# Raiders of the Overreach



## Richards (Oct 13, 2019)

Last week, my gaming group finished up the 60-adventure "Durnhill Conscripts" campaign (Story Hour link) my son Logan had been running for the past two years.  This past Wednesday, the gaming group got together and we had a session where all we did was create the PCs for our next campaign, which Logan has decided to call "Raiders of the Overreach."  The only campaign details he gave us were that we should create PCs that could have conceivably have been captured by the drow, since we'd be starting the campaign as slaves to the dark elves.  Our PCs could be of any race and could have been captured in the Underdark or from the surface.  The "Overreach" in the campaign title refers to the drow city we'll be held in, which consists of eight massive pillars in an enormous cavern at the bottom of which flows an Underdark sea.

So, these are the characters we came up with.  I'll go in no particular order and will include a portrait of the PC in question when available (which means I'll be editing this first post as I receive the images the other players have selected for their PCs).

First up, my 12-year-old nephew Harry decided he'd be playing a dwarven fighter this time around.  He wanted the warhammer to be his weapon of choice, so we ended up with *Khari* (pronounced "Cary") *Hammerslammer*.  Khari was a scout for the Hammerslammer clan of dwarves who wandered a little too far out along an unexplored Underdark passage one day and was captured by the drow.  Khari is unique among our group in having the lowest Intelligence, a 5.  (I envision him as having fought off the drow with everything he had when he was captured and having suffered a brain injury as a result.  Logan hypothesizes that maybe Khari was always that dim and his clan "suggested" to go wander off and explore dangerous passageways as a way of getting rid of him.)

In any case, here's what Khari looks like:  Khari Hammerslammer

Next up, I decided to try something different by running a lizardfolk character.  I've never run a PC with a level adjustment before, so this will be a new experience for me: my first three levels will be as a lizardfolk only and it won't be until 4th level that I start picking up character classes (barbarian and ranger to start off, possibly spiced up with some fighter levels later on).  In any case, my lizardfolk PC is *Jhasspok*, whose egg was taken from the surface world 5 years ago; as a result, being a slave to the drow is all Jhasspok knows.  I've decided he doesn't believe in things he hasn't seen for himself, has never been to the surface world, and his primary role (up until the first adventure) will have been as a fisher, providing food from the Underdark sea to his drow masters.  (If he catches enough, he's sometimes rewarded with a fish head or two.)

Here's Jhasspok, with a turtleshell shield and a club he'll be using in battle when the time comes for him to do more than fish:  Jhasspok

My friend and coworker Dan decided he'd run a gnome cleric named *Cramer Appleknocker*.  The "Cramer" is after "Kramer" of the "Seinfeld" TV show, specifically the episode where Kramer started working a corporate job at a company where he was never even hired; Dan figures Cramer - a gnome from the surface world - wasn't captured by the drow so much as he just casually wandered into their city one day and started hanging around the slaves.  He's a cleric of Fharlanghn (in his gnomish aspect, of course).

Here's the image Dan's chosen to represent Cramer the gnome cleric of Fharlanghn:  Cramer Appleknocker

Dan's wife Vicki toyed briefly with the idea of running a kenku rogue character, but then - perhaps noticing a distinct lack in arcane spellcasting power thus far - opted to run a human sorceress named *Marlo Pendragon*.  She decided Marlo has a toad familiar named *Truffles*.  Vicki hasn't decided a whole lot about Marlo's backstory at this point in time, other than she was traveling to visit an aunt when she was captured by a raiding party and brought back to the drow city.

Here's the image Vicki found for Marlo (she really likes her robe): Marlo Pendragon

Finally, Dan and Vicki's youngest son Joey (a high schooler) also decided on a dwarf and wanted him to be a physical brawler type (possibly due to having just run an elven wizard in our previous campaign).  Joey often has trouble coming up with a name (and an image) for his PCs; with a bit of assistance from his parents, he ended up with the name *Utred "Buckets" Butterflinger* and decided his dwarf will be a barbarian.  Utred's family, apparently, is in charge of making butter and other dairy products from a herd of rothé (stench kows - I'll bet that makes for some pretty smelly butter!).

Here's the image Joey selected for Utred, his dwarven barbarian:  Utred "Buckets" Butterflinger

So, next Wednesday we'll start up this new campaign.  Logan has decided that Khari, Marlo, and Utred were all captured the day before the campaign begins; Jhasspok's been a drow slave his entire life; and nobody's quite sure how long that weird Cramer guy's been hanging around with the slaves.


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## Richards (Oct 20, 2019)

*ADVENTURE 1: FESTIVAL OF BLOOD*

PC Roster:
Cramer Appleknocker, gnome cleric 1​Jhasspok, lizardfolk 1​Khari Hammerslammer, dwarf fighter 1​Marlo Pendragon, human sorcerer 1​Utred "Buckets" Butterflinger, dwarf barbarian 1​
Game Session Date: 16 October 2019

- - -

Jhasspok awoke in darkness.

Of the five of them, only the lizardfolk knew exactly where they were and why they were there.  He hadn't seen any of the other four before yesterday evening, when they had each been carried into this room, unconscious, wearing only the cloth gowns that were their only apparel.  The drow handlers had dropped them along the walls of the small room and departed without a word.  And shortly after that the purple-flamed torches along the walls had dimmed, indicating it was time for sleep.  Jhasspok, a slave for all five of his years - his egg had been taken from the surface and he'd been hatched into slavery; it was the only life he'd ever known - had immediately curled up and gone to sleep, giving the newcomers no further thought.  Sleep was precious; it wasn't always granted in the quantities desired so a smart slave learned to take advantage of the opportunity when it was presented.

Now, awake in the darkness of the room, the lizardfolk tried to recall what the newcomers had looked like.  Two of them were dwarves, easily identified by their stout bodies and thick beards; dwarves were common in the slave-pens of the drow of the Overreach.  Another looked to be an even smaller version of a dwarf, the size and build of a svirfneblin but with lighter skin and a beard only on the chin, not the cheeks.  The fourth was something of a puzzle; Jhasspok was fairly certain it was female, but pinning down a race was difficult: it had rounded ears so it wasn't an elf, but it was just shy of five feet tall - a short human or a tall halfling, perhaps?

The torches started producing illumination once again at some unknown signal from the drow masters of the city; the light sources were magical, with illusory purple flames that gave off no heat and only that type of radiance known as "slave-light" - bright enough for the slaves to see by but not hindering in the least to the light-sensitive drow masters, for it was of a magical property that was invisible to those of the dark elf race.  With the sudden illumination - of a normal hue despite the purple flames - the four newcomers started to come to.

"Wha--?" asked one of the dwarves in a bleary voice.  "Where'm I?"  He held a hand to his head, apparently fending off a horrific hangover.  "How'd I get here?  Where's me weapons an' armor?"

Jhasspok ignored the dwarf's questions, as they had been spoken in the bearded one's native language and the lizardfolk did not understand the Dwarven tongue.  He just stared impassively as the dwarf sat up, looked down at his thin gown and the hairy legs sticking out from beneath it, and tried shaking his bearded head to possibly make some sense of the world.

Across the room, the other dwarf sat up.  He also had a querying look upon his face, scanning the others in the room and frowning at the lack of recognition.  Next to him, the smaller male - Jhasspok would learn later he was called a gnome - began to stir as well, stretching out his arms and yawning impressively as if having just awoken from a comfortable bed despite having spent the night on the cold stone floor like the rest of them.  Then the female shrieked with a start, sitting up and cringing in the corner of the room.  "Who are you?" she demanded.  "Where are we?  What do you want?"

These questions at least Jhasspok understood, for they were spoken in the Slave Tongue - what some referred to as "Common."  The drow had an elaborate language of their own but when dealing with slaves they always spoke in the Slave Tongue and it was the only language Jhasspok knew, having been taught it by other slaves during his childhood.  But before he could attempt to answer the female there was the clank of metal on metal as the sole door to the room was unlocked and pulled open.  Stepping through the doorway came *Calish Jalamir*, the slavemaster Jhasspok had dealt with for the last two years.  The lizardfolk immediately rose to his feet, lowering his head in dutiful submission.  "Master," he greeted the drow.

"Good morning, everyone," Calish said to the inhabitants of the room.  "I imagine you're all wondering why you're here."  The dark-skinned elf grinned, his white teeth shining in the slave-light of the torches ringing the room.  Jhasspok liked Calish; he had always been friendly to his slaves - not like the previous slavemaster.  Jhasspok had not liked that one at all.

"I don't know what your lives were like up to this point and it really doesn't matter in any case - what matters now is what happens from this point on.  You are now the property of House Jalamir, to do with as we see fit.  Slaves, not to put too fine a point on it.  So, let me explain your first opportunity to bring glory to our noble House.

"Every ten years, the three-day Festival of Blood occurs.  The eight ruling houses each gather five slaves to be sacrificed to *Lolth* in the arena; you, as you might have guessed, are House Jalamir's chosen sacrifices."  He looked down at the cringing woman, trying very hard to make herself even smaller than her own diminutive stature, and smiled at her.  "But take heart: not all of the sacrifices die in the arena; you will have an opportunity to earn your lives and continue to serve House Jalamir."

Calish looked around and saw he had all five of the slaves' undivided attention, whether out of fear or disbelief or a desire to learn whatever they could to help save their own lives didn't really matter to the drow slavemaster, so long as they were suitably attentive to his words.  "The lesser noble Houses send any number of slaves into the arena for single combat during all three days of the festival.  The eight ruling Houses - of which House Jalamir is currently ranked at number three - are paired off into four teams of ten, five from each of two Houses.  On day two of the festival the first and last matches will be two teams of ten fighting each other until a combined total of ten bodies lie dead upon the ground.  The ten remaining members of those formerly opposing teams are then formed into a new team of ten and on day three, as the final match of the festival, these last two teams fight until one team is slain to the last man.  At that point, the arena battle turns immediately into a free-for-all, with the remaining members of each of the surviving Houses' original teams attacking the surviving members of the other Houses until the slaves of only one House remains.  Those slaves are the only ones to walk away alive from the festival and their House earns a great deal of respect and prestige."

The gnome spoke up.  "And if we win, we gain our freedom?" he asked.

Calish laughed openly at such an odd notion.  "Why, of course not!  You are now slaves of House Jalamir - that is your fate for the rest of your lives, and the quicker that sinks in and you accept it the better things will be for you.  Jhasspok, tell them; is life as a slave a difficult one?"

"No, master," the lizardfolk replied at once.

"No, it certainly isn't," Calish agreed.  "You are fed, clothed, taken care of.  And in return, you need only devote yourselves to the good of your new House.  Now then: some ground rules.  You may have noticed some discomfort on your backs."  One of the dwarves - the sober one - nodded instantly and tried looking at his own back, ignoring the physical impossibility such a contortion required, while the one with the hangover looked just as puzzled as he had during the rest of the drow slavemaster's speech thus far.  The gnome and the woman both reached behind them, beneath their thin gowns, feeling bandages attached to their upper backs, between their shoulder blades.  "You have each been granted a tattoo upon your upper backs," Calish continued, "the proud emblem of House Jalamir.  They can only be seen by those with darkvision, so they'll remain invisible to most of you but the dwarves can verify they're there.  These tattoos not only identify you as property of House Jalamir but are also the means by which we ensure your compliance.  The magic of your tattoos will inhibit your ability to attack a drow - of any House - and punish you immediately should you somehow overcome the inhibition.  We will also be able to cast any spells deemed necessary through your tattoos: a _command_ to return here should you stray from your duties, perhaps, or a _fireball_, _slay living_, or worse should you really get out of line."  The smile came back onto the drow slavemaster's face as quickly as if he had hit a switch.  "But I am quite certain that, knowing the capabilities of your tattoos, you will keep out of trouble and such punishments will not be needed.  Now then: any questions?"

"Why us?" asked the woman, still cringing in the corner.

"Simple targets of opportunity," Calish replied.  "We needed five slaves and you are who our raiders caught."

"How come the lizard don't got a tattoo?" asked the sober dwarf, noticing Jhasspok's lack of a gown like the others.

"Oh, but he does," replied Calish.  "He's had his since shortly after he was hatched.  Jhasspok, turn around for your new friends, why don't you?"  Despite the pleasantness of the request, Jhasspok knew it for what it was: the demand of a drow to a slave.  He spun about, facing the wall and revealing his back to the others.  The dwarves saw the tattoo etched into the lizardfolk's scales: four sets of two parallel lines forming an octagon in the middle with sixteen projections sticking out of the corners at all angles and two diamond shapes, one atop the other, in the middle of the octagon.  Jhasspok turned back around and faced his master; the drow, seeing his quizzical expression, asked, "Do you have a question, Jhasspok?"

"Am I no longer to be a fisher?" Jhasspok asked.  Catching fish from the Underdark sea for the drow had been Jhasspok's main job for as much of his life as he could remember.

"You have served us admirably in that role - but you are now needed in this role even more.  A slave of your status will please the Spider-Goddess, either as a blood sacrifice or an arena victor, of that I am certain."

"Yes, master," Jhasspok replied.  He'd miss his days as a fisher but that was no longer an option; best not to dwell on it.  There were many things a slave might wish for but few he might actually get.

The door behind Calish opened again and a pair of drow, a male and a female, stood at attention.  "You and you," Calish said, pointing to the woman and the gnome in turn, "go with them.  They will return to you the items you had with you when you were first captured."  The woman got to her feet at once, visibly frightened at what might happen if she failed to comply; the gnome stood at a much slower pace, acting as if he had all the time in the world.  They were taken from the larger room, leaving the lizardfolk and the two dwarves behind.

"Name?" asked the male drow once he'd taken the gnome to a small room just off the main corridor.

"Cramer Appleknocker," the gnome replied.  The drow nodded and made a mark on a sheet of parchment in his hand.  He then pointed to a small chest on the floor, indicating the slave should open it.  "Here are your belongings," said the drow.  "Confirm that everything inside is yours."  Cramer opened the chest, taking in his clothing, armor, weapons, holy symbol of *Fharlanghn* - and a set of ten scrolls, each inscribed with the words to a _cure light wounds_ spell, that he'd never seen before.  Seeing the slave's hesitation, the drow added, "Confirm that these are your items that you'll be bringing into the arena with you."  Cramer caught on at once: he was being given an extra edge in keeping his team alive in the arena; apparently House Jalamir wasn't against a slight bit of cheating to ensure their arena slaves made a good showing in the Festival of Blood.  "Yep, it looks like everything's there," he replied and was told to get dressed.

One room over, Marlo Pendragon was getting the same treatment from the female drow.  She received eight scrolls as well in addition to her clothing and gear (including her toad familiar Truffles, who she placed in a pocket of her robe, fearful the lizardfolk might try to eat him), although her scrolls contained a variety of arcane spells: _burning hands_, _chill touch_, _color spray_, and _shocking grasp_, two of each.  After she dressed, Marlo was brought back to the room where she had awakened and one of the dwarves was taken to fetch his gear; the process continued until all five slaves had been given back their belongings, although only the two spellcasters among them had been given anything they hadn't already previously owned.

"I will leave you to get acquainted," said Calish.  "You should learn to fight together as a group, sort out your combat strategies, that sort of thing.  Your lives will depend upon your ability to vanquish your enemies."

"When does this festival begin?" asked Cramer.  "How long do we have to prepare?"

"Oh, didn't I mention?" smiled Calish.  "Today is day one of the festival.  You fight your first battle tomorrow.  We have been paired with House Ky'hulcressen.  Good luck to you all."  And with that, Calish Jalamir exited the room, locking the metal door behind him.

Marlo, much calmer now that she was in her own clothes and had had time to think through her situation, took the initiative.  She reached a hand out to the little gnome and introduced herself.  "I'm Marlo Pendragon," she said.  "I'm a sorceress.  I know a few combat spells.  I'll try to put them to good use tomorrow."  She thought about what else she should tell this group.  "I was attacked on the surface while going down a road to fetch some supplies for some potters in my family.  I didn't see who attacked me - they knocked me out almost at once.  I've never even seen a drow before today."

"Cramer Appleknocker," replied the gnome.  "I'm a cleric of Fharlanghn.  I wasn't taken by the drow - I came here on my own."  Seeing Marlo's look of surprise, he added, "I saw a drow raiding party attack and capture a cleric friend of mine.  I followed them here, but I got turned around in the passageways and was eventually captured myself.  But I don't intend to stay here long - just long enough to find and free my friend, and then we'll see about getting out of here."

"I'm Khari Hammerslammer," said the sober dwarf.  He now wore scale mail and held a massive warhammer in one hand, with a large, oval, steel shield strapped to his other arm.  "I'm a scout for my clan.  Went explorin' down a tunnel a bit too far from home, got taken by a drow ambush party.  But I can hold my own in a fight."

"I'm hungover sumthin' fierce," admitted the other dwarf.  "But me name's Utred Butterflinger.  Friends call me 'Buckets.'  S'pose you kin call me 'Buckets' if ye wanna, seein's how me life's tied up in yours an' all."  Buckets had a greataxe and a variety of additional weapons, among them a morningstar and a dagger or two.

Everyone looked expectantly at Jhasspok.  "I am Jhasspok," he said.  When it became apparent that was all he was going to offer about himself, Cramer prompted, "What weapons've you got there, Jhasspok?"

"Jhasspok," corrected the lizardfolk.

"What?"

"My name is Jhasspok."

"That's what I said."

"No - you said 'Jhasspok,' not Jhasspok."

"Jhasspok."

"No, Jhasspok."

"Jhasspok."

"No, not 'Jhasspok' - Jhasspok."

It was apparent there was something Cramer was missing in the pronunciation of the lizardfolk's name - either that, or the silly bugger was hard of hearing, or possibly just an idiot.  But then Jhasspok solved the problem for everyone by deciding, "I'll tell you what - you can just call me 'Jhasspok' as a nickname."  Then, remembering the gnome's question, he looked down at his weapons.  "I have a net for catching fish and a club for bashing fish on the head and a dagger for slitting open fish."  He also held a shield made from the shell of a large turtle, but as he'd only been asked about weapons he didn't mention it.

"You ever fight anything other than fish?" asked Cramer.  The lizardfolk just looked at him quizzically, as if turning the idea over in his brain for the first time ever.

"Tell ye what," suggested Buckets.  "When we meet up with our opponents in the arena tomorrow, just pretend they're all fish."

The rest of the day was spent going over general combat strategies, although not knowing what they'd be facing in the arena the next day made it difficult to plan for specifics - after all, the plan for facing ten fighters with swords would be much different than going into combat with a like number of wizards.  Buckets offered his morningstar to Jhasspok to use in the arena, pointing out it could be used in the same manner as the lizardfolk's simple wooden club but would inflict much more damage to an enemy.  The lizardfolk practiced swinging it about, getting used to its weight and feel.  He was also bombarded by questions from the others, since he'd spent his entire life in the Overreach.  Answering as best as he could, he provided the others with the following information:

The eight Noble Houses of the Overreach were each headquartered in one of eight enormous, hollow pillars formed by the merging of a massive stalactite and an equally-large stalagmite, reaching down from the ceiling of a mile-tall cavern all the way to the bottom of the bioluminescent sea that covered the lower half of the cavern.
The area 10 feet below the cavern's ceiling and directly above was covered in a permanent _reverse gravity_ spell, allowing the drow to walk unhindered along the ceiling.
The lesser Houses were headquartered in smaller, hollow stalactites hanging down from the ceiling.
The Underdark sea extended far beyond the giant cavern where the drow city of Overreach was housed.
The five arena slaves of House Jalamir were currently in a hollow stalactite hanging from the ceiling, adjacent to the arena in which they'd be fighting tomorrow.
The arena was outside the _reverse gravity_ field, so they'd be fighting right-side-up during their battles.
Those slain in the arena were "ejected" through the floor in some fashion Jhasspok didn't understand - but he'd recovered what was left of their bodies on several different occasions, after other skirmishes that had taken place there (Jhasspok hadn't been born yet at the time of the last Festival of Blood).
Meal time occurred at irregular intervals, when food was brought to the slaves - not before.  (This last was in answer to a question asked by Cramer, who was getting hungry by then.)
Cramer asked the others if they were really going to go through with the arena battle.  "We can make a break for it, when they come for us tomorrow morning," he suggested.

"And go where?" asked Buckets.  "We don't even know where we are."

"The lizard does."  But this wasn't true; Jhasspok had never stepped beyond the confines of the Overreach since first hatching.  As far as he was concerned, the Overreach was the whole of the world.

"But don't you want to be free?" pushed Cramer.  This got the lizardfolk cogitating once again, his head tilted at an angle, deep in thought.  After a moment, Jhasspok asked, "What is 'free'?"

"You know, free!  Decide for yourself what to do, not do what the drow tell you to!"

Jhasspok gave this some further thought.  "You mean, eat some of the fish I give to the drow?  And not just the heads, after they've eaten the rest?"

Cramer snorted in irritation.  "I mean eat _all_ of the fish you catch!  Screw the drow!  We could all sneak out of here and be free!"

"Don't forget the tattoos," reminded Marlo.  "We'll have to have some way to overcome them if we're really going to try to escape at some point."

"Hrrm," thought Cramer, his eagerness to escape deflating.  "So...I guess it's the arena for us tomorrow, after all."

Eventually evening time came, evidenced only by the dimming of the slave-light torches.  "We sleep now," Jhasspok told the others.

The next day, the slaves were given a simple breakfast, allowed quick use of toilet facilities, and then herded into the arena where they met up with the five slaves of House Ky'hulcressen.  These five were all dressed identically, in form-fitting silk clothing the hardness of iron.  "You guys been slaves long?" asked Khari.

"Since yesterday, actually," replied one of the House Ky'hulcressen slaves.

"Oh, yeah?  Then howdja all get the matchin' outfits?"

The slave looked the dwarf straight in the eye and said, "We have always had this ironsilk armor."  It was apparent House Jalamir wasn't the only House willing to give their combat slaves a bit of an edge if possible.

The ten slaves were sent out onto the arena floor, although there didn't seem to be any floor there at first; the actual arena portion of the structure was an oval shape of raised benches for the drow audience in attendance with apparently nothing between them but open air over a plunge of half a mile into the bioluminescent sea below.  But experimentation showed there was an invisible _wall of force_ making up a perfectly smooth surface for the combatants to fight upon.  Marlo gulped at the view below her.  "This is going to take some getting used to!" she said.

From the other side of the arena stepped the other group of ten combatants: nine humans and a half-elf, by the look of it.  Half of this group seemed to be simple commoners from the surface world, darting fearful glances in all directions.  The other five were more seasoned: a pair of archers, two street thieves, and the half-elf's rugged hides pegged him as a barbarian.

A sudden voice blared across the arena, instantly hushing the excited talk of the audience along the raised benches.  The voice spoke in the drow language - which none of the slaves spoke - and was likely enhanced by magic to make it as loud as it was.  But the last word was spoken in the Slave Tongue: "Commence."

Khari, a seasoned fighter in his clan, advanced to the middle of the arena and took a defensive stance, holding his shield up before him but ready to strike with his warhammer, held behind him to bash forward into the head of whatever enemy first got into range.  Marlo followed immediately with a _magic missile_ spell cast at one of the archers in the back; she wasn't a seasoned veteran of fight-to-the-death battles but realized those with a ranged capability were deadlier in the opening moments of an arena battle than those who first had to close with the enemy.

Then a male rogue from the opposing forces sprinted forward, his blade ready to strike out at Khari.  The dwarf slammed his hammer into the foe's side as he approached but the rogue's blade nicked Khari in the arm as he was sent staggering away from the force of the dwarf's blow.

Cramer stepped forward, casting a _bless_ spell on the five House Jalamir slaves and those of House Ky'hulcressen as well.  He knew his role here would be to aid the others in their hand-to-hand combats where possible and bring a healing touch to those who needed it, and this particular spell would aid his allies in striking the enemy with their various weapons.

With a cry, the ironsilk-armored warriors dashed straight across the arena, charging into the group of commoners directly before them.  After this vicious assault, only one of the commoners lay dead upon the ground...not a very impressive beginning, but at least the first casualty was to the other side!

But then the two archers unleashed their arrows into two of the ironsilk warriors of House Ky'hulcressen as the half-elf barbarian waded into battle with them as well.  He dropped one of their number with a massive greatsword, bringing the death tally to one each.  Then the commoners attacked, proving themselves to be a more battle-ready force than their initial appearances had first suggested.

Utred charged the male rogue Khari had sent reeling, dropping him with a single blow of his greataxe.  That put the score at 2-1 in the House Jalamir/Ky'hulcressen team's favor.  Jhasspok charged the half-elf barbarian, seeking to drop him with his new, borrowed weapon, but he swung and missed...perhaps because the half-elf didn't move like a fish.

The female rogue advanced, seeking retribution for the death of her thieving partner, but her blade missed Utred entirely.  Then Khari stepped up and splattered her brains with a mighty blow from his warhammer.  The two bearded slaves grinned at each other, sharing a brief moment of dwarven brotherhood on the field of battle.

Marlo cast another _magic missile_ spell at her previous target, for her reasoning hadn't changed.  However, even after the attack the archer seemed to be clinging to his life out of sheer stubbornness.  Cramer cast a different spell - the opposite, in a sense, of his previous one - sending a _bane_ spell at the enemy, hampering their ability to strike true with their weapons.  However, the _bane_ spell wasn't an automatic success as the _bless_ spell had been and of the enemy forces only the archers and the barbarian were affected - the hearty commoners all managed to shrug off the spell's effects.  These were some rather impressive commoners indeed!

However, as impressive as they might be they weren't invincible, as evidenced by the ironsilk warriors bringing a pair of them down with their blades.  There were now half a dozen dead on the battlefield, only one of them an ally of House Jalamir.

But then the archers struck again, sending one arrow just barely missing Khari and another plunging deep into Jhasspok's upper chest.  The lizardfolk staggered, then was felled by a blow from the half-elf barbarian's greatsword.  The commoners managed to drop another of the ironsilk warriors, bringing the score to a much closer 5-3.  Two more deaths were all the sacrifices Lolth would get from this battle and then those dead - or at least laid out and bleeding to death - would be discarded into the Underdark sea half a mile below the arena.

Utred didn't take Jhasspok's death lightly: he allowed the rage to take over all conscious thought, becoming a whirling mass of death and facing his half-elf counterpart in direct battle.  Khari joined his fellow dwarf in attacking the half-elf, although the fighter managed to keep a level head about him, even managing to see Jhasspok snorting blood from his nostrils with each ragged breath - the lizardfolk was still alive!

Marlo cast her third and final _magic missile_ spell of the day, finally dropping the archer she'd been targeting all during the combat.  That made a full nine downed combatants - but then Cramer read the words from one of the _cure light wounds_ spell he'd been given and Jhasspok rose unsteadily to his feet.  The crowd roared, some of them in excitement and others in disappointment, but there were now clearly only eight dead on the arena floor - the battle would continue!

The ironsilk warriors of House Ky'hulcressen managed to slay another of the surprisingly-hard-to-kill commoners, leaving only one of their original number still alive.  But this last commoner swung his hammer with all his might, staggering one of the ironsilk warriors such that he could barely remain standing.  The crowd gasped, wondering if this would be the tenth and final death, but the wobbling warrior kept his footing although he wisely wandered a few steps back, out of immediate combat range.

The sole remaining archer fired another arrow but it missed the staggering ironsilk warrior by dint of simple chance; the man was still wobbling, trying to remain standing, and just happened to stagger out of the way of the arrow at the last moment.  It was Utred who finished off the tenth victim of the arena: the half-elf barbarian, practically cut into two by the force of the dwarf's greataxe.  Utred grabbed the foe's greatsword as he fell to the ground; by his count, this was victim number ten and the fight should be over - but there was no need for such a fine weapon to go to waste!

Utred was quite correct: with ten slain combatants, the sections of the _wall of force_ directly beneath the corpses vanished momentarily, allowing them to plunge instantly down into the faintly-glowing sea below.  Cheers erupted from the crowd all around the arena and the magically-enhanced voice returned, saying something in the drow language that went completely over the heads of the slaves.  But all the slaves cared about at the moment was they had survived; that and the healing provided by the lesser drow clerics of Lolth assigned to such lowly duties as tending to slaves.  They were returned to their large, empty room, into which was soon also brought food and drink of a higher quality - and quantity - than had been provided the day before.

The rest of the day and most of the next passed in nervous anxiousness.  Now that the slaves had had their first taste of combat they better knew what the third day of the Festival of Blood would be like.  However, they were still separated from the remaining arena slaves of House Ky'hulcressen and those who had survived the battle against them; these former enemies would now be grafted into their team for the last battle but they were not allowed to coordinate battle strategies with slaves of other Houses beforehand; these Overreach drow kept their Houses separate to a ridiculous degree, it seemed.

On day three of the Festival of Blood, the five slaves of House Jalamir and their temporary allies were sent out into the arena again.  All was as it had been the previous day, save for the enemy force they'd be fighting: five orcs, four goblins, and a hobgoblin.  Two of the orcs and the hobgoblin wore no armor, suggesting they were likely spellcasters of some type.  "We'll want to take them out first, if possible," suggested Utred, although he and Khari were ready to deal whatever damage they could to any of these goblinoid foes - all three races were traditional enemies of the dwarves with a mutual animosity going back many centuries.

Again there was a sound-amplified speech in the drow language, followed by the single word "Commence" in the Slave Tongue.  The allied archer let loose the arrow he'd had nocked and ready to go since the drow speech had started; the arrow flew across the arena to strike the hobgoblin in the shoulder before he could duck in time.  Marlo, at the same time, cast a _magic missile_ spell at one of the unarmored orcs but he failed to drop; instead, he began chanting in a low, rumbling tone, casting a _bless_ spell on the goblinoid forces.  The other orc adept stepped forward, ready to cast a spell of his own.

An orc in the back ranks had a longbow of his own and he targeted Jhasspok - easily the tallest of the enemy forces and therefore a likely possibility for the toughest - but the lizardfolk got his turtle-shell shield up in time to deflect the incoming missile.  Jhasspok ran forward, readying his net to throw at the orc shaman, thinking he'd have a difficult time getting his spell off if he were entangled in the web of ropes.  Unfortunately, Jhasspok missed with his throw, again wishing he was back in the bioluminescent waters of the Underdark sea, where his targets were fish who generally did not fight back.

Fortunately for the lizardfolk, though, Khari had his back - he stepped forward and slew the orc adept with a powerful blow from his warhammer before the spellcaster could get his readied spell off.  Cramer stepped behind the dwarven fighter, casting a _bane_ spell that undid the effects of the _bless_ spell the other adept had cast upon the goblinoids, leaving all but one or two of them bereft of the magical aid they'd just been granted moments before.

Utred charged forth and slew one of the orc warriors in the front ranks, practically gutting him with a side-slash of his greataxe.  There were now two dead combatants on the arena floor, both from the opposing side: a good start!

But then the hobgoblin stepped forward, his hands spread out before him.  As arcane syllables spilled from his lips, a sheet of flames gushed forth, momentarily encompassing Jhasspok, Khari, and Utred.  But the hobgoblin's look of triumph faltered when he saw how little actual damage his _burning hands_ spell had done to the front-line enemy combatants - and now he was out there in the middle of the arena with them!

Another orc warrior rushed to the hobgoblin's aid, slashing at Utred with a greataxe of his own.  The three ironsilk warriors advanced upon the goblin forces in a rush, but failed to kill any - although one goblin was staggered, just about at death's door but unwilling to walk completely through it.  He retreated to the back of the arena with all possible speed while the other three goblins rushed forward to engage the ironsilk warriors of House Ky'hulcressen.

The sole commoner to have survived the battle on day two of the Festival of Blood rushed forth with his weapon, again proving his mettle by charging and staggering the hobgoblin sorcerer with a blow of his hammer.  His archer companion, from the same House, shot and missed with an arrow that went whizzing by the ear of the sole remaining orc adept.  But Marlo finished off the hobgoblin with a trusty _magic missile_ spell, easily her favorite spell thus far in her short career as an arena gladiator.

The orc spellcaster whirled and tried hitting Utred with a simple touch of his hand - but that hand was glowing with the power of an untriggered spell just waiting to be released.  The dwarven barbarian skipped easily back out of range as Jhasspok stepped up and brought the dwarf's loaned morningstar crashing down upon the orc's head, garnering the lizardfolk his first kill.

The orc archer let fly with another arrow, catching one of the ironsilk warriors in the throat and slaying him instantly.  This was the first death from that team, while the goblinoid forces had already suffered the deaths of four of their combatants.  However, unlike the previous day's contest, this battle would continue until one entire team had been slain.

Khari advanced and attacked the sole remaining orc skirmisher with a warhammer swing that sent the brutish beast falling to the ground.  But the orc quickly regained his feet and faced the oncoming dwarven fighter, still in the fight.  Cramer stayed where he was - there were no combatants close enough to interrupt his spellcasting - and cast a _bless_ spell upon only the House Jalamir members of his team, for he recalled what would happen once the goblinoids were all defeated; there was no point in giving any advantage to a future enemy.

Utred attacked the orc warrior and missed, receiving a deep gash from the orc's greataxe in return.  Grimacing in pain, the wounded dwarf was forced to backtrack to Cramer for healing.  The orc warrior let the dwarven barbarian retreat, swinging suddenly at Khari instead and catching the fighter in a side-swing of his greataxe that sent the Hammerslammer dwarf reeling, unconscious, onto the arena floor.  It was likely the fact that he certainly appeared to be dead already that prevented the orc from making sure with a decapitating blow, but fortunately for Khari there were other combatants nearby attracting the orc's attention away from his prone and helpless victim.

The ironsilk warriors managed to stagger a few more goblins but were having a rather hard time taking any of them out of the fight.  The goblins were generating a lot of boos and catcalls from the audience, given their penchant for fleeing from battle when so grievously wounded.  Marlo used one of her _burning hands_ scrolls in an attempt to take out three of the scattering goblins, but two of them dodged beneath the sheet of flames and emerged unscathed.  The commoner managed to kill one, dropping his iron hammer onto the staggered goblin's head.

Behind Marlo, the allied archer shot and missed with another arrow, this one aimed at the orc archer in the back ranks of his own forces.  The orc archer proved to be a much better shot, unfortunately by taking down the unnamed commoner who had earned quite a lot of respect from House Jalamir's slaves for his combat prowess; when he fell backwards with an arrow protruding from his forehead the other slaves on his team groaned with sadness at his demise.

Jhasspok rushed the orc archer, hoping to take him down with Utred's morningstar.  He swung and missed, but at least forced the archer to lower his bow while dodging the incoming blow.  He snapped at the orc with his sharp teeth - an instinctive move Jhasspok hadn't been aware he was going to do until he was already doing it - but they too failed to find their target.

Cramer used another of his forbidden scrolls to heal Khari, who was bleeding out onto the arena floor.  The _cure light wounds_ spell closed off the deep gash he'd taken at the orc warrior's axe-blade, bringing the dwarven fighter back at least to sluggish consciousness.  He got to his knees, then to his feet, grabbing up his warhammer and shield and looking about for the nearest enemy.  The orc warrior who had downed Khari was now attacking one of the slaves in ironsilk armor, swinging and missing (much to the Ky'hulcressen slave's relief).  And then the orc was taken down by a pair of strikes from two of the ironsilk warriors, finally pulling their weight in this combat.

Utred charged and slew one of the goblins, practically slicing the screaming coward in two with the force of his blow and the sharpness of his greataxe.  He then spun in place and cut down the last remaining goblin, sending him sprawling face-first onto the arena floor.

Of the goblinoid forces there was only one remaining: the orc archer.  He looked frantically about the arena for allies and saw he was the last one standing from his team.  With a stoic expression, he faced the lizardfolk snapping at him, ready to go down fighting.

But the "allied" archer decided it was close enough to their side having won the initial skirmish to start whittling down the forces of the other Houses.  He sent an arrow directly into Marlo's back, sending the sorceress dropping instantly to her hands and knees.  But she gritted her teeth at the pain, spun about, and cast a _color spray_ spell at the betraying archer.  It would have been karmic - and extremely gratifying - if the spell slew the traitor there on the spot, but Fate often has other ideas and the archer avoided all effects of the spell.

A side-swing of the morningstar swept the orc archer's longbow out of his grasp and then Jhasspok was upon him, ripping his throat out with his sharp teeth.  The two collapsed to the ground, the lizardfolk's muzzle covered in the slain orc's blood; when he arose he looked like some primitive, primordial dinosaur.

Seeing they were now in the "every House for itself" portion of the arena battle, Khari slew both remaining ironsilk warriors in rapid succession with rapid-fire blows from his warhammer; it served the Ky'hulcressen slaves right for trying to flank the battle-ready dwarf from opposite directions.

A sudden thought hit Cramer Appleknocker and he voiced it to his new allies.  "Say, do you think we have time to loot the corpses ahead of time if there's at least one enemy still in play?" he called out.

"Let's find out!" Utred replied, racing at the backstabbing archer and tackling him about the waist.  He let his greataxe fall to the arena floor beside him, allowing him to crush the archer in a bear hug.  "I want some of that armor!" Marlo called out, and Khari pulled a set of ironsilk armor off one of the slain Ky'hulcressen slaves while Jhasspok grabbed up the orc's longbow and pulled the quiver from his back.  Even Cramer started gathering up weapons, although most of them were much too big for the little gnome to use himself.  Finally, he gave Utred the okay and the dwarven barbarian snapped the traitorous archer's neck with his bare hands.  Then, mindful of what had happened the last time they had won, he scrambled to his feet and hastily backed up - and just in time, too, for the _wall of force_ floor suddenly opened up in several places, dropping those slain in the arena to the Underdark sea below.

There were bemused cheers from the crowd; the drow of House Jalamir cheered the loudest, of course, but even those of opposing Houses had to acknowledge the fact that House Jalamir's slaves - all five of them - had successfully made it through both skirmishes and had even had the presence of mind to make off with some of their enemies' armor and weapons while doing so.  As before, clerics of Lolth tended to the slaves' wounds as they were ushered back to their rectangular prison room.

Calish was there waiting for them.  "Excellent work!" he enthused.  "I cannot recall the last time a House had all five of its slaves survive the entire Festival of Blood!  You have done well, all of you!"  A pair of drow entered the room, bringing food and drink.

"In fact," mused the drow slavemaster, "your overwhelming success in the arena had given me some thoughts about a new line of work for you.  I'll have to give this some additional thought...."

As the others grabbed up much-needed food and drink, Cramer nibbled absently at a piece of dark bread.  He said nothing, but possible avenues of escape were dancing in his head.  He, too, would have much to think about in the days to come.

- - -

And that was our initial adventure in this new campaign.  Logan used a Pathfinder "Arena" map for the battles (it's two-sided; he used the side where the arena floor is covered in water, as that's what our PCs saw during combat) and built the other slave areas using geomorphic Dungeon Tiles.

So, the slave tattoos are going to be a bit of a problem, in that we're going to have to have access to some way to _dispel magic_ or something to try to get rid of them (maybe an _erase_ spell?) before we make our break for freedom.  We'll also need to find Cramer's cleric friend, the whole reason he came to the Overreach in the first place, so we'll likely remain slaves of the drow for some time.  (It only follows that eventually we'll escape, though - I can't see us all as 20th-level PCs and still unable to break free from drow servitude.)

As for the drow, Logan subverted our expectations by making Calish Jalamir an overall rather friendly sort.  He's still a slavemaster and undoubtedly evil, but a friendly evil master beats, say, a fiendishly evil master with a penchant for torture at the slightest infraction.  We'll have to see how it goes.


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## Richards (Oct 27, 2019)

*ADVENTURE 2: TRIAL RUN*

PC Roster:
Cramer Appleknocker, gnome cleric 1​Jhasspok, lizardfolk 1​Khari Hammerslammer, dwarf fighter 1​Marlo Pendragon, human sorcerer 1​Utred "Buckets" Butterflinger, dwarf barbarian 1​
Game Session Date: 23 October 2019

- - -

For the next several days, the five combat slaves who had enjoyed such an unprecedented success during the Festival of Blood spent their time inside the hollow column belonging to House Jalamir while Calish decided how best to employ them.  Sleeping in the same area as the common slaves, the four newcomers learned quite a bit about life in service to the drow.  (Jhasspok, having been hatched into slavery, already knew much of it but his life thus far had been somewhat specialized in fish-gathering for his drow masters.)

The common slaves worked at various household tasks and this was the lot for the five former arena slaves during the days immediately after the Festival of Blood.  There was plenty of work to go around, so the other slaves didn't mind being given five additional pairs of hands to help them finish their tasks.  Besides the common slaves, though, there were personal slaves, who served but a single master or mistress, usually a person of high rank in the Jalamir hierarchy; the fisher slaves (of which caste Jhasspok had been a member), who either caught fish or gathered shellfish and debris from the river leading into the Underdark sea; and mercenary slaves, those who had proven either sufficiently loyal or worthwhile to be allowed to carry weapons and fight in the defense of their House and city (in that order, it should be emphasized).  Mercenary slaves were sometimes assigned other tasks that furthered their House's goals and it was this caste of slave for which the five were being groomed.

Calish was the primary slavemaster of House Jalamir and he believed in rewarding good behavior in addition to punishing failure in order to maximize the productivity of those slaves under his command.  While Calish was generally of a jovial nature, Cramer surreptitiously cast a _detect evil_ spell and confirmed the drow slavemaster was as evil as any other drow, cheerful attitude notwithstanding.

After serving with the common slaves for a few days, the group of five was summoned before Calish.  He took them to the House docks, halfway down the hollow column of House Jalamir, where they stepped onto a wooden skiff and were rowed over to the eastern gate of the city of Overreach by a pair of well-muscled fisher slaves.  As the skiff skimmed the water, Calish asked, "Tell me, do any of you know of the lost kingdom of Brunniir?"  Khari and Utred immediately perked up.  "Ah, I see the dwarves are familiar with it.  Please, Utred, tell the others what you know."

"It was a great dwarven city, in a vast cavern much like Overreach.  It was so big it had a bunch of satellite villages at the end of twisting passageways beyond the great vault which held Brunniir.  Me and Khari are from two of them villages.  And then one day, some 15 centuries ago, it simply vanished - not just Brunniir but the entire cavern which housed it was gone, as if it had never been."

"A succinct description," approved Calish.  "Brunniir once stood not 10 miles - as the xorn burrows - from Overreach.  And yet the dwarves were unaware of our city's existence, for we had taken steps to ensure this was so.  In any case, after the initial confusion of the city's disappearance we were able to plant seeds of paranoia and suspicion among the surviving dwarven villages.  In-fighting between them has kept the dwarves from digging far enough to find the city of Overreach.  Well, we're going to go visit one of those villages, as the closest one has an adamantine vein in which we are very interested.  So, here's the plan: we could easily send in a drow force to take what we want, but to do so runs the risk of exposing our proximity and the last thing we want is for the bickering dwarven villages to unite together against a common foe.  So instead, we're going to send you five in.  The dwarves in the mine we're going to attack work in shifts, a week at a time.  Later this day, the current shift will be replaced and the off-going miners will return the adamantine ore they have collected over the past week.  Stealing that week's gathering of adamantine ore will be a good test of your combat abilities in a non-arena setting."

By this point the fisher slaves had brought their skiff to a tunnel opening along the outer edge of the vast cavern supporting Overreach.  Calish stepped out and waited on the five slaves to follow, then sent the skiff away with a gesture of his hand.  "This way," he said, strolling down the tunnel, not bothering to see if the five slaves followed nor worried he was exposing his back to five armed individuals; he knew they knew their place and indeed they hurried to catch up with him.  As they departed the scant illumination provided by the bioluminescent sea, Marlo was glad Calish had seen fit to give her a purple-flamed "slave-light" torch to carry; the drow and the dwarves might not need light to see by but she, Cramer, and Jhasspok would be blind without the magical illumination.

Calish continued his briefing as they walked.  "The adamantine vein is in a small cave complex on one side of a 100-foot-wide rift some three miles deep, with the dwarven village on the other side.  The dwarves built a bridge across the rift to get to the cave with the adamantine ore and as far as they know it is the only way into the mine.  Fortunately for us, the dwarves dug into a freshwater spring which, unknown to them, connects to a larger cavern that connects up to the Overreach via this very tunnel we now traverse."  Khari's brow furrowed in concentration as he tried to keep up with what the drow slavemaster was saying; Calish had a fancy way of talking and often used words unfamiliar to the simple-minded dwarf.  Traverse?  Was that like walking?

The miles passed in relative silence as the five slaves followed their master along the winding passageway.  Utred noticed the tunnel seemed, for the most part, quite natural; the only times he saw signs it had been altered purposefully was in several of the thinner sections where it had obviously been widened, no doubt by a team of slaves with picks and shovels.

Eventually, the group arrived at a cavern where a small gathering of common slaves stood waiting for them, guarded by a pair of armed drow soldiers.  "Ah, good, all in place, I see!" smiled Calish at the sight of the slaves and the hand-carts they had brought with them.  He addressed the five slaves he'd accompanied, "This lot is not fit for combat but they should be sufficient to lug away the treasures you obtain for us."  If the common slaves took umbrage of being so disdainfully described they were at least smart enough not to let it show on their faces.

A pool of water lay at the back of the cavern.  "This is your hidden entrance to the mines," Calish informed the group.  "It slopes gently down to begin with, then goes laterally for some distance before rising ten feet or so straight up into the mines.  You'll need to hold your breath for no longer than a minute, I'd wager.  So: rules of engagement!  You are to overpower the mining force on duty there; it doesn't matter if you kill them or leave survivors...although, come to think of it, it would probably be best if you let at least one of them live so they can report back they were attacked by a pair of dwarves and a few members of other - non-drow - races.  That can only further the in-fighting amongst the clans!"  He looked over at the group of five slaves.  "This will be an interesting trial run for you.  Off you go, then!"

One by one, the five slaves stepped into the water.  Jhasspok went in without hesitation; the clear pool was not the same as the bioluminescent Underdark sea but it was at least something somewhat familiar.  The dwarves went in less eagerly, knowing full well that with their dense structure they tended to sink like a stone - and their armor wasn't likely to make things any easier.  Marlo submerged, marveling that the "slave-light" torch provided just as much illumination underwater as it did in the open air - but then its purple flames were only illusory, providing light but no heat.  Her new ironsilk armor - which she had appropriated from a combat sacrifice during the Festival of Blood - clung to her like normal silk in the cool waters but she knew its exterior would remain as tough as iron - a perfect set of armor for an arcane spellcaster.

Cramer stepped into the pool quite willingly but it had nothing to do with his like or dislike of getting wet - he simply wanted to be out of sight of Calish as soon as possible.  Once completely submerged, he mentally activated his innate _prestidigitation_ ability and channeled it into altering the pigmentation of his skin, darkening it to the same black hue as that of the drow slavemaster.  With Cramer's light blond hair he felt he could easily be mistaken for a drow - hopefully, this would be a means of alerting the dwarves they were about to attack as to the true nature of the assault force.

Despite his small stature Cramer was the first one to climb out of the pool at the other end; Jhasspok was busy helping the heavy dwarves to the top of the pool's surface before they ran out of breath.  The gnomish cleric prepared the words to a _bless_ spell, holding off on the actual casting until all of his group had made it out of the pool and back onto solid land again.  Khari climbed out next, sputtering and coughing and clanging his warhammer onto the stone floor of the cavern.  This was enough to draw the attention of the dwarven miner straight ahead of him, down a short passageway that was being painstakingly carved from the surrounding stone.  The sounds of other picks striking stone echoed around the cavern, their points of origin indeterminate.

"Eh?" called out the dwarven miner in his own language.  "What's this, then?  Who be ye?"  As far as he had been aware, the pool was just a pool of water, nothing more - the dwarves who had discovered it had never thought to go diving down into it to see if it led anywhere.

Cramer, the obviously fake drow (for drow males tended not to have facial hair and Cramer sported a fancy goatee; neither were drow generally around three feet tall) tried bluffing his way out of the situation.  Fortunately, he not only understood but spoke the Dwarven tongue fluently.  "Behold!" he called, waving his arms out dramatically.  "I have returned from the kingdom of Brunniir!"  As Marlo was still underwater, there was no light in the cavern so the gnome simply faced the general direction from which the miner's voice had come and hoped for the best.  As such, he couldn't see the miner's eyebrows raise in incredulity.

Utred climbed out from the other side of the pool from Khari; now Cramer was flanked by a dwarf on either side of him.  They could see just fine in the absolute darkness, but the gnome was still blind.  Behind him in the pool, Jhasspok allowed only his eyes to rise above the pool's surface, not wanting to let his presence be known just yet.  But he suspected combat was imminent and wanted to be a surprise addition to the forces the miners would be facing.

Finally, Marlo's head broke the surface of the pool and the "slave-light" torch brought some much-needed illumination into the mines.  She pulled herself out of the pool and stepped in front of Cramer, preparing to cast her remaining _color spray_ spell from the scroll she'd been given.  But she had decided to wait until more miners advanced within range so she could get the most out of her single casting of the spell.  (Cramer, in the meantime, took the opportunity to cast his _bless_ spell upon the group under his breath.)

The lone miner called out, "WE GOT A PROBLEM OVER HERE!" at the top of his lungs and the sounds of picks striking stone ceased.  A group of four other dwarves ambled over, most of them simple miners with picks in hand but a few holding more traditional combat weapons.  Marlo cast her spell, catching all five dwarves in its area of effect but only causing one to drop to the stone floor, unconscious, blinded, and stunned.  Unnoticed, a sixth dwarf was ambling over from another side shaft, curiosity on his dirty face.

In an eruption of water, Jhasspok exited the pool at full speed and raced in front of the sorceress, standing between her and the dwarves with his turtle shell shield held before him and his borrowed morningstar striking a miner into instant unconsciousness, bleeding from a head wound that stained the stone floor.  In doing so, the lizardfolk made himself the primary target of the miners' follow-on attacks (although one went after Utred instead due to simple proximity), although none of the dwarves' retaliatory swings connected to their respective targets.  And then all subterfuge was gone and it was a simple combat to the death.

Cramer cast a _bane_ spell on the dwarven force but the innate dwarven resistance to magic aided them greatly in avoiding the spell's effects.  Khari swung his warhammer at a miner's head but failed to connect - and then the fighter heard the clomp of boots down a side tunnel to the left; apparently there were reinforcements coming!  He turned his head for a quick peek and spotted a large chest in the corner of the tunnel, no doubt the week's worth of collected adamantine and the goal of this trial run for the slaves.

Utred swung his greataxe and had a better go of it; his foe fell to the ground, dead.  Then he too heard the approaching footfalls and turned to face this new opposing force.  Jhasspok swung his weapon and missed, then missed again with his snapping teeth - although the very attempt caused the miner he was facing to blanch visibly.  Marlo fell back upon her successful standby - the _magic missile_ spell - and hit a miner, although he stubbornly insisted in remaining conscious and continuing to fight back against her friends.  The dwarves attacked as best as they could, one of them managing to get his pick past Jhasspok's shield and wounding him grievously.  But the wound didn't last long, for Cramer healed it up by reading the words from one of his _cure light wounds_ scrolls.

Khari swung his warhammer over his head and dropped one miner, then spun and cleaved into the head of another, dropping him as well.  He grunted in satisfaction.  That left only one miner standing of the original force and Utred quickly brought him down with his greataxe.

The footsteps grew louder.  Jhasspok brought his morningstar down upon the head of the dwarf brought down by Marlo's _color spray_ spell, not wanting him to wake up after the effects had worn off and become a surprise combatant behind the party, for the slaves were now all turning to face the rapidly-approaching reinforcements.  Marlo was ready to pop off another _magic missile_ at the first new foe to show his face, while Cramer used a simple _cure minor wounds_ spell to stabilize the dwarf Jhasspok had just bonked into deep unconsciousness; he at least would survive the encounter to spread the tale of who had attacked the miners.

As one, Utred and Khari raced forward to the first junction and prepared to attack the approaching foes when they turned the corner.  Jhasspok followed, leaving Marlo and Cramer behind the three-person wall against the incoming enemies.  The first dwarven guard rounded the bend and got staggered into near unconsciousness by the combined force of Utred's greataxe strike and an incoming _magic missile_.  She wisely backed off the way she had come, allowing those at her side to advance against these unknown enemies.  Another dwarven fighter approached, swinging at Utred but missing.

Jhasspok charged the fighter while Marlo cast a third _magic missile_ spell at him.  Behind them, Cramer advanced forward, wanting to ensure he'd be seen in his false drow disguise.  Around the corner, a dwarven cleric of Moradin also advanced, preparing to cast a spell of healing upon the wounded female fighter.  Khari moved up and attacked the male dwarven fighter and was surprised to come out of this attack with a crossbow bolt sticking out of his bicep; he'd failed to see a dwarven ranger at the back of the tunnel from which the reinforcements had come.  With his darkvision, Khari could see the tunnel behind the crossbowman opened into the rift spanned by the bridge leading to the dwarven village.

With a wild swing of his greataxe, Utred dropped the male fighter and whooped in triumph.  The female fighter retreated to the cleric, who closed her wounds with a casting of a spell channeling Moradin's healing energy.  She then spun about, ready to attack any of the foes who might advance upon the reinforcements.  The first such foe to do so was Jhasspok, who not only evaded the swing of her hammer but dropped her to the ground with an overhead blow of his own weapon, the morningstar's spikes driving deep into her skull, piercing it in several places.  Miraculously, despite these wounds the female was still alive; these dwarves were made of sturdy stuff!

Marlo cast her last remaining _magic missile_ spell at the dwarven ranger in the back, seeing him as the current biggest threat due to his distance and his ability to get in several attacks before any of the melee combatants would be able to get to him.  Cramer charged at the dwarven cleric, who was dragging the female fighter away from the hulking lizardfolk who had attacked her.  Once out of Jhasspok's immediate reach, he dropped to a knee and flipped the unconscious dwarven woman over his shoulder, then backed steadily away towards the bridge.  Khari ignored the cleric - he seemed too busy to worry about - and raced after the ranger, wanting to drop him before he got off too many more shots with that crossbow of his.

But Utred wasn't about to ignore the cleric, realizing a priest of Moradin could call down several powerful combat spells upon them.  He raced up and swung at the spellcaster with the full force of his greataxe, wounding him greatly and nearly making him drop the ally he was trying to save.

Jhasspok, in the meantime, had targeted the ranger and sped in his direction, just as the ranger had targeted the lizardfolk and sent a bolt streaking in his direction.  But the bolt was deflected off the turtle shell shield Jhasspok carried and then the massive reptile was on the scene, swinging his morningstar for all he was worth.  Marlo added an _acid splash_ spell to the mix, all the spellpower she could manage at the moment.  But then Khari caught up and slew the ranger with his warhammer, crushing his skull in by the force of his blow.  He then turned in place and swung his hammer laterally at the retreating cleric, who by this point had advanced back down the tunnel far enough to be in range.

Then Cramer reached the cleric of Moradin and the two priests went at it, trading blows with their weapons - the dwarf, burdened with an unconscious ally on his shoulder, didn't have the required dexterity to be able to cast any spells so he had to make do with the mace at his belt.  His blow struck true, sending the black-skinned gnome reeling to the side - but then Utred finished him off with another swipe of his greataxe, causing the cleric to fall to the ground, near death, the dwarven woman he had hoped to rescue lying unmoving atop him.

Perhaps due to a feeling of kinship with the dwarven cleric, Cramer knelt beside him and applied a minimal amount of healing via a _cure minor wounds_ spell - just enough to prevent the dwarf from bleeding out.  He now had two foes guaranteed to survive the raid - and hopefully spread the word that the drow had been behind it.  While he was attending to this, the others in his party began stripping off armor and weapons from those who had been slain.  Unable to wear any of the dwarven armor himself - his build was much larger than anything a dwarf might wear - and for the most part satisfied with his current weapon selection, Jhasspok checked the contents of the open chest in the corner.  Sure enough, it was filled with nuggets of glistening metal, no doubt the adamantine the dwarves had mined during the previous week.  He started dragging the heavy chest over to the pool from which they arrived, thinking how fortunate they were that they could simply drop it into the pool and then lug it sideways back to their own gradually sloping side of the tunnel.  It would have been much more difficult trying to lug it in the opposite direction, where it would need to be lifted vertically for the last ten feet.

Everyone took a deep breath and jumped into the pool with their treasures, the dwarves doing their best to propel themselves along the submerged tunnel at best speed before their air gave out; neither of the two was at all comfortable in this environment.  Jhasspok didn't mind it at all, as his powerful tail helped propel him forward as he dragged the heavy chest beside him.  Marlo and Cramer helped push the chest from behind, the little gnome being sure to restore his skin coloration to its normal pigmentation before reaching the far side of the tunnel and coming withing view of Calish.

As they emerged from the water and everyone helped drag their stolen goods onto land, Calish stood before them frowning, his arms folded in disappointment.  "It seems one of you is not very good at obeying orders," he said without preamble.  Then, looking directly at Cramer and allowing his voice to drip with disdain, he asked, "You do recall we can scry through those tattoos of yours, do you not?"  The gnome looked up at the angry slavemaster - so different from his normally cheery demeanor - without comment, but his guilty expression said it all.  "You will now go back and slay every one of those dwarves you allowed to see you in your ridiculous 'disguise.'"

"I will help him," offered Jhasspok.

"You will not," countered Calish and that was that; Jhasspok didn't dare interfere.  "The gnome will slit each throat himself, knowing full well their deaths are on his own hands and his hands alone.  And when we get back, you will visit our Administer of Discipline.  Off with you now.  I expect the task to be done by the time the goods have been loaded onto the carts."  Without a word, Cramer removed his armor - he'd have to make his own way up the ten-foot vertical slope at the end of the submerged tunnel this time - and stepped back into the pool.  He returned, grim-faced, just in time to grab up his armor again before the group - including the armed drow and the common slaves pulling the carts - began the long trek back to the Overreach.  Cramer worried about what he might expect from this Administer of Discipline, nor was he alone in his worry for the imaginations of his friends were working overtime on that very subject.

Upon arrival back at the edge of their immense home cavern, another skiff waited in place for them.  The fisher slaves rowed back across the bioluminescent sea to the docks at the column of House Jalamir, then the treasure was taken in one direction while Calish led his five slaves deeper down into bowels of the hollow column.

Walking into a dismal room, Calish had the other four line up against the front wall while he ushered Cramer onto the only piece of furniture in the whole room: a small chair in front of a door on the back wall.  "Put this on," he commanded, passing a golden ring to the gnome.  Cramer, in enough trouble already as it was, asked no questions and offered no objections, placing the ring around his finger; it shrunk to automatically fit, an indication the ring was magical in some fashion.

"The Administer claims it is more delicious when your brain is forming new memories of pain while he devours it," Calish said with a wicked grin as the door behind Cramer opened and a tall creature walked in.  It had skin of a glistening purple tone somewhat reminiscent of that of a slug; long, skeletal-thin fingers; and a head looking like a four-tentacled octopus.  Without a word it took up position behind the gnome and grasped Cramer's shoulders tightly, preventing him from looking behind him to see what horrible thing had his friends gasping in terror.

"Attend well," admonished Calish.  "This will be instructive for all of you."  Then he nodded at the Administer and the creature's four tentacles dropped onto Cramer's head, pulling the skin of his scalp taut while a parrotlike beak hidden beneath the appendages crunched through the gnome's skull and sucked up the juicy gobbets of brain tissue within.  Cramer's screams echoed throughout the enclosed room, finally giving out when he slumped forward, his skull now visibly empty.  The illithid's tight grip on the gnome's shoulders prevented him from falling forward off the chair.

Calish looked over at the line of slaves against the wall.  Marlo's face was pale and she looked ready to pass out from fright; the dwarves stood open-mouthed in shock, their fists clenched and knuckles white but powerless to do anything to aid their friend.  Jhasspok, being a lizardfolk but more importantly a lifelong slave, gave no indication of what he might be feeling - he just stood there impassively, letting the scene unfold before him.  At least it had happened relatively quickly.

Then the slaves noticed the ring glowing on Cramer's hand as the brain in his empty skull started regrowing.  Once it had once again filled the skull and the splintered bone regenerated back into place, Cramer gave a gasp and sat upright, the life suddenly returned to his body.

Calish looked straight at the gnome and muttered a single word.  "Again."

Cramer's howls of pain could be heard from several corridors away.  Then there was blissful silence for a few minutes as the _ring of regeneration_ did its work, before the screams of terror were heard once again for a third and final time.

"I trust this is a lesson that will not need to be repeated?" asked Calish.

"N-no...no, master," whimpered Cramer.

"Good!" replied Calish, his good humor restored.

- - -

This was an interesting trial run.  Dan and I had been discussing at work what we'd be sent up against, since Logan had told us ahead of time we weren't going to the surface just yet.  Dan was guessing kobolds while I was thinking svirfneblin and we were both wrong.  But dwarves fit nicely, as it gave Logan a way to tie Khari's and Utred's backgrounds into the overall story by making their respective homelands different villages from the vanished city of Brunniir.  (And knowing Logan, he'll have an answer about Brunniir's overnight disappearance at some point before the campaign ends.)

And that ending!  Holy cow, that was the best part of the whole adventure!  Logan hadn't decided on the spot to punish Cramer for his disobedience with having his brain eaten by a mind flayer; rather, knowing eventually one of us would try something similar, he had decided at the beginning of the campaign this would be the punishment for disobeying Calish.  It just happened to be Dan who decided to push the issue with his PC and poor Cramer paid the price.

We're all getting pretty close to having enough XP to level up so I'm pretty sure at the end of the next adventure we'll all get to advance to second level.  But we won't be playing next week, since Vicki will be out of town and we've all decided for this campaign all five of the players need to be here for each adventure.


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## Richards (Nov 9, 2019)

*ADVENTURE 3: A TRIP TO THE SLAVE MARKET*

PC Roster: 
Cramer Appleknocker, gnome cleric 1​Jhasspok, lizardfolk 1​Khari Hammerslammer, dwarf fighter 1​Marlo Pendragon, human sorcerer 1​Utred "Buckets" Butterflinger, dwarf barbarian 1​
Game Session Date: 6 November 2019

 - - -

Calish Jalamir was back to his usual cheerful self.  "Attend!" he called out to his slaves and they immediately clustered around him, eager to hear what he had to say.  That was more like it, the slavemaster thought to himself.

"It's payday!" he announced, passing a small purse of spider silk to each of the slaves.  "20 slave tokens for each of you - well, all but one of you, in any case."  He passed a small sack to Cramer, who could tell at once there was much more slack in his purse than in the others.  Opening his bag, he saw ten square slate chips; the purses of the other slaves each contained twice as many.  "A temporary fine for a one-time lack of good judgment," explained Calish.  "No doubt you will receive a full allotment next time around."  Cramer just bowed his head in acknowledgment and said nothing, determined not to allow any of his resentment to show.

Jhasspok looked into his bag in puzzlement, shrugged, and closed it up again.  More of those pieces of stone the drow slavemasters passed out to their slaves; they had been confusing to the lizardfolk when he'd first been given a batch years ago and they made no sense to him to this day.  But Calish was explaining their purpose to the other slaves, who, unlike Jhasspok, had not been raised their entire lives in slavery.  "These tokens are used as currency among the slaves.  You may spend them in the same manner as you would coins of your home lands - but they can be used only in the House Jalamir slave markets."  Holding up a token, the surface seemed to have a carved image of the House insignia, although it still felt smooth to the touch.  "Each House has its own variations but you will find the coins of one House are worthless to other Houses.  Jhasspok?  You look puzzled."

The lizardfolk looked up.  "What are they _for_?" he asked.

"Why, to buy things, of course," replied Calish with a smile.  "Didn't your former slavemaster explain why he was giving you slave tokens?"  Jhasspok just shook his head.  "Well, perhaps your new friends here will explain things to you at the market.  Come."  And he led the way to the upper reaches of the massive, hollow column belonging to House Jalamir, stepping out upon the ceiling of the cavern, which had a permanent _reverse gravity_ effect in place.  Once on the ceiling, looking straight "up" was in fact looking down at the Underdark sea half a mile below the cavern's ceiling - a quite exhilarating view.

"The House Jalamir slave market is just outside the confines of our column," Calish explained.  "The area lit by slave-torches is for slave use, while the unlit areas are reserved for drow.  You would do best to remain within the areas marked for use by slaves, but you are free to visit the market when you aren't otherwise occupied by the tasks we send your way."  And with that, he shooed them into the market, turning on his heel and going back the way he had come.

"You really have no idea how money works?" asked Marlo.  Again, Jhasspok shook his head.

"Then what did you do with all of the slave tokens you were given over the years?" asked Cramer.

Jhasspok had an answer for this, at least.  "There was another fisher slave, like me, who told me some of the slaves liked stacking the tokens into piles to see how high they could go before they fell over.  It was some kind of game, to pass the time.  I thought that was dumb, so he asked if he could have my tokens.  So I always gave mine to him."

"He was cheating you out of your money!" exclaimed Marlo, aghast on the lizardfolk's behalf.

"Who was this slave?" asked Utred, eager to put a name to the thief.

"*Fussington Pebblecruncher*," replied Jhasspok.  "He's a svirfneblin."

"You point him out to us if you see him," commanded Khari.  "We'll take care of him for you."  The little dwarf tapped his hammer to drive home the point; as arena slaves of some renown among House Jalamir, they were allowed to retain their weapons and armor within the confines of the city of Overreach.  Jhasspok shrugged again, not seeing the point of making such a fuss over little square pieces of rock.

The House Jalamir slave market was filled with ramshackle little shops selling a wide variety of goods, just as one might expect to see in any surface village.  There were three shops that stood out as somewhat unusual for a market catering to slaves of the drow, however: a potion shop, a scroll vendor, and a "Punch a Drow" shop.  While Marlo explained what a potion was to Jhasspok - the lizardfolk was unfamiliar with the term, if not the concept - Cramer took an interest in the "Punch a Drow" shop.  "What's all this about?" he asked the drow running the place.

"Drow criminals," replied the bored-looking dark elf.  "They get a choice: death or life as a slave.  If they choose slavery, they wear a slave collar for the rest of their days and are exempted from normal drow society.  You slaves, for instance, could attack a drow slave without the magic of your tattoos activating."  That definitely got the gnome's interest!  "At my shop here, slaves of the lesser races - like you - are allowed to vent your frustration against your betters by beating up a drow slave - if you have the coin."

"How much?" Cramer wanted to know.

"One token, one punch," replied the shop owner.  "Or 100 tokens gets you an hour alone in a room with the drow slave of your choice.  You can do whatever you want during that hour, as long as you don't kill the drow slave - anything besides that's fair game.  But I'm willing to bet you don't have a hundred tokens, do you?"

"Alas, no," frowned Cramer.

"Then it's a token a punch or come back when you save up your hundred."  Cramer moved on.

"I will give you some of my rocks," Jhasspok offered the gnome.

"Don't do that!" chided Marlo.  "Save them for yourself!  Buy something you want, don't go giving them away!  You're supposed to be spending them on things you want."

Jhasspok thought this over.  "You give these rocks away to people for giving you things you want," he reasoned.  Marlo acknowledged that this was true.  Jhasspok thought on the concept some more, then pulled out ten tokens and held them out to Cramer.  "He healed me in the arena," the lizardfolk said.  "I will buy his healing."  Cramer, no fool, took the proffered tokens and added them to the contents of his silk purse, which now totaled 20 tokens.

Marlo scrunched her face up in irritation, not wanting to chide the lizardfolk for doing a good deed but still wanting to protect his best interests.  "No, you don't buy something you already received," she argued.  "Cramer healed you because we're a team, and because having you up and fighting helped him to protect himself - and the rest of us.  You should spend your money on something you want."  This seemed a possible approach: keeping it at its most basic for the simple-minded lizardfolk.  "What would you want to buy if you could buy anything at all in the whole world?" she asked.

Jhasspok pondered the question for a moment in his slow, meticulous way and then answered, "A fish."  Marlo scanned the area and found a worn cart containing fresh fish.  She led Jhasspok there.  "Pick out a fish," she instructed.  After close examination, Jhasspok made his decision.  "This one," he said.

"Good.  Now pay the vendor," she said.

Jhasspok looked at the vendor with puzzlement.  He held up a token from his own bag.  "If I give you this...you will let me have this fish?" he asked.

"That's the way it works, pal."

"Ssss-ssss-ssss-ssss-ssss-ssss!" hissed Jhasspok, passing the slave token over and turning away with his purchase.  It took Marlo a moment to realize this was the lizardfolk's way of laughing.  And to Jhasspok, the transaction was nothing short of hilarious: this idiot had traded a delicious fish for a square piece of rock with a drawing of the House Jalamir insignia on it!  He gobbled down his fish before the vendor could come to his senses and demand they trade back.

The dwarves each decided to pick up a few healing potions - and at their suggestion Jhasspok bought one for himself as well - and Marlo had just purchased a scroll containing the _shield_ spell (there were no attack spells for sale, she noticed, only those useful for defense or general purpose) when the distinctive sounds of combat came from behind a row of small buildings.  As one, the arena slaves turned their heads in the direction from which the sounds were coming.  "Let's go!" cried Cramer, casting a _longstrider_ spell on himself and heading beyond the market.  He scooped up a handful of small pebbles from the street as he ran, future ammunition for a _magic stone_ spell.

A dart went whizzing past his head as he headed down a narrow alley.  Up ahead, a lone male drow leaned against a building, his hand crossbow shaking while his other hand was down at his stomach, doing his best to hold in his own intestines.  At his feet lay another drow, blood pooling at his throat where a crossbow dart jutted out.

Jhasspok raced up beside the gnome, his turtle shell shield held up to deflect any incoming missiles.  He looked at the dead body in the street before him, then at the trail of another half-dozen or so extending down a side alleyway.  The drow with his intestines leaking out of his stomach had been quite busy, it seemed!

Marlo stepped up behind the lizardfolk and gasped at the carnage.  At her approach, the drow lowered his hand weapon, having now recognized the group for who they must be: the House Jalamir arena slaves who had been so successful in the recent Festival of Blood.  "Save...*Niradi*..." he gasped, falling first to a knee and then to his side.  A loop of intestines slid out of the gash in his torso he'd been trying to hold closed as he collapsed, a victim to his fatal wound.

A woman's scream from the alleyway behind Marlo caused the arena slaves to turn in that direction - 180 degrees from the line of drow assassins the collapsing bodyguard had slain.  A few dark-clad figures scurried down the far end of that alley, their long, white hair and dark skin identifying them as drow as well.  Oddly, their backs seemed to writhe and shift in constant motion as the assassins moved toward their prey.

Cramer cast his _magic stone_ spell and tossed the first pebble at one of the retreating assassins.  It shattered against a brick wall at the side of the assassin's head, alerting her to the party's presence.  She spun and shot at the gnome with her hand crossbow - missing him, fortunately - while others of her group closed in on their unseen quarry.

Jhasspok raced up, his new masterwork quality short sword in hand - the dwarves had suggested he give this new weapon a try and he was determined to give it a fair shot, although he rather liked the morningstar Utred had loaned him.  He swung the blade at the assassin's head but she ducked nimbly in time, avoiding the decapitation Jhasspok had hoped for.  But at this range, the lizardfolk could see the assassin wore a cloak seemingly made up of black flames, which was the constant motion the arena slaves had noticed about her earlier.

Then from behind the drow woman stepped a drow man, a stern look on his face and a rapier in his hand.  "This is none of your business - leave at once!" he bellowed, and Jhasspok's initial impulse was to obey him immediately.  But then a _magic missile_ went streaking past the lizardfolk to strike the drow male in the face.  Jhasspok was confused; he had been ordered by a drow to save this Niradi person and was inclined to obey, but now a different drow was telling him to back away.  Which drow's orders were to be obeyed when they were in direct violation of each other?  Eventually, the fact that Marlo had not been incapacitated by her tattoo for the _magic missile_ attack on the drow indicated this drow was fair game; perhaps it was okay to attack drow who were trying to kill other drow?  In any case, helping someone who was being attacked seemed like the right thing to do, so that's the direction Jhasspok decided to head.

But Utred beat him to it; charging forward, he cut the drow male down with a solid swing of his dwarven greataxe, cutting through the ranger's shoulder and halfway through his chest before the axe got stuck on the man's ribs.  Utred was forced to lift a booted foot to the man's sternum to pull his blade free.

There was the sound of a sudden explosion in the distance but no way to determine how far away it was or what had caused it.  And the arena slaves had a battle to deal with right here, as the closest assassins turned to face them, allowing two others of their group to continue chasing down Niradi - whoever she might be.

Khari swung his masterwork warhammer at the nearest assassin but she too was able to duck beneath the weapon and remain unscathed by the dwarf's attack.  Before she could counterattack, though, she was beaned in the forehead with the second pebble enhanced by Cramer's _magic stone_ spell.

Three of the rogue drow shot their hand crossbows at Utred, having seen the damage he could dish out.  Only one of the flying darts hit their mark, and Utred could feel the sting of poison entering his bloodstream from the wound - but dwarves were made of pretty tough stuff and the barbarian managed to keep on his feet despite the venom now coursing through his system.

Jhasspok hit the assassin he'd missed before, his second swing hitting her in the arm and distracting her enough to allow him to clamp his sharp teeth around her neck.  He allowed his weight to bring her to the ground and ripped her throat out for good measure.  All in all, Jhasspok decided, it didn't taste nearly as good as the fish he had bought and devoured.

Marlo hit another of the drow assassins with a _magic missile_ spell and frowned at the ease of her success.  True, this particular spell was an almost guaranteed hit - only very specific magics, like the _shield_ spell, warded a person from a _magic missile_ - but the human sorcerer was fairly sure she'd been taught the drow were resistant to nearly all magic spells, and that there was a pretty good chance that any spell directed at a drow would fizzle away into nothingness.  That certainly hadn't been her experience; perhaps these were a weaker type of drow - slaves themselves, perhaps?

Utred slew another assassin with his greataxe while Marlo was having her moment of self-doubt.  Khari beaned another drow on the head, smashing in her skull and sending her lifelessly to the alley street.  That took care of the immediate combatants, so Cramer tossed his third and final _magic stone_ pebble at the back of a drow assassin approaching a barrier of some type: a globe of shimmering force, beyond which could be seen another form, wavering like a mirage through the lens of the spherical barrier separating the two.

Unable to get through the barrier, the two remaining assassins whirled and shot bolts from their hand crossbows at the arena slaves fast approaching them with weapons raised.  Neither bolt hit - but Jhasspok did, leaping at one of the remaining rogues and driving her to the ground, his short sword's blade driven deep into her chest.  Marlo used another _magic missile_ spell to strike the sole remaining assassin, who survived just long enough to be taken down by a blow from Khari's hammer.

Now it was the arena slaves standing before the globe of shimmering energy, trying to get a look at the drow woman on the other side, who seemed to be wearing a robe of ironsilk armor similar to the suit Marlo wore beneath her patterned robe.  "I thank you," the woman called out to her rescuers from the far side of an _Otiluke's resilient sphere_ spell effect - a defense called into being when she threw down a _bead of force_ to cut herself off from her attackers.

"Who are you?" asked Cramer.  "Why were these other drow trying to kill you?"

"My name is Niradi Ky'hulcressen," the drow woman replied, and the slaves all caught the name of the House renowned for their ironsilk armor.  "And those were not drow - they were surface elves, sent to destabilize the city of Overreach."

"You sure?" Khari asked.  "They sure look like drow."

"Simple full-body tattoos," Niradi explained.  Marlo for one was ready to believe her; it would explain why these "drow" had no particular spell resistance like a true dark elf would have.

"How would killing you destabilize Overreach?" Cramer wanted to know.

"At any given time, there are only six people who know the secret of crafting Ky'hulcressen magisilks," Niradi explained, "of which ironsilk is the most common.  There are three Master Weavers and three apprentices.  Two days ago, one of the Master Weavers and her apprentice were found dead.  Today, my own teacher was slain and I fled with my bodyguard.  Is he all right, by the way?"

"He's dead," Khari answered bluntly.

"He went down fighting, though," added Utred.  "Took down half a dozen or more of the assassins with him."

"He was a good man," Niradi stated matter-of-factually.

"So now what?" asked Marlo.  It seemed weird talking through a shimmering barrier but it blocked the entire width of the alley and trying to climb over the roofs of the adjoining buildings would put one outside the permanent _reverse gravity_ spell effect - not a good plan.

"I will officially request asylum at House Jalamir until House Ky'hulcressen can provide an armed escort back to our own pillar."

"Will they grant it, do you think?" asked Cramer.

"I can assure you, House Jalamir has much more to gain by accepting my request than denying it."

"Very well, then," agreed Cramer.  "If you like, we can escort you out of the slave market and into the House Jalamir pillar."  There was no response.  "...If you're ready?" prompted the gnome.

"We will wait," replied Niradi.  She sounded nervous.

"For what?" prompted Marlo.

"...For the duration to run out on the _bead of force_ I activated," admitted Niradi, rubbing the back of her neck, embarrassed to be helpless against a magical effect she herself had brought into being - especially in front of slaves of the lower races.  "Once activated, it's not like you can just turn it off."

"Hrmm," grunted Khari.  Magic was weird!

 - - -

Logan explained a slave token can be used to purchase anything worth from one silver piece to one gold piece in value, but the costs aren't cumulative: buying three items valued at 1 sp each would cost 3 slave tokens, just as buying three items valued at 1 gp each would cost 3 slave tokens.  And potions and scrolls (of which only the cheapest from the _DMG_ are available, and then only the non-attack versions) cost five slave tokens each, so there's no real mathematical formula for the correct valuation of a slave token.

Five dead elf rogues, each wearing a _slave-light cloak_, means each of our PCs gained a magic cloak out of this adventure.  Best of all, the color of the illusory flames is adjustable by the wearer, so we can make them whatever color we want - not just the black the elves had been using.

And we each gained enough XP to launch us into 2nd level.  Each of the other PCs added a level of the character class they had started out in, while I added my second "lizardfolk" level to Jhasspok; he now gets the lizardfolk +2 racial bonus to Strength that had been put on hold when he was still a first-level character.  That ought to help him hit his targets on combat (that, and the fact that I finally get a +1 BAB!).  And Joey rolled a natural 12 for Utred's hit points, making him - with his +4 Constitution bonus - the first 2nd-level PC I've ever seen with 32 hp!


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## Richards (Nov 17, 2019)

*ADVENTURE 4: JOURNEY TO THE WRITHING GATE*

PC Roster:
Cramer Appleknocker, gnome cleric 2​Jhasspok, lizardfolk 2​Khari Hammerslammer, dwarf fighter 2​Marlo Pendragon, human sorcerer 2​Utred "Buckets" Butterflinger, dwarf barbarian 2​
Game Session Date: 13 November 2019

- - -

"Well," said Calish Jalamir to the five slaves assembled before him, "that was certainly a surprise!  When I sent you off to the slave market, I didn't expect you to end up getting House Ky'hulcressen to owe our own Noble House a favor!  Well done, everyone - I am truly pleased!"  He reached into his belt pouch and pulled out five silk bags, passing one to each of the slaves.  "Here are 20 slave tokens each - I suggest you head back to the market and buy provisions for two weeks, for your next mission will send you to the surface.  Make your purchases and return to me at once."

Thus dismissed, the slaves headed back to the market, buzzing with questions and anticipation.  "I wonder what we're going to be doing back on the surface?" asked Marlo.

"Who knows, but there's likely a way we can take advantage of the situation," suggested Cramer, his mind already spinning with possibilities.

"What's the big deal about the surface?" asked Khari.  "It's so...open up there."  As a dwarf, he greatly preferred the confining walls of the Underdark to the wide-open spaces of the surface world.

"It would probably be more exciting for you if that's where you were from," pointed out Marlo.  "I for one will be glad to see the sun once again."

"What's the sun?" asked Jhasspok.  It wasn't a stupid question (although the lizardfolk had more than his share of those); having spent his entire life as a slave to the drow in their Underdark city, he'd never seen the sun before or even heard of such a thing.  But before anyone could give him an answer the group arrived at the slave market and got ready to make their purchases.

"We'll want dried food for the trip," advised Cramer.  "And water, since there are no guarantees we'll find sources of fresh water along the way."

"Screw the water: found me some ale for sale!" cried Utred, spotting a vendor with gallon jugs of ale and beer.  He and Khari stocked up on beverages first, then gave some passing thought about solid food to go with it.

"Did you get enough food for the trip?" Marlo asked Jhasspok after they gathered back together after splitting up to make their individual purchases.  The lizardfolk towered above the short human woman but she was well aware in many ways he had the mind of a child.  It certainly wouldn't hurt to look after him.

"Fish!" cried Jhasspok in reply, holding up a fat fish he'd purchased.

"...That's not going to last two weeks," pointed out Marlo.  "You'll need food that will last for a while."

"That's just a snack for now," replied Jhasspok, biting into his beloved fish.  "I have dried fish for the trip."  He patted a leather satchel at his hip.  "And some dried beetles."  Marlo suddenly lost interest in the rest of his provisions; it seemed he was as ready as the rest of them.

Returning to Calish with their goods packed up, the drow slavemaster had more items to pass out to the group.  "Take these," he commanded, giving all but Jhasspok a necklace with an iron ring welded into place.  "These will allow *N'zorthal* to keep in contact with you and guide you to the Writhing Gate, which lies two days away.  Once there, N'zorthal will explain the details of your mission to you."  The four slaves each put the necklace around their necks, allowing the iron ring to hang free.

"You won't need one," explained Calish to Jhasspok.  "There are only the four, and you've been an exemplary slave."  Jhasspok had no idea what 'exemplary' meant, but he was willing to bet it had something to do with not wearing jewelry.

"Go ahead, stick a finger through the rings," Calish said, and by now the slaves knew this was a command, not a suggestion.

"Does it matter which finger?" asked Cramer, wondering what was up with these rings and trying to stall for time.

"Not in the least - I just want to demonstrate their abilities," replied Calish.  Hesitantly, the four slaves each poked a finger into the ring, only to see them disappear - they did not protrude from the other end as expected.

"AH!" gasped Khari, pulling his finger back out and examining it.  It was perfectly fine.  He held the ring up to his eye and looked through it, seeing nothing out of the ordinary.  "What does this do, turn our fingers invisible?" he asked.

"Nothing of the sort.  These are miniature _ring gates_.  Your fingers each passed through your ring and came out of your ring's 'partner' ring, as it were.  And that allows this to occur."

As if waiting for the announcement, a tentacle emerged from the other sides of each of the four rings.  Cramer dropped his ring immediately, but it just hung there from the necklace around his neck.  The tentacles wrapped their way up the necklaces to touch the warm skin of the wearers' necks - and the little gnome had immediately recognized the tentacles as belonging to a mind flayer.

<I will be your guide through the Underdark passageways,> announced N'zorthal - the Administer of Discipline - directly into the heads of the four slaves wearing the necklaces.  They all flinched, leaving Jhasspok to wonder exactly what was going on, for he had heard nothing of the mind flayer's telepathic speech.

"By extending a part of himself through the _ring gates_, N'zorthal can extend his telepathic powers to anyone with which he is in physical contact.  Off we go, then!"

<This way,> commanded the mind flayer, mentally indicating a direction for the slaves to go.  Marlo looked back at the confused lizardfolk and called, "We're heading this way, Jhasspok."  With a shrug, Jhasspok followed the others.  Calish walked beside them for a short while.

N'zorthal led the group to the North Gate of the city, a place the group had never been to before - although it was near the area where the fisher slaves bunked, so it was somewhat familiar to Jhasspok.  "You'll be going to the Writhing Gate," said Calish with a slight shudder that Cramer noticed; whatever this gate was, it creeped out the drow slavemaster - not a good sign!  "It's an ancient illithid structure used as a redirectable _teleportation circle_,"continued Calish.  "It requires an illithid to activate and use it, hence N'zorthal's participation in this venture.  And...some people who have been through it swear that it...talked to them."  The drow slavemaster stifled another shudder then came to a stop - this was as far as he was going.  "Good luck, and I will see you upon your return!"  With that, he turned on his heels and went back the way he had come.

"I'm not liking this tentacle by my neck," whispered Marlo as the group walked down a narrow tunnel.

<It is required to make mental contact at this distance,> replied N'zorthal.  <And whispering will not prevent me from hearing you - I can pick up your very thoughts.>  Marlo made a face of disgust but said nothing.

_Oh yeah?_ thought Cramer to himself.  _Then what am I thinking about now?_

<You are thinking about hammering a nail into each of my tentacles, thus attaching the four necklaces permanently to the stone of this tunnel floor.  However, while this will cause me some amount of pain, prevent me from retracting my tentacles through the _ring gates_, and break off my mental contact with you, it will do nothing to prevent my mobility - I will still be able to walk around - and the drow will punish such actions through the tattoos you each wear.>

_Crap!_ thought Cramer.  As much as it galled him, he'd have to put off any thoughts of escaping from the yoke of the drow for a bit longer.

The tunnel the slaves traversed stayed to a relatively straight course for three hours of trudging before they arrived at their first junction.  Up ahead, in the light of their _slave-light cloaks_, they could see side passages veering off to the left and right.

Jhasspok was in the lead, not because he knew the way but because the group thought putting their biggest and burliest combatant up front might dissuade anyone from attacking them.  Plus, even though the lizardfolk had no mental contact with their mind flayer guide, the others could give him directions as needed.  Seeing the side-branches up ahead, he turned and asked, "Which way from here?"

"Continue straight ahead," relayed Marlo.  Then she frowned, for carved into the sides of the tunnel walls they were passing were warnings of "Danger" and "Death" in several different languages.  There were arrows pointing back the way the group had come.  Apparently other nearby races were aware that this passageway led to a drow city.  Jhasspok had walked blithely past the warnings, not recognizing them as written messages, for the lizardfolk slave had no knowledge of writing.

"Hold up!" called Cramer from behind the lizardfolk leading this ragged expedition.  "There's movement up ahead!"  Cramer had seen what looked to him like a tentacle curling back, ready to strike.  Forewarned of potential danger, Khari approached cautiously with his warhammer raised.  There, hiding in a crevice along the side of the tunnel wall just past the side-passageways curled an odd creature with four sharp-tipped tentacles growing out from a parrotlike beak.  Its rubbery-looking torso was that of a particularly thick snake.  Swinging his hammer down at the beast, Khari was surprised at how quick it was, for it darted to the side of its crevice and the dwarf's weapon did nothing but shatter bits of stone from the side of the crevice.

Jhasspok leaped forward to assist his fellow slave, swinging down with his masterwork short sword in an overhand strike as the creature crawled from the crevice and fully into the tunnel.  But Jhasspok's swing also failed to hit the nimble creature.  Utred followed suit, using his greataxe to no effect - although he had the excuse of two other combatants crowding the limited space around the target.

Marlo, however, only needed a quick glimpse of the creature to fire off a _magic missile_ spell that unerringly struck its intended target.  The grick hissed in pain as the spell did what three weapons could not (at least not yet).  For his part, Cramer cast a _magic stone_ spell on the handful of pebbles he'd gathered on the trip thus far for just this very purpose.

With two dwarves close up, the grick opted to swing two tentacles at each of them and despite having the better armor of the two, it was Khari who was carved up by the slicing organic blades at the tips of the grick's facial appendages.  Growling under his breath, Khari maneuvered over to the side so he was flanking the grick with Jhasspok, allowing the grick to get in another hit as he repositioned himself.  Then Jhasspok hit the grick's rubbery flesh with his blade, following it up with a snap of his reptilian teeth - and was surprised that although both attacks struck true, neither penetrated the grick's thick hide.

Utred swung at the grick again and missed, causing his rage to boil up into full steam.  Marlo hit it with another _magic missile_ but seemed to be doing minimal damage.  Cramer, seeing the cuts on Khari's face and hands, opted to forego his intended _magic stone_ assault and moved up to cast a healing spell upon the hammer-wielding dwarven fighter.

The grick, confused by the wounds suddenly closing up on the dwarf's flesh, switched targets to Jhasspok and Utred - maybe their wounds would actually _stay_ once they'd been inflicted.  A whirlwind assault of four flying tentacles followed, getting past the defenses of both the dwarven barbarian and the lizardfolk fisher.  They, as well as Khari, continued their assault but didn't seem to have much lucky in even hitting the creature, let alone dealing it much damage on the rare occasions when they did manage to hit it.  Marlo struck it with another low-damage _magic missile_, trying to figure out what she was doing wrong in casting the spell to make its effects so minimal.

Cramer took careful aim and sent his first _magic stone_ flying at the creature; it didn't hit anywhere near the grick, instead shattering against the tunnel wall a good foot and half above its eyeless head.  But finally the string of failed attacks affected the grick as well, as its follow-on tentacle strikes were easily avoided by the three front-line attackers among the combat slaves.  Finally, Utred's first successful hit upon the grick's rubbery body with his greataxe nearly cut it in twain, slaying it instantly.  He backed off with a grunt and a nod, then opened his first gallon flask of ale and had himself a celebratory swig.  Cramer used a few of the _cure light wounds_ scrolls he'd purchased to heal Jhasspok and Utred back to full fighting trim.

And then, the momentary excitement having been finished up, N'zorthal urged the slaves onward.  Jhasspok took only a moment to cut a slab of flesh from the grick's body, figuring it to be a source of ready food he didn't want to let go to waste.  Utred also quickly cut away the grick's beak, thinking it would look nice mounted on the shoulder of his armor - something he could work on during their down time.

Another four hours of walking through narrow Underdark tunnels led the group into a small cavern, the back half covered in bioluminescent fungal growths allowing the group to see far past the normal range of their glowing _slave-light cloaks_.  There was a pool of water at the back of the cavern, trickling off to a narrow stream flowing down a side tunnel from the large cavern.  The group could see a few tall-capped mushroom growths - and then the glowing fungus suddenly provided the only illumination in the shadowy cave as the light from their cloaks all went out at once.

"Wha--?" sputtered Marlo before what seemed like a dark, leathery bag was dropped over her head.  She could feel it being tightened around her neck, making it hard to breathe.  Jhasspok was in a similar position, although his life in the Underdark had at least provided him with a likely explanation of what was happening to him: they were under attack by darkmantles.

This was plainly evident to Cramer and the two dwarves, who could see the octopoid bodies of the darkmantles wrapped around the heads of Marlo and Jhasspok, choking the life from them.  Cramer threw a stone at the one strangling Marlo, dealing it enough damage to cause it to release its grip and slide down to the ground by the sorceress's feet.  Jhasspok, on the other hand, grabbed the creature suffocating him and pressed it up against his muzzle, chewing through the darkmantle's body from the underside.  It tried to release its grip on the lizardfolk but the lizardfolk wasn't reciprocating; Jhasspok bit through the creature's tentacles and it bled to death.  The other one, by Marlo, was cut into two pieces by Utred's greataxe.

<You may make camp in this chamber for the night,> allowed N'zorthal.  <The Writhing Gate is still 5 hours away but it would be best to continue the trek in the morning.  Do not stray too close to the fungus - their spores are damaging.>

"Lovely," muttered Marlo, setting up her bedroll as far away from the fungus as she could get.  Cramer and the dwarves unpacked their own bedrolls and blankets, while Jhasspok investigated the pool.  There was a large toadstool growing out of one end of it, but the other end - the one with the runoff stream - was clear of any spores.  With a relaxing sigh, the lizardfolk removed his _slave-light cloak_, food pouch, and belt of weapons and lowered himself into the pool.  The water was cool but it was so good to submerge himself again!  He hadn't realized how much he had missed swimming in the Underdark sea as a fisher!

Marlo went over to the pool to splash her face with water and allow Truffles, her toad familiar, to swim about for a while under close supervision - for the sorceress didn't like the way Jhasspok kept a beady eye on the toad as it swam.  "Truffles is not to be harmed, or eaten," she reminded the lizardfolk.  Jhasspok didn't answer, nor did his gaze falter from watching the toad's progress. Finally, Marlo scooped Truffles up and returned him to the large pocket of her robes she wore over her ironsilk armor, returning to her bedroll to get some rest.

The group opted to keep one person on guard shift all night as the others slept; as spellcasters who needed uninterrupted sleep to regain their spells the next morning, they decided Cramer would take the first shift and Marlo the last, with the other three taking two-hour shifts in between.  But it was an uneventful night, and when Marlo woke everyone up in the morning (at N'zorthal's urging, as he had been their timekeeper all night) they seemed refreshed after a good night's sleep following a day of exertion.

"Wait--anybody else hear that?" asked Utred suddenly as bedrolls and blankets were being rolled up and tied into place.

"What?" whispered Cramer.

"Footsteps," answered Utred in a whisper of his own.  "Comin' from that way."  He indicated an opening beyond the phosphorescent fungus leading to a tunnel other than the one the slaves would be following to the Writhing Gate.  As everyone listened intently, they could make out several pairs of footsteps - three, possibly - which slowed down and made an attempt at stealth as they got nearer.

Jhasspok, wearing his gear once again, sunk back down into the pool of water, leaving only the tops of his eyes above the waterline.  He wasn't the least bit concerned about his weapons getting wet; they'd survive a short immersion just fine.  But he prepared himself to spring out of the water if an enemy showed itself.  Khari sidled sideways, using a stalagmite rising up from the ground as cover.  Utred did the same, moving behind another stalagmite and readying to bring his greataxe swinging into the first enemy to come into view.  Marlo brought the words of a _ray of frost_ spell to the forefront of her mind, ready to cast it as needed.

Two puffs of fungal spores indicated the presence of two individuals walking through the growths - and yet there was nobody visible in the cavern with the five slaves.  The dwarves peered cautiously around their stalagmites, looking for foes - and then one suddenly popped into visibility as his warhammer came slamming down upon Khari's head, denting his helmet.  The other also became visible after he let fly with his own weapon, a set of bolas that went whipping around Utred's legs, tripping the dwarven barbarian to fall onto the stone cavern floor.  He then raced over to his fallen foe, a warhammer of his own raised and ready to crush the barbarian's skull.  Marlo fired off her _ray of frost_ at him as he crossed the distance to Utred.

These intruders, the slaves could now see, were dwarves themselves, but unlike Utred or Khari they were both bald, with white beards and skin the color of slate.  _Duergar_, Utred realized as he swung his greataxe at his attacker from his prone position, slicing deep into the gray dwarf's belly.  With a dwarven curse, the surprised duergar fell dead atop the barbarian from the Butterflinger clan.

Cramer threw a pebble at the first duergar, the missile recently enhanced by a new application of the gnome's _magic stone_ spell.  The stone hit the unsuspecting duergar right between the eyes, dropping him as well.  Seeing the two gray dwarves down, Jhasspok remained hidden in the pool, biding his time until the third duergar showed.  He wasn't the only one straining to hear any signs of the invisible duergar's position; the others were doing their best to pick out his location as well.

Another disturbance of spores revealed the general location of the third interloper, but unfortunately not well enough for Marlo to target with a spell.  But then he attacked the still-prone Utred (the barbarian had had to push the duergar he'd slain off of him and was struggling to remove the bolas twisted around his legs) with a massive maul, popping into visibility as he attacked.  That was all Jhasspok had been waiting for; he leaped out of the pool and onto the gray dwarf, tackling him to the ground and raking his claws across the bald fighter's face as he clamped down on the back of his neck with his teeth.  Khari made the killing blow with his warhammer, allowing everyone to assume ready stances in case there were any other of these invisible dwarves about.  Several minutes passed before they were satisfied there had just been the three of them, then they started looting the corpses.

All three of the gray dwarves' primary weapons - two warhammers and a maul - had the glow of magic about them when examined by Cramer's _detect magic_ spell.  Each of the dwarves claimed a warhammer and Utred (who never bothered with carrying a shield, unlike Khari) took the maul as well, realizing there might well be a time when a two-handed bludgeoning weapon would come in handy.  Khari also stripped off the maul-wielder's banded mail armor, recognizing it as an upgrade from his own splint mail.  He abandoned his old armor behind, not wanting to have to drag the extra weight around with him.  And then, at N'zorthal's urging, the group followed the stream down a side passage and onward to the Writhing Gate.

The next five hours of marching were uneventful; eventually the group made their way into a cavern with a diameter of some 100 feet or so, with a domed ceiling reaching half that height in its center.  In the center of this chamber were 10 undulating tentacles, each blacker than black and capable of reaching anywhere in the cavern.  At the base of each tentacle sat a throne; seated in nine of them were the petrified remains of nine illithids.  Sitting in the tenth throne was none other than N'zorthal, his four tentacles seemingly cut off by four iron rings at their tips; these, the slaves realized, were the other rings to the four sets of _ring gates_ at the ends of the necklaces worn by Cramer, Khari, Marlo, and Utred.

All five of the slaves felt a sudden desire to run far, far away, as quickly as possible, putting as much distance between themselves and the Writhing Gate as they could.

<You made it,> N'zorthal said inside their heads, his mental presence helping to overcome their desire to flee.  <Now, let me tell you all about your mission....>

- - -

This, quite obviously, is part one of a two-part adventure.  Logan's already told us the next adventure is called "Fun in the Sun."  Unfortunately, it's not going to be possible for us to play in this campaign again for a full four weeks since our last session, as we're faced with me on a business trip this coming week; Dan, Vicki, and Joey being gone for Thanksgiving week the following week; and Dan being gone on a business trip the week after that.  So it'll be 11 Dec 19 before we get a chance to carry out our surface mission for Calish Jalamir: attacking a caravan on the surface and then scouting around to see if there's anything else of value nearby to be taken back to the drow.  It ought to be interesting.  [Later edit: it'll actually be another week after that - 18 Dec 19 - before we get to play again in this campaign; another business trip arose and I got stuck with it.]

Oh, and Vicki's damage for the first three _magic missiles_ she had Marlo cast this session all did minimum damage: three natural 1's in a row, for 2 points of damage each.  She was giving serious thought about punishing her traitorous d4.


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## Richards (Dec 22, 2019)

*ADVENTURE 5: FUN IN THE SUN*

PC Roster:
Cramer Appleknocker, gnome cleric 2​Jhasspok, lizardfolk 2​Khari Hammerslammer, dwarf fighter 2​Marlo Pendragon, human sorcerer 2​Utred "Buckets" Butterflinger, dwarf barbarian 2​
Game Session Date: 18 December 2019

- - -

<There is a side chamber off to your left,> instructed N'zorthal.  <You will make camp there, out of the way for the evening.  Tomorrow morning you will be teleported through the Writhing Gate to the location of the caravan you will attack.>

The slaves looked over to the side chamber indicated by the mind flayer seated at one of the ten stations of the Writhing Gate.  It was a roughly circular chamber with a radius of nearly 30 feet.  Carved into the smooth, stone floor were a series of concentric rings; Cramer and Marlo each identified the runes circumscribed along the rings as being tied into various _magic circles_ shielding against the forces of evil, law, and chaos.  As they stepped into the chamber and inside the circumference of the circles, they felt the background "wrongness" they'd felt since stepping within visual distance of the Writhing Gate dissipate.

Setting up their sleeping areas, Cramer called over to the mind flayer.  "You want to tell us more about this raiding mission we're being sent on?" he asked.

<You will be sent to the vicinity of a caravan.  You will attack the caravan and take its contents for the drow.  When you have defeated the members of the caravan, I will reopen the gate and you will send the supplies you have gathered through.>

"How big of a caravan we talkin' 'bout?" asked Utred.

<Unknown.  I will set the parameters of the desired location on the surface and the Writhing Gate will seek out the nearest such set of circumstances.>

"So we don't even know where on the surface we'll be going?" asked Khari.

<Correct.>

"Are we to kill the members of the caravan?" Marlo asked.

<Killing isn't necessary to the drow's plans - but do not let them flee to gather reinforcements.  Once you have sent the goods through the gate, you will scout out the area to learn what resources are nearby and worth raiding in the future.  At the end of 12 days on the surface, I will open the Writhing Gate again and you will return to Overreach.>

_And these stupid slave tattoos will ensure our good behavior,_ Cramer thought sourly to himself.

<That is correct,> replied N'zorthal, a reminder that mind flayers were mind readers as well.  Cramer didn't say another word for some time, nor did he try to think anything he wouldn't mind N'zorthal picking up.  Dealing with telepaths was certainly frustrating!

The group set up their camp and discussed the mission among themselves.  The dwarves were all for a head-on assault, rushing in with weapons swinging before the caravan members had time to prepare a defense.  Marlo suggested spying on the caravan for a bit first if possible, to see what kind of opposition they might face.  Jhasspok didn't put a whole lot of thought into what the next day would bring; he'd simply do as instructed and hope for the best.  He had no qualms against killing whoever might be among the caravan; as the lizardfolk saw it, this was little different from the arena battles they'd performed during the Festival of Blood - it was either slay or be slain, and if the caravan members didn't want to get killed they'd best do what they could to overcome their attackers.  And if they _did_ get killed by the House Jalamir slaves, then they must not have sufficiently wanted to remain living.

Eventually the talk died down - as did the illumination as each member deactivated the illusory flames emanating from their individual _slave-light cloaks_.  As for N'zorthal, he remained seated at his station at the Writhing Gate, as motionless as the nine petrified remains of other illithids manning the other nine wriggling tentacles.

The mind flayer awakened the slaves the next morning with a telepathic prompting.  Cramer meditated and prepared his spells for the day as the others rolled up their blankets and bedrolls and gobbled up a quick breakfast of various dried foodstuff.  (Jhasspok once again got no takers when offering to share his supply of dried dung beetles.)  Then, ready for their mission, the five slaves braced themselves and stepped out of the safety of the _magic circles_.  They each immediately tensed up as the primitive portions of their brains informed them, on a subconscious level, they needed to immediately flee from the vicinity at full speed.

Then the writhing tentacles started moving as one, rising up to their full height and touching each other at their tips, forming a cone pointed at the ceiling.  A grayish-white glow surrounded the tips of the rubbery appendages as five of them suddenly ripped downward, tearing a vertical shear in reality and burrowing through the tear.

<Step through, quickly!> admonished N'zorthal.  Fearing retribution, the slaves all stepped forward through the tear in reality, Cramer tempting fate by taking the time to cast a _longstrider_ spell on himself before following the other four through the opened _gate_.

Utred and Jhasspok stepped through the _gate_ unscathed.  The other three, however, each became suddenly - and horribly - aware of the infinitesimal space between moments.  As spellcasters, both Cramer and Marlo had been taught teleportation magic sends travelers briefly through the Astral Plane, but this was...something else entirely - some_where_ else, actually.  Somewhere much, much farther away.  As the trio got glimpses of various impossible horrors out of the corners of their eyes, they heard an equally terrible voice.  Looking in a direction best described as "down" (but only in a general sense; there was no real word for the direction in a language that only acknowledged three dimensions), the three slaves saw the rest of the lengths of the five tentacles responsible for creating the _gate_ guiding them through the Far Realm, eventually connecting to an enormous, severed head floating in the cosmos.  This head had a hundred wriggling tentacles coming from it, the five a mere handful of the whole.

*"SERVE ME,"* said the floating head in a whisper that screamed through the heads of Cramer, Marlo, and Khari.  *"SERVE ME AND ALL SHALL BE WELL."*

All of this transpired in no actual time at all, the three slaves stepping out onto the surface world immediately after Utred and Jhasspok had done so.  Utred looked around at his surroundings and merely grunted in acknowledgment.  They were at the edge of a forest, standing in a small clearing surrounded by trees.  There was a road before them, and the clattering of hoof-beats coming from off to the left - the caravan they were to attack, no doubt.

But Jhasspok was in a world of wonder, a place of inexplicable things he'd never seen before - things like trees, and grass, and sky.  He felt a warmth coming down from above him and looked up to find its source, his curiosity causing him to ignore the disturbed expressions of Khari, Marlo, and Cramer.  Then--

"Down!" cried Jhasspok, leaping onto Khari and pulling the Hammerslammer dwarf to the ground, covering him with his own massive body and cowering into a ball, his turtle-shell shield held over his reptilian head.

"What th' thunderation?" sputtered Khari, struggling to extricate himself from the lizardfolk's embrace.  "What are you doing?" hissed Marlo, not wanting the antics of the lizardfolk and the dwarf to alert the approaching caravan of their presence.  For a supposedly stealthy mission, this was getting off to a rather bad start!

Jhasspok raised his hand and pointed to the sky.  "_Fireball_!" he hissed back.

Marlo looked up.  "That's the _sun_, you idiot!" she hissed back at the frightened lizardfolk.  Then she regretted her harsh words, realizing Jhasspok had never before stepped foot upon the surface world - everything she took for granted here, above ground, was brand new to him.  "It's just the sun," she whispered.  "It won't hurt us."

"It won't fall down on us?" Jhasspok asked, peering fearfully at it from around the edge of his shield.  He was familiar with the _fireball_ spell - drow wizards often cast such spells into the air around the Eight Pillars during times of celebration - and this "sun" looked suspiciously like one of those, perhaps the variant kind where they took a moment or two to explode.

"No, it won't - I promise."

"Git offa me, ye varmint!" growled Khari.  Jhasspok, still not trusting the _fireball_ hanging in the sky, gazed up at it warily as he stood back up and helped Khari up as well.  "And quit lookin' directly at it, or ye'll go blind!" the dwarf added.

Cramer, in the meantime, had ignored the others and was giving the caravan his full attention.  There were only two carts, each pulled by a single horse; the lead cart was the smaller of the two, with a human farmer behind the reins, while the larger cart behind held five individuals.  A human driver sat on the front bench, flicking his reins at the draft animal, while beside him sat an elven woman singing a sad lament.  She had a blindfold of dark cloth across her eyes.  Behind her were a halfling woman and two rough-looking men, one a human and the other a dwarf.

A quick _detect magic_ spell confirmed Cramer's suspicions that the caravan merchants and their guards had magic about them, centered around the back cart.  The cleric hatched a plan at once, using his innate abilities to create a _ghost sound_ effect from behind him: the howling of a pack of wolves, for he needed an excuse for his sudden appearance on the scene and this would not only put him in the role of a victim in the eyes of the caravan members but also hopefully attract their attention to the part of the forest where the wolf-calls were emanating.  "Help me!" he cried, rushing forward between the trees and through the underbrush, right up to the edge of the road, with a look of fearful panic evident upon his face.  He was, he noted, halfway between the two carts.

But beside him sprang Jhasspok, running at full speed, his tail sticking out behind him to keep his balance.  Not having been briefed on Cramer's plan, he had no idea what those dreadful howling noises were supposed to signify; he just made a bee-line for the four-legged monster at the front of the caravan.  Jhasspok had never seen a horse before, but judging by its impressive size - and the fact that it led this procession - he reasoned it was the most powerful enemy they faced and it would therefore be prudent to take it out as quickly as possible.  He stabbed deep into the beast's right flank with his masterwork short sword, causing the horse to whinny in pain and terror.

Khari ran up and shot an arrow at the horse Jhasspok had just attacked.  Unlike the lizardfolk, the dwarf had seen a horse before and had no misconceptions about it being a powerful foe; however, he realized a dead horse couldn't run out of range and allow its master to fetch help from elsewhere.  Unfortunately, the terrors he had just seen during the travel through the Writhing Gate were still playing in his mind, throwing off his aim.  The arrow whizzed harmlessly past the horse's head, to eventually plunk down into the ground on the far side of the road.

Utred saw the advantages of slaying the horses first and charged the beast pulling the larger of the two carts.  But by this time the caravan members were well aware of the attack and the driver was able to pull the reins to the side, yanking the horse's head out of the way of the dwarven barbarian's swing with his greataxe.

Unwilling to allow this attack to go unanswered, the halfling woman, *Heather Thistlefoot*, leapt down from the wagon, ran up, and stabbed up at the burly dwarf with her rapier.  Her other hand held a shield emblazoned with the crest of the halfling goddess *Yondalla*.  But her paladin senses, which usually aided her in battle, were confusing her here, for when she concentrated on Utred's aura to see if it bore the unmistakable taint of evil she saw only a ribbon of evil rising up from his chest; the barbarian himself was clean of the stain.  (The _ring gate_ Utred wore on a chain around his neck was beneath the dwarf's thick beard and N'zorthal's tentacle was thus hidden from view even if its evil aura was clear enough for the paladin to sense.)  Thus distracted, her rapier-stab went wide, leaving Utred unharmed.

*Wulfrik*, the dwarven ranger, displayed a remarkable swiftness in firing and reloading his light crossbow at Utred.  What he failed to display was any sense of accuracy, as both bolts went whizzing harmlessly by the sides of Utred's bearded head.  But the failed attacks did attract the Butterflinger dwarf's attention; he spun about and locked eyes with the dwarven crossbowman, giving him an unspoken "I'm going to kill you personally for that!" message that was received loud and clear by Wulfrik.

Marlo cast a _magic missile_ spell at the driver of the second cart, who at this time was working to get the frightened horse under control.  The spell hit true, causing the merchant to fall, unconscious, over the side of the vehicle into the dirt of the road beneath.  The horse reared and kicked out frantically with its forelegs, but Utred was well out of range at that point.

*Guthier* followed Heather's lead and leaped off the side of the back cart to attack Utred.  His attack was much more successful than those of his companions, the blade of his bastard sword slicing into the dwarf's side, drawing blood.  Utred immediately added the human fighter to his list of people who needed the personal attention of his greataxe, as he let the rage build inside him to power his attacks.

The farmer driving the first cart, however, was much too busy trying to deal with the reptilian monster attacking his horse to worry much about what might be going on behind him.  With a frantic flip of his reins and a shouted "HAH!" he tried getting his horse to hightail it out of there.  As it turned out, this dovetailed rather nicely with the horse's own thoughts on the subject and the cart lurched forward at top speed.  But Jhasspok wasn't going to allow this giant, four-legged threat to escape to gather more of its monster kin; he sprinted forward alongside the fleeing cart, stabbing his sword into the monster's side.  Another arrow went whizzing by the horse's head, proof that Khari was still focused on bringing the horse down before the cart could get out of range and the farmer could go for aid.  But another slash of the lizardfolk's masterwork blade and the horse crumpled in mid-stride, tipping the cart over and sending the farmer flying to crash to the dirt on the side of the road, where he desperately played possum.  With any luck, the lizard-monster would think he was already dead and would leave him alone.

No such luck, alas.  Having slain the assumed leader of the caravan procession, Jhasspok leaped over the toppled cart and sent his blade deep into the body of the leader's underling.  Just that quickly, the farmer was no longer only playing dead.

This whole time, *Elithiel the Blind* had continued with her elven dirge.  Now, she subtly changed the words to her song, invoking a _sleep_ spell in the area of combat to her right.  She caught Cramer in its area of effect and the gnome cleric crashed to the ground, already fast asleep.  However, falling right next to him was Guthier, who had also succumbed to the spell.  Utred mentally shifted the human bladesman lower on his list of people to kill and turned his attention back to Wulfrik.  But then Heather stepped right up to him, her rapier ready for another thrust, and Utred nearly cut her down with a single swipe of his axe.  The halfling backed away rapidly, applying a healing spell to the deep gash Utred had cut through her side.  Wulfrik responded by leaping off the side of the cart and sending another rapid-fire set of bolts racing at Utred, one of them striking the barbarian in the upper arm.  Utred roared in pain and put Wulfrik at the very top of his list.

Elithiel suddenly stopped her song, listening intently to the fight going on alongside her.  She heard Heather's frantic spellcasting and cast a spell of her own, _cure light wounds_, to aid the little halfling, who by the sounds of it was surely hurt rather badly.  Leaning over the side of the cart, in the space vacated by the driver, she reached down and tried to heal her halfling friend.  Unfortunately, she couldn't find the little paladin and the spell remained, unspent, in the blind elf's blindly groping hand.

Marlo cast another _magic missile_, this one striking Wulfrik; she hoped to distract the dwarven ranger long enough to keep him from shooting crossbow bolts at Utred, for she knew her dwarven barbarian friend could take care of the ranger once he had gotten close enough to him.  The ploy worked, for Wulfrik turned but for a moment to scowl at the human sorcerer and when he turned back to his original foe he was shocked to find Utred standing there in front of him, his greataxe coming down in an overhang swing.  Wulfrik tried to dodge at the last moment and while the axe's blade still struck him, the ranger got off with his life - and his consciousness - still barely hanging by a thread.  He dropped his crossbow from numb fingers and tried staggering back, out of range of the raging barbarian.

From the wagon, Elithiel's blind, groping hand reached down for Wulfrik, hoping to send her healing energy his way if Heather was out of reach.  Her hand finally reached a target, and a dwarven one at that - but it was Utred's shoulder she brushed against and thus Utred whose wounds the blind elf's spell set about to healing.

With a moan of despondency, Wulfrik looked about him and saw his companions dead, incapacitated, or barely holding on to consciousness like himself.  Utred had spun about at Elithiel's touch and the rage-mad barbarian looked like he was going to retaliate against the blind woman's spell until even he realized what had just happened.  Then Utred turned and, renewed, hefted his axe in Wulfrik's direction.  "We surrender!" the ranger called out immediately, holding out his weaponless hands; the crossbow was already on the ground before him.  He looked back at Heather and the paladin, frowning, dropped her rapier and shield at her feet.

Marlo stepped forward and started gathering up the dropped weapons, pulling them out of reach.  She shook Cramer awake and he helped bind their prisoners' hands and wounds.  Utred snapped out of his battle-rage and the two dwarves took stock of the contents of the rear cart.  Up at the overturned front cart, Jhasspok did the same, but the wagon's only contents were sacks filled with some sort of lightweight rocks.  Strange!  The lizardfolk trotted back to the others as Elithiel spoke from the rear cart.

"I know why you are here, more so than you do," she said to the group at large.  "I will make you an offer: I will give you each a glimpse of your fates, if you will promise me a quick death afterwards."

"A quick death?" asked Cramer.  "We don't have to kill you."

"It is my wish, the price for the information I have."

"You actually _want_ us to kill you?" asked Marlo, astonishment in her voice.

"It is preferable to the other path before me, for I have seen what would come next."

"Feels kind of wrong killing a blind elf in cold blood like that..." began Khari as the group conferred quietly among themselves.

"But if she wants it..." pointed out Utred.

"I'll kill her," offered Jhasspok.  He wasn't quite sure at the hesitation on the part of his fellow slaves; they'd been instructed they didn't have to kill the members of the caravan but it was quite obviously still an option and if the elf wanted to die, what was the real problem?

"All right," Cramer told the elf shortly thereafter.  "We'll give you the swift death you're looking for.  So, you can see our futures, is that it?"

In way of replying, Elithiel turned and faced the gnome straight on; had she not still wore a black band of cloth across her eyes she'd be staring right at him.  "Cramer," she intoned - which itself was somewhat eerie, as the cleric was sure he hadn't provided his name to her - "the enemy of your enemy can be your salvation, but you must continue to play the spider's game that all may be free."  Cramer scowled; it sounded like he'd been told he had to remain a slave for some time and he was chafing to find his friend and fellow cleric of Fharlanghn and escape the clutches of the drow.  Still, he'd also been given a thread of hope: the "enemy of his enemy" could very well be those elven assassins with the full-body tattoos disguising themselves as drow, the better to infiltrate Overreach and try to topple it from within.  If he could somehow get in contact with that group....

Elithiel turned her head to face Marlo.  "Marlo, when the dragon prince seeks his own kingdom, your village shall know great peril."  That caused the sorcerer's face to frown in incomprehension: what dragon prince was she talking about?  And how was she supposed to do anything about her home village, when she was a slave in the Underdark and had no idea even where her village was in relation to where she was now?

Utred Butterflinger was up next apparently, for Elithiel faced him next and said, "Utred, the greatest blacksmith of Brunniir walked into a bar.  He left a barmaid and a bastard.  Through your father's blood you hold the key to the forgotten forge and the treasures within."  The barbarian shrugged.  None of that meant anything to him; he liked the bit about the treasure, though.

"Jhasspok," the blind elf began next, and the lizardfolk was shocked that she had pronounced his name correctly.  "All your life others have told you what to do.  One day you shall learn an uncomfortable truth.  On that day only you can decide your fate."

Finally, Elithiel turned to face Khari Hammerslammer.  "Khari, you were not always the way you are.  Remember your dreams of the old man.  Remember the words he seared with fire and fear into your mind.  Only then can the truth of Brunniir be found."

Then, facing the group of five slaves as a whole, the blind woman added, "One last vision to share.  He was there at the beginning.  He will be there at the end.  Finish what *Wee Jas* started.  End the cycle else all shall be for naught."

That got Cramer thinking.  "Is your desire for a swift death because of your fear of the *Dying One*?" he asked, using the name of the many-tentacled head he'd "seen" during the trek through the Writhing Gate.

"He was there at the beginning.  He will be there at the end," Elithiel repeated, apparently the only answer she was willing to give.

"We promised you a quick death," Cramer said, sighing.  "What about these others?"

"They would likely wish it, if they knew what was to come - but ultimately it is not my decision to make."  Utred glared immediately at Wulfrik, ready to put an end to that particular life.  He shifted his grip on his greataxe tellingly.

"I would prefer to face my fate - whatever it might be - head on," replied Wulfrik.  To his credit, he said it without his voice breaking and while staring Utred right in the eye.

"I will not willingly surrender my life," replied Heather.  Guthier likewise stated his preference for life.  In the end, it was only Elithiel who was slain, quickly as promised, with a single strike of Jhasspok's blade straight through the elven woman's heart.

"So now what?" asked Marlo.  "Do we get to keep any of this stuff for ourselves or does it all go back to Overreach?"

<You are permitted to retain that which you find useful for your current mission,> came the immediate mental reply, causing the sorcerer to flinch.  She'd forgotten N'zorthal was watching everything they did.  <Load everything else up on the larger of the two carts.>

At Cramer's command, Jhasspok dragged over the sacks of "lightweight rocks" - in reality, potatoes, yet something else with which the lizardfolk had no prior experience - from the other cart and loaded them up onto the larger one.  In the meantime, Marlo claimed a fancy dagger Elithiel had worn at her belt as it looked to be magical, and she also took Wulfrik's masterwork light crossbow and the quiver of bolts that went with it as her own, earning her a deep scowl from the dwarven ranger.  Cramer had no use for most of Heather's gear, but he did take a rather well-made sling she carried, thinking it would come in quite handy with his _magic stone_ spell.

"What are these?" Jhasspok asked, opening a chest and finding within a pile of shiny, golden disks.

"That's gold!" exclaimed Khari, suddenly very interested.  Then his expression soured.  "I suppose it's t'be shipped back to the drow," he guessed.

<On the contrary: it would be best for you to take it with you, to pay your way upon the surface world,> corrected N'zorthal.  <You will retain the smaller of the carts and the remaining horse for your use during this mission as well.>

"Then let's load up everything going back to Overreach on the big cart!" called Cramer, hoisting up the paladin's rapier, armor, and shield.  Utred and Khari assisted him, loading the cart up with the rest of their prisoners' unwanted goods.  The rest of the previously-loaded materials on the larger cart seemed to be mostly lumber and food, all of which would be well-received back in the drow city.

There was also a folded map on the body of the rear cart's driver.  With directions from Wulfrik, the group found out exactly where they were on the map and where the caravan had been headed: the elven city of Greenvale.  The elves there were xenophobic and kept themselves apart from the rest of the world, but recently they had experienced some hard times and were now reliant upon resources from the outside communities.

"That should do it," replied Cramer, packing the last of the captured goods onto the wagon: Guthier's armor and his bastard sword, a rather fine-looking weapon but not one any of the melee combatants wanted to wield for their own.  Marlo unhitched the horse from the cart.  "But now how are we going to get the cart back to Overreach without the horse?"

<The new slaves will push it,> informed N'zorthal directly into the heads of Cramer, Khari, Marlo, and Utred - the four Jalamir slaves who wore the _ring gates_ on necklaces through which the mind flayer had the tip of his tentacle extruded and touching their skin, by which means he was able to keep in telepathic contact with them from all the many, unknown miles away in the deep recesses of the Underdark.

"The new...?" began Marlo, sudden realization dawning on her face.  _That_ was why Elithiel, a blind elf, sought death rather than "the other path" before her - the drow would be quite brutal to any member of the elven race, their most hated enemies, brought before them.

<Yes, the new slaves,> interrupted N'zorthal.  <But before they push the cart through the Writhing Gate, you must load it up with the rest of the recoverable items.>

"What do you mean?" asked Khari, looking around to see what they might have missed.

<The bodies of the slain, to include the dead horse.  It will be reanimated to pull the cart back to Overreach the way you all came.  And the bodies of the humans you slew will also serve similar purposes.  Fetch them at once and add them to the cart.>

Cramer explained to Jhasspok - who, lacking a _ring gate_ of his own, had heard none of the mind flayer's instructions - what needed to be done.  Realizing the dead horse could be reanimated as a skeleton just as easily as a zombie, the practical lizardfolk used his sword to carve off great chunks of horseflesh from the corpse of the monster he had slain, to serve as provisions for the group while on the road.  Then the remains of the equine and the bodies of the caravan drivers and of Elithiel herself were piled onto the back of the cart.

"You three: up against the front of the cart," commanded Cramer to the human fighter, the halfling paladin, and the dwarven ranger whose lives they'd thought they'd simply been sparing, not realizing they'd just turned them into Jalamir slaves.  Utred cut the bindings tying their wrists together with a dagger but had his greataxe out and ready should they try anything.

"What are we supposed to do now?" groused Guthier.

"Just push," Cramer commanded, as the Writhing Gate suddenly opened directly behind the cart.  "...You'll find out the rest of it on the other side."

"I won't forget this," promised Heather Thistlefoot, glaring at the five slaves.  "I will find a way to track you down and make you pay for what you've done this day."

"That probably won't be as difficult as you might think," sighed Utred, thinking these three would naturally become Jalamir slaves as well once they made it back to the drow city.  They'd no doubt be seeing each other again as soon as this current raiding mission was over.  The cart was pushed through the _gate_, which then vanished once the three new slaves had made it completely through.

"I wonder if they'll see the Dying One, like we did," Marlo muttered quietly to herself.  Jhasspok and Utred looked at each other with quizzical expressions, not knowing what their female friend was talking about - neither of them had experienced anything unusual when passing through the Writhing Gate.  But the other three Jalamir slaves had not only seen the tentacled, decapitated head of an Elder God floating through the ether as they passed through the _gate_, they'd each been given the choice to serve the Dying One or suffer the consequences.  Cramer, not wanting to forswear his chosen god Fharlanghn, had refused, as had Khari out of pure stubbornness.  But Marlo Pendragon, given the assurances that life would go much easier for her should she swear allegiance to the Dying One, had decided on the spot to accept.  Her life, after all, had been all but taken away from her; where she was once a free woman of her village she was now nothing more than a slave to the drow - why _shouldn't_ she take any opportunity to improve her lot in life?

"So where should we go next?" asked Cramer, looking at the farmer's map.

"Greenvale's as good a place as any," Utred suggested.  "And it sounds like they're looking for resources from the outside world, so they'd likely take us in without any questions."

But Jhasspok had a question.  "What's that noise?" he wanted to know.

"What noise?" asked Khari.

"That...singing."

"Oh, that? Those're just birds."

"'Birds'?  What are 'birds'?"

"Y'know, birds!  Little flying things."

"Bugs?" asked Jhasspok.  He was at least familiar with bugs; the Underdark had plenty of bugs, but he'd never heard of these bird things.

"They're like fish," explained Utred, putting the concept into terms the inexperienced lizardfolk could understand.  "Except they swim through the air instead of the water, and their fins are bigger and they're covered in feathers instead of scales.  Oh, and they got two legs and a beak."

Jhasspok tried putting all of this information into a coherent image in his head.  "...Those are some strange fish," he decided.

"Lotsa strange stuff up here on the surface," Utred warned the lizardfolk.  "Just wait until you see rain."

"What is 'rain'?"

"Water that falls from the sky."

"Ssss-ssss-ssss-ssss-ssss-ssss!" laughed Jhasspok.  "Now I know you're making this up!"

"We'll see," smirked Utred as the group hitched their new horse up to the smaller cart and headed off to Greenvale.

- - -

Logan had each of us make a Will save when we passed through the Writhing Gate and only Joey and I made our saves.  So Logan took the others outside the room while Joey and I chatted about school.  We didn't get to find out until the end of the session about the Dying One.  Apparently he gave each of the three a choice: follow him and gain a permanent +1 to attacks and saves, or deny him and gain a -2 on attacks and saves for this entire adventure.  Harry and Dan both said no and accepted the consequences, whereas Vicki - possibly out of curiosity - took Logan up on the offer.  (According to Dan when he and I talked about the session the next day at work, Logan's face lit up in excitement when Vicki accepted the Dying One's offer.)  And at the end of the session, Vicki asked Logan what all she needed to update on her character sheet.  He showed her where to put the permanent bonuses, and when she asked if there were any changes to her alignment, all he'd say was, "Not yet...."  So I think we'll have to keep an eye on Marlo from now on - there's no telling just what all is going on there.  But being asked to worship a decapitated Elder God's head from the Far Realm is not likely to be a good thing!  (We're also pretty sure, based on the last prophecy we received, that the Dying One is our endgame enemy and that Wee Jas is responsible for his current state.)

Also, we hadn't thought far enough ahead to realize the enemies whose surrender we'd accepted were going to wind up as slaves.  Now we're going to be facing them from now on once our PCs get back to Overreach, and as they have class levels they'll likely level up as we do, providing us with a ready source of level-appropriate antagonists.  That should be interesting.


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## Richards (Jan 12, 2020)

*ADVENTURE 6: PASSIVE AGGRESSION*

PC Roster:
Cramer Appleknocker, gnome cleric 2​Jhasspok, lizardfolk 2​Khari Hammerslammer, dwarf fighter 2​Marlo Pendragon, human sorcerer 2​Utred "Buckets" Butterflinger, dwarf barbarian 2​
Game Session Date: 8 January 2020

- - -

"I'm not taking a guard shift!" argued Cramer Appleknocker.  "There are four of you - if you each take a two-hour shift, that's a full eight hours.  Problem solved!"

"Yeah, or we could divide it up five ways and each get a shorter shift," rebutted Utred.  "Why don't you need to pull your weight?"

"I'm a cleric!  I need a full night's rest - preferably uninterrupted - if I'm going to be able to prepare my spells in the morning.  You do want me to be able to heal you, don't you?"

"But what about Marlo?" asked Khari.  "She casts spells - doesn't she need her sleep, the same as you?"

"Don't worry about it," scoffed Marlo.  "Let him get his beauty sleep - it looks like he needs it, in any case.  I'll take the first shift - that way, I'll still get a solid block of sleep instead of getting interrupted in the middle of the night for guard duty.  I'll be fine."

"If you're sure...." said Khari.

"I'm sure."

"Then I'll take second shift," the Hammerslammer dwarf offered.  "Wake me in two hours."  He went over to one of the two tents they'd found in the wagon of goods they'd taken from the caravan earlier that day - the larger one, which they'd designated the men's tent.  Utred and Cramer followed suit, the two dwarves stripping off their armor before climbing into the canvas enclosure.  The smaller tent was left just for Marlo, while Jhasspok found the whole concept of erecting a portable house made of fabric completely nonsensical - he slept on the ground beside the wagon, where he could hear all of the new sounds of the forest nearby: the chirping of insects, the flapping of wings from the unseen bats, the soft nickering of the horse whose bridle they'd tied to the wagon, the distant call of something Cramer had called "loons" - whatever they were.

The next two hours passed by in relative silence, save for the background noises and the occasional snore coming from the men's tent.  After judging her shift had ended by the position of the full moon, Marlo shook Khari awake and crawled off to her own small tent.  The dwarf put his armor back on and spent some time by the fire, building it back up enough to keep him warm while he cleaned the dried blood from his warhammer.  He'd wake the lizardfolk when his shift was up.

But it never quite came to that, for about halfway through his guard shift Khari heard the unmistakable sound of a twig snapping from the forest behind him.  Turning, he squinted into the darkness of the forest, his dwarven darkvision picking out the silhouette of a female elf hiding between the trees, peering out at him.  Her eyes were wide open in surprise; apparently she hadn't intended revealing her presence in this way.

Khari wasn't the smartest dwarf by any means but he knew enough to alert the others in case of potential danger - and an elf sneaking up on them in the middle of the night certainly qualified.  "WAKE UP - INTRUDER!" bellowed the dwarven fighter before charging straight for the elven woman.  He sent his warhammer crashing toward her head but she nimbly stepped back, dodging the swinging weapon.  Khari noticed her eyes were glowing and wondered idly what that might mean - was she under some kind of spell effect?  _Domination_ of some sort, maybe?

Too late to cast the _silence_ spell she'd hoped to cover the encampment and confused by the results of the _detect evil_ spell she'd cast upon her own vision (_How could a dwarf's beard be evil?_ she wondered, picking up the waves of malevolence emanating from N'zorthal's tentacle hiding beneath Khari's beard), the elf attacked the burly dwarf with her own weapon: a light mace.  Her swing struck only Khari's shield, eliciting a clamor she likewise would have preferred not making - so much for stealthiness!

Utred had been awakened by Khari's cry and wasn't quite sure if he'd imagined it or not - but then he heard the unmistakable sound of a metal weapon clanging off a steel shield.  Not bothering to don his armor, he grabbed up his own shield and the closest one-handed weapon at hand - his own warhammer - and ran toward the sounds of battle.  His path took him by Marlo's tent so he stuck his head inside and yelled at her to get up - tired after her two-hour guard shift, she'd slept through Khari's initial warning.

Staggering out of her little tent, Marlo looked to see what the fuss was all about and by the light of the full moon she saw Khari fighting an elf in the forest on the other side of the dirt road they'd been following.  The sorceress cast a _magic missile_ from one of the spell-slots still available to her from the previous day.  The spell covered the distance between the two women in a mere moment, unerringly striking the armor-clad elf.

Cramer cast a _shield of faith_ as he crawled from the larger tent.  Jhasspok woke up and stood dazedly, looking about him trying to make sense of his surroundings - it was his first night on the surface world and at first everything seemed too strange for his lizard brain to handle.  "Attack the elf!" commanded the gnome.  Finding the intended target, Jhasspok ran across the dirt road to do just that, his tail held out vertically behind him for balance.  Fortunately, the lizardfolk wore no armor so he'd merely had to pick up his turtle shell shield and his short sword to be fully ready for combat.

Khari attacked the woman again, swinging and missing.  She responded by taking a step back out of immediate reach, casting a _light_ spell on a pebble in her hand, and flinging it straight up into the air.  It landed near the dirt road passing by the slaves' campsite for the night.  _A signal for reinforcements_, surmised Utred, quite accurately as it turned out.

By then the rest of the slaves had converged on the elf.  She turned out to be quite adept at avoiding their attacks, though - almost comically so.  Jhasspok tried a bear-hug grapple that she slithered out of somehow, leaving the surprised lizardfolk falling to a heap at her feet.  Both dwarves swung their warhammers at her head, only to have her duck at the last moment each time.  She raised her hand in a "I just want to talk" gesture after Marlo struck her with another _magic missile_ spell and the group held back to hear what she might have to say, but the only words that spilled from her mouth immediately thereafter were those of a healing spell.  Cramer by that time was close enough to note the silvery crescent moon medallion around her neck and recognized it as the holy symbol of the elven deity Correlon Larethian.  But she continued to evade their attacks, gradually moving to the south as she did so.

Finally, she turned and fled at full speed - but was outrun by a now-furious Utred, whose fist-punch to the back of her head sent her reeling, unconscious, to the forest floor.  "Finally!" he grunted to himself, before picking up the sounds of reinforcements coming from the south, along the dirt road.  They still seemed some distance away, so the group had time to prepare for their arrival.

But the five slaves were far from a well-oiled machine when it came to tactical combat planning; everyone had their own ideas.  "Let's ambush 'em!" suggested Utred and that sounded like a good plan to all, but each slave decided on his or her own how best to meet that goal.  Jhasspok leaned down and picked up the unconscious elf, hoping to draw the reinforcements into attacking him if they thought they'd have to overcome the lizardfolk to rescue their cleric.  Then the others could pop out from their hiding places behind trees, attacking the unsuspecting reserves.  Khari hid behind a tree, ready to do just that.  Cramer, however, waited for them over by the dropped pebble with the _light_ spell, while Utred went back over to their encampment to make sure none of these newcomers to the field of battle got it into their heads to swipe the rest of their stuff.  And Marlo crossed the dirt road again to hide behind her own small tent.  She took the opportunity to ready her light crossbow since she was nearly out of her more powerful spells, having used up quite a bit of her daily allotment earlier the previous morning when attacking the caravan.

Four figures appeared along the road from the south, looking to be elves as well.  Jhasspok by this time had gotten tired of carrying around an unconscious elf in chain mail and had plopped her down onto the back of the wagon at their camp.  One of the approaching elven warriors - another woman - headed his way, trying to rescue her leader.  Jhasspok turned to face the attacker and raised his shield to ward off the incoming blow but the elf was tricky and her blade went whizzing by in an arc to strike the lizardfolk from an unexpected direction.  Jhasspok hissed in pain as the blade carved a path of blood across his scales.

Another elven warrior spotted Utred and Khari among the trees and altered his path to go strike the Hammerslammer dwarf.  His blade struck Khari's shield with a clang and was diverted away.  The other two elves rushed forward, approaching Jhasspok with hopes of surrounding the lizard-monster with overwhelming force.  But Jhasspok was having none of that; with a leap forward, he snapped his jaws over the soft flesh of the female warrior's neck, ripping out her throat - and then spitting it back out in disgust, for it tasted _nothing_ like fish!

Khari battled the elf who had singled him out, getting in a good strike with his warhammer that had the elf swooning.  Utred ran up beside Jhasspok and swung his own weapon at one of the other approaching elves, while Marlo scampered up a tree and shot a _ray of frost_ spell - she was too depleted of spell energy to cast the more powerful _magic missiles_ - at Utred's foe.

Then Cramer cast a _command_ spell and called out - in fluent Elven - "Fall!" to the elf standing before Jhasspok.  The elf obeyed, dropping to the ground, and the cleric called for the lizardfolk to attack the now-prone enemy.  Jhasspok obeyed at once, bloodying the elf (who likewise tasted nothing like fish, much to the lizardfolk's disappointment - he'd been kind of hoping the female elf had been a fluke).

With another solid blow to the temple, Khari dropped his foe like a log.  The sole remaining elf looked about him, saw the five-against-one odds, and dropped his blade.  "I surrender!" he called out in the Common tongue.  He then figuratively spilled his guts so he wouldn't have them spilled literally.

According to the elven warrior, they had come to attack the very caravan the five Jalamir slaves had attacked earlier that day, for it had been headed to Greenvale but the members of the caravan had failed to pay their "toll."  The elves of the Elderwood - of which these five elves were members - had enacted an embargo on Greenvale while they investigated a rumored connection between Greenvale and the drow of Overreach.  ("Overreach!" cried Jhasspok when he heard the city of his hatching mentioned.)  The elves were certain there was a connection of some sort between the two communities, for both had ironsilk - a rare commodity in the world, known by very few.  With their embargo in place, the Elderwood elves had been "persuading" the human kingdoms to stop trading with Greenvale, banditry being just one way of doing so.

"We could look into that connection for you," suggested Cramer, eager to find out more about Overreach.  The more he knew of his captors, he reasoned, the better he'd eventually be able to escape from their yoke.

"No need - we already have an agent in place in Greenvale," replied the elf.  Then his eyes narrowed in suspicion as he noticed, for the first time, the cloaks the five slaves wore.  These were the _slave-light cloaks_ they'd taken from the assassins back in Overreach who had tried slaying the ironsilk weaver from House Ky'hulcressen; the elf recognized them as having belonged to the elite infiltration team the Elderwood forces had sent into Overreach, of which his own brother had been a member.  "Where did you get those cloaks?" he demanded.

"We took them from the bodies of elves slain in Overreach," replied Jhasspok truthfully - he just left out the part where it had been the five Jalamir slaves themselves who had slain the elf assassins in the first place.  The elf's eyes narrowed in suspicion and his jaw clenched at the thought that his brother was likely dead.

"So what are you planning on doing with us?" the elf demanded, looking down at the unconscious form of his male companion on the ground at Khari's feet, whose ragged breathing denoted he at least was still alive - unlike the two warriors Jhasspok had slain and partially eaten.

"We won't kill you," promised Cramer, bending down to cast a _cure minor wounds_ spell upon the downed warrior to stabilize him; he'd previously done the same thing to the unconscious cleric laying on the back of the wagon.  But then he motioned for Jhasspok to fetch the cleric and bring her here, while Khari hefted the weight of the warrior he'd knocked out.  Cramer touched the illithid tentacle curling up from the _ring gate necklace_ he wore around his neck and sent a telepathic call to N'zorthal.  The Writhing Gate opened behind the unarmed elf.

"...but you might wish we had," Cramer finished, pushing their captured prisoner to stumble backwards through the Writhing Gate.  Then, at the gnome's orders, Jhasspok and Khari pitched their unconscious burdens into the Writhing Gate as well.  It winked back out after receiving its third elven offering and Marlo silently wondered if they would receive a vision of the Dying One on their way to the Underdark.

"Glad that's done with," growled Utred, dropping his shield and weapon by the flap of the tent and crawling back inside.  "I'm beat."

"It's your shift now, Jhasspok," said Khari, pulling off his armor and getting ready to climb into the tent as well.  "Wake up Utred in two hours, okay?"

"When is that?" Jhasspok asked.

Khari thought about it.  "When the moon's about there," he said, pointing to the top of a clump of trees.

"Moon?" asked the lizardfolk.  He'd never heard the word.

"The moon!  That big round thing!" Khari snarled, pointing up at the celestial orb ruling over the night sky.

"Oh!  That!" replied Jhasspok, looking up at it.  "I thought it was a really big pearl."  Khari just shook his head in disbelief and climbed into the tent.  He shook it again when he found Cramer had somehow beaten him inside and was already snoring.  _Little dude's serious about his sleep!_, thought the fighter.

Jhasspok squatted down by the fire and sat virtually motionless for the next three hours (for Khari's ability to calculate time via celestial navigation wasn't a finely-tuned skill, more of a vague guesstimate), his ears listening for danger while his eyes stared at the Really Big Pearl in the night sky.  (Khari hadn't told him he'd go blind if he stared at it, like Utred had warned him about the _fireball_ sun, so Jhasspok assumed it was okay to do so.)  His guard shift was uneventful, as was Utred's, and Khari's miscalculation got the other slaves the extra sleep they'd missed out on during their combat excursion in the middle of the night.  Cramer woke up in the morning light fully refreshed and began preparing his spells for the day.

"So, we continuing on to Greenvale?" asked Utred, looking at the map they'd taken from the caravan driver.  The road through the forest would take them to the mountains, where Greenvale was indicated by a black dot.

"It's as good a place as any to check out," Marlo offered.

"Yeah, I want to see about this connection to Overreach," Cramer added.  After a quick breakfast, they hitched their horse up to the wagon and headed in the direction of Greenvale.

Late morning saw them standing before an imposing wall stretching across the road.  Made of stone, it stood a full 100 feet tall, the upper third or so containing carvings of what Cramer explained were members of the elven pantheon of deities.  Utred and Khari looked at the wall with distrust; they seemed disturbed by its very existence.  "What's the matter?" Marlo asked, noticing their discomfort.

"That wall ain't natural," Utred explained.  "Well, I suppose it's 'natural,' just unnaturally so."

"That doesn't make any sense," complained Marlo.

"Best way I can explain it."

"Yeah, it just ain't right somehow," Khari added, not able to take his eyes from it as they approached.

There was an open gate in the wall before the road, beside which stood two elven guards in green ironsilk breastplates.  Marlo pulled her robes tight around her, ensuring her own ironsilk armor which she wore underneath wasn't visible.  The elven guards were distinctive in that one had sky blue eyes and hair to match, while the other had hair and eyes of a deep violet.  Unlike the combative attitudes of the elves the slaves had encountered the night before, these elven guards had a much friendlier disposition.

"Welcome to Greenvale," greeted one with a smile and a sparkle in his eyes.  If he was the least bit surprised to see a hulking lizardfolk traveling in the company of a gnome, a human, and two dwarves he gave no indication of it.  "Allow me to explain the code of conduct for visitors in our fair city."  Cramer listened distractedly from the driver's seat of the wagon, his attention focused on the gate behind the guards.  It didn't look like an opening in the stone wall so much as a magical _gate_ or an upright _teleportation circle_.  The little gnome anticipated that stepping through it could take them much farther away than just directly to the other side of the stone wall.

"The rules for visitors are simple," continued the guard.  "No magic is to be used inside Greenvale except for self-defense or the defense of others.  Only the Common tongue is to be spoken within the trade district in order to deter underhanded dealings.  No harming of others, save for in the case of self-defense or the defense of another.  No attempting to climb the walls.  No entry into other districts without an escort.  The penalties of said actions range from a fine to imprisonment, or eternal banishment from the city if the criminal refuses either previous penalty."  He smiled again at the slaves.  "Are there any questions?"

There were not.  The guards stepped aside and the slaves led their horse-drawn wagon through the gate into the trade district.

The effects of the embargo were immediately apparent as the slaves wandered the trade district.  Despite the tightly-packed buildings (seemingly of either human design or an architectural style evocative of an elven mimicry of human design), the district had a desolate, abandoned feel to it.  There were wide, open spaces seemingly designed for trade stalls or goods-wagons, but neither were currently in residence.  It was, after all, difficult to do much in the way of trade if the traders from outside the city were being encouraged to stay away.

As the group meandered around the city, Utred and Marlo heard a muffled cry.

"What was that?"

"What?  I didn't hear anything."

"A cry!"

"From where?"

"Over there!"  Khari rushed in the direction Marlo had pointed, his warhammer out and ready for action.  Jhasspok paced his dwarven fighter friend, pulling out ahead of him when he saw the elven woman lying in a pool of blood on the cobbled street of an alleyway, an elven soldier standing over her wielding a sword sheathed in green flames.  The soldier wore the same type of chainmail uniform as the warriors they'd fought the night before.  Cramer swore an oath under his breath, pulled up on the reins, and hopped down from the wagon, casting a _longstrider_ spell on himself as he headed after the others.  Marlo and Utred followed the gnome, leaving the horse and wagon unattended in the nearly empty trading quarter of the city.

The elf saw the approaching slaves and snarled, "Stay out of this!  It doesn't concern you!"  Then he, like the captured soldier the night before, recognized the _slave-light cloaks_ that had belonged to the Elderwood infiltration team.  With a glare at, he assumed, the infiltrators' killers, he charged Utred, cutting and burning the dwarf with his green-flamed longsword.

But then Jhasspok and Khari were upon the elf, the lizardfolk swinging his short sword and snapping with his sharp teeth and the dwarf bludgeoning with his warhammer.  In a matter of mere moments the soldier was down from the concentrated attack.  Cramer headed over to the elven woman, healing her with a spell.  As she awakened, the cleric helped her to sit up and asked her why she'd been attacked.

The woman was slow to answer.  Finally she replied, "Perhaps you should talk to the guards about that."  That was really no answer at all.

Jhasspok took the green-flamed longsword from the soldier's dead hand and swung it experimentally, nodding approvingly.  "It is a good weapon," he said.  "And the flames match my cloak."  Indeed, the lizardfolk had early on turned the illusory flames seemingly covering his _slave-light cloak_ an emerald green, the better to match the reptile's scales.  But then, with a sigh, he handed the sword over to Utred.  "You should have it, if you want it," he said.  "You took the attack from its previous owner."

"I do want it," the dwarf replied, taking the proffered weapon.  Utred Butterflinger might have been born into a clan of dwarven farmers but he was a weapon-wielding barbarian at heart.  It boded well for him, he thought, that the first longsword he added to his arsenal was magical in nature.

Two elven guards approached the group.  Cramer, sensing an impending accusation of having broken Greenvale's code of conduct, began to explain they had been attacked but the lead guard raised a hand.  "*Tock* saw everything," he said, as if that were all the explanation needed.  The Jalamir slaves looked at each other in puzzlement until a clockwork pseudodragon flew down from the rooftops.  This, apparently, was Tock.  It landed on the cobblestones and arched its mechanical neck to look up at the slaves.  They could hear a slight whirring noise from the creature - the sound of gears moving.  Cramer, with the intrinsic gnomish appreciation for intricate mechanical devices, couldn't help but be impressed at the sight.

"I think you should come with us," said the guard in a non-hostile manner.  "Just to answer a few questions."  He held out a lead box and motioned silently for the slaves to remove their _ring gate necklaces_ and place them within.

"Oh?" asked Cramer, suddenly wary but not hesitating for a second to get rid of the illithid tentacle making contact with the skin of his neck.  The other three slaves dropped their necklaces into the box and the elf handed it to his partner for safekeeping.

"Just standard procedure," promised the guard, smiling broadly.  "And depending on your answers, I think we may very well be able to help with your 'problem'.'"  As if to emphasize his meaning, the guard slapped Utred on the middle of his back - smack-dab on the Jalamir tattoo that had been branded into place when he'd been taken as a slave.

Cramer caught the implications at once.  "By all means," he said, his smile suddenly as big as the guard's.

- - -

This adventure, if nothing else, showed us the fickle nature of the Dice Gods.  We took forever taking down a simple, low-level elven cleric in a five-against-one fight, were almost as a result ready to flee from what turned out to be four 1st-level warriors (we thought they'd likely give us as much trouble as the cleric had, only now we'd be up against four of them all at once), and then took down a much higher-level soldier at the end like he was a chump.

Dan's all excited at the prospect of Cramer (and the others) escaping slave-hood, but whatever happens we do realize we'll likely have to return to Overreach.  Cramer still needs to rescue his cleric mentor, *Honeycomb Buzzwort*, and we probably ought to do our best to rescue the slaves we captured for the drow: not only the Elderwood bandits from this adventure but the halfling paladin, dwarven ranger, and human fighter we sent into slavery last adventure.  And I'm sure Cramer wouldn't mind putting slavemaster Calish Jalamir and N'zorthal the mind flayer to death, either.

We all leveled up to 3rd at the end of this adventure.  Unfortunately, this is Jhasspok's "dead" level, the third of three he has to pay as just a lizardfolk - and the one without an increase to Hit Dice, so that means no additional hit points, no increase in Base Attack Bonus or saves or anything (not even his token 1 skill point per level).  Once we make it to 4th level I'll finally get to add a character class to him.


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## The Green Hermit (Jan 14, 2020)

I'm enjoying this so far. Do you take notes on the conversations, or do you just make them up afterward based upon what happened during the session?


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## Richards (Jan 15, 2020)

The system we've evolved (over the years) is that the night after we play (generally from 6:30 to 9:00 PM on Wednesday evenings), my son Logan (the DM) writes up a "skeleton" of who did what (not necessarily a round-by-round after-action report but the general gist of things) and emails it to me.  Then, beginning Thursday night, I start fleshing out that skeleton and turning it into Story Hour fodder.  Usually I have the story finished and spellchecked on Saturday, then I wait until Sunday morning to post it (with a fresh set of eyes - it's amazing the mistakes you find after having not looked at it for a day!).  Most of the conversations are more or less stuff the players had their PCs say but sometimes I take liberties and turn a series of questions from the players to the DM and his answers into in-game conversations.  And Logan's "skeleton" usually includes any relevant NPC quotes he wants to make sure end up in the write-up.

We do the same thing for our other campaign, "The Kordovian Adventurers Guild," although since I'm the DM for that one I do up my own skeleton the night after we play.  (Those sessions are usually on Saturdays from noon until 5 or 6 PM.)  We've found doing up the skeleton right away, when it's still fresh in your mind, really helps.  That way, if something comes up and I don't get to do the fleshing out until days later I've at least captured enough to document the important stuff that happened during the session.

But I'm glad to hear you're enjoying the Story Hour!  We're having a lot of fun - certainly a lot more than we'd have thought when we were told our PCs would be starting out as slaves of the drow.

Johnathan


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## The Green Hermit (Jan 15, 2020)

I have my kids write up their versions first and then I smooth it out and edit it. That way, they are responsible for remembering quests and quest givers and picking up on clues. I do like your method, though.


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## Richards (Jan 18, 2020)

*ADVENTURE 7: THE TRUTH OF GREENVALE*

PC Roster:
Cramer Appleknocker, gnome cleric 3​Jhasspok, lizardfolk 3​Khari Hammerslammer, dwarf fighter 3​Marlo Pendragon, human sorcerer 3​Utred "Buckets" Butterflinger, dwarf barbarian 3​
Game Session Date: 15 January 2020

- - -

The elven guards led the five Jalamir slaves into a building.  They were surprised to see a long table awaiting them in what was quite obviously a banquet hall; lunch was brought out for them while Tock observed everything from his perch at one end of the table.  Jhasspok, puzzling over a suitable chair configuration (he eventually turned it sideways so his tail could hang off the back end without running up against the chair's back, which then served as an armrest for his left arm), was surprised to see the lunch that had been prepared for him: a wooden bucket, inside which were a pair of actual fish!  And normal fish, too, with proper fins and everything - not those weird fish with legs and wings that sat on tree branches and sang.

"These are for me to eat?" Jhasspok asked.  He had assumed that to be the case but didn't want to have guessed wrong.

"By all means," smiled the lead elven guard - the one with the purple hair and eyes.  "Please, enjoy your meals while we talk."  The other four slaves had a quite different fare, served on plates with the standard eating utensils.  They tucked into their meals but before Utred started on his own plate of food he asked the elves if he could keep Jhasspok's bucket after the lizardfolk had finished with it.

"I, uh - sure, I suppose," stuttered the blue-haired elf.  It wasn't a question he'd been expecting.  Marlo frowned at the dwarven barbarian, wondering what his fetish about buckets was all about.

Jhasspok reached into his pouch and pulled out a slave-coin.  "I will give you this square piece of metal for the fish," he offered.

"No, that's not necessary," replied the guard, smiling.  Jhasspok frowned in confusion; he thought he'd finally had this "money" thing figured out but apparently it was more complicated than he had imagined.

"Before we begin our discussions in earnest," began the purple-haired elf, "I would like to point out that this entire building has a false-image anti-scrying field around it: anybody casting a _scry_ spell - say, through your tattoos, for instance - will receive a false image of you doing something perfectly innocuous."  He didn't mention the room was also covered in a _zone of truth_ spell; if these slaves tried lying to their elven hosts, they'd know the falsehoods for what they were.  Of course, that worked both ways but at least the elves were aware of the situation and could choose their words accordingly.

"You know about our tattoos?" asked Cramer.  The little gnome wasn't particularly surprised, as the guards had intimated as much before ushering them in here.  The fact they'd also known about the _ring gate necklaces_ by which the mind flayer N'zorthal kept track of them also spoke volumes about how much they understood the ways of the drow of the Overreach.  How they knew so much was a mystery Cramer was itching to find out.

"We know quite a bit," the guard replied.  "But what we'd like to know is how much House Jalamir knows about Greenvale."

Cramer gave the question some thought.  "I'm not aware of any of the drow knowing about Greenvale," he answered truthfully.  "If they did, they never discussed it with us."

"We only learned about it ourselves yesterday," Khari added, chewing on a chicken leg.  "The caravan people we attacked had said they were coming here, and we saw it on the map we took from them."

"May I ask about your hair?" interrupted Marlo.  "It's very distinctive.  I've never seen elves with blue or purple hair."

The purple-haired elf smiled again.  "Some of us born in Greenvale are born with an unusual hair and eye color," he replied.  "Those of us with such a trait who go on to develop magical talents often find their spell effects tend to reflect the same color.  Were I a wizard, for example, my _magic missiles_ would undoubtedly be purple."  Marlo found the concept intriguing.

"May I ask how you came to the surface?" asked the purple-haired elf, returning the conversation to more important points.

"There's this thing called the Writhing Gate," began Cramer.  "It's a sort of immobile _teleportation circle_ without a set end-point; it's activated from its Underdark location by mind flayers working for the drow of Overreach, who used it to send us to the surface.  At the end of our two-week scouting session it'll open back up and we'll use it to return.  My understanding is that N'zorthal can program it to send us pretty much anywhere.  And it's open-ended: he set it to drop us next to a caravan, but not any particular one."

"Interesting," replied the guard.

"You don't know the half of it!  It looks like ten long tentacles, and that's exactly what they are - but they're just the tips of ten out a hundred or so tentacles coming from the severed head of an eldritch monstrosity called the Dying One."  Cramer looked over to Marlo as he said this but the sorceress was suddenly devoting her full attention to her salad.  In so doing, the gnomish cleric missed the astonished looks the two elven guards gave each other.

"Can you tell us more of this Dying One?"

"I don't know much more myself, but we met up with this blind elven prophet in the caravan we attacked and she said something about needing to finish what Wee Jas had started.  I gather it was her, the Goddess of Death and Magic, who brought the Dying One to his, well, dying state.  I gather he's an Elder God or something."  Cramer took a bite of his food and then said, "My turn for a question: what's the connection between Greenvale and Overreach, exactly?  And why do the elves of the Elderwood hate you guys so much?"

"We have covert agents inside Overreach," explained the lead guard.  "They were uncovered by the Elderwood agents, who then assumed we had been working together."

"Those assassins we fought?" Marlo asked.  "The fake drow?"

"Yes, they were Elderwood agents," explained the purple-haired elf.

"Pity they were really just elves with full-body tattoos making them look like drow," Cramer interjected.  "I'd have been happier knowing it was actual drow we'd killed.  If I had my way, I'd see all the damned drow dead!"  The two guards gave each other a significant glance at that remark.

"So your agents, were they in the same get-up?" asked Utred.  "Full-body tattoos making them look like drow?"  The question seemed to make the purple-haired elf uncomfortable; finally, he hesitantly answered, "...No."

"Magic, then, I guess," hazarded Utred.  He was a simple dwarf, "magic" was a believable answer to anything he didn't understand.  But the elven guards didn't answer, allowing the barbarian to drawn his own conclusions, even if they were erroneous.

However, Cramer had picked up on the elves' evasiveness.  He stared at the two elves sitting across the table from him, focusing the full powers of his concentration on the one with the blue hair.  The elf returned the gnome's gaze somewhat nervously, wondering what the suspicious stare was all about.  He let a hand stray unconsciously to the back of his head, running his fingers absently through his blue hair.

"Crap!" exploded Cramer, leaping down from his chair and grabbing for the mace hanging at his belt.

"What is it?" demanded Marlo, looking up from her meal at the sudden commotion.

"They're _drow!_" Cramer called.  "It's a trap!"  But despite the accusation, the two elves remained calmly sitting at the banquet table, making no sudden moves to attack.  Khari looked at the elves, then back over to Cramer.  "Those aren't drow," he tried explaining to his gnomish friend, trying to figure out how the little cleric could have made such an obvious mistake.  "Drow have black skin, for one thing."

With a sigh and an exasperated look between each other, the two elves reached up behind their heads and pulled at something unseen.  "No, Cramer is quite correct," replied the purple-haired guard.  At once, the skin of the two elves darkened to an almost black color as the guards pulled away invisible ribbons they'd had in their hair like headbands.  Their oddly-colored hair, however, remained the same vibrant blue and purple hues.  "We are, in fact, drow - but we are not allies of the drow in Overreach.  Quite the opposite, in fact."

Cramer looked from one to the other of the drow, his mace still in his hand.  "You'd better explain," he suggested.

"We are 'sunborn' drow," the lead guard said.  "For some reason not fully understood, drow born on the surface and exposed to the sun at birth have hair and eye colors not normally associated with the normal members of our race.  We are different from normal drow in other ways as well: we do not live in the Underdark, do not worship Lolth, and do not take slaves to be sacrificed to their insane Spider-Bitch."

"Wait," interrupted Marlo.  "Are you saying...Greenvale is a drow city?  The whole city - drow, not elves?"

"It is indeed.  Hence our prohibitions against spellcasting within the city limits: we don't want our illusions to be seen through, as the outside world believes Greenvale to be an isolated elven community."  He turned to Cramer.  "How did you see through our illusions without casting any spells?" he asked, clearly intrigued.

Cramer put his mace down and climbed back into his chair; it seemed his initial reaction might have been unwarranted.  "Gnomes and illusions go hand in hand," he offered.  "If you suspect you're looking at an illusion, sometimes that's all it takes to see through the fakery and see what's real underneath."  He thought back about his statement about wishing every drow dead.  "Uh, about what I said earlier..." he began.

The purple-haired drow raised a hand.  "Never mind," he reassured.  "It is an understandable sentiment, but one I would hope might be amended now that you are aware of our quite different offshoot of the drow race."  Then he got back to the topic at hand.  "As far as Overreach goes, your House Jalamir poses the greatest threat.  The Writhing Gate is particularly worrisome and something we will need to deal with, in time.  But in the meantime, may I guess it is not in your interests to remain House Jalamir slaves for the rest of your lives?"  He saw he had the undivided attention of all five slaves.  "I thought not.  Well, we have the power to remove your tattoos, but to do so would be to tip off House Jalamir you had all gained your freedom - and your current master, Calish, has been known to make examples out of the friends of escaped slaves."

"Yes," confirmed Jhasspok.  "I have seen him do so."  Cramer's face darkened at this thought, knowing his friend and mentor Honeycomb Buzzwart would pay the price of Cramer gaining his immediate freedom.

"Therefore, I suggest an alternative plan, one which may be instrumental in Greenvale's plans to take down House Jalamir.  We will alter your tattoos, removing your inhibitions against harming drow, for one thing" - and Cramer grinned broadly at this thought - "and adding in the same type of magic that currently covers this building: if any drow were to scry on you through your tattoos they would pick up a false image of you doing something innocuous."  Jhasspok and Khari looked askance at each other, neither having the slightest clue what "innocuous' might mean but trusting in their friends to decide whether to go along with this deal.

"What about N'zorthal?" Marlo asked.  "By now he knows we've been disconnected from his mind.  He'll know something is up - and if we put those necklaces back on he'll be able to pick up our thoughts about this conversation, about any deal we make here - about everything!"

"You need have no fears on those fronts," assured the lead guard.  "The same type of magic is already in play.  Your mind flayer overseer is currently under the impression that you're still wearing the necklaces and all is well - you're exploring the elven city of Greenvale to see what resources we might have that Overreach could take, as instructed.  The necklaces can be modified to give him false sensations even when his tentacles are touching your skin.  So, what do you say?"

Cramer didn't need much time to come to a decision.  "I'm in," he said.

"As am I," added Marlo.

"Yep," said Utred.

"Sure," said Khari - if it was good enough for his fellow dwarven warrior, it was good enough for him.

"I am confused," admitted Jhasspok.  "We will stop being Jalamir slaves and become Greenvale slaves?"

"Not slaves, no," started Marlo but then Utred cut in; he'd become somewhat adept at explaining things to the inexperienced lizardfolk.  "We're going to _pretend_ to still be Jalamir slaves, but we'll really be secret Greenvale slaves instead.  And then, when we help take down House Jalamir, we'll be all done being slaves!"

"That's not entirely--" began Marlo.

"He understands being a slave and working for a master," Utred interrupted.  "Right now, that's _all_ he understands.  For now, we'll get him working for the right master and later we can get him used to the idea of freedom."  He turned back to Jhasspok.  "Tell them you're in," he said.

"I'm in," dutifully reported Jhasspok.  Things were so much easier when somebody told him what to do!  He returned his attention to the last fish still swimming around in his bucket.

The tattoos were modified that very afternoon, after which time the group was allowed to rest for the remainder of the day.  The following morning, they'd been told, they would be undergoing a final test.  Cramer pushed for details but was rebuffed.  "I'm sure you'll do fine," he was informed.  They spent the night in comfortable guest quarters.

The next morning the five were brought back to the building with the banquet hall but instead of being greeted with a lavish spread they went immediately to a set of stairs leading down.  There was a small library room with bookshelves on either side and a pair of double doors at the far end.  The same two guards were acting as their escorts; not having been provided their names, the slaves referred to them as "Purple" and "Blue" when discussing them amongst themselves.  And despite the slaves knowing full well their status as sunborn drow, they apparently had their _headbands of disguise_ back on for they gave all appearances of being light-skinned surface elves - no doubt because their duties involved walking through the city above where they might be seen by a visitor.

"Your trial is a rather simple one," Purple explained.  "You will be locked into one of our silk farms.  Your task is merely to find the silver key hidden somewhere within which will unlock the doors.  Do so and you will have passed the test.  I only ask that you try not to kill too many of our silk producers.  If it helps, they have been trained to fear the color purple."  He smiled again, causing Cramer to wonder if the fear of the color purple had anything to do with the sunborn drow's own natural hair and eye color.  If so, that might not be a good sign!

Purple opened the doors and ushered the five slaves inside.  "Good luck!" he called, closing the doors behind them.  There was the sound of a lock being engaged.  Just to be sure, Khari tried the door - it was locked, as expected.

"So what's the plan?" he asked.  "If needs be, I can knock this door down with my hammer in no time flat."

"I hardly think that's the intention of this trial," chided Marlo, looking out into the cavern ahead of them.  They were in a rather cramped area at present with a purple energy field of some sort immediately in front of them but just beyond it widened out into a vast cavern with tall ceilings hidden in darkness.  The cavern was unlit but from the light of the _slave-light cloaks_ the group could see the floor was covered in hundreds - if not thousands - of spiders of varying sizes, from little ones smaller than the palm of a hand to a few almost as large as Jhasspok.

"First things first," said Cramer.  "_Slave-light cloaks_ to purple."  With a mental command, the illusory flames emanating from his cloak changed colors to a deep violet.  The others followed suit.  Then, one by one, they stepped through the field of purple energy (a permanent _repel vermin_ spell, keeping the spiders from leaving the area) and into the vast cavern beyond.

"Look for a silver key," Khari reminded Jhasspok, stepping cautiously into the cavern, his warhammer gripped tightly in his hands.  By the expression on his face, the fearless Hammerslammer dwarf was not a particular fan of spiders.  Khari went right so Jhasspok went left, each exploring the edges of the vast cavern in a different direction, looking for the telltale glint of silver.  Marlo followed Khari but stayed farther from the wall, extending the scope of their search.  She noticed the spiders all did their best to stay out of range of the purple illumination from their cloaks.

With his dwarven darkvision, which extended far beyond the reach of the light from the cloaks, Utred saw a thick section of webbing hanging suspended from the ceiling like a stalactite towards the middle of the cavern.  He pushed forward to go check it out.  The spiders scurried to get out of his way but the occasional crunch from beneath his boots indicated not all of them did so successfully.  As he approached, he saw the webbing was a cocoon binding somebody tightly inside.  Pulling a short sword from his belt, Utred carefully cut the webbing away, revealing a drow woman with white hair - so not a sunborn drow, then.  She was breathing but unconscious.

Cramer finally stepped into the cavern proper and cast a spell he thought would be particularly useful in this trial: a _locate object_ spell.  Concentrating on the image of a silver key, the gnome's gaze was directed up toward the cavern's ceiling...where he locked eyes with a creature standing upside-down on the stone ceiling.  A silver key dangled from a necklace he wore around his neck.  Focusing immediately on the key at first, Cramer eventually noticed the build of the creature wearing it.  From the waist up he appeared to be a drow - with silver hair, well within the normal color standards of that race.  From the waist down, however, his body was that of an enormous, silver spider, whose eight legs were spread out in a wide circle ensuring his firm grip on the cavern ceiling.  In each hand he held a longsword.

"Erm...hello," said Cramer.  "I wonder if we might borrow that key for a moment?"

*T'puuli Tyne* said nothing but was silently intrigued and somewhat impressed that the gnome's initial reaction to seeing a drider was to attempt negotiations rather than immediately attack.  Still, he understood the party's true test was what they would do with Niradi so he walked across the ceiling towards Cramer, then scampered down the wall in a rush until he stood directly before him, longswords out and pointed in the gnome's direction.

Utred, however, had his back turned to all of this and was paying more attention to the unconscious drow woman in his arms, for he had sliced through the webbing keeping her cocoon hanging from the ceiling.  And now, there at her throat, he saw what he'd at first taken for a necklace ornament: a silver key!  "Guys!" he called.  "I found it!"  Rather than try to remove the necklace from her, he hoisted the entire cocoon and started lugging her back to the double doors.

Jhasspok had made it to the back of the cavern by then and Marlo and Khari were across the way from him when Utred called out his findings.  They all turned and saw Utred hauling a cocooned form back toward the doors, which led them to seeing Cramer facing the drider.  "We don't want to take it from you permanently," Cramer insisted.  "We'll give it right back, that's my absolute promise to you."

"What's he trying to do?" Jhasspok asked, catching up to the dwarven barbarian.

"Get the drider to give him the key," Utred answered.

"What drider?  Where?  Is he behind the elf-spider thing?"

"The drider _is_ the elf-spider thing!" hissed Utred.

With sudden realization, Jhasspok hit upon why the gnome's dealings were not meeting with success: Cramer had forgotten about money!  Reaching into his pack, Jhasspok called out to the drider, "I will give you a square piece of metal for the key!"  When that failed, he tried sweetening the deal by upping it to two slave-coins, then two slave-coins and a dried dung beetle snack from his personal stock.  The drider just stared at the approaching lizardfolk impassively, his blades still pointed at Cramer.

"If you do not give us the key," threatened Jhasspok, "I will attack you with my sword."  He pulled out his short sword, hoping to get the drider to face him and move his own two longswords away from Cramer's neck.  But still the drider held off his attacks and by doing so he made Marlo hesitant to throw a _magic missile_ his way - it seemed wrong to initiate combat against someone who had so far done them no harm.

"Very well," said T'puuli, sheathing his swords in a rapid maneuver.  "This trial has been successfully completed to my satisfaction."

"Found the key," beamed Utred, nodding to the woman bound up in his arms.  Then, seeing the silver key around the drider's neck, he corrected himself with, "Found _two_ of 'em!"  He set down his burden as the others approached.

"Isn't that--?" began Marlo, recognizing the unconscious drow woman before her.  She couldn't dredge up her name but it was the apprentice weaver they'd rescued from the House Jalamir slave market in Overreach.

"Niradi Ky'hulcressen," supplied T'puuli while Cramer cast a healing spell on the apprentice weaver.  She regained consciousness as Utred cut the rest of the web-cocoon away.  "Hello again," she said to the burly dwarf.

"The true nature of your test," said T'puuli, "was what you would do to a helpless drow before you.  The fact that you refused to attack me as well is merely an additional indicator of your worthiness to the task at hand."

"What exactly _are_ you?" demanded Khari.

"I am a drider, but not one in the traditional sense.  Many years ago, my mother, a traditional drow woman, fell in love with a celestial.  This angered Lolth, who cursed my birth, causing me to be born in this form."

"What's a celestial?" whispered Jhasspok, looking to Utred who usually had the answers.

Utred thought about it for a moment.  "A sky-fish," he answered quietly.

"Oh.  Thanks," whispered Jhasspok back.  That Utred sure was smart!

"My mother was from House Ky'hulcressen.  They worship *Eilistraee*, who they believe to be the true drow goddess, and view the rest of the drow to have been kidnapped by Lolth.  The surface city of Greenvale was founded by House Ky'hulcressen, as a haven for those not fully corrupted by the Spider-Bitch.  Unfortunately, the Elderwood elves refuse to acknowledge any distinction between Eilistraee and Lolth, viewing all drow as inherently evil.  They have slain the ambassadors we have sent out into the wider world, forcing Greenvale to hide our true nature from the rest of the surface."

"That's terrible!" commiserated Marlo.

"House Jalamir, we have determined, is our greatest threat from the Overreach, as with the Writhing Gate under their control they have become the primary source of slaves for the city and thus the greatest threat toward Greenvale's attempts at peace with the surface races.  We believe, with the aid of the nearby surface kingdoms, we can coordinate an assault on House Jalamir, ending their threat to the world once and for all.  To that eventual end, we will need you to act as spies against Jalamir.  You must keep up the pretense of 'serving' Calish for the time being, all while actively working to overthrow the drow of Overreach."

"I'm in!" Cramer said at once and the other four all followed suit.

"So what do we do next?" asked Marlo.

"Your current mission on the surface is to explore the area and see what resources are available for plunder by House Jalamir," explained T'puuli.  "While you are doing that, you can serve as Greenvale ambassadors in our stead.  The local kingdoms will not automatically try to kill you, as you do not have the black skin of a drow."  Discussing the matter further, the group decided against returning to the Elderwood to try to plead their case - they were already too suspicious of the Jalamir slaves wearing the magic cloaks of their own assassins; better by far to approach several of the other nearby kingdoms and convince them of Greenvale's trustworthiness.  Perhaps, in the future, a coalition of allied kingdoms would have a better chance of swaying the Elderwood to their cause.

"We will give you silk to deliver to the nearest human kingdom," suggested T'puuli.  "Rather than go back through the Elderwood the way you came, you can cut through the rugged landscape to go there by a more direct path.  And while you're there, you'll be collecting information for Calish about the resources available in the lands above, just as you've been directed to do."

"I like it," said Cramer.

- - -

This adventure didn't go anywhere near how Logan expected, he confessed to us (after we completed the session over an hour earlier than anticipated).  For one thing, he hadn't taken Dan's inherent suspiciousness into account and thus hadn't been planning on having us know the Greenvale elves were all drow until later.  Then we surprised him again by not leaping into battle with the drider.  (The mini had been a Christmas present; I teased him later that he'd spent much more time painting it than being able to put it to much use.)

So, not much in the way of combat this time - in fact, I think our only die rolls were initiative when we entered the cavern - oh, and Dan's Will save to see through the illusory disguises of Purple and Blue.  And Logan showed Joey the Niradi Ky'hulcressen initiative card when Utred first cut her from the cocoon, but he didn't recognize her - I guess all drow women look alike to a battle-hardened dwarven barbarian!

I also want to document a fantastic pun.  When T'puuli was describing how the Elderwood elves saw no difference between Lolth and Eilistraee, Dan asked, "Really?  Did you show them an eilistration of what they look like?"  Everyone groaned - but in my case it was at not having come up with that myself first!


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## Richards (Feb 2, 2020)

*ADVENTURE 8: OVER THE RIVER AND THROUGH THE FIELDS*

PC Roster:
Cramer Appleknocker, gnome cleric 3​Jhasspok, lizardfolk 3​Khari Hammerslammer, dwarf fighter 3​Marlo Pendragon, human sorcerer 3​Utred "Buckets" Butterflinger, dwarf barbarian 3​
Game Session Date: 22 January 2020

- - -

The wagon was loaded up with trade goods - mostly exotic-looking silks - and the sunborn drow of Greenvale gave the group directions to the human kingdom of Kravyrn, recommending they camp at the crumbling tower then head east to get to the narrowest part of the river.  They even provided two hefty wooden boards, 5 feet wide and twice that long, to help the horse and wagon cross the river.  Kravyrn, they were told, was northeast from the point of the river crossing.

The directions, it turned out, were spot on; the group had no difficulties in finding their way to the river, which had carved a deep gorge in the rock face of the ground, its waters a mere few inches from the top of the hardened stone on either side of it.  As the group of five slaves approached, Cramer driving the wagon and Marlo riding behind him among the trade goods, with the dwarves walking to the right and Jhasspok on the left flank, they could see the river varied from 5 to 10 feet wide; the makeshift bridge they carried with them would span the waterway just fine.  However, Jhasspok saw a fallen tree already crossing the span of the river, and while he knew the wagon couldn't cross over the log the lizardfolk felt it was worth checking out.  A pile of rocks stood just to the right of the makeshift bridge on the far side, just before a slight hill.  For a moment he saw some sort of canine muzzle peek from behind the rocks, but whatever it was it ducked back out of view and Jhasspok gave it no further thought; this crazy, topside world was filled with all sorts of unusual creatures but so far most of them (the singing, winged fish in the trees; the butterflies whose flight patterns seemed completely drunken; the ridiculous-looking "bunnies" with obnoxiously long ears and tails that looked like no tail Jhasspok had ever seen before) were completely harmless.

Racing forward and stepping onto the impromptu bridge, Jhasspok looked over the edge into the clear water, judging it to be likely about 20 feet deep.  He saw his reflection in the water, but then it flinched and grew larger and belatedly Jhasspok realized it wasn't his reflection at all but another lizardfolk swimming in the river, surfacing to come check him out.

This new lizardfolk reached the surface and allowed only his eyes to protrude out of the water, a stance Jhasspok himself had used often when fishing.  Then it raised its whole head out and began speaking softly and sibilantly in a language Jhasspok recognized as Draconic.

Oddly enough, Jhasspok did not speak Draconic, despite it being the traditional language of his people.  But Jhasspok was not a traditional member of his race; his egg, laid on the surface world, had been taken during a surface raid by the drow and he hatched into slavery in the Underdark, where he was the only member of his race in all of the Overreach.  Like every member of his race, he came into the world with an instinctive understanding of the basics of the Draconic language but he'd never had this core knowledge nurtured and it had mostly dried up from disuse.  Ironically, Marlo spoke Draconic fluently, it being a popular language in which to discuss arcane matters; to Jhasspok, it was mostly gibberish, although he found he could occasionally pick up the likely meaning of a word here and there.  And he did pick up a specific name, given its similarity to his own: at one point, this other lizardfolk - the only other member of his own race he'd ever seen - had mentioned someone named *Jhossepok*, whoever he might be.

The two lizardfolk stood transfixed, one staring down from an overturned tree at the other, mostly submerged in a river.  Neither saw the canine head peer over the pile of rocks again - but Khari did and recognized it at once for what it was.  "Gnoll!" he cried out.  "Ambush!"

Cramer reacted by pulling back on the horse's reins to bring the wagon to a halt and casting a _spiritual weapon_ spell which, the gnome being a cleric of Fharlanghn - God of Travelers - took on the shape of a quarterstaff.  It materialized just above the gnoll's head and swung down at the beast, who saw it out of the corner of his eye at the last possible moment and ducked in time to avoid being walloped.

Utred, however, had headed over to the wagon upon seeing the river and fetched the planks of wood that would form the bridge over the swiftly-flowing river.  Intent upon his task, he hadn't noticed the gnoll, nor had he heard his fellow dwarf's warning.  Hefting the planks upon one burly shoulder, he continued his tuneless whistling and set about setting up the bridge for the horse and wagon to cross.

Marlo leaped down from the wagon and rushed over behind Jhasspok.  She saw the other lizardfolk in the water, heard his sibilant speech, and translated what he was saying to Jhasspok.  "He says his name is *Khassek*, you look an awful lot like the great chief Jhossepok, and he invites you to dine with him and his gnoll buddies upon the soft-skins.  Hey!"  Belatedly, she realized she was one of the "soft-skins" being offered up as a meal!  But by then Khassek had pulled himself up onto the bank and stabbed at the small human sorcerer with his masterwork shortspear.  Marlo stepped aside just in time to avoid being pierced by the spear's tip.

As one, the gnoll force showed themselves, some popping up from behind the pile of stones and others rising from their prone positions at the far side of the small hill just beyond.  Three carried bows and shot at Cramer (none hit), while one raced up to Jhasspok on the log to slash at him with his battleaxe.  Jhasspok wheeled to face the approaching enemy, ducking beneath the blade and slashing at the gnoll with his own masterwork short sword, likewise missing - but then clamping his reptilian jaws onto the hyena-man's arm.  The gnoll howled in pain.

Khari had his warhammer out and ran up behind Khassek, flanking him with Marlo, who had likewise turned to face her attacker.  The dwarf got in a decent hit with the full force of his muscles behind the swing and Marlo let loose with a pair of _magic missiles_, which struck the lizardfolk unerringly in the chest.  He let out a hiss of pain.

Cramer followed up his _spiritual weapon_ spell - which struck once more at its original target and missed again - with a _sound burst_ spell, centered in the cluster of gnolls and hitting all of them.  None looked particularly hurt by the sudden blast of noise, although one of the archers was momentarily stunned into immobility.

The sounds of the combat unfolding all around him muffled by the roar of the rushing river and his own whistling, and the view blocked by the rough boards he hoisted on his shoulder, Utred carefully set himself to the task of placing the planks across the span of the river, thereby creating a bridge by which the horse-drawn wagon of trade goods could easily cross.  The fact he was also creating an easy way for the gnolls to reach their prey was completely lost on the dwarven barbarian.

Khassek barked orders to the gnolls in their own language and advanced again on Marlo, this time biting her on the shoulder.  Hearing her cry of pain, Jhasspok whirled around from his position on the back of the tree-trunk bridge and stabbed his sword into the other reptile's side; Khassek might be a member of his own race but Marlo was a fellow slave and a friend.  Khari tried bopping the reptile with his hammer again but missed.

Two more arrows went whizzing by Cramer's head, then one of the axe-wielding gnolls went racing across the bridge Utred had so nicely provided and swung at the dwarf with his battleaxe, only narrowly missing when the barbarian stood back up from his plank-placing and saw the danger fast approaching.  The gnoll facing Jhasspok jumped the river span, crossing with ease - but Jhasspok's sword cut him down in mid-leap and he fell, unconscious, into the river to be swept away and likely drown.

Cramer leaped down from the wagon and ran over to Utred, who was just now realizing the entire group was in a pitched battle for their very lives.  The gnome cast a _shield of faith_ spell on himself as he scampered over to the dwarven barbarian, who pulled his own greataxe from his back and hefted it in a familiar, two-handed grip.  Cramer knew well what came next: with a roar of anger, Utred brought the axe down upon the gnoll standing before him - the gnoll who suddenly found himself wishing he'd stayed on his side of the river.

Marlo pulled herself free from Khassek's teeth and took a few steps backwards, giving herself enough room to cast another _magic missile_ spell at the lizardfolk.  He was wearying mightily and feeling quite a bit of pain; nonetheless, he snapped at the human again and when Jhasspok's sword came swiping down at him again he fell to the ground and lay still.  Jhasspok thought that odd for a moment, for he could have sworn his blade had missed Khassek - as indeed it had - but he swung his attention back to the tree trunk bridge before him as another gnoll approached and he suddenly had other, more pressing things to worry about.  The gnoll swung his axe at Jhasspok, who deflected it off his turtle-shell shield, and then the lizardfolk stabbed the hairy beast-man in the gut with his sword.  The gnoll fell off the tree-trunk bridge and into the river, to be washed away downstream with Jhasspok's first victim.

Seeing no enemies in the immediate vicinity - for he'd also assumed Jhasspok had brought down the other lizardfolk who'd been chewing on Marlo - Khari headed over to help Utred fight off his foe.  But Cramer got there first, slaying the gnoll with a well-placed strike of his mace.  Utred wasted no time, racing across his own bridge to charge the gnoll archers on the slight hill.

Marlo pulled her _arcane blade_ from her belt and held it at Khassek's throat, for she had seen perfectly well that Jhasspok's blade had missed the reptile's head despite the follow-on acting job to the contrary.  "Not...necessary," the lizardfolk hissed in Draconic.  "Toss aside your weapon!" Marlo commanded in the same language and Khassek complied at once, rolling his shortspear away out of immediate reach.

Cramer, Khari, and Jhasspok converged upon the remaining gnoll archers, catching up to Utred who was already bringing his greataxe to bear.  The gnolls didn't last long under their combined attacks.  Then, while Marlo kept Khassek covered, the others went to check out the gnoll campsite, which consisted of a pair of leather tents.  Inside they found considerable loot: two circlets and a chest of coins.  (Marlo would later, through the use of a _detect magic_ spell, learn one of the circlets was magical in nature; subsequent experimentation would determine it to be a _circlet of persuasion_.)

But then the questioning of their prisoner began.  As Khassek spoke only Draconic (besides a smattering of Gnoll he'd picked up) and Marlo was the only one of the slaves who spoke that language, she was the one doing the questioning (and translating for the benefit of the other slaves).  She learned the following: that Khassek had been a loyal warrior to the great chief Jhossepok, leader of the Lakewood tribe of lizardfolk.  Jhossepok's mate had laid two eggs, although one of them had been destroyed under suspicious circumstances.  Upon Jhossepok's death, the surviving son *Jhesspak* took over the tribe and eventually exiled Khassek.  He was astonished to find out Jhasspok shared the name of the chief's unhatched (and supposedly destroyed) son.

"Wait," Cramer interrupted at this point.  "If the egg was destroyed and never hatched, how do you know what the unborn lizardfolk's name would have been?"  At this, both Jhasspok and Khassek gave the gnome questioning glances.  "All in the tribe know the coming name of the hatchling inside each egg, upon its being laid," Khassek explained.  "Is it not the same with your people?"  Marlo explained it was not and then Jhasspok pointed out that upon being hatched, he instinctively knew not only the basics of the Draconic language but also his own name.  In fact, he had trouble believing anybody could be born not already knowing their own name.

"Do you understand what happened here?" Marlo prompted the lizardfolk slave.  "This Jhossepok lost an egg that would have hatched a lizardfolk named Jhasspok.  Your egg was taken by the drow and you hatched in the Underdark."

"Yes," agreed Jhasspok, not understanding in the least.  "So there would have been another lizardfolk out there, somewhere, with the same name as me."

"No, not _another_ lizardfolk, Jhasspok," began Marlo.  "You are--"

"Never mind," interrupted Utred.  "We've wasted enough time on this.  Jhasspok: if we allow this Khassek to live, would you like him to take you to this tribe of lizardfolk so you could meet up with others of your kind?"

Jhasspok's scaly brow-ridges crinkled in confusion.  "Why would I--?" he began, thinking, _You are others of my kind: slaves_.  To Jhasspok, he was a slave to the drow primarily and a lizardfolk as a distinct second.

"So, do we let this guy live?" Cramer asked, pointing to Khassek, confident the reptile wouldn't understand what he was saying.  "We could give him to Jhasspok as a personal servant or something."

"What do you think, Jhasspok?" Marlo asked.  "Should we let him live?"  Jhasspok just shrugged.  Why not?  "And would you want him to travel with us?  With you?"  Jhasspok just shrugged again; it made little difference to him.  "What does he want?" he asked Marlo.  The sorcerer put the question to Khassek and was told he had no desire to travel with soft-skins but was perfectly happy with being given the gnolls to eat, their alliance having been one of mere convenience.

"Let's go," suggested Khari.  They took the horse and wagon over their makeshift bridge, Utred put the wooden planks back on board the wagon, and the group headed northeast, leaving a contented Khassek taking bites out of dead gnoll flesh.

- - -

After making camp for the night, the group set off again the next morning.  Around mid-morning the first village in the kingdom of Kravyrn became visible in the distance, but this was mostly because of the smoke rising ominously from several points.  "That's from more than even a bonfire," observed Utred.  "Burning buildings, likely.  Prob'ly raiders of some type."

The dwarf's prediction was proven true some time thereafter when the five slaves and their horse-drawn wagon intersected the path of another wagon coming back from their successful raid.  This wagon, however, was not drawn by a horse or pony but a creature Utred called a worg, a horse-sized wolf.  On its back sat a goblin; riding on the wagon were three goblin archers; helping push the wagon were two more goblins; and by the side of the wagon strode two more goblins, the one in the back wearing an elaborate headdress of feathers and jingling beads on leather cords.

Once again Cramer pulled back on his reins, bringing the horse to a halt - he didn't want their only mode of transportation hurt in any ensuing combat.  The little gnome leaped down from the wagon and scooped up a handful of pebbles from the ground, casting a _magic stone_ spell upon them.  He then strode slowly toward the goblins, wanting to close the distance between them but wary in case any of them decided to charge.  He dropped the first stone into his sling as the goblin wagon likewise stopped moving, the green-skinned humanoids looking suspiciously at this new group of arrivals and weighing their likely combat capabilities.  The two goblins from the back of the wagon ran around the sides to check this new group out.

Marlo cast a _mage armor_ spell upon herself, adding slightly to the protection already afforded by the ironsilk armor she wore beneath her robes.  Khari and Utred both advanced, taking up defensive positions and ready to strike out at any goblins opting to advance.  But the first goblin to attack was the sorcerer in the headdress, sending a _magic missile_ spell to hit each dwarf with one missile.  One of the goblin warriors thought he could take advantage of the spell's distraction to run up to Utred and cut him down but he was quickly disabused of that notion when the barbarian's greataxe pretty much cut him into two.  A second goblin warrior advanced more cautiously, while the one at the side of the wagon approached the worg, readying his blade to cut the lupine beast from the harness allowing it to pull the wagon of riches.  The worg's rider was bent over, cutting away at the harness with his own blade.

All three archers suddenly stood and, having apparently precoordinated their attacks, shot an arrow at Utred.  The barbarian howled in pain but let the pain fuel his rage; he saw red and was ready for a violent counterattack.

Jhasspok sped forward, leaping effortlessly over a bush as he charged the worg.  At the last moment, he sent his short sword swinging not at the worg or its rider but rather the warrior trying to cut it free.  The lizardfolk's blade cut a slit of blood across the goblin's midsection, but to its credit it did not fall - not yet, anyway.

Cramer, following yesterday's tactics against the gnolls, cast a _sound burst_ spell centered on the goblin formation, once again barely dealing any actual damage but this time stunning quite a few of them - including, as it turned out, the one spellcaster among them.

Marlo rushed forward in the wagon and took up the reins abandoned by Cramer.  She then sent a _magic missile_ spell streaking into the chest of the goblin chief, astride the worg.  It, too, seemed to do minimal damage - either that, or these goblins were tougher than the sorceress had been led to believe!

Khari charged the worg, realizing once it got freed from the harness it would be a major foe, capable of dishing out quite a bit of punishment with its sharp teeth - the beasts were fast, too, with the intelligence and cunning of any battle-hardened dwarf.  His hammer hit the side of the beast's head, causing it to howl in pain before it bit the offending fighter in the arm.  Utred charged forward as well but he delivered his blow against the worg's rider, the chief of this raiding party.  The warrior off to the side was forced to stop his efforts to free the worg and he attacked Jhasspok, his blade cutting into the lizardfolk's scales.  And the three archers in the wagon repositioned themselves but were apparently intent upon bringing Utred down first, for he continued to be their sole target.  Two more arrows hit the barbarian but he hardly seemed to notice.

Jhasspok slew the goblin warrior he'd been fighting and moved forward toward the spellcaster; he'd learned that enemies who could cast spells could cause a lot of trouble!  Cramer, still advancing cautiously, cast a _spiritual weapon_ spell and caused the floating quarterstaff to stab down at the goblin chief's head.  Sadly, it missed; Cramer decided he should probably devote a bit of practice to that particular spell, as his current success rate, over two castings, was still 0%.

Marlo cast another _magic missile_ spell, this time at the worg since everyone else seemed to thinking bringing it down before it got loose was a top priority.  Khari swung at the beast with his warhammer again, clonking the worg upside the head while Utred's axe blade hit the goblin chief, causing him to roll with the blow from the worg's back onto the ground beside it.  But Utred wasn't finished; he allowed his greataxe to continue its swath of destruction by swinging it into an approaching goblin warrior, killing him in an instant.

Another goblin stepped up to attack Utred, thinking to distract the dwarf while the goblin chief sprang back to his feet and attacked Utred from surprise.  Neither ploy worked; Utred avoided both blows with equal ease.  But the worg sank his fangs into Khari's arm again, preventing the dwarven fighter from bringing his hammer into play with his full range of motion and thus without his full power.

More arrows were shot down from atop the wagon at Utred; he brushed them aside as if swatting flies.  Jhasspok's blade dropped the goblin sorcerer, then Cramer redirected the thus-far-ineffectual _spiritual weapon_ to attack the worg while he rushed up beside Khari and healed him with one of his scrolls.  Khari managed to yank his arm free from the worg's mouth and brought his warhammer crashing down upon the beast's skull, finishing it off at last.  Then he trotted away from the wagon, taking a moment to regroup and rethink his attack strategies.

Marlo decided to change her own tactics and hit the goblin chief with a _ray of enfeeblement_, draining some of the strength from the goblin raiders' leader.  He swayed under the effects of the spell and Utred brought his mighty greataxe down upon the chief, dropping him to his knees and then staggering him further with another blow as the goblin tried to regain his footing.  Utred saw the rage in the chief's eyes and thought he recognized the signs of a barbarian _willing_ himself to greater feats of strength through the applied application of focused anger.  The dwarven barbarian was ready to take the life from his foe but Cramer stole the opportunity from him, striking the goblin chief in the forehead with his first _magic stone_, slaying him instantly.  It was Utred who roared in rage at the chief's death; _he'd_ wanted to take the leader down!

With an impressive leap, Jhasspok launched himself up onto the top of the wagon, scattering the goblin archers but stabbing one before he could get away.  The other two leaped off the wagon and sprinted away, seeing this battle as a lost cause.  These being the last goblin combatants on the field of battle, what followed was a comical chase as Jhasspok and Utred sprinted after them and Cramer once again stole a kill from the dwarven barbarian with another well-placed _magic stone_ from his sling.  But the last goblin didn't get far before being brought down and then the group decided to check out the wagon full of stolen goods and see what, if anything, might be stripped from the goblins for their own use.

A _detect magic_ spell cast by Marlo revealed the goblin chief wore a magic ring, while the sorcerer - still breathing, as it turned out, but unconscious and bleeding heavily; Cramer applied the minimal amount of healing to seal up his wounds but still keep him out - had four magic scrolls and a flesh-bound tome sealed in a silver chain.  Cramer fetched some rope and bound the goblin sorcerer for later interrogation while Marlo cast a _read magic_ spell and checked out the scrolls and tome.

The scrolls contained the spells _cure moderate wounds_, _protection from evil_, _cat's grace_, and _bless water_, likely loot from the burning village.  The tome at first appeared to be blank, although a closer inspection revealed a series of raised bumps across the surface of the pages; some sort of secret writing, perhaps?  Of more obvious note was the cover of the book, which looked to have been burned by the chains, although Marlo had touched the chains in opening the book and they had caused her no harm at all.  More disturbingly, however, was the fact the burn scars on the flesh-bound tome seemed to be...healing themselves.

<Astounding!> exclaimed a voice in Marlo's head and she nearly screamed; she'd forgotten the _ring gate necklace_ she wore and the illithid tentacle protruding through it, which allowed the mind flayer N'zorthal to read her mind and see what all she was up to; while the sunborn drow of Greenvale had altered the slaves' tattoos to give false readings when the slaves were scried upon and this subterfuge carried over to feeding the mind flayer disinformation through its mental link with the Overreach slaves, N'zorthal had still been made aware of the tome's presence.  <I will have this tome for my own!> he declared.

Marlo noted a loose page inside the book and flipped to that page to examine it: in notes scrawled along the pages borders in the Common script, she read a warning about *Uboros*, "the one who devours himself to become himself, who will one day end the world."

Cramer slapped the bound goblin prisoner awake and began demanding answers about the book.  *Globtak*, for his part, was surprised to find himself still alive, although the eventual outcome of the battle hadn't really surprised him; it had been apparent early on the goblin forces were overpowered by these five humanoids.  He passed on everything he knew about the book, in broken Common.

"Found it in cave.  Spend many time try to read it - it frighten me.  Uboros will destroy world when reborn.  There three prophecies about how stop this from happen.  First: metal man from Hell imprison it forever.  Two: dark champions stand against worm.  If those fail, still one final hope, but it make no sense.  Not understand that part."

"So what are we going to do with Globtak?" Cramer asked.  Gnomes had no love for goblins and the cleric had no issues with putting an end to the sorcerer's life right here and now.  But N'zorthal made their decision easy for them, by immediately opening the Writhing Gate by the goblin's side.  <Feed me!> demanded the mind flayer.  <Send me the goblin at once!>

Khari pulled the bound goblin sorcerer to his feet and pushed him into the Writhing Gate, as glad as Cramer to see the end to another goblin.  Apparently the mind flayer wasted no time in devouring the goblin's brain, judging by the sounds of the screams emanating from the Writhing Gate - and the sensations of pleasure N'zorthal transmitted through the _ring gate necklaces_ to the four slaves who wore them.  Marlo's face wrinkled in disgust.

<Now, the tome!> demanded the illithid.  Marlo, holding the tome, thought for a moment about disobeying - she had wanted to try to decipher some of the book's secret writings for herself if she could - but she realized there was no way to disobey a direct order from the mind flayer tasked with overseeing their performance during this surface raiding mission (surely the modified tattoos couldn't mask a violation of that magnitude?), so she sadly pitched it into the Writhing Gate, which vanished almost immediately thereafter.

"Now what?" asked Jhasspok, having no idea what any of that had been about.

"Now we press on with our original mission," replied Utred.  "We put all of our goods into the stolen wagon, harness our horse onto it, and take everything back to the burning village.  We'll prob'ly make an even better impression on 'em by returning their goods what was stolen from 'em."

It seemed as good a plan as any.

- - -

We had to skip last week's weekly session: Harry had picked up the flu from school and we'd pretty much already decided we'd only ever play a session of this campaign if all five players were able to attend.

Man, did we ever roll poorly during this session!  I think pretty much everyone at the table (among the players, anyway - Logan rolled just fine) managed to strike for absolute minimum damage at least once.  And that was when we managed to hit in the first place.

So, Jhasspok's prophecy has already come to pass: he had an unpleasant truth to face (he's the son of the former chief of a lizardfolk tribe which has been taken over by his brother) and had to make a decision of his own.  But that decision was super-easy: Jhasspok has no intrinsic feelings of belonging to a lizardfolk tribe; this was the first time in his entire five years of life he'd even seen another lizardfolk and it felt more creepy to him than anything else.  (It was just plain _weird_ seeing someone so similar to himself - almost like a slightly-off doppelganger.)  I've also decided Jhasspok has no real clue he's the one born from Jhessepok's stolen egg, either.  (Nothing like a 6 Intelligence to keep you clueless!)  Logan informs me, however, that Jhasspok's prophecy hasn't been completely unfolded - apparently there's still a bit more to come.

Logan also told us we're all only 510 xp from making it to 4th level, so almost undoubtedly we'll level up after the next adventure.  I can hardly wait: Jhasspok's going to be a lizardfolk 3/barbarian 1 and then we'll take it from there.  I intend to alternate between barbarian and ranger with some fighter levels thrown in as needed.


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## Richards (Feb 9, 2020)

*ADVENTURE 9: THE CALL OF KRAVYRN'S CRYPT*

PC Roster:  Cramer Appleknocker, gnome cleric 3
            Jhasspok, lizardfolk 3
            Khari Hammerslammer, dwarf fighter 3
            Marlo Pendragon, human sorcerer 3
            Utred "Buckets" Butterflinger, dwarf barbarian 3​
Game Session Date: 5 February 2020

 - - - 

The group arrived in Ducrest, the first village in the kingdom of Kravyrn they had seen, shortly after the villagers had put out the fires started by the goblin raiders.  The Jalamir slaves were met with wary and suspicious stares at first - especially Jhasspok, who at first thought they were looking at him strangely because he'd turned the flames of his _slave-light cloak_ green and was somewhat surprised when they still looked at him just as oddly after he'd altered the illusory flames back to their normal yellowy color.  However, the villagers' glares turned to expressions of surprise and then glee once they saw the five had not only slain the last of the goblin tribe that had plagued them for decades but were also returning all of the goods the goblins had stolen (including the wagon).  At that point, not even the fact the other four traveled with a hulking lizardfolk could put the Ducrest villagers off celebrating their new heroes.  They insisted the five Jalamir slaves stay for free at a comfortable inn overnight and the next day the mayor's daughter *Jayleen* insisted upon guiding them to the capital of the kingdom of Kravyrn upon learning they were eager to speak with the king in an effort to gain his aid in helping Greenvale.

"It isn't far," insisted Jayleen, riding in the wagon beside Cramer, who was driving as usual.  "And I'm sure getting an audience won't be difficult once the king learns what you have done for our village."

On the way, though, the slaves all suddenly turned their heads to the side as one, listening to a quiet voice in their ears.  This time even Jhasspok heard it.  "Is that N'zorthal?" he asked, well aware the illithid was capable of mental contact with the other four since the tips of his facial tentacles protruded through the _ring gate necklaces_ they wore.  But this time he too, for whatever reason, could hear the voice in his head.

"That's not him," corrected Cramer.  "It's a male voice, though...."

"You are hearing voices?" gasped Jayleen, her face aglow with excitement.  "It is said, on occasion, great heroes are called to the crypt to prove their valor.  I'll bet that's what's happening to you!"  If she had been pleased to be in the presence of those who had taken out the goblin raiders before, she was now overjoyed and had instantly become their greatest fan.  "If you seek to get the king to join you in aiding Greenvale, heeding the call to Kravyrn's crypt will be even further proof of your valor and will likely go a long way to getting the king on your side!"

It was difficult to argue against that logic; as they had been warned gathering allies to aid the sunborn drow would likely be a difficult task, the slaves decided to take every advantage they could.  At Cramer's urging, Jayleen directed the wagon off the main road and over to the crypt from where the mental call was likely emanating.  It was a simple stone building at the back of a fenced area, to the side of which were several graves, three of them recent.  Cramer brought the horse to a halt and tied the reins to the wagon, then cast a _detect undead_ spell upon himself as the others approached the gate in the metal fence.  It was unlocked and Jhasspok opened it easily.  Jayleen, not having heard any mental calling in her own head, decided her place was to stay in the wagon; had she been meant to accompany the heroes on their test of valor she would have no doubt received a similar summons herself, she reasoned.

The graves were unremarkable, without any words carved onto the stone slabs serving as headstones, so the group advanced to the crypt building. The double doors were unlocked and pulled outward; entering, they saw an altar before a statue of an angelic, winged figure.  Utred noticed right away the entire section of stone floor along the western wall was seamed, suggesting to the dwarven barbarian the floor might easily become a set of stairs if the trigger mechanism could be found.

Khari and Jhasspok examined the seams closely and the wall behind them but could find no activation switch or trigger.  Marlo cast a _detect magic_ spell and confirmed both the presumed stairs and the angelic statue had auras of magic.  But rather than check out the statue, everyone decided to try the area around the stairs to see if they could activate them somehow from there.  Once the concept had been explained to him, Jhasspok tried leaving an offering on the altar before the winged angel but apparently a dried dung beetle was not sufficient.  Shrugging, the lizardfolk retrieved his spurned gift and popped it into his mouth, chewing the snack.  He was almost out - good thing they'd be returning to Overreach soon!

Eventually, tired of looking along the walls and floor for something that apparently wasn't there, Cramer stepped over to the statue and gave the carved figure an appreciative look, finding a hidden button that did exactly what they had hoped: caused the individual tiled spaces to lower into the floor, creating a stairwell leading down to a lower level.  This was particularly worrisome for Jhasspok and Khari, who had been standing on the tiles when they began their descent.

The only light in the lower level was that of the _slave-light cloaks_ worn by the adventurers and a dim illumination coming from niches in the walls.  A closer examination of the niches revealed each alcove held a sword whose blade was covered in glowing runes.  There were piles of bone shards and dust at the bottom of each alcove, which made Cramer instantly suspicious that the shards would reform back into skeletons if they were disturbed.  "Nobody touch any of the swords!" he warned.

Utred raced past his fellow dwarf and the lizardfolk who had been examining the closest niches.  With his dwarven darkvision he could see the passageway continued on straight just ahead with a fork off to the right.  At the end of the straight tunnel stood a set of double doors, the words carved above them indicating they guarded a treasure vault just beyond.  "Odd they'd be broadcasting that information so blatantly," he muttered to himself; most dwarven treasure holds with which he was familiar took distinct pains to _hide_ the treasure!  Not trusting something so obviously fake - he was fairly certain the "treasure vault" would be a trap of some sort - he turned the corner and found a quartet of ghoulish figures in four alcoves to either side of this tunnel.  Beyond the undead was another set of double doors, this one marked with the symbol of a massive sun.

Hissing in anger or hunger (or possible both), the ghoulish figures stepped out of their alcoves and turned to face Utred, who held his _Elderwood flaming longsword_ at the ready.  Khari advanced beside his fellow dwarf and readied his own weapon, a dwarven warhammer.  Marlo, however, was giving the glowing swords in the wall-niches a thorough examination, careful not to disturb them or the piles of bones beneath them.  Cramer came up beside the sorcerer and noted the bone piles were registering as undead to his still-active detection spell.  That prompted the gnome cleric to cast a _protection from evil_ spell upon himself.

Jhasspok had his masterwork short sword out and turned the corner, stepping up to the nearest shambling figure, noticing as he did so the terrible smell coming from their undead flesh.  But before he could raise his turtle-shell shield in defense, the lead figure - a ghast - darted forward and bit the lizardfolk, causing his muscles to seize up and prevent him from moving at all.  This was a new sensation for the lizardfolk and he immediately came to the realization he didn't like it one bit!  He was just glad his tail helped keep him upright as he mentally tried everything he could do to get his limbs to start working again - to no avail.

The ghouls moved up from behind their leader, the first two ignoring the immobile Jhasspok as they tried to paralyze the dwarves.  But Utred had other ideas, his enchanted blade slicing through the first ghoul and cleaving into the body of the second without seeming to meet any resistance.  Both ghouls collapsed to the floor of the crypt at the end of Utred's blade-swing, their unliving bodies having found the true death at the barbarian's sword.  The third ghoul decided it was safer to try to bite Jhasspok, who was guaranteed not to fight back, but his distraction at seeing his other two undead companions being brought down in as many seconds prevented Jhasspok from being bitten a second time.

Utred took a step forward and swung his blade down at the third ghoul, cutting into its undead flesh but failing to slay it as easily as he had its two other companions.  But Khari had the situation - and his trusty warhammer - well in hand, bringing its weapon-head to crash down upon the ghoul's head.  Just that quickly, three ghouls lay dead on the floor of the crypt, leaving only the more powerful ghast remaining.

Marlo's examination of the swords was enhanced by a _read magic_ spell, allowing her to determine the glowing runes on the blades denoted some type of teleportation magic.  Cramer decided to let the sorcerer do any further scrutiny on the swords; he was likely of more use fighting off the undead the others were facing.  Moving up, he cast a _shield of faith_ spell upon Utred, so far their greatest weapon in slaying these undead menaces.

The ghast bit Jhasspok again, apparently hoping to ensure the lizardfolk would stay well out of combat long enough he wouldn't even be a factor while the ghast dealt with the others.  He'd have been better off dealing with Utred, though, for the dwarven barbarian sent his sword stabbing into the ghast's sickly flesh, causing the undead thing to hiss in sudden pain.  The pain intensified when Marlo cast a _magic missile_ spell his way.

Khari, seeing the ghast was being well taken care of, decided to see to Jhasspok's safety by dragging the frozen lizardfolk out of the ghast's reach; Jhasspok's tail made for a handy handle in doing so.  Then, having opened up a space for himself, the dwarven fighter stepped up to where the lizardfolk had been standing and swung his warhammer at the ghast.  Cramer, seeing the bite-marks oozing blood down the lizardfolk's scales, moved forward and cast a healing spell upon Jhasspok - and was promptly bitten by the ghast for his troubles.  Fortunately, the cleric was able to overcome not only the paralyzation effect of the bite but also the nausea-inducing effect of the ghast's horrific stench.

The ghast turned and faced Utred, hitting the barbarian with a set of jagged claws and biting him on the arm.  Utred's reaction was instant, bringing the killing blow to the fight by swinging his blade into the ghast's neck, coming a mere few inches away from decapitating the evil thing.  He pulled his blade out of the creature as it fell to the crypt floor, dead beyond any doubt.

Taking only a moment to swipe the blood from his arm where the ghast had bit him, Utred advanced to the double doors holding the sun image: the holy symbol of Pelor, he realized.  He could just barely hear the trickling sound of water coming from the other side.  Pulling the doors open, he saw a well-lit chamber opening up before him.  This was by far the biggest room they'd encountered in this crypt, well over twice the size of the entire crypt building up on the surface.  Widening out just beyond the double doors (the trickling water sound came from just beneath the section of floor immediately inside the room, Utred determined - likely an underground stream), the chamber held four stone coffins on this level and another two on a raised section in the back, where the room narrowed back down to the width of the double doors.  At the far end of the room, along the back wall of the raised section, stood a marble throne, upon which lounged a human woman in red robes.

The slaves slowly entered the chamber, even Jhasspok, who had finally gotten his reptilian body to do his own bidding now that the ghast's paralyzation had finally run its course.  "Is she undead?" Utred asked Cramer.

"Can't tell," the cleric replied.  "She's too far away to register with my _detect undead_ spell."

"The spell's still active, though?" Utred pressed.

"Sure."

That was all Utred needed to hear; sheathing his sword and picking up Cramer by the waist, he carried the gnome further into the room at the barbarian's top speed.  "Put me down!" Cramer complained.  "She's not undead - the only undead aura I'm getting is from the coffin on her right!"

That, in turn, was all Jhasspok needed to hear.  Racing forward, he sprinted all the way to the steps leading up to the raised section, leaped over the stairs, and landed on the stone lid of the coffin, hoping his weight would prevent whatever was in it from being able to get out.  He then spun in place to face the others; he'd let them decide how best to proceed next.

Marlo, for her part, readied another _magic missile_ spell, just in case the lounging woman in red decided to try anything or anybody popped out of any of the other coffins.  She did notice one of the coffins in the front section (it was empty, she noted in passing) had had its lid smashed open quite some time ago, judging by the numerous cobwebs covering its shattered pieces.  But the woman in red proved to be no threat at all; closer inspection showed she was unconscious, her white robes stained with blood - presumably her own.  "Vampire!" warned Cramer to the others.  "She's likely his latest victim."  That also explained the running water at the front doors of the chamber, the gnome realized: a vampire would be unable to cross through the doors on his own.  This whole chamber, he realized, was likely built to keep a vampire - or vampires? - imprisoned.  Unrolling a _cure light wounds_ scroll, he healed the woman, who blinked awake with a look of incomprehension on her face.  Then, inexplicably, she began growling softly to herself.

"Vampire!" repeated Jhasspok.  Well _that_ was a relief - the lizardfolk had heard of vampires before; they were just a type of bat and bats were something with which he was very familiar, having lived all but the last dozen days or so of his life in the Underdark.  Even a vampire bat big enough to fill the stone coffin beneath him wasn't likely to cause the group too much trouble, assuming it could even get out - which was unlikely, given the bulky reptile perched on the coffin lid.

A stream of mist suddenly shot out of a small hole in the side of the coffin upon which Jhasspok sat perched, squatting over its lid as if trying to hatch it.  The mist coalesced into a human form, no sooner having taken on its full semblance before Marlo's readied _magic missiles_ struck it in the chest.

"Well," said the figure, a rather handsome-looking man by the look of it, holding up a hand directing the group to cease all attacks, "I congratulate you on not setting off the trap of the empty 'treasure vault.'  And you attempted to rescue the 'damsel in distress' - a good job there as well."

"Wait, what?" asked Marlo, confused.  This was _not_ how she had expected a vampire to react.

"I have no desire to kill you," reassured the vampire.  "In fact, I called you here merely to talk."

"So _you're_ responsible for the voice we all heard," reasoned Cramer, his mind racing.  Did he call people to his vault to restock his food sources?  Were they expected to let this undead thing drink their blood?  Was he alone, or were these other coffins filled with vampires as well?

"Indeed I am," confirmed the vampire, replying to the gnome's spoken statement.  "I am *Kravyrn, the Duke of Oakenfield*.  Or I was, in life - my son later turned Oakenfield into a kingdom and named it in my honor.  But I was afflicted with a curse - how or why is still unknown to me to this day - that robbed me of my heavenly reward after my death.  Desiring a more pleasurable outcome than what awaited me, my son and I set up this crypt to house me when I became a vampire."

"So you're trapped here?  Forever?" asked Cramer.

"In times of emergency or great import, the kings of Kravyrn over the years have sought out my council and even occasionally allowed me out of my crypt to fight for the kingdom."

"So you, what, call people to your crypt like you did to us?  To serve you as food?" demanded Khari, making the same assumption Cramer had earlier entertained.  The dwarven fighter didn't trust vampires, even those who spoke in a reasonable tone and seemed more eager for conversation than combat.  He held his warhammer in a readied stance from which he could swing it almost instantly, if it became necessary. 

"By no means," answered Kravyrn, waving a hand over to the woman still lounging on the throne.  "I have all of the food I might need.  A _polymorph any object_ spell cast upon a pack of wolves has taken care of my dietary needs; the other three are currently sleeping in the coffins in the area below us, there."  Here he indicated the three unsmashed stone coffins in the lower section of the chamber.

"So then why are we here?" demanded Khari, still not trusting this vampire.

"I set up an _alarm_ spell to inform me when people of, let us say, 'prophetic note' show up in the kingdom.  I believe you five are part of a prophecy concerning a great cataclysm of imminence.  According to the version I have heard, you are very likely the champions of the 'sunborn,' whatever that might be."

"You know of the sunborn?" Cramer asked.

"Of the name only, not the meaning behind it."

Cramer looked at his fellow slaves, questioning without saying a word aloud whether they trusted this vampire.  Seeing nobody but Khari - who still held his warhammer in a readied stance - seemed concerned about Kravyrn, the cleric pressed on.  "The 'sunborn' are the elves of Greenvale - drow elves, actually, but an offshoot of drow lacking the inherent evil of the normal Underdark variety," he explained.  "We are currently slaves to a House of Underdark drow, sent to the surface as raiders.  But we've met up with the sunborn of Greenvale and have agreed to aid them in taking down the Underdark drow city where we have been enslaved."

"We're secret double slaves," Jhasspok offered, as if that made things any clearer.

"We were on the way to seek an audience with the king of Kravyrn, bringing him gifts of trade goods from Greenvale in an effort to gain his allegiance in helping the sunborn to take down the drow city of Overreach - where our current drow masters hold sway, and send out raiders like ourselves to snatch surface dwellers to add to their ranks of slaves.  We would see that practice brought to an end."

"A noble goal," agreed Kravyrn.  He pulled a pendant hanging from a chain beneath his shirt and passed it to Jhasspok.  It held a glowing rune upon it.  "This," Kravyrn explained, "is my personal rune, as depicted by an _arcane mark_ spell.  The common folk of my kingdom know it to be the crest of the royal family.  The king, when you show it to him, will recognize it as proof of my endorsement of your goal."

"Then you think he'll help us?" Cramer asked.

"I do."

Cramer grinned widely.  That was exactly what he had been hoping to hear!

 - - - 

As promised, we all leveled up to 4th after this adventure.  Jhasspok _finally_ got to add an actual character class - I went with barbarian - and wouldn't you know it, my dice (which had been failing me all night, as evidenced by my Fortitude save failure which had me paralyzed by the ghast and my inability to deal any damage whatsoever during the entire adventure) continued to suck as I rolled a natural "1" for Jhasspok's 1d12 hit point increase.  Gah!  Oh well, at least I got fast movement and rage 1/day out of the deal.

Logan informs us we'll start out next session with our meeting with the king of Kravyrn but then our initial two-week surface exploration will have come to an end and it will be time to return to the Overreach.


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## The Green Hermit (Feb 10, 2020)

This is continuing to be fun. It will be interesting to see how well their deception will work when they return to the Underdark.


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## Richards (Feb 10, 2020)

Yeah, Jhasspok's 6 Intelligence is not specifically geared toward being great at deception.

Johnathan


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## Richards (Feb 16, 2020)

*ADVENTURE 10: RETURN TO THE OVERREACH*

PC Roster: 
Cramer Appleknocker, gnome cleric 4​Jhasspok, lizardfolk 3/barbarian 1​Khari Hammerslammer, dwarf fighter 4​Marlo Pendragon, human sorcerer 4​Utred "Buckets" Butterflinger, dwarf barbarian 4​
Game Session Date: 12 February 2020

 - - -

*King Leopold* sat upon his throne, examining the odd group being ushered before him.  Two were dwarves, another a gnome; each of these three bearded folk wore metal armor that looked to have seen plenty of combat use but their weapons had been left outside the throne room - although the daughter of the mayor of Ducrest (a trusted ally) vouched that they had slain the goblin raiders who had attacked the town and returned the loot the green pests had absconded with, it never hurt to be too careful.  There was a woman with the three, barely taller than the dwarves, wearing an elaborate robe and a silver circlet upon her brow.  She strode directly up to the king and bowed low; she would likely be doing the speaking for the group.  That served the king's interests, as she was certainly the most pleasant of the five to look upon.

But the king's attention was currently focused on the fifth member, a hulking lizardfolk with thick, green scales who stood behind the others, looking around in wonder at the king's receiving chamber.  Not only was King Leopold not accustomed to these lizard-people being somewhat civilized, as this one seemed to be, but he wore about his neck the symbol of Kravyrn, the king's own vampiric ancestor and valued ally of the kingdom that bore his name.  As odd of a group as these five might be, they had obviously made a favorable impression upon the wily vampire.  The king would certainly listen to what they had to say.

The woman introduced herself as Marlo Pendragon and then named each member of her group before explaining why they had sought an audience with King Leopold.  She mentioned the elves of Greenvale and explained their importance in overthrowing an Underdark City of drow responsible for the kidnapping and slavery of the five adventurers standing before the king.  She had the king's courtiers bring in samples of gifts of silk they had brought from Greenvale and explained the elves' eagerness to form an alliance with the neighboring kingdoms to help bring down the drow of the Overreach responsible for an ongoing policy of slavery for the surface folks their raiders encountered.

King Leopold raised his hand, silencing the short woman at once.  "I have heard enough," he declared.  "My advisers have cautioned against allying with Greenvale, arguing it would only serve to antagonize the Elderwood elves, but those elves have always seemed to me to be nothing more than arrogant bullies.  In truth, I have sought a good reason to bypass their embargo of Greenvale and open relations with the city behind the mountain wall.  If my ancestor Kravyrn has vouched for your plan, as I see he has, then I will be more than happy to have my kingdom join in your alliance."

"Thank you, Your Majesty," replied Marlo with a smile.  "I am most pleased by your decision."

"In fact," added King Leopold, "I will begin the construction of a new road to Greenvale, bypassing altogether the Elderwood's blockade through their forest.  With a safer passage, the other kingdoms should find it much easier to do business with Greenvale as well."  This announcement brought smiles to the other heroes (four of them, at least; the lizardfolk snout didn't seem particularly well designed for smiling).  King Leopold called for refreshments and the group toasted their new alliance with a fine red wine.

After being escorted back out of the throne room and having their weapons returned to them, the group went back to the horse and wagon they had left outside.  No sooner had they boarded the wagon than N'zorthal sent a telepathic message to the four of the slaves wearing the _ring gate necklaces_.  <Find a secluded alley where you will not be seen,> he commanded.  <I will open the Writhing Gate - it is time for you to return to the Overreach.>

"D'you think he heard any of that business with the king?" whispered Khari.

"Not at all," answered Cramer.  "Remember, the sunborn drow altered our tattoos and made it such that even the mind flayer's telepathic probings will get a false image of us doing something innocuous.  We'll just play it cool and nobody will be any the wiser."

"You know, we have an opportunity here to drive a wedge of sorts between Calish and N'zorthal," suggested Marlo.  "We can mention to Calish that the mind flayer's taken that book - he seemed to want it awfully bad, and I'll bet he doesn't even plan to mention its existence to the slavemaster."  But then the Writhing Gate sprang into existence before them and the time for any such discussions were over.  <Leave the horse and wagon behind,> ordered N'zorthal.  <They will not be needed.>

Steeling themselves for the journey, the five Jalamir slaves stepped into the Writhing Gate.  This time, knowing beforehand what was coming, they were able to close their minds against the nightmarish horrors waiting for them between the split seconds - although some of them wondered to themselves if Marlo hadn't instead opened her mind to the Dying One's mental embrace.  She bore watching, that one!

As one, the slaves found themselves back in the gate chamber.  N'zorthal stood from his seat at the base of the Writhing Gate and immediately set some ground rules.  <Calish and House Jalamir at large do not know about the true nature of the Writhing Gate,> he informed them.  <It should remain that way, for all of your sakes.  The drow are also not to know about the _Scriptures of Uboros_.  Any failure to heed my warnings will undoubtedly lead to the offender "accidentally" wearing a fake _ring of regeneration_ during my next feeding session.  Do I make myself absolutely clear?>

"Yes," muttered Cramer and the other four followed suit.  So much for that idea!

<Return to me your _ring gate necklaces_ - they are no longer needed.>  The four slaves hurriedly passed over the necklaces, glad to be rid of them.  N'zorthal, too, seemed pleased to have them back, as it meant being able to retract his facial tentacles from them and appear whole once more.

The trip back to the Overreach was uneventful and passed mostly in sullen and fearful silence.

Upon returning to the drow city, Calish Jalamir was there to greet his five slaves.  He seemed genuinely pleased to see them.  "You have done an excellent job on your first surface raid!" he exclaimed.  "The information we tortured out of the Elderwood prisoners was of extraordinary value to House Jalamir!  Please accept these for your hard work and exceptional effort!"  He handed each slave a silk bag, inside of which were 100 slave tokens.  "By the way," he added, "a guard from House Ky'hulcressen is waiting for you.  Apparently they wish to reward you for having saved Niradi, their apprentice weaver, some weeks ago.  You have my leave to go with him."  And the slavemaster shooed them away, then turned and went about whatever other business in the city required his attention.

The Ky'hulcressen guard was a gaunt-faced warrior.  He escorted the five Jalamir slaves to the markets around the Ky'hulcressen pillar - which was nearly as large as that of House Jalamir, the two Houses being close in their rankings.  Looking about, it didn't take Cramer long to note an immediate difference between House Jalamir's slave-market and this one: "You use actual gold coins, not slave tokens!" the little gnome exclaimed.

"Indeed we do," the guard, who had been stone-faced and silent during the journey to the market, replied.  "Now that we are inside the magical protections of the marketplace, we are free to talk.  Allow me to explain the full extent of your reward: you have each been extended 4,000 pieces of gold in credit for the work you have done on our behalf.  In addition, you will each be given ironsilk armor upgrades, of the type best suited to your own preferences."

"I wear no armor," Jhasspok pointed out.

"True, we would need to custom-make an ironsilk suit of armor to fit your frame..." the guard began.

"I wear no armor," Jhasspok repeated.  "Nor clothing.  I need only my leather harness, to hang my weapons and equipment on.  Armor would hamper me when I swim and fish."

"You don't fish any more," pointed out Khari.

"No matter," answered the guard jovially.  "If he doesn't wear armor, we'll see about getting him an enchanted weapon of some sort instead.  But in the meantime, look about and see what you'd be interested in spending your reward upon.  Once piece of advice, though: I recommend spending all of your actual gold first, and then dip into your lines of credit.  If Calish finds out you still have actual coins from the surface, he'll be sure to take them from you.  But he can't take away the credit our merchants will extend to you."

"Thank you," exclaimed Marlo.  "That's very generous of your House."

"Remember, our House extends all the way to Greenvale," the guard replied with a wink.

Khari and Utred accompanied Jhasspok to a weaponcrafter's shop, to help him pick out his enchanted weapon.  While there, one of the weaponsmiths asked to see Utred's magic longsword.  "May I study this?" he asked the dwarf.  "I think I may be able to recreate this particular enchantment.  I promise: I will return it to you before you must return to House Jalamir."  Eager to reinforce their alliance with House Ky'hulcressen, Utred readily agreed.  Then he and Khari helped the lizardfolk decide upon a weapon.  In the end, Jhasspok chose a magical battleaxe, enchanted to guide the wielder into striking where the blade would do the most damage.

The marketplace contained a few magic shops and the Jalamir slaves spent some of their coin there as well.  Cramer and Khari each purchased a set of _gauntlets of ogre power_, which increased their overall strength; Jhasspok purchased something similar, but - not liking having his hands covered by gloves - he purchased a leather belt that did the same thing.  Marlo bought an amulet to boost the power of her sorcerer spells, as she was the primary offensive caster among the group.  Utred was intrigued by a necklace of red orbs, and when he learned each bead was a miniature _fireball_ spell ready to be thrown it became an instant purchase for him.

And then, of course, four of the slaves were fitted out in their new ironsilk armor.  Marlo, who had been wearing a set she'd taken from the corpse of a slain slave during the Festival of Blood, chose a new type of armor similar to a chain shirt, but woven of magically-hardened spider silk; it was as lightweight as a normal set of clothes and would not hamper her spellcasting in the least.  Utred and Cramer went with ironsilk breastplate armor, while Khari - stubborn as ever - stuck with the ironsilk equivalent of the banded mail with which he was familiar.

Finally, their purchases made, their new armor fitted out, and after Utred had retrieved his _Elderwood flame longsword_, the five Jalamir slaves returned to their own quarters.  But then, recalling their new bags of slave-tokens, Cramer excused himself and went to the Jalamir slave-market, intent to try out the "Punch-a-Drow" shop now that he had a full 100 tokens on which to purchase the rental of a drow slave for a full hour.  "Why does he want to spend an hour with a drow slave?" asked Jhasspok, puzzled.  None of the others felt up to explaining.

The next day, the slaves were awakened in their sleeping chambers - a large room partitioned off into individual stalls - by a booming, commanding female voice resonating through the House Jalamir pillar.  Jhasspok recognized it immediately as the drow language, although he had no idea what the voice might be saying, not proficient in the language at all; the drow used the "slave language" exclusively when communicating to their slaves.  But shortly thereafter Calish burst into the room, commanding the five to don their armor and grab their weapons: the House Jalamir pillar was under attack by one of the Lesser Houses!

Calish led the group up to the top of the pillar and from there onto the ceiling of the mile-high cavern that made up the boundary of the city of Overreach.  With the permanent _reverse gravity_ field along the ceiling, the slaves stood on the upper cavern as firmly as if they'd been standing upon solid ground.  "You'll be in charge of guarding this entrance to the pillar," Calish explained, indicating the vast set of double doors from which they'd exited the enormous, stone column of House Jalamir.  "The lesser slaves - those more easily expendable - have been sent to the front lines, at the edge of our territory upon the ceiling.  They will keep the enemy at bay as best they can, fighting to the death.  As will you all, but your task is to guard the North Gate, here.  Feel free to advance upon the intruders as needed, but do not let them get past you and through the North Gate!  Ensure no enemies make it into the House pillar!"  Cramer got the distinct impression the drow "masters" would be particularly upset if they had to be bothered to lift a finger in their own defense.  That, apparently, was what slaves were for!

"Do we know who's attacking us?" asked Utred.

"A Lesser House, hoping to elevate its ranks and possibly make it into the ranks of the Eight Ruling Noble Houses," Calish sneered.  His slaves noted he didn't even bother dignifying the attacking House with their name.

"There will be drow attacking us?" Cramer pressed.  "And we're allowed to kill them?"  The gnome well knew the prohibitions against attacking drow built into the slave tattoos they'd all been given, but he also knew the sunborn drow of Greenvale had altered the tattoos, removing that prohibition altogether.  But Calish didn't know that and the little cleric wanted to give the slavemaster the impression he believed he was still bound by the tattoo's original constraints.

"Any drow attacking House Jalamir is a fair target," Calish answered.  "Now: you have your orders!  Attend to your duties!"  And with that, Calish Jalamir strode back inside the safety of the stone column of House Jalamir, leaving his slaves to guard the North Gate - with their very lives, if necessary.  He pulled the double doors closed behind him with a resounding clang and the slaves could hear the sounds of the doors being barred from the inside.

"Well, this blows!" complained Cramer, casting a _longstrider_ spell upon himself.  "Figures they aren't going to put their own necks on the line - typical!"  Marlo almost began to cast a _mage armor_ spell upon herself - it was, at this point, a force of habit when preparing for imminent combat - but then realized her new ironsilk armor made the spell unnecessary.  Then she looked over at Jhasspok, the only member of the group not wearing armor (he held his turtle shell shield, but that was it) and cast the spell on him instead.

"What is this?" Jhasspok asked, looking at his arm.

"_Mage armor_ spell.  It'll help protect you in combat."

"I'm...all shiny."  It wasn't perhaps the best description, but occasionally the lizardfolk could see a glimpse of the edge of the invisible barrier surrounding him like a suit of armor as he moved his arm around, trying to catch the light in the right way.

"Focus, Jhasspok," Marlo suggested.  The lizardfolk stopped marveling at his invisible force armor and looked across the area of the cavern ceiling before him.  If you forget you were upside-down, with a bioluminescent Underdark sea a half mile above your head, the area looked like any normal area around a city's gates, with a few small buildings and tents nearby and a wooden stage upon which could be paraded new slaves for purchase.  There were shouts and the sounds of battle some distance away, but the combatants were obscured behind obstructing buildings.

Suddenly, there was movement to the northwest, as a quartet of gnomish figures scurried around a corner and took cover.  Jhasspok recognized them at once as svirfneblin, the Underdark gnomes who spent their whole lives underground - and occasionally ran afoul of the drow, often becoming slaves.  This was likely the case here, with the four svirfneblin working for the unnamed Lesser House of the Overreach.  Jhasspok raced forward, leaping over the slave stage platform and into an open clearing, readying his new battleaxe.  The deep gnomes were hidden behind a long, low building, but from the lizardfolk's position he'd be able to see from which way they approached and attack them as they advanced.

Marlo spotted one and sent a _scorching ray_ spell striking at the svirfneblin's head.  Unfortunately, he ducked back behind the building in time and the flame spell missed its target.  From beside her, Khari advanced, his dwarven warhammer ready to strike at the first svirfneblin to approach him.  Cramer stepped forward as well, casting a _magic weapon_ spell upon his mace as he did so.  Utred, however, stayed in position before the North Gate, not trusting that some wizard wouldn't _teleport_ in and try to get through the entrance to the House Jalamir column.  He had his _Elderwood flame longsword_ out, ready for action.

As one, the four svirfneblin went on the offensive.  One rushed to the safety of the shadows behind a merchant tent, while the other three pulled out shortbows and fired arrows at Khari Hammerslammer.  None of the arrows hit; perhaps the archers had been intimidated by the dwarven fighter's fierce glare.

Jhasspok charged the first svirfneblin, bringing his new battleaxe slamming down in an overhand swing he'd hoped would cut the deep gnome in two.  But he was unaccustomed to the weapon's weight and balance and the blow fell short, the blade chopping a deep gash into the stone ceiling at the svirfneblin's feet.  Marlo cast a _magic missile_ at the foe the lizardfolk had just missed, her spell striking true - which was normal for that particular spell - but the sorceress had noted a field of energy around the svirfneblin and she realized they likely had an inherent resistance to spell energy, as was unfortunately true of so many races that lived in the Underdark.  Idly, she wondered why that was so, but then decided this wasn't the time to let her mind wander from the task at hand.

With a wordless growl, Khari charged forward at the closest of the three archers, his warhammer striking the svirfneblin in the side of the head and crushing his skull instantly.  Just that quickly, the Hammerslammer dwarf had struck first blood.  Utred, seeing the forces before them didn't appear to have any spellcasters among them, hesitantly stepped forward - he'd make sure he only went far enough away from the North Gate that he'd still be able to return in an instant if it became necessary.  Cramer, in the meantime, cast a _protection from evil_ spell on himself; he knew his deep gnome brethren were likely not of an evil bent, merely slaves like himself, but there was good chance their drow masters would make an appearance at some point during this fight, especially if they hoped to breach House Jalamir and face the drow waiting for them within.

Two of the svirfneblin broke ranks and attacked Utred from opposite sides, hoping to flank him and take him out while he tried to defend himself from two directions at once.  The concentrated attack was somewhat successful, in that one of the gnomes managed to get past the dwarven barbarian's defenses and stab him with his short sword, but if they had hoped this would take out mighty Utred they had vastly underestimated his stamina!  The remaining archer shot at Cramer, missing once again.

Jhasspok continued his attack upon the svirfneblin he'd missed with his axe, and missed two more times - the little guy was certainly nimble!  Marlo cast another _magic missile_ spell at him, once more hitting true but this time having her spell fizzle out upon contact - that blasted spell resistance!  But then Khari approached and swung his weapon; the svirfneblin didn't have any sort of inherent dwarven warhammer resistance, that was for sure!  He crumpled to the ground, dead.

But Khari wasn't finished with his attack just yet!  Swinging his warhammer around in a continuing arc, he brought it crashing down upon one of the deep gnomes flanking Utred, who at this point was focused upon the other svirfneblin and had uncharacteristically missed with his longsword strike.  Cramer stepped up behind the svirfneblin fighting Khari and sent his mace crashing into the back of his foe's head, knocking him to the ground.  It looked as if his chest was rising and falling with labored, ragged breathing, but it also looked as if he wouldn't be doing it for too much longer.  Jhasspok, at this point frustrated with his inability to hit anyone with his new, enchanted battleaxe, decided to test whether or not the dumb thing even worked at all by attacking the unconscious svirfneblin.  As his head went rolling across the ground, the lizardfolk nodded in approval and decided his axe worked just fine after all.

The remaining svirfneblin stabbed again at Utred and missed, but was then himself struck by a _magic missile_ from Marlo.  Utred finished him off with his own blade and then the group took a moment to look around to see if there were any other reinforcements heading this way.

There were: an armored, female drow rounded the corner from where the svirfneblin had come.  Cramer, seeing her approach, ran up but kept his distance; he readied a _sound burst_ spell since he could see what looked to be a duergar fast approaching as well - no sense in wasting the spell on one foe when he could unleash it on two!  Once the two were close enough together the cleric released the spell, causing the pair to become momentarily stunned.

Jhasspok took full advantage of the temporary opportunity, dashing forward to attack the duergar fighter in the heavy armor.  Khari and Utred stepped up to focus their attacks upon the same target; the poor duergar was unable to fend off the trio of weapons in his currently stunned state.  Marlo then added insult to injury by targeting him with a _scorching ray_ spell, hoping to take him down quickly.  Cramer came to the same conclusion and cast a _spiritual weapon_ spell which caused a quarterstaff of pure force to swing down at the hapless gray dwarf.

While the drow and duergar were still fighting off the effects of Cramer's _sound burst_ spell, Marlo stepped forward and cast a _magic missile_ spell at the drow woman.  Khari swung his warhammer at her as well, judging the duergar to be about to fall - especially with Utred swinging his green-flamed blade into the grey dwarf's side.  The drow duskblade, snapping out of it at the last moment, swung her own blade at the lizardfolk's side, getting past his shield and through his _mage armor_ to draw blood.  Jhasspok hissed in pain and returned the attack with his battleaxe - a weapon for which he was quickly getting the hang of wielding.

Cramer's _spiritual weapon_ spell finished off the duergar - a first for the cleric's use of that particular spell! - and then the gnome heard the sound of approaching footsteps.  He dropped a pebble into his sling and started swinging it about his head, building up speed.  The drow duskblade fell to another of Marlo's _magic missile_ spells.  As one, the five slaves turned toward the sounds of approaching reinforcements.

Three male drow warriors rounded the corner and came into view, closing the distance - only to be attacked en masse by Khari's warhammer, Utred's longsword, and Jhasspok's battleaxe.  Behind the drow males, though, stepped up a female - a cleric of Lolth, by the looks of her garb.  Ignoring his sling for the moment, Cramer pointed at the approaching foes with a finger of his other hand and cast another _sound burst_ spell centered such to get the drow - but nobody else - in its area of effect.  All four drow flinched at the sudden audio blast and all were temporarily stunned save for one of the drow males.

Again taking advantage of temporarily motionless enemies, Jhasspok swung his battleaxe at one of the male drow while Marlo used her last _scorching ray_ spell on the drow priestess.  But then the dwarves finished the battle in a mere handful of seconds, Khari crushing a warrior's head in and then smashing the priestess in the face with his warhammer, all in one deadly arc of motion, while Utred's _Elderwood flame longsword_ sliced through the abdomens of the other two male warriors in one cleaving blow.  All four fell to the ground at virtually the same time.

Looking about for the next wave of enemies, the group could hear the fighting still in the distance but nothing coming their way.  Cramer put the dwarves on lookout duty while the others quickly looted their slain foes.  A quick _detect magic_ spell from Marlo helped identify which items were worthy of closer scrutiny: two pairs of _boots of striding and springing_ (which were eventually given to Utred and Khari) and a pair of masterwork hand crossbows, which Jhasspok and Utred took for their own use.  Jhasspok was particularly intrigued by a weapon you actually wore on your arm like a piece of armor - strange!  He'd have to practice with it - and, he realized, with his new battleaxe - until he had mastered the new forms of attack they provided.

Eventually, the sounds of battle drifted off, the attackers either driven off, slain, or the skirmishes simply moving farther away and out of earshot.  Despite their willingness to enter into additional combat, neither of the five slaves dared disobey their orders, so they stayed by the North Gate, determined that no foes would enter the House Jalamir pillar through this particular entrance.

And none did; after about an hour of inactivity, the gates suddenly opened from the inside and a House Jalamir slave informed the group the battle was over.  Shrugging, the group entered the stone pillar and returned to their quarters to clean up and deal with their wounds.

 - - -

Well, Jhasspok's got a lot of training ahead of him with that stupid _+1 battleaxe_ he got - my first three attack rolls were a 1, a 3, and a 2!  But the hand crossbow is pretty cool - it helps that Logan, Harry, and I are all watching the "Crossbow" series (a 1980s TV show about the fictional exploits of William Tell) and a recent episode had William using a hand crossbow.  Logan's dropping the "exotic" nature of the weapon, making it just another form of common ranged attack.

But the whole reason Jhasspok has a battleaxe in the first place is I decided I'm going to have to pick one weapon and make that his primary attack.  I'm running a 4th-level combat specialist PC with only a +2 Base Attack Bonus (thanks a lot, three levels of just lizardfolk that granted me a whopping +1 BAB!), so I'm lagging behind Utred and Khari.  The D&D Mini I'm using to represent Jhasspok is a lizardfolk wielding a turtle shell shield and what looks like a primitive hammer; I didn't want to go the warhammer route and tread into Khari's territory and my last fighter PC wielded a morningstar so I didn't want to duplicate that, either - I figured battleaxe was a good solution.  So I think I'll be taking 2 levels of fighter next, just for the bonus feats - I desperately need Weapon Focus (battleaxe) to start to be able to pull my weight a little better in combat.

Incidentally, I assume cleanup after a fight on a cavern ceiling is pretty easy: you just need to fling the corpses more than 10 feet into the air, at which point they're outside the range of the _reverse gravity_ effect and they plunge half a mile into the bioluminescent sea.  Look, it's raining corpses!

We're going to miss the next two normal Wednesday sessions; I have two upcoming business trips that will take me out of the state those weeks, so we'll resume the campaign on 4 March 2020.


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## Richards (Mar 8, 2020)

*ADVENTURE 11: RAIDING THE FIELDS*

PC Roster:
Cramer Appleknocker, gnome cleric 4​Jhasspok, lizardfolk 3/barbarian 1​Khari Hammerslammer, dwarf fighter 4​Marlo Pendragon, human sorcerer 4​Utred "Buckets" Butterflinger, dwarf barbarian 4​
Game Session Date: 4 March 2020

- - -

Several days after the unsuccessful attack on House Jalamir by the forces of one of the Lesser Houses, Calish strode into the slave-quarters of his quintet of combat slaves.  "Gather around!" he commanded and the slaves were quick to obey.  You never knew with Calish Jalamir; while he often presented a pleasant demeanor, they all knew - perhaps Cramer most of all - he was quick to anger and had a heart as black as any other drow in the Underdark city.

"First up: Payment for a job well done!" beamed the slavemaster, handing over a pouch of slave tokens to each of the five.  "You will find a full hundred tokens each, a token of my pleasure for the way you held off the attackers and defended the North Gate.  I trust they will be put to good use in the Slave Market as time permits."

"They certainly will," grinned Cramer Appleknocker, recalling 100 slave tokens could purchase the use of an actual drow slave for a full hour.  He'd availed himself of the privilege once before and looked forward to a repeat of the experience.

"And next, a reminder of the consequences of my displeasure," added Calish in an equally-pleasant tone of voice.  He reached back out through the entry door, taking a covered metal platter from a small table there in the hall.  The slaves frowned, wondering what they might have done to earn Calish's displeasure and how a covered dining tray might play into the matter.  But then, with a flourish, the slavemaster whipped the cover off the platter to reveal the severed head of a mind flayer - none other than N'zorthal, the House Jalamir Administer of Discipline himself.

Marlo blanched as her face drained of blood.  Had Calish learned of N'zorthal's interest in the illithid book on the Dying One?  Was the slavemaster an enemy of the Dying One?  Did he know of the pact Marlo had made with the illithid Elder God - was this some sort of mental torment, to make her squirm before being physically tortured for having allied herself with an enemy of Calish?  The breath caught in her lungs.

But all that worry was for naught.  "N'zorthal," Calish explained, "needed to be shown Mother's displeasure at his recent failure."

"Failure?" repeated Marlo, while Khari tried to recall if he'd ever met Calish's mother, not recognizing the term as one the drow often used to describe Lolth, their Spider-Goddess.  Cramer's eyebrows raised in delight at seeing the decapitated head of N'zorthal - that was one less enemy he'd have to tend to himself before he found a way out of this drow hellhole.

"Perhaps N'zorthal would care to explain," replied Calish, turning back to the open doorway behind him.  As if on cue, four figures silently entered the room.  The last three were the newest of the House Jalamir slaves: Guthier, Wulfrik, and Heather, captured by the five raiders and thrown into a life of slavery via the Writhing Gate.  They spoke no words but the glares they gave said all that needed to be said: they would not soon be forgetting the ones who had cast them into this life.  But leading this troop of sullen servitors was none other than N'zorthal, the Administer of Discipline, the _ring of regeneration_ on his finger giving silent testimony as to how he still stood among the living despite the fact Calish held his decapitated head on a silver platter.

<I had been planting _suggestions_ into the minds of the members of the Lesser Houses, getting them to start fights with more powerful Houses they could not possibly win.  It was a way to force their hands before they had time to better prepare for success, since their success was not a desired end-state,> N'zorthal informed the group telepathically.

"And your failure?" prompted Calish, covering the severed head with the lid and placing it back on the table in the hallway.

<To increase the chance that my _suggestions_ would take hold, I had to keep them open-ended and vague, which led one of the Lesser Houses to target House Jalamir for their attacks, thinking they could actually topple us and take our place.  I failed to account for the possibility that we ourselves might end up under attack; I had thought those Noble Houses beneath us would have been more logical targets.>

"And one bit of fallout of the recent attack is that several of our food stores were torched in the battle," explained Calish.  "It is for this reason, and this reason alone, that you slaves have been dining upon 'meat medley' these past few days."  Left unsaid was the obvious fact the drow had ensured the food shortage hadn't affected any of _them_ - the dark elves continued to dine upon the choicest viands while their slaves made do with makeshift scraps.

Marlo, whose face had begun to regain its normal coloration as she realized Calish still knew nothing about her alliance with the Dying One, now started to turn green as she deduced just what this 'meat medley' was likely comprised of.  She swallowed the gorge that threatened to rise in her throat.  Utred and Cramer also showed signs of discomfort at the thought they'd likely been fed the flesh of the enemy combatants who had attacked the House Jalamir pillar.  But Khari and Jhasspok showed no such concerns, the dwarf because he hadn't yet figured it out and the lizardfolk because to him meat was meat.

"Fortunately," Calish continued, "N'zorthal has figured out a way to replenish our food supplies.  On the surface world, there is a group of farming villages that, for some reason, suffer from bandit attacks every decade or so.  You will be sent to raid several of these villages, taking what food you can; nobody should suspect anything other than they had once again been attacked by the surface bandits who already plague their homes."

"Are these three coming with us?" asked Khari Hammerslammer, indicating the three new slaves.

"Yes, but not quite in the capacity you likely envision.  They will accompany you to the surface but remain behind to guard the Writhing Gate while you five secure the foodstuffs.  They will also be able to help you haul the goods through the Gate.  You will attack during the night, the better to ensure the Writhing Gate is not noticed, for it will remain in place on the surface during each raid, to speed the process.  Any questions?"

"How many villages will we be attacking?" asked Cramer.

"As many as it takes for you to gather a sufficient quantity of goods.  N'zorthal will let you know once that limit has been reached.  One final thing: this is a food-gathering mission only.  We already have enough mouths to feed, so there is no need to gather additional slaves at this time."  He gazed absently at the three newest slaves, as if mentally determining whether they were best left alive or if their bodies would serve Overreach better as food stock for the other slaves.

"How soon will we need to start our trek to the Writhing Gate?" Utred asked.

<That will not be necessary.  I have discovered a way to travel quickly to the Writhing Gate.>  The mind flayer opted not to give any specifics on this new process and none of the slaves wanted to press the issue.  <Gather your weapons and armor.  We will leave at once.>

Once everyone was ready, the illithid did whatever new trick he had learned and he and the eight slaves were _teleported_ to the Writhing Gate chamber.  Reaching into a pocket of his robes, N'zorthal pulled out four familiar rings and slipped them over each of his facial tentacles, then passed their four counterparts - each on a thin chain, and each now with the tips of the four illithid appendages wriggling from the _ring gates_ - and passed them over to Marlo, Cramer, Utred, and Khari.  The four slaves pulled the necklaces over their heads, letting the _ring gates_ hang over their breastbones.  Once the tentacles touched the bare skin by the slaves' necks, N'zorthal had an instantaneous means of telepathic communication despite the distances that would soon be separating them.

As N'zorthal took his customary seat - one of ten along the Writhing Gate - Utred looked over at Heather, the halfling paladin of Yondalla.  She had been allowed to retain her holy symbol, which hung about her neck on a silver chain, but it seemed as if the shaded portion of the cornucopia depicted on it seemed to be...writhing.  The dwarven barbarian's thick eyebrows lowered in a scowl as he puzzled at this odd phenomenon - but then the Writing Gate activated and his suspicions were instantly forgotten as the ten tentacles, which had been squirming around in a random pattern, straightened out and came to a point near the ceiling, forming a cone shape.

Upon orders from the illithid, the five arena slaves turned off the illusory flames of their _slave-light cloaks_ and all eight figures stepped forward into the Writhing Gate, to pop out just outside the first of the surface villages.  There was a marketplace just ahead, with several crates and bags of various foodstuffs piled up, no doubt ready to be shipped elsewhere in the morning.  It was dark out; looking up, Jhasspok saw the Really Big Pearl had been eaten away (by sky-acid, or so was the lizardfolk's firm belief) into a thin crescent shape, like one of the discarded toenails the gnome cleric left behind after his grooming.

But that wasn't the only source of illumination; a reddish glow emanated from a series of mountains just over the horizon.  That puzzled Jhasspok, who had at first assumed it was the _fireball_ sun just now leaving the sky, but in his (admittedly limited) experience on the surface world the Really Big Pearl didn't usually show up - at least not this high in the sky - until the _fireball_ had already gone away.  This surface stuff was confusing!

"Let's grab the goods and get out of here!" whispered Marlo, sneaking forward to do just that.  But in the dim light she hit the edge of a small crate, causing it to topple from the stack it had been perched upon and fall to the ground with a crash.  Up in a nearby watchtower, a guard spun around at the sound behind him and peered over the edge of his 15-foot-tall perch.  Thinking quickly, Utred stumbled forward, pretending to be drunk.  With any luck, the guard would think he was the one responsible for the noise: just another drunken dwarf out in the middle of the night.  (He didn't give any thought that this particular "drunken dwarf" was bristling with weapons, no doubt causing more than a little concern in the minds of any guardsmen who might see him.)  He mentally activated his _slave-light cloak_, causing it to blaze forth and bathe the dwarf in its radiant illumination; he had only belatedly recalled these humans didn't have darkvision like those races who lived in the Underdark.  "Hey, izzair anyplace 'round 'ere where a guy c'n get a mug o' ale?" Utred asked loudly, peering up at the guard in the watchtower.

The guard's eyes bugged out at the sight of a dwarf so staggeringly drunk he didn't even know he was on fire.  He raced down the ladder of the watchtower to go aid the poor fool.  As he approached at his best speed - not all that fast, Utred noticed, for the man was much older than he'd have expected in a town's guardsman - Marlo cast an _unseen servant_ spell from a scroll and had it start to lug away what looked to be bags of grain.  She shouldered another such bag herself, then followed the floating bag back to the Writhing Gate, where the bags were handed over to the three newer slaves to pitch into the Writhing Gate.

Fortunately, Utred's drunken performance was enough to focus the guard's attention away from the marketplace pilfering going on behind him.  Khari hefted a large crate of food onto his back and lugged it over to the Writhing Gate, while Jhasspok found, to his delight, a tray of recently-caught fish and started stuffing them into the satchel he wore in which he had recently stored his own supply of food - predominantly dried dung beetles.  The goods were brought back to the Writhing Gate and transferred back to the Underdark, all while Utred led the guard away while pretending to look for an open ale shop.  The elderly guardsman had been glad to see the dwarf hadn't really been on fire, but now he was trying to get him to go back home and sleep it off - with no success, for the dwarf ignored all threats of being arrested for being drunk and disorderly.  Before long, the readily-apparent goods had been stolen away successfully and N'zorthal mentally signaled it was time to go to the next village.  Utred, receiving the call, suddenly seemed to snap out of his drunkenness and race away at top speed - far faster than the elderly guardsman could hope to catch up.  The slaves passed through the Writhing Gate and back to the Underdark.  The five tentacles that had been in place just outside the first village's marketplace were gone before the puzzled guardsman got close enough to where he'd have been able to see them if they'd still been in place.  He scratched his thinning hair, wondering where that crazy dwarf had gotten off to.  Weird!

N'zorthal mentally recalibrated the targeting of the Writhing Gate and then the slaves were off to their next destination: another farming village in what must be around the same location, for the glow just over the nearby mountains was just as visible here as it had been at the previous one.  "Is that the _fireball_ sun?" asked Jhasspok, indicating the orange light spilling from beyond the visible peaks.

Cramer looked up at the sky, orienting himself by the stars.  "Nope," he answered.  "That way's north.  Likely a forest fire or something.  Volcano, even."

"There aren't any volcanoes on our map," recalled Marlo, referring to the map they'd taken from the two-wagon caravan they'd attacked during their first surface raid.

"There's no telling the range of the Writhing Gate," Cramer replied.  "We're likely somewhere off the edges of that map - far off the edges, for all we know."

<It is irrelevant,> inserted N'zorthal into the conversation.  <There is another marketplace ahead.  Gather up the food readily available.>

The five arena slaves crept forth, looking for food to steal.  Now that they knew to look for one, they saw a watchtower like in the previous village; the dwarves, with their darkvision, reported it was manned by an older-looking human woman with a light crossbow.  "Again with the elderly guards," commented Marlo.  "Weird."  But, heeding the mind flayer's orders, they snuck forward into the market until they found what they'd been looking for: barrels of pickles, wheels of cheese, crates of flour and salt and sacks of oats and potatoes and turnips.  Cramer, Jhasspok, and Marlo (and her still-active _unseen servant_ spell) started gathering, lugging, and turning the stolen goods over to Heather, Wulfrik, and Guthier, while the two dwarves stealthily circled the village, looking to take out any guardsmen on patrol.

As it turned out, there was a guardsman about, patrolling on foot, and he stumbled across the others raiding the food from the market before either of the dwarves had spotted him.  But Marlo took care of that problem with a _shocking grasp_ spell that sent the man reeling.  He fell face-first to the ground, and when Marlo turned him over to make sure he was still alive (she hadn't tried to kill him, merely knock him out), she was both pleased to see he was still breathing but somewhat surprised to see he was easily as old - if not older - as her own grandfather.  What was with all the elderly guards?

Jhasspok decided to take out the guardswoman on duty at the watchtower, which would then give the slaves all the time they needed to strip the village bare of the food they wanted.  Speeding forward with his tail held out straight behind him as a counterbalance, he practically leapt up the ladder and was standing on the platform with the surprised guard before she had had time to turn around and face him.  "Drop your weapons and you live!" hissed the lizardfolk, his battleaxe raised to strike a blow if she failed to comply.

She failed to comply.  Instead, screaming in terror at the dinosaur-monster in front of her, she tried raising her crossbow but Jhasspok brought his axe-head down on her.  The blow failed to drop her, but she staggered back and leaned heavily on the back railing, her weapon dangling by one hand, her wounded arm no longer able to bring it to bear.  But alerted by her scream, Marlo dropped the guardswoman with a _magic missile_ spell.  From his high vantage point, Jhasspok scanned the area and saw nobody else about, so he scampered back down and helped the others load the rest of the goods through the Writhing Gate.  Then, like before, they all returned to the Underdark.

N'zorthal examined the pile of goods stacked up against the stone wall of the Writhing Gate's permanent Underdark location.  <One more village will likely suffice for now,> he advised the slaves, retargeting the illithid teleportation structure to its next location.

Things turned out quite differently in this third village, however.  For one thing, as five tentacles of the Writhing Gate manifested just outside this latest marketplace, there was a guard standing right there, mere paces away.  Fortunately, her back was turned to the Writhing Gate and her attention was focused upon a robed figure standing before her, but he saw the tentacles - and eight slaves - suddenly manifest behind her.  His eyes widened in surprise and fear.

Utred stepped forward, deciding he'd try his drunken act again.  "Hey!" he called to the guardswoman as he stepped up beside her.  "There a tavern open 'round here?  I needs me some ale!"

"You--you just stepped out of tentacles!" sputtered the robed figure.  The guardswoman spun and looked in awe at the five waving tentacles that must have just erupted from the ground.  She gave a wordless gasp of terror.

"Tavern?" repeated Utred, hoping to capture her attention.  But she ignored him; instead, she raced to the center of the town and threw a smokestick at the ground before her.  A column of thick, blue smoke rose up into the sky.  Realizing this was likely a signal for reinforcements, the arena slaves all decided they'd have to forego stealth this time and fight off the guards before they'd be able to successfully make off with the food they'd come to steal.  Marlo began by firing a _magic missile_ spell at the robed figure standing beside Utred; she wasn't sure what his deal was - he wasn't dressed in the same armor as the guards - but robes like that usually meant a spellcaster and Marlo knew quite well the variety of spells that might be available to an enemy spellcaster.  Better to take him out quick.

Her spell didn't quite do the trick - it hit him square on, eliciting a grunt of pain and pulling his focus away from the Writhing Gate - but then Khari raced up and  brought him down with a quick strike with his dwarven warhammer.  The robed figure fell to the ground, dead.

Alas, there were more of these robed figures about.  Another one stepped out from the shadows behind a building and tossed a pair of _lesser fire orbs_ at the two gathered dwarves.  Seeing the flaming spheres racing their way, both Utred and Khari had time to dodge successfully and the spell-spheres exploded harmlessly far behind them.

Seeing no other combatants for the moment from their vantage point - for the elderly guardswoman who had activated the smokestick had subsequently run to a wooden building, stepped through a doorway, and slammed the door shut behind her - Jhasspok and Marlo began grabbing up the crates and bags assembled in a pile before them.  They were suddenly accosted by another robed figure.  "What are you doing?" he hissed.  "You're not supposed to raid the place until tomorrow!"

"Um--what?" sputtered Marlo.

"_Tomorrow_, you idiots!  The ritual isn't until tomorrow!"

Marlo had no idea what he was talking about, so she responded by casting a _scorching ray_ at him but missed; the figure retaliated with the same spell, his aimed at the hulking lizardfolk.  His spell struck Jhasspok straight on, causing a hiss of pain to erupt from the lizard's throat.

Cramer cast a _sound burst_ spell at the offending spellcaster, stunning him momentarily into motionlessness.  Utred then charged at the figure, felling him with one strike of his _Elderwood flaming longsword_.  However, another robed figure stepped forward to take the place of his fallen companion.  Marlo, by this time, had gone back to the primary mission, dragging a heavy sack of oats back towards the Writhing Gate while her _unseen servant_ did likewise with a smaller bag of potatoes.  Beside her, Khari hefted a wooden crate bigger than he was onto his shoulder and started lugging it back to the Writhing Gate.

And then yet another figure seemingly stepped forward from the shadows.  She wore armor, but unlike the other guards the slaves had encountered thus far this night she was not at all elderly; quite the opposite, she seemed to have seen no more than two dozen summers.  She tilted her head quizzically at Utred, her brow furrowed in confusion.

Jhasspok attacked the remaining spellcaster, getting in a good hit with his magically-enhanced battleaxe.  Utred charged the beautiful young guardswoman, bringing his sword in for a lateral strike to her breastbone.  The woman just stood there, a smirk on her face as the green-flamed blade struck true, smashing into the exposed skin just below her neck - and had no effect whatsoever.  As the dwarven barbarian's face gaped in confusion, the armored woman released her true form.  In an instant, a pair of batlike wings had erupted from her back and with a mere flick of them she was airborne.  A barbed whip made of reddish leather unfurled at her side, draping down almost to the ground.  Then, with controlled snaps of her arm and wrist, she sent the _barbed devilhide whip_ flashing out at Utred, carving twin lines of pain across his face.  Blood dripped down his face and in his vision as he let loose the rage that had built up immediately at the touch of the infernal weapon's twin strikes.

Cramer advanced on the spellcaster walking unhurriedly towards Jhasspok, but before the gnome could get off a spell the robed figure took a step back from the lizardfolk and cast a _burning hands_ spell encompassing both Jhasspok and Cramer.  They winced at the momentary pain and from above, the winged warrior woman looked down at them, intrigued at the battle going on below her.

<That is a succubus!> called N'zorthal to the four slaves wearing the _ring gate necklaces_.  <Grab up what you can and retreat - it's not worth facing off against a demon!>  Mastering the rage that had built up inside him and was ready for release, Utred high-tailed it back toward the Writhing Gate at top speed - which wasn't, it turned out, fast enough to avoid a final snap of the devil-whip across his broad back.

The succubus frowned in confusion.  For whatever reason, her inherent telepathy wasn't able to pierce the thoughts of the five strangers; there must be some type of shielding magic in place, she mused.  However, the cultist's thoughts were like an open book before her: he was hoping to recruit a few more sacrifices for some ritual involving a burning gate of some type.  Her whip struck out again, this time against the cultist.

Jhasspok looked up and saw the succubus strike the robed human with her oddly-spiked whip of red leather.  Taking comfort that she was on the side of good - one of those "sky-fish" that Utred had explained about when describing T'Puuli Tine's celestial father to the lizardfolk, no doubt - he helped her slay her foe by bringing his battleaxe crashing down upon the cultist, followed immediately by a bite to the throat.  That last one did it - the cultist didn't last long after having his throat ripped out.

The succubus looked down at the five intruders, dragging stolen goods from the marketplace.  "Cease your actions!" she called to the mind-shielded thieves.  "I would have an explanation as to what you are doing in this kingdom!"

Spurred on by N'zorthal's telepathic commands to retreat, the slaves ignored her and ran with their various plundered foodstuffs to the Writhing Gate, racing full-speed between the tentacles and disappearing from view.  Unseen behind them, the succubus screamed in pain, grabbed her head in both hands (dropping the _barbed devilhide whip_ in the process), and fell to the ground as the Writhing Gate disappeared from existence.  Overcome by the overwhelming sense of evil emanating from the illithid transportation system - and an accidental, momentary telepathic contact with the Dying One - *Serenity*'s last thought before passing out was, "So that's what *Galen* must have felt...."

Back at the Writhing Gate's Underdark home location, N'zorthal stood up from his station, signaling the slaves' excursions were finished for the night.  Behind him, the ten tentacles collapsed from their forced cone shape and started wiggling around independently once again.  At each of the other nine stations sat the petrified remains of a mind flayer.  <That was quite unexpected,> N'zorthal admitted.  <The last time House Jalamir raided Ashfall, they did not have a guardian demon watching over the place.>  He looked over the evening's take, piled onto the cart the arena slaves had taken from a previous raiding mission and ready to be pulled by the animated skeleton of a horse they had likewise captured.  <I believe this will suffice.  You may return to Overreach with the food supplies.>

A moment later, the Writhing Gate chamber was empty save for the mind flayer and his nine petrified kin.

- - -

I knew immediately our PCs were in Ashfall when I heard about the light from the north (making the mountain range a part of the Baator's Breath Mountains) and the advanced age of the guardsmen (because all able-bodied men were up in the mountains fighting off demon excursions); furthermore, I also realized this meant this entire campaign was not only taking place in the same game world as our previous one (as Logan had told us up front it was going to be) but also during the same time frame as well!  The comment about the upcoming "burning gate" ritual sealed the deal: this adventure took place just before the one in "The Durnhill Conscripts" where our PCs fought off the Cult of the Burning Gate (where, for those who have read the exploits of the previous campaign, my PC *Syngaard* was treacherously reduced in size by half due to the evil machinations of the halfling rogue PC, *Orion* - played by Vicki, who runs Marlo in this campaign).  Logan even pointed out, after the fact, that this adventure title, "Raiding the Fields," was a play on "Playing the Fields," an adventure in the Durnhill campaign.

So, this opens up some interesting possibilities.  Three of the Durnhill PCs were involved in every adventure of the campaign, but Orion and *Daleth* (played by Joey, who now runs Utred Butterflinger) were frequent no-shows in the earlier adventures, so it's entirely possible we might meet up with them at some point during this campaign without contradicting anything from the previous campaign.  And it's further evidence fueling our belief that the "metal man from Hell" we might need to rescue to help defeat the Dying One is none other than *Alexandros, the Mithral Mage*, one of our recurring foes in the Durnhill campaign.

Of course, Logan's probably put too much faith in our ability not to metagame with the knowledge our previous PCs knew when we run these current PCs.  We were all well aware our PCs were fighting Serenity the succubus there at the end.  Hopefully he'll take our prior knowledge into account.


----------



## Richards (Mar 15, 2020)

*ADVENTURE 12: THE SECRET LIFE OF DOUBLE SLAVES*

PC Roster:
Cramer Appleknocker, gnome cleric 4​Jhasspok, lizardman 3/barbarian 1​Khari Hammerslammer, dwarf fighter 4​Marlo Pendragon, human sorcerer 4​Utred "Buckets" Butterflinger, dwarf barbarian 4​
Game Session Date: 11 March 2020

- - -

"This is stupid," grumbled Cramer.  "I don't see why N'zorthal couldn't have just _teleported_ us back to Overreach, like he _teleported_ us to the Writhing Gate in the first place."

"Weren't you listening?" rebutted Marlo in a whisper, making sure they were out of earshot of Heather, Guthier, and Wulfrik - neither of whom had any idea about the secrets the mind flayer was keeping from the drow slavemaster.  But the three newest additions to House Jalamir's slave force kept mostly to themselves, not wanting anything to do with the five raiders who had cast them into slavery.  Marlo continued in a quiet voice, "He explained the Writhing Gate is 'angry' that a lesser being tried prying into its mind."

"Writhing Gate?  The Dying One, you mean," countered Cramer.

"...Possibly," was all the sorceress was willing to admit on that front.  "In any case, it has no problem with drawing others closer to it.  But with it currently in its little sulk, I don't think I'd want to take the chance of having it _teleport_ me back to the city when it's in a bad mood."

"So we got a two-day trek ahead of us," sighed Khari.  He was just ahead of the cart of goods, pulled by the animated skeleton of a horse, and within earshot of the three new slaves.

"Two days?" gasped Guthier.  "It's going to take us _two days_ to get back to the drow city?  Why don't we...you know, now might be a good time to make a break for it!"

"Don't be stupider than you already are," groused Utred.  "Didn't Calish explain to you about those House Jalamir tattoos on your backs?  You'd never make it - they'd hunt you down easily."

"And I daresay you wouldn't like the punishment that followed," added Cramer with a visible shiver, recalling the horrible day N'zorthal had eaten the brain straight out of the gnome's skull - three times in a row! - while Cramer wore a _ring of regeneration_ ensuring the punishment wouldn't deprive House Jalamir of the continued manpower provided by their diminutive slave.

"Yeah, well Calish ain't gonna like it taking two days for us to show back up with all o' this food," added Khari.  "I imagine he expected us to show back up, like, immediately."

"There's not a whole lot we can do about that," reasoned Marlo.  "We'll just have to do like N'zorthal told us: tell Calish he's staying back to repair a malfunction in the Writhing Gate and will return as soon as he can.  He probably won't like it, but what can he do?"

As it turned out, not much.  The slaves had an uneventful return to the drow city of Overreach, at which time Marlo explained the situation and turned the four _ring gate necklaces_ over to the slavemaster.  Calish wasn't pleased at all to hear the news, but he quickly accepted the situation and pressed on with the new plans this set of circumstances had forced upon him.  "Very well, then - it looks like any surface raiding I might have sent you on will be curtailed for the moment.  That being the case, I will reassign you to new duties until such time as N'zorthal completes his repairs."

Jhasspok was thrilled with his new duties, considering they were nothing more than his old, pre-arena-slave duties: catching fish in the bioluminescent Underdark sea that surrounded the Eight Pillars of Overreach.  Utred and Khari were slightly less pleased with their new assignment: given Utred's family background, it only made sense to send him to the stench kow ranch and Calish opted to send Khari along with him to learn the ins and outs of raising the shaggy rothé.  Marlo and Cramer got perhaps the worst of it, though, being assigned to the fungal farms to shovel excrement onto the fungus that made up a food staple for the Underdark community.  Due to the recent attack on House Jalamir, each of the five arena slaves was allowed to retain his or her armor and weapons at hand, in case of another attack.  In the chaotic society of the dark elves, nothing made a more enticing target than a House that had just weathered an attack from another House and was thus not currently at its peak strength.

Two weeks passed in this fashion.  Of the five, only Jhasspok seemed to be enjoying himself.  And then their lives went on an entirely unexpected course as an unseen voice whispered into each slave's ear at almost the same time, "Pretend the sleep venom is taking effect when I stab you."  Then, out of nowhere, a dark elf suddenly appeared before each of the five arena slaves, stabbing out with a dagger wet with what looked like poison.

Cramer and Marlo immediately noted the slight discoloration of the hair of the two drow attacking them: the gnome's assailant had white hair with a very light tint of blue, while Marlo's attacker had hair of a light pink - but which would surely look like the standard white hair of a drow from far enough away.  Realizing these were likely sunborn drow from Greenvale they played along, falling prone as if succumbing to drow sleep venom; Marlo winced at the thought of falling into the dung she'd been spreading onto the fungal garden and managed to conveniently collapse between patches of the dried excrement.

Utred mastered his instinctive rage at being attacked out of the blue but allowed reason to guide his actions for once - after all, if these were enemy drow attacking them, why would they have given him a warning?  He also played along, falling to the ground beside the rothé he'd been milking - careful, though, not to tip over the bucket of smelly milk he'd collected thus far.  Khari played along as well despite not having done any reasoning of his own, merely trusting Utred knew what he was doing and it would be best to follow his fellow dwarf's lead.

As for Jhasspok, he fell forward into the shallow water and floated there as if unconscious, but his eyes were just above the water's surface, looking at his pretend attacker.  He had felt the point of the drow's dagger blade rub up against his scales, but it hadn't been anywhere near a hard enough thrust to penetrate the lizardfolk's thick hide: this was obviously a sunborn drow, then - part of the other group of drow to which Jhasspok was a "secret double slave."  He was curious to see where this subterfuge was going.

Seeing their "victims" lying motionless before them, each of the Greenvale drow pulled out a ring and placed it over a finger of the slave they'd pretended to attack.  Then they explained the rings would completely shield the slaves from any _scrying_ attempts on the part of House Jalamir and that House Ky'hulcressen had a secret mission for them.  The sunborn drow then opened up a series of Shadow Gates and led each of the three groups through the Plane of Shadows to a nondescript building where they were all reunited back on the Material Plane.  "Take a seat in the next room," the drow instructed, then disappeared back into the shadows of the plane of darkness.

"Hey, guys," Khari said upon seeing the others.  "Fancy meeting you here.  Me an' Utred was just milking a stench kow.  Whatever's up, it's gotta be better'n that."

"Let's see what these sunborn drow have for us," said Cramer, opening the door and walking into a conference room, where there were two drow seated at a large table.  One of the drow was Niradi Ky'hulcressen, the Apprentice Weaver the group had rescued from assassins some time ago, and the other was the purple-haired guard they'd met up in Greenvale.  The slaves took seats around the table.

"It was House Dureem that attacked House Jalamir two weeks ago," Niradi explained.  "For their failure, as is the way with the drow under the sway of the Spider-Bitch, Lolth obliterated their House, burning away the interior rooms of their stalactite dwelling in unholy fire."  House Dureem was not one of the Eight Noble Houses of Overreach and thus did not warrant dwelling inside one of the Eight Pillars of the city - instead, their House dwelt inside one of the smaller stalactites hanging from the ceiling of the Great Cavern.

"Finding the circumstances behind the attack somewhat suspicious, House Ky'hulcressen began investigating and we believe House Dureem was somehow manipulated into their suicidal attack."

"Absolutely," agreed Cramer.  "It was the mind flayer N'zorthal, House Jalamir's Administer of Discipline - he used _suggestions_ to instigate the attack.  He was punished for it, too.  This came straight from Calish Jalamir's mouth."

"That is good to know," Niradi replied.  "But as part of our investigation, we found eight bodies unaccounted for from House Dureem: children from the ages of 20 to 35."  This puzzled Jhasspok for a moment - he was all of five years old himself and a full adult, after all - until he recalled drow aged much more slowly than other races and could live for centuries.  Niradi continued, "It is no secret that House Jalamir deals in the procurement and sale of drow slaves.  Although they claim all their slaves are criminals given the choice between slavery and death, only a child would be naive enough to believe life as a slave to other drow to be better than death."

"So, you think these eight drow kids are still alive, taken as slaves by House Jalamir?" reasoned Utred.

"We do.  We have tracked the children down to a building within their slave goods market.  However, the area they are held in is warded such that if anyone not of House Jalamir enters it will immediately alert Calish.  Thus, we need you to go in and rescue them, as your slave tattoos mark you as belonging to House Jalamir."

"This building - it wouldn't be the Punch-a-Drow shop, would it?" guessed Cramer.

"Indeed.  You know of it?"  Cramer admitted he did, having recently spent 100 slave tokens to "rent" a drow slave for an hour, during which time he was permitted to do anything he wanted to her save for actually killing her outright.  But despite Marlo's assumptions about how the gnome had spent his hour, Cramer confessed he'd merely healed the drow's prior wounds with his spells and rubbed her feet; as a cleric of Fharlanghn, the God of Travel, he well knew the importance of healthy feet.  Cramer thought it would be a good way to get into the drow slave's good graces, to show her that not all non-drow were scum upon which to be heaped scorn - and if nothing else, if the drow slave refused to see the nobility of the gnome cleric it would at least probably infuriate her to have her predilections proved to be false - and that in itself would be a small victory over the drow.

"So, you want us to just walk in there and fetch the eight Dureem slaves?" Utred asked.  "We'll be instantly recognized!"

"Not with these," answered Niradi, passing over a potion flask to each of the arena slaves.  "These are _potions of disguise self_, each already tailored to give you the appearance of a drow noble of House Jalamir."  She turned to Jhasspok.  "And in your particular case, the illusory disguise includes a set of appropriate clothing," she added.  Then she passed a second potion to Cramer.  "You will also need this _potion of enlarge person_, to attain the correct size of the drow you'll appear to be.  That way, anyone interacting with you won't wonder why their hand, say, passed right through the space where your shoulder should be."  Cramer nodded appreciatively; they'd certainly put the appropriate level of thought into this mission.

"You primary goal is to rescue the eight House Dureem children," said Niradi, "although if you can rescue any of the other drow slaves it would be greatly appreciated.  After all, having fallen from the Spider-Bitch's favor, these drow would be likely candidates for conversion to the worship of Eilistraee.  This building is but a few minutes' walk from the Punch-a-Drow shop - which, I should point out, is referred to as the 'Forbidden Desires' brothel to its prospective clientele.  You need merely lead the slaves back here and we will take it from there.  They will be smuggled out of Overreach and taken to Greenvale, where they can live their lives free from the horrors of Lolth.  Now then, are there any questions?"

"Do we know where the eight drow slaves are being kept?" asked Cramer.

"We believe there is an upper level in the basement above the building, but we have been unable to determine its exact layout.  The slaves are likely being held there."

"Wait, a basement _above_ the building?" asked Marlo.  "I'm confused."

"Remember: we are within the _reverse gravity_ effect on the ceiling of the Great Cavern," replied the purple-haired drow guard.  "We are, right now, upside-down on the ceiling, as is the slave market of House Jalamir."

"I hate this place," grumbled the sorceress to herself.

"Do we know the strength of any security forces on hand?" asked Utred.  "Numbers, weapons used - anything?"

"I'm afraid we have no concrete answers along those lines, other than you can bet there is some type of security in the place, to prevent the slaves from trying to escape."  Utred grunted to himself.  Going in blind, then!  As the slaves began drinking down their potions, Niradi reminded them, "The drow who run this operation are wholly evil and deserving of death.  Your altered slave tattoos will allow you to attack drow without repercussion."

Cramer grinned an evil grin.  "I am well aware," he admitted.  Then, being the only one of the five to have been inside the Punch-a-Drow shop, he led the way through the House Jalamir slave market and up to the shop's front door.  "We ought to have a cover story," he informed the others - all of whom now gave every outward appearance of being drow nobles.  "And Marlo, as the female of the group, you'd normally be in command; you should do all of our talking for us.  Remember to sound regal and haughty."

"Got it.  What's our cover story?"

"We want all of the slaves gathered together, so let's just command the proprietor to gather them up for our inspection."

"Why would we do that?" asked Khari.

Cramer gave it some thought.  "House Jalamir's having a party for their upper nobles," he decided, "and they want the maximum number of pleasure slaves available.  We're to bring everyone from the Forbidden Desires shop, no questions asked...and the order comes from Calish Jalamir himself!" he added with a chuckle.  This sounded like a good idea to Jhasspok, who was busy imagining what a "pleasure slave" would do at a drow party.  Probably serve fish, he decided, inordinately pleased at the thought of an all-you-can-eat fish party.  But then the lizardfolk's mental reveries were interrupted by Marlo signaling they were about to enter the building.

A drow in studded leather armor sat behind the counter as Marlo stormed into the building, the four "drow" men trailing behind her.  He looked up absently, expecting to see a prospective client interested in hiring out his wares but jumped immediately to his feet at the apparent sight of a high-ranking cleric of Lolth.  "H-How may I be of service, matron?" he stammered.  Over at the far side of the room, two scantily-clad drow slaves stood on display.

"Your pleasure slaves: bring them before me at once!" commanded Marlo.  "All of them."  The proprietor responded by ringing a bell he picked up from beneath the counter.  Three more drow women entered from private rooms along the side of the building.

"Where are the others?" demanded Marlo.  "Calish demands _all_ of your pleasure slaves, even those...newly acquired."

"Others?" gulped the drow behind the counter.  "Matron...these are all there all."  Using the counter as cover, he secretly loaded his hand crossbow; something wasn't right here.  House Jalamir was large enough he couldn't possibly be expected to recognize all of its members by sight, but he had a pretty good idea of its top members and he'd never seen any of these five before.  He gave Marlo an appraising look - he'd certainly have recognized _her_ if he'd ever seen her before, he was sure of that!

Deciding a cleric of Lolth would probably want to roughen up anyone giving her any kind of difficulty, Marlo stormed around the counter and approached the proprietor - and was immediately shot with his hand crossbow.  "We're under attack!" he called to the pleasure slaves as he hurriedly reloaded his crossbow.  "Get them!"

Khari reacted by dashing up to the counter and bringing his dwarven warhammer crashing down upon the drow's head.  The victim of the attack managed to duck and bring his arm up instinctively to block the blow, and the audible crack indicated he'd likely broken his arm in doing so.  Jhasspok had also bounded up to attack the man with his battleaxe, but his blade merely cut a deep gouge in the wooden counter in the spot where the proprietor had just moved from in dodging Khari's blow.

Reluctantly obeying their master, the pleasure slaves moved in for the attack, weaponless but scratching with their polished nails.  Jhasspok felt a set of nails running harmlessly across his scales; the slave didn't seem to notice the discrepancy between the fine linen cloth her intended victim seemed to be wearing and the hardened scales of the lizardfolk hidden behind the illusion.  But two of the other slaves managed to scratch Utred's face, causing him to roar in anger - not from the pain, which was minimal, but just at the affront of having been harmed by weaponless foes.  Not wanting to waste any time fighting them off, he gave one a push that send her reeling across the room while the barbarian brought his _Elderwood flaming longsword_ stabbing through the proprietor's neck, slaying him instantly.  Utred noticed the magic of the potion had changed the apparent color of the flames from his sword from their normal emerald hue to a more natural orange-yellow.

Cramer, in the meantime, had approached the pleasure slave he'd rented once before and grabbed her wrists while calling for them to stop attacking.  "We're here to free you!" he cried above the din.  That got their attention: the women ceased their halfhearted attacks at once, having fought more from fear of disobeying their master than any real desire to enter combat on their own.

"Got something here," Utred announced as he leaped over the counter and examined the stone wall behind it.  He tossed the proprietor's corpse out of the way to find the trigger mechanism, but find it he did.  "Secret door," he nodded to himself.  "Kids're prolly behind here."

"Do you know anything of eight drow slaves being recently brought here?" asked Cramer.  The pleasure slaves admitted they did immediately, adding there was a horrid minotaur guarding the "training cave" where the kids would be indoctrinated into their new roles by the four drow "educators" responsible for their torture and eventual compliance.

"Then I think it best if you five stay in your rooms until we return with them," the gnome advised.  "We will be back for you, and then we'll take all of you to freedom."  The pleasure slaves were more than happy to follow the gnome's advice, Cramer's former "rental partner" having the presence of mind to lock the front door and put out a "CLOSED" sign to ensure there would be no interruptions during the rescue attempt.  Cramer cast a quick healing spell on Marlo to close up the wound caused by the bolt from the proprietor's hand crossbow, then the sorceress indicated her readiness with a silent nod.

Utred led the charge into the room beyond, activating the secret door and getting in a good slash at the minotaur beyond with his _Elderwood flaming longsword_ before the shaggy beast had fully turned around to see who was entering his domain.  Jhasspok and Khari followed, each likewise bringing their weapons to bear, but it was Marlo who took the minotaur down with a _magic missile_ spell.  The poor thing was dead before it even knew why it was being attacked by a drow cleric and her four henchmen.

There was a spiral staircase in the corner, leading down.  "Wait - I thought the basement was above us," said Marlo, clearly confused.

"It is," replied Utred, pointing down at the stairs leading down.  "We're upside-down on the cavern ceiling, remember?  Down is currently up."

"I hate this place," Marlo reiterated, her head starting to hurt from trying to visualize just exactly where in the Overreach she was.

Utred once again led the formation, heading down the stairs with the others behind him.  As a dwarf, he could see perfectly fine in the pitch blackness of the spiraling tunnel but Marlo, Cramer, and Jhasspok activated their _slave-light cloaks_, causing differently-colored illumination to spill out all about them.  After several complete turns, the stairs leading down became a ramp leading up, for at the transition point was the end of the _reverse gravity_ effect; now the group was climbing upwards along the ramp, the "basement" level actually above the upside-down Punch-a-Drow shop as had been explained.  Marlo's incipient headache began to worsen.

The spiral ramp widened at the end as it spilled into an irregularly-shaped cavern.  Khari raced ahead once he saw a male drow in studded leather armor poking at the unconscious body of a drow girl with an electrified rapier, the tip of the blade making a characteristic "zap" with each poke.  With a battle roar, the dwarven fighter charged at the drow ranger, bringing the head of his warhammer crashing into his ribs.

Hearing the sudden yelp from her subordinate, the leader of the slave trainers turned and saw what appeared to be an armored drow attacking her minion with a warhammer.  Amazed at the audacity, she cast a _Kelgor's fire bolt_ spell at the disguised Hammerslammer dwarf, striking him squarely in the back.  But at the same time Jhasspok followed Khari's path of travel and bolted up from the ramp, cutting the ranger down with his battleaxe.  He, too, looked to be a drow warrior; even his turtle shell shield had been covered by the _disguise self_ spell to give the appearance of a metal shield holding an intricate spiderweb pattern, with the House Jalamir emblem at its center.

Two more drow trainers ran up to the two interlopers, one attacking Khari and one going for Jhasspok, each wielding an electrified rapier, with a short sword in his off hand.  Neither drow managed to hit their targets, for the disguised arena slaves had had plenty of time in which to dodge the incoming blows.

Back down in the ramp, Cramer called hurriedly to Utred, "There's a spellcaster of some sort up there behind us!  You go take them out of action!"  And then he cast a _silence_ spell on the dwarven barbarian, realizing the zone of silence around him wouldn't hamper him in the least - while likely having disastrous effects upon anyone trying to cast a spell with a verbal component (which the clever gnome realized was just about all of them) in his immediate vicinity.  Nodding his agreement, Utred raced up the ramp and around the corner, seeing his spellcasting target for the first time: a female battle-cleric of Lolth by the look of all the spider-emblems she had embedded on her armor.  Her brow furrowed in consternation as she heard no noise accompanying the barbarian's hard-soled boots on the stone of the cavern; then, as sudden realization dawned, she turned to try to flee before he could reach her - to no avail, as Utred's magic longsword cut a deep gash into her side.  But she raced away from the crazed dwarf - who looked to be a high-ranking House Jalamir noble, obviously a magical disguise of some sort - and over towards Cramer, who likewise looked to be a high-ranking member of her House.  She had no idea of Cramer's capabilities but her primary goal was to get outside the range of the area of effect of the _silence_ spell obviously centered on the drow who had attacked her with the _flaming longsword_.  She struck at Cramer with her own weapon as she approached, but missed.

Marlo cast a _magic missile_ at the drow ranger attacking Khari and the dwarven fighter finished off his foe with a well-placed hammer strike.  That was two of the males down - a full 50% of the torturers "instructing" the House Dureem children of their new roles.  Jhasspok hit his own foe with his magic battleaxe, noting the cowering children lining the outer edges of the cavern.  The drow ranger tried to retaliate with a strike of his own but the electrified rapier hit only the lizardfolk's disguised turtle shell shield.  Marlo cast another _magic missile_ spell at the ranger, striking him unerringly.  He staggered under the impact but did not fall.

Cramer took a step backwards and cast a _sound burst_ spell at the drow cleric, hoping to stun her into momentary motionlessness, but she was apparently made of sterner stuff.  But then Utred caught up to her and struck her again with his sword, keeping her encompassed within the field of silence.  Khari ran up to the cleric and struck her with his warhammer from the direct opposite side as Utred, pinning her between them.

The woman acted instinctively, knowing the two dwarves could easily kill her with their weapons and she had no effective spells she could cast without speaking aloud.  But she could trigger the magical _darkness_ effect available to all drow, dropping down (silently, thanks to Cramer's still-active _silence_ spell centered on Utred) to her hands and knees and crawling off to the side.  She knew her foes wouldn't be able to see her, even if they were, like her, a true drow; she suspected this was possibly another attack from a Lesser House trying to take advantage of House Jalamir's temporary weakness after House Dureem's suicidal attack.

Just outside the hemisphere of absolute darkness covering the center of the chamber, Jhasspok traded blows with his dark elf foe, neither seeming able to hit the other.  But then Cramer hit the sole remaining drow ranger with another _sound burst_ spell, and this time the spell was all it took to take the dark elf out of commission.  That left the female cleric as the only remaining combatant and she was somewhere within the half-globe of absolute darkness.  The gnome backed up until he could see both sides of the hemisphere, so he'd hopefully be able to see her when she emerged.  Marlo likewise readied another _magic missile_ spell, to cast at the drow woman once she came within view.

Utred, blind and deaf but well aware that Khari was somewhere in front of him, gave his longsword a tentative swing before him: enough to tell if the woman he'd been fighting was still in place but not enough to go stabbing into Khari if the dwarves were standing closer than the barbarian had imagined.  Khari did likewise with his own weapon, poking out with the hammer's head to gauge her position rather than trying to hit her just yet.  But the dwarves' tentative probes didn't matter in the least, for the cleric had the misfortune of crawling out of her own _darkness_ effect quite literally at Marlo's feet; the sorceress took her out with her readied _magic missile_ spell.

"That should be it," remarked Cramer, dismissing his _silence_ spell.  "Come this way," he yelled to the dwarves, knowing there was an open, spiraling ramp somewhere near them in the hemisphere of sightlessness; no sense in them falling into it and breaking their fool necks.  Then he turned to the drow children they'd come to rescue.  "Don't be afraid of us," he called to them.  "We're here to rescue you.  We'll have you all out of here in no time."

During the time the group had been waiting for the cleric to emerge from the _darkness_ effect, Jhasspok had picked up the unconscious girl and moved her over to the far cavern wall, where she'd be less likely to be affected by any further combat.  Then, as the dwarves emerged, he joined them in checking out the bodies of the drow they'd slain.  The electrified rapiers were interesting, but none of the arena slaves could see themselves using them so they all opted to leave them behind.

Cramer cast a healing spell on the unconscious House Dureem girl, bringing her to full wakefulness.  Then, wanting to leave some sort of message to the House Jalamir members who would at one point investigate this cavern, the gnome had one of the children help him scratch the symbol of House Dureem onto the stone floor of the cavern.  "I want them to know they failed to completely eradicate your House," he told them.  Then the raiders gathered all eight children together and led them back down the ramp, which halfway through the cycle turned into going up the stairs.  (Marlo muttered something under her breath at that point, but none of the children could make out exactly what she said.)  Then, back in the Punch-a-Drow shop proper, they gathered up the five slaves and explained what was going to happen.  "Our story is that we're taking you all away to a gathering of high officials," Marlo said.  "I'll lead the way and these other four will be supposed to be guarding you, so walk single file as if you're not sure what's going on and somewhat afraid.  But we're really going somewhere where you'll be safe and free to live your lives as other than slaves to House Jalamir.  Okay?"

Marlo was greeted with positive responses and she was pleased to see they had all mastered the "looking confused and afraid" part as she led them out of the building, through the House Jalamir slave market, and over to the meeting house where Niradi Ky'hulcressen and her purple-haired Greenvale associate awaited them.  The five sunborn drow who had brought the arena slaves through the Plane of Shadows reappeared, to take the slaves to their new lives in Greenvale.

The arena slaves were taken to a secluded alleyway for the effects of their potions to wear off.  When they once more looked like themselves, one of the sunborn drow returned to their sides.  "You will run now, as if having escaped from your attackers.  You do not know who attacked you or why they wanted you, but when you awoke - perhaps sooner than had been expected - you fled.  Drop your rings as you run; I will gather them back up.  Now go!"

The arena slaves ran, dropping their rings as instructed.  Cramer appreciated the simplicity of the sunborn drow's plan: with Khari and Jhasspok's limited capacity for intrigue - neither was anywhere near the top end of the intellectual scale - it was best for everyone to just play dumb.  And with House Dureem already having attacked House Jalamir and several other Houses likely planning similar assaults, it was completely feasible that the first strike against the Noble House might be against several of their slaves, to torture information from them about their House's weaknesses.

But Cramer knew he'd just made an important blow against the House that had made a slave of him.  One day he'd be back to full freedom but if he had to remain a slave for a bit longer, it was rather fulfilling to be a "secret double slave," to use Jhasspok's term.

- - -

This session was bombarded with puns.  We noticed immediately the similarity between "Dureem" and "dream" and that got the ball rolling.  When we were told we had to rescue eight Dureem children, I piped up with, "The oldest one's name is Dureem Abdul Jabbar," which elicited a groan from Vicki and a demand to hear the other seven names if only to get them out of my system.  Well, I didn't have seven "Dureem" pun names immediately at hand, but we did spend the night commenting on how they were all so "Dureemy" and the like.  And then, at the end, when we had slain the enemies and rescued the eight Dureem slaves, I asked Logan if any of them had the ability to create ironsilk, like Niradi could, and pretended not to remember her title.  Logan responded with "She's an Apprentice Weaver, and no, the slave children aren't trained in that art."  Which was exactly what I had hoped he'd say, as it set me up for, "Oh, so there aren't any Dureem Weavers among them?"  The look on Logan's face showed an eye-rolling dismay at my stupid pun and an equal self-abasement for not having seen that one coming.  Heh heh heh - or, as Jhasspok would put it, "Ssss ssss ssss ssss ssss ssss!"

But Logan's taken to letting the puns roll by him, because he knows there's nothing he can do to put a stop to them.  After all, Dan's as big of an instigator as I am - he still uses the term "Piehole Crescent" to refer to the sunborn drow's Noble House, to which we are all "secret double slaves."

We all leveled up to 5th at the end of this adventure.  Everyone else is sticking with another level of their sole character class, but Jhasspok's adding a level of fighter, so he can get a bonus Weapon Focus (greataxe) feat to help him start pulling his weight a bit better in combat around here.  It's kind of painful for a hulking lizardfolk to be put to shame by a pair of four-foot-tall dwarves!


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## Richards (Mar 21, 2020)

*ADVENTURE 13: DUNGEONS AND DUERGAR*

PC Roster:
Cramer Appleknocker, gnome cleric 5​Jhasspok, lizardman 3/barbarian 1/fighter 1​Khari Hammerslammer, dwarf fighter 5​Marlo Pendragon, human sorcerer 5​Utred "Buckets" Butterflinger, dwarf barbarian 5​
NPC Roster: 
Eri'dia Jalamir, drow sorcerer 1​
Game Session Date: 18 March 2020

- - -

The morning began with a primal scream of rage, which woke the five sleeping arena slaves.  After having been debriefed yesterday about their "abductions" and subsequent "escape" from their "unknown assailants," Calish had removed them from their temporary duties and had them return to their former slave quarters.  Now they leaped up in the darkness of the room - for it was earlier than the normal time for waking and thus the _slave-light torches_ had not been remotely activated - the non-dwarves among them grabbing for and activating their _slave-light cloaks_ to provide some illumination.  "Is everyone okay?" asked Cramer.

The scream that had awakened them all was followed by another, this one recognizably that of a woman, and seemingly caused by pain instead of rage.  Hurriedly, the slaves gathered up their weapons and put on their armor, anticipating another attack upon House Jalamir.  But if this was another attack it was by the most polite drow forces imaginable, for rather than their door being kicked in there was a tentative knock upon it.

Cramer, being the closest to the door, headed over to open it.  Before he could get there the politeness had apparently been extinguished, for a woman's voice called out regally, "Let me in!"  Looking to see the others were all armed and ready, Cramer opened the door - only to see a young female drow storm into the room, cradling her left wrist.  This was someone with whom they were familiar, if not anyone they'd had any personal dealings with: *Eri'dia Jalamir*, youngest daughter of *Matron Jalamir*, the Noble House's leader, and little sister to Calish the slavemaster.  Jhasspok had no idea of the personal link that existed between the two of them: it was Eri'dia who, having gotten sick by some bad clams gathered by the fisherfolk slaves, had insisted Jhasspok be sent to the arena for the Festival of Blood, having mistakenly identified him as the culprit who had gathered up the bad shellfish.  (Jhasspok, however, with his aquatic maneuverability, had been solely a procurer of actual fish; after all, _anybody_ could hunt down a clam or oyster!)

"Heal me, slave," Eri'dia commanded to Cramer, holding her broken wrist out to the little gnome.  Cramer glared in dislike at being ordered about but realized no good would come of disobeying a direct order from a drow, let alone the daughter of his House's leader.  "This may hurt a little," he advised her, pulling her hand out and causing her to wince in pain; the process absolutely wasn't necessary for him to apply a healing spell but he was fairly sure she wouldn't know the difference and he enjoyed making members of the haughty drow race suffer a little when he thought he could get away with it.  "How did this happen?" he asked, casting a _cure light wounds_ from one of his scrolls to deal with the injury.

"My _shunaji_ brother," she snarled, using an obscure drow word for the end of the excretory canal.  "He's all pissed that somebody stole his hard-earned drow pleasure slaves and is venting his frustration on anything and everyone he can.  Just because I'm still two years away from my Ascension to Adulthood ceremony, I'm an acceptable target for his tantrums."  She moved her healed wrist around, ensuring it still had full mobility after Cramer's ministrations.  The thought to thank him for his handiwork never even crossed her mind.

Then, looking around at the five arena slaves, the Jalamir daughter came to an instant decision.  "It would be best if Calish had something to take his mind of his missing pleasure slaves, and I'm thinking a sizable hoard of treasure would do the trick.  Fortunately, I know just where we might be able to get something along those lines."

"'We,' Mistress?" asked Marlo.

"I don't plan on hanging around here for him to smack around," Eri'dia replied.  "My own slaves were working in the mines and accidentally broke through a wall, into what looks to be a duergar tomb.  There's no telling what all might be in there, but the duergar often put a considerable amount of treasure in their burial vaults.  You're all combat fighters: you ought to be able to handle any traps they've left behind to prevent looting.  Come along."

"Now?" asked Khari - he'd been hoping they might get a bite to eat before heading out.  But that was apparently not to be, for such considerations were nothing to the spoiled drow royalty.  "I'll even let you each keep a trinket from the tomb, if it proves to be as rich as I think it is," she said as way of enticement.  Then she exited the room, expecting the five slaves to follow.

They all knew their place in the Overreach hierarchy: they followed, Cramer casting a _longstrider_ spell upon himself to help him keep up with the other, longer-legged members of the group.  Jhasspok, seeing the spellcasting and assuming it was time for such things, offered Marlo a slave token to cast a _mage armor_ spell on him.  She smiled and complied, taking the proffered token not because she needed it but because it would make the lizardfolk happy to have successfully used money.  (He was still struggling with the concept.)  But Marlo also studied the Jalamir noblewoman they followed; if Marlo understood drow society, two years from being an adult would put Eri'dia at 48 years old.  It also explained her garb; unlike nearly all adult female drow, she was not dressed as a priestess of Lolth but rather in a loose gown of dark spider silk.  Perhaps two years hence she would begin her training in the dutiful worship of the Spider-Bitch.  And then Calish wouldn't dare to lay a hand on her in anger - not and be allowed to live, anyway.

A brisk stride through several side tunnels at the far edge of the Underdark city led the group to the mines, where Eri'dia unerringly took them to the newly-unearthed chamber.  An elderly dwarven slave in mining gear met her there.  "We've touched nothing, as per your orders, Mistress," he reported.

"Good," replied the drow.  "You may get back to your duties.  I and these slaves will take it from here."

"Yes, Mistress," replied the elderly dwarf, looking pleased to be able to leave the vicinity, but whether from the unknown forces potentially lurking inside the duergar tomb or the spoiled drow princess herself was difficult to pin down.

Khari approached the hole in the wall, seeing an open chamber beyond.  There was no illumination in the tomb but that didn't matter to a dwarf; the Hammerslammer's darkvision allowed him to see perfectly fine nonetheless.  "Four statues of duergar inside," he reported back to the others, "an' a bunch o' carved inscriptions in th' walls."

"What do they say?" demanded Eri'dia.  She would never have wasted her time learning a language of the lower races.

"Sumpin' ' bout a duergar hero, name o' *Rurgath Stoneaxe*," Khari answered, reading the carved runes in the Dwarven language, shared by dwarves and duergar alike.  He leaned into the room as far as he could to read the rest of the inscriptions without actually stepping foot into the tomb; he might not be the smartest of his people but even he knew stepping into a potentially trapped area was not a good idea.  "Huh.  Says here 'is greatest deed was t' cause the disappearance o' the kingdom of Brunniir."  That, he knew, had happened some fifteen hundred years in the past.  He pulled out his infrequently-used longbow, ready to shoot down anything that might try to approach from the tomb beyond.  Seeing no obvious threats, he gave the four statues a good look-over - he wouldn't put it past the sneaky duergar to have them come to life and attack.  Unfortunately, the dwarven fighter was too far away from them to be able to give them more than a cursory examination, to tell whether they were likely stationary or not.

"Well, if they're gonna attack us if we go in there, let's get 'em going!" said Utred, scrambling past his fellow dwarf and stepping into the tomb.  Sure enough, Khari's fears were immediately realized: these were animated statues, part of a trap to prevent looters from advancing further into the tomb.  But Utred got in the first blow with his greataxe, noting sullenly the stone statues resisted some of the strength of his swing, although he was pleased to see he at least carved a chunk of the statue free with his first strike.  Khari's bow shot had less of an effect, the arrow plunking harmlessly off the statue he shot.

Marlo cast a _magic missile_ spell into the room, hitting one of the statues in the back of the tomb as it moved closer.  After some apparent internal struggle, Eri'dia did likewise, demonstrating she was not only an arcane spellcaster (as Marlo had guessed) but one with less training and experience than the human sorceress had, for while Marlo was now able to send a trio of missiles shooting forth from her fingertips, the drow could only manage one.  Still, Marlo reasoned, any amount of spellpower would be welcome and if Calish's little sister was a sorceress or a wizard, at least she'd be likely to want to stay well behind the others and out of immediate harm's way.  Marlo did _not_ want to have to tell the easily-angered slavemaster they'd gotten his little sister killed, even if it was on a mission she herself had insisted upon leading.

Cramer chose to beef up one of the two dwarves already at the front lines; scrambling over the open hole in the wall, he cast a spell upon Utred and then stepped back out of reach of the approaching duergar statues.  Utred grunted in appreciation of the _shield of faith_ spell; anything that kept the dwarven barbarian in the midst of battle was very welcome!

Jhasspok leaped through the opening in the wall and rushed up to the animated statue threatening Utred.  His battleaxe came swinging down in an arc that landed upon the statue's head but it was deflected by the curve of the statue's carved helmet, looking to have dealt no damage at all to the magical construct.

In a wave, the statues surged forth, three of them surrounding Utred in an arc and the fourth approaching Cramer.  They struck out with the stone weapons carved in their hands.  The little gnome easily avoided the blow headed his way, ducking beneath the swinging axe, but Utred couldn't ward off all three incoming attacks and one of them drew blood.  That fired the flames of rage the barbarian kept just under the surface at most times, fueling the power of his attacks that much more.  His own greataxe chipped further grooves into the first statue's stone form.

Switching to his trusty dwarven warhammer, Khari climbed into the tomb and attacked one of the statues targeting Utred.  Marlo cast another _magic missile_ spell at her initial target, all three blasts striking true, then held back any comments when Eri'dia followed suit again a second or two later with her own single missile of reddish energy and caused the statue to topple over, all traces of an animating spirit gone.  The drow congratulated herself on having slain the construct; Marlo just rolled her eyes.

Cramer stepped back away from the construct attacking him and cast a _bless_ spell encompassing all of the arena slaves and, after a moment's thought, the drow sorceress as well - after all, she was helping to fight their common enemies, no matter how small her own personal contribution to their collected efforts.  The spell didn't help Jhasspok's next attack, though, which did no noticeable damage, but then again neither did any of the three remaining statues' follow-on strikes.  Khari had a little more success with his next hammer-strike, causing a series of cracks to appear from the point of impact on the chest of the construct he hit.  And then Utred finished that one off with another blow of his greataxe, leaving only half of the attacking constructs still up and about.

Marlo cast another _magic missile_ spell at one of the two remaining statues and was a bit surprised when Eri'dia failed to follow her lead.  But the drow had already used up half of her daily allotment of her most powerful spells and wisely decided to let the combat slaves take care of the rest of the animated stone warriors; they seemed to be doing fine on their own (even if she had taken care of one of the duergar statues herself).

Cramer swung his light mace at the statue stepping his way.  The blow struck but didn't seem to do much damage, but then Khari gave it a good slam in the back with his warhammer.  Jhasspok attacked the other one, this time managing to cut a sizable chip in the stone of the construct's shoulder.  Utred's greataxe cut a much deeper groove in the thing's arm.  For their parts, the animated statues fought back but had much less success in taking down the intruders in the tomb.  Marlo finally finished off one of the last two with another trusty _magic missile_ spell while Jhasspok had the satisfaction of cutting down the last one by enlarging the "wound" he'd created in the statue's shoulder with a follow-on strike that sent the crack diagonally all the way through the thing's body, causing it to fall to the tomb floor in two pieces.

And as quickly as that, there was silence in the tomb once again.

But this was apparently just the first chamber, for a heavy-looking set of stone doors to the south promised even more tomb to explore.  With the lizardfolk's help, Utred shouldered the heavy doors open, revealing a set of stone steps leading down to a wide tunnel that paralleled a square opening below it to the east; the steps were twice as big as they needed to be and Utred realized they were likely scaled to the size of an _enlarged_ duergar, for the gray dwarves were known for their _invisibility_ and their ability to expand to twice their normal size.

"Likely more traps in here," Marlo warned, pulling the stopper from a potion vial and drinking down the liquid, activating a _fly_ spell - she wasn't about to step foot into any of the rest of the tomb if she could help it!  Eri'dia stepped up behind her and sent a _dancing lights_ spell down the corridor ahead; the slaves noted her spell consisted of four bright red globes - the same color as the drow's eyes and her _magic missiles_, Cramer realized belatedly.  Squinting in suspicion, Cramer stared at the woman's white hair and, sure enough, he thought he could detect a bit of red along the roots.  But what did this mean?  Was she a sunborn drow, perhaps even a member of House Ky'hulcressen?  That seemed unlikely, given Eri'dia's status as a high-ranking member of the Noble Family of House Jalamir.  Unless, the gnome mused, she was a plant, a secret infiltrator to the House?  This bore some further thought, that was for sure.

"I have an _invisibility purge_ spell ready to cast," he announced to the group.  "Utred, how about giving me a ride on your back?  You're the fastest among us, you could carry me further into the room that way and we could make sure we don't have any _invisible_ duergar waiting, ready to strike."

"Sure, sounds like a plan - hop up."  Cramer cast his spell and then clambered onto the dwarven barbarian's back, settling himself down upon the top of Utred's backpack.

Jhasspok strode purposefully down the stone steps and along the passageway, looking down into the lower room as he approached it.  The floor was some 20 feet below him, with a step pyramid in the middle of the room holding an obelisk on its highest level and four niches carved in the north and east walls - two in each wall - inside which stood what looked to be more duergar statues.  But the _dancing lights_ spell didn't light the interiors of the niches very well, so it was hard for the lizardfolk to see much in the way of details.

Utred raced down the stairs, passing Jhasspok and making it all the way to the far corner of the platform, where it made a right-angle turn to the east along the southern edge of the square chamber.  A second set of oversized stairs led down to the chamber's floor.  Khari raced behind his fellow dwarf, nowhere near as fast as the speedy barbarian - even with a gnome perched on top of his backpack.

The floor the dwarves and lizardfolk had run over was apparently not trapped but Marlo decided she'd take no chances - she flew down the first stairwell and out into the open chamber as soon as she could.  From her vantage point, 20 feet above the chamber's floor, she could see another two niches carved into the wall beneath the corridor to the west, each also filled with a duergar figure.  But of more immediate interest were the two murals on the western wall, each a mosaic made from different-colored gemstones and precious metals.  It looked like Eri'dia had been right: these duergar _had_ buried a fortune in the tomb!

But she doubted such a treasure would be easy to gather without first dealing with the next wave of tomb guardians; no doubt these six duergar statues were also going to animate and attack.  The sorceress decided to beat them to the punch and fired a _scorching ray_ spell at one of the gray dwarf figures in a niche along the northern wall.  It hit the duergar in the chest and set it ablaze.

It also caused it to animate and stagger out into the larger chamber - along with the other five the slaves had already spotted.  All six - even the one on fire - raised a crossbow and aimed at the human floating 20 feet above the floor, hovering between the northern wall and the obelisk in the middle of the chamber.  Six crossbow bolts went flying through the air and six crossbow bolts embedded themselves unerringly into Marlo's body, causing the sorceress to cry out in pain, pass out, and fall forward, the magic of her still-active _fly_ spell causing her to drift slowly to the floor - and eventually into the reach of the animated figures the other slaves could now see were not statues at all but the desiccated remains of once-living duergar warriors.

Eri'dia advanced cautiously down the corridor, not sure of what to make of these undead forms in the chamber below her.  She looked at Marlo's slowly drifting form without concern.

But Cramer was concerned; he leaped down off of Utred's backpack and started running back the way they'd come.  He couldn't get to Marlo to apply a healing spell to her unless close enough to touch her and the way things looked there was no way he'd make it to her in time before the undead corpse creatures were upon her.  So he raised his holy symbol of Fharlanghn and channeled a blast of holy power through it, sending a cone of turning energy upon the undead forms.

The creatures who had just stepped out from the niches below Cramer were the first to react; they began to flee in terror.  To the gnome's surprise, his turning attempt also affected two other undead figures he hadn't even seen were there: a pair of corpse creatures hidden within the illusory obelisk at the center of the chamber.  They, too, fled from the holy symbol in the gnome's hand, clambering down the steps of the pyramid in their haste to get away.  Their desire to get as far away from the gnome as possible had them each ending up in the abandoned niches on the eastern wall where they cowered in place, unable to get any farther away.

Jhasspok ran down the southern stairs, as did Utred, the dwarven barbarian heading straight for the corpse creature nearest him - one which, he noted, was wearing a better set of armor than the others of its kind in the chamber.  That would have been no surprise had the dwarf realized this was the animated body of none other than Rurgath Stoneaxe himself.

Khari saw a corpse creature in the chamber below him and leaped from the overlooking corridor, hoping to land on the undead thing and bring it crashing to the ground.  Unfortunately, the only thing crashing to the ground was Khari himself, having missed his target completely.  Fortunately, the corpse creature had already been successfully turned by Cramer and thus had no thoughts for attacking the downed dwarven fighter in its haste to flee.  And over to the north of the pyramid, Marlo continued falling, her pace that of a feather; by this point she was about 10 feet above the floor, almost within range of the undead on the chamber floor below her.

Eri'dia decided to cast another _magic missile_ spell, sending her single, red bolt of energy flashing across the chamber to strike the corpse-thing already blazing away in flames.  It collapsed, destroyed by this second attack spell after having been most burned away by Marlo's _scorching ray_.  But the drow congratulated herself on another fine kill; she was apparently destined for this line of work!

The three undead not already slain or turned by Cramer reloaded their crossbows and took aim at Khari, the closest intruder still in combat.  Three bolts went flying across the chamber and three bolts went whizzing past the dwarf's ducking head - a much-preferred outcome for the fighter and a better deal than Marlo had gotten (but then what did she expect when she opted not to wear heavy armor like he did?).

Jhasspok felled a fleeing corpse creature as it raced right in front of him in its haste to get away from Cramer.  The other one from the western wall niche raced to the north of the pyramid and ended up cowering in one of the eastern-wall niches, unable to get any further away from the gnome's holy symbol.  But then Cramer called down to Jhasspok: "Catch me!"  The lizardfolk ran to the western wall and held out his arms (momentarily dropping his battleaxe to do so), the gnome leaped off the edge of the platform, and Jhasspok caught him as easily as he would have caught a thrown fish.  He set the gnome down on the floor beside him and stooped to retrieve his weapon; the cleric was already running in Marlo's direction, for she was almost within reach of the corpse creatures below her.  Seeing that, Jhasspok ran over to Marlo and then caught her as well, setting her unconscious (but still breathing) form on the stone floor at his feet.  He debated whether he should pull out the crossbow bolts sticking out of her body from all angles and looked to Cramer for guidance, but the cleric didn't seem concerned about that at the moment.  Instead, he cast his most powerful healing spell available on the sorceress's unmoving form, and as the spell caused her wounds to seal up it had the side effect of popping the bolts out of her like watermelon seeds being spit out.

Rurgath began climbing the southern set of stairs in an attempt to maximize his distance from the gnome cleric and Utred chased after him, slamming his greataxe into the undead thing's body.  Khari sent his warhammer crashing into one of the undead duergar over by Jhasspok and Cramer, while Eri'dia - still up on the wide corridor overlooking the chamber below - sent the last of her _magic missiles_ for the day slamming into another of the remaining undead.  Khari and Jhasspok found themselves under physical attack by the corpse creatures, each of the strikes of their duergar warhammers hitting true.  Jhasspok retaliated with a hit from his battleaxe but while the weapon's blade bit deep it didn't seem to bother the undead creature much.  He snapped at the corpse creature with a mouth filled with sharp teeth and found he didn't much care for the taste - he'd long believed "meat is meat" when it came to food, but this particular meat was no longer edible.

Rurgath made it to the corner and spun about, putting Eri'dia into his sights (the drow hesitantly cast a _ray of frost_ spell his way but failed to hit anywhere near him), but then he was taken down by another axe-strike by Utred.  Then, surprisingly, the cowering undead duergar in the eastern niche stepped completely through the stone wall of the alcove and disappeared from view, until he popped back out of the wall at the southeastern corner of the room.  He began climbing up the steep steps towards Utred, forcing the dwarven barbarian to run back down the steps to intercept him - he was certainly getting a workout in this fight!

Two of the undead fell almost at the same time, one succumbing to Khari's warhammer and the other to another _scorching ray_ spell from Marlo, back to fighting trim if not full power.  Those still remaining continued their attacks upon Khari and Jhasspok - at least, until Cramer held forth his holy symbol and turned them as well.  They proved to be not much of a threat after that, concerned only with fleeing the gnome cleric, and they were quickly taken down by the close-quarters combatants among the arena slaves.

With combat over, the slaves began the process of looting the bodies of the corpse creatures they'd destroyed.  Eri'dia came down to the lower chamber now that it was safe to do so and examined the murals.  She was clearly surprised by what she saw.  The first mural showed what looked to be a mass of black tentacles rising up from the ground; the tips of several of them were a silvery color, apparently caused by the touch of a man in silver robes.  The second mural had a giant, pink worm in the foreground; it had four tentacles coming out of its mouth and it faced a group of five individuals: from the looks of them, a pair of armored dwarves, a gnome, a slight human woman in robes, and a lizardfolk.  They stood between the monster worm and a pair of enormous black tentacles rearing up behind them.

Brows furrowed in puzzlement, Eri'dia looked from the second mural to the five slaves gathering up weapons from the downed corpse creatures.  Cramer met her gaze and looked over at the murals himself.  "That's an odd coincidence," he said, hoping to dampen any theories the House Jalamir drow noble might have about the reasons their arena slaves were depicted in a mural in a duergar tomb.  But he was mentally recalling the three prophecies written in the tome N'zorthal had taken from them: "The metal man reborn from Hell shall seal the Dying One in an eternal prison"; "The dark champions shall stand before the worm"; and the third one which the goblin doing the translations could make no sense of.  It seemed the duergar could make no sense of the third prophecy, either, given they had left space for a third mural but never designed it.

However, Utred and Khari, using their innate dwarven sensitivities to all things related to stoneworking, discovered a hidden chamber beneath the illusory obelisk and inside were tens of thousands of gold coins and a few magic items.  That served to distract Eri'dia from putting too much thought in the murals.  She pulled a black handkerchief from her gown, unfolding it and placing it flat upon the stone floor.  "Place the loot in there," she commanded, not bothering to do any of the grunt-work herself but watching intently to ensure none of the slaves thought to pocket a coin or two for themselves.  (She did, however, honor her agreement to allow each slave to keep a "trinket" for themselves.)  The slaves were amazed that the black cloth, when unfolded, had become the opening to an extradimensional space; Cramer claimed he'd heard of such things, called _portable holes_.  The drow didn't bother validating his claims; what were the musings of a slave to one such as she?

"Do you want us to pry loose them gemstones?" asked Utred once all of the other loot had been dropped into the _portable hole_.  Eri'dia's gaze had wandered back to the twin murals once the hidden loot from beneath the pyramid had been stashed away.

"...No.  Not right now," Eri'dia answered absently - in her distraction by the images on the mosaics, she had failed to note the dwarven slave had failed to address her by her honorific.  "There's no rush, after all - I think I'll have some of our House scholars and diviners study it before they get dismantled."  But then her brooding ended, replaced with a more positive expression.  "Besides, the coins we've unearthed will no doubt brighten Calish's outlook considerably!  Come - let's get back to him at once!"

Sure enough, upon their return to Overreach and subsequent turning over of the loot they'd amassed, Calish's attitude changed from anger over his missing pleasure slaves to amazement at the riches before him.  The arena slaves were casually sent away while Eri'dia basked in her brother's change of attitude.

Back in their chamber, the group discussed among themselves about the possibility of Eri'dia being a sunborn drow, a secret member of House Ky'hulcressen, or possibly even of Greenvale.  (Jhasspok liked the idea of her being a "secret double drow.")  But it wasn't anything they could ask her directly, in case she was firmly a House Jalamir supporter.  After all, she might very well be a sunborn drow captured by House Jalamir and set in place as one of their nobility for reasons of their own.  Cramer decided it would be best not to mention it to her at all (for how could they explain their own knowledge of Greenvale's biggest secret?), but to get word to House Ky'hulcressen and let them figure it out.  The gnome volunteered to do just that; at his size, he was best suited for sneaking about the city.

The next day, while visiting the House Jalamir slave market (and noting the "Closed Until Further Notice" sign on the "Punch-a-Drow" shop), the arena slaves met up with a House Ky'hulcressen agent.  They asked him if there had been any kidnapped sunborn drow children 48 years ago or so.  The agent replied he didn't know of any such occurrence, but 48 years ago the House Jalamir Matron Mother led a surface raid herself.  Since the only requirement to be a sunborn drow was to give birth on the surface while exposed to the sun, it was entirely possible Eri'dia was an accidental sunborn drow.  The agent certainly had no information indicating Eri'dia was anything but completely loyal to her own House.

Curious, Cramer made sure to be in a position to walk past Eri'dia the following day while going about one of his chores, giving him the opportunity to cast a _detect evil_ spell upon her.  If, as he suspected was at least possible, she was a Greenvale ally, he'd expect she wouldn't read as evil.  However, the results were inconclusive: while she certainly detected as evil by his spell, she was nowhere near the level of evil of a standard, run-of-the-mill drow.  She was certainly the _least_ evil of any member of House Jalamir the gnome's surreptitious spellcasting had yet detected.

_Interesting_, the gnome cleric mused to himself.

- - -

We each got a "trinket" from this adventure, as follows:

Cramer ended up with a _lesser strand of prayer beads_
Jhasspok took the battleaxe used by Rurgath Stoneaxe - it's a _+2 variable aim battleaxe_, allowing the wielder to reallocate one or two points of its overall +2 bonus from damage to the attack roll (kind of a Power Attack in reverse)
Khari got the _+1 earth glide warhammer_, which allows him to pass through solid rock or earth like an earth elemental as long as he starts and ends each round outside of such barriers
Marlo took an _iridescent spindle ioun stone_, allowing her to go without breathing if necessary
Utred took a _+2 amulet of health_, granting him a 21 Constitution and a whopping 76 hit points as a 5th-level PC!  (He also got Jhasspok's hand-me-down _+1 battleaxe_.)

In addition, we're now close enough to 6th level that it's practically a shoo-in that we'll level up at the end of the next session.


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## The Green Hermit (Mar 21, 2020)

I'm liking the new addition!


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## Richards (Mar 28, 2020)

*ADVENTURE 14: ASCENT OF THE MORTAL QUEEN*

PC Roster: 
Cramer Appleknocker, gnome cleric 5​Jhasspok, lizardman 3/barbarian 1/fighter 1​Khari Hammerslammer, dwarf fighter 5​Marlo Pendragon, human sorcerer 5​Utred "Buckets" Butterflinger, dwarf barbarian 5​
Game Session Date: 25 March 2020

 - - -

The _slave-light torches_ illuminated all at once, bringing the sleeping figures into sudden wakefulness.  As one, the five slaves crawled out of their pallets and put on their garments and armor, gathering up their weapons and gear.  There was no telling what kind of assignments they'd be given today but experience had shown it was always best to be prepared - their drow masters tolerated no delays in having their orders obeyed.

Almost immediately, a deep, booming voice began blaring some unknown message through the air - unknown only because none of the slaves understood the drow language; they could all by this point determine it was in fact Drow being spoken.  "Wonder what that's all about?" groused Utred.

"You know, I think I'll find out!" announced Marlo, unrolling a scroll and reading off the words to a _comprehend languages_ spell.  She then listened intently, staring up at the ceiling as she concentrated on what was being said.  None of the others bothered her, realizing she'd translate for them after the message had ended.  Cramer did notice, however, that the message was repeated a second time all the way through, or at least he thought he heard the same words being repeated; this must be a rather important message, if one intended only for the drow of the city and not the slaves.

"Well?" he asked after the booming voice finally stopped speaking.

"I'll have to paraphrase.  The Matron Mother of House Bel'vior - the senior Noble House of Overreach - has died and her firstborn daughter has proclaimed herself not only the new Matron Mother of her House but also the 'Mortal Queen' of the entire drow race, Lolth being the 'Immortal Queen.'  She claims Overreach has been infiltrated by heretics of Eilistraee and says they can be identified by their abnormal hair color.  She orders they are to be put to death wherever they are found and that any House found harboring them will be purged by Lolth's divine power.  Finally, all Houses are to prepare their armies, for in three months they will march upon the source of the Eilistraeean heretics, the surface city of Greenvale."

"That's not good!" Khari said.  "Do you think they know about our ties with Greenvale?"

"I doubt it," reasoned Marlo.  "They could have _scried_ upon us entering the surface city, but the modifications made to our slave tattoos should have blocked them from seeing any of our dealings with the sunborn drow."

"'Should have,'" repeated Cramer, clearing his mind to prepare his spells for the day - a process he'd best get going now, while he had the time.  But his attempts failed miserably; every time he tried clearing his mind to receive the wisdom and grace of Fharlanghn, he got the distinct feeling that invisible spiders were crawling over his body.  Finally, instinctively brushing down his arms to rid himself of skittering arachnids that weren't really there, he admitted to the others, "Something's blocking my connection to my god - I can't prepare any new spells!"

"That's not good!" repeated Khari.  But before anyone could ponder what this might mean or the overall implications of the new Mortal Queen of Overreach, Eri'dia burst into the room.  "Block the door!" she said in a tone that was half command and half pleading.  She slumped over into the corner of the room, by Marlo's sleeping pallet, sobbing.  Jhasspok, the closest to the door and the bulkiest of the five slaves, stood immediately in front of it, blocking it with his body.

"What's wrong?" Marlo asked, belatedly adding, "...Mistress?"

"I fear my mother, the matriarch of House Jalamir, will kill me," the drow princess replied.  Khari's bushy eyebrows rose in surprise at this announcement; he'd never made the connection that Eri'dia was the daughter of the House's leader.  That meant Calish was the Matron's son, if he was Eri'dia's sister; he'd never made that connection before, either.  "I didn't know where else to go," Eri'dia admitted.  "Despite only having really formally met you yesterday, you're the closest thing I have to...friends in the city."  She looked up at them, fear in her eyes.  "You have to protect me!"

"What makes you think your mother wants to kill you?" asked Cramer, playing dumb about having already heard the announcement broadcast earlier in a language he didn't understand.  Eri'dia gave a brief synopsis of the edicts of the new Matron Mother of Bel'vior while Marlo cast an _invisibility_ spell upon the cowering princess.  And not a moment too soon, either, for almost immediately the door crashed into Jhasspok as someone tried barging into the room.  "Let me in!" demanded a stern voice the lizardfolk recognized immediately.  He knew better than to disobey; stepping aside, the door swung open and Calish Jalamir strode into the slaves' room, a pair of drow bodyguards flanking him.

"Where is she?" he demanded.

Jhasspok pointed at the human sorceress, wearing a confused expression on his face.  "Marlo is right there, Master," he replied.

"Not her--my sister, Eri'dia!"

"As you can see, Master, she isn't here," Cramer replied, his face a mask of puzzled concern.

"She entered this room recently," Calish countered, turning to face Jhasspok.  "Why were you blocking the door?" he demanded.

"I was just standing there, Master," Jhasspok replied.  "I didn't know you were coming."

Calish glared at the lizardfolk, who looked down at him with a look of confused innocence on his reptilian face.  "Did Eri'dia come into this room?" the slavemaster asked again.

"Yes, Master," Jhasspok replied at once.  Unseen, Khari winced; he was under the impression they were trying to help Eri'dia.  It sure didn't take the lizard long to fold under the slavemaster's fierce gaze!

"When?" Calish demanded.

"Yesterday, Master," Jhasspok said - quite truthfully.  "She needed Cramer to heal her wrist, and then she said we were to go with her to a duergar tomb--"

"I'm talking about today!  This morning!" Calish exploded.  "She entered this room just minutes ago!"

"She did?" Utred said, looking around the room in confusion, scratching his head.  "I don't see her anywhere, Master."

"This is the only way in or out," pointed out one of the drow bodyguards, standing before the door to the room, which he'd closed behind him upon their entry into the slave quarters.  "If she's in here, there's no other way out."  Over in the corner, the invisible Eri'dia did everything she could to remain absolutely silent, holding in her labored breathing as she watched the slaves do their best to keep her from being found.

"But she's a spellcaster," argued Cramer.  "If she came in here without our knowing it, she could just as easily have _teleported_ away or something."  He knew this was absolute nonsense - Eri'dia was nowhere near powerful enough to cast such high-level magic - but he figured he might as well stir up some doubts; after all, how likely was it Calish would pay attention to the relative spellcasting power of his little sister, who had not yet attained adulthood in the eyes of drow society?

"If you are hiding her," Calish snarled, "I will feed every last one of you to N'zorthal when he returns!"  He turned to one of his bodyguards.  "That one," he said, pointing to Cramer.  With a wicked smile, the guard unsheathed his rapier and advanced upon the gnome.  Cramer knew better than to try to resist; he stood there stoically while the drow fighter stabbed him with the point of his weapon.  A zap of electricity struck the gnome at the touch and he winced in pain.  "Where is Eri'dia?" Calish asked again.

"I do not know, Master," Cramer replied, thinking to himself, _That's technically true: I know where she was when Marlo cast the spell on her, but for all I know she might have moved position since._  This was the kind of thinking he'd have to get ready for, because the gnome anticipated interrogation under a _zone of truth_ spell in his immediate future...or at least he hoped so.  He was reasonably sure he could beat a _zone of truth_ spell with evasive and technically-true answers, but if they just went straight to torture...well, that was an entirely different matter altogether.

Calish was getting visibly frustrated; he knew full well his sister had opened the door to the slave quarters for the _alarm_ spell had informed him of the fact.  However, it was entirely possible the slaves were as clueless about Eri'dia's presence as they claimed....  Finally, he came to a decision.  "Everyone into the corner," he demanded.  By chance, he chose the corner where Eri'dia was still cowering, invisibly.  The slaves, in a show of immediate submission to their slavemaster, did as they were told.  Marlo pressed up against Eri'dia, trying to shield her with her own body.  Then the three male drow, standing in the middle of the room, blanketed the room in _faerie fire_ spells, outlining each slave in a glow of colored light - and an additional, cowering figure in the corner of the room behind them. "Aha!" the slavemaster cried in triumph.  "Got you!"

The jig obviously up, the five slaves made a big production of "noticing" the invisible-but-outlined-in-the-glow-of-_faerie-fire_ shape of Eri'dia behind them and stepped quickly away.  They'd done their best to shield her from her brother but now that she was caught there was little more they could do for her; time to look after their own safety!  Of course, Cramer mused, they could have attacked the three drow but then they'd have to try to make it out of the city alive and Cramer wasn't about to leave Overreach until he had found and rescued his friend, Honeycomb Buzzwort.

The drow guards stepped up and grabbed Eri'dia by the arms.  She gave no resistance and no indication the slaves had tried to aid her.  "Take her to the Matron Mother," Calish ordered and the two drow fighters departed the room with their prisoner.  Then, alone with five well-armed and armored slaves - and not at all concerned about the situation - he turned to Cramer and demanded, "Prepare any spells you have to discern the truth.  I will return for you when you are needed."  And with that, he spun on his heels and stormed out of the room, giving Jhasspok a stern look as he left.  Surprisingly, although the door to their quarters had no lock upon it, it was immediately covered in a greenish glow and when Jhasspok tried opening it, it wouldn't budge.

"Magically locked," Cramer explained.  "We can't get out."

"Well, I can," Khari pointed out, hefting his new warhammer.  It allowed him to pass through dirt and stone as if they weren't even there; getting through the stone wall of their slave quarters would be child's play to the dwarven fighter.

"To what end?" Cramer asked, settling himself back down onto his pallet.  He tried clearing his mind to focus on his spells again and was pleased to find the sensation of spiders crawling all over him was not repeated.  The prayers came easily to him as they always had in the past.

"No breakfast again," muttered Utred to himself.  He lay back down upon his pallet.  If they were stuck in lock-down, he'd try to go back to sleep.

Three hours passed before Calish returned, the greenish glow disappearing a moment before he stepped into the room.  The five slaves, wanting to give the appearance of their complete and total submission, snapped to attention at his approach.  "Some ground rules," he said without preamble.  "Do not speak in the Matron Mother's presence unless prompted to do so.  If you must look her way, be sure you focus your gaze toward her ankles.  If you do anything to upset her, she will strike you.  The first time will be with the back of her hand, the second time with her scourge, and the third time she won't stop until you've ceased moving altogether, at which time the rest of you will be ordered to toss the corpse off a balcony.  Questions?"

Cramer had several but he allowed himself to reply, "No, Master" with the rest of the group.

"Good.  Then follow."  And he strode back out the door, leading the five slaves down a corridor, along several side branches, and eventually to the House Jalamir shrine to Lolth.  In the chamber just outside the shrine stood a human in red robes, bending over a table upon which lay several body parts, their dark coloration showing them to have been severed from a drow - or, more likely, from several drow, given their number.  The man was rummaging among the parts and finding the pieces he sought, then stitching them back together.  There was another table behind him, upon which lay five bodies, each already stitched back up.  As the group got closer, Marlo felt her gorge rising as she realized all of the bodies looked like Eri'dia.  She first wondered if the drow princess had been born with identical siblings, until a more logical - and horrific - explanation entered her thoughts.  She recalled when Cramer had had his brain devoured by the illithid Administer of Discipline, he'd been forced to wear a _ring of regeneration_ so the process could be repeated multiple times.  Marlo imagined poor Eri'dia had been likewise forced to wear such a ring as her body was hacked into pieces, over and over again.  And upon orders given by her own mother!

Wordlessly, Calish stepped past the tables with their grisly contents and opened the double door to the shrine in the back.  He then, with a gesture, ushered the slaves inside.  After they passed silently into the room, he closed the doors behind them, remaining outside the shrine with the red-robed human slave.

At the back of the shrine, Eri'dia dangled by chains at her wrists above a raised altar, naked and head hanging limply.  Her left leg had been severed just below the knee, but as the slaves watched it was slowly growing back, powered by the glowing ring on Eri'dia's left hand.  Also of note was the fact her entire head of hair was pure red, although whether because it was her natural sunborn coloration or due to the bloodstains was open to debate.  Matron Jalamir stood before her daughter, her back to the slaves; on the altar were various tools of the torturer's trade.

With a snap of her fingers the doors to the shrine glowed with a greenish cast, sealing everyone inside.  Then she spun around, facing the slaves.  They were quick to lower their gaze to her ankles, as they'd been instructed.  "Do not resist," she commanded imperiously, then began casting a _discern lies_ spell.  None of the slaves dared try to prevent the spell from taking effect.  Upon its completion, she stepped down from the altar and stood in the back, by the doors.  "There is a list of instructions on the altar, gnome," she said.  "Go forth and do as they say."

The other slaves stood transfixed in a row as Cramer silently approached the altar.  Sure enough, there was a parchment scroll there.  Unrolling it and reading its contents, he did the first thing on the list: cast a _zone of truth_ spell around the altar.  He'd had a feeling there would be such a spell in his immediate future - he just hadn't counted on him being the one to cast it.

The rest of the scroll was a list of questions.  He read each of them in turn, as Matron Jalamir watched impassively from the back of the room.

"Are you a servant of Eilistraee?"

Eri'dia didn't have the strength to lift her head, but she managed to whisper a response.  "...No."  In the silence of the shrine, her answer was perfectly audible to all within the room.

Cramer continued, "Have you ever been a servant of Eilistraee?"

"No."

"Have you ever been in contact with a servant of Eilistraee?"

"Not...that I...know of."

"Have you ever been to Greenvale?"

"No."

"Have you ever been in contact with Greenvale?"

"No."

"Why is your hair red?"

"I...don't know."

That was the last of the questions written on the sheet of parchment, but Matron Jalamir had another one: "Gnome, do _you_ know why Eri'dia's hair is red?"

Cramer had known this was going to happen - but he was prepared.  Despite being within the area of effect of the _zone of truth_ spell, his answer, "I do not," was accepted because there was some wiggle room as to if it was the blood or Eri'dia's status as a sunborn drow that was currently responsible for the color of the drow's hair.

Apparently content with the answers she had received, Matron Jalamir approached her daughter.  As Cramer stepped aside, his head hanging low and his gaze directed downwards so as not to offend the ruler of the Noble House, the drow priestess picked up a metal rod from the altar.  She grabbed her daughter by the hair, raised her head, and slammed the rod against Eri'dia's neck.  Upon impact, the metal writhed and reshaped, curving around the contour of the sunborn drow's neck and reforming into a slave collar.  The Matron then undid the chains from the shackles around her daughter's wrists, leaving the shackles in place.  Eri'dia stumbled, barely keeping on her feet - especially given that one of them had only just recently grown back.

Pulling the _ring of regeneration_ from Eri'dia's hand, Matron Jalamir turned and said dismissively, "Take care of your new pet until I decide what to do with her in the long run."

"Yes, Matron Mother," Cramer answered for the group as Jhasspok stepped forward to catch Eri'dia as she fell forward.  He lifted her effortlessly in his arms.  The sealed double doors opened at Matron Jalamir's touch and the slaves - six of them now - followed in her wake, although their paths soon diverged, the slaves heading back to their own quarters.

"What was the deal with those stitched up bodies on the table?" Marlo asked as they walked.

"Flesh golems," Cramer reasoned.  "Waste not, want not - they had the pieces, after chopping her to bits, over and over."

"That's horrible!"

"I dunno if you've noticed," Utred commented in a low voice, "but these are not nice people."

They approached the door to their quarters.  "Put her on my pallet for now," Marlo offered and the lizardfolk complied.  Marlo pulled a blanket over the sunborn drow, who fell quickly into an exhausted sleep.  Marlo pulled a spare garment out of her pack and left it folded at the foot of the sleeping pallet for Eri'dia when she awoke.  The door to the slave quarters was not locked but none of the slaves dared exit until being told to - these were dangerous times.  Nobody came by to check on Eri'dia nor, to Utred's consternation, did anybody come by to see that the slaves were fed; they had to make do with dried provisions from their travel packs.  Eventually, at evening, the _slave-lights_ extinguished and there was nothing else to do but go to sleep; Jhasspok offered Marlo his pallet and blanket; as a lizardfolk, he was content to crouch in place in a corner and sleep squatting down, propped with his tail.

Night passed somewhat uneasily.  Eri'dia made whimpering noises sporadically throughout the night but never fully woke until the next morning, when the reactivation of the _slave-light torches_ announced that the drow city's official daytime had begun.  Calish strode boldly into the room shortly thereafter.  "You have a new assignment," he announced, looking around the room but studiously ignoring the cringing form of his little sister hunched in Marlo's bunk area.  Jhasspok waited expectantly, hoping against hope it might involve catching fish in the bioluminescent Underdark sea.

"You will escort the Matron Mother and myself to an undisclosed location," he said, dashing Jhasspok's hopes - but they had been a long shot, the lizardfolk realized.  "Once there, you will guard the entrance of the building with your lives while we're inside.  You are to proclaim yourselves as Matron Jalamir's personal guard; that should ward off any interruptions, for an attack upon the Matron's guard is the same as an attack upon her person, and an attack upon her is an attack upon the entire House.  If that doesn't dissuade them, you are authorized to use deadly force to ensure we are not disturbed."

"Even if they're drow, Master?" Cramer asked.  He well knew their slave tattoos had been altered to allow them to attack drow without repercussions, but the gnome also knew Calish was unaware of the alterations that had been made.  By asking the question, he was making sure the slavemaster's permission would give them a plausible reason not to have to fake being harmed for the effrontery of attacking a drow.

"Even if they're drow," Calish replied.  Cramer bit down on the wide grin that threatened to spread across his face.  "Now come.  We will leave your new pet behind."  Marlo looked worriedly at the still form of Eri'dia, but then followed the others out of the room and up a flight of stairs, leading to the top level of the column which House Jalamir occupied.  They went through the gravity-switch and ended up walking upside-down upon the ceiling of the Great Cavern, into the chaos of the out-buildings surrounding the vast pillar.  Walking through the narrow alleys, Cramer realized they were heading somewhere they'd been before, very recently: the building in which they'd met with Niradi Ky'hulcressen when she gave them their assignment to rescue the House Dureem pleasure slaves.  He stiffened, worried they were being led here to be accused of having dealings with sunborn drow but forced himself to remain calm and give no obvious indication of nervousness.  No sense in giving himself away - this might well be nothing more than a coincidence.

"Remain here," commanded Calish as he and the Matron Mother stepped inside the building.  He closed the door behind him.  Dutifully, the slaves took up positions in the narrow alley.  This was the only way into the building, and the two directions of the street posed the only way to approach the door, for climbing over the buildings would put one outside the effect of the _reverse gravity_ field, ending in a half-mile plummet to the bioluminescent Underdark sea below - or seemingly directly above them, given their current perspective.

After about an hour of pointless (and boring) guarding the door, a group of heavily armed drow entered the alley from the eastern side.  Their forces consisted of four armored males led (from the back) by an armored drow woman.  Jhasspok, standing in a choke-point in the narrow alley, warned them off.  "We are the personal guards of Matron Jalamir," he announced.  "Nobody is allowed past us."

"Stand aside, slave, or be purged with all who stand in the way of the Mortal Queen's inquisitors!"

Jhasspok thought this over for a moment.  As a lifelong slave, he'd been conditioned to obeying the orders of the drow - any drow.  House Jalamir, he knew, was ranked third among the Eight Ruling Houses; House Bel'vior, which the "Mortal Queen" ruled, was the First House - this would logically mean the orders of the Matron Mother of House Bel'vior superseded the orders of any other drow in the city.  But Jhasspok was already a "secret double slave," working for House Ky'hulcressen on the sly despite being part of House Jalamir, and Ky'hulcressen was but the Eighth of the Eight Noble Houses, the lowest-ranking of them all.  Ah, all this intrigue stuff hurt the lizardfolk's brain!  But still, he rolled the new orders around in his mind and came up with an answer.

"No," he said, readying his battleaxe for combat.  His tail helped distribute his weight evenly as he crouched low, ready to spring into action.  "And," he added as an afterthought, "you're supposed to be looking at my ankles."  Khari stepped up beside him, his _earth glide warhammer_ likewise readied for action.  Marlo placed a hand upon the lizardfolk's shoulder and cast a _mage armor_ spell on him; Jhasspok made a mental note to give the sorceress a slave token as payment for the spell.

The two drow fighters first in line (for the narrow alleyway made it impossible for more than two to walk side by side) stepped up to attack Jhasspok and Khari, their longswords flashing in the illumination of the _slave-light cloaks_ the arena slaves wore.  Jhasspok dodged the incoming strike but then missed with his own counterstrike - but his powerful jaws clamped down upon the drow's shoulder, dealing damage where his battleaxe had failed to do so.  Khari and his own foe each managed to connect with glancing blows, neither dropping their enemy.  In the meantime, at a signal from their female leader, the other two fighters dashed off to the side, making their way behind the building to their left to come up to the meeting hall from the opposite direction.

*Melidar*, a holy fighter in the service of Lolth, cast a _bane_ spell upon the group of five slaves impeding her progress.  Oddly enough Khari and Jhasspok, the closest to her, were the only two unaffected by her spell.  Utred looked longingly at the battle raging before him but forced himself to remain in position directly in front of the door he was guarding.  Cramer, by his side, handily undid the effects of the _bane_ spell with a _bless_ spell of his own, aiding Jhasspok and Khari in their own strikes against their common enemies.  The effects were instantly discernible as the lizardfolk's _variable aim battleaxe_ came crashing down upon the shoulder of the drow fighter he faced and Khari sent his warhammer swinging into the side of his own foe.

Marlo, back out of range of the swinging blades of the drow, cast a _magic missile_ spell at the fighter attacking Jhasspok but the spell, which struck unerringly in all cases, merely fizzled away into nothingness as it hit its target; belatedly Marlo recalled the drow's inherent ability to frequently shrug off the effects of spells cast at them.  Behind her drow minions, Melidar cast a spell that caused her eyes to glimmer black like shiny obsidian as she focused her magical eyesight to pierce the auras of those arrayed before her.  It was with disappointment she saw that only the warhammer-wielding dwarf had an aura of goodness about him; he, then, would serve as her primary target.

Utred hit the switch that sent the hand crossbow strapped to his beefy forearm into its ready-to-fire configuration and sighted down its length at Jhasspok's current enemy.  He fired off his shot, the bolt flying past Marlo's head and into the drow's upper arm.  Well, Utred had been trying for a head shot but he'd take what he could get.  At his side, Cramer cast a _sound burst_ spell carefully targeted to encapsulate only the three drow he could see, but of the three only Jhasspok's foe failed to shrug off the spell's effects.  As a result, that particular drow stopped fighting, temporarily stunned, and both Jhasspok and Khari took advantage of his momentary helplessness to get in a couple of good blows with their weapons.  Marlo tried again - and failed again - with another _magic missile_ spell.  She swore to herself, angered at the drow's inherent resistance to spells.

Melidar tried to pull the stunned fighter standing in front of her out of the way, but before she could pull him to safety the lizardfolk had ripped the drow's throat out with his teeth.  The corpse went flying to the side behind her, but she stepped into his place and used a _smite good_ attack channeled through her weapon, striking Khari to deadly effect.  The Hammerslammer dwarf nearly buckled, staying on his feet by pure force of will.

That was the breaking point for Utred.  He abandoned his post - after first seeing nobody was approaching from the other way yet - and pulled Khari back out of harm's way.  "Get t' Cramer fer healing!" he advised, bringing his _Elderwood flaming longsword_ crashing into the drow fighter's side.  Cramer met the staggering dwarf halfway, casting a _cure serious wounds_ spell on him; it was enough to undo most of the damage caused by the Spider-Bitch's unholy power being channeled through her mortal servant's blade.

Jhasspok hit the drow fighter with his battleaxe, hoping to take him out quickly so he and Utred could gang up on the female, who of the two seemed by far the tougher.  Khari, by this time ready to get back into the fight, saw there was no room for him to get back in and dejectedly took up Utred's former position guarding the door to the meeting hall.  He could hear the heavy footsteps of the drow inquisitors rounding the opposite building, ready to turn the corner and approach from the other direction.

Marlo decided to stop with the _magic missiles_ for a bit and cast a more powerful spell, _scorching ray_, at Melidar.  This time she met with much more success, as evidenced by the look of pain crossing the drow holy fighter's face as the blast of flame scorched her badly.  The fighter by her side made a final attack upon Utred before being taken down by the barbarian's green-flamed longsword.

Melidar responded immediately with an _inflicting touch_, whereupon she sent negative energy coursing through her fingertips to disrupt the dwarf's very life energy.  Seeing this - and hearing Utred's involuntary cry of pain - Cramer stepped forward and cast another _cure serious wounds_ spell.  Jhasspok swung his blade at the female drow, hitting her armored form; it was difficult for the lizardfolk to tell whether he'd done much damage to her at all.  She then cast a _contagion_ spell at Jhasspok and was similarly unsure if it had had any effect; the lizardfolk wasn't even sure what she'd tried to do, but whatever it was it didn't seem to have any ill effect on him so he ignored it.

By now, the other two drow fighters were advancing upon the door; Khari took a step forward and anticipated their approach, his warhammer at the ready.  Seeing this, Marlo spun about and sent another _scorching ray_ spell at one of the fighters, hitting him straight on.  He took the pain stoically, not letting it interfere with his attack upon Khari, whose hammer was busy striking the other drow in the side of the head.

With a sudden cry of rage, Utred exploded into Melidar, his longsword clanging against the metal of her armor, even as Cramer pumped another healing spell into him to keep him in the fight.  Jhasspok did likewise, letting the fires of rage burn through him and power his own attacks in the way he'd seen Utred do.  The woman no longer seemed at her top form, an encouraging sight to see.

Khari took out his drow target with another blow of his warhammer, caving in the side of the fighter's skull.  He dropped lifelessly to the street as another _scorching ray_ spell slammed into his partner.  As Khari was the only combatant within reach, the drow swung his own blade at the dwarven fighter, scoring a hit.

By then, Melidar realized she'd have to take out that pesky gnome if she was going to have any chance at slaying the others - he was healing them as fast as they were wounded!  Stepping contemptuously past Jhasspok (and receiving a powerful blow from his battleaxe in the process), she was likewise hit by Utred's own blade before she could bring hers to bear on Cramer.  But she did get in her hit, eventually, forcing Cramer to back away and cast a healing spell upon himself for once.  That only made Melidar angrier; she stepped forward to cut down the cleric of Fharlanghn but was herself cut down, Jhasspok's _variable aim battleaxe_ sticking out of her back as she pitched forward, dead, onto the street.

There was now only one enemy still in combat and Utred wasted no time reaching Khari's side so the two dwarves could bring him down together.  Then, after determining there were no other enemies approaching from either direction, the group grabbed what they could from the bodies of their slain foes.  Utred took Melidar's black shield - Marlo said it had a magical enhancement - and Khari likewise stripped one from the drow fighter he'd slain.  Nobody wanted any of the longswords they'd wielded, not trusting that they - like many drow weapons - wouldn't become all but useless under the rays of the sun.

Shortly thereafter, the door opened and a drow woman bearing an unlikely resemblance to Niradi (not surprising, as it was her mother, Matron Ky'hulcressen herself) stepped out.  She looked disparagingly at the dead bodies strewn on the street before them, then looked overhead to the Underdark sea above.  "Throw them into the sea," she commanded and Jhasspok and the dwarves found this to be a rather fun game, swinging a drow corpse back and forth a few times to gain momentum and then flinging it upwards - at which point, having reached the edge of the _reverse gravity_ effect, normal gravity took over and it plunged down (seemingly up) into the sea.  Marlo and Cramer did likewise with the unwanted weapons and shields.

That task completed, Matron Ky'hulcressen beckoned the slaves to enter the building.  They couldn't help but notice she didn't have any silly "lower your gaze to my ankles" rule like Matron Jalamir imposed upon her own House slaves.  Once inside, she explained that despite their differences, Houses Jalamir and Ky'hulcressen stood opposed to the newly proclaimed Mortal Queen.  In fact, her very claim to the throne broke an ancient pact between the Eight Ruling Houses, her declaration of war against Greenvale - viewed by House Jalamir as a Ky'hulcressen outpost - an act of aggression against the Eighth House.  "And now, having sent an assault team of Bel'vior inquisitors to this location, this is an outright declaration of war upon House Jalamir," the Matron Mother concluded.

"You have already assisted my House on the surface by reopening trade with the kingdom of Kravyrn.  It has been decided House Jalamir will loan you out to House Ky'hulcressen in an attempt to recruit more allies on the surface.  We have also agreed to provide asylum to Eri'dia.  She will be smuggled to Greenvale along with your group when you return to the surface."

"Matron Jalamir agreed to all of this?" Marlo asked incredulously in a low tone, looking hesitantly at the closed door leading into the meeting room where, presumably, Calish and his mother waited inside - hopefully, well out of earshot.  "But she tortured her own daughter!"

"She had no choice: it was the will of Lolth," Matron Ky'hulcressen explained.  "Had she done otherwise she would have been stripped of her clerical power and likely slain for disobedience.  At least in this way, Eri'dia can live - at least in exile.  We will see she is taken good care of.  And," she added, "we have hopes she can be swayed away from Lolth's embrace and come into the folds of Eilistraee."

"This is a dangerous game you're playing," commented Cramer, realizing this drow woman was actively working against the will of her own people - and her own people's crazed demon-goddess.  As much as he hated to admit it, he was beginning to feel a bit of respect for at least one member of the hated drow race.

"It is a game you play as well," Matron Ky'hulcressen replied.  "Now come: I will take you to your own Matron and her son, that you may escort them back to their own rooms in their own pillar.  Afterwards, return here and we will prepare for your next mission: a return to the surface."

The wide grin that had threatened to spread across Cramer's features found its way to the gnome's face at long last.

 - - -

This adventure was a worrisome one, in that early on we weren't sure whether we should make a break for it and attack Calish, hoping for the best, or continue to play dumb.  (Fortunately, Jhasspok has "maxed out" the art of playing dumb despite only having one skill point to spend each level - it's kind of his specialty.)  We also noted we'd played for about a full hour without once rolling for initiative.  It was almost a relief when we were attacked by the House Bel'vior inquisitors - at least we knew exactly where we stood against them!

We all leveled up to 6th level at the end of the session.  Jhasspok took his second level of barbarian and I actually managed to roll decently for his hit points this time.


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## The Green Hermit (Mar 28, 2020)

This seems like a fun session. I wonder if it's hinting that house Jalamir can be saved altogether.


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## Richards (Mar 29, 2020)

At this point, we really don't know.  Right now, it seems like Matron Jalamir is more upset that House Bel'voir is violating the ages-old compact about the Eight Ruling Houses and that their Matron has elevated herself above all other drow in the world than she is interested in possible redemption.  Whether Matron Jalamir will ever go so far as to turn her back upon Lolth and join the sunborn in worshiping Eilistraee is something we'll have to wait and see.

But you're right - this was a fun session!  And I'm having a blast playing a PC instead of wearing the DM hat.

Johnathan


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## Richards (Apr 3, 2020)

*ADVENTURE 15: RETURN TO THE SURFACE*

PC Roster:
Cramer Appleknocker, gnome cleric 6​Jhasspok, lizardman 3/barbarian 2/fighter 1​Khari Hammerslammer, dwarf fighter 6​Marlo Pendragon, human sorcerer 6​Utred "Buckets" Butterflinger, dwarf barbarian 6​
NPC Roster:
Eri'dia Jalamir, drow sorcerer 1​
Game Session Date: 1 April 2020

- - -

The _slave-light torches_ flared, spilling their purplish illumination throughout the slave quarters, indicating the beginning of morning in the drow city of Overreach.  As one, the six slaves - for the drow princess Eri'dia Jalamir now numbered among their ranks - rose from their sleeping pallets and got ready for the day's activities.  But unlike most days, today they were gathering up their gear for a surface world visit which would likely last for months.

"Could be this's th' last day we'll spend in this hellhole," observed Utred, buckling on his armor.

"You think?" asked Marlo.

"We'll be on the surface for months, likely," reminded the dwarven barbarian.  "In three months' time, the armies of Overreach are gonna storm the surface world in an attempt to wipe out Greenvale.  Good chance we'll still be topside by then - and who knows what'll happen during the war?  Could be we never have to come back, afterwards."

"Could be we'll all be dead by then," added Cramer, in a black mood despite the possibility that he might never have to return to the Underdark.  Part of his mood was the realization he'd made no strides in finding his fellow Fharlanghnian cleric, Honeycomb Buzzwort - taken in a drow raid from his surface village, the same as Cramer had been.  While the little gnome would be glad to see Overreach behind him, he didn't like the thought of leaving Honeycomb behind.

"We'd best be off," Khari commented, stuffing the rest of his belongings into his backpack.  "Don't wanna be late."  As one, the six slaves exited their quarters and headed to the ceiling of the Great Cavern, where they departed the Jalamir Pillar - one of the Eight Great Pillars stretching from the ceiling to an anchor point in the waters of the bioluminescent sea below, each of which housed one of the Eight Noble Houses of Overreach - and met up with their guide, a member of House Ky'hulcressen sent to fetch them.  Together, they made their way to the smallest of the eight pillars.  As the Eighth House, Ky'hulcressen was relegated to the least-desirable of the Eight Great Pillars, the only one showing visible damage from a war between various Houses some centuries past; as the slaves approached, they could see the areas where the pillar's exterior had once been smashed through, threatening the overall structural support the pillar provided to hold off the weight of the crushing stone overhead.  It had been hurriedly patched over in what at first might look like elaborately-carved sculptures but at closer examination proved to be the petrified bodies of slaves, placed into position as desired and then instantly transformed to stone, their bodies merging seamlessly into the rock of the column, itself formed by the merging of a massive stalactite and an equally-massive stalagmite.  Each of the Eight Great Pillars had been tunneled into to create the dwellings of the Ruling Houses.

"Surprised we're not gathering at the meeting-house," observed Cramer to the guide.  They'd been to the meeting-house twice now, once to meet with Niradi Ky'hulcressen to be given an assignment to rescue child slaves from a defeated minor House, and once to guard over a meeting between the leaders of Houses Ky'hulcressen and Jalamir, where they hammered out an alliance against House Bel'vior, whose Matron Mother had crowned herself the Mortal Queen of all drow and enforced a pogrom against the sunborn.  "I figure we won't be using the Writhing Gate to get to the surface," added the gnome, "so I figured you'd have your escorts take us through the Plane of Shadows, like they did before."

"You're partially correct," replied the guide, ushering them inside the Ky'hulcressen Pillar.  From the ceiling entrance, what began as a one-story flight of steps leading up turned into a flipping-around point when the top part of the pillar exited the permanent _reverse gravity_ field all along the ceiling of the Great Cavern and the group suddenly found themselves walking down a flight of steps to the second level of the pillar, the topmost one that was actually right-side-up.  "I hate this place," Marlo muttered to herself once again - it was a common refrain from the young sorcerer when dealing with the gravity-defying effects of the Overreach's highest levels.

A room on the second floor held the means of the slaves' passageway to the surface.  "This is a permanent _shadow walk_ portal," the guide explained.  "It leads to a tunnel winding through the Plane of Shadow, which will get you to a similar portal in Greenvale in about ten minutes.  Taking the long way, through the Underdark tunnels originally carved to the surface, would be a constantly uphill journey of several days.  I assume you prefer the shorter method."

"Absolutely," agreed Utred.

"Then you need only step through the portal and follow the path.  The path appears as a series of twinkling lights visible only to those who have passed through one of the portals.  Stay on the path and you cannot get lost."

"Is it safe?" asked Marlo.  "Are there any dangerous inhabitants on the Plane of Shadows we need to worry about?"

"In the century and a half the portals have been in use," the guide assured the sorceress, "we have never encountered any problems with any local denizens.  It's a relatively short trek; you should have no problems."

"'Should have,'" echoed Marlo quietly to herself.

"One area of concern: a good section of the path takes you along the edge of a vast chasm; for your own safety, do not fall over the edge."

"How deep's the chasm?" Khari wanted to know.

"The Plane of Shadows is in constant flux," admitted the guide.  "There's no way to know.  It could be several hundred feet or it could be several miles.  Best that you don't wander over the edge, in any case.  Now, normally, one of us would accompany you on the trip and act as a guide, but given the current turmoil in the city, we're all busy trying to extract our sunborn agents before their discovery.  So, if there are no additional questions, that pack is food for the topside visit - good luck and off you go!"

Jhasspok hefted the pack of foodstuff and peeked inside - it was all dried food: meat jerky and cheeses and mushroom flanks.  He was glad he'd had the foresight of stocking up on the dried dung beetles he enjoyed as a snack although none of the others seemed to share his enthusiasm for the treat.  As Eri'dia had no gear of her own to carry, he held it out for her to slip her arms into the straps.

"Am _I_ to lug this around?" she complained - the status of slave was a new one to the haughty princess, one she was slow to grow into.

"You are if you expect to travel in our company," Cramer explained.  "Every _slave_ pulls his or her weight."  He enjoyed emphasizing Eri'dia's new role.  With a frown, the drow sorcerer slipped the pack onto her back, trying to shift it into a more comfortable position.  It was easy to tell she was unused to even this level of lugging and toting.

"Shall we go?" asked Utred, stepping towards the open portal.

"Not so fast," replied Cramer, holding up an arm and uncoiling a length of silk rope.  "If we're heading into the Plane of Shadows alongside a deep chasm, we'd be best off if we're tied together, each to the next in line.  That way, if anybody falls over the edge, the others can help pull him back up."

"I'll be first in line," suggested Utred, taking one end of the rope and tying it around his waist, then handing it to Jhasspok.  "You're next," he told the lizardfolk and helped him tie the rope around his own waist, leaving about an eight-foot distance between them.  "Let's put Khari last, so we got a dwarf with darkvision in front and back," the barbarian suggested.  With that in mind, it was Cramer next, followed by Eri'dia, Marlo, and Khari.

"Ready," Khari said once he had the end of the rope fastened around his own waist.  In the meantime, as an added precaution, Marlo guzzled down the contents of a _potion of spider climb_.

"Ten minutes," Utred reminded everyone as they stepped through the portal into a world of darkness.

It wasn't absolute darkness, just a land of gray with inky-black shadows all around.  It didn't take long before Marlo - followed shortly thereafter by Jhasspok and Cramer - activated her _slave-light cloak_, the light from the illusory flames being swallowed up almost immediately around her.  The illumination didn't extend nearly as far as it would have under normal conditions, but it was a source of comfort nonetheless for those of the group without darkvision; Eri'dia and the dwarves could see just as well as normal even in the shadowy world of the murky plane.

"Path's easy enough to make out," observed Utred.  Sure enough, there was a line of twinkling dots on the ground before them, as if someone had been by this way before sprinkling silvery glitter on the intended path.

After about three minutes of travel, the tunnel opened up into an impossibly wide cavern - one greater even than the Great Cavern housing the entire drow city of Overreach.  The expected chasm was off to the left, as described, and Utred, peeking over the edge, couldn't see to the bottom despite his darkvision.  He did, however, see a speck of golden light some distance away to the left and an unknowable distance below, likely on the bottom surface of the chasm.

The passageway got occasionally narrower and thicker as it wound its erratic way along the edge of the stone cavern.  After about two minutes of walking with an unknown gulf off to their left, a shadowy figure approached from before Utred, just as another approached the group from behind.  They darted out, either from behind a jut in the rock or from the very rock itself - it was hard to tell, given the speed with which the figures attacked.  But in each case, a hand with long, narrow fingers ending in sharp claws struck out at the dwarves, the claws actually passing through their targets' bodies and draining them of a portion of their physical strength.  "We're under attack!" called out Khari from the back of the rope line.

Jhasspok moved up alongside Utred's right, swinging his battleaxe at the shadowy figure before him, drawing the rope taut between himself and Cramer, the next in line behind him.  The lizardfolk's weapon passed right through the black shape but it flinched as if it had taken some damage from the attack.  Eri'dia, spinning about by Khari's warning, cast a _magic missile_ spell at the shadow attacking the Hammerslammer dwarf, her red-streaked bolt of energy striking the undead thing without fail.  Marlo, just behind the drow slave, spun and did likewise, her own _magic missile_ spell resulting in three such bolts.  The shadow flinched as each bolt of force energy bombarded its incorporeal body.

Utred, whose unsheathed _Elderwood flaming longsword_ had been providing a little additional illumination for those who needed it behind him, swung his weapon into the undead shadow who had attacked him, growling to himself as he could feel the difference in this swing and those he'd performed numerous times in the past: the barbarian could tell his strength was not up to its full power.  His blow seemed to affect the creature, though, which was what mattered most at the moment.

Cramer held the holy symbol of his god he wore about his neck and held it towards the undead shadow behind him, thinking that of all the slaves, Utred could best handle a shadow on his own for a bit.  He channeled a burst of positive energy towards the rear of the line, sending the rear shadow fleeing across the open chasm in its attempt to maximize its distance from the gnome at its best speed.

Khari, no longer under attack, readied his warhammer in case anything else should approach.  He faced the open chasm, expecting it to be the likely source of any reinforcements of these flying undead things should they suddenly appear.

The shadow in the front attacked Utred again but the dwarven barbarian dodged below the thing's outreaching claws.  And then, before he could bring his own blade to bear, another swing from Jhasspok's battleaxe took the thing down, its incorporeal body dissipating into nothingness.  Utred looked behind him, but nobody else was under attack.  "Let's keep going," he called back to the others and led them further down the sparkling path.

This time, everyone was on the alert and thus saw the next group of shadows approach; as Khari had guessed, they rose up from the vast depths of the chasm, approaching closer once they'd attained the same level as the marching slaves.  With the slack in the rope between him and Marlo, Khari advanced to the edge of the ledge, his warhammer ready to strike.  The shadow on the left gave him a perfect opportunity as it advanced directly at him, claws held out to rend.  But Khari's weapon passed harmlessly through the shadow's body as the shadow's claws passed through the dwarf's - not quite harmlessly, though, for the Hammerslammer clan fighter felt a chill pass through his body as more of his strength was drained away.  Up at the front of the line, the other shadow did likewise to Utred, siphoning away more of the barbarian's strength.

Jhasspok swung his battleaxe at the shadow, missing it completely as he made sure his swing wouldn't strike Utred by accident.  Utred's sword also swung and missed; the shadow was quick when it put a mind to it!

At the middle of the rope line, Eri'dia cast another red-toned _magic missile_ at the shadow attacking Khari.  Marlo again followed suit, but her triple-missile attack finished off the shadow and she watched in satisfaction as the undead thing's body was blown away like a cloud of dirt in a windstorm.

Cramer, unable to get much closer to the shadow attacking Utred without dragging the others behind him forward, cast a _bless_ spell, confident that his placement in the center of the rope-line would allow the spell to affect all of his fellow slaves.  It was a timely casting, too, for no sooner had he completed the spell than another ghostly figure rose up from the chasm and made a bee-line for Khari.  Unlike the shadows, this one had a see-through body and carried a scythe, which it swung at the dwarven fighter.  It proved its incorporeal nature when the weapon passed through Khari's stout body, but he felt it try to drain away not a measure of his strength, as the shadows had done, but a portion of his very life force, his vitality.  Resisting the effect with gritted teeth, the dwarf's efforts paid off; with a roar of victory he lashed out with his hammer but missed his floating adversary.

The shadow up front passed its claws through Utred's body again and pulled away another portion of his strength; the _Elderwood flaming longsword_ felt noticeably heavier in the barbarian's hands than normal.  Jhasspok's battleaxe went passing harmlessly through the shadow's incorporeal body and the lizardfolk's reptilian face held an expression of puzzlement as he tried to figure out what he'd done differently this time than he'd done when striking the earlier shadow, which he'd managed to actually kill with this same weapon.

Eri'dia cast another _magic missile_ spell, this time at the wraith attacking Khari.  Marlo was unable to move much due to being tied off between Khari and the drow, and the dwarf had moved up to fight off the wraith, practically pulling the sorcerer up against the undead thing from the other side.  Still, she cast another _magic missile_ spell of her own, although at this range it meant the wraith had an opportunity to strike out at her - an opportunity it took, to full advantage.  The _magic missile_ spell hit the wraith, but at the same time Marlo felt some of her very life force, her vitality, being drained away.

Utred and Jhasspok once again attacked the shadow with no effect, their weapons passing harmlessly through its body.  Cramer cast another spell upon himself, this time _magic circle against evil_, which he knew would aid all six of the slaves from his central position in the rope-line.  But the wraith struck out at Khari again despite the extra protection of the gnome cleric's spell, and this time the incorporeal attack managed to pull away some of the dwarf's vitality.  But for his part, Khari's counter-strike was likewise successful, the dwarven fighter's warhammer striking the wraith for as much damage at it might have done had the undead thing had a solid body; such was the unpredictability of dealing with incorporeal foes.

Eri'dia cast her final _magic missile_ at the wraith and was somewhat put out that her attack failed to kill it.  Marlo was forced to cast her own spell in tight quarters again, but this time she managed to gut through the wraith's vitality-draining attack and ward it off while her spell struck the undead thing for full damage.  "Ha!" she cried aloud in triumph.  "Take that!"

Utred swung again at the shadow and his blade passed harmlessly through it, but then he brought it back around in a second strike and this one not only managed to affect it but to actually finish it off.  He looked to see how the others were faring and spotted the wraith for the first time, still up and about - and seemingly focused solely on Khari.  _These buggers have a hate on for dwarves_, the barbarian mused to himself.

Cramer cast another spell, this time a _spiritual weapon_ that caused a quarterstaff of pure force energy to appear over his head.  With a mental order, he caused the force weapon to come crashing down at the wraith.  The wraith got one final strike in, trying to siphon away more of the dwarf's life essence, but Khari not only resisted the effect but slew the wraith with a massive warhammer blow that caused the undead thing's body to blow away in a cloud of smoke.

"Everybody okay?" the gnome called out to the others.  He deflected their calls for healing, assessing that what they needed now were _restoration_ spells rather than mere _cure wounds_ spells - and those he couldn't provide, at least not today.  Instead, he wriggled out of the rope-line and cast a _fly_ spell on himself, rising up above the others as Utred got them moving into a straight line again.  Cramer figured his added elevation would help him spot advancing threats as they made their way along the path to Greenvale.  But then, seeing the path ahead was wider than normal, Khari moved forward beside Utred, the two dwarves leading the way while the rope-line formed a "U" shape behind them, with Cramer floating overhead, low enough to still encompass everyone in his _magic circle against evil_ spell.

Another wraithlike figure emerged from the rift - only this one was much larger than the one they'd just dispatched.  Cramer recalled from his clerical schooling that there was a dread wraith much more powerful than the standard model; this was likely his first meeting with such a creature.  The gnome's hand reached for his holy symbol of Fharlanghn, realizing the odds of him being able to turn such a powerful undead were likely nil.  But fortunately for the gnome - and for the entire group, truth to tell - instead of attacking immediately it interrogated the group.  "How did you do it?" it asked, its undead eyes flitting between the two dwarves.  "How did you break the siege?"

The dumbfounded stares and looks of incomprehension it received in response forced it to ask a follow-on question.  "Who leads your group?" it asked in a voice from the grave.  All eyes turned at once to Eri'dia, currently the lowest of the six slaves but until yesterday one of the ruling member of the House the arena slaves all answered to.

"Then you are not from the Golden City," the dread wraith mused to itself.  That phrase sparked a momentary recollection from somewhere deep within Khari's memories; the "Golden City" had once, he thought, referred to the dwarven city of Brunniir, now a lost kingdom of legend after having disappeared some 15 centuries hence.  Perhaps, the Hammerslammer dwarf reasoned in his own slow, methodical way, that glimmer of light they'd seen in the deep chasm below was the current location of Brunniir.  Perhaps the city had somehow been swept away into the Plane of Shadows, leaving behind only a mystery of its whereabouts and the means by which it had disappeared.  He'd have to ask Cramer and Utred about it, once they had time to talk - for right now, he held his trusty warhammer at the ready in case they were going to have to fight off this even bigger wraith.

"Warn your masters," said the dread wraith, "as long as they do not aid the Golden City, they will be allowed to continue using the path they have made."  Then he left the way he had come, having wasted enough time on this pointless distraction.  Cramer allowed his holy symbol to drop back down onto his chest and he gave a sigh of relief at the undead thing's departure.  Despite their recent experiences fighting off the undead forces, the little cleric seriously believed that would have been a fight they could not have won.

The party was further relieved when they passed through the portal to Greenvale a few minutes later without any further incident.  They were met by sunborn drow, their hair a variety of colors - green, blue, red, purple, even lavender - and their expressions showing puzzlement and concern.  "You are injured," noted a priestess of Eilistraee.  "Were you attacked along the path?"

"We sure were!" groused Cramer.  "We had been led to believe taking the path through the Plane of Shadows was a safe journey, yet we were attacked by undead several times!"  Here the gnome had actually harbored feelings of goodwill toward the sunborn drow, but it seemed like even the dark elves of House Ky'hulcressen were nothing but a bunch of liars!  While the slaves had _restoration_ spells cast upon them by the concerned clerics, the head priestess explained as best she could.

"I imagine it was the cloaks you wore," she said.  "We drow have walked the path on many occasions for a century and a half without incident.  But we dark elves, even the sunborn, can see fine in perfect darkness; we do not bring sources of illumination with us.  Your lights, feeble as they may have seemed to you, were likely beacons of illumination to the denizens of that shadowy world, telling them that intruders were about."

Khari explained his thoughts about Brunniir having been engulfed into the Plane of Shadows.  "It makes sense," agreed Marlo.  "And if it's under siege by an army of undead, that would explain why the wraiths and shadows were focused upon Khari and Utred!"

"I was wonderin' about that," Utred admitted.

The rest of the day was spent settling Eri'dia into her new life on the surface (including _disintegrating_ her slave collar, a move which brought the drow princess great relief) and discussing plans of how to get the rest of the local kingdoms to aid Greenvale in the upcoming war against the Overreach drow armies.  Cramer pulled out his battered and folded map of the local area they'd taken from the merchants they'd attacked during their first surface raid.  The sunborn elves pointed out the locations of the home villages of both Cramer and Marlo, neither large enough to be documented on the map; the gnome's small village was part of the larger kingdom of Revin, while the sorceress hailed from one of the surviving villages of the kingdom to the north that had fallen to ongoing frost giant raids decades ago.

"We'll need help pulling the other kingdoms into an alliance," said one of their sunborn hosts.  "You managed to get the Kingdom of Kravyrn on our side, but we'll need the support of other nations if we're to repel an invasion by Overreach."

"Where shall we begin?" Marlo asked, looking at the map.

"Here," suggested Cramer, stabbing a finger down at the Elderwood Forest.

"Elderwood?" scoffed Utred.  "They're not likely gonna want to help us, not after we slew their infiltrators in Overreach, and then their hunting party in the forest."

"We're probably not high up on their list of favorite people," Cramer agreed, "but they already have a healthy hatred of the drow - the Overreach drow, that is," he amended, looking guiltily at their sunborn drow hosts, "and we can probably put that fanatical hatred to good use."

"Mebbe we'd best not be wearing these _slave-light cloaks_ when we go meet with them," suggested Khari - no point in rubbing their noses in the fact that they'd taken the magic cloaks from the slain bodies of disguised Elderwood elf assassins during an attack on Niradi Ky'hulcressen and her Weaver master.

"Yes, a good point," agreed the gnome.  "But perhaps in uniting against a shared foe, we can get the Elderwood elves to see the sunborn as allies, and not an evil threat like the Overreach drow."

Utred looked over the map, reveling in the fact he could now read the words printed on it - Marlo had been teaching him his letters.  "From there, then, we can move in a clockwise direction, swinging by Revin next and trying to get their help, then Dracovania, and then the Fallen Kingdom.  And that'll put us back close to Greenvale, hopefully before the big attack."

"Wait a minute," interrupted Marlo, pointing down at a body of water off to the eastern side of the Elderwood Forest.  "Let's not forget the Lakewood Tribe of lizardfolk who make their camp here."  She looked expectantly at Jhasspok.  "We could try to gain their aid as well."

Jhasspok just frowned and shivered.  "Let's not," he suggested.

"But they're your people!" the sorceress argued.  She knew full well, as the lizardfolk fisher did not, that he was the son of the former chieftain of the tribe and that the Lakewood lizardfolk were his family.

"They're just...creepy," Jhasspok replied.  He found the concept of a whole bunch of people who looked close-but-not-quite like him to be repulsive.  "And, according to Khassek, they're a bunch of hunters who live in a swamp.  Why would they want to help us fight off the drow?  And would they be much of a help, a bunch of hunters and fishers with spears against drow fighters and clerics and sorcerers?"

"Not long ago, you were just a fisher," Marlo reminded him.

"But I have been trained in battle since then," Jhasspok replied, hefting his magic battleaxe.  "And gained a powerful weapon.  They have not."

Cramer saw the lizardfolk's point, if not his reluctance to see his own people.  "Let's hold them off until last," he suggested.  "We'll see if we can gain their help if we have time after getting the assistance of the larger kingdoms."  It seemed a logical concession, despite Marlo's desire for Jhasspok not to be the only one of his kind among them.  She worried he might be lonely.  But Jhasspok wasn't lonely; he was, in his own mind, already among his "own kind" - "secret double slaves" of the drow.

"All right then," said Utred.  "Tomorrow, we're off to the Elderwood Forest."

"Tomorrow it is," agreed Cramer.

- - -

This was, without a doubt, the shortest session we've ever run in this campaign - it lasted only about an hour.  Logan had worried it could end up going rather quickly, but knowing he was throwing incorporeal enemies against us he honestly had no idea how the fight would play out.  We inadvertently sped up the combats by rolling first to see whether our weapon strikes would even hit or not before we even made our d20 attack rolls; the way we do it is by rolling a d6 and saying, "Wouldn't it be _odd_ if I missed?"  Then, if the d6 ends up with an odd number, the attack would have passed harmlessly through the incorporeal undead even if the attack roll indicated it would have hit.  I think we ended up saving a lot of time there with this method, because between the five of us players we rolled a _lot_ of odd numbers (sometimes two at a time, for Utred and Khari now get two attacks per round) - it was starting to get very frustrating there at the end, when the three burly combat machines kept doing absolutely nothing of value while we waited for the two female spellcasters to kill the big scary undead for us with their _magic missiles_.

And Harry was getting a bit upset that the undead kept targeting his PC and Utred, but there turned out to be a good explanation for that, which retroactively made the situation a little better in his eyes.  (Not a lot, mind you, but a little.)

And now we have a plan ahead for the next few sessions as we go from kingdom to kingdom trying to gain allies against the Overreach armies.  Personally, I'm sure we haven't seen the last of the drow city; we still need to free Cramer's friend Honeycomb, for one thing, and if we're going to fight off a neothelid, that'll likely take place in the Underdark rather than on the surface.  But I guess we'll just have to let events play out and see where they go.


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## Richards (Apr 11, 2020)

*ADVENTURE 16: TRIALS OF THE ELDERWOOD*

PC Roster: 
Cramer Appleknocker, gnome cleric 6​Jhasspok, lizardman 3/barbarian 2/fighter 1​Khari Hammerslammer, dwarf fighter 6​Marlo Pendragon, human sorcerer 6​Utred "Buckets" Butterflinger, dwarf barbarian 6​
Game Session Date: 8 April 2020

 - - -

With a horse and wagon loaded down with provisions provided to them by the city of Greenvale, the five "secret double slaves" headed through the city's gates and down the road, headed toward the Elderwood.  They'd jointly decided the elven nation would be the first group they'd try to get to join the alliance against the impending drow surface invasion from Overreach; as such, all five _slave-light cloaks_ were stashed away with the supplies.  No need flaunting in the faces of the Elderwood elves that twice now the slaves had already killed some of their members: first the disguised assassins in Overreach (where they gained the magic cloaks) and then on their first excursion to the surface, where they slew a cleric and several warriors who had been hunting them down for having slain a group of merchants and stolen their goods.  If they were hoping to enter into negotiations with these elves, it would be best not to go in with the odds already stacked against them.

"How long until we get there?" asked Jhasspok from the back of the wagon.  It was a much bigger wagon than the one they'd stolen on their own; this one was large enough to comfortably fit all five slaves and their gear.  Cramer and Marlo were up in the front of the wagon, the gnome holding the reins to the draft horse.

"It should be a two-day journey to the Crossroad Keep, which is garrisoned by the Elderwood," Cramer explained.  "Hopefully, we should be able to make arrangements with those in authority there to get us an audience with their leaders in their main city, deep in the forest.  Why?  Are you already tired of traveling?"

"No," replied Jhasspok honestly.  It would be a long time before the lizardfolk got tired of looking out at this strange surface world.  Utred, however, was already getting tired of explaining to Jhasspok what every new thing he saw was called.  "That's a chipmunk."  "That's a dandelion."  "That's a hummingbird."  "That's a fox."  Finally, to ward off the incessant line of questioning, the burly dwarven barbarian pretended to fall asleep, and it wasn't long before the rocking of the wagon had him nodding off for real.

But that just meant Khari was now the recipient of Jhasspok's further questions.  "That's a mosquito," the dwarf said.  "That's an owl."  "That's a squirrel...."

The first day of travel was uneventful.  It wasn't until mid-morning on the second day that the slaves ran into a bit of excitement.

"What's that?" Jhasspok wanted to know again, looking ahead through the trees as the horse-drawn wagon made a turn around a bend in the road.

Cramer, at the reins, looked to where the lizardfolk was pointing and said, "That's a--that's a dire bear!"  Sure enough, as the wagon followed the curve of the road, the slaves could all see a massive bruin sending an elven figure falling to the ground, unmoving, with a swipe of one massive, blood-stained paw.  The elf fell beside two other bodies there in the road, each wearing chain armor.  There were two other elven figures fleeing from the beast, a man and a woman.

Khari didn't hesitate a moment; grabbing up his dwarven warhammer, he raced at the dire bear, approaching it from behind as it turned to face the fleeing elves.  Cramer handed the reins to Marlo, stood on the driver's bench at the front of the wagon, and fired a _sound burst_ spell in front of the dire bear, stunning it into temporary immobility.  Marlo steered the wagon off the road and between a group of trees, not wanting their only horse to get slain in the fight with the massive bruin.  She then pulled up on the reins to bring the horse to a stop, turned to face the dire bear, and shot a _magic missile_ into its flank.

Utred hadn't waited for the wagon to stop moving before he'd leaped off and charged the monster, using his _Elderwood flaming longsword_ out of force of habit and not worrying about being seen by a pair of Elderwood elves while wielding it.  The flaming sword cut deep into the still form of the dire bear, spilling blood and singeing fur.  Jhasspok was there at the dwarven barbarian's side, bringing his battleaxe down onto the bruin's broad back.  And then an arrow sunk deep into the dire bear's shoulder; looking across the road to the clearing on the other side, the slaves saw one of the fleeing elves was an archer and had merely been trying to keep his distance from the monster so he could still get in a good shot.

The female elf approached Marlo in the wagon and gave her thanks for the newcomers' much-needed assistance, just as Khari was slamming the still-stunned beast with a crushing blow from his warhammer.  Cramer hopped down from the wagon and raced over to the fallen bodies of the three elves, seeing if any of them had survived the attack.  Sadly, there was nothing he could do for them; they were already quite dead, one of them having had his throat ripped out, the other two torn open by the bear's sharp claws.

But by then the _sound burst_'s stunning effect had worn off and the dire bear reared up on his hind legs, spun about, and slashed out with a massive forepaw at Khari - he'd apparently not appreciated being beaten down with the fighter's heavy hammer.  Khari went stumbling off to the side from the force of the blow, staggering to stay on his feet.  But with the bear's attention focused upon his fellow dwarf, Utred had the opportunity to get in a sword-strike at the monster's underbelly, slashing a red line of pain across his less-protected pelt.  The dire bear dropped back down to all fours and turned to face the dwarf - and Jhasspok finished him off with a combination of an axe-blow to the skull and a bite to the throat, filling the lizardfolk's mouth with steaming, warm blood.  As the bear crashed to the ground, dead, the lizardfolk provided his opinion (to anyone who might have been wondering) that dire bear tasted more like horse than it did fish.

With the threat taken down, the two parties introduced themselves.  "I'm *Elinna*," said the elven cleric.  "This is *Maloric*.  We were patrolling the road to ensure it was safe for *Councilor Liadon*.  There have been rogue elements from our kingdom tarnishing the name of the Elderwood soldiers by practicing banditry in the Councilor's province.  During our patrol we were attacked by the dire bear - that shouldn't have been possible, as they live deeper in the woods and should have been warded off by our druids, who keep them contained."

"Maybe something attacked your druids," suggested Utred, taking care to sheathe his _Elderwood flaming longsword_ before either of the remaining elven patrol members got a good look at it.

"It is a possibility," agreed Elinna.  "We must report this attack to Councilor Liadon; he's currently visiting the Crossroad Keep."

"We're heading there ourselves," offered up Cramer as he cast a healing spell over Khari's wounds.  "We'll be happy to travel with you.  We can load the bodies of your slain troops on the wagon, if you like."

"Thank you," replied Elinna as Maloric, Jhasspok, and the two dwarves started carrying the bodies of the slain elves over to the wagon.

Conversing along the way, the slaves learned that Councilor Liadon was one of only two councilors who advised *King Omadan* to remain on good terms with Greenvale, the other being *Archmage Xiandria*.  Unfortunately, the other three councilors currently held greater sway, leading to the current situation: an embargo on Greenvale and poor relations with those who would have dealings with the city suspected of having ties to the accursed drow.  Cramer kept his silence, opting to save his arguments for someone higher up the elven chain of command than the leader of a foot patrol.

As the group approached the Crossroad Keep they couldn't help but notice its odd design.  A large, 30-foot-tall stone tower of apparent human architecture stood as one corner of the structure, the rest of it being of elven design: a smooth, white stone wall 10 feet tall with 5-foot-high crenelations running between the towers in each corner.  The other three towers were rounded and as smooth as the walls, all seeming to be one blended structure carved in one piece, although that would have been nearly impossible to construct in that fashion - there must have been some sort of elven magic at work.  Further evidence of magic were the four emerald-green crystal "teardrops" floating above each of the four towers; these were each five feet tall and floated a foot or so above the top of their assigned tower.  Their purpose was not immediately obvious.

Driving the wagon through an open gate, the group saw a pair of elves arguing in their own language in the middle of the courtyard of the keep.  Of the five slaves, Cramer was the only one who understood the Elven tongue and even though he came into the middle of the discussion he was able to pick up the general gist of it: a robed figure (who, the group learned later was Councilor Liadon) was upset at the garrison commander, *Mevior*, for having sent Liadon's son on a mission of some sort to Greenvale; Liadon seemed to believe Mevior didn't have the authority to do so.  But their heated conversation broke up at the group's sudden approach.  Cramer brought the wagon to a halt in the middle of the courtyard, beside the pair of elves.

Mevior took the opportunity of the sudden distraction to storm off, while Liadon turned and warmly greeted the newcomers.  After introductions were made - and the border patrol elves extolled the virtues of the visitors in helping slay the dire bear responsible for the deaths of the three patrol members - the councilor began talking things over with the group of slaves.

Things were going along rather well when Liadon looked down at the hilt of Utred's sword and commented, rather nonchalantly, "By the way, I should let you know I am aware you are the ones who killed my son."

That brought all conversation to a sudden halt as the slaves thought frantically how best to explain the situation.  But before anyone could get a word in, the councilor held up his hands as if warding off any arguments and said, "My son's impulsive nature and beliefs were a dark stain upon our family name and his actions were bound to get him killed sooner or later.  I bear no grudge against you for his death."

"That is...very generous of you," began Marlo.  "We were only coming to the aid of a woman he was threatening...."  But Liadon cut her off.  "No need for explanations," he said.

"If I may," added Cramer, "how did you learn we had slain your son?"

"Upon learning of his death, I naturally looked into the circumstances involved.  However, when attempting a divination spell to find my son's killers, I received an image of a most disturbing nature: the five of you, standing before a massive, wormlike creature - and with a mass of writhing, black tentacles rising up behind you.  Not at all what I had expected to see, I must admit."

"We saw a similar image, captured as a mural on the wall of a duergar tomb," admitted Utred.  "Apparently that's still in our future, somewheres - us fightin' that worm."

"A duergar tomb," mused Liadon.  "That could not have been from anywhere nearby," he reasoned.

"Not really," admitted Cramer.  "We're from a significant distance away, but we've come to warn you of an impending drow attack.  They intend to destroy the city of Greenvale."

"Greenvale?" repeated Liadon.  "That makes no sense: Greenvale is rumored to be in league with the drow."

"It's a bit complicated," admitted the gnome.  But then he began explaining, in detail, the background of the sunborn drow of Greenvale, the Lolth-worshiping drow of the Overreach, and their own status as slaves of one drow Noble House while secretly allied with another Noble House who were themselves secret allies of the sunborn drow of Greenvale.

"Then the stories are true!" thundered Liadon.  "There are rumors of a mythical, upside-down city of drow called the Overreach - the fact that this place actually exists is a cause of great concern to me."

"We can attest to the fact that Overreach exists," Marlo stated.  "And in three months' time, their armies will spill out onto the surface world, not only to destroy Greenvale but likely to enslave those from the neighboring areas.  We five were each taken in such a manner, but this will be on a much larger scale.  We're trying to warn all of the surrounding kingdoms of the danger and get them together in an alliance to help defeat the Lolth-worshiping drow."

Liadon came to a decision.  "You must accompany me to the capital city of the Elderwood to meet with the king."

"Gladly," agreed Cramer - for that had been their goal all along.

"Then we will leave in the morning," Liadon decided.  "You can stay overnight here in the keep.  I'll take you to the martial barracks."  Liadon would be staying in the mage barracks.  Marlo had no problems with staying in the martial barracks; she preferred being surrounded by her companions, especially in a keep otherwise filled with unknown strangers.

The night passed without event, with the five Overreach slaves taking a group of bunks in the corner.  (Even though the elves didn't actually sleep, they entered a nightly reverie and these elves apparently appreciated a comfortable bed to lie in while doing so.)  The next morning the group ate breakfast in the combined mess hall/tavern.  As they ate, there was some sort of a commotion outside.

Khari opened the door and looked out into the courtyard.  There was now a mass of tangled vines covering the building directly across from the mess hall - the mage barracks, as the dwarf recalled.  There had been a few decorative vines here and there the day before when the group had been given a quick tour, but nothing like the mass covering the building now - this had the distinctive whiff of magic about it, the dwarven fighter decided.  "Think we might have a problem," he called back to the others, grabbing up his warhammer and stepping outside.

Cramer cast a _longstrider_ spell upon himself and followed the dwarven fighter outside into the courtyard.  He noticed the four archers manning their stations at the top of the walls were not looking outside of the keep, worried about intruders approaching, but had their longbows pointed down their way.  The garrison commander, Mevior, approached from the human-built tower, a longsword sheathed in familiar-looking emerald flames in his hand.  Behind him strode an elven woman in leaf-adorned leather armor.

"What's going on?" demanded Cramer, addressing the commander of the keep.  He spoke in the Elven tongue, the only language he'd heard Mevior speak, to be sure his question was understood.

"What's happening?" sneered the garrison commander in the same language.  "Why, I'm about to valiantly avenge the death of Councilor Liadon at the hands of Greenvale's assassins!"

"The elves are trying to kill us!" Cramer called out in the Dwarven tongue, which got Utred barreling out of the mess hall.  Despite having a number of weapons strapped to his hips and back to choose from, the Butterflinger dwarf instead plucked a bead from a necklace he wore and tossed it at Mevior and the elven woman.  Although they both dodged the explosion of flames erupting all about them as best they could, they both seemed shocked that this rough-looking barbarian had somehow mastered the _fireball_ spell.

*Lia*, the woman in leathers, cast a _barkskin_ spell upon herself and backed away from the _fireball_-chucker.  Mevior, for his part, charged the dwarven barbarian with an _Elderwood flaming longsword_ that looked sneakily similar to his own.  In fact, when Utred unsheathed his own blade to counter the garrison commander's, Mevior's eyes lit up in instant recognition.

Marlo wasn't sure what all was going on but cast a _mage armor_ spell on Jhasspok - who spoke no language but Common, the "slave language" of Overreach - and sent him out to help the others.  He immediately saw Utred in a sword fight with the garrison commander, doing so while also catching arrows on his shield - for the archers above had joined in the attack.

There were only two enemies in the courtyard to overcome, Jhasspok noted, but four archers shooting down from the battlements.  Trusting the dwarves could easily take out the ground-based foes, the lizardfolk opted to devote his own efforts against the archers.  But to do that he'd need to get up to the battlements with them.  That was no real problem, though; the lizardfolk tossed his battleaxe up onto the roof of the mage barracks and then leaped up against the vine-covered wall, scrambling to pull himself up to the roof level before any of the twisting vines could think to get a hold on him.  Then, grabbing up his weapon on the way, he sprinted toward the nearest elven archer.

Khari ran up to aid Utred in fighting off Mevior, adding his warhammer to the melee.  Cramer, meanwhile, cast a _sound burst_ spell at Lia, not trusting her in the least - with no weapon at hand, she was likely a spellcaster and the cleric knew it was generally a good idea to take them out as soon as possible.  His spell had the desired effect, he could tell, by the stunned expression that overcame the elf's delicate features - good!

Utred's blade slid past Mevior's defenses, drawing blood.  The commander retaliated in a rather impressive display of swordsmanship against both dwarves - a display that would have been even more impressive had any of his blade-strikes gotten past the dwarves' heavy armor and dealt them even a smidgen of actual damage.  Marlo followed Jhasspok's reasoning and ran to the middle of the courtyard, where she could see the pair of archers on the battlements the lizardfolk was fast approaching.  She _empowered_ a _magic missile_ spell and flung it at the furthermost elf, knocking him instantly unconscious from the magical attack.

The archers on the far side of the keep's battlements fired down at Utred again, one missing entirely and the other's arrow making it no further than the dwarf's shield.  The nearer archer, seeing Jhasspok's approach, grabbed up a longsword and attacked the ferocious-looking lizard about to come at him with a battleaxe.  His swing hit only the turtle shell shield Jhasspok wore on his left arm, and then the lizardfolk's follow-on counterattack with his axe knocked the elf down where he stood.  He still breathed, Jhasspok saw - but that could be easily fixed.

Khari swung his warhammer at Mevior again while Cramer took advantage of Lia's current immobility to cast a _silence_ spell all around her.  _Let's see her cast any spells now!_ he thought to himself.  By that time, Utred had proven his superior swordsmanship by stabbing Mevior through the stomach with his longsword; the garrison commander gripped the blood-slick blade with incomprehension as he dropped to his knees, then over onto his side as Utred pulled the sword from his gut.

With a sudden shudder, Lia snapped out of her immobility and instantly realized she was in a field of magical silence.  She ran up a set of stairs leading to the battlements, readying a spell to her lips but not casting it until she could hear the sounds of her boots on the stone beneath her and the sounds of the battle raging all around.  Then, spinning in place, she cast a _flaming sphere_ that went bounding down the steps and took up position at the bottom, preventing her enemies from following her.

Marlo dropped another archer with a _scorching ray_; his burning corpse fell to the battlements behind the mess hall.  Almost immediately thereafter, the sole remaining archer's longsword and longbow went dropping to the courtyard below as the weapons' owner saw he and Lia were the only remaining members of the assault force and raised his arms in surrender.  "I was only doing as directed!" he called down in the Common tongue, wanting to make sure these visitors could understand him perfectly.

Jhasspok, angry at having nobody else to attack up here on the ramparts, kicked the body of the fallen archer before him to the courtyard below, then ran along the battlements and did the same with the unconscious elf Marlo had taken down with her _empowered magic missile_ spell earlier.  With any luck, they'd break their fool necks when they landed.  (Unnoticed until later, Jhasspok actually got his unvoiced wish with one of them; the other survived the fall.)

There was now only one of the foes still in the fight: the druid Lia.  Cramer cast a _fly_ spell on Khari so he could go take her down.  He wasted no time, flying at her in a bee-line and smacking her with his warhammer.  Lia rolled with the blow and - amazingly - changed shape in the process, suddenly becoming a hawk and trying to fly away.  But Khari could fly just as well as she could and kept pace, swinging his weapon at the now-much-smaller target.  In a last-ditch effort, Lia flew back towards the keep and tried to hide behind the last remaining elven archer, failing to notice he had already surrendered.  Lia was subsequently taken down by a _magic missile_ spell from Marlo.  She fell to the battlements, still in hawk form though now quite unconscious.

Dropping back down to the ground, Jhasspok put his axe to good use in chopping away the vegetation and the wooden door to the mage barracks.  Inside, the place was likewise covered in entangling vines growing out of the wood of the building's structure, wrapping tightly around several elven figures.  The place was also completely silent; once he stepped inside, chopping a way clear as he did so, Jhasspok couldn't hear a thing.  Fortunately, Liadon and the mages were still alive and when the _entangle_ spell eventually ran its course the lizardfolk was able to bring them outside where they could speak aloud.

"It was a _silence stone_," Liadon explained.  "Mevior opened the door, tossed it inside the room, and then had his wife seal us in with an _entangle_ spell.  Even if we could have moved with the vines wrapped around us, there was nowhere we could put the stone that its effects didn't cover us.  We were unable to cast any spells that might have allowed us to escape on our own."

The subsequent interrogation of the prisoners revealed the archers believed Mevior's story that the party had already killed Liadon.  Lia also claimed it was her husband's idea to frame Greenvale for the assassination of one of the Elderwood's five councilors.  She also confessed she was the one who had set the dire bear on Liadon's soldiers at her husband's behest.

"So what are we going to do with the prisoners?" asked Utred.  Personally, he was hoping they'd be executed there on the spot.  If so, he was even willing to perform the act himself.

But it was not to be.  "The members of the garrison who weren't involved in the plot to slay me and blame you will stay behind to continue manning the keep while we escort the prisoners to the capitol," Councilor Liadon decided.  That also meant there would be no looting of the corpses of the elves they'd slain, Utred realized with a frown.  Bummer!  He'd been hoping to add a few of their weapons to his ever-growing arsenal.  Lia and the two surviving archers were securely bound and loaded onto the back of the wagon.

And then with a crack of the reins, Cramer Appleknocker sent the draft horse through the gates of the Crossroad Keep, pulling a wagon containing Councilor Liadon and a trio of prisoners heading towards the heart of the Elderwood, for a meeting with King Omadan and hopefully another alliance for the sunborn drow of Greenvale.  The other arena slaves walked beside the wagon.

"What's that?" Jhasspok asked suddenly.

Utred sighed in resignation.  "That's a daisy," he replied.  It was going to be a long day, he could tell.

 - - -

Logan designed the ground level of the Crossroad Keep on the back of a sheet from an old desk calendar, gridded off into one-inch squares with pencil and a yardstick.  The human-built tower was one I had made years ago out of cardboard for an earlier adventure in a previous campaign.  And then he did something I thought was rather clever: he built the ramparts out of properly-sized sheets of paper he laid over the edges of the ground-level map he'd made, allowing him to show the lower level and the upper level at the same time, removing or replacing the top level sheets as needed.

As for the "teardrop crystals" floating above the towers, those were magic items the elven wizards could _scry_ out of as if they were there in their place, and also cast spells from as needed.  It was a clever way for them to be able to aid in the garrison's defense without putting them on the front lines, so to speak.  (Of course, they spent the duration of the fight in the keep _entangled_, so they were of no help to us - but it's still a cool idea.)

We're closing in on 7th level, by the way.  If we don't level up at the end of the next adventure, we'll almost certainly do so after the adventure after that.


----------



## Richards (Apr 17, 2020)

*ADVENTURE 17: DOUBLE AGENTS*

PC Roster:
Cramer Appleknocker, gnome cleric 6​Jhasspok, lizardman 3/barbarian 2/fighter 1​Khari Hammerslammer, dwarf fighter 6​Marlo Pendragon, human sorcerer 6​Utred "Buckets" Butterflinger, dwarf barbarian 6​
Game Session Date: 15 April 2020

- - -

"So what can we expect when we get to the capital?" asked Cramer Appleknocker from the front of the wagon.

"We will meet with King Omadan and the other four councilors," replied Councilor Liadon.  "I will brief them on the assassination attempt, turn over the prisoners, and you will be given an opportunity to plead your case about an alliance with Greenvale."

"What can you tell us about the other councilors?" asked Marlo, walking beside the wagon.  "You said there were five in all, but only one shared your views on allying with Greenvale."

"Correct - that would be the *Archmage Xiandria*.  She's a former adventurer, much like yourselves, who moved to the Elderwood a century or so ago.  The other three, who are opposed to an alliance, are Councilors Aramoira, Inafiel, and Vawraek.

"*Councilor Aramoira* is a dryad.  A cutting from her tree was transplanted into the capital so she can travel between there and her home tree in the Druid's Grove, deeper in the Elderwood.  Her opposition stems from her claim that the woods themselves told her great destruction would come to the Elderwood if we interfered with Greenvale's fate."

"Great destruction's on its way here in three months, whether you ally with Greenvale or not," pointed out Utred.  Jhasspok, in the meantime, tried to figure out just how the woods could have told anybody anything in the first place.  He eyed the trees they passed suspiciously; were they just faking being inanimate?

"Too true - a point that must be made to the King and the Council," agreed Liadon.  "Next up, we have *Councilor Inafiel*, a famous pirate hunter - who, along with her mother, sought to take down Inafiel's own grandfather, an infamous pirate who they felt was sullying their family name.  Inafiel was swayed against allying with Greenvale by *Councilor Vawraek*, a silver-tongued devil if ever there was one.  He is the main source of anti-Greenvale sentiment - and, I suspect, he's also behind the illegal attacks on caravans trading with Greenvale and quite possibly the one behind the attempt on my life."

"Do you have any proof?" asked Marlo.

"Alas, no - it's just a suspicion.  But Vawraek is a powerful spellcaster - much more skilled in the arcane arts than am I, in any case - although he's an unusual one: he's often seen mumbling quietly to himself."

"But what about the king?" asked Cramer.  "Doesn't he have the final word?  I thought you councilors were just advisers."

"Quite so, but each adviser is a representative of his or her own district of the kingdom and King Omadan does not want a civil war among factions so the overall majority view of the council is usually heeded.  He has decreed a stance of non-interaction with Greenvale, which has subsequently been grossly misinterpreted as a full embargo against the city and all who would trade with them, to the extent of attacking caravans friendly to Greenvale."

"So it sounds like all we need to do is sway one of these three councilors to our way of thinking, and then the king could more easily be convinced to ally with Greenvale," mused Cramer.  Councilor Liadon acknowledged the truth of the gnome's reasoning.

Much of the rest of the day's trip was spent in quiet reflection or small talk.  In the late afternoon, they finally arrived at their destination: a seamless, white wall across the road.  "Strange," observed Liadon.  "There should be a gate there, directly ahead."  Khari and Jhasspok looked all around them, wondering where it might possibly have gotten off to.

But then a guard called down from the ramparts, in Elven, "I made sure to put flowers on your brother's grave."

Liadon called up to the guard in the same language, "I have no brother.  What makes you think I was under duress?  These are allies I travel with, who saved my life from assassins of our own race.  We have brought the three who survived the attempt upon my life for interrogation."  Cramer, the only one of the slaves familiar with the Elven tongue, realized the guard had assumed Councilor Liadon was their prisoner - possibly even hostage - and the elves had likely sealed off the gate in the wall with a _stone shape_ or similar spell to bar their entrance.

"We were told you had been kidnapped by assassins seeking to use you to get to the king," replied the guard from the ramparts.  He gave a nod to someone behind him and a seam appeared in the wall, eventually opening up into a pair of gates allowing the horse-drawn wagon and its occupants, as well as those who walked along beside it, to enter the capital city of Greenvale.  As Cramer drove the wagon inside the gates, an elven woman in robes approached.

"Welcome," said Archmage Xiandria warmly to the councilor, then gave a bit of a start at seeing the group with which he was traveling.  Apparently they didn't get a whole lot of non-elven visitors this deep in the Elderwood.

"We will meet with the King and the Council tomorrow," Liadon told the five slaves, stepping down from the wagon.  He indicated for several of the guards to take custody of the bound prisoners.  "Xiandria here will escort you to a place you may stay overnight, that you may be refreshed before the meeting."  And with that he strode off, likely to make the necessary arrangements.

Xiandria led the group to a building set off away from the others, a three-story affair with curving walls, each level about half the size of the one below it, so the roof slanted down from the back of the building to the front.  Opening the door, she led them all inside.  "You can stay here tonight, in the library," she offered.  "We don't have much in the way of guest quarters, I'm afraid."  Once everyone was inside, she closed the door behind her, looked to make sure nobody else was in the building, and then hissed, "What are you doing here?  Did my mother send you here to check up on me?"

That question got her five puzzled looks.  "Who's your mother?" asked Khari bluntly.

Xiandria looked blankly back at the dwarf.  "Then, if she didn't send you--?"

"We're here to warn everyone about an attack by a drow army," Jhasspok offered up, answering the Archmage's original question.  "In three months, the Overreach drow will attack Greenvale and we're here to warn people and try to get them to agree to an alliance with the Greenvale elves."  He wasn't sure yet if they were going to admit to anyone right away about the Greenvale elves actually being sunborn drow, so he left that part out.

Marlo was staring intently at the Archmage as the elf took this all in.  "You look...familiar, somehow," the sorcerer admitted.

At this, Xiandria sighed and took a seat.  "You probably recognize me from when you were first taken from the surface," she admitted.  "I was the one who took you aside after you received your slave tattoos, and gave you back not only your own gear but the extra scrolls to use in the Festival of Blood."

"That was a drow!" exclaimed Marlo.

"As, indeed, I am," Xiandria said.  "I am *Xiandria Jalamir*, second daughter of the Matron."  She was also apparently an archmage, so altering her appearance to appear as a light-skinned surface elf would be well within her powers, Marlo realized.

"Then you're Calish's sister!" Cramer deduced.

"Yes, one of them."

"Then what are you doing here, in an elven kingdom - as one of their Councilors?" demanded the gnome.

Xiandria sighed again.  "My mother and I have an arrangement: I can remain here on the surface as long as I keep in constant contact with her - usually with a monthly astral visit.  But she recently sent me a _sending_ spell telling me to stop using _astral projection_ spells to visit, until further notice.  That's why I had at first assumed she had sent you, for I recognized you at once as Calish's arena slaves, when I had returned to Overreach to be publicly seen attending the Festival of Blood."

"Then you're unaware of the recent events in Overreach," reasoned Marlo.  She explained about the rise of the Mortal Queen and her edict that they would purge all sunborn drow from their vicinity, going so far as to send their armies to the surface to obliterate Greenvale.

"All...sunborn drow?" Xiandria asked.

Cramer saw immediately where the question had been headed.  "Including your sister Eri'dia, yes," the gnome replied.  "Under orders from the Mortal Queen, your mother had Eri'dia captured and tortured."

"They cut her into a bunch of pieces and then sewed them back up into flesh golems," added Utred, savoring the look of horror his announcement had on the elven spellcaster.

"Where is she now?" Xiandria demanded.

"Safe in Greenvale - for now, at least," Cramer explained.  "But in three months' time...."  He left the rest unsaid.

"Then it is of even greater urgency that we sway the rest of the Council and the King to come to Greenvale's aid," said Xiandria.  "We must not allow the Spider-Bitch to extend her power to the surface!"

"Wait...so you're a sunborn drow, too?" asked Utred.

"Not a sunborn, no - but I am a follower of Eilistraee."  She turned back towards the door.  "We will meet again tomorrow.  I would ask you not to mention to anyone else I am a drow from Overreach.  It would...complicate matters greatly."

"We understand," Marlo assured her.  "Your secret will be safe with us."

"We're secret double slaves," Jhasspok offered up, hoping his admitting to their own secret lives would lead the Archmage to understand they well knew the need to keep secrets...although the simpleminded lizardfolk hadn't realized spilling his own secrets wasn't the best indicator of his ability to guard hers.  Xiandria gave them all a troubled look and then walked back out through the door, leaving them to make themselves comfortable for the night.  They opted to do without a guard shift, although Jhasspok took it upon himself to bunk down against the front door, so anyone trying to enter the building while they slept would bump him awake.

The night passed without incident.  The next morning, breakfast was brought to the arena slaves.  They were left to their own devices for the entire morning; around noon Xiandria returned to escort them to the audience area.

"Anything we should know about?" asked Cramer as they walked deeper into the forest.

"Nothing I can think of," replied Xiandria.  "The other councilors are tight-lipped; we'll have to see what they have to say after you've made your case before King Omadan."  They approached a ring of standing stones, arranged in a wide circle around a tree stump.  Growing up from the center of the stump was a sapling, a thin new growth rising up from the dead wood beneath it.  As they approached, the ground seemed oddly spongy, but nobody gave much notice to it: all eyes were upon the figures seated on stone benches on the circular plinth laid atop the ten stone pillars: King Omadan and four of the five councilors.  Archmage Xiandria strode to her own stone pillar, touching a glyph upon its side and levitating to the top to take her place among the other councilors.

"You may approach," stated the elven king on a regal voice, once Xiandria was seated.

Jhasspok entered the stone circle and stood before the king.  "I'm a lizardman," he announced for no particular reason.  The two dwarves flanked him, with Marlo and Cramer taking up positions on either side of the tree stump.  All looked up to face the king.  Then Marlo began the speech she'd rehearsed back at the library, the _circlet of persuasion_ on her brow giving further power to her arguments.  She spoke of the impending drow invasion, the true nature of the Greenvale elves, and the assassination attempt on Councilor Liadon's life.

"An interesting tale," sneered Councilor Vawraek from his seat, "but I fail to see why we should take the word of a group of probable assassins.  It seems more likely that they were the ones behind the attempt to slay Liadon - they have already admitted to killing the garrison commander of Crossroad Keep and his loyal guardsmen."

"Everything we have said is the truth," countered Cramer.  "I am a cleric of Fharlanghn and am willing to cast a _zone of truth_ spell, so we can all be sure that what is said is truthful.  And," he added, looking around the circle and judging distances, "if I cast it directly upon this tree stump, it will encompass all of us here, the councilors included."  It would also, he realized, encompass King Omadan but the gnome felt he was better off not pointing out that little detail - the king would no doubt realize he was also affected but to draw attention to it was to raise doubts as to the slaves' confidence in the king's honesty.

"Very well," agreed King Omadan.  "Cast your spell - we have those among us who can tell it is a _zone of truth_ spell you cast, and nothing more."  Aramoira the dryad leaned forward as the gnome cleric did as he had been bid.

"Well then," smirked Vawraek once the spell was in place, "tell us all for the record, Xiandria: are you a drow spy?"  None of the slaves had discovered it the previous day, but his familiar had followed them and Xiandria into the library and heard everything said in confidence between them.

Xiandria gasped at the accusation but before she could answer the clicking of mandibles could be heard from all around the circle - and then, the illusion spells that had hidden them falling away since they were no longer needed, the monstrous spiders hanging to the undersides of the circular plinth attacked: six of them going for the king and the councilors while four others dropped to the ground and skittered towards the arena slaves.

Cramer, Khari, Marlo, and Utred were the spiders' first targets on the ground; of the four, only Marlo managed to dodge away from the piercing mandibles, although Cramer and the dwarves all managed to shrug off the effects of the venom the spiders injected into them as part of their attack.  But then Utred unsheated his _Elderwood flaming longsword_ and put it to good use, cutting open the abdomen of the spider who had bitten him.  It lasted all of a handful of seconds after the effrontery of having bitten a Butterflinger dwarf before it was dead on the ground, its eight legs twitching spasmodically in death.

Marlo channeled arcane power into a _magic missile_ spell and sent the _empowered_ bolts blasting into the side of the spider that had tried biting her.  But she had no room to back away and it got in another bite as she cast her spell, this time successfully catching the sorcerer between its mandibles and piercing her skin, venom dripping from its fangs.  Marlo, not one for the rigors of physical combat, felt her strength draining away as a result of the poisoned bite.  Then, to make matters even worse, her arm suddenly sprouted two small arrows.  Truffles, peering up out of Marlo's robe pocket, thought he detected a sort of shimmering area over by Councilor Vawraek and passed his suspicions on to his mistress over the empathic link they shared.  Marlo, in turn, called out "Invisible archer over by Vawraek!" to the others, letting them know they were up against more than spiders.

Cramer backed frantically away from the spider who had bitten him, bumping into Jhasspok as he cast a _fly_ spell upon himself.  The lizardfolk had his battleaxe out and swung it at the spider menacing the little gnome, its blade cutting deep into the creature's cephalothorax but failing to slay it outright.  Khari, in the meantime, had slain his own arachnid foe, crushing its head into a pulp with a massive, overhead swing of his trusty warhammer.

But then it became apparent the ten large spiders weren't the only arachnids in play, for swarms of much smaller spiders suddenly blanketed the area, crawling down the standing stones to overrun the combat slaves on the ground.  Up on the raised platform, the king and the five councilors were busy fighting off large monstrous spiders of their own, although they seemed to have been spared the swarms of smaller arachnids currently concentrating on making meals of the heroes below.

Utred ran over to Marlo's side and slew the spider threatening her, leaving her available to send a _scorching ray_ spell at the spider swarm attacking her and Utred, her spell causing most of the spiders in the area to be set ablaze and die instantly.  Cramer took flight, flying straight up and casting an _invisibility purge_ spell that brought a winged pixie into sudden view.  Strange noises - likely curses in an unknown tongue - erupted from the pixie's throat, and *Waruchi* brought up her tiny bow and fired a pair of arrows, one after the other, at the bothersome gnome.

Khari and Jhasspok brought their weapons to bear against the sole remaining monstrous spider on the ground before them, slaying it between them.  The remaining spider swarms repositioned themselves to best effect, some of them crawling onto Utred and Marlo's bodies.  Truffles tried leaping away but was overcome on the ground, paralyzed almost at once as the various spider-bites pumped so much venom into the little toad's system that he literally couldn't move a muscle.

Utred plucked a bead from his _necklace of fireballs_ and tossed it down at his feet, engulfing him - and, more importantly, the spiders covering the majority of his body at this point - in cleansing flames.  Burnt arachnid corpses floated down off of him like sinister ashes.  Marlo, just out of range, cast another _empowered magic missile_ spell, this time targeting the strange-looking pixie - the sorcerer couldn't make out just what was wrong with the little fairy but she just seemed somehow _off_.  Cramer joined in the pixie pile-on with a _spiritual weapon_ spell, causing a quarterstaff composed of pure force energy to strike down at the winged menace.

Khari's warhammer wasn't necessarily the best weapon to bring against a swarm of skittering spiders but the dwarven fighter did the best he could with it, smashing multiple bodies to a crunchy pulp with each blow.  It might take him some time, but he'd get these pests!

Waruchi narrowed her eyes in hatred at the flying gnome: not only had he dispelled her invisibility, but he'd hurt her with his force-weapon!  She targeted him again with her bow and sent a flurry of her arrows his way; only one of them struck true.

Jhasspok saw there were no more of the bigger spiders down on the ground with them, only the smaller ones crawling over his body (and those the lizardfolk was content to let stay, as they'd make a nice snack when he had the time; killing spiders was punishable by death in the drow city of the Overreach so he'd never gotten to sample what they might taste like) - but there were still six up on the plinth with the king and the five councilors.  And so he sprinted toward the nearest standing stone, leaping up and grabbing the top of the stone plinth and pulling himself up.  Then, realizing this would almost certainly get the elven king to appreciate the slaves' assistance, the lizardfolk brought his battleaxe crashing down on the spider threatening King Omadan.  His blow pierced the spider's abdomen in two and it died instantly, blood and other fluids leaking from its split corpse.  The elven king gave a nod of gratitude and then looked to his right, where Liadon was fighting off another of these monstrous beasts.

Marlo was being eaten alive by the spiders covering her body, until Utred shook them off her and stomped them beneath his heels.  Smiling her gratitude, Marlo scooped up her immobile toad familiar, stuffed him back into her pocket, and cast a _magic missile_ spell up at the bedraggled-looking pixie.  Marlo didn't even bother _empowering_ it, believing (quite rightly) that a "standard model" would do the trick.  Waruchi screamed in pain and collapsed, landing on the stone plinth beside her master - who gave all appearances of fighting off the giant spider attacking him.

Despite his close proximity, Cramer didn't get to enjoy the sight of the pixie's plummet; his gaze was focused off in the distance, where a large shape was lumbering its way through the trees.  This, he saw as it got closer, was another monstrous spider, this one gargantuan in its proportions: it looked to span at least 30 or 40 feet with its outstretched legs.  With a mental command, the flying gnome redirected his _spiritual quarterstaff_ off in this new menace's direction.

Khari, also out of combat foes and not able to climb up onto the plinth like Jhasspok had, pulled out his longbow and aimed an arrow at the downed pixie's unmoving form - she might already be dead, but the dwarf wasn't willing to take any chances.  His shot struck true, but seemed to plunk harmlessly off the little fairy's body.  _Some sort of magical protection_, the dwarven fighter reasoned.

Jhasspok, in the meantime, headed off to his left along the plinth, to attack the giant spider going after Inafiel.  Together, he and the elven pirate-hunter brought the beast down.  But by now the gargantuan spider had made it to the outskirts of the circle of stones, headed for the dryad, Aramoira.  Utred rushed at the spider, bringing his magic longsword striking at its underside and scoring a line of blood and pain with the strength of his blow.  Marlo sent an _empowered magic missile_ spell at the rampaging spider-monster, realizing it was in everyone's best interests to slay this thing at range before it closed in for the kill.  Cramer flew up over the beast and landed atop its hairy abdomen, where it would be unable to bite the gnome, and cast an _inflict serious wounds_ at the spider beneath his feet.  He also kept his _spiritual quarterstaff_ engaged in striking the spider, the tip of the weapon crashing down upon one of the spider's eight eyes.

Khari, seeing he once again had an opponent on the ground with him, forsook his pixie-plinking experiments and grabbed up his warhammer once again, swinging it into one of the gargantuan spider's legs.  But despite their best efforts, the heroes failed to slay the thing before it could attack; dashing forward with its wicked mandibles, it bit deep into the body of Aramoira as she was about to leap down off the stone plinth.  The spider's venomous fangs pierced the dryad from both sides, practically cutting her in half.  She pitched forward off the plinth, the sapling growing out of the tree trunk in the center of the circle of stones withering away to nothing and giving silent voice to the dryad's passing from this world.

Up on the plinth, Jhasspok brought his battleaxe crashing down upon the illusory spider that was pretending to attack the wizard Vawraek; the weapon seemed to deflect off the creature's body but the lizardfolk saw nothing unusual in that and it brought no suspicions to the front of his lizard brain.  He also failed to note the elven wizard seemed none the worse for wear in fighting off the attacks of a venomous spider the size of a horse.

Utred cut deep into the gargantuan spider's body, at the joint where one leg met the underside of the body.  He knew he'd have a mere moment to leap away when they finally killed the blasted thing - unless he wanted the fool beast to land on top of him - but for right now this seemed the best place to strike at the monster.  Fortunately, by this time the various attacks had taken a great toll on the gargantuan spider, and when Marlo's _magic missile_ spell finally took it down, Utred had just barely enough time to roll out of the way as the monstrous beast toppled.

Not convinced of the fairy's death, Cramer cast a _sound burst_ spell that "accidentally" covered Vawraek as well; the elf screamed in agony - far too much for the minimal pain the gnome's spell could have caused - until Cramer realized the elven wizard had just felt his familiar's death over the link the two had shared.  Well, good - that was at least an indicator that the pixie had finally been slain!

The group helped finish off the rest of the remaining spiders, not a few of them turning out to be mere illusions, like the one "attacking" Vawraek.  The elven mage was grabbed by the back of the neck by Jhasspok and dragged before the king.  "Explain," the lizardfolk snarled to the wizard, sure that Vawraek had been behind the attacks.

Cramer, in the meantime, had flown over to examine the dead pixie's body.  By her coloration, he deduced she had been fiendish, or half-fiend, in nature - that would explain how she had been able to shrug off the arrow Khari had shot directly at her.  "I didn't know!" swore Vawraek.  "She was almost always invisible before me!"  Cramer was skeptical, but an invisible pixie familiar at least explained the wizard's penchant for mumbling quietly to himself - he'd been talking to his unseen familiar the whole time!

"Your Majesty," Cramer suggested, "I can pray for a _speak with dead_ spell tomorrow and use it upon the body of the slain pixie.  She might be able to give us better answers than this one" - here he sneered at Vawraek - "is likely to give us."

"Agreed," replied King Omadan.  "We will reconvene here tomorrow, then.  I will have these bodies removed in the meantime, and poor Aramoira lain to rest."  He climbed down from the plinth, with the others following suit - and taking custody of the wizard Vawraeth, not looking anywhere near as formidable now that he was blubbering over his familiar's death and swearing his own innocence in any plot she might have cooked up behind his back.

The next day the circle of standing stones looked completely clean and clear - it was if no battle had ever occurred here at all.  Furthermore, the "sponginess" of the ground was also gone; that had turned out to be an illusion of normalcy cast over layers and layers of spider webs covering the ground all around the circle.  Marlo shuddered at the memory of being covered in spiders; from safely inside her robe pocket, Truffles did likewise.  At least he'd recovered from his poisoning in the intervening day since the sudden battle.

Waruchi's body was lain out on the ground by the tree stump.  Cramer approached it and cast his spell.  Then he started asked the questions the group had decided upon ahead of time; the spell would allow him only three questions, but he could change which questions he asked at the spur of the moment - a great benefit in the case of a sudden bit of information demanding further explanation.

"Who did you serve besides your wizardly master, Vawraek?" the gnome demanded of the half-fiend pixie's body.

"My father and half-sister," came the ghostly replay.  Well, that certainly required further detail!

"What are the names of your father and half-sister?" demanded Cramer.

"My father is *Bezrameth*, while I only know my half-sister's last name: Bel'vior."  Bezrameth would be the demonic parent of the half-fiend; of greater importance was the fact that this little pixie was kin to House Bel'vior, the First House of Overreach.  In fact, it made sense that if Waruchi was a half-fiend pixie and had a half-sister Bel'vior drow, that drow was a half-fiend as well - she couldn't likely be half-pixie, could she?  Could this half-sister possibly be the Mortal Queen herself?  It was food for thought.

But Cramer had another question he wanted answered.  "Why did you have the spiders attack?" he asked.  There had been some who thought the gargantuan spider had made for the dryad specifically, while others believed she had merely been the easiest target at the moment.  If taking out Aramoira had been important the gnome wanted to know about it.

"To keep the Elderwood out of my sister's war."  Well, that cinched it: the half-fiend half-sister to Waruchi was Matron Bel'vior, the Mortal Queen herself.  The spirit answering the questions faded away, the gnome's spell having reached its conclusion.

"So now what?" asked Marlo.

"You will have your alliance," declared King Omadan.  "I have already sent word throughout the kingdom of your warnings and our warriors are gearing up for battle.  We will send an emissary to Greenvale, attesting to our intentions.  The actions of this Mortal Queen and her half-sister are an act of war against the Elderwood; we will aid Greenvale in the upcoming invasion."

"Thank you, Your Majesty," said Marlo, much relieved.

"What about Vawraek?" asked Utred.

"He still proclaims himself an unknowing pawn to his familiar's machinations, but he has gracefully accepted his punishment: a century of imprisonment," answered the king.

"Why not just kill him?" asked the dwarven barbarian.  It seemed like an obvious solution to him.

"We are not so...barbaric," replied King Omadan.

"More's the pity," grumbled Utred.

Still, they had gotten Elderwood to join in the alliance with Greenvale - next up was Revin, the kingdom from which Cramer hailed.  The gnome would be glad to see his homelands once again.  And they'd hopefully be able to get Revin to join the Greenvale alliance much easier than it had been to gain the elves' agreement; at the very least, it would be nice if they didn't have to fight hordes of giant spiders to get their task completed.

Jhasspok, however, wouldn't mind meeting up with more spiders, especially since killing one here on the surface wasn't a capital offense like it was in Overreach.  And he'd come to an important realization: spiders tasted much more like dried dung beetles than they did horse meat.  (The ones burned by the _scorching ray_ spells had a unique taste all to their own - they were by far his favorites.)

- - -

I was afraid at first this adventure was going to be combat-free, especially once I found out several of the councilors were capable of casting 8th- and 9th-level spells.  But Logan took care of that by having the king and the councilors busy with their own fights up on the plinth while we fought our own battles on the ground.  That sped up combat immensely, as the plinth battles took place off screen, as it were - at least up until I realized what a PR opportunity saving the king's life would be.

As we'd hoped, everyone leveled up to 7th-level at the end of this adventure.  Jhasspok's taking a 2nd level of fighter; I imagine he and Khari go through weapons drills in their off time, as wielding a warhammer and wielding a battleaxe aren't that too dissimilar.


----------



## Richards (Apr 25, 2020)

*ADVENTURE 18: HAPPY TRAILS*

PC Roster:
Cramer Appleknocker, gnome cleric 7​Jhasspok, lizardman 3/barbarian 2/fighter 2​Khari Hammerslammer, dwarf fighter 7​Marlo Pendragon, human sorcerer 7​Utred "Buckets" Butterflinger, dwarf barbarian 7​
Game Session Date: 22 April 2020

- - -

The wagon was heavy when the heroes departed the Elderwood capital, loaded down with numerous chests filled with golden coins, a reward for having saved the life of King Omadan.  So heavy, in fact, that Cramer insisted only he and Marlo ride in the front and the others walk beside.  "We've only got the one horse and a four-day ride to Revin; we don't want to tucker the poor beast out!" he admonished.  There was no real argument against it, either, for the two dwarves and the burly lizardfolk were each much heavier than either the little gnome or the petite human.  Some of the coins had been spent on healing potions before they left the capital city, lessening the load somewhat, but there were still quite a lot left.

The first day's travel got the group as far as the Crossroad Keep.  Utred was wary of the place - not surprising, as the last time they'd stayed there overnight they'd been attacked by the elven guardsmen and would have been set up as the slayers of Councilor Liadon had they not overcome the forces against them.  But there was an entirely different set of elves on guard duty at the keep and word had already reached them how the five travelers had saved the life of the king; the arena slaves had no problems whatsoever during their overnight stay, finding themselves being toasted at the drinking establishment and practically treated like royalty themselves.  "Now tha's mo' like it!" slurred Utred when he finally hit his borrowed bunk for the night.

But the next morning found the quintet back on the road again, heading west for Revin, Cramer's homeland.  And shortly after noon on this second day of travel, the group arrived upon quite an unexpected scene: a human sitting in the middle of the road, bashing his feet with a wooden club.

"What are you _doing?_" demanded Marlo as Cramer brought the wagon to a halt beside the beleaguered man.

"Can't--go back!" the man replied, still hitting his feet.  "Don't let me--go back!"

"Somebody stop him!" commanded Marlo.  Jhasspok ran up and tackled the man, grabbing the wooden club from his hand and pinning him flat upon the road.  "Okay, please explain to us what's going on," the sorcerer asked the pinned foot-basher.

"I got hurt an' was told to grab a healing potion, but I never learned my letters none and I musta grabbed the wrong one," *Henrik* explained.  "Whatever was in that potion, it let me see what was goin' on for real, and I high-tailed it outta there!"  He gulped visibly.  "Only then I got winded from all the runnin', and I realized that potion's gonna wear off any time now and then I'll wanna go back!  But don't let me go back!"

"You're trying to smash your feet so you won't be able to return to where you came from?" Marlo reiterated.  "Is that really the best idea?"  She looked sideways over at Cramer, giving him a silent expression that said, "And I thought Khari and Jhasspok were on the dim side!"

"I can't go back there--I can't!" wailed Henrik.

"Howzabout we knock you out and tie you up?" offered Khari, hefting his dwarven warhammer.  "Then you couldn't go back."

"Would you?" pleaded Henrik.  Khari raised his weapon as if to bring it crashing down on the crazed human's head but Cramer stepped between them and raised his hand.  "Hold on, Khari, not just quite yet, please."  He turned to Henrik.  "If we tie you up so you can't go back to wherever it was you escaped from and promised to leave you in the wagon, would you be able to lead us back there so we can check it out?"  Henrik gave it some thought and reluctantly agreed - as long as he didn't have to step back inside the marble palace.

Jhasspok let Henrik get up from the road and Utred escorted him to the back of the wagon, where he started binding his arms and legs with a sturdy length of rope.  While Henrik was being successfully trussed up, he explained what he knew of the situation.

"There's this wizard, *Absor*, who runs the Cult of Celestial Bliss.  Absor, he took all of us to the heavens, where we could see the whole world floatin' above us in the sky.  Only with such a large group, the celestials noticed we was trespassing and chased us off.  Now Absor only sends one of us at a time to slip past their notice.  About once a week or so, it is."

"Is this making any sense to you?" Marlo asked Cramer.

The gnome cleric rubbed his bearded chin in thought.  "It could be Bytopia," he mused.  "That would explain the 'whole world' being above them in the sky - it's said to be a dual plane, one upside-down over the other."  Marlo just scowled at the thought; she'd had enough of upside-down gravity planes in the Overreach to last her a lifetime.

Suddenly, Henrik gave a shake of his head, as if waking up.  "Hey, what are you doing?" he asked Utred, who was putting the finishing touches on the knot he'd just tied around Henrik's wrists.  ""Let me out of these ropes!  I have to get back to Absor!  Let me go--I have to get back!"

"Now what?" sighed Marlo to herself as Cramer cast a _magic circle against evil_ spell on himself and approached the bound human.  Once he got within a few steps of Henrik the man settled down again.  "Okay, seriously, what's going on?" demanded Marlo.

"Here's what I think," replied Cramer.  "Henrik here's under some kind of magical compulsion: a _geas_ or _charm_ or _domination_ effect or something similar that's keeping him at this marble palace.  Then he drinks the wrong potion - I'm guessing a _potion of protection from evil_ or something similar - and his mind's suddenly his own again.  He runs away, we find him, and just as Utred finished tying him up - good job there, by the way, Utred - the potion wore off.  Now he wants to go back, until he fell within the range of my spell, which once again cleared his mind.  Do you want to go back to the marble palace, Henrik?"

"No!"

"Yeah, I didn't think so."  Cramer climbed back into the front of the wagon and motioned for Marlo to get in beside him.  "Okay, here's what we're going to do, Henrik.  You tell us how to get to this marble palace and we'll go have a talk with this Absor guy for you.  You can stay here in the wagon, okay?"  Henrik nodded nervously.

"Guy sure seems pretty scared of bliss," Khari muttered as the group moved forward, back the way Henrik had come before they found him.

"So who all's in this bliss cult?" Utred wanted to know.  Henrik explained that besides the wizard leader and the two female adventurers who joined the cult, there were a total of ten commoners - like himself - who had been attracted to the concept of a gathering devoted to pure happiness.

"Tell us more about these two adventurers," commanded Cramer.  He wanted to know what they'd be up against, besides confronting a wizard powerful enough to keep a dozen people in his thrall.

"*Belaina* is a swordswoman," Henrik explained, "and *Helen*'s a bard."  Utred snorted at this last bit of information: Oh no, someone who might _sing_ at them!

It didn't take long for the group to reach the white palace, which looked exactly as described: a one-story stone building crafted of white marble.  As the wagon approached, Cramer cast _longstrider_ and _detect evil_ spells on himself and Marlo cast a _mage armor_ spell on Jhasspok - for which the lizardfolk dutifully handed over one of his slave-tokens to the sorcerer.  Marlo just took the token; it was easier than explaining to Jhasspok that payment wasn't necessary.

"There's evil ahead," Cramer whispered to the others as he brought the horse to a stop just outside the open doorway.  The fact that he could definitely sense evil through the solid-looking marble walls led him to believe all was not as it seemed; staring intently at the building, he was able to pierce through the crafted illusion and see the "palace" for what it really was: a silk tent.  He let the others in on his discovery and armed with that knowledge they too were able to see through the illusion.

"We have intruders among us!" came a raspy voice from inside.  "Newcomers here to prevent our eternal bliss!"  Cramer looked through the open doorway - there was no door - and saw half a dozen humans in simple robes standing in an antechamber.  Behind them he saw a wizard, Absor no doubt, waving his hands about as if in the midst of spellcasting, while Helen and Balaina stood beside him.

"Looks like a fight!" enthused Khari, glad they'd just be getting on with it instead of trying to negotiate or anything.  Using the power of his magic warhammer, he dropped below the surface of the ground and earth glided beneath the tent, popping up directly behind Absor, who gave no indication he knew there was now an armed and armored dwarf ready to bop him on the head with his warhammer.  Jhasspok, in the meantime, ran around to the back of the tent, thinking he'd surprise Absor by ripping through the silk right behind him, taking him by surprise.  The lizardfolk had to stifle his own hissing laughter, so excited was he at his clever ploy.

Marlo went straight to the attack, sending an _empowered magic missile_ crashing into Balaina while stepping down from the front of the wagon.  Helen began singing but then was cut off in mid-song; she'd cast a _silence_ spell on Balaina and was temporarily within its effect.  Utred ran straight into the tent, pushing his way past the robed commoners who, he saw, didn't even have any weapons in hand.  They tried punching the burly dwarven barbarian but he ignored them, heading straight for Absor with his _Elderwood flaming longsword_ out and ready.

Upon an unvoiced order - it arrived telepathically, directly into their heads - the robed cultists (whom Absor sneeringly referred to as "the rabble" to himself) turned away from Utred and swarmed over Marlo, pummeling the sorcerer with their fists.  However, in doing so, three of them inadvertently entered the radius of Cramer's _magic circle against evil_ spell and felt their own minds return; those three looked about confusedly, as if wondering what they were doing here.  One of the others was knocked into unconsciousness as Marlo fought back, her _arcane blade_ in hand.

But then Balaina ran forward and joined the crowd, the _silence_ spell surrounding her causing all sounds to cease in her immediate vicinity.  She kept her longsword sheathed, grabbing Marlo by the hair and flipping her to the ground, then pounding her a good one with a fist to the nose.  Cramer immediately leaped down from the wagon and backed hurriedly away, but this was just to get outside the radius of the _silence_ spell so he could cast additional spells of his own.  This he did at once, casting a _spiritual weapon_ spell that caused a shimmering quarterstaff to appear in the air above the little gnome's head.  He could only see a tangle of legs on the other side of the wagon but that didn't matter; he'd gotten a good look at Balaina as she ran to attack Marlo and with a mental image of her in his head he sent his force-quarterstaff to the attack.  One end of it crashed down onto the back of Balaina's head as she grappled with Marlo, trying to prevent the sorceress from being able to cast spells.

Absor stepped away from Utred, deftly dodging a hammer-blow from Khari as he did so.  He moved his hands about again as if spellcasting, imbuing himself with added vigor for the duration of this fight against these unknown enemies.  Khari thought for a moment Absor's actions reminded him of something, but just that quick whatever thought he'd had on the subject was gone.  Still, he whirled around and brought the head of his weapon crashing into Absor's side, causing the wizard a great deal of pain.

On the other side of the tent, just behind Absor's new position, Jhasspok brought his battleaxe down in an overhead arc, thinking to slice through the thin layer of silk and the wizard in one stroke.  But the fabric, it turned out, was ironsilk - much tougher than the lizardfolk had expected!  Still his axe-head crashed down upon the wizard's shoulder through the ironsilk, and if the tent material wasn't cut through it was at least severely weakened - another strike in the same place and Jhasspok would likely have made himself a new entry-point.

Grappling with the fighter in a field of absolute silence, Marlo still had her _arcane blade_ in hand and put it to good use, slashing along Balaina's forearm with the blade of the weapon; she didn't have the range of motion to stab with it as the fighter's hands were gripped hard around her wrists - it would have to do for now.  But the commoners weren't content to let Balaina take care of Marlo; now that Cramer had stepped away, none of them were inside his _magic circle against evil_ and all were dedicated to bringing down the spellcaster.  Clenched fists rained down on Marlo from all directions, causing her vision to blur and black spots to form in her field of vision as she came close to blacking out.  And then Balaina pulled out her own blade and stabbed at Marlo as well, catching her a glancing blow to the side as she maintained her grip on the sorcerer with her other hand.

Helen grabbed a dagger from her belt and threw it at Utred.  It missed, and the barbarian took time out from his attack on Absor to give the bard a "Really?" look with nothing more than a lowered eyebrow and a disdainful frown.  Then, changing his mind in mid-swing, he brought his longsword flashing out at the bard, dropping her instantly.  _Thought so,_ Utred smirked to himself quietly, refocusing his attacks on Absor.

Cramer's _spiritual quarterstaff_ came crashing down upon Balaina's head again while he crawled underneath the wagon and bopped a commoner on the head with his mace.  The cultist crumpled at once, but there were still plenty more of them in the scramble.

Absor stared down at Khari expectantly, as if anticipating the dwarven fighter would fall before him through the force of his glare.  Khari felt a tingle in the back of his head as he fought off the unknown spell and again he felt the tickle of not-quite-recognition for a brief moment before it too was gone.  But then he put it out of his mind and hit the wizard again with his warhammer.

With a rip, Jhasspok and his battleaxe were through the tent and right beside Absor.  The lizardfolk snapped out with his teeth, ripping a chunk of flesh from the wizard's shoulder.  With shock and a quite pleasant surprise, Jhasspok realized this wizard...actually tasted somewhat like fish!  The realization stopped him up short but Utred was there to take up the slack, swinging his longsword at the wizard.

Marlo again managed to get her _arcane blade_ into position to stab Balaina's arm.  But by this time the commoner cultists, once again inside the effects of Cramer's _magic circle against evil_ spell, regained their senses, opted to run away, left the radius of the spell, fell back under Absor's mental sway, and then reentered the field to try to attack Cramer only for the whole sequence to be repeated.  The gnomish cleric found himself surrounded by indecisive cultists fleeing from him and turning around to attack him in sequence, the lot of them getting in each other's way.  He decided to ignore them and made his way over to where Marlo was still fighting Balaina, each armed with her own blade and doing her best to stab the other - all within a complete field of absolute silence.  Cramer whacked the fighter on the back of the head with his mace and let his _spiritual weapon_ finish the job.  Balaina succumbed to unconsciousness, her limp form dropping down upon Marlo, who gave her an angry kick in the ribs as she regained her feet.

A coy smile spread across Absor's face as he realized he was now in position to _mind blast_ all three of his current attackers without nullifying the _charm_ effect on his food supply.  Jhasspok and Utred were immediately stunned into immobility, but Khari was once more unaffected.  Absor couldn't believe the dwarf had once again resisted the overwhelming power of his mind - and had the temerity to keep attacking him with that warhammer of his!

Marlo moved fully into the tent and seeing Khari in desperate battle with Absor cast a _lightning bolt_ spell through Utred to get to the wizard - she knew full well the barbarian could handle the damage, but the wizard was starting to look a little frail.  The air shimmered around Absor as he manifested an _intellect fortress_ around himself, shielding him from some of the damage of the electrical spell attack.

Cramer redirected his _spiritual weapon_ on Absor, the quarterstaff shattering upon striking the wizard.  But then Cramer's follow-on _sound burst_ spell had better effect, staggering the wizard on his feet if not stunning him as the gnome had hoped.

Khari knew what he was up against now and swung his warhammer for all he was worth.  The hammer's head collided with Absor's skull and he died while attempting to _plane shift_ away.  As he fell, his red hair flopped off his head, falling to the ground and landing as a yellow hat.  That wasn't the only transformation, either; as Absor dropped lifelessly to the floor of the tent, his human form fell away and what landed was the unmistakable form of a mind flayer - and one, like N'zorthal, who was using _ring gates_ around his facial tentacles, for the majority of the lengths of the appendages disappeared inside silver rings close to his face.

Jhasspok and Utred snapped back into standing wakefulness as the others were checking out Helen and Balaina for magic.  The six cultists all stood around, confused; their minds were now their own after the death of Absor but they weren't sure what they should be doing.  _Detect magic_ spells told the spellcasters that Helen wore magic bracers on her arms and Balaina's shield was enchanted, as was a necklace she wore.

But Jhasspok and Utred walked into the room toward where Absor had been backing before Khari slew him and found a virtual trove: a _bag of holding_ containing thousands of coins and a silver helmet.  Utred's whoop of delight at the sight of the coins brought the others running into the room; Cramer noticed at once the scroll tubes, potion vials, and wand lying upon a small table but missed the book Marlo was quietly tucking into her robes - she'd recognized at once the hidebound book as another copy of _The Book of Uboros_ and didn't want anybody taking this one away from her before she got a chance to thoroughly study it.

"We'll go through the treasure later," Cramer decided.  "Right now, I want some answers from the cultists!"  He applied minimal healing to the unconscious foes they'd knocked out - just enough to get them back to wakefulness and aware enough to see the weapons pointed their way by two battle-eager dwarves and a scary-looking lizardfolk.

"Got some questions for you," Cramer told them.  The answers were forthcoming from Helen and the commoners; less so from Balaina, who Cramer knew from his _detect evil_ spell was the only other one besides Absor himself who had shown to have the taint of evil on her soul.

Helen, it turned out, had been part of an adventuring team whose other member was a blue-haired elf.  Absor'thal attacked the band, _dominated_ Helen, and slew the elf, whose _hat of disguise_ had shielded the fact she was a drow.  The mind flayer also took the drow's magical ironsilk tent for his own.  Balaina had joined the mind flayer willingly, agreeing to serve him if he would reveal what he knew - or could find out - about a wizard known only as "the Mithral Mage."  (The fighter had an unusual tattoo on the back of her neck - an overturned hourglass - that Helen thought was somehow tied in with this Mithral Mage, but Balaina wouldn't say anything about it.)  Absor'thal then formed his cult of bliss, taking everyone to Bytopia to get caught as a means of justifying the need to stealthily take just one cult member to "the celestial realms" at a time.  When he did so, he ate the cultist's brain, leaving the body for Balaina to hide afterwards.  (Sometimes Helen was pressed into service to assist Balaina, the mind flayer's _domination_ coming into play to get her to do so.)  Nobody questioned why these cult members never came back with Absor; why would anyone doubt the cultists would opt to stay in the blissful celestial realms if given the opportunity?

After getting all of the information he could from her (which wasn't much), Cramer executed Balaina on the spot.  Helen took the commoners, including the wounded Henrik, away with her - they headed off in the opposite direction from which the Overreach slaves would be heading.  But the group decided to remain in place overnight, staying in the ironsilk tent (after booting two pairs of cultists from two other rooms in the "tent-palace" who had apparently spent the whole battle finding a little "bliss" of their own; Marlo said quite firmly neither of those two rooms was going to be hers if they ended up camping out here for the night).

"Why the delay?" Utred asked.

"I want to interrogate Absor and I won't have a _speak with dead_ spell ready until morning," Cramer replied.  Utred just shrugged; he didn't see why they couldn't get back on the road and bring the dead illithid with them if the gnome wanted to talk to him so badly, but whatever.  Marlo spent the afternoon in a side room she called as her own, reading through _The_ _Book of Uboros_; the pages were nothing but a series of raised bumps but the sorcerer had already determined the silver helmet was a _helm of comprehend languages_; with it on her head and a _read magic_ spell cast upon the book, she could make out what was written just fine.

The next morning, Cramer cast his spell.  They'd discussed earlier what three questions they'd ask of the mind flayer's spirit.  Once the spell had been cast, the gnome started with the first of the questions: "What is the third prophecy to prevent the Dying One's return?"  Twice now they'd learned there was a third way, but the goblin with _The Book of Uboros_ hadn't been able to understand it and the mural in the duergar tomb had a blank space where the third prophecy would have been shown, had they known it.  The gnome leaned towards the corpse of the illithid expectantly, hoping he'd finally get an answer.

He did, although it wasn't anything like what he'd expected.  "Even if the previous two attempts fail, one final *Hope* remains for the world.  The girl who rides her father's *Dick* shall conspire with her father's enemies to save the world from destruction."

"--the Hell?" sputtered Marlo.  "That's just disgusting."

Cramer pressed on with his second question.  "How do we kill the neothelid we are supposed to stand against?" he asked.  The neothelid, he knew, was the "pink worm" they'd have to fend off, according to one of the other two prophecies.  Neothelids weren't particularly common creatures and the gnome had no idea if they had any special vulnerabilities or were particularly impervious against certain forms of attack.

"The same way one normally kills something."  Well, that was good news, anyway - it didn't sound like the neothelid was going to be particularly difficult to slay; it wasn't like they could only use silver weapons against it or anything.

For the final question, Cramer decided to learn what he could about how the Dying One's history.  "How did Wee Jas bring the Dying One to His current state?" he asked.

"She beheaded Him, and His faithful preserved Him," was the answer - not particularly informative, but it at least sounded like the Dying One would have in fact been slain (perhaps even permanently?) if those worshiping Him hadn't taken actions to extend His life as a severed head.  Marlo's face was expressionless; she had already known of this, having read it in her copy of _The_ _Book of Uboros_, but hadn't been able to tell the others without giving away her secret.  And there was no way she was going to let them know she had her own copy of the book before she'd had an opportunity to examine it closely: read it several times through, at least.

"Okay, that's all we're getting from him," Cramer announced.  "Everybody out of the tent - let's pack it up!"  Marlo and the others stepped outside, the sorcerer frowning as the gnome turned to the front opening of the tent and said an arcane syllable or two.  As the ironsilk tent started folding itself up, she realized Cramer must have done some magical investigating of his own yesterday afternoon and evening while she was having her first peek through her plundered book.  The words he'd spoken were obviously some kind of command words, for the ironsilk tent kept folding in on itself until it was about the size of a small crate.  Jhasspok hefted the cube of ironsilk and plopped it on the back of the wagon - which, Marlo noted, now only contained one of the many chests of coins it had held yesterday.  "What happened to the other chests?" she asked.

"They're all in the _bag of holding_, which is inside this chest here!" Utred beamed proudly.  He climbed up onto the wagon.  "Which means we don't hafta hoof it anymore!"

Khari and Jhasspok leaped up onto the back of the wagon as Marlo took her seat in the front and Cramer sent the horse lumbering on its way towards Revin.

- - -

Jhasspok ended up with some decent loot from this adventure: Helen's _+4 bracers of armor_ (surrendered willingly by the bard as payment for freeing her from the cult) will be a welcome addition for a lizardfolk who doesn't wear armor, and Balaina's _+1 glamored shield_ was dropped into the adventure as treasure specifically because Jhasspok won't give up his turtle shell shield (because the mini I'm using for Jhasspok has one), so this way I can have Jhasspok change its appearance to a turtle shell shield and still get the benefit of its enhanced  magical protection.  (What a thoughtful DM!)  Utred took the _hat of disguise_, Khari took an _amulet of natural armor_ from Balaina, Marlo took the scrolls and the _wand of fox's cunning_, and Cramer ended up with the _helm of comprehend languages _(although I imagine Marlo will be "borrowing" it from time to time).  Incidentally, while all of the players are aware Marlo stole _The Book of Uboros_, none of the PCs know anything about it.

And for those of you wondering about that third prophecy, it's a direct reference to our previous campaign (which is also kind of our concurrent campaign, since it's taking place during the same time frame as this one), "The Durnhill Conscripts."  In that campaign, my human fighter Jace Syngaard had a little daughter, Hope, and a _figurine of wondrous power_, a _bronze griffon_ he proudly named Dick.  So Logan's set things up here such that if we bungle the first two prophesied ways to defeat the Dying One, we can always run a third, follow-on campaign where a now-grown Hope Syngaard rides her father's _bronze griffon_ into battle directly against the Dying One.

Finally, I want to document the fact that neither Dan nor I missed the opportunity to refer to Henrik's "flat-footed AC" when we first saw him slamming his feet with a wooden club.  Brilliant minds think alike!


----------



## Richards (May 1, 2020)

*ADVENTURE 19: BROKEN COMB*

PC Roster:
Cramer Appleknocker, gnome cleric 7​Jhasspok, lizardman 3/barbarian 2/fighter 2​Khari Hammerslammer, dwarf fighter 7​Marlo Pendragon, human sorcerer 7​Utred "Buckets" Butterflinger, dwarf barbarian 7​
Game Session Date: 29 April 2020

- - -

Half a day out from Revin's capital city, the group approached a camp of makeshift tents off to one side of the road.  These tents were much smaller than those most of the slaves would find comfortable, but that turned out to be because most of the inhabitants of the camp were gnomes.  One of them recognized Cramer at the front of the wagon and called out to him.  "Cramer!  So _that's_ where you went!  Got some adventurers to help with the problem, huh?  Good thinking!"

Cramer brought the wagon to a halt beside the other gnome and introduced him to his fellow slaves.  "Guys, this is *Buckleby Noggenfurter*, a friend of mine from Grover's Comb."  He looked around the tent camp, recognizing a few other gnomes from his home village, all looking somewhat bedraggled.  Apparently these were refugees; something bad had happened to Grover's Comb after Cramer had followed the drow who had captured his friend Honeycomb Buzzwort into the cave outside the village and then been captured himself.  Cramer decided to play along, not wanting to get into the fact he'd been a slave of the drow of Overreach these past weeks.

As one, the group of slaves climbed down from the wagon and entered the makeshift camp.  "My parents...?" Cramer asked hesitantly.

"They're here, and they're fine," Buckleby assured the cleric.  He sent a young gnome to go fetch them while he explained to the other four adventurers (assuming Cramer already knew what had happened to Grover's Comb) the recent history of the small village.

"It was about seven weeks ago" - about three days after Cramer's capture by the drow, the cleric figured - "that a human wizard named *Valicent* showed up in the village and rented a room for an extended stay at the inn," Buckleby explained.  "He said he was studying an odd, lingering magical aura he'd discovered in a nearby cave - a weird combination of conjuration and transmutation magic, he said.  And, get this, he said it was 'as if somebody disintegrated the fabric of reality in order to create a portal.'"  The slaves all looked sidelong at each other, each thinking that sounded suspiciously like the Writhing Gate.  (All but Khari, that is: he was wondering if the combination of magic described would be "conjmutation" or "transuration.")

Buckleby hadn't noticed the visitors' sidelong glances, continuing on with his tale.  "About three weeks after his arrival, he suddenly disappeared...and people started having disturbing dreams.  And a week after that, some of those nightmarish dreams began manifesting.  It was shortly thereafter we evacuated the village, for our own safety."

"What kinds of disturbing dreams?" Marlo prompted.

"Weird monsters, plants eating animals, melting buildings - all kinds of weird stuff," Buckleby answered.  "They sent in the Revin soldiers to investigate, and they came back claiming they'd been attacked by the maddened survivors - those who stayed behind, that is, when the rest of us got out of there - and by the mutated vegetation...heck, one soldier said he'd been attacked by one of the _buildings! _ Not all of the soldiers came back with their wits intact, if you know what I mean."  The gnome tapped the side of his temple with a stumpy finger.

"So that's how things stand right now?" asked Utred.

"Yep.  Nobody wants to go back in, but scholars studying the effect claim it's spreading - slowly, sure, but spreading nonetheless.  Unless someone goes in and stops it at the source, the whole kingdom could be in jeopardy."  Buckleby beamed at the group.  "I reckon that's why you're here, huh?"

Cramer answered for the group.  "That's right.  We'll go check it out and see what we can do about the effect.  I'm sure the Revin leaders would be very appreciative of having this situation taken care of."  The gnome cleric figured this would be a good first step in gaining the cooperation from the kingdom in joining the coalition to aid Greenvale.  He stood up and started heading back to the horse and wagon, the others following behind him.

"Uh, you'd be best leaving them behind," Buckleby suggested.  "Animals, they don't like going near the afflicted zone.  Get all skittish, like.  You'd be better off going in on foot."

"Not without saying hello to his mother, he wouldn't - not if he knows what's good for him!" boomed a female voice approaching at a rapid pace.  Cramer turned his head just in time to be scooped up by his mother, *Peach*, and crushed into a bearlike hug.  "We thought you were dead!" Peach scolded her son.

"No, no, I'm fine," Cramer argued.  "I was just, you know, finding help."  He waved the part of his arm not currently crushed to his side by his mother's embrace feebly in the direction of his fellow arena slaves.

"Well, it's been this long, it can wait long enough for you and your friends to have some pie," admonished Peach, finally releasing her son and leading them back to her tent.  "Your father's gathering firewood, but he'll be back shortly.  Sit, sit!  I'll be right back."  And the gnome woman popped into the tent, returning soon thereafter with a berry pie and a knife to cut it.  She passed thick slabs of pie all around.  Jhasspok looked at his piece uncertainly - it didn't seem to have any _meat_ in it, how could this be considered _food_?  Still, the others seemed to be enjoying it so he popped it into his mouth and swallowed it down.  It was...okay.  And then, remembering his manners and the proper use of money, he opened the satchel at his hip and passed a slave token to Peach, who stared at it in confusion.

"It's a lizardfolk thing," Cramer whispered to his mother as an attempt at explanation.  Peach just shrugged and put the slave token in the pocket of her apron.  Cramer's father returned from his wood-gathering expedition and introductions were made all around again, but then Cramer insisted they'd best get on their way to investigate this strangeness that had taken over their home village.

"Your mom seems nice," Marlo said as they walked away from the camp, headed for Grover's Comb.  Cramer grunted noncommittally and cast a _longstrider_ spell so he could keep up with the others.

As they neared the site of the village, the group noticed the plant life was growing more primeval - and in some cases completely alien.  Khari watched with puzzlement as a bee landed on what looked like a normal daisy, only to have the petals enclose the frantic insect and the sounds of chewing lasting longer than the sound of buzzing wings.  "That ain't right," the dwarf commented to himself.

Another bee landed on Cramer's arm as they walked.  Looking down at it, the cleric flinched in surprise: not only did it have legs twice as long as normal and with double the usual number of joints, but every facet of its multifaceted eyes was a tiny eyeball just like his own.  He brushed it away with a sudden revulsion.

But this mutant bee was but the first of many.  A veritable swarm of the things approached, grouped together into two aerial clumps headed their way, even the droning noise of their buzzing wings sounding somehow _wrong_.  Utred wasn't taking any chances with weird, mutant bees he knew nothing about; he plucked his next-to-last bead from his _necklace of fireballs_ and hurled it at the closest swarm.  Marlo followed it up with a _scorching ray_ spell and the first swarm dropped, individual insects flaming down like sparks.  Cramer encased the second swarm within a _wind wall_ spell, closed into a circular column that prevented any of them from escaping until Utred tossed his last bead into their midst and burned them up as well.  Khari and Jhasspok held their weapons at the ready, realizing there wasn't much either of them could do against a mass of individual insects; neither warhammer nor battleaxe was an optimal weapon against such foes.  They were pleased to see their contributions were not needed in this particular fight.  Then, the swarms destroyed, the group continued on.

They made it into the village proper without any further attacks.  At first, the village seemed to be perfectly normal, if eerily quiet and motionless - except for the irritating sensation of unseen movement just out of the corner of your eye, which was somewhat disconcerting.  Then Cramer, in the lead because he was the only one who'd been here before, pointed to the fountain in the center of the village square.  "Check it out," he said, pointing.  It was burbling blood instead of water and as they got nearer Jhasspok could smell the coppery scent coming from the fountain.  Not wanting to take any chances, Cramer cast a _magic circle against evil_ spell on himself, advising the others to stay close.  "The inn's over there," he said, pointing to a larger structure to the east.  "Let's check where that wizard was staying - maybe he left notes or something."

The group, unnerved and keeping close, moved behind several smaller buildings as they approached the inn.  Utred, once he got close enough, noticed the inn seemed to be oozing some sort of glistening slime.  Jhasspok, however, focusing on the blood fountain, failed to heed Cramer's warning and wandered the other way around the smaller buildings, heading straight for the inn's front doors rather than approaching it from the side like the others.  He kept an eye on the fountain, idly wondering if the blood was tasty, when he heard the burbling of the fountain intensify - and, oddly, the sound was coming not only from the fountain but also the rooftop of the inn--strange!

What was stranger still was when the blood gushing up from the fountain started sprouting eyes and mouths and crawling out of the fountain...as a second ooze, similarly sprinkled with a plethora of eyes and mouths, plopped down from the inn's rooftop directly in front of Utred.  These gibbering mouthers babbled and muttered, cried and screamed, their cacophony doing their best to affect the minds of those within the general vicinity.  Khari and Utred felt an itching sensation in the back of their brains but managed to shrug off the mental oddness; Jhasspok's primitive lizard brain wasn't as well able to cope and his mind froze up, odd sounds coming from his mouth as he lost all ability to form coherent words.  Cramer and Marlo were unaffected, whether because they were the farthest away or due to the cleric's spell was uncertain.

That didn't matter to Khari; he backed up into the radius of Cramer's _magic circle against evil_ spell as a precaution, his warhammer ready to strike if either of these strange oozes approached.  Marlo cast a _magic missile_ spell at the rooftop ooze, the shafts of energy striking unerringly.  Cramer gauged the distances between the oozes and targeted the space directly between them with a _silence_ spell.  Their insane utterances stopped at once but Jhasspok, outside the spell's effect, could still be heard perfectly as he stood rooted in place, dazed beyond comprehension.  "Spoog.  Spimfiddly.  Bondo rimborry.  Gershtunk.  Framiroll."

Utred pulled the _Elderwood flaming longsword_ from its sheath and charged the fountain ooze.  The enchanted blade came crashing down but surprisingly bounced off the amorphous blob's ever-shifting form.  Both gibbering mouthers headed his way, spitting at him from numerous orifices and half a dozen of the fountain ooze's mouths trying to take a bite out of the barbarian.  Of these, only one managed to clamp down on him and it failed to even pierce his skin.

Emboldened by the _silence_ spell, Khari charged the rooftop ooze, hitting it with his _earthglide warhammer_.  Ripples exploded across the gibbering mouther's body from the point of impact, causing a few eyes and mouths to shift about.

Cramer and Marlo, in the meantime, targeted the one trying to bite Utred.  Marlo _empowered_ a _magic missile_ spell and threw it at the gibbering mouther while Cramer cast a _spiritual weapon_ spell, sending the flying quarterstaff thus created slamming down into the amorphous creature's mass.  "Shimtooky," muttered Jhasspok, possibly in admiration.  "Squintocky.  Plonkerdoom.  Skrotumbulus."  Utred sliced his blade into the creature before him, noting it wasn't as effective an attack as he'd have hoped; the creature seemed partially impervious to slashing attacks.  The dwarven barbarian ducked as more spittle was flung his way, then both dwarves were attacked by chomping teeth, Khari crying out in pain as he was bitten on the leg.  He retaliated with a powerful blow from his warhammer, sending ripples quivering throughout the gibbering mouther's body to the point it looked like it might discorporate entirely.  Seeing its apparent weakness, Marlo cast a _magic missile_ spell, sending only one of the missiles to finish that one off (which it did) and the others into the one concentrating its attacks upon Utred over by the fountain.

As the _spiritual quarterstaff_ crashed into the gibbering mouther again, Cramer cast a _bless_ spell on the group.  "Bintwinkle," commented Jhasspok.  "Vashpertoddle.  Filinificum.  Grompletonkers.  Tweef."  Utred finished off the second gibbering mouther just as Jhasspok's mind started recovering from the _confusion_ effect brought on by the oozes' mutterings.  The lizardfolk shook his head and then flinched, startled - when had his dwarven friends moved up into positions fighting the blobs, and how long ago had the blobs been killed?  What was going on here?

"That's the inn, there," Utred said to the perplexed lizardfolk, pointing to the building beside Jhasspok.  Shrugging it off, Jhasspok went to open the door to the inn, only to have it collapse as if made of dry, brittle wax.  That did nothing to reassure the lizardfolk he wasn't still under the mind-altering effects of the gibbering mouthers!  Still, he wandered inside the inn and into the bedroom Cramer had said was the biggest and the one Valicent would likely have rented.  Sure enough, there was a book by the nightstand.  Eager to learn if there was anything written inside that would help them learn about the strangeness affecting the area, Jhasspok passed it over to Marlo - he couldn't read.

Marlo skimmed through the pages.  "It's a journal," she reported to the others.  "Notes he's taken on the mysterious aura, seems to line up with what we were told.  The last coherent note says he's gonna peek inside the rift - then there's a lot of nonsense.  I'd guess he went into the cave, found a way to see through the aura remnant to the other world, went mad, and then scribbled this incomprehensible gibberish at the end."  She looked over the Cramer.  "You think he then went back and opened the rift all the way?"

"It's likely," Cramer agreed.  "Buckleby said the aura was in a nearby cave.  That would be the one the drow raiders used the Writhing Gate to send their forces to capture Buzzwort - and then me too, when I followed them.  But I know where the cave is - let's go!"

The cave was in the hills nearby.  As the arena slaves headed up a winding incline towards the cave, they saw two huge creatures standing on a ridge looking down at them.  One was built like a bear and another was lupine in form but their bodies looked like solid voids filled with what Marlo said were likely Far Realm energies.

"Far Realm?" asked Khari.

"Where the Dying One came from," she explained.  Cramer cast a _detect evil_ spell and was admittedly surprised when neither creature detected as such.

"I will get the one on the right," Jhasspok announced, climbing up onto a large boulder and from there leaping up to pull himself onto the ledge before the wolf-creature.  The lizardfolk readied his battleaxe for the monster's likely attack.  The bear-thing, in the meantime, clambered partway down the slope, meowing as it did so.  A pseudopod erupted from the side of its ursine head, slamming into Cramer before the gnome had time to react.  Then Marlo and the dwarves, standing in a group, found themselves being bombarded by a _concussive blast_ apparently generated by the Far Realm bear.

The wolf-thing dashed forward, slamming a pseudopod of its own at Jhasspok, missing the lizardfolk whose weapon also failed to deal his foe any damage.  But a second _concussive blast_ exploded around Khari, Utred, and Marlo, the close quarters between the trio apparently too good of a target to overlook.

The wolf was up on a ledge too steep for Khari to climb easily so he charged the bear, bringing his warhammer crashing into the thing's ribs.  Utred did likewise, striking the bruin with the flaming blade of his longsword.  Cramer backed away from the Far Realms bear and cast a _shield of faith_ spell on Utred, the crafty gnome doing what he could to keep the group's toughest combatant in the fight longer.  Marlo, once again worried about Jhasspok fighting on his own, sent an _empowered magic missile_ screaming up at the wolf-thing to help the lizardfolk.

Jhasspok was, by that time, glad for the assistance.  He'd attacked the massive wolf-thing with his battleaxe and instinctive snapped his jaws shut on the beast's foreleg, getting a taste of its warped flesh.  His mind still somewhat fuzzy, the lizardfolk got the distinct impression he now knew what "purple" tastes like.  "Ssss-ssss-ssss-ssss-ssss-ssss!" hissed the wolf, an eerie mirroring of the lizardfolk's own laughter.

Down the slope, the bear-monster slammed Utred with another pseudopod, then hit him, Khari, and Cramer with a _concussive blast_.  Another blast hit the same three courtesy of the wolf-thing above, who also slammed Jhasspok with a pseudopod at the same time.  Khari, snarling, activated his warhammer and slipped below the surface of the earth, only to earth glide to the other side of the Far Realm bear and rise back up, swinging his weapon into the creature's back.  Utred, roaring in rage at the beating he was taking by those damned _concussive blasts_, brought his longsword tearing deep into the ursine beast - who was now barking like a dog - while Cramer healed him up a bit with a _cure critical wounds_ spell.  Marlo sent a _scorching ray_ spell blasting into the side of the bear-thing and lamented that the fire spell didn't seem to do as much damage to the thing as her _empowered magic missiles_ did.

Jhasspok sent his battleaxe crashing into the wolf's neck, not bothering to try to bite it again - he didn't like the way the taste of the thing confused his senses.  He got the thing's full focus again, being struck by a pseudopod and a _concussive blast_ all at once, causing the rage to build up inside of him.  Down below, the bear-thing slammed Utred with another pseudopod but then targeted Khari with its _concussive blast_.  But by now it was on its last legs and the dwarven barbarian slew it with his _Elderwood flaming longsword_, crying out in exultation as the thing finally died.  But then he looked up at the monster wolf fighting Jhasspok and started trudging up the steep slope to aid the lizardfolk.

Marlo, however, finished off the Far Realm wolf with another _empowered magic missile_ before Utred could race up the hillside path.  Jhasspok leaped back as the thing fell forward in death.  After that, once the rest of the group made it up the path, Cramer applied healing spells where they were needed - and they were needed by everyone by this point.

Having all caught their collective breath, Cramer led the way into the cave opening he saw ahead.  It was as he had remembered it, up until he actually entered the cave interior, at which point he noted the fingerlike protrusions sticking up from the floor and covering the walls and ceiling as well had definitely not been there the last time he'd been inside this cave.  The projections writhed like undersea fronds, grasping at the gnome's feet but lacking the strength to actually grab him up.  Nonetheless, a _fly_ spell put him out of their reach; they were disconcerting, if nothing else.

Flying into the cave a foot or more above the level of the floor, Cramer saw a beam of bluish light reaching from cavern ceiling to stone floor, a veritable tear in the fabric of reality; the now-familiar vista of the Far Realm - as had been seen on the surfaces of the lupine and ursine creatures outside - could be seen within the rift.

Cramer looked around for a body, expecting Valicent to have been killed when opening the rift.  There was a greenish lump nearby, writhing among the wriggling tendrils on the cave's floor.  He flew over to examine the lump, discovering it to be the remains of a wizard's robes, but the wizard himself had been transformed into an upright tentacle-thing.  The empty sleeves of the robes fluttered as the tentacle rose up and curved in the gnome's direction, the tip slapping the gnome hard across the face, the sharp, hardened suckers along its length scoring gashes across Cramer's cheek.

Marlo entered the cave, making a face as the finger-stubs tried unsuccessfully to grab onto her feet; she had never before in her life been so glad to wear boots.  But seeing a robed tentacle reaching out for Cramer, she cast a _lightning bolt_ at the thing.  Khari charged in beside her and whacked the rubbery form of the former wizard with his warhammer.  The tentacle arced around, casting an _energy bolt_ that hit Khari, Marlo, and Jhasspok with its electrical energy.

Snarling in refueled rage, Utred charged the tentacle with his longsword, Jhasspok following in his wake, each striking with their blades at the writhing, ten-foot appendage that had once been Valicent.  Cramer flew back out of range, casting a _cure moderate wounds_ spell upon himself.

Marlo cast another _empowered magic missile_, the spell quickly becoming her favorite form of attack.  Each dart of energy made sizzling sounds as they struck the tentacle's length.  Khari finished it off, his warhammer crashing into the middle of the rubbery appendage and crushing some vital organ within; the robed tentacle crashed down to the cavern floor and did not move again.  A thin fluid leaked out of several rips in the rubbery flesh, possibly some equivalent to blood.

"Search the place," suggested Cramer as he bent over and dug through the pockets of the wizard's robes.  They found only the shattered remains of empty potion vials, broken wands, and the torn pages of what must have once been a spellbook.  But among that useless debris Marlo found a bent scroll tube whose contents were still usable; casting a _read magic_ spell, she pored over the arcane writing within and gave a big smile.  "Valicent came prepared," she told the others.  "This is a spell to close a portal - he must have brought it along just in case, but was transformed before he could use it."  _Or_, she thought to herself, _maybe he was okay with bringing the Far Realm into our world...._

Reading the words to the _seal portal_ spell, Marlo caused the rift to flicker out and die.  With the rift gone, the wriggling tendrils slowed their movement.  "Is that it, then?" asked Khari.  "Will everything go back the way it was?"

"In time," answered Marlo.  "Without the unnatural energies of the Far Realm flowing through the area, most of the effects should eventually wear off in a month or two.  Those effects that remain should at least be easier to purge without any further mutations occurring."  She turned to Cramer.  "Eventually, your villagers should be able to return to their homes."

"Might want to tear down any buildings with waxy doors and who sweat out them eyeball-mouth blobs," suggested Utred.  "Maybe rebuild from scratch."

The group walked back to the temporary camp of the Grover's Comb refugees.  "Will you at least stay the night?" Peach asked her son when he explained the threat had been dealt with but they had to go to the capital city to explain what had happened and to get the kingdom to join an alliance to fend off an incoming attack by the drow.  "There's not much room in the tent, but we've got extra blankets for you and your friends...."

"That's okay, Ma," Cramer smirked, walking back to the wagon and pulling out the cube of ironsilk stored there.  Then, tugging it to the ground and saying a command word, he caused the _ironsilk tent_ to expand to its full size, mentally crafting the image of the marble castle it had previously taken when used by the mind flayer Absor'thal and his bliss-seeking minions.  He grinned at the open-mouthed astonishment evident on the faces of the gnomes all around him.

"We got our own tent."

- - -

Jhasspok was completely useless in the fight against the mutant bee swarms; he was useless in the fight against the gibbering mouthers, too, succumbing to the _confusion_ effect before he even got to wield his battleaxe against them once.  But when Logan informed me my roll of "43" on the _confusion_ effects table had me babbling nonsensically, I proceeded to do just that, muttering some nonsensical string of syllables every few seconds.  I rolled a "33" for my second round of _confusion_, which was the same effect, so I continued my verbal nonsense.  (Hey, I was _role-playing!_)  And by the time the effect wore off, both of the gibbering mouthers had been slain.  So while I didn't get to do much to pull my own (considerable) weight, I did manage to amuse myself during the enforced "down time."

The Far Realm wolf and bear were actually two Christmas ornaments Logan saw in a Michael's store last year and thought he could put a use to someday; they're painted with a kind of starscape.  The fight in the Grover's Comb town square and the slope up to the cave were done on Paizo Flip-Maps: "Village Square" and "Hill Country," respectively.  And he built a small cavern using nine tiles from the "Darklands Starter Set" from the same line of gaming products.


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## Richards (May 8, 2020)

*ADVENTURE 20: REVIN IT UP*

PC Roster:
Cramer Appleknocker, gnome cleric 7​Jhasspok, lizardman 3/barbarian 2/fighter 2​Khari Hammerslammer, dwarf fighter 7​Marlo Pendragon, human sorcerer 7​Utred "Buckets" Butterflinger, dwarf barbarian 7​
Game Session Date: 6 May 2020

- - -

"Here it is: the capital of Revin," announced Buckleby the gnome as Cramer brought the horse-drawn wagon to a stop.  "I'll get off here and make arrangements for an audience with the king, while you guys hit the shops.  I'll catch up with you later, okay?"

"We need anything?" Utred asked.  They had plenty of provisions and he himself was already a walking arsenal of weapons.

"I wouldn't mind picking up a few potions," Marlo answered.  "Plus, we've got plenty of money now - it can't hurt to see what's available."  Utred grunted noncommittally as Cramer led the horse to the merchant district.  They got some strange looks as they drove past - particularly Jhasspok, but as he was sitting peacefully in a wagon with a human, a gnome, and two dwarves and they didn't seem disturbed at being in the immediate proximity of what basically amounted to a six-foot-tall dinosaur, they didn't panic.  And Jhasspok just stared right back at them.

A particular shop caught Cramer's eye and he brought the horse to a stop.  "Let's try in here," he suggested, tying the horse's reins to a pole and disembarking.  The shopkeeper was pleased to see the new customers - and then suddenly wary when Jhasspok trundled in behind the other four.  As the dwarves headed over to check out the few weapons on display and Marlo looked at a magical girdle guaranteed to boost one's combat stamina, Jhasspok walked straight up to the shopkeeper.  "Do you sell dried dung beetles?" he inquired.  "Or fried spiders?"

The shopkeeper swallowed hard before answering the lizardfolk.  "We...we don't sell comestibles," he squeaked.  When that just earned him a puzzled look, he modified his answer, after guessing why the lizardfolk was asking the question in the first place: "Food.  We don't sell food. Just some potions, is all."

Jhasspok shrugged and turned away, as Marlo made the purchase of a _girdle of health_.  Cramer, however, was staring at an odd object on a shelf that was staring right back at him.  Seeing the burly lizardfolk approach, he said, "Hey, Jhasspok, come take a look at this."  It was an eyeball, human by all appearances, just sitting on the shelf, looking at them.  Cramer took a step to the left and then moved back to the right and the eyeball spun to keep him in its sight at all times.  "I wonder what it's for," the gnome cleric mused.  "To prevent theft, maybe?"

"I thought he said they didn't sell food here," replied Jhasspok, thoroughly confused and slightly upset at having apparently been lied to.  Eyeballs were delicious!  He turned back to the shopkeeper.  "How much for the eyeball?" he asked, pulling a slave-token from his pouch.

"Eyeball?  What eyeball?"

"The one on the shelf over there," replied Jhasspok, pointing over at Cramer, who was still watching the eyeball follow his every move.  "And do you have any more than just the one?"

Jhasspok watched as the blood drained out of the shopkeeper's face.  "Out!" he called.  "Everybody out!  The shop's closed!"  He ushered everyone to the door, looking back nervously at the shelf where the eyeball had been - and was no longer.

"What got into him?" asked Marlo in irritation as she buckled on her new girdle over her robes - which were worn over the ironsilk clothes she'd obtained in the Overreach.  For a sorcerer, they offered significant protection without getting in the way of her spellcasting.  And with the thick belt in place, she realized she _did_ feel a bit tougher - like she could handle herself in combat if it came down to it.

She got her chance almost immediately, when a pair of hand crossbow darts went flying her way, one whizzing past her ear and the other embedding itself in the side of her neck.  She cried out in pain and surprise, instinctively plucking the dart from her neck - it had hit high up, just below and behind her ear - and with a queasy feeling saw the poison coating the tip of the weapon.  Khari, standing beside her, whirled around and saw a leather-clad human woman across the street, her left arm still pointed in Marlo's direction after having fired her shot.  With a battle-roar, the dwarf charged the young woman, smashing her in the ribs with his dwarven warhammer as she fumbled to reload another dart into her hand crossbow.

With Khari taking care of one of her attackers, Marlo spun in the direction the other dart had come from and fired an _empowered magic missile_ at the other foe, this one also a human woman in dark combat leathers, with only a slightly lighter hair color differentiating her from her partner (and possible sister: they looked an awful lot alike).

From the side of a building across the street stepped a half-elf wielding a composite shortbow.  He aimed at the target across from him, one of the two identical-looking gnomes (they both looked like Cramer, but the second one was just a bored Utred playing around with his _hat of disguise_).  The arrow raced across the street but missed its target, plunking into the closed door of the shop the heroes had just exited.  Jhasspok had been watching the door; the shopkeeper put up a "CLOSED" sign (not that the illiterate lizardfolk could read the word posted on the sign) and lowered a covering over the glass window in the shop's door - he didn't even want to see what was going on outside his shop.  But the arrow alerted the confused lizardfolk that there was apparently combat going on around him; turning around, he saw a snake slithering up to Cramer - one of them, anyway, there were now apparently two of him - and striking at him like a cobra.  The gnome danced back a step, narrowly avoiding being bitten.

Without conscious thought, Jhasspok stepped forward, leaned down (his tail out erect behind him for balance), and snapped at the striking snake, biting down at it with his impressive row of sharp teeth.  He felt it die in his mouth and regretted he didn't have time to devour it fully; for one thing, there were other enemies to fight but more importantly the serpent was nearly as long as Jhasspok was and eating all of it would take a bit of time.  Still, he called out dibs on the dead snake, even though since exiting the shop he'd had a sudden taste for human eyeballs.

As Utred - still appearing like a carbon-copy Cramer - raced across the street to attack the half-elf who had shot the arrow at him, the sound of spellcasting from above warned the group of a likely-invisible wizard up in the air nearby.  But then a burly half-orc ran out from a narrow alleyway between two buildings and charged at Utred, whose _Elderwood flaming longsword_ currently looked to be gnome-sized in his hands but had just dealt a dwarf-sized amount of damage to the half-elf ranger he was currently fighting.  The half-orc had a blade of his own, a bastard sword by the look of it, and he sent it crashing into Utred's side.  Disturbingly, the sword's blade had cracks along its length and Utred's blood flowed through the cracks, causing the blade to start pulsing like a heartbeat.  Somebody in the vicinity was also babbling in an Abyssal tongue and Utred, with a start, suddenly realized it wasn't the half-orc like he'd supposed but the bastard sword itself!

Cramer stepped into the street and cast a _sound burst_ spell behind the half-elf and half-orc, catching them in the spell's radius but keeping Utred well out of the area of effect.  The half-elf stiffened, stunned into immobility for a moment by the spell; the half-orc not so much.

Meanwhile, the twin rogues flanked Khari, approaching from opposite sides with short swords out for hand-to-hand combat.  The dwarf managed - just barely - to dodge both incoming attacks, then randomly chose a target and brought his warhammer crashing into her leg, nearly causing her to stumble.   Marlo targeted the sister behind the dwarf with another _empowered magic missile_ spell and she collapsed to the ground, unconscious.

Jhasspok left the tasty snake behind and charged the half-elf with his battleaxe.  The ranger, still coming out of the dazedness caused by Cramer's spell, was practically cut in half by the power of the lizardfolk's blow; he fell to the ground in a shower of blood, the two pieces of his body held together by a mere flap of skin and loops of intestines.  Utred spun in place and attacked the half-orc, who dodged more out of luck than anything else, for the dwarf's magic blade wasn't really in the place it appeared to be, courtesy of the _hat of disguise_ Utred still wore.

But then the real Cramer cried out in pain; he'd been stabbed - in the back, of course; these were not honorable opponents they were facing - by a sword whose blade sent waves of agonizing pain through the little gnome's body as it pierced his flesh.  The unseen assassin materialized as she struck, her _invisibility_ spell shattering upon the moment of attack.  She stifled a cry of pain herself, for her weapon was a _vicious short sword_, dealing extra pain to those it hit at the cost of extracting half that amount of pain from the wielder herself.  Still, the assassin found it often to be a fair trade-off, for she'd slain many a victim with her magic weapon and any pain it brought her was healed easily enough.

Snarling an oath, the half-orc sent his babbling, bloodthirsty blade swinging at Utred's head; the barbarian easily dodged the clumsy strike, then swung his _Elderwood flaming longsword_ in return, also failing to connect.  But Jhasspok was there, willing to aid this second Cramer - although he also failed to connect with the battleaxe that had just been so deadly to the half-elf ranger; the three combatants were swinging their weapons wildly and it would have been somewhat comical had their very lives not been on the line.

Cramer backed away from the assassin and cast a _spiritual weapon_ spell, sending the floating quarterstaff that appeared before him crashing into her midsection, sending the air from her lungs.  At the same time, the remaining female rogue tried gutting Marlo for what she had imaged had been the killing blow to her sister; Marlo dodged back out of the way just in time and would have responded with a spell had Khari not slain her on the spot with a powerful blow to the side of her head with his warhammer.  Her skull crushed to a pulp, she fell to the ground and unlike her sister stopped breathing at once.

Marlo instead targeted the assassin who had backstabbed Cramer and who was now fending off a floating quarterstaff made of solid force.  The sorcerer decided to send some more bits of force energy her way in the form of _magic missiles_, each satisfactorily striking without fail.  But then, upon hitting their target, the assassin immediately disappeared - whether having gone invisible or teleporting away Marlo couldn't tell.  Cramer, playing a hunch, cast an _invisibility purge_ spell centered upon himself and the assassin popped back into view, now some 30 feet directly overhead.  His _spiritual quarterstaff_ flew up to the flying assassin, continuing its unguided attack although failing to connect.  Marlo sent another _empowered magic missile_ spell streaking up her way for good measure.

The half-orc broke the streak of combat misses by hitting Utred in the arm with his bloodthirsty blade; the dwarven barbarian noted the sword seemed more powerful than when the half-orc had started wielding it - it was somehow feasting upon Utred's blood like a vampire!  But then Khari, having no more rogues to spar with, ran around the small building and approached the half-orc from behind, his warhammer out and ready to do more damage.  The half-orc sensed his approach and re-positioned himself, well aware he was now outnumbered three to one.  Jhasspok made a feint with his battleaxe and managed to get in a bite from the half-orc's unarmored right bicep.

And then, suddenly, the mid-day sky darkened all at once; where just moments before the sun had shone down brightly on the open marketplace - an area that had become oddly vacant save for the combatants once the attack had begun - it was now suddenly overcast.  Sparing a momentary glance up into the sky, Jhasspok saw a dark cloud (an _obscuring mist_ spell, not that the lizardfolk recognized it as such) hanging in the sky.  He thereafter ignored it, bringing his focus back at the fight at hand; Marlo wasn't quite as able to ignore it, as the _obscuring mist_ prevented her from targeting the flying assassin with any more _magic missile_ spells, as she couldn't see into the cloud of dark vapors to find her victim.  But Jhasspok didn't miss much by his momentary loss of concentration, for Utred slew their half-orc foe almost immediately thereafter, the bastard sword making slurping noises as it fell into the pool of blood the slain foe was spilling from the gash in his neck from Utred's final strike.  The sword was there for the taking, its hilt lying in the half-orc's lifeless fingers, but it was unnerving enough that none of the arena slaves was tempted to try to pick it up.

Unable to see the flying assassin, Cramer took a moment of respite from combat to cast a _shield of faith_ upon himself; the _spiritual quarterstaff_, likewise unable to see its target, dutifully returned to the gnome cleric's side until it could.  Khari, now once again without any enemies on the ground to fight, grabbed up the half-elf's composite longbow and fired an arrow up into the _obscuring mist_; he couldn't see through the thick vapors - even with his dwarven darkvision - but it was always worth a shot and he might even get lucky.  (He didn't.)  Marlo also took a moment to swig down a _potion of cure moderate wounds_, feeling the bleeding gash in her neck heal up.  Jhasspok used his moments out of combat to pry the eyes out of the corpses of the half-elf and half-orc with his claws, examining their different colors and wondering which would taste better.  (It turned out eye color had no bearing on their taste - good to know.)

_Invisible_ once again, the assassin suddenly became visible when she brought her _vicious short sword_ stabbing Khari from behind, having dropped out of her _obscuring mist_ cloud unseen.  She sighed at the complete failure of the would-be assassins she'd taken on as potential recruits for this mission - apparently none of them had been worthy enough to join her Guild.  Didn't that just figure?  But then she was on the defensive as Utred charged up to her, his green-flamed sword flying in her direction.

Cramer cast a _fly_ spell on himself and approached the assassin now trading blows with...apparently with himself, although that just meant Utred was goofing around with his _hat of disguise_ again.  The gnome cleric's _spiritual quarterstaff_ swung at the assassin but she ducked beneath its arc of movement and avoided being clocked in the side of the head.  She wasn't as lucky avoiding Khari's warhammer, though - nor could she ever hope to avoid an _empowered magic missile_ spell and it was this which eventually brought her down, unconscious but still breathing.

As Cramer and Marlo bound the only two foes still left alive after this sudden ambush, the other three checked the dead bodies for possible loot.  Nobody wanted to touch the slain half-orc's bastard sword, especially after Cramer cast a _detect evil_ spell and pronounced the blade to be evil.  The gnome removed a ring from the finger of the flying assassin and pulled a sheet of parchment from a scroll case she had at her belt.  Expecting it to be a spell scroll, he was surprised to see a portrait of the five of them drawn in ink, with a bunch of coded words (in letters from different alphabets) around the drawing.  Flipping the parchment over, he saw more unreadable words and a sketch of the symbol for House Jalamir, which the slaves each wore in tattoo form on their backs.  Even without knowing what any of the words said, it was likely this paper was being used to identify the five arena slaves so these strangers would know who to attack - somebody had apparently paid to have assassins kill the five heroes while they were on the surface!  Then, seeing the two leather-clad women were bound securely, Cramer cast just enough healing on them to restore them to wakefulness.

"So, an assassination attempt, huh?" he asked the rogue.  "Who paid you to kill us?"  The woman glared at the gnome but refused to say a word; in any case, he had it all wrong - even had they managed to slay all five of their targets the recruits wouldn't share in any reward, as entry into the Guild would have been reward enough for this mission to prove their worthiness.  The fact she'd failed to impress the Guild weighed on the woman's soul more than the death of her sister.

When the rogue failed to be communicative, the gnome moved on to the full-fledged assassin.  She had a rather interesting feature: a tattoo of an eye upon the back of each hand.  "You feel like talking?" Cramer prompted.

"Sure," sneered the *Observer*.  "What do you want to talk about?  It's lovely this time of year, don't you think?"

Cramer held the parchment with their likenesses in front of her face.  "How about this?" he suggested.  "Who paid you to kill us?"

"Nobody," the Observer said with a smirk.  "You don't get paid until the job's done."

"Okay," amended the gnome, "who offered to pay you to kill us?"

"A much better question," replied the Observer, "but one which I decline to answer."

"Let's just kill her," grunted Utred.  He'd taken off the _hat of disguise_, realizing he looked much more intimidating in his true form than as a three-foot-tall gnome.

"Like that will stop me," smirked the woman.  "I'm important enough that I'll be back - and sooner than you think, more than likely."

"How could she come back after we kill her?" asked Jhasspok, clearly confused.  Marlo briefly explained about resurrection magic, and if this Observer was a powerful member of an Assassins Guild they'd have the money to pay to have her restored to life.

"Then why don't we let her live?" Jhasspok reasoned.

"I like the way this one thinks," smirked the Observer.

"Then she'll be able to continue to try to kill us," Marlo pointed out, trying and failing to keep the tone of exasperation out of her voice - Jhasspok was a nice enough lizardfolk, but his naivety could be frustrating at times.

"Not like this," Jhasspok countered, pulling on the Observer's bound hands until she fell face-first onto the ground.  The lizardfolk planted a clawed foot upon her hands, pinning them into place, and then before anyone could stop him he brought his battleaxe crashing down, severing both hands just above the wrist in one blow.  As Cramer scrambled to heal the stumps before she bled out, Jhasspok pulled the severed hands from the ropes binding them together and idly wondered if the tattoo of an eye would taste anything like an actual eyeball.  "Now she can't cast spells and she can't hold weapons."

The Overseer's face was pale from this sudden attack but she quickly did her best to retain her composure.  "This--this can be fixed, too," she said, although it seemed just a little as if she were trying to convince herself.  "Anything you do to me can be undone if you have the right resources."  She glared at Cramer.  "And we do," she added.

"This isn't getting us anywhere," Marlo decided.  "Let's just bring these two with us and turn them over to the king.  Then it's his problem to deal with."  That plan had some nice benefits: not only did it relieve the heroes from having to tend to the Overseer and the rogue themselves, it allowed the kingdom of Revin to use the Overseer as a trap to catch the Assassins Guild members who would eventually attempt to free her, if the kingdom was warned ahead of time of the full situation.

Before too much longer, Buckleby caught up with the five heroes.  "I've gotten you an audience," he told them.  "We can--_holy crap, what happened here?"_  After a quick explanation about the assassination attempt, the heroes loaded their two bound prisoners onto the wagon and Buckleby guided Cramer into driving the wagon to the castle - not that it was difficult to find, as it towered over the other buildings in the capital city.

Marlo, as usual, became the spokeswoman for the group of heroes, the silver _circlet of persuasion_ perched on her brow as she explained about Overreach, the impending attack upon Greenvale, and their own involvement in shutting down the encroachment from the Far Realm that had overtaken the village of Grover's Comb and threatened to eventually overtake the world.  The king of Revin was suitably impressed; so much so, in fact, that he had 20,000 pieces of gold removed from the royal treasury to be gifted to the heroes for having saved Grover's Comb.  He also agreed to join in the alliance with Greenvale and to take the Overseer into custody in the deepest dungeons of the castle.

"The Assassins Guild has been an ongoing concern," the king lamented.  "It is said to be led by a drow woman - one I would imagine has ties to this Overreach city you describe.  I would imagine she has ways to scry upon you," he warned, and the slaves could only imagine how easy it would be to tap into the slave tattoos they each wore; a good thing House Ky'hulcressen's agents in Greenvale had altered the tattoos to make it seem as if the slaves were doing something innocuous if the tattoos were used to scry upon them.  But then, Cramer realized, even if the scried-upon images were faked the tattoos could still likely be used to determine the slaves' whereabouts.  Something else to worry about!  "I can only imagine the Assassins Guild, and the Thieves Guild working with them, will aid - or attempt to, in any case - the Overreach forces in the coming war," added the king.

"At least we're forewarned about their potential threat, Your Majesty," replied Marlo.  "For that, we thank you."

"Where will you go from here?" asked the king.

Cramer pulled out the map they'd been using and looked it over.  "From here," he said, "we move on to Dracovania, Your Majesty."

"Be warned further, then," advised the king, looking at Marlo.  "*The Dragon King of Dracovania* is an elderly red dragon, as foul and greedy as most of his species.  Entering his lands will be dangerous to you all."

"Maybe we should just skip that one," suggested Khari.

"No, I think we should give it a chance," reasoned Marlo.  "I think we'd rather have a powerful dragon on our side in the coming war than have him poised to attack us when we're busy fighting off the drow armies."

"There is wisdom in what you say," conceded the king.  "I pray you be careful, just the same."

"We will, Your Majesty," promised Marlo.

- - -

Cramer ended up with the Overseer's _ring of invisibility_, while Marlo took her _boots of levitation_.  (It turned out she hadn't been flying during the fight, merely levitating up and down.)  Khari claimed the half-elf ranger's _+1 composite shortbow_; it has a Strength 14 requirement so he'll be able to add +2 to the damage when he uses it.  And Utred and Cramer have come up with a combination move: Cramer can turn invisible with his ring while Utred, using his _hat of disguise_, takes on the gnome's appearance.  Then anyone trying to mess with a little gnome will end up dealing with a dwarven barbarian with triple-digit hit points instead - surprise!

By the way, the Overseer's eye tattoos allowed her to scry when she placed her hands over her eyes - that was what the deal was with that eyeball in the shop at the beginning.  The shopkeeper apparently knew about the Overseer and her Assassins Guild and didn't want to be caught in the middle of anything.

We're all close enough to 8th level that we should be leveling up after the next adventure.  And we'll be facing a red dragon kingdom - that ought to be interesting!


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## Nthal (May 9, 2020)

I approve of Jhasspok's straightforward solution to problematic softskins..


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## The Green Hermit (May 11, 2020)

Bringing in the Assassin's Guild is a nice touch.


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## Richards (May 15, 2020)

*ADVENTURE 21: TOLLED YOU SO*

PC Roster:
Cramer Appleknocker, gnome cleric 7​Jhasspok, lizardman 3/barbarian 2/fighter 2​Khari Hammerslammer, dwarf fighter 7​Marlo Pendragon, human sorcerer 7​Utred "Buckets" Butterflinger, dwarf barbarian 7​
Game Session Date: 13 May 2020

- - -

It took two days to reach the border of Dracovania and when Cramer brought the horse-drawn wagon to a halt at the request of the two border guards - humans in red scale mail armor, one of whom was standing directly in the road with his hand out to halt the wagon's progress - they were less than impressed with the kingdom's hospitality.  "Adventurers!" the guard said, smiling at his partner with a knowing glance.  "Welcome to Draconvania!  We're always glad to see seasoned adventurers come to visit.  If you'd like to pay the toll, we'll be glad to let you get on your way."

"Toll?" repeated Cramer.  "What toll?"

"One thousand pieces of gold," replied the guard.  His smile widened.  "Each."

"Five thousand pieces of gold just to enter your kingdom?" sputtered the gnome.

"What?  No, no, of course not," replied the other border guard, his crossbow loaded and ready for action should it become necessary.  His smile was as broad as that of his partner when he explained, "Seven thousand: the five of you, one horse, and your wizard's toad familiar, which I can see peeking out of her pocket over there."

Marlo was giving some serious thought about taking these two out with a couple of well-placed spells, but a glance at the stone tower keep on the side of the road was a reminder they didn't know how many guards there might be in reserve, ready to spill out and attack them at the first sign of any trouble.  And they didn't really want to start an incident with the kingdom they were hoping to get to join the alliance in protecting Greenvale and fighting off the drow armies that would soon erupt out of the Overreach.

Jhasspok, who had never heard the word "toll" before but had picked up the general gist of things, reached into his pouch.  "Do you take slave tokens?" he asked, holding one between his claw-tipped fingers.

"Are they gold?" the first guard asked.

Jhasspok examined the slave token.  It was a square-shaped chip of slate with the House Jalamir emblem crudely engraved upon it.  "No," he admitted.

"Then no," answered the guard.

"We will not be paying you 7,000 pieces of gold merely to enter your kingdom," Marlo asserted.  "We come to warn your king of an impending attack by drow forces - he will not be pleased if you delay us entry!"  She wished she had been wearing her _circlet of persuasion_, but it was packed away with her things.

However, it turned out not to have been necessary.  With a look between themselves that said the odds of getting these dupes to pay the toll was minimal, the first border guard offered up, "Well, I suppose we could allow you to pay an alternate toll of sorts...there's been a bit of recent bandit activity of late.  I suppose in lieu of the 7,000 pieces of gold, we might accept the head of the bandit leader as an adequate entry toll."

The five slaves sat motionless in the wagon.  "What do you think?" muttered Cramer, audible only to Marlo beside him.

"I think I'd like to lob an _empowered magic missile_ straight between his eyes," muttered the sorcerer in an equally soft tone.

"What does this bandit leader look like?" asked Utred, thinking if these guards had no idea, then any old bandit would do.

"And where might they be found?" added Khari.

"They're said to hole up in a cave in the hills, thereabouts," answered the guard, waving a hand off to the side.  "And we'd be needing the entire band taken out, not just the leader."  Utred didn't fail to notice his question had been sidestepped entirely.

"Do you charge them 1,000 pieces of gold to enter your kingdom?" Jhasspok asked.  "And if not, do they take different roads than the ones with toll guards at them?  And where are these roads?"

The lizardfolk might have thought he was being sneaky with this line of questioning but it wiped the smiles off the guards at once.  "Don't get cute," one warned.  "So, we got a deal, or what?"

"Very well," answered Cramer.  "Given the options, we choose to take out your group of bandits for you."

The guards nodded their agreement.  "Okay, then," one said and proceeded to give the group directions to the hills to the south where the bandits were rumored to be lairing.  Cramer turned the wagon around and started off in that direction.

As the wagon trundled along the dirt road, the group suddenly got the distinct impression they were being watched.  Cramer and Marlo looked on both sides of the road, looking for spies among the trees, while Jhasspok and the dwarves were looking around to see if there were any eyeballs floating around like that one in the shop back in Revin - after all, the Overseer had warned that she'd be made whole again when the Assassins Guild rescued her from the deepest dungeons below Castle Revin.  But despite everyone's best efforts, nobody could be seen watching them.  "It's possible we're being scried on from afar," Cramer pointed out.

"Through the tattoos?" asked Marlo.  One of the properties of the House Jalamir tattoos carved into their backs was it allowed their drow masters to scry upon them.  Of course, Greenvale wizards had secretly altered the tattoos so they gave false readings of benign activities should they be used in such a manner, but that was the thing with magic - a more powerful wizard could usually overcome the magic cast by those less versed in the arcane arts, so nothing was ever certain.

Rounding a bend in the road a good score of minutes or more later, Utred spotted what looked like a roguish sentry in the hills above.  He alerted the other slaves (while activating the _hat of disguise_ he wore and instantly taking on the appearance of one Cramer Appleknocker, cleric of Fharlanghn) and the real Cramer eased up on the reins, keeping the horse moving forward as if nothing were untoward but at a slower pace to give them more time to plan.

But Khari needed no time to plan; once alerted there were enemies in the hills ahead, he hopped off the side of the wagon with his _earth glide warhammer_ in hand and, invoking its magic, passed through the solid ground and up the sides of the rocky hill, all while remaining underground.  He popped up at the top of the hill, finding himself in a ring of a half dozen guards in leather armor, obviously lookouts but all conveniently looking directly away from him.  He smiled at the opportunity and got a better grip on his weapon.

The rogues all had short swords at their belts but had their shortbows readied, each with an arrow nocked.  They looked down at the wagon in anticipation of another group of travelers to be slain and looted.  But then Cramer passed the reins to Marlo at his side, spun around to touch Utred on the shoulder, and used a _dimension door_ spell to teleport the pair over by Khari's side at the top of the hill, between the ring of oblivious bandit sentries.

Marlo didn't keep the reins for long; calling out "Whoa!" for the horse to stop and giving a brief tug to emphasize the command, she cast an _invisibility_ spell on herself and dropped the reins, leaping off the wagon and heading for the hill.  It was a 20-foot climb but one she felt more confident in making when the sentries couldn't see her ascent.

Jhasspok looked suddenly about him and realized he was all alone in the wagon; just seconds earlier they had all been there beside him!  He leaped off the side of the wagon and started climbing up the hill, but as he was the only visible person doing so he drew the attention of the two closest archers.  A pair of arrows clanged off the stones mere inches from him but he ignored them, concentrating on scrambling up the steep hill-side to get to his attackers.

But three of the arena slaves were already there among the bandits.  Utred charged at one of the archers, stabbing at him with his _Elderwood flaming longsword_ and sending him over the edge of the steep hill-side, where he tumbled down in a tangle of limbs.  By the time he reached the bottom he was quite obviously dead.

Hearing the commotion, *Solenka* exited the cave at the top of the hill, where the road ended its ascent and met up with the cliff of an even higher hill.  She drew a rapier from a belt at her hilt and immediately the light dimmed all around her, covering her in a gloom which protected her sensitive drow eyes.  Cramer and Khari noted with interest the drow woman's hair was a bright red in color, causing them to momentarily doubt whether they were attacking the right people; if these were Greenvale drow, then the slaves should be helping them, not attacking them.  But then Cramer heard her call out behind her in the Drow language - a language Cramer didn't understand but which was perfectly translated through the _helm of comprehend languages_ he wore - "It's the Greenvale contingent!" and the disdain in her voice told the little gnome these were no potential allies after all.

He said as much to Khari, who then charged one of the other sentries looking over the side of the hilltop, swinging his warhammer for all he was worth.  The archer dropped his bow to the ground at the sudden onslaught, fumbling to grab his blade to use against this battle-crazed dwarf who had suddenly appeared out of nowhere.

Then another drow, *Z'ress*, stepped out of the cave behind Solenka, this one sporting bright green hair.  She targeted Cramer - the real one, as it turned out - with a _Kelgor's fire bolt_ spell.  And while Cramer was reeling from the effects of that spell, a male drow, *Viedar Bel'vior*, stepped out of the cave as well, sending a pair of _scorching rays_ blazing towards the gnome.  One of them hit, the other falling short.  But despite the pain of the flame spells, Cramer had the presence of mind to fire back with a _sound burst_ spell of his own, centered on the three drow.  All three were affected by the sonic blast, but of the three only the male - whose hair, Cramer noted absently, was as white as the typical Underdark drow's - appeared to have been stunned as a result.  Marlo, having climbed unseen to the top of the hill, took advantage of his temporary immobility, sending an _empowered magic missile_ crashing into him.  It caused her to pop back into the visible light spectrum - but it had been well worth it.

This spell-flinging commotion at long last brought the other archers spinning around to see a group of combatants there on the hilltop with them.  Arrows went whizzing at both Cramers, none of them hitting.  The rogue fighting Khari also missed with his short sword strike, the dwarven fighter handily avoiding the blade as it went swinging in his direction.  Jhasspok clambered over the top of the steep hill-side and went charging straight for the cluster of drow, believing them to likely be the greatest threat.  He noted the dimness around them was centered on the two women and assumed one of them was responsible; in the back of his mind he formed a thought that if he could get rid of the shadowy effect the drow would likely be helpless in the sun's full brightness.  But as his lizard brain was actively working on this plan, his body was in full automatic combat mode, bringing his battleaxe swinging in an arc at Z'ress's head.  She avoided the skull-chopping blow the lizardfolk had intended but his blade sliced down her arm, causing her no small amount of pain.  Solenka shifted position to trap the lizardfolk between the two drow women and attacked with a rapier of her own, but Jhasspok caught its tip on the edge of his shield and deflected it away.

Utred plucked a bead from the replacement _necklace of fireballs_ he'd picked up recently and tossed it into a cluster of four rogues, dropping two of them instantly; the other two managed to twist about in such a way as to avoid the flames altogether.  Khari's warhammer finished off the rogue he'd been fighting and he spun about, eager to find a new combatant to take that one's place.

With a snarl and a few arcane syllables, Z'ress charged her rapier with a _shocking grasp_ spell and stabbed at Jhasspok, but the nimble reptile dodged the strike, which came very close to hitting Solenka behind him.  In a surprise maneuver, Jhasspok spun about and ignored Z'ress entirely, leaping onto Solenka and bringing his axe-head down upon her shoulder as he snapped at her unprotected neck with his row of sharp teeth.  The drow's screams died in her throat as the life left her body.  Jhasspok let the body drop and spun about again, facing Z'ress - whose black face showed an expression of shock at her companion's sudden demise.

Utred found himself surrounded by rogues trying to flank him and get in a back-stab or two, but he shrugged off all of their attacks.  (He was momentarily amused by the thought that these human rogues would think they were being bested by a little gnome, but then he realized his _hat of disguise_ tricks were technically giving the real Cramer Appleknocker visual credit for all of Utred's own kills!  Maybe he'd need to rethink this strategy....)

Cramer cast a _silence_ spell at the ground by Z'ress's feet; he knew she was some type of spellcaster and the zone of absolute silence he'd cast also encompassed the male drow, still standing stunned by the gnome's previous spell; that would no doubt come in handy as well in the immediate future.  Marlo fired another _empowered magic missile_ spell at one of the remaining rogues - not that the dwarves had left many of them standing by this time!  Utred finished off the one Marlo had just hit with her spell and spun around to face the one directly behind him, stabbing his _Elderwood flaming blade_ straight into his stomach and pulling it out, watching in satisfaction as the rogue fell to the ground, dead.  That left only one other rogue and he immediately dropped his short sword, put his hands on his head, and dropped to his knees, calling out, "I surrender!  Don't kill me!"

Khari grimaced; it was no fun taking out a helpless opponent who'd just thrown himself at your mercy.  Instead, he charged Z'ress from behind, dropping her with a well-placed blow of his warhammer (after all, you really can't get much more well-placed with a burly hammer than the back of the skull).  Then he came up with the same idea Jhasspok had been plotting; picking up the dropped rapiers (one of which, the dwarf realized, was responsible for the dim light surrounding the drow) and tossed them away over by the edge of the hill.  Viedar, snapping out of the stunning he'd received at Cramer's _sound burst_ spell, blinked furiously at finding himself outside in the full sunlight...and appeared merely to be mildly inconvenienced instead of helpless as Khari and Jhasspok had hoped.  Oh well, it was good to know.

Now that he could move again, Viedar ran away from the heroes at full sprint.  Once he could once again hear the ambient sounds of combat - meaning he was outside the radius of the _silence_ spell, he cast a _shield_ spell on himself, for he'd seen that short woman do all kinds of damage with those _magic missiles_ of hers.  He knew his magical brooch would help keep him alive but it would be foolish not to provide himself with as much protection as he could - and Lolth, he well knew, did not tolerate fools gladly.

Cramer cast a _spiritual weapon_ spell and sent the quarterstaff dashing at Viedar, only to have it shatter into nothingness at it came up against the drow's natural spell resistance.  Marlo sent an _empowered magic missile_ the drow's way and similarly saw it do absolutely nothing, but she at least noted the brief field of force that popped up momentarily as her spell hit the drow's _shield_ spell and realized that particular attack spell - one of her favorites - was useless against him.  Jhasspok ran after the fleeing drow and attacked him with his battleaxe, surprised that his strike dealt no damage, for the lizardfolk had seen his weapon's blade hit the drow but failed to notice the _shield_ spell preventing it from cutting into the drow's flesh.

Utred, noticing how the drow was managing to survive all of these attacks, decided to take him out in a way he likely couldn't counter: with pure brute strength.  He held onto his _Elderwood flaming longsword_ as he charged into the drow but used his momentum to bring the spellcaster to the ground.  And despite not having used his weapon against the drow, Utred noticed the mere touch of the green flame caused Viedar intense pain, for the sword had been enchanted to be anathema to drow.  "You wanna surrender now an' make it easier on yourself?" he asked.

"My sister would kill me if I did!" the drow hissed back, struggling in vain to release himself from the dwarf's iron grip.

With Viedar brought down, Khari raced up and whacked him a good one in the ribs with his warhammer, but was similarly disappointed when it didn't seem to do all that much damage - the damned drow likely had a _stoneskin_ spell protecting him.  But even with the _false life_ spell Viedar had cast upon himself before first exiting the cave, Utred's burning sword soon put an end to the struggling drow's life - for the spellcaster couldn't hope to match the dwarven barbarian in a test of strength and couldn't possibly hope to get out of his clutches, nor could he cast any of his spells while being grappled.  In the end, it was the mere touch of Utred's green-flamed blade that slew Viedar Bel'vior, the leader of the bandit gang plaguing Dracovania of late.

Marlo cast a _detect magic_ spell and looked at the slain drow before her.  "Ooh, this is interesting," she said, unpinning a brooch from Viedar's robe.  It was in the shape of a silver spider and pinning it onto her own robes, Marlo felt herself enveloped by a _stoneskin_ spell.  The _brooch of petrified flesh_, she realized, worked in much the same manner as a _brooch of shielding_ (which was what she had assumed at first this was), but instead of absorbing _magic missiles_ it absorbed physical attacks - at least for until such time as it still functioned.

"So now what?" asked Utred.  "Do we know which one of them was the bandit leader?  Or should we take all of their heads with us, just to be sure?"

"Ugh," scowled Marlo, squeamish at the thought.  "How about we just put the bodies on the wagon?  If those guards want to cut their heads off, they can do so themselves."

"That will not be necessary," said a figure that appeared at the top of the hill.

Spinning around at this new possible threat, the heroes saw a human figure in red robes, carrying a wooden staff with a carved dragon's head at the top.  He stood there fearlessly, not at all worried about standing weaponless before a quintet of adventurers who had just taken down a half dozen human rogues (even if one of them was still alive, on his knees, cowering in fear) and a trio of drow spellcasters.  Either he was a spellcaster of much greater power or he knew he had nothing to fear from these five arena slaves.

Marlo divined the truth in a sudden flash of insight.  She placed a restraining hand on Cramer's arm, holding him off from any spellcasting of his own, and addressed the newcomer.  "You are the Dragon King of Dracovania, aren't you?" she asked.

The red-robed human with a distinctively regal bearing smiled in appreciation.  "Indeed I am," he confirmed.  "Well done."  He sniffed the air quietly for a moment and then added, "But then I would have expected no less of you: you are, I believe, distantly related to my own line of ancestry."  This came as a shock to Marlo, whose surname Pendragon was said to have been based on the fact that somewhere in her family tree had been an actual dragon; this was said to have been the likely source of her own sorcerous powers.  But she'd always imagined her draconic ancestor to be a gold dragon or perhaps a silver - certainly not a red dragon, allegedly the most powerful and fiercest of those dragons of a decidedly evil bent.  And while she knew some of the metallic dragons could assume human form, she hadn't been aware that was something red dragons could do - unless they did so through their sorcery, which was also possible.  But that also made him a quite powerful sorcerer, certainly more skilled in the arcane arts than Marlo herself.

But before Marlo could voice any of these thoughts the Dracovanian king continued.  "I have been watching you since your arrival at the border keep, where I was investigating claims of corruption within my troops stationed there.  It seems," he smirked, "they had been charging 100 times the toll to enter the kingdom.  As you might imagine, this has had the effect of driving off most of the travelers from Riven, bringing with it a sharp decline in the trade between our two kingdoms."  He frowned and added, "And then they got you to root out these bandits for them, a job which they should have done themselves."  Marlo got the distinct impression the guards they'd met up with earlier today weren't going to like the end results of their extortion scheme.

"Your Majesty," Marlo began, wishing once again she was wearing her _circlet of persuasion_, "we have come to warn you--"

But the Dracovanian king silenced her with an upraised hand.  "Time enough for that later, when we are properly introduced back at the palace.  You can tell me all about it in greater detail then.  Right now, though, I have a...dinner party to attend to."  He turned to walk away, then said over his shoulder, "Feel free to take anything you want from the slain bandits.  I'll arrange to take anything you leave behind to distribute among my loyal guards."  And then he disappeared as quickly as he had appeared, whether through _invisibility_ magic or a _teleport_ spell was hard to tell.

The heroes grabbed up everything of value from the bodies of the slain bandits and took the amassed coins they found inside the cave.  Cramer assessed that both of the rapiers were magical in nature but as none of the arena slaves had much use for a rapier they decided they'd turn them over to the king.  "Might as well bring them to him rather than make him send someone to fetch them," Marlo decided.  "It can't hurt to be as helpful as possible."

"Taking out those bandits for him ought to be plenty helpful," pointed out Utred, tying up their sole prisoner and leading him back to the wagon with the loot they'd taken.  Everyone piled in and Cramer snapped the reins, turning the horse back the way they'd come.

When they got back to the guard station at the border of Dracovania, they found it suspiciously devoid of inhabitants.  "Looks like he's finished up with his 'dinner party' already," remarked Cramer dryly.  Without any further comment, the gnome drove the wagon down the road into Dracovania.

- - -

So it turned out the two drow women had used _prestidigitation_ or a similar spell to alter their hair color, just to mess with us and get us to think they were Greenvale allies.  It's a good thing Cramer wears that _helm of comprehend languages_!

As expected, we all leveled up to 8th level at the end of this adventure.  Jhasspok took a 3rd level of fighter - boring, but necessary to get to a 4th level of fighter and the all-important Weapon Specialization (battleaxe) feat I'm eager to get.  After that, maybe I'll start throwing on barbarian levels to get them back into equilibrium for a bit.


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## The Green Hermit (May 16, 2020)

I can't wait to hear more about the Dragon King. I'm also wondering if Marlo's relationship with him is what made her so susceptible to the being in the void.


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## Richards (May 16, 2020)

That's an interesting thought, although the reason Marlo took the Dying One's offer is purely because Vicki was curious to see what all Logan was up to with the offer.  (And the choice was "worship me and get a permanent bonus or don't and get a temporary penalty" - Vicki decided this particular chaotic neutral PC was going to take the easy path for once.)  But apparently our next adventure will be called "From the Fires of Demise" - which is an English translation of the Dragon King's name in Draconic.  (Logan found a Draconic language dictionary on-line somewhere.)

Johnathan


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## Richards (May 23, 2020)

*ADVENTURE 22: FROM THE FIRES OF DEMISE*

PC Roster:
Cramer Appleknocker, gnome cleric 8​Jhasspok, lizardman 3/barbarian 2/fighter 3​Khari Hammerslammer, dwarf fighter 8​Marlo Pendragon, human sorcerer 8​Utred "Buckets" Butterflinger, dwarf barbarian 8​
Game Session Date: 20 May 2020

- - -

"I, *Dragon King Ixenilowan*, formally welcome you to my kingdom," declared the ancient red dragon whose bulk took up a good chunk of the room he occupied, which served not only as the equivalent of a throne room but also - judging from the coins scattered loosely all about the floor, several layers deep - his personal treasury.  It seemed a perfectly safe arrangement: who would dare to steal even a single coin from the ruler of the kingdom when he towered there above you?  And the double doors leading into the room had impressive-looking security measures; it would likely be very difficult, if not impossible, to break into the place when it wasn't occupied.

The five adventurers standing before the Dragon King, of course, had already met him - but that was when he was in the human form he often wore when traveling about his kingdom.  He also likely had to assume human form to enter and exit his combination throne room and treasury, thought Cramer, for even with the double doors there was no way the ancient red dragon could otherwise get his impressive bulk in or out of the room.

Marlo, wearing her _circlet of persuasion_, did the formal talking for the group.  Dragon King Ixenilowan listened impassively as she told him of the drow of the Overreach, the rise of the Mortal Queen, and their plans to invade the surface world to wipe out the Greenvale drow and make slaves of those in the surrounding areas.  As she spoke, the other four arena slaves stood silently beside her, nervous not only at the impressive bulk of the dragon looming over them but also at the two heavily-armored figures flanking them, each with a massive halberd at the ready if the slaves tried anything.  The blades on the guards' weapons looked sharp enough to take off a head in one blow, not that the Dragon King couldn't easily dispatch the five arena slaves all by himself.  It was unnerving, nonetheless.

When Marlo finished her speech, Dragon King Ixenilowan looked down at her, his expression one of boredom.  "This sounds like a problem for the other kingdoms," he observed.  "I doubt even this Mortal Queen would dare attempt making slaves of those of _my_ kingdom."  Marlo's face showed a flash of disappointment before she could clamp down on it, not wanting to insult the ancient red dragon - there was no telling what his reaction might be, she realized.

"However..." the red dragon added, causing Marlo's eyebrows to arch upwards in wary hope, "there is a matter you could undertake for me.  Do me this favor and the might of Dracovania will be added to your cause."

"What would you have us do, Your Majesty?" Marlo asked.

"I have a half-human son, *Mablikskriiod*.  The prince wishes to rule the kingdom but is painfully aware I have centuries of life ahead of me and he will never rule unless I die before my time.  Thus, Mablikskriiod seeks to form an army of the survivors of the fallen kingdom of Baraxis to overthrow me.  I, naturally, will not allow this to happen but I would prefer not to have to slay my own blood personally."

"So...you wish us to kill your son for you, Your Majesty?" hazarded Cramer.  That's certainly what it sounded like to him.

"We can do that," piped up Utred.  Killing people was pretty much what he did best; he never really was all that good at the family butter-making trade.

"That is my wish," confirmed Dragon King Ixenilowan.  "Slay my son Mablikskriiod and my kingdom will aid Greenvale against the impending invasion forces from the Overreach."

That was certainly an alliance Greenvale could use - Marlo could only envision how helpful an ancient red dragon could be on the battlefield!  She opened her mouth to voice her agreement but Utred got there before her.  "Deal!" he enthused.  "You want us to bring you back his head for proof or anything?"

"That will not be necessary," replied Dragon King Ixenilowan, reaching down in the pile of coins beside him and pulling out a red gemstone.  He held it out before him.  "This is a _status stone_, keyed to my son," he said.  The heroes could see it pulsed with red light at the speed of a normal heartbeat.  "When he is slain, the light from the stone will be extinguished and I will know you have held up your end of the bargain."

Khari had a practical question.  "Does your son have any bodyguards?" he asked.

"He has half a dozen or so soldiers forming his inner circle," replied the dragon.  "They will likely be with him, yes.  I will have a guard escort you to a _teleportation circle_ that will take you to the eastern border of my kingdom.  From there, you will need to seek him out somewhere in the fallen kingdom, where he seeks to gather his army."  Cramer had unfolded his map and found an area labeled "The Fallen Kingdom" - it lay east of Dracovania and was close to the village where Marlo had been raised.

"Very well, Your Majesty," agreed Marlo on behalf of the entire team.  "We will be off on your mission at once!"  She nodded and curtsied, knowing full well a Dragon King would expect such honors.

Dragon King Ixenilowan cleared his throat suddenly and announced, "You have forgotten to pay the Audience Tax."

"The...?" began Marlo, looking up in mid-curtsy, not sure if she had heard correctly.  Surely the red dragon wasn't expecting them to pay him for the privilege of seeing him and being given a task to perform before he'd agree to fight off enemy forces who would mean harm to those of his own kingdom?

But Jhasspok caught on that money was being requested.  He reached into the satchel strapped to his side and pulled out a square piece of slate bearing the scratched symbol of House Jalamir.  "Do you accept slave tokens?" he asked.  In his naivety, he forgot to address the Dragon King as "Your Majesty" - but then Utred hadn't and the lizardfolk took many of his social cues from the dwarven barbarian.

"Let me see that," demanded Dragon King Ixenilowan, holding out a draconic hand nearly the size of Jhasspok's entire body.  He peered down at it as Jhasspok handed the slave token over, examining it closely and pinching it between his claws.  Holding it on end, he used its pointed edge to scratch between two of his scales.  "How many of these do you have?" he asked.  Jhasspok opened his satchel and showed the red dragon, as Utred pulled another small sack of them from his own pocket.

"I will accept all of your slave tokens as the Audience Tax," announced Dragon King Ixenilowan as if doing the five arena slaves an incredibly generous favor.  The five heroes emptied their pockets and pouches of all of their slave tokens, dumping them onto the coins already piled at their feet.  Then, with a nod and a wave, Dragon King Ixenilowan bent to examine his new riches while the guards escorted the heroes back outside the castle and over to their wagon.  Then one of them led the horse and wagon over to the _teleportation circle_ the Dragon King had mentioned.

"Once it's been activated, you can just lead your horse into the circle," the escorting guard told them.  Then, getting the thumbs-up signal from the castle wizard overseeing the platform, he said, "Go on ahead, then."  Cramer gave the horse a snap of the reins and it went forward, pulling the wagon with the five heroes behind it.  In the wink of an eye, the assembly was _teleported_ across the miles onto a road very much like the one they had first taken to get to Dracovania.

"Good thinking about the slave tokens," remarked Cramer to Jhasspok.  "They aren't any use to us anywhere but back in Overreach, and with any luck we won't be needing to spend much time there any more."

"I know how money works," replied the lizardfolk with just a hint of pride in his voice.  It was a concept he'd been struggling with and was pleased to have apparently mastered.  But then he turned to Utred, to ask a question that had been puzzling him.  "How can a dragon have a son who's half human?" he asked.

"Well, you know he can turn himself into a human when he wants to, right?  So he gets some woman pregnant when he's a human, and when she has the kid he's born with some dragon in him - maybe a tail, maybe red scales, maybe a dragon's head.  Who knows?  He ought to be easy enough for us to recognize, in any case," the barbarian said, already thinking ahead to identifying and killing the Dragon Prince.

"I recognize where we are!" enthused Marlo suddenly, looking around.  "We're right about...here!"  She pointed to a spot on Cramer's map with her finger.  "Trail's Ridge, where I grew up, isn't far from here!"

Jhasspok looked over at the human woman sitting in the front seat next to Cramer, who was steering the wagon.  Noting her short stature - the sorcerer was just shy of five feet - he asked Utred, "If we go back to her village, will she finish the rest of her growing up?"  He wasn't sure, of course, but most of the humans he'd seen in his five years of life had been significantly taller than Marlo.  He supposed it was possible her growth had stopped for some reason when she was separated from her village - who could tell with these mammals?

"Nah, I think that one's done growing," Utred replied.

"Maybe she has some dwarf in her," Jhasspok hazarded and didn't understand what was so funny when Utred and Khari began stifling snickers.

"What's so funny back there?" asked Cramer.  But before he could get an answer Marlo touched him on the shoulder and pointed off into the distance.  "Look!" she said.  A plume of smoke was rising up from a small village off to the southeast.  "That's Trail's Ridge!"

Cramer brought the horse to a fast trot and the group collectively got ready for potential battle.  As they approached the village they could see only one building was actually on fire; Marlo identified it as the communal church.  Trail's Ridge was too small to house separate temples to the various gods; one building made do for the whole pantheon.

Shrieks and screams could be heard before the heroes made it into the village proper and as they did enter they saw people fleeing in all directions.  Getting closer, it became apparent they were fleeing from several figures wearing red dragonhide armor and wielding weapons, who were trying to round up the human villagers.  Cramer cast a _detect evil_ spell and wasn't at all surprised to see the armored figures triggered his magically-enhanced vision.

Without a word, Khari dropped off the side of the wagon and sank into the earth.  With his _earthglide warhammer_ in hand, it was simple enough for him to rush forward underground, popping up behind the fence of an animal pen attached to a tavern.  He ducked low, staying out of sight as he saw two of the soldiers in red dragonhide standing before him, ordering the villagers to surrender and line up peacefully to be examined for their fitness to serve.  Marlo cast _expeditious retreat_ on her toad familiar Truffles, anticipating the possibility of later sending him out to deliver a touch spell or two (probably _vampiric touch_, although the sorcerer wasn't really thinking that far ahead just yet).  She was distracted as she recognized several faces among those fleeing the soldiers.

One of the two men who seemed to be in charge noted the arrival of the wagon and the armed and armored individuals approaching on it.  "We got armed company!" he called out to his companions and readied his weapons: a longsword and a whip whose length seemed composed solely of flames.  Another man approached him, clad in the same red dragonhide plate mail and wielding identical weapons.

Cramer tried the diplomatic approach at first, calling out, "Are you seeking mercenaries?  How much is the pay?"  He wouldn't mind at all if these Dragon Knights thought they'd be willing accomplices to their schemes - it would likely get them close to Mablikskriiod.

"We're seeking loyal troops who would overthrow the Dragon King - a despot who has held his lands under a reign of terror for far too long!  Are you up for such a mission?"

"I've heard dragons keep amazing amounts of treasure," the gnome replied in way of answering.  "We'd be more than happy to join you in your task, if it means sharing in the rewards!"  He studiously ignored the screaming villagers who still fled for their lives from the other armored knights seeking to force them to join their ranks, pretending to believe the obvious fiction the forces who'd be overthrowing the Dragon King would be volunteers.  "Are you the leader, then?  Do we work for you?"

"The leader's Prince Mablikskriiod," the Dragon Knight Slaver replied, pointing a thumb over his shoulder toward the burning church building.  "He's investigating a hidden chamber below the church."  This was news to Marlo, who had been in the church building many times and had not been aware there was a secret chamber below it.  But as Cramer brought the horse to a stop - allegedly so the heroes could climb down and join their new bosses - he cast a _shield of faith_ spell on Utred, knowing that keeping their toughest combatant in the fight for as long as possible could only aid them in their task.

But Utred wasn't one to muck about with any foolish "diplomatic approach" - not when there were heads to roll!  As soon as his boots hit the ground he was sprinting at the two Dragon Knight Slavers with his greataxe out and ready.  The closest one had time to send his whip cracking forth to burn a line of pain across the barbarian's face as he charged, but all that did was make Utred angrier.  Jhasspok leaped down from the wagon and followed his barbarian friend, stoking his own rage at these slavers.  His parallel approach brought him a whip from the other Dragon Knight Slaver and his own subsequent hiss of pain, but then his battleaxe was swinging down upon the same opponent Utred had targeted.

There were four other Dragon Knights in the area, these armed with spears and swords, and one of them charged at Jhasspok, leading with his spear.  While they were slowed by their heavy armor, the lizardfolk's attention had been on the man he'd attacked and the newcomer's spear scored a hit in Jhasspok's side.  Blood flowed freely down his scaled body.

But then Khari popped up from the ground, bringing his warhammer crashing down upon the Dragon Knight Slaver Utred and Jhasspok had already focused their own attacks upon - the dwarven fighter figured he'd therefore be the easiest to bring down.  Marlo, in the meantime, cast an _empowered magic missile_ spell at the knight who'd just stabbed Jhasspok.

As one, the two Dragon Knight Slavers spun about and attacked Utred and Jhasspok with both their longswords and their _life-flame whips_.  Of the two weapons, the whips were by far the more powerful, for they not only had a greater reach but caused pain by their merest touch.  Fortunately, Cramer cast a _sound burst_ spell centered directly behind the pair that caused one of them to drop his weapons as he froze up, stunned; the spell caught another approaching Dragon Knight in its area of effect and the same thing happened to him.  The other Dragon Knight Slaver fought on, thrashing out at Jhasspok with his weapons.

Utred didn't waste a moment in cutting down the frozen Dragon Knight Slaver standing stunned before him; one slice of his greataxe was all it took for the armored human to go crashing to the ground, his skull nearly split into two straight through his helmet.  Jhasspok spun and attacked the spearman who'd just stabbed him, suspecting he'd fall easier than the Dragon Knight Slaver also attacking him.  The lizardfolk's axe cut into the spearman's arm, dealing little damage as it was deflected off his armor, but it was just enough distraction to allow Jhasspok to rip out the man's throat with his teeth.

But by now two of the other Dragon Knights were upon Jhasspok, stabbing at him with their spears.  He was hard-pressed to keep their darting spears away from him, especially once they managed to get him pinned between them as they attacked from opposite directions.  But Khari stepped up, clobbering one in the head with his warhammer and dropping him at once, then, swinging his weapon to crush the ribs of the other one attacking Jhasspok.  He, too, fell to the ground, dropping his weapons on the way down.  Khari crushed his head for good measure.

Marlo _empowered_ another _magic missile_ spell and sent it flying at the sole remaining Dragon Knight Slaver and while it hit him it didn't prevent the human from knocking Jhasspok out with another dual strike of his longsword and his whip of flames.  Jhasspok's blood pooled at his sides from his multiple wounds.

Cramer leaped down from the wagon and raced over to aid the fallen lizardfolk, taking a whip-strike in doing so.  But then he cast a _cure critical wounds_ spell on Jhasspok, closing up the reptile's wounds and bringing him to fast wakefulness.  Jhasspok leaped back up to his feet and brought his battleaxe crashing into the torso of one of the Dragon Knights, bringing him down just as Utred did the same to the Dragon Knight Slaver who'd almost killed the lizardfolk earlier.

Only one Dragon Knight remained and he was quickly brought down; the arena slaves noted he apparently didn't even dare think of fleeing the battle to save his life or surrendering peacefully to an overwhelming force, choosing instead to die in battle.  Whoever this Mablikskriiod was, he either engendered a fierce amount of loyalty or he was someone you didn't dare cross!  The heroes picked up weapons from their falling foes as Marlo looked over at the church, noting the flames were finally petering out.

Entering the church, the group - led by Utred, who was itching to meet this Mablikskriiod in battle - found a dug-out hole in the wooden floor of the church, where the wood had been burned away.  It was wide enough to allow two of them to drop down the six feet or so to the top of a pile of dirt, from which they could climb down to a hidden level below the church.

Utred activated his _hat of disguise_, taking on the appearance of one of the Dragon Knights.  Cramer activated his _ring of invisibility_, fading from view, and Marlo thought that a wise precaution so she cast _invisibility_ spells upon herself, Khari, and Jhasspok.  Then the five descended into the chamber before them.

Looking over at Utred, one of the two Royal Guards standing beside Mablikskriiod demanded a report.  Utred saw the weapon-tips of the spears they each held was sheathed in flames.  Mablikskriiod held a book out before him, looking between its open pages and the _magic circle_ inscribed in the stone floor of a chamber just around the corner.

Utred, doing his best to disguise his voice a little, replied, "The others have rounded up about a dozen men who look like they could be of some use in a battle."  He left it at that, thinking that was likely what the Dragon Prince would be most interested in and that any further embellishment was likely to expose the charade; best to keep it simple and hope for the best.  While the Royal Guard's attention was focused on Utred, Cramer surreptitiously cast an _aid_ spell on Khari; they were both far enough back that the cleric was reasonably sure his words wouldn't be heard by the enemy.

Marlo whispered her plans to the others so they'd know to keep back (unfortunately, the others were just as _invisible_ to Marlo as they were to their foes) and then stepped forward, casting a _color spray_ at the trio of enemies before her.  She popped back into the visible spectrum as she did so and was pleased to see both Mablikskriiod and one of his Royal Guard were stunned into immobility by her spell.  The other one, though, grabbed his _flaming spear_ and moved as if to attack this upstart human woman who'd appeared out of nowhere.

But before he could do so, Khari slammed the Royal Guardsman standing stunned before him with his warhammer - popping back into visibility as he did so - and then earth glided through the corner of the wall into a side corridor, leaving the stunned man he'd just walloped as a human shield before him.  Utred stepped forward and attacked the stunned guard with his greataxe, although as he was still wearing his _hat of disguise_ he appeared to be wielding a longsword.

Jhasspok, however, had no patience for underlings and jumped straight at the main target, bringing his battleaxe cutting deep into Mablikskriiod's side.  The Dragon Prince staggered under the blow and returned to full alertness, possibly having been jostled out of his stunning by the savage attack.  But Cramer gave him no respite, casting a _spiritual weapon_ spell and sending it to attack the Dragon Prince while Marlo sent an _empowered magic missile_ spell flying his way as well.

The stunned Royal Guardsman was just snapping out of it as his counterpart started saying a few words that Khari and Utred (and Cramer, wearing his _helm of comprehend languages_) recognized as Dwarven: "To seek eternity."  The _magic circle_ started glowing as a result and the Royal Guard hurriedly pushed Dragon Prince Mablikskriiod into the circle, following him at once.  But Jhasspok was still in contact with the Dragon Prince - a humanoid being who looked like nothing so much as a wingless red dragon squeezed into a vaguely human shape; he had a dragon's head and a red-scaled tail as thick as Jhasspok's own stuck out from beneath his red dragonhide armor - so when the two fleeing figures were _teleported_ to apparent safety, the lizardfolk went right along with them.

Back in the chambers beneath the church of Trail's Ridge, Khari slammed the remaining member of the Royal Guard with his hammer (smack in the face, breaking his nose and removing a half dozen or more of his teeth in the process) and Utred finished him off with a blow of his greataxe.  Then Utred ran into the side chamber with the _teleportation circle_; it was now empty but fortunately the effect was still in place, for as soon as he stepped across the threshold of the circle he was _teleported_ to the far end of the one-way magic effect.

The room he appeared in had apparently once been about the same size and shape as the one he'd just departed; now the entire back fourth of the room was askew by about five feet as if somebody had just wrenched it violently to the left.  There was a _magic circle_ inscribed on the stone floor in this room but it didn't glow - nor was it a true circle anymore, merely two arcs of a circle pulled asunder.

But the dwarven barbarian was not alone in the room, for there on the ground lay Dragon Prince Mablikskriiod in a pool of blood and standing over him was Jhasspok, his reptilian muzzle covered in the Prince's blood after having just ripped out his throat.  The Royal Guardsman at his side seemed to be in shock as he looked down upon his fallen liege, then he raised his _flaming spear_ as if to avenge his master - only to have Cramer's _spiritual quarterstaff_ smack him in the face as the little gnome and Marlo materialized in the room, having stepped into the _teleportation circle_ at the far end.

Looking down at the dead half-dragon, the Royal Guardsman dropped his weapon and raised his hands in surrender.

Back in the underground chamber, Khari looked all around him and saw he was alone.  Wandering into the chamber where he'd seen Utred go, he called out a tentative "Guys?" before crossing the threshold of the circle and appearing among his companions once again.

But now that everyone was back together, getting back to Trail's Ridge was going to be a challenge.  Cramer called out "To seek eternity" in Dwarven, hoping against hope the _teleportation_ effect might still work if at least one of the circles was still functioning.  No such luck.  "It looks like we're stuck here," lamented the gnome.

"Where's 'here'?" asked Marlo, looking around.  The room was unlit save by some scant illumination seeping over a pile of rocks to the west, where it looked like the ceiling of a tunnel had collapsed some time ago - possibly during the same earthquake the sorcerer theorized might have shifted the back of the room over, destroying the _magic circle_ in the process.

"I'll go see," offered Jhasspok, crawling over the rubble.  The corridor had been a short one, and twenty feet later he was back outside in the open, having exited a cave in the side of a stone cliff.  Before him, for as far as he could see, was sand: nothing but sand, a desolate desert environment.  Jhasspok crawled back through the rubble-strewn passageway and report what he'd seen to the others.

"So we have no idea where we are or how to get back," summarized Marlo.

"What about this one?" demanded Utred, looking over at the Royal Guard.  "You: you got any idea where this _teleport circle_ thing took us?"

"I-- I have no idea," stammered their prisoner.

"Then you are of no use to us," declared Jhasspok, bringing his battleaxe crashing across the man's throat, killing him instantly.  Marlo stifled a scream of horror at the lizardfolk's sudden and savage attack.  "We will need meat if we are to cross a desert," replied Jhasspok.  He looked down at the dead guard at his feet.  "Meat is meat," he reminded the others.

"I guess we can say goodbye to the horse and wagon," Marlo said wistfully.  Then she brightened and pulled the _bag of holding_ out of her belt-pouch.  "But at least we still have all of our goods with us!"

"Good thing," agreed Utred.  That at least was something.

But then there was movement behind them and the heroes were startled to see the Dragon Prince rising back up.  "She calls to me," he said mysteriously, shambling toward the rubble-strewn corridor and reaching a hand to the desert.  He started climbing over the fallen rocks when Jhasspok dragged him back by the ankles, dropped him to the stone floor before him, and cut off his feet.

Still he tried crawling to the desert.  Jhasspok wasn't having any of that: when he killed someone, he expected them to stay dead!  He chopped Mablikskriiod into pieces, ensuring he was incapable of moving.  But the bloody mess he left behind encouraged Marlo to move at great speed and she soon found herself standing at the foot of the great wasteland spread out before her.  The others joined her.

"We have to cross that?" asked Khari.  He didn't seem to enjoy the prospect.

Cramer was frowning; besides the obvious heat of the desert, the cleric could sense a strange chill as well - one that was almost necromantic in origin, he considered.  "There's some sort of reanimating effect in place here, I'd wager," he told the others.  "Strong enough for the Dragon Prince to rise up as a zombie after he was dead."  Hearing that, Jhasspok returned back into the chamber they'd left to go chop up the body of the Royal Guardsman - just in case.

Marlo, however, looked up the cliff face behind her.  Then, activating her _boots of levitation_, she rose straight up in the air, rising higher and higher until she could see over the top of the cliff.  The air, she noted, had cooled significantly as she rose - much faster than normal.  But the sight she saw beyond the top of the cliff made her nod her head in agreement with what she'd been thinking.  She lowered herself back down to the others.

"Well?" asked Cramer.

"Tundra," Marlo replied.  "Pine trees, patches of snow."  She gestured for Cramer to open the map he carried.  "I think we're somewhere in here, on the eastern edge of the map," she guessed, pointing to an area marked "The Desolate Wastes."  "The lands at the top of the cliff are probably part of the Giants' Tundra."  This was an area just north of the Desolate Wastes; the border between the two was indicated by a line of cliffs that led to the eastern edge of the map.  It all fit with what she'd seen.

"So, our choice is to head out into a desert where if we die we'll turn into zombies or something, or we take turns being _levitated_ up the cliff and into a snow-filled land ruled by frost giants," surmised Utred.

"That's about the gist of it, yes," agreed Marlo.

Utred hefted his greataxe.  "I choose giants," he said.

"Giants," agreed Khari, his grip firm upon his warhammer.

"I'd say giants it is," observed Cramer.

- - -

Logan found a Draconic language generator on-line somewhere and informs us "Ixenilowan" is Draconic for "the fires of demise."  He used a Pathfinder "Village Square" Flip-Map to represent Trail's Ridge (this is like the fourth or fifth time we've used that particular map in our various campaigns - we're certainly getting our money's worth from that one!), then some D&D Tiles to create the chambers below the church, and for the "earthquake-damaged" _teleportation circle_ room he drew that one up on a sheet of paper with 1" grid lines.  That's another noted difference in our respective DMing styles: with weeks between our gaming sessions in the campaign I DM, I tend to go more heavily on the homemade maps, whereas Logan's campaign meets weekly as a default and he thus leans more heavily on Dungeon Tiles and Flip-Maps for speed of preparation.  He's gotten to be quite an expert with the Dungeon Tiles, too, often stacking them on top of each other for multi-tiered complexes or covering areas in separate rubble pieces to alter the design of the area.  He's also become quite adept at incorporating details on the maps or tiles into the adventure as needed.

So it's off to the tundra next session, in an adventure Logan informs us will be named "Out of the Fire, Into the Freezer."  I don't think Jhasspok's going to like the tundra very much - he'll probably like fighting frost giants just to help him stay warm!

Incidentally, we're moving our gaming night to Thursday starting next week.  It's the last season of "Agents of SHIELD" and it's been moved to Wednesday evenings, so we're bumping game night by a day to accommodate.  (Finally fed up with the ridiculous cost of cable TV, we gave up cable in February and are now a digital antenna family - which means no more using OnDemand to catch a show we missed when it originally aired.)


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## Richards (May 30, 2020)

*ADVENTURE 23: OUT OF THE FIRE AND INTO THE FREEZER*

PC Roster:
Cramer Appleknocker, gnome cleric 8​Jhasspok, lizardman 3/barbarian 2/fighter 3​Khari Hammerslammer, dwarf fighter 8​Marlo Pendragon, human sorcerer 8​Utred "Buckets" Butterflinger, dwarf barbarian 8​
Game Session Date: 28 May 2020

- - -

"Gather together," Cramer told the others, waving them forward with his hands.  "I'll cast a _dimension door_ spell to get us to the top of the cliff."  The others gathered around him, he cast the spell, and nothing happened - save for the green glow which briefly suffused each of the five in a soft illumination.

"That's odd," replied the gnome cleric, frowning.  "There seems to be some sort of _dimensional lock_ effect in place here, as well as the necromantic energy suffusing the area.  Very strange."

"What does it mean?" asked Khari.

"It means I can't get us up the cliff with my spell," Cramer replied, still frowning.  "I suppose I could cast a _fly_ spell on myself, but I doubt I'd be able to carry some of you...."  He looked at Jhasspok, who stood twice the little gnome's height.

"Cast it on someone else, then," suggested Utred.

"Save your spell," interjected Marlo, pulling off her _boots of levitation_.  She looked over at Jhasspok, the strongest of the five and therefore the one best suited to carry the others, one by one, up the side of the cliff.  Then, looking down at his reptilian feet, with their wide, splayed toes ending in claws, she mirrored Cramer's frown.  "I don't think these would be able to resize to fit you," she said; magical boots could shift their dimensions somewhat to fit the size of the wearer's feet, but that was assuming the wearer's foot conformed to the standard human build.  Instead, she turned to Khari.  "Here," she said, passing her boots over to him.  "You can ferry each of us up."

Khari removed his own leather boots, tied their laces together, and flipped them over his shoulder out of the way.  Then, after donning Marlo's _boots of levitation_ (which did in fact resize to fit the dwarf's wider feet), he looked at the others.  "Who's first?" he asked, looking at Jhasspok and Utred.  As they were the heaviest it made sense that one of them would be taken to the cliff-top first; not only so Khari's subsequent loads would be lighter as time went on but also because whoever went first would be left alone at the top of the cliff while Khari went down to fetch the others.

"I'll go," offered Utred.  He stood behind Khari and gripped his fellow dwarf's shoulders.  Then Khari _levitated_ straight up the side of the cliff; fortunately, it was almost perfectly vertical so Utred was able to step off onto the solid earth at the top; Marlo's boots did not provide for any motion other than straight up and straight down.

"Cold up here," commented Utred, dropping his pack onto the ground and rummaging through it.  Fortunately, he had a set of cold weather gear.  Khari dropped back down and by the time he'd ferried Jhasspok to the top of the cliff, Utred was wearing his heavy coat and passed a warm blanket over to the lizardfolk, who had no such protection and didn't even wear any clothes.  Jhasspok took the warm blanket gratefully, wrapping it over his _slave-light cloak_.  "My feet hurt," he said.

"What, from the cold?" asked Utred.  They were in the tundra up here at the top of the cliff (despite the burning desert below them) and while there wasn't any snow at the top of the cliff they could see some off in the distance, among the pine trees.

"I don't think so," Jhasspok replied, sitting down and brushing sand off the bottoms of his feet.  Patches of reptilian skin came off with the sand.

"Huh," snorted Utred.  "Almost looks like sunburn."

"Sunburn?  What is 'sunburn'?"

"You stay out in the sunlight for too long, the sun burns your skin, turns it all red," Utred explained.  Then, looking at Jhasspok's green scales, he amended, "Well, maybe not yours."  Jhasspok squinted up suspiciously at the fireball sun in the sky as Khari brought Marlo up to the top of the cliff.  The sorcerer scolded Jhasspok for staring directly at the sun.

When Cramer was brought to the top and Khari gave Marlo her boots back, the little cleric examined the bottoms of Jhasspok's feet.  "Yep, burns," he agreed.  "Probably from standing in the sand down there without anything between it and your feet."  Even without her boots on, Marlo had at least been wearing her socks so she wasn't similarly troubled.  But the application of a healing spell restored Jhasspok's feet to their normal, healthy state and he declared himself fit to travel.

"Do we even know where we want to go?" asked Khari, lacing his own boots back up as Marlo pulled on her own cold weather gear.  She passed her winter blanket over to Khari, who wrapped it around himself.  Cramer did the same with his own, gnome-sized blanket.

"We don't know where exactly we are on the map, or if we're even on the map," Cramer answered.  "But we're somewhere along the miles-long rift at the northern border of the Burning Wastes, so we'll want to go west."  He looked up at the sun; Jhasspok was about to warn him you weren't supposed to look directly at it when the gnome dropped his gaze and pointed off to his left.  "This way," the gnome said, heading westward.

The group spent the next hours in silent trudging.  Once they got to the trees and the snow they formed a single line, with Jhasspok in the lead and the others following in his footsteps.  (Jhasspok, who had never seen snow before in his life, asked the dwarves what it was and Cramer piped up with, "They're scales from the Great Sky Fish, who lives behind the Really Big Pearl."  Jhasspok nodded appreciatively at the perfectly reasonable explanation and pressed on in silence, which was all Cramer really cared about at that point.)

By the time the group stopped for the evening, the three of them without cold weather gear were feeling the effects of the cold.  Fortunately, the _ironsilk tent_, once deployed, contained an automatic _endure elements_ spell effect and that kept the temperature reasonable.  Cramer, Khari, and Jhasspok practically collapsed inside the tent and enjoyed the warmer clime.

"They're gonna need to rest up, if they're going to do this again tomorrow," Utred pointed out to Marlo.  "And if you don't get your rest, you won't be able to cast your spells tomorrow."  He rubbed his thick beard in thought.  "I can take the first guard shift, if you think your toad can stand a shift as well," he offered.

"I have a better idea," Marlo answered, rummaging through her spell scrolls.  "I can cast an _alarm_ spell and we can all just sleep though the night."

That worked out just fine; the tent and its inhabitants were not disturbed throughout the night and everyone woke much refreshed in the morning.  "We got any idea how many days it's gonna take us to get back to civilization?" asked Khari.

"No idea," admitted Cramer.  "But we'll have a better time of it today: I'll cast an _endure elements_ spell on the three of us without heavy coats."

The second day of travel was uneventful, but Marlo and Utred came up with a unique form of travel for her: the dwarf tied one end of his rope around her ankle and then she _levitated_ up as high as the rope would allow; then Utred trudged through the snow with the other men, tugging Marlo behind him like a balloon.  Marlo thus didn't have to wear herself out by walking through snow all day like the others, but more importantly she had a good vantage point from nearly 100 feet in the air and could scout ahead for any trouble.  "It's like being in a crow's nest," she told the others, then had to explain to Jhasspok what a crow's nest was, which then further necessitated her explaining what a boat was and what a crow was.

"Ah, a sky fish," he said, understanding fully.

The second day, their first full day of overland travel through the tundra, passed by uneventfully, Marlo having spotted nothing more dangerous than a passing herd of reindeer or elk.  And with none of the arena slaves having been fatigued by the cold weather they were able to take their normal guard shifts in the _ironsilk tent_, saving Marlo's one remaining _alarm_ spell scroll for later when they might need it.

It was on their third day of travel when Marlo, from her mid-air perch, saw a flash of movement below and tugged on the rope around her ankle, the signal she and Utred had worked out between themselves.  She called down to the others what she saw but they couldn't make out her words; however, she pointed frantically at the approaching beast and the men turned to their right to see what she was pointing at.  It was a dire polar bear, racing toward them from the north.

"What's that?" Jhasspok asked.

"Dire bear," Urtred grunted back, pulling out his _Elderwood flaming blade_.

"Like we fought in the forest," Jhasspok hazarded, although this one seemed even bigger - and a completely different color.

Cramer activated his _ring of invisibility_ and ran over towards Utred.  Once there, he cast a _shield of faith_ spell upon the dwarven barbarian, readying him for the impending combat.  But it was Khari who attacked first; wielding his _earthglide warhammer_, he tried sliding down into the earth as he charged but was thwarted by the frozen ground which refused to part before him.  But he hit the dire polar bear in the side of the head nonetheless, even as Marlo sent an _empowered scorching ray_ spell flashing down at the great beast.  It roared in pain as both blasts of fire struck true, one of them striking it right in the face, burning its sensitive nose and irritating its eyes.  Unable to retaliate against the sorcerer in the sky, the bruin slashed at the dwarven fighter standing before it with its great claws, then bit down upon Khari's arm.  The Hammerslammer dwarf refused to give it the satisfaction of even a grunt of pain.

Jhasspok sprinted forward and brought his battleaxe down upon the dire polar bear, chopping the axe-head deep into the side of the bear's skull.  It released its grip on Khari at once as it collapsed onto the frozen ground, dead.  The lizardfolk set his battleaxe aside and pulled the dagger from his belt, beginning at once to skin the dead bruin.  "Meat is meat," he reminded the others.  "And the fur will be warm."

But then Marlo called down again from her aerial perch.  Looking up, Utred saw he frantically pointing in the same direction from which the bear had approached.  Looking over, Utred saw two more white shapes approaching and much farther behind, a humanoid figure that could only be a frost giant.  But he was far enough away he wasn't likely going to be a concern for some time; of much more immediate importance were the two winter wolves barreling down on the party - or, more accurately, on the dire polar bear they'd been tracking for their master.

Cramer took the opportunity before combat began to cast a _bless_ spell on the assembled heroes.  And then Khari once again started combat, charging towards the wolf on the right as it approached the group, wisps of frozen breath escaping its lupine muzzle.  Khari's warhammer blow sent its head snapping to the left as its teeth clamped down on nothing more solid than air.  Marlo, from her aerial vantage point, assessed the dwarf would be able to take care of his current foe and sent an _empowered scorching ray_ spell down at the other wolf.  Both blasts hit and the wolf crumpled at once into a flaming mass in the snow, its fur all but burned off by the power of the human sorcerer's spell.

The other winter wolf sent a blast of frigid air straight into Khari's face, but the doughty dwarf ignored the frozen pain of his exposed flesh and pressed on with his attacks.  Jhasspok raced over to this new foe, grabbing up his battleaxe on the way and bringing it down upon the winter wolf's side, cutting through a rib or two.  But it was Utred's _Elderwood flaming longsword_ that slew the beast, with a blow that nearly severed the creature's head clean off.

By this time, the frost giant had approached close enough to have seen the carnage wrought by the five arena slaves, who had slain both of his hunting wolves in a matter of mere seconds.  He had a nice, solid rock in his hand and he threw it at full force to the combatant he deemed the most needing of immediate slaying: Marlo, who flung fiery death from her very fingertips!  The boulder went whizzing by the sorcerer, not close enough for her to even consider altering her aerial height with her magical boots.

"What the Hell are you shrimpy poachers even doing here?" complained the frost giant to himself, unaware that Cramer's _helm of comprehend languages_ translated the Giant tongue just fine.  The little gnome raced forward towards Khari, who by this time looked like he could use a healing spell or two after the damage he'd sustained in combat with these arctic beasts.

But Khari didn't stick around for healing; he was racing towards this newest threat.  Despite his limited intellect, he was battle-wary enough to realize it was in his best interests to bring fire to this fight if possible, so he switched weapons on the way, pulling out the new _keen flaming burst longsword_ he'd taken from the Dragon Prince several days ago.  The blade dug deep into the frost giant's leg, the flames burning the blue flesh where it wasn't covered in the white fur hide armor the giant wore.

Marlo proved the giant's assertion that she was his greatest danger by sending another of her _empowered scorching rays_ spells down at him, each ray striking with a stunning accuracy that had the giant momentarily sheathed in flames.  Then, while he was distracted by the pain of the fearful burning he was undergoing, Utred and Jhasspok raced up, each striking with their weapons on either side of him.  Utred used his _Elderwood flaming longsword_, the flames of its blade burning the frost giant just as badly despite their unusual green color.  Jhasspok had also picked up a _flaming weapon_ from the Dragon Prince's men - his was a spear whose tip burned with fire - but in his haste he stuck to his trusty battleaxe; the spears he'd taken he carried in the same hand as his shield so it was somewhat awkward for him to switch weapons and he couldn't do it as fast as either of the dwarves could.

Growling in pain, the frost giant snarled, "What are you even doing here in our lands?"  Hearing this, Cramer - who understood the question thanks to his magic helm - dropped out of his _invisibility_ effect and called off the attack.  "Stop attacking us and we'll stop attacking you!" he called to the giant.  "Can you understand me?"

"I unnerstand," replied the giant in poor but passable Common.  He took a step back away from these "shrimpy poachers" but they didn't press on with their attacks.

"We're here by accident," Cramer told the giant, answering his original question.  "We're trying to get to Rimefjord, to speak to your leader."

"Rimefjord?  That hundreds miles distance," replied the giant, causing Khari to sigh in exasperation.  Hundreds of miles of trudging through the tundra?  That would take weeks!  "Why my wolves you kill?" the giant demanded.

"Because they attacked us," countered Cramer.  "We wouldn't have bothered them otherwise."

"We track bear many of days," complained the giant.  "Then from us you take prey!"

"Again, we only attacked the bear because it attacked us first," countered Cramer.  "But we don't want the bear - you're welcome to it, if you want."  Jhasspok's mouth dropped open in surprise at this; _he_ certainly wanted the bear!

"You can eat the wolves," the lizardfolk counter-proposed.  "Meat is meat."  He looked over at the one Marlo had taken out with her fire spell.  "And that one's already cooked!"

"Not eat pets!" snarled the frost giant and Cramer quickly sent a "settle down" signal to Jhasspok.  He didn't want to stand before the leader of the frost giants asking for their help in taking on the Overreach drow after having slain a member of their...tribe, or nation, or whatever.  Jhasspok eventually agreed not to push the point; he supposed he could make do with a winter wolf pelt instead of a dire polar bear pelt, as long as it wasn't the one that was all burned up.

That settled, the frost giant resumed the skinning operation Jhasspok had just gotten started on with the dead bruin.  The others eventually convinced Jhasspok he didn't need a winter wolf pelt to keep warm, as Cramer's _endure elements_ spell was sufficient protection.  He couldn't argue against that so, still somewhat grumpy, he agreed they could press on with their trek.  After all, it would be weeks of travel, apparently, through territory where those not of the giant races weren't exactly welcome - best to get through the journey at best speed.

It was a matter of mere minutes later that the group found a figure standing before them, draped entirely in heavy, black furs.  She stood as if waiting patiently for their arrival.  Marlo was as shocked as the others, as she hadn't seen the figure's approach - and in fact, there weren't any footprints in the snow around her - she'd apparently just _teleported_ to her current position!  But she couldn't call down to her friends from 100 feet in the air, so she started reducing her altitude at once.  If nothing else, she was curious to hear what this mysterious figure had to say.

"I understand you are headed to Rimefjord," the figure said, her voice muffled somewhat by the full mask and goggles she wore.  The goggles were made of some dark material, preventing the heroes from seeing her eyes.

"And how exactly is it you understand that?" asked Cramer.

"I have my ways," answered the figure, which was no answer at all.  "But I have a proposition for you: I will _teleport_ us all to Rimefjord, saving you weeks of weary travel, if you will in turn do a small favor for me."

Khari was suspicious but also curious.  "What's the favor?" he asked.

"There is a relic hidden in the ruins beneath the giant settlement.  I want you to fetch it and bring it to me."

"Why don't you do it yourself?" demanded Utred.  "If you can _teleport_ all that distance, you should be powerful enough to go fetch yourself a relic out of some ruins."  Jhasspok didn't want to interrupt the proceedings but he made a mental note to ask Utred what a "relic" was when he had the chance.

"There are...reasons," she conceded, again not providing much in the way of an answer.

"I don't like it," whispered Utred to the others - including Marlo, who had dropped down from the sky to join in the huddled conversation.

"How'd she even find us?" asked Khari.  "Out here in the middle of nowhere?  That's kind of convenient."

"And I don't like the fact that we can't see anything of her at all," added Marlo.  A sudden thought struck her and she turned to the mysterious figure before them.  "You're a drow, aren't you?" she accused.  "That's why you're covered up so much, so not even an inch of your skin is showing!"  She turned back to her friends.  "She's probably trying to get us to do something to help the Overreach armies!"

"Take off your mask," demanded Cramer.  "Let us see you."  If she was a drow, he wanted to see her hair color - although he realized a simple _prestidigitation_ or _alter self_ spell could allow a normal drow to pass herself off as a sunborn drow with oddly-colored hair.

"I don't think so," replied the masked woman.

"Then say, 'Matron Bel'vior is a big, stupid butthead,'" suggested Jhasspok, catching onto the fact the gnome cleric wanted some proof this mysterious stranger wasn't allied with the drow of the Overreach.  In the lizardfolk's mind, this was something no drow loyal to the Overreach nobility would dare speak aloud.

The woman turned until she was directly addressing the gnome, as if knowing full well the powers of his magic _helm of comprehend languages_.  Then, in perfectly fluent Drow - a language none of the arena slaves knew but all could recognize as such when spoken - she said, "Why would I say such untruths about myself?"

Cramer gasped aloud.  The others turned to him, wondering what it was she had said.  "She's Matron Bel'vior!" the gnome cried out.

Hands went immediately to weapons and Marlo grabbed up a scroll containing the _hypnotism_ spell, hoping against hope she'd be able to catch the stranger under a _fascination_ effect before she could use any of her magics upon the group.  But *Llolnida Alyxyra Bel'vior*, the Mortal Queen, raised a hand in warning and said, "Do not try to harm me: I can and will slay you all instantly if I need to."  Then, seeing her warning had had the desired effect - none of the combatants had stepped forward and although hands still gripped weapons they were lowered at the heroes' sides - she moved her fingers in a pass across the arena slaves as she muttered a few syllables of magical power.

Belatedly, Cramer guessed what she was doing.  She confirmed it, saying, "I have just used a _miracle_ spell to place a _quest_ upon you.  You will now either fetch the relic for me or you will waste away to nothing as you trudge through the tundra, dying painfully for having disobeyed my direct orders."  She removed her helmet and goggles, revealing a set of demonic horns tapering back from her forehead, proof of her Abyssal blood just as the darkness of her ebon skin showed her drow heritage.  "For whatever else you may be, you are still slaves to the drow of the Overreach - and I rule the Overreach!"

There were muttered grumblings and not a few dwarven curses before Cramer told the others, "We don't really have much of a choice here.  For her to have cast a _miracle_, she's among the most powerful spellcasters on the planet."  He turned to the Mortal Queen, who was smirking in that irritating way completely mastered by just about all members of the drow race.  "What does this relic look like, and what does it do?"

"What it does need not concern you," she said.  "However, it is a crystalline object, nearly spherical, with a thousand facets and similar objects nested within it.  I need it to deal with the little 'dragon problem' your interference has caused in my plans."  This simple statement made Cramer believe it was entirely possible they were being sent to fetch the fabled _orb of red dragonkind_, with which the Mortal Queen could _dominate_ Dragon King Ixenilowan, using him as her puppet.  That would be much worse than simply negating his agreement to fight against the Mortal Queen's armies - it would have him actively fighting against those who would aid Greenvale!

Cramer made a silent oath to himself: he would find some way to defy the Mortal Queen's wishes and prevent the powerful relic from getting into her hands.  Marlo, not privy to just what this relic was or what it might do, silent swore to herself she'd try to find some way to warn Dragon King Ixenilowan of the Mortal Queen's plans against him, for having the slaves fetch this relic seemed to somehow play into dealing with the "dragon problem."  She owed it to the red dragon - a relative, no matter how remotely - to warn him against the danger to himself.  The dwarves silently swore they'd each do whatever it took to eventually cut this Mortal Queen bitch down with their weapons, one way or the other.  Jhasspok swore to himself that he'd remember to ask Utred what a "relic" was - and what was that other word?  Oh yeah, "facet."  That one, too.

"If we're all ready...?" asked the Mortal Queen, and then without waiting for a response cast another _miracle_ spell that _teleported_ everyone to Rimefjord.

- - -

This adventure took much less time than Logan had anticipated, mostly due to the fact our dice were going out of their way to support us while Logan's were in the midst of some sort of treacherous mutiny.  No kidding: Jhasspok, Khari, Utred, and Marlo all got at least one confirmed crit with our attacks this session.  (Marlo's was with an _empowered scorching ray_ spell against a creature vulnerable to fire, so she rolled damage, we added 50% of the total - as per the Empower Spell feat - and then applied another 50% to the new total for the confirmed crit.  It's no wonder the winter wolf curled up in a ball of flame and died after being hit with just that one spell!)  Meanwhile, Logan's enemy forces  managed to miss us left and right with their attacks; we all roll in the open so this wasn't any sudden decision to take it easy on us or anything.  Some days are just like that.

But man, are we all chafing under the Mortal Queen's _quest _spell!  Dan and I both made instant transformations into rules lawyers, studying up the _miracle_ and _geas/quest_ spells looking for a loophole to get out of the task to which we've been set.  It's going to be interesting to see where we end up going from here; I haven't failed to notice we're actively planning on how we can possibly save an evil, ancient red dragon.  The enemies of my enemies and all that, I suppose, but this alliance is making for some strange bedfellows...speaking of which, getting the frost giants to join our alliance is going to be difficult - and would be even if we didn't have the Mortal Queen herself hanging around with us now.  The frost giants aren't likely to want to help the Greenvale drow, probably thinking the Overreach armies won't think it worth their while to try to enslave frost giants.  It's going to be a pretty hard sell, getting them to help us.


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## Nthal (Jun 1, 2020)

Strange bedfellows indeed; although I suppose that the Matron is ready for "unintended consquences."

Thoroughly enjoying Jhasspok; although the softskins seem to be rubbing off on him.  The last one I played, would have shrugged, killed the giant and pointed out that "More meat is more meat."  But only if the giant kept whining.  But I had to smile at the "skyfish."


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## Richards (Jun 7, 2020)

*ADVENTURE 24: FOR THE LOVE OF LOLTH*

PC Roster: 
Cramer Appleknocker, gnome cleric 8​Jhasspok, lizardman 3/barbarian 2/fighter 3​Khari Hammerslammer, dwarf fighter 8​Marlo Pendragon, human sorcerer 8​Utred "Buckets" Butterflinger, dwarf barbarian 8​
Game Session Date: 4 June 2020

- - -

There was an obelisk in the middle of the town square.  "We will meet here at midnight," said Llolnida Alyxyra Bel'vior and none of the slaves made the mistake of believing it to be a mere suggestion.  Matron Bel'vior pointed to an enormous building at the end of the street.  "In there you will find the current leader of this frost giant kingdom, if you wish to try to get them to join your cause."  The mockery in her voice evinced her belief the five arena slaves would have no success at that particular endeavor.  "Midnight," she reminded them, then disappeared as quickly as she'd _teleported_ the group across the miles.

"She's awfully sure of herself," sneered Marlo in distaste.  The sorcerer pulled the _circlet of persuasion_ from her pack and plopped it onto her head.  "Come on - let's go prove her wrong!"  Cramer gave the obelisk a thoughtful scrutiny as he followed in the sorcerer's wake.

Storming up to the vast dwelling the Mortal Queen had indicated, the slaves couldn't help but notice the size disparities in the buildings they passed; some were at human scale while others towered above their neighbors, easily twice as high yet still remaining a single story, judging by the 15-foot-tall doors.  Apparently frost giants lived intermingled with creatures more the slaves' size.

Marlo knocked loudly on the door of the indicated building with her fist.  The doors were opened from the inside by a pair of male frost giants, looking down in surprise at their unusual visitors - especially Jhasspok; apparently they didn't get a whole lot of lizardfolk guests out of the blue.  "We wish an audience with the Queen," Marlo said boldly to the giants, noting the weapons at their belts were larger than her entire body.

"Enter, then, and take a seat at the table," replied one of the bearded guards, indicating a giant-sized table and chairs between the front door and the back of the room, where a slender frost giant woman sat on a massive throne.  She was flanked by canines on either side: a pair of winter wolves at her left and a much larger rime hound at her right.  All three looked at the strangers with hungry eyes but none made a move towards them.  Jhasspok stared right back at the winter wolves as he crawled up into an oversize wooden chair; across from him Marlo did the same.  The dwarves sat across from each other in the next-closest chairs, while Cramer opted to lean against the leg of a chair rather than try to climb all that way up.

"Welcome," said *Queen Sigvor* in a silky voice.  "To what do we owe the honor of your visit?"

Marlo went right into her spiel, explaining about the impending drow attack from the Underdark, focused primarily upon Greenvale but expanding across the neighboring realms.  She didn't try to appeal to the frost giants to help their Greenvale neighbors out of the goodness of their hearts - she knew that was likely a losing proposition - but she did try to play up the imperiousness of the drow cause and their belief they could overpower any force set against them.  Better, she thought,  if the frost giants came to their own conclusion it was in their best interests to ally against the drow menace.  Marlo specifically did not mention they had traveled here in the company of the Mortal Queen whose armies would be attacking the surface world in two months' time.

"Interesting," replied Queen Sigvor when Marlo had finished her tale.  "While I prefer peace with the little races, most of the tribes would rather make use of the chaos of a war with the drow to their own advantage.  All I can guarantee is that I will do what I can to keep the frost giant forces neutral in the coming conflict.  We will not come to your aid, but neither will we ally with the drow."

Marlo realized this was about as good as she was going to get.  "We thank you, Your Majesty," she said.  "As we are strangers to your kingdom, may we ask you about the obelisk we saw outside?"  The heroes had been unnerved by its appearance; while it bore no runes or markings - it was a simple, four-sided structure that tapered to a point - Cramer's _detect evil_ spell cast in curiosity as they passed it indicated only one of the four sides had radiated evil.

"It predates our rulership of this land," admitted Queen Sigvor, "and even Rimefjord itself - it's older than even the Desolate Wastes.  Some believe it to be a shrine to some nameless god of destruction.  Whatever it is made of seems to reflect magic; a wizard once attempted to _disintegrate_ the obelisk and was himself _disintegrated_ instead."

Cramer's eyebrows raised at this as he wondered as to its possible origins.  "What can you tell us of the Desolate Wastes, Your Highness?" he asked.  (And in the little gnome's case, "Your Highness" was a statement of fact as much as an honorific to a frost giantess.)

"About 1,000 years ago, holy fire rained down upon the lands to the south.  This lasted for a full nine months and ever since, any who die, or any dead brought into the desert, rise to join the Undying Crusade."  Cramer gulped and thanked the frost giant queen for the explanation; despite their current predicament, he was glad they chose the tundra over the desert!

"We will take up no more of your time, Your Majesty," replied Marlo, crawling down from the enormous chair much to the amusement of the queen's guards.  "Many thanks for your hospitality."  The five heroes were escorted back to the front door and released back outside.

"We're likely to have a busy night," said Cramer.  "Might want to rest up until then."  They found a back alley and activated the _ironsilk tent_, camping out for the rest of the day and well into the evening.  Then Cramer and Marlo, well rested, went about the mental assessments that verified they were able to hold a full day's assortment of spells, in the gnome's case the specific spells for which he had prayed to Fharlanghn to obtain.  Well before midnight they returned to the obelisk, their gear all packed away.

"Weird lookin' thing," Khari observed.  It was tan in coloration and made of a substance that wasn't quite worked metal and wasn't quite stone - as both dwarves could attest.

"Ah, on time I see - very good," purred the Mortal Queen as she stepped forward from the shadows.  "Are you ready for your mission?"

"We're ready to get out from under your _quest_ spells," grumbled Cramer.

"Then we both want the same thing," smiled Matron Bel'vior.  "I will open the obelisk and you will go down into the dungeon below and fetch me the thousand-faceted sphere you'll find inside."  Jhasspok nodded silently to himself, proud of the fact he still remembered what Utred had told him "faceted" meant.  (And a thousand, Jhasspok recalled, was even bigger than a hundred.)  "Bring it back to me here and then we can go our separate ways."  She voiced a command word and one of the sides of the obelisk slid into the ground.  There was a three-foot-diameter hole in the middle of the floor of the four-foot square cross-section of the structure's interior; a ladder could be seen going down into darkness.

Utred peered down into the vertical shaft.  "'Bout fifty feet down," he told the others.  The five slaves mentally increased the illumination of their _slave-light cloaks_ to their maximum.

"I'll go first," offered Marlo, forgoing the use of the ladder and _levitating_ down the vertical shaft using the power of her magic boots.  At the bottom she saw a 20-foot-long stairway leading further down, deeper below the surface of the ground.  The rectangular chamber at the bottom of the stairs had an archway along its southern face, with numerous symbols engraved in the stone all around it.

"Let's get this over with," grumbled Cramer, climbing down the ladder.  The dwarves followed, with Jhasspok heading down last.  He caught up with the others examining the various symbols.  "These are holy symbols from various gods," Cramer observed.  "And unholy symbols," he amended, noticing the distinctive emblems of *Vecna*, *Erythnul*, and *Gruumsh*.

"That one's Lolth's," Jhasspok pointed out; before he met Cramer, the cleric of Fharlanghn, Lolth had been the only deity of whom the lizardfolk had been aware, having been hatched and raised as a slave to the drow for all of his five years.  For his part, Cramer cast a _magic circle against evil_ spell upon himself.

"Okay, before we do anything else, let's warn the Dragon King about what we're being forced to do," suggested Cramer.  He cast a _sending_ spell, directing the following message across the miles to reach the ears of Dragon King Ixenilowan: "Forced by drow Matron Bel'vior to retrieve relic specifically to counter your involvement in upcoming drow invasion.  Plan accordingly - possibly flee?"

"So now what?" asked Khari.

"He'll get the message, and part of the magic allows him to automatically respond."  The gnome stiffened, apparently receiving the red dragon's response.

"Well?" asked the dwarven fighter.

"He says, 'Sounds like your problem,'" Cramer replied despondently.  It didn't sound like the ancient red dragon was overly concerned about anything some mere drow could do to him, even if she was the leader of an entire Underdark city.  "No help from that front, I'm afraid."

"Let's go," suggested Marlo, stepping through the archway with no ill effects.  The others followed her into a larger chamber.  There were two alcoves carved into each side wall; two were empty save for a pile of rubble and broken stones, while the other two contained intricately carved statues.  A pair of stone double doors stood shut at the far side of the room.

"No crystal sphere-thing," observed Khari, looking all about the room.

"Probably behind them doors," hazarded Utred.

"Yeah, and you just know as soon as we open these doors these two statues are going to animate and attack," pointed out Cramer.  Marlo cast a _detect magic_ spell and examined the doors.  With her magically-enhanced vision, she was able to instantly detect the abjuration effect suffusing the entire chamber, the transmutation auras permeating the two statues, and - belatedly - the necromantic energy pouring out of the various symbols around the archway beneath which the heroes had passed.  Fortunately, whatever action might trigger the necromantic energy, none of the heroes had set it off just yet.

Marlo explained what in the room was magical, leading Cramer to examine the closest of the statues.  It was a centaur of some sort, only instead of hands its arms ended in a pair of spiked chains.  The detail in the chains - with the open spaces in the center of each link - led the gnome to believe this was no simple carving, but a creature (a construct of some type, given its angular build) turned to stone.  The only question was whether the stone statue would animate as a stone statue when it attacked or return to its pre-petrified state first.

Utred and Khari examined the rubble in the southeastern alcove.  Some of the chunks of broken rock had been carved into some sort of shape; Utred was the first to realize it too had once been a statue of some living creature, long since broken into chunks.  That led him to believe these statues would remain stone statues when they animated, but Cramer disagreed.  "Not necessarily," he explained.  "They could attack in the flesh, then return to a stone configuration when they were slain."

"That likely?" Khari asked.

"I'm not sure," admitted the gnome.  "But it's definitely possible."  Khari checked out the other pile of rubble but it had been broken into too fine of a pile of gravel to make identification possible.

The other intact statue was of some sort of humanoid frog-man.  "A slaad," Cramer said.  "Hard to tell what type though, without seeing its true colors."  He explained the slaads came in different colors, like dragons, with each color of slaad having different powers and abilities.

"Well, we're going to have to go through the doors eventually," pointed out Marlo, casting an _invisibility_ spell on herself in preparation for combat once these statues were activated.  Cramer cast an _aid_ spell on Khari.

"We ready to open 'em?" asked Utred, his _Elderwood flaming longsword_ out and ready to strike.

"Hang on, I got a better idea," said Khari - and then slipped under the stone floor, using the power of his _earthglide warhammer_ to step through the solid rock below the door and pop up on the other side.  He was now at the top of another short set of stairs leading down into another large chamber very much like the one he'd just exited: four alcoves (although this chamber held three statues instead of just the two) and, instead of a set of doors at the far end, another alcove - upon which stood the multifaceted spheroid they'd been sent to fetch.

Looking warily about, to ensure the statues weren't going to come to sudden life on him, Khari approached the back alcove.  Sure enough, that _had_ to be the relic they'd been sent to acquire for the Mortal Queen.  The Hammerslammer dwarf knew as soon as he touched it the three statues would animate and try to kill him - and, for all he knew, so would the other two in the first chamber.  So he opted not to even touch it...especially once the unseen voice in his head said, <Turn back, mortal, lest you face your death.>

Khari pivoted at once and headed for the nearest statue, figuring he could at least give a decent report to the others about what they'd likely be facing in here; Cramer seemed to know quite a bit about extraplanar creatures.  The statue looked like an elven woman from the waist up, with her hips and legs replaced by the body of a snake.  Feathered wings rose up from behind her shoulders.  _Weird_, Khari decided.

Across from the lillend statue was another winged figure, this one the size of a shapely human woman but whose wings were rather batlike in build instead of feathered like the snake-woman's.  Khari remembered this particular type of demon: Cramer had called it a succubus when they found it guarding one of the villages they'd been sent to loot from the Writhing Gate.

The last statue was of a rather large dog-headed man wielding a greatsword.  On a whim, Khari checked out the empty alcove, expecting to see a pile of rocks and hoping he could figure out what the creature had been, but it was truly empty.  Reaching a hand out into the empty space, Khari bumped into something that he couldn't see, even with his dwarven darkvision.  Unnerved at the concept of an invisible statue, the dwarven fighter decided that was enough exploring and skedaddled out of the room, earth gliding through the stone and returning to the first chamber of statues, where he reported what he'd seen to the others.

"Good call on not touching the relic," Cramer said.  Then, musing over the descriptions of the statues Khari had seen, he said, "It sounds like a lillend, a succubus, a hound archon, and a hellcat - all creatures from the outer planes, some good, some evil.  I wonder why these particular statues were chosen?"

"More to the point, are we ready to go in?" Utred asked.  He didn't know about anyone else, but Utred was ready to go in.

"I have a question," piped up Jhasspok, who had been in silent contemplation as Khari made his report.

"Yes?" asked Marlo.

"If Khari shows me how to work his hammer, couldn't I just go into the other room and fetch the stone?  I can run the fastest, and then I could glide back through the floor like Khari does.  Then we could just run away.  The statues are all too big to follow us up the ladder to the obbalish."

"Obelisk," corrected Cramer, unable to help himself.  "Hmmm...."

"If he does that, he'll activate the statues for sure," pointed out Utred.  "Including these two out here, more'n likely.  Might be best if we take these two out first.  Then if he wants to go grab the relic, he might get out before they can follow.  'Course, for all we know, they can open these doors just fine and we'll still be fightin' them all off anyways."

"I have a _hold portal_ spell on a scroll," offered up Marlo.

"Let me see if I can take this centaur fellow out first," Cramer decided, heading toward the zelekhut statue.  "It's some kind of inevitable; I forget what this actual type is called."  He cast a _stone shape_ spell onto the centaurian statue, trying to "melt" it into some kind of formless blob without any sharp edges with which to attack.  However, even in its petrified form, the zelekhut had an innate resistance against spellcraft and in this case the gnome's spell had absolutely no effect.  But the attempted spell _did_ qualify as an attack upon one of the guardians of the place, which caused both it and the green slaad to revert to their non-stone forms and move to attack the interlopers.

The green slaad began combat by tossing a _fireball_ into the middle of the room, encompassing Jhasspok, Cramer, and Utred, its intended targets, as well as the _invisible_ Marlo who just happened to be within range, unknown to the frog-thing.  Of the four, Utred took the brunt of the damage from the flames, which in turn stoked the internal fires of his rage.  In retaliation, he sprinted across the chamber and brought his longsword crashing into the slaad's side.  Idly, he noted the green flames sizzling across the weapon's blade didn't seem to have much of an effect upon the humanoid frog.

Unaware of the creature's resistance to fire, Marlo popped back into visibility as she cast an _empowered scorching ray_ spell at the slaad and the strength of her spell blistered the warty skin of the outsider, proving it wasn't actually immune to fire, merely resistant.  Jhasspok, in the meantime, decided somebody had better take care of the centaur thing, for it was no longer made of stone but a shiny, gleaming metal.  The lizardfolk reminded himself not to try to bite it, instead swinging his battleaxe hard against its side - where it made an impressive clanging noise but not much else.

Cramer cast a _bless_ spell on the group, aiding them in their future attacks against this pair of mismatched enemies.  Khari charged the green slaad, bringing his warhammer crashing into the creature's thigh.  But that left Jhasspok facing the zelekhut all on his own and the inevitable's choice of targets was thus  made exceedingly simple.  Its spiked chains went flashing out, ripping holes in Jhasspok's scaly hide; the lizardfolk hissed involuntarily in pain.

The slaad's claws went slashing out at the pair of dwarves attacking it, missing Khari but catching Utred and allowing him to pull the dwarven barbarian forward so it could bite him with its mouth of wicked-looking teeth.  Utred dropped his longsword and pulled the greataxe from his back, swinging it in full fury at the green toad-thing towering above him.  Marlo changed tactics, switching over to an _empowered magic missile_ spell, sending her darts of force energy smashing into the amphibian monstrosity's hide.

Jhasspok swung again with his battleaxe, invoking the special power it had to aid him in striking his enemies at the cost of lowering the power of his swing.  After all, the lizardfolk mused, if he couldn't even manage to hit his target then it didn't matter how much strength was behind his blow.  The axe's blade hit true but bounced harmlessly off the zelekhut's metal hide, failing to even leave a scratch on the surface.  Fortunately, this time the nimble reptile managed to dodge under the spiked chains that came swinging in his direction in response.

Cramer activated his _ring of invisibility_ and moved forward to aid the dwarves in their fight against the green slaad.  Khari hit the slaad again with his warhammer, this time focusing upon the beast's left knee.  It retaliated against both dwarves, once more missing Khari while catching Utred just fine with its sharp claws and pointed teeth.  But then with a powerful blow, Utred brought the slaad down to its knees, the barbarian's greataxe cleaving deep into the amphibian's flesh.  It held itself from falling prone with a steadying hand on the stone floor of the chamber but it was quite obvious the slaad was not long for this world.

Finally noticing the lizardfolk struggling alone against the zelekhut - and not having very much luck against it - Marlo pulled Truffles from her pocket and cast a spell upon him, then flung him forward to activate it upon the centaurian inevitable.  Truffles bounded up, unnoticed by the zelekhut, and reached forward with a webbed forefoot to try to trigger the _empowered shocking grasp_ spell his mistress had imbued upon him.  The spell fizzled harmlessly against the inevitable's spell resistance and Truffles scurried back to Marlo, his mission a failure but at least successfully attempted.

Jhasspok swung his battleaxe futilely against the zelekhut's armored hide, once again failing to do anything meaningful to bring the enemy down.  But the twin spiked chains each got past the lizardfolk's defenses, ripping off scales and causing the reptile's red blood to flow freely down his body.  He wasn't sure how much more of this punishment he could take but he was also sure he wasn't going to move from his current position, for he had the thing still pinned inside its alcove, unable to reach the other arena slaves.

Cramer by now had reached Utred and placed a hand upon the dwarf's back, channeling a _cure critical wounds_ spell into the barbarian's body, healing up the worst of the slaad's bite- and claw-marks.  Khari, in the meantime, finished off the slaad with an overhand swing of his warhammer straight down onto the nearly-prone enemy's head, crushing its skull.  It turned back to stone immediately, then fell to pieces as Khari gave it a good smashing, just to be sure it was dead.

Utred looked down at the slain and shattered slaad in disappointment and looked about for another opponent.  He raced across the chamber, making a bee-line for the zelekhut.  He powered in next to Jhasspok and sent his greataxe crashing down upon the construct's metal hide; the lizardfolk was simultaneously both pleased and irritated to see the dwarf's weapon leave a quite noticeable dent in the gleaming side of the zelekhut's body.

Marlo sent a pair of _empowered scorching rays_ at the zelekhut, the twin blasts of flames blasting right over Utred's head to strike the inevitable.  Then Khari raced up to Jhasspok's other side and added his warhammer to the arsenal attacking the zelekhut, but he was having the same trouble Jhasspok had been dealing with: an inability to actually deal any damage to the four-legged construct, despite successfully bringing his weapon crashing into its side.

Cramer channeled a _cure serious wounds_ into Jhasspok, reaching out to touch the lizardfolk's tail as the reptile dodged about, trying to find a good angle from which to strike the infuriating zelekhut.  Jhasspok barely noticed his wounds healing up at the gnome's touch, so focused was he on trying to do something, anything, to help bring this centaur-thing down.

But he needn't have bothered; another _empowered scorching ray_ spell from Marlo did the trick and the zelekhut fell to the ground, shattering as its now-stone body struck the solid floor of the chamber.

"Everybody okay?" asked Cramer, applying healing spells to those who needed them, then casting a _fly_ spell upon himself, anticipating a need to move much quicker than his stubby little gnomish legs could get him in the very near future.

"Are we sure about this grab-and-run ploy?" asked Marlo hesitantly.  She didn't like the idea of sending Jhasspok - or anyone, really - into a room with four statues that would animate and try to kill him, especially not when the others wouldn't be available to help fight off the enemies.  So a compromise was made: they'd open the doors, Jhasspok would go get the relic, and then they'd all flee together, the dwarves ready to slam the doors shut and hopefully hold them closed before high-tailing it themselves.  The best thing about the layout of the cavern was the set of stairs leading to the double doors was narrow enough that only one of the four statue-guardians could try to open the doors and gain access to the fleeing heroes.

The doors opened by sliding sideways along grooves cut in the floor and ceiling.  Utred and Khari muscled them open and Jhasspok advanced warily, keeping his eyes on the three statues he could see.  As he approached the back alcove, he too felt a whispering voice in his head: <Turn back, mortal, lest you face your death.>  Jhasspok ignored it, looked back at the doors to see the other slaves in readiness, glanced over at the statues to make sure they were still immobile stone, and grabbed up the multifaceted gem the size of a cannonball.

Quick as a wink, the lizardfolk spun in place and sped back the way he'd come, his tail held out straight behind him for balance as he fled past his friends and all the way through the archway with the numerous god-symbols engraved all around it.  Then he looked back to see what had transpired behind him.

The hound archon had been the first to make it to the stairs; Cramer cast a _spiritual weapon_ spell to try to keep it at bay.  Khari had pulled out his shortbow, anticipating having to fight from a distance for a change, and let fly with an arrow that caught the dog-faced humanoid in the shoulder.  It swung its greatsword at Utred, hitting the burly dwarf as Marlo cast an _empowered scorching ray_ at the celestial.  Cramer's floating force-quarterstaff struck the archon again, even as the gnome ducked low and struck the celestial on the knee with his mace.  Now that the hound archon had closed the distance, Khari dropped his bow and swung at the dog-headed man with his warhammer, a weapon with which he was much more proficient.

But then the succubus took flight, flitting over the hound archon's head and past the assembled heroes, heading toward Jhasspok.  Utred managed to tag her with the tip of his greataxe as she fled past but the damage she took from the blow was minimal.  From further back in the line toward the stone doors, the lillend cast a _sound burst_, stunning only Khari but inflicting a teeth-rattling blast of sonics against Cramer, Utred, and Marlo as well.

Seeing his fellow dwarf freeze up and knowing all too well what that meant (for _sound burst_ was a particular favorite combat spell of Cramer's), Utred grabbed Khari by the arm and dragged him back away from the doorway.  Then he diverted his attention to the succubus, swinging at her again with his greataxe.  Marlo kept her focus on the approaching hound archon, _empowering_ a _magic missile_ spell and sending it blasting towards the celestial, to strike his broad chest in a flurry of sparks.

Jhasspok, seeing the "everybody run to the obelisk" part of the plan had somehow gone horribly awry, rolled the relic over towards the stairs leading back up to the ladder which led to the surface and sped back to join his friends in combat.  He charged the succubus and actually hit her, but the female demon's body was protected against such physical blows and the frustrated lizardfolk found his attacks to be as useless as those he'd wasted upon the zelekhut.

The hound archon stooped low and attacked Cramer, perhaps realizing by taking out the gnomish cleric he'd also be getting rid of the _spiritual quarterstaff_ still smashing down upon his head.  Cramer flew out of the stairwell, landed over in a back corner of the first chamber, and cast a _cure serious wounds_ spell on himself.  Khari shook himself out of his immobility with a look of fury and, assuming the succubus had been the one to stun him, swung at her with his warhammer.  The winged demon, however, was busy attacking Utred and couldn't spare the time to ward off the dwarven fighter's hammer-blows, trusting in the toughness of her fiendish form to deal with such bothersome attacks.

Utred finally recalled the original plan and closed the stone doors, leaving only the succubus out in the first chamber to have to deal with.  Marlo cast her _hold portal_ spell from the scroll, the only one of its kind she had.  But the magic worked, for despite the muffled pounding of the hound archon's steel weapon the stone doors held.

Jhasspok again swung at the succubus, hitting her with his axe-head but not having any effect upon her other than as a general distraction; he got the feeling he was little more than a buzzing fly bothering her.  Cramer attacked the demon with his mace, having used up all of his attack spells; at least his _spiritual quarterstaff_ had made it through the doors before they'd been shut and sealed and he redeployed it against the succubus.  Khari swung his warhammer at the winged demon and she retaliated with her claws, raking then across the dwarf's face, drawing blood.  But having seen to the closing of the doors, Utred picked up his greataxe again and with a mighty blow cut the demon down out of the air.  She fell to the ground and shattered, her body once again nothing more than stone.

"_Now_ can we leave?" asked Jhasspok, running back to fetch the relic he'd cast aside.  The others followed, one by one climbing up the ladder back to the surface.

And there, waiting for them, was the Mortal Queen.  "I'll take that," she said, smirking.  Jhasspok handed it over to her without a word.

"We've upheld our part of the deal," Cramer pointed out to the drow Matron.  "Remove these _quest_ spells from us at once!"

Matron Bel'vior's eyes narrowed in anger.  "You would do well," she advised, "to recall to whom you are speaking, _slave!_"  But her mood lightened as she glanced at the multifaceted sphere before her.  "In any case, the _quest_ spells dissipated as soon as the relic was handed over to me.  They are already gone."  Cramer tried to sense if what she said was true, but felt no different from when the _quest_ spell was still active on him.  Still, it made sense that the spell would be gone once they'd performed what the spell was compelling them to do.

"What does that thing even do?" demanded Marlo, curious despite herself.  She wanted to know if it was the _orb of red dragonkind_, as Cramer had surmised.

Matron Bel'vior didn't even bother keeping these arena slaves in the dark - what could they do, after all, against one with her power?  "This," she smirked, "is the literal Vengeance of the Gods.  It's a soul prison for a creature called the Tarrasque.  Once I figure out how to release the beast I will send it to destroy Greenvale, wiping the blot against Lolth out of existence forevermore."  She smirked at her five unwitting dupes.  "The gods have _symbols of death_ in place to slay instantly anyone entering the relic's resting place who wishes to unleash the Tarrasque upon the world; thus, I was forced to send in those who knew nothing of the relic's true power."

If anything, her smirk grew even wider and more insulting.  "And so, when Greenvale and all of its wretched inhabitants are ground into powder by the Tarrasque, you may pride yourselves in the knowledge that it was you that granted me this power.  In this, you have truly become some of Lolth's most devoted servants!"  Then she stepped back into the shadows and was gone.

- - -

I was not a fan of this adventure and neither was Harry.  It didn't help that we rolled like crap all night, but it also rankled that I couldn't hit the stupid zelekhut hardly at all (even when I rolled halfway decently) and when I did I couldn't deal it enough damage to get past its damage reduction; the same thing held true for the succubus.  And Harry was right there in the same boat with me.  Together, our PCs just got ground up like mince meat (the enemies certainly had no trouble hitting me at least), so we forced Dan to have Cramer to do little more than keep healing us so we wouldn't die.  That left pretty much only Vicki and Joey to actually handle any combat, so it turned out to be "The Marlo and Utred Hour" with the other three of us as not much more than spectators.

Logan, for his part, was unhappy that Harry and I were grumbling about how not-fun this all was.  He'd thrown CR-appropriate foes at us before and had us run right over them, often slaying them before they had a chance to do much, and thus for this adventure he beefed up the competition and wasn't pleased at all the grumbling he was receiving for having put our 8th-level PCs up against two chambers filled with CR 11 encounters.  Of course, he'd also given us two _flaming whips_ in the previous adventure that would have aided us greatly in this fight (they attack against the foe's touch AC!), but they had been taken by Marlo and Utred, neither of whom was using them in this fight.  And, of course, had Jhasspok attacked the green slaad instead of the zelekhut (or allowed the zelekhut to exit the alcove so we could flank it) he'd have been much better off, but I didn't do that.  So grumpiness prevailed.

Logan used the "Giant Lairs" Paizo Flip-Mat for the frost giant encounter and built the "Dungeon of the Tarrasque Soul Prison" out of WotC's Dungeon Tiles.


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## Richards (Jun 13, 2020)

*ADVENTURE 25: THE LONG ROAD HOME*

PC Roster:
Cramer Appleknocker, gnome cleric 8​Jhasspok, lizardman 3/barbarian 2/fighter 3​Khari Hammerslammer, dwarf fighter 8​Marlo Pendragon, human sorcerer 8​Utred "Buckets" Butterflinger, dwarf barbarian 8​
Game Session Date: 11 June 2020

- - -

"Well, this sucks," griped Cramer.

"What, the fact that we just handed over a dangerous weapon that will allow the Mortal Queen to pretty much destroy Greenvale with the Tarrasque, or the fact that we now get to head on back to Greenvale and warn them?" asked Utred.

"Both," grumbled Cramer, pulling out his map and consulting it.  "Looks like a good week's worth of travel, too," he muttered.  "There's a mountain range between us and them."

"You could always hunt up the Mage of the Ruins," pointed out a helpful passerby who had heard Cramer's grumbling.  "He could probably _teleport_ you to wherever you wanted to go."

Cramer's eyebrows rose in interest.  "And where is this 'Mage of the Ruins,' may I ask?" he inquired.  The man told him he hung about the ruins of Baraxis, the Fallen Kingdom.  "His name's *Ordrick* - he's been hanging about there for years now."

"Doing what?" asked Khari.

"I dunno - wizard stuff, I guess.  But he came in here, oh, about two years ago, I guess - bought some supplies and stuff and then _teleported_ away, quick as you please."

Cramer was examining the map.  "Baraxis is only about two days away," he said.  "Beats a week trudging through the mountains."

"That works for me," replied Marlo, although in her case either way wouldn't particularly be a hardship for her, as she'd become accustomed to being dragged around by the ankle while keeping an aerial lookout courtesy of her _boots of levitation_.  "Jhasspok?"

Jhasspok looked to the human sorcerer, surprised to be included in the decisions.  "I don't care," he replied.  "Either way is fine."  He didn't really know enough about the strange surface world to be able to put much consideration into such things; as it was, he was trying to recall what a "mountain" was.  He somewhat recalled Utred having explained it to him and he was pretty sure it was either a big pile of dirt and rocks covered with snow at the top or else the place with all the burning sand that hurt the bottoms of his feet.  Whatever they were, they didn't have either of them in the Underdark where the lizardfolk had spent all of his life until recently.

"Baraxis it is, then."  Cramer got his bearings and the group started off on foot; Marlo walked alongside the others while they were still in the frost giant town, so as not to make a spectacle of herself by being towed along like a balloon on a string.  Only once they were out among themselves on the open road did she tie one end of Utred's rope around her ankle and _levitate_ up to a considerable height where she could stay alert for danger while the dwarven barbarian did all of her walking for her.

Several hours into their first day of westward travel along what had once been a bustling road and had in recent years become little more than a small path, Jhasspok, in the lead, saw some movement over behind a clump of bushes.  About the same time Marlo started calling a warning from above, the lizardfolk saw a humanoid figure with skin as green as his own (although without any scales that Jhasspok could see) rise up from a crouching position and start ambling over their way from the left side.  This was a strange-looking creature: proportionally as much taller than Jhasspok as the lizardfolk was taller than Cramer, it had a ridiculously long, pointed nose (or possibly a "beak" if this was some sort of sky fish - but no, it didn't look like it had feathers, either) and wore only a brief breech-cloth of untanned hide.  It carried some sort of round, reddish object the size of a small boulder under its arm as it started gibbering in an unknown language.

"This might be a thing we need to fight," observed Jhasspok, looking to the dwarves for confirmation.

"It's a troll!" yelled Utred, unsheathing his _Elderwood flaming longsword_ and rushing at the beast, dropping the end of the rope as he did so.  Cramer cast a _magic circle against evil_ spell on himself and advanced behind the dwarf, hoping to keep most of the group covered under the protection of his spell.

Utred stopped about halfway toward the advancing troll and planted his feet, ready to strike him as soon as he got within range.  The troll didn't slow his advance but tossed the object he'd been carrying over at the dwarven barbarian.  The "boulder" turned out to be some sort of miniature beholder, with a large central eye and six eyestalks growing from a head whose only other feature was a mouth filled with sharp teeth.  While Utred's attention was momentarily distracted by the gauth, the troll reached out with a gangly arm and sent a set of sharp claws ripping across Utred's face.  That got Utred seeing red - quite literally - and he roared out a scream of rage and defiance, striking the troll with his green-flamed blade.  The troll's flesh blistered at the touch of the flames and he cried out in pain as well.

The gauth's central eye was aimed in Utred's direction but the furious barbarian overcame the stunning ray without even being conscious he was doing so.  Two eye-rays blasted out a _scorching ray_ and an _inflict moderate wounds_ beam, both striking true and causing the dwarf some pain, quite possibly - at the moment, Utred wasn't even aware of the new wounds, all of his focus on slaying the troll before him.

Khari activated the power of his magic warhammer and earth glided down into the ground, popping up quite literally at the troll's feet and bringing the head of his weapon crashing into the warty-skinned troll's knee before he even knew the dwarven fighter was there.

Lowering herself back down from the sky, Marlo targeted the gauth with an _empowered magic missile_ spell, thinking anything that looked that much like a beholder had best be taken out as quickly as possible.  Jhasspok charged at the gauth as well, but his wasn't a calculated decision; the gauth was just closer to him.  He brought his battleaxe swinging to the side of the floating gauth, his blade cutting through the thing's hide but also swatting it aside like a piñata.

Spinning in place, the gauth's central ray caught Jhasspok in its arc but failed to freeze the lizardfolk in place.  A _scorching ray_ went sizzling at the reptile while Utred was hit with another _inflict moderate wounds_ beam from the same eyestalk that had targeted him before.  Two other beams struck Khari, but the _sleep_ ray failed to have any effect upon the Hammerslammer dwarf and the _paralysis_ ray fared no better.

Cramer cast another spell and a _spiritual quarterstaff_ popped into existence, striking the gauth on the top of its body and dipping it down a foot or so from its aerial position.  The gnome ran closer to the dwarves to encompass them in his _magic circle against evil_ spell, for he knew from local lore that trolls reeked of evil.  Utred's flaming blade stabbed into the troll's torso again, the slit in his belly sealing up almost immediately but the scorch marks along the edge of the wound remaining.  The troll slashed out at Utred with both sets of claws, only one set getting a grasp and piercing the dwarf's flesh.

Seeing the effectiveness of flames against the troll (and recalling tales from his youth that fire and acid were the best weapons against these giant beasts), Khari swapped his warhammer for his own _keen flaming burst longsword_, the feel of the weapon not as familiar in his hands but the flames doing quite well against the troll's warty flesh.  Marlo noted the effectiveness of fire as well and finished the troll off with a well-placed _empowered scorching ray_.  It fell to the ground, its flesh sizzling, and the dwarves each touched their flaming weapons to the burned corpse, charring it enough that the beast would not rise again after having regenerated the worst of its wounds - too many burns and the thing would stay dead.

That left only the gauth and Jhasspok brought it down shortly thereafter with an overhead swing of his battleaxe, followed by a snapping of the spherical creature in the lizardfolk's powerful jaws.  It died while partially in Jhasspok's mouth and he pulled it out cautiously, expecting it to try something.  But no, it was quite dead and the lizardfolk's own reptilian eyes widened in delight once he realized this was a downed foe with six delicious smaller eyes and a much larger central eye, all his for the eating!  (He offered to share with the others, but they refused.)  "Ssss ssss ssss ssss ssss ssss!" laughed the lizardfolk at their silliness, passing up delicacies like these!

Backtracking to the troll's hiding place behind the bushes, Marlo discovered a large bag containing its possessions, including a quite impressive pile of coins and gems.  These were distributed among the five arena slaves, who decided to follow Jhasspok's lead and take a meal before moving on; they opted for other fare, however, leaving the lizardfolk to enjoy his ocular repast.

The night passed uneventfully in the _ironsilk tent_ and the next morning the five were off again, certain they'd reach the outskirts of the Fallen Kingdom before evening.  After a full day on foot, they discovered the outer wall of a castle city spread out before them.  The wall had seen better days: one section was little more than a pile of rubble and the portcullis that had once prevented access to the kingdom had long ago been pulled away and thrown aside (likely, if the stories were true, by a band of frost giants who had plundered the unprotected city when its soldiers marched off to attack Greenvale).  But through the opening in the wall that the portcullis had once protected, and along the road which led into the city, the heroes could see some sort of construct marching their way toward the open gate.  A round tower stood on either side of the gate, each rising 30 feet in height, five feet above the height of the stone wall itself.

Khari rushed over to the side of the tower, hoping to hide along one side of the gate and ambush the construct as it approached.  He noticed a glint of metal on the ground beneath the gate, which itself looked to be a large patch of mud.  Somebody, it seemed, had dropped something metallic in the mud - but the dwarf decided he needed to concentrate on the impending combat at hand, for the construct was making its inexorable way towards the other heroes, stomping forward in a bee-line.

Cramer cast a _detect evil_ spell on his eyes and moved forward, hoping to be able to detect the construct's motives.  He did get a better look at the humanoid figure, though: it was made of about equal parts stone, wood, and metal, half again as tall as a human.  With a sudden shock of recognition, the gnome realized they were likely up against a shield guardian, which meant it was a devoted servant to the protection of whoever wore the amulet controlling it...and Cramer would put money on the fact that Ordrick probably was the thing's master.  "Let's try not to harm the shield guardian," he called to the others, thinking getting Ordrick to agree to help them get to Greenvale quickly would be made much more difficult if they destroyed his loyal guardian.

Jhasspok ran forward in a sprint but he wasn't headed toward the gateway; rather, he sprinted toward the pile of loose rubble where there was a missing chunk of the wall.  He scrambled up the broken stones, crawling up to the top of the stone wall and approached the nearest tower at top speed.  Utred followed in the lizardfolk's wake; the burly dwarven barbarian could run as fast as the reptilian slave when he wanted to.

Marlo cast an _invisibility_ spell upon herself, fading from view and hopefully excluding herself as a potential target in the unblinking eyes of the approaching shield guardian.  But then an attack came from an unexpected direction: the pool of mud splurched forward, forming a pseudopod and striking an astonished Khari with it.  The muddy appendage left a moist layer of slime on the dwarven fighter's skin, which burned like acid.  Looking down, he saw the slime had gotten onto his armor as well but was doing it no harm - only living flesh was affected, it seemed.

Not wanting to have to deal with oozing menaces, Khari activated the power of his warhammer and earth glided beneath the ochre ooze and below the stone wall to pop back up on the inside of the Fallen Kingdom.  He raced towards the shield guardian, determined to cut it off before it could attack his companions; Cramer might not want them to harm it but by the same token Khari wasn't about to let it hurt his friends.  He swung at the construct, his warhammer striking true.

Cramer cast a _spiritual weapon_ spell, causing the familiar quarterstaff of force to materialize in thin air and slam down at the ochre ooze.  Its liquid body parted and reformed around the point of impact, making it difficult to determine if the blow had done it any harm at all.  At the same time, the shield guardian swung a massive fist at Khari, attacking the dwarf who had just attacked it.

Up on the stone wall, Jhasspok decided not to bother with the door - which could be locked, for all he knew, or the room inside the tower occupied by potential enemies - and leaped up the wall, pulling himself up onto the tower's roof, racing across it, and leaping back down on the other side of the wall, putting him directly above the ochre ooze.  He pulled his _flaming spear_ from its place strapped to the inside of his _glamered shield_, currently made to look like his old one, which had been made from the hardened shell of a large turtle.

Utred, however, scrambled back down the rubble and retraced his steps back towards the others, realizing nearly all of the weapons he wielded were better suited to hand-to-hand combat.  He pulled his _life-flame whip_ from where it sat coiled at his belt, deciding to give this new weapon a try - if nothing else, he could attack it from far enough away that he could likely stay out of reach of the slow-moving ooze.  Marlo cast an _empowered scorching ray_ at the ochre blob, her spell hitting it and burning away part of its protoplasmic mass.  She called out to the others what she could recall of shield guardians: "Whoever wears the amulet attuned to the shield guardian can control it!  I'll bet anything it's that metal thing in the middle of the ooze!"  Marlo couldn't be certain, but she could hypothesize the construct's former master being engulfed by the ochre ooze and the control amulet now technically being "worn" by the blobby, mindless mass of protoplasm; in such a case the shield guardian would do its best to protect the ooze despite it not giving it any specific commands.

"We need to take out the ooze!" called Cramer.  "Don't attack the shield guardian!  If we can get the amulet we can control it ourselves!"

The ooze surged forward toward Marlo, slapping at her with an acidic tentacle while Utred slashed his fiery whip at the thing in passing.  Khari charged the ochre ooze, passing through the open gateway to do so and noting there was no actual mud in the road; what he'd taken for mud had been the creature's own body.  He brought his warhammer crashing down upon the formless mass, redistributing its structure and possibly causing it some harm - again, it was difficult to tell.  The shield guardian followed in the dwarf's wake, bringing a powerful fist crashing down upon Khari's shoulder and causing him to cry out in pain.

Leery of the ooze's attacks, Cramer cast a _resist acid_ spell on himself while watching his _spiritual quarterstaff_ continue its attacks upon the ochre blob.  But up on the wall, Jhasspok looked down at the scene of combat below him.  The ooze had slithered away, but the shield guardian was now directly below the lizardfolk.  Keeping in mind what Cramer had said, Jhasspok set aside his _flaming spear_ and pulled out the weapon he kept folded up at his hip and rarely used: his fishing net.  He dropped it expertly upon the top of the shield guardian, then grabbed up his spear and leaped over the side of the wall, landing upon the construct's shoulder and bounding down to the ground from there.  He spun in place, ready to fend off the construct with his spear if it attacked.

Utred whipped the ochre ooze again while it attacked Khari with an acidic pseudopod.  But then Khari finally slew the creature with his warhammer; apparently crushing it had been having some sort of effect after all, for its already almost-liquid body lost almost all cohesion and it trickled away into wet puddles on the ground.  Cramer quickly splashed through the puddles and scooped up the amulet.  Then, shaking off the slime as best he could, he dropped the necklace over his head and faced the shield guardian.  "Cease all attacks!" he told it and the construct stepped forward to stand by its new master, the fishing net still draped over its head and shoulders like a shroud.

"So do you think this guardian was Ordrick's?" asked Khari, wiping the ooze from the head of his hammer.  "We come all this way for nothing?"

"I wouldn't be so sure," Marlo mused.  "The acid only seems to affect flesh; if Ordrick had been consumed you'd think there would be bones inside the ooze as well, plus, you know, his clothes."

"Let's look around," suggested Cramer, while Jhasspok retrieved and refolded his fishing net.  He hoped one day to be able to return to his simple life as a fisher, maybe when all of this running around and preparing to fight drow armies was at an end.  Before starting the search himself, Cramer began providing healing spells to those who needed them.

"Ordrick?" called Marlo, cupping her hands.  "Are you around?  We'd like to talk to you, if we might!"

Eventually, they found an elderly figure in tattered green robes cowering in the corner of one of the abandoned buildings.  He was the first person they'd found inside Baraxis and he looked fearfully up at the group with watery eyes.  "Don't hurt me," he wheedled.

"We have no wish to hurt you," Cramer replied in his most soothing voice.  "Are you Ordrick?  We only wish to talk to you, that's all."

The others approached.  Ordrick calmed down a bit, only to look fearful once again when Jhasspok approached and stared down at the man.  "It's okay, he's friendly," Marlo assured the old man.

"You should heal him," Jhasspok suggested to Cramer.  "He's hurt."

The gnome cleric looked over at the elderly man's body, not seeing any obvious wounds.  "Are you hurt?" he asked him.

Ordrick shook his head but Jhasspok persisted.  "Those wounds on his face," he said, pointing with a clawed finger.  Embarrassed, Marlo slapped the lizardfolk's hand down and hissed at him, "He's not hurt - those are just wrinkles!"  Jhasspok frowned in confusion; how could those deep lines carved into his face not hurt?  He'd never seen anybody with these "wrinkles" before - none of the drow in Overreach seemed to have them, nor did any of the slaves he'd ever seen.  It was probably some weird mammal thing, he decided.

The shield guardian ambled up, keeping Cramer within view and Ordrick recognized it at once.  "My guardian!" he said, the crazed look on his face starting to go away and some lucidity returning.  "You've recovered him!"  His rheumy gaze swiveled over to the control amulet around Cramer's neck.  "You must have gotten this from that ooze," he reasoned.

"We did indeed," Cramer said, pulling the amulet from around his neck and handing it over to Ordrick.  "How did you come to lose it to an ooze in the first place?"

"I, uh, sort of accidentally threw it away," Ordrick admitted.  "My brain plays tricks on me sometimes; I thought the necklace was trying to strangle me.  It ended up in the ooze's body, and that was all it took for the shield guardian to switch its loyalty."

"So you're Ordrick?" Cramer pressed.

"I am indeed," replied the wizard.  "One-time advisor to the King of Baraxis."  His face fell as he recalled the role he'd played in the fall of the kingdom.  With a heavy sigh, he said, "I recommended the king send our forces to attack Greenvale," he admitted.  "I even provided a means for our soldiers to magically fly through the air - it was all very brilliant, or so I believed.  And it was - up until those damned elves shot them down with _dispel magic_ spells; there was our entire army plummeting from the skies to their deaths!  And, of course, then frost giants came down from their own lands to wipe out our kingdom once it had been left more or less defenseless...."  Ordrick's gaze went blank as he relived the unpleasant memories of his past.

"All of that is in the past," suggested Cramer.  "We must look to the future!  In fact, we have come to warn the local areas of an impending attack by drow forces, rising up from the Underdark!  We would appreciate it if you could _teleport_ us to Greenvale, so we could warn them as well."  This, Cramer knew, was a quite inaccurate telling of the true state of affairs, but he really didn't want to get into the realities of the Greenvale elves being sunborn drow...all he really wanted was to get this doddering old fool to get them a shortcut to Greenvale.

"If you think about it, it would be a way to make up for the loss of your own kingdom, to help us to warn the other local kingdoms of a dangerous threat to them," suggested Marlo.  "We wouldn't want the drow taking over other kingdoms like the frost giants overtook Baraxis."

"No, no, we wouldn't," agreed Ordrick, "Not at all.  You just want me to _teleport_ you to the gates of Greenvale?  I don't need to come with you inside, do I?  I could just drop you off and then go my own way?"

"That would be perfectly acceptable, and greatly appreciated," Marlo replied, giving the old man her warmest smile.

It did the trick.  "Very well," Ordrick agreed.  "After all, you did get me my shield guardian back."

He motioned for the group to gather around him and they hurried to do so.  Then, with the voicing of a few arcane syllables, they all _teleported_ to the front of a familiar set of gates before the Pantheon Wall of Greenvale.  "Okay then bye!" called Ordrick frantically before _teleporting_ away again, no doubt fearing he'd be recognized and restrained by the elves whose city he'd once helped attack - at the cost of his own kingdom.

"Weird guy," Utred commented as the group advanced to the city gate.

Once inside, the group reported in to the Greenvale officials and explained about the relic they'd been forced to gather for the Mortal Queen.  "I'm afraid, while we've managed to garner support from the Kingdoms of Elderwood, Kravyrn, Revin, and Dracovania and got the frost giants to agree not to attack, all of that has been overshadowed by the threat we've brought to your land," Marlo mourned.

"All is not yet lost," reassured Greenvale's highest official: T'puuli Tine, the half-celestial drider who ran Greenvale in the absence of Matron Ky'hulcressen, whose duties forced her to spend most of her time in the Overreach.  "The Mortal Queen apparently does not yet know how to control this relic or the Tarrasque.  That gives us time - we will research what we can about this 'Vengeance of the Gods' and see what we can learn about it.  Perhaps there is a way to overcome it, or negate it - if nothing else, perhaps we can find a way to steal it away from her or destroy it before it can be used."

"You are very understanding," Marlo replied, her heart lightened somewhat.

"We, of all people, know what it is like to be forced to do the bidding of a Matron Mother.  Now go; you have been out in the field for some time on our behalf - it is time you slept in a comfortable bed, had some good food, and perhaps restocked some of your own goods or upgraded your armor and weapons.  Go about these tasks for the rest of the day; we will meet again tomorrow and make our next plans."

That sounded like a very good idea to the five arena slaves.

- - -

This adventure was basically two short fights against two foes each, with each pairing made up of creatures you probably wouldn't expect to find together.  I was especially amused by how the "ochre ooze" (Logan merged an ochre jelly and a gray ooze, taking the bits he wanted from each) ended up with a shield guardian protecting it.

And we leveled up to 9th at the end!  Jhasspok took his 4th level of fighter, specifically so he could get the Weapon Specialization (battleaxe) feat that requires 4 levels of fighter as a prerequisite (he also took Cleave as his bonus fighter feat), so I'll probably need to throw some barbarian levels his way for a bit to try to even them out.  And back in a city large enough to have armorers and weaponcrafters and magic shops allowed us to spend some of the hard-earned coin we'd been gathering in recent adventures.  Cramer had an _Elderwood flaming heavy mace_ crafted for himself, while Khari and Jhasspok each added an additional +1 to their primary weapons.  Utred sold his _+2 heavy steel shield_ and used the money from that to help pay for a _+1 animated tower shield_, then picked up a _+1 greataxe_ because apparently he didn't have enough weapons on hand just yet.  Jhasspok bought the equivalent of a _+1 amulet of mighty fists_, but in his case it's a necklace of predators' teeth - in any case, it adds a +1 to attack and damage rolls using natural weapons (meaning claws and teeth in his case).

And Vicki had some secret discussions with Logan off in the family room while the rest of us calculated the cost of our purchases; apparently Marlo is up to something the rest of us don't know about.  Interesting, considering our characters don't know about that _Book of Uboros_ she's got hidden from us or that she's sworn to worship the Dying One....


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## Richards (Jun 23, 2020)

*ADVENTURE 26: THE DESOLATE WATCH*

PC Roster:
Cramer Appleknocker, gnome cleric 9​Jhasspok, lizardman 3/barbarian 2/fighter 4​Khari Hammerslammer, dwarf fighter 9​Marlo Pendragon, human sorcerer 9​Utred "Buckets" Butterflinger, dwarf barbarian 9​
Game Session Date: 18 June 2020

- - -

"We have determined how the Mortal Queen was able to spy upon you so easily," reported T'puuli Tine, the half-celestial drider who ruled over Greenvale in the absence of the Matron Mother of House Ky'hulcressen.

"Through these damned tattoos, I imagine," hazarded Cramer, referring to the slave tattoos that had been inscribed on the backs of each of the five slaves upon their capture - or shortly after his hatching, in Jhasspok's case.

"But I thought only members of House Jalamir could use the tattoos in that way," countered Marlo.  "The tattoos are, after all, the House Emblem of Jalamir.  It wouldn't make sense if members of other Houses could _scry_ upon the slaves of other Houses - that would give them a real boost in gaining intelligence on their enemy Houses."

"There is a loophole in Overreach law," pointed out T'Puuli.

"Nothing lawful about Overreach," grumbled Cramer.

"Once she declared herself the Mortal Queen, and thus the highest mortal authority of all drow, she elevated herself above the petty ranks of all Houses," T'puuli continued.  "She can now _scry_ at will upon the slaves of any House at all as if a member of that House; as the Mortal Queen, she is effectively a member of all Houses at once."

"But she's the Matron Mother of House Bel'vior," argued Marlo.  "That gives her House an unfair advantage."

"Irrelevant - she has effectively ascended beyond the concerns of any one House.  But consider this: she can now _scry_ upon you, through your slave tattoos, not only as a member of House Jalamir - in which case she will see the false images protecting you from being discovered - but also as a member of House Ky'hulcressen - in which case she is privy to your real actions, as House Ky'hulcressen and their Greenvale associates are the ones who had your tattoos modified in the first place."

"So she's peekin' behind the curtain," assessed Khari.  "Seein' what we do for real."

"Effectively, yes."

"And there's no way to stop her," sighed Marlo, a tinge of despondency in her voice.

"Perhaps not," agreed T'Puuli, "but you have this on your side: in Overreach, tampering with slaves is so commonplace that _scrying_ upon a slave cannot be used as proof of wrongdoing - and remember, in drow society a crime is only illegal if you get caught doing it.  Thus, even though the Mortal Queen knows House Ky'hulcressen and House Jalamir are plotting against her, she cannot officially act upon that knowledge without weakening her own position in the eyes of the other drow Houses."

"Isn't there anything we can do?" asked Marlo.

"The only way to fully prevent her from _scrying_ upon you would be to remove the tattoos..."

"Then let's do that!" interjected Cramer, eager to be out from under the yoke of the drow.

"...but to do so would be to cause an unnecessary rift between Houses Jalamir and Ky'hulcressen.  Remember, House Jalamir is rebelling against the Mortal Queen because in their minds House Bel'vior has overstepped their bounds; they have no intrinsic desire to see Greenvale remain free and divorced from Lolth.  And interfering with their slaves - you, which they consider to be their property - would cause bad blood between the two allied Houses."

"Well, crap," muttered Cramer.

"It is therefore best to continue on as normal.  The Mortal Queen can continue to _scry_ upon you but cannot easily use the information she gleans."  T'Puuli saw crestfallen looks among the slaves, although the true nature of the problem at hand didn't look to have fully penetrated the minds of Khari or Jhasspok; they looked stoically on as the smarter members of their group had their discussion.  No doubt it would all be explained to them later.

"In any case, we have two more missions for you," said T'puuli, hoping to move on to more positive subjects.  "First, you will go to the Desolate Watch, an outpost at the mouth of the valley leading to the Desolate Wastes, and warn them of the impending drow invasion.  It is believed they have a means by which they can communicate with the Undying Crusade, so they should be able to forward Greenvale's call for aid."

"What's the Undying Crusade?" asked Utred.  T'puuli explained there was a necromantic effect in place throughout the Desolate Waste, reanimating any corpses slain there.  This included devils and demons from the Lower Planes, whose bodies were then sent against the living fiends rising up to try to gain a purchase on the mortal realms in a mountain range called the Baator's Breath Mountains to the southeast.

"Once you have completed that first mission, you will continue southeast to the Ossirnan Peninsula to try to gain aid from the kingdoms there."  Cramer was checking his map but the Ossirnan Peninsula did not appear anywhere on it.  He frowned, preferring to have a map before him to make it easier to judge distances.  As a follower of the God of Travelers, he was well aware of the importance of a good map.

"How far away is the Desolate Watch?" asked Jhasspok.

"Five hours by wagon; we will provide a horse and wagon for your journey," T'puuli replied, indicating with a wave of his hand at the window the horse-drawn wagon just now pulling up to the front of the building.  The arena slaves gathered up their gear and piled it into the back of the wagon; as normal, Cramer sat up in front, his hands on the reins while Marlo sat beside him and Jhasspok and the dwarves sat in the back.

They were less than an hour away from the tower when it became visible on the horizon; disturbingly, it seemed to be covered in black flames.  "Izzat normal?" Khari asked, squinting at the sight.

"I would imagine not," answered Cramer, coaxing the horse to greater speed for the duration of the journey.  All eyes were upon the black flames dancing around the base of the tower; as the group approached they could see the bodies of human soldiers as well as various devils littering the field.  Up on the top of the 30-foot stone tower they spotted a massive horned devil in combat with a pair of winged celestials; below, they saw two hell hounds, a chain devil, and a pair of human fighters in heavy armor wielding longswords with a strange, reddish cast to them poked about the slain corpses, killing time until the black _wall of fire_ ran its course.  With the crackling of the black flames, none of the fiendish forces noticed the imminent arrival of the five arena slaves in their horse-drawn wagon.

Cramer cast a _longstrider_ spell upon himself, realizing without the magical enhancement he'd soon fall behind his fellows in the course of battle - and as the group's primary source of magical healing it was important he be able to keep up.  He followed with the spells _detect evil_ and _magic circle against evil_, realizing their importance in a fight against forces from the Lower Realms.  He briefly explained to the others what he could recall about chain devils and hell hounds: the canines were immune to fire, whereas the chain devils had no such protection, although cold-based spells would have no effect upon them.

Khari, impatient with the wagon's progress, jumped off the side and raced forward towards the fiendish forces.  But rather than get too close, he stopped about halfway between them and the wagon and planted himself into a defensive posture, _earthglide warhammer_ at the ready, preferring they bring the fight to him rather than he get himself too far away from his fighting companions.  The chain devil noticed the movement from the corner of her eye and spun about to face the dwarven fighter, the chains hanging from her blue-tinged body spinning away momentarily as she did so.  She called something out in the Infernal tongue, a language in which none of the slaves had any familiarity, but Cramer's _helm of comprehend languages_ allowed him to understand her comment to have been an observation that the Desolate Watch must have called in reinforcements.  The others about her spun to face the heroes at her warning and then she followed Khari's stratagem of moving forward but taking a defensive posture and letting the enemy make the first move.  Behind her, the human fighters moved up slowly, clumsy in their heavy armor.

Marlo looked at the group of four foes approaching Khari and stepping up close to the chain devil already in position, as if they would then make a concentrated attack.  As a sorcerer, Marlo Pendragon had an instinctive sense about magic; she had never actively studied spellcraft, allowing the spells to come to her as needed.  She spread her hands to her sides, feeling for a surge of magical energy all about her.  Then, bundling it to her and flinging it out at her foes, she caused the first manifestation of a new spell she'd never cast before in her life.

All about the chain devil, the two hell hounds, and the pair of armored men with their hellsteel swords, the ground rumbled and erupted into a sudden burst of tentacles, springing into existence in a manner of mere seconds.  These tentacles writhed and contorted like those of the Dying One to whom Marlo had secretly allied herself, like those of the Writhing Gate which N'zorthal controlled in apparent service to the drow of House Jalamir but whose true secrets he kept for himself.  The thick, rubbery, black appendages wrapped around the fiendish forces, crushing them in their ebon embrace.

The hell hounds let out twin howls of astonishment and anger as they tried futilely to escape their writhing bonds.  Seeing this, Utred unfurled his _life-flame whip_ as he raced up to the edge of the mass of waving tentacles, lining himself up to be able to strike the chain devil at the edge of the spell's area of effect.

But there were six fiendish foes on the ground around the keep and the sixth, a tiefling named *Amathia*, crept from behind the stone fort at the sounds of outrage and pain from her fellows.  She took stock of the situation and cast a _flame strike_ spell on the three heroes still in the wagon, that looking to be the best way to maximize the pain of her spell to the greatest number of enemies.  Jhasspok, Cramer, and the unnamed horse evaded the worst of the spell's effects, leaving Marlo as the only one to take the full force of the attack.  (The horse, however, reared up in panic and subsequently refused to move from the spot.)

Cramer, grimacing through the pain of the _flame strike_ spell, recognized in Amathia a cleric of similar spellcasting skill as his own and targeted her with a _spiritual weapon_ spell.  The quarterstaff of pure force energy that suddenly appeared went rushing to attack the tiefling, slamming one end down upon her horned head.  The gnome then leaped down from the wagon and approached the other enemies caught up in Marlo's newest spell.

Jhasspok leaped down from the wagon as well and sprinted past the mass of tentacles, heading for the tiefling at his greatest speed, his magic battleaxe out and ready to be put to good use.  Khari charged through the solid ground - using the power of his _earthglide warhammer_ - and popped up at the edge of the _Evard's black tentacles_ spell, bringing the head of his weapon crashing into the chain-covered body of the kyton.  She tried to retaliate but couldn't, her limbs and the bulk of her animated chains pinned in place by the ebon tentacles of Marlo's spell.  The hell hounds were now whimpering like frightened puppies, their plaintive cries for mercy out of place coming from the throats of vicious canines from Hell.  The human fighters were likely giving their all to trying to escape from the crushing appendages - and finding their all wasn't quite good enough.  With each passing second the tentacles' embrace tightened, constricting bodies into near motionlessness and preventing the grappled foes from getting in any deep breaths; soon they'd be so tight they'd prevent any breathing whatsoever.

Marlo turned her attention to the tiefling whose _flame strike_ had caused her so much pain.  She lashed out with another new spell she'd never been able to manifest before and a _lightning bolt_ sped from the sorcerer's fingertips to streak across the battlefield and blast into Amathia's hell-warped body.

But then suddenly, in an unexpected burst of fiendish strength, one of the hell hounds managed to pry himself free from the black tentacles crushing him nearly to death.  Unfortunately, he'd been toward the middle of the spell's area of effect and that meant he had to try to make his way outside the circle of writhing appendages, those within reach trying to grab him up again.  He whined in terror as he made his way slowly to freedom - only to be grabbed by the back leg by the tip of a tentacle as he was almost free.

Utred snapped his _life-flame whip_ into the face of the pinned-in-place female kyton, grinning as he enjoyed the pain each such attack brought.  He was not normally a sadistic combatant but he made an exception when fighting fiends - these were, after all, literally devils from Hell trying to spread their evil across the face of the mortal world and they deserved every bit of pain the mortals could inflict upon them - maybe then they'd learn to stick to the Lower Realms and confine themselves to inflicting pain upon those doomed souls who had already earned it.  He was also somewhat amused at the thought of the chain devil not having any protection against fire; Utred was no theologian but he had thought Hell was a place of eternally burning fires and the thought of the kytons being burned as easily as any dwarf seemed somewhat ridiculous to the burly barbarian.

Amathia cast an _unholy blight_ spell next, catching Utred, Khari, and Cramer within it - but was immediately disappointed in the results.  Then Cramer's _spiritual quarterstaff_ took another swing at her, causing her to have to duck to avoid getting pegged again.  Cramer disappeared from view, walking casually into the mass of waving tentacles without harm, trusting in his Fharlanghn-granted powers of _freedom of movement_ to keep the appendages from getting him into their unthinking embrace.  From the safety of the _Evard's black tentacles_ spell - as safe as a clownfish among the fronds of a sea anemone - he cast a _divine favor_ spell upon himself, gearing himself up for physical combat if it came to that.

By this time Jhasspok had reached the back half of the battleground and swung his battleaxe at Amathia, causing her to drop back a few steps from the fury of the lizardfolk's attack and cast a much-needed _cure critical wounds_ spell on herself, closing up the massive wound Jhasspok had just inflicted on her.  Khari charged as well, bringing his warhammer crashing down on the hell hound at the very edge of escaping the _Evard's black tentacles_ spell - the dwarven fighter wasn't having any of that!  Inside the mass of tentacles, the life was being crushed out of the chain devil, the human fighters, and the pair of hell hounds.

Marlo, seeing Jhasspok in Amathia's face and the tiefling likewise under attack by Cramer's _spiritual quarterstaff_, decided to take care of the chain devil before she could try to escape - for the female kyton was also, by happenstance, at the edge of the area of effect of the _Evard's black tentacles_ spell.  She _empowered_ a _magic missile_ spell, swelling in pride when she saw a full five missiles speeding from her hand to strike the chain devil - Marlo had never before managed to send that many out at once!  After being struck by the spell, the chain devil passed out from Utred's follow-on whip-strikes, falling to unconsciousness and no longer even able to try escaping from the ever-tightening embrace of the writhing tentacles.  Cramer called out from somewhere in the mass of tentacles, "Kytons can regenerate!" while slamming a pinned hell hound with his mace.

"I'm on it!" Utred called back.  "I'll keep whipping her and giving her something to have to regenerate from!"  It looked to the barbarian as if this combat was pretty much wrapped up as it was; he could step aside and relegate this task for himself without endangering any of his friends.

Jhasspok, angered that the previous wound he'd inflicted on Amathia had been sealed up by magic, swung his battleaxe at her in a flurry, followed up with a dart forward and a snapping of his sharp teeth.  He was pleased to see he'd hit twice with his axe and the taste of blood on his tongue told him he'd been successful with his other attack as well.  He could make such attacks on her all day; let's see how long she could continue healing herself with spells!  And Cramer's _spiritual quarterstaff_ continued its attacks as well.

Khari continued pounding on the hell hound at the edge of the tentacle field with his warhammer.  _Why was this thing taking so long to die?_ he wondered to himself.  Then, from the other side of the mass of tentacles, one of the human fighters managed to pull himself from the spell effect, tasting sweet, sweet freedom at last.  He'd made it out just in time, too, for shortly thereafter his armored counterpart and both hell hounds succumbed to the crushing embrace of the black appendages, their crumpled bodies falling lifelessly to the ground.  But his escape from the tentacles didn't mean he was safe, as another _empowered magic missile_ from Marlo made perfectly clear.  He staggered forward, almost losing his footing.

Amathia turned and sprinted around the back of the tower, temporarily shielded from Jhasspok's view by the black flames still ringing the tower keep.  Better yet, she was also shielded from the _spiritual quarterstaff_, which defaulted to flying back to Cramer once it was no longer in the presence of the target it had originally been set against.  But Cramer sent it right back at her from the other side of the tower; she'd granted herself no more than a moment's respite.  And it wasn't much of a respite at that, for Jhasspok sprinted around the tower behind her and sent his battleaxe crashing down into her spine, felling her like a tree.

Together, Marlo and Khari finished off the sole remaining human fighter with spells and warhammer, respectively.  And then, their own foes slain, the heroes looked up to the top of the tower's roof, where the celestials were still fighting the horned devil.  "Any way we can get up there?" Utred asked, still occasionally flicking his whip at the unconscious chain devil to keep her out.

Cramer considered.  The _wall of fire_ was an impediment, surely, its sudden appearance obviously there to prevent anyone from using the front door.  The color of the black flames concerned the gnome, as he was unsure if this was some other aspect of the spell to which he was unaware.  But then the point was moot, for the celestials finished off their own fiendish foe and one of them flew over to the assembled group of heroes.

"I thank thee for thine assistance," the woman said, alighting beside Marlo with a flapping of feathered wings.  She strode purposefully beside Utred and sent the tip of her _holy sword_ stabbing deep into the kyton's body, slaying her instantly.

"What happened here?" asked Marlo.

"The Desolate Watch's purpose is to take care of any threat getting past the Undying Crusade, be that threat devil or undead broken free of the compulsion to aid the Crusade.  The Watch was attacked by a tiefling follower - and in truth, very likely a descendant - of a pit fiend most vile, called the *Hope Ender*.  With yon Watch destroyed, 'twas believed a small group of the Hope Ender's forces could sneak forth from the Desolate Wastes to wreak havoc upon the mortal world.  With most of the Watch slain on the field of battle before thy timely arrival and the others pinned inside the keep by yon ebon flames, 'twas a plan capable of success - had ye not slain those below as we slew the horned devil above.  For this, ye have our gratitude.  Hast ye a boon to ask?"

Marlo explained the group's purpose in coming to the Desolate Watch as the other celestial dispelled the black _wall of fire_ and released the remaining members of the Watch from their tower.  After she was finished, the Watch survivors agreed to deliver their proposal to the Undying Crusade.  "However," advised the senior remaining Watch member, "many of the Crusade's ranks need to remain within the Desolate Wastes.  All who die within the Wastes rise as undead compelled to aid the Undying Crusade - even the devils they fight - but being drawn away from the source of the compulsion would weaken the effect, possibly enabling them to break free.  We would not want to have to deal with a marauding army of undead devils on top of everything else, would we?"

"We would not," agreed Cramer.

- - -

This game session was a first: we'd decided that unlike the "Durnhill Conscripts" campaign where it was possible for each session to deal with a lesser number of PCs if some of the players opted not to show up, for this campaign we wouldn't play unless all five players were present.  But Dan, Vicki, and Joey are going to be on vacation for the next couple of weeks and we all knew this was to be our last gaming session for the rest of the month - and then Joey ate an entire bag of Flaming Hot Doritos the day we were going to play and had to bow out.  Rather than have us cancel the session, he just asked his dad to run Utred for him.  So when Utred was put on "keep whipping the chain devil so she doesn't regenerate back to wakefulness" detail, that was just a good way to keep his PC out of the round-to-round action.

We got a few goods off of Amathia: Khari took her _+1 glamered full plate armor_ and Jhasspok took her _+1 ring of protection_.  We sold the rest of the masterwork weapons and armor to the Desolate Watch, to give to the reinforcements they'd be calling to replace their slain members.


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## Richards (Jul 11, 2020)

*ADVENTURE 27: THE SHATTERED HOURGLASS*

PC Roster:
Cramer Appleknocker, gnome cleric 9​Jhasspok, lizardman 3/barbarian 2/fighter 4​Khari Hammerslammer, dwarf fighter 9​Marlo Pendragon, human sorcerer 9​Utred "Buckets" Butterflinger, dwarf barbarian 9​
Game Session Date: 9 July 2020

- - -

"This is taking forever," grumbled Khari Hammerslammer from the back of the wagon.  "How's anybody all the way out here gonna be able to help us?"  It had been four days of travel through the pass around the Desolate Waste, during which time the group had seen a small village or two but not much in the way of neighboring kingdoms they might be able to sway to join the alliance to aid Greenvale.

"The Greenvale drow wouldn't have sent us on a fool's errand," pointed out Marlo.  "If they thought it was worth our while to travel this distance, there's got to be potential allies out this way.  Plus," she added, "Dracovania was at least this far away from Greenvale, just in the other direction."

"Seems longer," grumbled Khari.  Part of the problem might have been the bleakness of the terrain, given they were skirting the edge of a vast wasteland of bare desert.

"Sea!" called Jhasspok suddenly from the back of the wagon, raising his head and opening his reptilian nostrils wide.

"See what?" asked Khari, looking around for what had piqued the lizardfolk's interest this time.  Probably some new feature of the surface world that wasn't present in the Underdark, and thus was something the lifelong slave had never seen before.  Khari was getting tired of explaining every new plant, animal, and insect they encountered to Jhasspok; plus, the lizardfolk frequently mixed up the stuff they'd already explained to him.  Just yesterday, the foolish reptile had tried telling them he'd been stung by a daisy and it had taken Marlo several minutes to get straight in his head which one was a daisy and which one was a bee.

"I can smell the sea!" Jhasspok insisted.  "Like the Bioluminescent Sea back home, but a little different."

"I wouldn't call the Overreach 'back home,' Jhasspok," chided Cramer at the front of the wagon.  "With any luck, it'll just be your former home and none of us will need to ever see it again."  But then the horse-drawn wagon went over a hill and sure enough, there was a sea - or possibly an ocean; Cramer had no maps of the area by which to reference - in the distance up ahead.

As the road brought them closer to the edge of the water, the slaves could see a pair of buildings by a pier stretching out into the water.  There was a group of five children playing in the sand, alternately heading towards the water and running back screaming in delight up the beach as they were chased by waves.  But when they noticed the horse-drawn wagon and its five inhabitants, their screams changed from delight to terror and they fled into the water.

"Land sahuagin!" one cried out in the Aquan language, grabbing a smaller child and pulling her into the waves with her.  Cramer translated to the others what she'd said, having had it deciphered for him by the _helm of comprehend languages_ he wore.

"What's a--" Jhassok began to ask, but Cramer cut him off.  "You are," he said.  "Or at, least they think you are."

"A sahuagin is kind of like a lizardfolk who lives in the sea," Marlo explained.  "They're said to eat people.  That's why they're afraid of you."  Jhasspok frowned in puzzlement, trying to decide what was so inherently wrong about eating people.  Sure, he wouldn't go out of his way to kill someone just because he was hungry, but if a person was already dead and their meat was just lying there not being used....

"Running into th' water like that's not very smart," Utred exclaimed.  "Fool kids c'n get themselves hurt, or drowned."

A woman in gray robes exited one of the buildings, having heard the screaming.  She turned to face the five strangers and her eyes suddenly went all white, the pupils seeming to fade away to nothing.  Cramer recognized the effect; she was likely employing some sort of divination spell to detect whether they were evil, or undead, or perhaps magical in nature.  Besides the all-white eyes, the woman's face was quite distinctive, with red, flamelike runes tattooed upon her cheeks and neck.

The woman shook her head as if waking from a trance and called out, "Please - I must speak with you!  Come with me into the inn, if you will."  Her eyes returned to their normal state, a deep emerald green that contrasted the red of her hair.

"What about them kids?" Utred asked.

The woman smiled.  "They will be fine," she assured the dwarf.  "The ocean is their natural environment."

"What's an--" began Jhasspok, but Utred cut him off.  "An ocean's the same as the sea," he said.  Jhasspok just nodded sagely to himself; he'd encountered multiple words meaning the same thing before, like "wolf" and "dog" or "food" and "meat."

Once inside, the woman introduced herself.  "My name is *Lauren*," she said, which prompted the five slaves to each introduce themselves.  Then Lauren explained about her tattoos.

"Some 32 years ago - I was but 5 years old at the time - an evil wizard experimented upon me.  I come from a sorcerous bloodline, which prompted him to try to transmute my familial power into a source of prophetic visions."

"That's terrible!" commiserated Marlo, herself a sorcerer who drew her arcane power from her family's bloodline - which, she'd recently come to find out, included a red dragon somewhere back in her family tree.  "And the tattoos - that was part of the experiment?"  She also knew quite well what it was like to be tattooed against her will, as did each of her four companions, for each wore the House Jalamir emblem tattooed upon their backs.

"Yes," Lauren replied.  "And the experiment was a success, for what it's worth: I am unable to cast any spells but those of the divination spell school.  When I first saw you approach, I had a prophetic vision: I saw you five, quite clearly, freeing the Mithral Mage from a place of molten metal.  The two dwarves looked particularly uncomfortable being there, it seemed." she said, indicating Khari and Utred.  "Although our reasons for doing so are likely quite different, it seems we all have the same goal in mind.  I'd like you to join with the Seekers of Eternity to help us both to achieve that goal."

"Seekers of Eternity?" Cramer asked.  He'd never heard of them.

"The group to which I belong," Lauren explained.  She pulled back her hair and turned her back to the group, exposing the nape of her neck to them - and the tattoo of a shattered hourglass, laying upon its side.

"We've seen that tattoo before," observed Marlo.  "Remember?  That fighter helping the mind flayer with his Cult of Eternal Bliss had a tattoo on the back of her neck, just like this one."

"I am unaware of this 'Cult of Eternal Bliss,'" admitted Lauren.  "But the Seekers of Eternity have several different factions, all seeking the same goal - to escape the forces of death, so we may live forever.  Just think of all the good we could do without the fear of death hanging over our heads our whole lives!"

"How does this Mithral Mage fit into all this?" Cramer asked.  The prophecy they'd received about him was he was one way of three the Dying One could be stopped forever; apparently, he knew of some means by which to imprison the Elder God's severed head forever, in such a way even He couldn't escape.  Of course, the Mithral Mage was currently imprisoned himself - in Hell no less, apparently.  That didn't say much about his qualifications as a good person, although it was entirely possible he hadn't earned himself a place in Hell after death through his actions while living his life so much as having been kidnapped and imprisoned there while still alive.

"He is the founder of the Seekers of Eternity," Lauren replied.  "It was his vision that first set us all on this path, to overcome Death forever."

"We're not talking liches or vampires or anything, are we?" Cramer asked warily.  He had no use for the undead.

"No, no, of course not - that's not really life," Lauren replied.  "Our experiments are of an alchemical nature, trying to recreate the _potions of longevity_ that were apparently once quite common."

"Well, we're on a quest of our own," Marlo said, briefly explaining their own mission to try to gain allies against the Overreach drow army that would rise up to attack Greenvale in less than two months.  "Do you think your Seekers of Eternity group could help us?"

"Very possibly," Lauren replied.  "My grandfather, *Arcturus*, is a high-ranking member of the Seekers.  We should go to him; he'd be well suited to get you the help you need - and if you're involved in freeing the Mithral Mage, I'm sure the Seekers would aid you in any way they could."

"Does he live far from here?" Khari asked.  He was hoping the answer wouldn't involve another half-dozen days in the wagon explaining things to a curious Jhasspok.

"He lives in the Azure Glade," Lauren explained, which was no explanation at all to the five strangers.  "It's a kingdom to the east of Durnhill, the kingdom this area - Yondall's Bay - is a part of.  But Durnhill is the land of the minions of the evil wizard who cursed me with these tattoos and I fear they are still trying to hunt me down.  We'd be best off skirting to Ashfall to the north of Durnhill or Ossirna to the south and heading to the Azure Glade that way.  It's probably about three and a half, maybe four days of travel, all told."  Khari sighed in weary acceptance.

"Do you think you could sketch us out a map?" asked Cramer.

"Certainly."  That set the gnome cleric's mind at ease; he liked having maps to refer to whenever possible.

"So if we escort you to get safely to your grandfather, he'll be able to help us fight off the Overreach drow armies?" Marlo reiterated.

"I'm sure of it," Lauren replied.  "The Seekers' ranks are filled with powerful wizards of all types, and quite a few clerics as well.  And the Azure Glade is run by a Council of Guilds containing plenty of both."  Marlo and Cramer exchanged hopeful looks; perhaps this alliance would be easier than it had seemed at first!  And the greater distance would mean little to powerful spellcasters who could likely _teleport_ their allies to Greenvale in no time at all.

At Lauren's suggestion, they decided to head south to Ossirna rather than north to Ashfall.  Utred passed over his _hat of disguise_, suggesting Lauren wear it if she was being hunted by the minions of the evil wizard who had forcibly altered her bloodline powers to become a divinatory source.  "I like makin' meself a copy of Cramer," the dwarf admitted, pointing a meaty thumb to the gnomish cleric of Fharlanghn climbing up into the driver's seat of the wagon.  The children had advanced cautiously back upon the beach as the five slaves spent time inside the inn talking to Lauren, but once Jhasspok stepped back outside they went screaming back into the ocean.

"What are they, anyway?" asked Khari.  "Sea sprites?"

"Merfolk children, actually," replied Lauren.

"What?  Impossible!"

"They have magic belts that transform their fishlike tails into legs when on land," Lauren explained, plopping Utred's magic hat on her head and altering her appearance to become Cramer's duplicate.  Her offhand comment got Jhasspok's interest, though: fish tails?  He liked fish tails!  He looked longingly at the children diving into the waves, not seeing any evidence of fish tails at all.

Marlo tied the customary rope around her ankle and used her _boots of levitation_ to rise forty feet into the sky, confident that Utred would keep his end wrapped around his forearm so she wouldn't get left behind.  Truffles poked out of a pocket of her robes, apparently enjoying the view.  Then Cramer snapped the reins and the horse drew the wagon away from the pier.  Jhasspok looked hungrily for any fish-tailed children, but they had vanished once again beneath the waves.

The next half hour passed quietly, interspersed only with the occasional query from Jhasspok.  Then Marlo called down from her aerial perch: "Humanoid cloud approaching!"

Everyone looked to where she was pointing, and sure enough, a cloud was drifting down from the sky at a rather rapid pace, its form somewhat humanoid in appearance.  "Do clouds normally do that?" Jhasspok asked - he seriously didn't know, as clouds were well outside his normal area of experience.  There were no clouds in the Underdark.

"Definitely not!" replied Utred, pulling free his _Elderwood flaming longsword_ and standing up in the cart, ready to leap down or fend off an attack.

The cloud shape lowered itself down to just above the level of the people in the wagon.  In a wispy voice, it whispered, "Where is the spy?  Hand over the spy!"  It held one arm back, ready to strike if anyone tried to attack.  Khari couldn't help but notice this cloud-shape was easily twice the height of a human, even a full-sized one (as Marlo was significantly shorter than the norm for her race).

Lifting his _earthglide warhammer_ and activating its power, Khari leaped off the far side of the wagon and disappeared below the surface of the earth.  He ran forward, beneath the wagon, beneath the horse, beneath the air elemental hovering before the frightened horse, and rose up behind the floating cloud-mass.  He readied his weapon to strike.

Jhasspok tried a different tactic, one that made perfect sense to the lizardfolk: if this cloud person was going to try to get its nebulous hands on this "spy," he'd give it a target to focus upon.  He leaped off the other side of the wagon, running away and leaping onto the nearby stump of an old tree, where he spun in place and faced the air elemental.  Then, magic battleaxe in hand, he called out, "Here I am!  I am the spy!"  He had to stifle a hissing laugh at the cleverness of his scheme; no sense in giving away the ruse!

Cramer cast a _true seeing_ spell, figuring the air elemental had probably been summoned by a spellcaster and wanting to ensure said spellcaster wasn't right there among them, hidden behind an _invisibility_ spell.  He looked around with his magically-enhanced sight but the only thing he saw that wasn't as it appeared was Lauren, whose true form was revealed behind her "Cramer Appleknocker knock-off" form.

Marlo lowered herself from her aerial vantage point, noting as she did so a bit of movement from further down a clearing between the trees of the forest flanking the road.  One was a lithe figure in dark robes, his or her head covered in a hood that obscured any facial features.  The other was more easily identifiable: a halfling woman in dark leather armor astride a riding dog.  As she had a better view of the halfling, Marlo made her the target of the _empowered magic missile_ spell she hurled and was pleased to see the apparent rogue topple from her canine mount, hitting the ground with a senseless thud.  Whether she was dead or merely unconscious Marlo couldn't tell, but either way it looked like she was out of the fight for now.  The sorcerer dropped onto the overhanging branch of a tree beside the road on which the group had been traveling, deeming it a suitable perch from which to continue to contribute to the combat at hand.

Khari got a surprise when he swung his warhammer at the air elemental: you can't really sneak up behind something whose "front" and "back" are readily interchangeable!  His blow went wide as the air elemental easily dodged away, but so too did its counter-strike with an arm made of whirling winds.

Unseen behind a clump of trees, a water elemental - the same height as the air elemental, although sporting a broader overall build - rose up from a creek and readied itself to dive into combat with any who might approach it.  At least it hoped a foe would approach, for otherwise it meant trudging up onto land and fighting from there, where it was at a distinct disadvantage.

Utred charged from the wagon to the air elemental, screaming a battle cry as he brought his flaming blade through the winds making up the elemental's airy form.  But at the same time another elemental, this one made of dirt and rocks, rose up from the ground and attacked Khari from behind for the effrontery of trespassing onto its domain; never before in the earth elemental's experience had it seen a dwarf or a member of any other mortal race earth glide in the manner normally reserved for creatures from the Elemental Plane of Earth.  Khari was struck on both sides of the head by a pair of massive, boulderlike fists, causing the clanging of his metal helmet to ring in his ears.

Lauren, hampered by her tattoos into only being able to cast divination spells, knew her spellcasting abilities were all but useless in a fight, so she picked up the light crossbow she kept for emergencies and fired a bolt at the air elemental.  The bolt hit true, but then swirled around and around inside the elemental's body until it was flung away to the side; it was difficult to see whether the weapon had had any effect at all, for despite their particular element, these creatures didn't bleed.  But the air elemental didn't seem fazed at all by the attack, ignoring the bolt completely as it slammed its wind-fists at Utred, battering the dwarven barbarian with the fury of its attacks.

Khari whirled in place and sent his warhammer slamming into the side of the earth elemental, feeling this was a more worthy foe than a creature made up entirely of air.  At least he had the satisfaction of seeing clumps of dirt and rocks cascade from the elemental's body at the point of impact of the dwarven fighter's weapon.

Jhasspok, standing upon the tree stump, was puzzled as to why his brilliant scheme hadn't worked and the air elemental hadn't focused its attacks upon him.  Giving a mental shrug - after all, there was so much of this surface world that didn't make sense to the lizardfolk - he sprang towards the air elemental, bringing his battleaxe crashing down into its body in an overhead swing.  If the silly thing wouldn't come to Jhasspok, then Jhasspok would have to go to it.

Back behind most of the action, *Carl* whined at his halfling rider's unconscious form and did his best to lick *Orion* back to wakefulness.  The robed figure, *Daleth*, ran over to her side and pulled two items from his robes.  The first of these was a reddish gem, which he tossed to the ground and then pointed at the wagon when a Large fire elemental rose up from the shattered gem, indicating the targets the flame-beast was to attack.  The second item was a _potion of cure light wounds_, which he unstoppered and gently poured down the halfling's throat.

Cramer cast a _shield of faith_ spell upon Utred, firmly believing the ounce of prevention it caused - in making it that much more difficult to deal any damage to the battle-crazed barbarian - was worth the pound of cure after the fact in the form of healing spells.  Marlo, in the meantime, saw the fire elemental approaching from behind the trees and realized she had an opportunity to catch both it and the earth elemental in a single _lightning bolt_ spell, as they were so nice as to line up for her.  The blast seemed to cause both elementals no small amount of pain.  But off to the fire elemental's right, Marlo spotted the water elemental crawling up onto land, muttering to itself in Aquan about the indignity of having to fight on solid ground.

The earth elemental struck at Utred while the barbarian's attention was focused upon the air elemental; with a curse, he brought his _Elderwood flaming longsword_ crashing into the rocky body of this new foe.  The fire elemental moved up but was still out of range to join the fracas at once; the crackling of its flames alerted the others to its presence, however.  The air elemental continued swinging its fists at Khari, another of Lauren's crossbow bolts hitting its body and being blown off to the side.

Khari took a moment to apprise the situation with the air and earth elementals.  It was hard to tell with the air elemental, but the earth elemental's humanoid form was looking fairly damaged, with large divots missing from its arms, legs, and torso where he and Utred had struck it with their weapons.  So, judging it to being closer to being destroyed than the air elemental, he brought his warhammer crashing into the earth-beast's side, sending dirt and pebbles flying from the force of his blow.  Jhasspok was there to take up any slack in attacking the air elemental, bringing his battleaxe swinging into its body and instinctively snapping at the thing with his sharp teeth; the lizardfolk wasn't really surprised to learn that air elementals don't really taste like anything at all.

Cramer cast a _spiritual weapon_ spell, sending the force-quarterstaff thus formed crashing into the earth elemental's head.  Marlo slew the earth elemental and further damaged the fire elemental with a second _lightning bolt_ spell; the fire elemental had taken quite a bit of damage now without having even gotten to land a blow of its own!

By now the water elemental had reached its foes and decided it wasn't going to play the fool's game by fighting these landbound foes in their own element; rather, he'd snatch one up and drag him back to be drowned in the creek.  He grabbed at Khari, hoping to snatch him up and cart him away, but the fighter was too fast for him, sending his warhammer crashing into the elemental's hand and splashing it away, to soak the nearby ground.  By the time the elemental had redistributed its mass to reform a new hand, the dwarf had shuffled off to the side and was out of reach.  Bother!

With another roar of rage, Utred charged into the air elemental, his flaming blade cutting through its airy body to unknown effect.  Lauren shot another crossbow bolt at the thing, this time targeting its head, but was unsure if the new target location had had any effect.

Orion sputtered and sat up, coughing.  "I thought the spy was supposed to be traveling alone!" she complained.  "Who are all those other guys?"

"I'm afraid I have no idea," Daleth replied.  "But they seem to be way out of our league; I doubt if there is much more we can add to the fight.  Best we report back what we know to *Skevros* - he may have further thoughts about how to capture this Lauren person."  Their decision made, Orion crawled back up onto Carl's saddle and the trio turned about and went back the way they had come, retreating back to the Durnhill capital city.

The fire elemental brought a swinging fist crashing down upon Khari's head, leaving behind wisps of flame burning along his armor.  But then the air elemental changed tactics, spinning its body into a virtual whirlwind and flying directly at Utred, Cramer, Jhasspok, and Khari in turn.  It tried battering each foe and lifting them up into the air to be flung about, but while it did manage to deal some damage to the little gnome none of the heroes was lifted about as it had intended.

Khari ignored the howling winds suddenly buffeting his body and brought his warhammer swinging into the water elemental's body, causing a splash of water to go spraying out the creature's back and moisten the surrounding dirt, making small puddles of mud.  But that wasn't all: there was a fish flopping around on the ground all of a sudden; with sudden amazement, Jhasspok realized the water elemental's liquid body contained a fish or two from the creek-waters in which it had been formed.  This immediately made the water elemental the most interesting foe the lizardfolk had ever seen and he refocused his attention accordingly.

Cramer finished off the air elemental with a _sound burst_ spell; he'd known there was little chance of actually stunning an elemental but he was counting on the sonic damage being enough to take it out - and he'd been quite correct.  Better yet, the fire elemental was close enough to the spell's target point to likewise take some damage.

From her tree-branch perch, Marlo looked down at the remaining combatants: a fire elemental and a water elemental, each about the same size and neither one giving much of an indication of how much damage it had taken or how weak it was.  So she chose her target based upon the spells she had available and cast an _empowered scorching ray_ spell at the water elemental, realizing fire was likely a weakness to it whereas the fire elemental was most likely completely immune.  She couldn't help the satisfied smirk from crossing her face when the water elemental, being hit by two separate rays of pure flame, boiled away into nothingness.

Jhasspok, in the meantime, couldn't help the satisfied smirk from crossing his reptilian muzzle when he saw the fish swimming around inside the water elemental's form were not only laying there on the ground waiting to be claimed, but had also apparently been boiled as well.  Jhasspok was no purist; he was perfectly fine with eating raw fish but had no qualms against eating fish that had been cooked, as the mammals of his group seemed to prefer.

Utred dropped his longsword, the green flames extinguishing once the weapon left his grip, and pulled the greataxe from his back, realizing it was a more suitable weapon when fighting a fire elemental.  His trusty axe-blade went slicing into the blazing elemental's form as the flame-beast swatted at him in turn with a massive arm.  Jhasspok was close enough to the elemental to be struck by a flaming limb as well; fortunately, as his scales were engulfed in flames, there was a convenient patch of muddy earth right there to drop into.  Jhasspok rolled around in the mud, dousing the flames coating his body, and grabbing up the boiled fish as long as he was right there.

Khari finished the fire elemental off shortly thereafter with a series of blows from his warhammer, the final swing extinguishing the flame-beast like a blown-out candle.

"Anybody need healing?" Cramer offered, now that the battle seemed to be over.  Marlo, seeing Jhasspok's muddy form, sent him over to the creek to wash off before she'd allow him back into the wagon; that was perfectly fine with the lizardfolk, who took the opportunity to hunt down an extra fish or two while he was in there getting his scales cleaned.

Then, once Cramer had attended to everyone's wounds, the group gathered back into the wagon and the gnome sent the horse back on its way south, towards the border of Ossirna.

"Do you guys get into scrapes like this very often?" Lauren asked.

"Yeah, fairly often," Utred replied.  "But we're all still alive.  It'll take more than a bunch of elementals to take us out!"

- - -

This adventure took place during the same span of time where, in the "Durnhill Conscripts" campaign, Galen, Kaspar, and Syngaard were attempting to steal a copy of a book about the Mithral Mage from the Diviners' Library in the Azure Glade.  During that Wednesday night session, neither Vicki nor Joey had showed up (they were off doing other things), so neither of their PCs went on that mission.  And now we know why: Skevros had sent them on a mission to try to track down Lauren, aided by four one-time-use _elemental gems_ that summoned forth Large elementals.

Incidentally, Logan wasn't pulling any punches with Orion and Daleth; while they were 4th-level at that point in time and our (current campaign) PCs are all 9th level, had we managed to kill either of them their deaths would have been canonical; in Logan's mind, a death during this adventure (and subsequent return to life via _raise dead_, naturally) would actually help explain why they lagged behind in level from the other three PCs.  (The out-of-game explanation, or course, being than neither Dan, Harry, nor I ever missed a session of our Durnhill campaign, while Vicki and Joey were frequent absentees, especially in the beginning months.)  But Marlo's _empowered magic missile_ spell dropped Orion immediately to -3 hp, knocking her out but not killing her, and giving Daleth enough time to administer some much-needed healing in potion form.

It's entirely possible we may be seeing either or both of them in upcoming adventures in this campaign.


----------



## Richards (Jul 22, 2020)

*ADVENTURE 28: DEATH MARSH*

PC Roster: 
Cramer Appleknocker, gnome cleric 9​Jhasspok, lizardman 3/barbarian 2/fighter 4​Khari Hammerslammer, dwarf fighter 9​Marlo Pendragon, human sorcerer 9​Utred "Buckets" Butterflinger, dwarf barbarian 9​
Game Session Date: 16 July 2020

- - -

The road being traversed by the horse-drawn wagon on its southward journey was starting to look more like a trail, and at times a rather faint one at that.  Progress slowed as the forest environment became more and more swampy and eventually, as the sun started to go down, the group called it a night and set up the _ironsilk tent_ by the side of the trail - a patch of dry land large enough to accommodate the dimensions of the tent but little else.  The horse was unhitched, fed, and tethered by a rope long enough to allow it some movement.

It was a relatively quiet evening.  The next morning the group made a quick breakfast of trail rations and got back on their way.  (Jhasspok was saddened but not entirely surprised when Lauren turned down his kind offer of a dried dung beetle; he'd figured out by now that there was probably something wrong with mammals' taste buds or something - likely to do with their ridiculously flat-tipped teeth.)  Cramer took up the reins and they were off, skirting Durnhill - the kingdom from where the forces trying to capture Lauren hailed - and making for the southern kingdom of Ossirna, where Marlo would make her pitch for an alliance against the Overreach drow before heading back northeast to get to the Azure Glade, the land where Lauren's grandfather, Arcturus, was an important wizard in their Council of Guilds.

It was slow going, with several false starts and having to backtrack more than once; eventually, Jhasspok started scouting ahead and finding out in advance whether the horse and wagon would make it down a particular path or if they needed to find an alternate route.  The lizardfolk was of two minds about the swampy terrain: on the one hand, it was good to be in water again, but this was like no water Jhasspok had ever seen before - it was muddy, and murky, and you couldn't see very far through it.  All in all, it just served to make him homesick for the Bioluminescent Sea of the Underdark.

Jhasspok had just ambled back from scouting once again to give directions to Cramer when they heard a scream off to the side, along a different path than the one the lizardfolk had checked out.  Without hesitation, Cramer pulled on the reins and sent the horse trotting down this new path, heading toward the sounds of the screams.  The cleric cast a _longstrider_ spell upon himself, anticipating the need to be able to keep up with the others once they were all on foot.

It wasn't long before the group approached the screaming woman and it became perfectly understandable why she'd been doing so: she was down on the ground, doing her best to keep a hungry manticore at bay.  It was obviously trying to begin eating her before even bothering to go to all the trouble of slaying her first; she was doing everything in her power to wriggle away, but from what the group by the wagon could see she didn't appear to even have a weapon with her - or if she had, it had apparently been knocked away and was likely somewhere in the shallow marsh water.

While the others were grabbing up their weapons or bringing combat spells to the forefront of their brains, Khari Hammerslammer was looking up at the clouds - or rather, at one particularly low-hanging one which seemed to hover just above the treetops.  "That's a weird-looking cloud," he observed.  "I wonder why it's so low?"

"Might've been somebody she was traveling with, who escaped using _gaseous form_," Cramer guessed.

"What, that big of a cloud?" scoffed Khari.  But Cramer was no longer paying attention to him and Khari turned his attention to the matter at hand, for the gnome was bringing the horse to a halt (no sense in letting it get eaten by the manticore - it would make for a much better meal than a scrawny human woman) and the others were jumping off the wagon.  Khari did likewise, sprinting forward and taking up a defensive position, calling at the manticore to "come get some from someone who could fight back!"

Before everyone got too far away, Cramer cast a _water walk_ spell on those of the group still within range (Khari was already too far away and Lauren was staying in the wagon as she'd been told), thinking that would at least prevent them from being dragged underwater or stepping into an unseen hole or something.  Utred raced across the shallow waters, charging straight for the manticore with his greataxe out and ready.  He powered a swing right at the thing's head - a surprisingly dwarven-looking head, Utred thought, ringed with a lionlike mane that looked rather like the barbarian's own unkempt hair and beard.  Five _magic missiles_ went streaking past Utred's shoulder to strike the manticore in a pattern hitting the side of his head, his shoulder, and his batlike left wing.  The beast roared in pain from both attacks.

Jhasspok followed suit with a charge of his own but his was not as successful, for halfway through his sprint he was distracted by the fact his feet weren't touching the water but rather hovering an inch or so above the surface.  _What in the world?_  As a result, his swing went wide and the manticore pulled his right wing back in time to avoid Jhasspok's battleaxe altogether.

Still, the creature was bleeding profusely from Utred's deep cut and wounded by Marlo's _magic missiles_; snarling in fury, he lashed out with both sets of forepaws and snapped his vicious teeth at Jhasspok.  Fortunately, by then the lizardfolk had overcome his surprise at the _water walk_ effect he was experiencing for the first time in his short life and was back to paying attention to the life-or-death fight in which he was currently engaged; as a result, he was able to get his shield up in time to fend off the manticore's attacks.

And then the woman lying in the mud, apparently bleeding from having been bitten several times by the manticore, stepped purposefully to her feet, showing no signs of discomfort whatsoever...and dropped the illusory disguise making her appear like a hapless human victim of the vicious winged monster that had been savaging her.  Now, her illusion abandoned, she showed herself for what she truly was: an annis hag, 8 feet of hunched crone with claws capable of ripping a victim's entire face right off its skull.

Jhasspok happened to be closest to the annis so he became the hag's first target.  Striking out with her wicked claws, she ripped through the lizardfolk's scales before he even realized she was a threat, as his attention had been focused solely on the manticore and his back had been turned to her.  Jhasspok hissed in pain, whirling around to face this new threat and simultaneous wondering where this tall, ugly woman had come from and what had ever happened to the younger woman the manticore had been attacking.

Following the cue of their leader that the time for subterfuge was now past, the two harpy archers dropped down out of their obscuring _fog cloud_ spell and both shot at Cramer before flapping back up into the protective vapors.  Cramer arched his back in pain as both arrows hit him between the shoulder blades, the pain of their piercing intensified by the infusion of incredible cold they shot into the little gnome's wounds.

Khari, however, hadn't yet noticed the harpies; he was rushing up to strike the manticore since the fool thing hadn't come to him.  Racing through the water, splashing with every step as he was _not_ under the effects of a _water walk_ spell, he brought his warhammer crashing into the side of the manticore's head with every ounce of force he could muster behind it.  There was a loud _snap!_ as the weapon caved in the side of the manticore's oversize skull and the bearded beast collapsed into a heap in the shallow waters of the swamp.

Once again the harpies dropped out of their cloud and attacked, this time splitting their shots between Marlo and Cramer and hitting each with a _frost arrow_, for they had identified these two as potential spellcasters and wanted them out of the way first.  Cramer hadn't even had time yet to try to heal the wounds from their first attack; now, it was all he could do to activate his _ring of invisibility_ and stagger a bit away, so the harpies wouldn't know exactly where he was and would have a hard time shooting him again - and he was glad he'd had the foresight to cast the _water walk_ spell, for by hovering just above the swamp waters he wasn't giving away his position.  Marlo followed suit, casting an _invisibility_ spell upon herself, then activating her _boots of levitation_ to elevate herself a good 30 feet high; it had the same effect, for now the harpies would have to either guess her location or go shoot at somebody else for a while.

Utred attacked the annis with his greataxe - she was right there and his axe was better suited for ground combat; he didn't want to have to switch to a ranged weapon to try to take out one of the harpies.  The hag grunted in pain as his blade struck true, but she looked to still have plenty of fight left in her.  She expertly dodged Jhasspok's battleaxe, but then he did the same against her counterattack with her claws, now that he was aware of her.  Khari moved away from the manticore's corpse and added his warhammer to the fight against the annis.

"Get down here and give me a hand, you cowards!" the annis called out in the Giant language, which Cramer understood perfectly well as he wore his _helm of comprehend languages_.  The harpies reluctantly complied, dropping back down out of their _fog cloud_ again and targeting the dwarves attacking their leader, while Cramer staggered up behind Utred and cast a _magic circle against evil_ spell, hopefully protecting the gnome and both dwarves and maybe even the lizardfolk.  It was too hard for Cramer to figure out the distances involved; he'd have to see to his own healing before he passed out....

Utred's greataxe went biting into the annis hag again, causing her to shriek with pain.  Marlo cast an _empowered magic missile_ spell at one of the harpies, since they'd conveniently stayed down out of their _fog cloud_ for a bit and this was the first real opportunity she'd had to target one of them.  (Plus, there were already a trio of her friends piled on the annis; Marlo was pretty sure between the three of them they'd be able to take her out.)  Jhasspok proved Marlo's unvoiced assertion correct soon thereafter, bringing down the annis with a powerful overhand strike from his battleaxe, cutting deep into her black heart and slaying her on her feet; he barely had enough time to tug his weapon out of her corpse before she collapsed into the dark, brackish marsh waters and lay still.

Holding his breath as always when he performed this maneuver, Khari used the power of his _earth glide warhammer_ to disappear beneath the surface of the ground, then sprinted into position before popping back up where he wanted to be: directly behind one of the harpies, who'd had to fly down low to get in her latest bow-shot against the dwarves.  Cramer, still invisible, took the opportunity to activate the power of his _prayer bead_, casting a _cure serious wounds_ spell upon himself.  The arrows popped out of his back and back into visibility as he cast the pre-set spell from the _prayer bead_; fortunately, they sank below the surface of the ankle-deep water and were out of view almost immediately and the little gnome suspected neither of the harpies, in the midst of battle, had even noticed.  His position was likely safe, then, which was good - he was too tired to move at the moment.

Utred spun in place and charged the second harpy as she was fitting another _frost arrow_ from the quiver at her hip; the dwarf imagined an over-the-shoulder quiver would be problematic for a creature with the upper body of a woman but a pair of eagle's wings growing out of her shoulders.  He caught her with the edge of his blade even as she scrambled to flap backwards out of range.

Marlo repeated her _empowered magic missile_ strategy, once again targeting the harpy currently about to be struck from behind by Khari.  Jhasspok attacked that same harpy; history had shown that no matter what Utred was fighting, he usually didn't need much help.  Then, reeling from the lizardfolk's attack and Marlo's _magic missiles_, the harpy was nearly slain by Khari's unexpected attack: how in the Hell did that damned dwarf get _behind_ her?  She dropped to the ground and took an involuntary step to the side, nearly bumping into a tree, and saw she was now facing down a hulking lizardfolk and a hammer-wielding dwarf, both intent upon her death.  She didn't have time to fit another arrow to her longbow, for they'd be upon her before she could wield her bow and she could only target one of the two in either case.

So she began to sing.

As ugly as the harpy might be (and make no mistake, these two harpies had been vying with their annis hag leader for the coveted "Most Hideous Inhabitant of the Sanguine Swamp" title), her song was quite captivating: a beautiful, trilling burst of music quite at odds with her bestial appearance.  With any luck, she'd have the entire gang of enemies dropping out of combat and then she and her sister could pick them off at their leisure.  But that wasn't how it turned out; of the five combatants, only Jhasspok's reptilian brain froze up at the beauty of the song; Utred continued his attacks upon the other harpy and Khari raised his warhammer, ready to strike.

Still, the lizardfolk's captivation at least granted the severely-wounded harpy a possible avenue of escape.  Pushing past the dazed reptile - who offered no resistance and let his battleaxe hang unused at his side - she started to take to the skies.  Her sister, she noted, was still fighting the other dwarf, flapping backwards to grant her enough space to shoot him with an arrow from her _frost longbow_.  She was gaining in elevation, too, apparently having come to the same decision as her sister: that these people were far too much trouble than it was worth fighting them, especially since if they fled to the safety of the skies the troublemakers would likely soon be on their way, leaving the bodies of the manticore and the annis behind (both of whom would make perfectly acceptable, if not particularly appetizing, meals for the harpy sisters).

Cramer saw the two harpies both starting to rise higher in the air; soon they'd be too high up for the ground-based combatants to be able to reach them with their melee weapons.  But the clever gnome had a solution to that problem: he cast a _fly_ spell on Utred and called for him to fly after the retreating harpy.  Utred was only too happy to comply; he found that just by willing it he was able to soar straight up at the startled harpy, whose face froze in a look of complete shock as the dwarven barbarian attacked her in her own element. 

Marlo cast another _empowered magic missile_ spell, this time splitting the targets between the two harpies; the one fleeing by Jhasspok looked to be about dead in any case so she only sent one of the five streaking her way.  Both harpies died instantly, falling back into the muck of the swamp and dropping their _frost longbows_ in the process.  Utred noted where the one wielded by the harpy he'd been fighting had fallen and went to go retrieve it - he was intrigued by its ability to empower arrows with cold energy and had determined he'd be adding it to his rapidly-expanding arsenal of weapons.

Shortly after the harpies had been slain, Jhasspok snapped out of his enforced reverie and looked about in confusion.  Apparently, while he'd been lost in the beauty of the harpy's song, the others had finished the combat without him.  Oh well.  The dwarves had snapped up the longbows the harpies had been wielding and had removed the quivers of arrows from around their waists, but Marlo and Cramer had found a bag of coins and valuable gems tied at the annis hag's belt; there was plenty enough to go around.

Jhasspok set aside his battleaxe and brought out his dagger, approaching the dead manticore.  Seeing the lizardfolk's intention, Cramer called out, "Leave it, Jhasspok!"

"But meat is--" began the lizardfolk before getting cut off with a determined, "Leave it!"  Cramer explained further.  "We don't need the meat right now, but we do need to get through this blasted swamp while there's still daylight.  Lauren thinks we can be back on solid ground in about six hours or so and I for one don't want to waste any daylight we don't have to.  Come on: back to the wagon, everybody!" he called to the others.  Jhasspok just shrugged and put his dagger back into its sheath at his hip.

Cramer's advice turned out to be wise, for it was nearly nightfall before the ground beneath the group returned to a more solid footing and they no longer had to push the wagon out of the mud, as they'd had to do countless times that day.  They found a good spot for an overnight campsite and Cramer saw to setting up the _ironsilk tent_.  However, while doing so he suddenly stiffened, casting his head to one side as if listening intently.

"Everything okay?" Marlo asked, hearing nothing out of the ordinary herself.

"_Sending_ spell," Cramer explained.  "From Niradi.  We're to hit Ossirna and the Azure Glade, but they'll be sending other envoys to Durnhill and Ashfall.  Apparently they're concerned we're too recognizable from our encounter with those elementals trying to capture Lauren."

"We do kind of stand out a bit from the crowd," Utred said, grinning. 

Jhasspok didn't understand why everyone was looking at him.

 - - -

Logan had intended this adventure to go much longer than it did, even though the entire setup was just one simple ambush fight, but he hadn't counted on the manticore getting a "3" on initiative and then completely whiffing all three attacks against Jhasspok - it died before it got to land a single attack.  And we made much quicker work of the annis and harpy archers than he had anticipated.  As it was, we were done with the entire session in just a little over an hour.  (We were done before 8:00 PM, with a 6:30 start time and a good chunk of chatter as we were getting set up, as usual.)  But that's the way it goes sometimes.


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## Richards (Jul 25, 2020)

I just realized there was a brief part to the last write-up I forgot to mention.  Some weeks back, Vicki took Logan aside in our family room for a brief, secret discussion at the end of the session while Dan and Joey were packing up their stuff in our gaming room.  Last adventure I got to find out what that was all about.

While in the swamps, before taking off after having slain the ambushers, Jhasspok was eyeing Truffles again (as he pretty much does any time the toad is in view); while on the one hand he realizes the toad is Marlo's familiar and very important to her, on the other hand he also realizes toads are a delicious part of a balanced diet.  So every once in awhile when Marlo puts her toad to use, I have Jhasspok eyeing him hungrily.  I've even had Jhasspok offer to allow Truffles to "ride in his mouth" and give Marlo a break from constantly carrying the toad around in her pocket.

She's never taken him up on the offer - until this particular session.  Once we were out of combat and Jhasspok made his offer to let Truffles ride in his mouth, Marlo asked, "Do you really want to eat him, Jhasspok?  Do you?  Well then here, go ahead."  And then she passed Truffles over to him.

Jhasspok took the toad in his hands, looked questioning at Marlo (trying to figure out if this was a trick or something), but when she reaffirmed the lizardfolk should eat her toad familiar he took her at her word and popped the delicious morsel into his mouth.  Only it turns out Vicki had been talking to Logan earlier about how the _contingency_ spell works, and had Marlo pay a wizard in one of the towns we'd been passing through for arcane spell scrolls containing the _fire shield_ and _contingency_ spells, so she could cast the _contingency_ spell to activate a _fire shield_ spell on Truffles if the toad ever found himself in Jhasspok's mouth.

So Jhasspok tossed Truffles into his mouth and the toad immediately burst into flame, which didn't harm it at all but burned the inside of the lizardfolk's mouth something fierce.  Fortunately, they were in a swamp at the time, so Jhasspok spit him out into his hand, doused the toad in swamp water to wipe off whatever hot sauce he'd apparently been dipped into, and tried again - with the same results.  (Logan allowed the _fire shield_ spell to turn on and off throughout the normal duration of the spell, only becoming active when Truffles was actually inside Jhasspok's mouth.)  Undeterred, Jhasspok tried cleaning off the toad in swamp water again - more thoroughly, this time - and popped him back into his mouth, but it was no good.  Eventually, he dejectedly turned the toad back over to Marlo, who placed him back into the pocket of her robes.

Marlo tried explaining to Jhasspok that _that_ had been the reason she hadn't let him eat Truffles all this time - because toads burst into flame as a protective measure when you try to eat them - but Jhasspok's not convinced; Marlo may not know it, but they have frogs and toads in the Underdark and Jhasspok's eaten his fair share of them in the past.  He has a sneaking suspicion she's tricking him somehow with magic but isn't quite sure just how; in the meantime, he's going to wait for an opportunity to try to eat Truffles when they're both in deep enough water that the lizardfolk can pop the toad into his mouth when they're both fully submerged and see if that prevents the toad from bursting into flames.  (He was only ankle-deep in the marsh waters when he tried eating Truffles this time.)

It might take some time before circumstances align themselves to give Jhasspok the opportunity, but lizardfolk are nothing if not patient.


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## Richards (Jul 27, 2020)

*ADVENTURE 29: THE HELLFORGE*

PC Roster: 
Cramer Appleknocker, gnome cleric 9​Jhasspok, lizardman 3/barbarian 2/fighter 4​Khari Hammerslammer, dwarf fighter 9​Marlo Pendragon, human sorcerer 9​Utred "Buckets" Butterflinger, dwarf barbarian 9​
Game Session Date: 23 July 2020

- - -

The group decided on posting one member on guard detail for two-hour shifts during the night, but nothing disturbed them in their _ironsilk tent_.  Marlo, having taken the last shift so she could get an uninterrupted block of sleep, was about to rouse the others when she found Lauren stumbling out of the interior room in which she'd been sleeping.  She walked as if in a daze and as Marlo approached her, concerned, she saw Lauren's eyes were rolled up in her head, showing only the whites.  The rune-tattoos on her face and body were glowing slightly.

"Are you okay?" asked Marlo, touching the other woman on the shoulder.  As if awakened by the contact, Lauren snapped out of her trance and her eyes resumed their normal look, the glow of her tattoos subsiding.

"I believe there is a good possibility," the diviner replied, "that I will die today."  She gave this dire prediction in a rather matter-of-fact tone, her attitude one of slight puzzlement rather than panic or terror.  Cramer exited his own interior room of the tent as the two women were talking and Lauren turned to him with another prophetic statement.  "Although the far lane by which you travel cares little for mortal contrivances, today it would behoove your friends' strikes to be aligned with the higher powers."  Despite not yet wearing his _helm of comprehend languages_ - he'd just crawled out of bed, after all - Cramer was immediately able to translate Lauren's statement from "prophecy-ese" into a warning he'd better prepare enough _align weapon_ spells for everyone today, as they'd likely be fighting the forces of evil.

"But what about your impending death?" pressed Marlo, more concern for the event in her voice than was present in Lauren's.

"A scar-faced man will stand before me, as I am stabbed in the back and then shoved into a pit."

"I'll start getting my day's spells ready," Cramer announced, returning back to his interior room in the tent.  The others were roused and started getting dressed.  The cleric had just finished praying for his day's allotment of spells when Jhasspok and Utred heard the unmistakable clomp of booted feet approaching.  "We got company!" the burly dwarf called to the others.

Sure enough, pulling back the front flap of the _ironsilk tent_, Utred could see a ring of armed and armored men surrounding them.  If they were as evenly spaced all along the tent's perimeter as the men he could see before him, there were likely a dozen or so of them ringing their dwelling.

One of the soldiers commanded, "Come out and explain your trespass upon the lands of Ossirna."

Marlo knew that to be her cue.  Stepping forward, the _circlet of persuasion_ on her brow, she smiled pleasantly at the stern men in their armor of reddish metal.  "Good morning, gentlemen," she said.  "We are on our way to seek an audience with the leader of your fine land, to warn him of an impending attack upon the surface world by the drow and seek to bring him into an alliance of kingdoms eager to send the dark elves fleeing back to their Underdark holes."  Cramer, hanging back unseen in his own quarters in the tent, quietly cast a _detect evil_ spell from his day's allotment and sensed evil from the other side of the tent's outer walls.  He nodded sagely to himself - it confirmed his suspicions.

"Are you from Durnhill?" demanded the soldier doing the talking for the Ossirnan forces.

"No," replied Marlo.  Deciding that a full explanation of where they were all originally from would be too confusing and not relevant to the current conversation, she explained, "We are from Greenvale.  We edged along the outskirts of Durnhill to get here, but we have no dealings with that kingdom, for they seek to capture one of our traveling companions."  At this, Lauren stepped forward, turned about, and pulled her hair to the side, exposing the tattoo upon the back of her neck: the shattered hourglass, laying upon its side, spilling the sands of time upon the ground.

At the sight of Lauren's neck tattoo, the men visibly relaxed.  "Very well," said the captain of the troop of soldiers.  "If you'd like to pack up your tent, we'll escort you to the capital for your talk with our king."

The soldiers were visibly impressed with how quickly the group was able to pack up their gear, for they hadn't expected the _ironsilk tent_ to fold itself up upon verbal command and be placed inside a _bag of holding_.  Just that quickly, the Greenvale envoys were ready to go.  Cramer took his customary seat at the front of the wagon, the others got in and, surrounded by six men in front and six men behind, they started their trek to the capital city of Ossirna.

It was a journey of several hours, but they eventually came to a stop before a grand palace.  The guard captain stepped forward and explained the situation to an armored woman who had come forward from the castle as Lauren and the five heroes exited the wagon.  "Welcome to Ossirna," said the guardswoman, introducing herself as *Maelina*.  "If you will follow me, I will escort you to the king."  Cramer's _detect evil_ spell had long since expired, but he felt he could pretty much sense the no-nonsense evil coming from the female guard captain without having to rely upon any such spell - she looked like she'd decapitate any or all of them at a moment's notice, were she but given the order.  He noticed they hadn't been asked to surrender their weapons before being brought inside the palace and wasn't sure if this was a good thing or a bad thing.

"Please wait here," said Maelina, opening the door to a waiting room, the tone of her voice making perfectly clear this was not a request.  She indicated Lauren.  "You will come with me to see *King Velkis* at once, concerning a private matter about the organization."  Maelina wasn't aware of it, but the heroes before her were already aware of the Seekers of Eternity and their individual, bickering factions and knew immediately that was the organization of which she spoke.

Cramer, Marlo, and Utred looked helplessly between themselves.  They knew this was likely a trap; judging from her stoic expression, Lauren likely knew this was a trap as well.  (Khari, on the other hand, was looking around the room, disappointed that this waiting room didn't have any refreshments; a nice, frothy ale would hit the spot right about now!  And Jhasspok saw a shelf of books against the wall, which led him to idly wonder if any of them might have pictures of fish in them or if they were just filled with those boring, scribbly letters which somehow made words.  Neither of them had any inkling they were now inside a castle likely filled with enemies.)

There was little likelihood Marlo would be able to talk their way out of this, so she did the one thing she could think of to do: she surreptitiously dropped her toad familiar Truffles into the pocket of Lauren's robes as the diviner brushed past her to follow Maelina to meet with the king.  Lauren, Marlo knew, was a sorcerer like herself, even if those tattoos covering her body channeled all of her arcane power strictly into divination magic; as such, it would not seem suspicious if she carried a familiar with her, and although Lauren had no familiar these Ossirnans were unlikely to know that.  Truffles could at least be a means by which the heroes could learn what all was going on here, as the toad shared an empathic link with Marlo.

Once Maelina and Lauren had exited the waiting room, Cramer lost no time in casting _align weapon_ spells upon each of the heroes' primary weapons, as Utred explained to Khari and Jhasspok just what they were up against here.  Marlo, in the meantime, by concentrating on the link with Truffles, was getting a general feel for the local layout of the castle: Lauren hadn't been taken far, for the king was in a receiving room just a dog-leg away: out the door, to the left, and around a corner to the right.  She passed on this information to her friends, wondering if they'd be taken to see the king or if they'd have to try to go rescue Lauren on their own.  "We shouldn't have let her leave, not after having foreseen her own death like that," Marlo said, worried for her fellow sorceress.

"Wasn't much we could do about it," grunted Utred.  "Not unless we was ready to take on their whole guard at once."

"It may come to that, I fear," added the gnome.  "But if needs be, I have a _teleport_ spell prepared.  I can get us out of here if we all stick close together."

"I dunno if we're gonna be gettin' any help for Greenvale from these guys anyways," piped up Khari.  "Mebbe we should just leave."

But before Cramer could reply Marlo gave a sudden cry of alarm, mirroring a cry of shock and pain from Lauren that they could hear through the closed door of the waiting room.  That was all Khari needed to hear: it was apparently on!  Channeling the power from his _earth glide warhammer_, he dropped through the floor and raced in the direction of Lauren's cries, having to pop up into the hallway because he sensed while underground there was no floor beneath him just ahead: apparently there was a lower level below where Lauren and this king were.  As he turned around the corner, he saw several things all at once: Lauren was wincing in pain and blood stained her lower back, where she'd apparently just been stabbed; Maelina, with blood on the tip of her sword, had her hand upon Lauren's shoulder and was pushing her toward a ten-foot-wide pit in the floor at her feet; a scarred man with a crown upon his head sat on a throne on the other side of the pit, watching the fun with an expression of intense satisfaction.

Without slowing his momentum in the least, Khari barreled into Maelina, swinging his warhammer into her and attempting to topple her into the pit instead of Lauren.  It took some doing, but the nimble guard captain managed to deflect her momentum sideways, avoiding the pit but only by dropping onto Lauren's unconscious body; the tattooed diviner had collapsed to the floor from her wound.

"Envoy of Greenvale!" called the king on the throne.  "Any further attacks upon my Royal Guard will be taken as an act of war!"  The disdain in his voice was palpable; he apparently didn't appreciate the fact his entertainment was being waylaid from its intended course.

Utred realized Cramer hadn't had time to cast the _longstrider_ spell he usually cast upon himself to allow him to keep up with his much-taller companions, so the burly dwarf picked up the little gnome and carried him along as he burst through the waiting room door and raced down the hallway towards Khari.  Marlo cast a _fly_ spell upon herself from a scroll she'd purchased earlier and flew past them both, headed toward Lauren and Truffles.  Jhasspok followed, trying to grab Lauren out from underneath Maelina, who was struggling to regain her footing without toppling backwards into the pit.

But just as the lizardfolk had started pulling the limp form of Lauren toward him, Maelina yanked her from Jhasspok's grasp - she was much stronger than she looked! - and tossed her over the edge of the pit.  Truffles leapt from the diviner's pocket at the last moment, scrabbling across the floor in a scramble to get away from being trodden upon.  Jhasspok found his eyes following the toad's path without conscious volition and had to forcibly bring his attention back to the matter at hand.  Khari, from his viewpoint at the pit's edge, could see a pair of goatmen in the large room below them grab up Lauren's unconscious - hopefully not dead! - form and start to drag her away.

"Ossirna will never join in a proxy war between _gods_," King Velkis told the group before him, putting as much disdain as possible in the final word of his sentence.  "You are free to leave if you wish - or you can try to save the traitorous bitch if you think you can manage to do so."  Again, the tone of his voice betrayed the low level of confidence he had in their chances to perform that second option.

"We might just surprise you, _Your Majesty_," Cramer replied, putting an equal amount of disdain in his own final two words.  Then he followed up with the casting of a _summon monster_ spell, causing a celestial bison to manifest in the room below.  The bison immediately charged forward, bringing his powerful horns stabbing into the closest goatman and smiting him with a blast of holy energy for good measure.

It was a good 20-foot drop into the pit below.  Khari didn't want to break an ankle or anything, so he ran through the southern wall using the power of his _earth glide warhammer_ and from there went straight down through the solid rock, exiting from an outer wall of the larger pit room below.  He saw the celestial bison goring one of the goat-headed humanoids; as that one bleated in pain and terror, however, the other one continued dragging Lauren toward a large crack in the far wall - a narrow tunnel, now that Khari got a better look at it, from which reddish light spilled forth.  There was a much larger goatman in the vast cavern on the other side of the tunnel, easily twice as tall as the others, working at a massive anvil with an equally massive hammer in his hand.  A pool of bubbling magma separated this enormous, horned figure from the cave opening.

Utred lacked a means of making it safely down a drop of 20 feet but also lacked any worries about the dangers inherent in doing so.  Dropping to the lower pit, he raced toward the nearest goatman and swung his greataxe at him, the axe-head imbued with Cramer's _align weapon_ spell.  The blade sliced deep into the goatman's flesh, severing through any protections the beast might have otherwise had.

At the sounds of battle, the Hellsmith turned from his anvil and, seeing the dwarf impeding the delivery of the virgin sacrifice he needed to forge hellsteel weapons and armor for the mortal allies in the world above, snarled in fury and marched through the shallow magma pool, his hooves feeling none of the heat and none of the hair on his shaggy legs catching fire.

Marlo scooped up Truffles from the floor and flew down into the pit below, casting a _magic missile_ spell at the fiendish ibixian the celestial bison had just gored, which caused him to bleat involuntarily from the pain of her rapid-fire spell-strikes.  Jhasspok followed Marlo down into the pit, attacking the same goatman with his spell-enhanced battleaxe once he'd landed painfully on the lower floor and hobbled over to the attack.  The lizardfolk's blade pierced the ibixian's flesh, drawing a line of blood across his chest that stained his shaggy fur.  These beastmen were made of stern stuff, but the heroes were beginning to whittle them down!

The ibixian whirled around to face Utred, striking at him with a hellsteel blade of his own, while the other one continued dragging Lauren into Hell.  He'd gotten her through the narrow tunnel and into the larger chamber beyond.

The only Greenvale envoy still upstairs at this point, Cramer cast a _fly_ spell upon himself and dropped down into the pit, seeing the fiendish ibixian dodge another attack from the gnome's summoned celestial bison.  Then, with the grating sound of stone on stone, the pit opening above Cramer was somehow sealed off, for the ceiling above was now a solid, smooth surface.  _That_ was certainly discomforting!

It was getting crowded around the fiendish ibixian, what with Utred, Jhasspok, and a white-furred celestial bison all lined up to attack him.  So Khari _earth glided_ beneath the four, popping back up behind the oblivious goatman.  However, rather than attack the unsuspecting foe - and he'd have had a good shot at him - Khari continued down the tunnel beyond, hoping to rescue Lauren before that other goatman had a chance to do anything else to her.  Besides, he was sure the others could handle that first goatman.  (And he was right: Utred dropped him almost immediately thereafter with another powerful blow of his greataxe.)

But then the Hellsmith waded to the edge of the lava pool and brought his _unholy warhammer_ crashing down upon Khari Hammerslammer, who found himself getting "hammerslammed" for once.  (He found he didn't like it.)  Reeling from the attack, Khari almost toppled over but at the last moment found the strength within himself to stay on his feet.

Marlo _empowered_ a _magic missile_ spell and sent the five darts of energy blasting into the fiendish ibixian dragging Lauren; she was worried at the trail of blood the unconscious diviner was leaving behind her as she was dragged about.  Jhasspok pushed past the sorcerer and sprinted through the passageway, bringing his battleaxe crashing down into the goatman's side, finally dropping him at last.  Lauren's head dropped to the ground and she lay there, unmoving save for the discernible motion of her chest as she breathed - she was still alive!

Cramer flew through the narrow tunnel, realizing as he did so he was entering an entirely different plane of existence.  Using his _prayer bead_, he cast a _cure serious wounds_ spell upon Lauren, sealing up her stab-wound nicely.

Khari retaliated against the Hellsmith, bringing his own warhammer crashing into the side of the goatman's knee.  And now the others rushed forward into battle with him, Utred swinging his greataxe into a meaty thigh.  The Hellsmith responded in kind, smashing Utred with his oversize warhammer and goring him with a swipe of his curving horns.  He also took a swipe at him with a smaller weapon of some kind, appearing dagger-sized in his huge hand but more the size of a longsword if Utred would have wielded it (something he swore he'd soon do - it was an intriguing-looking weapon he'd love to add to his arsenal) - but he missed.  Had it struck its target, the Hellsmith knew, the foolish dwarf would have been _dimensionally anchored_ for an hour and unable to use plane-shifting magic to escape from the plane of Hell.

Marlo sent another _empowered magic missile_ spell blasting straight into the Hellsmith's face; at his size, ranged weapons and spells were the only way to reach him that high.  The numerous attacks were starting to take their toll, enough that a final charge by Jhasspok, swinging his battleaxe for all he was worth, finally eviscerated the Hellsmith, who dropped his weapons and fell backwards into the pool of magma.  Utred had the presence of mind to grab the _dimensional branding iron_ weapon from the Hellsmith's unfeeling fingers before it too fell into the magma, from where it would likely have been unrecoverable.

"Fall back to the pit room," commanded Cramer, leading by example as he flew back to the basement level beneath the king's throne.  Everyone gathered up around him, including a now-revived Lauren.

"It looks like the premonition of your death didn't come true," remarked Marlo with a smile.

"Not everything I foresee comes to pass," admitted Lauren.  "I'm glad this was one of those times.  But thank you," she said, looking around the group.  "Thank you all."

"Hey!" cried out Khari, looking up at the ceiling and noticing its smoothness for the first time.  "Where'd the hole go?  How're we s'posed to get out now?"

"I can _teleport_ us away," Cramer reassured the dwarven fighter.

"All of us?" pressed Marlo, more savvy in the ways of magic spells than the others.

"Well no, not all at once," admitted Cramer sheepishly.  "I can take myself and three others."

"I will wait for the second trip if you like," offered Jhasspok.

"It's...not that easy," Cramer explained.  "I can only cast the spell once at all, all day today.  Anybody I leave behind I won't be able to come get until tomorrow.  And I doubt the Ossirnans will let anybody left behind just sit here patiently to be picked up the next day."

"No tellin' what all might come crawling outta that pool of lava, neither," Utred observed.  "This is Hell - all sorts o' devils could easily travel through lava, easy as you please."

"That's Hell over there?" Jhasspok asked, eyes wide in surprise.  Nobody had told him about that!  He looked around expectantly at the others.  When nobody picked up on it, he asked, "Where is the metal man?  Isn't there a metal man we're supposed to find in Hell?  I'll go look for him!"

Marlo grabbed the lizardfolk by the shoulder as he passed to stop him.  (It was a good thing her _fly_ spell was still active or it would have been hard for her to reach.)  "Hell is a really big place," she informed him.  "You know all the places we've been to since coming to the surface?  Hell is like that, only much, much bigger."

"It's not just that cave?" Jhasspok asked, deflated.  He'd thought they were about to fulfill one of the prophecies about how to defeat that tentacle-monster-god-thing they were destined to fight.

"No, Jhasspok," Marlo confirmed.

"Let's get back to all of us getting out of here," replied Utred.  "We can't be leaving anyone behind - they'd be dead before we can get back to 'em.  What about the _bag of holding_?  Could we stick some of us inside that, an' you take it with you when ye _teleport_ away?"

"That would work," agreed Cramer.  "But there's no air inside a _bag of holding_."

"I can hold my breath," offered Jhasspok.  It wasn't a foolish suggestion, either; as a lizardfolk, he could hold his breath for quite a long time - it was one of the things that had made him so well-suited as a fisher slave.  "That's one - how many more do you need?"  Jhasspok had already forgotten how many people Cramer could _teleport_ and didn't want to have to do the math to figure out how many that meant he couldn't.

"We'd need one more in the bag," Cramer mused.

"I'll go," Marlo volunteered.

"Where we gonna _teleport_ to?" Utred asked.  "Back to the wagon?"

"I'm afraid we've lost the wagon," Cramer frowned.  "It's likely already been impounded - and even if it wasn't, we'd end up having to fight our way through the entire kingdom of Ossirna.  Nope, better we get out of Ossirna entirely."

"But that means backtracking the way we've come!" said Marlo.  "You'd need to go someplace you're already familiar with!"

"Not necessarily," interjected Lauren.  She raised a hand and placed it on Cramer's forehead, then closed her eyes and concentrated.  Her tattoos flared momentarily as she placed an image of the Azure Glade directly into the gnome's head: a field of unnaturally blue grass.  "Focus on that image," she told the cleric.  "Once we're there, I'll be able to get my bearings and we can head to my grandfather - he'll need to know of Velkis's betrayal."

"What about the horse?" Jhasspok asked.

"We're leaving him behind," Utred answered.  "There's no helpin' it."

"But the meat--" the lizardfolk began, before Marlo shushed him and got him to step into the _bag of holding_.  She took a big breath and followed suit, then Cramer closed up the bag, gathered the others around him, and said the words to his _teleport_ spell.

Moments later, Marlo and Jhasspok were released from the extradimensional space inside the _bag of holding_.  "The grass is all blue!" Marlo gasped, astonished at the sight.

"Where are we?" Jhasspok asked.

"We're in the Azure Glade," Cramer stated proudly.

Jhasspok was puzzled.  "I thought that was four days away by wagon," he said.

"It is.  It's much faster when we _teleport_ directly there."  That only confused Jhasspok further.  If they could _teleport_, why had they bothered with horses and wagons all this time?  That didn't make any sense!

"Cramer only just recently learned how to cast the _teleport_ spell," Marlo explained, seeing the confusion on the lizardfolk's reptilian face.  "As time goes on, he'll get even better at it, and be able to bring more people with him."  That at least made a little sense to Jhasspok; after all, it had taken him many months to get as good at catching fish as he was, so he could imagine it might be similar with casting spells.

But Khari had an even simpler explanation.  "Magic is weird," he stated.

That, at least, Jhasspok could agree with completely.

- - -

Logan deliberately seeded Lauren's "death prophecy" so we'd assume the scar-faced man was Syngaard and the back-stabber was Orion, two of our PCs from the previous/concurrent campaign, "The Durnhill Conscripts."  But at least we (the players, not the current PCs) can rest easy knowing that King Velkis and Maelina will be slain by the Durnhill heroes towards the end of that campaign.

Logan was also concerned for a bit there we were going rescue Lauren before she even got dumped into the pit, given that the bulk of the adventure was planned to take place below ground, in the pit area and the pocket of Hell where the Ossirnans get their hellsteel forged.  It ended up being a good thing Cramer couldn't _teleport_ us all away at once like Dan had originally thought, before he re-read the spell description and realized he currently had a "three passenger" limit.  (And he wouldn't even have had access to the _teleport_ spell had he not been a cleric of Fharlanghn with Travel as one of his two domains.)  But it all worked out.

We actually have one ibixian D&D Mini; for the other goatman, Logan used a satyr D&D Mini and for the Hellsmith he used a D&D Mini of a Large minotaur.  The part of the castle we were in and the pit below he crafted using Dungeon Tiles, and assembled the Hell section using nine Paizo Flip-Tiles from a Darklands starter set he got me for Christmas last year (and which has already seen extensive use in our campaigns since.)


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## Richards (Aug 2, 2020)

*ADVENTURE 30: RITES OF INITIATION*

PC Roster:
Cramer Appleknocker, gnome cleric 9​Jhasspok, lizardman 3/barbarian 2/fighter 4​Khari Hammerslammer, dwarf fighter 9​Marlo Pendragon, human sorcerer 9​Utred "Buckets" Butterflinger, dwarf barbarian 9​
Game Session Date: 30 July 2020

- - -

The six figures stood in a field of blue grass.  A city was visible about a mile away.  Lauren identified it as the Guilded City, the capital of the Azure Glade, so that's where the group all headed - on foot, as they'd had to abandon their horse and wagon back in Ossirna.  Fortunately, it was a nice day out and the walk was a pleasant one.

Once inside the city's boundary, Lauren led them unerringly to the Diviners Guild tower, the first floor of which was the Diviners Library.  As the group entered, they heard a booming voice berating one of the young initiates to the Guild.  "You have aided in the first successful theft of a book from this library in recorded history!" called out the voice, which echoed throughout the otherwise silent library.

"That sounds like Grandfather," said Lauren in a hushed tone - one more appropriate for inside a library, Marlo thought to herself.  "Come on - he's this way."

She led them to a white-robed man of some sixty years or so, scowling at the sight of a young wizard in the robes of a Diviners Guild initiate being dragged off by a pair of blue-robed members of the Azure Guard, the security force among the Azure Glade's arcane-focused guilds.  The young wizard's face was nearly as white as his robes, for he likely knew the dire fate awaiting him.

Arcturus's face, however, softened at the sight of his tattooed granddaughter and he beamed at her arrival.  "I foresaw the likelihood of your presence today," he said, looking at the strangers she'd brought with her into his Guild's library.

"These people saved my life - on several occasions, actually.  If not for them I wouldn't be here.  But I must warn you of King Velkis's treachery.  He tried to have me killed!"

"Come," decided Arcturus, gesturing for the others to approach.  They did, and with the uttering of a few magical syllables the seven of them _teleported_ away to Arcturus's private chambers.  "We can talk undisturbed in here," he said, indicating the others were to help themselves to a decanter of wine and a series of crystal goblets he'd had laid out on a side table.  Cramer was impressed with the diviner's ability to bring all seven along in the casting of a single _teleport_ spell - so far, he'd only been able to transport himself and three others at one time.  Arcturus was apparently very skilled in spellcraft to be able to handle so many at once.

"You are, then, familiar with the Seekers of Eternity?" Arcturus asked the Overreach slaves.

"We are, to some extent," admitted Cramer.  "I understand that the Ossirnan king belongs to a different faction than your own?"

"That is correct.  The Seekers of Eternity was originally founded by a man known as the Mithral Mage and his friend *Hirek* to find a cure for death - they believed they could discover the secret to immortality, so that they need never die.  However, upon the disappearance of the Mithral Mage, the original group fell apart.  The Seekers were refounded by a previous king of Ossirna, a man named *Selvik*, in order to complete the Mithral Mage's work on immortality.  However, once it became known that the Mithral Mage had become a lich with an indestructible phylactery, the Seekers splintered into several different factions.

"The largest group became infatuated with the idea of becoming indestructible liches like the Mithral Mage, so they sought to free him from Hell, where he was imprisoned, that he might teach them to become as he was.  Another group, seeing that one form of undeath had become an acceptable end goal, took to calling themselves the Followers of Hirek and decided vampirism was a much simpler solution; after all, the means of becoming a vampire were already well known and didn't require the preparation of a phylactery of any kind, let alone the indestructible one the Mithral Mage had somehow stumbled upon.  This, naturally, was also easier in that the Followers of Hirek could advance their own agendas without having to find and free the Mithral Mage - they just needed the services of a vampire willing to sire them into vampires themselves."

"So this Hirek was a vampire?" Cramer asked.

"That was the belief, although some legends differ on that front.  In any case, while I am the leader of the entire Seekers of Eternity organization as a whole, I am also the leader of the third faction, the Mithral Redeemers, which believes the Mithral Mage's descent into lichdom was accidental in nature and an incorrect path that has prevented him from carrying out his true work: finding the formula for a _potion of longevity_ which will greatly expand the human lifetime, if not extend it indefinitely.  We seek to not only find and free him from the Hell in which he has been imprisoned but also to reverse his lichdom and restore him to his full humanity, so he can get back on the original path of the Seekers.

"And that leaves the fourth and final faction, led by King Velkis of Ossirna, who have formed a religious cult that worships the Mithral Mage, although it's become apparent King Velkis seeks to somehow take over the Mithral Mage's phylactery and usurp his position as the god of their religion."

"Nice," laughed Cramer.  "'Start off worshiping this guy, and then transfer your worship to me.'  A good job, if you can get it."

"Quite right," agreed Arcturus.  "In the past some of the other factions have attempted to undermine my authority over the Seekers, but Velkis's attempt upon my granddaughter's life - which I am indeed grateful you were able to prevent - is the first time they have physically made an attack upon us.  I fear my time leading the Seekers will soon be at an end, and without me to protect the members of my own faction, I will be unable to prevent their destruction by these...lich worshipers."

Marlo had on her _circlet of persuasion_ and figured now was as good a time as any to push her own agenda forward: getting the Azure Glade to assist in the upcoming battle against the drow forces of Overreach, who would soon be attacking Greenvale - after all, Arcturus was the one who had brought up how much he owed the heroes for saving his granddaughter.  Lauren added the details of the attacks upon her in Durnhill, when four elementals had been sent to slay her and the arena slaves had fought them off.  But the capper was when the details of the prophecy wherein the five arena slaves would rescue "the metal man from Hell, who would put an end to the Undying One" was revealed, for Arcturus recognized in the tale the fact that they would be instrumental in finding and rescuing the Mithral Mage, which aligned very nicely with his own goals.

"This is what I can do," offered Arcturus.  "Tomorrow I will convene the Council of Guilds, the ruling body of the Azure Glade, in order to discuss your call for aid and assistance.  But whatever their overall ruling, I can pledge the support of the Mithral Redeemers to your cause.  I would ask, in return, that Greenvale be open to offering asylum to those members of my faction who might need to seek refuge from the other Seekers who will very well try to slay them."

"I believe that can be easily arranged," promised Marlo.

"Very well, then.  I will see to it you are given room and board for the evening.  Until tomorrow, then - and again, my thanks."

True to his word, Arcturus put them up for the evening in a building in the richer part of the Guilded City.  "I could get used to this," Utred observed.  "These Mithral Redeemers are okay!"

The next morning, Lauren led the group to the meeting hall of the Council of Guilds.  They stood together in a group in the middle of a circular room, under the watchful gaze of nine members seated in alcoves above them, their chairs spaced equidistant along the perimeter of the circle.  Lauren had explained the colors of the robes denoted the arcane school specialization of the Guild: diviners, as an example, wore gowns of white.  The one exception was the man in gray robes, for he was no arcane spellcaster at all but the leader of the Church of *Boccob*, God of Knowledge.  Each Guildmaster wore a mask covering his or her face, for their identities were not necessarily known to the city at large.  The heroes, of course, knew the white-robed man seated above would be Arcturus.

Arcturus explained why he had called this session together, then he gave the floor over to Marlo, who made a heartfelt plea for help for the Greenvale elves, her words aided by her _circlet of persuasion_.  After giving her speech and answering a few questions from various members of the Guild leaders, the representatives took a vote on whether or not to render aid.

The Guilds of Abjuration, Conjuration, and Divination all pledged support for Greenvale.  Khari frowned that only a third of the Guild members were on their side, but Marlo seemed pleased that they'd at least gotten that many - after all, she had no idea how many members there were in each Guild, but any number of wizards being added to the Greenvale armies could only be a good thing.

The Guilds of Evocation, Necromancy, and Transmutation all voted against granting assistance to Greenvale; they had other, more pressing matters to attend to, they argued, and Greenvale was distant enough the Azure Glade was in no likely danger from the drow invasion of a land so far away.

The three other Guilds - Evocation, Illusion, and the Church of Boccob - abstained from voting one way or another.  "That's three for, three against, and three undecided - now what?" asked Cramer.

The Council decided upon the following ruling: while the Azure Glade as a nation would remain neutral in the upcoming battle against the drow armies of Overreach, any who wished to aid Greenvale were welcome to do so in a mercenary capacity, making their own separate alliances with the beleaguered kingdom that did not bring the rest of the Azure Glade into any alliances or commitments.  It was, Marlo admitted later to the others, more than she had hoped for.

Upon the dissolution of the meeting, Lauren led the others to a smaller building nearby.  Inside were 25 robed figures, all with the Seekers of Eternity neck tattoos like Lauren's, as well as Arcturus.  They wore a variety of colors of robes, indicating members of various different Guilds were willing to come to Greenvale's aid; while the white Diviners were the largest group, the heroes saw robes of every color represented save for the black Necromancers and the gray robes of the Church of Boccob.

"These are the immediate members of the Mithral Redeemers," Arcturus explained.  "They will be aiding Greenvale and hiding there from those who would try to slay them.  I will be staying behind with a few of my closest associates in our faction to try to recruit a few more members to your cause, but Lauren and these wizards will _teleport_ to Greenvale directly."

"Do they know where they're going?" asked Cramer.  "_Teleporting_ in the blind..."

"They have _scried_ upon Greenvale and will appear just outside the city gates," Arcturus explained.  "We would not want them mistaken for a marauding force."

"I should probably try to send word of your impending arrival," began Cramer, suddenly realizing he did not have the means to do so currently at hand.

But then Arcturus passed him over a scroll.  "It's a _sending_ spell," he explained, smiling and adding, "There are times having a diviner at hand makes things so much easier."

Cramer cast the spell, warning T'puuli Tine of the impending arrival of the wizards from the Azure Glade and assuring him they were allies.  As part of the spell's casting, he received an acknowledgment from T'puuli that the message had been received and understood.  "We're good," the little gnome informed the Diviners Guild leader.  At Arcturus's nod, Lauren and the 25 wizards _teleported_ away, leaving only the six of them remaining in the building.

"Now then, I have a final favor to ask of you," he said.  "There was an abjurer by the name of *Dave Quillbender* I was trying to recruit into the Mithral Redeemers, and due to certain events that man's life is now in jeopardy.  The Lich Seekers - those wishing to follow the Mithral Mage into lichdom - are attempting to slay him and he's currently on the run.  I would like you to find him and take him with you when you return to Greenvale.  If you agree, I will _teleport_ you to Dave's last known location.  Having saved my granddaughter - twice! - I have full faith in your abilities to keep this man alive and slay his would-be assassins."

The heroes looked at each other for confirmation they were all behind this plan.  "Sure," Cramer answered for the group.

With another group of arcane syllables, Arcturus _teleported_ the five arena slaves to the interior of a darkened warehouse.  One corner was illuminated by a series of candles, gathered around a _magic circle_ inscribed upon the floor - in some haste, judging by the way it seemed to be scrawled; most _magic circles_, in both Cramer's and Marlo's experience, were assembled with much more care and precision.  There were three figures standing just outside the circle: a half-orc and two human women, the women dressed in dark combat leathers and wielding unsheathed weapons; the man in full plate armor.  "Any sign of him?" one whispered softly to the others.

"None," answered another.  The half-orc was the closest to the heroes and the two dwarves could see quite clearly even in the flickering candlelight the shattered hourglass tattoo upon the back of his thick neck.

Fortunately, there were boxes, barrels, and crates stacked haphazardly around the room, so Cramer was fully hidden from sight.  In a low tone, he started casting a _bear's endurance_ spell upon himself, beefing his stamina before the upcoming fight, for he had no doubts these were the assassins seeking to slay Dave Quillbender.

One of the women turned her head immediately in Cramer's direction.  "What was that?" she demanded, having heard his quiet voice.  Squinting in the dim light, she saw piles of boxes and crates...and the unmistakable head of a lizardfolk staring right back at her.  Jhasspok, at a full six feet tall, towered over the two dwarves, gnome, and the diminutive human woman with whom he traveled and had not thought to duck his head upon suddenly arriving in an unknown warehouse.  As the ranger focused her attention on the reptilian face, the other slaves scattered quietly to find hiding places in the deep shadows in the murky building.

"Wh--what are you doing there?" the woman demanded, her two companions turning to see who she was addressing.  They, too, were quite surprised to see a lizardfolk inside the warehouse with them.

Jhasspok knew he had to come up with a good excuse for his presence - and quickly.  His reptilian brain focused immediately upon the subject of so many of the former fisher slave's thoughts.

"I cannot read the words on these crates," he said.  "Can you tell me which ones contain fish?"

"Wh--what?" repeated the astonished ranger.

"I want to buy some fish," repeated Jhasspok.  "Do not be concerned: I know all about how money works!"

"How'd you get in here?" demanded the half-orc.

"Through the door," Jhasspok replied, thinking it a logical answer and idly wondering where this door he was supposed to have entered through might actually be situated - he had no idea.  "But getting back to the fish: where do you keep them?"

"Um...in the marketplace?" suggested the ranger, slowly realizing she was dealing with an idiot.

"Isn't this part of the marketplace?" asked Jhasspok, a look of confusion crossing his reptilian features.

"No.  It isn't."

"Then where is this marketplace - the one with the fish?"  Jhasspok looked around, as if it might somehow be within sight while standing inside a dark warehouse.

"Back outside, take a right, down the street a ways."

"Back outside..." echoed Jhasspok, looking around for the door.  The exasperated ranger stepped forward to lead the idiot out of the building into which they were pretty sure they'd tracked down Dave Quillbender.  Jhasspok stepped forward to walk beside her toward the door, mostly to allow his bulk to block the woman's view of what was behind him: the other four arena slaves hiding as best they could behind stacks of boxes.

The ranger opened the door and pointed off to the street to her right.  "That way," she said, her brow furrowed in puzzlement at the lizardfolk's appearance, for from the light spilling in from the open door she saw his turtle shell shield, his spears, and the battleaxe he held gripped in his right hand.  This was not a lizardman on his way to the fish market....

At about the same time, the other woman caught sight of the other Overreach slaves hiding in the shadows.  She started to warn the others but Marlo beat her with the words to the spell she'd been readying - and suddenly a tangle of black tentacles rose up from the warehouse floor, entangling the black-clad woman and the armored half-orc in the back of the warehouse by the hastily-scratched _magic circle_.

Seeing the jig was now up (and frankly, quite amazed Jhasspok had stalled successfully for as long as he had), Utred raced across the warehouse, his greataxe out and swinging toward the ranger, who was just now coming to the realization that she and her fellow assassins were under attack.  The knowledge came too late, for as she swung her swords about in a defensive posture Utred's blade was already slicing into her upper arm.  Her left arm went numb and she almost dropped the short sword she held in that hand as she gritted her teeth, convinced herself that there was no pain, and pressed on with the battle at hand.

But now Khari Hammerslammer was upon her as well, his warhammer crashing into the side of her leg and almost causing her to fall to the warehouse floor.  Jhasspok attacked her with his battleaxe as well, explaining to her as he did so - as if she hadn't figured it out by herself by this time - "I was lying about looking for fish."

The half-orc did his best to wrest himself free from the black, rubbery tentacles starting to crush him to death - but fell just short of success.  He grunted in the effort and immediately regretted the expulsion of air, for the constricting appendages were squeezing the breath out of him and black dots were already beginning to form at the edges of his vision.  To pass out now, he realized, was to die; he redoubled his efforts, to no avail.

Cramer, in the meantime, mentally triggered the _freedom of movement_ effect that came so freely to those who served Fharlanghn, God of Travelers, and stepped boldly into the mass of writhing tentacles.  They were unable to get a grasp upon him as he stepped up to the struggling woman and cast an _inflict serious wounds_ spell upon her.  There was little she could do to resist the spell; this was rather like shooting fish in a barrel (a simile the gnome was sure Jhasspok would appreciate, although then he supposed he'd have to explain what a simile was, and that there weren't actually any fish in any of the barrels...he mentally dismissed the very notion of ever using the phrase within the lizardfolk's hearing).

Faced with three foes at hand, the ranger focused her attacks on the hulking lizardfolk who she blamed for the predicament she was in.  Longsword and short sword flashed out in a flurry of strikes, Jhasspok doing his best to deflect the blades with his shield but failing twice; each blade managed to pierce him once between his scales, causing twin rivulets of blood to drip down his green body.  But like his black-clad foe, he had trained himself to ignore the pain of any wounds he received until after combat had been completed and the lizardfolk fought on.  But the combat didn't last much longer in any case, for Utred brought the ranger down with another blow from his greataxe.  At that, Jhasspok set his weapon down on the warehouse floor, grabbed the dead ranger by her ankles, and dragged her back inside the warehouse while Khari stepped up to the door.  "Mornin'," he smiled to a passerby on the street before closing the door tight, keeping anyone outside from seeing what was going on inside the building.

The rogue struggled against her tentacular bondage, to no avail; she was helpless against the little gnome cleric's spell attacks and couldn't understand why the black tentacles were ignoring him as if he wasn't even there beside her.

Khari, by the warehouse door - seemingly the only entrance into or out of the building - cocked his head to the side suddenly and strained to hear what he thought he'd just heard.  Yes, there it was again: the unmistakable sound of a wheezing breath.  Following the sounds of heavy breathing trying to be stifled, the dwarf walked up to a barrel and pulled the lid off it.  There, inside, huddled an elderly human man in orange robes.  As he fit the description of the man they had been sent to protect, Khari gave him a big, bearded smile and said, "Dave Quillbender, I presume?  Arcturus sent us to see to your safety.  We're just finishin' up with the others who were out to kill you."

Marlo took the opportunity of two pinned and nearly helpless opponents to try out a new spell.  She cast _phantasmal killer_ at the half-orc, curious to see the result of him imagining his worst fears had come to life.  But the brute's mind was stronger than the sorcerer had imagined and he shrugged off the spell's effects much more easily than he was having any success in shrugging off the tentacles that were even now crushing the very life out of him.  Beside him, the rogue was having no better luck with escaping Marlo's previously-cast spell.

Cramer stepped nonchalantly out of the field of waving tentacles and cast a _spiritual weapon_ spell as he did so.  A shimmering field of energy in the shape of a quarterstaff appeared in the air above his head, striking down to crush into the rogue's head with one flat end of its length.  The rogue's head snapped back, her skull crushed in and her neck snapped; her head lolled at an unnatural angle as the tentacles crushed whatever life might have remained within her.

Not wanting to miss out on any of the fun, Utred uncoiled his _life-flame whip_ as he stepped up to the field of tentacles and sent it snapping out to strike the half-orc's face - about all that was left uncovered by tentacles by this point.  As Khari remained to help Dave out of the barrel in which he'd been hiding and Jhasspok pulled the dagger from the sheath at his hip to remove the eyes from the dead ranger on the warehouse floor before him (they were a delicacy, the lizardfolk had decided, even if none of the mammals he traveled with shared his opinion), Marlo cast an _empowered magic missile_ at the half-orc, hastening his path into death.

But then, in an act of pure desperation, the half-orc gave a hiss of effort - all the air he had to spare in creating the roar of triumph he'd attempted - and pulled himself from the grip of the ebon tentacles entwining around his body.  Staggering with each hard-fought step, he pulled himself out of the field of grasping appendages, even though in the act of doing so he received another whip-slash from Utred for his efforts.  Cramer redirected his _spiritual quarterstaff_ at the assassin's head, then stepped up to the staggering brute and brought his little mace crashing into an armored kneecap.  Almost dead upon his feet from the ruthless attack, Marlo surmised it wouldn't take much, at this point, to bring the oaf down and tested that theory with one of her weakest spells.  The _acid splash_ struck the half-orc in the face and he fell dead to the floor like a felled tree.

"It was a valiant effort, I'll give him that," remarked Cramer.

The group grabbed whatever looked to be of value from the trio of assassins; most of their armor and weapons looked to be magical in nature, so whatever they couldn't personally use they were sure could be put to good use by those defending Greenvale in the upcoming skirmish with the Overreach drow.

"I don't understand," Dave said to the five who had saved him from the assassins.  "Why would Arcturus save me?  I thought it was the Seekers of Eternity who were trying to kill me in the first place!"  He pointed to the shattered hourglass symbols tattooed on the backs of the necks of the three dead assassins.

"There are different factions of the Seekers," explained Marlo.  "These guys are trying to take over the Seekers as a whole and remove the faction to which Arcturus belongs."  She briefly caught the elderly wizard up on what she'd been told about the various splinter groups of the Seekers of Eternity.  "But in the meantime," she finished, "We need to take you to somewhere you'll be safe from any further assassination attempts."

"That sounds perfectly acceptable to me!" agreed Dave.

Cramer explained about the passenger limitations he currently had with the _teleport_ spell and Dave agreed to ride in the _bag of holding_ with Jhasspok.  The fact the elderly mage had missed out completely on the lizardfolk's quick eyeball snack helped him not feel threatened being alone, however briefly, with a six-foot-tall lizardman.  But the others opened the _bag of holding_ mere moments after he had stepped in, and now Dave Quillbender found himself standing before the Pantheon Wall of Greenvale.  "You'll be safe in here," Marlo assured him.

Once inside Greenvale, T'puuli Tine took the five arena slaves aside and explained what they'd learned about the _Tarrasque soul prison_ since last they'd met in person.  "There are two methods of activation," he said.  "Smashing it releases the Tarrasque's soul permanently - and causes the creature to rampage directly to the area where the prison was shattered."

"That sounds great!" enthused Cramer.  "Then let's smash the thing in the middle of the Overreach and let the big monster do our work for us!"

"Unfortunately," replied the celestial drider, "the Tarrasque's body currently lies in slumber on the other side of the world, in a land called Jakura.  Smashing the _soul prison_ doesn't simply _teleport_ the beast to the site of its destruction, it causes the Tarrasque to head there in a direct path.  Getting it to head to the Overreach from its present location will cause it to wreak a path of destruction along half the planet."

"Oh," frowned the gnome.  He liked the image of the Tarrasque taking apart the entire Underdark city of Overreach, but that was certainly not the way to go about it.  Plus, he needed to find Honeycomb Buzzwort and free him before any thoughts of destroying Overreach could be entertained.  "So what's the second method?"

"There is an ornate ritual that can be performed to release the Tarrasque's soul and command it to action while still allowing it to be resealed inside the _prison_ afterwards.  Both methods require the relic to be in the place the Tarrasque is to be brought to."

"So even that second method brings it lumbering across the world?" asked Cramer.  "What if we went to Jakura and performed the ritual there?"

"I believe it would be best not to mess with the _soul prison_ at all," replied T'puuli.  "Our main goal is not to use the Tarrasque ourselves, but to ensure the Mortal Queen is unable to use it."

"Yeah, that makes a lot more sense," agreed Marlo.  "So we're going to try to steal it away from the Mortal Queen?"

"That is indeed the plan.  Matron Ky'hulcressen will draw out the Mortal Queen and while she is distracted we will send you to in to infiltrate House Bel'vior to reobtain the _Tarrasque soul prison_."

"I like it," Cramer replied, rubbing his hands together in anticipation.  Striking a blow against the drow always put him in a good mood.  "When do we start?"

- - -

This ended up being another short session, since Marlo's single casting of the _Evard's black tentacles_ did most of the work for us.  But it was nice seeing the events of this adventure plugging in so seamlessly into the "Durnhill Conscripts" campaign: the poor diviner student taken away for aiding in the theft of a book from the Diviners Library was the poor schmuck Galen, Kaspar, and Syngaard had paid to remove the book for them after their own efforts failed spectacularly; that was Ashfall Dave we were saving from the assassins, grandfather to *Maria Quillbender*, cousin to Syngaard's dead wife.  And, of course, the Durnhill conscripts slew Arcturus in the last campaign after he tried slaying their mentor Skevros in their own tavern headquarters, being brought to trial in the Azure Glade in the exact same circular courtroom our PCs found themselves in during this adventure.  Running through "subsequent but concurrent" campaigns is kind of cool!


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## SolitonMan (Aug 3, 2020)

Jhasspok distracting the ranger was great!  I lol'd at his "I was lying about looking for fish."


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## Richards (Aug 9, 2020)

*ADVENTURE 31: THE TARRASQUE AT HAND*

PC Roster:
Cramer Appleknocker, gnome cleric 9​Jhasspok, lizardman 3/barbarian 2/fighter 4​Khari Hammerslammer, dwarf fighter 9​Marlo Pendragon, human sorcerer 9​Utred "Buckets" Butterflinger, dwarf barbarian 9​
Game Session Date: 6 August 2020

- - -

Returning to Greenvale, the House Jalamir arena slaves - who had not performed that actual function for some time now - prepared for their next mission by upgrading some of their equipment.  Utred had his magic greataxe honed such that the blade was extra-sharp, while Cramer had the protection afforded by his _amulet of natural armor_ enhanced.  Khari had an enchantment added to his _earth glide warhammer_  that would even further increase its ability to strike true and deal damage to those struck.  Marlo placed an order for a magic ring that would allow her to walk up the sides of walls and across ceilings; it would take the wizard crafter some time to create such a ring, so she paid him in advance and was told when to return for her finished product.

Jhasspok bought a fish at the market and ate it, head and all.  He'd amassed a pile of coins but not enough to do what he wanted done, so on the advice of his dwarven allies he saved his money for now.  "Ye never know, this next mission could turn out t'be a lucrative one," Utred winked at the lizardfolk.  He then found himself explaining that "lucrative" meant "liable to bring in a lot of money" to the puzzled reptile.

When they arrived for their pre-mission briefing, they were handed some new equipment.  Each received a magical ring, which resized to perfect fit the finger upon which it was placed; more importantly, it cloaked the wearer in a _nondetection_ spell.  Cramer's shoulders unclenched as soon as he placed the ring on his finger; it was nice to know he was currently no longer able to be scried upon through his House Jalamir slave tattoo.  The sunborn drow passed over three pairs of _goggles of darkvision_, allowing those not of dwarvish ancestry to see as well in pitch blackness as any dwarf.  "You'll want to turn off your _slave-light cloaks_," he advised.  "You will be traveling through the shadow path to House Ky'hulcressen in the Overreach and the light will attract the undead wraiths who haunt that area."  Without further prompting, all five slaves extinguished the lights from their cloaks, then were led through the Plane of Shadow to the allied House for which they served as "secret double slaves" - at least according to Jhasspok.

Matron Ky'hulcressen was there to meet them, along with 20 drow mercenaries.  They wore no House insignia and, the Matron explained, had belonged to various Lesser Houses that had been recently wiped out as a result of the infighting caused by the Mortal Queen's self-proclaimed ascension to the rule of all drow in Overreach.

"I believe you all know the plan," Matron Ky'hulcressen told all assembled before her.  "I will openly challenge the Mortal Queen's right to rule.  This will lead to a trial by combat, in which only one of us will emerge with her life.  If I manage to slay her - which is unlikely - we will have put an end to her madness and restored a sense of normalcy to our city and its people.  If she slays me, I will have forfeited my life but bought you the time needed to find and steal back the _Tarrasque soul prison_, for even if she learns of your presence during your attempt she cannot leave my formal duel challenge without forfeiting her rule.  While you infiltrate the Mortal Queen's own chambers to find the relic" - here she looked at the five arena slaves - "these mercenaries will stage an attack upon House Bel'vior, making it look like another simple takeover attempt to jockey for power."

She passed over four potion vials, giving one to each of the slaves but Utred.  "You, I understand, have a _hat of disguise_ by which you can take on the appearance of a drow mercenary like these before you.  The other four slaves will drink these _potions of disguise self_, which will have the same effect."  Marlo, Cramer, Khari, and Jhasspok each dutifully downed their potion, taking on the semblance of a dark-skinned drow of their own gender; Marlo, looking around, saw a few of the drow mercenaries were female and was pleased she wouldn't stick out like a sore thumb.  All drow clerics, she had seen during her time as a slave, were female but not all drow females were clerics, it seemed.

"Finally, here is a _shadow key_," Matron Ky'hulcressen said, handing a black key to Cramer.  "Once you have obtained the _Tarrasque soul prison_, use it to activate a _shadow walk_ spell attuned to the permanent gate here in our own House Pillar.  It can be used but once per day."  Cramer accepted the key and realized, despite his avowed hatred of all drow, he was actually feeling something very much like respect for this House Matron, who was willingly going to go start a battle to the death she likely could not win with the Mortal Queen, just to ensure her people were freed from the machinations of the House Bel'vior leader.

"Let us go," Matron Ky'hulcressen said, opening the _gate_ and leading the group through the shadows and then over to the ceiling surrounding the House Bel'vior pillar back on the Material Plane.  Marlo looked "up" and saw the Bioluminescent Sea, meaning they were upside-down under the permanent _reverse gravity_ effect of the cavern ceiling.  Her stomach churned involuntarily - she wasn't a big fan of all of this inverted gravity nonsense.

Cramer had taken the opportunity of the brief trip through the Plane of Shadows to cast some preparatory spells: _longstrider,_ _death ward_, _divine favor_, and _magic circle against evil_ on himself, _aid_ on Khari, _shield of faith_ on Utred, and a _bless_ spell on the entire group.  "Good luck," Matron Ky'hulcressen said before becoming a shadow herself as she glided back out of the Material Plane - she had a date in the combat arena with the Mortal Queen.

There were enemy drow warriors guarding access to the enormous doors to the House Bel'vior pillar, scattered in a loose arc.  The allied drow mercenaries slunk away, splitting into smaller groups to meet up with other hired drow mercenaries from displaced Lesser Houses so they could make a concentrated assault upon multiple doors to the pillar at once, leaving the ten present enemies guarding this entrance for the five arena slaves to deal with.  _That seems about right_, Utred thought to himself.  _We ought t'be able to take ten out ourselves._

Khari led the charge against the Bel'vior forces, although they didn't realize it until he was already upon them for he used the power of his _earth glide warhammer_ to perform the majority of his charge below the ground, springing up from the stone to swing his weapon into the face of a startled warrior, instantly crushing his nose and sending a spray of teeth and blood flying off to the side.  Hearing the sentry's cry of pain, the two personal bodyguards of the unit's leader readied their hand crossbows, looking for any sign of the enemy.  But Khari had his foe blocking the others' view of him and they couldn't see Cramer either, for he had activated his _ring of invisibility_ and followed in Khari's wake (although he stuck to above-ground travel).

But they did see Jhasspok, who leaped out from behind the small building the group had appeared beside and sprinted toward a drow warrior.  The two bodyguards turned and fired at what looked to be a drow mercenary without House insignia swinging a battleaxe at one of their men.  The quarrels zipped by Jhasspok's head as he ran, neither one hitting their mark.  But his weapon hit his target, nearly knocking the drow warrior off his feet with the power of his blow.

The unit leader, a female drow cleric in _ironsilk full plate armor_, cast a _bless_ spell over her own troops, right as Utred plucked a bead from his _necklace of fireballs_ and hurled it into a cluster of drow warriors.  One drow was burned to death almost immediately, while the exploding flames caused pain to another warrior, the cleric, and both of her bodyguards.

Another drow warrior came to the aid of the one fighting Khari, while the other five surrounded Jhasspok.  But by now they were rattled, for they had a hard time hitting their foes with enough force to deal them any real harm.  Marlo cast an _Evard's black tentacles_ spell centered on the cleric - she'd long ago learned that the drow women in heavy armor were the ones you had to take out quickly - but that blasted drow spell resistance prevented any of the grasping tentacles from getting a hold on those within the spell's area of effect.  Marlo let out a quite unladylike curse, fortunately from far enough away she wasn't heard, for the drow enemies would likely wonder why she swore in the slave tongue, given she looked to be a mercenary drow herself.

Khari swung his warhammer with wild abandon, and in several seconds had two drow corpses at his feet.  He whooped in triumph and looked about for more enemies to slay.  The bodyguards - identifiable by their better armor and weapons - were scrambling out of the writhing tentacles, moving much slower than normal as they avoided getting grabbed up, but each successfully making it to freedom without incident.

Cramer cast a _spiritual weapon_ spell and sent the quarterstaff of pure force flying over to aid Jhasspok.  The weapon conked a drow warrior on the back of the head, sending him reeling.  Jhasspok was grateful for the aid, but it was perhaps not as needed as the gnome cleric had assumed, for the lizardfolk's battleaxe went cleaving through the bodies of three drow foes in a matter of seconds, slaying the trio (one not with his axe but his own snapping teeth).  Jhasspok hadn't realized it before, but being surrounded by enemies meant you didn't have to move very far when swinging your weapon about!  He idly wondered if he could get all of his future enemies to stand all around him like that.

The drow cleric extricated herself from the black tentacles and repositioned herself on the steps to the Pillar Gate, the entrance to House Bel'vior she was sworn to protect with her life - and those of her men.  Utred saw her and decided she'd be his next target, so he grabbed up his greataxe and charged at her, his blade slicing through her armor and into her midsection.  A drow warrior came running up next to her to give her what aid he could, for he had decided he'd rather face this mercenary with the greataxe than that crazy one who had just bitten out the throat of a Bel'vior soldier while cutting down two others with his battleaxe.  What kind of a freak did that?

Marlo fired a _scorching ray_ at the cleric and her nearby soldier, slaying both.  Utred and Khari noticed she'd fired through her own black tentacles, which had moved out of the way of her twin rays of flame to see to her success.  That was certainly strange!

The other drow didn't last very much longer, and while they were being stripped of their armor and weapons (all of which was tossed into the _bag of holding_ Marlo carried), Utred found a key around the neck of the cleric; sure enough, it opened the doors to the gate she'd been guarding.  Pulling open the massive metal doors, Utred stepped inside, the others following at his side.

There were two armed and armored female drow fighters in the large chamber just beyond and a drider filling up a side-passageway to the right.  There were corridors straight ahead and off to the left as well; Cramer realized he'd need to cast his _locate object_ spell from the scroll once they'd dealt with this wave of guardians to even find their way to where the _Tarrasque soul prison_ was being stored.

The drider was the first to react to the sudden appearance of unknown drow mercenaries, but he sought his own safety first, casting a _mage armor_ spell upon himself from the safety of the webs upon which he was suspended.  Khari used the power of his _earth glide warhammer_ to sink beneath the stone floor, only to pop back up behind the first fighter.  As he spun to face his designated foe, he caught a glimpse of someone approaching from the corridor ahead - she looked vaguely familiar, and Khari finally realized who it was: Eri'dia Jalamir.  Well, that was good; she owed them one for getting her to the safety of Greenvale when her own mother had tried slaying her, and the group could no doubt use all the help they could get.

Then there was no further time for any thoughts of the little sister to their own slavemaster, for both drow fighters had focused their weapons upon him.  The dwarven fighter dodged one sword but couldn't do likewise with the other; its blade cut him in the arm, sliding between the grooves of metal by his elbow.  It hurt, but Khari didn't let that bother him; he'd get healed up after they took down this wave, and maybe even sooner, for Cramer had a habit of healing up his friends when it looked like they needed it.  He hadn't failed any of them yet!

Jhasspok, the largest by far of the five heroes, saw it as his duty to take down the largest of their foes.  With that thought in mind, he charged at the drider, bringing his battleaxe crashing down to strike the creature's spindly legs as it reared up like a horse to try to fend off the lizardfolk's attack.  Cramer redirected his _spiritual quarterstaff_, sending it to go aid Jhasspok against the drider, while the crafty gnome cast a _silence_ spell on the floor by Jhasspok's feet.  He'd seen the drider cast his _mage armor_ spell earlier and didn't want it able to cast any offensive spells against any of the Jalamir slaves.  At the same time, Marlo targeted the drider with a pair of _empowered scorching rays_, one missing the darting creature's head but the other striking him straight in the chest.

Utred charged one of the fighters, coming to a halt beside his fellow dwarf and allowing them to fight their drow enemies side by side.  His greataxe cut down the foe he'd attacked and he followed up the swing with a cut into the one directly across from Khari.  But by then Eri'dia had arrived, and she turned out not to be the source of aid Khari had thought, for at this closer range he could see the stitches holding her body parts together.  This was one of the flesh golems her mother had created from the dismembered pieces of her regenerating body!  The golem held up a fist charged with a reddish energy and swung it at Khari's head.  The Hammerslammer dwarf dodged the attack, but it brought on the obvious question: what in blazes was a flesh golem of Eri'dia Jalamir doing here in House Bel'vior?

Then Khari decided it really didn't matter a whole lot: it was here trying to kill him so he was going to do the same thing right back at it.  He slammed his warhammer into the side of her head, glad that this flesh golem was only the size of the nimble drow woman - he'd heard these things could be crafted to reach 7 feet tall or even larger!  The remaining drow fighter focused her attention on Utred, seeing as the golem had the other dwarf's full attention now.

The drider stabbed at Jhasspok with a pair of sharp-tipped rapiers; the lizardfolk deflected one off his shield but the other pierced his scales.  Jhasspok hissed in pain - that _hurt!_ - and channeled his anger into a powerful, sideways blow with his battleaxe, cutting through the drider's torso and spilling him onto the ground at the reptile's feet.  Jhasspok stepped back, ready to bring his axe down upon the thing's head, but it looked like such a maneuver was not needed - the thing was dead.

Cramer redirected his _spiritual quarterstaff_ again, this time causing it to strike the flesh golem - but it missed.  Marlo _empowered_ another _scorching ray_ spell and sent the twin beams of fire over at the golem, hitting with both and noticing the stitched thing was moving slower as a result of her attack.  That was good to know!  "Fire slows the golem down!" she called out to her friends as the hideous mockery of Eri'dia slammed a fist at Khari again; the dwarf dodged the clumsy attack with ease.

Utred's greataxe swung into the drow's side and she almost dropped her weapon as a result; she certainly dropped her guard, allowing Khari's warhammer to plow into the side of her skull, killing her instantly.  The dwarf continued his hammer-swing into the flesh golem, hearing a satisfying crunch that likely meant a broken rib or two - pity the unliving thing didn't seem to feel any pain.

The drider dead, Jhasspok turned and saw the two dwarves squaring off against the flesh golem.  He raced across the plaza, bringing his battleaxe to bear against their foe.  (He didn't hesitate for a moment upon seeing its likeness; the dwarves were fighting it and that was all the lizardfolk needed to know - he trusted their instincts in such matters.)  Cramer's _spiritual weapon_ struck the golem in the head and surprisingly shattered to pieces, each piece disappearing before hitting the floor; it had come up against spell resistance it couldn't overcome.  But he ran up, bringing his _Elderwood flaming mace_ to bear, slamming the golem in the side of the leg and grinning as he realized the magical flames would only extend the _slow_ effect.  But that wasn't even really needed, for Marlo brought the thing down with another casting of an _empowered scorching ray_ spell.  The stitched thing that looked like Eri'dia collapsed to the ground, its body ablaze and filling the chamber with the smell of charred flesh and burnt hair.

Cramer pulled out his scroll of _locate object_ while the dwarves grabbed weapons and armor from the slain drow fighters and the drider, tossing them hurriedly into the _bag of holding_ Marlo held open.  "It's this way!" the gnome called, pointing down the corridor from which the false Eri'dia had come.

Khari headed down the indicated hallway, ignoring two sets of stairs which led down on either side of the corridor.  As he approached a set of eight statues of Lolth (four on the ground showing her in a driderlike configuration, four directly above on the ceiling showing her as a drow-headed spider), a dark-clad figure stepped out from behind them, blade in one hand and the other arm - the one pointed in Khari's direction - wielding a hand crossbow.  This was also a figure the dwarf had seen before, but this time he needed no time at all to recognize it, for it was none other than Calish Jalamir, the slavemaster!  Calish fired his weapon at what he thought was an enemy drow mercenary, one he'd never seen before, but Khari dodged the incoming bolt partly by dint of fact he wasn't as tall as the illusion making him look like a drow made him appear to be.

Jhasspok was right behind Khari and he too recognized Calish.  But any automatic hesitation he might have once had preventing him from attacking his slavemaster had long since been burned out of the lizardfolk's brain: Calish was an enemy of the sunborn drow and needed to be killed!  He brought his battleaxe slamming into the drow's side, but the slavemaster rolled at the last minute and at least avoided the sharp blade, if not the solid axe-head entirely.

Cramer ran down the corridor, activating his _ring of invisibility_ again as he did so.  Marlo cast a _lightning bolt_ at the slavemaster and scowled as it shattered, unspent, against his inherent spell resistance.  Calish backed away from Khari and Jhasspok, activating a ring of his own, and he suddenly started blinking in and out of existence in an unpredictable pattern: one moment he was there, the next he was not.

Neither Khari nor Jhasspok had ever experienced the _blink_ spell effect at work before; with a shrug, they each pressed on with their attacks.  And luck was with them both, for their weapons struck unerringly against the drow slavemaster, who was then unceremoniously knocked unconscious by a second casting of Cramer's _spiritual weapon_ spell.  This quarterstaff of pure force was not hampered by the drow's resistance to spell energy and he fell forward, knocked into instant insensibility from the blow to the back of the head.

Unsure of what to do with him - he deserved to die, but maybe the Greenvale forces could get some information out of him? - Cramer stabilized him with a _cure minor wounds_ spell (just enough to stop him from bleeding, not enough to restore him to consciousness) and they took the time to strip him of his valuables, bind him tightly with rope, and prop him into the _bag of holding_ such that his head and shoulders stuck out, ensuring he wouldn't suffocate to death inside the extradimensional space.  That just meant Marlo couldn't close the bag up all the way and had to carry it over one shoulder, but Cramer's _locate object_ spell was telling him they needed to get past the door behind where Calish had been taken out and the gnome was eager to get moving - no telling how long the spell would last!

Entering through the door, the room beyond looked to be a royal waiting room, with elegant furniture and elaborately-woven carpets; but of primary notice were the 20-foot-tall double doors engraved with a depiction of Lolth in her demonic spider form.  The carving practically radiated evil, to the point where the heroes were hesitant to even touch the doors.

"The _Tarrasque soul prison_'s on the other side of these doors!" Cramer said, knowing they needed to open the doors but unable to will himself to do so.  In one sense stalling for time, Marlo cast a _detect magic_ spell and examined the doors with her magically-enhanced sight.  "They're magic, all right," she announced.  "Some kind of...abjuration effect."

"Ensuring we can't get in!" snarled Utred, for he could feel the waves of malevolence coming off the double doors and felt, to his own shock, his own unwilling desire to simply run away.

"They can't keep me out!" muttered Khari, sinking below the surface of the stone floor.  And it was true: whatever spell was messing with the heroes' minds and making it so they feared to even touch the door, it didn't prevent Khari Hammerslammer from sinking below the stone floor, advancing forward, and popping back up into the room beyond.  Looking about with his darkvision, he noted this was the Mortal Queen's throne room, fortunately empty at the moment.  But there were no other exits, which meant...yep, there it was: the _Tarrasque soul prison_ was over in the corner, nestled upon a pile of bones.

Khari was torn.  One part of him wanted to go grab the _soul prison_ and dive back beneath the floor, returning with it to his friends.  Another part was sure as soon as he touched it something bad would happen - surely the Mortal Queen would have put up some sort of safeguard?  He should probably open the double doors and let his friends in - maybe the doors weren't trapped from the inside?  (He certainly felt no hesitation in touching the metal doors, so maybe that meant the magic was focused in the Lolth carving on the other side of the doors?)

"Ah, screw it!" Khari said to himself.  This was too much thinking - and thinking had never been his strong suit!  Before he could be gripped with any further indecision, he pushed the doors open.

A blaring _alarm_ spell went off as soon as he - a non-drow - touched the doors.  Worse yet, it caused the pile of bones in the corner to activate, rising up as a ten-foot-tall bone golem with the _Tarrasque soul prison_ now trapped inside a cage in the hollow of the construct's chest.

Khari spent no time on self-recrimination; time was now of the essence - there was no telling how long they had before reinforcements would show up!  He raced across the room, advancing upon the vaguely humanoid bone-thing.  Jhasspok was across the room in a shot, passing by the slower dwarf and swinging his battleaxe at the construct's central mass; he got a painful slam from the thing's fist for his trouble, as the bone golem's arms were as long as the lizardfolk's entire body.  Jhasspok's momentum was deflected to the side, and then the thing brought its other fist crashing down on the reptile's head.  Jhasspok saw stars but retained his footing, shaking his head furiously to clear it.

Cramer ran up behind Khari and Jhasspok, using his most powerful weapon: his knowledge of all things magical.  "This is probably a bone golem!" he cried.  "Most spells will be ineffectual against it!  Our best bet is simple brute force!"

Not sure which of her spells would be the most likely to be effective against a golem of a type she'd never faced before - but she knew each golem was subject to only a small handful of spells, ignoring all others - Marlo uncoiled the _life-flame whip_ she wore on her belt.  This had two main advantages: it was a physical attack, not a spell, and it allowed the sorcerer to strike the construct from far enough away that it couldn't reach her in retaliation.

Utred was a walking arsenal of weapons but he couldn't fault Marlo's logic; he uncoiled his own _life-flame whip_ and together they sent their weapons snapping at the bone golem, over the heads of Jhasspok and Khari.  Each strike singed the bones making up the construct's vaguely humanoid form.

Khari sent his _earth glide warhammer_ crashing into the golem's leg - it was a perfect weapon for smashing bone, although the process used to create this monstrosity had not only fused mismatched bones together but hardened them as well.  Still, he was pleased to see bone chips flying off with every strike of his hammer.

Jhasspok continued swinging his battleaxe at the golem as well, and even bit at the thing when a limb got within biting range.  The lizardfolk was spurred on by the realization that some of the bones used in the golem's construction still had bits of flesh hanging on to them.  But after having bitten it a couple of times, Jhasspok realized that while meat was meat, this meat was far from tasty.

The bone golem, for its part, ignored the whips snapping at it and slammed the two figures immediately before it.  Then Cramer crept forward and, on a hunch, cast a _cure serious wounds_ spell on it - it might be a golem, but its build practically screamed necromancy and it was about as close to an undead thing as you could get.  The ploy worked; while it was up in the air whether the healing energy had caused it any harm (it at least certainly hadn't healed it!), the creature's attacks slowed, just as fire had slowed the flesh golem made of Eri'dia Jalamir's severed parts.

Marlo and Utred continued whipping the bone golem as Jhasspok and Khari brought their melee weapons to bear.  But then the bone golem changed tactics: pointing a twisted forearm at Utred, it fired off a chunk of itself.  The dwarven barbarian felt a mass of bone strike him in the chest and then immediately begin to twist and reform, expanding all around him until it had formed a skin-tight bone cage around him - and one which, he saw, had rooted itself to the stone floor.  The dwarf was completely immobilized.  But not for long, he vowed, stoking the internal fires of his rage and pushing every last ounce of power against his bone prison, until--

Well, crap.  He was still confined in the latticework of bones all around him.  That hadn't worked out like he had planned at all.  He struggled again, to no avail; pinned as he was in place, he had no leverage.  It was frustrating, and he vented with a roar of impotent anger.

"We'll get you out!" promised Cramer, casting another _cure serious wounds_ spell onto the bone golem, hoping once they defeated it the bone prison might crumble away to nothingness.  The healing spell did seem to affect the golem, but it now redirected its attention down at the gnome cleric and slammed at him with a massive arm - an arm which was slowly growing fully back after a piece of it had been shot at Utred to bind him into place.  Marlo continued whipping the golem from a safe distance, while Khari's warhammer sent individual pieces of bone flying with each strike - entire bones now, not just splinters and fragments, possibly a sign the golem was wearing down.

Such indeed was the case.  Jhasspok swung his battleaxe into the golem's torso a final time and bones went flying, causing a cascade effect: as the necromantic energy binding the construct together leaked away into the ether, the bones all fell away from each other in a loose pile.  The _Tarrasque soul prison_, now released from its own bone cage inside the golem's central mass, came rolling across the floor and Marlo quickly scooped it up.  "Got it!" she cried.  "Let's get out of here!"

"Hey!  Wait!" cried Utred, still stuck within his bone prison.  The thing hadn't crumpled apart when the bone golem was destroyed; apparently it was fastened together by a different process than that which had given the bone golem its mobility.  The group hastily started hacking away at the intertwined bones imprisoning Utred, until finally they had broken away enough of it the barbarian was able to step out.  "Thanks," he growled, angry he'd missed out on the end of destroying the bone golem and had had to be rescued.  "But yeah, we'd better get going."  The _alarm_ spell was still blaring away and the group could hear footsteps and angry shouts rapidly approaching.

Marlo scooped her _bag of holding_ back up - Calish Jalamir's unconscious head still poking out of the top of it - and indicated her readiness.  Then Cramer pulled out the _shadow key_, held it out before him in the air, and twisted it as if putting it inside a lock.  A rift opened up in the throne room, a rent between this reality and the Plane of Shadow, and the five heroes ran through into shadowy darkness.  The rift closed up behind them, leaving the House Bel'vior guards wondering how to explain the open doors to the throne room and the pile of bones scattered in the back of the room.  "Search the area!" one called.  "Whoever tried breaking in here couldn't have gotten far!"  It was wishful thinking on his part, for he knew the Mortal Queen would not be pleased to learn they hadn't caught whoever had invaded the sanctity of her own throne room....  With a gulp of worry, he frantically led his team exploring the nearby rooms and hallways.

The five heroes stepped through the permanent _gate_ and back into House Ky'hulcressen.  They weren't home free quite yet, but they knew it was just a walk through the shadow path back to Greenvale and all would be well.  They'd retrieved the _Tarrasque soul prison_ before the Mortal Queen had been able to divine how it worked and set the rampaging beast onto Greenvale, and even managed to snag some loot off the drow soldiers they'd slain and capture Calish Jalamir in the process.  All in all, a successful mission!

- - -

And we all made it to 10th level, as a bonus.

Logan informed us after we had finished that by saving Calish's life and bringing him back to Greenvale for questioning, we inadvertently uncovered and foiled his plot to betray Matron Jalamir to House Bel'vior.  It turns out the only reason he was there in the first place was he had switched teams: anticipating that the Mortal Queen would come out on top, he offered to become a member of House Bel'vior, bringing along a flesh golem made from his little sister Eri'dia as an additional enticement, but the real point of sale was an opportunity to betray Matron Jalamir and put his House under the leadership of someone more inclined to do the Mortal Queen's bidding.  Offered to sell his own mother up the river, that one!  Nice guy.


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## Richards (Aug 9, 2020)

...There will now be an intermission of unknown duration: this campaign is being put on indefinite hold due to the COVID-19 situation.

Here's the situation: this campaign contains five players and a DM from two families living in the same small town.  Both families have been more or less quarantined at home since March, and Dan and I are already exposed to each other at work (although we take all the normal precautions: masks, hand sanitizer, social distancing, ranged temperature scans upon entering our work building, etc.), so we had decided cross-contact between two otherwise quarantined family groups was presenting no further danger to each other and continued playing through our two campaigns.  And that was all fine and dandy...but next week both Harry and Joey start school.

Now granted, they'll be taking their own precautions at their respective schools, but there will now be a lot more opportunities for either one of them to pick up germs and bring them home to pass them on to their families.  And I have a doubly at-risk wife at home: she's 72 years old (high risk category) with on-going medical conditions (higher risk category).  So as much as we've enjoyed being able to continue on with our D&D campaigns, it's not worth risking my wife's life to keep playing.  And thus our hiatus.

I'm not sure how long we'll put these campaigns on hold.  We might be able to get in a game at the end of Christmas break, if it's long enough (and the two schools sync up their vacations) that we can get in a two-week quarantine period at our individual homes to ensure everyone's still doing fine and then fit in a game session towards the end.  Failing that, we'll probably start up in May again, once the schools have let out for the summer.

But school starting back up is going to affect us more than just putting our D&D campaigns on hold.  We're also going to have to break into two camps here at the Richards household; Logan's going to have to be the one with direct contact with my wife Mary (getting her pills, etc.) since they'll be the only ones at home while Harry's in school and I'm at work (right now, I work one week and then telework the next week), while I'll be the one in direct contact with Harry, since we'll need to limit his contact with Mary and also with Logan, as he'll be in direct contact with Mary.  (Harry's school does offer an option to do classes on-line but he's not eligible as he's in a special needs program and they want the continued daily physical presence with the special education teachers.)  So we've got some massive changes coming up over the horizon.

In any case, thanks for reading and hopefully I'll be in a position to continue this Story Hour before too long.

Johnathan


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## Richards (Jan 2, 2021)

*ADVENTURE 32: CITIZENS OF THE DEPTHS*

PC Roster:
Cramer Appleknocker, gnome cleric 10​Jhasspok, lizardman 3/barbarian 3/fighter 4​Khari Hammerslammer, dwarf fighter 10​Marlo Pendragon, human sorcerer 10​Utred "Buckets" Butterflinger, dwarf barbarian 10​
Game Session Date: 1 January 2021

- - -

One of the advantages of dealing with House Ky'hulcressen was they had quite a few wizards devoted solely to the creation of magic weapons and items and the upgrading in power of those already in existence.  The five House Jalamir arena slaves, fresh from their mission in stealing back the _Tarrasque soul prison_ (and snagging the traitorous slavemaster Calish Jalamir in the process), took the opportunity to have some of their weapons further enhanced.  Due to direct orders from Matron Ky'hulcressen herself, their requests were dealt with immediately, even if it meant bumping pre-existing orders to be dealt with later.  With the money they had left over, some of the arena slaves even purchased a few new items that looked like they'd be of aid in future combats.

To their surprise, after they left the Ky'hulcressen marketplace and returned to their temporary quarters in the drow House pillar, Matron Jalamir was there waiting for them.

“Line up,” she commanded without any further explanation.  “Kneel and expose your backs.”

Jhasspok dropped immediately, a lifetime of slavery conditioning him to instant obedience.  The others dropped to their knees as well, but unlike the lizardfolk they wore armor and robes that needed to be removed; Jhasspok had only to sweep his _slave-light cloak_ over his shoulder to hang before him before he had complied with his Matron's demands.

A drow wizard approached, a male the lizardfolk thought looked familiar, although he couldn't quite place him.  Cramer, glancing at the mage suspiciously from the corner of his eye as he removed his armor, recognized him at once: he was the drow in attendance when Matron Jalamir had had her daughter Eri'dia dismembered and rebuilt into a series of flesh golems before allowing her to regenerate back to her full form.  The little gnome wasn't sure why the drow wizard had been brought here to the five arena slaves, but he doubted he'd like whatever was going on.

But he was quite wrong on that front, for the drow mage knelt down behind Jhasspok and, with a modified version of the _erase_ spell, began removing the slave tattoo that had been etched upon the lizardfolk's scales shortly after he was hatched. The process took but a few minutes, then the drow wizard moved on to Marlo, removing the slave tattoo from between her shoulder blades as well.  Cramer almost wept with joy as his hated tattoo was removed from his back.  The dwarves were stoic, their stony faces hiding any expressions of their relief that the slave tattoos were being taken away.

Once all five had had their tattoos removed, they were allowed to put their armor and robes back on, then another attendant stepped forward and handed each of them a metal cloak pin in the shape of the House Jalamir emblem.  “Prick your thumb with the pin,” Matron Jalamir commanded.  “That will allow the pins to drink your blood, which in turn will ensure they can each only be used by the person to whom they belong.”  She then had them attach the House pins to the left side of their _slave-light cloaks_.

Motioning for them to stand back up, Matron Jalamir gave a slight smile. “Congratulations,” she said.  “Your days of slavery are now over; you are citizens of House Jalamir, in recognition of your loyalty and dedication.”  Cramer was aghast to recognize the swell of pride in his chest at her words for what it was. Surely he wasn't actually _glad_ to have been elevated to the equivalent of a drow!  Still, he reasoned, it was good to be acknowledged as something more than a slave.

“With the slave tattoos gone, the Mortal Queen can no longer take advantage of the loophole in the law that allowed her to scry upon you,” the drow matron explained.  “Drow law prohibits scrying upon citizens of other Houses, so if she tries to do so we will have legal leverage against her.”

"Then...what are our duties, if we are no longer slaves, Matron?" asked Marlo hesitantly.

"Your duties will be roughly the same, attending to the needs of the House.  However, you will be paid for your services in real coin, not the slave tokens to which you have been accustomed."  That didn't seem like such a big difference to Jhasspok, replacing one type of money with another type of money.  But the dwarves seemed impressed, so the lizardfolk assumed this was a good thing.

"To that end," continued Matron Jalamir, "in the morning you will report to the Jalamir fishing shore for your next assignment.  House Falmakyorl has been performing naval maneuvers in the Bioluminescent Sea outside the confines of the vast cavern housing the Eight Great Pillars of Overreach, and with most of their House pulled away elsewhere, a pair of threats have entered the cavern through the Sea Gates in their absence.  Reports from the fishing slaves are that a pair of scrags have moved into the area as well as a swarm of abysseels.  The eels seem to drag their victims into the ruins of the city below, while the scrags stay closer to shore to avoid the spirits of the unquiet dead.  You will deal with both threats."  With that, the House Matron dismissed the newly-sanctified citizens to rest up for their next day's mission.

"What's an abysseel?" Marlo asked Jhasspok, assuming the lizardfolk's five years as a fisher slave would have made him an expert on the local aquatic wildlife.

"I don't know," Jhasspok admitted.

"And what's this about city ruins on the sea floor?" Cramer wanted to know.  Jhasspok had no answers for him, either, as the waters below the Eight Great Pillars were very deep and his job as a fisher slave had kept him to the shallower waters, where the bulk of the fish swam.

"Here's another stupid question," Utred said.  "If the Mortal Queen's about to attack the surface world - Greenvale in particular - what's she doin' havin' the Overreach Navy goin' out on maneuvers?  It's not like they're likely to be of much use in a surface raid - Greenvale's not next to any bodies of water!"  Nobody had any answer to that question, either, but trying to figure out the Mortal Queen's thought processes was a fool's game in any case.  But Cramer at least had heard about scrags: they were aquatic trolls, capable of regeneration and susceptible to both fire and acid.

"That won't help us underwater, will it?" pointed out Marlo.

"More than you'd expect," Cramer answered.  "Your _scorching ray_ and _fireball_ spells, for instance - they can both be cast underwater, you just don't get open flames out of them, more like scalding steam.  But they'll be just as effective underwater in killing scrags."

"I wonder what scrag meat tastes like," wondered Jhasspok aloud, gaining him a slightly disturbed frown from Marlo.  Her scowl only intensified when Cramer pointed out that Jhasspok could take a bite out of a scrag and then take that exact same bite again shortly thereafter once the creature had regenerated its wound.  The concept intrigued the lizardfolk greatly: meat that grew back!  This was something he wanted to try out for himself!

The next morning, the group assembled at the Jalamir fishing shore as commanded and decided to interview the fisher slaves to gather what information they could before braving the dangers of the Bioluminescent Sea.  The slaves warned the abysseels had an electric bite, so Cramer shuffled his spell preparations accordingly: he'd not only need to provide the ability to breathe underwater to the members of the group, but also shield them from electricity damage.  After finishing his prayers, he cast a _longstrider_ spell upon himself, then cast _resist energy_ spells on the entire group.  He was about to do the same with a _water breathing_ spell, but Marlo cut him off.  "Don't bother casting it on me," she advised.  "My _ioun stone_ allows me to survive without air."

"And I can hold my breath," added Jhasspok.

"Okay, you're exempt," Cramer acknowledged to Marlo, casting the _water breathing_ spell on just the four males.  "But you're getting one anyway, Jhasspok.  No telling how long we'll be underwater - no need for you to have to keep heading back to the surface for more air.  Okay then, let's go."

Jhasspok needed no further prompting.  With a splash, he leaped into the water and started swimming, glad to be fully immersed in the sea where he had spent so much of the first five years of his life.  The others stepped into the water more hesitantly, it being a more alien environment to them.  Cramer and the dwarves immediately took in deep breaths of water, letting the magic of the gnome's spell work so they'd be able to talk while submerged.  Jhasspok, not trusting the magic, kept his mouth clamped shut, well aware he could hold his breath for at least eight solid minutes; he'd start breathing underwater only when he absolutely needed to.

"Lead on, Jhasspok," suggested Marlo.  The fisher slaves having explained to the five citizens the areas where they'd seen the scrags before, Jhasspok figured the marine trolls preferred a depth of about 50 feet.  Even at that depth, the bioluminescent plankton that suffused the Underdark sea and gave it its name allowed for an almost normal range of vision for the landbound adventurers and it wasn't long before they spotted a pair of large, humanoid forms swimming their way from the open sea in the center of the vast cavern's waters.  Of the five, only Jhasspok was waterborne, the other four standing on the surface of the sloping sea bottom, among various coral formations and fronds of plant life.

The scrags were as Cramer had described them the day before: possessing powerful, muscular bodies with webbing between their fingers and toes, the main difference between their terrestrial cousins being the lack of the standard troll's ridiculously-long nose.  The two approached the five side by side, grinning evil grins filled with rows of sharp teeth like those of a shark.

Utred rushed forward, charging with his greataxe and bringing it crashing into the side of the first scrag.  Greenish blood seeped from the wound, making a small cloud around the combatants.  With a flick of his powerful tail, Jhasspok was there above the dwarven barbarian's head, bringing his own battleaxe crashing down upon the scrag's head.  Khari raced forward as well, but he was a much slower sprinter than his barbaric fellow dwarf and hadn't even made it to his target when Cramer suddenly appeared before the scrag Utred and Jhasspok were fighting, arriving courtesy of a _dimension door_ spell.  But as the second scrag was still somewhat off by himself, Marlo targeted him for her first underwater _fireball_ spell.  It worked as Cramer had assured her it would; while there were no flames, a burst of scalding bubbles erupted around the marine troll, causing it to cry out in unexpected pain.

The first scrag bent forward and bit at Utred, while the second one retaliated against its scalding by lashing out at the closest target: Jhasspok.  The lizardfolk's scales were raked by a set of powerful claws and the scrag's horrible mouth closed down on Jhasspok's shield arm; only the fact that its sharklike teeth had the shield pinned partly in its mouth prevented the foul beast from biting completely through the reptile's arm.  A cloud of Jhasspok's red blood added to the green from the first scrag's wounds.

Recalling Cramer's recommendation, Utred pulled out his _Elderwood flaming longsword_ and stabbed it straight into the chest of the marine troll towering above him.  It hissed as the sword went in and was pulled out, and Utred was pleased to see the wound he had inflicted was not healing over, as the one from his and Jhasspok's axes were already starting to do.

Testing a theory, Khari activated the power of his _earthglide warhammer_ and disappeared beneath the surface of the seabed floor, only to pop back up behind the scalded scrag, slamming his weapon into the back of the sea-beast's left knee.  Jhasspok, in the meantime, had freed his shield arm from that scrag - its inarticulate cry of pain from Khari's attack certainly helped on that front! - and switched back to his original target, the scrag fighting Utred.  He brought his battleaxe crashing down on its skull and he chopped right through it, causing the massive sea troll to crash in a lifeless heap before Utred.  As the lizardfolk understood it, that didn't mean the scrag was really dead, but he was sure one of the others could permanently slay it with fire or acid.  But before that, Jhasspok took advantage of the opportunity and bit off a hunk of flesh from the back of the scrag's calf, chewing it briefly and swallowing it almost whole.  Then he made a face of disapproval; scrag meat, he'd learned, wasn't anywhere near as succulent as fish flesh: it was stringy and had an unpleasant taste that would make it a definite last resort, to be eaten only if there weren't any other meats available.  How disappointing!  When Cramer pulled out his _Elderwood flaming mace_ and started smashing it repeatedly into the dead scrag to prevent it from regenerating, Jhasspok didn't even care that it meant his "bite" would no longer grow back - one bite had been quite enough!

Marlo cast another _fireball_ at the remaining scrag and this time it saw who had been responsible for both blasts of scalding pain.  It headed straight for her with a look of absolute hatred on its horrid face, but only got a few strokes before it collapsed to the seabed floor, dropped by a warhammer swing from Khari as it passed above him.  It lay there motionless for a brief moment, causing Khari to believe he might have slain it, before it raised itself up on its arms and stood back up, its skin blistered and unhealing from the sorceress's spells.  But before it could attack, Utred was upon it, slaying it permanently with the glowing green heat from his _Elderwood flaming longsword_.  Just to be sure, those with _flaming_ weapons applied them liberally to the corpses of the two scrags until they were sure neither would rise again.

"Well, that's the first threat taken care of," observed Cramer.  "Now we just gotta find those abysseels."

But that wasn't a problem at all, for the abysseels found them almost immediately, no doubt drawn by the scent of blood in the area.  Five of the creatures swam up, each of their thin bodies longer than Jhasspok was tall (even taking the lizardfolk's tail into account).  Utred was the first to spot them and warned the others, switching back to his trusty greataxe as they approached since he had the time to spare.  They spread out, each apparently choosing a separate victim for themselves.  Utred readied his weapon and gave it a powerful swing directly into the creature's head as it swam up to bite him and the blow cleaved the creature's skull in twain.  It collapsed to the sea floor before the dwarf as the other abysseels dashed forward to try to bite their intended prey.  As the group had been warned, electricity flashed in the teeth of the giant eels, but the protective spells Cramer had cast upon the group protected them fully.

Marlo sent a _magic missile_ spell darting into the one coming for her and it was enough to slay the beast.  The others had no particular difficulty in slaying the eels trying to eat them, either.  "That was a lot easier than the scrags!" Khari said.  "So, I guess we're done here."

But that announcement was premature, for another five abysseels came slithering up from the same direction as the first five had come.  Marlo caught sight of them and warned the others.  This time, even though there were five eels attacking five adventurers, they changed up their tactics: two of them converged upon Cramer and two others targeted Utred while the fifth hung back, apparently just observing.  But this second batch didn't last much longer than the first set; Utred slew two in a row with one mighty swing of his greataxe, cleaving through the bodies of the two trying to bite him.  Khari and Jhasspok stepped forward to help slay the pair attacking the gnome, and Marlo sent another _magic missile_ spell to take care of the "observer" eel.  "Weird," she said.

"This is even weirder," Cramer pointed out, looking at the tail of one of the slain eels.  It had teeth marks upon it; upon further examination, so did all of the others, including those of the first wave the group had fought.  Marlo gave the tails a lengthy examination, noting their ragged edges, as if there had been more flesh behind the eels' bodies that had been ripped away.  She also spent some time peering into the eels' mouths, noting the placement of the sharp teeth and then going back to look at their tails again.  "It doesn't make a whole lot of sense," she told the others, "but I think these guys all bit their own tails off!"

"What?  Why?" demanded Cramer.

"The tooth placement matches," argued Marlo, demonstrating how one dead eel, with a slightly dislodged tooth that stuck forward ahead of the others in that particular eel's mouth, matched up with the bite marks on its tail - where one tooth mark was placed forward of the others.

"That doesn't make a whole lot of sense," agreed Cramer, stroking his beard in thought.

"Maybe they just taste good," suggested Jhasspok, testing his own theory by taking a bite out of the side of the nearest abysseel corpse.  That was more like it!  Abysseels, Jhasspok decided, tasted _much_ better than scrags did.  And with that, he had the problem solved to his own personal satisfaction: the eels probably ate the rest of their own tails because they tasted so good.  But then that thought led to another one and Jhasspok found himself wondering what lizardfolk flesh tasted like.  His brow furrowed as he contemplated the tip of his own tail.

"I wonder if there are any more of them," Khari wondered aloud.

"I don't know," Cramer admitted, "but since they both came from the same direction, we'd better head that way and find out.  Remember, these things have shown a tendency to drag their prey back to those underground city ruins Matron Jalamir told us about yesterday."

"So we're going into a haunted underwater city?" asked Khari.  "On purpose?"

"We should be okay," assured Cramer, casting _hide from undead_ spells on each of the adventurers and explaining how they worked: simple undead, like skeletons and zombies, shouldn't be able to even tell the adventurers were standing right there in front of them.  "Just don't attack them - or even touch them - and we should be fine.  Remember, we're there for the eels, not any undead!"

Jhasspok led the way, swimming just over the surface of the dropping seabed floor as he knew the others, weighed down by their armor, preferred walking.  But they kept going down further and further, until the lizardfolk was much deeper than he'd even been in the Bioluminescent Sea.  Even at these depths, though, visibility was normal; if you didn't know you were this deep you'd never have guessed it.

Sure enough, eventually the group encountered the ruins of buildings ahead, some of them merely vague forms covered in plant growths and others piles of collapsed stone.  But there were figures walking around on the sea floor between the buildings, going on with their lives as if nothing was different from the centuries previous when this had undoubtedly been a city above the sea.

"What are they?" Marlo wanted to know.

"Ghosts, I'd imagine," Cramer speculated.  "Drow ghosts from who knows how long ago?"  Cramer's _hide from undead_ spells seemed to work against these translucent figures, who gave the adventurers no heed.

"I'll go look for any more eels," offered Jhasspok, swimming above the city for a top-down view.  He promised if he saw any he'd come back to tell the others before engaging them in battle.  "And don't mess around with the ghosts!" Cramer reinforced.  Khari offered to look below the city by earthgliding below the ruins, using the power of his hammer.  "Just be careful," the gnome said, not wanting the dwarven fighter to pop up from the floor bottom straight into a ghost or anything.

Khari didn't have any luck, and having to pop back up above the surface of the solid stone every so often to get a breath of water (which still kind of creeped him out when he thought about it) didn't help matters much.  After a cursory exploration in the immediate vicinity of his friends, he returned with a negative report.  "It'll take forever looking for eel-caves that way," he admitted.  "We'd better wait for Jhasspok."

Jhasspok was having no better luck in finding stray eels, but he did swim over quite a large swath of the city ruins and saw quite a few oblivious ghosts going about their business below him.  One ghost, though, stopped what he was doing and looked straight up at Jhasspok as he swam by overhead.  Jhasspok noticed his attention and was somewhat surprised when the figure rose up from the seabed floor to approach him.  Even though his body was see-through, the lizardfolk noted his drowish features, and when he started speaking Jhasspok recognized the drow language being spoken, even though he himself only knew the "slave tongue" Cramer and the others referred to as "Common."  Not knowing what else to do, and careful not to touch the ghost (like Cramer had said not to do), Jhasspok spun about and swam back the way he had come.  The ghostly drow wizard, under the effects of a _fly_ spell, followed.

Dropping back among his friends, Jhasspok pointed to the ghost and said merely, "He followed me here.  I didn't touch him!"  The ghost dropped down beside Jhasspok and continued his verbal inquiries, which only Cramer, wearing his magical helmet that allowed him to understand all spoken tongues, could understand.

"What's he saying?" Marlo wanted to know.

"He doesn't recognize our House insignia and is asking where we're from," Cramer answered.

The gnome cleric held up a hand in a "wait a minute" gesture and cast a quick _tongues_ spell before answering the ghost.  "We are from House Jalamir, a...much newer House than the ones you are accustomed to," he said.  Then, wanting to get back to their primary mission, he asked the ghost if they had seen any eels nesting around their city.

"A what?" the gnome asked when the ghost answered his question.  "What's that?" he followed up with.

"What's he saying?" interrupted Marlo, eager to find out what the ghost had been saying.

Cramer turned to the others.  "He says an eel has made a lair in his home, and it's grown the rest of its body into a deep hydra that's now too big to leave.  It's been biting off its own heads and sending them out to fetch food for it.  Those 'abysseels' we've been fighting?  Those are deep hydra heads!"

"We need to slay the hydra then," reasoned Utred.  "Tell the ghost we'll take care of it for him if he'll show us where it is."

Cramer did as asked and the ghost led the group through the city; none of the other ghosts seemed to notice their appearance among them, going about their otherworldly business as if they were still alive after all these centuries.  Finally, the undead drow wizard pointed to a collapsed building straight ahead, a massive pile of stone with a single opening visible, a passageway about ten feet tall and half of that wide.  Normally, the interior would have been sheathed in pitch darkness at this depth, but the ever-present bioluminescent algae illuminated the place like the most well-lit of terrestrial dwellings.

Utred wasted no time; he charged into the collapsed building at full speed, his greataxe out and ready to slice into the first creature he met within.  But the deep hydra turned from around a corner and attacked the dwarven barbarian at range.  Utred had a mere moment to see his enormous foe before it struck: ten eellike heads on thin, long necks opened their teeth-filled mouths and ten blasts of lightning erupted from them, striking the dwarf in one massive jolt of electricity that quickly overcame the magical protection he'd received from Cramer before entering the Bioluminescent Sea.  The hair stuck out from the top of his head and his beard bristled out in all directions as the electricity surged through his body.

And then, to make matters worse, five more "abysseels" - each a previously-bitten-off head and neck from the multiheaded hydra - swam up behind the parent creature, swimming up to attack those who would defile its new lair.  Utred's greataxe slashed out and suddenly there were only four abysseels in the ruin's interior.

Getting a glimpse of the creature Utred was facing inside the ruins, Khari sunk below the surface of the stone bottom of the fallen city and resurfaced over by the back of the hydra, between its right rear leg and its thrashing tail.  He slammed his weapon into the hydra's hip, causing it to hiss in pain.  Jhasspok, in the meantime, took advantage of his aquatic maneuverability and swam over Utred's head, making a beeline for one of the hydra's still-connected heads.  His battleaxe sliced completely through the thing's neck, releasing it from the hydra's body.  But before it could spin about and bite him, the lizardfolk had the presence of mind to swing at the newly-formed abysseel with his battleaxe and sliced through its skull.  It sank to the floor of the ruins, leaving the hydra with only nine heads - for now.

Cramer stepped up and allowed Fharlanghn's healing energies flow through his fingertips and into Utred's body, healing him of a goodly chunk of the damage he'd taken from the deep hydra's concentrated breath weapons.  Marlo cast an _empowered scorching ray_ over their heads at the deep hydra, targeting its body as she feared slaying a head might only cause two more to grow back in its place - and not wanting to create any more of these abysseels in the process in any case.  Utred saw how little the hydra liked being hit by the fire-based spell and yanked a bead from his _necklace of fireballs_, tossing it at the front of the creature's body as well.  The blast took out one of the four remaining free-swimming abysseels as well as dealing the other three eels and the main creature considerable harm.

In swift retaliation, the deep hydra darted out with its remaining nine heads, three each concentrating on Jhasspok, Khari, and Utred, the only combatants within immediate reach.  The three remaining abysseels each focused their attacks on Utred, perhaps realizing the amount of damage the furious dwarf could dish out with his greataxe.  But the adventurers pressed on with their attacks, Khari with his _earthglide warhammer_, Jhasspok with his battleaxe, and Utred with his greataxe, although they stopped attacking the creature's heads and necks and focused their weapons upon the great beast's body.  Cramer, in the meantime, stepped forward and cast an _inflict moderate wounds_ spell on one of the abysseels, slaying it outright.

Marlo _empowered_ a _fireball_ spell and set it off such that it exploded into two of the three remaining abysseels and the front of the deep hydra.  The blast of superheated steam took down everything it hit, leaving only a sole abysseel remaining - which Utred handily finished off with his greataxe.  Upon the destruction of all of the invaders to his home, the ghost of the drow wizard floated through the wall, took a look around, and fired off a question to Cramer, the only one capable of understanding him.  The gnome heard the question, "Are you by any chance 'the Dark Champions?'" through the translation properties of his magical helm.

"We have been referred to as such in a prophecy or two," admitted the gnome, speaking Drow through his still-active _tongues_ spell.

"I recall a tablet, looted from some duergar ruins, that had a message for the Dark Champions," replied the drow ghost.  "Although the place has been smashed up a bit since the Mad Queen brought the destruction of Lolth upon our city," he said, waving his hands about to encompass the crumbled remains of his once-proud dwelling and the ruins of the ancient city surrounding it, "the tablet came through the destruction mostly unscathed.  The message reads, 'The long road shall lead you where you need to be; shortcuts will cut short the lives of the innocent.'  And there's a strange symbol at the bottom.  Here: see for yourself."  Leading the gnome to a stone tablet off to one side of the ruins, far away from the deep hydra's corpse, the ghost pointed to it.  The rune at the bottom of the tablet might have been strange to the ancient drow ghost, but Cramer immediately recognized it as the holy symbol of Fharlanghn.

"Tell me of this Mad Queen," Cramer asked the ghost.

"This was centuries ago," the ghost advised.  "The Mad Queen proclaimed herself a living avatar of Lolth, which apparently did not sit well with the Demon Queen of Spiders.  Lolth sent an earthquake rending the wall of our great cavern apart, letting in the Bioluminescent Sea to wipe out our entire city.  Such is the way the Spider-Goddess deals with great hubris."

_And that's probably why the Overreach Houses haven't had a Queen in the centuries since,_ reasoned Cramer.  _Until this Mortal Queen elevated herself to such a position.  I wonder if she knows how dangerous a game she's playing?_

"We done here?" Utred asked, eager to get back to solid ground and fresh air if there was no longer any need for them to stick around breathing water.  He wasn't sure how long the _water breathing_ spell would last, but he didn't want to be still underwater breathing the stuff when it wore off!

"We're done here," agreed Cramer and indicated for Jhasspok to lead them back to the surface.

- - -

This was a blast to play through, especially since it was our first session in this campaign since August!  It took us all a while to get back into the groove; more than one of the players was scanning through their equipment lists to recall what all their PCs had on them.  Logan had us guessing with those "abysseels," and the deep hydra was an inspired creation.

And for the first time in this campaign, we started up around noon instead of our normal 6:30 PM.  As a result, we had an opportunity to go through a second adventure in the same game session.


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## Nthal (Jan 4, 2021)

Glad to see that you were able to pick it back up!


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## Richards (Jan 5, 2021)

Not for long, though.  I have another writeup to do for this campaign and we're going to go through another short adventure tomorrow night, then that'll be it until May or June, when Harry and Joey finish their semester of school and we go through the obligatory two-week quarantine period before our gaming sessions start back up for the summer.  So, two more writeups to come.

Johnathan


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## Richards (Jan 9, 2021)

*ADVENTURE 33: DO WE HAVE TO?*

PC Roster:  Cramer Appleknocker, gnome cleric 10
            Jhasspok, lizardman 3/barbarian 3/fighter 4
            Khari Hammerslammer, dwarf fighter 10
            Marlo Pendragon, human sorcerer 10
            Utred "Buckets" Butterflinger, dwarf barbarian 10​
Game Session Date: 1 January 2021

 - - -

The five newly-appointed citizens of Overreach were not particularly surprised to be summoned for another mission - they had no misperceptions that their elevation from slave status to full citizenship had any bearing on the fact they were still expected to do what the drow told them to do - but they were admittedly surprised to find out they had been summoned directly by Matron Jalamir herself.  They geared up and soon stood before the drow matriarch of their Noble House.

"I have been interrogating Calish," she said without preamble, fully aware that the five former slaves were well-acquainted with her son, who until recently had been the slavemaster in charge of their care.  They, in fact, had been the ones to bring him in to House Jalamir after he had defected to House Bel'vior, believing the Mortal Queen to be the likely victor in any Overreach civil war that might erupt between the various factions of the city.  "I have found out some disturbing news."

None of the five dared interrupt her but rather waited for her to continue at her own pace.  "He has told House Bel'vior the location of the Writhing Gate."  She let that sink in for a moment, for the hidden illithid teleportation device was located two days away from the city of Overreach and had been a powerful tool in allowing Jalamir slaves to perform raids upon the surface world.  None of the other Houses had such a device under their control; it was one of the reasons House Jalamir had risen to be the third-most powerful House in the city.

"As a result," Matron Jalamir continued, "House Bel'vior plans to sacrifice N'zorthal in a ritual near the Writhing Gate, to summon a powerful avatar of Lolth to fight on their behalf during the upcoming war.  All attempts to scry upon N'zorthal have failed, and his last known location was at the Writhing Gate, attempting to repair it."  Again, the five new citizens knew this wasn't entirely true, for there was nothing wrong with the Writhing Gate; N'zorthal had used that as an excuse to remain by the illithid artifact.  In fact, the group was fairly certain Matron Jalamir wasn't even aware of the Writhing Gate's true nature: that it derived its power from the Dying One, an illithid Elder God who had been nearly slain by Wee Jas, Goddess of Magic and Death, or that the writhing tentacles that gave the gate its name were actually ten of the hundred tentacles of the Dying One.  But they had been forbidden to pass on such information by N'zorthal and the group had no doubt in the mind flayer's ability to read their minds and learn of their treachery if they spoke of the device or the Dying One.

"We know very little about the specifics of the avatar-summoning ritual, so N'zorthal must be rescued from the ritual and kept alive thereafter - we don't know if his death at any point after the ritual begins might summon the avatar of Lolth."  Cramer's face drained of blood as he realized they were about to be sent to rescue the mind flayer from being sacrificed to Lolth.  As N'zorthal served House Jalamir as its Administer of Discipline, the mind flayer had eaten the gnome cleric's brain three times in a row as punishment for disobedience immediately after their first mission and the gnome had harbored a deep hatred for the illithid thereafter.

"We will leave for the Writhing Gate at once, Matron," replied Marlo, likewise anticipating their current mission's parameters.  Matron Jalamir nodded once, dismissing her troops.

"This is just great!" grumbled Utred once well out of earshot.  "We have to risk our necks to save a guy we don't really wanna save in the first place!"

"It's not like we have a whole lot of choice about the matter," growled Cramer.  "I sure wouldn't mind letting N'zorthal get bumped off, but not if it means having an avatar of Lolth running around!  That kind of problem we definitely don't need!"

"It's funny, but I wouldn't be surprised if summoning an avatar of Lolth is a direct result of us stealing back the _Tarrasque soul prison_ from the Mortal Queen," observed Marlo.  "If she can't have a giant, reptilian monster stomping around smashing her enemies, she'll have an image of her demon-goddess doing the same."

"Yeah, real funny," grumbled Cramer.

The group gathered up their travel gear and headed out of the city.  Fortunately, they'd made this trip several times before and it was a relatively straight shot through the Underdark tunnels, with not too many opportunities to get lost.  This was also a relatively unused section of tunnels, so they managed to make the trip without encountering any of the various dangers one might expect to run into in the lightless realms below the earth.

However, on the second day when they recognized they were coming close to the Writhing Gate chamber, they slowed their pace and Marlo and Cramer started casting the normal preparatory spells they preferred to have in place right before leaping into combat.  They could hear chanting coming from the chamber ahead so it sounded like the ceremony had already started, but that also meant the participants would likely not be able to hear the sounds of the gnomish cleric and the human sorcerer casting their own spells. Cramer cast _magic circle against evil_, _death ward_, and _true seeing_ spells upon himself and an _aid_ spell upon Khari.  Marlo used five charges from her new wand and covered each of the five former slaves with an _invisibility_ spell.  Then, unable to be seen without magical assistance, they sped forward to the chamber ahead.

The Writhing Gate was in the back end of the cavern; immediately before it, a _magic circle_ had been carved into the stone floor and its circumference ringed with various mystical runes and glyphs.  N'zorthal was held down in the center of the circle by a quartet of undead skeletons grasping his limbs, but the mind flayer was motionless but for the steady movement of his chest, indicating he was still breathing - so the sacrifice had not yet been carried through.  Armed and armored drow also ringed the circle, likely guardians to ensure the ceremony was not interrupted before its completion.  And in the back stood two female drow spellcasters, one an obvious cleric of Lolth and the other appearing to be a sorceress.

"Jhasspok, you head straight for the two women in the back and kill them," Cramer whispered to the lizardfolk, realizing he'd otherwise just deal with whoever was closest and the cleric wanted the spellcasters out of the picture as quickly as possible.  As the gnome gave his orders, a slight rippling effect on the stone floor beside him indicated Khari had just used his _earthglide warhammer_ to travel below the cavern; the dwarven fighter popped back into visibility as he popped up from the floor along the side of the _magic circle_, smashing the skeleton that had been holding onto N'zorthal's left ankle.  The skeleton's bones exploded into shards by the force of the dwarf's blow.  Khari suddenly found himself being attacked by three drow warriors, but he held his own against them.

And then Cramer struck what was to turn out to be a lethal blow to the ritual's success.  Choosing a point on the floor halfway between the two drow spellcasters, he cast a _silence_ spell and the chanting the two had been doing suddenly ceased.  Utred charged straight ahead, ignoring the skeletons and drow warriors and heading for the drow sorceress.  His greataxe swung in a powerful arc as the _invisibility_ spell dissipated from Utred's form, giving the startled spellcaster just enough time to step back enough that the blow wasn't immediately lethal.  She turned and fled at once, running full-bore for the Writhing Gate, seeking primarily to escape the radius of the _silence_ spell preventing her from further chanting and spellcasting herself, but fleeing from Utred also very high on her list of reasons.

Jhasspok sprinted forward parallel to Utred, leaping over a skeleton holding N'zorthal because it wasn't his target: the drow cleric was.  His battleaxe drew blood as he too popped back into view and the spellcaster staggered back a step, trying not to fall over from the blow.  She retaliated at once with her own weapon, a fiendish-looking scourge whose ends came whipping towards the lizardfolk, but he successfully blocked the attack with his shield.

With three foes suddenly seeming to materialize around the _magic circle_, the skeletons swarmed Utred and Jhasspok, whose axes were kept busy chopping the animated undead into pieces.  Then Marlo became visible as well as she cast an _Evard's black tentacles_ spell that encompassed the three drow warriors attacking Khari and two tougher drow fighters moving up behind them to come to the defense of the ritual participants.  Their attacks all ceased as they were forced to direct their attention against the pitch-black appendages squeezing the very life from their bodies.

The lone drow warrior not being crushed by Marlo's spell raced up to stab at Khari with his sword, but the dwarf brought him down with one blow of his warhammer and then cleaved the weapon-head into one of his compatriots bound at the edge of the writhing tentacles.  Both drow died within seconds of each other.  One of the other drow pinned by the tentacles managed to wriggle free, but the magical attack had unnerved him and instead of doing his duty to the Mortal Queen and fighting off her enemies, he turned and tried to flee for his life.  Of course, there was only one way out of the cavern - the way the heroes had entered - but fortunately they were mostly further into the chamber.  If he could just make it around the field of tentacles without anyone noticing him....

Cramer finally popped back to visibility as he cast a _spiritual weapon_ in the direction of the drow sorceress, back over by the Writhing Gate.  The shimmering field of force took on the appearance of a quarterstaff and slammed down at the drow spellcaster, whacking her on the side of the head and sending her reeling.  And by then Utred had chased her down as well, his greataxe thirsting for her blood.  She cast a _greater invisibility_ spell and stifled a sigh of relief when she stepped to the side and Utred was no longer sure exactly where she might be - unaware that Cramer saw her exact location just fine with his active _true seeing_ spell.

Jhasspok continued attacking the drow cleric as the remaining skeletons tried entering the fray, their bony claws ineffectual against the lizardfolk's thick scales.  From across the chamber, Marlo cast an _empowered scorching ray_ and the streams of flame went streaking over to the drow cleric as well - but only one of them managed to successfully strike its target.  The cleric, clearly in pain, rapidly stepped backwards and was pleased when the sounds of combat all around her suddenly became audible all at once - she had just stepped outside the area of effect of the gnome's _silence_ spell!  With great relief she cast a _cure critical wounds_ spell on herself, healing a good chunk of the damage she'd sustained thus far.

With a roar of determination, one of the drow fighters - a personal bodyguard of the cleric - ripped free from the black tentacles winding around him and positioned himself between his mistress and the rampaging lizardfolk eager to slay her.  His sword came slashing at Jhasspok, but the reptile's shield blocked the blow.  Khari slew another of the pinned drow warriors within reach, leaving the others - too far into the tentacle mass to be able to reach - to be crushed by the spell's effects.  Meanwhile, the one free warrior continued his stealthy approach around the tentacle mass, waiting for the opportunity to make his dash for freedom.  He looked around, saw nobody, and made his break - only to have Khari suddenly rise up from the stone floor before him, for the dwarf had seen his dash for freedom at the last moment and earthglided below the tentacle-mass to cut him off.  One swing of his dwarven warhammer was all it took to take the cowardly drow warrior out of the fight.

Cramer sent his _spiritual quarterstaff_ slamming down at the astonished drow sorceress - who had been sure she was safe beneath the _greater invisibility_ spell she'd cast upon herself - and then channeled a burst of positive energy through his holy symbol, blasting the remaining undead skeletons to dust.  Utred, seeing the _spiritual quarterstaff_ strike true, swung his axe at the area where he believed the sorceress must be and got lucky, his blade slicing through her abdomen and spilling coils of intestines out onto the floor at her feet.  She fell over, dead, returning to visibility in the process.

Jhasspok, with single-minded determination, dodged past the drow bodyguard - even though that meant taking a hit from his greatsword - to get to his primary target, the drow cleric Cramer had assigned him to kill.  He hit, and his attack caused her quite a bit of pain, but not as much pain as Marlo's subsequent follow-on _empowered scorching ray_ spell caused, this time hitting her target with all three rays of flame.  But the drow cleric had already committed to casting an _inflict serious wounds_ spell on the lizardfolk and saw through with that attack.  Jhasspok hissed in pain at the spellcaster's touch, then again as the fighter's greatsword went slicing into his flesh, parting scales with the power of the sword's swing.  But then Cramer redirected his _spiritual quarterstaff_ over to the wounded cleric, dropping her at last.  Figuring the others could deal with any clean-up operations by this point, the cleric went over to check on N'zorthal, just to make sure he was still alive.

Jhasspok did finally finish off the drow bodyguard, getting his battleaxe past his defenses and then surprising him by ripping his throat out with his sharp teeth.  Idly, the lizardfolk wondered why so many of his enemies forgot he was capable of such a maneuver; it wasn't like his mouthful of sharp teeth were hidden or anything.

Cramer cast a healing spell or two on the unconscious mind flayer, waking up the hated Administer of Discipline.  Greatly weakened by the ordeal, the mind flayer helped himself to a few of the brains of the fallen drow, picking through them to feast on those who were still tenuously clinging to life, for N'zorthal greatly preferred eating brains out of the skulls of still-living prey.   

"The Mortal Queen isn't going to like this at all," observed Khari once Marlo dismissed her _Evard's black tentacles_ spell, those still in its multilimbed embrace long since having been slain.

"That's kind of the point," Cramer replied.

"Yeah, but remember: without our slave tattoos she can't have scried upon us, so with any luck she won't know who it was who stopped her ceremony," added Marlo.  "And the anti-scrying measures they put into place to prevent us from scrying on the ritual will hopefully have also prevented her from watching us butcher her forces."

<You no longer have slave tattoos?> asked N'zorthal telepathically while slurping down the contents of a drow's skull.

"Yeah, there have been a few changes since you last saw us," replied Cramer.  "Let's go: we'll fill you in on the way back to Overreach."

 - - - 

After we finished the adventure, Logan informed us that on the two-day trip back, Cramer will receive a _sending_ spell from Lauren, saying they are needed back in Greenvale.  It's apparently time for our PCs to uphold our end of the bargain and free the Mithral Mage from Dwarven Hell.  Next adventure: "A Bad Day to Be a Dwarf."

And we all leveled up, so we're now at 11th level.  It'll all be downhill from here!


----------



## Richards (Jan 16, 2021)

*ADVENTURE 34 - A BAD DAY TO BE A DWARF*

PC Roster:
Cramer Appleknocker, gnome cleric 11​Jhasspok, lizardman 3/barbarian 3/fighter 5​Khari Hammerslammer, dwarf fighter 11​Marlo Pendragon, human sorcerer 11​Utred "Buckets" Butterflinger, dwarf barbarian 11​
Game Session Date: 6 January 2021

- - -

Lauren had sent Cramer a _sending_ spell during the trek back to Overreach with N'zorthal, informing him that the preparations had been made to allow the five new citizens of House Jalamir to fulfill their part of the agreement: to enter Dwarven Hell and rescue the Mithral Mage, the man the various factions of the Seekers of Eternity venerated, either as the original founder of their organization or, in the case of one sect, as a god.  "That's something you're not asked to do every day," the gnome cleric remarked, "rescue a god from Hell."

"Not much of a god if he can't find his own way out of Hell," Utred remarked.

"Yeah, well, Lauren's grandfather Arcturus doesn't believe any of that business about him being a god," pointed out Marlo.  "He's just a wizard, although apparently a pretty powerful one."

"Not just a wizard, though - he's also a lich," reminded Cramer.  "Accidental or not, he's undead and we'd best be careful dealing with him."

Almost immediately upon their return to Overreach they parted ways with the mind flayer Administer of Discipline and headed over to House Ky'hulcressen, where they were sent through the Plane of Shadows via the permanent _shadow gate_ and ended back in the surface city of Greenvale.  There they were met and brought before a group of Mithral Redeemers - the faction of the Seekers to which Arcturus belonged - and shown the preparations on which they had been working so diligently.

"It's...a metal lobster," Khari said, his brows furrowed in confusion.  "Are we supposed to take it with us or something?"

"It will actually be taking _you_ with _it_," replied one of the wizards who had been working on the device.  "I take it you're not familiar with the _Apparatus of Kwalish_?"  None of the five was familiar with the term.  The wizard explained the lobster-shaped contraption before them was patterned after an underwater exploratory device originally created by the wizard *Kwalish*.  "We've made some modifications," he said proudly.  "It has several _contingency_ spells loaded onto it, which will automatically trigger at the appropriate times.  It has a _Mordenkainen's magnificent mansion_ spell keyed to its interior, so despite its external size all five of you will fit within - two of you will pilot the vehicle while the other three remain inside the interior mansion.  It has _energy immunity_ - attuned to fire, of course - to activate when it comes in contact with the liquid mithral, and a--"

"Wait a minute," interrupted Cramer.  "Did you say 'liquid mithral?'"

"Yes, of course.  There's an irregular _planar gate_ that activates in a mine in the Baator's Breath Mountains, occasionally linking this world with Dwarven Hell.  Molten mithral often flows through the rift between the worlds when the _planar gate_ is opened.  In any case, as I was saying, it has a _find the path_ spell that will show the pilots the location of the Mithral Mage once you enter Dwarven Hell, an _Otiluke's resilient sphere_ to encapsulate the area where the Mithral Mage is imprisoned, and a _wish_ spell to remove the molten mithral from within the confines of the _resilient sphere_, allowing you to exit the _Apparatus_ and free him.  Once this has been activated, you will have 26 minutes to free the Mithral Mage and escape before the _resilient sphere_ collapses and the liquid mithral sea falls back upon you."

"So how will we get this device to the Baator's Breath Mountains?" asked Marlo.  It looked too big and bulky to put onto a cart and she couldn't imagine them "walking" it to the mountains on its lobster legs.

"Once you're all inside, the _Apparatus of Kwalish_ will be teleported to Ashfall - the kingdom where the mithral mine is located - and then it will _ethereal jaunt_ to the designated mine.  There you will remain, ethereally, until you see the dwarven miners fleeing from an opening rift, at which time you will return to the Material Plane and scuttle into the rift to the Mithral Sea of Dwarven Hell."

"So that's how we get to Dwarven Hell to free the Mithral Mage," Cramer repeated.  "How do we get back out?  Wait for another rift?"

"No, that's a little weirder," replied the wizard.  Cramer raised his eyebrows in disbelief, as so far this whole scheme seemed pretty weird.  "Normally, the Mithral Sea is warded against all forms of teleportation, including those of extraplanar means, but Lauren clearly foresaw Marlo using a scrolll of _plane shift_ to escape in her vision, so that's how you'll be escaping after you free the Mithral Mage."  He handed a scroll tube to the sorceress, who opened it and began studying its contents with a _read magic_ spell, to make sure it was what it was supposed to be and that she'd be able to use it correctly when the time came.

"So, I assume everything's ready for us to depart?" asked the gnome.

"Ready when you are," the wizard agreed.

"I'll want to prepare my spells first," Cramer replied, closing his eyes and clearing his mind for his daily prayers to Fharlanghn.  Surprisingly, as he made his selections of which spells he thought would be the most advantageous for the mission, he felt a gently mental tugging towards a spell he had never asked to receive before.  However, not wanting to go against Fharlanghn's wishes, he added a _magic circle against chaos_ spell to his mental repertoire.

"Who's driving?" asked Utred as the back "hatch" - by the lobster's tail - was opened and the group started piling inside.

"Marlo and I, as usual," the gnome replied.

"This is likely gonna be a bit different than steering a horse and wagon," Khari pointed out.

"No arguments there," Cramer said.  "But the normal interior is somewhat cramped, and Marlo and I take up the least amount of room."  It was true, too - the little gnome and the rather small human were the shortest of the group, especially when compared to the burly dwarves and the hulking lizardfolk.  "You three settle into the _Mordenkainen's magnificent mansion_ - we'll handle it from out here."  Utred shrugged and led the other two into the extradimensional space off to the side of the _Apparatus_ interior.  Only once they were inside did Cramer admit to his copilot, "Like I'd trust any of that lot to get us to where we need to go!"

Inside the extradimensional rooms, there were no complaints from Jhasspok or the dwarves, for the _mansion_ was stocked with delicious food and all manners of comfortable furniture.  "We ought to travel like this all the time!" enthused Khari, chewing on a cold chicken leg.  He proffered another to Jhasspok, explaining it away as "skyfish."  The lizardfolk asked no further questions, devoting his full attention to the meal before him.

Getting into the Mithral Sea went exactly as planned, although Marlo and Cramer saw the occasional glimpses of dwarven faces twisted into grimaces of extraordinary pain through their forward viewports.  "It's a layer of Hell, remember," Cramer reminded the sorceress.  "They all no doubt earned this afterlife."

"It's still horrible," Marlo remarked, her own face twisted in a grimace of distaste.

Through the magic of the _find the path_ spell, steering the _Apparatus of Kwalish_ in the right direction was no more difficult than following the trail of glowing arrows showing which way to go.  They traversed countless passageways and submerged tunnels, eventually dropping down into a crater at the bottom of the Mithral Sea.  The string of magical arrow signs vanished once the craft touched bottom, leading Cramer to announce, "We must be here."  Sure enough, more of the automatic spells started kicking in, forming an _Otiluke's resilient sphere_ around the entire crater and the molten mithral flowing upwards to escape the bubble of air now surrounding their magical craft.

After shooing the other three out of the _Mordenkainen's magical mansion_ - and grabbing a couple of chicken legs for herself and Cramer, who missed out on the free food thus far - Marlo cast a new spell she'd only recently mastered.  <Can you hear me okay?> she thought to the others.

"Aaaah!" cried Jhasspok suddenly, holding the sides of his temples between his clawed hands.  "A voice in my head!"

<That's just me, Jhasspok - it's Marlo!  I cast a _Rary's telepathic bond_ spell on us all - now we can send telepathic messages to each other without anyone else hearing.>

<You're coming in loud and clear,> announced Cramer, then began casting _detect undead_ and _magic vestment_ spells upon himself and _align weapon_ spells upon Khari's _earthglide warhammer_, Jhasspok's battleaxe, and Utred's greataxe.

<I can hear you, too,> replied Utred.

<Yeah, me too,> Khari thought over the link.

"Okay, time's a-wastin'," Cramer told the others, unsealing the hatch.

Khari was the first of the group to step out into Dwarven Hell.  Although the _wish_ spell had removed most of the molten metal, there were still pools of the stuff around, including two of considerable size.  As the others stepped out of the craft, the Hammerslammer dwarf looked around at the crater's interior, seeing perfectly well with his darkvision.  There wasn't much to see - not at first, in any case.  But as he stepped between the two largest pools of liquid mithral, a massive form surged up from the pool to his right, forming a flaming body of only the most rudimentary humanoid build.  A flaming fist came crashing down at the dwarf, but Khari dodged around the blow and swung his warhammer into the burning fires of the creature's hand.

In a flash, Jhasspok was at the dwarf's side, adding his own weapon to the fray.  But the reptile was unable to avoid the hellfire elemental's attack and the blow left singed and blackening scales all along Jhasspok's side where he'd been struck.

With the advantage of seeing ahead of time what he'd be facing and the combat expertise to realize which of his many weapons would be the best approach against this enemy, Utred loaded an arrow into his _frost longbow_ and sent it flying up at the hellfire elemental's head, well above the heads of Jhasspok and Khari.  Unfortunately, he saw the arrow incinerate almost immediately upon contact and couldn't be entirely sure if the _frost_ damage from his cold-infused arrow had even done any good against the towering beast.  Frowning, he put the longbow away and pulled out his trusty greataxe.

The massive elemental swung both its fists above its towering head and brought them down upon Jhasspok.  The lizardfolk tried in vain to block the blow with his shield but the elemental was too big for such a strategy to have much of an effect.  Most of Jhasspok's scales were now blackened and sizzling, their tips burning like embers.  And then, with another roar of flames, a second towering elemental rose up out of the other pool.

Marlo instinctively cast an _invisibility_ spell upon herself and decided to let "the boys" handle the combat while she worried about their primary mission: finding the Mithral Mage.  Despite her human eyesight, there was enough light in the air-filled crater from the two blazing hellfire elementals for her to see just fine.  And sure enough: there was a cave opening in the side of the crater wall just ahead, past the two pools of molten mithral from which the elementals had risen.

Cramer stepped forward behind Jhasspok and touched him on the tail, imbuing the lizardfolk with a _protection from fire_ spell that would hopefully prevent him from being fried to a crisp there on the spot.  Khari, beside the reptile, kept swinging his warhammer at the blazing foe, wishing he could reach more than the creature's extremities when it brought its long arms down to strike at one of them here on the ground.  But standing in the middle of a pool of molten mithral was a pretty effective way of ensuring nobody got too close.  Jhasspok was in the same position, but he kept swinging his battleaxe for all he was worth, determined to rid Dwarven Hell of this particular fire elemental at least.

Utred took it upon himself to take care of the second elemental. Charging at full speed with a dwarven battle-roar on his lips, he took a hit from the flaming beast before he could bring his greataxe to bear, but when he did he felt he had managed to deal the creature a fair bit of damage, even if it was difficult to see actual wounds on a body composed of flames.  The creature retaliated against the dwarven barbarian, while the other one divided its attacks between Jhasspok and Khari - likely the only thing keeping the lizardfolk alive at this point.

Marlo, still exploring invisibly, added a _magic circle against evil_ on the list of spells currently active upon her person.  She took the long way around the second hellfire elemental, skirting all the way around its pool of liquid metal.  Cramer cast the very same spell upon Khari, realizing their close proximity meant the spell would effectively cover himself, the dwarf, and the lizardfolk as well.  The three front-line combatants continued their assault upon the two hellfire elementals, while they in turn sent their flaming fists crashing down upon these living intruders upon the surface of Dwarven Hell.  Jhasspok dropped to one knee from this latest attack and Cramer belatedly realized if he didn't apply some healing to the lizardfolk soon he was likely to be slain.

But then an attack came from an unexpected vector.  Marlo, seeing how poorly the melee was going, popped back into visibility as she cast a _lightning bolt_ spell that went crashing through the forms of both hellfire elementals.  They roared in pain, the sudden assault causing the first elemental to explode in a gout of flame and disappear from view, its fires apparently extinguished forever.  That gave Cramer the opening he needed to dart forward and cast a much-needed _heal_ spell upon Jhasspok, who seriously looked to be on his last legs.  The positive energy revitalized the lizardfolk at once, as the singed scales started falling from him like leaves from a wind-blasted tree, leaving fresh, new scales gleaming in their place.

But combat wasn't yet over.  The hellfire elemental they'd been fighting having been slain, Khari and Jhasspok rushed over by Utred to help the barbarian deal with the one he'd been taking on by himself.  Together, the three of them weakened the elemental enough that Marlo was able to slay it with another _lightning bolt_ spell.  "You guys okay?" she asked, but they were pretty much all too busy at this point swigging down healing potions to answer.

Advancing forward towards the cave, Cramer's _detect undead_ spell suddenly "pinged," letting him know there were undead within range.  "I think the Mithral Mage is in there!" he told the others.  Utred scooped up the diminutive gnome from behind him and transferred him to the barbarian's back, a combat stance they'd used many times in the past - allowing Cramer to take advantage of the dwarven barbarian's greatly enhanced speed while for his part Utred barely even felt the added weigh he was carrying.

Sure enough, there in the cave was the Mithral Mage - or what the group assumed was him, given it was a shiny, gleaming skeleton encased in chains: thick, metal chains which were clamped not only around the skeleton's neck and wrists but also went through his rib cage.  But standing before the metal skeleton was a dwarven form wearing reddish hellsteel armor, wielding a _flaming hellsteel greataxe_.  Besides the armor, he wore a metal collar the same color and style as the chains imprisoning the Mithral Mage.

Khari went rushing in, whacking the half-fiend dwarf in the side of the head with his warhammer.  Jhasspok followed suit with his battleaxe, taking a retaliatory strike from the dwarf's weapon as he passed by him, trying to open a spot for Utred to rush in, so they could attack the guardian from three sides.  Utred failed to disappoint, rushing into the open area and bringing Cramer along for the ride.  Rushed by three enemies, the half-fiend dwarf took a step off to the side and brought forth an _unholy blight_ down upon all four of the men; Marlo was still safely outside the cave entrance, in the much bigger crater opening.  Not surprisingly, the good-hearted Khari suffered the worst of the group from the guardian's magical assault.

Marlo activated her _boots of levitation_ rising up into the air just high enough to fire an _empowered lightning bolt_ over the heads of her friends and strike only the half-fiend dwarf.  Cramer, however, was concentrating on his _detect undead_ spell and was practically staggered by the feedback he got when he focused directly upon the Mithral Mage.  There was absolutely no doubt in the gnome's mind the skeletal lich was undead - he was the most powerful form of undead the cleric had ever encountered!

Khari brought the dwarven defender down with a series of blows from his warhammer, giving the fallen guardian a good blow to the head once he was down just to be safe.  Then they moved forward to examine the cave's prisoner.

The silvery flames burning in the otherwise hollow eye sockets of the Mithral Mage "blinked" once in surprise at it exclaimed, "You're not my brother's champions!"

"Brother?" asked Cramer.  "Uh, no idea about that.  We're here to rescue you, though, because you play an important role in a prophecy."  He briefly explained about the Dying One and how "the metal man from Hell" was one possible way of preventing the Dying One from returning to his full power and destroying the world.

"By all means - I have no wish for this world to be destroyed!" exclaimed the Mithral Mage.  "I have some things that will need to be taken care of, but I will gladly aid you in defeating this Dying One in exchange for freeing me!"

Unfortunately, freeing the Mithral Mage from his chains turned out to be rather difficult, for the group had no way to destroy the enchanted chains binding the metal lich.  "You'd have thought Lauren might have foreseen this!" grumbled Cramer.

"There is another way," pointed out the Mithral Mage.

"Yeah?  How?" snapped the gnome cleric, well aware that time was passing quickly and pretty soon the whole crater would be once again flooded with molten mithral - and if they hadn't freed the prisoner by then, their chances were nil in getting this part of the prophecy completed.

"Kill me," replied the Mithral Mage.  Upon seeing Marlo's querulous look, he stated simply, "I'm a lich.  Slay me and my soul will return to my phylactery - which is safely on the Material Plane, not upon this dreary level of Hell.  Within a week, I'll have reformed my body, and then we can be safely about our joint business."  _And,_ he thought to himself, _I won't have to get involved in their schemes unless they track me down again_.  This talk about the severed head of an illithid Elder God having survived a decapitation from Wee Jas was, he supposed, technically possible - but highly improbable.  With luck, he'd be able to research the veracity of these strange people's claims on his own before deciding on whether or not to take part in their crazy schemes.

<Guys?> Cramer asked over the telepathic link.  <What do you think?  Can we trust him?>

"Aaaah!" cried Jhasspok, once again startled to hear a voice in his head from out of nowhere.  The Mithral Mage turned his head to look quizzically at the lizardfolk, but no explanation was forthcoming.

<I got nothin' better to suggest,> pointed out Utred.

<Time's running out,> added Marlo.

"Okay," agreed the gnome cleric.  "Guys: kill him."

It took a bevy of physical attacks and combat spells to bring down the Mithral Mage, but for his part he just stood there and took it.  Eventually, his skull fell backwards and the silvery flames from his eye sockets went out, his mithral-coated skeleton collapsing in a pile with the enchanted adamantine chains binding him in place.  "Pity we can't take any of this with us," remarked Utred.  "Mithral and adamantine - they're both worth plenty!"

"Yeah, well so are our hides!" replied Cramer from the barbarian's back.  "Come on - let's get out of here!"  Utred complied, but not before bending over the slain half-fiend dwarf's body and grabbing up his _flaming hellsteel greataxe_.  "What are you planning on doing with that?" the cleric asked.  "Don't you have enough weapons already?"  The barbarian stifled a chuckle; "enough weapons" - what a crazy concept!

Jhasspok raced over to where they had battled the hellfire elementals and retrieved one of his own sloughed-off scales.  Then, succumbing to intense curiosity, he bit into it, wondering what he might taste like.  He was disappointed; apparently he tasted dry and burned.

"Are you quite through?" Marlo asked, unrolling her _plane shift_ spell scroll.

"Wait, are we just abandoning the lobster thing here?" asked Khari, looking worriedly at the _Apparatus of Kwalish_.

"No choice," Marlo answered.  "It's far too big for me to take with us.  The wizards are well aware this was a one-way mission for their vehicle, and that they'd never see it again."

"Bummer," Khari sighed, thinking about the rest of the banquet lying untouched inside.  Those had been good chicken legs!

Marlo began reading the words from her scroll when Cramer got the frantic sensation that he absolutely needed to cast a _magic circle against chaos_ spell upon himself - and immediately!  He rattled off the words to the spell, finishing it up just as Marlo's spell took effect.  A burst of energy exploded around the heroes and their bodies slipped out of Dwarven Hell...

...but instead of returning to the Material Plane as Marlo had expected, they were in a strange land, filled with sights that staggered the imagination.  Colored smoke drifted listlessly across the sky, occasionally breaking up into sharp-paned shards before flapping off into nothingness.  The ground beneath them was spongy and rippled softly of its own accord, rising and lowering the heroes as if they were each on separate ships at sea.  A flash of blue lightning exploded up from a mountain in the distance, before the mountain lost its cohesion and drifted off in a cloud of brightly-colored bubbles, each changing through a variety of hues in rapid succession before popping.

"Where are we?" asked Jhasspok, looking around in puzzlement.  He knew the surface world was very different from the Underdark where he'd been hatched and raised, but this was completely different even by "surface world" standards.

Marlo just shook her head, not knowing how to answer the lizardfolk.  "Somewhere far away," she said, her voice barely a whisper as she added, "in some far...Far Realm...."

- - -

And that's where we left off, not only for this gaming session but for the next few months.  Harry and Joey will be out of school sometime in May or early June, so we'll be able to pick up our two campaigns then.  But right now the supposition is that the only reason Marlo was even able to successfully cast a _plane shift_ spell that allowed the heroes to exit Dwarven Hell was due to deific support from the Dying One, her secret patron.  There's a very good chance that Marlo's status as a secret worshiper of the Dying One may come out into the open in the next adventure; all of the players are of course well aware of the secret but none of the other PCs know.  Either way, it looks like the next session is going to be "a bad day to be Marlo Pendragon!"


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## Richards (Jun 12, 2021)

*ADVENTURE 35: THE FAR PLANE HOME*

PC Roster:
Cramer Appleknocker, gnome cleric 11​Jhasspok, lizardman 3/barbarian 3/fighter 5​Khari Hammerslammer, dwarf fighter 11​Marlo Pendragon, human sorcerer 11​Utred "Buckets" Butterflinger, dwarf barbarian 11​
Game Session Date: 9 June 2021

 - - -

Instinctively, the five heroes took a step back, surprised at the strangeness of the world around them.  Their surroundings seemed to wobble in place before finally settling down to a terrain that at first _looked_ somewhat normal, if you didn't examine it too closely....

Whereas mere moments ago they'd been on a level of Dwarven Hell, they were now standing up to their ankles in a mist-covered swamp.  This was fine by Jhasspok; he preferred standing in a swamp over dealing with all the heat and molten metal of Dwarven Hell.  But there was something wrong with the background in the distance, something that just didn't make sense to the easily-puzzled lizardfolk.  He tried shaking his head to see if that would make any difference, but it didn't.

Beside him, Marlo and Cramer were likewise examining their surroundings.  They could tell this Far Realm was broken up into multiple layers, and that these layers each had slightly different terrain, some of it overlapping like the Ethereal Plane overlapped with the Material Plane.  To their left, the ankle-deep waters of the swamp changed suddenly to the waters of a much deeper lake; just beyond that, the water was now magma instead.  To their immediate right, the local terrain was a tree-filled forest; beyond that, some sort of fractal plane that gave you a headache if you stared at it too long.  But having studied (to some extent, in any case) extraplanar lore, both spellcasters realized you could simply "will" yourself to an adjacent planar layer, in the same manner you could choose to "fall" in any direction when upon the Elemental Plane of Air.  What they didn't realize was this wasn't knowledge shared by their lizardfolk companion or either of their two dwarven friends.

"What in the blazin' Hell?" demanded Utred, looking around him.  "How'd we end up here?"

"I'm not entirely sure," admitted Cramer, "but it's essential that you all stay in close proximity to me.  I have a _magic circle against chaos_ spell centered on me - step too far away and you'll be battered by the pure chaos energy of this place."

"An' then what?' asked Khari, gripping his warhammer and looking about for enemies on this strange world.

"Your mind...breaks, and you end up crazy," the gnome cleric answered.  "Jhasspok?  Did you hear me?  Don't get too far away from me, okay?"

"Okay," Jhasspok answered, ready to do exactly as requested.  This place was too strange for his liking and he had every intention of sticking close to the only ones who could get him back to the safety of the Underdark...heck, he'd even take the "normal" strangeness of the surface world, at this point!

"Well, I'm makin' sure you stick close to me," Utred said, scooping Cramer up from behind and lifting him up to ride on his shoulders.  It was a maneuver the two had done plenty of times in the past, giving the height-challenged Cramer a better vantage point (and a quicker movement rate), while the burly dwarven barbarian hardly even noticed the extra weight provided by the little gnome.

"What's that?" Marlo asked, pointing straight ahead of them, more than a little bit of worry in her voice.  Looking at where she indicated, the group saw a "V" of the foggy mists parting as something approached them through the shallow water.  "It's heading straight for us!" the sorceress added, ready to activate her _boots of levitation_ if it came down to it, but concerned that she didn't want to rise up too far away from the protection of Cramer's spell.

"Hey!" Jhasspok called out as the approaching creature raised itself up above the mists.  "It's a glittering mouther!"  Oddly, although the lizardfolk had fallen under the sway of one of these creatures back in the remains of Cramer Appleknocker's home town of Grover's Comb, he was actually kind of glad to see the creature approach - it was, in his mind, something somewhat reminiscent of home.

"'Gibbering,'" Cramer automatically corrected, then frowned to himself in puzzlement, for while this creature had every appearance of being a gibbering mouther - an amorphous, shapeless blob of matter whose outer surface was covered in random eyes and mouths - this one had one very distinctive difference to the creatures they'd fought in Grover's Comb: it wasn't gibbering!  Instead, it opened its various mouth one at a time and each spit out a single word, forming sentences seemingly created in a committee.

"Hello," one mouth said, followed immediately by a bevy of others: "We..."  "Have..."  "Been..."  "Waiting..."  "For..."  "You...."

"How is this possible?" Marlo wanted to know.  They hadn't even known they'd be shunted here after escaping from Dwarven Hell; the _plane shift_ scroll she'd read aloud was to have taken them back to the Material Plane, not here!

But the creature - which Cramer soon dubbed the "chatting mouther" - ignored her question, telling her what it had intended to say instead.  "Follow..."  "Us..."  "To..."  "Place..."  "Of..."  "Sanctuary...."

The heroes looked at each other and Cramer, atop Utred's shoulders, shrugged.  "It's not like we've got any better options," he reasoned, and there was little argument against that.  "Lead on, buddy!"

The many-eyed abomination led the group back the way it had come through the swamps, taking care not to cross any of the boundaries to any of the adjacent layers.  Trudging through the ankle-deep waters of the swamp, they eventually approached a thick slab of stone, the end pointing at them containing a door of sorts and then extending for some 40 feet or so, attaining a height of about 10 feet for most of its length.  Marlo couldn't help making the comparison: it reminded her of nothing so much as a giant, petrified tentacle.

The chatting mouther reformed some of its mass into a pair of pseudopods and manipulated open the door-hatch, oozing its way inside.  Marlo was the first to follow it, but her entry took a sudden halt when she heard their guide start to mutter to itself.  "Hungry..." admitted one mouth, and the sentiment was echoed first by another mouth, then several more, until the thing was whispering, mumbling, shouting, and murmuring, "Hungry...hungry...HUNGRY!"  Marlo made short work of dashing back outside into the ankle-deep waters of the swamp to rejoin the others.

"Get ready," she warned.  "I think it's reverting to type!"

Utred gripped his greataxe and took up position on one side of the open hatch; Khari followed suit on the other side, gripping his warhammer.  And then out splorched the gibbering mouther, striking at Utred with six newly-formed pseudopods, the mouths at the end of each snapping at him.  Of the six only one managed to latch onto the dwarven barbarian, but Utred suppressed a shriek when the mouth biting him suddenly vomited forth four illithid tentacles, which wrapped around his arm and pulled him closer, the tentacles reaching out for his brain.  Both dwarves retaliated immediately, striking the abomination with their weapons.  Cramer leaned forward and brought his mace crashing down upon the nearest tentacle, but its metal head seemed to bounce off the creature's rubbery hide.  Jhasspok strode forward with his battleaxe ready to strike but he got there too late, for Marlo took it out with an _empowered scorching ray_ spell.

"Let's drag that thing all the way out of there," she suggested, and Jhasspok was happy enough to do at least that much - plus, a gibbering mouther had an abundance of tasty eyes to sample!

Once everybody trundled inside the petrified tentacle and Khari pulled the hatch shut, the group heaved a collective sigh of relief, for they were all overcome with an overwhelming sense of safety.  "Just where are we?" Utred wanted to know, as Cramer climbed back down off the dwarf's shoulders.  He could easily see the interior had five _stone shaped_ "cots" along one wall, two sized for dwarves and one for an even smaller gnome; apparently their gibbering mouther host was quite sincere about them having been expected.

"Let's see what this has to say about it," Marlo suggested, walking to the back of the hollow structure, where she saw - by the light of the group's _slave-light cloaks_ - a _stone-shaped_ desk, upon which sat five headbands, a book, and a scroll.  Unrolling the scroll, she passed on what it had to say.

"This first part is a spell of some sort," she said, reading the notation beneath the spell-runes: "'_The gnome will find the path to where he needs to be tomorrow._'"  Then, after that, was an explanation of how the headbands worked; while not magical, each held a chip of stone from the petrified tentacle that, when worn against the forehead, protected the wearer from the insanity-inducing effects of the chaotic plane.

Opening the book next, she was surprised to see instead of writing, the "words" consisted of a series of raised bumps; this, she realized, was "Quiddith," a touch-language used by the mind flayers.  She asked to borrow Cramer's _helm of comprehend languages_ and he passed it over, the magical helm automatically resizing to fit the human's head.  "What's it say?" Cramer demanded, and Marlo held up a hand while she perused a few pages first.

Finally, after a quick skimming, she passed on the gist of what the book had to say.  "It's about the Dying One," she said.  "When he was beheaded by Wee Jas, his cult of followers 'anchored' his head to our world, Shadreth, with ten anchors."

"Ten, huh?" asked the gnome.  "I'll bet it's no coincidence that there are ten tentacles making up the Writhing Gate!"

"The anchors," Marlo continued, reading ahead, "are to open a gate for the 'reborn' Uboros to escape the Far Realm.  Apparently only seven anchors are needed for that task, but the energy released would split Shadreth apart.  Using all 10 anchors will allow the energy to disperse safely."  None of this talk made any sense to Jhasspok; he settled down on the largest bunk and rifled through his leather satchel, looking for a dried dung beetle - he was pretty sure he still had a few such provisions left, and past history already told him there was no point in offering to share his snack with the others because they always turned him down.

"Due to the prophecies foretelling the world's destruction at Uboros' rebirth, the author of this book went to investigate the anchors," Marlo continued.  She read ahead; the book listed the anchor points for all ten locations, but the translated names were meaningless to her without the proper context.  However, it did lead her to come up with a slightly different supposition about the anchors: it was entirely possible that there were in fact ten Writhing Gates - that actually made a lot of sense, for the Dying One was said to have 100 tentacles, and the Writhing Gate with which the group was familiar sported 10 tentacles...it fit!

Continuing on, Marlo relayed that the author found one of the anchors was broken - again, this made perfect sense if the petrified structure in which the heroes now found themselves was one of the Dying One's severed tentacles - so he headed into the Far Realm to find the cause.  And that was where the book left off.  "Weird," was all Utred had to say about the matter.

Marlo returned the helm to Cramer and let him read it over for himself.  But their jointly-agreed-upon plan was to spend the night in their petrified sanctuary, so Cramer and Marlo would have a full complement of spells in the morning before they wandered back out into the Far Realm.  Cramer cast a _read magic_ spell, examined the scroll, and confirmed it was a _find the path_ spell.  Then it was lights out and time to rest up.

The next morning, after Cramer had prayed to his god for his spells, the five heroes donned their headbands and stepped back outside into the strangeness of the Far Realm.  The nearby "bands" of planar layers were still there, with a forest on one side and a lake on the other, with ankle-deep swamp in the middle zone.  "Me boot's're gonna get ruined in this water," grumbled Khari.

"That's why I don't wear any," Jhasspok answered.  Khari almost pointed out the lizardfolk didn't in fact wear _any_ clothes, unless you counted his _slave-light cloak_, but that was more for illumination than protection from the weather or concerns about nudity.  But then he thought better of engaging the lizardfolk in any lengthy conversation, turned to Cramer, and asked when he was going to cast the _find the path_ spell so they could all get out of this strange place.

"Doing so now," Cramer promised, unrolling the scroll and letting the word inscribed in the prayer roll off his tongue.  "Got it!" he said.  "Anybody else see the arrows pointing which way to go?"  Nobody did.  "Then you'll all need to follow me," he said, casting a _longstrider_ spell so he wouldn't slow down the rest of the group.  But then Utred scooped him up and plopped him back up on his shoulders again.

Marlo cast a _Rary's telepathic bond_ spell, informed everyone telepathically that she had done so, and once again Jhasspok was practically startled out of his scaly hide at the sudden, unexpected voice in his head.  <It's just me, Jhasspok!> Marlo chided the lizardfolk as the dwarves took the lead and Cramer gave Utred telepathic instructions on which way to go.  Jhasspok couldn't help it; he flinched every time anybody "spoke" over the shared mental link.  That was something he'd likely never get used to.

It wasn't long during their trek to wherever it was "the gnome needed to be" according to the scroll's author that they heard the trumpeting of a number of elephantine trunks coming from somewhere off to the right - the "forest" area on the other side of a planar layer.  It sounded like a herd of elephants was approaching!  But when the source of the trumpeting was finally made clear, it was a much smaller number of creatures suddenly coming into view.  In point of fact, it was merely one, although the Cthulephant was a rather large beast in and of itself.  However, the great number of rubbery trunks splitting off from the front of its head wasn't the only strange thing about it, for it seemed to glide _through_ the trees, passing through them like a ghost.  "Um, incorporeal elephant approaching!" Cramer warned the others, in case they had missed it.

Utred hadn't missed it.  Upon its sudden appearance, the dwarven barbarian picked up his speed, running as fast as he could in the direction the gnome cleric had told him the arrows were pointing.  Utred wasn't afraid of combat with anything, but this Far Realm place creeped him out and he didn't trust any of the local inhabitants - what he wouldn't give to be back home already and fighting some drow or something!

Jhasspok could easily run as fast as the dwarven barbarian but to do so would mean to leave Marlo and Khari behind and he wasn't willing to do that.  Instead, he ran just far enough to be in the multi-trunked creature's path, then stood his ground with his battleaxe raised, ready to strike out at it if it continued its approach.  Khari opted to follow his fellow dwarf in flight from the great beast.

But the lizardfolk's blade wasn't the first weapon to strike the Cthulephant's flank - that honor went to the _spiritual quarterstaff _Cramer caused to blink into existence and slam down at the massive pachyderm.  Cramer saw the edges of the beast wavering and realized it likely took up more than the standard three dimensions, likely existing in a fourth and possibly even fifth dimension.

Marlo hit the beast with an _empowered scorching ray_ spell.  It bellowed in pain, trumpeting wildly through a dozen or more separate trunks.  Then it struck out at the nearest target: Jhasspok, who swung his blade at the beast and struck it a solid blow before being snatched up and pulled not only into a multi-trunk grapple but also - in some extradimensional manner the lizardfolk couldn't even begin to understand - being sent over to the next layer with his foe, such that the Cthulephant stood waist deep in the waters of the lake while still standing on the border between the forest layer and the swamp layer.

Seeing as they were going to have to fight this beast anyhow, Utred shifted course and sprinted at the Cthulephant, his greataxe slashing at a powerful trunk.  But he was snatched up by several other equally-powerful trunks, bringing Cramer along for the ride with him.  The dwarf and gnome found themselves fighting off the beast while solidly in the forest layer.  Cramer bent down and touched a trunk, channeling an _inflict critical wounds_ spell directly at the creature's flesh - and learned right then and there the elephantine horror enjoyed some sort of spell resistance, for the cleric's spell did absolutely nothing to it.

Despite having been grabbed around the waist by a pair of trunks, Jhasspok's hands were still free and he brought his battleaxe swinging down into the nest of trunks.  Khari used the power of his _earthglide warhammer_ to drop down below the surface of the forest and only rise back up when he was underneath the great beast.  Then, standing to his full height underneath the thing's belly, he swung for all he was worth.  Marlo sent another _empowered scorching ray_ spell crashing into the beast's side, where her gouts of flame wouldn't hit any of her trunk-entangled friends.

The Cthulephant pulled Jhasspok into the lava layer and released him, expecting the painful lizardfolk to plummet to his immediate death.  But Jhasspok was having none of that; he clamped down hard with his teeth onto the base of a trunk and held on, his mouth filling with the Cthulephant's blood.  He didn't have to hold on for very long, either, for the ongoing attacks from his friends soon brought the monster down, falling over onto his side and crushing Khari with its massive body over in the forest layer.  Jhasspok scrambled up onto the creature's head, a temporary island of safety in a pool of magma.  He looked over at the next layer, and there was the Cthulephant floating in the lake, and just beyond it was lying in the fog-covered mists of the swamp, and even further back the many-trunked abomination was lying on the forest floor, with a bruised and battered Khari climbing out from underneath the massive beast.  Jhasspok hadn't been aware there had been so many of the beasts attacking all at once!

<Will yourself back over here!> Marlo called to Jhasspok over the telepathic link, causing the lizardfolk to cry out on shock and surprise again at the voice yelling inside his head.  But it soon became apparent to Marlo and Cramer that not everyone knew about all of the planar traits of the Far Realm and coached Jhasspok on how to "blink" over from the magma layer to the swamp layer by simply envisioning the transfer and willing it to happen.  The lizardfolk finally made it through this new maneuver, and not a moment too soon for the Cthulephant slowly sank below the bubbling pool of magma.  The group once now back together on the same layer, Cramer directed Utred forward, following the arrows only the cleric could see.

Eventually, the swamp gave way to a chasm, with a structure of shifting patterns surrounding the gaping maw of the open space before them.  Jutting out from this stone building was a simple hallway, square in cross-section, 10 feet to a side, and some 50 feet long.  "The arrows are pointing us straight through that hallway," Cramer said, and that was all Utred needed to hear.  He moved forward into the open hallway, Cramer still perched on his shoulders.

There were fine spider webs within the dark hallway, only now being lit by the _slave-light cloaks_ the heroes wore.  But as Utred stepped deeper within the structure, he saw the skittering swarms of spiders clumped ahead of him, one group on the ceiling and another on a side wall.  Not liking having to deal with entire swarms of small critters - they were hard to fight with a greataxe - the dwarf plucked a bead from his _necklace of fireballs_ and tossed it between the two swarms, engulfing them in the subsequent explosion of flames. As expected, the blast fried quite a few of the spiders into crispy corpses, but the dwarf was surprised that these dead spiders didn't fall down from the ceiling to the floor below but rather stayed in place on the ceiling and wall.  Odd!

The remaining spiders surged forward, those on the ceiling flipping over to the opposite wall and then swarming over Utred, up his body, and onto Cramer as well, biting with venom-laced mouths that the gnome was astonished to see actually held teeth, like no terrestrial spider he'd ever seen.  Cramer reached into his pack and pulled out a _potion of neutralize poison_, knowing it could be vital in counteracting the effects of whatever venom surged through these spiders' bodies.  He passed a second vial down to Utred but the dwarf was busy scraping spiders off his body with both hands, so the gnome tucked it between the straps of the dwarf's pack, the top of which Cramer was sitting upon.

Jhasspok was also frustrated at facing a whole bunch of little enemies instead of one big one, but he swapped weapons, setting aside his trusty battleaxe and using his _flaming spear_ not so much to stab at individual spiders but to wave the tip around and try to burn up as many of the creatures as he could.  Khari pulled out and activated his _flaming burst longsword_ and followed the lizardfolk's lead.  Scorched spiders fell away from the bodies of Utred and Cramer, falling to the floor.  Marlo left the boys to deal with those spiders that had already made it as far as they did and concentrated on those far enough away to take down with another of her _empowered scorching ray_ spells, burning them into blackened husks.

But before the group moved on they noticed they had all been moving sideways.  This became especially noticeable when Jhasspok, over on the right-hand side, suddenly found himself standing on the rightmost wall, almost bumping heads with Utred!  Marlo stood on the wall beside and behind him.  Even the dead spiders on the ceiling had shifted position; they were now over on the left-hand wall, while those that had been over on the right wall were now on the ceiling!  "Gravity's all flooey!" Cramer surmised.  But then he urged Utred down the hall, eager to be on their way.

Utred exited the hallway and entered a strange chamber - although "strange," he realized, applied just about equally to everything he'd seen on this oddball plane!  But he stood on an infinite stairway of some sort; the stairs led upward to his left, to make a turn to the right after some 40 feet or so and continuing upwards, making another upwards turn to the right after another 40 feet, and then a fourth one...which somehow ended up right back where the stairs had started, even though it was uphill the whole way.  Utred followed the stairs back the other way with his eyes, confirming by going counterclockwise down the stairs you'd make a full transit and yet end up right back where you started.  Weird!  But at each corner there was a doorway facing the downward set of stairs...and on each of these four hallways was a much larger spider of the same type as they'd fought in the hallway behind them.  At Cramer's urging, Utred drank down the _potion of neutralize poison_ as the large pseudonatural arachnids skittered towards them, one pair heading down the stairs from the left and the other two climbing up the stairs to the right.

Two of the spiders - the closest pair - raced up to Utred and Cramer and snapped at them with their horrible, teeth-filled mouths, while the other two each scampered through a doorway at the corner of the stairs and were gone from view.  But they ended up directly in the hallway, one skittering forward on the ceiling and other on one of the walls, snapping their teeth at Marlo, Khari, and Jhasspok who had yet to enter the winding stairs that encased the chasm.  Their mouths likewise failed to hit their targets as the heroes instinctively stepped back from these odd-looking arachnids.

Fortunately, despite their greater size, these spiders weren't much more of a threat than the smaller versions making up the swarms the heroes had battled in the hallway - and despite their odd appearance, they died just as easily as terrestrial spiders of a similar size.  Utred cut one down with his greataxe, slicing through its head in a single blow of his blade, while Jhasspok and Khari took out another one with their own weapons.  Marlo killed the other one in the hallway with another of her _empowered scorching ray_ spells, while a combination of Cramer's mace and Utred's hefty blade made short work of the last one.  Then the other three heroes entered the winding stairs to join with Cramer and Utred, but not at all in the way they had imagined.

Due to the shifting gravity planes in the hallway, Jhasspok stepped out from a side wall and found himself not behind Utred and Cramer as expected but rather down the opposite set of stairs.  Marlo, likewise, was on a different set of stairs; only Khari, who was on the "floor" of the corridor when he stepped through the doorway, ended up beside Utred and Cramer, who had likewise entered the stairs from the floor level.  Just in case it made a difference, Marlo and Jhasspok were instructed to return the way they came, get to the floor level of the shifting hallway, and then exit back into the endless stairs.  As expected, they showed up beside the others.

"Now where?" asked Khari wearily.  He was getting tired of the strangeness of this Far Realm!

"This way," Cramer said, leading Utred up two flights of stairs and through the doorway at the corner.  As the rest of the group started climbing clockwise around the chasm, Jhasspok went the exact opposite direction.

"This way!" Marlo called, purposefully not using the _Rary's telepathic bond_ when she knew it would only startle the lizardfolk.

"Downhill's easier!" Jhasspok replied, and sure enough he made better time going counterclockwise than the others trudging up the stairs.  And they were all apparently in the same orientation as they stood before the intended door.  Cramer shrugged and sent Utred stepping through the open doorway, the others following just behind.  This led to another corridor like the one they'd used to enter the stairway, only it was thankfully devoid of either spiders or webs.  But on the other side of the short hallway was a sight that put everything else the heroes had seen on this Far Realm to shame.

The open doorway at the end of the hallway led to an open void.  Tumbling through it was what could only be the severed head of the Dying One itself, a hundred impossibly-long tentacles spreading out from the massive head of a mind flayer.  Amidst these tentacles was a small fleet of recognizably drow ships, of the type used on the Bioluminescent Sea that surrounded the drow city of Overreach, each ship encased in a bubble of some sort.

Seen only by Cramer, the otherwise invisible arrows of the _find the path_ spell indicated the gnome was to "fall" toward one of the smaller vessels; this, apparently, was his final destination for no arrows departed from the ship.  Cramer instructed the others over the telepathic link (eliciting another yelp of surprise from Jhasspok) how to direct one's personal sense of "down" such that they fell in whichever direction they chose.  It took some getting used to, but the five heroes eventually managed to all fall in the appropriate directions and land upon the vessel Cramer indicated was their target.

But they noticed two things as they approached their target vessel.  As they got closer and closer, a deafening silence encroached upon their telepathic bond, rendering it unusable.  (Jhasspok didn't even notice its absence, but would have been perfectly fine with its loss had he been aware.)  But the deck was already crowded with a score of unfamiliar figures, each as motionless as a carved statue.  As the group landed upon the deck among these figures, not a one of them moved or in any way acknowledged their presence.  They were apparently warriors of some sort, with thin, curving swords buckled at their waists, elaborate helmets (some of them sporting demonic visages and various horns and antlers), and strange armor seemingly made of wood in places.  But their complete immobility made them seem as if they were already dead; in fact, none of the heroes could even see any of these fierce-looking warriors breathe.

"Are they statues?" asked Jhasspok.  They were obviously not carved from stone, for there were too-elaborate knots holding their helmets in place and some of these frozen figures had visible facial hair; in addition, they were in full color, with brightly-colored designs on their armor.  Sprouting up from the backs of some of these figures were wooden poles holding fluttering, vertical flags, but the flags were as motionless as the rest of them.

"I think these are regular people," Marlo hazarded, "but they're stuck in some sort of _time stop_ effect."  Some quick experimentation showed the heroes were unable to affect these frozen people in any way: they couldn't be lifted from their positions, or their arms pulled away from their bodies, or their helmets removed from their heads.

"What's your _find the path_ spell telling you?" Utred asked the gnome riding on his backpack.

"The arrows lead to the cabin, where we're to wait until this ship exits the gate," Cramer replied.  And then a memory came crashing into his head: the first time the group had stepped through the Writhing Gate, being teleported to the surface world on their first raiding mission, there had been a part of the transition where Cramer's mind had been contacted by the Dying One; he surmised the _teleportation_ effect took those using the Writhing Gate temporarily into the Far Realm before depositing them at their final destination.  It was entirely possible, the cleric mused, that this entire ship was passing through the Writhing Gate - or one of the ten Writhing Gates, Cramer mentally amended - and these twenty warriors were simply frozen between moments of time.  The cleric climbed down from Utred's back and stepped over to the cabin at the back of the ship, with the other four following behind him.

There, they found a male drow sitting upon a throne of some type, his robes bearing the insignia of House Falmakyorl, one of the Eight Ruling Houses of the Overreach - the one in charge of the city's naval vessels, as a matter of fact.  Like the foreign men standing outside, the drow seemed to be frozen in place; unlike them, he was able to move his eyes around, which he did frantically as if to attract the heroes' attention.

"Can you hear me?" Cramer asked the drow.  The eye movements increased, as close as a nod of affirmation as the wizard could likely accomplish in his current state.

Marlo stepped up to him.  "Look to the left for 'yes' and to the right for 'no,'" she suggested.  "Can you hear us?"  The drow quickly looked off to his left.

"Is this something you expected would happen?" she pressed on, and the wizard shifted his glance to the right.  So he hadn't expected to be frozen like this.  Marlo had also experienced a brief moment of telepathic contact with the Dying One when first using the Writhing Gate, as had Khari; Utred and Jhasspok were the only ones who hadn't been contacted.  But while the sorcerer's mental contact had lasted but a brief moment - long enough for her to swear allegiance to the Dying One - this ship's transit through the Far Realm was taking much, much longer for some reason.  _Perhaps it had something to do with the size of whatever was being sent through the Gate?_ she theorized.  Then she realized this was taking entirely too long, mentally chided herself for not thinking of this solution before, and cast another _Rary's telepathic bond_ spell, this one linking her, Cramer, and Utred up with the drow wizard.

<Can you hear me?> she asked telepathically, glad not to have to deal with Jhasspok flinching at the mental communication for once.

<Praise Lolth!> the drow replied.  <I thought I was going insane!  I see by your insignia you're from House Jalamir - are you from one of the other ships?  How is it you're not frozen like the Jakurans?>  None of the heroes in the link knew what a "Jakuran" was, but they supposed it was the name for the frozen warriors out on deck.

<It apparently affects different people in different ways,> Marlo answered, ignoring the drow's first question and hoping he didn't press the issue.  But the wizard was too glad to have someone to talk to, even telepathically, and he was more than happy to answer their questions, especially since he viewed them as allies to the Mortal Queen, as evidenced by the House Jalamir emblems pinned on their _slave-light cloaks_.  In answer to their mental questions, he explained he'd been trapped immobile for what seemed like a day and a half; he'd heard from a few others that they'd experienced something similar when passing their vessels through a Writhing Gate but hadn't paid much attention until it happened to him; the soldiers (he called them "samurai") on board his vessel were from a nation called Jakura from the other side of the world; they had a reason to hate Greenvale because the turncoat drow's ironsilk production caused a drop in the desire for the silks Jakura produced and thus it was easy for Matron Bel'vior to get them to join her mock crusade.

That term caused a fresh flurry of questions, this time from Cramer.  The drow wizard further explained the whole war against Greenvale was a ruse to cull the numbers of the faithful to a more manageable amount to flee the world before its destruction.  After all, House Falmakyorl only had so many of these ships, and while they had long known the magical devices they created to pilot them without wind theoretically granted the ships the power of flight, it wasn't until Matron Bel'vior's Lolth-given knowledge allowed sufficient modifications that in turn permitted them to travel even farther than the sky.  That, coupled with the knowledge of the Writhing Gates given freely by Calish (even though he only knew the location of the one) and the information stolen from N'zorthal (specifically, on how to work the gate and use one to find the others) allowed them to finally get their fleet somewhere where they could test out their ability to fly.

<Where is this ship headed?> Cramer asked.

<I'm to bring these samurai to an assault upon a fort north of the Elderwood, called the Crossroad Keep,> the drow replied.

<Surely you won't be bringing one of the ships responsible for bringing the loyal drow to safety into a war zone?> Marlo asked, pretending to be only concerned with protecting the spelljamming vessel that would be used as a "lifeboat" to rescue the Mortal Queen and her most loyal followers from the planet before the Dying One destroyed their world as prophesied.

<Oh, no!> agreed the drow.  <I'm just to drop the samurai off and then fly back out of harm's way!>

<Good, good - excellent, in fact!> replied Marlo, continuing to play the role of a loyal follower of the Mortal Queen.  But keeping her thoughts free of the _Rary's telepathic bond_ spell, her mind was whirling with sudden realizations: the Far Realm played tricks with the passing of time and apparently more time had passed since the group departed Dwarven Hell than the one night they had thought, for it looked like the Overreach drow invasion onto the surface world was already underway!

 - - -

I had some very mixed feelings about this adventure.  While first of all it was great to be able to start this campaign back up again and I really enjoyed the creativity Logan came up with in the non-Euclidian aspects of the Far Realm, so much of the ongoing plot just doesn't make a lot of sense to me and it's really caused me to be concerned that the campaign's logic (which up until now has been impeccable) is falling apart.  Here are my major issues:

1.  The whole war upon the surface world (and Greenvale in particular) is just a ruse?  Because there's only so much room on the spelljamming lifeboats?  Wouldn't it make more sense for the Mortal Queen to pick however many of her most loyal subjects fit on the lifeboats and evacuate them to a new world if she's so worried about the Dying One destroying this world?  I have to admit, I've really enjoyed the gradual buildup to the oncoming war; it's a bummer to find out the whole thing is just a sham.

2,  It defies logic for me that the Underdark drow are even aware of a surface world country on the completely opposite side of the planet (which our previous campaign, "The Durnhill Conscripts," established was the case), let alone are allies to them.

3.  There being ten Writhing Gates is a neat twist, but I'm kind of lost on the Dying One's behavior.  I get that he probably isn't actively trying to destroy the world (just that passing through his own Writhing Gates back to the Material Plane with only seven "anchors" in place would destroy the world - much better if all ten were in place), but how in the world is it in his own best interests to give our PCs aid, when we're the fairly obvious prophetic figures who will slay the Dying One and thus save the world?  After all, we've been depicted in prophetic murals and there can't be that many groups containing two dwarves, a human, a gnome, and a lizardfolk.  You'd think an Elder God would know enough not to go out of his way to save the five people who will likely be responsible for his eventual death, even if one of them has agreed to serve him.

I have other smaller quibbles and I have to admit I was kind of grumpy at what I considered was "anime-level plot silliness" towards the end of this adventure.  But I was likewise grumpy when Logan wrote an adventure that forced us to hand over the power of the tarrasque to the Mortal Queen and he managed to allow us to right that wrong a few adventures later.  So I'm going to take some advice that Logan and Stuart were given when watching an anime marathon at a Gen Con some two dozen or so years ago, when the guy running the marathon was addressing the fact to the audience that Japanese anime contains some really oddball plot points from time to time: "Accept, and move on."  Logan's crafted a compelling campaign thus far, and while some of these new plot points don't make a whole lot of sense to me right now, I'm just going to trust that he knows what he's doing and that he'll continue to finish off this campaign with the same level of quality that he's put into it thus far.

In the meantime, I've come up with some interesting things that a group of five heroes working against the Mortal Queen can do to an entire fleet of spelljamming vessels that will be "frozen in time" for the better part of a day....


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## Nthal (Jun 14, 2021)

Richards said:


> "Accept, and move on."




I just had a very similar experience.  I was the player, and the amount of plot holes and illogical behavior of the scenario outlined bugged me.  But I had to take a step back and remember its a game and remind myself that we haven't seen the entire story yet.


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## Richards (Jun 26, 2021)

*ADVENTURE 36: THE BATTLE OF CROSSROAD KEEP*

PC Roster:
Cramer Appleknocker, gnome cleric 11​Jhasspok, lizardman 3/barbarian 3/fighter 5​Khari Hammerslammer, dwarf fighter 11​Marlo Pendragon, human sorcerer 11​Utred "Buckets" Butterflinger, dwarf barbarian 11​
Game Session Date: 23 June 2021

 - - -

There were a dozen ships floating in the strange emptiness of the Far Realm, each identifiable as belonging to the dark elves of the Underdark city of Overreach, but until now Jhasspok had only ever seen them floating on the Bioluminescent Sea.  Having learned how to "fall" in any direction they wanted by simply wishing it, the five former arena slaves checked out each of the vessels in turn.  Of course, as soon as Cramer left the first ship - filled with human samurai from the faraway land of Jakura - his _find the path_ spell kicked back in, showing him he was to return to that first vessel, but he had learned from telepathically "talking" with the drow pilot of that vessel, a male drow sorcerer named *Dh'aeve*, that these ships would remain frozen in time for another day and a half before returning to the Material Plane and having a sense of normal time return to them, so the gnome decided the exploration was worth the risk.

Five of the ships, it turned out, were manned by slaves who'd had the _contagion_ spell cast upon them.  They had drow handlers on board, keeping the slaves at bay with long, wooden prods - rather like rakes without the tines - which would be used to toss them overboard once they'd gotten into position over the areas they were to infest.  Other ships were filled with drow combatants, presumably ready to strike out against the forces of Greenvale and her surface allies.

Cramer worked hard, praying over his spell selection, for while he had the ability to cast a quite wide variety of spells, there were only a small handful that could be cast during a timeless span and which would then "kick in" when the vessels returned to the Material Plane.  After much deliberation, he opted for the following:

A _symbol of fear_ at the front of one of the contagion ships, which in theory would cause the panicked slaves to flee back among their drow handlers, hopefully spreading their various diseases among the dark elves
A _mark of justice_ upon the brows of two of the other drow "pilots" keeping their individual contagion ships afloat, triggered to cause an irrational fear of piloting a ship when they attempted to do just that (the gnome cleric hoped that might cause the ships to veer widely off course when they re-emerged in the skies above Shadeath, and possibly even plummet to their destruction if the pilots actually fled their magical helms which allowed the ships to fly in the first place)
Jhasspok came up with a means to take out the twenty samurai on the vessel on which they'd be riding home: after borrowing a bucket from Utred, he squatted over it and produced a rather large pellet of solid waste, topped with the white, foamy uric acid that made up the majority of his liquid wastes.  This messy concoction was then thoroughly mixed into a paste and liberally applied over the open eyes of the twenty samurai, each frozen between moments in time and unable to be directly affected.  But once they ships re-entered the Material Plane and time returned back to its normal flow, Jhasspok assured the others that the men in the "funny-looking armor" would be temporarily blinded - at least for long enough to allow the five adventurers to cut them down without much resistance.

"You're a twisted little freak sometimes, Jhasspok," Khari informed the lizardfolk.

"An' ye can keep that bucket when you're done with it," Utred advised Jhasspok.  "I got plenty others - I don't really want that one back.  Seriously."

As a final addition to their plans, they "fell" through the sky back to the odd structure they'd left earlier, but only to lug the slain bodies of as many of the odd spidery creatures they'd encountered and slain; to the drow, the spider was a symbol of Lolth, their primary Demon-Goddess - and Cramer assured them the "sudden appearance" (from their frame of view) of dead spiders aboard each of the drow vessels would be seen as an omen of the very worst sort.  "Demoralization might count for something," the gnome cleric suggested hopefully.

"I think we're getting close to returning to normal time," Marlo observed, pointing directly in front of the floating ship of samurai.  There, a black opening was forming, irising open wider and wider at a speed too slow to actually track.  But the ship was lined up to enter directly into it, assuming it was big enough to encompass the vessel by the time it got that far.

"Everybody get ready!" Cramer called to the others.  Khari, Jhasspok, and Utred went to the back of the main deck, directly behind the Jakuran samurai.  Marlo stood behind Dh'aeve, her _arcane blade _out and ready to threaten the drow spellcaster if he tried anything.  Cramer stood on the rooftop of the back of the ship, directly above Dh'aeve and Marlo and began casting the spells he wanted to have already affecting him when they returned to the Material Plane - which looked to be any second now, for the hole in front of the vessel was now irising open at a speed that could be seen and the ship was noticeably moving forward.  He cast a _longstrider_ spell upon himself and three _shield of faith_ spells upon the lizardfolk and the two dwarves.  Marlo cast a _Rary's telepathic bond_ spell upon the group of five heroes.  As an added precaution, the little gnome activated his _ring of invisibility_ and faded from view.

With a lurch, the ship leaped forward and suddenly the strangeness of the Far Realm was replaced with the comfortably orthodox view of a blue sky streaked with fluffy, white clouds.  There was a forest and roadways below; directly below, some hundred feet or so, was the familiar outline of the Crossroad Keep, a structure the heroes had stayed in before.  But the pleasant view was interrupted by the sudden shrieks of startled samurai, who clawed at their eyes and a few of whom started retching involuntarily.

On the rooftops of the keep's buildings below, elven archers turned inwards above them and raised their bows; they'd naturally been expecting an attack from somewhere outside the keep, not directly above it.  Inside the four towers at each corner of the Keep, the wizards stationed within snarled in fury, for the magical defenses had likewise been positioned for an attack to the keep's exterior, not above it.  The _scorching ray_ spells the tower's defenses could bring to bear against the enemy would only be useful if the ship would fly off to one side of the building, something it seemed unwilling to do - whatever magic allowed it to suddenly appear in the skies above were likewise keeping it from drifting off to either side.

With a grin, Khari began mowing his way through the blinded samurai directly before him, the first swing of his warhammer crushing the man's skull and the follow-up strike knocking him over the side of the floating vessel.  The dwarven fighter expected to hear the man's screams as he plummeted to his death, but instead a thin, metal chain around one ankle began glowing and the samurai floated down safely to the ground below, a one-shot _feather fall_ spell kicking in as the man left the side of the vessel.  (Of course, in this case it was a moot point, for the man was already dead, his skull having been caved in despite the elaborate helmet he wore.)

Utred had planned on mowing his way through the samurai before him with his greataxe as well, but right before the ship exited the Far Realm he realized he'd be able to get a whole bunch of them with one of the beads from his _necklace of fireballs_.  Plucking forth a bead, he threw it into the air and watched as the resulting explosion caught a full eight of the samurai in the very front of the flying vessel.  The dwarven barbarian's only regret was that he'd already used up his more powerful beads, leaving behind only his weaker versions that burned up the lot of the eight Jakuran warriors but didn't manage to slay any of them outright.

Suddenly, down below on one of the rooftops of the Keep, a black-robed figure in among the rest of the elven defensive forces lowered his hood, revealing the unmistakable, four-tentacled face of N'zorthal, the illithid Administer of Discipline for House Jalamir - and, more importantly, a secret adherent of the Dying One, the mind flayer's Elder God whose tentacles made up the Writhing Gates allowing for teleportation among the world of Shadeath.  Shouting his exultation telepathically to all around him, he cried, <They have arrived!  The time of awakening is here!  Master, take of my body and walk the world once more!>

With these words, a sudden realization overcame Cramer and Marlo.  Recalling that the last time they had seen N'zorthal was when they had rescued him from an attempt by the Mortal Queen to summon an avatar to attack Greenvale, Cramer advanced his concerns over the telepathic link - once again causing Jhasspok to cry out in alarm at the sudden voice in his head - that they had only _assumed_ it was to have been an avatar of Lolth the drow would have summoned.

<Why would the Mortal Queen summon an avatar of the Dying One?> Marlo asked over the link.

<Not sure, but no time to worry about it - that avatar's our biggest worry right now!  Definitely a bigger threat than these poop-blinded samurai!  Everyone: we've got to stop N'zorthal!>

Marlo slipped the _arcane blade_ back into its sheath at her hip and stepped away from Dh'aeve.  She cast an _invisibility_ spell upon herself as she leaped over the side of the floating vessel, using her _boots of levitation_ to slow her fall as she landed gracefully on a rooftop below.  Streams of vomit streaked by her as the samurai above succumbed to having had lizardfolk wastes rubbed onto their eyeballs.  Another one fell overboard as a result of his violet thrashings, the _feather fall ankle bracelet_ lowering him down at a safe and steady pace.  Unbeknownst to the heroes, this was actually *Lord Shirimono*, the leader of the samurai troop - a man who had been slain earlier in his own lands but returned to life by those for whom he pledged his loyalty and his service.

Khari frightened Marlo when she saw him suddenly plummet to the earth below; she'd feared he'd likewise fallen off the side of the ship and was about to meet a messy death on the ground a hundred feet below.  But he had his _earthglide warhammer_ gripped firmly in his hands, and when his body reached the ground the earth simply opened up beneath him and embraced him as it would a long-lost friend, slowing his fall and returning him unharmed to the surface above in a matter of mere seconds.  Rising up from the ground with his weapon in hand, Khari Hammerslammer approached the building upon the roof of which stood N'zorthal.

Cramer called for Utred to duck down and as the barbarian bent to comply, the invisible gnome leaped off the roof at the back of the ship and landed on the dwarf's shoulders, imbuing him with a _fly_ spell as he took his position sitting upon Utred's backpack.  "Fly down to N'zorthal!" Cramer commanded.

"What about Jhasspok?" Utred called back as he pushed a blinded samurai out of his way and lifted a booted foot over the side of the vessel.  Utred knew the lizardfolk weighed a ton and it was unlikely even he would be able to carry them both at one time.

Cramer answered Utred by calling out to Jhasspok, "Grab one of the samurai and leap over the side of the ship!  He'll float you down to safety!"  Jhasspok merely nodded his understanding, pulling his battleaxe from the back of the samurai he'd just slain.  He wasn't sure why taking a samurai with him was necessary, especially not after the gnome had already shown him how to fly in the Far Realm by simply deciding which way was down, but he shrugged and accepted it as some weird way magic worked or something - there was really no making sense of it and the practical lizardfolk had long since given up trying to do so.  Grabbing an enemy before leaping off the side of the ship and flying down to N'zorthal seemed like it had an extra, unnecessary step, but so be it.

Astonished at having a mind flayer appear among them, the elven archers lining the Crossroad Keep released their arrows at N'zorthal.  Surprisingly, some of them actually seemed to do some damage, even as the illithid's entire body seemed to swell with an unearthly energy.  Utred landed softly on a building across the way from where the mind flayer stood, the invisible cleric of Fharlanghn still perched upon his backpack.  His greataxe was in his hands and he prepared himself for a flying dash across the building rooftops towards his foe.

But N'zorthal - or rather, the intellect of Uboros currently inhabiting his body - had other plans.  <Come to me, we have much to discuss!> he called out to the heroes, snapping two of his facial tentacles together.

Instantly, time froze all around the heroes just as it had on the dozen Overreach ships in the Far Realm.  Only the five heroes and N'zorthal were unaffected.  Cramer, Utred, and Marlo each noticed an uncontrolled flinch from the mind flayer as he caused the _time stop _effect, as if using this much power was causing his mortal form some amount of pain.  Furthermore, it looked as if the illithid's four facial tentacles were each splitting down their lengths; before long, there would be eight tentacles instead of the standard four.  Cramer assumed this was merely a slow-motion transformation into the Dying One's normal full hundred tentacles sprouting from his squidlike face.

With a wave of his hand, a table and seating for six appeared in the courtyard of the Crossroad Keep.  One chair was built like a throne; the illithid floated down to that seat and took it for himself.  Of the other seats, four were standard chairs and the last was more of a stool - and better suited for a lizardfolk with a powerful tail jutting out behind him.  <It is in your best interests to at least hear me out,> Uboros warned the heroes.

Somewhat apprehensive of taking on the avatar of an actual deity, the party hesitantly agreed to listen to what the Elder God had to say.  Upon Cramer's orders, Utred flew up to the ship to go fetch Jhasspok, who was having a frustrating time trying to grab one of the samurai like Cramer had said and leap over the side of the ship - the strangely-armored man was back to being like a statue again and no matter how Jhasspok struggled he couldn't even get the samurai to budge from his current position.  "Never mind, Jhasspok," Utred said, flying over to the lizardfolk and grabbing him under his arms.  "Let's go see what the squid-head has to say."

Once everyone was in position - with weapons still in hand if not actively threatening the Elder God's avatar - Uboros informed them, rather nonchalantly, <Death itself is painless.  Dying, however, is agony.  Dying for eternities beyond counting...is unimaginable.  You seek my death, and I welcome it.  I can aid and guide you, if you'll but swear a pact to do your utmost to bring about my death.  The death of my true form, not merely this avatar.  You need not answer out loud.>

But Cramer recalled the prophecies about the Dying One's plans, especially the one about having a giant, tentacled worm eat the Dying One's brain and thus gain all of his knowledge and power for itself - a means by which Uboros was to "eat himself to become himself."  Looking up at the tentacled menace before him, the little gnome asked, "What about your 'rebirth,' though?"

<Need you concern yourself about that?> the Dying One asked Cramer as a means of reply.  But that wasn't all Uboros was doing - he was simultaneously having five different private mental conversations with each of the heroes, offering them all sorts of benefits if they'd only swear undying allegiance to him.  Before Marlo he dangled the opportunities of nearly unlimited spellcasting power, a level far beyond that of most mortal spellcasters.  To Utred he sent images of the dwarf filled to the brim with vitality, wading his way through dozens of enemies and hardly even noticing the slight wounds that made it past his defenses.  Khari was treated to a similar vision of his own dwarven body rippling with muscles, swinging his _earthglide warhammer_ with enough power to bring down a castle wall.  Cramer's mental visions were similar to Marlo's with the gnome's mind opened to such an extent he'd be able to cast a far greater number of spells than any gnome cleric before him.

With Jhasspok, he didn't bother with anything more extensive than the image of the lizardfolk sitting before a vast pile of fish, more than he could ever eat in one sitting.

"But I thought you were going to destroy the world," Jhasspok argued aloud, the fact having stuck somewhere in the deep recesses of his reptilian brain.  Try as he might, he couldn't see the point of having all the fish you could eat if there was no world left to live in while you were doing so.

<All things must eventually come to an end,> Uboros countered.  <The question you must ask yourself is: which side do you want to be on?  Surely it makes more sense to be allied with the one wielding the power to destroy a world, rather than striving futilely against him?>

"Well..." Jhasspok began, thinking how best to make his argument.  But words were hard: there were so many of them and you had to string them in just the right way for them to make any sense.  Then he figured out the best way to make his point, leaping from his stool and bringing his battleaxe crashing down upon the avatar's head, nearly severing a tentacle in the process - although it was possible it was just continuing the self-dividing process that was still ongoing; N'zorthal's stolen body now sported at least two dozen of the facial appendages.

Khari's intellectual capacities were about at the same level as Jhasspok's; neither was particularly known for their brilliant insights.  But each well knew the importance of standing by one's friends, so when the dwarven fighter saw his lizardfolk pal engaged in a battle far, far out of his league Khari didn't hesitate for a moment before earthgliding below the ground, only to pop up behind the Elder God's throne and bring his warhammer crashing down upon his bald skull.  Utred dashed forward and attacked the Elder God as well, getting in a solid blow with his greataxe.  But he was brought into battle as much by the avatar's promises of personal power and his stated desire for his own true death as by the unvoiced requirements of dwarven brotherhood.

<Excellent!  It has been so long since I experienced true combat!> exulted Uboros as he stood from his throne and focused his attention on Cramer, still seated across the table from him.  The avatar hardly noticed as Jhasspok and the two dwarves each swung at his body with their assorted weapons, his entire mental focus centered on the massive blast of a psionic _energy ray_ that speared across at the gnome, enveloping his body in unearthly fires.  The gnome only had a split second by which to counter with his last-ditch effort - a _quickened cure minor wounds_ spell that stoked the very last ember of life force still left in his little body after the brutal attack - and collapsed to the ground, smoke rising from his scorched form.

Marlo cast an _empowered lightning bolt_ spell across the table at Uboros and surprised herself at how effective an attack it was.  Jhasspok and Utred continued their assaults upon the avatar's form with their axes and Khari did likewise with his warhammer, until Uboros swiveled in position and blasted the Hammerslammer dwarf with the same type of _energy ray_ that had felled Cramer.  But this apparently wasn't as direct a hit, for though Khari buckled temporarily from the pain of the mental assault he still remained standing, his grip tightened on his weapon and his teeth gritted in determination.

But flakes of skin were erupting from Uboros's body as the unearthly energies of an Elder God burned their way through the mortal form of N'zorthal, a frail vessel indeed to hold such power for long.  Jhasspok darted forth, slashing with his weapon and snapping with his teeth, ending up with a mouthful of ashes as the mind flayer's body burned its way all the way through and dissipated into nothingness as the Elder God's delighted cackling echoed through the heroes' minds.  Upon the death of the avatar, time started flowing all around the heroes once again and astonished elven archers wondered aloud how the five heroes had suddenly made it down below into the courtyard, around a table and six seats that hadn't been there a mere moment ago.  They watched in puzzlement as Marlo leaped to the side of the table, unstoppering a healing potion from her belt and lifting it to Cramer's lips, coaxing the life-giving fluid down the gnome's broken body.  The meager contents of the elixir were at least enough to rise the gnome to full wakefulness, where he insisted on taking care of the rest of the business at hand.

And quite frankly, after having taken down the avatar of an illithid Elder God, slaying the remaining blinded samurai on the floating ship above was child's play.

"Is N'zorthal dead?" Cramer wanted to know, having been unconscious during the avatar's sudden demise.  Marlo assured him that he had been burned to ashes from within.  "Bugger," complained the gnome cleric.  "I wanted to kill him myself.  Oh well."

Having watched the party's progress through the magical sensors of his flying ship, Dh'aeve agreed to join their side.  He had his own reasons for hating the Mortal Queen and saw the five former House Jalamir arena slaves before him as his best method of extracting his revenge against her.

"Listen up," he advised.  "I think I know a way we can take down the Mortal Queen, once and for all, if you're interested."

It turned out they were.

 - - -

So, some interesting things came about as a result of this adventure (and the previous one), things that the players are all aware of but not all of the PCs know about.  Not surprisingly, Marlo took Uboros up on his offer and as a result her Charisma has been increased to a whopping 26!  Also, when she checked on her toad familiar Truffles, who had spent the entire adventure in a pocket of her robes (as is normal for him when he's not otherwise needed), she found him covered in tentacles - apparently exposure to the otherworldly energies of the Far Realm has mutated him (as he hadn't been given a headband to ward off the effects of the plane like Marlo and the other four PCs had received), granting him the pseudonatural template.

But more of a surprise was that Utred took Uboros up on his offer as well, lured to the "dark side" by the siren call of a 26 Constitution.  So we'll have to see how this plays out, as Cramer, Khari, and Jhasspok are now the only ones to have turned down the Dying One's offer, and neither of them are aware of the fact that Marlo and Utred have apparently joined up with the illithid Elder God we're prophesied to slay.  At this point, I'm just hoping that they're both just trying to "play" Uboros, taking him up on his offer but betraying him at the last minute when the tentacled worm comes to "devour Uboros to become Uboros."  Joey's already having second thoughts about Utred's agreement, but I cautioned him that Elder Gods generally are strict adherents to the concept of "no takesie-backsies."  Now I've got Joey worried that Utred's going to start growing tentacles out of his butt or something.


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## Richards (Jul 4, 2021)

*ADVENTURE 37: PUTTING THE "MORTAL" IN THE QUEEN*

PC Roster:
Cramer Appleknocker, gnome cleric 12​Jhasspok, lizardman 3/barbarian 3/fighter 6​Khari Hammerslammer, dwarf fighter 12​Marlo Pendragon, human sorcerer 12​Utred "Buckets" Butterflinger, dwarf barbarian 12​
Game Session Date: 30 June 2021

 - - -

"We're almost there," Dh'aeve told the others.

*Dh'aeve Falmakyorl* sat at the helm powering the spelljamming vessel and keeping it in flight.  After the invasion of the surface world had ended up with some surprising reversals - not least of which was the sudden crashing of two of the flying ships filled with _contagion_-laden slaves when their pilots apparently abandoned their helms in mid-flight - the Mortal Queen had made some immediate changes.  First of all, each vessel now required a backup pilot standing by at all times to take over the helm should something happen to the primary pilot.  These ships were expensive, not easily replaced, and were the only means by which the Mortal Queen, Llolnida Alyxyra Bel'vior, would lead 300 of her most loyal followers to a new world, abandoning this one to the Dying One - whose return to the Material Plane would likely lay waste to the entire planet.

This edict applied to all drow spelljamming vessels, even the flagship, which the Mortal Queen entrusted none to pilot but herself.  Standing beside her was *Matron Falmakyorl*, leader of the Second House of Overreach, Falmakyorl being the Noble House responsible for the Overreach Navy.  Unknown to the Mortal Queen, Matron Falmakyorl was a drow purist who despised Llolnida Alyxyra Bel'vior's half-fiend nature, viewing her as unfit to be a House Matron let alone the self-professed Queen of the Drow.  She was currently under a _Rary's telepathic bond_ spell linking her to her nephew, Dh'aeve, and filling him in on everything going on in the vicinity of the flagship's magical helm.  As far as the Mortal Queen was aware, Matron Falmakyorl's presence there was merely as her backup pilot should she need to replace Llolnida at the spelljamming helm; she had no idea the House Matron was equally willing to relieve her of her duties as Queen of the Drow and step into that role as well.

Dh'aeve was piloting his own ship to rendezvous with the flagship, for the Mortal Queen had summoned the entire remaining fleet to her, floating over the mountains to the northwest of hated Greenvale.  The surface city of expatriate drow had survived the recent attack, in no small part due to the alliances made with their surface-world neighbors.  Standing on the ship's open deck were the five former arena slaves of House Jalamir, now free citizens of Overreach's Third House and the ones responsible for many of those alliances.  A small group of drow soldiers stood among them, although a _veil_ spell cast upon the five heroes by the Archmage Xiandria Jalamir gave them each the appearance of a drow as well.  The original plan was for the smaller vessel to get within boarding distance of the flagship, at which time all ten passengers would leap aboard and the real drow soldiers would keep the Mortal Queen's drow allies at bay on board the flagship's main deck while the heroes fought their way into the back room of the vessel, giving them a chance to take out the Mortal Queen as she sat at the ship's helm.

However, as Dh'aeve brought his ship into position, the heroes greatly altered the plan.  Getting information directly from Matron Falmakyorl herself over the telepathic link, it seemed a much better approach was for Cramer to _teleport_ the group directly to the Mortal Queen's helm room - that way, there would be only the Mortal Queen and her two bodyguards, her own trusted niece and nephew, to contend with - Matron Falmakyorl would be there as well, of course, but she would not raise a finger in the protection of her alleged superior.  Best of all, as the helm of the flagship was in an enclosed room in the back of the vessel, nobody would see the heroes' attack but those inside the room with them.

"It'd be even better if you cast a _silence_ spell on me," suggested Utred.  "That way, none of them would be able to cast any spells."

"The Mortal Queen can't cast any spells in any case," pointed out Cramer.  "Powering a spelljamming helm drains the pilot of the ability to cast spells for a full 24 hours."  Dh'aeve acknowledged that this was true.  "And anyway, if I cast a _silence_ spell on you, then I can't cast the _teleport_ spell and bring you along with, which defeats the whole purpose."

"So cast it on me after we show up in the room with her," Utred argued.

"We'll want to _teleport_ in and hit them hard and fast before they have much of a chance to react," Marlo countered.  "However...."  An idea had suddenly popped into her head.  She unfolded the _bag of holding_ in which the group stored their communal property.  "What if we cast the _silence_ spell on you and then you hopped into the bag?  I could hold the opening shut long enough for us to _teleport_ over, then open it as soon as we got there and you could pop out.  The silent effect would only affect the bag's interior while you were inside, so Cramer could still cast his spell to get us over there...."

"I like it!" enthused the gnome.

"But what about us?" asked the leader of the small band of drow soldiers who had planned on storming the deck of the flagship.

"New plan," Cramer informed them.  "Dh'aeve pilots us into position - anywhere I can get a good view of the doors to the flagship's helm room - and then we pop over there.  You guys just stay here as if we're docking and awaiting the Mortal Queen's further instructions."

"Better get to whatever spellcasting you want to do," advised Dh'aeve.  "I can see the rest of the fleet ahead.  And don't bother trying _invisibility_ or anything, as the helm room's covered in a _true seeing_ effect - your drow disguises will be suppressed while you're in there."

Marlo and Cramer each cast a _magic circle against evil_ spell upon themselves, always a good plan when going up against drow.  Marlo cast a _Rary's telepathic bond_ spell upon the five heroes.  All but Utred received a _shield of faith_ spell, the entire quintet received the benefits of a _mass bear's endurance_ spell, and Cramer beefed himself up with spells of _spell resistance_, _longstrider_, _death ward_, and _righteous might_, the latter spell doubling the height of the three-and-a-half-foot tall gnome until he towered even over Jhasspok.

"A giant gnome," muttered Khari.  "Now I've seen everything."

As Dh'aeve brought the ship floating to a halt above and to the side of the flagship, Cramer looked down, found the doors he'd be using as a focal point for his _teleport_ spell, and cast the _silence_ spell on Utred as planned.  The dwarven barbarian stepped into the _bag of holding_ Marlo held open for him, taking in a deep breath before she closed the bag shut.  Then she nodded at the giant gnome cleric, Cramer cast his final spell, and the five were suddenly gone from the ship.

_Teleporting_ into the flagship's helm room, all was as Matron Falmakyorl had described it over the _Rary's telepathic bond_ spell to her nephew: the Mortal Queen sat at the ship's helm towards the back of the room, her senses focused on the area all around the outside of her floating vessel.  The Matron of the Second Noble House of Overreach stood behind her and to one side, ready to sit at the ship's helm should the Mortal Queen abandon her post.  And to either side of the Mortal Queen stood her bodyguards: a female anti-paladin of Lolth, *Fiovia Bel'vior*, before her to her left and a duskblade, *Aravian Bel'vior*, before her to her right.  The five heroes stood directly in front of the heavy wooden doors that led out to the flagship's upper deck surface, lined up in two rows with the hand-to-hand combatants in the front and the two spellcasters in the back.

As the drow (with the notable exception of Matron Falmakyorl) gasped in surprise and shock at the sudden appearance of the odd group, Khari took off in a charge at his nearest foe, Fiovia.  Despite not being able to use the _earthglide_ function of his magical warhammer, the weapon did just fine as a blunt instrument and the dwarven fighter sent the female drow reeling from the blow to the side of the head he gave her before she could raise any defenses.

At almost the same time, Marlo opened the _bag of holding_ and silence suddenly engulfed the room.  That, she knew, would prevent not only their enemies but also her and Cramer from casting any further spells for the duration of the fight, but they'd already cast all of the preparatory spells they wanted to have active and their drow enemies presumably had had no such warning that such preparations were necessary.  Plus, the group had no idea of just what spells the Mortal Queen's bodyguards might be capable of or how dependent they might be on spellcasting in battle, whereas she and Cramer both had martial weapons they could use in a fight.

But silence wasn't the only thing spilling out from Marlo's _bag of holding_; with an unheard combat yell, Utred charged out of the bag and struck at the Mortal Queen with the _flaming hellsteel greataxe_ he'd taken as a trophy from Dwarven Hell when they'd rescued the Mithral Mage.  The fire from his weapon's axe-blade seemed to do little damage to the half-fiend drow, but the blade itself did plenty; Utred would have loved to hear the silent scream of pain and fury spilling from the Mortal Queen's lips at being struck down in her own imagined place of safety and power.

Jhasspok rushed at the duskblade, snapping at him with his sharp teeth as well as swinging his own battleaxe with all of his considerable strength.  Seven-foot-tall Cramer followed a parallel path to Utred's, although his swing with his double-sized light mace missed the Mortal Queen's head, likely because he was unused to fighting from a position of this great height.  But Llolnida was already slashing her demon-claws at Utred, who'd had the audacity to strike her divine form with a base weapon forged by devils!  Her mouth opened and closed rapidly, no doubt spouting out a constant stream of Drow and Abyssal obscenities that were absorbed unvoiced by the _silence_ effect.

Now over her initial surprise at this unexpected attack, Fiovia channeled forth the unholy power of her demon-goddess patroness and sent it flowing through her weapon, striking its blade against Khari's shoulder.  The dwarf responded almost instantly with a rapid series of hammer-strikes of his own, dropping her down to one knee.  Marlo finished her off with a snap of her _life-flame whip_, striking the drow anti-paladin in the face and causing her to fall over, well into unconsciousness.

Jhasspok continued with his unrelenting battleaxe strikes, cutting through the duskblade Aravian's armor and deep into his flesh with each strike.  The drow's rapier barely scratched the lizardfolk's scales when he tried to give back as good as he had gotten.  But then Utred found himself uncharacteristically impotent in battle; after his initial charge his blade seemed unable to make contact with the wily Mortal Queen, try as he might.  Fortunately, Cramer was there to pick up the barbarian's unexpected slack; he got in a good couple of whacks with his mace, causing the Mortal Queen to reassess the oversized gnome as her currently most dangerous threat.  She sliced at him with her demon-claws...and found herself in the same boat as Utred, missing by a large margin.  Cramer just grinned down mockingly at her.

Deprived of his most recent foe, Khari charged at the Mortal Queen, striking her with his warhammer while she twisted at the helm to claw ineffectually at Cramer.  Marlo's whip snapped over at the drow leader as well, but its tip struck only the air between the Mortal Queen's upraised horns.  Jhasspok made quick work of the duskblade and turned to face the Mortal Queen as well.  His battleaxe slashed out, slicing through the armor of the woman's right thigh.  Blood pooled up at the wound.

Desperately, the Mortal Queen slashed out at the enemies surrounding her, making brief eye contact with Matron Falmakyorl, whose only contribution to the fight was to take a step to her right to get out of the way of Jhasspok's swinging tail as he spun to bring his battleaxe into an overhead swing down at Llolnida.  Eventually, it was Khari's _earthglide warhammer_ that made the killing blow and the Mortal Queen slumped off the side of the spelljamming helm.  Only then did Matron Falmakyorl spring into action, kicking the body of her erstwhile leader to the side and leaping onto the helm, positioning herself in place to see to its stability before it could fall from the sky.

Marlo coiled her _life-flame whip_ at her hip and drew her other weapon, the _arcane blade_.  Cramer dismissed the _silence_ effect as Marlo put her blade to good use.

"I think it's time to let the rest of them know," Cramer told Marlo, opening the double doors from the helm room.

Marlo strode regally through the open doors, pushing her way past a pair of female drow bodyguards supposedly preventing anyone from entering the helm room.  They were astonished that some drow woman had made it past them - for now outside of the helm room and its _true seeing_ effect, Marlo was once more covered in Archmage Xiandria's _veil_ spell - but even more astonished by what she held in her hands.

Marlo didn't hold it for long, though.  Tossing the decapitated head of Llolnida Alyxyra Bel'vior onto the deck, Marlo called out in a loud voice, "The so-called Mortal Queen is dead!  Stand down and bow before your new queen: Matron Falmakyorl!"

Sudden new leadership wasn't anything to which the drow were unaccustomed; they acknowledged the reality of the new situation surprisingly fast.  The five heroes boarded Dh'aeve's vessel and the five drow soldiers who had been on board - originally to have been an assault force - were sent to the flagship to be the voice of their new queen.  In the meantime, Dh'aeve flew the heroes back to Greenvale, filling them in on some of the new queen's edicts as he piloted the ship to its destination.  Apparently the members of House Bel'vior were to be reduced to slave status.  And Matron Falmakyorl planned to continue the Mortal Queen's evacuation plan, only with herself as the queen of the new world they would eventually settle upon.  There was still only room for 300 of the most loyal drow on the spelljamming vessels, but now "loyalty" had to be reassessed to mean those who had been loyal to House Falmakyorl, not to that half-breed abomination who had self-importantly elevated herself above all drow.  And as far as having Lolth's support in all of this, the new queen's best argument was that the Demon-Queen of Spiders had allowed events to unfold as they had - and who would dare argue against that?

"Things will be tense in the Overreach for a while while the Houses fill the power vacuum left behind by the evacuated Houses," Dh'aeve surmised.  "With House Bel'vior revoked and most of the House Falmakyorl leadership departing, that will likely leave House Jalamir as the strongest contender for First House."  There was a good chance House Ky'hulcressen, currently the Eighth House and lowest of the Noble Houses, would be elevated in station and several of the smaller Houses would finally be able to jockey for Noble status.

That all worked fine for Cramer; with House Jalamir in charge, they'd be able to put more effort into uncovering the mysteries of the prophecies concerning the five heroes.  They'd already come to the conclusion there might be a better way to prevent the end of the world rather than either of the three prophecies to which they'd already been introduced, for according to the book found in the Far Realm, of the 10 anchors (also known as Writhing Gates) that tethered the Dying One to the Material Plane, only seven were needed for him to come through.  Since one gate was apparently already broken, if the group could figure out how to destroy three more gates, it wouldn't matter if a neothelid went through one of the gates and became the new Uboros, as it wouldn't be able to return to the Material Plane and therefore wouldn't be able to destroy the world.

"Good," Jhasspok agreed.  "I don't want the world to be destroyed."

"And I'd just as soon not have to fight a giant worm if we don't have to," added Khari.

Unfortunately, the Greenvale scholars had no leads on where the other nine gates were located, as the illithid names for them in the book were meaningless to them.  "It's like if they called Greenvale by a different name in their language, we'd know they were talking about a place by that specific name but we'd have no idea it was Greenvale they were referring to," explained one of the scholars.

"So how are going to track them down?" asked Cramer.

"Maybe we should ask a mind flayer," Jhasspok suggested.

"Jhasspok, with N'zorthal dead we don't have access to any mind flayers," Cramer chided the lizardfolk.

Jhasspok merely shrugged his scaly shoulders.  "But wouldn't it be easier to find a mind flayer than to find the Writhing Gates?" he countered.  "There's probably a lot more of them."

Cramer opened his mouth to argue, but then closed it as he thought.  Rubbing his beard he mused, "Easier?  Probably.  But as for less dangerous, I don't think so.  Still...."

 - - -

Poor Joe's dice abandoned him after his initial attack on the Mortal Queen.  And I felt bad for Logan, for he had intended us to have to fight our way past five drow bodyguards and an 11th-level evoker to even get into the helm room to fight the Mortal Queen and her niece and nephew.  That was a lot of stat work that never got used.  Likewise for any spell decisions he'd made for the anti-paladin and the duskblade, since our _silence_ stratagem rendered any further spellcasting useless.  But that's the way it goes sometimes, and any shortening of the adventure by cutting down the number of combat enemies we had to face was no doubt eaten up by Dan, as he took a solid 20 minutes to decide on which spells Cramer would prep for the session and then another 20 minutes or so deciding which ones to cast on us immediately before battle.  (Of course, a lot of the latter was spent by Logan updating our armor classes and "floating" hit points and such on his PC tracking sheet.)

Not unexpectedly, we leveled up to 13th level at the end of this adventure, breaking a new record by only spending one adventure at 12th level.  I don't think we've ever done that in any of our previous campaigns.


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## Richards (Aug 6, 2021)

*ADVENTURE 38: WHAT'S UNDER THAT DURNHILL?*

PC Roster:
Cramer Appleknocker, gnome cleric 13​Jhasspok, lizardman 3/barbarian 3/fighter 7​Khari Hammerslammer, dwarf fighter 13​Marlo Pendragon, human sorcerer 13​Utred "Buckets" Butterflinger, dwarf barbarian 13​
Game Session Date: 4 August 2021

 - - -

With a slap, the severed dwarven hand landed on the stone surface of the floor, drawing the attention of the figures in the room there.

"What's that?" asked Cramer, looking over at the pillar in which the Greenvale end of the Shadow Gate was situated.  Looking down at the floor, he saw the severed hand and noted it held clenched in its grip a rolled-up sheet of parchment.  He went to pick it up off the floor, noting the blood still dripping from the wrist; the hand had been severed recently, by the look of it.  There was no one else in the room with the five adventurers but a small handful of Greenvale scholars; the hand had apparently been sent through the Shadow Gate.

Jhasspok turned to look at the hand as well, although he didn't particularly care what was on the parchment - it wasn't as if he could read any words that might be printed there, in any case - but rather was drawn by the intoxicating bouquet of the scent of fresh blood.  Knowing his friends' general squeamishness about such things, he was fairly certain nobody else was going to want to eat the severed hand but him.

"What does it say?" Marlo asked as Cramer pulled the parchment from between the fingers of the severed hand.  As Jhasspok had anticipated, the gnome cleric left the hand lying there on the floor and focused his attention on the writing on the sheet of paper.  The lizardfolk sidled over, scooped up the discarded dwarven hand, and ambled back over to where he'd been standing.  He waited until the others had gathered around Cramer before enjoying his snack, to avoid disturbing his friends at the sight of him devouring the hand - mammals could be so squeamish about such things!

"It's in Dwarven," the gnome noted.  Indeed, Dwarven runes covered both sides of the sheet of paper and with his magical helm Cramer was able to read at least one side of it.  "Some kind of instructions to find 'The Keeper of the Key,' whoever that is," he said.  "The other side uses Dwarven runes as well, but it's magical writing - my helm can't translate that."  He passed the sheet of parchment over to Marlo, who cast a _read magic_ spell before looking over the back side of the sheet.

"Whatcha eatin'?" Khari asked the lizardfolk, after having already lost interest in whatever the piece of paper might say.

"Nothing," replied Jhasspok, swallowing down the remains of the dwarven hand, which was technically true - he wasn't _eating_ anything right now, for he had already finished his unexpected snack.  Khari shrugged to himself and looked back at the others, leaving Jhasspok to lick any last traces of blood from his scaled mouth with his forked tongue.

Marlo read aloud the translated runes: "Focus runes inward and instructions will follow."

Utred and Khari shared confused glances.  "That mean anything to you?" the burly barbarian asked.  Khari shrugged and shook his head.  "Nah, me neither," Utred admitted.  He turned to Cramer and asked, "So what does that mean?"

"I'm not quite sure," Cramer admitted.  He held the parchment at arm's length and tried focusing inward, eventually crossing his eyes in concentration.  Nothing happened.

Marlo tried holding the runes up to her forehead and concentrating on them.  Nothing happened.

Jhasspok suggested that maybe "focusing inward" meant eating the paper the runes were printed on but nobody wanted to try his suggestion.  He likewise lost interest.  Eventually, Marlo and Cramer decided to leave the parchment with the scholars there in Greenvale, while they pressed on with their own agenda: finding a mind flayer who could read _The Book of Uboros_ and hopefully translate the locations of the nine other Writhing Gates.  Marlo and Cramer had both read the book but the locations meant nothing to them; the gnome had explained it was as if the illithids referred to Greenvale as "the sun-drenched city" in their writings instead of the name the sunborn drow (and other surface dwellers) called it - they could translate the words in the book but they didn't mean anything to them.  Hopefully, a mind flayer could translate the locations of the other Writhing Gates so the group could see what they could do about shutting them down.  In fact, of the ten total, one of them was already supposed to be destroyed, so if the heroes could destroy three more there wouldn't be enough left for the Dying One to use to return to the Material Plane, for doing so required a minimum of seven gates - and making the transition with less than all ten of the Writhing Gates would destroy the world.

And the one mind flayer ally they'd had, N'zorthal, the Administer of Discipline for House Jalamir, had given his body up as an avatar of the Dying One.  The heroes had been forced to slay him while defending the Crossroad Keep during the drow invasion of the surface world.  Now they needed another mind flayer, and hopefully a friendly one more interested in helping to defeat one of its own Elder Gods than eating the brains of the heroes destined to save the world from catastrophe.

Fortunately, the sunborn drow scholars of Greenvale were able to help them on their current quest.  "We know of a mind flayer colony called Tardinessk," offered a drow scholar with bright green hair tied in an elegant ponytail.  "It is a trek of several weeks through dark tunnels from the Overreach.  However Lauren's divinations suggest a faster way to get there is to find the temple of the abandoned sun in the city of Durnhill."

"Durnhill?" asked Utred, recognizing the name.  "We been there?"

"We skirted around it, mostly," Cramer replied.  "But that's where we first found Lauren and saved her from that pair with all the elementals trying to kill her."  He turned to Lauren, whose face was covered in the tattoos that suppressed all magic but divinations.  "So there's an abandoned temple in Durnhill that will lead us to the mind flayers?" he asked.  "Hopefully friendly ones?"

Lauren nodded and explained that "Durnhill" was the name not only of the entire kingdom but its major city as well.  "We will teleport you about an hour's walk from the city gates," she said, "for there is some kind of magical protection preventing anyone from teleporting directly into the city itself.  But I have two further bits of advice.  First, beware the pale lady, for she has connections to the evil wizard responsible for the rune-marks upon my face.  And second, I would have the lizardfolk wear your _hat of disguise_ while within the city."

Utred pulled the magical hat from his pack and passed it over to Jhasspok.  "Here," he said.  "Make yourself look like somebody who won't attract no attention inside a mostly-human city."  Jhasspok put the unwelcome head covering on the top of his head - it wriggled and altered shape to do so, to accommodate the lizardfolk's crest running down from the top of his head along his spine - and promptly took on the semblance of an ogre.

"No, too big, too scary-looking," chided Utred.

"It's a mammal," argued Jhasspok.

"Smaller," insisted Utred.

Jhasspok sighed and altered his appearance to look like a dwarf.  After all, his two closest associates among the quintet of heroes were Khari and Utred, dwarves both, as neither of the three of them had any spellcasting power and relied on the more dependable power of the strength of their limbs and the deadliness of their weapons.  "There," he said.  The dwarves nodded their approval while Jhasspok idly swatted at the illusory beard apparently growing out from all sides of the lower half of his face.  He could see it sticking out in his peripheral vision - how did his friends deal with constantly having the equivalent of a small shrub growing out of their faces?  Weird!

After having been given directions to Durnhill, the group of five was teleported across the miles from Greenvale and set about on their path - just a human, a gnome, and three dwarves walking to the big city to make their fortunes, should anyone ask.  They were allowed entry into the city - after Marlo advised Jhasspok to remain quiet and let her and Cramer do the talking for the group - and were soon wandering its streets, looking about for an abandoned temple of the sun.  However, a shop caught Cramer's eye and he popped inside for a quick purchase.

"What's he want in there?" asked Utred, reading the sign on the door.  "It looks like it sells...pets?"  But Cramer was soon back out with the group, smiling to himself and carrying a sack containing his new purchases in one hand.  The sack bulged and wriggled.

"Dare I ask?" Marlo inquired, but Cramer ignored her, turning to face Jhasspok instead, still magically disguised as a dwarf.

"Hey, Jhasspok, do you still want to eat Truffles?" he asked.  The dwarf's eyebrows shot up as Jhasspok spun his head in eager anticipation.  "Then catch!" the gnome called out, tossing a toad from his sack over at the disguised lizardfolk.  Jhasspok caught the toad and popped it into his mouth, as Marlo gave a stifled scream and put her hand in the pocket of her robe, immediately reassured by the comforting touch of Truffles' tentacle-covered body.

Jhasspok was halfway through devouring his snack when he remembered what Marlo had told him months earlier about toads bursting into flame when you tried eating them.  He narrowed his reptilian eyes at the sorceress, but was immediately distracted from his suspicions when Cramer tossed him another toad.

"Hey, guys?" asked Utred.  "I dunno if anybody's noticed, but we're being followed.  Three women, all of 'em human."

As one, the five heroes spun in place and faced their followers, not bothering with any pretense that they might not have noticed their silent pursuit.  Cramer tied the top of his bag of toads to his belt, freeing both hands in case it came to a fight.  Jhasspok finished his current toad snack and watched the approaching women, as Marlo cast a _magic circle against evil_ on herself, anticipating combat.

One of the women, wearing an elaborate helmet and armor filled with right angles, called out to the group, "Come with us.  We'd like you to answer some questions."

"We're perfectly willing to answer questions," answered Cramer immediately.  "But I see no reason we can't answer them right here."  He didn't know who these women were, but right now the odds were five-to-three in his group's favor and he wasn't sure he wanted to do anything to alter those odds, if it came down to a fight.

Another of the women, this one wearing dark robes, cast a quick spell and turned to the samurai, apparently the leader of the trio.  "They don't register as evil, *Mikito*," she said, relaying the results of her spell.  This, as well as their cooperative demeanor, was not at all congruent with Daleth and Orion's account of these five interlopers - including the lizardman pretending to be a dwarf - having attacked them and aiding in the escape of a known member of the Seekers of Eternity.

"Show us your necks," commanded Mikito, stalling for time.  Then she amended her order as the three dwarves started lifting their beards: "The backs of your necks."  None of them wore the tattoo of the shattered hourglass.

"Are you willing to be subjected to a _zone of truth_ spell?" asked *Anuja Graveshadow*, the dark-clad cleric of Wee Jas.

Cramer lifted his arms from his sides, showing his open hands held no weapons.  "Subject away!" he offered.

Anuja cast her spell and the interrogation began.  The gnome and human were very forthcoming, spilling a tale about saving the world from an illithid Elder God who currently existed in the Far Realm as an enormous severed head with a hundred tentacles.  The three dwarves just stood by, waiting as their two leaders told their tale.  The women's brows furrowed at the strangeness of the tale being told, but Anuja concurred that they were telling the truth - or at least, she amended, the truth as they believed it to be.

"But you admit to aiding the escape of a Seeker of Eternity?" Mikito pressed.

"Who, Lauren?" Cramer asked, adding, "Young lady with runes tattooed on her face?  Yes, we rescued her from an elven wizard and a halfling on a riding dog.  They tried killing her, and us, lobbing _elemental gems_ at us - one of each, as I recall."

"The water elemental had a fish in it," Jhasspok pointed out.

"What do you think?" the dark-clad cleric asked the third of the women, a light-skinned blond woman in a white dress.

"We'd better take them to Daddy," *Dow* suggested.

Mikito turned back to the group.  "If you surrender your weapons to us and come quietly," she told them, "we will take you to our leader, *Skevros*, who works directly for the king.  He will no doubt have further questions for you."

"Will the weapons be returned to us upon request?" countered Cramer.  Upon receiving a reply to the affirmative - still under the _zone of truth_ spell, which affected the three women as well as the five visitors from the Overreach - Cramer agreed on behalf of the group.  "It might take us a while to disarm, though," he warned, looking at Utred, who was a walking arsenal of weapons.

"Wait - I have a question," interrupted Jhasspok.  He spun and faced Marlo.  "You lied about toads bursting into flame when you try to eat them, didn't you?" he accused.  "You used some magic trick to make Truffles burn in my mouth."

Marlo sighed and shook her head in disbelief; they were being disarmed and brought before a representative of the leadership of the kingdom of Durnhill, who believed the five of them were some sort of terrorist assassins or something and in league with the Seekers of Eternity, a perfectly harmless group about which Durnhill apparently had some serious misgivings, and the foolish lizardfolk was more worried about having been tricked into _not_ eating her familiar!  "Yes, Jhasspok, I tricked you so you would stop trying to eat Truffles.  You're my friend, but Truffles is also my friend and I don't want him to be eaten, any more than I'd want somebody to eat you."  _That_ at least made some sense to the lizardfolk: Marlo was apparently addle-brained enough to want to make friends with food!  He actually kind of felt sorry for her now, having to cope with such a debilitating limited intelligence.

Fortunately, Dow had a _bag of holding_ into which the assorted weapons of the five heroes (almost half of them belonging to Utred alone) could be stored for easy toting, and the three women led the group to a small tavern at the edge of the city.  Utred, grumpy at having to hand over all of his weapons, had his spirits lifted at the sight of the tavern (the _Enchanted Flagon_, according to the sign on the door) and the prospects of getting some decent alcohol.

Once inside the tavern, the group was greeted by a tall, gaunt man introducing himself as Skevros.  Cramer scowled at him and wondered why he was instinctively filled with distrust at the sight of the king's adviser.  "Ah!" he suddenly called out.  "I know why I don't trust you - you fit the description of the evil wizard who covered Lauren in those tattoos!"

Skevros at least had the good grace to look embarrassed.  "Yes, well, in my younger days I was...somewhat of a different person for a span of time...."  He pulled out a black book from a pocket in his red robes and flipped through it.  "Hmmm, yes, it seems at one point I was hired by Arcturus of the Council of Guilds to perform an experiment in divinatory magic," he admitted.  "I have no recollections of that span of time, but it's entirely possible I did as you claim."  He turned to the group again.  "Tell me," he asked, "have you ever heard of the Mithral Mage?"

"Never heard of him," Cramer answered immediately.

"Wait," pointed out Jhasspok helpfully, "wasn't that the guy we freed from Dwarven Hell?"

The _zone of truth_ spell, having been cast out in the streets of the city, was no longer a factor and Anuja admitted to not having another such spell at the ready, but Skevros dismissed her concerns.  "I think I can tell when someone is lying to me," he assured her, looking pointedly at Cramer.  He then asked the group to tell their side of the tale about the attack upon Lauren, and how the group had ended up fighting off Orion and Daleth, both of whom apparently worked directly for Skevros.  He also wanted full details about how - and, more importantly, why - they had freed the Mithral Mage from Dwarven Hell.  Cramer, the talkative one, spun not only those tales but brought the adviser up to speed on the Dying One and the threat he posed to the entire world if he tried returning to the Material Plane using less than the full ten Writhing Gates and filled him in on the various factions within the Seekers of Eternity, pointing out how the Seekers provided with refuge in Greenvale had helped fight off a drow invasion from the Underdark.  It was a tale long in the telling; fortunately, a silent barmaid named *Karen* provided Utred and Khari with tankards of ale with which to while away the time while Cramer talked and talked and talked.

Once Cramer had finished - and accepted an ale for himself, finding himself parched after all that discussion - Skevros agreed that at the very least the gnome believed everything he said to be true.  "I shall want to do some research myself into this Dying One of yours," he admitted.

"While you're at it," suggested Marlo, "can you offer any insights into what 'focusing runes inward' might mean?"  She briefly explained about the parchment they'd left with the Greenvale scholars.

Skevros mulled it over for a bit before offering, "It sounds like it might refer to psionic magic.  Rather exceedingly rare, I'm afraid - I don't know a whole lot about it."  Then he came to his decision.  "Return their weapons to them.  You are free to leave, as long as you don't cause any trouble within the city.  This 'temple of the abandoned sun' you seek is the Temple of Pelor, boarded up once it was discovered it sits upon caverns leading to the Underdark."  He gave them directions on how to find the temple and permission to break into it.  At Utred's request, he also gave them a small keg of ale.

The group had no difficulties finding the temple, nor in pulling down the boards sealing up the front door.  As described, there was an area designated as an orphanage at the rear of the building, inside which was a secret tunnel leading down into a cavern below the structure.  They were greeted almost immediately by a telepathic voice inside their heads.

<It seems you are looking for one such as I?> queried the voice.

"Aaah!" cried out Jhasspok, his usual response to sudden voices in his head.  But the voice belonged to an unusually tall mind flayer named *C'thorlumbrox*.  <If you are willing and trust me, I can levitate each of you down,> the ulitharid offered.

"I've got my own way down," replied Marlo, casting a quick _Rary's telepathic bond_ spell on the group and then stepping into the vertical shaft, using her _boots of levitation_ to slow her descent.  Khari also had his own way down, using his _earthglide warhammer_ to tunnel through the rock and appear in the cavern at Marlo's side.  The other three (Jhasspok having resumed his normal appearance now that he wasn't visible to the townspeople of Durnhill) took the ulitharid up on his offer, figuring if he meant them harm he had had ample opportunity to attack them before they were even aware of his presence.

Once everyone was gathered around the ulitharid, Jhasspok came right to the point.  "We're trying to kill one of your Elder Gods," he said.  "Can you help us?"  Marlo just closed her eyes and silently wished the lizardfolk would leave the talking to those better equipped to do so.  She could feel the beginnings on an incipient headache forming behind her temples.

<You speak of the Abomination.>

Cramer took that as a good sign that C'thorlumbrox was not a fan of the Dying One.  For a third time that day, he found himself explaining the background of Uboros and what would happen if he were able to reform the rest of his body from his severed head and try to return to the Material Plane without all ten Writhing Gates functioning.  "We'd like to destroy the Writhing Gates, or at least as many of them as needed to prevent the Dying One - the Abomination, that is - from even making the attempt."

Marlo handed over her copy of _The Book of Uboros_, showing him the passages that denoted the locations of the Writhing Gates.  "We know where one of them is, in the tunnels and caverns outside the drow city of Overreach," she explained.  "We need the locations of the others deciphered for us."

C'thorlumbrox scanned the pages.  <It is written in an archaic form, using older names,> he advised.  (In fact, if not for the weird temporal effects of the Far Realm the book would likely be so old as to crumble apart at the merest touch.)  <Translating it will take some time.  But I can tell you what I know of the Writhing Gates.>

Cramer and Marlo leaned forward in anticipation.  Utred opened the flask of ale and he and Khari settled down for what was likely to be another long bout of exposition.  Seeing their inattention but judging it an easy way to keep them from interrupting, Cramer wordlessly handed over the sack of toads and Jhasspok focused his attention on another light snack, politely offering a toad to the others and being shooed away for his efforts.

<Destroying the Writhing Gates will not be easy,> explained C'thorlumbrox.  <It took a special weapon to destroy the one Writhing Gate, and the weapon was itself destroyed in the process.  Unfortunately, an artifact of that power could only have been created by the Primordial Avatars - the versions of the gods that first set foot upon and created the world, and from whom most myths about the gods are born.  After a Primordial Avatar disappears from the world all future avatars of that god pale in comparison.  That means, of course, that such a weapon can no longer be created today.>

"But there are other of these primordial weapons that can take out a Writhing Gate?" pressed Cramer.

<It is possible; I will research the problem at hand.  But such favors are not to be provided free of charge.>

"Are you going to try to eat one of our brains?" asked Jhasspok around a mouthful of toad, surprising everyone by proving he'd been paying attention to the ulitharid's mental conversation.

<Yours would not be worth eating,> C'thorlumbrox replied.  Then, looking disdainfully at Khari Hammerslammer, he added, <And there is something wrong with that one's.>

"So what's the payment to be?" asked Marlo.

<There is a duergar outpost that my colony needs pacified.  It would be advantageous for those not affiliated with Tardinessk to do the deed.>  He gave the group directions and said he would await the party's return.

"Sure, we can handle a group of duergar for you," Cramer reassured him.  "Guys!  Drink up!  We're off on a mission!"

"'Bout damn time!" Utred agreed, sealing the keg back up and grabbing up his greataxe.

The way to the duergar outpost started at the bottom of a deep chasm off to the side of the cavern in which C'thorlumbrox had been conversing with the former arena slaves.  Now, after having been levitated down to the bottom of the chasm and following miles of a twisting passageway, the group approached the long cavern said to house the group of duergar they were to slay for the mind flayer colony.  Anticipating imminent combat, Cramer advised it was time for the standard bevy of pre-combat spellcasting.  Marlo said there was still plenty of duration left on the _Rary's telepathic bond_ spell, so she left it as it was.  Cramer cast a _mass bear's endurance_ on the group, as well as his standard _longstrider _spell upon himself.  Then, casting a _detect evil_ spell as he did so, he stepped foot into the cavern.

He immediately noticed an evil aura emanating from, of all things, a stalagmite directly across the way from him.  He puzzled on this for  a mere moment before the reason became apparent, as the "stalagmite" opened its cyclopian eye and fired a strand at the little gnome, striking him in the chest.  Cramer effortlessly shrugged off the roper's attempt to drain him of strength through its strand, then smirked as the tip of the adhesive appendage slipped off his armor and flopped to the ground.  That was one of the many advantages of being a cleric of Fharlanghn: the ability to will into existence a _freedom of movement_ effect that shielded him from such attempts at impeding his progress.

But now that there was an enemy at hand to deal with, Jhasspok charged - literally - into combat.  Speeding past Cramer in a few long strides, the lizardfolk raced up to the roper with his battleaxe raised over his head.  The roper proved to be much more maneuverable than the stalagmite it resembled, darting its trunk forward to bite at Jhasspok as he approached, but the roper got the worse end of the exchange as the reptile's axe-head buried itself in the upper part of the creature's body, near the single eye.

The sounds of clomping boots on stone brought the group's attention to the gaggle of duergar racing towards them from the far end of the cavern.  The eight gray dwarves fired crossbow bolts at the only two combatants they could see thus far - Cramer and Jhasspok - splitting the targets between them.  Of the barrage, Cramer was hit by only one bolt, and that was a superficial hit that barely scratched the side of his arm.

Utred raced along Jhasspok's path, ending up beside the lizardfolk, bringing his magical greataxe to bear down upon the roper.  With Marlo in the way in the cramped tunnel leading into the cavern, Khari opted to _earthglide_ through the stone beneath her, popping up off to one side of Cramer - and directly in front of a second roper standing motionlessly against the wall opposite from its fellow monstrosity.  This second roper leaned forward, biting at an astonished Khari with its sharp teeth, catching the Hammerslammer dwarf in the shoulder.

Marlo stepped into the cavern and decided to do something about the duergar they had been sent here to deal with - as usual, the guys had gone full-out against the first combatants they had spotted and ignored the real reason they had come here in the first place.  She summoned forth the required mystical energy and caused a circle of writhing, black tentacles to rise up from the stone cavern floor and encompass themselves around the struggling duergar.  Try as they might, none of them could find release from the _Evard's black tentacles_ spell Marlo had cast their way.

The first roper reeled in its ineffective strand and fired off two strands each at Utred, Jhasspok, and Cramer.  All six struck true, but none of them was able to siphon off any physical strength from its foes, and once again the two that struck the gnome failed to find any permanent purchase.  It snapped its teeth in frustration at Jhasspok, but the lizardfolk managed to scramble sideways out of its reach.  The other roper had only Khari as a target, so the dwarven fighter was struck by no fewer than six strands; fortunately, as a dwarf he was built with a solid constitution and he had no trouble at all resisting the strength-draining attempts of the roper's strands.  This second roper also chomped at its target in frustration and this one was much more successful in its bite attack than had been its counterpart; Khari's upper body became firmly lodged in the roper's massive mouth as teeth pierced the dwarf from front and back.  The fighter's legs kicked furiously as he was lifted from the ground.

Cramer, looking at the eight duergar imprisoned by the _Evard's black tentacles_ spell, thought they were lined up rather nicely and cast a _blade barrier_ spell over six of the group.  Flashing blades stabbed and sliced at the screaming gray dwarves as blood flew in all directions.  The two duergar not caught up in this second spell's effect yelled just as loudly, redoubling their efforts to escape the squeezing tentacles before the swords came their way as well - to no avail.  Marlo's spell had them all but bound and helpless.

Jhasspok swung his battleaxe at the first roper again, catching it in the side of the mouth and sending a few spiky teeth flying off to the side.  Utred hit the same roper with his _flaming greataxe_, noticing the fire seemed particularly effective against the creature.  He broadcast his findings over the telepathic link, eliciting another yelp of surprise from Jhasspok.

Khari was half inside the second roper's mouth but he was far from out of the fight and he was damn sure he wasn't going to be swallowed by the monster.  He brought his warhammer crashing into the creature's throat, causing it to shake him back and forth in its mouth like a dog with a rag toy.  But then Marlo, listening to Utred's advice, cast an _empowered scorching ray_ at the first roper and just like that it was dead, the strands that had been adhered to Jhasspok and Utred falling limply to the stone floor of the cavern.

Cramer then focused his attention on the second roper, still gripping Khari in its mouth and shaking him back and forth.  He cast two spells in rapid succession: a _flame strike_ covering the two in holy fire, followed almost immediately by a _quickened cure serious wounds_ spell on Khari, healing up some of the damage he'd just inflicted on the dwarf as an unwelcome side effect of damaging the roper.  "Sorry!" the gnome called out to Khari; any verbal response the dwarven fighter might have made was absorbed in the interior of the roper's mouth.

Utred switched weapons as he crossed the cavern, striking at the second roper with his _life-flame whip_ as he did so, causing a burn mark stripe across the roper's stonelike skin.  Jhasspok sped across the cavern again, leaping over Cramer and Utred's heads as he crashed into the roper, his battleaxe just barely missing the darting creature's eye.  But despite the efforts of his friends, it was Khari himself who provided the killing blow that finally finished off the roper that had been trying to eat him.  As the roper crashed sideways to the ground, Khari extricated himself from its vile mouth.  "It's stinky in there!" was all he had to say on the matter.

The two remaining duergar started pleading incoherently as they saw the feared Marlo Pendragon walking their way.  Their pleas were not heeded; Marlo finished them off with an _empowered lightning bolt_ spell.  She then released her black tentacles, which dissolved back into the ground from which they had sprung.  The group gave the entire cavern a quick perusal but there were no other duergar about, nor did the eight they'd slain have much in the way of valuables among them, just a few basic supplies stored here and there in the cavern.  They did note their armor had been coated in some weird, slimy substance, apparently to fend off the ropers' strand attacks; as effective as they might have been for that purpose, they had proven entirely useless against Marlo's black tentacles.

Returning back through the twisting passageway to the bottom of the deep chasm, Marlo and Khari made their own way back up while C'thorlumbrox levitated the other three.  "It's done," Cramer reported and the ulitharid bowed his appreciation.

Marlo then took the opportunity to hit the ulitharid up for what he might know about "focusing runes inward," the phrase Skevros had hinted might involve psionics.  <It is indeed a psionic message,> C'thorlumbrox agreed.  <Focusing runes inward refers to the way psionics, unlike arcane or divine magic, is willed into existence by mental power alone.>

Their mission accomplished for now - and C'thorlumbrox reaffirming he'd contact the group with the results of his findings about the Writhing Gate locations and how to possibly destroy them - the five heroes departed the city of Durnhill.  Once well outside the city proper, Cramer was able to cast a _teleport_ spell that returned them to Greenvale.  There, they briefed the Greenvale scholars on what they'd accomplished and what they'd learned about the phrase written on the parchment.

"Hey, maybe you're secretly psionic," joked Utred to Khari.  "That might be what's so wrong with your brain that even a mind flayer don't wanna eat it."

"You jest, but that's actually a distinct possibility," admitted Marlo.  At her request, the parchment was returned and she handed it over to Khari.  "Here, try focusing these runes inward," she suggested.  Khari took the parchment, looked at the Dwarven runes inscribed on it, focused his will - and promptly passed out, spilling into a limp heap onto the floor.

"Wha' happen?" Khari asked blearily when the others had slapped him awake.

"You passed out," Cramer explained.  "You know, if the 'wrongness' C'thorlumbrox mentioned about your brain is some sort of malady, it's possible a _greater restoration_ spell might fix it.  Are you willing to give it a try?"

"Sure, I suppose so," Khari shrugged.

Cramer cast the spell upon the dwarven fighter and in an instant, Khari remembered.  He remembered everything.

As a wee child, Khari had first developed psionic potential.  A dwarven elder had used that potential to seal the key to Brunniir inside his mind.  Unfortunately, the process effectively lobotomized him, leading to his lowered intellect.

"Are you okay?" Marlo asked, concern written across her face.

"I'm fine," Khari replied, scowling.  He was trying, repeatedly, to focus the runes inward and this time he received in a flash a series of images showing the way the key was to be used to gain entry to the city of Brunniir.  "'Instructions will follow' - that's what the magic runes said on this parchment," Khari said, flipping the paper over.  "It worked: I'm the Keeper of the Key and I know how to get us to Brunniir."

 - - -

Well, it looks like we know where our PCs will likely be heading next!  We've already guessed that Brunniir is the city we saw along the Path of Shadows, but now we might be able to actually do something about it.

We surprised Logan by not fighting Anuja, Mikito, and Dow and being so reasonable with them and Skevros.  But we knew we were in the right and that our actions had all been warranted.  (I suppose we also had a little bit of player knowledge that Skevros and company were good guys and wouldn't likely hurt us; no matter how much you try to ignore knowledge you have but your PCs do not, it's often difficult to partition that knowledge.)

So as a result of the _greater restoration_ spell (Logan handwaved away the normal XP cost of casting the spell since it was being cast for story purposes), Khari Hammerslammer's Intelligence 5 has been permanently restored to its (apparently original, although this was unknown even to Harry) score of 12; in addition, he's gained the bonus feat "Wild Talent" from the _Psionic Handbook_, which will allow him to progress and gain psionic levels (in classes like psion or psychic warrior) if he so desires.  Harry emphatically does not so desire, wanting to keep Khari on the path of the fighter for the full 20 levels.  And that's fine with Logan, although he's a big fan of psionics overall and would no doubt like using them more in the campaign if the opportunity ever presented itself.


----------



## Richards (Aug 15, 2021)

*ADVENTURE 39: THE ROAD TO THE GOLDEN CITY*

PC Roster: 
Cramer Appleknocker, gnome cleric 13​Jhasspok, lizardman 3/barbarian 3/fighter 7​Khari Hammerslammer, dwarf fighter 13​Marlo Pendragon, human sorcerer 13​Utred "Buckets" Butterflinger, dwarf barbarian 13​
Game Session Date: 11 August 2021

 - - -

"We all know how to get to Brunniir," argued Cramer Appleknocker.  "We've seen it, in the distance, when we crossed through the Path of Shadows."

"Can't go that way," insisted Khari Hammerslammer, crossing his arms across his chest and putting on his most stubborn expression.  "Brunniir is under siege by all kinds of incorporeal undead - we'd never make it through them all."

"I can turn them," argued the gnome, holding up his holy symbol of Fharlanghn, God of Travel.

"Not that many, you can't," answered Khari.  "Nobody could.  We'd need an army of clerics."

"I assume you have another way to get us there, then?" suggested Marlo, seeing a similar look of stubbornness crossing Cramer's face.  More than anything else, she wanted to prevent the two from planting themselves into their respective beliefs and refusing to budge.  "What did the visions tell you?"  This was a subtle reminder to Cramer that Khari had information none of the others currently possessed, put there decades ago and psionically locked away in the dwarf's head.

"We do our traveling on the Material Plane, through the Underdark tunnels, to get to where Brunniir _used_ to sit.  _Then_ we transition to the Plane of Shadows, where the Golden City now resides."

Jhasspok was confused.  "I thought we wanted to go to Brunniir, not the Golden City," he said, reptilian brows furrowed.

"Hush, Jhasspok," chided Marlo.  "Brunniir _is_ the Golden City."

"That'll takes weeks!" argued Cramer.  "My way's quicker."

"Your way gets us all killed."

Cramer looked over to the others.  Utred hadn't said a word but he walked over and stood beside his fellow dwarf, his burly arms crossed and his scowling face showing he too could be as stubborn as any other member of his hard-headed race.  Jhasspok stood beside his two melee partners and, belatedly seeing they were both crossing their arms, did so himself.  (Apparently it was now a thing they did.  Good to know.)

Marlo, ever the peacemaker, offered up, "If his way is safer in the long run, and the psionic message was sent to him by someone from Brunniir - or who at least knows more about Brunniir than we do at present - it makes sense that--"

"Okay, fine!" surrendered Cramer, seeing there was no way he was going to win this argument against such a united front.  "Fine!  But we'll need to stock up on provisions if we're going to be traipsing around through Underdark tunnels for a week."

There were plenty of provisions to be had in the drow surface city of Greenvale; while Marlo and Cramer saw about supplying enough food for the five of them (and Jhasspok stocked up on his favorite dried insect snacks, which he was sure the others would overlook if he left the provisions entirely in their hands), Utred made sure there was likewise an ample supply of ale for the trip.  Then, fully provisioned and ready to go, Khari led the party the long way through the Underdark tunnels, following the fleeting images flashing through his head.

The first day was uneventful.  When it came time to make camp, Marlo cast a _rope trick_ spell, got everyone into its extradimensional space, and then pulled up the rope behind her.  Just that easy, they had a safe place to spend the night without even needing to set out guards in shifts.

It was on the second day of travel they encountered their first danger.  Walking along an Underdark tunnel, the dwarves were the first to notice the vibrations coming through their feet.  "Something's burrowing beneath us," Utred said.

"Something big," added Khari.

"Feels like it's heading our way," Utred said, readying his greataxe to strike at anything that might pop its head up and try to eat them.  Khari held his _earthglide warhammer_ at the ready as well and Jhasspok held his battleaxe in preparation for combat.  Marlo cast an _invisibility_ spell and used her boots to _levitate_ nearly to the tunnel's ceiling.  Cramer cast a _shield of faith_ spell upon himself.  Mentally, Utred ran through several possibilities of what might be headed their way: bulette, thoqqua, delver....

"Purple worm!" cried out Khari as the stone wall beside him exploded outwards in a hail of rock shards and shrapnel.  He sent his warhammer crashing into the creature's armored head, but that only focused the great worm's attention on him as its first potential target.  Its massive maw opened and a circle of sharp teeth engulfed the dwarven fighter, pulling Khari deep into the creature's mouth.  Utred dashed forward, striking at the side of the worm's head with his greataxe, while Jhasspok raced across the space between them, leaping over Utred to land on the creature's head and bring his own axe-blade digging deep into the worm's armored flesh.

Inside the creature's mouth, Khari decided against trying to scramble his way back out of the huge maw, deciding he could deal just as much damage to the beast inside it as well as outside it.  He let fly with his warhammer, cracking a few teeth at the root.  If the fool thing was going to try to swallow him down, he'd make it pay for every inch he was dragged down its gullet!

From her position up by the tunnel's ceiling, Marlo suddenly popped back into view as she cast an _empowered scorching ray_ spell at the massive worm.  Not wanting to hit Jhasspok, who stood balanced upon its head, she aimed her streams of fire further back down the creature's length, where it first exited the hole it had burrowed through the side of the tunnel wall.  And then Cramer followed suit with one of his most powerful spells, _destruction_.  The purple worm struggled under the effects of the gnome's spell, and while it managed to avoid complete disintegration the spell's energies were enough to slay the beast entirely.

"You okay in there?" Marlo called out to Khari, wishing she'd had time to cast a _Rary's telepathic bond_ spell before combat had begun.

Khari's response was muffled, not surprising given he was a good deal down the dead worm's gullet.  "I'm okay!" he called back.  Then there was no further response for some time; while everyone else waited for the dwarven fighter to exit on his own, Jhasspok took advantage of the delay to cut off a few thick strips of worm meat.  He offered to cut a few extra strips for the others, but once again the silly mammals had very specific opinions about precisely which "meat" constituted "meat" and worm muscle apparently hadn't made the list.  He just shook his head at their foolishness.

"You planning on coming out anytime soon?" Marlo called, wondering what was taking Khari so long.  When there was no answer, she turned to Cramer.  "I think he's in trouble in there!" she worried.  Cramer just rolled his eyes, wondering exactly what kind a trouble a dwarven fighter could get into inside a dead worm.  Succumb to acidic vapors?  He begrudgingly started to climb up to the slain worm's mouth, trying to slip past its broken teeth to try to go find their missing dwarf when Khari popped his head back out.  He held up a few shiny rocks.  "I found some unrefined gemstones inside its innards!" he exclaimed, a proud expression on his face.  Now it was Marlo's turn to shake her head in disbelief, for she couldn't imagine herself digging through a worm's intestinal tract to dig out some semiprecious stones, no matter what their inherent value might be. 

The rest of that day was relatively uneventful, as was the next, and the one after that.  Cramer's little legs soon got tired of all the walking, but Utred helped him out by occasionally letting him ride in the harness they'd constructed, where Cramer became just one more thing the burly  dwarven barbarian wore on his back.

On the fifth day the group ran into their next living opponent.  The tunnels Khari led them through had opened into a wide cavern bisected perpendicularly by a wide chasm that stretched from one end to the other.  "We need to get across it," Khari informed the group.

Jhasspok looked at the width of the gap.  "I can jump across it, easy," he stated, and started walking back the way he had come to give himself plenty of lead space in which to build up speed.  Marlo, in the meantime, cast a _fly_ spell on Utred from a scroll.  "Stick the gnome in the harness and you can both get across," she suggested.  That sounded like a fine idea to Cramer, who was always willing to let Utred do his traveling for him.  Climbing onto the barbarian's shoulders and wriggling into the harness, Cramer held on tight as Utred started flying across the chasm.

And that's when he realized the chasm was much deeper than it had first appeared.  While at first glance it had looked to be only about 10 feet deep, in reality it was much deeper than that - only all but the top 10 feet were filled with the amorphous body of an elder black pudding!  As the dwarf and gnome flew over the chasm, an oily pseudopod darted up from the gap and struck the pair of them, burning the barbarian with its acidic touch.

Seeing their friends under attack, Khari approached the edge of the chasm and fired an arrow at the pudding with his _frost longbow_.  The arrow was completely absorbed into the ooze's body, leaving only a slight patch of frost on its surface to show where the arrow had been swallowed up.  Jhasspok started sprinting to the edge of the chasm, not to leap the gap as originally planned but to attack the fat tentacle thing engulfing Utred and Cramer.  He launched himself into the air, swinging his battleaxe at the offending appendage, but by the time the lizardfolk had gotten there his friends had already escaped, courtesy of a _dimension door_ spell the gnomish cleric cast upon the two of them.  They ended back up at the cavern's entrance by Marlo, while Jhasspok found himself sinking into an enormous, sticky pool of acidic ooze.  He had already sunk up to his knees when the black pudding sent a wave of its pliable body over the lizardfolk's head, engulfing him completely.

Marlo cast an _empowered scorching ray_ spell at the enormous black pudding, burning off a few layers of its amorphous body.  Utred grabbed up a bow and started shooting arrow after arrow into the pudding's body, each arrow sinking into the thing's mass to be wholly consumed.  Khari followed Jhasspok's lead and leaped onto the thing's body, slamming at it with his warhammer as he sunk into it past the tops of his boots.

Having been impressed with the spell's efficacy in slaying the purple worm, Cramer cast a _destruction_ spell at the elder black pudding.  This time, the spell completely overwhelmed the ooze's physical structure and its entire body dissolved away to nothingness.  Jhasspok and Khari, left behind, fell the rest of the way to the bottom of the chasm, although Khari avoided striking the bottom like Jhasspok did by activating his _earthglide warhammer_, sinking into the rock below and then altering course to pop back up at the top of the far side of the ledge.  The outer scales had been burned from Jhasspok's body, leaving the layer beneath glistening wet and hardening in the Underdark air.

Utred still had the _fly_ spell active, so he ferried everyone else over and the group continued their trek. 

On the final day of their week-long journey, Khari eventually led them into a vast chamber, likely the very bottom of a deep chasm some hundreds of feet wide.  "This is it," he said proudly, pointing to an odd stone structure just ahead, a roughly circular stone some 5 feet tall, upon which stood a smaller circle, also about 5 feet high.  Growing atop these stacked circles were three stalagmites, pointing up at the unseen ceiling too far overhead for the dwarves to see even with their darkvision.  "That structure leads to Brunniir," he said, knowing instinctively that the central stalagmite was the keyhole through which he could get the five of them to the Golden City.

The illumination from their _slave-light cloaks_ flickered and dimmed as they approached the stone structure, causing a small amount of consternation to cross the faces of the heroes.  Unbeknownst to them, this was the result of a bit of shadow energy seeping out from the _planar gate_ just ahead.  But Khari was too excited to finally reach their goal to worry overly about their illumination (and as a dwarf, he could rely upon his darkvision as needed), so he _earthglided_ up the circular structure and examined the central stalagmite.  Closing his eyes, he concentrated on visualizing the key into existence.

As a result, he missed the moment when the undead first appeared.

These particular undead had been hanging around the area since the moment, centuries ago, that Brunniir had first been shunted from the Material Plane to the Plane of Shadows.  They were attracted by the slow leak of shadow energy that permeated from the _planar gate_ and thus never strayed too far.  The first undead to appear was a cloud of mist seemingly composed of hundreds of skulls.  After having manifested into a partially-corporeal existence, it lashed out with its collective mind and sent a burst of psionic energy at the dwarf still on the cavern floor.  Utred cried out in sudden pain from the _psychic crush_ but gritted his way through the pain and avoided the horrendous damage the attack could do to those not properly shielded from it.

Jhasspok, spotting the sudden foe, leaped across the span between them in his loping gait and brought his battleaxe swinging into the misty pile of skulls.  He managed to get lucky with his blade, catching the incorporeal menace at just the right time and the right angle to actually cut through some of its physical substance, causing a number of the skulls to howl out in pain.  Other skulls snapped out at the lizardfolk in retaliation, their teeth catching the reptile's scales.

Then three wraiths rose up from the cavern floor, surrounding Marlo, Cramer, and Utred.  They lashed out at the surprised heroes, their clawed hands passing through the physical bodies of human, gnome, and dwarf alike, to little real effect.  However, Marlo shrieked in surprise at their sudden appearance and took a step back - just far enough away to cast an _empowered magic missile_ spell at the closest wraith.

Then two more shadowy figures rose up from the ground behind Utred.  One of the greater shadows struck the barbarian, draining him of a portion of his strength and fueling his rage.  Utred spun in place and struck at the greater shadow with his greataxe, his blade passing through the creature's body but seeming to have affected it at least somewhat.

Cramer was surrounded by undead and had an opportunity to try to turn them away, but the blast that caller in darkness had used against Utred had the little gnome spooked.  Realizing he was their only source of healing (besides a few potions the others might have on hand), he stepped away from the wraith attacking him and cast a _death ward_ spell on himself from the relative safety of using Marlo as a human shield.  Then, convinced he was no longer in danger from instant obliteration from whatever attack the cloud of misty skulls had used, he looked about to see how best he could attack the various undead plaguing his team.

Khari went charging back down from the stone platform, his _earthglide warhammer_ swinging through the nearest shadow.  But his weapon glided through the undead thing, all right - seemingly without any effect.  How he hated incorporeal undead!

The caller in darkness floated away from Jhasspok and hit the lizardfolk with a _psychic crush_ attack.  Had the hulking reptile not been able to gut his way through the psionic attack, he'd have dropped instantly to the ground, bleeding out from an internal hemorrhage.  But he shook his head to clear it and pressed forward with his attacks, once again taking a few bites for his efforts but luckily hitting the incorporeal cloud in just the right way to affect it with his weapon's blade and his own teeth.

Over in the other clump of combatants, the wraiths tried again with their incorporeal attacks, and this time the one attacking Marlo managed to siphon off some of her life energy;  she felt a distinct coldness pass through her body, leaving her vitality drained.  She backed off again and hit another wraith with an _empowered magic missile_ spell, knowing the force energy had no chance of missing and would affect even an incorporeal foe.  The shadows concentrated their attacks on the two dwarves, and Khari felt a coldness penetrate his body as a portion of the strength in his limbs was drained away.

Utred's greataxe finally took out the first of the greater shadows and he cleaved the blade into the other one.  Cramer scooted out from behind Marlo and positioned himself in the middle of the clump of wraiths and shadows, casting a _mass cure serious wounds_ spell that sent healing energy into everyone but Jhasspok and the caller in darkness.  Those heroes with physical wounds were healed up, while their undead foes were eaten away by the positive energy emanating from the gnome cleric.  The blast was enough to slay one of the wraiths outright.

Khari continued swinging his warhammer at the undead figures, frustrated beyond belief that it seemed to pass through them harmlessly - what was he doing wrong?  Jhasspok at least seemed to be doing damage against his foe with his battleaxe, but the dwarf suspected the lizardfolk would not be able to explain what it was he was doing differently to have such an effect.  Odds are, it was simply good luck on the part of the lizardfolk and bad luck on his own part.

The caller in darkness floated away from Jhasspok again and this time tried a different tactic.  Eschewing its _psionic crush_ attack which had been completely ineffectual thus far against these mortal foes, it sent a _death urge_ directly into the lizardfolk's primitive mind.  Raging at the circumstances, the lizardfolk brought his battleaxe up over his head for a powerful swing - and then brought it crashing into his own thigh, slicing through scales, muscle, and flesh and cutting deep into the bone.  It was as if a simple switch had been activated in Jhasspok's head, redirecting his rage and hatred away from the cloudy mass of insubstantial skulls and into himself.  He staggered from his self-inflicted wound, falling to the floor as he tried to pull the axe-head from his leg so he could attack himself again.

The wraiths continued attacking Marlo and Utred, meeting up with little success.  The sorceress cast another _empowered magic missile_ at one of the wraiths, not wanting to try a more powerful spell that could easily have no effect upon the incorporeal foe.  Khari cried out as the remaining greater shadow further drained him of his strength; already the warhammer was feeling heavy in his hands and he knew with another couple of these attacks he'd no longer be able to lift its weight.  Fortunately, before that could happen Utred slew the shadow, leaving no more creatures capable of such an attack still active on the battlefield.

Cramer moved closer to the downed Jhasspok and cast a _mass cure medium wounds_ spell.  The deep gash in Jhasspok's thigh sealed up and the surge of positive energy was enough to slay the caller in darkness and one of the last two remaining wraiths.  Jhasspok was glad to see the floating skulls dissipate into nothingness, although he was somewhat disappointed he wasn't the one to have killed them; at least whatever temporary madness that had caused him to want to kill himself had passed.  He limped up to a standing position and looked around for other foes to slay.  There was just one remaining wraith, and while the dwarves swung at it with their weapons it was another spell from Cramer - a _cure critical wounds_ he had to activate with a touch of his hand - that finished it off.

Jhasspok needed some additional healing before he could walk normally again (Utred kidded him that he'd seemingly taken the most damage all this past week from his own weapon), and then the group climbed up the stacked circular stones that Khari insisted led to Brunniir.  Once again visualizing a key, the others gasped in astonishment when a glowing key _did_ suddenly manifest in Khari's hand.  He pushed the key - as incorporeal as the undead creatures they'd just defeated - into the stone of the central stalagmite and just like that, the five adventurers disappeared from the cavern.

Cramer looked about him in wonderment.  There was no doubt about it: they now stood within the Golden City.  "Ye made it!" cried out a hearty voice.  Looking in the direction from which the voice had come, the group saw a group of dwarven guards approach them.  "Then our message made it through!  Come with us, we'll take ye to the Elders of the City!"

The Elders had quite a story to relay.  While popular belief was that Brunniir had vanished to flee the imminent end of the world so at least they would survive the destruction of the planet, in fact they had moved the Golden City to the Plane of Shadow so they could hide it from the followers of the Dying One while they researched a way to prevent the Elder God's return and the subsequent end of the world Its return to the Material Plane would bring about.  "Our greatest blacksmith was working on a weapon that could destroy the Writhing Gates that link the Dying One to the world," declared one of the Golden City's Elders.  "Unfortunately, the besiegers of the city have used the instability of the Plane of Shadows to separate the workshop-vault where his work was stored from the rest of the city."

"Wait, they can do that?" asked Cramer incredulously.

"It was broken off like an iceberg calving," affirmed the Elder.  "The city has been under constant attack since we brought it here to this plane, many centuries ago."  Then he turned to Utred Butterflinger and looked him straight in the eye.  "As the blacksmith's grandson, you should be able to open the vault.  But first, you'll have to find your way to it, through a vast army of undead."

Utred blew out a breath.  "Great," he said.  "How soon do we begin?"

 - - -

So this adventure was basically just a string of encounters - opportunities for Logan to throw some Underdark creatures at us because the timing was right.  That was fine, as we all enjoyed the combats.  Well...all, that is, up until that last one.  Harry was getting pretty peeved that he didn't get to connect even once with any of the incorporeal undead - he rolled his d20s high enough to hit them, but then always lost the 50% miss chance when fighting incorporeal creatures with corporeal weapons.  We had to point out to him that just by being there he was helping to "soak up" some attacks that, had they been focused on the rest of us, might have prevented us from winning the fight.  I think his brain understood that, but his heart wanted to have inflicted even some damage on one of the wraiths or shadows.  (And I can't really blame him, either - the Dice Gods are nothing if not fickle.)

And I really hated having to try to kill myself, even if it was only for one round.  Stupid psionic creatures with their stupid psionic attacks!  Oh, that reminds me: on that front, it looks like Logan has convinced Harry that it would be worth his while to have Khari take at least one level as a psychic warrior, since he has those free power points floating around from his bonus Wild Talent psionic feat.  Apparently there's a psychic warrior power he'll be able to use three times a day that will add +2 to his weapon damage.  So Khari will likely take a level of psychic warrior as soon as we hit 14th level (possibly as early as the end of the next adventure - we're pretty close), and then take fighter levels from that point on.  I guess we'll see.


----------



## Richards (Aug 21, 2021)

*ADVENTURE 40: BETWEEN DARKNESS AND A SHADOW*

PC Roster:
Cramer Appleknocker, gnome cleric 13​Jhasspok, lizardman 3/barbarian 3/fighter 7​Khari Hammerslammer, dwarf fighter 13​Marlo Pendragon, human sorcerer 13​Utred "Buckets" Butterflinger, dwarf barbarian 13​
Game Session Date: 18 August 2021

 - - -

The five heroes from Overreach had made it to Brunniir and the dwarven elders explained the history of the Golden City.  Five centuries ago the city had been shunted to the Plane of Shadows so they could try to find a way to stop the Dying One without being found out by his cultists.  The undead currently surrounding the Golden City hadn't really been an issue until 93 years ago.  Fortunately, when the city had been built, the stones had incorporated a magical protection from burrowing creatures (like the purple worm the heroes had fought on their way to Brunniir): a force effect woven into each stone - which incidentally gave them the golden color responsible for the city's nickname - kept them at bay and also came in very handy in keeping incorporeal creatures from breaching the city's walls.  Things went well for the next four centuries and then, some 93 years ago, the incorporeal undead on the plane started attacking the Golden City in earnest.  Nobody knew who was organizing them into a unified force, but about a decade ago they started making some small progress.  Still unable to breach the city, they somehow found a way to manipulate the shadowstuff of the plane itself, causing small chunks of the city's outskirts to cleave off, one building at a time.  Fortunately, these attacks were sporadic, with often a span of months passing between each such occurrence.  But the calved-off buildings would be drawn away from the rest of the city as the space between them was somehow increased.

*Dolthran Greyale*, the city's greatest blacksmith, had been in charge of working on a weapon to destroy the Writhing Gates.  He died years ago, sealing his forge until his heir arrived to open it.  Unfortunately, his forge had been cleaved off in the last attack - which prompted the Elders to send for the heroes in Greenvale.

"What can you tell us about this weapon?" asked Utred.  "Did he finish it in time?  Is it still there in his forge?  What are its properties?"

"If'n 'e finished it before 'is death, it'll be locked away there in 'is vault.  We c'n only hope 'e completed its construction before 'is death.  As fer its nature, we c'n only tell ye a story of an incident that happened while he were still workin' on it.  Somehow, Dolthran 'ad unleashed a shadowy creature upon th' city which killed dozens o' our best armed warriors before th' fool thing was finally killed - by all accounts - by a pair of two simple farmers wieldin' pitchforks.  Whatever th' shadowy thing were, it seemed t' be a vital ingredient in th' weapon somehow."

"So you need us to go fetch this weapon," Cramer surmised.  "How will we know where to find the forge's current location?"

"One o' our clerics'll cast a _find th' path_ spell on ye, which'll take ye right to it, wherever it might be," the elder explained.  "But that'd be but th' first task before ye: first, fetch th' weapon; second, find whatever's leadin' these undead armies an' put a stop t' them taking apart our city, one buildin' at a time ev'ry coupla months."

"You have a plan to lead us to the first part of that plan," pointed out Marlo.  "Do you have any suggestions about how we might accomplish the second task?"

"As t' that, we've no ideas," admitted the elder.  "But keep it in mind, while ye're out there - if ye find the leader o' these undead forces, we'd appreciate it greatly if'n ye could find a way t' take 'im out, once an' fer all.  T' aid ye in yer tasks, though, we've four vials of _ectoplasmic oil_ ye c'n apply t' some o' yer weapons."  He explained this was in effect a means by which the weapons so treated would be able to affect incorporeal undead without any chances they'd simply pass through their insubstantial bodies.  Cramer caught on at once: "A _ghost touch_ effect," he explained to the others.

"Best ye rest up, now," suggested the elder, leading them to rooms where they could spend the evening.  "Ye c'n set out in th' mornin', when ye're refreshed an' ready t' be about yer business."

The next morning, as promised, four vials of _ectoplasmic oil_ were passed over to the group.  Marlo agreed it made more sense for the four of them most likely to use melee weapons to get the advantages the oil brought them, as she intended to rely solely upon her spells in any combats they might face.  An elderly dwarven cleric and an equally ancient-looking dwarven wizard approached the group.  "Ye'd do best not broadcastin' yer locations with any illumination," the wizard advised.  "This spell'll grant ye three th' vision o' a dwarf."  He then cast a _darkvision_ spell upon Marlo, Cramer, and Jhasspok.

"No _slave-light cloak_ flames, Jhasspok," Cramer reiterated, wanting to make sure their lizardfolk companion understood the importance of keeping their illusory flames darkened while they traveled - it was obvious to the gnome but he realized it wasn't necessarily going to be obvious to the simple-minded reptile.

"Got it," Jhasspok replied.  Then, looking up above the city, he asked, "Why is there a sky?"  Sure enough, there was a dark sky above them with streaks of half-hearted clouds floating in the near-total darkness.  "It wasn't there yesterday."  The puzzled lizardfolk was pretty sure the "sky" - the big, waterless ocean which held the _fireball sun_ in the daytime and the Really Big Pearl at night - was a surface-world thing.  The Plane of Shadow had seemed to be more like the Underdark which had been his home for the vast majority of his five and a half years.

"Th' Plane o' Shadows is highly morphic in nature," the dwarven wizard replied.  "At times the cavern ceilin' is dissolved into th' surroundin' stone, leavin' a visual path straight t' the surface world above.  Recall, th' Plane o' Shadows is both coterminous an' coexistent with th' Material Plane."

Jhasspok looked to Utred and the dwarven barbarian translated for him.  "The sky is only there sometimes," he said.  Jhasspok nodded wisely.  Utred was so smart!

Cramer cast his customary _longstrider_ spell, while Marlo set the group up with a _Rary's telepathic bond_ spell.  "I'm going to talk in your head now," she told Jhasspok.  Thus warned, he didn't yelp out in surprise when Marlo's voice suddenly appeared in his head.  <Can everyone hear me okay?> she asked.  The four males each replied in the affirmative.  <Let's keep all talking over the mental link once we get outside the city,> she suggested.  <We don't want to attract any unwanted attention.  I'm going to cast a _mage armor_ on each of us,> she said over the link - she'd found it was best to get Jhasspok used to the idea of using the telepathic communication mode whenever possible, because he often forgot it was active - and started to do just that.

<Don't need it,> Utred complained.  <Already got plenty of armor.>

<And shadows and wraiths can pass right through it,> Marlo explained.  <_Mage armor_ is a force effect - it'll be as real to them as your normal armor.>

<Okay then, fine.  Whatever.>

Cramer cast a _hide from undead_ spell on the whole group, explaining it would keep them from being noticed by mindless undead like skeletons and zombies.  <It might still work on the kinds of undead we fought before entering the Plane of Shadows yesterday, but if any one of us attacks an undead creature the spell will instantly switch off for all of us.  You got that, Jhasspok?  Don't attack any undead unless we're sure they can already see us.>

<Okay.>

Marlo and Cramer each finished up by casting a _magic circle against evil_ spell upon themselves, then the _ectoplasmic oil_ was applied to Utred's _flaming greataxe_, Khari's _earthglide warhammer_, Jhasspok's magical battleaxe, and Cramer's _Elderwood flaming heavy mace_.  "Okay, we're ready," Cramer told the elderly dwarven spellcasters.

The dwarven cleric then cast a _find the path_ spell on Utred and the wizard cast a _teleport_ spell sending the five heroes far away from the immediate vicinity of the city - far enough away they'd hopefully not be visible by the hordes of undead swarming Brunniir.  They ended up at the edge of the canyon in which Brunniir sat - and directly facing a pair of undead creatures.

These undead creatures were both apparently intelligent enough to ignore Cramer's _hide from undead_ spell, for they both turned to face the quintet of heroes.  The largest of the two was easily recognizable as a dread wraith; they'd just fought off two of these creatures yesterday in the Underdark cavern where Brunniir used to sit, some five centuries long past.  The other one, though, seemed like it was just a simple skeleton, although one wearing tattered robes.

<I think they see us,> Jhasspok observed, proud that he'd remembered to use his thinking-in-his-head voice instead of his speaking-out-loud voice.  <Does that mean--?>

<Yes, attack them!> Cramer answered irritably, for the dread wraith had immediately lunged for Khari Hammerslammer, passing his clawed hand inside the dwarf's body where it wasn't covered by Marlo's _mage armor_ spell.  The dwarven fighter felt an unwelcomingly familiar cold sensation pass throughout his body as a portion of his very vitality was drained away.  But Utred was there by his fellow dwarf's side in a moment, swinging his magic greataxe at the ghostly figure nearly twice his own size.  At the same time, an _empowered magic missile_ crashed into the dread wraith's insubstantial form as Marlo immediately assessed the situation and confirmed it was safe to attack.  Khari brought his warhammer up and smashed its head into the dread wraith, actually causing it to fall back a pace or two.

Cramer cast a _death ward_ on himself, unsure about the skeletal being standing beside the dread wraith; if it had seen him through his _hide from undead_ spell it was no simple mindless skeleton, which meant it could very well be a lich - and there was no telling what sort of foul necromantics such a being might have at hand.  Far better, in the gnome's estimation, to be safe from a magical attack that might slay him instantly than to deprive his companions of their most powerful source of healing energy.

Before Jhasspok could belatedly attack either of the undead pair, the skeletal creature - no lich, but very close: a huecuva - cast an _unholy blight_ spell on the entire group, who were still relatively huddled up in a tight group immediately after having been teleported.  As far as first salvoes went it was remarkably ineffective, with the heroes easily shrugging off the worst of the effects.  Of course, it didn't help the huecuva that the spell was most effective against those with a truly good-hearted nature and of its five foes only Khari met that description.

Jhasspok barely noticed the spell's effect as he leaped forward to join in attacking the dread wraith - the bigger of the two and therefore most likely the most powerful and the one that needed to be taken down the quickest, by his reasoning.  His blade, coated in the magical oil, cut through the incorporeal foe as if its body had been fully solid.  The dread wraith flinched as if in pain but made no sound; it reached out to attack Utred but the barbarian easily avoided its claws.  (Cramer noted again that these Shadow Plane undead seemed to have a particular hatred for dwarves, but guessed they might have been trained to focus on dwarves as they were the ones responsible for the creation of the weapon they were trying to locate.)

Marlo cast another _empowered magic missile_ at the dread wraith as Utred and Khari continued pummeling it with their weapons.  Khari's final blow was the one that took the creature out and its incorporeal body dissipated like a fine mist.  Cramer stepped up behind the dwarven fighter and cast a _death ward_ spell on him as well, thinking it might not be a bad idea to have each of the heroes thus protected against a foe with unknown spellcasting powers.

The huecuva cast a _flame strike_ spell on the group, the fiery blast coming down from above to encompass all five heroes.  Oddly, the spell had a two-layered effect this time; whereas in the past, when the group had been under the effects of the spell, the unholy flames came blasting down at them in one rush of unholy energy and then that was it, but this time there was the initial blast and then a much more powerful blast that went exploding out sideways in all directions, this second blast even encompassing the huecuva.  All six combatants were rocked and jostled by the power of the explosion.

<Sorry, guys,> said Utred over the mental link.  <One of my _necklaces of fireballs_ just got taken out.  The other one's fine, though.>

<That was _you_--?>

<_Other_ one?  What in the world are you doing with _two_ --?>

<Are you _crazy_?  You could easily have-->

Jhasspok ignored the simultaneous mental chiding the others were giving Utred and charged at the skeleton who had caused them so much pain, swinging his battleaxe with all his might.  A bladed weapon wasn't the optimal choice in taking on a creature made of animated bone, but with enough strength behind the blow it could deal quite a punch.  As the huecuva staggered backwards from the power of the attack, Marlo finished it off with a _magic missile_ spell, judging it not worth the extra spellpower to _empower_ it.  And in that she was correct, for the creature collapsed into a pile of bones mixed in with the rotting remnants of the robe it had worn.

Cramer pulled out his _staff of healing_ and ordered everyone to line up.  <I'd better heal us all up from the damage caused by Utred's fashion accessories,> he grumbled, casting not only healing spells from his staff but also _death ward_ spells on the other three so that each would be thus protected.  Once that was done to his satisfaction, he had Utred lead them on.  <The _find the path_ spell's still intact, I hope?> he asked.

<Yep,> replied Utred.  <It's this way.  Let's go!>

Utred led them through several winding tunnels until they found the structure parked within a small cavern.  The stone blocks of its construction glowed with the same golden light as the rest of the city of Brunniir.  <The _find the path_ spell leads right up the doors and then stops,> Utred told the others.

Marlo stepped up to the doors and cast a _detect magic_ spell; lacking anyone in the group with any lockpicking skills or experience with mundane traps, it was the best they could do.  <I'm detecting several layers of abjuration,> she said and Jhasspok didn't even bother asking what that even meant - some type of magic that was somehow different from other types of magic, he assumed, although he failed to see the necessity of breaking magic up into separate chunks.  <The stones have that force effect woven into their structure, but there's also something here that probably shields the interior from being breached by _teleport_ spells and the like.>

<Makes sense,> Cramer agreed.  <Old Greyale didn't want anybody getting in to steal his superweapon.>

<There's more,> Marlo added.  <It looks like someone's added an _alarm_ spell on the door.  Much more recently than the rest of the magic in the stone.>

Cramer cast a _detect undead_ and scanned the general area, seeing nothing untoward.  Jhasspok circled the entire building, making sure there was nobody hiding behind the structure.  Khari went with him, examining the building for any alternate ways inside.  There were none.  <What do we do?> Khari asked.  <We can't get into the building without triggering the _alarm_ spell.>

<Then we trigger the _alarm_ spell,> reasoned Utred.  <We need to get that weapon.>  He reached out for the pair of stone doors and they slid open sideways at his touch.  Utred wasn't sure if it was because they somehow detected his bloodline or what, but it seemed like a reasonable assumption.  The dwarves of Brunniir had made a big deal about his grandfather having sealed up the forge for someone of his own lineage to open.

With the doors open, everyone standing at the entrance could see inside, given their _darkvision_-enhanced eyesight.  There was a massive anvil at the rear of the structure, and Marlo noticed something odd about it right away.  <There's something on the anvil blocking the auras of magic behind it,> she told the others.  <I've still got my _detect magic_ spell up and for some reason the top of the anvil is messing up the detection.>

<That's gotta be the weapon!> Utred said, stepping forward into his grandfather's forge.

<I'll stay out here and wait for whoever cast the _alarm_ spell to show up,> Jhasspok said.  It was a remarkable feat of reasoning for the lizardfolk, who still didn't really understand the whole workings of magic.  But if someone put an alarm on a door, that meant they wanted to be notified when somebody opened the door.  He hefted his magic battleaxe and turned his back on the forge, looking outwards for danger.

The others stepped into the building behind Utred.  As he approached the anvil, he saw off to his left a shadowy figure with arms raised and waving about; he almost attacked the creature - who looked rather like an undead shadow - until he noticed it was imprisoned inside a glass cylinder that reached from floor to ceiling and appeared only to be trying to find a way out of its prison.  Convinced it couldn't hurt them - at least not yet - Utred let his greataxe hang in his grip at his side as he approached the cylinder.  There were dwarven runes carved on the floor around the cylinder, inscribing a warning not to release the creature.

<That's odd,> remarked Cramer.  <It's not undead.>  His _detect undead_ spell was likewise still operating and the creature's aura did not register on his magical senses.  Whatever this willowy creature was, it was apparently a living being.

And then another shadowy figure appeared, this one most definitely undead, for Utred was able to see entirely through its transparent body.  The dwarven barbarian flinched and raised his axe, causing Marlo to ask what was up; she apparently did not see the figure Utred saw.  But Utred saw the figure just fine: it was a dwarf, with thinning hair and a beard the color of gray slate, wearing a leather apron over his clothes.  The figure spoke aloud, although only Utred was able to hear the message the ghost had only for him.

<What's going on?> Cramer demanded.  He'd moved over to Utred's side and now that the barbarian wasn't blocking his view he was picking up the aura of an undead creature beside the anvil, although he saw nothing.

<It's my grandfather,> Utred said, relaying the ghost's message.  <He says this is the _Null Axe_ and it's completed and ready for use.  Only he says we have to destroy _all_ of the Writhing Gates, not just the three we thought would make it impossible for the Dying One to return.>

<What?  Why all ten?>

<I don't know - that's just what he said, okay?>

<Somebody's here,> came another voice over the telepathic link; it took the others a moment to realize it was Jhasspok, who normally avoided "talking" with his mind whenever possible, as he was somewhat freaked out when sudden voices sounded in his head.  As a case in point, he flinched with an audible gasp from outside the dwarven forge when a sixth voice entered the telepathic conversation.  <I will be needing that weapon,> the voice said.  <Surrender it to me and you may live.>

Utred was having none of that nonsense.  He grabbed up the _Null Axe_ - which was wrapped in some silvery fabric and tied down such that the fabric wouldn't slip off the weapon - and stuffed it inside Marlo's _bag of holding_, reasoning if the weapon was in an extradimensional space the unknown enemy might have a harder time finding it, and possibly even sensing it.  Then, on the off chance the enemy did know it was inside the bag, Utred figured it would be best if he held onto it rather than Marlo - better to make him the primary target than the slight human woman.

The others stepped back to the doorway and saw what Jhasspok was facing down: it was a mind flayer, but one unlike any of the others they had ever seen before.  This one had the typical four standard tentacles hanging down from its face, but these were emaciated and barely half the thickness of a normal illithid's appendages.  For that matter, the rest of its skin was stretched tight to the bone, giving the creature a withered appearance.  It was only when Cramer stepped to the side and got a straight line of sight with the creature that he was able to sense its blazing aura of undeath.

Marlo replied for the group at large in the form of a _disintegrate_ spell she sent blasting at the alhoon - an undead mind flayer lich, extending its life after death indefinitely that it might continue its endeavors long after the end of its own natural lifespan.  However, while the beam of energy struck the illithilich without fail, it didn't manage to overcome the creature's innate resistance to spells and the _disintegrate_ spell fizzled away without any discernible effect.

Khari was the closest of the melee combatants to the doorway and was thus the first to reach the alhoon, swinging his warhammer in an arc that went crashing into the side of the undead illithid.  There was a crunching sound as the weapon hit that Khari hoped was the crushing of bones, but then there was a blur above him and there was Jhasspok, leaping over the short dwarven fighter to go crashing into the illithilich.  The lizardfolk had dropped his battleaxe on the ground before leaping at the undead foe and crashed into him with arms outspread wide.  As they both collapsed to the ground, Jhasspok was sure to land with his arms pinning the alhoon tightly to his body in a bear hug from which the undead thing was unable to escape, struggle as he might.  The alhoon had held a jet-black staff at his side but it fell from his grasp as Jhasspok barreled into him.  Pinned as he was, he had only one way to strike back at his hulking foe - and Jhasspok didn't even notice the creature's foul, necromantic touch failing to get past his _death ward_ spell.

<Fool!  Release me!> demanded the alhoon but Jhasspok paid him no heed.  The illithilich wriggled back and forth and struggled to escape the lizardfolk's grasp, but it was no use - he simply did not have the physical strength to do so.

"Hold on to him tight!" Cramer called out loud, afraid of scaring the lizardfolk even momentarily by "talking" inside his head.  But Jhasspok didn't let his grip on the alhoon waver and the powerful undead - with dozens of spells prepared in his undead skull just waiting to be released - was unable to cast any of them with his arms pinned to his sides.  What followed was a fun-filled episode of the two dwarves carefully lining up their blows, afraid to hit the lizardfolk as the undead illithid did his best to wrest free and Jhasspok held him as firmly in place as he could, while Marlo and Cramer took turns blasting single-target spells at the alhoon and hoping to penetrate past his magical defenses.  Marlo, at least, knew her _empowered magic missile_ spells had no chance of accidentally hitting Jhasspok if the undead mind flayer moved in the wrong way.  But Jhasspok held firm and avoided getting hit with friendly fire, magical or otherwise, and eventually it was a blow from a magical maul Utred had picked up somewhere along his travels that crushed in the alhoon's skull.

"You can let go of him now, Jhasspok," Cramer said once it was apparent the unholy life had departed the parchment-skinned corpse of the illithid spellcaster.  "And good work."  Jhasspok went back and retrieved his battleaxe while Marlo gave the thing's corpse a once-over with her _detect magic_ spell.  The staff it had dropped was a _staff of shadows_, and freshly made by the looks of it, which she confirmed by holding it in her hands and feeling its power coursing through the warped ebony wood.  The creature also, somewhat foolishly, had a device inside a pocket of its robes that Cramer identified as likely being its phylactery, explaining that liches always had some such device capable of storing its life energy upon its apparent destruction.

"But why would it carry it around with it?" Marlo asked.  "Wouldn't it make more sense to keep it hidden somewhere?"

"You never know with undead," Cramer answered.  "It might have worried someone would discover its phylactery if it was hidden away.  By keeping it nearby, it always knew it was safe and there was always the chance if anyone did manage to destroy it they'd simply take the phylactery thinking it was a magic necklace or something."  But the gnome was taking no chances, and after several blows from Khari's warhammer and Utred's maul the metal phylactery was in several pieces.

"So now what?" asked Jhasspok, glad they were back to speaking aloud.

"No reason we can't _teleport_ back to Brunniir," Cramer replied, motioning for everyone to bunch up together so he could cast the spell after Utred had closed his grandfather's forge back up.  Once back at the Golden City, the spellcasting elder dwarves examined the alhoon's _staff of shadows_.  "Upon th' Plane of Shadows," the dwarven wizard explained, "the spells _shadow conjuration_ an' _shadow evocation_ - both o' which're present in th' staff - are powerful enough t' shape the very plane itself.  It were no doubt th' mind flayer lich, usin' a staff like this, which was th' cause of th' buildin's bein' caved off o' th' city."

"Then the alhoon was the one coordinating the attacks by the other undead?" hazarded Marlo.

"Very likely yes, lass.  In fact, that makes perfect sense: th' lich would use up th' spells in th' staff t' steal away a buildin' from th' city, then take months to craft up a new staff.  That'd explain the months-long gaps between th' attacks."

"It all fits," agreed the elder dwarven cleric.

"Then you'll probably want to hold on to this," Marlo suggested, passing over the _staff of shadows_.  "You might be able to use it to try to re-warp the Plane of Shadows back the way it was and get some of your buildings back."  The dwarven wizard thanked her and sent an aide to go fetch a suitable reward for the staff and the slaying of the alhoon.  Indeed, since the illithilich had been slain the hordes of incorporeal undead surrounding the city had started wandering away.  It would take some time for all of them to leave, for trying to force their way into Brunniir had likely become a force of habit by now, but eventually the city clerics would manage to drive them away and the Golden City could once again enjoy not being under constant siege.

"Well then," said Utred.  "We've got the _Null Axe_, now all we need is the location of the other Writhing Gates and we'll be good to go!"  He was ready to return to Overreach and take out the one Writhing Gate they already knew about, but Cramer cautioned him to patience.  "Let's wait to hear back from C'thorlumbrox," he said.  "Once we start attacking Writhing Gates, the cultists might learn what we're doing and start beefing up the defenses around the others.  It might be best to wait until we know the locations of them all and make our plans then."

"Hrrmph," snorted Utred.  It made sense, but patience was definitely not his strong suit.  "Hey," he said suddenly, recalling his grandfather's surname.  "Is 'Greyale' an actual type of ale?"

"It is," replied one of the wizard's aides.  "Would ye like me t' bring ye a mug o' it?"

"A mug's a good start," Utred agreed.

 - - -

So per Logan, the _Null Axe_ functions as a masterwork greataxe except as follows: when wielded it ignores all magical defenses of the target that affects Armor Class or Damage Reduction.  This includes enchanted armor, rings, etc. as well as all spells, spell-like effects and/or supernatural effects.  However, the wielder has all magical effects upon their person suppressed as well.  Spellcasters cannot cast spells while wielding the axe.  The antimagic properties are not strong enough to prevent instantaneous effects (like a _fireball_ spell) from affecting the wielder.   Despite its antimagic nature it is treated as magic for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction that comes from extraordinary abilities.

Logan statted up the alhoon as not just a wizard, but a shadowcaster from the _Tome of Magic_, thinking he'd throw some new stuff at us we'd never seen before in this campaign or any of our previous other campaigns.  Of course, all of those plans went up in smoke when Jhasspok successfully grappled him and prevented him from doing anything at all as the rest of the PCs whittled him down to death.  Jhasspok might not be anywhere near as powerful as some of his companions, but I do enjoy playing him and he does occasionally have his moments - and this was definitely one of them.

And, in no small part due to the fact that alhoon was a CR 18 encounter, we leveled up to 14th at the end of this adventure.  Marlo, Cramer, and Utred added a level of their sole classes, Jhasspok took another level of fighter, and Khari took one level of psychic warrior, the only level he intends on taking, but this gives him a +2 to damage that stacks with his Weapon Specialization and Greater Weapon Specialization, which will be nice considering he can do that three times per day for a full minute each time, which in this campaign (with sessions lasting 2-3 hours on Wednesday nights), practically guarantees "for every battle from now on."  Harry's pleased with the tradeoff, even though it cost him a Base Attack Bonus that will be one number lower than his total Hit Dice for the rest of the campaign.  (Welcome to my world, Khari: Jhasspok's first three levels as a lizardfolk gained him an overall +1 BAB, so I'm perpetually two numbers lower than a combat-oriented PC of my Hit Dice would be.)


----------



## Richards (Sep 18, 2021)

*ADVENTURE 41: ONLY DEATH AWAITS*

PC Roster:
Cramer Appleknocker, gnome cleric 14​Jhasspok, lizardman 3/barbarian 3/fighter 8​Khari Hammerslammer, dwarf fighter 13/psychic warrior 1​Marlo Pendragon, human sorcerer 14​Utred "Buckets" Butterflinger, dwarf barbarian 14​
Game Session Date: 15 September 2021

 - - -

After a night's rest in the city of Bruuniir (and a night on the Plane of Shadow looked pretty much like a day on the Plane of Shadow, as the group soon found out), Cramer used a combination of a _plane shift_ spell and a _teleport_ spell to return the group to the city of Greenvale.  And there they found a rather distinctive person waiting for them, one whose presence was certainly making the inhabitants of Greenvale nervous - for it was none other than C'thorlumbrox the ulitharid, a nine-foot mind flayer who dined upon humanoid brains for his sustenance.

<I have news,> C'thorlumbrox informed the group without preamble.  <The colony is still deciphering the locations of the various Writhing Gates, but one had been identified as the Temple of Thephobak.>

"And you know where this temple is?" asked Cramer.

<I know where this temple _was_,> the ulitharid corrected him.  <Thephobak was a known illithid colony many centuries ago.  If there is an active Writhing Gate in the crumbed ruins of an illithid colony, it has the highest likelihood of having a neothelid nearby.  Therefore, if you do indeed have a means of destroying a Writhing Gate, that is the first one you should target.>

"What's a neo--" began Jhasspok, but Marlo had anticipated his question and answered, "Big giant worm that we're supposed to kill."  _Oh, that,_ Jhasspok thought to himself.

"And you can get us to these ruins?" pressed Cramer.

<I can _teleport_ us to a location three days away from the fallen colony.  Given the unreliability of teleporting in the Underdark, that's as close as I can guarantee safe passage.  I will stay in that location and telepathically guide you from there.  After you have destroyed the Writhing Gate, you can return the way you came and I can facilitate your return.>

"Okay, then," agreed the gnome.  "Give us time to stock up on provisions and we'll be ready to go!"

An hour later the six figures were in the Underdark, a radius around them lit up by the illumination from their various _slave-light cloaks_.  It made them stand out like a beacon in the otherwise lightless subterranean world, but as only the dwarves Khari and Utred had darkvision it was either announce their presence to potential enemies or have Cramer, Marlo, and Jhasspok stumble around blindly - not an option.

As promised, C'thorlumbrox imparted a mental map of the area and the winding path through the various tunnels and passageways they needed to take to get to the ruins of Thephobak directly into the heroes' minds.  Then, with a hearty wave goodbye, Cramer cast a _longstrider_ spell upon himself and the five heroes left the ulitharid behind them.

Marlo had always liked the beginning of a brand-new adventure, when they had a goal in mind and were taking the first steps towards reaching it.  But those first few steps, it turned out, were merely the beginning of hundreds of thousands of steps that would follow - three days of trudging through dark passageways, not knowing if the next turn would lead them into the maw of a hungry purple worm or a roper or perhaps even something worse.  After five hours of walking, Marlo was muttering under her breath about the stupid Underdark background radiation making stupid _teleport_ spells unreliable, and how much her stupid feet hurt in her stupid boots and she better not be getting a stupid blister...it was almost a relief when the group, as one, all felt some strange sensation that set their teeth on edge and the hairs on the backs of their necks (well, all except for Jhasspok, who had no hair) standing upright.  Even a bout of combat would be a refreshing change of pace from the drudgery of constant trudging!

"You guys feel that?" Utred asked the others.  "Kinda tingly sensation?"

"Yeah," Khari answered.  "Seems familiar, somehow."

"It does," agreed the dwarven barbarian.  "Kinda like when we go through our own Writhing Gate."  Cramer acknowledged the similarity by casting a _magic circle against evil_ upon himself, wondering if there were another Writhing Gate around here or - much more likely - if someone was using a Writhing Gate to _teleport_ somewhere in the vicinity.  Khari gripped his _earthglide warhammer_ tightly, looking about him for potential enemies.  Utred, magic greataxe in hand, ran forward towards where he felt the emanations coming from, scanning down two tunnels at a junction point where the cavern split off into two directions, his dwarven darkvision showing him no enemies to fight.  Jhasspok had no darkvision and could only see slightly past the illumination of his _slave-light cloak_, but he followed in the barbarian's wake, trusting in his friend's senses.  And Marlo cast her own _protection from evil_ spell, walking towards Utred and Jhasspok.  She too looked around for any foes that might be in the area, her human eyesight squinting into the darkness, but she saw nothing - although she could pick up the sweet smell of decaying flesh somewhere nearby.

And there close by the heroes, unseen in the cavern, the Observer silently watched her prey, studying where best to sink her blade and confident that her _invisibility_ spell would prevent her from being discovered until she was ready to strike.

As such, it was the two undead rogues who made the first strike.  They too had been covered in _invisibility_ spells, which shattered as their weapons both struck home, the blades of their short swords stabbing into Marlo's unsuspecting flesh as they popped back into visibility, too late for the startled sorceress to do anything to stop their attack.  She cried out in pain as the blades stabbed into her torso from either side.

Then, to add insult to injury, another figure popped into view as he fired his weapon.  The undead form of a bowman suddenly stood several paces in front of Marlo and the arrow he had just fired from his bow went flying across the distance between them to bury itself in her shoulder.  She grunted in pain and almost staggered to her knees as her legs started to give out.

Another undead form appeared in the cavern, this one right in front of Utred.  By the looks of it, this one was a soldier of some type, a half-orc outfitted in thick plate mail armor and striking the barbarian with his bastard sword.  Utred took the blow in stride, feeling the pain but shunting it away from his mind so it didn't distract him from the job needed at hand, mainly slaying these undead abominations who had suddenly appeared out of nowhere.

Cramer decided to do something about these undead; raising his holy symbol of Fharlanghn before him and channeling a blast of positive energy through it, he caused the two undead female rogues who had stabbed Marlo to flee in apparent terror.  As Marlo cast a short-distance _teleport_ spell to get away from these undead foes, the zombie women ran right past Utred in their haste to put as much distance between themselves and Cramer's holy symbol and the dwarf took the opportunities - two of them, one right after the other - to slice into their non-living flesh as they raced past him.  Utred wasn't quite sure just what it was they were fighting, for their skin was rotting like a zombie's but they were just as fast as any living foes the barbarian had ever fought, and they certainly weren't shambling about like the zombies he'd dealt with before.  And they were able to take much more damage than a standard zombie could, for despite the great wounds Utred inflicted upon the two corpse creatures as they ran past they were still up and running after he'd made his attacks.

Khari used the power of his warhammer to earthglide beneath the stone of the cavern, popping back up to ground level in time to swing his weapon into the back of one of the fleeing undead rogues.  He could tell they had both once been human, and in fact looked very much like each other - sisters, probably, maybe even twin sisters at that.  A brief flickering of familiarity tickled his brain at that notion, but he was too involved in combat to give it much thought.

Utred had turned back to face the undead half-orc, deciding he was a bigger threat than a pair of fleeing zombie girls.  His greataxe cut deep into the animated corpse's plate armor, tearing through metal as easily as the undead flesh and bone beneath it.  Jhasspok followed up with a blow from his own battleaxe and the animated corpse fell unmoving to the ground, the first of the casualties in this unexpected combat.

And then the final combatant entered the scene.  This combatant was completely unexpected, for it was none other than Jhasspok: a second Jhasspok, identical in all respects, who swung his battleaxe in an overhead arc at the first Jhasspok.  The weapon's blade missed with its first strike, but then this second Jhasspok swung it around and brought it down again and this time it hit, carving through the scales of the first lizardfolk's shoulder and down several inches until it hit bone.  The injured Jhasspok hissed in pain, dodging back to forcibly yank himself away from the blade embedded in his body.

The undead ranger fired another arrow at Marlo, who fortunately was now far enough away that she had time to react, and the shaft went whizzing harmlessly past her ear without making contact.  But as he was now the closest of their undead enemies to the little gnome, Cramer targeted him with a _searing light_ spell, stepping forward as the beam of light bolted from his raised palm and started eating away at the ranger's animated corpse like acid where it struck.  Then Khari wheeled and struck at the ranger with his warhammer, connecting with a solid blow to the side of the head which might have easily slain a living foe.

Utred, having had his original foe drop in a motionless heap before him, spun about to face a new foe - and was surprised to see not one but two Jhasspoks side by side, trading blows with their identical battleaxes.  "Great, which one's the real Jhasspok?" Utred cried out aloud.

"_I_ am!" replied both Jhasspoks at once, neither taking their eyes off their mirror image for a moment as their blades swung back and forth at each other.  _That was rather predictable_, Utred thought to himself.  Then sudden inspiration struck and he called out, "Look - a fish!"

"Where?" demanded one of the Jhasspoks (the heavily wounded one), turning his head to look where Utred was pointing.  That settled it to Utred's satisfaction and he brought his greataxe swinging into the unwounded Jhasspok, who was now unwounded no longer.  Jhasspok took the opportunity of the other lizardfolk's attention being focused on the raging dwarven barbarian to snap at his lookalike foe with his rows of sharp teeth and was surprised to find this "lizard" tasted very much like a human.  Weird!  But this second Jhasspok took a couple of steps backwards, out of immediate range of the two heroes, and disappeared from view.

Marlo summoned the energy within herself and sent it out through her fingertips in the form of an _empowered scorching ray_ spell.  The gouts of fire enveloped the body of the undead ranger, whose unliving corpse shot up in flames as he collapsed to the stone floor of the Underdark cavern.  The fire consumed his body, providing an additional source of illumination in the cavern as it burned.

Cramer cast a _true seeing_ spell on his eyes and in the general area where the second Jhasspok had been there now stood a human woman wearing a robe covered with eyeballs.  "Guys!" he called out to the others.  "Invisible enemy, about ten feet straight in front of where Utred's standing!"

Khari pointed himself in the direction indicated, sunk below the stone floor of the cavern, and popped back up to surface level swinging his _earthglide warhammer_; he grinned as it connected with their invisible foe, eliciting an all-too-human cry of pain in the process.  Utred swung his greataxe in swooping arcs, managing to hit her at least once in the process.  And then Jhasspok decided to use the same maneuver that had worked so well against the illithilich on the Plane of Shadows: dropping his battleaxe at his side, he leaped the distance between him and where the invisible person should be, arms held out wide at his sides ready to squeeze his foe into a hug and hopefully hold her still in a grapple while his friends cut her down with their weapons.

Against the illithilich, the stratagem had worked like a charm.  Against this current foe it was sheer folly, for Jhasspok's flying tackle did nothing but impale himself on the end of the _lizardfolkbane short sword_ the assassin held out before her, grinning an invisible grin as her hated foe did most of her work for her.  Jhasspok ended up on the stone cavern floor as intended, but it was in a rapidly-expanding pool of his own blood and without an invisible enemy pinned in his grasp.  And to make matters worse, he had thrown away his most powerful weapon, which now lay ten feet behind him as he bled out.

With unseen glee, the Observer - still cloaked in her _greater invisibility_ spell, preventing the illusion of Jhasspok she had cast over her true form from being seen - stabbed out again with her assassin's weapon, cutting through scales, flesh, and sinew with equal ease.  Jhasspok lay sprawled onto the cavern floor, if not already dead surely hanging onto life by the slimmest of threads.

All of the combat was now some distance away from Marlo, so she ran to catch up, casting a _false life_ spell on herself as she did so, hoping it would keep her in the fight longer despite her own quite horrific wounds.

And then, to the Observer's mounting horror, that damned gnome cleric ran up and touched the dying Jhasspok on the tail, infusing the hatred reptile's body with a _quickened cure serious wounds_ spell.  She cried out in fury, then in surprise as a glowing quarterstaff suddenly materialized in the air before and slammed down towards the top of her skull.  She only just barely managed to avoid its blow at the very last second.  Cramer smiled quietly to himself; with his _true seeing_ spell still active, he'd seen his _spiritual weapon_ spell almost conk her on the head but good - and even if the first attack missed, there would be plenty of other attacks in the future, plus it diverted her attention away from Jhasspok, who for some reason seemed to be her primary target in this oddball fight.  She was quite obviously alive; strange that she had partnered up with those fast-moving zombies!

Khari still couldn't see his invisible foe, but now he had a floating quarterstaff just about pointing out her location; he swung his warhammer for all it was worth and felt a solid blow hit his unseen foe with what sounded to him like the breaking of a few ribs.  Utred's greataxe likewise came crashing down on the Observer, who screamed in fury at her plans being thwarted as much as from the pain of the wounds she was taking.  Crawling back up onto his hands and knees, Jhasspok - who had other weapons at his disposal besides the battleaxe he had tossed aside - saw only red and let the fires of his rage guide his attack.  He leaped out suddenly against his tormentor, hoping to find the soft flesh of her neck between his snapping teeth.  But he had much less experience in allowing his rage to guide his instincts than Utred (who practically made a living at it) and his rage sent him sprawling onto the floor, having missed the Overseer entirely.

Marlo now found herself lined up behind Utred and the probable location of the invisible assassin.  The problem was, the Observer was still invisible to Marlo and all of Cramer's vocalizations of the assassin's current location wouldn't let her target her with a _magic missile_.  Finally, realizing Utred would probably not even notice any damage he might take from the spell attack (seriously, that dwarf never even seemed to realize he was bleeding until after the current fight was over, and Marlo had no idea how he managed to do that), the sorceress cast a _lightning bolt_ at Utred, merely using the tough-as-nails barbarian as a guideline so as not to catch Jhasspok in the blast of electrical energy she discharged from her hand.  As expected, Utred hardly even noticed when the blast of magical lightning went channeling through his body (Marlo winced out an involuntary "Sorry!" nonetheless), and only Cramer had the disheartening view of the Observer twisting her body to minimize the effects of the electrical discharge, such that it looked like she might have avoided all electrical damage from the attack.

However, despite her success in completely avoiding the _lightning bolt_, the Observer had her own disheartening realization to make: with the animated corpses of her companions either destroyed outright or turned by that damned cleric, there was no way she was going to be able to kill all five of her targets by herself.  So, that being the case, she swore a silent oath to herself that at the very least she'd see that hand-eating lizard brought down before she died!  Her _lizardfolkbane short sword_ stabbed out again, dropping Jhasspok back into unconsciousness even if he wasn't currently quite as close to death this time as the last time she'd rendered him insensate.  (And damn that gnome in any case for having saved the worthless reptile's life!)

The "damn gnome" in question infuriated the Observer even further by almost casually reaching out with a hand and channeling a _cure critical wounds_ spell through it and into Jhasspok's battered body.  The lizardfolk shook his head as he came back to consciousness and staggered to his feet, looking dazedly about for wherever his battleaxe might have gone.

Screaming in fury, the Observer's cries quickly turned into screams of pain as she was rapidly beaten down by Utred's axe, Khari's hammer, and Cramer's _spiritual weapon_ spell.  Then the gnome, seeing she was unconscious but still breathing (and in no danger of bleeding out too quickly for his purposes), used his _staff of healing_ to bring Jhasspok back up a little closer to full health.  He then turned to see to Marlo, who had suffered quite a beating herself, only to have her point behind him and cry, "Look out!"

Cramer spun about and saw the undead twins racing his way, short swords out and ready to kill him - apparently, the turning effect had worn off and they had returned to finish the job they had started.  But Cramer was in the middle of something himself - namely, healing his friends - and didn't want to be bothered at the moment.  He nonchalantly lifted his holy symbol in their direction and sent a blast of powerful energy through it, causing the twins to stop short, twist their faces into paroxysms of horror, and flee back the way they had come.

"Now then, where was I?" Cramer murmured aloud.  "Ah yes: Marlo, would you like some healing?"

"Yes, please," Marlo replied, stepping forth to be healed by a spell from the gnome's staff.

Utred and Khari, in the meantime, had been attending to the task of tying up their prisoner with strong ropes taken from the dwarven fighter's backpack.  The task was made much easier when the assassin's _greater invisibility_ spell wore off, after which time they could see her as she truly was, for the illusion spell giving her the appearance of Jhasspok had likewise expired.  "Check out the weird eyeballs!" Khari said, looking at the orbs covering her robes - some of which occasionally blinked.  (Or was that just a trick of the flickering light of the flames burning the half-orc fighter's body?)

"Check out her wrists, too!" added Utred, who had been in the process of binding her hands together and had noticed the stitches encircling each wrist.  And now that he gave them closer attention, the hands were not the exact shade of skin color as her arms...it looked like she'd had somebody else's hands sewn onto her own severed wrists....

And then it all clicked into place in Khari's mind.  "Hey!  Do you know who these people are?  The same assassins who attacked us in that town, right after we met up with Cramer's parents, remember?"  _That's_ why those twin female human rogues had seemed familiar to him!  (And then, almost as if the dwarf's thoughts of them had summoned them forth for a third time, the twin corpse creatures returned yet again after the effects of Cramer's second turning wore off; this time the cleric didn't bother turning them a third time but rather let Utred cut them down with his greataxe.)

"Wake her up," commanded Cramer.  Jhasspok, intrigued (for he hadn't recognized the assassin from his prior interaction with her; all humans kind of looked alike to him) did just that, and the woman known only as the Observer woke up only to see the hated visage of that stupid lizardfolk staring down at her.

"So, you want to explain what all this is about?" asked Cramer.  "Or do we let the lizardfolk kill you?"

"Do it," replied the Observer, lifting her head to expose her neck.  "I'd prefer death to what awaits me."

"Well, then we'll withhold death until we get some answers," snarled Marlo.  She was still mad at how those twins had stabbed her in the sides at the same time, bringing her much closer to death than she'd been in as long as she could remember.  The twins were undead and probably didn't feel pain, but a human captive, on the other hand....

"Fair enough," sighed the Observer.  "I'll tell you everything you want to know, if you promise to kill me afterwards."  Jhasspok volunteered at once to do the killing.

What followed was an explanation of how the Riven Assassins Guild worked: when they accept a job, they guarantee that no retaliation against their employer will occur should the assassination attempt meet with failure.  But in this case, the person who had hired the assassins to kill these particular five targets - one Llolnida Alyxyra Bel'vior, Mortal Queen of the Drow - had in fact been slain by the very targets she had paid to have killed.  Therefore, if the assassins who had taken up the original job couldn't retroactively finish the task, it would be a black mark upon the Guild's reputation.

"So if I don't kill the lot of you, or die by your hands in the attempt, in three days the curse placed upon me will come into effect, and I'll be turned into one of those corpse creatures, like the others who had attacked you back in Riven.  I'd be an undead monstrosity, still aware of the agony of my rotting flesh as my mortal body decomposed around me.  I'd rather face the literal Hell awaiting me after death than have to go through the figurative Hell that slavery to the Guild as an undead abomination would entail.  So again: kill me."

"Not so fast," Cramer said, holding back Jhasspok with a raised hand.  "We have some more questions.  First off: who's the head of the Riven Assassins Guild?"

"The Guild Leader is a drow woman by the name of Pellanistra Xiltyn.  She's a distant cousin to Matron Bel'voir, who you killed."

"How many assassins are part of the Guild?" Cramer wanted to know next, but there he got no answer, for the Observer had no real idea; the assassins worked in their own cells of four to six members, knowing only those they reported directly to so that no captured assassin could turn in the rest of the Guild.  That, unfortunately, had the ring of truth to it.

"How were you able to get here to try to kill us?" Cramer demanded next.

"In the catacombs and caves beneath the capitol of Riven, there's an area known to the Guild as the 'Writhing Chamber.'  A mind flayer - you know what that is, right? - dwells within, and uses the chamber as a teleportation device of some kind, although its use had been banned since the incident in Grover's Comb.  Due to the urgent nature of my mission, and the time constraints I was under, I was allowed to bypass that ban and use the chamber to ambush you guys."  She snorted to herself.  "For all the good it did me."

Cramer looked over to the others.  "Anybody else have any questions for her?" he asked.  When nobody did, he turned back to the Observer.  "Anything else you want to say?"

"Nope.  Let's just get it over with."  Once again, she angled her head to the side, exposing as much of her neck as was possible.  Then, at Cramer's nod, Jhasspok opened his mouth wide and ripped out the assassin's throat, filling his mouth with warm blood and the infrequent treat of human flesh.  Marlo turned away from the sight, her face wrinkled in disgust.

"I have a question," Jhasspok offered up once he'd finished chewing and swallowing his mouthful of meat.

"Well, it's a little late now!" chided Utred.  "She's not likely to answer you in her current condition!"

"No, not for her," Jhasspok explained, "for you."

"Oh.  Okay then, ask away."

Jhasspok looked at the cavern floor all around him, spotting his discarded battleaxe and picking it up, then continuing to examine the stone floor.  "...There really wasn't a fish, was there?" he asked.

Utred snickered to himself.  "No, Jhasspok.  That was just a trick to make sure which one was the real you."

The lizardfolk sighed and looked longingly over at the slain body of the Observer, who was being untied and the _eye of robes_ stripped from her corpse.  Marlo was holding it up and examining it appreciatively.  Jhasspok sighed again.  No fish, and he knew the others were going to make him just let all the rest of that human meat go to waste.  It was a real shame.

 - - -

So even though we didn't actually get to try to take down the first of the Writhing Gates in this adventure, we inadvertently found out the general location of another one.  So the players all kind of think we know what the next two adventures will be about, although you never know with Logan.  He managed to take us all by surprise with the sudden reappearance of the assassins we had fought back in adventure 20, "Revin It Up."

We got some cool loot off these assassins, though; Cramer ended up with a _metamagic rod of silent spell_; Marlo's keeping the Observer's _robe of eyes_, and Jhasspok now wears her _bracers of armor_, since hers were a +6 and his old pair was only a +4.


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## Richards (Sep 25, 2021)

*ADVENTURE 42: THE TEMPLE OF THEPHOBAK*

PC Roster:
Cramer Appleknocker, gnome cleric 14​Jhasspok, lizardman 3/barbarian 3/fighter 8​Khari Hammerslammer, dwarf fighter 13/psychic warrior 1​Marlo Pendragon, human sorcerer 14​Utred "Buckets" Butterflinger, dwarf barbarian 14​
Game Session Date: 22 September 2021

 - - -

C'thorlumbrox had said it would be another three days before the group made it by foot to the ruins of the fallen illithid colony of Thephobak - and he had been absolutely right.  Fortunately, the rest of that trek had been uneventful; they'd encountered nothing dangerous in the lightless tunnels of the Underdark caverns and the telepathic map the ulitharid had provided them allowed them to continue on to their destination without any concerns about getting lost.  And thus, three days after having set off, the five adventurers found themselves in Thephobak.

"Let's stop here and prepare our combat spells," suggested Cramer.

"Why?" asked Jhasspok,  "Do you see something?"  The lizardfolk didn't see anything, but his vision was limited to the radius of illumination provided by their _slave-light cloaks_.  (So was Cramer's for that matter but Jhasspok had no idea if the little gnome might have done something magic to enhance his vision, the way he always cast that _longstrider_ spell on himself the first thing in the morning so he had a better time of keeping up with those who stood a normal height and had what the lizardfolk considered to be a normal-sized stride.  Spellcasters were always doing weird stuff like that.)

"No, but it makes sense if we're going to end up fighting a giant worm, it'll be here where the Writhing Gate stands."

"Do you see a giant worm?" asked Jhasspok, looking around and seeing nothing but an enormous cavern, with some of the massive stalagmites he could see in the radius of illumination apparently having been carved into dwellings, given the openings for doors and windows that hadn't been made that way naturally.  For all the place looked to have been deliberately crafted into a series of buildings, none of them seemed occupied at the moment - the cavern was entirely silent but for the echoes of their own words.

"Not at the moment," conceded Cramer, "but remember what C'thorlumbrox said: if there's a neothelid anywhere around here, it's liable to be attracted to the Writhing Gate."

Jhasspok looked around again.  "I don't see a Writhing Gate," he supplied.

"It's probably somewhere in the cavern," Marlo suggested.  "Now hush while we prepare our spells."  Jhasspok knew what that meant.  He settled on his tail for balance and pulled out a dried dung beetle from his satchel.  If past experience was any indicator, this could take a while.

Sure enough, Marlo took the time to cover herself in a _stoneskin_ spell and then a _magic circle against evil_ spell, following those two up with a _Rary's telepathic bond_ spell upon the entire group of five.  Cramer cast a different variety of spells upon himself than usual, first a _magic vestment_ spell that he hoped would protect him from physical harm and then a _spell turning_ spell that would hopefully keep him safe from enemy spellcasting, for while he wasn't sure what all to expect from a neothelid he was willing to bet if the Writhing Gate were active it would have at least one mind flayer around to "pilot" it, possibly more.

Marlo tested the _Rary's telepathic bond_ spell - a process that always startled Jhasspok, who doubted he'd ever get used to people talking to him inside his own head.  But this time he didn't seem like the only one startled, for everyone gave their head a shake as if trying to clear it; none of them realized it, but a _mass cloud mind_ spell had just been successfully cast upon them.

"We ready?" Khari asked, heading into the cavern with the others following behind.  Before too long, Marlo discovered (with the double-strength darkvision granted to her from her new _robe of eyes_, a piece of loot she'd taken from the female assassin who had ambushed them days ago) a 100-foot-diameter dome ahead.  <I think I might have found where our Writhing Gate is located,> she told the others over their telepathic communication network.  As they got closer they could see the dome had been carved in the image of a giant illithid head, with its open mouth - between four tentacles, two along the ground and two raised in the air - forming the doorway.  <Betcha anything the Writhing Gate's in there.>

<It does seem likely,> Cramer agreed.

Khari led the others inside but was instantly wary of danger.  He gripped his _earthglide warhammer_ tightly, looking around for enemies but seeing none.  Just ahead of him was a raised circle of stone, the inside of which was filled with briny water, likely the location of the illithid city's elder brain, back in the days when it was still populated by mind flayers.  In fact, the pool was where the illithid tadpoles would have lived; the neothelid would have started life as one of those tadpoles, then it no doubt fed on its brothers and sisters after whatever cataclysm occurred to force the mind flayers to evacuate their city.

And behind the pool of water stood the Writhing Gate, a ring of ten tentacles reaching up to the very top of the dome.  The tentacles swayed and twitched every now and then, but the Gate itself didn't look like it was active.  And no wonder: at the base of nine of the tentacles were the petrified illithid statues the group had seen on the Writhing Gate close to the Underdark city of Overreach, but these ones had mostly been smashed up and parts of them lie strewn in the form of rubble beside the fungal-wood growths by each tentacle that served as a chair.  It looked as if someone had already attempted to take down this Writhing Gate, although the sole unoccupied seat - where the illithid "pilot" would sit - was unharmed and none of the ten tentacles looked any the worse for wear.

<I don't like it,> Khari told the others over the link.  <It's too quiet - too still.>  He gripped his warhammer tightly and prepared to use it against any enemy that might show up.

Marlo was also feeling uneasy for no reason she could put her finger upon, so she decided she didn't want to walk by the pool of open water in case something might jump out at her.  She thus cast a _teleport_ - sometimes a risky thing to do in the Underdark, but given she was merely relocating herself to somewhere within visual distance she figured it was probably safe.  (It was.)  But then something unseen brushed past her mind and also into Utred's, while staying far from the minds of the other three: <Open...open...> it said in a whispering mental voice that sounded like more than a mere suggestion, more like an out-and-out command.

Utred followed Marlo into the chamber, walking past the pool without incident.  He reached over for the _Null Axe_, which was wrapped in its special silvery blanket inside the _bag of holding_ the sorceress kept on behalf of the entire group.  She passed the weapon over, but before the dwarven barbarian could unwrap it he caught a bit of motion up above him and happened to glance up.

That was a mistake.

Utred's eyes took in a sight his mind didn't want to acknowledge: hovering far above him was an enormous, pink-skinned worm that had to have been at least 120 feet long.  Its body was currently held in a sideways arc, with its four-tentacled head looking down at the group of heroes below it.  Utred felt as if it had pierced him in its gaze, although later he wouldn't be able to tell for sure whether he had seen eyes on the monster worm or not.

But Utred - by no means a coward - felt an unfamiliar terror creep over his brain and he fled back the way he had come, screaming a warning out about "The worm!  The worm!  It's here, above us!"

Cramer, Khari, and Jhasspok looked up at the ceiling and saw nothing out of the ordinary: a few scattered stalactites hanging down from the top of the rock cavern, but that was to be expected.  Still, just to be safe, Cramer cast a _magic circle against evil_ spell on himself.

Jhasspok (as was so often the case) had no idea what was going on.  The plan, as he understood it, was to use the _Null Axe_ to destroy the Writhing Gate and he had no idea why Utred was suddenly fleeing from his duty, screaming about a giant worm floating above them.  The lizardfolk ran forward to intercept the panic-stricken dwarf, grabbing up the _Null Axe_ as he passed.  Then he made a bee-line for the Writhing Gate, not sure what had caused the normally level-headed dwarf to panic like that, but the lizardfolk was just as capable of swinging an axe as a dwarf.  Jhasspok had no idea that as he sped across the stone floor he was passing underneath the coils of a levitating neothelid some 40 feet or so above him.  The worm watched him pass beneath it without any apparent concern.  But one thing Jhasspok did notice was that it was nice and quiet on the telepathic link set up between the five heroes.  That was a welcome relief; these mammals sure liked chattering back and forth among each other all the time!  (He had no idea the reason for the sudden quiet was the _Null Axe_ in his hands blocking out all forms of magic, even the _mass cloud mind_ effect that had been blocking the neothelid from the heroes' awareness; had Jhasspok merely looked above him he would have seen the levitating worm - but Jhasspok was on a mission and his focus was solely on the Writhing Gate before him.)

Khari was still gripping his weapon with both hands, ready to strike, and was now looking above him.  He wasn't aware of it but he was looking directly at the worm and the _mass cloud mind_ spell effect was blocking the information the dwarf's eyes were picking up from being delivered to his brain.  As far as Khari Hammerslammer was aware, there was nothing above him...although he still had that odd feeling of dread.  He stepped carefully and slowly into the cavern as if fearful that each step might trigger a tripwire or something.

Marlo saw nothing overhead either and decided to focus on the task at hand: taking out the Writhing Gate.  There were ten slowly-moving tentacles ahead of her; she picked the one physically closest to her present position and cast a _disintegrate_ spell at it.  She knew the part of the tentacle she could see was only the tip and that the rest of the appendage - indeed, almost the entirety of the Dying One's severed head - was floating in the Far Realm and her spell would not be able to take out what was left of the Elder God, but she was hoping to at least cause the portion of that one tentacle intruding upon the Material Plane to be eaten away into nothingness.  Unfortunately, the spell had no effect whatsoever; she assumed the Dying One had some powerful form of spell resistance that would allow it to ignore most spells cast upon it.  If that was the case, her spells would likely be totally useless and they would have to rely upon the power of the _Null Axe_, which had been specifically constructed to take down the Writhing Gates.

However, Marlo's attempt had not gone unnoticed, as evidenced by the tentacle she'd targeted for disintegration lashing out and slapping her for the attempt.  She reeled to the side but managed to retain her footing on the stone floor of the vast cavern.

Looking down upon the five scattered figures below it, the neothelid thought puzzled thoughts.  For whatever reason, the two figures it had targeted with a command to open the Writhing Gate had failed to obey.  It focused its psionic might on the one with the long hair, attempting to charm Marlo into doing its bidding, but the sorceress was able to fight off the mental attack without even being aware of the attempted intrusion into her will.  Utred, in the meantime, turned about again and ran back into the cavern, following Marlo and Jhasspok.  He had absolutely no idea what he should do.

Cramer cast a _spell resistance_ spell upon himself.  Either because of the sudden ability to resist spells or perhaps due to the perceived attack on Marlo and the telepathic link they currently shared, all of a sudden the _mass cloud mind_ stopped affecting the gnome cleric and he now saw the neothelid floating above him near the cavern's ceiling.

Jhasspok stood before a tentacle in the same stance as a lumberjack about to fell a tree and swung the _Null Axe_ at the rubbery appendage.  He felt the axe blade slice its way into the tentacle and cut its way back out again, seemingly meeting almost no resistance; Jhasspok smiled to himself at the thought of how easy this was going to be!  But then, to his astonishment, the tentacle before him sealed up almost immediately and was as good as new, without so much as a scar to show where the blade had cut its way through the rubbery flesh.  Jhasspok's brow furrowed in puzzlement as to why this "Writhing Gate Destroyer" weapon was proving to be so ineffective against the very item it was built to destroy.  He was still standing there trying to puzzle it out when the tentacle lashed out at him, smacking him on the side of the head.

Behind the confused reptile, Khari cautiously approached the Writhing Gate.  He was still on full alert, his senses screaming that there was terrible danger nearby but unable to perceive exactly where it might be or how it was hiding.  He was still under the full effects of the _mass cloud mind_ spell and had no idea he was standing directly underneath the neothelid they'd been warned by C'thorlumbrox might be nearby.

Marlo still couldn't see any neothelid above her, but with Utred having warned them about it and now Cramer confirming its existence over the _Rary's telepathic bond_, the sorceress decided to take it on faith that such was the case.  Cramer was saying it was up near the ceiling, and the ceiling was high enough that Marlo figured a _fireball_ would surely hit the worm without also hitting any of her friends still down here at ground level.  It exploded upon impact as expected, although Marlo still couldn't see if there was a worm up there and if so whether or not it had been hit by the spell.

It most certainly had - and the neothelid decided that was just about enough from this upstart spellcaster who refused to do his bidding.  He retaliated against her with a _mind thrust_, causing her to scream in pain even though she had successfully resisted the worst of the psionic attack.  But her telepathic cries over the mental link overrode the _mass cloud mind_ spell effect and now she and Khari were also able to see the levitating neothelid floating in the air above them.

Utred raced over to Cramer, calling out for the gnome to cast a _fly_ spell on him so he could go take the battle to the neothelid.  Cramer, however, had his own ideas about the best spells to bring to bear and ignored the overeager dwarf, instead opting to cast a _flame strike_ spell on the neothelid.  A mental cry of pain washed over the _telepathic bond_, leading the gnome cleric to believe he'd caused the worm some amount of suffering.

Jhasspok's reptilian brain - not always the most sensible organ when it came to devising logical plans of attack - had made a series of what passed for him as logical conclusions.  They went somewhat as follows:

The _Null Axe_ isn't hurting the tentacles like it's supposed to.
There's a petrified mind flayer by each tentacle, but they're already smashed up so further smashing up likely won't do any good.
The wooden fungus "pilot seat" is not only not currently occupied, but looks to be fully intact.
Therefore, if I attack the "pilot seat" I should be able to bring down the Writhing Gate like we're supposed to.
Satisfied with the unassailable logic of his plan, the lizardfolk sprang at the unoccupied seat and brought the blade of the _Null Axe_ crashing down upon it, breaking it nearly completely into splinters.  His back was still turned to the neothelid, focused as he was at the task at hand.

Khari looked up at the neothelid, thought about getting out his magic longbow, and decided he'd rather wait until it came down to the ground to attack.  His history of fighting giant monster worms was limited to the purple worm they'd fought on their way to Brunniir; as a result, he assumed it would want to come down here to ground level and try to swallow a few of them up as a meal (or at least a light snack).  Marlo, on the other hand, wanted to keep the thing in the air away from them if she could, so she launched a _Bigby's grasping hand_ spell up at the neothelid.  The spell manifested just fine but couldn't get a grip onto the worm's slick body; she assumed she had failed to overcome the creature's natural defense against spells.

As Khari had anticipated, the worm started lowering itself back down to the ground, forming a coil in midair so its head was aimed at Cramer and Utred when it hit the cavern floor.  But rather than try to swallow either of them up, it did quite the opposite: disgorging a wide spray of acid that coated both figures, head to toe.  Utred, as was his custom, grimaced in pain but refused to give his foe the satisfaction of letting it know he'd been hurt.  Cramer, on the other hand, screamed aloud at the pain as his skin bubbled and burned.

Utred charged forward at the neothelid, his greataxe out and ready to swing.  But the worm's tentacles were nearly four times as long as the dwarf was tall and they swatted him aside before he'd gotten close enough to strike with his axe.  That sealed it for Cramer: reaching for his most powerful spell, he let a _destruction_ spell fly at the neothelid, realizing he probably wouldn't be able to cause the thing to be utterly destroyed but hoping to at least deal it a decent amount of damage.  To his surprise, though, the spell not only made it past the neothelid's natural defenses against spells but also against any additional defenses it was able to bring to bear - and the creature vanished, its body dissolved entirely, with not a speck of living matter remaining.

Jhasspok by this time had finished his heroic attack upon the pilot seat beside one of the Writhing Gate's tentacles and was now trying to figure out why that hadn't destroyed the Gate.  Then he turned his head to see why the other four had broken out into full-voiced cheers.  "What's going on?" he asked as Cramer cast healing spells on himself and Utred to deal with their acid burns.

"We killed it!" Khari called out.  "It's dead!"

"What's dead?" Jhasspok asked.  He looked around the cavern and didn't see any dead bodies.

"The neothelid -- the giant worm!" Marlo said.  And then Jhasspok understood completely: this was like the time three days ago when Utred had said there was a fish but there had been no fish; now they were claiming there was a worm but there was no worm.

"You're making that up, trying to trick me!" accused Jhasspok, eyes narrowed in disbelief.

But then Utred stopped celebrating, as a ghostly hand and arm reached out from his own body and slapped him in the forehead.  Then it pointed back to the entrance to the cavern; Utred, cowed, walked away from the gate and back the way they had come.  The others followed, and once they were no longer inside the domed building in the shape of a mind flayer's head, the ghost of Dolthran Greyale departed from Utred's body and spoke to the group.

"Ye've messed it up but good, ye have!" he griped.

"What do you mean?" demanded Cramer.  "We killed the worm, just like in the prophecy!"

"That weren't th' prophecy!" argued Dolthran.  "Only that 'the Dark Champions would stand before th' Worm,' not that ye'd kill it!  We need it alive, so it can kill th' Dying One!"

"Now wait a minute," Cramer argued, "if the worm kills and eats the Dying One, he transforms into the new Uboros and the Elder God is reborn!  That's certainly not what we want to have happen!"

"Ach, but it is!" argued Dolthran.

"Why would we--?" began Utred, but he was cut off by Jhasspok.

"Your axe doesn't work," he said simply, holding the _Null Axe_ out to the one who had crafted it.

Dolthran sighed in exasperation.  "Well, ye cain't expect t' take down a Writhing Gate with it _now_, not with th' Dying One still alive!"

"Maybe you'd better explain from the beginning," suggested Marlo.

"Aye, mebbe that's th' best fer it.  Very well then, listen up.  No weapon forged by mortals would ever be able t' destroy the Writhin' Gates 'cause they be part of th' Primordial Avatar of Uboros, th' first version of th' Elder God t' set foot upon th' world.  All attempts t' destroy th' Gates to kill th' Elder God would fail - as ye saw.  But by killing th' Elder God first, then th' Gates would no longer have their diving protections."

"But then the worm eats Uboros and becomes Uboros!" argued Cramer.

"Aye, but all studies of th' prophecies point t' there being a 20-year period 'tween th' Dark Champions standin' before th' Worm an' th' destruction o' th' world.  So apparently however long it would take fer th' neothelid t' transform into th' new Uboros in the Far Realm, it'd be th' equivalent to 20 years here on th' Material Plane.  So by lettin' th' neothelid 'win,' the Writhin' Gates would become vulnerable and ye'd 'ave 20 years to destroy 'em all."

Cramer fumed.  "That would have been handy to know _before_ we fought the neothelid!"

"Had me grandson not made a pact with th' evil Elder God, I'd've been able t' tell ye all this before.  But since--"

"Wait, what now?" Cramer interrupted.  He looked over at the burly barbarian, who was looking down at his feet in shame.  "Pact?"

Utred was apparently in the belief that his boots were talking to him, because that's where he directed his answer.  "I got a mental summons, He'd boost my vitality if I agreed to serve Him.  It seemed like a pretty good deal, especially since I figured I could always betray him at the last minute, like."

Cramer was flabbergasted - so much so that he didn't notice Marlo also suddenly becoming very interested in the tips of her boots as well.

"So since Utred'd made 'is pact with Uboros, I couldn't tell ye the plan or else th' Dyin' One'd snuff out me grandson's soul immediately, instead o' puttin' th' slow curse on 'im like what he done now.  By me possessin' me grandson, I were able t' protect Utred's mind - such as it is, the blamed fool - from bein' read an' keepin' 'is plans on betrayin' Uboros a secret.  But there were no way fer me t' provide th' rest o' ye th' same protection."

"What's this about a slow curse?" asked Marlo.

"It's a mind thing," Dolthran replied.  "Day by day, a piece o' Utred's mind'll be whittled away, until one day, in about two weeks' time, he'll be no more'n a mindless beast - at which time 'is body'll explode into a mass o' tentacles an' claws an' all sorts o' whatnot.  A chaos beast, is what it be called, an' that ain't nothin' what can be fixed - once he turns, there'll be no turnin' 'im back."

Utred's complexion went white as the blood drained from his face.  Unnoticed by the others, Marlo's face did the same.  "Is there anything we can do to prevent that from happening?" the dwarven barbarian demanded.  Dolthran conceded that a _restoration_ spell cast upon Utred would delay the process.  "But it won't put it off ferever," warned the dwarven ghost.  "Eventually, ye'll be losin' more an' more o' yer mind each day, until a _restoration_ spell won't be able t' catch up."

"Don't worry," Cramer reassured the dwarf.  "I'll prepare a _restoration_ spell each day until we figure this out."  Marlo mumbled something at that and the cleric asked her to repeat it.

"I said, 'better make it two.'"

It took the gnome a moment to understand the meaning behind the sorceress's comment.  "No!" he cried.  "Not you too!"

"It was the first time we used the Writhing Gate, to go ambush that caravan for Calish," Marlo explained, her eyes starting to tear up.  She closed them, not wanting to face her friends, and found she could still see them just fine through the eyes in her new magical robe - just what she didn't want at the moment.  "I got the same deal as Utred: serve the Dying One and He'd reward me with a much greater ability to cast spells, or defy him and be punished.  I...I opted to take the easy way out."

Cramer shook his head in disbelief.  Then he looked over to the others.  "Khari?  Jhasspok?  Anything you'd like to tell me?  Now would be the time."

"Me?  No, nothing!" sputtered Khari Hammerslammer, insulted at the very thought that he'd have made a bargain with the Dying One - an evil entity capable of destroying the world.

Jhasspok thought it over, then answered the question as he understood it.  "Yes, I have something to tell you: I don't think there really was a worm, or I would have seen it.  I think you just like to play tricks on me."  Cramer sighed; if the lizardfolk was going to have a portion of his mind whittled away each day, the process would probably be complete in two days, tops, and they'd be sure to notice.

"Okay, so we shouldn't have killed the worm, but we did.  Where do we go from here?" asked the gnome cleric.

"Bring the worm back to life," suggested Khari.  "Are you strong enough to cast a _resurrection_ spell?

"I am, but it wouldn't do us any good - we'd need a piece of the worm's body and I destroyed it to absolute nothingness."  Jhasspok just snorted at this assertion: sure he did!  "We'd need a _true resurrection_, but I'm not powerful enough to cast such a spell."

"So who is?" asked Khari.

Cramer thought it over.  "Matron Jalamir - but I can't imagine us being able to convince her to abandon the Overreach for three days to trek out here and bring our dead worm back to life."

"A _wish_ spell?" suggested Khari.

"We'd need a wizard or a sorcerer for that," Cramer answered.

"Isn't Marlo a sorcerer?' asked Jhasspok.  He was pretty sure she was, but he was still kind of fuzzy on the different types of magic and how they all worked.

"I'm not powerful enough," Marlo told him.

"A _miracle_ spell would work, though," theorized Cramer.  "Matron Jalamir could cast that for us from the Overreach, so she wouldn't have to leave the city.  But that would just cause the dead body to be brought back to where it was killed.  Oh - but then I could cast a _resurrection_ spell on it!  That would work!  Then we could have Marlo or Utred open the Writhing Gate and let the neothelid go get his yummy Elder God snack!"

"I destroyed the chair," Jhasspok reminded the gnome, only to have the dwarven ghost explain that the seats by each tentacle were not an intrinsic part of the Writhing Gate; they merely made a comfortable place for the pilot to sit.  The nine petrified illithids, it turned out, were also just window dressing; the reason the ones at this particular Gate were already smashed up was likely to make it appear as if this Gate was already out of commission.

"What about me and Marlo turning into chaos beasts?" Utred asked.

"Well, an _atonement_ spell would probably be a good start," Cramer mused.  "I could cast it, of course, but that takes quite a toll on the caster...."  He was already thinking ahead of how Marlo and Utred would both owe him one - a big one - if he cast the spell for them and how he might be able to collect on their debts.

"I've heard tell o' a Hall o' Redemption, where paladins o' old would go when they needed atonin'," suggested Dolthran.

"No offense, Cramer, but I think if I was going to atone I'd rather do it in a Church of Boccob," Marlo said.  Partly this was because she had been raised to revere the God of Magic, and partly this was because even though the _Rary's telepathic bond_ spell was no longer in effect she could read on the gnome's face quite clearly how he was planning on collecting the debt of gratitude they'd owe him if he helped them atone for their betrayal.

Eventually, though, the group came up with a cohesive plan.  Cramer had a _teleport_ spell ready and was reasonably sure he could use it to get the group back to C'thorlumbrox where they'd left him three days ago, as that location was apparently a safe place to use as an Underdark _teleport_ destination.  The ulitharid could then _teleport_ the group back to Greenvale, where they could have Matron Ky'hulcressen cast a _miracle_ spell on their behalf to return the neothelid's body to solid cohesiveness, if not back to life.  The group - all but Utred, who could be shielded by his grandfather's ghost hiding inside his body - would need to purchase _rings of mind shielding_ to prevent the psionic worm from reading their thoughts and learning of their scheme, then _teleport_ back to the safe place in the Underdark and from there make the three-day trek back to Thephobak, where Cramer would cast a _resurrection_ spell on the neothelid's corpse.  Utred could open the Writhing Gate, the neothelid would go through, and when the Dying One was slain the _Null Axe_ should be able to cut through the dead flesh of the tentacles.  Plus, with any luck, the death of the Dying One would also mean the obliteration of the slow curse that had been put on Marlo and Utred since they would have engineered Uboros's death as he had desired.

And the plan worked out as anticipated.  This time it was Utred who wielded the _Null Axe_ after the ten tentacles of the Writhing Gate had turned to a grayish white and collapsed, and he had no trouble slicing them off at the bottom, chopping away at the dead flesh with relish at the thought that he'd no longer have to worry about ending his days as a chaos beast.  And best of all, he still had his increased vitality, a permanent gift from the Dying One that hadn't disappeared upon the death of Uboros.  Marlo was equally pleased to see her increased spellcasting ability hadn't reverted to its previous level upon the death of the Dying One.  And Jhasspok was pleased that the other four _hadn't_ been lying to him about the worm after all.

"Well that's one down, eight more to go," Utred said, wiping the sweat from his brow after having chopped away all ten tentacles.

"Better make it nine," suggested Cramer.  "I know one of them was supposed to have been already destroyed, but it wouldn't hurt to check and make sure."

"Yeah," Utred agreed.  "Good point."

 - - -

We opted to go with Matron Ky'hulcressen (the sister of the original) instead of Matron Jalamir since she was more approachable and since we'd already done her sister favors in the past, even when we technically were slaves of House Jalamir.  Matron Ky'hulcressen agreed, but we now owe her a service in the future - which is okay, as she's pretty cool for a drow.

And apparently the lesson to be taken away from this string of events is: "It's okay to go behind your adventuring companions' backs and make a secret pact with the Elder God you're all supposed to be defeating, because in the end everything will work out and you'll get to keep the awesome benefits without any penalties."  Or in other words, Cramer, Khari, and Jhasspok were apparently fools to not have traded token service to the Dying One in exchange for a permanent +6 increase to the ability score of their choice.  Oh well, Khari basically got that benefit in any case when his suddenly-revealed psionic nature bumped his Intelligence up from a 5 to a 12 - and he didn't have to fake-worship any illithid Elder Gods to do it, either.

And I'm probably better off that the Dying One never approached Jhasspok with an offer, as he'd have probably traded his immortal soul for a fish.


----------



## Richards (Oct 3, 2021)

*ADVENTURE 43: BACK DOWN IN REVIN TOWN*

PC Roster:
Cramer Appleknocker, gnome cleric 14​Jhasspok, lizardman 3/barbarian 3/fighter 8​Khari Hammerslammer, dwarf fighter 13/psychic warrior 1​Marlo Pendragon, human sorcerer 14​Utred "Buckets" Butterflinger, dwarf barbarian 14​
Game Session Date: 29 September 2021

 - - -

It was good to be back in Greenvale after so much time spent trudging around in the lightless caverns and tunnels of the Underdark.  It was good to sleep in a real bed, and to eat better fare than trail rations, and to be able to shop for needed goods.  The group spent quite a bit of time topside in the various magic shops - for the sunborn drow had quite a few spellcasters among their number - making new purchases and seeing to having some of their previously-existing magic items upgraded in power.

They also spent a fair bit of time among the Greenvale sages, discussing various strategies about taking down the remaining Writhing Gates.  Of course, they already knew where the one House Jalamir had used was located, but that put it lower on the priority list, at least by Cramer Appleknocker's reasoning - they could always go take that one out of commission any time they wanted, or any time they needed a few days to fill.  Right now, the gnome cleric was more interested in winkling out the exact location of the "Writhing Chamber" the doomed assassin known only as the Observer had said was somewhere beneath the city of Revin.  And the easiest way to do that, the sages all agreed, was to have the group _teleport_ to Revin and then use a _find the path_ spell to lead them directly to where they needed to go.

So, after a few days of recuperating and having their magical upgrades attended to, the five adventurers gathered together and the gnome cleric of Fharlanghn cast the _teleport_ spell that sent them instantly traversing the miles between the two cities and ending up in the city of Revin without incident.  "I gotta admit, that sure beats hoofin' it by foot!" Utred enthused.

Cramer pulled out the scroll containing the _find the path_ spell he'd purchased for this endeavor and spoke the magic syllables that activated the spell.  Instantly, to his own vision - and his alone - a series of arrows appeared on the ground before him, pointing the way the group would need to go to find the Writhing Chamber.  "This way," Cramer pointed, waving Utred over so he could take his customary seat upon the dwarven barbarian's backpack.  Climbing up into position, he told Utred, "I'll tell you which way to go."

"You usually do," agreed Utred.

"Don't you get tired of lugging him around all the time?" demanded Marlo, looking in disdain at the lazy gnome.

"Eh, he's not that heavy," Utred commented.  "Plus, I don't have the weight of all those weapons anymore, so I'm actually carrying less weight with him on me back than I was before."  Utred Butterflinger was a walking arsenal and until recently he'd traveled with all sorts of weapons hanging off of his belt or strapped to his back.  One of the Greenvale weaponsmiths had suggested a means of decluttering his arsenal, in the purchase of an extradimensional carrying case.  Much like an oversize quiver, it was a wide leather cylinder, closed at the bottom but open at the top, with a strap that allowed the dwarf to easily sling it over his shoulder.  But by placing his hand inside the extradimensional opening at the top, he could instantly grab any of the many weapons he kept stored inside and it would immediately jump to hand.  Best of all, its magic "shrunk" the weapons during transit, so he could fit weapons - like his _flaming greataxe_ - whose bladed weapon-heads were too big to fit through the opening without magical aid.  Utred called it his "weapons locker" and he was well and truly pleased with its purchase.

Cramer and Utred led the others through the winding streets of Revin, through a different section of town than the area they'd last explored the last time they were here.  That had been in the market district - where they had been attacked by the Observer the first time, with her wannabe-assassin recruits.  Knowing there was likely an Assassins Guild somewhere in Revin, Utred and Khari kept a wary eye out, looking in recessed doorways and alleyways between buildings, even up at the rooftops - anywhere an assassin might be lurking, waiting to get the drop on them.  Bringing up the rear by a wide margin, Jhasspok was keeping an eye out, too - but he was mostly worried about the _fireball_ sun, for despite how much Marlo and Cramer insisted it was far, far away and couldn't come to get them, the lizardfolk wasn't quite willing to take that on faith.  He looked around for assassins as well, but most of his attention was spent making sure the _fireball_ sun kept its distance.

And then, just like that, the _fireball_ sun was gone.

Jhasspok flinched, suspecting that sun was up to something - was it shutting itself off so it could somehow try to sneak up on them?  Cramer, however, was much more versed in spellcraft and immediately recognized it for what it was: a _darkness_ spell, no doubt cast in preparation for an attack.  He cast a _quickened magic vestment_ spell upon himself as Utred pulled his _greenflame greataxe_ from his weapons locker and sprinted forward at full speed, wanting to get himself and his gnome piggyback passenger out of the radius of darkness as quickly as possible, for if the assassins wanted them encloaked in deep shadows then the barbarian wanted them out in the sunlight that much more.

As he ran, Utred saw a leather-clad male rogue step out of the shadows of a side alley as a female rogue emerged from an opposite alleyway across the street.  Utred veered to the left, racing towards the male and bringing his greataxe swinging into his chest as he got within range.  The rogue dodged backwards in time to save his life but not quick enough to avoid having a horizontal rip tear through his leathers and the skin of his chest from the power of the dwarf's swing.

Inside the circle of darkness, another rogue stepped up beside Marlo and stabbed out with his blade.  However, he hadn't contended on the sorceress wearing a _robe of eyes_ and she saw him coming even though he had approached from behind, which allowed her to pivot out of the way at the last moment.

There were also two attackers stationed on the rooftop of a building to the right of the heroes.  One of these wielded a longbow and sent an arrow streaking toward Cramer's head, but as he was still on Utred's backpack at the moment the dwarf's combat movements accidentally moved him out of the arrow's flight path at the last second.  Cramer looked up at the archer after the arrow whizzed by his head and saw the other rooftop figure as well, a robed human, likely a wizard or cleric.  The gnome cast a _spell resistance_ spell upon himself and wriggled down off of Utred's backpack, landing nimbly on the street and rushing away from the group, trying to get himself far enough away from Utred that they couldn't both be targeted by the same _fireball_ spell.  His speed was enhanced by the _longstrider_ spell he habitually cast upon himself each morning.  But he heard footsteps coming up behind him and dared a backwards glance; the female assassin was coming after him, short sword in hand and seemingly ready to gut him.

But then another figure burst out of the radius of the _darkness_ spell.  This was Khari Hammerslammer, _earthglide warhammer _ in hand as he ran to catch up with the woman chasing down Cramer.  From what the dwarven fighter could tell, it looked like there were five assassins after them, this time all of them human.  Well, they'd fought off similar odds before and prevailed!

Jhasspok had seen a glimpse of the two figures on the rooftop before the light went away and had heard the distinctive _twang_ of an arrow being fired by one of them.  He was not what anyone would call a tactician by any means - he relied upon instinct more than fully thought-out strategies - but somewhere in the back of his lizard brain he realized having two enemies out of reach was not a good thing.  Thus, before he'd even had time to process the information his eyes had been telling him, Jhasspok was implementing a fix to the problem at hand.  He raced diagonally ahead, towards the two-story building upon which the two snipers were standing.  It was dark, so Jhasspok leaped on instinct, jumping when it seemed like the right time rather than when he could actually see the building before him.  But his memory of the building's location was correct; he hit stone about halfway up the side of the structure and frantically started climbing, skittering up the building rather like a lizard.  Toward the end of his climb he emerged from the hemisphere of magical _darkness_ and soon after he pulled himself up onto the rooftop, about halfway between a robed spellcaster of some sort and a human archer.

In the street below, the male rogue flanked Khari and stabbed out with his blade, catching the dwarf in the side - but, surprisingly, the blow wasn't anywhere near as painful as Khari, who had been stabbed many times in his adventuring career, would have expected.  Utred joined the conga line as he stepped into place behind the man who had just stabbed Khari, slicing into him in turn with his greataxe.  Behind, in the darkness, Marlo cast an _empowered shocking grasp_ spell and spun upon her attacker, hoping to make contact and trigger the spell hanging on her fingertips, ready for release.  But he was equally nimble in the darkness and avoided the touch, leaving the untriggered spell active upon the sorceress's fingertips.

To facilitate his climb, Jhasspok had left his battleaxe hanging on his leather weapon-belt.  As he scrambled to arm himself now that he was up on the rooftop against two enemies, the robed man surprised him by racing forward and slapping a hand down upon Jhasspok's arm.  The lizardfolk had expected a _lightning bolt_ or _magic missile_ or some sort of ranged spell, but this, while activated by touch, was definitely a spell of some sort, for Jhasspok could feel pain at the site of the touch as magical venom tried flowing into his system.  But Jhasspok had spent his early years as a drow slave; the experience had made him tough and able to overcome all kinds of physical punishment as needed and he gutted his way through the magic attack, causing the spell's effects to minimize and then dissipate.  That did, however, make it easy for the lizardfolk to decide which of the two potential assassins should be his first target.

Marlo once again dodged a sword-strike from the assassin attacking her, who then managed to evade her second attempt at touching him and activating her _empowered shocking grasp_ spell.  The archer on the rooftop rushed over to attack Jhasspok since he was facing the human wizard who had hired him and his band, but his sword missed the reptile, who was maneuvering into place to bring the blade of his battleaxe down upon the spellcaster.  The axe struck true, eliciting a cry of pain from the human wizard.

Cramer cast an _inflict critical wounds_ spell on the female assassin and she fell to the street, unconscious and making her way towards death.  Almost immediately thereafter, Khari's warhammer crashed into the side of the male assassin's head, crushing in the side of his skull.  He also fell where he stood, just behind his female associate in hitting the ground but having already beaten her to lifelessness.

Marlo had had enough of this "fumble around in the dark" nonsense; despite still having an _empowered shocking grasp_ spell waiting on her fingertips, she mentally activated her boots and levitated into the air.  Once out of the hemisphere of the _darkness_ spell's effect, she could see the others: Khari, Utred, and Cramer looking down at the two assassins they'd just dropped, while above Jhasspok was being attacked by a human archer after he'd just hit a drow spellcaster with his battleaxe.  Marlo hadn't realized she was seeing through the drow's _disguise self_ spell via the enhanced vision aspect of her _robe of eyes_ and assumed Jhasspok realized he was fighting a drow.  But that put her mind to ease, if she'd had any doubts about these assassins - if they had a drow among their numbers then Marlo and her companions were definitely on the side of the angels in this fight.

Up on the rooftop, the drow - still a human as far as Jhasspok could tell - stepped away and cast an _invisibility_ spell on himself.  Jhasspok snarled in fury, assuming his prey had just _teleported_ away.  He spun to the archer and snarled, "That one might have gotten away, but that just means I'll rip your throat out instead of his!"  He did his best to look like a ferocious, upright dinosaur, for he knew humans and other mammals were often intimidated by his reptilian form.

But Marlo saw right through the drow spellcaster's _invisibility_ spell; with her _robe of eyes_, she could see him just fine.  Below her, she could hear her would-be assassin fumbling around in the dark trying to find her, to no avail.

And then, to her surprise, the archer on the rooftop gave a startled cry and leaped off the edge of the rooftop to the area inside the _darkness_ spell below.  Jhasspok was surprised his threat had had such an immediate effect, but the archer's intentions were soon shown to be based on something other than abject terror as he sprinted out of the _darkness_ spell calling his wife's name.  Ignoring the armed and armored foes all about him, he made a bee-line for the woman Cramer had downed with his _inflict critical wounds_ spell.  He brushed past the gnome in his haste and Cramer took the opportunity to cast a _poison_ spell upon the disheveled ranger, causing him to double over in pain but still slowly make his way toward his target.

"You've lost the advantage of surprise and now you're outnumbered," Cramer pointed out.  "Surrender and you can still walk out of here alive."

To his surprise, the archer took him up on the offer immediately.  "Fine, yes, we surrender - just help me with her!"  He pulled his dying wife to a sitting position and tried slapping her awake.  Her head just lolled in his arms.

But up on the rooftop (and believing himself to be all alone, for he didn't realize the wounded drow spellcaster was merely invisible), Jhasspok hadn't heard the offer and agreement of surrender; as far as he was concerned one of his two opponents had _teleported_ away but the other one was still within sight, down there menacing Cramer.  Jhasspok raced for the side of the rooftop, kicking a foot upon the top of the crenellations there and springing across the gap to the rooftop of the next building in line, a building which happened to be beside the area where Cramer and the archer stood, the latter trying to revive another assassin to bring her back into the fray!  Not spending any time wondering why the gnome cleric was allowing this, Jhasspok crossed the rooftop of this second building and leaped down upon the archer, landing on him with all of his weight behind him, snapping at his throat.

"Jhasspok, no!" cried Cramer.  "They've surrendered!"

"They what?" Jhasspok echoed, confused.  Still up in the air, Marlo saw the drow spellcaster cast another spell and this time disappear even from her view, for it was a _dimension door_ spell this time.  She slowly lowered herself to the ground, to find out the other rogue below her had likewise surrendered to Utred and Khari.  Everyone gathered over by the archer and his wife, who he was still trying to revive.

"Okay, time to spill your guts," Cramer said.  Jhasspok perked up at this, thinking maybe they were going to slay their enemies after all, but no - the gnome apparently just meant it was time for talking.  And the archer had apparently taken the gnome's meaning at once, for he started explaining.  Jhasspok just sighed in frustration.

"We're a band of adventurers, like yourselves," the archer said.  "We were hired to take you five in - alive - to answer for your crimes."

"Crimes?" demanded Marlo.  "What crimes?"

"The wizard with us, he was the one who hired us.  He said you'd killed a member of his family and he wanted to take you to his sister to answer for your crimes."

An expression of confusion crossed Marlo's face.  "And you took the word of a drow?" she asked.

Now it was the ranger's turn to look confused.  "Drow?  What drow?"  Marlo explained and was surprised to learn she had been the only one to see through the spellcaster's _disguise self_ spell.  The ranger was particularly aghast, declaring vehemently that had they known they were working for a drow they'd never have taken the assignment.  Cramer believed him.

The gnome fished around at his belt pouch and pulled out a _potion of neutralize poison_.  "Here," he said, passing it over to the ranger.  "You'll need this to counteract the spell I hit you with."  He pulled out another flask - a _potion of cure moderate wounds_ - and handed it over.  "And this ought to revive your wife."  Then he turned to the other rogue and spelled out the price of the two potions, demanding to be reimbursed.  He turned out his coin purse and hurried to comply.  "Sorry about your dead guy there," Cramer said, "but remember: you attacked us first."  Then the two groups went their separate ways, Cramer and his friends following the still-active arrows of his _find the path_ spell and the others carrying the dead body of their slain comrade to the nearest temple where they hoped to get him raised from the dead.  If they were going to do so, though, they were going to pay for that out of their own pocket, Cramer vowed.

The arrows led the gnome down into the cellar of an abandoned building, from which they pointed through a hidden passageway into a maze of underground tunnels - not anywhere as deep as in the Underdark, but far enough away from the surface that they weren't likely to be accidentally discovered.  The passageway, Marlo spotted with her exceptionally powerful robe-enhanced darkvision (she was able to see twice as far as either of the dwarves), soon opened into a larger chamber from which they could hear talking.  Cramer noted this was where his arrows suddenly stopped: that was the Writhing Chamber ahead and it was occupied by forces unknown.  And sure enough, a quick peek inside showed a ring of ten tentacles, although these were each splayed out unmoving upon the ground, while a pair of drow chastised a mind flayer seated in the control seat beside the tentacle in the farthest back of the chamber.

Cramer thus led the group to their logical destination: back the way they'd come, at least as far as a couple of right-angle turns in the passageways they'd traversed.  "Okay," he told them, activating his _slave-light cloak_ to a minimum setting (for he'd had them do without light sources during this underground trek, not wanting to warn anyone of their approach - the two dwarves and Marlo had been their eyes, while Cramer directed their course since the magical arrows were still visible to him even in absolute darkness and Jhasspok had followed blindly with a hand on Khari's shoulder).  "Time for any prep spells we want active before we go in.  We know the way now."

Marlo began by casting the traditional _Rary's telepathic bond_ spell upon the group, followed by a _magic circle against evil_ spell centered upon herself.  Utred passed over a scroll he'd purchased in Greenvale containing the _death ward_ spell, asking her to cast it on him.  She did so, then held up her _wand of invisibility_.  "Anybody want to stroll in there invisible?" she asked.  Jhasspok and the dwarves raised their hands immediately.  Marlo made them invisible and then applied the wand to herself.  "Cramer?" she asked.

"Not me," the gnome replied, instead asking Utred for his _hat of disguise_.  "I'm going in as a drow."

"A particularly short drow," Marlo pointed out as Utred plopped the hat on the gnome's head and Cramer altered his facial features and skin coloration to appear like a dark elf.

"Easily fixed," countered Cramer, casting a _righteous might_ spell upon himself, causing him to grow in size to well within drow height standards - plus granting him a slew of combat bonuses in the bargain.

"Okay, have fun with that," Marlo replied, casting a _teleport_ spell on the other four of them, placing them into the Writhing Chamber, about a quarter of the way around the circle of dead tentacles from the mind flayer.

"Hey there!" called a voice from the front of the chamber.  It was Cramer, strolling in as bold as you please in his magical drow get-up.  "I seek to join the followers of Uboros!"  Unseen, Khari and Utred gripped their weapons, ready to leap into battle.

The male drow stepped forward (Marlo was able to identify him as the spellcaster on the rooftops above), speaking in the drow language.  "What House are you from?" he demanded.

Fortunately, Cramer had learned the drow tongue during his time in captivity as a slave of the Overreach.  "I am from House Jalamir," he answered, quite truthfully, in the language of the dark elves.

But the assassin wasn't in the least bit tricked.  Turning to his sister, he said contemptuously, "It's probably the dwarf, using the _hat of disguise_."

That was an opening Utred couldn't resist.  Sprinting forward, he popped back into visibility as he brought his greataxe swinging into the body of the drow assassin.  "No, I'm right _here!_" he grunted with a grin on his now-visible face.  Khari followed in Utred's footsteps, bringing his warhammer swinging into the female duskblade, his _invisibility_ spell likewise vanishing during the attack.  The duskblade snarled in fury at Khari's attack and stabbed at him twice with her _sword of wounding_, the first strike imbued with a _vampiric touch_ spell that further drained the dwarf's vitality while increasing that of the drow.

In Jhasspok's mind, the fact that the two dwarves were in combat with the drow meant it was up to him to take on the mind flayer.  But he was well aware that mind flayers could zap you with that mind blast of theirs, causing you to stand there immobile and all but insensate.  Fortunately, Jhasspok had a plan to bypass that particular ability: since the illithid was seated in a chair facing forward, he'd just sneak around behind him and attack him from behind, out of the range of the potential cone of the mind blast!  Well pleased with the brilliance of this plan, Jhasspok snuck around the ring of drooping tentacles until he was behind the mind flayer, then he brought his battleaxe crashing down upon the illithid, cutting into the creature's shoulder.  He noted a strange thing as he popped back into visibility: the mind flayer was chained to the chair by the ankle.

And then the mind flayer demonstrated the futility of Jhasspok's cunning strategy by simply turning in place and facing the lizardfolk behind him.  Fully expecting to be taken out by a mind blast, Jhasspok was surprised when the mind flayer made a simple - and quite reasonable - _suggestion_ instead.  <Why don't you focus your attention on killing the drow?> he said directly into the reptile's brain.  Yes, that made perfect sense to Jhasspok!

Marlo drew her _arcane blade_ and activated it, a blade springing out of the empty hilt at her mental command and expanding to the size of a longsword.  She stabbed at the drow assassin, whose attention thus far had been focused on fighting off Utred.  Cramer continued his approach, casting a _blade barrier_ spell that started at the duskblade and continued in a straight line to the seated mind flayer.  As blades suddenly materialized and started slicing and stabbing, the duskblade leaped to one side; the mind flayer had no such option and was quickly hacked to pieces, which flew about in all directions.  Jhasspok snapped a couple of them out of the air - mind flayer flesh was very similar to that of octopi and squid, as he well knew - and focused his attention on the duskblade, who was on the same side of the _blade barrier_ as the lizardfolk.  She was a drow and it had been _suggested_ that he slay the drow.  Very well then: Jhasspok had his next target!

Khari activated his _earthglide warhammer_ and burrowed a short distance under the stone floor of the chamber, popping back up behind the drow assassin and slamming him in the back with his hammer.  That pushed him closer to Utred, who slew him with his greataxe and then pivoted to bring his blade slicing into the duskblade next.  She was left staggering and on her last legs, but she was still alive.

Not for very much longer, though, for Jhasspok charged at her and nearly cut her in two pieces with his battleaxe.  She fell to the ground, dead.  And then Jhasspok locked eyes with Cramer, still in his drow appearance thanks to the magic of the _hat of disguise_.  Jhasspok saw a drow, tightened his grip on his battleaxe, and readied himself to charge across the distance between them.  Cramer saw the bloodlust in the reptile's eyes and knew Jhasspok meant to slay him.

It would have been a simple matter, at this point, to take off the _hat of disguise_ and reveal himself as the gnome cleric Jhasspok had known since Cramer had first been captured by the drow; that would have instantly prevented the lizardfolk from wanting to kill the gnome.  But it looked like combat was over, the three enemies having been slain, and Cramer was still a gnome - and gnomes liked nothing so much as a good prank.  So instead, Cramer cast a spell he'd never had the occasion to use before.  _Mislead_ caused the gnome to become invisible, at the same time leaving behind an exact - but quite illusory - copy of himself in his place.  Cramer merely had to take a step to the side as Jhasspok came barreling in, swinging his battleaxe for all it was worth.  (Utred, seeing the impending attack and realizing the "drow" was really Cramer, went to tackle the gnome but passed right through him.)  Jhasspok similarly met no resistance as his axe-blade went through the illusory drow, which Cramer caused to wince as if he'd been hurt by the lizardfolk's attack.  So Jhasspok attacked again, swinging his weapon at a foe who wasn't really there, despite the evidence of the lizardfolk's eyes.  Cramer had a good old time leading Jhasspok this way and that as he caused his drow duplicate to try to avoid the lizardfolk's attacks.

Marlo rolled her eyes at the gnome's silliness - and, unseen by her, each of the hundreds of eyes on her _robe of eyes_ did likewise - and turned to do the job they had all come here to do.  Casting a _disintegrate_ spell at the nearest tentacle, she was pleased to see the dead flesh of an Elder God no longer contained any of the frightful spell resistance that made it all but impossible to affect when the Dying One had still been alive.  Utred, seeing that Cramer was in no real danger (he wasn't sure how the cleric had done it, but he'd seen Jhasspok's axe go right through the drow with no effect), pulled out the _Null Axe_ and similarly got to work, chopping the dead flesh off at the base where it rose up out of the stone floor.

By the time the tentacles had all been dealt with and the Writhing Chamber was no more, Jhasspok was just about winded and Cramer had tired of his game.  He allowed the _mislead_ spell to expire, causing the illusory drow to wink out of existence as he himself became visible once more.  But by then he'd taken the _hat of disguise_ from his head and looked like his normal self.  Jhasspok looked around the chamber and saw no more drow that needed to be slain.  Good!  He set head of the battleaxe down on the stone floor and leaned over, catching his breath.

But now Khari had become intrigued with the possibilities.  "Can I see that?" he asked Cramer.  The cleric passed over the _hat of disguise_ without comment, curious as to what the dwarven fighter had planned.

"Hey Jhasspok, over here!" called Khari.  Jhasspok turned to look and there stood a drow, dressed in Khari's armor and holding his warhammer!  That could only mean one thing: a drow had killed Khari and taken his stuff!  Enraged, the lizardfolk crossed the room and brought his battleaxe crashing down upon the vile drow.

Only the vile drow was no longer there.  Right before Jhasspok had reached him, Khari used his _earthglide warhammer_ to slip beneath the stone floor, move about ten feet to his right, and pop back up again.  "Over here!" he called, causing the lizardfolk to spin about and race his way to the attack.  This went on for some time until Marlo noticed and chided the dwarf.  "You're going to cause him to die of a heart attack if you don't cut out your shenanigans!"

Properly chastised, Khari rose back up from the stone floor, this time with hat in hand and looking like his own self.  "Sorry, Jhasspok," he said as he passed the _hat of disguise_ back to Cramer, who in turn gave it back to Utred.  Jhasspok was a bit peeved at the prank that had been played upon him by his friends, at least until they promised to make it up to him once they got back to Greenvale by buying him as much fish as he could eat.

"Sssss sssss sssss sssss!" chuckled Jhasspok, laughing at the thought that they had no idea how much fish he could eat in one sitting, if money was not an issue.

"Well, while you guys were all clowning around, Utred and I got the mission done," pointed out Marlo, indicating the completely demolished Writhing Gate before them.  There was no way anybody was even going to be able to use it again.

"And a fine job you did," agreed Cramer.  "Come on: huddle up and I'll _teleport_ us back to Greenvale."

 - - -

Logan once again pulled a fast one on us: we had expected to be attacked by assassins once we returned to Revin but we hadn't expected to be attacked by a band of neutral rogues who'd been duped by their employer.  (They were even using _merciful_ weapons, which dealt nonlethal damage.)  The drow assassin, it turns out, had been a cousin of the Mortal Queen and was none too pleased at the events that came about as a result of us having slain her.

We all leveled up to 15th at the end of this adventure.  Khari and Jhasspok each added another level of fighter, while everyone else stuck to their normal classes.


----------



## Richards (Oct 10, 2021)

*ADVENTURE 44: THE CHILLING STORM*

PC Roster:
Cramer Appleknocker, gnome cleric 15​Jhasspok, lizardman 3/barbarian 3/fighter 9​Khari Hammerslammer, dwarf fighter 14/psychic warrior 1​Marlo Pendragon, human sorcerer 15​Utred "Buckets" Butterflinger, dwarf barbarian 15​
Game Session Date: 6 October 2021

 - - -

With a sound of displaced air, the five heroes suddenly appeared in the middle of a Greenvale park, the result of one of Cramer Appleknocker's _teleport_ spells.  Almost immediately, there was another pop as a sixth figure _teleported_ into view with the others, almost as if he had been anticipating their arrival.  This sixth figure towered over the others, for it was none other than C'thorlumbrox, the nine-foot-tall ulitharid who had been working on deciphering the illithid manuscripts the heroes had provided him.

<I have made progress,> the ulitharid told them telepathically, pulling a rolled-up scroll from his sleeve and passing it over to Jhasspok, not because the lizardfolk could read it (he couldn't) but because he was the tallest of the heroes and thus the closest in size to the towering ulitharid.  Jhasspok didn't even bother unrolling it, passing it over to Cramer.  The gnome walked over to a nearby picnic table, crawled up onto the bench, and unrolled the piece of parchment.  It was a list of the Writhing Gates as described in the illithid work, with parenthetical notes along the right-hand side:

*List of Writhing Gates*​*The Temple of Thephobak*, the prison of the enslaved mind.  (The first one destroyed)​*The Gate of Tresdazell*, which waits south of the slumbering wyrm.  (Beneath Riven)​*The Frozen Gate of Uozell*, which watches over the world.  (Somewhere in the Giant's Tundra)​*The Gate of Svusban*, lying beneath the boreal forests of Luzumin. (Now a part of the Desolate Wastes)​*The Gate of Sardegon*, waiting within the Isle of the Five Gods.  (The main isle of Jakura)​*The Gate of Zepholekt*, bearing the rift betwixt Corellon's exiled kin and Laduguer's champions.  (The Writhing Gate used by House Jalamir)​*The Gate of Radravossk*, which dreams of cerulean waves.​*The Gate of Rylethek*, whose undulating currents call to the drowned.​*The Gate of Svulbiss*, which floats adrift, unseen by those overshadowed.  (Possible cloud island?)​*The Gate of Zarbugak*, untamer of the wilds, lies untouched by civilized minds.​
<You have destroyed the first two,> C'thorlumbrox said.  <I am confident of the general locations of the next three on the list, and you are well aware of the location of the Gate of Zepholekt.  Which of those would you like to tackle next?>  A brief discussion followed, with the final decision being the Frozen Gate of Uozell.  "I don't want to go back into the Desolate Wastes until we know a little more about it," Cramer explained to the others.  He had to remind Jhasspok that was the place whose desert sands had burned the bottoms of the lizardfolk's feet and then the reptile agreed he was in no hurry to return there, either.

"We'll want _endure elements_ spells in place if we're going into the frozen lands," Marlo suggested.  "So, shall we plan on heading out tomorrow morning?"  That sounded good to everyone, as it left the rest of that day for unwinding and preparing for the next day's journey.

But fortunately, with two spellcasters in their group capable of casting the _teleport_ spell, the next day's journey lasted all of a few seconds.  Marlo focused her mind on recalling the general layout of the town of Rimesfjord and once she had a good mental image in place she cast the spell.  Cramer immediately cast _endure elements_ spells on the other members of the group, having decided to forego the spell himself - he had cold weather gear on he could use instead.  He did, however, cast a _moment of prescience_ spell on himself, knowing it would simmer there in the back of his mind until needed.  And then the group headed to the large building they'd visited before, when seeking to obtain aid from the frost giant leader against the impending drow invasion.

Announcing themselves at the massive dwelling, the five were granted an audience with Queen Sigvor.  "If anyone knows of the Gate you seek," she told them, "it will likely be *Father Yinxirzijir Kepesk*.  Unfortunately, he's been rather busy plotting my assassination."  This last bit of information was said with a smirk on her face, as if she found the whole thing rather funny.

"Your assassination, Majesty?" Marlo asked, wondering if she'd heard the frost giant queen correctly.

"Yes, quite - not that he has a chance of actually following through with his plans, of course.  But it now occurs to me you can kill two birds with one stone: I will tell you where you can find the good Father, and then you can ask him about the location of this 'Gate of Uozell' you're looking for, as long as you kill him and his followers afterward."

"And these followers of his--" began Utred.

"Frost giants," Queen Sigvor interrupted.  "You have my leave to slay them; they are traitors to their queen."

Cramer looked at the others, asking without saying a word if they were up for this (the gnome had very expressive eyebrows).  Upon seeing nobody having a problem with being asked to slay evil would-be assassins, he spoke for the group: "We agree to your terms, Your Majesty."

"Very well then.  They are holed up in a cathedral carved from the inside of a glacier."  The frost giant queen summoned forth an image of the cathedral in question in a globe of polished ice, which served her as a _crystal ball_, allowing Marlo to see exactly where it was she'd be _teleporting_ the group to next.  "He quite often demands hefty donations to his temple when people seek him out for his accumulated knowledge, so be prepared to offer up a significant bribe to even get in to see him," Queen Sigvor advised.  Marlo smiled at that bit of information, promising Cramer (who was querying her with his eyebrows) with a "shushing" motion of her hand that she'd explain later.  Then, bowing before the frost giant queen, Marlo thanked her for her assistance and promised they'd take care of Father Yinxirzijir Kepesk and his minions for her.

"Okay, what's so funny?" Cramer demanded once they were back outside.

"It's just his demand for money makes such perfect sense," the sorceress explained.  "'Yinxirzijir Kepesk' is Draconic for 'Chilling Storm.'"

"I don't get it," admitted Jhasspok.

"The guy we're being sent to kill is a dragon," Khari explained to the lizardfolk.  "Dragons like to collect vast amounts of treasure."

"So do we," remarked Jhasspok.

"Yeah, well maybe we'll get to split up a dragon's treasure hoard between us after we've completed this mission!" exclaimed Utred, suddenly even more eager to find this Frozen Gate of Uozell.

"Okay, let's prepare before we head over there," Marlo suggested, casting a _Rary's telepathic bond_ spell on the group.  Cramer cast a _protection from cold_ spell on himself, anticipating the dragon they'd be fighting in the arctic lands would be a white one.  Then, voicing the arcane syllables to a _teleport_ spell, Marlo sent the group of five heroes across the miles to stand just outside the entrance to the glacier she'd seen in Queen Sigvor's scrying sphere.

<Are we going to try to sneak in and take them by surprise?> asked Utred over the mental link.

<Not at all,> answered Marlo.  <We need the location of the Frozen Gate first, remember?  I'll go in, with Jhasspok as my bodyguard.>  She knew gnomes and dwarves had a racial animosity with giants and feared the feeling might be mutual, so she was perfectly fine with Cramer, Khari, and Utred staying behind at first.  After all, they could always rush in when combat started - or Cramer could _teleport_ them all in, for that matter.

Marlo and Jhasspok walked boldly through the tunnel leading from the glacier's exterior to the interior of the "cathedral" - a vast cavern carved directly out of the glacier's ice.  Inside was a ring of five frost giants talking amongst themselves, their conversation coming to an abrupt halt upon noticing their guests.  However, with the enhanced magical vision granted her from her _robe of eyes_, Marlo could see the frost giant with the staff farthest back was a mere illusion - and that an invisible dragon stood at the back of the cathedral, in the northeastern corner.  She could also see it was currently much larger than normal, the product of some sort of size-altering magic.

"Good day, gentlemen!" Marlo called to the others, careful not to look directly at the dragon with her own eyes as she walked directly into their midst.  (The eyes on her robe aimed in the dragon's direction were doing that just fine for her in any case.)  "I seek information and am willing to pay for it!"

The illusory frost giant looked down at her and spoke, which told Marlo the dragon was manipulating it somehow.  "Why don't you ask the other members of your party to enter as well?"  Mentally calling them forth over the link, Marlo heard them walk into the cathedral a few moments later.  They stood beside Jhasspok, who had opted not to walk into a ring of frost giants; he trusted Marlo would be able to use her _boots of levitation_ to escape them if it became necessary.

"What information do you seek?" asked the illusory frost giant elder.

"We seek the location of the Frozen Gate of Uozell," Marlo replied.  "It's a ring of ten writhing tentacles rising up from the ground, with a seat - likely sized for a human, not a giant - before each tentacle.  We were told you might know its location."

The illusory frost giant rubbed a hand across its chin, as if deep in thought.  "I have not heard that name before," he admitted, "but I recall having seen something before that fits your description."  He placed both hands upon his staff and leaned upon it, looking down upon his guests.  "I will tell you where you may find this device - for a contribution of 80,000 golden coins."

Marlo didn't hesitate for a moment, but opened her _bag of holding_ and dumped the coins held within its extradimensional interior onto the icy floor at her feet.  It made a quite impressive pile, and one that caused Utred to flinch in visible pain.  <Settle down!> Marlo commanded.  <We'll get the money back after we've slain them all!>  Then, stepping back and looking up at the illusion sitting in as the real Father Yinxirzijir Kepesk, she said, "We don't have quite that much  - only around 56,000.  Will that be sufficient?"

"It will suffice," the illusory frost giant elder replied (via a bit of _ventriloquism_ from the invisible dragon in the back, who was cautiously creeping up to get a better look at the gold).  "What you seek is inside Maugfjell, a mountain with a cave leading down below the permafrost."  He didn't mention that he had originally intended for it to be his draconic lair, or that "Maugfjell" was Giant for "Evil Mountain."  But Marlo, who spoke fluent Giant, was already aware of the meaning of the mountain's name.

"Do you have a means to _scry_ upon it for us?" Marlo asked.

"Hmmm," mused the elder giant, back to rubbing his chin in thought.  "Not immediately at hand - but I will once I have your entrails."

<'Entrails' means 'guts' - they want to kill us!"> prompted Utred over the telepathic link, figuring Jhasspok wouldn't have understood the comment or its intended meaning otherwise.  But the silent nudging over the link was all Jhasspok needed to realize it was time to charge into action.

And charge he did, straight at the closest frost giant in the circle, a massive brute with an equally impressive-looking axe in hand.  Jhasspok's own battleaxe came slamming into the giant's side, releasing a flow of red blood from the wound.  Not quite ready to reveal to his underlings his true form, the invisible white dragon slowly creeped forward, still completely oblivious that anyone knew he was even there.  And not wanting to cause anyone to panic - or reveal their knowledge by looking for the dragon - Marlo kept mum about its existence for the moment.  After all, she reasoned, it was still far enough back not to be much of a threat.  But she did caution the others not to bother attacking the elder giant with the staff, pointing out he was just an illusion.

Khari charged up beside Jhasspok, adding his _earthglide warhammer_ to the combat against that particular frost giant.  Marlo chose the frost giant to the right of the illusion as her target and tried something she'd never attempted before: not only _empowering_ but also _maximizing_ a _scorching ray_ spell.  She was disappointed when one of the three gouts of flame pouring from her outstretched hand failed to hit its target, but the other two caused her foe quite enough grief, temporarily engulfing him in flames.  Enraged, he brought his axe down upon Marlo - as did the frost giant on the other side of their illusory leader.  The other two took on Jhasspok and Khari, their own weapons striking true.

Utred charged into the giant attacking Jhasspok and Khari who'd yet to be targeted in battle; the dwarven barbarian liked facing fresh foes all by himself now and again.  His _greenflame greataxe_ tore into the giant's body with the full force of the barbarian's strength.  And then Cramer cast a _blade barrier_ spell that chewed through Utred's foe and extended on through the giant Marlo had set ablaze with her spell.

Bleeding heavily between his scales, Jhasspok ignored the pain of his wound and continued swinging his battleaxe into the frost giant who had struck him, snapping his predator's teeth at him as well when the opportunity warranted.  Unseen by all but Marlo, the dragon advanced even closer, amused at the battle before him and still unaware that his own life was in jeopardy.  Khari struck at his own foe with his warhammer, irritated that the frozen ice beneath him prevented him from earth gliding around and taking his foes by surprise.

Marlo, hurting from the axe-blows she'd received, cast a _dimension door_ spell to instantly move over to one corner of the ice cathedral, away from the worst of the ongoing fray.  But already the enemy numbers were being reduced, for the closest frost giant to Cramer died from wounds received by the numerous flashing blades flying all about in a line from his spell.  The giant crashed out of the area of the spell's effect, staining the ice below him red from the blood of his countless cuts.

But while that left three frost giants battling the three front-line combatants on the heroes' side, Jhasspok was quickly taken out of the fight when one giant's axe got past his shield and carved a deep gash through his torso, chopping through several ribs and skewering the lizardfolk's right lung.  The reptile collapsed to the ground, spitting blood and no longer breathing normally.

Utred finished off another frost giant with a rapid series of strikes from his greataxe as Cramer cast first a _mass bear's endurance_ spell upon all five of the heroes, boosting their endurance and ability to take damage, followed immediately with a _quickened cure moderate wounds_ spell on Jhasspok that reknit his ribs together and sealed up the gaping hole in his lung, muscles, and scales.  The lizardfolk awoke on the cold ice of the cavern floor wondering whose blood that was in his mouth.  But then he got to his feet and rejoined the combat as if nothing had happened, swiftly bringing about the demise of another of the frost giants with a rapid series of blows from his battleaxe.

Suddenly realizing he was down to one lackey, the white dragon - still invisible and using _ventriloquism_ to cast his voice at the illusory frost giant elder so as not to give away his actual location - called out in the Draconic tongue, "Do you care to renegotiate?"  Khari ignored the dragon's words (he didn't speak Draconic in any case) and attacked the sole remaining frost giant with his warhammer.  Marlo finished the giant off with another _empowered maximized scorching ray_ spell and he burned practically to a crisp beneath the onslaught of the triple blazes of flame.  Only then did she deign to respond to "Father Yinxirzijir Kepesk," being sure to look at the illusory avatar he'd been using so as to prevent him from guessing she knew his exact location.  "Sure, we'd be willing to renegotiate," she said, dawdling for time so Cramer could cast a _mass cure serious wounds_ on everyone in the meantime - a spell that was seriously needed by that point.  "Let's start by renegotiating the price of your fee.  I'm thinking a full refund - what do you think?"

The dragon didn't answer, but that was because he was too busy scooping the pile of coins into one foreleg, held tightly against his chest, hoping to transfer them over to the rest of his hoard before these heroes figured out what was going on.  <Now, Cramer!> Marlo called over the telepathic link and Cramer obliged by casting an _invisibility purge_ spell that suddenly revealed the white dragon's location.  He stood over by Jhasspok, Khari, and Utred, where he'd been eagerly watching the battle with his frost giant dupes.

Utred charged the dragon, racing forward and bringing his _greenflame greataxe_ slicing into a leg.  Jhasspok did likewise, running between the dragon's front legs and using his battleaxe to cut a line of blood through the scales along the dragon's lower neck and chest.  But Yinxirzijir Kepesk ignored the pathetic axe-wielders at his feet to go take care of the more dangerous spellcasters at the front of the ice cathedral.  He exhaled a cone of frost, encompassing Khari as well as Cramer and Marlo.

Khari raced forward, slamming the dragon in the upper leg with his warhammer, which was now coated in a layer of frost - as, indeed, was the dwarven fighter.  Marlo cast a third _empowered maximized scorching ray_ spell, this one burning completely through the dragon's _protection from fire_ spell and still managing to scorch him mightily.  For the first time, Yinxirzijir Kepesk realized he'd underestimated these little foes.

Utred swung at the dragon again with his greataxe as Cramer launched a _destruction_ spell at the white-scaled beast.  Sadly, the effects of the gnome's spell weren't anywhere near as effective as they had been when fighting the neothelid days before.  Still, he could see the spell had at least done _some_ damage to the white dragon and the cleric well knew that every little bit helped.

Since Yinxirzijir Kepesk had moved forward to spew its icy breath at the others, Jhasspok now found himself behind his enemy.  Leery of the creature's massive tail and the damage he suspected it could do, the lizardfolk looked at the two rows of raised plates along the dragon's back - and more specifically, at the space between them.  Then without further conscious thought the lizardfolk was off, sprinting up the dragon's back like a staircase, climbing up to the back of the creature's neck and ready to bring his battleaxe crashing into the back of the dragon's skull.  White dragons had relatively stumpy necks; Jhasspok was reasonably sure the beast wouldn't be able to stretch his head this far back and bite at him from his present location.  Swinging for all he was worth, Jhasspok heard the satisfying crunch of his blade cutting through scales and bone.

Yinxirzijir Kepesk attacked the two dwarves below him, catching Khari with a claw and a wing and Utred with the two appendages on the other side, plus a bite on top of that.  Khari responded with another swing of his dwarven warhammer, cracking one of the creature's claws that had scratched at him.  But then Marlo finished it off with a fourth casting of her powerfully-enhanced _scorching ray_ spell, a particularly deadly combination for a creature living in the cold arctic lands and who was especially vulnerable to fire-based spells.  Yinxirzijir Kepesk's body collapsed lifelessly to the icy floor, forcing Utred and Khari to dive out of the way to avoid being crushed and sending Jhasspok flying off the back of the dragon's neck.

"We got him!" cried Jhasspok exuberantly, and Marlo only smiled and agreed with the lizardfolk's assessment, knowing just how much of the "we" she'd been personally responsible for.

"Okay, guys: dragon's lair!" Utred reminded everyone.  "His hoard's got to be around here somewhere!"  And sure enough, while Marlo scooped the group's coins back into the _bag of holding_ she carried on their behalf, the two dwarves soon unearthed the hiding place of the dragon's extensive hoard of treasure, which consisted of coins, gemstones, and quite a wide variety of magical items, no doubt either taken from those who had earlier tried to slay it or provided as payment for knowledge in the white dragon's guise as a frost giant elder.

"We still don't know where this 'Maugfjell' is," pointed out Cramer.

"True enough," agreed Marlo.  "But we have a name and we have a description.  Queen Sigvor might be able to identify Maugfjell's location when we go back to report our success to her."

So, once they had assured themselves they hadn't left any of the dragon's treasure behind, the group gathered together again and Marlo _teleported_ them back to Rimefjord, where they'd hopefully find the exact location of the Frozen Gate of Uozell and they'd be able to take down the third of the Writhing Gates.

 - - -

So yeah, an _empowered maximized scorching ray_ spell is particularly painful to creatures with a vulnerability to fire - which both frost giants and white dragons have.  But we're talking 162 points of fire damage each round (assuming all three _scorching rays_ hit and, in the case of the white dragon, Marlo overcomes its spell resistance).  This was definitely Marlo's fight; the rest of us just helped as best we could.  And the treasure was extra nice; not all adventures are particularly treasure heavy, but it all balances out when the occasional adventure like this more than makes up for it.

Incidentally, Logan gave us C'thorlumbrox's list of Writhing Gates (without the parenthetical notes, except for the first two which by that time we'd already destroyed) at the end of our previous session and promised us a 1,000 XP bonus for each one we could figure out.  We came up with the one House Jalamir had been using, the Jakuran one, the cloud island one, and the Giant's Tundra one that we'll (hopefully) be taking down next adventure.


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## Richards (Oct 17, 2021)

*ADVENTURE 45: MAUGFJELL*

PC Roster:
Cramer Appleknocker, gnome cleric 15​Jhasspok, lizardman 3/barbarian 3/fighter 9​Khari Hammerslammer, dwarf fighter 14/psychic warrior 1​Marlo Pendragon, human sorcerer 15​Utred "Buckets" Butterflinger, dwarf barbarian 15​
Game Session Date: 13 October 2021

 - - -

The _teleport_ spell deposited the five heroes back in the city of Rimefjord, where they petitioned an audience with Queen Sigvor, the frost giant monarch who had given them the location of the ice cathedral where they found - and slew - her rival, the white dragon in disguise known to the other giants as Father Yinxirzijir Kepesk.  Ushering the heroes into her meeting hall, Marlo passed on the news of the white dragon's death, and the deaths of the four frost giants who had been plotting her assassination.

"This is excellent news!" crooned Queen Sigvor.  "I am well and truly pleased!"

"And we have also learned of the location of the Frost Gate of Uozell, Your Majesty," added Marlo.  "It is located inside a place called Maugfjell.  We were hoping you could tell us - or better yet, show us in your _scrying sphere_ - where we might find this place."

"'The Evil Mountain,'" mused Queen Sigvor.  "Yes, I know if it.  Approach."  She passed a delicate blue hand over the solid sphere of perfectly clear ice mounted on a metal pedestal and an image formed within it.  Marlo examined it closely, taking in every detail until she was certain she could _teleport_ the group to its location.  It was a snow-covered mountain rising up from a small forest at its base.

"That should do us nicely, Your Majesty," Marlo said, bowing before the frost giant queen.  "Once again, you have our deepest gratitude."

"The relationship between us has been beneficial for both parties," smirked the queen, thinking about how nice it was to have that bothersome dragon no longer trying to overthrown her rule.

Bowing on their way back out of the door, the heroes returned to the streets of Rimefjord.  "Well," Marlo said.  "I think we've got everything we need.  Shall we?"

"Hold up," cautioned Cramer.  "Remember, it's going to take that neothelid a good ten years to eat its way through the Dying One's brain and be reborn as the new version of the Elder God.  We should rest up and tackle the Frozen Gate when we're at full power.  Plus, we haven't decided what spell to load into Jhasspok's new axe."

"What?" asked the lizardfolk.  "Spell?  What spell?"

"That's what we need to decide," explained the gnome patiently.  He went on to point out that the battleaxe they'd discovered in the dragon's hoard had not only an _icy burst_ enchantment upon it but also one allowing _spell storing_.  "One of us can cast a spell into your new axe and it will stay there until you decide to release it."

"I don't know how to cast spells," Jhasspok argued.

"You don't need to," Cramer replied.  "You just think about releasing the spell when you swing the weapon into somebody you're fighting and the axe will do the rest."  He explained its limitations as far as how powerful a spell could be loaded into the battleaxe but that just confused the lizardfolk, who didn't understand anything about spell levels; to him, magic was magic in the same way meat was meat.  Marlo silenced the argument by casting a _vampiric touch_ spell directly into the battleaxe.  "There," she said.  "When you're fighting someone and you _really_ want to hurt them, just wish for the spell to be released and he'll be extra hurt and you'll even get a little bit of healing on top of the deal."  That much, at least, the lizardfolk could comprehend.  "Okay, thanks," he said.

Another _teleport_ spell returned them to Greenvale and a good night's rest.  Then the next morning, with Cramer and Marlo all back up to a full allotment of their daily spells (and the cleric of Fharlanghn having decided which particular spells he wanted to have on hand that day), Marlo cast the _teleport_ spell that sent the group across an unknown number of miles in an unknown direction across the tundra and at the base of the "Evil Mountain," Maugfjell.  They had arrived at the edge of the forest, in snow up to their knees (and Cramer's waist), with the snow-covered mountain rising up directly before them.  Fortunately, they had all received an _endure elements_ spell from the gnome cleric so the near-arctic temperature didn't bother them.

Utred was shielding his eyes from the sun as he peered up the slope ahead.  "It's going to be a bit of a climb," he pointed out.  "Too bad we don't know exactly where on this bloody mountain the cave entrance is."  But before anyone could offer any suggestions or encouragement a trilling sound came from somewhere before them as a mound of snow rose up in a great wave, steadily moving away from them as the frost worm reared its front portion up from its snow-submerged hiding place.  Surprisingly, Utred stood there transfixed as the others all gripped their weapons and prepared for battle - the trilling noise emanating from the worm had stunned him into temporary immobility.

With their toughest combat-monster already out of the fight, Marlo opted to go for the "big power option" right away.  Casting a _maximized, empowered scorching ray_ spell at the approaching frost worm, she smiled as all three gouts of flame struck the massive beast's body - although given the creature's size it would have been difficult for her to have missed.  The worm's skin puckered and burned as the spell took its toll.  Cramer, in the meantime, cast a _magic circle against evil_ spell upon himself, even though he doubted the worm had an evil nature - it was probably just a big, dumb brute who was hungry and the five of them no doubt looked like quite a wholesome snack.

Khari charged the frost worm, frowning as he realized his _earthglide warhammer_ wouldn't allow him to burrow beneath the frozen ground and the permafrost.  His frown of irritation turned into a full-blown cry of pain as the worm's head darted down at him and the creature's insectlike mouthparts snapped closed on the dwarf, crushing the sides of both arms in a pincer motion.  He managed to wriggle free and slam his hammer into the worm's side as it undulated forward across the snow-covered ground, releasing a cone of freezing frost on all but the dwarven fighter, who figured his little nip had definitely been the better part of that deal.  As the front halves of each of his friends was turned white from the sudden blast of frigid air, the dwarf slammed his warhammer into the side of the frost worm again for good measure.

Jhasspok darted forward at full speed, bringing his new battleaxe to bear for the first strike with his new weapon.  He slammed the axe-head into the worm's side, remembering to do as Marlo had told him and activate the spell she'd hidden inside it somehow.  The _vampiric touch_ spell was triggered, which was a good thing as the "stolen" life force did its part in healing up the wounds the lizardfolk received when the worm bent down and snapped at him with its wicked little bug-mandibles.

Utred suddenly shook his head rapidly from side to side, sending little flakes of frost flinging off in all directions.  He took a moment to get his bearings: apparently he'd missed a chunk of the battle already, for Khari and Jhasspok already sported some impressive wounds and he didn't remember the worm being this close to him already.  It wasn't like him to daydream during an impending combat scenario; foul magics were probably at play!  This thought infuriated the dwarven barbarian and he let the fires of his rage burn, prodding him on to action.

But before Utred could even swing his greataxe, Marlo cast another powered-up version of her _scorching ray_ spell and the frost worm exploded.  That was definitely the word for it: the gouts of flame slew the frost worm almost instantly and just as quickly its frozen body broke up into icy chunks and went flying in all directions, frozen shrapnel slicing through the heroes, the trees, and everything else within about a hundred-foot radius.  "Damn!" cried Utred, although whether it was anger at not having gotten to attack his foe at all or in simple amazement at the damage it was dealing out with its death throes was somewhat unclear.

"Line up," Cramer called out, casting a _mass cure serious wounds_ spell and then grabbing up his _staff of healing_.  Once he'd attended to the worst of the group's wounds, he cast a _moment of prescience_ spell upon himself, something he'd fully intended to do right after they'd first arrived but the frost worm's attack had interrupted those plans.  Then the group started climbing up the slope of Maugfjell.

Fortunately, the slope started off fairly gently to start with and the way wasn't that difficult, although they could see the mountainside would become much more steep not too far ahead.  As they trudged through the snow, they found the occasional chunk of frozen flesh scattered about here and there.  "That's not parts of the frost worm, all this far away, is it?" asked Khari.  He didn't see how it could be - the explosion surely wouldn't have sent pieces of the dead worm this distance away!  But the answer soon became evident, as a few of the chunks held a piece of an insectoid leg.  "Polar worm," more like it," Cramer guessed.  "Remorhaz, I think they're called."

"Do those explode, too?" Jhasspok asked.

"Not that I'm aware of," Cramer admitted.

"Weird," muttered Marlo.  But soon thereafter all thoughts of remorhaz chunks were overcome by the sight of a cave opening just ahead, half hidden by a jutting overhang.  "That might be it!" the sorceress told the others.  Just in case, she cast a _Rary's telepathic bond_ spell on the group so they could communicate silently among themselves.  Then she cast a _magic circle against evil_ spell upon herself as well, following Cramer's previous example.

The cave opening led into a narrow tunnel which soon thereafter widened out to a large cavern.  To the untrained eye, this was a simple, closed cave, roughly as wide as it was deep, with little nooks and crannies along the edges and a ceiling height of about 15 feet, holding nothing more interesting than a few errant rocks.  To someone wearing a _robe of eyes_, however, the five _illusory walls_ were quite evident for what they were, as was the fact three of them contained an immobile, lupine form behind them, while the others contained a tunnel leading deeper into the cavern network in the back and half of a remorhaz floating within a cylinder of solid force off to the left.  Marlo passed on what she saw to the others over the telepathic link they shared.

<Nobody go in,> the sorceress warned.  <I want to cast a _detect magic_ spell first.>  She did so, then gave the whole area a quick scan, for her _robe of eyes_ granted her darkvision and _true seeing_ but she was concerned about tripping any _alarm_ spells.  Giving herself plenty of time to look around, she detected multiple magical auras in the cave: _alarm_ spell triggers on the floor, some sort of stasis effects on the three wolves - one of which was twice the size of the other two - and not only a stasis effect but some sort of magical regeneration effect on the butchered remorhaz.  <I'll bet whoever lives here tosses chunks of polar worm around the mountain to keep frost worms hanging around,> Marlo surmised.  <It's an easy way to gain guardians for your lair, if you have the means to do so.>

Marlo led the others into the cavern, pointing out where the _alarm_ triggers were located: one right as you walked in and the other back towards the hidden exit.  <The second one probably activates the guard dogs,> Cramer reasoned.  He noted there was a sort of "whispering" in the back of his mind as he entered the cave and the others confirmed they heard it, too - not enough to make out what was being said, just a sort of mental background noise.

<So let's set 'em off, only we'll be ready to clobber the wolves as they activate!> suggested Utred, getting back to the conversation at hand.  He was all for spreading out, setting three of them against the larger rime hound while two others each took on a winter wolf single-handedly, but Khari argued it would be better to take out the bigger threat first, especially once close examination showed the four tentacles growing out of the muzzle of each wolf - these were some sort of illithid hybrids they were dealing with!  Thus, everyone gathered around the rime hound - Khari even using his _earthglide warhammer_ to burrow beneath it and position himself directly behind the unmoving wolf - before Marlo cast _invisibility_ spells upon the group with her wand (Cramer did the same with his ring) and then used her magic boots to levitate directly above it.  Cramer cast a _spell resistance _spell upon himself and then Marlo began the festivities by casting an _empowered, maximized scorching ray_ spell down at the rime hound beneath her.  The attack awakened the massive wolf to full mobility, just to be engulfed in flames and then have a burly dwarven barbarian bring his _greenflame greataxe_ slicing into its skull.  The rime hound had snapped out of its magical stasis only to be slain before it had a chance to react to its sudden mobility.

But the attack on the rime hound had also released the two half-illithid winter wolves out of their own magical hibernation.  Loping forward, they each tried to _charm_ one of the two figures they could see: Marlo and Utred, they only two to have attacked thus far and thus deactivate the effects of their _invisibility_ spells.  Of course, neither wolf had any idea they were both within the effects of a _magic circle against evil_ spell, which prevented such mind manipulations from having a chance of success.

Using his _earthglide warhammer_ to burrow beneath the slain rime hound's body and across the cavern, Khari popped back up behind one of the winter wolves and spun around to bring his weapon crashing into its back leg.  Jhasspok rushed forward and brought his new battleaxe swinging down at the same foe, slicing deeply into its shoulder.  In the meantime, Cramer cast a _flame strike_ spell at the other winter wolf, and just that quickly all five adventurers were back to being visible to their foes.

Marlo judged the winter wolves weren't going to be as tough to kill as the rime hound, so she split her attacks with the next casting of her _empowered, maximized scorching ray_ spell.  One gout of flame hit Cramer's wolf, the other two streaking over to the one Jhasspok and Khari were fighting.  Only one of those two gouts hit its target and as a result it still stood standing while the first wolf crumpled dead to the cavern floor.  But it wasn't standing for long; Utred's greataxe saw to that.

Having dealt with the foes that might have tried attacking them from behind if the adventurers had merely bypassed them and continued deeper into the cavern network, the group proceeded to do just that, walking through the _illusory wall_ at the back of the cavern and into another narrow tunnel.  And it was while traversing this tunnel, which gradually led further down below the earth, that the heroes felt an odd sensation, one they hadn't expected to meet up with while attempting to take out a Writhing Gate: a feeling of overwhelming happiness.  This was happiness spilling over into joyous glee, and it was only the _magic circle against evil_ spells centered on the two spellcasters that kept the heroes from joining in the compulsion to share in the overwhelming sense of contentment tinged with excitement and anticipation.

<What's going on?> asked Jhasspok over the mental link, something he often forgot to do but this time almost forced upon him by the fact his reptilian muzzle was pulled back into an almost painful-looking rictus that was probably supposed to be a wide smile.  The fact that it exposed the majority of his dinosaur teeth made it slightly unpleasant to look at.

<I don't know, but I don't like it,> answered Cramer, casting a _spell turning_ spell upon himself.

They entered the next subterranean chamber and there in the back was the Frozen Gate of Uozell, a ring of ten lifeless tentacles lying limply on the cavern floor.  There was a petrified mind flayer seated before nine of these immobile appendages, while the tenth held a living mind flayer - and one whose lampreylike mouth between the four facial tentacles was also open wide in delirious joy.  Waves of contagious happiness emanated from him.

<It is happening!> he exclaimed directly into the minds of the others.  <Right now, the Dying One is being devoured from within!  Soon He will be reborn and He will return to lead us all into a new age of contentment!>  A tear of joy slid from the illithid's eye and dripped down its squidlike face.  Then he looked over at the unexpected heroes as if noticing them for the first time.  <Who are you?> he asked telepathically.  <Why have you invaded the sanctum of *Saint Uozell*, creator of the Frozen Gate and willing servant to Uboros?>

Cramer swallowed down a momentary rising of panic at the thought that the creator of one of the Writhing Gates was still alive - and could possibly create more of them, which would directly counteract their attempts to destroy them all before the Dying One remanifested on the Material Plane.  But there was one obvious solution to that dilemma.  <Kill him!> the cleric commanded to his companions.

Utred followed almost instantly - "almost" in that he first bent over to grab up the little gnome before activating the _winged boots _he'd retrieved from the treasure hoard of Yinxirzijir Kepesk.  In the span of time it took him to cross the cavern he'd plopped the cleric onto his backpack, thinking this would get Cramer straight into the action much faster than if he relied upon his stumpy little gnome legs, even with the benefit of the _longstrider_ spell he habitually cast upon himself each morning.  Khari sped into the cavern as well, keeping the trunk of an immobile Writhing Gate tentacle between himself and the mind flayer.

But it was enough that Uozell knew the dwarf was there.  He activated an _inflict pain_ psionic spell, encompassing Utred and Cramer into the area of effect as well as Khari.  The dwarves cried out in pain, whereas the gnome smiled in smug satisfaction as the psionic spell rebounded off of his _spell turning_ spell, inflicting the same mental pain onto Uozell as he had hammered into the minds of the dwarves.

From the back of the cavern, Marlo cast an _empowered, maximized scorching ray_ spell at the seated illithid and was disappointed to see her spell fizzle away against his inherent resistance to such magics.  Jhasspok ran up to the mind flayer, either not worrying or (more likely) having forgotten about the creature's signature attack, the mind blast.  Cramer distracted the illithid for a moment by activating his _moment of prescience_ to get his _dimensional anchor_ spell past the mind flayer's spell resistance, covering him in a greenish glow that would prevent him from being able to _teleport_, _plane shift_, or use any other such similar magics - in effect, trapping him here in this cavern unless he was going to try to simply walk out.  There was no way the gnome was willing to let this "Saint Uozell" survive to create more Writhing Gates and undo all of their progress thus far!  He took the opportunity to leap down off of Utred's backpack and land on the cavern floor.

Utred, in turn, pulled the _Null Axe_ out of his _weapon locker_ and let the silvery material encasing it fall to the ground.  Then, axe in hand, he charged at Saint Uozell, the anti-magic properties of the weapon cutting through the mind flayer's magical defenses as if they weren't there.  Khari earthglided beneath and behind the illithid, swinging his warhammer into the Saint's back once he popped back up to the surface.

But then Uozell retaliated with the mind blast Jhasspok had hoped wouldn't come into play.  He, Utred, and Cramer were all in the area of the blast and the lizardfolk's mind froze up instantly; Cramer relied upon a feat of luck provided to him by his deity to overcome the mind blast's effects; while Utred was impervious to all such magical attacks as long as he wielded the _Null Axe_ in his hands.

Marlo cast a _disintegrate_ spell at Uozell, hoping to take him out once and for all, but once again her spell fizzled against his magical resistances.  Cramer cast a spell as well, but rather than risk having it likewise fail against the mind flayer's spell resistance he directed it at Jhasspok; the _heal_ spell not only cleared the lizardfolk's mental faculties (such as they were) but also sealed up the remaining wounds on his body dealt to him by the frost worm outside.

While Jhasspok was looking around him in confusion, Utred kept up a steady string of attacks with the _Null Axe_, cutting into Uozell's flesh with each strike.  Khari likewise continued hitting the mind flayer with his warhammer, until Uozell took the risk of lowering his guard against Jhasspok (who brought his battleaxe swinging in for a quick hit) as he cast an _id insinuation_ attack on the four males he was fighting.  Cramer's still-active _spell turning_ spell flung it away from the gnome's mind while the others fought off the mental attack the old-fashioned way, by sheer grit and determination.  Then Jhasspok made the final, killing blow with his new battleaxe, slicing deep into Saint Uozell's neck and causing the nearly headless mind flayer to fall backwards, dead, upon the stone floor at the feet of one of the petrified illithids sitting before one of the dead tentacles that made up the Writhing Gate.

"'bout time!" called out Utred, turning his attention to the nearest tentacle, which he started chopping away with his _Null Axe_.  Marlo started casting _disintegrate_ spells at the unmoving tentacles as well, while Jhasspok took a page from the dwarven barbarian's book and used his battleaxe to chop off a tentacle from the root - although in his case it wasn't a tentacle from the Dying One but rather from the Saint of Uboros, and it was simply because he was hungry and the facial tentacle of a mind flayer was as delicious as that of a terrestrial octopus or squid.

Once the Writhing Gate had been completely disabled - for as each of the Dying One's tentacles that had powered the gate was severed, the portal to the Far Realm likewise sealed up around it - Utred used his _Null Axe_ for one more stroke: to sever the head of Saint Uozell from his body.  "Kind of appropriate, don'tcha think?" the barbarian asked the others, holding up his trophy to show it off.  "He oughtta be happy - now he looks just like his master!"

"He's short a few tentacles," Khari pointed out.  Jhasspok quickly finished chewing the one he'd been eating, afraid he'd be admonished for consuming their slain foe in such a manner - mammals could be so squeamish sometimes!

"Even so, bring it over here," Cramer said.  When Utred handed it over, the gnome cast a _gentle repose_ spell on it.  "We should bring it back with us," he suggested.

"Ew!  Whatever for?" demanded Marlo.

"I don't have one prepared today," replied the little gnome, "but tomorrow I can cast a _speak with dead_ spell on him - maybe he can give us some pointers on finding some of the other Writhing Gates."

"Why would he want to help us?" Khari asked.

"He won't have any choice in the matter - that's how the spell works!" Cramer informed him.

And thus, the following morning, after praying to Fharlanghn for his day's spells, Cramer Appleknocker cast a _speak with dead_ spell on the decapitated head of Saint Uozell, follower of the Dying One, and asked the following questions, receiving the following answers:

Q1: "How many more Saints are still capable of making new Writhing Gates?"​A1: "Four."​​Q2: "How do we get to the Gate of Zarbugak?"​A2: "By ship, to the unchartable isle."​​Q3: "How do we protect ourselves from the effects of the Desolate Wastes?"​A3: "_Death ward_."​​Q4: "How many Gates are still active?"​A4: "Nine."  (This answer worried the others until Cramer explained it was a true answer as far as Uozell would know, as he wasn't aware of the group having destroyed any of the others and C'thorlumbrox had informed them one Writhing Gate was already destroyed when they started on their mission to take out all ten.)​​Q5: "Is each remaining Saint at a Gate location?"​A5: "Yes."​​Q6: "Which Gates have Saints?"​A6: "Svusban, Rylethek, Svulbiss, Zarbugak."  (These are the ones associated with the Desolate Wastes, the calling to the drowned, the one on the cloud island, and the one on the unchartable isle.)​​Q7: "What ship will take us to the unchartable isle?"​A7: "Any ship with a death wish."​
"Well then," said Cramer after the spell had been finished.  "I guess we'll hang on to you for a bit; maybe we can chat again in a week."  He then had to explain to Jhasspok that the _speak with dead_ spell could only be used on the same dead person - or in this case, part of a dead person - once per week.

"I have a question," Jhasspok said,

"I just told you: we can't ask it any more questions for a week."

"No, I have a question for you."

"Oh, okay.  Ask away."

"Can I have another one of his tentacles?  He's not using them any more."

"Tell you what, Jhasspok," Utred said.  "We're going to hit the Desolate Wastes Writhing Gate next.  Maybe we can scare up another mind flayer Saint for you to chew on there."

That sounded like a good plan to the hungry lizardfolk.

 - - -

Yeowtch!  Those frost worms are deadlier when you kill them than when they're alive!  Logan beefed up the standard frost worm (CR 12) to make it more of a threat to five 15th-level PCs, but Marlo's super-enhanced _scorching rays_ are a powerful obstacle to a creature with vulnerability to fire.  And the whole "sprinkled polar worm chunks" practice makes sense when you realize polar worms and frost worms hate each other and attack on sight, so seeding your Evil Mountain with polar worm chunks is a good way to get frost worms hanging around.  Logan reused the pink construction paper "mini" he had made for the neothelid to stand in as the advanced frost worm.

After looking into the _death ward_ spell (which lasts all of one minute per caster level), we've decided we're going to have to use some of our dragon treasure to have special magic items crafted that will keep us safe in the Desolate Wastes.  It'll probably be a toned-down _attune form_ spell (from _Manual of the Planes_) that will attune our PCs' bodies to the necromantic draining effects inherent in the sands of the desert.  So that's where we're headed next time, although that won't be for another month: there are three weeks worth of scheduling conflicts that will prevent us from getting in any game sessions until mid-November.


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## Richards (Dec 5, 2021)

*ADVENTURE 46: THE GATE OF SVUSBAN*

PC Roster:
Cramer Appleknocker, gnome cleric 15​Jhasspok, lizardman 3/barbarian 3/fighter 9​Khari Hammerslammer, dwarf fighter 14/psychic warrior 1​Marlo Pendragon, human sorcerer 15​Utred "Buckets" Butterflinger, dwarf barbarian 15​
Game Session Date: 1 December 2021

 - - -

It was a month of relative inactivity - at least not the frantic activity to which the adventurers had become accustomed.  They had decided they'd go after the Gate of Svusban next and that meant traveling into the Desolate Wastes.  But entering the Desolate Wastes was not something one did lightly, or without preparation.

To help provide such preparation, *Nuriel* was summoned to speak to the adventurers and the Greenvale scholars who were helping them prepare to purge the world of the remaining Writhing Gates.  Nuriel was an astral deva, one of the most powerful types of celestials engaged in the never-ending war against the fiends of the Lower Depths.  She was the commander of the Desolate Watch, a group the five former slaves had met up with and aided once before in the past, and she was more than happy to provide the assembled group with everything she knew about the Desolate Wastes.

"The lands now known as the Desolate Wastes is a vast desert, but it was once a lush land like the surrounding areas.  However, centuries ago, the area was blessed with divine power to damage evil fiends on contact.  This divine power was also infused with necromantic energies, to heal and create undead creatures filled with an innate hatred for the fiends from the Lower Planes - this is the genesis of the Undying Crusade.  Of course, these necromantic energies are harmful to all living creatures to a lesser extent, such that to enter the Desolate Wastes without proper countermeasures will have detrimental effects upon you.  I will thus leave you with a set of instructions for your crafters to be able to create _necromantic attunement wards_ of whatever fashion they desire - the items can be crafted in the form of a ring, necklace, bracer...even as an _ioun stone_, should you so desire."

Jhasspok turned to Utred at his side.  "Tell you later," the dwarf hissed, knowing full well the lizardfolk had no idea what an _ioun stone_ was.

"As you may well know, the Baator's Breath Mountains are the location of the various breaches to the Hell dimensions.  To the south, the armies of Ashfall keep the devils at bay; to the north, we have the Desolate Wastes to do the same thing.  A _compulsion_ effect causes newly-formed undead - including those whose life energies were drained by the sands of the Wastes themselves - to join the Undying Crusade.  A _desecrate_ effect further empowers the undead, keeping them in the fight as needed.  Finally, a _dimensional lock_ component, affecting all those who touch the sands, prevents the fiends from leaping from plane to plane or teleporting away."

"Um, excuse me," Cramer asked, holding his hand up hesitantly (for he felt self-conscious interrupting a member of the celestial host).  "We won't have any problems teleporting to the Gate of Svusban, will we?  Because it lies in the middle of the Desolate Wastes."

"Teleporting in will not be a problem," Nuriel reassured the gnome.  "Teleporting back out, though, will not be possible."

Now that their cleric had opened the gate (so to speak) about interrupting Nuriel's briefing, Marlo felt confident enough to ask a question of her own.  "Why is the Writhing Gate out in the middle of the Desolate Wastes in the first place?" she asked.  "That doesn't seem like a very safe place to have placed it."

"Ah, but originally the Gate of Svusban was underground, like most of the other Writhing Gates," explained Nuriel.  "The explosion of divine and necromantic energies that created the Desolate Wastes of the surrounding land completely destroyed the stone above that particular Writhing Gate.  That had not been part of the plan, merely a coincidental a side effect.  So yes, you'll be able to _scry_ upon your target and _teleport_ directly there."

Cramer was ready to go right then and there but the unfortunate reality that it would take weeks to craft five _necromantic attunement wards_ to their individual specifications forced him into unhappy patience.  It wasn't like he had any choice about the matter, either, for without the protective devices they wouldn't last long in the Wastes...and none of the five particularly wished to become an undead member of the Undying Crusade.

But weeks later, when the individual protective items had been crafted to the adventurers' specifications, the five were eager to set out.  "Pre-combat prep spells," commanded Cramer as he cast the spells _longstrider_, _spell resistance_, _moment of prescience_, and _spell turning_ upon himself, one right after the other.  He then pulled out one of his wands and cast an _owl's wisdom_ spell upon each of the five.

"What does that do?" Jhasspok asked Utred, his go-to source of information.

"Makes you wiser, toughens up your mind," replied the dwarven barbarian.

"Good idea," nodded the lizardfolk, approving of the choice of spell being cast upon him.

"See?  It's workin' already," commented Utred.

Marlo cast a _magic circle against evil_ on herself and a _Rary's telepathic bond_ spell upon the entire group.  "Jhasspok, would you like a _stoneskin_ spell?" she asked.

"Yes, please, Marlo," replied the lizardfolk, his eyes focused steadfastly upon her midsection - specifically, the pocket of her robes where he knew Marlo's toad familiar Truffles sat.  Due to the numerous tentacles growing out of the toad in all directions since their excursion into the Far Realm, Jhasspok's curiosity about how best to eat the pseudonatural toad without it turning to flames in his mouth had only grown over the months.  He wondered how much Truffles' tentacles would taste like those of a mind flayer - would their smaller size have an effect on their taste?

"Okay, then, we're all ready!" Marlo declared after having cast the proffered _stoneskin_ spell on Jhasspok.  She turned to the _crystal ball_ on display, where a sunborn drow wizard with bright red hair had concentrated on the Gate of Svusban.  "Is that it?" she asked, peering at a familiar ring of collapsed tentacles amid a field of sand.  As usual, there were ten illithid shapes seated one before each tentacle, with one obvious leader - this one held some sort of scythe before him - and nine other "lackeys" (or so the sorceress liked to think of them), these nine not moving at all.  It was entirely possible, Marlo knew, that those nine were petrified in place like the ones in the Writhing Gate the five had used as slaves to raid the surface world for the benefit of their Overreach drow masters.

"Gather up," Marlo commanded and the other four all closed in, touching a hand to her _robe of eyes_.  (Jhasspok's clawed hand got uncomfortably close to the pocket where Truffles sat and the sorceress slapped it for good measure; the lizardfolk decided now was not a good time for a quick snatch-and-grab.)  Then, with the vocalization of an arcane spell-phrase, the five adventurers disappeared and teleported directly behind the tentacle where the scythe-wielding illithid was seated.  Marlo used her _boots of levitation_ to shoot 30 feet into the air, where she could better get a view of the surrounding area and make sure there were no other creatures in the vicinity.  Of course, she didn't stop to think that when she flew 30 feet up into the air the area of effect of her 10-foot-radius _magic circle against evil_ was yanked away from the rest of her group....

But despite having teleported in behind the one illithid Marlo had figured might have a chance of spotting them, she had failed to take into consideration there might be a completely different reason for the total immobility of the other nine mind flayers.  In this case, it wasn't because they had been turned to stone, with only their minds generating part of the power to operate the Writhing Gate; rather, it was because these nine mind flayers were themselves each undead - mummies, in fact.  The ones across from the circle from their leader *Saint Svusban* saw the heroes' arrival and Marlo's immediate flight straight up into the sky.  As mummies, they focused their gazes upon the collected heroes, but their living minds - in some cases no doubt due to the _owl's wisdom_ spells Cramer had cast upon them with his wand - were strong enough to overcome the panic many felt in the presence of undead mummies.

<Crap!> Khari called over the link.  <We're not fighting one mind flayer - we're fighting ten!>

Another telepathic voice entered the minds of the five heroes at that point.  It was Saint Svusban, the leader of the Writhing Gate named after him.  <I thought we had an agreement,> he said directly into their minds.  At the confused thoughts he picked up as a result, he added, <Aren't you part of the Undying Crusade?>

<No, we're not a bunch of undead monstrosities!> sputtered Cramer indignantly.

<Then in that case, I offer you the chance to retreat.  You do not belong here.>

Jhasspok ignored all of the mental chatter and did what he had come here to do - slay the defenders of the Writhing Gate (however many that might be) so Utred could carve up the Elder God's tentacles with his _Null Axe_ and prevent the Gate from ever working again.  The lizardfolk ran forward, battleaxe in hand, and sent it crashing down upon the illithid mummy seated to the left of Saint Svusban.  It was a pretty hearty blow, cutting deep into the undead thing's flesh...but at the cost of experiencing a few blows from Saint Svusban's magic scythe, whose blade was some sort of sharpened crystal.  Marlo's _stoneskin_ spell deflected a great deal of the damage but the lizardfolk was bleeding in two places at the end of his initial attack.

But then Cramer, noticing the placement of the ten illithids in a nice, symmetrical ring, used his _moment of prescience_ to ensure he overcame the inherent illithid spell resistance as he cast a _blade barrier_ spell such that the "wall" of force blades took the shape of a circle cutting through each of the undead mind flayers.  <Heh heh heh,> he chuckled over the telepathic link, <I'm going to have to rename that spell the _chum wall!_>  It was an apt name, too, for of the ten targets only two of them managed to leap out of the way of the manifesting blades of force energy in time, those two leaping to the center of the Writhing Gate as the other eight were chopped to pieces, with bits of undead flesh being tossed in all directions.

Khari Hammerslammer had no desire to enter the blades just so he could get in some combat himself.  He stepped to the side and positioned himself between two of the limp tentacles of the Writhing Gate, knowing full well if any of the undead mind flayers tried to escape Cramer's spell it would be by exiting between the tentacles.  He readied his warhammer in hand for any that might try heading out his way.  Utred, seeing the logic of his fellow dwarf's strategy, stepped a few paces in the other direction and readied his own greataxe.  He had the _Null Axe_ out of what he called his "_weapon locker_," knowing full well that once he touched the sands of the Desolate Waste he'd no longer be able to access any of the weapons contained within its extradimensional storage space.  It was wrapped in its _antimagic_ covering and strapped to his weapon-belt with a length of rope, tied in a manner as to allow it to be easily yanked free.

Two of the illithid mummies escaped the ring of blades in the manner Utred and Khari had anticipated, but they were on the far side of the gate of Svusban and thus out of range.  These two backed off and refrained from immediate combat, secure in the knowledge the necromantic sands would restore their wounds in short time, allowing them to re-enter combat as a full-strength ready reserve force.  Five others stumbled out of the _blade barrier_, staggering through the cutting blades and ending up on the outside of the Writhing Gate, making their way to the heroes who had attacked them.  The two inside Cramer's "_chum wall_" held their ground, looking about them for a way out of the whirling blades.  Only Saint Svusban held his ground, taking the damage from the flying blades as he contemplated his next move.  And sure enough, the necromantic effects of the sands of the Desolate Wastes did their thing, slowly healing up the wounds of the undead guardians.

From her aerial vantage point, Marlo cast a _maximized empowered scorching ray_ spell down at Saint Svusban and the two closest illithid mummies to him.  One of the mummies burst immediately into flame and was destroyed, while the other two were burned by the attack but not totally engulfed.  Marlo could tell Saint Svusban was not even a mummy, for he moved faster than the others and was not affected as much by the power of the flames.  He was in fact a corpse creature, drained of life by the Desolate Wastes and reanimated as an undead version of himself with all of the abilities he had while still alive, only now not needing to eat, breathe, or sleep.

And now Saint Svusban made his move.  Stepping out of the effects of the _blade barrier_ spell into the ring with the other two mind flayer guardians, he turned and sent a _mind blast_ through the ring of blades and crashing into the minds of four of the heroes, for Khari was too far away from the others to have fit inside the cone of optimal impact.  As far as "optical impact" went, though, Svusban was in for a big disappointment for the _mind blast_, which in theory could have stunned 80% of his attackers into temporary immobility, had no effect whatsoever.  All four of the heroes steeled their minds against the mental onslaught and felt the _mind blast_ wash over them to no effect.

Jhasspok finished off the mummy he'd attacked initially; it had taken too much of a bruising from the _blade barrier_ to be in any shape to defend itself against the reptile's axe-blade.  Cramer cast a _searing light_ spell at another approaching illithid mummy, causing it to stagger at the magical onslaught and then fall apart to nothingness.  Khari's warhammer and Utred's greataxe cut down two more of the mummies, leaving only a few to stagger up and try ineffectually to hit the heroes.  But at least the sands were healing them back up, if slower than might have been desired.

Marlo cast a _maximized fireball_ spell down at the trio inside the _blade barrier_ spell, since they made such a nice grouping in there.  Svusban reacted to the pain of the spell's burns with a psionic _body adjustment_ spell, realigning the cells of his body to better overcome the damage he had sustained.

Another illithid mummy walked up from around the Writhing Gate and Jhasspok didn't hesitate to cut it down as well.  There were no longer any mummies within immediate view and the lizardfolk decided he'd go clockwise around the Writhing Gate to see if there were any others he might slay.  <Hold up!> called Cramer as he cast a _magic circle against evil_ spell on Utred.  <I have a spell I want to cast on your battleaxe that will be particularly deadly to the mummies!>

Khari likewise saw no enemies within reach, but that didn't mean he couldn't get to some he knew were nearby.  Using the power of his _earthglide warhammer_ to burrow beneath the sands, he popped up behind one of the mummies in the center of the _blade barrier_ spell and sent his weapon-head crashing into the back of the undead thing's head.  Utred channeled his inner rage as he activated his _winged boots_, flying above the _blade barrier_ spell and dropping down low enough to send his greataxe into the head of the other illithid mummy within the ring.  Their return attacks were rather feeble, neither one striking their respective dwarven foes.  And already the wounds they'd received at the hands of the dwarven-crafted weapons were starting to heal up by contact with the necromantically-charged sands of the Desolate Wastes.

Marlo slew the mummy Khari had been fighting with another _maximized empowered scorching ray_ spell, but the ray she had sent to Utred's foe missed entirely.  Saint Svusban cast a psionic _lion's charge_ spell and charged Khari with his _unholy deep crystal scythe of speed_...missing with each of his four swings.  (It didn't help that the dwarf's dodges from the incoming blows were aided by his ability to sink partially into the sands at full speed.)  One tentacle attack did strike true, though, but the illithid didn't get a good enough grip to try to pry open his skull and remove the dwarf's brain, as he would have loved to do back when he was living and required such fare for sustenance.

Cramer cast a _disrupting weapon_ spell on Jhasspok's axe and then gave him the mental go-ahead to start running after the "ready reserve" mummies.  Jhasspok needed no further encouragement, kicking up sand behind him with each stride.  He brought his battleaxe back for a powerful swing and let fly with every ounce of strength he had.  And the blow was a powerful one, but it did no more damage than would have been expected had the lizardfolk not waited around for Cramer's spell.  (Afterwards, when Jhasspok reported there had been no discernable difference, the little gnome had opined the undead must have been more powerful than the types the spell was able to affect.  Jhasspok took him at his word - for the lizard knew nothing about the intricate workings of magic - but decided next time he probably wouldn't wait around for a spell of questionable effectiveness; he'd rather rely upon the power behind his own limbs.)

Khari ran over and finished off the remaining illithid mummy within the still-active _blade barrier_ spell, while Utred took care of Saint Svusban in a most unusual fashion.  Dropping his greataxe at his side, he rushed at the spindly illithid, pinning his arms to his side and running forward to force the mind flayer back into one of the seats before a withered tentacle of the Elder God Uboros.  Of course, that put them both well within the effects of the numerous whirling blades slashing through the air, but the dwarf just laughed as the spinning knives and swords slashed both him and his pinned foe.  "Whaddaya think, mind flayer?" he taunted Saint Svusban, who struggled to free himself to no avail.  "Who d'ya think can last longer, you or me?"

Jhasspok felled the first reserve mummy with a second blow from his battleaxe and then spun to face the second.  It was brought down mere moments later with a series of brutal attacks.  Then Jhasspok whipped about again, facing the Writhing Gate - whose tentacles had stopped writhing weeks ago when they'd allowed the neothelid into the _planar gate_ to the Far Realm so it could devour the Dying One from within.  Calling over the link to see if there were any more mummies to be slain and told only Saint Svusban remained and he was safely inside the _blade barrier_ spell, the lizardfolk sat back on his tail and pulled a dried dung beetle from the pouch at his waist.  He was hungry after his workout and he had earned a snack and a respite.

Marlo could only catch the occasional glimpse of Saint Svusban between the whirling blades, but it was enough to send a wave of _magic missile_ spells down at him - _maximized_ versions at that.  Between two waves of that and Utred keeping the mind flayer corpse creature inside the ring of blades, Saint Svusban was slain before he could make any further attacks of his own.  Cramer, upon being notified over the mental link that the last illithid guardian had been slain, dismissed the _blade barrier_ spell now that the only one being carved up by it was Utred.  The dwarf dropped the illithid's limp corpse to the ground and started looking to his own numerous wounds.  Cramer was quick to cast healing spells his way, and at the other heroes in need of his healing touch.

Jhasspok took the opportunity to sever Saint Svusban's head from his neck with a quick blow of his axe.  He held it up to Cramer; it was still mostly intact but its four facial tentacles had been hacked to pieces by the whirling blades of force energy.  Still...

"I think it's still usable," Cramer pronounced and began the casting of a _speak with dead_ spell.  Utred, in the meantime, removed the _Null Axe_ from its packaging and started slicing off the dead tentacles that made up the Writhing Gate.  As each was severed near ground level, the far end dropped back into the Far Realm and the portal sealed back up, ensuring the Gate of Svusban could be used no more.

"We've got seven questions to ask him," Cramer told the others.  "What do we want to know?"

After some quick discussions, the first question was, "What death wish must be present on a ship that will take us to the unchartable isle?"  This was a follow-up question from an answer they'd received from the severed head of the previous illithid "Saint" they'd interrogated in such a fashion.

<Those that don't want to ever return,> came the mental answer.

"Who guards the Gate of Radravossk?" was the next question; <Those who sought eternity> was the reply.  The heroes took that to mean members of the Seekers of Eternity, or at least those from one of its many sects.

The third question was the verification of a guess.  "Is the Gate of Rylethek underwater?" Cramer asked, and gained affirmation that such was indeed the case.

"Who guards the Gate of Rylethek besides Saint Rylethek himself?" was the fourth question; <The other nine cultists and any others they deem necessary> was the answer - not very helpful.

Marlo had a good question: "Who is the most powerful of the remaining illithid Saints?"  <Zarbugak the Mad,> replied the severed head of Saint Svusban.  That prompted a logical sixth question: "What makes him the most powerful?" and the answer was merely, <He embraced the Far Realm.>

"Last question," intoned Cramer.  "What are the defenses of the Gate of Sardegon?"  <Unknown,> replied Svusban, <for the previous guardians were defeated.>

"Well then," said Cramer, tossing the severed head aside.  It was in such bad condition Jhasspok wasn't even the least bit tempted to eat it.  "It looks like we have a bit of a walk ahead of us.  Which way did the scholars say we should head again?"

"That way," replied Marlo, pointing to the northwest as she finished transcribing the last words in her notebook; she wanted to be able to go over these questions and answers as needed.  "We've probably got several days of travel ahead of us."

"Better get a start on, then," replied Utred and headed off in that direction.

 - - -

This was a fun adventure to run through, and Dan has permanently added "_chum wall_" to his personal lexicon.  This was our last adventure as 15th-level characters (we leveled up after the adventure concluded) and our first gaming session in this campaign in six weeks, due to a slew of scheduling difficulties.  I think we were all glad to be slinging dice again.

Cramer's _disrupting weapon_ spell only failed because the illithid mummies had one more HD than we did.  Jhasspok's still not impressed.


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## Richards (Dec 12, 2021)

*ADVENTURE 47: JOURNEY THROUGH THE DESOLATE WASTES*

PC Roster: 
Cramer Appleknocker, gnome cleric 16​Jhasspok, lizardman 3/barbarian 3/fighter 10​Khari Hammerslammer, dwarf fighter 15/psychic warrior 1​Marlo Pendragon, human sorcerer 16​Utred "Buckets" Butterflinger, dwarf barbarian 16​
Game Session Date: 8 December 2021

 - - -

When forced to camp overnight in a desert wasteland which was constantly trying to leech the life force out of everything in the area and then reanimating the dead corpses as undead creatures, there was no way the five adventurers were going to do so without setting up a guard shift rotation.  Cramer and Marlo got the first and last shifts so they could get a night's worth of uninterrupted sleep (necessary if they were going to be able to replenish their spells in the morning), so Jhasspok and the dwarves each took a shift in the middle and made do with two smaller clumps of sleep.  Worse yet, since they were camping in their ironsilk tent - a large, fold-up structure with individual interior rooms - whoever was on guard duty had to actively patrol by pacing around the structure, to make sure nobody could sneak up from behind the tent.  And everyone had to make sure to keep their _necromantic attunement wards_ in place, even while sleeping, lest the sands of the Desolate Wastes desiccate them into members of the Undying Crusade.  Fortunately, despite a night of worry there were no visitors to the campsite that night and the next morning's sun found the five eager to be up and on their way, for nobody wanted to spend any more time in the Desolate Wastes than was absolutely necessary.

Once on the move again, with their ironsilk tent folded up into a much smaller space than was possible without magical assistance, they had a much better way of keeping an eye out for intruders from all directions: Marlo Pendragon, wearing her _robe of eyes_ and her _boots of levitation_, elevated herself as high as possible with one end of Utred's 50-foot span of silk rope tied around one ankle and the other tied to the back of the dwarven barbarian's belt.  Marlo was thus pulled along for the ride much like a balloon as Utred trudged through the desert sands along with the rest of the males.  From her aerial vantage point and her ability to see in all directions at once, the group had no concerns that anyone would be able to sneak up on them - with the possible exception of something burrowing up from beneath the desert sands.

"Up ahead!" Marlo called several hours into the march on a straight northwestern course.  "Scorpion!  Big one!"  The others shielded their eyes and squinted, trying to see the threat Marlo was warning them about, but there were too many small dunes in the way.  Once they crested a rise, though, the scorpion was plain to see and the sorceress had not been exaggerating: this was as big a scorpion as any of them had ever seen before in their lives, bigger than they had imagined scorpions could grow to be.

Anticipating combat, Khari activated his _offensive prescience_ so he'd be psionically able to better place his weapon blows where they'd do the most damage.  Jhasspok continued moving in the direction they'd been heading but veered off to the left side away from the group so the scorpion wouldn't be able to attack all of them at once.  He held his _spellstoring frost battleaxe_ at the ready, knowing he could discharge the _shocking grasp_ spell Marlo had loaded into it that morning with his first strike.  Cramer readied a _flame strike_ spell, while Utred ran off to the right, mirroring Jhasspok's strategy but making sure he was closer to the scorpion than the others, making himself the logical target if the scorpion decided to attack.  He held his _Elderwood greenflame greataxe_ at the ready.

The colossal scorpion turned and started heading towards the four adventures walking in its direction, no doubt picking up their footsteps as they trudged through the sands.  It might not have noticed Marlo, but even if it had there wasn't much it could do about her, as she was floating nearly 50 feet in the air.

Marlo, however, was under no such constraints.  From her aerial perch, she cast a _summon monster_ spell that caused the sands behind the massive arachnid to erupt and a rocky beast in a vaguely humanoid form rise up and bring its boulderlike fist crashing down upon the scorpion's carapace.  And just that quickly, combat was on.

Apparently interested in a meal, the scorpion skittered away from the inedible earth titan and made a bee-line for Utred.  As it approached, it succumbed to Cramer's readied _flame strike_ spell but that didn't stop it from reaching Utred and snapping at him with a serrated claw.  However, the burly barbarian managed to extricate himself from the pincer's grasp and cut a deep groove into the claw with his greataxe.  Then Khari popped up almost directly in front of its face, having used the _earthglide_ power of his magic warhammer to travel beneath the sands.  His hammer came crashing down on the creature's head, causing a few cracks in its carapace.

Jhasspok charged at the creature as well but hadn't accounted for its quick reflexes and the lizardfolk found himself caught between the sharp edges of the scorpion's right pincer-claw.  He brought his battleaxe down on the claw, discharging the _shocking grasp_ spell but failing to free himself from the arachnid's grasp.

Then a _spiritual weapon_ in the form of a quarterstaff appeared in the air above the scorpion and it came crashing down between its black, beady eyes.  Cramer advanced slowly, not wanting to put himself into the reach of the creature's claws too soon.

Marlo sent an _empowered maximized scorching ray_ blasting down at the scorpion and its carapace started to blister where the spell struck.  Not liking have been left behind, the earth titan charged forward and brought a rocky fist crashing down upon the creature for a second time.  The scorpion responded by continuing to crush Jhasspok in its right pincer while its left pincer darted out to grab up Khari before he could attack the creature's face again.  Utred was surprised it had ignored him but it hadn't, actually - for he was the target of the scorpion's massive tail, which came stabbing into the barbarian's chest and injected him with its venom.  The barbarian wasn't impressed; "That all you got?" he taunted.  "I seen worse!"  If he bothered to stop to wonder whether a colossal scorpion could understand what he was saying it wasn't at all evident.

Khari brought his _earthglide warhammer_ crashing down upon the creature's left pincer, trying to break himself free of its grasp, to no avail.  Jhasspok likewise brought his axe to bear but had no better luck.  The scorpion's mouthparts opened wide, ready to devour one of its two captured morsels; it was a toss-up as to which of the two it would try to eat first.

Cramer made the decision easy for it by casting a _freedom of movement_ spell on Khari, allowing the dwarven fighter to easily slide from the massive scorpion's claw.  "You're next, Jhasspok!" the gnome promised, running over towards the beast's other pincer as Marlo sent an _empowered magic missile_ spell crashing down upon their foe.  The earth titan, no longer having to catch up to its designated target, brought both fists crashing into the scorpion's side.  It hissed in pain, obviously far worse off for wear than it had been before detecting these potential sources of food.

Deciding to flee with its lizardfolk meal, the scorpion pivoted in place and started scrambling away from its tormentors.  But Khari, Utred, and the summoned earth titan each had other ideas and their combined attacks brought it to an immediate halt, its massive body collapsing to the sands of the Desolate Wastes, stirring up a dust cloud.  Its muscles going lax in death, Jhasspok was able to pry the pincer-claw imprisoning him open and crawl back out to relative safety.

"What was this thing's deal?" demanded Khari.  "Was it undead?  And if so, why was it trying to eat us?"

"Hard to say," Cramer mused, rubbing his bearded chin in thought.  "Creatures like this, with exoskeletons, makes it hard to tell if it's living or undead."

"It would almost have to be undead, though," argued Khari.  "Even something that size would eventually be drained of its life force, surely."  Cramer just shrugged; it was a valid point, but who knew?  Maybe it had adapted to life in the Desolate Wastes somehow.  Stranger things had happened.

The group continued on their trek (but not until after Jhasspok had cut through the exoskeleton and carved off a hunk of meat, declaring it tasted the same as if it had just been living, and convincing Marlo to load up his battleaxe with another spell, this one a _vampiric touch_).  It was hours later when Marlo again called down to the group that she saw something ahead.

"What do you see?" Cramer called up to her.

"It sounds weird, but...some sort of enormous tower shield, sized for a giant or a titan.  I can't tell who's carrying it, though."

"Heading our way?" Utred wanted to know.

"No, going the same direction we are," Marlo called back down.  "We'll probably overtake them; it looks like they're traveling much slower than we are."  Once again it took the cresting of a dune before the landbound members of the group could see what Marlo had spotted from her aerial perch, and from the spikes emanating in all directions from the four humanoid creatures holding the oversize shield above them like an umbrella, the group's best guess was barbed devils.  Which made some sort of sense, for the Desolate Wastes had been created by celestial intervention specifically to stop invasions from the Hell planes.  Upon unilateral agreement, the group stopped calling up to Marlo and increased their speed, hoping to sneak up to within combat range before they were discovered.

Once close enough to make out there were four barbed devils holding up the massive metal shield, Khari reactivated his _offensive prescience_ so it would be ready when needed.  And then Marlo decided the group had closed to sufficient proximity for her to start the combat once again with a spell cast from the air, this time an _empowered maximized lightning bolt_ cast directly upon the hellsteel shield each of the four devils was holding.  Three of the four were jolted fiercely by the spell, the fourth lucky enough to have been able to overcome the worst of the shock by its inherent nature.

But now they were certainly aware they were under attack.  Utred charged the one in the back right, chopping through a handful of spines with his _Elderwood greenflame greataxe_, even though a few of the fiend's spines stabbed at his hands and arms in the process.  But Utred ignored the pain, the same as he'd done in scores of battles before - it was all part of the fun of combat, seeing who could dish out the most punishment and who could take it the easiest!

Jhasspok ran up to the back row of devils and slew the one Utred had already hit, then continued his weapon's swing straight into the one directly to the slain devil's left.  The lizardfolk too was pierced by numerous devil-spines in doing so and despite his thick scales he was less able to ignore pain than was Utred; the lizard hissed in pain from his wounds but didn't let that stop him from continuing the combat.

Cramer cast a _destruction_ spell at the barbed devil in the front right, slaying him immediately and causing the oversize hellsteel shield to cant over to the right, the two remaining fiends unable to support its weight by themselves.  They ducked out from beneath its weight and let it fall flat to the sands behind them as they raced out from beneath it, to both pivot and attack Jhasspok.  Khari rushed forward but had been too far away to reach the devils before those with longer strides had already entered combat.  But even he could see the small stones orbiting each fiend's head - likely some sort of _ioun stone_, which was not something the dwarven fighter usually associated with devils from the Lower Planes.

Now out from beneath their protective shield, Marlo cast an _empowered maximized magic missile_ spell at the two remaining devils, slaying the weakest-looking one (the one sporting electrical burns from her earlier spell) and causing the other a fair amount of pain.  Utred brought his greataxe swinging into the sole remaining devil, chopping into it several times in rapid succession before Cramer finished it off with another _destruction_ spell.

Post-battle examination of the huge shield as well as the _ioun stones_ found near the bodies suggested they were used to ward off the detrimental effects of the sands so the fiends could hopefully escape through the desert to wreak havoc upon the world.  "The _ioun stones_ seem to be wards against holy energy," Marlo observed, examining them closely.

"No use to us, then," said Khari.  "We ought to destroy them."

"I don't know," argued Utred.  "We could give them to Matron Jalamir.  She might be able to use them."

"We might be allied with her," Cramer argued, "but I don't know if I want to give her something to help ward off holy damage.  If she's fighting someone who can wield holy energy, I kind of think I'd be rooting for the holy guy.  I'm all for supporting Matron Jalamir against other drow matrons, but I'd still prefer we wipe out all evil drow."  In the end, they buried the _ioun stones_ in the sands and continued on their trek out of the Desolate Wastes.

The rest of the trip was uneventful, for there was little actual life in the desert sands.  When the sands gave way to hard-packed dirt and then to grasses and plants, it was difficult to say who was the most elated.  But teleporting was still impossible until they had purged themselves of every last grain of sand, a process which had to wait until they got back to Greenvale several days later.

 - - -

Logan managed to subvert our expectations once again, because we had obviously assumed we'd be fighting various undead creatures during the trek home and that ended up not being the case at all.  Logan says the Colossal scorpion we fought had developed a strange adaptation to the Desolate Wastes, basically being a living creature existing inside an undead exoskeleton.  (He made up a template for such creatures, basically doubling its hit points and allowing it to be healed by the sands of the desert like any other undead.  So we were fighting a 600 hp scorpion and we took it out in three rounds.  Go us!)


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## Richards (Dec 19, 2021)

*ADVENTURE 48: A COLORFUL INVESTIGATION*

PC Roster:
Cramer Appleknocker, gnome cleric 16​Jhasspok, lizardman 3/barbarian 3/fighter 10​Khari Hammerslammer, dwarf fighter 15/psychic warrior 1​Marlo Pendragon, human sorcerer 16​Utred "Buckets" Butterflinger, dwarf barbarian 16​
Game Session Date: 15 December 2021

 - - -

"Ah," said the man wearing the gray robes of a cleric of Boccob, God of Magic, a smile on his face as he welcomed the five former slaves of Overreach.  "Are you here to answer the call for adventurers?"

Jhasspok turned his head to the side in puzzlement and then looked over to Utred - the burly dwarven barbarian usually had the answers.  But this time Utred was as much in the dark as the lizardfolk.  Still, he opted to agree with the man and see where this led.  "Yes, yes we are," he told the elderly cleric.  "I was told this was a paying job...?"  Naturally, he had been told no such thing but it never hurt to throw your line in the water and see what kind of fish you could catch.

"Of course, a quite sizeable sum if I do say so myself, but well worth the cost to rid the Guilded City of the sole remaining holdouts of the Seekers of Eternity.  To think how close they had come to overthrowing our entire government!"

"I know!" agreed Cramer quickly, catching onto the make-it-up-as-we-go plan to pass themselves off as adventurers answering an advertisement of some sort.  All attempts to divine the location of the Gate of Radravossk having failed, the Mithral Redeemers - a good sect of the Seekers of Eternity who had allied with Greenvale - suggested the party start by going to the Guilded City to gather information closer to the source, since they had never heard of a Writhing Gate in the Azure Glade.  This seemed as good of a cover story as any to the gnome cleric.

"Bless me, where are my manners?  My name is *Tevin*," added the gray-robed man as he led his new charges to the Temple of Boccob.  Cramer made the introductions as they walked.  Jhasspok was surprised the man didn't seem the least bit taken aback to see a lizardman in with the other four adventurers.  When they got to the Temple, they saw a small crowd of adventurers like themselves, of numerous races - although all of them seemingly mammals, Jhasspok noted sadly.  They were offered refreshments and then a temple cleric began briefing the assembled group on the plan.

"We intend to wipe out the remaining Seekers of Eternity in the Azure Glade in one fell swoop.  They have scattered and are in hiding, no doubt hoping to avoid detection long enough for them to find a way to regroup.  To that end, you will each be given a specific target and everyone will be teleported by our spellcasters to your designated foes.  We will strike at them simultaneously, so they'll all be too busy fighting for their own lives to be able to aid each other."  Maps were handed out to the groups and temple clerics gathered among them to explain the individual plans.  Tevin explained the color coding of the map-marks the five ex-slaves had been given.  "Red stands for Transmutation; Black is for Necromancy; White is Divination; Blue stands for Evocation; and Purple is Enchantment," he explained.  "You five will each be taking on one of these targets when we attack tomorrow at dawn."

"Wait, five separate targets for the five of us?" asked Khari.  "So we won't be fighting together?"

"No, one on one," confirmed Tevin.  "You'd do best to decide which of you is best suited against the specialist wizards you'll be taking out."

"What can you tell us about these specific targets?" Marlo asked.

Tevin explained all that they knew.  The Necromancer was likely to be guarded by undead so it was decided they'd give that assignment to Cramer.  The Transmuter was holed up in a golem construction lab - the biggest of the five areas they'd be attacking - so Utred was given that one; if there were additional golems guarding the wizard the dwarven barbarian was the best suited to be able to take them down and survive to tell the tale.  The Evoker had a traitorous member of the Azure Guard with him - a fighter/wizard used as part of the police force in the Azure Glade - so to counter the extra firepower the group opted to send Marlo after them; after all, she had the most offensive spellcasting power of anyone in the group.  The Diviner was believed to be alone; Khari was assigned to take him out.  And that left Jhasspok going up against the Enchanter and his likely _charmed_ minions.

"Wait, sending Jhasspok against someone who can _charm_ the weak-willed?  Is that really a good idea?" asked Khari.  "Maybe we should switch."

"We'll set him up with a _protection from evil_ spell," promised Cramer.  "That will prevent anyone from trying to take over his mind."  In a much lower voice, he added to himself, "...such as it is."

The adventurers were released with instructions to regroup at the Temple of Boccob an hour before sunrise so the priests there could prepare the focused teleportation rituals that would send each attacker to his or her designated target location and then back again after 10 minutes.  There would also be a contingency added into the ritual; if any of the attack force were slain the body would be instantly teleported back to the Temple of Boccob so resurrections could be prepared.

"Seems they thought of everything," Utred commented, impressed.

"We'd best see to lodging," Cramer decided.  "We'll be getting up early tomorrow."

The next day did indeed start early; earlier than anticipated for all but Cramer, who had decided to get everyone up in enough time for them all to partake in a _heroes' feast_ before they set off to the temple.  That provided each of the heroes immunity to poison and a boost to their combat abilities.  Then, once they'd arrived at the temple, the spellcasters among them applied a variety of pre-combat spells before they'd be teleported to their separate locales.  Cramer cast a _protection from evil_ spell upon Utred and a _magic circle against evil_ on himself.  "I thought you were going to cast that on Jhasspok," Marlo chided; Cramer just shrugged in a "what does it matter?" gesture.  Marlo then cast a _magic circle against evil_ on Jhasspok, another on herself, and a third on Khari, then cast a _stoneskin_ spell on everyone but Cramer, who waved her off saying he didn't need it.  The sorceress then cast a _Rary's telepathic bond_ spell on the group so they could update each other on their situations as needed.  "Cramer and I can cast a _teleport_ spell if anybody finds themselves up against more than they can handle," she told the others.  (Jhasspok noted a few glances his way as she said that.)  Cramer used his _wand of owl's wisdom_ on each of the five, then cast a bevy of protective spells upon himself: _death ward_, _longstrider_, _resist energy (cold)_, _spell immunity_, _moment of prescience_, _shield of faith_, _invisibility purge_, _spell resistance_, and _spell turning_.  Then he used Utred's last purchased scroll to cast a _death ward_ spell on the barbarian as well.

"You think that's enough to keep you safe?" taunted Khari, activating his psionic _offensive prescience_ that would help guide his hammer-blows.  "You'd think you were afraid of a simple one-on-one fight."

"It doesn't hurt to be prepared," countered the gnome cleric.  But there was no time for any further comments as the _teleportation_ effect kicked in at that moment and the whole temple of adventurers were whisked away to their individual combats.

 - - -

Jhasspok materialized in an L-shaped chamber, where a full third of the room - one end of the "L" - was taken up by a massive bed.  Standing by the bed was a man in purple robes: the Enchanter Jhasspok had been sent to kill.  However, standing in the crook of the "L" before him were two human women, one in full plate mail armor and another in combat leathers, each wielding impressive swords.  It seems the lizardfolk's arrival had not been entirely unanticipated!

"Kill him!" commanded the Enchanter and Jhasspok raised his turtle-shell shield anticipating their incoming attacks.  But it was possible Fharlanghn had been looking after the lizardfolk in having Cramer cast his _protection from evil_ spell upon Utred instead of on Jhasspok, for as the two armed women approached the humanoid reptile they slowed in confusion.  "I have a spell on me that prevents people from taking over my mind," Jhasspok explained to the women as the _charm person_ spells they had been under were temporarily suppressed.  They turned in hatred at the Enchanter, who was screaming at them to slay the intruder.

"I'm supposed to kill the man in the purple robes," Jhasspok explained helpfully.  "You can help me if you like."  Then, realizing he needed to stick close to the women if he was going to keep their minds free, he threw his _flaming spear_ at the Enchanter.

"We'll need to stick close together for the duration," advised the fighter clad in plate-mail, gripping her longsword.  "But yeah, let's get him!"

The Enchanter cried out in pain and then retaliated by casting a _greater shadow evocation_ spell in the form of _chain lightning_, targeting the lizardfolk and then arcing off to his traitorous mind-slaves.  But the spell didn't stop their coordinated charge across the room and the wizard soon found himself pierced by a fighter's longsword, a rogue's short sword, and a lizardman's battleaxe, the latter of which also discharged the _vampiric touch_ spell Marlo had loaded into it the night before.  The weapons were all that were holding him up at that point; when the trio removed them the man slid down the wall to land in a heap on the floor, leaving a trail of blood along the wall in his wake.  The rogue gave his head a kick for good measure.  "Creep!" she snarled.

Seeing his goal had already been attained, Jhasspok opened the satchel at his hip and pulled out a dried dung beetle.  He offered a snack to the two women but it turned out neither of them was hungry.

 - - -

Marlo appeared in a small room with two blue-clad men: an Evoker in wizard's robes and a member of the Azure Guard wearing blue armor covered in glowing runes.  She didn't hesitate a moment to cast an _empowered maximized scorching ray_ at the pair.  One ray hit each of the two but the third ray went astray.  Marlo scowled at the missed opportunity to dish out additional pain.

The Azure Guard cast a _lightning bolt_ spell at Marlo in retaliation and it was all the sorceress could do not to laugh in his face; she'd faced _much_ more powerful spellcasters than this before!  The Evoker also cast a ray spell - a _polar ray_ if Marlo wasn't mistaken - but it also missed its target.  The sorceress elevated herself close to the ceiling with her _boots of levitation_ and sent an _empowered maximized fireball_ spell down at her opponents.  The blast had both foes crumpling dead to the ground, burned to a crisp.

<I got mine!> Marlo called over the telepathic link to her friends.  <Anybody need any help?>

<Mine's already dead,> Jhasspok reported in.  The rogue, after having satisfied that the Enchanter was in fact dead, was teaching Jhasspok how to play gambling games and the lizardfolk had already lost a few coins to her but was determined to do better.

<I could use a hand!> replied an exasperated-sounding Khari.  Marlo said the words and teleported away, concentrating on a mental image of Khari to lead her to where she needed to be.

 - - -

At first, Khari thought this task wouldn't be too difficult.  He'd teleported into a square room, empty of all but the white-robed Diviner before him.  However, the dwarf scowled in noting the worked stone of the floor below him; his _earthglide warhammer_ wouldn't be able to allow him to burrow through the ground like he preferred to be able to do so.  Still, how hard could it be to kill one wizard?

He found out almost immediately, for after striking his first blow the Diviner cast a _time stop_ spell and all of a sudden he was now in the opposite corner and a greater fire elemental stood towering between him and the dwarven fighter.  The massive creature of flame raised a blazing fist and brought it down towards the dwarf...only to be unable to finish the blow, due to the _magic circle against evil_ spell Marlo had cast upon him, for it prevented summoned creatures from being able to approach the dwarf.

Khari skirted right past the elemental - knowing full well to do so meant undoing the protection against summoned creatures, but so be it - and brought his warhammer crashing down upon the Diviner again, this time with disappointing results - it seems the bugger had cast a _stoneskin_ spell upon himself during the _time stop_ as well.  Then the white-clad wizard cast a _chain lightning_ spell directly into Khari's bearded face.  And now no longer prevented from striking her summoner's enemy, the fire elemental brought her flaming fist down upon the dwarf's helmeted head.  Khari staggered back, wondering how he was going to take the two of them out by himself.

Fortunately he didn't have to, for at that time Marlo made her query across the mental link between the five adventurers.  A moment later the sorceress was by his side, ready to aid her friend.

The Diviner ran past the pair of adventurers, taking hits from both the dwarf's _earthglide warhammer_ and the sorceress's _arcane blade_ - which by this time in her career struck like a bastard sword.  He was staggered by their combined assault and decided he'd at least take out the enemy spellcaster before he fell, casting a _Mordenkainen's sword_ before slipping into unconsciousness.  But Khari dashed up and bashed in the Diviner's head with his hammer and then Marlo, realizing there was no need to stick around to fight a fire elemental whose time on the Material Plane was limited, touched Khari on the shoulder and teleported the two of them away.  Jhasspok had already said he was fine and Cramer had so many spells on him he'd likely be doing just fine, so she concentrated on Utred's face as the two of them disappeared.

 - - -

Utred materialized in the middle of a large, square chamber, his battle-trained senses allowing him to notice a few details at once.

There was a man in red wizard's robes on the floor across the room from him, before a set of double doors.  It didn't look like he was breathing.

There were four stone statues in the corner of the room, each about nine feet tall.

The statues were moving.

That's all Utred was able to focus upon before he found himself in combat with the four stone golems.  He flew straight at the nearest one, his _Elderwood greenflame greataxe_ taking a few chunks out of it before it was able to slam him with its stone fists.  Then the others were approaching, trying to pen him in.

Thoughts raced across the barbarian's mind as he battled the stone constructs.  One dealt with the magic-suppressing properties of the Null Axe, and without further consideration he whipped off the protective wrapping around it at his belt and he whipped it into the body of the golem he'd been fighting.  The Null Axe, embedded in the construct's chest, brought it to immediate immobility.  _That's one less to have to deal with right now,_ Utred thought to himself.  Then, as much fun as tussling with three stone golems all at once sounded, he recalled the task at hand.  He wasn't sure what was up with the dead wizard in red robes but there was no doubt of his status as one of the golems had trodden upon his head on its approach towards Utred.  But it was certainly possible he was either a decoy or a lackey and the true target was on the other side of those doors.  With that thought in mind, the barbarian activated his _winged boots_ and flew up over the heads of the stone golems, dropping down before the doors and swinging them open - but not before having taken a few hits from the constructs as he flew above them.

On the other side of the doors stood a much smaller room, with a much smaller construct made of mithral and wood, much like a shield guardian made to human scale.  It tried casting a _disintegrate_ spell but fumbled the somatic components, the Transmuter not yet being accustomed to his new form.  With two stone golems swinging their fists at his back, Utred charged the warforged Transmuter.  The doorway was small enough only one stone golem could fit through it at a time, so that at least lessened the threat from behind while Utred dealt with the main target.

And then suddenly Marlo and Khari were in the smaller room with him.  A grin broke across the dwarven barbarian's face as he thought about how much trouble this warforged Transmuter was in now.

Khari brought his warhammer crashing down upon the warforged's back as the Transmuter cast a second _disintegrate_ spell at Utred, this time getting it right.  To his consternation, however, the spell left the dwarf damaged but still in place; he'd gutted through the worst of the spell's effects, damn him!  Utred finished him off with a series of blows from his own enchanted greataxe.  Then the first stone golem through the doorway was up to Utred and slammed him with a fist.

"We ready to go?" asked Marlo.

"Need t' grab my Null Axe - it's in the other room!" Utred replied, swinging his greataxe into the stone golem before him.

"Say no more," replied Marlo and all of a sudden all three of them were back in the larger chamber, before the immobilized stone golem.  Khari grabbed up the protective wrapping used to shield the Null Axe's powers during transport, ready to plop it over the weapon as soon as Utred pulled it from the construct's chest.  Then, the Null Axe temporarily neutralized, Marlo cast another _teleport_ spell, this one taking the three of them to Cramer.

 - - -

By this time, Jhasspok was getting frustrated at the gambling game being taught to him by the leather-clad woman.  "You were really close this time," she assured the lizardfolk as he handed over another coin.  "Let's try again: now what number am I thinking about?"

Three hadn't worked earlier, and neither had seven.  "Eight," Jhasspok guessed.

"Nope - pay up," said the thief, smiling.

 - - -

Cramer teleported into a room filled with a pile of bodies before getting attacked by the four dread wraiths formed by the merging of their undead spirits.  Fortunately, his _death ward_ spell prevented their incorporeal touches from draining him of his life-essence; they had to content themselves with the normal physical damage their undead touch caused.

The little gnome moved over to one side of the room, instinctively wanting the protection of a solid wall on one side before realizing walls were no barrier to incorporeal souls.  He took two hits in getting to his new position, but at least it allowed him to cast forth a blaze of positive energy through his upraised holy symbol of Fharlanghn.  The turning attempt caused one of the dread wraiths to flee, passing through a back wall as if it wasn't even there.  But the other three floated up and struck again.

Scooting over to a corner, Cramer cast a _mass cure critical wounds_, the spell healing up some of the damage he'd sustained thus far as well as harming the undead spirits before him.  One of the dread wraiths backed off a bit, allowing the other two to glide forward to the attack.

Cramer repeated his former tactic, this time converting one of his prepared spells into a _mass cure serious wounds_.  That healed him and hurt them, a process the gnome cleric was prepared to repeat all day if he had to - or until he ran out of spells of the appropriate level.  The process repeated again, with more attacks from the incorporeal undead dealing damage to the cleric's physical form.  While mentally flipping through his current spell repertoire for a good one to convert to healing energy, he came across _ethereal jaunt_ and realized if he cast it upon himself he'd be fighting the dread wraiths on their own plane, where they'd no longer have the advantage of being incorporeal.  That sounded like a good idea to the gnome so he cast the spell as normally intended upon himself.

That did indeed have the desired effect, for the dreads wraiths found it much more difficult dealing the cleric any damage now that they had to take his armor into account.  It was a three-on-one battle on the Ethereal Plane there for a while, with the gnome putting his mace to good use, when Marlo teleported into the room with the two dwarves.

While they were still on the Material Plane, the new arrivals could see Cramer and the three dread wraiths and did what they could to aid their friend, even if it was inherently difficult to catch an incorporeal creature just right to actually connect with them.  Still, the dwarves gave it their all, attacking with warhammer and greataxe to their best ability.

The dread wraiths quickly learned the newcomers made for much easier targets, as not all of them were shielded with _death ward_ spells.  Of the three, only Utred was so protected, as two of the dread wraiths learned to their disappointment after having targeted the barbarian.  The other had gone for Khari and he managed to shrug off the worst of the life-draining attacks of his unearthly foe.

Cramer cast a _flame strike_ spell on the entire area, confident that his spell, cast upon the Ethereal Plane, would affect the wraiths but not his friends.  Marlo, realizing what tactics Cramer was using, cast her own _ethereal jaunt_ spell upon herself and joined him.

Khari's warhammer made contact with one of the wraiths and Utred managed to finish it off with his greataxe, then swung into another nearby undead as well.  The wraiths tried counterattacking, to no success.  While Cramer helped the dwarves fight off the remaining two dread wraiths, Marlo decided to see what was on the other side of the door in the large chamber.  Passing through it incorporeally, she saw a lich sitting at a desk, apparently unable to sense her.  She backed into the larger room and finished off one wraith with a _maximized magic missile_ while Khari polished off the other one with his warhammer.

Utred was in no mood to hold off any possible investigations; powered by his rage he burst through the door, saw the lich before him, and leaped up onto the desk as he brought his weapon's axe-head down in an overhead stroke.  Cramer deactivated his _ethereal jaunt_ spell and cast a _mass cure critical wounds_ spell, affecting all but Marlo - who was still on the Ethereal Plane - and the lich, who was out of range.  But the three male heroes all appreciated the surge of healing energy.

The lich Necromancer cast a _cone of cold_ out at the three heroes before him, Marlo once again immune from spells being cast on an entirely different plane of existence from the one she inhabited at present.  But then she popped back to the Material Plane and took the lich out with a single casting of an _empowered maximized scorching ray_, sending all three rays blazing into the lich's skeletal body, immolating it in an instant.

"There's bound to be a phylactery around here somewhere," Cramer advised the others.  Some searching found it hidden in a crevice in the wall, in the form of a spellbook.  Another spell from Marlo and it too was a blazing mass of ashes.

After a full ten minutes had passed, the adventurers were instantly teleported back to the Temple of Boccob where the various adventurers were passing on their reports and getting their pay.  After the five had done likewise, they were approached by *Khier*, the head of the Temple of Boccob in the Azure Glade.  "I believe you have need of my knowledge," he said by way of introduction.

"Can you tell us anything about a Writhing Gate hidden in the Azure Glade?" Cramer asked.  He described the Writhing Gates and gave the head cleric an overview of their task in slaying the Dying One and taking out the Writhing Gates that would otherwise allow his return to the planet with catastrophic consequences.

"I have never heard of such devices," Khier admitted, before adding, "but I know of something that meets your description."  He told the group something very much like a Writhing Gate had been unearthed a couple of centuries before, with all attempts to destroy it meeting in failure.  "Eventually, it fell into the hands of the vampiric faction of the Seekers of Eternity," Khier explained.  "As they have broken off from the rest of the Seekers, they were not involved in the attempt to overthrow our government and thus were not part of our raid this morning.  But the Council of Guilds at the time worked to seal the evil away - vampires and tentacles alike.  Knowing you have a means of destroying the vile thing once and for all" - and here he looked down at the Null Axe wrapped in its protective blanket at Utred's hip - "I am more than willing to guide you to its location so it can finally be dealt with."

"Excellent," grinned Cramer.

 - - -

This was an interesting experiment, although Jhasspok came off the winner in the "ease of overcoming his designated target" front, given I was inadvertently given two assistants.  (Among ourselves around the gaming table, we referred to the Enchanter's former mind-slaves as "Jhasspok's Angels.")  I think I was an active PC for all of two rounds in the whole session, but it was fun watching everyone fight off their own targets.  And despite how going from location to location made for a better way to describe it in a Story Hour, in-game we went round to round across all of the combatants in all five locations.


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## Richards (Jan 9, 2022)

*ADVENTURE 49: THE BROOD OF RADRAVOSSK*

PC Roster: 
Cramer Appleknocker, gnome cleric 16​Jhasspok, lizardman 3/barbarian 3/fighter 10​Khari Hammerslammer, dwarf fighter 15/psychic warrior 1​Marlo Pendragon, human sorcerer 16​Utred "Buckets" Butterflinger, dwarf barbarian 16​
Game Session Date: 5 January 2022

 - - -

"So what can we expect going up against vampires?" Utred asked.  "Other than wanting to suck our blood, what can they do?"

"Well, they like _dominating_ people," answered Cramer, "but as long as we each have a _protection from evil_ spell or _magic circle against evil_ spell up and active, that should prevent that."

"So what else?" prompted Utred.

"They're able to drain life energy not just through sucking your blood but even through mere contact," the gnome cleric continued.

"Okay, so how can we prevent that?"

"A _death ward_ spell would do the trick."

"Can you cast _death ward_?"

"Yes, but only up to five per day, and that would wipe out my entire spell inventory for that level of spell.  There are other spells of that level that would prove to be useful in an encounter with vampires: _restoration_, _spell immunity_, _divine power_...."

"There are five of us."

"I am well aware."

"But you don't want to cast five _death ward_ spells on us."

"That wouldn't be my first choice, no."

And thus Utred, upon returning from having participated in the all-out attack against the last members of the Seekers of Eternity to have been rooted out from their hiding places after having been caught trying to infiltrate and take over the Council of Guilds in the Azure Glade, found himself plunking down a bag of coins at a magic shop where they sold scrolls.  He picked up several _death ward_ scrolls, figuring Cramer couldn't complain if the barbarian was providing him with a _death ward_ scroll where all he had to do was cast it on Utred without interfering with his own special spell selection for the day.

But the next day Khier - the head of the Church of Boccob in the Azure Glade - led the group to the location of the sealed chamber where the Writhing Gate was said to be located.  It was at the end of a series of underground tunnels beneath the city, and the door was on the other side of a bridge over a small underground stream, the perfect way to prevent vampires from being able to exit the chamber even if the sealed door were somehow broken open.  "Vampires cannot cross running water," Khier explained.  Jhasspok furrowed his brow trying to figure out why that might be, until Utred turned his way and said, "Magic."  Ah, that explained it, then - the lizardfolk well knew that magic was weird and didn't often make a whole lot of sense.

"Let's cast our prep spells before we go in," suggested Cramer, buffing himself up with a bevy of spells intended to ensure his own protection: _longstrider_, _moment of prescience_, _detect undead_, _death ward_, and _magic circle against evil_.  Then he used his wand to deliver an _owl's wisdom_ spell to each of the five and used Utred's _death ward_ scrolls to ensure there would be no vampiric energy-draining going on in the battle to come.  He then voluntarily cast a _protection from evil_ spell on Utred.

Marlo, in the meantime, was almost as busy with her own spellcasting, imbuing herself with a _magic circle against evil_ and then casting the same spell on both Khari and Jhasspok; casting a protective _stoneskin_ spell on the lizardfolk as well; and then the standard _Rary's telepathic bond_ spell that linked all five of the group up in a mental communication network.  Khari mentally activated his psionic _offensive prescience_ ability, the better to guide his blows with his _earthglide warhammer_.

Once both spellcasters were ready, Cramer opened the door in the way Khier had shown them.  There was silence from within, with only the slight trickling of the water beneath the bridge to be heard.  Furthermore, there was nothing to be seen within the chamber on the other side of the door, the whole area having been covered in an unnatural darkness.  However, Marlo's _robe of eyes_ was able to pierce the darkness and she explained over the telepathic link what she saw inside: <Seven vampires: four up close, wearing plate mail and armed with swords.  Three further back, possibly spellcasters.>  This last was a guess on her part by the way they were not wearing armor and two of them - the males - were making strange hand gestures; unbeknownst to the sorceress, they were each casting a _false life_ spell to boost their staying power in the battle to come.

Khari moved cautiously into the darkened room, warhammer in hand and ready to strike at whichever vampire opted to try to close in for the kill.  His _slave-light cloak_ had been activated and this allowed him to see a few feet away before the illumination was swallowed by the surrounding darkness.  He got his opportunity almost immediately, as an armored vampire came in with his sword swinging; Khari dodged the blow and sent his own weapon striking sideways into the vampire's torso.  But then the other three were on him, attacking from all directions, and it was more than the dwarven fighter could do to fend off all of their attacks.  Sword-blades pierced his flesh, causing the blood to flow and the vampires to go crazy at the scent.

Marlo opted to remain at the open doorway and not actually enter the chamber, for from where she stood she was able to lob an _empowered maximized fireball_ over Khari's head to explode in the back half of the chamber, right in the midst of all three vampire spellcasters.  Fortunately for him, one of them was completely unharmed by the powerful blast of magical fire energy, as his spell resistance prevented the flames from even touching his body.  Neither of the other two were as lucky, though, with the other male wizard having been saved solely by his fortuitous _false life_ spell (without which he'd have been burned to a crisp at once) and the female vampire sorceress clinging to the semblance of life seemingly through sheer tenacity.

The vampire sorceress retaliated at once with a _chain lightning_ spell directed at Marlo, which arced off to hit the other four intruders as well.  Then she silently backed away from her fellow spellcasters, hoping to get out of range of any further area-of-effect spells that might be hurled their way.

Utred ignored the pain of the blast of lightning and charged; one side benefit of having been struck by a _chain lightning_ spell was for a brief moment the barbarian had gotten to see the locations of the four armored vampires ganging up on his fellow dwarf.  Charging into the darkness, he brought his _flaming Elderwood greataxe_ down upon the form of the closest vampire, tearing a rent into the plate mail and carving into the undead flesh beneath.

Jhasspok couldn't see much beyond the feeble illumination provided by his own _slave-light cloak_ but he followed Marlo's telepathic directions to guide him around the four vampires gathered together up front so he could reach the possibly more dangerous spellcasters in the back.  He held his original magic battleaxe in hand, as his new one dealt frost damage and Cramer had advised the lizardfolk the vampires' undead flesh would make them immune to the cold damage from his newer axe.  His old axe couldn't store a spell like his new one could, but overall Jhasspok didn't mind; his old battleaxe felt comfortable in his hands.  He found himself face to face with one of the two vampire wizards, who hurriedly backed away from the rampaging reptile and blasted him with three gouts of flame from a _scorching ray_ spell.  The other wizard opted to cast a _resist fire_ spell on himself, not wanting to experience another of Marlo's enhanced _fireball_ spells.

Cramer cast a _mass cure critical wounds_ spell on all four armored vampires and all of the heroes but Jhasspok, who was already too far into the chamber to be within range of the spell.  The gnome's spell had the twin benefits of healing up the worst of the damage they'd taken from the _chain lightning_ spell (and in Khari's case, the multiple stab wounds he'd received by being the first to engage the vampire fighters) while at the same time adversely affecting the undead flesh of the vampires, the healing energy acting more like acid to their unholy forms.

From the light of his cloak Khari could see the floor of the chamber in which he stood was made of unworked stone, so he activated his warhammer's _earthglide_ ability and sunk into the ground, popping up directly behind one of the vampires who had been stabbing at him.  He got in a good strike from his hammer before the vampire even knew he was there.  And then Cramer cast a _quickened searing light_ spell at another of the vampire fighters, the spell's energy affecting him in a manner rather pleasing to the little gnome.

The four armored vampires opted to team up two-to-one against the two dwarves in their midst.  Their blades came swinging in with surprising speed and more power behind the strikes than either dwarf would have believed possible, even knowing these were undead beings before them powered by negative energy.  But then Marlo helped even the odds by summoning a greater fire elemental directly behind the row of vampiric fighters.  A flaming fist came crashing down upon one of the vampires, exposing its sudden presence in the best possible way.  Utred's greataxe slew the first of the vampires as its attention was momentarily diverted by the massive creature of living flame behind it.  Its body exploded into mist, which seemed to dissipate to nothingness in the poorly-lit chamber.

In the back of the darkened chamber - where Jhasspok could now see the tentacles of the inactive Writhing Gate lying limply on the stone cavern floor - the lizardfolk's battleaxe slew the wizard he'd been facing, the blow powered by the rage he felt at having the _scorching ray_ spell explode up in his face mere moments before.  Its body turned first to mist and then seemed to scatter away in all directions, becoming effectively nothing the lizardfolk could detect.  The vampire sorceress also took the opportunity to cast a _resist fire_ spell on herself, judging it to be the type of energy these living interlopers were most likely to use against them, if the fight thus far was any indication.

Cramer took his first steps into the darkened chamber, casting a _holy aura_ spell on himself, Marlo, and the dwarves as he did so.  Then the sole remaining vampire wizard cast a spell, not on himself but on his sorcerous companion; the _enervation_ spell had the same effect on her as a healing spell would have on a living creature.  Jhasspok didn't yet realize it, but these spellcasting vampires were making themselves harder to kill, and that was on top of their own unnatural fast healing which allowed their undead flesh to slowly regenerate any physical wounds.

But regenerating flesh only worked up to a point, as Utred demonstrated by cutting down another fighter into mist and then cleaving his weapon into the other vampire before him, slaying that one as well.  The remaining fighter decided he'd take out one of the spellcasters and grappled with Cramer, which turned out to be a mistake, as the cleric of Fharlanghn simply used his innate _freedom of movement_ ability to wriggle himself free of the undead foe's grasp.  And then the vampire was himself grabbed from behind, in this case by the burning hands of a greater fire elemental.  He screamed in pain as his undead flesh caught fire and he burned to death, his cries silenced as his body exploded into silent mist.

<Are they going to escape to their coffins?> Utred asked over the link.

<Don't see any coffins in here,> Cramer answered.  <If they go two hours or so without reaching their coffins, they'll die permanently.  We'll give the place a thorough check once we finish the rest of them off.>

Marlo cast an _empowered maximized scorching ray_ spell at the remaining male vampire wizard and was dismayed to see him come through relatively unscathed; the sorceress realized he must have protected himself after the mega-_fireball_ spell she'd tossed their way earlier.  The vampire sorceress cast another protective spell upon herself (nervously eyeing both Jhasspok and Marlo as she did so), this time _spell turning_.  And then Utred, fresh out of combatants in the front half of the chamber, raced to the back half, pulling out the _Null Axe_ from his belt as he did so and starting to unwrap it.  <Leave that for later!> warned Marlo over the link,  <If you release the _Null Axe_ now, it'll undo all of your protective spells!>

<Hmm,> Utred replied.  <Good point.>  He kept the _Null Axe_ in its protective wrapping and stuffed in back into his belt, feeling the solid blade against the small of his back once again.  Then, _flaming Elderwood greataxe_ in hand, he looked about for his next melee combatant.

Jhasspok had found one and had charged at the second male vampire wizard, bringing his battleaxe slicing into his side.  But then the wizard took a step back and cast a _lightning bolt_ spell that surged through the reptile and also hit Utred.  But the dwarven barbarian had been shielded by Cramer's _holy aura_ spell and was completely unaffected; Jhasspok was not so protected and took the full brunt of the spell but his barbaric rage was still in place and he barely felt the pain.  (That, he knew in the back of his reptilian brain, would come later when he had calmed down.   At least it always had in the past.)

Cramer cast a _daylight_ spell into the chamber, hoping to overcome the unnatural darkness and allow everyone to see normally, but the spell didn't have the intended effect.  But Khari didn't need to see the whole chamber - he just charged toward the back and altered course once the undead wizard came into view.  His warhammer hit the spellcaster with a resounding slam of breaking bones.  The vampire stumbled, his face showing he was in an inordinate level of pain, but then Marlo made the pain all go away by casting an _empowered disintegrate_ spell on him that blasted him to unfeeling mist.

"Head towards the back of the chamber," Marlo directed her summoned fire elemental and the creature followed its mistress's instructions.  It found the last remaining vampire and sent a blazing fist crashing down upon her.  The undead sorceress's _resist fire_ spell prevented her from catching fire but did nothing against the solid blow that was landed upon her and she staggered from the onslaught.  But channeling arcane power through her undead body, she brought forth a _chain lightning_ spell, centered upon the fire elemental and arcing off to strike Jhasspok and Khari - but again, the dwarf had been protected by Cramer's _holy aura_ spell and was not at all affected.  Jhasspok, with little arcs of electricity rising up and down his body and the charred scales on his face already starting to peel away, had no idea why the dwarves were all of a sudden seemingly immune to the effects of magic.

Utred activated his _winged boots_ and flew over in the direction the _chain lightning_ spell had originated, finding the vampire sorceress in that fashion.  He brought his greataxe crashing down upon her, slicing a deep gash in her undead flesh, before Jhasspok stormed over and brought the killing blow.  She exploded into a fine mist that soon dissipated to nothingness.

<Is that all of them?> Utred called out, looking in all directions for more vampires to kill.

<That's all seven of them dead,> Marlo confirmed, being the only one who'd been able to see in the whole chamber during the entire fight (besides the vampires).  She scanned the chamber in all directions.  <And there are no signs of coffins anywhere.>

That was all Utred needed to hear; switching out his greataxe for the _Null Axe, _he began chopping away at the tentacles from the depowered Writhing Gate at their roots.  As he chopped through each one, the extraplanar hole from which it emerged sealed up.  Once all ten had been severed in such a fashion, the darkness effect went away as well.

"Ew!" complained Marlo, getting a close look at one of the severed tentacles.  There were puncture marks all up and down its length, and a quick perusal of the other severed appendages showed they too had been likewise penetrated by vampire fangs.  "Those vampires have survived all this time - all these centuries! - by sucking the blood of the Dying One!"

"No wonder they were so strong!" exclaimed Utred.

"I _thought_ they were a little on the tough side," admitted Khari as Cramer cast a few choice healing spells on Jhasspok.  The lizardfolk was busy pulling dead scales off of his face; as he'd expected, once the battle was over and he calmed down the pain had showed up in full force.  He looked over to the dwarves, neither of whom had been particularly hurt in the fight with the vampires, at least not to the extent the lizardfolk had been.

"Whatcha thinking, Jhasspok?" asked the cleric as he cast the last healing spell the lizardfolk would need, by the look of things.

Jhasspok tried to organize his thoughts as he pondered why the dwarves hadn't been as beaten up by the vampires' spells as he had been.  Finally, he just summed it all up with, "Magic is _weird_."

"To non-practitioners, it most certainly can appear to be so," agreed the gnome cheerfully.  Jhasspok just grunted and decided to ask Utred what a "non-practitioner" was, if he remembered later on.

 - - -

As we had pretty much expected, this was just one big fight against a group of vampiric members of a Seekers of Eternity sect who had been holed up for centuries in a Writhing Gate chamber.  Of course, the fact that they'd been drinking the Dying One's blood all this time had granted them all the pseudonatural template, which we hadn't expected!

Incidentally, we did a bit of "retroactive continuity" during this session when we were looking through the Writhing Gates we still needed to take down and realized we had never dealt with the one we'd originally used, a day and a half from the Overreach.  Logan decided since we had recently spent a good 3-4 weeks waiting for our protective items to be crafted (that would allow us to survive the life-draining effects of the Desolate Waste), it made sense that we'd have spent part of that time taking out that Writhing Gate, which wasn't guarded by anything in the meantime.  So by the power of DM hand-waving, we deemed it to have been already accomplished.

And we gained enough XP to reach 17th level at the end of this session.  So we're rapidly reaching the end of this campaign, with just another four Writhing Gates to go.  And we've decided for the follow-on Wednesday night campaign, Logan will be turning the DM reins over to Dan, who'll be running us through a campaign set in Greyhawk.  So Logan and I will both get to be players together for the first time in over a decade, since a few one-shot games in our local comics/game shop.  (Those had been pretty pathetic one-shots, too, by the way, which led us looking for our gaming fun elsewhere; I ran Logan through a solo Champions game for a while before we started up our first D&D 3.5 campaign with Dan and his family.)


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## Richards (Jan 15, 2022)

*ADVENTURE 50: MYSTERIES OF THE ISLE OF FIVE GODS*

PC Roster: 
Cramer Appleknocker, gnome cleric 17​Jhasspok, lizardman 3/barbarian 3/fighter 11​Khari Hammerslammer, dwarf fighter 16/psychic warrior 1​Marlo Pendragon, human sorcerer 17​Utred "Buckets" Butterflinger, dwarf barbarian 17​
Game Session Date: 12 January 2022

 - - -

Skevros was not entirely pleased to see the group of five foreign adventurers enter the _Enchanted Flagon_, given these were the idiots responsible for having freed the Mithral Mage from Dwarven Hell.  Still, his own group of adventurers - the Durnhill Conscripts - had by this time seemingly taken care of the Mithral Mage on a permanent basis, so he was willing to at least hear what they had to say.

"Yes?" he asked as they entered the room.  He waved away Karen, who had stepped forward to see if any of them needed any drinks; he wanted this conversation to be short and sweet and the offer of beverages would only draw out their visit.

"We met with a cleric of Boccob named Khier, over in the Azure Glade," replied Cramer Appleknocker.  "He suggested we visit you, to see what all you can tell us about Jakura."

Skevros briefly considered bringing *Mikito* into the conversation as she was from that far-eastern land, but again the thought of getting rid of these five as quickly as possible was foremost in his mind.  "And what exact would you like to know about Jakura?" asked the king's adviser.

"We were told you had a quick means of getting us there," added Marlo.

That finally brought a smile to the adviser's frowning face; he was perfectly willing to aid these bunglers in heading over to the other side of the world.  "Ah, I see," he answered.  "Yes, there is a specific boulder that the Seekers of Eternity had set up as a teleport trap of sorts; the mere act of touching it sends you to the 'Forest of Ghosts' in Jakura, so named because the locals there believe the people who randomly show up there on occasion - as a result of the teleport trap - are in fact ghosts."  He gave them directions on where to find the specific boulder.

"Seems easy enough," grunted Utred.  "And once we're there, do you know where the Jakuran Writhing Gate might be located?"

"It's the Gate of Sardegon," Marlo added helpfully.

"Ah, no, actually - I'm afraid my knowledge of these Writhing Gates is somewhat lacking.  I can tell you, however, that since Jakura is on the other side of the world it is night there when it's day here, and vice versa."

Jhasspok's reptilian brow furrowed in puzzlement.  "Is that normal?" he asked Utred.

"It's magic," replied Utred, knowing perfectly well it was not but also knowing that was the one answer he could give the lizardfolk to ensure there were no additional questions about it.  And he was right; Jhasspok shrugged and considered the matter sufficiently explained.

"Are we going to head out right away?" asked Khari.  "Or rest up and get a fresh start in the morning?"

"The latter, I think," answered Cramer.  "I think we'd best head into any potential Writhing Gate situation with a full bevy of spells at the ready."  He looked back at Skevros.  "Hey, I noticed there are rooms on the floor above," he began but Skevros cut him off.

"There are currently no vacancies," the red-clad wizard informed them.  But then he took pity on the group and directed them to a reputable inn not far away.

The inn was nothing spectacular, but at least they allowed Jhasspok entry with sufficient vouching on the part of the others that he was intelligent enough not to damage the furniture or shred the bedding.  Just to be sure, the lizardfolk slept in the corner of his room on the floor; he'd grown up sleeping on solid stone floors in the Underdark so it was no particular hardship for him.  And in the morning the group took off for the boulder that would _teleport_ them halfway across the world.

"This looks like it," Utred said when they had arrived.  "I'll go first, if you like."

"Hold up - prep spells first," said Marlo, grabbing hold of the barbarian's shoulder before he took off.  The sorceress cast a _Rary's telepathic bond_ spell on everyone and a _stoneskin_ spell on Jhasspok, while Cramer cast his traditional _longstrider_ and _moment of prescience_ spells on himself.  Then, declaring himself ready, he suggested everyone touch the boulder at the same time.  "Best if we stay together," he said.

Unfortunately, it didn't work out that way.  Perhaps because of the great distances involved, each of the five adventurers ended up alone in the Forest of Ghosts.  And sure enough, just as Skevros had said it was night out despite it being a bright, sunny morning back on the other side of the world.  Still, the moon was out and most of the former slaves had their _slave-light cloaks_ active and shedding illumination.

There was the sound of running water ahead and each of the five headed toward it.  Sure enough, in a clearing in the forest a small, curved bridge spanned the small stream and upon it stood two women in tight-fitting robes, each carrying what looked to be a paper lantern.

Utred was the first to step into the clearing and he faced the two women, _flaming Elderwood greataxe_ in hand.  He could tell they were casting some sort of spell - he might not be a spellcaster himself but at this point he certainly knew the signs of a spell being cast - and their voices were soft, their language almost musical.  The dwarf got no sense of danger from them, so he started walking in their direction, more out of curiosity than any desire to fight them.  And then he found out what spell they had been casting, as their musical language abruptly switched over to the Common tongue he was used to hearing over on the other side of the world.  "We are here to greet the Champions of the Dark and bring them to our temple," they said.

<Guys!> Utred called over the link.  <Head over to a bridge over the stream!  We got a welcoming committee of some sort!>

The others made their way through the strangest forest they'd ever seen - with trees that seemed to be made of straight pipes - and found their way to the bridge.

"We greet you," the women said when all five had been assembled.  "I am *Tsune*," said one and "I am *Kitsu*" said the other.  They explained divinations had warned them the five would be arriving tonight in the Forest of Ghosts and they would be instrumental in the reincarnation of their gods.  They then bid the group to follow them to their temple.  "There we can commune with the god-eggs," said Tsune.  "They will surely inform you of whatever roles you will play in their rebirth."

But as they approached the temple the women gasped in unison.  "An _alarm_ spell has been triggered!" Kitsu explained.  "The temple is under attack!"

Hurrying their pace as best they could - Marlo frowned at the impracticality of the tightness of the kimonos the women wore, which permitted them to take very tiny steps indeed - the group made it to the grounds in time to see eight hulking figures slaughtering the temple's defenses.  "Oni!" cried Kitsu, aghast.  The attackers were humanoid in build but each about 10 feet tall, with skin tones ranging from light blue to light green and curved horns growing out of their skulls.  They wielded enormous swords with but a single slicing edge and used them to devastating effect, cutting down the temple guards with practiced ease.  Already the ground was littered with half a dozen armored defenders; only five remained to fend off the eight giants.

Utred took off in a flash, barreling straight for the closest of these "oni," this one fighting a priestess of some sort who wielded a much smaller version of the giant's blade.  She was holding her own, but mainly by dodging the oni's attacks, stabbing in with a quick attack of her own only when the opportunity arose.  Utred got in a deep cut with his greataxe before the oni was aware of his presence, for his back had been turned to the charging dwarf.  But the giant quickly shifted position so he could see both of his foes at once.  "Korobokuru!" he snorted, but Utred had no idea what that even meant.

Kitsu and Tsune stopped at the edge of the temple grounds to cast spells into the melee.  Unfortunately, their _rebuke_ spells were only effective against but a single oni, but that one froze up, stunned into stopping his attack against the priestess he'd been trying to slay, allowing her to aid one of her sisters still under attack by this horde of invaders.

Khari charged the same oni Utred was fighting, changing the odds to three against one.  His warhammer slammed into the oni's knee, causing him to scream in pain at the sound of shattering bone.  Behind the dwarf, Cramer cast a _bless_ spell on the assembled group, to include the priestesses he could see fighting the oni.  The oni brought his katana crashing down upon Khari, but the dwarven fighter deflected the blow with his shield, grunting at the effort for the oni had a considerable amount of strength behind the blow.  As for the oni, he could see these korobokuru would be much fiercer opponents than the hengeyokai who dwelled in this place and practically ignored her to concentrate on the dwarves.  All around him, his oni brothers slew their opponents with practiced ease, leaving but one of the original temple guardians, as well as the five adventurers, Tsune, and Kitsu.  The guardian broke ranks to report to the two shrine maidens who had met up with the newcomers at the bridge.

Jhasspok charged at the wounded oni fighting his dwarven friends, taking a hit from his oversized sword in the process - but Marlo's _stoneskin_ spell absorbed most of that damage and the lizardfolk's battleaxe went slicing through the oni's armor to cut a gouge in his flesh.

Marlo decided to try out a new spell she'd just learned and an _incendiary cloud_ spell encompassed the stunned oni and two of its brethren, their hengeyokai combatants having already been slain.  Their flesh puckered and blistered under the heat of the spell.

Utred polished off the oni he'd been fighting and he crashed to the ground, their first kill.  The shrine maidens, seeing the heroes' obviously superior combat skills, called out to them, "We will set the bodies ablaze as you kill them - otherwise they will regenerate and return to life!"  And they poured oil upon the corpse of the oni Utred had just slain, setting it ablaze with their lanterns and stepping back before they were caught in the blaze.

Khari charged at another oni, dipping beneath the ground as he did so to ensure the giant wouldn't know from which way he'd be coming.  Popping up from undisturbed earth, he brought his warhammer crashing down into the small of the oni's back, forcing a roar of pain from the ogre mage.  Cramer picked a different oni and decided to do likewise, charging him with his _flaming Elderwood heavy mace_.  That caused Jhasspok's scaled brow to furrow in puzzlement once again, for he knew the little gnome was capable of powerful magic and was unsure why he'd try to hold his own against a foe easily three times his own height.

Running low on temple defenders, the oni started converging on those who were still up and fighting.  Cramer and Khari each found themselves fighting off two oni at once, but their childhood training fighting against giants much larger than themselves came in good stead, allowing them to effortlessly dodge the incoming strikes with the massive, curved swords.

Jhasspok raced across the field and leaped into combat with one of the oni attacking Cramer, worried about the little gnome finding himself in hand-to-hand combat - definitely not his preferred element.  Once again his battleaxe drew blood.

The two mobile oni caught in Marlo's _incendiary cloud_ spell ran out of its confines and congratulated themselves in having escaped a particularly horrible fate, but then Marlo put that horrible fate right back on the table by controlling the cloud's movement to chase right after them, engulfing them in a cloud of burning cinders once again.  And the oni stunned into immobility by the shrine maidens' spell hadn't left the spell's effect at all, but continued burning up.

And Marlo wasn't done with the others just yet.  She picked an oni and slew him outright with an _empowered maximized scorching ray_ spell, certain his burning corpse wouldn't be regenerating any time soon, if what the shrine maidens had said about burning their corpses had been on track.

Utred charged one of the oni attacking Khari, cutting a deep gash across his chest.  Then Khari's warhammer crushed the ogre mage's ribs and he fell to the ground, dead.  The dwarves whooped in delight and looked around for the next nearest foe.

Cramer backed up out of combat range and cast a _searing light_ spell at one of the oni but failed to overcome its inherent resistance to spells and the dweomer fizzled away to nothingness.  He tried again immediately with a _quickened searing light_ spell with the same result; the sounds of gnomish cursing could then be heard across the battlefield.  If the shrine maidens understood the specifics of what he said - a surety, given their _tongues_ spell was still active - they had the decorum not to notice.

One of the oni took a moment to look around at the specific locations of the forces arrayed against him and moved into the position where he could do the most harm.  However, in doing so he came within striking distance of Jhasspox's battleaxe and the lizardfolk cut him down before he could do whatever it was he was going to do.  But then another oni came to the same conclusion and stepped into position nearby, casting forth a _cone of cold_ that encompassed all of the temple defenders.  Another ogre mage vanished from sight, engulfed by an _invisibility_ spell.

Jhasspok rushed up to attack the oni who had just cast the _cone of cold_ spell on everyone, not sure if that was something they could all do or just this one; this one had demonstrated an ability to cast the spell, though, so Jhasspok opted to go for him first.  His battleaxe made contact with his target but failed to bring him down.

Marlo followed suit - in a way - with the cold-blasting oni's tactics, taking a moment to scrutinize the battlefield and seeing a point where a _fireball_ spell could encompass three of the oni at once.  She cast the spell, tweaking it to make it both _empowered_ and _maximized_ and grinned as all three oni fell to the ground, dead.  But then she was distracted by a movement above her, the numerous orbs on her _robe of eyes_ allowing her to see in all directions.  At the edge of her enhanced vision, a pair of female oni flew into her magical awareness and then right back out again, as they made a bee-line toward a distant mountain.  The sorceress could tell they were both invisible and unable to be seen by any of the others, but an _invisibility_ spell was useless against the magic eyes on her garment.

Of course, by this time there was but a single ogre mage left of the original eight who had attacked the temple, and he didn't last very long against Utred's rage-enhanced attacks with his greataxe.  Tsune and Kitsu set fire to those whose bodies weren't already blazing from one of Marlo's spells.  Then they signaled for the heroes to follow them and ran (in their tiny steps) into the temple proper.  Sure enough, a quick search revealed the five god-eggs had been stolen and the master of the temple was missing; both the eggs and the master had likely been taken by the pair of invisible female oni Marlo had spotted.  "The male oni were merely a distraction!" Kitsu sighed as realization sunk in.

"Do you know where the females would go?" Cramer asked the shrine maidens.

"They are known to lair in the mountains," Tsune replied.

"That's the way they were headed," Marlo confirmed.

"Then that must be your task," Kitsu said.  "Tsune and I will remain behind to tend to the wounded and see about raising those who have been slain, while you five go after the female oni and retrieve the god-eggs and the master of the temple!"

"Gather up," Marlo told the others.  "I can cast a _greater teleport_ that'll get us to the mountain they were headed for.  After that, we'll just have to look around to find them."  Everyone converged on Marlo, reaching out to make sure all five were touching, and the sorceress cast her spell.  In an instant, they were on a winding ledge leading up to the top of the mountain.  The ledge widened in some areas and narrowed in others, but from what they could see it seemed to stay wide enough that falling off the side of the mountain wouldn't likely be an issue.

<We'll wanna spread out a bit so we can't all be taken at once by another _cone of cold_,> advised Utred as Cramer crawled up to his customary place atop the dwarven barbarian's backpack.  Marlo had bent down upon arrival and was fastening one end of a silk rope to an ankle, then tied the other end to Utred's belt.  "Off you go," she said, levitating up as high as she could go while the barbarian started racing up just above the sloping path around the side of the mountain peak, using his _winged boots_ to increase his already considerable speed.  The climb led him in a clockwise direction, with Marlo being towed behind and above, looking down in all directions at once.

Khari decided to take a shortcut through the interior of the mountain, using his _earthglide warhammer_ to burrow through the solid stone and pop back out around the corner, back onto the ledge again.  However, he popped out of the stone much sooner than he had expected, inadvertently discovering a hidden cave interior, with two entrances to the ledge outside, both hidden by _illusory wall_ spells.  (Utred had flown right past the nearest illusion, and Marlo was already too high in the air to have been able to see it with her magical robe-enhanced vision.)  With his dwarven darkvision, Khari could see perfectly well the two oni sisters, one with blue skin and one with skin as dark as the night sky, standing at either hidden entrance.  The dwarf made a frantic report of his findings over the telepathic link.

<Back!  Go back the way we came!> called Cramer, giving directions to Utred while he sat upon the barbarian's backpack.  <I can cast a _holy aura_ spell on us now that we've found them, but we all need to be together!>  He brought the words to the spell to the forefront of his mind, ready to begin the prayer as soon as everyone was in place.

Jhasspok couldn't see the _illusory wall_ as anything but solid stone but he trusted his dwarven fighter friend and raced through it, surprised to see himself inside a cave facing a black-skinned ogre mage not 15 feet away.  He charged at her, swinging his battleaxe into her side, and *Maru* gave a grunt of pain at the attack.

Marlo _levitated_ back down to ground level and then skittered over the rock of the mountain, using her _ring of spider climbing_ to do so.  Maru backed off, throwing a _fireball_ spell that encompassed Jhasspok, Marlo, and Khari.  At the other end of the cavern, the blue-skinned *Meru* ran through the other _illusory wall_ and out into the open air.  From her vantage point higher up the winding ledge, she could see Utred and Cramer and cast a _slow_ spell at the two of them.  Fortunately, neither was affected.

Utred ignored the spell-attack and flew through the southern entrance, following behind Jhasspok and Marlo.  While the dwarf brought his greataxe swinging into Maru's flesh, Cramer cast the _holy aura_ spell on the assembled group, instantly increasing all of their combat capabilities considerably.  Khari took immediate advantage of his upgraded status by knocking Maru into unconsciousness with a mighty blow from his warhammer.  Her unmoving body was already beginning to regenerate the damage it had taken, but the dwarf judged she'd be out long enough for them to be able to concentrate their attacks on the blue oni; once both were down they could worry about setting them ablaze to prevent their return to mobility.

Seeing Maru down, Jhasspok raced out of the obscured cave entrance and back down the ledge.  He turned the corner and saw Meru up ahead on the path along the mountain side and began sprinting in her direction, realizing she was too far away for him to be able to reach her before she could use a _cone of cold_ (or who knew what other type of magic?) against him.  She opted to go with a _charm person_ spell, finding it quite appropriate to send this hulking lizard-man against those who had come after her and her sister after their theft at the temple.  But surprisingly - to both Meru and Jhasspok - the lizardfolk was able to shrug the spell's effects away, concentrated as he was on reaching the female oni before she could take him out of the fight.  She frowned as the reptile kept charging up the ledge towards her, then opted to fly 40 feet in the air, well out of his range.

Cramer cast a _mass heal_ on everyone still in the cave; Jhasspok missed out again by dint of being too far away.  Then Marlo decided to take care of Maru once and for all, setting her body ablaze with a _scorching ray_ spell.  Utred reactivated his _winged boots_ and flew down the length of the cavern, passing a set of five eggs (each slightly bigger than a human head) and the body of an elderly man propped up against the back wall at the far end of the oblong chamber.  Cramer clung precariously onto the barbarian's backpack, holding on for dear life.  The two popped through the far _illusory wall_ spell shielding the entrance from view and then Cramer - alerted over the telepathic link by Jhasspok about the oni's current position - found her above them and cast a _destruction_ spell at her.  The magic did its work and the oni plummeted back to the ground, her blue-skinned body getting battered by the rocks of the mountain side as she fell.

<Got her!> Cramer announced over the telepathic link.

Marlo had been following Utred's path through the cavern when she saw the eggs and the temple's master, an aged fox hengeyokai.  She raced to the old man and felt no pulse at his neck; his body was already cold to the touch.  Then she turned her gaze to the five eggs, lined up against the back wall.  <The eggs are in here!> she informed the others and opened the _bag of holding_ she kept in a pouch at her belt, thinking it the best way to transport the god-eggs back to the temple.

But the god-eggs had other thoughts.  *<KEEP YOUR DISTANCE, UNCLEAN THING!>* boomed a voice over the telepathic link that for once had more than Jhasspok crying out in surprise.  *<WE WILL NOT BE TOUCHED BY THOSE REEKING WITH THE TAINT OF THE DESTROYER!>*  After a brief discussion, Khari gently lifted each egg into the _bag of holding_ and then carried the bag until the group got back to the temple.  (Nobody wanted to let Jhasspok anywhere near the god-eggs, fearing he'd eat them.  They also wouldn't let him carry the body of the temple's leader, for the same reason.)  So with Cramer back on the ground, Utred lifting the body of the aged temple master, and Khari holding the _bag of holding_, Marlo cast another _greater teleport_ spell and the group was once more back on the temple grounds.

Tsune and Kitsu had been busy with the bodies of those slain by the oni fighters but dropped everything at the approach of the five prophesied strangers from the Forest of Ghosts.  They gasped in relief as Khari opened up the _bag of holding_ and reverently pulled each of the five god-eggs out, handing them to the shrine maidens.  They were restored back to the place they'd been held, awaiting the reincarnation of the five gods of Jakura.

As for the body of the slain temple master, a _speak with dead_ spell revealed he did not wish to return to the land of the living, feeling he had lived out his allotted span.  He asked that two items be passed to the five heroes as a thanks for their assistance in seeing to the return of the god-eggs: a set of _prayer beads of positive channeling_ and a _tail-band of raptor strikes_.  The first item was given to Cramer; it allowed him to spontaneously convert his more powerful spells into _heal_ and _mass heal_ spells.  The second item was obviously of no use to anyone but Jhasspok and it allowed him to make a frenzied attack when charging into battle.

But the group received one more gift before they left: a telepathic message from the nascent gods whose spirits resided in the eggs the heroes had rescued.  *<THAT WHICH YOU SEEK, THE GATE OF SARDEGON, IS SEALED BENEATH THE PALACE OF THE EMPEROR.>*

"Well then," Cramer said to the others.  "I guess we're off to see the Emperor of Jakura!"

 - - -

This was an unusual session in that Joe stayed home at his house - he'd gotten behind in his homework and as a result Dan ran Utred as well as his own Cramer.  Which, if nothing else, prevented Joe from being incessantly called "Unclean Thing" - a term we applied to Vicki as often as possible once Marlo had been chided by the god-eggs.  But we're playing again today in our other campaign, so we'll all be sure to call Joe "Unclean Thing" as well to make up for it.  (They're still getting off pretty easy, considering Marlo got a permanent +6 Charisma boost and Utred got a permanent +6 Constitution boost for agreeing to serve the Undying One, said ability score increases remaining behind after we'd gotten the Undying One killed.)


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## Richards (Jan 29, 2022)

*ADVENTURE 51: BEHIND THE JADE DOOR*

PC Roster:
Cramer Appleknocker, gnome cleric 17​Jhasspok, lizardman 3/barbarian 3/fighter 11​Khari Hammerslammer, dwarf fighter 16/psychic warrior 1​Marlo Pendragon, human sorcerer 17​Utred "Buckets" Butterflinger, dwarf barbarian 17​
Game Session Date: 26 January 2022

 - - -

*<AS A REWARD FOR ENSURING OUR SAFETY, YOU MAY EACH ASK OF US ONE QUESTION.  WE WILL RESPOND AS BEST WE CAN.>*

The five heroes talked among themselves.  It wasn't every day they could ask freely any questions they wanted of five gods, even if said gods were in the form of eggs waiting to be reborn.  "They might know about the locations of the other Writhing Gates and how to get there," mused Cramer.  He pulled out the notes he had written down about the ten Writhing Gates, studying them to see where they were still lacking information.  Marlo and the two dwarves looked over his shoulder - rather easily, as the gnome was the shortest member of the team.

But Jhasspok - who couldn't read in any case - didn't need to study any notes to know what he wanted to ask.  He was worried about two of his friends, especially about the reception they had received by the god-eggs, who didn't even want to be touched by Marlo or Utred, whom they termed "Unclean Things."  Before any of the others could stop him, Jhasspok blurted out his question: "How can my friends Marlo and Utred stop being Unclean Things?"  The lizardfolk didn't quite understand what all being an Unclean Thing was but it didn't sound good.

*<ATONE, AND CAST AWAY THE GIFTS OF THE DYING ONE,>* responded the voice of the god-eggs in the minds of the five heroes.  Marlo and Utred each frowned, knowing that to cast away the gifts of the Dying One meant a significant decrease in spellcasting ability in the case of the sorceress and a major lessening of the barbarian's ability to ignore wounds in battle.

Khari was the next to ask his question.  "How do we get to the Gate of Rylethek?" he asked, knowing from their notes that this Writhing Gate was supposed to be underwater somewhere.  The problem was, there was a lot of "underwater" covering the planet and there was no real easy method of searching below the water in any case.

But the god-eggs had the answer to that one as well.  *<SEEK THE MERFOLK OF YONDALL'S BAY, FOR THEY CAN LEAD YOU TO WHERE YOU NEED TO GO.>*  "Yondall's Bay - we know where that is!" remarked Cramer, jotting notes in the margins of his sheet of parchment to update the information they had about the various gates.

Utred's question was of a more personal nature, based on the information he had just received as a result of Jhasspok's question.  "Can I atone without losing the increased toughness I rely upon in battle to allow me to keep fighting for the benefit of the whole world and everyone on it?" the dwarven barbarian asked.  He hoped by phrasing it in that fashion it might make it more palatable for him to be allowed to maintain his heightened constitution.  But the answer he got was the shortest one of the bunch.

*<NO.>*

Marlo was on the same wavelength as Utred, hoping to find a way to keep the enhancements they had each received from the Dying One - by secretly agreeing to serve the illithid Elder God, even though the five of them had been prophesied to fight against Him and prevent Him from destroying the world with His return.  "Just out of curiosity, what would happen if the two of us decided to remain 'Unclean Things,' as you put it?" she asked.  If the only downside to maintaining her additional spellcasting power was being called names by a bunch of reincarnating gods from the other side of the world, she personally could live with that.

*<YOU WILL BE MORE VULNERABLE TO CORRUPTION FROM THE OUTSIDE.>*  Marlo's frown only intensified, realizing "the outside" was the god-eggs' term for the Far Realm.  And the numerous tentacles sprouting out of the body of her toad familiar Truffles was enough of an indicator of one potential fate of Far Realm corruption to make it less than appealing.

Finally, Cramer voiced his question.  "How do we get to the Gate of Svulbiss?" he asked, zeroing in on the Writhing Gate they had determined was likely on the top of a cloud island somewhere.  Similar to the problems of locating the underwater gate, finding it among all of the clouds in the skies would be problematic at best.

*<WHEN THE TIME IS RIGHT, RETURN TO OVERREACH AND THE PATH WILL BE REVEALED.  NOW GO.>*

The heroes left the chamber in which the god-eggs had been deposited.  "You are welcome to spend the night in the temple," offered Kitsu, one of the fox hengeyokai serving in the shrine.  The heroes took her up on the offer, knowing they'd need to find the Gate of Sardegon in the morning, the Writhing Gate under the palace of the Emperor.

"Any ideas on how to go about getting to the Writhing Gate underneath the Emperor's throne?" asked Cramer.  "I don't know if just asking nicely will be enough incentive."

"You basically have three approaches," suggested the hengeyokai Tsune.  "The first is to start a revolt against the Emperor and sneak into the palace while the main force protecting it is occupied."

"I think we'll probably pass on that one," the gnome replied.

"The second option is a full-frontal assault" - and here Utred perked his head up and gave the young woman his full attention, for "full-frontal assault" were two of his favorite words strung together - "against the troops guarding the Emperor's palace.  You are probably capable of overcoming his forces, but to do so would retroactively prove the Emperor's fears against outside countries and reunify Jakura against the outside world.  This was the reason they joined with the forces attacking Greenvale in your part of the world."

"Not a real big plan of that option, either," Khari commented.  Utred just glared at his fellow dwarf, surprised that anyone would be _against_ a full-frontal assault - the best kind of fun!

"Your third option is to fill the role of Greenvale's envoy once more and broker a formal end to the war, with access to the Jade Door as part of the peace terms."  Tsune looked at the group expectantly.

"I think I like that one best," Cramer admitted.  He looked over at Marlo.  "You up to being our spokeswoman again?"

"Of course," replied the sorceress, tapping her _circlet of persuasion_.  Even without the Dying One's blessing, she had already seen to increasing her persuasiveness through magical means.  "I'll need a _tongues_ spell so I can speak to the Emperor in his own language."

"You got it," promised the gnome.

And thus it was the following morning the five heroes from halfway across the world came knocking at the door of the Jade Palace.  Upon being granted entry and an audience with the Emperor, the Jakuran leader was convinced to sign a treaty ending hostilities with Greenvale.  It was an easy enough decision, especially since they had been beaten back so readily upon their attack and these envoys indicated Greenvale had no desire for retribution.  Granting the five strangers access to the Jade Door was also an easy concession to make, especially after the Emperor's own spellcasters confirmed the truth that the five could easily destroy the evil locked away behind the Jade Door, which was the whole reason this palace had been built where it was.  Cramer was presented with the Jade Key, which felt fine in his hands; for Marlo and Utred, it seemed uncomfortably warm - perhaps another indicator that there were heretofore unseen disadvantages to the Dying One's enhancements.

With a clap of his hands, the Emperor summoned a pair of attendants who escorted the five strangers to the Jade Door, then fled for their own safety before it was opened to the evil lurking behind it.  "Let's buff up," advised Cramer and Marlo cast the standard _Rary's telepathic bond_ spell that linked the five together telepathically.  She then cast three _stoneskin_ spells on the men (other than Utred, who claimed he didn't need it), already protected herself by a similar effect from the _brooch of petrified flesh_ she wore pinned to her _robe of eyes_.

<Ready?> asked Cramer over the link.

<Ready!> confirmed Marlo as Jhasspok gave a startled cry of alarm at the sudden voice in his head - he'd never get used to that spell!  Then Cramer used the Jade Key and opened the door.

To his surprise, there were three people standing on the other side of the door, having been trying to pick the lock from the other side.  They were all drow dressed in black leather armor, with House insignias indicating they were from a Lesser House of Overreach allied with House Bel'vior, whose most recent Matron Mother had been none other than the Mortal Queen herself.  Before anyone else could react, the gnome cleric cast a _quickened searing light_ spell at one of the drow, who dodged the ray at the last moment, followed by a _flame strike_ spell that caused a column of holy fire to drop down from above.  But of the three drow rogues standing immediately before him, two of them managed to maneuver themselves out of the way of the cascading flames and the third was entirely unaffected thanks to the inherent resistance to spells enjoyed by members of the dark elf race.  Having had all of his impressive spellcasting negated entirely, Cramer dodged to the side, hiding behind the impressive bulk of Utred Butterflinger.

Utred charged forward and cut the first drow down with a solid overhand blow of his _Elderwood flaming greataxe_.  Without missing a beat, he yanked the weapon out of the slain dark elf and sent it backhanding into his neighbor, not managing to kill the second drow but coming fairly close to finishing that particular job.  Staggering back, the drow managed to fill his hands with a rapier and a short sword and went stabbing forward with both weapons against Utred.  The third drow, a bit further back than the others, shot at Utred with a poisoned hand crossbow and then turned and raced down the stairs behind him, calling out in the Drow tongue to others further down the stairs.  But both Marlo and Cramer understood Drow fully and translated over the telepathic link for the others: <He's saying, "The Jalamir slaves are here!">

<Nice to be recognized,> smirked Utred.

Marlo cast an _empowered maximized scorching ray_ spell, sending two gouts of flame at the drow fighting Utred (which killed him outright) and the third chasing after the drow rogue fleeing down the stairs.  Khari rushed in, saw the slope of the spiraling steps leading down, and used his _earthglide warhammer_ to take a shortcut through the stone floor.  Jhasspok had no means of taking a shortcut in that fashion and so dedicated himself to racing down the winding stairs as fast as he could go, his battleaxe held at the ready in his shield hand and his _flaming spear_ - his go-to ranged weapon - held in his right.  As soon as he saw the fleeing rogue he threw the spear with all his might, catching the drow in the shoulder and toppling him forward.  The lizardfolk could hear the sounds of booted feet clambering up the stairs, some distance below him.

At the bottom of the winding stairs stood a much larger chamber, in which was the now-familiar sight of a Writhing Gate.  But none of the heroes had made it far enough down to see it yet and there were no light sources down there in any case by which to see it.  But sitting in one of the seats before a collapsed tentacle was a drow cleric who began the casting of a _forbiddance_ spell.  The spell took some time to cast, but she had full faith in the five drow fighters rushing up the steps to head off any threat to their leader.  Her main bodyguard, an anti-paladin from her same House, cast a _magic circle against good_ spell, unaware that the only one of the five intruders it would affect was Khari Hammerslammer.

Cramer dashed forward, his speed enhanced by the _longstrider_ spell he had cast before entering the Jade Door, and positioned himself such that his _holy aura_ spell could encompass all five of the heroes.  Utred raced past the gnome, focused on slaying the drow rogue Jhasspok's _flaming spear_ had sent tumbling, but by the time he reached his target the drow had regained his feet.  The dwarf tried grappling with the drow but the rogue danced nimbly away, stabbing at Utred with his blades.  But with the _holy aura_ spell now in full effect, the few scant drops of blood his blade drew from Utred's skin was paid for by a permanent blindness covering the attacking drow's eyes.  He cried out in alarm, but already he was too blind to see Utred's wide grin at the predicament of his current combat foe.  The hapless roguee stabbed ineffectually at the barbarian, unaware he had just been targeted by Marlo with an _empowered magic missile_ spell which had failed to penetrate his own spell resistance.  But then Khari knocked him senseless with a solid blow from his dwarven warhammer and he fell to the ground, bleeding out.

Jhasspok snatched up his _flaming spear_ on his way down the stairs and was the first to meet up with the five drow fighters running up the stairs to meet the intruders in battle.  He swung at the nearest with his battleaxe as the ironsilk-clad fighter raced past the lizardfolk, catching him a good one but without enough power behind it to slay the drow outright.  Then he was past the lizardfolk and it was all Jhasspok could do to keep the longswords swinging at him from all directions from penetrating his own scaly hide.  Once again he was grateful for Marlo's _stoneskin_ spell, for without it there was no way he could fight off all five of these foes by himself, even just for long enough to allow the others to catch up with him and add their own attacks to the reptile's own.  On the plus side, two of the five fighters were struck blind after having attacked a foe under the protection of a _holy aura_ spell.

The drow cleric could see the light from Jhasspok's _slave-light cloak_ through the open doorway connecting the stairs to the Writhing Gate chamber and frantically continued her spellcasting.  The drow anti-paladin cast a _bull's strength_ spell upon himself, not in the least bit concerned for the fighters battling the enraged lizardfolk within view; that, after all, was the purpose of lesser combatants.   Cramer got within sight of the drow fighters piling on Jhasspok and cast a _mass inflict moderate wounds_ that had some effect on most of them.  Utred, having activated his _winged boots_ in order to speed even faster down the stairs, slammed into the closest of the drow fighters and let loose with his greataxe.  And then Marlo appeared from the curve of the stairs, casting another _maximized empowered scorching ray_ spell, only to curse in unladylike fury as the drow spell resistance completely negated each and every ray.

Khari took another through-the-wall shortcut and found himself directly behind one of the drow fighters attacking Jhasspok.  But while that particular drow seemed to be blind, the one standing next to him wasn't - and was bringing his weapons to bear against the Hammerslammer dwarf!  Activating his innate psionic abilities to boost his own attacks, Khari sent his warhammer's head crashing into the drow's side, crushing a rib or two in the swing.  The five drow were now up against Jhasspok, Utred, and Khari and between the three of them they finished the dark elves rather handily, considering most of them were blind by the end of the battle.

There was now nothing keeping the intruders at bay any longer.  The drow cleric continued her spellcasting, hoping to get the _forbiddance_ spell into effect before being interrupted by the Jalamir slaves.  The drow anti-paladin cast a _divine favor_ spell upon himself and started to step forward to place himself as a living barrier against anyone trying to get to the cleric behind him.

Jhasspok was the first to enter the lightless chamber.  Since he couldn't see anything inside, he did what he normally did in such circumstances: used his great speed to run straight forward, altering course when he found someone to attack.  The anti-paladin was well outside the illumination from the lizardfolk's _slave-light cloak_, so Jhasspok soon found himself face to face against the female drow, who snarled in fury at the possibility of having to abandon her _forbiddance_ spell due to the interruption; hopefully it wouldn't come to that!  She took a step back as the lizardfolk got his bearings, facing her in the light from his magic cloak.

Cramer moved forward, still outside the Writhing Gate chamber, activating his _ring of invisibility_ as he did so.  Behind him, Utred literally flew into the room, the wings on his boots granting him extra speed.  He saw the anti-paladin at once with his darkvision and angled his way, but the drow was amazingly quick and got in a couple of one-two swings with his longsword.  Utred had fully expected to ignore the blows - he very rarely even noticed his battle-wounds until the fight was over - but these had a familiar life-draining aspect to them that the barbarian recognized all too well.  <Guy's got a bloody _sword of life stealing_!> Utred warned the others over the link.  But then the anti-paladin cried out as well, not because the dwarf had managed to hit him - he hadn't, not yet - but because his own attacks against the dwarf had rendered him blind.  Cramer's _holy aura_ spell was turning out to have been the best possible avenue of protection the cleric of Fharlanghn could possibly have prepared.

Marlo, standing beside Cramer, targeted the blind anti-paladin with another _empowered maximized scorching ray_ and once again failed to penetrate the dark elf's inherent spell resistance.  "I hate drow!" she cried out in frustration, not bothering to use the telepathic link to get her message across.  Her verbal outburst echoed across the cavern for all to hear.

Khari, in the meantime, started running toward the anti-paladin but sank into the stone cavern floor as he did so, only to pop up behind him and send his warhammer crashing into the back of the drow's head.  Further back in the cavern, Jhasspok advanced to attack the cleric and was surprised when she stopped whatever spellcasting she had been trying to do and whipped out some sort of short staff with five wiggling tentacles at one end of it.  The _tentacle rod_ missed him - which caused her to swear in the Drow language, only some of the words recognizable to the lizardfolk - and then he attacked her with fury, his blade catching her in the side, on the elbow, and on the thigh in rapid succession.  Jhasspok gave it his all, especially now that he knew beyond any doubt that this was an evil drow he was fighting, for he recognized a few of those words she was cursing and no good person would ever use words like that!

The drow cleric faked a sprint in one direction and then doubled back in the other; Jhasspok managed to get in one good hit against her but then she was out of his range, fleeing to the potential safety of being at the anti-paladin's side.  She had been hoping to get close enough to him to cast a _mass heal_ spell on them both, but he was too far away; a _heal_ spell on herself would have to suffice for now, then.  She smiled as the wounds inflicted by Jhasspok's axe sealed themselves back up, restoring her to her full power.  And she was now far enough away from the lizardfolk to be outside of the radius of his cloak's illumination, so he couldn't see exactly where she had gotten to.

But that didn't last long, for Cramer cast a _daylight_ spell on a copper piece from his belt pouch and flipped it onto the stone floor, the spellcasting not actually an attack and thus preserving his current invisibility.  But the entire cavern was now visible to all, not just the drow and dwarves gifted with darkvision (and Marlo, who saw quite well through the eyes of her magic robe).  The sorceress dropped a hand to the gnome's shoulder and tried to _dimension door_ the two of them into the chamber, only to find the entire room had been protected with a _dimensional lock_ spell prohibiting such spells from working.  This was definitely not Marlo's day for successful spellcasting!

Utred attacked the anti-paladin again, with the drow reaching out blindly at the dwarven barbarian and casting a _corrupting hands_ spell at him.  Khari swung his warhammer into the drow, eliciting a grunt of pain from the anti-paladin.  But now that Jhasspok could see the foul-mouthed drow cleric perfectly well, he raced in a bee-line at her and used his new _tail-band of the raptor_ to engage in a frenzy of attacks upon reaching her, his blade slicing into her flesh as he brought his mouthful of sharp teeth snapping at her neck, drawing blood.

The blind anti-paladin didn't have a whole lot of fight left in him at this point.  He swung his evil blade at Utred again but the barbarian easily dodged the blow and then struck him with the full might of his own greataxe.  Marlo finished him off with an _empowered lightning bolt_ spell, crying out in surprised joy when the spell made its way through the drow's spell resistance.  "Did you see that?  I got him!" she cried exuberantly, once again forgoing the use of the telepathic link to hear her own words aloud.

Khari moved up to flank the drow cleric with Jhasspok, who held a chunk of her flesh in his mouth, her blood spilling out from between his teeth.  She stumbled past the dwarven fighter, taking a solid whack in the side from his hammer, just so she could cast a _time stop_ spell that she hoped would give her the advantage, now that she was facing five-against-one odds.  In the scant few seconds where she was the only one capable of movement, she cast the _mass heal_ spell she'd hoped to use earlier (overkill, but you played the hand that was dealt to you), as well as an _invisibility_ spell on herself that she hoped would keep her safe from being targeted as she raced to the open doorway, knowing full well from past experience the _dimensional lock_ spell wouldn't allow her to _teleport_ out of the chamber.

But she hadn't counted on Marlo's _robe of eyes_.  The sorceress wasn't sure how the drow spellcaster had somehow made it all the way across the chamber seemingly in a split second (for that was how things appeared to her after the drow's _time stop_ spell had run its course), but she called out to Cramer over the telepathic link.  <Cramer!  She's invisible, about ten feet to your left!>

Cramer responded by casting an _antimagic field_ spell, draining all magic in a radius around the drow cleric.  Her _invisibility_ spell was instantly suppressed, revealing her to everyone in the light of the _daylight_ spell cast upon the gnome's copper piece.  Jhasspok and the dwarves were on her in an instant, their weapons no longer magical but the sharpness of their blades and the solidity of Khari's hammer unaffected by the gnome's spell.  Armed only with her _tentacle rod_, the cleric didn't last long against the onslaught.

"That it?" Utred called, looking around the room for more enemies to fight - there could be some hiding behind the collapsed tentacles, perhaps.  But no, there was nobody else alive within the chamber but the five former slaves, so Utred unwrapped his Null Axe and got to work.  Before too long all ten tentacles had been severed, their stubs withdrawing back into the Far Realm and the extraplanar holes sealing up behind them.

"Another one down!" Cramer smiled, updating his parchment of notes.  "That only leaves three more to go!"

 - - -

We gained enough XP for us each to level up to 18th level at the end of this adventure.  And now Vicki and Joe are giving serious thought about having Cramer cast _atonement_ spells on their PCs, it finally having been driven home that accepting gifts from the Elder God you're trying to kill is probably not a good thing.  That means Marlo losing 6 points of Charisma and Utred losing 6 points of Constitution, but that probably beats sprouting tentacles all over your body, which at this point is still a distinct possibility.


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## Richards (Feb 6, 2022)

*ADVENTURE 52: REDEMPTION FOR THE UNCLEAN*

PC Roster:
Cramer Appleknocker, gnome cleric 18​Jhasspok, lizardman 3/barbarian 3/fighter 12​Khari Hammerslammer, dwarf fighter 17/psychic warrior 1​Marlo Pendragon, human sorcerer 18​Utred "Buckets" Butterflinger, dwarf barbarian 18​
Game Session Date: 2 February 2022

 - - -

"Well," said Marlo nervously as her _teleport_ spell brought her and her four companions across the miles.  "Here we are."

They stood in a clearing, the ruins of ancient buildings all around them.  This, according to the diviner Lauren back in Greenvale, was the entrance to the Halls of Redemption, a place where those wishing to atone for their past actions could be redeemed.  And Utred and Marlo both had some atoning to do, having learned that their ill-considered bargain with the Dying One for increased personal power could have some serious consequences in the future.  Having each been designated "Unclean Things" by the neophyte Jakuran gods awaiting rebirth, they wished to be forever parted from their alliance with the illithid Elder God, even if it meant giving up the additional power each had received from Uboros and which had had lingered on undiminished after His recent death.

"We'd better prepare for combat," Cramer advised, not knowing what to expect; Lauren had no details of what they might see within the Halls of Redemption, only the location of the place and that the other three adventurers would be allowed inside to aid their friends in their redemption.  Marlo cast _stoneskin_ spells upon all but herself and Cramer and then cast the traditional _Rary's telepathic bond_.  Cramer cast his own standard spells on himself: _longstrider_, _moment of prescience_, and _spell turning_.  Khari focused his mind and activated his _offensive prescience_ power, the better to aid the strikes with his _earthglide warhammer_.  "Thank you, Marlo," Jhasspok said, always grateful to be included in the protective spells that time had taught him was often that kept them all alive in their combats.

"So now what?" asked Utred.  "Where exactly is this Hall?"

As if in answer to the dwarven barbarian's question, two constructs stepped out of a crumbling wall, passing through it as if it were no more substantial than a mirage.  Their helmeted heads swiveled and focused on Marlo and Utred.  Speaking in unison, they said, "We have been warned of your impending arrival.  We shall waive the traditional challenge of entry that we will not be impaired should the retrieval of your bodies be necessary."

"Well, that's comforting!" grumbled Cramer under his breath.  He was starting to wonder if maybe he shouldn't try taking his argument back up about casting _atonement_ spells himself on the two "Unclean Things," despite Marlo's continued insistence she didn't want to be in the little gnome's debt.  But the two constructs stepped aside and gestured for the group to enter the Halls of Redemption as the _illusory walls_ hiding the entrance faded from between them.  "What can we expect inside?" Cramer asked the guardians, hoping to learn as much as he could beforehand, hopefully before they went too far along a path the gnome cleric was starting to think might not have been the wisest one to follow.

"You will have to purge your inner demons," replied the two constructs in unison.  "Two of you are in need of redemption, the others are encouraged to aid them as well, cleansing yourselves of your own inner demons as you do so."

The group stepped inside, the doors closing and sealing shut behind them.  The entire building was one great hall, with a red carpet going down the middle to a set of empty thrones at the far end. On either side, the walls held four alcoves apiece containing full-length mirrors.  Light was provided by flaming torches set in sconces at equal intervals around the hall.

But that wasn't all Marlo could see.  With her _robe of eyes_, she saw perfectly well the invisible figure seated in one of the thrones and watching them with an expression of calm interest.  "Are you in charge of this place?" Marlo asked, causing her companions to look around in confusion at who she might be addressing.  "What must we do to atone?"  Then, seeing her friends' confusion, she explained telepathically, <There's an invisible celestial sitting in one of the thrones.  Or I assume so - he's got feathered wings, in any case.>

Her answer came back telepathically - and to all five of the adventurers at once.  <I am indeed a celestial,> he explained.  <I address your attention to the mirrors on the sides of the hall.  You have but to step forward and look into one of the mirrors for your 'inner demon' to step forth.>

<Each of us?> asked Cramer.  _He_ didn't feel like he had any particular atoning to do.

<Each of you,> confirmed the celestial.  <For the two seeking redemption, their conquest of their inner demons made flesh will provide the release they seek from their bargain with the Dying One.  For the rest of you, you will have earned either knowledge or power: the answer to one question or an increase in the power of one of your weapons.>

"Okay, let's plan this out," suggested Cramer.  "Marlo and Utred step in front of a mirror and activate their inner demons.  Then Utred high-tails it back by me, I cast a _silence_ spell on him, and he goes after Mirror-Marlo.  That way, she won't be able to cast any spells!"  The little gnome cackled in glee, thinking how easy this was going to be.

But Jhasspok was confused, admittedly not entirely an unusual state for the lizardfolk to be in.  He didn't know much about magic other than all of its seemingly arbitrary restrictions made little sense to him, but he did know fighting one enemy at a time was better than fighting two.  "Why would we fight both Utred and Marlo?" he asked.

"That's the whole reason we're here," scoffed Cramer, ignoring the silly lizardfolk's input.  Seriously, when would the reptile ever learn to keep his mouth shut when they were strategizing?  It wasn't as if his staggering reptile intellect actually provided anything of use to any conversation - and it was fortunate he usually pestered Utred for answers to his questions, as the gnome had little patience for such idiocy.  "Okay, off you go," he said to Marlo and Utred, bringing the words to the _silence_ spell to the forefront of his brain.

Utred stepped off the carpet to the right as Marlo stepped off to the left, each standing before a mirror.  Their reflections warped and rippled, then took solid form as they stepped through the mirror and into the Halls of Redemption.  But as they stepped forth into solid form, the others could see these were no true reflections of the original but perhaps warnings of the pair's future if redemption were not attained.  The Mirror-Utred wore minimal armor but had multiple weapons hanging on his belt and a familiar greataxe gripped in his hand whose weapon-head flickered with green flames.  But his body was covered with writhing tentacles and his flesh puckered out in multiple locations, each extrusion sporting an extra eye which darted back and forth, examining the area.  Marlo's mirror-self was no better, for the limbs visible extending from her robes were stringy as if composed of fused-together tentacles and her head had expanded into a fleshy mass covered in a myriad of eyes.  She wore no _robe of eyes_ as the true Marlo did, but neither was she lacking in that capacity.

Utred and Marlo each gave an involuntary cry as their mirror-duplicates stepped out into reality, for they each felt the "gifts" granted by the Dying One being ripped from their bodies - and crossing the room to enhance their hideous inner demons.  The tentacle-covered false Utred's already muscular body expanded in even more vitality and the glow behind the false Marlo's countless eyes increased in illumination.  But despite this, Utred lurched away from his mirror-duplicate and raced to attack the fake Marlo.  The real Marlo was stepping back onto the red carpeting, likely more from horror at the sight of her inner demon than anything else.

Utred's hideous duplicate raced after his original, _Elderwood flaming greataxe_ swinging at the barbarian.  Marlo stabbed at him with her _arcane blade_ but the tentacled dwarf looked like he could take just about any amount of damage without even feeling it.  Marlo knew from past experience that was certainly true for their own Utred - and this one seemed even more inured to pain!  Regardless, Khari spun to face the mutant dwarf and struck him with his _earthglide warhammer_ to little effect.

However, before Cramer could cast his _silence_ spell or Jhasspok could bring his battleaxe to bear against Utred's inner demon, the mutated mirror-duplicate of Marlo Pendragon screamed out a _wail of the banshee_ spell.  Khari dropped his hammer and fell to the ground, clutching his ears in pain as his heart stopped.  Beside him, Marlo slumped to the floor of the Hall of Redemption, slain at once by the version of herself she now feared above all else.  The mutant Marlo looked over at her handiwork and likely would have smiled had her bloated face been capable of such an expression, then began fading from view, her task completed.  She took several steps backwards into the mirror, fading further with each stride.

Seeing his _silence_ spell would now serve no purpose, Cramer switched strategies and cast a _shield of faith_ spell on Utred, hoping to buoy up his defenses against his powerhouse duplicate.  He took a strike from the Utred-thing's greataxe as he cast the spell, then another as he tried scampering away to use Jhasspok as a living shield.  For his part, Jhasspok gave it his all against Utred's inner demon, each blow from his greataxe slicing off a handful of those tiny tentacles that covered the dwarf's body.  He also opened up rents in the mutant barbarian's flesh, causing blood to spill out from each wound, which the Utred-thing didn't even deign to notice.  Instead, he focused all of his considerable anger at Utred, attacking him for all he was worth.  Utred's combat training was stretched to the limit as he found himself under attack by a more powerful version of himself.  He tried trading blow for blow against his mirror-duplicate, but more of the thing's axe-blows were connecting with Utred than the true dwarf's attacks were striking the inner demon.  Utred let the fires of his rage burn brightly, to add fuel to his strength and determination to rid himself of this despised version of himself.

Cramer's next spell attack was an _energy drain_ that struck the mutant dwarf and siphoned off a bit of his vitality - not that he didn't have plenty more to spare.  Jhasspok continued his attacks, although it seemed like trying to fell a tree with a dagger.  But for all the mirror-duplicate cared, the others might not have even been in the room with him, for his attention was focused solely on Utred Butterflinger.  As his continued blows struck true, Utred was grateful to note they no longer had _quite_ as much strength behind them; Cramer's _energy drain_ had had some effect, in any case.

Cramer converted his most powerful spell into a _mass heal_, sealing up the few wounds he and Utred had received in the battle thus far.  It was a tactical move on the cleric's part, not because either hero was in particularly desperate need for healing at that moment but because he knew he'd soon be bringing his own mirror-duplicate into existence and he didn't want his own twisted reflection to have access to a spell that powerful.  And Utred and Jhasspok continued attacking the mirror-Utred from opposite sides, slowly cutting him down.  Jhasspok finally brought down the overpowered barbarian with a final blow from his battleaxe, only to have the creature fade from view, taking his weapons with him.  Utred swore aloud; he'd hoped to add his mirror-duplicate's weapons to his own already extensive collection.

"We should go," advised Jhasspok, leaning down to pick up the slain figure of Marlo.  He didn't know a whole lot about magic, but he did know that of the five heroes Cramer was the only one capable of bringing Khari and Marlo back to life; if anything happened to the cleric in a subsequent fight against these mirror-duplicates, Jhasspok had no idea how they'd get everyone resurrected.

"Hold on," countered Cramer.  "We came here for a reason - we should stick to the plan.  We've already gotten Utred redeemed, after all."

"But Marlo is dead," Jhasspok argued.  "How can we bring her inner demon back out of the mirror now?  And what about Khari?"

<It would seem you have no way to complete your original goal,> interjected the celestial.  <Would you continue to seek redemption for Marlo Pendragon, if such were made possible?>

"How do you mean?" demanded Utred.

<If you are determined to finish what you started, I have the means to return your two slain friends to life.>

Jhasspok didn't need any time to think it over.  "Yes," he said.  "Do it.  We will continue the fight."

Marlo's body started to glow in Jhasspok's arms; Khari's did likewise on the floor at Utred's feet.  The glow faded and the two stirred, blinking their eyes and looking about them in confusion.  "What happened?" asked Khari.

Cramer filled them in and then Jhasspok started asking questions of Cramer.  "If you wanted the other Marlo to be inside a _silence_ spell, why didn't you cast it on her when she stepped out of the mirror?"

"It isn't that simple," snapped the gnome.  "If you cast it on a person, there's a chance they'll be able to resist the effects.  That would negate the whole point of casting the spell in the first place."

"Then why didn't you cast it on a coin and throw the coin over by the mirror?  And why did you have Utred bring his double out all the way over there and Marlo bring hers out way over there, if we were going to fight them both at the same time?  And why did we fight two of them at once, when we could have--"

"Okay, okay, point taken," grumbled Cramer.  "Maybe we should plan how we're going to do things a little better this time."  That seemed eminently practical to Jhasspok.  Cramer once again took point in outlining the plan forward, only this time incorporating the lizardfolk's suggestions into his strategy.  And thus it was that when Marlo stepped forward to activate her mirror-double once again, there was not only a coin with a _silence_ spell on it on the floor at the base of the mirror but also Utred standing on one side with his _Elderwood flaming greataxe_ poised to strike; having already called forth and defeating his own inner demon, the dwarven barbarian's reflection could do no further harm.  Marlo was positioned such that she could be seen in the mirror but was just outside the radius of the _silence_ spell so she could still cast spells while her hideous duplicate could not.

The mirror's image wavered and pulsated and the lumpy-headed, eye-filled version of Marlo stepped out of the mirror.  But before Utred could even bring his axe crashing down upon her bulbous head, the real Marlo cast a _maximized disintegrate_ spell upon her mutated duplicate.  The Marlo-thing exploded silently into a fine dust.

"That's two down," crowed Cramer as if he'd been personally responsible for the deaths of both foes.  "I'll go next."  He stepped forward, bringing forth his own mirror-duplicate into the hall.  However, he was surprised at the figure that stepped forward, for while it was indeed a gnomish cleric of Fharlanghn, rather than looking like Cramer Appleknocker it bore the semblance of Honeycomb Buzzwort, Cramer's erstwhile mentor in the church of the God of Travelers.  Honeycomb wore the tight-fitting leathers of a male pleasure slave in the direct employ of the Matron Mother of House Jalamir, a role he was rumored to have been performing back in Overreach since his capture.

Utred didn't care what the gnome looked like or what he was wearing; he brought his greataxe down upon what could only be an enemy to be vanquished.  After a moment's shock at the "duplicate's" appearance, Cramer cast the _miracle_ spell he'd had prepared, using it to spoof a _destruction_ spell he had not had the forethought to prepare that morning.  However, there were other factors he hadn't taken into consideration, the first of which being he'd activated his mirror-duplicate while protected by a _spell turning_ spell and thus the figure stepping out of the mirror was likewise so protected.  Cramer's _destruction_ spell hit the enemy gnome and a resonation field formed between the two gnomes as the spell leaped back and forth between the two of them, eventually reverberating into nothingness.  Buzzwort cried out in surprise, noticed he made no noise while doing so, deduced he was in the radius of a _silence_ spell, and then used a piece of Cramer's duplicated equipment (that the little gnome had completely forgotten about) - namely, a _rod of silent spells_.  With it, Buzzwort erected a _blade barrier_ straight through Jhasspok, Marlo, and Utred.  Then the little mirror-gnome was off in a sprint, trying to get out of the radius of the _silence_ spell so he could use his more powerful spells, those which could not be channeled through the _metamagic rod_.

But as fast as the little gnome was, Jhasspok was even faster.  He charged forward out of the _blade barrier_ spell and leaped at Buzzwort, catching the little gnome in a flurry of axe-swings and snapping at him with his mouth full of sharp teeth.  However, unnoticed by the lizardfolk, a second figure emerged from the mirror behind Buzzwort, this one looking suspiciously like Jhasspok himself.  This version also wore a _tailband of the raptor_ and put it immediately to good use, ripping through Jhasspok's scales with his own battleaxe and biting at his twin with his own razor-sharp teeth.

Utred charged forward, attacking the second Jhasspok to give the original time to recover from the unexpected attack.  Marlo cast a _maximized disintegrate_ spell at Buzzwort, which didn't slay him outright as she had hoped but had him stumbling to stay upright on his feet.  Khari had instinctively leaped behind the _blade barrier_ and feared if he raced forward to help his friends he'd only bring his own mirror-duplicate into the fray, so he pulled out his _frost shortbow_ and shot at Buzzwort.  Sadly, his arrows were deflected by the whirling blades of force dancing about as part of the leather-clad gnome cleric's initial spell.

Cramer, seeing Jhasspok's many wounds, realized he needed to take out the current foes as quickly as he could.  He cast a _mass inflict critical wounds_ spell which slew Buzzwort and severely hurt the reptilian newcomer to the fight.  Jhasspok slammed his battleaxe into his twin, releasing the _vampiric touch_ spell Marlo had loaded into it the day before; the spell stripped some of the duplicate's life energy and sent it flooding into Jhasspok's body, doing a small part in healing the massive amount of damage he'd taken thus far.  But the mirror-Jhasspok, true to form, had no eyes for any foe but his own twin and his battleaxe cut into Jhasspok again, undoing much of the vampiric healing he'd just employed.  Fortunately, Utred was there to finish off the enemy lizardfolk on Jhasspok's behalf.

Khari circled around the _blade barrier_ spell - somewhat irritated that the hall's worked floors made _earthgliding_ impossible - preparing to activate his own mirror-duplicate now that the others had been dealt with.  Cramer belatedly noticed how close Jhasspok was to toppling over from his many wounds and hurriedly cast a _heal_ spell to restore him to his full health and vitality.

When the mirror-Khari stepped out of the mirror, glowing in psionic runes (for this version of Khari seemed to have devoted himself exclusively to the ways of the psychic warrior), he was almost instantly _disintegrated_ by Marlo, who had cast another _maximized_ version of the spell.

<Very nicely handled,> said the celestial in the throne.  <Once again, teamwork and friendship find a path to success.  Utred Butterflinger and Marlo Pendragon, you have both been purged of the taint of Uboros.  As for the rest of you, you may ask of me a single boon: knowledge or power.  Khari Hammerslammer, what is your wish?>

"Power," replied the dwarf, holding up his _earthglide warhammer_.

<Then so shall it be: your weapon will now strike true against ghosts and other beings without a corporeal form.  Cramer Appleknocker, what is your wish.>

"Knowledge."

<Ask away.>

"Honeycomb Buzzwort - the real one, still back in Overreach - is he content with his lot in life?  I had originally planned to rescue him, but I've been hearing stories he's actually kind of enjoying his current status."

<He is content - extremely so.  Jhasspok, what is your wish?>

"Power, please."  He held up the _spell storing battleaxe_ he'd used in combat today.

<Then so shall it be: your weapon has been further enhanced to guide your strikes and add power to its blows.  You are now free to go.>  At the back of the Hall of Redemption, the doors were swinging open, seemingly of their own accord.  The five turned to go.

<One last thing before you leave,> added the celestial.  <Although fully purged of the taint of Uboros, none of you are fully immune to the corruption you will face on the Unchartable Isle, home to the sundered Gate of Zarbugak from which the Outside leeches into Shadreath.  You have been warned.>

Now worried once again, the five heroes turned and exited the Halls of Redemption.

 - - -

Man, are we ever our own worst enemies or what?  That was particularly poor planning (or more properly, lack thereof) on our part, rushing into the Halls of Redemption without much of a plan.  Dan almost immediately jotted down three monsters he wanted Cramer to summon and passed them to me on a scrap of paper, asking if I could whip up their stats.  They were a celestial badger, a fiendish wolf, and a celestial griffon, meaning I not only needed to jot down their core stats but then apply a template on top of each of them.  And I was surprised at this strategy in any case, as we were 18th level and he wanted to summon...a 6-hp celestial badger?  Even the griffon wouldn't be anything more than a speed bump up against the foes we'd likely be meeting in the Halls of Redemption (and any mirror-duplicate would be focused solely on his or her "original" version to the exclusion of all other foes in any case).  But I didn't feel like arguing how others should run their PCs and by the time I had finished up the stats we had Mirror-Utred in our midst and we were all rolling Fortitude saves against Mirror-Marlo's _wail of the banshee_.  What a fiasco!  Logan took pity on us and gave Khari and Marlo free _true resurrection_ spells to get us back on track.

But Khari now has a _+5 ghost touch earthglide warhammer_ and Jhasspok has a _+5 icy burst spell storing battleaxe_, so we made out okay.


----------



## Richards (Feb 13, 2022)

*ADVENTURE 53: HEAD IN THE CLOUDS*

PC Roster:
Cramer Appleknocker, gnome cleric 18​Jhasspok, lizardman 3/barbarian 3/fighter 12​Khari Hammerslammer, dwarf fighter 17/psychic warrior 1​Marlo Pendragon, human sorcerer 18​Utred "Buckets" Butterflinger, dwarf barbarian 18​
Game Session Date: 9 February 2022

 - - -

The _sending_ spell didn't contain a whole lot of information - it was, after all, merely two words long - but it had recognizably been cast by Matron Jalamir, the head of the drow Noble House to which the five former slaves now belonged and it was just as long as absolutely necessary: <Return immediately.>  That left no room for ambiguity, so Marlo gathered everyone together and cast a _teleport_ spell that returned the group to the confines of the drow city of Overreach.

After having been led to an audience chamber before Matron Jalamir, the head of the Noble House explained why she had brought them here.  "We have continued attempting to _scry_ upon any remaining survivors of the now-disbanded House Bel'voir," she informed them.  "Our attempts have finally borne fruit: we have discovered a group who had relied upon temporary wards against _scrying_ and we were finally able to pick them up between applications of their anti-scrying spells."  She gestured behind her and a familiar form stepped forward.  It was Honeycomb Buzzwort, Cramer's friend from his surface gnomish city of Revin.  "Honeycomb was present when we detected the survivors," she advised the group.  "He will be able to help you home in on their present location, so they can be eliminated.  I want them all slain."

Honeycomb, a fellow cleric of Fharlanghn, began casting an illusion spell that brought an image floating before the group.  "It was an enormous, dark chamber, occasionally lit by brief flashes of lightning," the gnome said.  "There were five drow of House Bel'vior, sitting on a ring of motionless tentacles lying spread out on the ground."

"The Writhing Gate on the cloud island!" exclaimed Cramer.  "Or inside a cloud island, perhaps," he amended, recalling the fact this was inside a large cavern.  He turned to Marlo.  "Do you think you can teleport us there, given this image to go off of?" he asked.

Marlo examined the details of the image intently.  "Yes, I think so," she finally decided.

"Then let's get our prep spells cast!" Cramer enthused, raring to go.  He cast his traditional _longstrider_, _spell turning_, and _moment of prescience_ spells on himself, then added a few new ones: _spell immunity_ to protect him from a select group of spells, as well as a _daylight_ spell he cast upon a copper piece, which he then placed inside an empty belt pouch.  That, he knew, would be a powerful tactic when fighting the light-hating drow.  Marlo, in the meantime, cast _stoneskin_ spells on her friends, a _Rary's telepathic bond_ spell on the whole group, and then used her wand to cast an _invisibility_ spell on everyone but Cramer, who could do the same for himself with his magic ring.  At Utred's suggestion, Cramer also cast a _protection from energy_ spell on everyone which would shield them from electricity damage, since the barbarian was leery of being hit by lightning while inside a giant cloud.  Khari activated his psionic _offensive prescience_ power and declared himself ready for combat.

Cramer used his ring to render himself invisible and then Marlo cast the _teleport_ spell which transported the group directly inside the ring of limp tentacles at the center of the now-inactive Writhing Gate.  Despite everyone being invisible, most of the group wore their _slave-light cloaks_ so the Writhing Gate was illuminated by light with no apparent source.  There was nobody else in the immediate vicinity and Marlo used her _robe of eyes_ to look throughout the vast chamber.  <Nobody's home,> she told the others over the link.

<I'm sinking,> Jhasspok told the group, looking down at his taloned feet which were sinking slightly into the soft cloud-stuff.  <This is like that white rain stuff that's cold.>

<Snow,> prompted Utred.

<Yeah, that,> Jhasspok agreed.  Having had only a few experiences with snow on the surface world, it was a word which hadn't stuck in the lizardfolk's reptilian brain.

A low rumble of thunder rolled from the top of the chamber.  Cramer recognized it as speech as his magic helmet automatically translated the words from their Auran origin: "More mortals to disturb us...."

Cramer translated the statement over the mental link for the benefit of the others.  Marlo peered at the cavern's ceiling, some 100 feet or more above their heads.  <I don't see anything up there,> she said.

<Invisible?> suggested Khari, looking up at the ceiling with his own innate darkvision and seeing nothing.

<I'd still see it if it was invisible,> Marlo replied, knowing the abilities of her magic robe.  <Unless it's naturally invisible...like an invisible stalker!"  She had read of such creatures, who had no visible form.  Still, they appeared as roiling clouds of vapor when viewed through a _see invisibility_ or _true seeing_ spell, and she couldn't see anything like that at all....

"We mean you no harm!" Cramer called up to the ceiling, irritated that his _helm of comprehend languages and read magic_ did nothing to translate his own words into other tongues.

<Wait!  I saw some movement up there!> Marlo warned the others.  She called forth an _empowered maximized fireball_ ready to be cast if anything came down to attack them.

<I thought we were here to kill drow,> Jhasspok interjected.  <Where did the drow go?>

<Maybe the invisible thing up at the ceiling ate them,> suggested Utred.  Jhasspok peered at the ceiling as best he could but couldn't see any invisible thing.

<Let's see if this brings them out of hiding,> suggested Utred, pulling the Null Axe from its protective wrapping.  The anti-magic weapon immediately nullified his invisibility and everyone could see him as he started hacking the axe blade through the nearest Writhing Gate tentacle, beginning to chop it free from the cloud's bottom.

"They are enemies of Svulbiss, they must be destroyed," came the sounds of Auran from the general vicinity of the ceiling, which Cramer quickly translated for the benefit of his friends.  Then two creatures came surging down from the roof of the hollow cloud-chamber and Marlo quickly realized why she hadn't been able to see them clearly before: they were air elementals whose bodies were made of nothing more than wind!  These, however, were much larger than any air elemental the sorceress had ever seen before, and flashes of lightning skittered across their airy bodies and arced from their eyes as they dropped down for the attack.

As Utred was the only one of the five currently visible, he was the initial target of both of the lightning-infused elder air elementals.  But on the way down Marlo's _empowered maximized fireball_ exploded around them, which turned the sorceress visible as well.  As such, both she and Utred became the initial targets of electrified fists made of whirling air.  Fortunately, the _protection from energy_ spells stripped the lightning of its threat and the _stoneskin_ spells pretty much did the same to the punches the elementals threw at the two heroes.  "That all you got?" scoffed Utred, burying the blade of his Null Axe into the root of one of the limp tentacles and pulling out his _Elderwood flaming greataxe_ from the _weapon locker_ on his back.

Jhasspok and Khari attacked the elemental fighting Utred, losing their own invisibility in the process.  Marlo, while fighting the air elemental before her, was still able to see in all directions through her _robe of eyes_ and noticed a male, black-skinned face pop up from the floor at the far end of the cloud-cavern.  The drow was too far away for any of the others to have seen, so she warned them over the telepathic link.  But the warning came too late, for as he ducked back down out of view another drow stepped up from where she had been crouching in a dip in the floor's surface, covered in wispy cloud-stuff, and cast a _firestorm_ spell that encompassed all five of the heroes - even Cramer, who was still invisible at this point, if only because she shaped her spell to cover the area between the two elementals and he happened to be standing right there.  Marlo didn't fail to notice the drow cleric had made sure not to encompass the elementals in the area of effect of her spell, leading her to believe they were allied with the drow.

Cramer pulled the copper coin from his belt pouch and flipped it in the direction of the drow spellcaster, illuminating the entire cavern with the power of his _daylight_ spell.  The female cleric and her drow fighter companion - who had just popped his head back up from the concealing layer of cloud-stuff flowing across the floor - cried out in pain and futilely tried shielding their sensitive eyes from the sudden blast of light.  Cramer then cast a _mass bear's endurance_ spell on the group, boosting their ability to take damage from their foes, for he recalled Honeycomb had seen five drow and Cramer had no doubt there were still three around here somewhere who they'd be fighting before too long.

With four foes now visible before them, the elementals struck out with their channeled-air fists, blasting a zap of electricity with each blow as they made sure each of the four interlopers felt their power.  But once again the protective spells covering the heroes kept them from feeling too much of the blows' effects.

Marlo cast an _empowered disintegrate_ spell at the elder elemental she'd been fighting, who managed to resist the worst of the spell's effects.  Worse, Marlo had failed to anticipate the reach of these massive creatures, both of which pummeled her while she was casting her spell.  She took a moment to take a step back, putting her out of reach of at least the air elemental primarily focused on Jhasspok and the dwarves.

Utred activated his _winged boots_ and charged through the air in the direction Marlo told him the drow spellcaster was standing; as he got closer he was able to see his foe for himself.  Jhasspok was right behind the dwarf, relying not upon any magical boots but his own long-striding legs, his tail sticking straight out behind him for balance.  Activating his _tail-band of the raptor_, he brought his battleaxe down upon the drow cleric time and time again, while snapping at her unprotected neck with his sharp teeth.  She cried out in pain as the reptile practically bowled her to the ground with the force of his attack.

Then three more drow fighters popped up from their prone hiding positions, the floor of the cavern being somewhat "hilly" and providing them with cover in the form of obscuring cloud-wisps that covered the floor like a fog.  Squinting in irritation from the sudden bright light of Cramer's _daylight_ spell, they all went after Utred, the closest to their current positions.  The cleric and the first fighter to have popped his head up were still dazed by the bright light, unable to act - although in the cleric's case the inability to act may well have been because a good deal of her life's blood was flowing down her neck from the rent in her throat where Jhasspok had just ripped out a chunk of flesh.

Khari continued attacking the elder air elemental he'd been fighting along with Jhasspok and Utred - and which he was now facing alone.  But he knew he couldn't _earth glide_ through cloud-stuff and wouldn't have wished to even if it were possible - who wanted to take the chance of tunneling out through the very bottom of a cloud? - so he concentrated on taking out the foe at hand.  His warhammer crashed into the elemental's body, but it was difficult to see how badly the blow had damaged a creature made of whirling air, who showed no wounds and dripped no blood.  Still, the doughty dwarven fighter carried on, confident in his combat abilities and certain he'd wear this massive foe down in time.

With all five drow now visible, Cramer re-entered the visible light spectrum himself as he cast his first combat spell, an _insect plague_ spell that sent swarms of locusts covering the dark elves as he ran forward, away from the reach of the elder air elementals.  They split their attacks evenly between Khari and Marlo, one elemental focusing on each hero.  Marlo took another step back and cast an _empowered maximized scorching ray_ spell at her foe, missing with one gout of flame but the other two striking spot on.  The elemental roared in pain and fury, its wide-open mouth spraying arcs of electricity.

With a battle roar, Utred brought his greataxe swinging in a sideways slice that completely severed the head from the drow cleric's damaged neck and then buried itself into the side of the skull of her closest ally.  The barbarian had to tug his blade out of the drow's head as the dark elf dropped to the floor of the cloud-chamber, his dead body covered by a layer of wispy fog, as had been that of the headless spellcaster.  Jhasspok swung his own axe-head into the side of another drow fighter, failing to slay him but causing him a great deal of pain as the blade cut through ironsilk armor and a rib or two.  Blood spilled from the lips of the drow as he tried his best to reciprocate the attack with fingers that could no longer feel the hilt of his sword.  Still covered in locusts, the wounded drow tried running sideways out of the range of the spell effect and Jhasspok was given another opportunity to cut him down - and cut him down he did, leaving only two drow fighters and the electricity-infused elder air elementals on the field of battle to oppose the five heroes.

But the two drow had seen enough to see how this battle was going to end.  Dropping their weapons in unison, they backed away from the cloud of locusts and prostrated themselves on the ground, calling out "We surrender!" in the drow language which only Cramer and Marlo could understand.  Jhasspok and Utred looked over at the cowering warriors, the dwarf barbarian with a look of disgust and disdain, the lizardfolk with a puzzled expression - why weren't they continuing to fight when there was always a possibility they could still pull off a win?  Then they shrugged and ran back the way they'd come, to aid Marlo and Khari in fighting off the air elementals, who at least had the good grace to continue to fight.

Not that it did them any good in the long run, for up against all five heroes at once they were soon vanquished, Utred and Jhasspok each striking the killing blow to one of them.  "I didn't get to kill anything!" griped Khari, after realizing the dwarven barbarian and the lizardfolk had been responsible for all the final blows against their enemies that day.

"You can go kill those two," Utred suggested, pointing over to the cowering drow fighters.

"But they've surrendered," Khari pointed out.

"Oh yeah, good point," replied Utred, wrenching his Null Axe out from the root of a Writhing Gate tentacle and handing it to his fellow dwarf.  "Well then, you wanna give a go at chopping down these tentacles?  No reason the fun should always go to me, just 'cause it was my grandpa what made the axe."

"Sure!" enthused Khari, stowing away his _earthglide warhammer_ and picking up the Null Axe.  He approached the nearest tentacle, held the weapon above his head, and let it come swinging down with all of his might.  The dead flesh of the illithid elder god parted before the blade and in two more swings it had been severed completely the way through, the stump falling away through the floor of the cloud-chamber and the extradimensional hole through which it had emerged from the Far Realm sealing up.  Khari grinned with pride and moved over to the next tentacle, wondering if he could sever it with only two blows this time.

With their dwarven fighter so engaged, Utred and Jhasspok walked over to the two drow cowards.  "Matron Jalamir said we're supposed to kill them," Jhasspok pointed out.

"So she did," Utred said, decapitating one with a single blow from his magic greataxe before the prisoner could even cry out.  Jhasspok clamped his teeth around the back of the other one's neck and worried him back and forth until the bones gave way and the lizardfolk had chewed completely through the drow's flesh, dropping his head beneath the covering layer of cloud-wisp.

"Is that everyone?" Cramer asked Marlo as he consulted his notes on the Gate of Svulbiss.  There was supposed to have been an illithid "saint" here, the creator of this particular Writhing Gate.  Marlo searched with her robe-enhanced vision and eventually unearthed a set of ten ripped-up robes that had been discarded in a depression beneath the obscuring layer of cloud cover.  The robes each bore an emblem of Uboros and would easily have fit a mind flayer; Marlo theorized the drow had turned on the illithid cultists after the gates all lost power, slaying them and possibly even using them as a food source as they waited in their cloud chamber for further orders from the Mortal Queen which never came.

Still, Jhasspok agreed with at least part of their plan.  "Meat is meat," he said, nodding his head approvingly.

 - - -

Logan had come up with what he thought was a cool mechanic for the cloud chamber's interior: each round, it would gather up an additional 1d6 points of electrical energy and each round there would be a cumulative +10% chance from the last burst that it would discharge into a random potential victim.  However, he had also included in his notes that any magical protection from electricity made you "invisible" to the discharges, and since none of us completely used up our _protection from energy_ spells (and the drow had been similarly protected), there was nothing for the lightning to discharge into inside the chamber, so it just did so on the exterior of the cloud.  We also all learned Logan has a terrible poker face, as evidenced by his horrified expression when Joe suggested his dad's PC should cast a _protection from energy_ spell on each PC to protect them all from lightning before they teleported in.

The elder air elementals were advanced to a full 48 HD each and given 1d8 points of electricity damage to each slam, but with our various protections in place they ended up just being big bags of hit points that we gradually took down; they were unable to do much to us at all.  But that's the way it goes sometimes: a DM never knows what tactics his players will (or won't) employ when he designs his adventures and all he can do is run them through them in a reasonable fashion.

We figure we're probably down to four more adventures in this campaign.  We all made it to 19th level at the end of this adventure, so we'll likely be sliding into 20th right as we finish up the whole shebang.


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## Richards (Feb 26, 2022)

*ADVENTURE 54: UNDER THE SEA*

PC Roster:
Cramer Appleknocker, gnome cleric 19​Jhasspok, lizardman 3/barbarian 3/fighter 13​Khari Hammerslammer, dwarf fighter 18/psychic warrior 1​Marlo Pendragon, human sorcerer 19​Utred "Buckets" Butterflinger, dwarf barbarian 19​
Game Session Date: 23 February 2022

 - - -

Marlo cast the spell and the five heroes teleported to the beach of Yondall's Bay, a place they had been to once before when tasked with rescuing the diviner Lauren from the people trying to kill her.  It was windy, the wind whipping the hair of those who had such, which included all but Jhasspok the lizardfolk.  But it did include the bearded man standing ankle-deep in the ocean's surf, clad in nothing but a kilt.  His hair was dripping wet as if he'd just been swimming and he looked over at the five newcomers as if having been waiting there for them.

Marlo called over to him.  "Were you expecting us?" she asked.

"Aye - it's one of the benefits of having a leader skilled in the arts of divination," replied the man.  "I have been sent to fetch you and take you to her."

Jhasspok looked up and down the beach, seeing no one but themselves.  There were also no recent footprints in the sand indicating where the man might have come from.  "Where is she?" the puzzled reptile asked.

"Under the sea," replied the man in the kilt.  "Follow me."  And he turned back to the ocean, diving into an approaching wave.

Cramer cast a quick series of spells upon himself before he followed: _longstrider_, _moment of prescience_, and _tongues_, then cast a _water breathing _ spell upon all five heroes.  "Okay, let's go," he said, striding purposefully into the ocean.  Jhasspok needed no prompting, eagerly leaping into the water; the others followed with slightly less enthusiasm.  But once underwater, the lizardfolk was puzzled again almost immediately, for the kilted man had somehow lost his legs and now had the back half of an enormous fish somehow attached to his waist.

"Ssssssssssssss," hissed Jhasspok, letting a long, slow breath out of his muzzle as his eyes widened in surprise and shock.  The others, walking along the ocean floor behind him, weren't sure what he was on about until he finally burst out into his more standard reptilian laughter: "Ssss ssss ssss ssss ssss ssss!"

"What's so funny?" asked Khari.

Jhasspok could only point helplessly at the merman swimming before them, making sure he wasn't moving so far ahead his guests couldn't keep up.  Between snickers, Jhasspok explained, "That man!  He's half human and half food!"

"That's a merman, Jhasspok," Marlo explained.  "That's how they're built.  They all look like that."

"Ssss ssss ssss ssss ssss ssss!  Why hasn't anybody mentioned this before?  Are there people who are half human, half potato?  Or half human, half loaf of bread?  Ssss ssss ssss ssss ssss ssss!"

"It's not polite to laugh at others," Marlo chided.  "We're here because one of the questions answered for us said the merfolk of Yondall's Bay knew the location of the underwater Writhing Gate.  If you make fun of the way he looks, he may not help us!"

"I'm sorry, Marlo," Jhasspok replied, properly chastised.  He knew how important it was for them to be able to sever the connections between all ten of the Writhing Gates and the Material Plane, so the Dying One couldn't return to the world and destroy it in the process.  They'd already taken out eight such gates, with just these last two left to go.  But then he got another look at the merfolk's fish-tail and started snickering to himself again.

Fortunately, the trip wasn't very long and by the time they made it to a coral structure grown to look like ruins, Jhasspok had pretty much gotten his snickering under control.  Floating at the center of this coral structure was a female covered in a white robe.

"Welcome," the woman said.  "I must apologize, for the other two Diviners are busy with other duties for the village and are not available to greet you."  Then a current lifted the bottom flap of her robes away from her lower body, revealing the green scales of a mermaid's fish-tail.

"Ssss ssss ssss ssss ssss ssss!"

The mermaid Diviner frowned at the group.  "Is there something wrong with your...lizard?"

"Please ignore him," pleaded Cramer.  "We are here because we understand you may have information about the location of an underwater Writhing Gate."  He described what the gate would look like, explaining the tentacles would now be inert since the Dying One had been slain and would take a decade or two to fully reform.  He also emphasized how important it was that they be allowed to take the two remaining Writhing Gates out of commission.

"I know of something fitting the description," the mermaid admitted.  "However, having only just met you, I'm not sure you're entirely...trustworthy."  She looked over at Jhasspok in irritation, who had both hands over his muzzle and was helplessly letting out a long, sustained "Sssssssssssssssssss" as he tried to stifle his laughter at the sight of the "food-lady."

"It really is very important," pleaded Marlo.  "Is there something we can do to prove what we say?"

The Diviner thought it over.  "I'll tell you what," she decided.  "There is a sunken ship at the edge of town, straddling a trench.  It has recently become haunted by a crew of ghosts.  I would see the ghosts put to rest.  Do that and I will lead you to the Gate of Rylethek."

She indicated the direction of the sunken vessel and the group headed that way, following a coral pathway more or less pointing the way.  "Nice one, Jhasspok!" grumbled Cramer.  "Now we're off on a fool's errand because you couldn't stop laughing at merfolk!"

"I'm sorry, Cramer," Jhasspok apologized.  "But they're food people!  How can they even resist eating each other's tails?"  Try as they might, they couldn't get the concept of merfolk being born that way across to the lizardfolk, especially once it became apparent he had interpreted the merman's magic kilt - which allowed him to transform his fish-tail into a pair of human legs when out of the water - as the merman being able to remove his own legs somehow and slap on the back half of a fish.  Jhasspok couldn't figure out where the other half of the fish was, and where the merman had put his legs in the meantime.  Utred finally put the matter to an end by informing him, "It's magic, Jhasspok."

"Oh," Jhasspok said, understanding immediately - magic was weird.

They approached the trench and sure enough, there was a sundered ship sitting atop it, one half on one side of the trench and the other slightly askew on the other side, the whole thing looking as if the ship had been sitting on the bottom of the ocean floor when a giant axe had cleaved the ship in two, cutting a deep rent in the ocean floor beneath it.

<I count eight,> Marlo informed the group after having cast a _Rary's telepathic bond_ upon them all so they could communicate amongst themselves telepathically.

<Eight what?> asked Cramer.

<Eight ghosts.  Four look to be archers, the other four look to be armed only with swords, including the one up in the crow's nest.>

The men in the group peered through the clear water, trying to see what Marlo had described.  <There's nobody there,> Utred observed.  <And there's no crow's nest - there isn't even a mast on the ship.>

<She's looking into the Ethereal Plane with her _eye of robes_,> Cramer surmised.  <None of the ghosts have manifested yet onto the Material Plane.>

Marlo cast _stoneskin_ spells on the others while they decided their plan of attack.  She then cast a _magic circle against evil_ spell on herself, while Cramer cast the spells _detect evil_, _spell turning_, and _death ward_ on himself.  Utred asked the gnome to cast that latter spell on himself using one of his last three such scrolls, but when the cleric opened the waterproof scroll case the ink was washed away before he could make sense of the contents and the scroll was wasted.  Marlo grabbed each of the two by their collars and used her _boots of levitation_ to pull them back up to the surface so Cramer could cast a _death ward_ spell on Utred using a scroll without it being destroyed in mid-casting.  By the time they returned to the sea floor, Khari had activated his psionic _offensive prescience_ and was ready for the attack.

<We still can't see what we're attacking,> Utred pointed out.

<I'll flush them out!> Jhasspok promised, darting forward through the water, powered by strokes from his reptilian tail.  He swam directly over the trench, into the 10-foot gap between the two halves of the sundered vessel, up at the level of the ship's upper deck.  Not wanting to miss out on any fighting, Utred activated his _winged boots_ and flew along behind the lizardfolk.  Each of the two had their primary axes out and ready for combat, as soon as any of these ghosts made themselves visible.  Khari followed behind at ground level, pretty sure his _earthglide warhammer_ would allow him to burrow beneath the seabed floor but realizing that wouldn't actually get him anywhere when the ghosts were all up on the top deck of the sunken ship.  But he smiled at the thought that he'd be getting to try out the recent _ghost touch_ enhancement to his warhammer very soon now....

<They're starting to react!"> Marlo warned over the link as four of the ghosts - the archers, who had been looking out for danger, three at the front of the ship and one at the rear - started to manifest onto the Material Plane.  Four arrows went whizzing past Jhasspok and Utred, the arrowheads buzzing with jolts of electricity.  One of the four actually passed harmlessly through Utred's body, leaving behind a momentary feeling of chill as it flew through him.  Such, it seemed, were the vicissitudes of dealing with ethereal creatures.

Marlo targeted one of the ghosts who had yet to materialize and shot it with an _empowered maximized magic missile_ spell, knowing full well the force effects would be able to reach into the Ethereal Plane and harm her foe.  She had more powerful spells at hand, but casting any of them at a ghost meant a distinct possibility of having the spell be as useless as that arrow that had pierced Utred without actually making contact at all.

Cramer moved forward and cast a _mass bear's endurance_ on the assembled heroes while they were all still clumped together close enough for him to catch everyone in the radius of his spell.  That, he knew, would give each of the five a bit of additional "staying power" in the fight to come.  Khari felt the additional power surge through his body as he climbed up the side of the ship's back half and scrambled on deck.

Just then the other four ghosts - all of them elves, just like the archers - joined the combat, phasing in from the Ethereal Plane.  One swung a blade at Jhasspok's head, but the lizardfolk dodged it easily.  Then he went all-out at the offending ghost, snapping his teeth at it and swinging his battleaxe back and forth through the ghost's body.  Jhasspok couldn't sense any rhyme or reason to it, but about half of his attacks passed harmlessly right through the spirit while others connected as solidly as if the ghost had been fully alive.  He just assumed it was some sort of weird magic effect and pressed on with the attack.  At his side, Utred did likewise against another ghost who had tried attacking him with his own curved sword - a cutlass, if the barbarian wasn't mistaken.

Then the ghosts shifted their tactics, with two of the archers using a corrupting gaze against the three melee combatants on the back half of the broken ship while the other two continued firing their arrows.  Fortunately for Utred, Khari, and Jhasspok, none of the attacks had any effect on them whatsoever.  Then Marlo fired off another of her supercharged _magic missile_ spells at the ghost rogue she'd been attacking, hitting it full-on in the chest.

Cramer cast two spells in rapid sequence: a _blade barrier_ that sprang up through four of the ghosts followed almost immediately by a _quickened divine power_ spell he cast upon himself.  Two of the three ghost rogues caught in the spell's effect dodged out of the barrier while the archer and the other rogue weren't quick enough to respond in time, and as a result the force-blades chewed through their insubstantial bodies to full effect.

The first of the elven ghosts to fall was the rogue that Khari Hammerslammer had been beating upon with his _ghost touch earthglide warhammer_.  Upon being slain, his immaterial body lost full cohesion and he dissipated like a dust cloud in a wind storm.  Two other rogues stepped up and tried to flank the dwarven fighter, but Khari was having none of that.

Jhasspok took a moment to look about him and realized while the dwarves could easily deal with the ghosts fighting on the ship's deck, he was best suited to deal with the one up at the top of the ethereal mast, in the crow's nest.  With a kick of his powerful legs, he leaped above the heads of the ghost rogues near him - they reacted too slowly with their blades to tag the lizardfolk as he flew past them - and used his tail to spur him higher and higher.  At the level of the crow's nest, Jhasspok activated his _tail-band of the raptor_ and went full-out dinosaur rampage on the ghost up there, snapping with his teeth and slicing madly with his battleaxe.  Down below, Utred slew one ghost rogue he'd been fighting and brought his _Elderwood flaming greataxe_ slicing into the other one nearby.

Then the archers changed their tactics again.  Two of them leaped from the front half of the ship to the back half and tried using their draining touch attacks on Utred - but they had chosen their victim poorly, for the dwarven barbarian was protected by the _death ward_ spell Cramer had cast upon him from the scroll.  Another swam up to Jhasspok and managed to get past the reptile's defenses to successfully drain off some of his vitality, but he didn't lose as much as Cramer had magically enhanced in the lizardfolk's body earlier with his _mass bear's endurance_ spell.  All in all, it was a rather ineffectual attack - about as successful as the arrow the fourth archer sent whizzing past Khari's head.

The heroes were faring much better, especially Marlo, who literally couldn't miss with her _maximized empowered magic missile_ spells.  Another such casting took out one of the archers, exploding his body into a fine mist which quickly dissipated in the ocean currents.  With all of the ghosts readily engaged with one or the other of the heroes, Cramer took the opportunity to crawl up onto the ship's deck.

The battle didn't last very much longer, nor did the tides turn at all in the ghosts' favor.  One by one, they were taken out, either immediately by Marlo's spells or Khari's _ghost touch warhammer_ or more slowly by the weapons of Jhasspok and Utred, whose attacks occasionally passed harmlessly through the ghostly spirits.  But eventually all eight were slain, the deck empty of all enemies.  The group was already starting their celebratory congratulations to each other over the telepathic link when Cramer suddenly remembered something he'd been taught about ghosts back when he was still studying at the Temple of Fharlanghn in Grover's Comb: ghosts often come back days after having been "slain" unless either whatever it was that had kept them from finding their final rest had been dealt with or a full exorcism was performed.  <Guys, not so fast,> he warned them, then filled them in on his suspicions.

<I'll go check the lower hold,> offered Jhasspok, activating his _slave-light cloak_ and swimming into the lower level of the front half of the ship, looking for anything that might have upset the ghosts.  The rest of the group opted to search the back half of the ship, since that's where they were all standing at the time.  While Jhasspok did a quick scan in the front and found nothing suspicious, Marlo opened the door to the captain's quarters.

That was quite illuminating - in both senses of the word - for the open doorway allowed the sunlight drifting down to the ocean floor to light up the room and it showed Marlo the three elven figures standing there, arguing.  She could tell they were all three still fully on the Ethereal Plane for despite their mouths moving no sound reached her ears; her magical _robe of eyes_ allowed her to see into the Ethereal Plane but she couldn't hear across planar boundaries.  From what she could see, though, the first figure was dressed as a ship's captain; the other male was garbed in pirate's clothing, as had been the eight ghosts outside on the deck; and the woman standing between them, seemingly trying to stop them from coming to blows, was dressed in a flowing gown that accentuated her slim figure.

<Three ghosts, still ethereal,> Marlo told the others over the link as they noticed her noticing them.  They could also see the other three male heroes beside Marlo, but none of them was making eye contact or indicating in any fashion that they could see the three elven ghosts as Marlo obviously could.  Still, warned by the sorceress of their presence, Khari gripped his magic warhammer tight, ready to strike out at any ghosts that might manifest in the small cabin.

Jhasspok gave the rest of the front hold a thorough look before heading back towards the others, since he'd gathered the room with the three ghosts was rather small and the other four heroes were already crowded around the doorway.  Utred threw caution to the wind and entered what appeared to him to be an empty room.  At once, the three ghosts manifested all around the dwarven barbarian; entering the Material Plane allowed their voices to be heard - they spoke Elven, with the captain's voice picking up in mid-sentence, "--trying to mutiny while allowing _vermin_ to board the _Stormsea!_"  The captain wore what looked like a robe made of a thundercloud over his nautical clothing and an expression of distaste at the sight of a dwarf on his vessel.

Now that there were visible targets for his warhammer in the cabin, Khari squeezed in and brought his weapon crashing down upon the closest figure: the elven pirate ghost.  Marlo cast another _empowered maximized magic missile_ spell at the same figure, the captain's erstwhile Second Mate and leader of the attempted mutiny.  *Captain Lethad Stormsea* started fading away, vanishing not only from the sight of Cramer and the dwarves but also of Marlo, whose magical vision reached all the way to the Ethereal Plane.  Whatever he was doing, it was more than just a return to the plane from which he'd just come....

Cramer cast an _ethereal jaunt_ spell on himself and entered the room talking, his words being translated into Elven by his still-active _tongues_ spell.  "I hope you already realize this, but your ship is broken into two pieces and lying upon the ocean floor, you're all dead, and you're probably all doomed to stay here in this undead state unless we can help put you all to rest!  Now, what exactly is it that's keeping you all here?"

"I won't rest until we've wrested the ship from Lethad here and put him to the sword!" snarled the Second Mate.  "Same goes for all of my men above - we've sworn to make this ship ours!"

"Well, we've already slain your men above - four archers and four with cutlasses, yes?" replied Cramer.  "All dead."

"They'll rise again, and we'll take the ship then!" promised the Second Mate, stabbing a _shocking rapier_ at Utred.  "In the meantime, I'll have my vengeance upon you!"  A hand crossbow fired a bolt at Utred's face, hitting the dwarf right in the eye - and passing harmlessly through his body, as was (fortunately for him) often the case when fighting immaterial foes.

*Iliana Stormsea*, the _Stormsea_'s First Mate (in more ways than one, for she was married to Captain Lethad) attempted to possess Cramer's body, but the seasoned cleric was able to fight off her mental attack.  Then Khari's hammer took out the Second Mate and he dissipated away to nothing in the same way his men had done on the decks outside the cabin.  By this time, Jhasspok had returned to the back half of the ship and he swam over Cramer's head and fully entered the room, bringing his battleaxe crashing down upon Iliana.  Utred followed suit, slashing at her with his own axe-head.  Marlo hit her with a supercharged _magic missile_ spell, causing the elven ghost to stagger in pain and then Cramer, sensing she was about at her limit, hit her with the one-two punch of a _mass heal_ spell - which had the added benefit of closing up the various wounds he and his friends had sustained thus far as well as harming the ghost couple - followed by a _quickened cure serious wounds_ spell guided by his _moment of prescience_ to guarantee Iliana's death.

That left only Lethad.  <What's up with the Captain?> Marlo wanted to know.  <He's not on the Ethereal Plane - I can barely make him out.>  Talking rapidly among themselves over the link and using their shared knowledge of arcane and divine spellcrafting, they deduced Lethad was somehow only a fragment of a soul - not the full "self" that normally became a ghost.  Cramer determined an exorcism would force him to return to the Material Plane, where they would be able to take him out with Marlo's _empowered maximized magic missile_ spells, which would automatically hit him and deal the most amount of damage to him in the quickest time.

<Do you know how to perform an exorcism?> asked Marlo.

<It's been awhile, but yes.>

That seemed to do the trick.  Once forced back into manifesting, Marlo was there waiting for him and she blasted him to smithereens.  "There we go!" approved Cramer.  "With him gone, the other ghosts should be put to rest as well - they no longer have anyone to stop their silly mutiny!"

"What was this whole thing even about?" asked Khari, looking around the room for possible treasure and seeing nothing of interest in the cabin - although there were a few signs that someone had likely been living there recently: a real person or persons, not just ghosts.  (They'd later find out the three mermaid oracles had made the ship their home until they'd been driven out by the ghosts.)

"Who knows?" answered Cramer.  "Why do elf pirates do what they do?  Bottom line, we cleared out the ghosts like the Diviner wanted, and now she should be willing to tell us the location of the Gate of Rylethek.  Good job, guys - let's get back."

As the others walked back the way they'd come, Jhasspok swam over by Utred to ask him a question.  "Diviner?"  He couldn't remember who that was.

Utred thought a moment to try to recall the name Jhasspok had used for her.  Oh yeah: "The 'food-lady,'" he told him.

"Oh.  Her," Jhasspok replied.  Then, recalling what she looked like, he couldn't help but snicker, "Ssss ssss ssss ssss ssss ssss!"

 - - -

So, Logan built this whole adventure upon a back story he'd intended to use for one of the PCs in his previous campaign, "The Durnhill Conscripts."  Joe, who runs Utred in this campaign, ran an elven wizard named Daleth Stormsea in that campaign and gave him almost no back story at all.  So Logan had come up with something elaborate: Captain Lethad Stormsea was a noted pirate who dabbled in the arcane arts and had performed a magical ritual that was to have saved him from death when the time came; however, something went a bit wrong and when his crew mutinied and tried to kill him, he was reincarnated with no memories of his previous life.  This reincarnation was, of course, Daleth Stormsea.  Daleth was led to believe this "Captain Lethad" was his grandfather or something and he ended up gaining the man's "robe made of a thundercloud" towards the end of that campaign.  (Now it turns out he was just reclaiming it from his former self.)  But that's why Lethad's "ghost" was only part of a spirit; most of the rest of him had already been reincarnated into a new body.

None of this is known to any of the "Raiders of the Overreach" characters; I just mention it to fill in some gaps that didn't come out in the adventure itself.  (Logan explained it all to us afterwards.)


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## Richards (Apr 30, 2022)

*ADVENTURE 55: THE CALLER OF THE DROWNED*

PC Roster:
Cramer Appleknocker, gnome cleric 19​Jhasspok, lizardman 3/barbarian 3/fighter 13​Khari Hammerslammer, dwarf fighter 18/psychic warrior 1​Marlo Pendragon, human sorcerer 19​Utred "Buckets" Butterflinger, dwarf barbarian 19​
Game Session Date: 27 April 2022

 - - -

"And what exactly are we to do with these?" asked Utred, looking at the pair of starfish the mermaid Diviner had just handed to him.  Other merfolk were distributing them to the other heroes as well, two to each.  Each of the heroes was currently under the effects of a _water breathing_ spell, allowing them to breathe and speak freely beneath the ocean.

"Place them directly on your skin," the Diviner replied.  "They will provide you with protection against the crushing pressure of the lower depths."  She further explained the depth adaptation starfish were a type of living magic item developed by the wizards among the merfolk tribe.  "But do not take them out of the water," she warned the heroes.  "We will need them back before you return to the surface."

"And we need these why?" asked Cramer, although he had a sneaking suspicion he already knew the reason.  He loosened his robes and armor enough to place a starfish on each shoulder.  Tightening his garments back up, his oversized shoulders made him look somewhat fiercer than his three-and-a-half-foot frame normally did.  Utred plopped his on either side of his neck, where they'd be out of the way.  Khari's starfish ended up on his forearms, where they gave the appearance of some exotic, undersea bracers.

"The Gate of Rylethek lies upon a ledge about 3,700 feet down from here," said the diviner, pointing down over the edge of the continental shelf by which the heroes stood.  "Without proper protection you would be crushed to death before reaching your destination."

"I don't have skin," Jhasspok pointed out, holding a starfish in each hand.  Marlo noticed the hungry look in the lizardfolks' eye.

"Don't eat them, Jhasspok!" she chided.  "They should work attached to your scales just as well as on skin."  She took them from him and spun him about, placing them high up on his back beneath his _slave-light cloak_.  With any luck, he couldn't reach them on his own; she didn't trust the foolish reptile not to try to pry them off and take a bite if he got hungry enough.  Jhasspok shrugged each shoulder in turn, trying to see if they would hinder his movements any, while Marlo applied her own starfish in a more traditional place.

"I fear your...toad will need to stay up here with us," the Diviner added, looking with mild distaste at Truffles's numerous tentacles swaying in the ocean currents.  "We do not have any starfish scaled to his size."  Marlo nodded her understanding and passed Truffles over to the Diviner, who hurriedly passed him on to one of the other merfolk attendants.

"It'll be dark that far down," Cramer mused.  "The dwarves both have darkvision, as does Marlo with her _robe of eyes_, but Jhasspok and I will need a way to see in the dark."

"We have our cloaks," reminded Jhasspok, activating his own so it appeared to burst in harmless flame.  He was surprised the gnome cleric would have forgotten something so basic.

"We don't want to attract the attention of every predator down there," the gnome chided.  He turned to the merfolk.  "Would any of your wizards be able to supply the lizard and I with a _darkvision_ spell?"  Two merfolk wizards swam forward and cast the requested spells upon the gnome and the lizardfolk.  "Thank you, Food Man," Jhasspok said, deactivating the light from his cloak.  The merman scowled in confusion while the other four heroes just shook their heads in disbelief.  Still, at least Jhasspok had stopped laughing at the very sight of creatures with the upper torsos of humans and the lower bodies of fish, or "food" by the lizardfolk's way of thinking.

"Straight down there, huh?" asked Cramer, looking over the ledge down into darkness.  "Okay, guys, buff spells."  He cast a _magic circle against evil_ spell on himself, following it up with _longstrider_, _moment of prescience_, and _spell turning_.  Marlo cast a _magic circle against evil_ spell upon herself, a _Rary's telepathic bond_ spell on the whole group, and then a _stoneskin_ on each of the others - she had a _brooch of petrified flesh_ that performed the same function for her.

And then, as one, the group stepped over the edge of the continental shelf and dropped down into the darkness below.

The slope was fairly steep, but not too steep to make it too difficult to maneuver.  Marlo kept leaping forward off into open water and letting her _boots of levitation_ lower her down at a steady rate until she met back up with the descending cliff face.  The dwarves, neither one particularly appreciating an aquatic environment, kept their faces to the cliff and scrambled down backwards, eager to get to the bottom and a solid floor once again.  Cramer sat at his accustomed spot atop Utred's backpack, only facing behind the dwarf so he could get a better view of what lay before them.  Jhasspok, of course, was in his element, his strong crocodilian tail sweeping back and forth as he happily swam ahead of the rest of the group, staying just close enough to the cliff wall to keep his friends in sight so they wouldn't get separated.

The magical vision provided by Marlo's _robe of eyes_ granted her a view of twice the distance that of what her male companions could see, so she was the only one to see the crystal obelisk rising up from the seabed floor when they finally got to the bottom of the cliff.  Disturbingly, the obelisk was ringed with literally dozens of undead bodies, each standing relatively motionlessly - their limbs and hair occasionally swaying in the ocean currents, but that was about it - as they stared in rapt attention at the crystal shaft before them.  Marlo estimated the obelisk rose up from the seabed for a good 50 feet before tapering to a point for the last 10 feet.

After describing what she saw over the telepathic link, Marlo centered a _sunburst_ spell at the top of the obelisk.  A flash of brilliant light momentarily lit up each of the undead forms ringing the obelisk, then their bodies were disintegrated by the power of the sorceress's magical light.  Darkness once again overtook the scene.  Unseen even by Marlo's enhanced vision, the guardian of the Gate of Rylethek scampered out of the circle of the Writhing Gate beyond the crystal obelisk and slid over the edge of yet another cliff ledge leading further down in darkness.

<Surely those zombies weren't guarding the Writhing Gate,> interjected Khari.  <They weren't much of a defense.>

<I doubt it,> Marlo agreed, walking forward past the upthrust shaft of crystal.  She could see the Writhing Gate just ahead, the ring of ten dead tentacles lying motionless against the seabed floor.  <There's the Gate, though - and it looks like a pile of coins and gems heaped up in the middle of it!>

<Kind of suspicious,> pointed out Utred.

<Illusion?> suggested Cramer, looking over to Marlo, whose magical vision didn't include _true seeing _but which enhanced her visual acuity to such an extent she was often able to tell the difference between illusory items and the real thing.

<Looks legitimate,> she said.

<I'll check it out!> offered Jhasspok, swimming forward and circling the Writhing Gate in a counterclockwise direction, the others moving slower behind him as they walked along the ocean floor.  Then Utred activated his _winged boots_ and used them to "fly" forward underwater.  Cramer followed suit, casting a _fly_ spell on himself and darting forward, leaving only Marlo and Khari walking upon the ocean floor.  As Jhasspok got to the far side of the Writhing Gate he could see over the edge of the cliff, and there he saw an unusual sight: an enormous form, built like a squid but much, much larger than any squid the lizardfolk had ever seen.  It clung motionlessly to the side of the cliff by the tips of several of its many tentacles, while a few others swayed around in a practiced fashion.

And then memories flooded into Jhasspok's brain: this was a kraken - in fact, this was his good friend Rylethek, who had looked after Jhasspok every time the lizardfolk went fishing underwater for the drow of the Overreach back in his fisher-slave days.  Then a sudden worried thought crossed Jhasspok's mind: his friends were probably going to think his good friend Rylethek was dangerous!  He'd have to make sure nobody did anything stupid, like attack the kraken for no good reason - you never could tell with these silly mammals!

Jhasspok spun around, battleaxe in hand in case he had to fight off his friends from the surface - and was immediately encompassed by an enormous hand composed of mystical force.  Jhasspok struggled to free himself from the _Bigby's grasping hand_ spell, to no avail.

<Jhasspok's just fallen victim to a _charm monster_ spell!> Marlo warned the others over the link, after making sure her _Bigby's grasping hand_ spell was keeping him from attacking them.  <There's a kraken on the other side of the ledge!>

<Kraken?> asked Khari as he raced forward, activating his _offensive prescience_ psionic ability now that combat seemed imminent.  <What's a kraken?>  The dwarf had spent most of his life in the Underdark and had never heard of such a beast.

Neither had Utred for that matter, but whatever it was it had taken out Jhasspok with a single spell - although that was easily fixed.  Flying forward by the power of his _winged boots_, the dwarven barbarian snagged Cramer as he passed and dragged him along for the ride.  As soon as they got within ten feet of the struggling lizardfolk, Cramer's _magic circle against evil_ spell temporarily blocked the kraken's _charm monster_ spell, leaving Jhasspok's mind - such as it was - free of outside influence.  Cramer made the effect permanent by casting a _protection from evil_ spell on the lizardfolk.  <He's good!> Cramer announced over the link and Marlo allowed the giant, magical hand to open up and release Jhasspok from its grasp, then redirected it to try to grab one of the kraken's tentacles.

Jhasspok took off like a shot, battleaxe raised to deliver a crippling blow to the kraken perched over the edge of the lower cliff-side.  But one of the kraken's many tentacles darted out, wrapping around the lizardfolk's waist and extending down to encompass his legs and tail.  But that didn't matter to Jhasspok, for he now had a tentacle in his immediate reach and he brought his axe-blade down to cut into the kraken's flesh.  Rylethek reacted by crushing the lizardfolk in his grasp, tightening its grip on him until Jhasspok hissed in pain.

Marlo levitated 30 feet or so up above the seabed floor, until she could see the kraken crushing Jhasspok.  Then she cast a _disintegrate_ spell at the aquatic monster, hoping if the spell didn't outright kill the beast it would at least deal him a considerable amount of damage.  She was very much surprised to see the spell bounce right off the creature and come right back at her.  _I hope I haven't just killed myself!_ she thought miserably as the _disintegrate_ spell started ripping apart her body.  But though it was a close call, she managed to tough it through the spell, gasping at how closely she'd come to fatally falling victim to her own spellcasting.  She vowed to stick to spells that couldn't be "bounced" back her own way for the rest of this fight, not sure how many such spells the kraken's _spell turning_ spell would be able to affect.

Hearing Marlo's cries of pain over the telepathic link, Utred grabbed up Cramer again and flew up to the sorceress, releasing the cleric to cast a _quickened cure critical wounds_ spell upon her.  After having tended to the worst of Marlo's wounds, Cramer cast a _divine power_ spell upon himself, increasing his own combat power.

Jhasspok gritted his teeth against the pain of feeling his lower half getting crushed and put all of his effort into cutting into the tentacle that was trying to squish him like a bug.  Again and again his blade cut deep into the thing's rubbery flesh, but there seemed to be something preventing his weapon from dealing its normal amount of damage - and sure enough there was, for the kraken had had time to cast a _stoneskin_ spell upon himself after having seen his sea zombies taken out in a flash of blinding light from Marlo's _sunburst_ spell.  But each of Jhasspok's axe-strikes whittled away that much more protection from the kraken's hide and eventually they would overcome it entirely.

The lizardfolk felt himself being dragged laterally through the ocean as the tentacle grasping him was repositioned to the kraken's side.  This was so Rylethek could send forth a blast of freezing energy from a _cone of cold_ spell without catching his own tentacles in the area of effect.  The other four heroes were all caught in the blast, to varying effect.  Marlo responded almost immediately by summoning an elder water elemental to attack the kraken from behind, its watery fists pounding into the giant cephalopod's hardened shell.  Khari, meanwhile, sank into the ocean bed using the power of his _earthglide warhammer_ and only popped back up when he was past the creature's tentacles.  Then he swung his weapon directly into the kraken's mouth.  Utred swam directly at the kraken as well, barely avoiding a constricting tentacle and bringing his _Elderwood greenflame greataxe_ slicing into its flesh.

Cramer decided to cast a summoning spell of his own, calling forth a fiendish dire shark.  The great fish snapped at a passing tentacle but didn't manage to deal much in the way of damage, its razor-sharp teeth not even piercing the creature's rubbery flesh.

Jhasspok continued his barrage of weapon strikes, noticing the moment when he finally overpowered the kraken's _stoneskin_ spell, for each swing of his battleaxe now penetrated deeper into the creature's flesh.  Rylethek responded by casting forth a _mass suggestion_ spell that those attacking him drop their weapons and immediately surrender to him; he was less than pleased to see none of his attackers paid any heed to his mental command.

Marlo, still hesitant to cast any spells directly upon the kraken until she knew for certain they wouldn't bounce back to affect her, used her _staff of transmutation_ to cast a _mass enlarge person_ spell upon the group, doubling everyone's size.  Jhasspok screamed aloud at the transformation, for that only meant the tentacle imprisoning his legs and tail gripped him that much more tightly - but it also meant all five heroes could deal out more damage with their larger frames and double-sized weapons.  Khari's warhammer now crashed down upon the kraken with more force behind the blow, as Utred used his greataxe to sever the tip of a rather unusual-looking tentacle indeed; this one had some sort of band of metal around it.  (Unbeknownst to the dwarven barbarian, this was actually a _ring of spell turning_; Marlo would be perfectly safe casting spells against the kraken now, had she only realized it.)

Enjoying his new size but still slightly irritated he was still smaller than his companions, Cramer cast a _righteous might_ spell upon himself and finally reached the same height as Utred, the raging dwarven barbarian he occasionally used as a riding mount.  The gnome gripped his mace in his hand, ready to dish out a bit of physical damage to their enemy himself.

Rylethek sent a _mind blast_ rippling out at all five heroes, hoping to at least prevent Jhasspok's continued attacks from dealing him any further damage.  He failed in that regard - Jhasspok continued his axe-strikes as if nothing had happened, and even snapped at the kraken's torn flesh with his muzzle of sharp teeth - but both dwarves froze up immediately, so the attack had at least had some benefit to the kraken.

As the elder water elemental and the fiendish dire shark continued attacking the kraken, Marlo took a chance and cast a spell at it.  She knew from Cramer that a _spell turning_ spell had a limit as to how much spell energy it could redirect back at the caster before being used up - in that fashion, it was much like a _stoneskin_ spell - and she knew the power of the _disintegrate_ spell she'd cast at Rylethek earlier should have used up over half of its potential power.  So she reasoned if she threw a _maximized disintegrate_ spell at it, even at worst less than half of the spell's energy would be sent back at her, with the majority affecting the kraken as anticipated.  And she was fairly certain she could handle a portion of her spell's effects if it came down to that....  Steeling herself for the possibility of a sudden influx of pain, she cast the spell - and was amazed and relived to find none of the spell's energy bounced back her way.  But then she was disappointed to see the damn kraken had managed to shrug off the worst of the spell's effects in any case.  Still, she'd at least learned its _spell turning_ effect was no more, so she hurriedly informed the others about her findings; Cramer would be interested to know it was now safe to target the beast with direct-fire spells.

As indeed he was.  Once he'd been notified it was now safe to do so, the gnome cleric wasted no time firing off a _harm_ spell that greatly weakened the kraken.  And then Jhasspok finished it off, getting in a flurry of axe-strikes close to the creature's eye as it mistakenly moved the lizardfolk within range with its tentacle.  As it died its muscles relaxed, releasing Jhasspok from its rubbery grasp.  The lizardfolk staggered out from the constricting tentacle, standing awkwardly on his feet with legs that didn't seem to want to support him for a moment.

As for Rylethek, his spirit was shunted back into the crystal obelisk where the real body of Saint Rylethek - in his true illithid form - was preserved in stasis.  The crystal not only kept the mind flayer's body alive without needing sustenance, it also allowed him to use a _magic jar_ effect to project his consciousness into the bodies of those nearby.  Cursing the loss of the body of the fearsome kraken, an opportunity that had been too good to pass up when the massive cephalopod entered the range of effect of the obelisk's _magic jar_ abilities, Saint Rylethek focused his attention on the only member of the surface folk not currently protected by either a _protection from evil_ spell or a _magic circle against evil_ spell, both of which prevented such body-dominating magic from taking effect.  Khari Hammerslammer's dwarven form was certainly not as powerful a body as that of a kraken, but beggars couldn't be choosers and it would have to do.

<Guys!> Khari called out to his friends as he felt a presence in his mind, trying to take over.  <I'm under psionic attack!>

It didn't take a genius to figure out from which direction a psionic attack would be coming, given the presence of a 60-foot-tall obelisk of crystal rising up like an antenna from the seabed floor.  Two castings of a _maximized disintegration_ spell later and Marlo had blasted a hole in the side of the column, revealing the body of the illithid held within.

<Stop - you don't know what--!> began Saint Rylethek, telepathically pleading for his life before his body imploded from the water pressure all around him now that his crystalline protection had been blasted asunder.

<You okay?> Cramer asked Khari, who had felt the psionic assault stop at the same moment the illithid's body had been crushed to a bloody pulp.

<Yeah, I'm fine,> he told the gnome cleric.  <And so is all of this treasure!  It's real, isn't it, Marlo?  Tell me it's real!>

<It's real all right,> Marlo assured him, pulling out the _bag of holding_ so they could start transferring the kraken's treasure hoard into its extradimensional space.  Utred, in the meantime, had removed the Null Axe from his back but then was faced with a dilemma: if he removed the outer wrapping which kept its powers at bay, then as soon as he started wielding it all magical effects upon him would be temporarily negated - which would include not only the _water breathing_ spell that allowed him to breathe but also the two depth adaptation starfish on the sides of his beefy neck that were preventing him from suffering a quick and violent death like Saint Rylethek had just experienced.  And yet the Null Axe was needed to chop each of the ten tentacles that made up the Writhing Gate at their root, permanently deactivating the link to the Far Realm.  However, a few moments of serious thought revealed a solution: Utred pulled the special wrapping from the Null Axe and then wrapped it around the weapon's shaft so he could pick it up without actually touching it.  The special anti-magic properties of the wrapping prevented the Null Axe from undoing any of his own ongoing magical effects.  He started chopping away at each of the tentacles in turn and by the time he was done the others had finished stuffing the kraken's treasure into the _bag of holding_ for transport back to the surface.  Marlo folded it back up and returned it to her belt pouch.

<Alright, back up we go!> announced Cramer.  Jhasspok was off like a shot, his powerful tail propelling him forward and up the side of the cliff.  Utred and Cramer each still had their magical means of flying, and the barbarian pulled his fellow dwarf along as Khari climbed up the side of the cliff.  Marlo used her _boots of levitation_ to rise directly upwards and Jhasspok was more than happy to give her a gentle push closer to the cliff face as they rose in elevation above the seabed floor.

<I'll bet Truffles will be glad to see me again,> Marlo said over the link.

<I'll just bet the little fellow's enjoyed having a few moments not having to worry about Jhasspok making a meal of him,> Khari added.  Jhasspok glared at Khari with a look of betrayal.  _How did he know?_ Jhasspok wondered to himself.  _I'll bet I can eat the toad when we're both underwater, so he won't be able to start on fire like the last time_.

<Jhasspok!> scolded Marlo.  <You're not eating Truffles!>  Then, seeing the look of fear and incomprehension on the lizardfolk's face, she added, <The _Rary's telepathic bond_ spell is still in effect - and you're thinking loud enough for all of us to hear!>

<Sorry, Marlo,> Jhasspok thought to the sorceress over the link, a note of dejection in his mental "voice."  Stupid magic!  Always messing up his plans!

<I heard that, too, Jhasspok.>

<Sorry, Marlo,> Jhasspok repeated.

 - - -

It was great getting back into the game after a two-month hiatus.  (One of our players was recovering from surgery.)  Logan used a kraken toy that came with a "Pirates of the Caribbean" Lego-like playset he had when he was a kid as the kraken, which he had advanced to double its normal Hit Dice to make it a worthy foe against a quintet of 19th-level PCs.  I also fished out (no pun intended) a shark toy that we use for Huge sharks in D&D when Dan decided he'd have Cramer summon a fiendish dire shark.  (The silly thing was useless the whole adventure, though, not once making a successful bite attack against the kraken.)

The sea zombies surrounding the crystal obelisk were just there for "window dressing" - they weren't intended to be a threat to us, but in-game they were attracted by the psionic energies of the obelisk and were a handy food source for the kraken.  These were "the drowned" in the adventure's title.

And now we're down to the last three adventures in this campaign, which means this will end up consisting of 58 adventures overall, pretty close to Logan's earlier 60-adventure "Durnhill Conscripts" campaign.  After that, Dan will be running us through a campaign, the first one he'll have run in about 40 years.


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## Richards (May 15, 2022)

*ADVENTURE 56: VOYAGE OF THE DAMNED*

PC Roster: 
Cramer Appleknocker, gnome cleric 19​Jhasspok, lizardman 3/barbarian 3/fighter 13​Khari Hammerslammer, dwarf fighter 18/psychic warrior 1​Marlo Pendragon, human sorcerer 19​Utred "Buckets" Butterflinger, dwarf barbarian 19​
Game Session Date: 11 May 2022

 - - -

"You realize," Marlo said as the group made their way through the various magic shops of Greenvale, "if what they're saying is true, this might be our last chance to purchase anything before we end up on the Island of No Return."

"If we can't return from the Island of No Return, this might be our last chance to purchase anything, ever," pointed out Utred.  "I'm thinking I'll get the protective enhancements upgraded to my tower shield."

"I'm thinking I'd do well to pick up a magic shield myself," Cramer added.

"I'm getting low on dried dung beetles," admitted Jhasspok, checking his current stock.  But after having made that particular purchase, Marlo guided him into spending the rest of his money wisely, on upgrades to his own protective gear: his _gloves of dexterity_, _belt of giant strength_, and his own magic shield.

"But now what?" asked Marlo, once the group was satisfied with their individual purchases.  "We still don't have a way to get to the Unchartable Isle."

"We think we have found a way," interjected one of the wizardly advisors from Greenvale, a sunborn drow with bright orange hair.  "Over in the Azure Glade, there is a ship's crew willing to take you to the Uncharted Isle."

"I'm sensing a 'but'," remarked Cramer.

"...But," added the wizard, "they are death row inmates scheduled to be executed tomorrow."

"What?  Then we'd better hurry!" replied Marlo and, gathering everyone together in a tight group, _teleported_ the five over to the Azure Glade's capital city, where they made their way to the central courthouse.  There they were met by a strange, metal man - a kolyarut who introduced himself as *Azure Delta Sigma*.

"I have been apprised of your impending arrival," admitted the construct.  "You wish a stay of execution of the eight-member ship's crew who have been sentenced to death."

"That's right," affirmed Cramer Appleknocker, quickly briefing the kolyarut on the Dying One, the Writhing Gates, and the importance of ensuring the last remaining link between the illithid Elder God and the world of Shadreath was severed, preventing the destruction of the planet and everything on it.

"Irrelevant," replied Azure Delta Sigma.  "The eight have been sentenced to death."

"But we're tryin' t' save the damned world!" exploded Utred.

"Irrelevant," repeated the kolyarut.  "If the world is fated to be destroyed it would be illogical to attempt to alter its fate."

"But...there's a prophecy about us, too!" interjected Marlo, who then further explained how the five of them were similarly fated to save the world from the Dying One.  "What makes your prophecy outrank the prophecy about us?"

"Interesting," replied the kolyarut.  "Very well.  You will have an opportunity to prove yourselves against the Executors of Judgment for the release of the convicts."

"What, we'll get to argue our case before them?" asked Cramer.  "Like, in a courtroom and everything?"

"No.  You will fight to the death against the Executors of Judgment."

"And who are they?" asked Khari.

"I am one of them," replied Azure Delta Sigma, leading them into an arena where the eight prisoners stood, four to each side wall, hanging by chains and shackles around their wrists.  They were a rough-looking lot and Marlo couldn't help but notice how they leered at her with open desire.  She glared at them disdainfully, but they figured they were all going to die the next morning in any case so they weren't particularly concerned with their manners.

"The other two Executors of Judgment are *Beryl Omega Gamma* and *Cobalt Beta Tau*."  As the kolyarut stated each Executor's name, the individual in question stepped out into the ring from a door in the back of the sand-filled arena.  The first was a hulking humanoid figure wearing full plate armor, including a tall-crested helmet, but who wielded no weapons.  Nonetheless, Beryl Omega Gamma was an impressive figure; the marut stood a good 20 feet tall and while nothing could be seen of his face his eyes glowed with a reddish determination from within his helmet.  The other construct was built in the form of a centaur and was an equivalent size but made entirely of metal.  Its arms ended in spiked chains in place of hands.

"The fight will be to the death: you five against the three of us."  Azure Delta Gamma walked over to take his place among the other two inevitables.  "But any deaths in the arena - yours or ours - will be only temporary, for this battle is merely to test the rightness of your cause.  You are advised to fight without mercy, for you will receive none in return.  Are there any questions before we begin?"

Utred answered by slamming the flat of his axe-blade against his chest, eager for the battle to begin.  Khari mentally activated his _offensive prescience_ psionic ability, further empowering his _ghost touch earthglide dwarven warhammer_.  Marlo cast a _mass enlarge person_ spell on the group, instantly doubling everyone's size and increasing their strength.  Cramer cast a _mass bear's endurance_ spell on the group and a _quickened divine power_ spell on himself.  Jhasspok just looked in confusion at Utred and asked the dwarven barbarian why they were going to fight the metal people.

"They're gonna try t' kill us," Utred explained.  "So we're gonna kill 'em first."  Jhasspok just shrugged and gathered his battleaxe in his hands, glad that it still held the _vampiric touch_ spell Marlo had loaded into it the day prior.  He still didn't understand exactly what was going on, but both dwarves seemed to know what was happening and they were going along with it, so the lizardfolk assumed the reasoning made some sort of sense.

"Then we begin!" announced Azure Delta Sigma, stepping forward and drawing a longsword from a scabbard at his hip.

Khari rushed forward, sinking into the sands of the arena as he did so.  He popped back up right before the kolyarut, swinging his _earthglide warhammer_ which had made his underground approach possible into the inevitable's face.  It resounded with a healthy "clang!" as metal struck metal.

Cramer was unsure of the inevitables' specific powers and opted to test them out a bit in a way that wouldn't involve his personal presence.  Calling out the words to a summoning spell, he brought forth a trio of fiendish tyrannosaurs, one directly in front of the marut and the other two flanking the zelekhut.  Jhasspok approved of Cramer's choice in combat stand-ins, for the fiendish dinosaurs were built very much like his own reptilian frame, although their heads were proportionally bigger than the lizardfolk's and their forearms ridiculously small.  Still, Jhasspok only got a glimpse of them as he sped past the closest one to make a flying leap into the fray against the marut, using his _tail-band of the raptor_ to make a dazzling array of attacks at the end of his charge.

Marlo targeted the kolyarut with an _empowered maximized scorching ray_, which would have done a significant amount of damage to the humanoid construct - if it hadn't fizzled away to nothingness upon coming up against the inevitable's inherent spell resistance.  But while Marlo was cursing her luck, Utred was spanning the distance between himself and Azure Delta Sigma, bringing his _Elderwood greenflame greataxe_ crashing into the kolyarut's side.

But then the inevitables made their respective counterattacks.  The marut ignored the dinosaur snapping at him - realizing it was merely a summoned creature who would disappear on its own in time - and sent its fists swinging at Jhasspok, striking the lizardfolk in a deadly one-two blow.  Beryl Omega Gamma's massive _fists of thunder and lightning_ didn't just pummel the reptile's body, their magical effects caused him to go instantly deaf and blind - and just like that, Jhasspok was pretty much taken out of the combat, for while he could feel the sand beneath his feet and the battleaxe in his hands, he could no longer see his foes or hear the sounds of combat around him.  And the metal foes didn't even have much of a scent to go by.

The kolyarut, under attack by a pair of dwarves, stabbed his _axiomatic longsword_ at Utred, cutting a slight gash in the barbarian's skin that Utred hardly even seemed to notice, so caught up was he in the fight at hand.  The dwarven combatant was literally seeing red, allowing his rage to rush over him and lead his efforts in the combat to the death.  And at his side, Khari swung his dwarven warhammer at Azure Delta Sigma, denting his armor with the force of his blow.  Then the dwarven fighter felt a gnomish touch on his back as Cramer cast a _shield of faith_ spell upon him, granting him magical protection against physical attacks.

Behind the kolyarut and the dwarves, the zelekhut attacked one of the fiendish tyrannosaurs biting at him.  They, in turn snapped their jaws - with their rows of daggerlike teeth - at the constructs, not the least bit concerned that each bite snapped off a tooth or two.

Jhasspok didn't dare use his battleaxe against the marut, not while being unable to see the location of his friends!  So he dropped his weapon at his side and lunged forward with arms outspread, hoping to grab the marut up in a bear hug.  But although the lizardfolk had been doubled in size by Marlo's spell he was still overshadowed by the massive marut, who had no trouble fending off Jhasspok's grappling attempts.

Marlo targeted the kolyarut with an _empowered maximized magic missile_ spell, thinking perhaps the fact the _magic missiles_ unerringly hit their target would allow the spell to function where the more powerful _scorching ray_ spell had failed.  Whatever the reason, the _magic missiles_ did the trick, overcoming the kolyarut's spell resistance and striking the construct in the chest.  And now that she had gotten a bit of a feel for the construct's spell resistance, she felt more willing to attempt more powerful spells in her arsenal. 

But she didn't get to use her newly-found confidence against Azure Delta Sigma, for Utred's blade cut down the first - and smallest - of the three Executors of Judgment.  Then he was facing off against the marut, who had abandoned Jhasspok as no longer a threat and was charging at the dwarven barbarian.  His _fist of thunder_ missed Utred entirely, but the dwarf got clocked by the marut's _fist of lightning_.  Fortunately, while the blow had Utred seeing stars for a moment he was able to overcome the blindness from taking effect and battled on.  Jhasspok bravely pressed on but had no idea the marut was no longer in front of him; he tried grappling the air before him until he bumped into the leg of one of Cramer's fiendish dinosaurs; fortunately, the lizardfolk had the sense to know the difference between the feel of solid metal and the feel of a living creature's scales and stopped himself from blindly trying to grapple the leg of a towering tyrannosaur.

The zelekhut continued focusing its attention on the dinosaur causing him the most harm, allowing Utred to focus his own attacks on the marut, Beryl Omega Gamma.  Khari joined his fellow dwarf in the fight, matching his warhammer with Utred's greataxe.  They each dealt the construct a significant amount of damage before Cramer destroyed the inevitable outright with a _destruction_ spell.

The zelekhut now found itself the sole focus of a trio of fiendish dinosaurs, not at all pleased that the metal centaur was not in fact edible.  Then Marlo cast a _maximized disintegrate_ spell at the zelekhut and blew it into dust.  And just like that, the arena battle was over, the five heroes not having had any losses.  "Kind of brings back memories of our first arena battle, huh, Jhasspok?" the sorceress called over to the lizardfolk, who was still flailing about with his arms, seeking a foe.  But shortly Jhasspok's blindness and deafness both cleared up and the wounds the heroes had sustained in battle against the inevitables started magically healing up as well.

A group of gray-clad clerics entered the arena, the markings on their robes identifying them as belonging to the Church of Boccob, God of Magic.  They approached the shackled prisoners, casting _marks of justice_ upon them to ensure their cooperation and releasing them from their chains.  The leader of the clerics stepped over to the heroes and provided the group with all the knowledge that had been gleaned from the previous expeditions to the Uncharted Isle.

"There is literally an army of elementals patrolling the area around the island," the head cleric informed the group.  "They prevent anyone, or anything, from leaving the area - and the area seems to have been slowly expanding for centuries, perhaps longer.  As you approach the island you will be warned away by the water elementals, but they won't prevent you from approaching if you desire - they just won't let you leave again."

"So wait - this is a one-way trip?" asked Utred.

"Perhaps...unless you are able to secure the rift between the Material Plane and the Far Realm that exists somewhere on the island.  It is possible that once the rift has been closed the chaotic energies that have altered the lifeforms on and around the island will allow them to revert to normal and it will be safe for you to return."  He handed a sealed scroll tube to Cramer.  "Do not open this until you are ready to use it.  It is a scroll containing the _seal portal_ spell and the case has been crafted to shield the scroll from the Far Realm energies permeating the island.  We are concerned that if you open the scroll case too early, the energies might alter the scroll and make the spell unusable."

"Got it," said Cramer, placing the sealed scroll case into his pack.

"One of the earlier expeditions brought a _scrying focus_ to the Uncharted Island so that future expeditions would be able to _teleport_ there directly.  However - and I cannot stress this enough - you must not use any teleportation magic of any kind while on the island.  All prior attempts at teleportation have had disastrous effects, for those using such magic are sent to a random location on the Far Realm, up to 500 miles away from the rift location on that chaotic plane."

"And you know this how?" demanded Cramer.

"Divination spells, cast to find out the fates of those who went missing," replied the cleric.

"How long of a trip is it to the Uncharted Island?" asked Marlo.

"It should take your vessel no more than a month," replied the cleric.  Marlo's eyes widened at the realization she'd be spending a month on board a somewhat small ship with a group of eight hardened criminals - and the only woman on board, at that.  But the sailors were on their absolutely best behavior, the sorceress's powerful spellcasting abilities having made a deep and lasting impression upon them; nobody wanted to be blasted to oblivion with a _disintegrate_ spell for a rude comment or a lingering eye.  The month at sea was a long one for the sorceress, boring to the extreme.

For Jhasspok, however, it was a veritable vacation.  He spent a good part of each day over the side of the vessel, swimming alongside the ship and catching a great quantity of fish, which were tossed up onto the deck to be eaten for the next meal.  The lizardfolk quickly became the crew's favorite passenger; they ate much better in what would likely be their last voyage than they had in any other previous excursion.

But at the end of the fourth week they reached the edge of the elemental quarantine ring.  A pair of massive waves came rushing toward the vessel, stopping just before impact and coalescing into vaguely humanoid forms.  Cramer used his magical helmet to translate the elementals' warnings, spoken in their Aquan language.  "Just like we've been told," he said, explaining the elementals' words to the others.  "They'll let us pass, but if we do they won't let us sail back out.  They'll destroy us if we make the attempt, to prevent the chaotic energies from escaping the perimeter."

"So we're going to be picking up chaotic energies?" asked Khari.  "Like, we'll become chaotic creatures ourselves?"

"It's a possibility," the gnome replied.  That was a sobering thought.  The group had all realized this was very possibly a one-way trip but it was just sinking in the very disheartening reasons they'd be quarantined after approaching the island.  Marlo and Utred, in particular, were recalling the warped versions of themselves they'd fought in the Halls of Redemption, a glimpse of their possible futures.

"I could always use my _winged boots_ to fly back from the island without teleporting," suggested Utred.  "It'd take a lot longer, but I could give it a try."

"I wouldn't recommend it," answered Marlo, using her _robe of eyes_ to see farther than she could normally with her human eyes.  There were air elementals, barely visible to human sight, flitting about in the air overhead.  The quarantine ring was patrolled by more than just water elementals, it seemed.

The ship moved forward, past the guardian water elementals who let them enter.  There was no turning back now.

Early the next morning the island came into view.  "'Bout damn time!" snorted Utred.  He'd imagined once they entered the quarantine zone the island would be right there; he hadn't planned on there still being hours of travel before they even laid eyes on the target of their month-long voyage.  But as the heroes all stood at the rails looking at the island a cry rang out from the back of the ship.  "Grab weapons!" came the cry.  "Monster approaching aft!"

Looking back to the rear of the ship, those aboard the ship saw a pair of tentacles rising up from the waves, followed by an enormous, bulbous head.  It was a giant octopus of some type, but the creature was difficult to look at directly for the creature's body and appendages seemed to flicker into and out of reality and shift around - it was like looking at the aquatic beast through a kaleidoscope and it was headache-inducing.  Cramer realized even looking at such a chaotic beast could have unwanted mental consequences and cast a _magic circle against chaos_ spell centered on himself, then climbed up onto Utred's backpack - his preferred combat location.  "Stick close!" he called to the others.

Then another call came ringing out by another of the crewmembers.  "Monster to the fore!" he cried, causing the heroes to spin back around and face front once again.  Another creature was approaching, a massive lobster-thing with writhing tentacles hanging down from its face.  It, too, was shifting around as if being viewed through a kaleidoscope.  It made tracking the movement of the creature's foreclaw difficult - one moment it was in one place, the next it was elsewhere - but all of a sudden a crewman was there in the beast's serrated claws, being crushed to death.

"Don't look at them!" called Cramer to the crew.  "Go below - we'll handle the monsters!"  The sailors scrambled to comply, six of them making it belowdecks while the seventh was snagged up by a shifting octopus tentacle.

The ship's relatively small size worked in their favor, for Jhasspok was able to rush forward and bring his battleaxe to bear upon the mindbreaker chuul without leaving the confines of Cramer's _magic circle_ spell.  The axe came chopping up and down upon the chuul's hardened carapace, but one of the lizardfolk's strikes slipped between the dimensions and had no effect.  It was frustrating trying to fight a creature who wasn't always right there in front of you!

Khari and Utred followed suit, bringing their dwarven warhammer and greataxe to bear, the heroes having jointly decided to concentrate all of their attacks against one creature at a time.  Marlo stayed back, still within the _magic circle against chaos_, and cast a _maximized disintegrate_ at the mindbender chuul.  It managed to shrug off most of the enhanced spell's effects, although it was difficult to tell with parts of the creature's body shifting around back and forth and between dimensions.  Cramer found his _destruction_ spell to be likewise not as effective as he would have hoped, for the chuul was still up and about after he had flung the spell at it.  It sent its pincers darting forward, snatching Jhasspok and Khari up off the deck - it was difficult to dodge incoming attacks when they seemed to come from multiple directions simultaneously!  But neither the dwarf nor the lizardfolk seemed particularly distressed, as being caught up in a claw just meant they were directly beside the creature they intended to attack with their weapons in any case.  And attack they did, Khari striking with his warhammer and cracking the creature's carapace while Jhasspok did his best to drive the blade of his battleaxe into the creature's joints, where the hardened shell was liable to be weaker.

Utred finished off the chuul with a series of deep cuts with his greataxe; upon its death its muscles relaxed, allowing its two pincer-victims to wriggle free of its embrace before it sunk to the bottom of the ocean, its body still flickering about in kaleidoscopelike fashion even in death.

Marlo was the first to switch targets, firing a _maximized disintegrate_ spell at the mindbender octopus that had already devoured the crewman it had snatched up and was now making its way forward along the port side of the ship.  Likely due to its flickering nature it also shrugged off the worst of the spell's effects, but judging solely from the increased rate of flailing of its numerous tentacles it seemed the spell had at least caused the octopus a great deal of pain.  It retaliated immediately against the sorceress, swatting at her with a tentacle and wrapping it around her waist.  Marlo was distressed at the close-up view her _robe of eyes_ permitted her to see of the suckers adhering to her body along the length of tentacle wrapped around her.

Cramer cast another _destruction_ spell at the giant octopus, with similar results: some damage, but not the instant death for which he'd been hoping.  But then as one, Utred, Khari, and Jhasspok charged at the beast with their weapons raised, bringing them down in a synchronized ballet of combat prowess, blades slicing through rubbery flesh as the warhammer crashed hard against the creature's boneless head.  The flurry of attacks brought the octopus to near death, so much so that Marlo was able to send the mindbending beast over the edge with a slice of her _arcane blade_.  Like the chuul before it, the octopus collapsed in a limp heap and began sinking below the waves, Marlo barely having enough time to extract herself from its appendage before being drawn down into the deep waters with it.

The ship had been spun about during the combat and none of the heroes had any idea about what to do to get it back on its bearings, but once the ship's crew - now reduced to six men, two having been devoured by the pair of mindbending monsters - came back abovedecks they soon put the ship to rights, aiming it once again towards the Uncharted Isle.

"Be a bit of a shame this voyage coming to an end," pointed out one of the men.  "Least while we was out at sea we was still alive, with plenty of fish to eat and barrels of fresh water in the hold.  No telling what kinds of dangers we'll find ashore, if them sea monsters was the sorts of things the island's magic'll do to a feller!"

"Quitcher bitchin'," commanded the captain.  "These folks bought us a month of life already - we'd've been hanging long since if not fer 'em!  I reckon they can see us through whatever the island's got in store."

"We'll see about that," muttered Cramer to himself, standing at the front of the vessel and staring out at the Uncharted Isle, eager to see what he could of the place before they arrived.

By nightfall they were within disembarking distance to the island.  The ship came to a stop as the sails were lowered and the sailors dropped anchor.

"Well," said Khari.  "We're here."

 - - -

I had used a "non-Euclidian" template on a hell hound several campaigns ago during an adventure involving the Far Realm; Logan wasn't sure where the template was found so he used the Mindbender template from _The Book of Templates_, which did pretty much the same thing.  And since we were all 19th-level PCs at the time, he advanced the monsters we fought high enough to make them credible threats.

And boy, were those inevitables credible threats - especially when our dice seemed determined to betray us!  And if I never have to go up against another marut in my lifetime it'll be fine with me.  Dan was willing to have Cramer go "unblind and undeafen" Jhasspok, but I argued it was more important for our two spellcasters to break out the high-level spells and deal some mega-damage to our foes - especially after both Dan and Vicki had spent a couple of rounds casting some low-level prep spells because they were used to having time to do so before combat began.  Not this time, guys, combat's already here and we need to take them down, the faster the better!

We all ended up at level 20 by the end of the adventure, so we'll all be as powerful as we're going to be for this campaign for our last two adventures.  Harry's satisfied that Khari ended up with 11 more hit points than Jhasspok at the end of our respective adventuring careers - he enjoys beating me at stuff like that.  (He was disappointed when Jhasspok finally got Improved Initiative a couple of levels ago and started giving him a run for his money on the initiative counts, at which he'd been beating me fairly regularly.)


----------



## Richards (May 28, 2022)

*ADVENTURE 57: THE ISLAND OF MISFIT MONSTERS*

PC Roster:
Cramer Appleknocker, gnome cleric 20​Jhasspok, lizardman 3/barbarian 3/fighter 14​Khari Hammerslammer, dwarf fighter 19/psychic warrior 1​Marlo Pendragon, human sorcerer 20​Utred "Buckets" Butterflinger, dwarf barbarian 20​
Game Session Date: 25 May 2022

 - - -

The landing craft had been lowered to the water and Jhasspok was ready to leap overboard himself, but Cramer grabbed the lizardfolk's wrist.  "Hold on a minute there," the little gnome chided.  "Before any of us leaves this ship, I want to cast a _magic circle against chaos_ spell on everyone first."

"But I've been in the water lots of times on this trip," Jhasspok argued.

"Never this close to the island, though," warned Cramer.  "Remember, there's a rift on the island somewhere, leaking all kinds of chaos energy into the surroundings.  That's why those sea monsters we fought yesterday were so..." the gnome cast about for the proper word.

"Wonky," suggested Khari.

"Yes, quite," agreed the gnome cleric as he cast the _magic circle against chaos_ on each of the five heroes.  Once Jhasspok had received his spell and gotten the nod from the little gnome, he dove over the side of the ship and surfaced nearly a minute later, after having explored the surrounding area underwater and finding no immediate danger.  The two dwarves and Cramer stepped down into the little boat and Marlo went to follow in their wake, but not before having a few words with the ship's crew.  "Now remember, you're not to step foot off this ship until our return," she reminded them.  "The island's likely not safe without the proper magical protection and if you get it into your heads to try to sail away and leave us stranded here, the water elementals will sink your ship rather than letting you exit the quarantine zone they've set up around the island.  And," she added, her eyebrows lowering as she glared up at the criminal captain and his crew, most of whom stood a good foot taller than her, "I will not take kindly to you abandoning us.  Are we understood?"

"Y-yes, ma'am," agreed the captain, knowing full well he'd receive no ribbing from his crew of hardened criminals for speaking in fear to the tiny little female in the funny robe with all the eyes painted on it.  None of the crew dared get themselves on Marlo's bad side; they'd all seen only too well the kind of power she wielded.

Once the four were settled in the rowboat nobody even bothered touching the oars, for Jhasspok happily grabbed the upper edge of the boat's aft side and propelled it forward with powerful sweeps of his muscular tail.  The past month had been quite a treat for the former fisher-slave, getting to swim every day and hunt for fish.  He was actually going to be a little sad when this mission was over.

"Looks like some kind of encampment over there," pointed out Marlo from the front of the boat, squinting into the sunlight.  "Veer us to the right, Jhasspok!"  Sure enough, there looked to be a series of tents of various sizes in a tight cluster, likely the remains of a previous expedition to the island.  While Cramer held a _find the path_ spell in his mind ready to be cast, it wouldn't hurt to ask the locals if they knew of the last of the Writhing Gates.  On the other hand, it also wouldn't hurt not to automatically trust that the members of the previous expedition would be of a friendly nature.  "Anybody want to go into the village invisible?" she asked the group at large.

"Sure," replied Utred.  Marlo cast an _invisibility_ spell on the dwarven barbarian from her wand, while Cramer likewise activated his _ring of invisibility_ and vanished from view.  Jhasspok's steady tail-sweeps propelled the boat forward, seemingly moving of its own accord while a hammer-wielding dwarf and a human woman no taller than he was sat at the back of the small vessel.

As they approached the island, the _robe of eyes_ she wore allowed Marlo to see the invisible gnome climb up onto his usual perch on the invisible dwarven barbarian's backpack.  She could also see a pair of horses approaching from the back of the tent-village, their riders apparently having noticed the landing vessel's imminent arrival.  Jhasspok brought the boat up onto the beach and Marlo and Khari stood, getting a good sight of the approaching welcoming committee.

Marlo barely stifled a shriek of surprise when the horses and their riders came into full view.  Bits and pieces of their bodies had been swapped around, seemingly at random, although both horses had human heads and the riders had the heads of horses; one horse's right front leg ended in a human arm and hand, the equine limb growing out of the rider's right shoulder.  And worst of all, while the riders wore no saddles there seemed to be no need for them at all, for the human bodies had merged with the horses' backs, each horse and rider now a single, mismatched creature made up of composite parts and pieces; Marlo could tell one human leg actually grew into the side of the horse's ribcage and the end of the human foot dangled out from the bottom of the horse's belly.  The horrific figures were armed, wielding light crossbows and lances.

Utred activated his _winged boots_, rising invisibly up and out of the boat with Cramer still perched upon his backpack.  He pulled his greataxe out, ready for action and well aware that his first strike would return him to full visibility.  Marlo prepared to cast a _maximized disintegrate_ spell if either of the hoofed horrors tried to attack her.  Cramer, seemingly just a disembodied voice from somewhere in the air above the tents, tried communicating with the misshapen horse-men.  "What are your intentions?" he called down to them.  The responses he got were varied, for the swapping around of body parts apparently had made speech difficult for the merged mutants, but the gnome thought he could pick out "Join us" and "Please kill us" among the muttered replies.

Then another figure ambled out of the largest of the tents.  This creature was no longer even closely humanoid in build, its pliant, rolling body an unholy mish-mash of tentacles, arms, insectoid limbs, serrated claws, and partial screaming faces, all rising up and collapsing back into the amoeboid body.  Cramer immediately recognized the thing as a chaos beast, although one much larger than any he had ever heard of before.  _Stay away from the blob-monster!_ Cramer thought furiously to his friends, before realizing Marlo hadn't had time to cast the standard _Rary's telepathic bond_ that provided the heroes a means of silent communication between themselves.  But already Jhasspok was rising up from the ocean waters behind the rowboat with his battleaxe in hand, stepping towards the chaos beast with a look of determination on his reptilian face.  Cramer resorted to shouting out a warning: "Don't let the blob-monster touch you, Jhasspok!" he cried down at the lizardfolk.  "If it touches you it can make you into something just like it!"

Marlo sent her readied spell blasting into the chaos beast, realizing their best bet was to take the ever-shifting creature down with ranged spells and attacks.  Unfortunately, the chaos beast was protected by a level of spell resistance and the _maximized disintegrate_ spell fizzled away to nothingness.  Jhasspok grabbed up his _flaming shortspear_ and hurled it at the approaching blob with his full strength.  The spear hit the creature in the center of its mass, but the monster's shifting features continued morphing and it was difficult to see if the attack had done any lasting harm.  As the chaos beast oozed forward, it eventually left the shortspear behind it, the weapon having been shifted out of its body mass.

Khari mentally activated his _offensive prescience_ and sprinted forward, moving in the opposite direction of the chaos beast, setting himself up to be able to attack the right-most horse-hybrid.  The hoofed horror saw the approaching dwarf and shot at him with its crossbow; Khari saw the bolt wriggling awkwardly in his direction and ducked under it as it flew by.  But the other hybrid also fired its weapon at Jhasspok and the bolt hit the lizardfolk in the shoulder, shifting upon impact to reveal itself as a thin-bodied leech which buried its ring of sharp fangs into the reptile's flesh, burrowing its head between his scales and beginning to suck up Jhasspok's blood.

Not wanting to get close enough to the chaos beast below to bring his greataxe to bear - for to do so would be to bring the barbarian well within the range of the monster's tentacles and claws - Utred uncoiled his _life-flame whip_ and sent its tip striking rapidly again and again to snap at the chaos beast, the flames burning the blobby monster's flesh where it struck.  The dwarf was now visible, hanging in the air supported by his magic boots while Cramer remained invisible sitting upon his backpack.  Marlo cast a summoning spell, bringing forth a trio of massive earth elementals, although at the last moment one of the burly rock-monsters fell forward and fell through a gap into the Far Realm.  Marlo never did see whatever happened to that third one but the other two flanked the hoofed horror that had just shot at Khari, their boulderlike fists crashing down upon both of its backs, the human one and the equine one.  Ribs cracked under the pummeling.

Cramer suddenly became visible as he cast a _destruction_ spell down at the chaos beast.  It managed to shrug off the worst of the spell's effects but it was quite visibly affected, for some of its misshapen limbs were blasted away from the creature's central mass and they bubbled where they landed, dissolving away into nothingness.  But the majority of the creature's bulk remained intact and it shambled over to Jhasspok, remaining limbs writhing as if wishing to pull the lizardfolk into its embrace, perhaps to absorb the reptile's flesh into its own wriggling form.  Jhasspok, for his part, recalled Cramer's warning and skirted around the beast, heading toward the hybrid horse-thing not currently being pummeled by the earth elementals.  He threw another shortspear at it, this one not enhanced with magical flames but nonetheless hitting its mark.  But the monstrosity surged forward, bringing its lance to bear against the lizardfolk, who handily dodged the weapon's wicked point.

Khari skirted around the tents to make his way toward the other hoofed horror, who tried escaping the rock-fists of its attackers.  Perhaps realizing its crossbow would be ineffective against the elementals' stone forms, it brought its crossbow up towards Utred and Cramer and fired its wriggling bolt at the gnome, the leech adhering to Cramer's flesh and digging in upon impact.  Utred was unaware of the attack, continuing to focus his attention on the chaos beast, his _life-flame whip_ snapping down at the creature and drawing lines of scarred pain upon its puckered flesh.

The chaos beast's slithering charge towards Jhasspok came to a shambling halt under Utred's continuing barrage of whip-snaps and Marlo sensed the creature was just about dead.  She opted to save her higher-powered spells for later and cast a simple _magic missile_ spell at the monstrosity, nodding in confirmation as the streaking bolts of energy blasted bits of flesh away from its core as each struck true.  Then, as if having overcome its overall structural integrity, the chaos beast popped like a bag of half-dissolved meat and pooled upon the ground, the chunks of its horrid flesh bubbling and dissolving in the open air, releasing a stench as horrible as the vision of its pulsating body had been to those who had seen it at its full power.

The earth elementals towered over their sole target, pounding it mercilessly and eliciting humanlike cries of pain and horse-whinnies of terror.  Seeing that one was pretty much being taken care of, Cramer cast a _spiritual weapon_ spell and sent a quarterstaff of pure force energy streaking over to strike the other hoofed horror.  Jhasspok by then was swinging his battleaxe into the composite being's side, each blow cutting deep into the horror's flesh.  Khari charged the one being pummeled by the elementals merely because of the two remaining foes it was the closest.  The mutants did their best to retaliate, one attacking Jhasspok with its lance and the other trying to stab Khari, but then Utred came to a landing and swung his greataxe into the one attacking Jhasspok and the creature was slain shortly thereafter by a _maximized scorching ray_ spell fired off by Marlo.  The earth elementals soon took care of the other one, crushing it to a pulp beneath their rugged fists.

The main combat finished, Jhasspok paid attention to the bloated leech greedily sucking his blood.  Plucking the creature from his scales, Jhasspok popped it into his mouth and bit down hard with his dinosaur teeth, instantly filling his mouth with his own blood as he chewed up the rubbery flesh.  Cramer had likewise pulled the leech from his own flesh and, seeing Jhasspok chewing up the other one, called out to him and tossed the leech over to him like a dog treat.  Jhasspok turned his head at the sound of his name and snapped the tossed leech from mid-air, eye-ridges raising in surprise at the taste of the gnome's blood.  But after he'd swallowed down the pair of after-battle treats, the lizardfolk realized he didn't feel so good.  Fortunately, Cramer came over to close up the wounds the lizardfolk has sustained in battle and the gnome's _heal_ spell also cured the reptile of the mutagenic effects eating a pair of creatures who had been bathed in chaos energy would have eventually caused.  But thinking it over, Cramer cautioned the others against eating anything they encountered on the island.  "Best if we stick to food we've brought ourselves, or that I call forth through spellcasting."  Jhasspok patted his pouch of dried dung beetles and nodded his understanding to the little gnome.

The heroes did a quick check of the tents to make sure there weren't any other surprises waiting for them, and Marlo made an interesting discovery.  "The tents are magical in nature!" she told the group, examining them under a _detect magic_ spell.  "They shield against chaos energy!" she added, surprise evident in her voice as she examined the magical auras emanating from the tents.

"Not very well," pointed out Khari, looking over at the wet spot on the ground that was all that was left of the massive chaos beast they'd just slain.

"Probably a matter of too little, too late," surmised Cramer.  "By the time they realized they needed shielding against chaos magic, it had already started to take effect."  But the group dismantled several of the tents and folded them up into Marlo's _bag of holding_.  Cramer had prepared three _magic circle against chaos_ spells for each of the five heroes, but when they all ran their course they'd need to camp out in the tents to shield them from the emanations of chaos energy leaking from the rift to the Far Realm.

"So now what?" asked Utred.  "Which way do we go?"

Cramer cast a _find the path_ spell and pointed off in the distance, climbing back onto his perch upon Utred's backpack.  "That way," he said, pointing toward the center of the island, a teeming jungle of tropical plants - some of them with eyes and teeth.  "I figure it'll probably take us about three days of travel.  The tents will definitely help - otherwise, we'd all have to fit inside a _rope trick_ spell each night, so we wouldn't be on the same plane of existence as the one being flooded with chaos energy.  Anybody want to start growing tentacles or spare eyeballs?"

"No!" replied Utred and Marlo, each thinking back on how close they'd each come to doing just that by having foolishly agreed to serve the Dying One.  Involuntarily shudders wracked their forms at the thought.

"Let's go, then," suggested Cramer.  "Utred, you and Jhasspok will need to trade off leading the way; you'll need to cut us a path through the jungle when it gets too overgrown."  Utred stepped forward and took the lead, greataxe in hand.  The others followed behind him, snaking their way single-file through the dense jungle.

Several hours later, the jungle opened up into a clearing.  "Break time," suggested Khari, flopping to the ground and taking a healthy swig from his waterskin.  He didn't notice the bee that landed on his left shoulder until it spoke to him.

"Be friend?" asked the little insect.  Khari looked down at the bee that had landed on his shoulder and was disturbed to see the bee, while conforming to its normal form in all other respects, had quite human-looking eyes instead of the compound eyes you'd expect to see on a bee.

Although his initial instinct was to swat the bug on his shoulder, Khari ignored the desire and answered it.  "Sure," he said.  "We can be friends."

"Be friend?" asked another voice from his right.  Looking over to his right shoulder, he saw another bee looking up at him with its human eyes - which, disturbingly, included eyelids and eyelashes.

"We can all be friends," assured the dwarven fighter.

"Be enemy?" asked another bee, this one flying at Khari's face.  It was followed by another, and another, and before he knew it the clearing was filled with a swarm of buzzing bees, each asking one or the other of the two questions the initial cadre of human-eyed insects had posed to Khari.  Bowing to the inevitable, the dwarven fighter mentally reactivated his _offensive prescience_ psionic power, readying himself for battle.

Sure enough, the swarms of bees crowding the jungle clearing were now rising up away from the heroes and forming a familiar shape in the middle of the open area in the middle of the jungle.  In a matter of mere moments, the individual bees had all swarmed into a giant version, a massive insectoid form with a body at least 25 feet long.

Utred plucked a bead from his _necklace of fireballs_ and tossed it at the Bee-hemoth.  It exploded upon impact, sending scores of burned bodies falling to the jungle floor.  Then Marlo followed up with a much more powerful version of the same type of attack: a _meteor swarm_ spell that sent four flaming rocks streaking over to strike the composite creature, the meteors exploding into massive bursts of fire.

The Bee-hemoth retaliated with a breath weapon like those employed by dragons - only this one was not a cone of fire or a line of crackling lightning, but rather an explosion of individual bees.  The bees swarmed out at the heroes at full speed, biting and stinging and then coalescing into a pair of individual swarms, one to the left of the group and one to the right.  The heroes had faced breath weapons before, but not one which persisted after the initial attack and regrouped to attack again from either side!

Jhasspok charged forward, rushing toward the massive Bee-hemoth and leaping up at it.  He had planned on landing on its broad back, between its buzzing wings, and chopping away at it with his battleaxe.  He completed his assault, but with one major difference: he sank into the insectoid mass, for a giant bee-shape made up of individual normal-sized bees absolutely could not support the weight of a full-grown lizardfolk.  Still, Jhasspok swung his axe around, slicing through individual bees with each pass of his weapon even as he trod dozens of them below his clawed feet.

Cramer cast a _destruction_ spell at the Bee-hemoth, thinking to bring it down with a single spell.  Unfortunately, the spell did hit a single bee of the entire swarm and to its credit slew that bee instantly - although the gestalt entity as a whole didn't even feel the loss.

Khari and Utred charged forward, striking the monster bee with their preferred weapons, while Marlo took it upon herself to take out the twin swarms left over from the breath weapon attack.  A _maximized fireball_ spell cast directly between the two swarms burned up each and every insect making up the clouds of buzzing bees.  The Bee-hemoth was easily slain by the weapon-strikes of the melee combatants, their attacks slowly taking out enough of the bees there was no longer a sufficient quantity of insects remaining to merge together into their larger form.  A few dozen bees scattered off in multiple directions, no longer eager for combat.

After a quick rest and the application of healing spells as needed, the group resumed their trek through the jungle.  Toward the end of the duration of their third _magic circle against chaos_ spell, Cramer had them look for a good campsite to set up the tents they'd taken from the encampment along the island's shore.  They'd need to stay within the areas of protection provided by the tents if they wanted to avoid the effects of the pervasive chaos energy flowing all around them; Cramer kept a handful of the lesser-duration _protection from chaos_ spells as needed in case any of them needed to go out for more firewood or anything.  And in that manner the heroes passed their first night on the island, with two more days - and repeated applications of _find the path_ and _magic circle against chaos_ spells - required to get the group to their destination.  And then they'd need to defeat the guardian of the final Writhing Gate: *Zarbugak*, Master of Madness and the Untamer of the Wilds.

Zarbugak sat awaiting their arrival.

 - - -

This was an interesting session, especially for the spellcasters, for the entire area was a wild magic zone: they needed to make a Spellcraft check to even cast a spell, and if they failed they had to see what the wild magic's effects would be.  Fortunately, Marlo only failed once and then lucked out in that the roll she ended up with was "spell is cast as normal."

One more session to go!


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## Richards (Jun 6, 2022)

*ADVENTURE 58: ZARBUGAK, MASTER OF MADNESS AND UNTAMER OF THE WILDS*

PC Roster: 
Cramer Appleknocker, gnome cleric 20​Jhasspok, lizardman 3/barbarian 3/fighter 14​Khari Hammerslammer, dwarf fighter 19/psychic warrior 1​Marlo Pendragon, human sorcerer 20​Utred "Buckets" Butterflinger, dwarf barbarian 20​
Game Session Date: 2 June 2022

 - - -

It had been an unnerving day, trudging deeper and deeper into the jungle toward the middle of the island as per the directions of Cramer's _find the path_ spell, awaiting to be attacked by the local denizens (many of whom had been warped by chaos energy) - but at least the magic in the tents worked fine, as both Cramer and Marlo affirmed after closely examining them with _detect magic_ spells.  Thus, the five adventurers each set up their tent in a close circle and went to sleep.  They didn't bother with a guard once it became apparent the local wildlife - and this included many of the plants - didn't like venturing close to the tents, which gave off a very not-friendly-to-chaos vibe most of the chaos-infused creatures could pick up, even if only subconsciously.  Plus, Marlo allowed her toad familiar Truffles to sit at the flap of her tent and look out, keeping a wary eye out for danger while she slept.  Truffles was already infused with chaos energy directly from the Far Realm, as evidenced by the numerous tentacles growing out from all over his amphibious body.  Marlo repeated a warning to her toad not to wander too close to Jhasspok's tent and went readily to sleep, confident that Truffles would alert her to any danger.

But danger came anyway, easily bypassing Truffles.  One moment Marlo was sleeping in her tent and the next she was wide awake, aware of a strange presence there in the canvas structure with her.  Sure enough, there was an illithid looming over her.  Marlo scrambled to her feet, trying to get away before the mind flayer could strike, but that was too much to hope for: the illithid bent over her as she tried getting to her feet and its four octopoid tentacles slapped at her head, three of them getting a good grip and pulling her in to allow the mind flayer to try to bite through her skull.

Khari woke to a similar sense of unfamiliarity and attacked the form standing over him, grabbing up his dwarven warhammer and striking the illithid as it bent over him, getting ready to feed.  Cramer did likewise, striking out with his mace that he had cuddled with in his blanket as if it were a stuffed bear and hitting the mind flayer before it could get a good grip on his skull.  Utred also fought his own mind flayer, although he didn't even bother with any weapons (although he had a small arsenal at his disposal, courtesy of his extradimensional _weapon locker_), opting instead to use his mighty thews to try to pin the illithid.  Jhasspok grabbed up his trusty battleaxe when he felt a presence bending over him and a tentacle brushed the top of his head.

Marlo was the first to slay her attacker, instinctively striking out with one of her most powerful spells, _wail of the banshee_, without first considering the nearness of the other tents.  As the illithid's body crumpled lifelessly to the floor of the tent the sorceress had a thought, far too late, about the safety of her friends; how foolish would it be for them to be unable to complete their mission because she had accidentally slain them after fighting back after being woken from a deep sleep?

Khari kept up the barrage with his dwarven warhammer, keeping the mind flayer reeling and in too much pain to concentrate on getting a good grip on the dwarven fighter's head.  The illithid made a feint and tried to get in close but Khari was too fast for him, bringing the hard head of his weapon crashing into the side of the mind flayer's own noggin, crushing it to a pulp.  Cramer was having a bit less success fighting off his own foe with his mace, but at least he had thus far prevented it from eating his brain - the little gnome already knew far too well what _that_ felt like and had no desire to repeat the experience!  Utred soon realized the foolishness of wrestling with a creature that _wanted_ to get in close to him for a brain-eating attack and hurled the mind flayer away from him, giving him enough time to grab up his trusty greataxe.  His foe didn't last long after he got that blade in his hand, for he was ruthlessly efficient with it and managed to carve up his foe in no time flat.  Jhasspok did likewise with his own battleaxe and the illithid who had attacked him died before he'd gotten a chance to taste a lizardfolk brain (which was probably for the best, as he'd have no doubt been disappointed in both the taste and the portion size).  And Cramer finally clued in to having a bevy of combat spells at the ready, finishing off his foe with a _destruction_ spell.

And then, their mind flayer foes defeated, each hero rolled over and fell into a deeper sleep, for the "attacks" had occurred in their individual dreamscapes, as Zarbugak had sent mental images to probe the foes he sensed were heading his way, with intent to undo all of his Master's plans.  He had realized the attempts to attack them in their sleep would probably not be enough to slay them, but he had at least gathered some valuable data on their combat strategies and, in the case of the two spellcasters, an idea of a few of their most powerful spells.

The next morning, as the heroes grabbed a quick breakfast from their dried stores and Cramer cast the first of the day's _magic circle against chaos_ spells upon them so they could safely fold up their tents and resume their journey, they compared notes about the weird dreams they'd had.  As each described their particular mind flayer foe, it became apparent they'd each dreamed of the same individual, for details of its robes were identical in each case.  "That's just weird," Khari commented.  Then Cramer cast the first _find the path_ spell of the day and they were off again.

"We're nearly there," the little gnome told the others from his perch upon Utred's backpack.  "It's probably only an hour or two before we get to the Writhing Gate."  Jhasspok was in the lead, cutting through vines with his battleaxe and clearing the path when it became too overgrown for easy passage.  But two hours or so later, they group found themselves at the edge of a crater with the rift to the Far Realm clearly visible over the rim.  It hung in the middle of the air, at the center of the Writhing Gate - and this one had its tentacles still out instead of lying motionlessly on the ground; these were just as motionless but flung out from the rift as if having been blown by a strong wind and then petrified in place.  There were also only five tentacles instead of the normal ten; Cramer recalled this was the configuration of the Writhing Gate when they had used it to _teleport_ to the surface during their raids on behalf of their drow masters.

Crawling over to the crater's rim on their bellies for reconnaissance, they saw the crater's structure was ever-shifting, sometimes looking like normal dirt, other times like a pile of gravel or like broken-up chunks of granite, or marble, or limestone.  Standing in the middle of the Writhing Gate, directly below the rift, stood an enormous mind flayer easily at least half again as large as the standard model, this one breaking apart into chunks and being reconfigured like the mindbender chuul and octopus the group had fought in the ocean on their way to the Unchartable Island.  It was like looking at the ulitharid through a kaleidoscope.  On either side of the illithid stood a pair of creatures, obviously guardians from the Far Realm of a sort the group had encountered before in Grover's Comb, the site of another rift from the dimension of madness: one had a lupine body and the other that of a great bear, but both had the same kaleidoscopic form-shifting that would have caused a great deal of confusion and headaches to the heroes had they not been protected from such effects by their _magic circle against chaos_ spells.  Their bodies seemed to contain entire swirling galaxies inside of them, glittering stars showing as pinpoints of light.

Crawling back away from the crater, the spellcasters started casting their pre-combat spells.  Marlo used her magic staff to cast a _mass enlarge person_ spell, doubling everyone's size.  She then covered everyone in a _stoneskin_ spell and a _Rary's telepathic bond_ spell.  Cramer cast a _shield of law_ spell on everyone, then buffed himself up with _righteous might_, _divine power_, and _spell turning_ spells.

Utred activated his _winged boots _and dashed forward, the first to enter the fray - Cramer had by that time decided not to remain on his standard perch upon the dwarven barbarian's backpack.  He went straight for the lupine figure but before he could get within reach the creature's muzzle opened wide and a _cold energy bolt_ erupted from his mouth, impacting on the dwarf's body - and then shattering to ice crystals as it failed to overcome the spell resistance covering Utred as a result of the _shield of law_ spell Cramer had cast upon him.  But the Zarbugak targeted the incoming dwarf, blasting him with his powerful mind blast.  Unlike the mind blasts he'd experienced before, though, Utred realized this one was different: while in the past, illithids seemed to send out waves of mental energy that stunned its victims into motionlessness, this one actively worked on breaking down the body, hammering into him like a wall of force.  Utred imagined it was rather like being hit by a _spiritual weapon_ or _blade barrier_ spell, only one capable of striking every facing surface on the victim's body all at once.  However, he merely grunted at the assault and continued his attack upon the Far Realm wolf, sending his greataxe slicing through the side of the creature's head.

At the same time, Khari charged forward towards the Far Realm bear, swinging his _earthglide warhammer_ into the great bruin's head, accepting a retaliatory swipe from its massive paw as an acceptable consequence.  But then Marlo cast an _incendiary cloud_ spell that completely encompassed the ulitharid and the back half of the bruin.  Jhasspok had been running forward to attack Zarbugak but, seeing his foe encompassed in the cloud of smoke and burning embers (or, more appropriately, _not_ seeing him), he altered course and attacked the front half of the Far Realm bear instead.  Using the power of his _tail-band of the raptor_, he went in with a blur of slashing battleaxe strikes and snapping teeth that cut the bear to ribbons.  Cramer cast a _destruction_ spell at the Far Realm wolf and obliterated it instantly, its fractal body seeming to fold up into itself like a work of origami until it was no more.  The gnome cleric then immediately followed up with a _quickened flame strike_; not being able to see Zarbugak's actual location but believing him to still be within the _incendiary cloud_, he dropped his fiery spell down upon on the cloud of burning embers.

Parts of his hindquarters on fire, the Far Realm bear moved out of the _incendiary cloud_ and shot an _electrical energy bolt_ at both Jhasspok and Khari, who were conveniently lined up.  However, they too were protected by the _shield of law_ spell cast by Cramer and the electrical blast fizzled against their spell resistance.

Utred recalled where he had last seen Zarbugak and as he had been towards the outer edge of the _incendiary cloud_, the dwarf stabbed into the dark cloud with his _dimensional branding iron_, connecting with the ulitharid's body and preventing him from activating any teleportation magic.  The ulitharid retaliated with a wide-beamed mind blast which encompassed all of the group save Marlo, who had stayed further back and was thus out of reach.  The blast elicited howls of pain from the heroes but it failed to take any of them out and, knowing the importance of winning this battle, they fought on.

Khari continued his attacks upon the Far Realm bear, swinging his warhammer for all he was worth and taking comfort in the fact the bear was looking visibly weakened.  Marlo continued bringing the fight to Zarbugak, casting a _meteor swarm_ spell into the _incendiary cloud_ - she was unable to target the meteors directly at her foe so she spread them out in a diamond pattern and hoped for the best.  Unseen by her, one of the meteors struck Zarbugak, but he was encompassed in the explosion effects of all four.

Jhasspok slew the lupine creature with his battleaxe and it too folded up into impossible directions, finally disappearing from view altogether in death.  That left only Zarbugak himself and he was still hidden within the burning cloud, so Cramer targeted the whole area with a _mass serious wounds_ spell into the area, confident he'd get the ulitharid that way.  But then Utred finished him off by pulling the remains of the three _necklaces of fireballs_ he'd purchased back in Greenvale, and from which he'd expended only a few beads prior in fighting off the swarms of mutant bees that had formed the creature they'd dubbed the Bee-hemoth.  He tossed them in an overhead arc that had them falling into the very center of the _incendiary cloud_, where the explosion to follow would be sure to impact Zarbugak wherever he was within the burning vapors.

As the necklaces hit the burning embers and caused a chain-reaction explosion, a mental cry of pain and anguish speared the minds of all five heroes as the biggest explosion they'd ever felt erupted from within the cloud.  The instant severing of the mental cry was a good indicator that the ulitharid had been slain by the blast; when the _incendiary cloud_ ran its course and dissipated they saw there was nothing left of Zarbugak - or, indeed, of the nearest Writhing Gate tentacle that had been beside him - but a burned smear of ashes on the ever-shifting ground.

"Everybody okay?" Marlo asked as the heroes picked themselves up from the ground where they'd been thrown by the blast.  They all acknowledged they were fine, and then the whoops of laughter began as they realized they had just taken out the guardians of the last remaining Writhing Gate.  Utred unwrapped the _anti-magic_ cloth protecting the Null Axe and used it to hold its shaft as he started swinging the weapon at the roots of the remaining tentacles.  As each was severed, the stump fell through the ground and the hole sealed itself up, shutting down that particular opening to the Far Realm.  Cramer unstoppered his protective scroll case and removed the _seal portal_ scroll, reading off the words that permanently closed the rift to the Far Realm hanging in the air above the Writhing Gate.

"Is that it?" Khari asked once it was done.

Cramer looked down at the now-empty parchment in his hands, the written words having each disappeared as he spoke them aloud.  He rolled it up and stuck it back in its case, then stashed that in his belt pouch.  "That's it," he answered.  "With all ten Writhing Gates out of commission, Uboros has no way of returning to this plane of existence.  We did it guys - we saved the world."

"This is cause for celebration!" boomed Utred, lifting up a skin of dwarven ale to his lips and then passing it over to Marlo.  Jhasspok took out his pouch of dried dung beetles and offered it to the others, once again being rebuffed.  Shrugging, he absently nibbled the legs off a beetle as the others offered each other congratulations.

There were other decisions to be made, like whether it was now safe to try a _teleport_ spell to return directly home to Greenvale or if the existing chaos energy imbued all around the island would still make it a dangerous proposition, and whether the ring of elementals keeping the island in quarantine would know if it was safe to now allow people to exit the island or if they'd keep up their patrols, but for now it was enough to turn back the way they'd come and start their days-long trek back to the ship on which they'd come to this chaotic land.

 - - -

Logan informs us that with the rift sealed, there would be no further mutations on the island; while those already mutated could affect others, those who became infected in that manner could not in turn infect others.  Thus, over time, the island would one day become completely safe once again.

As for our PCs' post-campaign careers, these are the most likely to come about:

Cramer intends to devote his life to hunting down and slaying evil drow.  Sunborn drow (and those who worship Eilistraee) will be given haven in Greenvale.
Khari and Utred will return to Brunniir on the Plane of Shadows to let the dwarves there know it is safe for the city to return to the Material Plane.  Once that's been accomplished and they spend some time with their respective families, they'll likely join Cramer on his evil drow-hunt.
Marlo's undecided; for now she just wants to return to her family after her time as a slave to the drow and then a savior of the world.
Jhasspok, however, really liked the idea of living on an island and having an ocean full of fish all around him.  The Unchartable Island offers him no such haven, for the local fish are mutated and eating them would be potentially detrimental.  However, it really bothers Marlo that Jhasspok has no ties to his own people and would very likely try to make Jhasspok at least go meet the Lakewood lizardfolk tribe (of which he is their true leader, being the son of the former leader); having done so and Jhasspok getting his very first look at a female lizardfolk, his future would probably be set for him from that point on.
A couple other points worth mentioning: Utred's _necklaces of fireballs_ did a whopping 183d6 points of fire damage; not wanting to roll that many dice we had Joe roll a single d6 and multiplied that by 183 - resulting in well over the amount required to slay Zarbugak.  Also, Logan had given Zarbugak an ability he never got to use: had either Cramer or Marlo used a summoning spell to bring powerful allies into the fight, they'd have had to make an immediate Will save to counter the effects of the chaos energy (from which the PCs were immune thanks to the _magic circle against chaos_ spells they'd each had cast upon them) and if that save failed, Zarbugak would have been able to mentally _dominate_ them to his will and use them against us (hence the "Master of Madness and Untamer of the Wilds" title).


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