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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 6553906" data-attributes="member: 508">ADVENTURE 91: EXPEDITION TO EARTHPC Roster:  Cal Trop, human cleric of Kord             Feron Dru, half-elf druid             Galrich Slayer, half-orc barbarian             Telgrane, half-fire elemental human conjurer/archmage             Thunderwolf, human fighterNPC Roster: Aerik Battershield, dwarven fighter/dwarven defender"We're lookin' to hire on some experienced adventurin' types," remarked the dwarf, Bertrun Stonepick.  "They'd be there to take care of any monsters in the area, and they'd hang around long enough for us to get our venture started.  Pay is half o' what we recover in the time it takes us to get established – prolly a week or less.  Whaddaya say?"Farthingale was practically beside himself with joy at the prospect of sending a group of his adventurers as bodyguards to a dwarven mining expedition - especially once he learned that the miners would be doing their explorations on the Elemental Plane of Earth, where there was literally an infinite supply of wealth.  Once the base camp was set up and the area cleared of any local threats, Farthingale envisioned a rotating stock of his adventurers performing guard duties - it would give the newer recruits valuable experience on the Elemental Planes, and if he could convince the miners to pay the Guild a percentage of the value of their weekly take...Farthingale's mind boggled at the amount of funds he could be bringing into his Guild on a weekly basis.Bertrun, for his part, couldn't believe his own luck.  Realizing his dwarves were the best there were to be had when it came to mining operations, he also realized they had limited combat experience when it came to battling the various monsters one might expect to find on the Elemental Planes.  He was hoping to arrange for some professional monster fighters, and here he was being offered up the services of the renowned Wing Three.  The fact that several of their members had the holy symbol of Moradin radiating from their foreheads just made it all the more obvious that this turn of events had been blessed by the Forgefather himself.Quickly agreeing to the dwarf's proposal, Farthingale ironed out the rest of the details with Bertrun.  The dwarves would provide food, drink, and shelter to the adventurers during their stay on the Elemental Plane of Earth, and Bertrun said they were capable of getting everyone to the Elemental Plane on their own.  The adventurers would be responsible for providing their own weapons and armor, and would need to foot the bill for any needed resurrections for any members slain during the course of their duties.  Any dwarven miners slain would remain dead, due to their own stoic religious beliefs.  (After all, if Moradin wanted them to remain alive, he wouldn't have let them die in the first place, now would he?  Plus, the dwarves believed they'd be allowed to work in Moradin’s own  mines in the afterlife, and they didn't wish to be denied that possibility.)So, agreements made and the deal sealed with a solemn handshake, Bertrun took his leave of the Guild after advising the adventurers to meet him and his mining crew at the top of a specific hilltop at the outskirts of Greyhawk City at midnight that very night.  That would give the heroes the rest of the day to make any needed preparations before they all headed out to the Elemental Plane of Earth, where untold riches awaited those with the willingness and the know-how to make their fortunes. - - - Just before midnight, the assembled group met up at the designated hilltop.  Thunderwolf and Telgrane were there, of course, as they were currently without "bink partners."  Infernia was coming with her master, but she had been advised that she would likely be spending the majority of the time in her tinder box, for the miners were leery of open flames, which could ignite pockets of flammable gas.  (They weren't particularly pleased about the archmage's flame-gouting eye sockets, either, but were tactful enough not to say anything.)  The fire elemental understood their concerns, but wasn't about to let her master go into danger without her.Joining the two were Galrich and Aerik, the former choosing to go specifically so his bodyguard could spend some time with his own people for a bit.  Cal chose to come along so that the group would have a ready source of healing, for although Bertrun said the dwarves had some healing potions and antitoxins, long experience had taught him there was no substitute for a high-powered cleric.  Finally, Feron joined the group specifically because she thought her ability to assume the form of an earth elemental was likely to be a valuable asset to the team on this mission.Climbing up to the top of the designated hill, they saw four metal poles marking off the corners of a square some 40 feet on a side.  Bertrun had warned the group not to disturb the poles, so they refrained from touching them and stayed well back from the square outline they formed.  It was a clear night, with the light from Oerth's twin moons providing enough illumination for the group to see by - even the humans.Within minutes of their arrival, however, dark clouds came sweeping across the sky, blocking the light of the moons and the stars.  Brief but intense flashes of lightning caused a strobe effect along the bottom of the clouds.  There was a quick, violent outburst of thunder, and suddenly there stood a squat, 60-foot tower at the top of the hill where none had stood before.A door opened along the base of the tower.  "Hello!" greeted Bertrun to the group.  "Are ye ready t' go?"Telgrane marveled over the tower's construction.  The entire structure was made of smooth, black stone, with a stout wooden door at the bottom and two more up at the highest level, providing access to the ramparts that ringed the tower.  Two more dwarves, apparently on guard duty, looked down from behind the wall ringing the ramparts.Aerik was giving the tower an appraising eye as well.  "It's not dwarven construction," he noted.  "But it's pretty close to dwarven standards."  This was high praise indeed from a dwarf!Bertrun gave the adventurers a quick tour of the tower, which would be not only their transport to the Elemental Plane of Earth but also their home for the next week or so.  The ground level held the small infirmary, storage space for the miners' tools, and the largest section was reserved for the gems and ores they hoped to unearth once they got their operation going.  This large storage area currently held deep trays of Underdark lichens and fungus, of a type that performed the same functions as surface plants: converting the dwarves' exhaled gases back into breathable oxygen.  The dwarves didn't plan on setting up camp in an enclosed air pocket on the Elemental Plane of Earth just to use up all of the breathable air while they were there.Access to the upper levels was through a 5-foot hole in the center of the floors and ceilings of the levels above, to which were attached ladders.  There were six levels in all: the second level held the eating, drinking, and lounging facilities, as well as the latrines; levels three and four were identical, each holding a dozen small bedrooms for the dwarves; level five was where the adventurers would be sleeping, for the eight bedrooms there were each larger than those on the floors below; finally, the top floor held the map room, weapons storage area (crossbows and ammunition for the guards on the ramparts), access to the ramparts ringing the upper level, and, most importantly, the control room from which the tower could be piloted to the Elemental Plane of Earth.Telgrane gave this last room his full attention, observing the magical auras emanating from the controls and the runes inscribed on the wall.  As expected, he picked up auras of conjuration magic, of the type signifying teleportation effects.  The controls seemed very simple: there was a receptacle into which fit a tuning fork attuned to the Elemental Plane of Earth (of the same type typically used in the casting of plane shift spell, Telgrane noted), and a single activation lever.  The archmage was pleased to see that there was another tuning fork stored in a drawer of the console, this one attuned to the Material Plane.After the tour of the tower was complete, Bertrun asked again if the heroes were ready to travel.  Telgrane opted to remain with Bertrun in the control room to observe the operation in progress, and Thunderwolf took up position out on the ramparts with a pair of dwarves on guard duty, while the rest of the group chose to wait downstairs on the ground level with the eager dwarves.Bertrun activated the tuning fork and pulled down on the lever.  There was an instant of transition, when the tower disappeared from the top of the hill on the outskirts of Greyhawk City and instantaneously appeared in a vast cavern somewhere on the Elemental Plane of Earth.  The tower's arrival was evident to all of its passengers, for their apparent weight instantly doubled.  Bertrun hurried down the ladders to join his fellow miners, with Telgrane right behind him."Shall we?" asked Bertrun when he got to the tower's main door."One moment, please," replied Cal, casting an attune form spell on the adventuring group, hoping in doing so their bodies would seem to resume their normal weights.  Alas, the spell had no effect upon the increased gravitational pull of the Elemental Plane.  "Bummer," remarked Feron."Hrrm.  Off we go, then," replied Cal.Bertrun opened the tower door and the adventurers ventured outside, taking up defensive postures around the base of the tower.  The dwarven miners started gathering up trays of fungus and lichen, loading them onto wheelbarrows and carting them outside.The tower had landed in the midst of a vast cavern of unknown size.  Faint patches of illumination like feeble stars dotted the cavern walls in the distance, the effects of phosphorescent crystals embedded in the stone that made up the majority of the Elemental Plane.  "It's beautiful," remarked Feron.But the tower's sudden arrival had not gone unnoticed.  A large, stocky creature, built like a terrestrial rhinoceros but with twice the number of legs and a row of four horns down the length of its face, started trotting in the direction of the tower, building up speed once the black stone building started ejecting soft-skinned creatures who spread out in all directions.One of the dwarves up on the tower's ramparts, a swarthy fellow by the name of Strungle Geode, was the first to spot the motion in the relative darkness of the vast cavern.  He called down a warning, and once the elemental creature entered the sphere of radiance cast by Cal's everburning torch, Thunderwolf and Strungle were able to target it with their longbow and crossbow, respectively, from the ramparts above.  The eight-legged rock creature ignored the shafts from above, lowered its head, and went barreling into Aerik and Galrich.  Aerik tried to shield his liege from the creature, but was gored with the beast's longest horn and flipped casually to the side; Galrich was trampled underfoot as the elemental rhino-thing ran right over him.  But the half-orc barbarian got in a good series of whacks with his greataxe, and between the half-orc, his dwarven bodyguard, and the bowmen up above the creature was soon put down.  After it was slain, one of the miners gave it a brief examination and opined the creature's eyes - made of cloudy-white gemstones - would likely fetch about a hundred pieces of gold back home due to their rarity if nothing else, and this was incentive enough to pry them out of the rocky beast's face and store them away.The fungus and lichens were set up without further incident, then Bertrun announced that was enough excitement for their initial night on the Elemental Plane.  Despite there being no way to mark the passage of time on the Elemental Plane - in that manner it was very much like the Underdark back home - the dwarves preferred acting as a unified group rather than splitting up into various shifts.  Bertrun assigned watch patrols from among his miners, preferring to allow the heroes - especially the spellcasters - to get uninterrupted sleep so they could better do their bodyguarding duties the next "day."  The heroes each picked a room on the fifth level, bid everyone their good nights, and went to bed. - - -The next "morning," Cal began what would become a tradition during their stay on the Elemental Plane of Earth: disregarding the dried food the dwarves had brought along, he cast enough heroes' feast spells to cover everyone, miner and hero alike.  Meal finished, Bertrun announced the first task of the morning was to set up the magical poles that would allow the tower to "home in" on this particular location, much as the ones situated at the top of the hill outside Greyhawk City ensured the tower would manifest there instead of at a random point on the Material Plane.  "After all," explained Bertrun, "we want to be able to show up right back here after we bring our first load back home.""Where did you get this tower and the equipment used to direct its travel?" asked Cal."Believe it or not, we found it in one of our mines," replied Bertrun."What?" replied Cal in disbelief.  "You don't even know who made all this?""That's not so different in how we acquired the Daern's dollhouse," pointed out Telgrane.  "If you recall, we found it in Kazmira's saddlebags that time we went searching for Rale's replacement sword.""Hrrm," harrumphed Cal, not entirely satisfied with the explanation, and wondering if the tower's original owners would ever come looking for its current whereabouts.Situating the poles turned out to be a very exacting business, for each needed to be equidistant from its nearest two neighbors, forming a perfect square.  The dwarves had out their measuring ropes and were making marks on the ground with chalk, while the heroes spread out and flanked the tower as they had done last "night" during the placement of the fungus and lichen beds.  Seeing no immediate danger, Telgrane started crafting a summoning circle on the cavern's stony floor, creating within it a magic circle to imprison the creatures he planned to summon there.  Once complete, he summoned a trio of earth mephits, then used a planar binding spell to compel them to extended service."What do you wish of us, flesh-thing?" demanded the largest of the mephits."Fly about this cavern," replied Telgrane, "and explore its contents.  I wish to know if there are any creatures about, as well as the general layout of the cavern structure.  Pay special attention to any gems or ores you might discover."  Their orders received and understood, the three mephits split up and flew away in three different directions.It took nearly an hour before the meticulous dwarves were satisfied with their calculations, and a burly dwarf named Kurg Deepdelver started hammering in the first of the metal poles.  Each time the dwarf hit the pole with his hammer, the sound resonated around the vast cavern.  It didn't take more than half a dozen strikes before the vibrations caused by the hammering attracted the attention of a local denizen.  There was a slight trembling of the ground near Cal's feet, and then the stone started melting and flowing away, allowing a reddish head to rise up from the ground, followed by a length of neck or body.  Cal had seen thoqquas before when he fought the self-styled "Magma Mage," but this creature was much larger, at least the size of a purple worm.The magma worm never entirely left the stone floor of the tower's cavern.  An unknown length of its thick body rose up, and the front end split open in several sections, exposing rings of teeth eager to gobble up these exotic treats.  But Cal's hammer of frost and Telgrane's polar ray took the fight out of the flame-covered beast; before Galrich and Aerik could even race over to the magma worm, its lifeless body had slid backwards into the hole from which it had popped out of the ground.  The danger over, the dwarves returned to their work, but it was evident they were impressed with the competence of their bodyguards.Once all of the poles were hammered in place, Bertrun was ready to start exploring; it was at this time one of the mephits returned with a report for Telgrane.  "There's a dragon lairing not far away," it said.  "It's sound asleep, but I recognize the snoring.  We've heard rumors before that there's a shadow dragon lairing nearby, name of Malauthavincix - odds are it's him.  Anyway, I didn't enter the lair, for fear of waking the thing.""Good call," replied Telgrane, turning to face Cal.  "What do you think?  Should we go take care of it now?""Let's save that for the first thing tomorrow, when we're all fresh and full-up on spells.  In the meantime, how about we start our explorations in the opposite direction?" suggested the cleric of Kord.  The dwarves all readily agreed. - - - Standing just outside the dragon's cavern, the group could tell they were in the right place by the deep snoring coming from within.  However, entry wouldn't be that easy, considering the 20-foot-wide entry cave was blocked by a series of stalactites and stalagmites, grown together so tightly that a human-sized creature couldn't pass between them."So how'd the dragon get in there?" Thunderwolf wanted to know."There's undoubtedly another entrance," Cal responded."Or," opined Telgrane, "Malauthavincix could have sealed this entrance up before going into hibernation.  A series of stone shape spells would certainly do it."Feron was peering inside the cavern, peeking between the columns.  There was scant illumination within, just the feeble light from a few of the phosphorescent stones embedded in the cavern's walls, but she saw a 25-foot-tall cliff ahead, with dark openings at the top obscured by complete shadow.  A pile of scattered bones - previous meals, no doubt - lie in a tangle just ahead, while the floor ramped upwards along both sides.  The snoring reverberated throughout the cavern; even Feron's half-elven ears couldn't exactly pinpoint the source."He's probably in the back, behind one of the openings at the top of the cliff-face," she guessed."How do we want to get inside?" asked Thunderwolf."I have an idea," replied the druid, casting a soften earth and stone spell on the stone columns.  Then, at her direction, the warriors carved chunks of the columns away, the stone having attained the softness of clay.  The group cleared away a 10-foot-wide section in the center of the cavern's opening.  Then Cal and Galrich took the lead, the others right behind them, everyone cognizant of the need for silence.That didn't last for very long.  A few steps in, the floor beneath the lead two heroes gave way underneath them.  Cal and Galrich each leaped to the sides, as a slab of stone tipped forward and into the 20-foot pit it had covered.  It went crashing to the bottom of the cliff; the dragon's snoring broke rhythm for a moment but then took up its regular pace, the dragon evidently having slept through the racket."That was lucky," whispered Thunderwolf.Stepping around the now-open pit, the group advanced further - but no further than another 10 feet or so, when a glyph of warding hidden among the smaller stalactites on the ceiling was triggered, sending a wave of sonic energy screaming down at Cal and Galrich.  Once again, the dragon's snoring only broke rhythm for a moment, then resumed its course."I can't believe that thing's still asleep," remarked Feron, suspecting a ruse."Me neither," admitted Cal, pulling out his gem of seeing and slowly scanning the cavern.Off to his right was another series of close-set stone columns, but these had enough room between them for a human to squeeze through.  There was also adequate reason to want to, for stacked against the far corner of the smaller cavern beyond was a glowing sword and a small pile of coins.  However, Cal's magical gem showed the floor between to be an illusion over a pit, some 60 feet deep.  "Nice try," he said to himself.Scanning in an arc to his left, he saw the shadow dragon standing hidden in the shadows at the top of one of two openings along the cliff-side, just as Feron had surmised.  And despite the continued sounds of its snoring, it was standing on all fours, looking down at the group with disdain; the "snoring" was merely the result of a ghost sound spell Malauthavincix had cast immediately upon the hidden alarm spell triggering when the heroes first entered his cave."He's right there!" said Cal, pointing up at the ledge.  His warning was too late for the group to be able to scatter, however - almost immediately, the shadow dragon's breath weapon went cascading over the assembled group, a wave of negative energy that would normally have drained the heroes of some of their very essence.  In this case, however, the dark energy flowed across the heroes' bodies with absolutely no effect, courtesy of the death ward spells covering each and every one of the adventurers.  Cal had insisted that he and Feron prepare enough such spells that morning to cover the entire group before they took on the shadow dragon; fortunately, they had encountered a shadow dragon before, just outside the Maze of Fools, and knew how debilitating their breath weapons could be.Malauthavincix was momentarily taken aback by the complete lack of response from the heroes after he sent his cone of negative energy their way.  Rather than staggering under its impact, they instead scattered, with Galrich running to the left to race up the ramp leading to the back area where the shadow dragon stood, and Aerik scrambling to keep up.  Aerik wielded his liege's flaming longbow and sent an arrow heading towards the dragon as he ran.  Still in the back of the cavern, Thunderwolf followed suit with arrows of his own, enhanced by Telgrane earlier to deal sonic and cold damage as well.  Cal raced off to the ramp on the right, apparently planning on trapping the dragon in a pincer maneuver between him and Galrich.  He cast a daylight spell on the side of the cliff wall on his way, hoping to prevent the dragon from using any of its shadow-based abilities.Malauthavincix responded with an unholy blight spell that caught most of the heroes in its area of effect, although Galrich had already advanced too far around the corner to be affected.  In response, Telgrane cast a dimensional anchor on Malauthavincix, preventing him from using dimension door to escape.  That certainly got the shadow dragon worried a bit, for he didn't like the way this fight was transpiring: the intruders were immune to his breath weapon and had already prevented his normal means of escape.  The final straw was the second sunbeam spell cast by Feron; while the first one was harmlessly deflected, the second casting overcame the dragon's inherent ability to resist the effects of spells, robbing the noble creature of his sight.  With a roar of fury, Malauthavincix raced forward to where his other senses told him the half-orc was advancing towards him - he sensed by this time that he wouldn't be making it through the end of this fight and was determined to take at least one of his slayers with him - but it was no use.  He managed to bite Galrich only once before he was brought down, and most of the damage he had tried to inflict upon the barbarian was absorbed by Galrich's stoneskin spell.  Prevented from attaining even his small victory, death was a mercy to Malauthavincix.Using drow floatdisks to lower themselves down through the illusory floor, the group gathered up the bulk of the dragon's treasure.  Besides the coins and sword above, there were chunks of solid silver and a wide variety of gems, many of them diamonds ranging in size from a child's marble to a baby's fist.  One gem in particular was distinctive in its size and coloration: it had a diameter of about 8 inches, and was roughly spherical with a great number of individual facets; depending upon which way you held it in the light, the gemstone looked either tan, brown, or a light green.  There was also a polished human skull wearing a minor circlet of blasting; the group took the circlet but left the skull behind.  All of the treasure was brought into the Daern's dollhouse, then the heroes returned to the towers to report their success to the dwarven miners, who had opted to stay inside while their bodyguards were otherwise occupied.  The group had to return to the dragon's cave to show the inquisitive miners the corpse of the shadow dragon, and then the miners returned to the business of finishing their mapping of the entire cave system and determining the best spot to begin their digging operation, a project that took the group the rest of the day. - - - Departing the tower the next morning, the heroes took the lead to ensure there was no danger as the miners gathered up their tools behind them.  No immediate dangers were apparent; Aerik called up to the two miners on guard duty along he ramparts of the tower to see if they saw anything and got a reply indicating that things looked safe from up there as well."Hmmm," muttered Aerik to himself.  "That's funny.""What?" asked Galrich."Look up there," the dwarf responded, pointing to the cavern ceiling above them.  "The 'stars' is all gone from that area."  As one, the heroes looked up to where Aerik was pointing.  Sure enough, there was now a "bald spot" among the "starscape" of phosphorescent gems sprinkling the vast cavern ceiling, directly overhead."So did something eat the glowing crystals?" asked Cal.  "Or is there something up there?"  He turned to Telgrane, who peered at the black spot with his arcane-enhanced vision.  "I'm not sure..." he admitted, pulling out his carpet of flying and sending it rising.  "I'll go check it out."  Galrich, Aerik, and Thunderwolf followed suit on their floatdisks.  But the problem resolved itself as the foursome rose up to higher elevations, for with a plop! an elder black pudding dropped onto the roof of the tower, then began oozing its way towards one of the guards on duty up there."Get inside!  Both of you!" commanded Telgrane.  Thunderwolf shot an arrow into the creature's flank as it made its way to the nearest dwarf, who ran back inside and slammed the wooden door behind him.  But a wooden door was not much of a barrier to the elder ooze, who dissolved it with but a moment's touch.  "Run!" screamed the terrified miner, racing to the ladder and sliding down it, the other dwarf right behind him, following suit."We don't want that thing getting inside the tower!" yelled Cal."I'm on it!" replied Telgrane.  Despite the fact that the view was blocked by the amorphous, protoplasmic body even now oozing its way through the open doorway, Telgrane steadied his mind, visualized the space within, and set up a wall of force spell across the entire room within, just in front of the opening on the floor leading down to the lower levels.  Unable to proceed any further, the elder black pudding began backing its way out of the tower, but it was taken down by a barrage of ranged spells, the final being an implosion spell from Cal that caused the creature to be sucked into nothingness.Telgrane then decided to show off in front of the easily-impressed miners by casting a limited wish spell to cause the acid-dissolved wooden door to become whole once more. - - - Later that same day, the miners were discussing in earnest where best to begin digging.  There were two main competitors for the best mining spot.  While the adventurers could see nothing special about the two locations, apparently the miners' experiences told them about what might be found behind different rock walls.  As the miners were discussing it among themselves, a strange creature popped up from the solid stone floor.  "What is that I smell?" it asked in a voice like cascading gravel.  It was built like a barrel, with three stout legs below it, three arms rising up equidistant from the triple jaws at the top of its head, and three opal-like eyes spaced around the equator of its squat torso.  "It's a little like gold, and a little like silver, but not quite either."Thunderwolf and Aerik raised their bows and were ready to shoot the beast, but Cal held up a hand and waved them off.  "Everybody check their coin purses," he advised.  Doing as the cleric asked, Thunderwolf discovered a few platinum pieces in with his pieces of gold.  On Cal's urging, he threw them towards the hungry xorn, who gobbled them up with his three-jawed mouth.  "Delicious!" it exclaimed.  "Got any more?"This began a new friendship between the elder xorn, his family, and the miners and heroes.  The visitors discovered these strange natives had a taste for iron, electrum, and platinum - pitons proved to be a popular treat.  In exchange for the metallic foodstuffs, the xorns agreed to lead the dwarves to the most plentiful of veins of gems and ores in the cavern.  The dwarves had successfully identified a vein of silver and a section of stone behind which would be found a wide cache of diamonds, but the xorn also led them to a place they had apparently missed.  Behind a different section of the vast cavern's walls was hidden a cache of psiodium, a strange gem found only on the Elemental Plane of Earth, which had a magical affinity with spells and effects dealing with mental energy.  Believing its rarity on the Material Plane made it the best bet for riches, the dwarves happily began digging through the wall to unearth the psiodium crystals, which were then taken back by the wheelbarrow-load to the tower and stored in the metal trays awaiting their return to Oerth. - - - The next few days were relatively uneventful; the heroes had little to do but watch out for dangers that never surfaced.  With the xorn family as local advisers and watchdogs, the miners were in good hands, and the riches they amassed in the bottom of their tower increased.  After the third such day of relative safety, the heroes said their good nights to the dwarves and climbed up to their individual rooms up on the fifth level.  The miners soon followed to their own bunks on the third and forth levels, save for the two dwarves taking the first shift of guard duty up on the ramparts.Hours passed in silence.Then, once everyone but the guards were in the deepest stages of their individual slumbers, Xuvok deemed the time was right to strike.  Gathering up his three fellow illithids and their two quaggoth slaves, he cast his protective spells on the assembled group and used dimension door to send them all up to the fifth floor.  There they spread out, each positioning themselves outside the door of the target they had been assigned.The savage quaggoths stood outside the doors of the rooms which held Thunderwolf and Aerik.  The mind flayers Vendorp, Shendrax, and Quentilliak positioned themselves to attack Galrich, Cal, and Feron.  Xuvok himself, the leader of this expedition, placed his hand on the knob to Telgrane's room, the only room likely to hold two foes.  Upon their leader's mental signal, the attack force simultaneously opened the doors to the heroes' rooms and attacked in the manner best suited to their individual makeups.The four illithids each started combat with a mind blast.  For Cal and Feron, all that did was awaken them and announce that there was trouble at hand, as they were able to successfully shrug off the blasts' effects.  Galrich, not surprisingly, wasn't as fortunate; his much simpler mind took a pounding from the mind blast and he lay insensate in his bed, stunned beyond the ability to take any actions.Xuvok followed his plans, but was surprised to see not only Telgrane asleep in his bed, but Infernia standing over him, watching him sleep.  The mind blast had no effect on either of them, Telgrane no doubt because of his staggering intellect and Infernia due to the simple fact that elementals cannot be stunned. They can, however, be angered, as Xuvok learned when she turned on him and started wailing away with her flaming limbs.Aerik and Thunderwolf, meanwhile, were awakened by the savage teeth and claws of beastmen biting and tearing at them.  They both managed to wrest themselves out of the quaggoths' grasps, grabbing up their nearby weapons and fighting back.The spellcasters, once awakened, were fighting back as well.  Telgrane began with a sunburst spell, striking out at the middle of the room at the center of the level, shaping the spell to affect as many of the intruders as possible while avoiding the outer walls of the bedrooms, since he knew all of the beds on this level were against the wall and thus his fellow adventurers would thus likely be out of the range.  The attackers were indeed all encompassed by the spell, and three mind flayers and one of the quaggoths were immediately struck blind.  That made a big difference to Thunderwolf, who had no problems at all cutting down a blind quaggoth with Xanthros.  Vendorp, realizing he'd taken care of the half-orc with his initial assault, felt his way along the wall to go help Quintilliak, who was having some difficulties with the female for some reason.Xuvok, through the telepathic link he held with the rest of his forces, realized this assault was not going at all as planned.  He needed to get rid of this damned elemental, for one thing - it was preventing him from getting to the wizard, who was the real threat.  He snatched up a tuning fork from his belt and attempted to cast a plane shift spell on Infernia, intent on shunting her to the Elemental Plane of Water.  Fortunately for Infernia, she was able to resist the transition, for a trip to that particular Elemental Plane would have ensured her death within mere seconds.Xuvok began to panic as he felt ally after ally dying over the mental link he shared with them.  There went the other quaggoth, cut in twain by the dwarf's axe; there went Vendorp and Quintilliak, brought down by a spell cast by the half-elf; there went Shendrax, slain by a spell from the overly-muscled cleric.  How had things gotten to this state?  It was a beautiful plan: the crafting of the tower; the planting it where it would be found by the dwarven miners; the implanted suggestion to their unwitting mind-thrall, Bertrun Stonepick, to mine the Elemental Plane of Earth for riches.  Even the nightly raids on the security detail, where Xuvok would dimension door to the ramparts, mind blast a guard, and allow whichever of the illithids was due for a meal to slip a ring of regeneration onto the stunned dwarf's finger, crack open his skull and devour the tasty brain within, wait for the removed organ to regenerate, clean the place up with prestidigitation spells, and then use a modify memory spell on the hapless meal to make him forget everything that had just occurred.  The tower's ground floor storage areas were filled with riches, including the psiodium which the illithids had found to increase the power of their mind blasts.  But he hadn't counted on the miners deciding to hire bodyguards, and that had turned out to be the illithids' downfall.All alone now in his thoughts, his companions all slain, Xuvok succumbed fully to panic.  Breaking away from Infernia's embrace, he fled to the hole in the floor at the center of the fifth floor and allowed his innate ability to levitate to bring him down the vertical shaft.However, Cal had cast a mass heal on all of the heroes, which, as well as sealing up all of their wounds, also awakened Galrich from the stunning he'd received at the hands of an illithid mind blast.  He roared up out of bed, naked, grabbing up his vorpal greataxe and looking about for an enemy to fight."Don't let him get away!" called out Telgrane, staggering out of his room, Infernia right behind him.With a glance to his left to see that his liege was awake and well, Aerik saw his options and made use of the best weapon he had at hand.  With a dwarven war-cry, he leaped into the hole in the floor, rolling into a ball on his way down.  He cannonballed directly onto Xuvok's head, sending the two of them hurtling down the rest of the 50-foot drop.  They landed on the ground floor, Aerik's fall fortunately broken to some degree by the crippled body of the illithid monstrosity beneath him."Out of the way!" called Galrich as he followed suit, plummeting down to the ground floor some 50 feet below him.  Aerik just had time to roll to the side before his liege and future king landed directly onto Xuvok, swiping down with his axe immediately after landing.  To the dwarven bodyguard's surprise, the illithid's severed head went flopping along the floor by him, tentacles swaying in a loop as they passed.  Galrich stood above his headless foe, roaring in triumph as he waved his vorpal weapon above his head.Five stories above him, the others peered down the central shaft to ensure the threat had been defeated."Oh, for pity's sake," called down Feron, "put on some pants!" - - - The mining expedition would go on, but not quite in the manner in which originally envisioned.  Cal cast a speak with dead spell upon one of the slain mind flayers and learned their whole plot.  The tower itself had no way to travel through the planes; this had been accomplished by a brain golem on a hidden level of the tower below the ground floor, where the four illithids and their two quaggoth slaves had stayed during the entire expedition, until they decided to put an end to the heroes that very night.  The "control room" was just there for show; all actual planeshifting was done by the brain golem.  And that meant that the tower would never again move from its current location, for although Cal could cast a plane shift spell, he wouldn't be able to bring the entire tower with him - he couldn't even bring all 24 of the dwarven miners with him at once.  Likewise, the magical rods were useless to him, as he couldn't "home in" on their signal.Still, all was not lost.  The miners loaded all of their unearthed treasure into the Daern's dollhouse, and Cal's plane shift spell got them at least to somewhere in the jungles of Hepmonaland, from where a greater teleport spell cast by Telgrane was able to get them all back to Greyhawk City.  They'd have to do something similar to get the next batch of miners and bodyguards to somewhere on the endless Elemental Plane of Earth, then to the tower's specific cavern.  That meant that they'd need a powerful Guild spellcaster on each leg of the journey, and the Wing Three adventurers would need to train their eventual replacements.But all of that was in the future.  For now, it was nice to be back home, split the riches as agreed upon with the dwarven miners, and hit the baths.  After a week on the Elemental Plane of Earth, even Aerik and Galrich were willing to get cleaned up. - - - We played this adventure over two sessions.  I had picked up some black poster board some months ago and built the planeshifting tower to scale with the D&D miniatures we use for the PCs.The odd-looking gem discovered in Malauthavincix's hoard will shortly (two adventures from now) be discovered to be the Elemental Earth Stone, which will affect several upcoming adventures.  But in the meantime, after finishing up "Expedition to Earth," we started up the next adventure, "The Curse of Aberoth," in which Telgrane gets paid back for having killed one of the liches in "Eye of Vecna."</blockquote>

Verification