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<blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 6139665" data-attributes="member: 508"><p><strong>ADVENTURE 69 - STONE OF THE FLESHWARPERS</strong></p><p></p><p>PC Roster: <p style="margin-left: 20px">Akari, tiefling paladin of Hieroneous</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Feron Dru, half-elf druid</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Galrich Slayer, half-orc barbarian</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Rale Bodkin, human rogue</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Thunderwolf, human fighter</p><p></p><p>NPC Roster: <p style="margin-left: 20px">Abercrombie, human-faced rat wizard</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Aerik Battershield, dwarven fighter/dwarven defender</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Quiffington, duckbunny with the blended minds of four wizards</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Tamble "Sky-Captain" Paddiwack, gnome rogue/illusionist</p><p></p><p>Well, this is a bummer. We played through the first part of this adventure back in early May, and I had hoped we'd be finishing it off tomorrow, but I found out yesterday that our next gaming session won't be until 22 June. So, rather than wait another three weeks before finishing this adventure and then tacking the ending onto what I have written thus far, I think I'll post what I have now and then after we finish it up, I can come back and write up the conclusion.</p><p></p><p> - - - </p><p></p><p>Akari, Feron, Galrich, Rale, Thunderwolf, and Aerik filed into the Guild briefing room. Guildmaster Farthingale sat at the head of the table, his regal bearing somewhat offset by the presence of Quiffington, the duckbunny with a blended amalgamation of the minds of four different wild mages, who perched on the table on his four webbed feet at Farthingale's left. Also present on the table and nibbling on a small piece of cheese was Abercrombie, the human-headed rat and former aberrant familiar of Percival Alabaster Strangeway of the now-defunct Cult of the Far Realm.</p><p></p><p>"Thank you all for coming," intoned Farthingale, bringing the odd meeting to order. "We have...amassed a rather odd collection of individuals in recent months. Besides these two here, we now also have a large goat with four human and half-elf heads grafted to its side. The Guild has been taking care of them until we could find some way to permanently cure them of their various, uh, ailments.</p><p></p><p>"As you know, the Guild has tried on numerous occasions to <em>polymorph</em> them back into their human forms, but that has never been a permanent solution, for the wild magic surge and Far Realm magic responsible for their respective transformations has slowly, over time, always returned them back to their current forms. However, the Guild sages, with assistance from the Order of Boccob, have recently unearthed a historical text that might hold the key to restoring them permanently. It seems there was a civilization, now long since fallen, in the southern continent of Hepmonaland built around gladiatorial combat between captured slaves and an assortment of fantastic creatures. These combats were seen as sacrifices to their strange gods. One arena/temple in particular was renowned for the wide variety of strange creatures used in their combat arena; the texts state that the creatures used in the arena were often hybrid creatures magically crafted from the existing local fauna and altered into all sorts of odd forms. The key to these magical transformations was a magical gem called the 'stone of the fleshwarpers' that had fallen from the sky, which provided the power needed to permanently alter a given form.</p><p></p><p>"I believe if your group can find this stone of the fleshwarpers and return it here to Greyhawk City, our Guild wizards should be able to permanently restore Quiffington, Abercrombie, and the four spellcasters whose heads are grafted to the goat's side. I have made arrangements to send you through the teleport circle downstairs to the Thunder Bay Adventurers Guild in the southern continent. Quiffington and Abercrombie have elected to travel with you; the goat will remain behind. Does anyone have any questions?"</p><p></p><p>No one did; the quest seemed simple enough. Before too long, the adventurers and their formerly-human allies (along with Felix, Feron's eagle animal companion, and Fang, Galrich's trained dire wolf) were stepping through the teleport circle in the basement of the Adventurers Guild Headquarters and stepping out of a similar structure a continent away. They were met by a grizzled fighter wearing leather armor, with a sword strapped to his hip.</p><p></p><p>"Well, well," sneered the fighter, looking over the Wing Three adventurers. "Looks like it's them fancy adventurin'-type folks from Greyhawk City, come here to show all us poor folk just exactly how this heroing business is supposed to be done! I'm <strong>Palimar</strong>, the Guildmaster 'round these parts, and forgive me if I don't fawn all over you. C'mon, this way," he said, and turned on his heel, walking outside into the open air of the wooden fortress that kept the jungle at bay. He didn't bother to see if the Wing Three adventurers were following, and his attitude suggested he didn't particularly care.</p><p></p><p>"I've got your transportation ready," Palimar said. "That fat piece of pork Farthingale gave us a copy of the map showing where you wanna go, and I doubt you'd make it that far on foot, so I arranged you some accommodations better suited to your level of roughness. All you have to do is sit down, make yourselves all comfy and cozy, and maybe look out the window if you wanna. I imagine that's a bit more your speed, anyway." And with that, Palimar turned away again and headed over to a large clearing, where sat an odd-looking wooden structure, looking somewhat like an oversized picnic basket with a door in the back. Off to one side, a small group of kids were amusing themselves playing at swordfights with sticks.</p><p></p><p>"Hey, Sky-Captain!" called out the Guildmaster. "Your self-loading cargo is here!"</p><p></p><p>One of the "kids" broke off from the others, to cries of "Aw, c'mon, Tamble!" <strong>Tamble "Sky-Captain" Paddiwack</strong> approached the group; she was a female gnome clad in leather armor, with a pair of goggles pushed up on top of her head. She appeared much more friendly and outgoing than Palimar, and welcomed the Wing Three adventurers to the southern continent. After asking them if they were ready to go, she opened the door in the rear of the wooden construction. Inside were two benches, room enough to seat six humans reasonably comfortably, with a shelf above each bench to stow small items. (Feron, still creeped out by the appearance of Abercrombie, insisted that he and Quiffington spend the trip on the shelves above their heads rather than on their laps - which had been Abercrombie's stated preference.) Tamble said the trip should be about five hours. She was familiar with the ruin they sought, calling it "the Teardrop Serpent," although she'd never landed there.</p><p></p><p>Once everyone was settled, Tamble whistled for her trained roc, which flew down and perched on the "handle" of the oversized "picnic basket." The little gnome scrambled up on top of the wooden box, then climbed up onto the back of the roc's neck. "Off we go!" she called, and with a jolt the roc took to the air, the wooden compartment containing the adventurers gripped in a pair of massive talons.</p><p></p><p>The first four hours of the flight went fairly well, although Fang's presence ensured a tight fit in the compartment. The group saw the jungle passing by below them through the narrow, horizontal openings that served as windows on all four sides of the roc-borne craft as they streaked through the sky.</p><p></p><p>Suddenly, the whole capsule jostled from side to side, as if the roc were dodging and weaving. There was a sudden gnomish curse, followed by the sounds of a wand being activated. The heroes scrambled to the window-slits, desperately trying to catch a glimpse of what was happening above, but the angles were all wrong. Akari took matters into his own hands by opening the door in the rear of the craft and jumping out. Feron stifled a scream once she remembered the tiefling paladin wore a <em>ring of feather falling</em>, and would not be plummeting immediately to his death. Indeed, as he leapt from the craft he mentally summoned his griffon riding mount Tsukitora from his home in the Beastlands, and the snow-white beast manifested in the air, saw his master slowly falling from the sky, and maneuvered himself below the paladin, catching him on his broad back. Then Akari flew Tsukitora back over to the roc, while inside the craft, Rale was tying the end of a rope to the wooden slat between two window-slits so they'd all have something to hold on to, and Thunderwolf frantically grabbed for the door and slammed it back shut.</p><p></p><p>Rising up to the level of the roc, Akari and Tsukitora could see what the problem was - two winged constrictor snakes had flown up from the jungle below and attacked Tamble and the roc. One had bitten the roc in the throat and had wrapped its sinuous body around the great bird's neck, slowly choking it to death; as Akari watched, its talons unclenched and the wooden capsule suddenly plummeted.</p><p></p><p>Inside the capsule, the adventurers and their animal (and monstrosity) companions rose up from their seats as they experienced a few frightening moments of freefall. Suddenly, Tamble's disembodied head appeared in the front of the capsule and began speaking, courtesy of a preprogrammed illusion spell. "We seem to be in free fall," she commented quite pleasantly to the group. Just as suddenly, the fall stopped in mid-air, sending everyone sprawling on the floor in a tangle of limbs. Feron was aghast to see that Abercrombie had fallen onto her chest and was burying himself in fear in her hair. "Not to worry, though," continued Tamble’s illusory, disembodied head, "as a <em>feather fall</em> spell should be kicking in at any moment."</p><p></p><p>"Timely," grumbled Rale.</p><p></p><p>In the meantime, the second feathered serpent had gotten a grip on Tamble, knocked her from her perch, and was wrapping her up in its coils. Akari, seeing that the craft seemed to have stopped its rapid descent to the ground below, wheeled Tsukitora around to pursue the gnome. Inside the slowly-falling craft, Feron disentangled herself from the rat-thing and wildshaped into a Large air elemental, exiting via a window-crack and flying over to see if she could aid the roc - who was, after all, their way back to Thunder Bay. By the time she made it to the roc, though, it had lost consciousness and began plummeting to the ground below, following the craft it had dropped but at a much faster rate of speed.</p><p></p><p>Still, of the two, the craft hit first. Fortunately, it splashed down in the middle of a fast-moving river, at which time Tamble's illusory head announced perkily, "We appear to have hit water. Please wait as the craft reconfigures itself for water travel." A control lever silently rose up from the floor. "If one of you would like to steer, a rudder is unfolding from the bottom of the craft," suggested Tamble’s floating head. Rale and Galrich were at the front of the craft where the control lever had risen; the rogue grabbed it first, deciding he liked his chances better if he were piloting the vessel rather than the impulsive half-orc. Watching the rapids ahead, he swerved the craft around two upthrust rocks in rapid succession, but was unable to avoid hitting a third; the vessel crashed against the rock and swerved sideways before being carried along by the fast currents. Unseen behind them, the roc splashed into the river some ways behind them and began shadowing the craft it once carried. Feron had caught up by this point and battered the serpent still wrapped around the great bird's neck with her elemental fists, but while she eventually convinced the creature to untangle itself from the roc and swim away to save itself, she was too late for the roc, who had suffocated under the snake's constricting attack.</p><p></p><p>Fortunately, Akari and Tsukitora had had better luck in rescuing Tamble. The griffon had flown up behind the winged constrictor and gotten its tail in his sharp beak, and the serpent eventually decided to release the gnome in order to better fight off the creature attempting to bite it in half. Tamble, released, plummeted a few short feet before her own <em>ring of feather falling</em> kicked in; no doubt she wore the ring for the same reason Akari did - it was practically a necessity when riding an aerial steed. After Tsukitora and Akari finished off the snake, they flew over to the gnome and Akari plucked her out of the sky. She was unconscious, and looked to have some broken ribs, but she was still breathing. Akari used his lay on hands ability to heal her ribs, and she breathed easier after that, although she remained unconscious. Akari opted to let her sleep.</p><p></p><p>Down below, though, things weren't quite so pleasant. Water was spraying into the craft from the window-slits, and the door wasn't entirely water-tight, so there was an inch or two of water on the floor as Rale desperately tried steering the craft back to a forward-facing configuration as it was borne sideways down the winding river's path. He'd probably have eventually gotten it, too - had it not been for the waterfall. The craft tipped over the side of the waterfall, knocking everyone still on board over to one of the walls as the vessel did a 90-degree rotation. Of course, it didn't get to fall too much in this orientation before the <em>feather fall</em> effect kicked back in, so the group once again found themselves piled on top of each other, only this time with water from the rushing waterfall sluicing in from the window-slits, which were now at the craft's new "roof." When it hit the pool at the bottom of the waterfall, water spilled up from the window-slits at the "floor" and the craft sank slowly sideways.</p><p></p><p>"Everybody out!" called Rale from the vessel's original front. Thunderwolf and Aerik, at the vessel's original back, got the door open, and they started exiting when they found their next source of trouble: a giant crocodile swam in this pool, and was somewhat intrigued at the sight of a meal being delivered to it. It swam over to the vessel's open door and snapped at anyone attempting to exit.</p><p></p><p>Galrich wasn't about to let anyone else horn in on the first opportunity he'd had this whole trip to actually do something; he pushed his way to the door and stabbed at the crocodile with his greatsword. Aerik attempted to do the same, but dwarves aren't particularly buoyant swimmers at the best of times, and even less so when burdened with heavy armor; he sank like a stone and had to scramble over to the edge of the pool, climbing up onto the bank. Felix grabbed up a frightened Abercrombie and exited the craft, his powerful wings pulling him through the water until he hit the surface and could become airborne; Abercrombie's frantic cries were heard all the way to shore. Fang and Quiffington exited the door in the safety that came from being behind Thunderwolf and Galrich, who were busy fighting off the giant crocodile, and Rale thought that looked like a particularly safe route and quickly followed suit. The two sword-wielding adventurers soon finished off the hungry reptile, and made it back up to the surface, where they greedily gasped lungfuls of fresh air - and heard Feron's frantic cries for everyone to get out of the way, quickly!</p><p></p><p>Because right then, the roc's corpse tumbled over the edge of the waterfall and came crashing down upon the submerged vessel. A massive wing slammed into Galrich and sent him sprawling back into the water, while the roc's body broke the foundering craft into splinters. "There goes our way home," lamented Rale from the safety of the pool's edge.</p><p></p><p>Still, as things went, they weren't faring too badly. Everyone gathered back together, and Akari healed Tamble enough to wake her and brief her on what all had transpired. She was saddened at the loss of her roc, but grateful to have been saved from the coils of the winged serpent. She agreed to help get the group to the Teardrop Serpent, but had no intentions of exploring its inner contents. She showed them where they were on the map, and estimated it was another hour's flight away, or several days on foot. A new plan was hastily made; Feron resumed her normal form and removed the <em>Daern's dollhouse</em> from her pack. Rale, Thunderwolf, Galrich, Aerik, Fang, Abercrombie, and Quiffington went inside, then Feron packed it away again, put the magical haversack back on her own back, and wildshaped into an eagle. Tamble and Akari mounted Tsukitora, while eagle-Feron and Felix took to the air and followed the white griffon as Akari led it to the Teardrop Serpent as per Tamble's directions.</p><p></p><p>Roughly an hour later, the Teardrop Serpent came into view. It was in a small clearing in the jungle, and its name was very apparent, for it was indeed carved in the shape of a teardrop, with a mosaic of a snake eating its own tail carved into the structure's top surface. Dropping to the ground near the "point" of the teardrop shape, Akari and Tamble dismounted from Tsukitora while Feron and Felix landed nearby. There was a smaller structure near the Teardrop, a small stone pillar some 8 feet tall and 5 feet wide, with a rounded top and a series of serpents carved in bas-relief on all sides. Unseen by the group, the tip of a blowgun extended through a hole between several of the carved serpents, and a poison-tipped dart was shot into Tsukitora's side. The griffon yelped and reared back; Akari moved forward to examine the structure and was shot by a dart himself, although it lodged in his tabard and didn't pierce through his armor. Then a series of calls came from inside the structure, a deep blaring like that of a horn of some type.</p><p></p><p>Feron resumed her half-elven form and unpacked the <em>Daern's dollhouse</em>, allowing the rest of the group to exit (except for Quiffington and Abercrombie, who remained inside, and Tamble took the opportunity to enter the magical habitation herself to rest up after her near-death experience). The adventurers crowded around the structure, trying to peer inside it. Seeing as how the poison darts weren't having the desired effects, the creature inside the hollow structure tried a different tactic: it reached its hands through the stone, grabbed up Akari, and tried slamming him into the stone. Unfortunately, the scaled hands had only gotten purchase on his cloak, and instead of crashing his face into the stone structure the creature inside only managed to tug on Akari's cloak a bit, to no effect.</p><p></p><p>However, the fact that there was no apparent door in the structure to allow a pair of arms to extend through got Akari wondering if the whole thing was an illusion of some sort. He stood there, concentrating on trying to see through this illusion, to no effect. Then Feron, tired of the whole ordeal, summoned a Huge earth elemental to pick the whole structure up and toss it aside. Revealed within was an ophidian, a snake-man with short, stumpy legs who wielded a curved blade as well as a blowgun. He tried brandishing his weapon at Akari, but was slammed to death by the earth elemental before he got to land a solid blow himself.</p><p></p><p>By that time, Galrich and Rale had started climbing the Teardrop Serpent structure, for the "point" of the teardrop, and the edges on either side, formed a ramp of sorts leading up to the top of the 20-foot-tall "ring" part of the building. Halfway up, there was a commotion from the jungle's edge directly across the structure, and a small band of eight lizardfolk fighters entered the clearing, javelins and clubs ready for action. Feron reacted by calling up a <em>wall of fire</em> directly across the majority of the line of lizardfolk; they hissed in pain and dropped back, making their way around the vertical sheet of flames. But Feron sent her Huge earth elemental to meet them, and then conjured up another one for good measure. Thunderwolf and Fang climbed up the sloping ramp, and while the young fighter used his higher ground to shoot arrows down at the approaching lizardfolk as they approached the Teardrop Serpent, Galrich and Fang used the ramp as a means of getting in a good charge as they leaped down upon their foes. Fang killed his foe immediately and started eating the slain lizardfolk; Galrich cut his in half with his sword but opted not to stop for a snack. The earth elementals finished up the remaining lizardfolk as they made their way from behind the <em>wall of fire</em>.</p><p></p><p>In the meantime, Akari had also climbed up to the top of the Teardrop Serpent, and was examining the twenty evenly-spaced pillars rising up from the top of the ring of the temple/arena, when up from the arena's center flew a medusa. The fact that this medusa had popped up out of nowhere and was flying wasn't the most unusual thing about her; rather, it was the fact that she shot rays from several of the serpents that grew from her scalp. Several hit Akari with no effect. One of them hit Galrich as he climbed back up the slope to the top of the ring, and he suddenly became enraged at the realization that Akari had killed his puppy, his one and only true friend, Akari not only killed his puppy but then he <em>laughed</em> about it, and Galrich hated Akari like he had never hated anyone before in his life, and wanted him dead! Fortunately, Akari saw the sudden transformation on Galrich's face - the half-orc would never be a good poker player under the best of conditions - and the newly-minted tiefling paladin had the sense of mind to cast a <em>magic circle against evil</em> spell upon himself, which shielded Galrich from mental control as long as he was in close enough proximity to Akari. Galrich suddenly realized that the only puppy he had ever had in his entire life was Fang, who was busy chowing down on dead lizardfolk at the bottom of the temple/arena, and Akari had never harmed Fang, and <em>dammit, who's been playing around with my mind again? The medusa? Lemme at her!</em></p><p></p><p>The medusa was slain by a combination of Tsukitora's claw and bite attacks (for the griffon had flown up to meet this aerial foe who was attacking his master) and a grab-and-smash from one of the earth elementals, who had used its innate earth glide ability to walk through the Teardrop Serpent, as it was made of individual stones fitted together so perfectly as to give the appearance of having been carved in a single piece. Still, there was little respite, for almost immediately a four-headed hydra appeared in the middle of the arena. Surprisingly, instead of rushing forward and snapping with its jaws or spitting a breath weapon of some sort at its enemies, it cast a <em>chain lightning</em> spell at Tsukitora, branching off to also hit Aerik, Akari, Galrich, and the earth elemental there in the arena with it. That went so well the hydra did the same thing again almost immediately, and followed it up with a <em>cone of cold</em> and a <em>spell resistence</em> spell. To the adventurers' chagrin, they realized that not only was this hydra a spellcaster, each of its heads could cast a spell independently of the others!</p><p></p><p>The nagahydra gave the Wing Three heroes the toughest fight of their lives to that point. A second round of a quartet of spells all at once left Aerik dying on the arena sands and Akari staggering on his feet, about to slip into unconsciousness himself; only the fact that one of the nagahydra's heads was more into defense than offense (opting to cast a <em>protection from energy</em> spell on itself rather than another <em>chain lightning</em> or <em>cone of cold</em>, like its head-brothers had done) kept Aerik and Akari from dying right then and there. Akari staggered over to Aerik's crumpled body and channeled his remaining healing energy into the dwarf's body via his laying on hands, while Feron's casting of a <em>mass cure moderate wounds</em> probably saved the tiefling's life. In the meantime, Galrich leaped from the top of the temple/arena onto the second earth elemental's shoulder, and from there to the sand of the arena, and continued his charge at ground level, tearing into the nagahydra with his greatsword. Thunderwolf pelted it with arrows from the rooftop, and it was actually one of his arrows that finished off the powerful beast.</p><p></p><p>But by that time, there was another combatant in the ring. This was a triceratops, unique from all of the others of its kind in that it shot <em>scorching rays</em> from its two longest horns. Nobody saw where it had come from; one moment it wasn't there and the next it was, almost as if it had sprung forth from the very sands of the arena itself.</p><p></p><p> - - - </p><p></p><p>That's as far as we got. Akari is down to 4 hit points with all of his lay on hands ability used up, and he's seriously considering binking back to Guild Headquarters as his very first action next gaming session. That'll be a first for this campaign: I don't think Telgrane's ever had to bink in to replace Akari before; usually, it flows in the opposite direction. (Of course, Akari used to be much higher level than Telgrane; now Akari's a 16th-level paladin and Telgrane's a 15th-level conjurer, so even with Akari's +1 Level Adjustment for his tiefling status, they're not as far apart as they used to be.)</p><p></p><p>To "record the scene" for the next session, I did the following: I put a rubber band around my initiative deck, and it will remain untouched until we play again, so I'll know exactly who's taking their actions next. Since I used a paper geomorph (the back of an entire sheet from a desk calendar, upon which the Teardrop Serpent is drawn over my 1"-square grid), I lightly penciled in the locations of each of the PCs and their various allies and enemies, so I'll be able to "rebuild the board" the way we left it. I have a PC tracking sheet which I print off each session; for the next one, I'll just continue using the one I started for this session, which has the PCs' current hit point levels, which spell slots have been expended, and notes as to which spells are active. (For the record, Akari has a <em>magic circle vs. evil</em> active, which will disappear if he binks away - I hope Logan's taking that into account. Feron has a <em>stoneskin</em> active, and Rale's gulped down a vial of antitoxin as a preventive measure.)</p><p></p><p>Hopefully nothing will change in the meantime, and we'll be able to keep our 22 June session on the books!</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Richards, post: 6139665, member: 508"] [b]ADVENTURE 69 - STONE OF THE FLESHWARPERS[/b] PC Roster: [INDENT]Akari, tiefling paladin of Hieroneous Feron Dru, half-elf druid Galrich Slayer, half-orc barbarian Rale Bodkin, human rogue Thunderwolf, human fighter[/INDENT] NPC Roster: [INDENT]Abercrombie, human-faced rat wizard Aerik Battershield, dwarven fighter/dwarven defender Quiffington, duckbunny with the blended minds of four wizards Tamble "Sky-Captain" Paddiwack, gnome rogue/illusionist[/INDENT] Well, this is a bummer. We played through the first part of this adventure back in early May, and I had hoped we'd be finishing it off tomorrow, but I found out yesterday that our next gaming session won't be until 22 June. So, rather than wait another three weeks before finishing this adventure and then tacking the ending onto what I have written thus far, I think I'll post what I have now and then after we finish it up, I can come back and write up the conclusion. - - - Akari, Feron, Galrich, Rale, Thunderwolf, and Aerik filed into the Guild briefing room. Guildmaster Farthingale sat at the head of the table, his regal bearing somewhat offset by the presence of Quiffington, the duckbunny with a blended amalgamation of the minds of four different wild mages, who perched on the table on his four webbed feet at Farthingale's left. Also present on the table and nibbling on a small piece of cheese was Abercrombie, the human-headed rat and former aberrant familiar of Percival Alabaster Strangeway of the now-defunct Cult of the Far Realm. "Thank you all for coming," intoned Farthingale, bringing the odd meeting to order. "We have...amassed a rather odd collection of individuals in recent months. Besides these two here, we now also have a large goat with four human and half-elf heads grafted to its side. The Guild has been taking care of them until we could find some way to permanently cure them of their various, uh, ailments. "As you know, the Guild has tried on numerous occasions to [i]polymorph[/i] them back into their human forms, but that has never been a permanent solution, for the wild magic surge and Far Realm magic responsible for their respective transformations has slowly, over time, always returned them back to their current forms. However, the Guild sages, with assistance from the Order of Boccob, have recently unearthed a historical text that might hold the key to restoring them permanently. It seems there was a civilization, now long since fallen, in the southern continent of Hepmonaland built around gladiatorial combat between captured slaves and an assortment of fantastic creatures. These combats were seen as sacrifices to their strange gods. One arena/temple in particular was renowned for the wide variety of strange creatures used in their combat arena; the texts state that the creatures used in the arena were often hybrid creatures magically crafted from the existing local fauna and altered into all sorts of odd forms. The key to these magical transformations was a magical gem called the 'stone of the fleshwarpers' that had fallen from the sky, which provided the power needed to permanently alter a given form. "I believe if your group can find this stone of the fleshwarpers and return it here to Greyhawk City, our Guild wizards should be able to permanently restore Quiffington, Abercrombie, and the four spellcasters whose heads are grafted to the goat's side. I have made arrangements to send you through the teleport circle downstairs to the Thunder Bay Adventurers Guild in the southern continent. Quiffington and Abercrombie have elected to travel with you; the goat will remain behind. Does anyone have any questions?" No one did; the quest seemed simple enough. Before too long, the adventurers and their formerly-human allies (along with Felix, Feron's eagle animal companion, and Fang, Galrich's trained dire wolf) were stepping through the teleport circle in the basement of the Adventurers Guild Headquarters and stepping out of a similar structure a continent away. They were met by a grizzled fighter wearing leather armor, with a sword strapped to his hip. "Well, well," sneered the fighter, looking over the Wing Three adventurers. "Looks like it's them fancy adventurin'-type folks from Greyhawk City, come here to show all us poor folk just exactly how this heroing business is supposed to be done! I'm [b]Palimar[/b], the Guildmaster 'round these parts, and forgive me if I don't fawn all over you. C'mon, this way," he said, and turned on his heel, walking outside into the open air of the wooden fortress that kept the jungle at bay. He didn't bother to see if the Wing Three adventurers were following, and his attitude suggested he didn't particularly care. "I've got your transportation ready," Palimar said. "That fat piece of pork Farthingale gave us a copy of the map showing where you wanna go, and I doubt you'd make it that far on foot, so I arranged you some accommodations better suited to your level of roughness. All you have to do is sit down, make yourselves all comfy and cozy, and maybe look out the window if you wanna. I imagine that's a bit more your speed, anyway." And with that, Palimar turned away again and headed over to a large clearing, where sat an odd-looking wooden structure, looking somewhat like an oversized picnic basket with a door in the back. Off to one side, a small group of kids were amusing themselves playing at swordfights with sticks. "Hey, Sky-Captain!" called out the Guildmaster. "Your self-loading cargo is here!" One of the "kids" broke off from the others, to cries of "Aw, c'mon, Tamble!" [b]Tamble "Sky-Captain" Paddiwack[/b] approached the group; she was a female gnome clad in leather armor, with a pair of goggles pushed up on top of her head. She appeared much more friendly and outgoing than Palimar, and welcomed the Wing Three adventurers to the southern continent. After asking them if they were ready to go, she opened the door in the rear of the wooden construction. Inside were two benches, room enough to seat six humans reasonably comfortably, with a shelf above each bench to stow small items. (Feron, still creeped out by the appearance of Abercrombie, insisted that he and Quiffington spend the trip on the shelves above their heads rather than on their laps - which had been Abercrombie's stated preference.) Tamble said the trip should be about five hours. She was familiar with the ruin they sought, calling it "the Teardrop Serpent," although she'd never landed there. Once everyone was settled, Tamble whistled for her trained roc, which flew down and perched on the "handle" of the oversized "picnic basket." The little gnome scrambled up on top of the wooden box, then climbed up onto the back of the roc's neck. "Off we go!" she called, and with a jolt the roc took to the air, the wooden compartment containing the adventurers gripped in a pair of massive talons. The first four hours of the flight went fairly well, although Fang's presence ensured a tight fit in the compartment. The group saw the jungle passing by below them through the narrow, horizontal openings that served as windows on all four sides of the roc-borne craft as they streaked through the sky. Suddenly, the whole capsule jostled from side to side, as if the roc were dodging and weaving. There was a sudden gnomish curse, followed by the sounds of a wand being activated. The heroes scrambled to the window-slits, desperately trying to catch a glimpse of what was happening above, but the angles were all wrong. Akari took matters into his own hands by opening the door in the rear of the craft and jumping out. Feron stifled a scream once she remembered the tiefling paladin wore a [i]ring of feather falling[/i], and would not be plummeting immediately to his death. Indeed, as he leapt from the craft he mentally summoned his griffon riding mount Tsukitora from his home in the Beastlands, and the snow-white beast manifested in the air, saw his master slowly falling from the sky, and maneuvered himself below the paladin, catching him on his broad back. Then Akari flew Tsukitora back over to the roc, while inside the craft, Rale was tying the end of a rope to the wooden slat between two window-slits so they'd all have something to hold on to, and Thunderwolf frantically grabbed for the door and slammed it back shut. Rising up to the level of the roc, Akari and Tsukitora could see what the problem was - two winged constrictor snakes had flown up from the jungle below and attacked Tamble and the roc. One had bitten the roc in the throat and had wrapped its sinuous body around the great bird's neck, slowly choking it to death; as Akari watched, its talons unclenched and the wooden capsule suddenly plummeted. Inside the capsule, the adventurers and their animal (and monstrosity) companions rose up from their seats as they experienced a few frightening moments of freefall. Suddenly, Tamble's disembodied head appeared in the front of the capsule and began speaking, courtesy of a preprogrammed illusion spell. "We seem to be in free fall," she commented quite pleasantly to the group. Just as suddenly, the fall stopped in mid-air, sending everyone sprawling on the floor in a tangle of limbs. Feron was aghast to see that Abercrombie had fallen onto her chest and was burying himself in fear in her hair. "Not to worry, though," continued Tamble’s illusory, disembodied head, "as a [i]feather fall[/i] spell should be kicking in at any moment." "Timely," grumbled Rale. In the meantime, the second feathered serpent had gotten a grip on Tamble, knocked her from her perch, and was wrapping her up in its coils. Akari, seeing that the craft seemed to have stopped its rapid descent to the ground below, wheeled Tsukitora around to pursue the gnome. Inside the slowly-falling craft, Feron disentangled herself from the rat-thing and wildshaped into a Large air elemental, exiting via a window-crack and flying over to see if she could aid the roc - who was, after all, their way back to Thunder Bay. By the time she made it to the roc, though, it had lost consciousness and began plummeting to the ground below, following the craft it had dropped but at a much faster rate of speed. Still, of the two, the craft hit first. Fortunately, it splashed down in the middle of a fast-moving river, at which time Tamble's illusory head announced perkily, "We appear to have hit water. Please wait as the craft reconfigures itself for water travel." A control lever silently rose up from the floor. "If one of you would like to steer, a rudder is unfolding from the bottom of the craft," suggested Tamble’s floating head. Rale and Galrich were at the front of the craft where the control lever had risen; the rogue grabbed it first, deciding he liked his chances better if he were piloting the vessel rather than the impulsive half-orc. Watching the rapids ahead, he swerved the craft around two upthrust rocks in rapid succession, but was unable to avoid hitting a third; the vessel crashed against the rock and swerved sideways before being carried along by the fast currents. Unseen behind them, the roc splashed into the river some ways behind them and began shadowing the craft it once carried. Feron had caught up by this point and battered the serpent still wrapped around the great bird's neck with her elemental fists, but while she eventually convinced the creature to untangle itself from the roc and swim away to save itself, she was too late for the roc, who had suffocated under the snake's constricting attack. Fortunately, Akari and Tsukitora had had better luck in rescuing Tamble. The griffon had flown up behind the winged constrictor and gotten its tail in his sharp beak, and the serpent eventually decided to release the gnome in order to better fight off the creature attempting to bite it in half. Tamble, released, plummeted a few short feet before her own [i]ring of feather falling[/i] kicked in; no doubt she wore the ring for the same reason Akari did - it was practically a necessity when riding an aerial steed. After Tsukitora and Akari finished off the snake, they flew over to the gnome and Akari plucked her out of the sky. She was unconscious, and looked to have some broken ribs, but she was still breathing. Akari used his lay on hands ability to heal her ribs, and she breathed easier after that, although she remained unconscious. Akari opted to let her sleep. Down below, though, things weren't quite so pleasant. Water was spraying into the craft from the window-slits, and the door wasn't entirely water-tight, so there was an inch or two of water on the floor as Rale desperately tried steering the craft back to a forward-facing configuration as it was borne sideways down the winding river's path. He'd probably have eventually gotten it, too - had it not been for the waterfall. The craft tipped over the side of the waterfall, knocking everyone still on board over to one of the walls as the vessel did a 90-degree rotation. Of course, it didn't get to fall too much in this orientation before the [i]feather fall[/i] effect kicked back in, so the group once again found themselves piled on top of each other, only this time with water from the rushing waterfall sluicing in from the window-slits, which were now at the craft's new "roof." When it hit the pool at the bottom of the waterfall, water spilled up from the window-slits at the "floor" and the craft sank slowly sideways. "Everybody out!" called Rale from the vessel's original front. Thunderwolf and Aerik, at the vessel's original back, got the door open, and they started exiting when they found their next source of trouble: a giant crocodile swam in this pool, and was somewhat intrigued at the sight of a meal being delivered to it. It swam over to the vessel's open door and snapped at anyone attempting to exit. Galrich wasn't about to let anyone else horn in on the first opportunity he'd had this whole trip to actually do something; he pushed his way to the door and stabbed at the crocodile with his greatsword. Aerik attempted to do the same, but dwarves aren't particularly buoyant swimmers at the best of times, and even less so when burdened with heavy armor; he sank like a stone and had to scramble over to the edge of the pool, climbing up onto the bank. Felix grabbed up a frightened Abercrombie and exited the craft, his powerful wings pulling him through the water until he hit the surface and could become airborne; Abercrombie's frantic cries were heard all the way to shore. Fang and Quiffington exited the door in the safety that came from being behind Thunderwolf and Galrich, who were busy fighting off the giant crocodile, and Rale thought that looked like a particularly safe route and quickly followed suit. The two sword-wielding adventurers soon finished off the hungry reptile, and made it back up to the surface, where they greedily gasped lungfuls of fresh air - and heard Feron's frantic cries for everyone to get out of the way, quickly! Because right then, the roc's corpse tumbled over the edge of the waterfall and came crashing down upon the submerged vessel. A massive wing slammed into Galrich and sent him sprawling back into the water, while the roc's body broke the foundering craft into splinters. "There goes our way home," lamented Rale from the safety of the pool's edge. Still, as things went, they weren't faring too badly. Everyone gathered back together, and Akari healed Tamble enough to wake her and brief her on what all had transpired. She was saddened at the loss of her roc, but grateful to have been saved from the coils of the winged serpent. She agreed to help get the group to the Teardrop Serpent, but had no intentions of exploring its inner contents. She showed them where they were on the map, and estimated it was another hour's flight away, or several days on foot. A new plan was hastily made; Feron resumed her normal form and removed the [i]Daern's dollhouse[/i] from her pack. Rale, Thunderwolf, Galrich, Aerik, Fang, Abercrombie, and Quiffington went inside, then Feron packed it away again, put the magical haversack back on her own back, and wildshaped into an eagle. Tamble and Akari mounted Tsukitora, while eagle-Feron and Felix took to the air and followed the white griffon as Akari led it to the Teardrop Serpent as per Tamble's directions. Roughly an hour later, the Teardrop Serpent came into view. It was in a small clearing in the jungle, and its name was very apparent, for it was indeed carved in the shape of a teardrop, with a mosaic of a snake eating its own tail carved into the structure's top surface. Dropping to the ground near the "point" of the teardrop shape, Akari and Tamble dismounted from Tsukitora while Feron and Felix landed nearby. There was a smaller structure near the Teardrop, a small stone pillar some 8 feet tall and 5 feet wide, with a rounded top and a series of serpents carved in bas-relief on all sides. Unseen by the group, the tip of a blowgun extended through a hole between several of the carved serpents, and a poison-tipped dart was shot into Tsukitora's side. The griffon yelped and reared back; Akari moved forward to examine the structure and was shot by a dart himself, although it lodged in his tabard and didn't pierce through his armor. Then a series of calls came from inside the structure, a deep blaring like that of a horn of some type. Feron resumed her half-elven form and unpacked the [i]Daern's dollhouse[/i], allowing the rest of the group to exit (except for Quiffington and Abercrombie, who remained inside, and Tamble took the opportunity to enter the magical habitation herself to rest up after her near-death experience). The adventurers crowded around the structure, trying to peer inside it. Seeing as how the poison darts weren't having the desired effects, the creature inside the hollow structure tried a different tactic: it reached its hands through the stone, grabbed up Akari, and tried slamming him into the stone. Unfortunately, the scaled hands had only gotten purchase on his cloak, and instead of crashing his face into the stone structure the creature inside only managed to tug on Akari's cloak a bit, to no effect. However, the fact that there was no apparent door in the structure to allow a pair of arms to extend through got Akari wondering if the whole thing was an illusion of some sort. He stood there, concentrating on trying to see through this illusion, to no effect. Then Feron, tired of the whole ordeal, summoned a Huge earth elemental to pick the whole structure up and toss it aside. Revealed within was an ophidian, a snake-man with short, stumpy legs who wielded a curved blade as well as a blowgun. He tried brandishing his weapon at Akari, but was slammed to death by the earth elemental before he got to land a solid blow himself. By that time, Galrich and Rale had started climbing the Teardrop Serpent structure, for the "point" of the teardrop, and the edges on either side, formed a ramp of sorts leading up to the top of the 20-foot-tall "ring" part of the building. Halfway up, there was a commotion from the jungle's edge directly across the structure, and a small band of eight lizardfolk fighters entered the clearing, javelins and clubs ready for action. Feron reacted by calling up a [i]wall of fire[/i] directly across the majority of the line of lizardfolk; they hissed in pain and dropped back, making their way around the vertical sheet of flames. But Feron sent her Huge earth elemental to meet them, and then conjured up another one for good measure. Thunderwolf and Fang climbed up the sloping ramp, and while the young fighter used his higher ground to shoot arrows down at the approaching lizardfolk as they approached the Teardrop Serpent, Galrich and Fang used the ramp as a means of getting in a good charge as they leaped down upon their foes. Fang killed his foe immediately and started eating the slain lizardfolk; Galrich cut his in half with his sword but opted not to stop for a snack. The earth elementals finished up the remaining lizardfolk as they made their way from behind the [i]wall of fire[/i]. In the meantime, Akari had also climbed up to the top of the Teardrop Serpent, and was examining the twenty evenly-spaced pillars rising up from the top of the ring of the temple/arena, when up from the arena's center flew a medusa. The fact that this medusa had popped up out of nowhere and was flying wasn't the most unusual thing about her; rather, it was the fact that she shot rays from several of the serpents that grew from her scalp. Several hit Akari with no effect. One of them hit Galrich as he climbed back up the slope to the top of the ring, and he suddenly became enraged at the realization that Akari had killed his puppy, his one and only true friend, Akari not only killed his puppy but then he [i]laughed[/i] about it, and Galrich hated Akari like he had never hated anyone before in his life, and wanted him dead! Fortunately, Akari saw the sudden transformation on Galrich's face - the half-orc would never be a good poker player under the best of conditions - and the newly-minted tiefling paladin had the sense of mind to cast a [i]magic circle against evil[/i] spell upon himself, which shielded Galrich from mental control as long as he was in close enough proximity to Akari. Galrich suddenly realized that the only puppy he had ever had in his entire life was Fang, who was busy chowing down on dead lizardfolk at the bottom of the temple/arena, and Akari had never harmed Fang, and [i]dammit, who's been playing around with my mind again? The medusa? Lemme at her![/i] The medusa was slain by a combination of Tsukitora's claw and bite attacks (for the griffon had flown up to meet this aerial foe who was attacking his master) and a grab-and-smash from one of the earth elementals, who had used its innate earth glide ability to walk through the Teardrop Serpent, as it was made of individual stones fitted together so perfectly as to give the appearance of having been carved in a single piece. Still, there was little respite, for almost immediately a four-headed hydra appeared in the middle of the arena. Surprisingly, instead of rushing forward and snapping with its jaws or spitting a breath weapon of some sort at its enemies, it cast a [i]chain lightning[/i] spell at Tsukitora, branching off to also hit Aerik, Akari, Galrich, and the earth elemental there in the arena with it. That went so well the hydra did the same thing again almost immediately, and followed it up with a [i]cone of cold[/i] and a [i]spell resistence[/i] spell. To the adventurers' chagrin, they realized that not only was this hydra a spellcaster, each of its heads could cast a spell independently of the others! The nagahydra gave the Wing Three heroes the toughest fight of their lives to that point. A second round of a quartet of spells all at once left Aerik dying on the arena sands and Akari staggering on his feet, about to slip into unconsciousness himself; only the fact that one of the nagahydra's heads was more into defense than offense (opting to cast a [i]protection from energy[/i] spell on itself rather than another [i]chain lightning[/i] or [i]cone of cold[/i], like its head-brothers had done) kept Aerik and Akari from dying right then and there. Akari staggered over to Aerik's crumpled body and channeled his remaining healing energy into the dwarf's body via his laying on hands, while Feron's casting of a [i]mass cure moderate wounds[/i] probably saved the tiefling's life. In the meantime, Galrich leaped from the top of the temple/arena onto the second earth elemental's shoulder, and from there to the sand of the arena, and continued his charge at ground level, tearing into the nagahydra with his greatsword. Thunderwolf pelted it with arrows from the rooftop, and it was actually one of his arrows that finished off the powerful beast. But by that time, there was another combatant in the ring. This was a triceratops, unique from all of the others of its kind in that it shot [i]scorching rays[/i] from its two longest horns. Nobody saw where it had come from; one moment it wasn't there and the next it was, almost as if it had sprung forth from the very sands of the arena itself. - - - That's as far as we got. Akari is down to 4 hit points with all of his lay on hands ability used up, and he's seriously considering binking back to Guild Headquarters as his very first action next gaming session. That'll be a first for this campaign: I don't think Telgrane's ever had to bink in to replace Akari before; usually, it flows in the opposite direction. (Of course, Akari used to be much higher level than Telgrane; now Akari's a 16th-level paladin and Telgrane's a 15th-level conjurer, so even with Akari's +1 Level Adjustment for his tiefling status, they're not as far apart as they used to be.) To "record the scene" for the next session, I did the following: I put a rubber band around my initiative deck, and it will remain untouched until we play again, so I'll know exactly who's taking their actions next. Since I used a paper geomorph (the back of an entire sheet from a desk calendar, upon which the Teardrop Serpent is drawn over my 1"-square grid), I lightly penciled in the locations of each of the PCs and their various allies and enemies, so I'll be able to "rebuild the board" the way we left it. I have a PC tracking sheet which I print off each session; for the next one, I'll just continue using the one I started for this session, which has the PCs' current hit point levels, which spell slots have been expended, and notes as to which spells are active. (For the record, Akari has a [i]magic circle vs. evil[/i] active, which will disappear if he binks away - I hope Logan's taking that into account. Feron has a [i]stoneskin[/i] active, and Rale's gulped down a vial of antitoxin as a preventive measure.) Hopefully nothing will change in the meantime, and we'll be able to keep our 22 June session on the books! [/QUOTE]
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