two girallons started ripping off the deer's limbs and setting them aside. One of the smaller ant-creatures scuttled out from underneath the canopy, grabbed a dismembered deer limb, and struggled with it back into the darkness of the hillside opening. Looking closely, the group could see another of the larger ant-things standing in the shadows of the canopy, observing the proceedings closely. "Any idea what's going on?" whispered Rale to the others. "I think those ant-things are formians," whispered back Delphyne. "There are many different types, some of them rumored to be able to dominate others. I'd say the bigger ones are the dominators, and those little guys are just worker drones. Apparently they're gathering food for the nest...which must be in that opening in the hill." "So the griffon eggs are probably in there!" reasoned Akari. "I hope they haven't been eaten yet." Then another thought crossed his mind. "Are these formians local? I don't recall them living in the Beastlands." "I don't remember," admitted Delphyne. "It's possible they're expanding their territory into other planes. In any case, if we're going to attack them, we'd better make preparations. We don't want to end up dominated ourselves." Galrich noticed everyone was looking at him. "What?" he hissed. "I've only been dominated a couple of times! Well, okay, plus that once...shut up!" "What about the centaurs and the satyr?" Delphyne wanted to know. "They're probably just as innocent in all this as Hoshitaka." "Well, we'll try not to kill them," conceded Akari. "But they're going to be sent against us, so we'll have to defend ourselves. Let's concentrate our fire, as much as possible, against those two bigger formians, though - if we can take them out of the fight, we might be able to release their dominated slaves without harming them." After a short span of time spent on buffing spells - including an [i]owl's wisdom[/i] spell on Galrich, hopefully enough to boost his mental willpower to avoid being dominated - the group attacked on Rale's signal. The formian taskmaster out in the open was the sudden recipient of a [i]fireball[/i] spell, a hurled [i]Deathstriker[/i], and an arrow, all in sequence. He staggered from the sudden onslaught, but did not drop. Aerik and the griffons, lacking ranged attacks, crashed through the brush into the clearing, making as loud of a distraction as they could as they closed with the enemy. The reaction was almost instantaneous. The female centaur whirled around and started casting a spell of her own, and Aerik and Tsukitora found the grass at their feet tangling around them, trying to bind them in place. The male centaur dropped the blade he had been using to slit the throats of willing deer, reared up, and grabbed a bow from his back in one smooth motion. He concentrated on the foes he could see, primarily the two griffons. The satyr pulled out a set of pan pipes and started playing, adding a sweet melody to the area of sudden carnage. And the two girallons bounded over to where the group stood peeking through the foliage, ready for combat. At that point, the second formian taskmaster stepped out from under the canopy, standing beside the first. The two stood apart from the battle, using their dominated puppets to do their work for them. And since the first one had been dominating three deer who had since been slain, his mind could handle a couple of new puppets.... Galrich felt a familiar sensation tickling his mind before things got all muddled once again. He had raced forward into melee combat with the nearest girallon, when he suddenly cursed himself for his stupidity and took a swipe at Rale with his greatsword. [i]What was he thinking? The girallons were his friends, helping him to protect the Nest. Nothing was more important than protecting the Nest![/i] Rale had to stop his fight against the male centaur to defend himself from Galrich's sudden betrayal, and threw in a few curses himself. [i]One of these days[/i], he promised himself, [i]I'm going to get one of the Guild wizards to craft a magical helmet to prevent mental attacks from reaching its wearer, and Slayer's never going to be allowed to take the damn thing off his stupid orcish head![/i] He did his best to slam some sense into the half-orc's head, using the side of his shortsword since he knew Galrich could take a decent pounding without harm. Of course, that didn't sit too well with Aerik, who now wasn't sure which of the two had been dominated - he'd been too busy extracting himself from the centaur druid's [i]entangle[/i] spell. Still, right or wrong, it was his duty to protect Galrich from harm until he could assume the throne of Kordovia, so he veered over to keep Rale at bay. The frustrated rogue did his best to explain the situation to Aerik, and since Rale was talking reasonably and Galrich was muttering "Protect the Nest!" to himself, Aerik did the first thing he could think of - he dropped his weapon and tackled his liege to the ground, simultaneously keeping him out of the fight and preventing him from attacking any of the other party members. With Galrich taken care of, Rale was able to concentrate his efforts on the formian taskmasters, scowling to see that there were now two of them. Still, he could see which of the two was more badly damaged, so he and Delphyne pooled their efforts and took him out. Upon its death, Galrich's mind got all muddled up again, and he realized he had been fighting on the wrong team once again. He managed to explain his way out of Aerik's grappling embrace, and the two gathered up their weapons and headed back into the fray. As they did so, they saw one of the girallons bounding away, apparently also freed from its mental dominance and wanting nothing to do with all of this strangeness. Akari had started work on taking out the other formian taskmaster, and despite its best efforts at gathering its remaining mental slaves into position to protect it, it too was slain in short order. This released the centaurs, satyr, and remaining girallon. The latter joined its mate in high-tailing it out of there, while the other three stayed around long enough to thank the groups for releasing them from their mental bondage. The druid pulled a [i]stone of good luck[/i] from a leather thong around her neck and pressed it into Delphyne's hand, apparently assuming that as the only female in the group she must be the leader, and then the woodland trio departed as well. Akari healed the adventurers of the worst of their wounds by laying on hands and calling upon the power of Hieroneous, and a few them swigged down a healing potion or two as well. (It was at times like this that they missed Cal when he wasn't adventuring with them.) Then they prepared to enter the hole in the side of the hill. Akari bade Tsukitora and Hoshitaka remain behind, concerned that they'd be cramped in an underground passageway, but the griffons were having none of it - their eggs were likely ahead, so they were coming along. Light sources were passed to those who needed them (Akari had long ago gotten a good deal by bulk-purchasing sun rods), and the group entered the cave opening and proceeded into the tunnel beyond. The tunnel was about 20 feet wide and about 8 feet tall in the center. It went uphill for a short way before sloping deeper into the ground. The passageway curved to the right as it descended, and before the group had gone more than a hundred feet they met up with their first wave of enemies: four formian warriors, racing up to meet them. They were quickly followed by a second wave of a trio of formian workers, a dozen feet behind the warriors. "How'd they know we were here?" Rale groused, weapons at the ready. "Crap, I should have thought about that - they've probably got a hive mind," remarked Akari. "Kind of like everybody in the hive sees everything that all of the other formians can see." "So the whole hive knows exactly where we are?" asked Rale, not too keen on this new development. But then there was no time for further discussion, as the formian warriors and workers were upon them. Still, these were smaller and less of a problem than the two taskmasters the group had dealt with up on the surface, and they were quickly dispatched by the melee fighters, the spellcasters opting to save their spells for any more powerful foes they might encounter down here. The group continued on down the passageway. There were several side-chambers, some of them containing mold colonies and special fungus, others empty - the latter likely being where the workers and warriors dwelt when not otherwise needed. But the curving, descending main tunnel soon opened up into a large, circular area some 80 feet in diameter with a ceiling height of about 30 feet. Two colossal scorpions flanked another weird-looking formian, this one even slightly bigger than the taskmasters they'd encountered. A crude wall behind him seemed to cover over a small tunnel. Piled in front of this wall were the butchered chunks of various animals - and, they saw with delight, three griffon eggs. At a silent, mental order, the first of the scorpions skittered up to meet the adventurers, its claws opened wide. Rale tried tumbling past it and into the room, but the scorpion was much quicker than any would have guessed, and it snapped him up between its pincers. Rale screamed as it crushed him, threatening to snip his torso in two. Delphyne grabbed up her broom and flew into the chamber and above the fray, hoping to stay out of reach of the snapping pincers. But she failed to take the scorpions' tails into account, and was almost skewered by the rearmost one, who was apparently remaining behind as a guardian while the foremost scorpion dealt with the adventurers. She dodged on her broom, flying up to the very top of the ceiling and sending a [i]chain lightning[/i] down at the formian myrmarch, causing arcs of electricity to jump to the two scorpions as well. Akari leapt upon Tsukitora's back and allowed his griffon to fly him into the room, then leaped back down upon the broad back of the scorpion that held Rale in an ever-tightening grip. He stabbed down with [i]Hoardmaster[/i], but failed to penetrate the beast's chitin as much as he had hoped; a quick scan showed that none of the combatants in the room detected as evil, so the full magical enhancements of his longsword weren't able to come into play. Rale, meanwhile, knew that he had time for one more action before he was likely cut in two by the massive scorpion's pincers. There was no way he was going to get out by his strength alone, which paled in comparison to the arachnid's grip. He briefly contemplated grabbing up a healing potion, but realized that was a stop-gap measure that would buy him mere seconds of further life. Then he smiled, grabbing up a different potion from his belt, popped off the stopper with his thumb, and managed to get it close enough to his mouth that he could bite down on it and lift his head back. As the contents of the [i]potion of gaseous form[/i] slid down his throat, the scorpion's pincers clicked together, meeting each other. But by then, Rale was mere mist, which floated serenely over to the other side of the room. In the meantime, Galrich and Aerik had attacked the lead scorpion with their weapons. Galrich, predictably, was likewise snagged up in the creature's other pincer, but the tough half-orc had plenty of life left in him and merely attacked the scorpion's pincers from where he was. Aerik, concerned that his liege was about to be snipped in twain, threw all of his attacks at that scorpion as well, and the creature skittered sideways in concern. Seeing that Rale was safe - in fact, he was remanifesting into solid form in the shadows at the back of the cavern - Delphyne switched targets and unleashed a [i]fireball[/i] spell at the scorpion that was currently holding Galrich in a death-grip. Fortunately, the beast was large enough that the young witch was confident she could cover the majority of the scorpion in her blast radius without affecting Galrich or Aerik. She was correct, and focused her attention on that scorpion from the relative safety of the top of the cavern. After all, she reasoned, even if the two scorpions were released from the formian myrmarch's control, they'd still likely fight off anyone who wanted to steal back the griffon eggs from their nest. In any case, the myrmarch had problems of its own - namely, two furious griffons who saw it as the likely cause of their eggs' current dangerous situation. They dived at the insect, biting and ripping at it until the myrmarch had to bring the second scorpion in to rescue him from their assault. That gave Rale the opening he'd been waiting for. Ever curious, the young rogue wondered just was so important that it was being walled up and guarded by the largest pair of scorpion's he'd ever set his eyes on. The wall looked hastily made, consisting of stones from the surface mortared together by a combination of what he assumed was mud and worker spittle. He pulled down the first few stones, and the way was easier from then on. Once he had made an opening large enough for him to squirm through, he did just that, and found a rubbery, pale white egg on the other side. [i]That's it?[/i] he thought. [i]All this for a crummy egg?[/i] The rogue lashed out at the egg with his boot, kicking a hole in its side and revealing a partially formed insect inside. Who knew what kind of stupid formian this one was? Still it was his favorite type of target - helpless - so he sliced it up with his twin blades. Rale didn't get to see it, but the myrmarch's reaction to the unborn formian queen's death was instant. He went from a confident warrior doing his best to fight off two furious griffons to a quivering mass of panic in an instant. The pathetic bug did its best to curl itself up into a ball on the ground, and the griffons made short work of it thereafter. In the meantime, Delphyne's prediction bore fruit, as the colossal scorpions, now released from their mental bondage, continued to fight for the safety of their nest. By this time, the combined melee might of Galrich, Aerik, and Akari had just about finished the first scorpion; Delphyne, sensing just how close it was to death, finished it off with a blast from her [i]wand of magic missiles[/i]. Its body relaxed as it died, and Galrich was finally able to extricate himself from its pincers. That left the remaining scorpion. It rushed out at the invaders, and the melee combatants ran to either side, opting to attack it between its legs rather than face those pincers head on. The griffons, having slain the myrmarch by this time, took to the air and leapt upon the vermin's back, clawing and biting it near the beginning of its tail. With so many allied combatants in the way, Delphyne opted to forgo her remaining [i]fireball[/i] spell and pumped out a series of blasts from her [i]wand of magic missiles[/i] - it took longer that way, but the end result was the same, and the second scorpion eventually collapsed to the ground in death. Rale crawled back out over the partially-demolished wall, holding a small cube in his hand. "What's that?" asked Aerik, the closest to the rogue as he rejoined the group. "No idea," admitted Rale. He passed it to Delphyne for her scrutiny. As she turned it over and over, examining each face, she commented, "These are symbols for the Elemental Planes." "That's only four. So what are the other two?" asked Rale. "This one might be the Prime Material Plane," she said. "And this one, I'm not sure. Is this the Beastlands, maybe?" Akari gave it a look, and confirmed her guess - that was, indeed, the traditional symbol for the Beastlands. Piecing together what they could from the facts they had on hand, the group assumed that somehow, a nest of formians had gotten their hands on this [i]cubic gate[/i] - possibly looted from an adventurer who had encountered their nest in his travels - and they opted to use it to begin a new nest in the Beastlands. Sending over a myrmarch, two taskmasters, a handful of warriors, winged warriors, and workers, and, most importantly, the egg of an unborn queen - who, despite her unhatched status, was still able to link the new colony together telepathically to form their hive mind - they had everything they needed to start a new formian colony right in Tsukitora's backyard. Only their direct intervention had prevented the formian race from establishing a beachhead in the Beastlands, which, if not stopped, could eventually have made them a permanent presence on the plane. Akari dug through the pile of jumbled body parts - a first meal, no doubt, intended for the ravenous queen upon her imminent hatching, seeing as how the scorpions hadn't been allowed to touch it - and pulled free the three griffon eggs. Then the group carefully returned them to the surface, and stood guard over the third egg while Tsukitora and his mate Hoshitaka each hefted one in their foreclaws and flew back to their nest with them. "Hey, what the Hell?" asked Rale, gazing up at the sun overhead. "It's still noon!" "It's always noon here on Krigala," explained Akari. "Weird," commented Rale with a look of disdain. Tsukitora returned alone several minutes later, and Akari passed him the third and final egg. "Goodbye for now, old friend," he said, ruffling the feathers at the side of his mount's head. The snow-white griffon cawed in response, then grabbed up his egg, and with a flap of his mighty wings, took to the air. Akari watched him until he was no longer visible in the sky, then turned to Delphyne. "Shall we?" he asked. "Indeed we shall," she replied, pushing the side of the [i]cubic gate[/i] that held the symbol of the Prime Material Plane. In an instant, the five adventurers were gone. They didn't end up anywhere remotely close to Greyhawk City, but after resting up for the night, Delphyne prepared a [i]teleport[/i] spell and they all made it back to Guild Headquarters in one piece. - - - There was one main reason I wrote this adventure: my local Target store had a bunch of plastic bugs on sale for a dollar each. I picked up two scorpions (each about 7 inches long and 5 inches wide, and that's with the tail curled up over the body) and a spider (built like a tarantula, with a 9-inch diameter legspan). So that's the main reason the formian incursion into the Beastlands began with a mated pair of celestial scorpions. And, equally eager to put my spider to good use, I inserted it into the very next adventure. [/QUOTE]
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