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<blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 8057523" data-attributes="member: 508"><p><strong>ADVENTURE 3: THE DREAMSTONE CAVERNS</strong></p><p></p><p>PC Roster:</p><p style="margin-left: 20px">Alewyth Putterpye, dwarf priestess of Aerik 1</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Thurloe Pulver, human fighter 1</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Wakuren, half-orc cleric of Cal 1</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Xandro Silverstrings, human bard 1</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Zander Quilson, elf sorcerer 1</p><p></p><p>Game Session Date: 1 August 2020</p><p></p><p>- - -</p><p></p><p>Suddenly finding themselves with more money to spend, the group decided to forego their immediate departure to the mountains north of Port Duralia and further stock up on supplies. With his share of the reward for rescuing Teresa Theringold, Zander purchased a sturdy wooden wagon and the tack needed to hitch up the two mules, Mica and Perseverance. Of course, that meant Alewyth and Wakuren were suddenly without riding mounts. "No problem," Zander replied. "You guys get to ride in the wagon. Better that the two clerics capable of keeping the rest of us hale and hearty get to ride around in style!"</p><p></p><p>If either if the clerics doubted that riding in a mule-drawn wagon was considered "riding around in style," they didn't mention it to the overeager elven sorcerer.</p><p></p><p>Thurloe thought it a good idea to pick up a few healing potions, just in case anybody needed immediate healing and had gotten separated from the clerics. "I know a guy," he promised, but when he led them to the potion-maker's shop he found it closed and locked. "Never mind," he said. "He's probably out making the rounds on his cart. C'mon, let's try some of his usual stops."</p><p></p><p>Finding the potion-maker was presaged with the laughter of children. Riding into a cul-de-sac, the group spotted a little gnome sitting behind an odd contraption: the front half looked rather like a large desk on wheels, and the back half had a place for the gnome to sit above a large wheel and gears he pedaled with his feet to get the vehicle to move. But the contraption was currently parked and the gnome was doing a brisk business selling penny candy to a cluster of eager children holding up their copper coins.</p><p></p><p>"You buy your potions from a candy man?" Alewyth asked, puzzled.</p><p></p><p>"Oh, yeah - Aenus is one of the best in the business. He sells the normal stuff - potions, oils, salves, and the like - or you can get the same stuff in candy form or sometimes even chewing gum. The chewy stuff kicks in right away, but some of the hard candies have a spell effect in them that lasts for as long as you keep sucking on the candy."</p><p></p><p>"The guy's name is 'Anus?'" Xandro asked, wanting to make sure he'd heard correctly. But by that time they'd ridden into earshot of the gnome, and he turned to introduce himself.</p><p></p><p>"<strong>Aenus Feysputter</strong>, at your service," he said with a mock bow from the seat of his vehicle, lifting a flap on the top of his "desk" area and pulling out a piece of toffee, which he exchanged with a small child for his copper piece. At the bard's confused expression, the gnome pointed to the side of his vehicle. "Like it's spelled, not like it sounds," he grinned, for he was pretty sure the human had heard his name as "Anus Face-Butter."</p><p></p><p>Aenus took another child's order, took his penny and gave him his candy, and watched as the flock of children scampered away. "Now then, what can I get for you?"</p><p></p><p>"Two <em>potions of cure light wounds</em>, for a start," Thurloe answered.</p><p></p><p>"Very well: liquid or toffee?" Aenus asked.</p><p></p><p>Thurloe thought it over. "Potion vial," he replied, then added on a vial of <em>oil of bless weapon</em> and a <em>potion of shield of faith</em> as well, which pretty much took up the majority of his share of the earnings from their exploration of Sandoval's Scriptorium. A few of the others purchased a potion or two from the gnome's cart, then he was off, pedaling his contraption to the next part of town where he often did his business.</p><p></p><p>"Odd guy," Zander remarked. "Hey, is there anywhere around here I could pick up a couple of scrolls?" Thurloe knew of a respectable arcane scroll scribe and led the group to his shop. And then, all of their goods and provisions loaded into the wagon, they headed out of Port Duralia and north up the trade road for nearly seven hours. They met several merchants headed both ways, for Port Duralia was a major trade hub on the western shores of Armaturia and the goods brought in by sea were sent via caravans along the trade routes to towns and villages all along the small continent.</p><p></p><p>At the sixth hour the group diverged off the main road, vectoring off to the left, headed to a gap between two mountains that made up this part of the Shieldwall Range ringing the continent. Alewyth led the mules without hesitation, sure that this was the way they were to take, for she'd studied the map in the throne room of the Queen of Dreams very thoroughly.</p><p></p><p>A short hour later, the priestess of Aerik pulled the mule-drawn wagon to a stop at the foot of a mountain of stone. There was a cave just ahead, the opening about seven feet wide and maybe five feet high, if that. But with her darkvision Alewyth could see the cavern walls inside seemed to rise higher than the cave opening; likely the ceiling height would permit them to stand normally once inside the cave.</p><p></p><p>The three men on horseback drew their mounts to a halt, then leaped down from their saddles and tied their horses' reins to the spokes of the wagon wheels. Alewyth and Wakuren stepped down from the wagon and everyone cautiously approached the cave, weapons drawn and ready.</p><p></p><p>"You're sure this is the right place?" asked Xandro.</p><p></p><p>"It looks like a cave opening, in the right place the Queen said it'd be," replied Alewyth. "Pretty sure it's the right one, but if it isn't we can scout around a bit and see if there's another one nearby."</p><p></p><p>"Ladies first," offered Thurloe, waving the priestess ahead of him. She scowled at him, thinking he was merely offering to allow her to be attacked first by anything that might be guarding this cave, but then she decided it made sense that one of the group's two clerics should be the first to enter the cave: they were the only two capable of seeing perfectly fine in absolute darkness and there was no light coming from inside the cave. It was probably only about five hours or so past noon, but the mountains cast plenty of shadows and there was not a whole lot of light available with which to see inside dark cavern openings.</p><p></p><p>"All I see so far is a bunch of scattered bones," she whispered to those behind her as she approached the cave.</p><p></p><p>"Human?" asked Xandro.</p><p></p><p>"Nah, smaller: bunnies and squirrels, more likely." By now, though, Alewyth could detect a distinct animal musk emanating from the cave - that, and the unmistakable coppery scent of blood. She gripped her warhammer tighter and stepped fully inside, ducking her head as she did so to ensure she didn't bonk her metal helmet on the top of the cave opening.</p><p></p><p>There was a growl from the right; spinning in place, the dwarven priestess saw a pair of timber wolves in the back of the cave. Both were growling now, the fur on their backs standing up, one of them approaching. Then that one - the male, Alewyth surmised - pounced to the attack, trying to bite her leg and drag her to the stone floor where he could more easily rip out her exposed throat.</p><p></p><p>Xandro and Thurloe raced forward into the cave at the snarls and growls, followed by Wakuren, although it was a tight fit getting them all inside for the entryway was somewhat small. From outside the cave, Zander saw the timber wolf try to bite Alewyth and, with a good line of sight on the beast due to his low-light vision, the elf cast a <em>magic missile</em> spell, sending a dart of pure energy striking the wolf in the side of the head.</p><p></p><p>Wakuren decided he didn't necessarily want to kill the wolf; this was, after all, his own den and the half-orc assumed the other wolf was his mate and the adventurers were the ones trespassing into the wolves' den. So rather than bring the side of his shield crashing down on the wolf's skull, he tried punching it with a gauntleted hand, hoping merely to knock the thing senseless rather than slay it outright. The wolf let out an involuntary whimper at the half-orc's blow, sounding more like a dog than Wakuren was comfortable with.</p><p></p><p>Alewyth, however, was the one getting bit and she had no compunctions about fighting back with all of her might. Her warhammer came crashing down upon the wolf's head, knocking it in a heap upon the stone floor of his own den. Wakuren noted the wolf was still breathing and turned to look at the other one. This was apparently a female, for her belly seemed swollen in pregnancy. She belatedly leaped to the attack now that her mate was down, determined to fight for her unborn litter. Her teeth bit at Alewyth, the nearest foe and the one who had struck her mate into unconsciousness.</p><p></p><p>Xandro stepped forward, rapier in hand, and thrust his blade into the wolf's flank. Thurloe stepped up beside and mirrored the maneuver, but his bastard sword was a much heavier weapon and the blade slew the female instantly. She collapsed to the floor in a pool of expanding blood, causing Wakuren to wince in empathetic pain.</p><p></p><p>The wolves taken care of, Zander walked around the perimeter of the cavern interior, looking for secret passageways. "I hope this is the right place after all," he said. "But I don't see any dreamstones lying around."</p><p></p><p>It was Alewyth, with her darkvision, who spotted the way forward. "Up there," she said, pointing to the east side of the cave, but higher up the nearly vertical wall. About 20 feet up, the stone wall looked to level off, with a ceiling some 15 feet or so higher than this upper ledge. The dwarf could see stalactites hanging from this higher ceiling; the wolves' den didn't seem to have much in the way of stalactites.</p><p></p><p>After some discussion, the group came to their first decision: Thurloe would climb the stone wall with the <em>everburning torch</em> providing him the illumination he needed on the way up; once there, he'd hammer a piton into place and lower a rope for the others to climb their way up. Wakuren went to fetch the fighter's silk rope from the wagon, and while the half-orc was out of visual range Xandro stabbed the male wolf in the head with the point of his rapier, killing it. "Just thinking ahead," he told Zander. "We'll want to bring the mounts in here while we go looking for those dreamstones, and we can't have the wolf waking up and deciding to eat our horses." Zander nodded in agreement.</p><p></p><p>Thurloe resheathed his bastard sword, looped the coils of rope over one shoulder, tucked the <em>everburning torch</em> between his armor and the leather strap holding his bastard sword scabbard on his back, and looked about for the best hand- and footholds. Then, plotting his course, he began climbing up. He took his time; there was no hurry and no reason for a careless fall from a great height because he was going faster than he needed to. It took him some time - during which his new friends worriedly watched his progress, Wakuren standing directly beneath him so he could try to catch him if he slipped - but the determined fighter made it to the top without incident and pulled himself over the edge. Then, on the sloped rise, he pulled out a piton and attached one end of the silk rope to it. He tossed the other end over the edge into the wolf den to get it out of his way, positioned the piton in a solid area where he could pound it in good and secure, and started hammering it into place.</p><p></p><p>The bats roosting among the stalactites up there above him did not like his hammering at all.</p><p></p><p>An entire swarm of bats dropped from their ceiling perches and flew about in a panicked frenzy. Thurloe, very much aware he was balanced at the edge of a 20-foot drop, hunkered down low on the stone floor of the elevated area and started crawling away from the edge. Down below, Alewyth heard the frenzied screeches of the bat swarm and cast a <em>sanctuary</em> spell upon herself, ensuring she'd not be a victim to their mad rush to attack anybody and everybody in the area. Thurloe made it to the side wall and crawled further east, while the bats flitted about above him in a blind panic. Eventually, instinct if nothing else led them down to the wolf den, which was their normal exit into the outside air; it was earlier than they normally went out to hunt but the light wasn't bright enough to bother them; the dreamstone hunters wisely dropped to the cave floor and let the bats exit without incident. Then, once they'd all trickled out in waves, Alewyth called up to the higher ledge, "Are you all right up there, Thurloe?"</p><p></p><p>"I'm fine!" he called back. "You guys can start climbing up!"</p><p></p><p>They sent Zander up first as he was the lightest, while Wakuren and Xandro went to go fetch the horses. They dragged the bodies of the wolves outside and far enough away from the cave entrance that carrion eaters hopefully wouldn't find their way back to the cave, then untied the horses' bridles from the wagon wheel and brought them inside the cave. The mules were used to maneuver the wagon adjacent to the cave opening, then unhitched from the vehicle and brought inside as well. Finally, Wakuren and Xandro tipped the wagon over, blocking the cave entrance, then scrambled over it to climb their way back inside. It was crowded, but hopefully the steeds would be safe inside from any predator who might show up while the adventurers were inside the cave network. With any luck, they'd pop inside, find the dreamstones, and be back before that became an issue.</p><p></p><p>One by one, the remaining three climbed up the rope after Zander and followed Thurloe east so he could show them what he'd discovered: the bat ledge connected the wolf den to a much larger cavern, with a natural vertical tunnel plunging down into darkness. A series of natural stone steps wound around the interior of the shaft, looking very much like simple elevation changes worn about by water over the centuries but just a little too even to consider that some guiding intelligence hadn't influenced the design of the winding stairway. "Could be there was mining done down here at some point," suggested Alewyth.</p><p></p><p>"There's no telling what all we might find down in these lower depths," warned Wakuren, looking over the edge of the vertical shaft and seeing it went straight down for almost 50 feet before flattening out at the bottom. He could see a pile of bones on the floor in the center of the shaft; obviously, others had come this way before and not made it back out. "I think it might be best if we readied our magical protection." So saying, he cast a <em>shield of faith</em> spell upon himself. Thurloe drank down his potion with the same effect, then spent a moment rubbing his <em>oil of bless weapon</em> onto the blade of his bastard sword. Alewyth, in the meantime, cast a <em>bless</em> spell upon the assembled group. "May Aerik's watchful eye guide our attacks, that they be true," she intoned.</p><p></p><p>After checking around this upper cave for dreamstones and finding none, Wakuren led the expedition down the winding slope. Aelwyth walked directly behind him, the only two with darkvision taking the lead. Xandro came next, his lute on his back and his light crossbow in hand, armed with a quarrel and ready for action should it be needed. Then came Thurloe, providing illumination with the <em>everburning torch</em> for those who needed it, while Zander brought up the rear. The steps made several full clockwise circuits around the central shaft before Wakuren got close enough to the thin strands to see what had been all but invisible from the top of the shaft: a spider's web, spanning the entirety of the vertical tunnel about 10 feet above the floor below.</p><p></p><p>"Spider web," he called back to the others, then looked at the single strand of webbing stretched across the twisting passageway, right where he'd been about to step. The web's crafter, no doubt, used this to trip any prey who didn't otherwise fall into its web. Not wanting anyone to trip over it, he stepped over the all-but-invisible trip-line and then bent down to break it in his hands.</p><p></p><p>But breaking the trip-line was, to the spider who had laid it there, the same as having potential prey trip over it as intended: it caused the whole web to quiver from the impact, alerting the arachnid there was prey at hand. It scurried up from its hiding place, on the ceiling of a section of spiraling passageway the heroes had yet to traverse, and came scrabbling towards Wakuren.</p><p></p><p>Alewyth cast a <em>magic stone</em> spell on the handful of sling stones she pulled from a pouch at her belt, dropping the first into her sling and whirling it about her head, ready to fire. Xandro raised his light crossbow and tried to make out the black form of the spider against the deep shadows of the vertical shaft and the steps spiraling down its inner surface. Thurloe resheathed his bastard sword, activated a sunrod and tossed it into the center of the web - a light source not in constant movement like his <em>everburning torch</em> would help them all see the spider they were about to fight - and readied his own shortbow, nocking an arrow and pulling back the bow, sighting along the arrow's length to line up his shot.</p><p></p><p>But the spider dashed up to Wakuren faster than the half-orc had expected a creature that size to be able to move; its torso was about as long as he was tall, with long, spindly legs adding to its overall bulk. The half-orc's torso was crushed in the spider's mandibles and poison dribbled into the wounds pierced by its sharp mouth-parts. Wakuren could feel the strength start to leave his limbs but vowed not to be slain by a giant spider, of all things.</p><p></p><p>With a series of arcane syllables, a <em>magic missile</em> spell went streaking from Zander's finger to strike the spider's bloated abdomen. Wakuren slammed the bottom point of his shield into the top of the spider's cephalothorax, right between some of the smaller eyes ranging above the central, forward-pointing pair. Alewyth's magic sling stone went flying into the spider's side, just above the junction where its legs grew out of the underside of its abdomen, while a crossbow bolt shot into the spider's side at full force, burying itself up to the feathers on the end of the shaft. Then Thurloe's arrow followed Xandro's crossbow bolt and the spider died from its many wounds, what passed for blood in its arachnid body leaking out of the many rents in its shiny, black exoskeleton.</p><p></p><p>"Are you okay?" Alewyth asked Wakuren as he extricated himself from the dead spider's mandibles.</p><p></p><p>"I will be," answered the half-orc, pulling out a scroll of <em>cure light wounds</em> he'd purchased earlier in the day, back at Port Duralia.</p><p></p><p>"Do you want the vial of antivenom we found in the kenku nest?' she asked.</p><p></p><p>"No, thank you - we'll save that for some time when we really need it; that spider's venom didn't do that much damage to me." And he was right: while he wasn't up to his full strength he was already feeling pretty much like his old self now that he'd healed himself from the scroll.</p><p></p><p>Continuing their spiraling journey down to the bottom of the cavern floor, the group examined the pile of bones and assorted junk that had been piled at the bottom of the vertical shaft. There was a rusty sword and a backpack covered in mildew; even the bones were glistening with wetness. That in itself was odd, for although Zander's elven hearing picked up the distant sounds of water dripping, it was from some distance away and the area here at the bottom of the spiraling slope was otherwise completely dry. "I don't like those bones," he muttered to the others.</p><p></p><p>"What? Why?" asked Thurloe. "They're just bones. Probably former victims of the spider."</p><p></p><p>"You just watch: they'll animate or something as soon as our backs are turned."</p><p></p><p>Wakuren raised his hands to his holy symbol, preparing to channel a wave of positive energy through it should the skeletons turn out to be undead, but after nothing seemed to happen he turned to the nervous elf. "I think you're just being--" he began.</p><p></p><p>"It moved!" Zander called, pointing.</p><p></p><p>Wakuren turned his head and sure enough, there was some slight movement over in the pile of bones. One human arm was rising up, setting its hand down as a support as if to pull itself upright. Wakuren raised his holy symbol but then noticed something: the skeleton getting to its feet was completely covered in a thick, translucent slime. He recalled having heard of these things in his training: while turning undead was a powerful weapon in any combat cleric's arsenal, there were some creatures who gave every indication of being undead but were not and one of these "false undead" was a translucent slime-beast that used skeletons as a means of getting around faster and approaching new prey.</p><p></p><p>Alewyth, however, had readied her sling to attack the skeleton and she let fly with her second <em>magic stone</em>, not particularly caring whether this thing was truly undead or not. The stone hit true, splashing through the nearly-invisible goo coating the thing's skull and striking bone. Xandro shot his crossbow at it and Thurloe fired off an arrow from his shortbow, both shafts hitting their marks as well. Zander cast an <em>acid splash</em> spell at the thing, not realizing the translucent goo was itself acidic in nature and the creature was immune.</p><p></p><p>By then, the goop ghoul had gotten its skeleton mount fully standing and it swiveled it in place, swinging a bony arm at Wakuren, who happened to be the closest. The half-orc easily blocked the simple attack with his shield. Then he used his shield as a weapon, bringing it crashing down upon the skeleton's skull, crushing the neck that supported it and smashing into the translucent slime granting the thing its mobility. The slime lost its cohesiveness, causing the individual bones to scatter in a pile.</p><p></p><p>Making sure there were no other goop ghouls in among the other bones, Thurloe eventually declared it safe and stepped into the pile to root around for possible treasure; after all, a spider wouldn't have the sense to value the items left behind by its previous victims. The others gave him a hand, unearthing a well-crafted dagger, a small coin pouch filled with several dozen copper pennies, and a gem looking to be much more valuable. ("A dreamstone?" asked Xandro, but it was not.) Then, seeing nothing else of value, Thurloe called for the group to move on.</p><p></p><p>There was a slight illumination coming from around the corner to the right of the cavern they were currently occupying. Alewyth led the group around the corner, but Zander was squinting up the cavern wall just ahead. He called Wakuren over. "Is that a cave or something up there?" he asked, pointing.</p><p></p><p>Wakuren, with his darkvision, was able to confirm it was. The opening was an area of darkness about 25 feet up the cavern wall, a wall about as steep as the one Thurloe had climbed to get them into the bat cave which had led them all here. Wakuren brought the cave to Thurloe's attention as Alewyth and Xandro continued on around the corner. But then, seeing the commotion going on behind them, they returned to the others.</p><p></p><p>"What's up?" asked Alewyth.</p><p></p><p>"There's a cave up there," Thurloe replied. "I want to check it out." Zander had another coil of rope from his own gear that he passed over to Thurloe and the fighter pulled out another piton and his hammer and shoved them into his belt. Then, <em>everburning torch</em> still in place with the strap to his bastard sword, he found his initial footholds and started his careful ascent.</p><p></p><p>Wakuren and Alewyth each decided they'd give climbing a try as well; they had darkvision and would have a much easier time seeing the rock face than either Xandro or Zander would. But climbing - without a rope to guide them - proved to be much more difficult than it looked, and after each fell after ascending only a few feet they decided to let Thurloe handle it; he'd already proven he could climb nearly sheer vertical stone surfaces before, after all.</p><p></p><p>Alewyth, however, soon got bored watching Thurloe's slow and cautious ascent and decided to go check out the illumination; it was coming from the same direction as the occasional drippings sounds. As she walked down the corridor, a beetle popped around the corner, exposing itself as the source of the illumination: glowing glands on its carapace and at the ends of its antenna were giving off a ghostly, white light. The thing was smaller than the spider had been but was still as big as a decent-sized dog and it skittered towards the dwarf in hungry anticipation of an easy meal.</p><p></p><p>But its meal was not to be, for Zander cast a <em>magic missile</em> spell at it and the thing was slain immediately. "Wow, that thing's not very tough," he said.</p><p></p><p>As if summoned by the elf's disdain, two more fire beetles skittered around the corner, speeding down the corridor towards all but Thurloe, who by now was halfway up the slope. Alewyth used her third and final <em>magic stone</em>, sending a pebble crashing into the lead fire beetle's head, right between its glowing antennae. This wasn't enough to kill it, though, and it continued its hungry approach. Xandro slew it moments thereafter with a well-placed shot from his light crossbow.</p><p></p><p>Zander cast another <em>acid splash</em> spell, coating the head of the last beetle in corrosive fluid, but again it kept on coming. This one actually made it to the line of adventurers, biting Alewyth on the leg with a set of strong mandibles. But that just put it close enough to her for her to bring her warhammer smashing down upon the middle of its back, snapping its carapace and crushing its internal organs. It oozed fluids as its legs twitched spasmodically in death.</p><p></p><p>Thurloe was almost to the top of the ledge immediately outside the cave opening when he heard a word being echoed inside the chambers beyond. It sounded like, "Doom!" being repeated by numerous voices, as if this were some sort of battle chant. But the voices increased in volume rapidly - more rapidly, in fact, than the fighter could pull himself fully up onto the ledge. He had his arms straightened out and his waist level with the floor, about ready to try to swing up a leg, when the creatures rounded a corner and were upon him.</p><p></p><p>At first Thurloe thought these were more kenku, like the archers they'd fought in the basement beneath Sandoval's Scriptorium. But while the kenku wore clothing to disguise their avian build, these creatures were completely naked. Thurloe decided whatever they were they were probably still part of the kenku family tree, for their avian bodies were covered with oily, black feathers and their heads looked very much like those of ravens or crows, but these creatures had bulging chests and powerful arms - if they were kenku they were the primitive, savage part of the line - and they seemed incapable of saying anything other than, "Doom! Doom!"</p><p></p><p>But it looked like there were at least three of them rushing him and Thurloe didn't want any part of trying to fight off barbarian kenku while balanced at the edge of a 25-foot drop, so he lowered himself back down, found the footing he'd just left, and started climbing back down again. He started his descent just in time, for two sets of avian claws grabbed at his head; had he been a few seconds later he'd likely have been raked on both sides of his face.</p><p></p><p>Just as the fighter was congratulating himself on avoiding a whole lot of pain, a whole lot of pain came to visit him. One of the dire corbies, intent upon not letting this human interloper invade its nest, leaped forward onto Thurloe, clawing at his back and shoulders. Thurloe doubted he could hold both of their weight for long and realized he had but a split second to make a choice: drop from the wall and hope he could finagle a midair twist such that the kenku barbarian took the brunt of the landing, or cling to the wall and hope the bird-man fell off.</p><p></p><p>Almost without conscious thought, Thurloe instinctively went for the clinging-to-the-wall option. That turned out not to be the optimal course of action, for he couldn't support the weight of the dire corby as well as his own and his fingers lost their purchase. Both figures plummeted the 20 feet to the hard floor below, the dire corby turning it into some sort of acrobatic roll that ended up with him stumbling but at least still remaining on his clawed feet, while Thurloe just fell straight down and was knocked unconscious instantly from the impact.</p><p></p><p>Up at the cave opening, two more dire corbies fell to their feathered bellies and started climbing down the sheer rock face - but unlike Thurloe, they climbed down head first in the manner of lizards. This was quite a disturbing sight for Xandro and Zander, who had never seen these dire corbies before and had expected them to act more like the kenku they resembled. These things didn't even seem to have any weapons!</p><p></p><p>Alewyth and Wakuren, by this time, had wandered down the corridor in the direction the fire beetles had come from. There was a sort of T-intersection up ahead; to the right was a clear pool, the source of the dripping sounds they'd heard (every few seconds another drop of water plummeted from the small stalactites overhead), while the left passageway opened up into a vast cavern covered in various stalks of mushrooms and other fungi. A large rock sat in the middle of this fungal cavern, swirls of light and dark forming patterns along its surface; Wakuren wondered idly if this might be one massive chunk of dreamstone and if so, how they were ever going to get the thing back to Port Duralia, for it was wider than the half-orc was tall.</p><p></p><p>Xandro called to their clerics for help as he stabbed his rapier forward at the dire corby before him. Zander cast an <em>acid splash</em> spell at a fourth dire corby that had just appeared in the cave entrance and was flopping on its belly in preparation of beginning its headfirst climb down the cliff-side; the elf had hoped he might startle it into falling over the edge, but no such luck. These things seemed much tougher than the kenku they'd fought earlier; the one Xandro stabbed merely cawed "Doom!" in his face and swiped at the bard with a set of sharp talons at the end of his hand.</p><p></p><p>The two dire corbies climbing down leaped to the ground and took up positions on either side of the one Xandro was facing off against, and now two more had taken their place climbing down the cliff wall. With a look of despair, Zander saw a sixth creature appear at the top of the upper cave opening. These things were not only tougher than the kenku, but they outnumbered the adventurers as well - and would have had Thurloe still been up and about to aid their side.</p><p></p><p>But at least Wakuren and Alewyth were running back to help. By the time they caught back up, Xandro had managed to kill the first dire corby with another stab of his rapier, this time through the thing's heart - but still the others continued crying, "Doom, doom, DOOM!" Zander bent low and grabbed the unconscious fighter by the strap of his bastard sword, dragging him farther back and out of the reach of the two other dire corbies already on the ground. But these two had leaped forward to attack Alewyth and Xandro, slashing out with the talons on their hands, while behind them the next two leaped to the floor and advanced, one slashing out at Zander while he was preoccupied with his task.</p><p></p><p>Then Wakuren ran forward into a slide, slamming next to Thurloe's unmoving form and casting a <em>cure light wounds</em> spell upon him. The fighter shook his pounding head and looked about him, momentarily forgetting exactly where he was and what he'd been doing. (The cries of "Doom! Doom!" quickly refreshed his memories on that score.) While Alewyth swung her warhammer into the one who'd attacked her and Xandro did likewise with his rapier, Thurloe whipped out his bastard sword and stabbed at the one who'd attacked Zander. The elf, for his part, backed up even further away and cast an <em>acid splash</em> spell at the one who'd clawed at him, wishing he had more powerful spells still at hand.</p><p></p><p>Still calling out "Doom!" the dire corbies rushed forward again, clawing at their enemies. Xandro got hit with both claws from his foe and the dire corby rent his talons across the bard, cutting open deep gashes that spilled forth his blood. He collapsed onto the hard floor, bleeding out at a horrendous rate.</p><p></p><p>Seeing this, Wakuren pulled out another of his <em>cure light wounds</em> scrolls, casting it upon Xandro and seeing the bard's wounds heal up. But still the bard lay there unmoving, causing the cleric of Cal to worry he'd been too late for his friend, only to belatedly realize Xandro was faking, hoping to catch the bird-men unawares.</p><p></p><p>Alewyth continued swinging her warhammer for all it was worth, wishing these stupid avians had bones as light as most other birds did. But no luck; these dire corbies had long ago lost the power of flight and their wings had formed into arms, their bones apparently hardening up at the same time.</p><p></p><p>There were now five living dire corbies on the ground with the heroes, arranged in an arc surrounding their foes. Xandro suddenly stabbed upward at a dire corby almost standing over his prone form, apparently having fallen for the bard's ruse and believing him to be dead. The point of his rapier went deep into the avian's body, causing him to squawk something other than "Doom!" for a change as he staggered backwards with a cry of pain, allowing Xandro to regain his feet and step backwards out of immediate range of any retaliatory strikes. Thurloe swung his bastard sword with his full might, cursing the dire corbies' blasted resilience - why wouldn't they fall? Zander stepped even further back out of range, realizing of the five of them he was the one probably least suited to physical combat; worse yet, he was rapidly running out of even his <em>acid splash</em> spells and before too long was going to have to rely upon his dagger, something he did not look forward to at all.</p><p></p><p>And still the dire corbies surged forward, sending drops of the heroes' blood flying with each slash of their talons. Realizing they were hopelessly outclassed, Wakuren cast an <em>obscuring mist</em> over the entire area - maybe they could manage to get out while they were still all alive and mobile. Immediately figuring out the half-orc cleric's stratagem, Thurloe called out "Retreat back to the stairs!" at the top of his lungs and hoped the damned barbaric kenku didn't understand the Common tongue - very likely, if all they could say was "Doom!"</p><p></p><p>Alewyth connected a solid hit with her warhammer against the dire corby directly in front of her and then stepped back and to the side; the dire corby vanished immediately into the dark mist. Xandro couldn't see any of the avians but had a good idea where the stairs were, so he resheathed his rapier in his belt and pulled the lute from his back, playing an inspiring ballad that would hopefully grant an extra bit of courage to his friends - and hoping against hope that the music reverberating and echoing off the cave walls would help obscure his exact location to the dire corbies, who he figured couldn't see him since he couldn't see them.</p><p></p><p>The <em>obscuring mist</em> took the dire corbies off their stride, since they couldn't spot their foes and spent some time stumbling around searching them out. But every moment they spent seeking the heroes was a moment they weren't actively attacking, and the heroes could use as many of those moments as they could get. Xandro's music fought against the dire corbies' continued cries of "Doom!" and both echoed across the cavern.</p><p></p><p>But then some of the cries of "Doom!" were cut short, as if the dire corbies were being hit hard. As none of the heroes could see each other, each was glad at least someone from their team was able to get in a few good hits during their tactical retreat. But one by one, they exited the confines of the <em>obscuring mist</em> spell and still the sounds of combat came from within the dark cloud. "Are they hitting themselves?" asked Alewyth.</p><p></p><p>"Who knows, who cares?" replied Thurloe, heading for the ramp, his <em>everburning torch</em> lighting the way for the others - although his activated sunrod was still sitting in the middle of the spider's web above, where he'd left it.</p><p></p><p>A hulking dire corby stepped out of the <em>obscuring mist</em>, his talons dripping with blood - probably Xandro's. "Doom!" he cried, heading straight for Alewyth who, judging herself the least wounded of the five, had taken up a guard spot at the base of the sloping ramp while her friends started their cyclical ascent. The priestess of Aerik readied herself for the avian's attack, warhammer held out laterally before her like a shield.</p><p></p><p>But before the dire corby could attack her, a disk floated out of the mist. This was a strange disk indeed, unlike anything the young priestess had ever seen before in her life. As it flitted laterally through the air towards the dire corby, she could see the underside held what looked like tiny stalactites in miniature, although some of these wobbled and shifted and she realized those ones were actually tentacles. Two more slender tentacles rose up from the top of the disk, an unblinking eye poised at the tip of each. And the disk sped forward, only to drop down upon the dire corby's head, the stalactite-spikes piercing the avian's skull. His repeated cries of "Doom!" came to an abrupt halt - as did his forward motion - as he turned to look at what had just attacked him from above. But the flumph had jetted straight up after its initial assault, well out of range of the dire corby's swinging talons.</p><p></p><p>Another dire corby stepped out of the <em>obscuring mist</em>, but it was followed by an entire line of flumphs, hovering at about an 8-foot height and speeding forward with powerful blasts of air from a series of holes centered along the edges of the rims of their disk-like bodies. These new arrivals, Alewyth noted, were a pasty white in color, whereas the first one had been of a more greenish-yellow tint.</p><p></p><p>The white flumphs dropped down upon the dire corby pair, breaking up into two flying wedges of three flumphs each and attacking in sequence. The dire corbies swatted at the flumphs and tried raking them with their talons, to little effect. Thurloe, seeing they now had reinforcements, took advantage of the dire corbies' attention being diverted by the flumphs to stab a dire corby through the torso with his bastard sword, dropping him instantly. Alewyth attacked the other one with her warhammer, crushing his skull as he fended off the flumphs' assault. And then the heroes looked expectantly back at the <em>obscuring mist</em>, waiting for more of the dire corbies to emerge.</p><p></p><p>None came. Gulping in a mouthful of air, the yellowish flumph spat out a few words in a rather squeaky voice. "No more. All dead," it said.</p><p></p><p>Wakuren dismissed the <em>obscuring mist</em> spell and saw the greenish-yellow flumph had spoken true: the other dire corbies lay dead on the stone floor of the cavern, their skulls pierced by the flumphs' spikes. A few of the white flumphs maneuvered over to the dead avians, dribbling acid onto their bodies from their hollow tentacles and slurping up the slurried remains as the acid broke down their skin and muscle tissue.</p><p></p><p>Another gulp of air by the yellowish flumph and a query was squeaked out of one of its rim-holes. "Why here?"</p><p></p><p>Alewyth stepped forward and decided to be their spokesperson. "We were sent to find a pile of dreamstones said to be somewhere within this cave network," she answered. She opted not to get into the whole deal with the Queen of Dreams - it would require far too much explaining if she started down that path.</p><p></p><p>Another gulp of air. "Describe dreamstones."</p><p></p><p>"Black stones, smooth, with flecks of white and gold," the priestess replied, basing her description on the ones the Queen of Dreams had shown them in the Dreamlands.</p><p></p><p>Another gulp of air, and then, "Dreamstones yours. We fetch." The flumph swung its eye-stalks around to encompass each of the heroes in turn. It waggled its tentacles about a bit and announced, "detecting good" - and Alewyth realized she was facing some type of cleric! She absently wondered what god the flumphs might worship.</p><p></p><p>The flumph cleric lowered in elevation and approached Xandro. "Not good," it squeaked, causing the bard to back away, wondering if this strange little creature was about to attack him. But after some further tentacle-wiggling, it announced, "Not evil" in its squeaky little voice and was apparently satisfied.</p><p></p><p>Upon some unspoken communication that seemed to be a sort of tentacular sign language, the six white flumphs jetted up to the dire corbies' cave and had a look about, returning shortly thereafter and giving their report to the yellowish-green leader. Their findings - likely that the dire corbies had all been taken out by the combined efforts of the flumphs and the heroes - were received with apparent satisfaction. "Follow us," the flumph cleric squeaked, leading the heroes back towards the large stone Wakuren and Alewyth had spotted in the vast fungal cavern around the corner to the northwest.</p><p></p><p>Once there, the group saw the "large stone" had been in fact the calciferous shell of a flail snail, who had extended its head back out and was busily devouring a choice growth of lichen with a raspy tongue. "Wait here," the flumph cleric squeaked, while the six flumphs darted high up into the cavern and disappeared for a few minutes inside a pair of narrow openings near the top of the cavern wall to the north.</p><p></p><p>When they returned, each of the six dropped two dreamstones onto the floor before the feet of the heroes. "Dreamstones yours," the flumph cleric reiterated.</p><p></p><p>While the others bent down to gather up the objects of their quest, Wakuren looked over to the far wall to the west, for he'd noticed movement. What he had at first taken to be lumpy outgrowths of stone from the side of the cave wall had likewise proven to be snail shells, only the creatures who bore them were not flail snails but snailfolk, human-sized gastropods who could maneuver their pliable bodies into the semblance of arms and legs. They ambled over to say hello, emboldened by the fact their flumph guardians showed no fear before these five newcomers. After having been told the heroes had slain the dire corbies who occasionally preyed upon the snailfolk, each insisted upon thanking each hero in turn, a process which involved placing a slime-coated right hand upon the heroes' left shoulder. Alewyth looked at the sticky spot in distaste but kept any looks of disgust from her face.</p><p></p><p>"There are a full dozen," Zander reported back, taking stock of the dreamstones. "Just like the Queen said."</p><p></p><p>"Then we should get back," prompted Thurloe, not wanting to spend any more time in these fungal caves - no telling what kind of nasty spores might be floating around. They said their goodbyes and returned the way they'd come.</p><p></p><p>"Too late in the day for the full ride back," Xandro observed when they'd returned to the wolf den. "We want to just camp out here for the night?"</p><p></p><p>"It's kind of cramped, isn't it?" asked Alewyth, frowning. It was plenty spacious for five adventurers, but when you added five riding mounts into the mix....</p><p></p><p>"We're plenty safe in here," remarked Zander. "And the horses and mules are safe as well. We probably won't even need to post a guard - we'll hear anything trying to get past the wagon." That seemed true, so the group spent their first night "in the field" camped in a crowded cave with a bunch of animals. They practiced their meditative "fall asleep" rituals and were out like lights, reporting back to the Queen of Dreams of their success and sleeping contentedly until the bats returned in the wee hours of dawn, flying over the upturned wagon and into the wolf den, to flap up to their own nesting area to sleep the daylight hours away.</p><p></p><p>That was as good a signal as any for the group to reattach the mules to the wagon and start back to their own homes themselves.</p><p></p><p>- - -</p><p></p><p>We played this in a short session: just over three hours, in fact. I had thought it might run short so I had the fourth adventure all prepped - as that one was definitely a short one, probably playable in a little over an hour. However, Vicki had hurt her back two days earlier and was still rather sore; when I offered up a short adventure to follow this one, she admitted she'd really rather go back home and take some more of her pain meds. So next time we play we'll probably run through adventures four and five in one go.</p><p></p><p>- - -</p><p></p><p>T-shirt worn: My white "Walking Dead" shirt, to represent the goop ghoul. It would have also fit in nicely with the short adventure I had planned to run after this adventure, but we opted not to do that this same game session.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Richards, post: 8057523, member: 508"] [B]ADVENTURE 3: THE DREAMSTONE CAVERNS[/B] PC Roster: [INDENT]Alewyth Putterpye, dwarf priestess of Aerik 1[/INDENT] [INDENT] Thurloe Pulver, human fighter 1[/INDENT] [INDENT] Wakuren, half-orc cleric of Cal 1[/INDENT] [INDENT] Xandro Silverstrings, human bard 1[/INDENT] [INDENT] Zander Quilson, elf sorcerer 1[/INDENT] Game Session Date: 1 August 2020 - - - Suddenly finding themselves with more money to spend, the group decided to forego their immediate departure to the mountains north of Port Duralia and further stock up on supplies. With his share of the reward for rescuing Teresa Theringold, Zander purchased a sturdy wooden wagon and the tack needed to hitch up the two mules, Mica and Perseverance. Of course, that meant Alewyth and Wakuren were suddenly without riding mounts. "No problem," Zander replied. "You guys get to ride in the wagon. Better that the two clerics capable of keeping the rest of us hale and hearty get to ride around in style!" If either if the clerics doubted that riding in a mule-drawn wagon was considered "riding around in style," they didn't mention it to the overeager elven sorcerer. Thurloe thought it a good idea to pick up a few healing potions, just in case anybody needed immediate healing and had gotten separated from the clerics. "I know a guy," he promised, but when he led them to the potion-maker's shop he found it closed and locked. "Never mind," he said. "He's probably out making the rounds on his cart. C'mon, let's try some of his usual stops." Finding the potion-maker was presaged with the laughter of children. Riding into a cul-de-sac, the group spotted a little gnome sitting behind an odd contraption: the front half looked rather like a large desk on wheels, and the back half had a place for the gnome to sit above a large wheel and gears he pedaled with his feet to get the vehicle to move. But the contraption was currently parked and the gnome was doing a brisk business selling penny candy to a cluster of eager children holding up their copper coins. "You buy your potions from a candy man?" Alewyth asked, puzzled. "Oh, yeah - Aenus is one of the best in the business. He sells the normal stuff - potions, oils, salves, and the like - or you can get the same stuff in candy form or sometimes even chewing gum. The chewy stuff kicks in right away, but some of the hard candies have a spell effect in them that lasts for as long as you keep sucking on the candy." "The guy's name is 'Anus?'" Xandro asked, wanting to make sure he'd heard correctly. But by that time they'd ridden into earshot of the gnome, and he turned to introduce himself. "[B]Aenus Feysputter[/B], at your service," he said with a mock bow from the seat of his vehicle, lifting a flap on the top of his "desk" area and pulling out a piece of toffee, which he exchanged with a small child for his copper piece. At the bard's confused expression, the gnome pointed to the side of his vehicle. "Like it's spelled, not like it sounds," he grinned, for he was pretty sure the human had heard his name as "Anus Face-Butter." Aenus took another child's order, took his penny and gave him his candy, and watched as the flock of children scampered away. "Now then, what can I get for you?" "Two [I]potions of cure light wounds[/I], for a start," Thurloe answered. "Very well: liquid or toffee?" Aenus asked. Thurloe thought it over. "Potion vial," he replied, then added on a vial of [I]oil of bless weapon[/I] and a [I]potion of shield of faith[/I] as well, which pretty much took up the majority of his share of the earnings from their exploration of Sandoval's Scriptorium. A few of the others purchased a potion or two from the gnome's cart, then he was off, pedaling his contraption to the next part of town where he often did his business. "Odd guy," Zander remarked. "Hey, is there anywhere around here I could pick up a couple of scrolls?" Thurloe knew of a respectable arcane scroll scribe and led the group to his shop. And then, all of their goods and provisions loaded into the wagon, they headed out of Port Duralia and north up the trade road for nearly seven hours. They met several merchants headed both ways, for Port Duralia was a major trade hub on the western shores of Armaturia and the goods brought in by sea were sent via caravans along the trade routes to towns and villages all along the small continent. At the sixth hour the group diverged off the main road, vectoring off to the left, headed to a gap between two mountains that made up this part of the Shieldwall Range ringing the continent. Alewyth led the mules without hesitation, sure that this was the way they were to take, for she'd studied the map in the throne room of the Queen of Dreams very thoroughly. A short hour later, the priestess of Aerik pulled the mule-drawn wagon to a stop at the foot of a mountain of stone. There was a cave just ahead, the opening about seven feet wide and maybe five feet high, if that. But with her darkvision Alewyth could see the cavern walls inside seemed to rise higher than the cave opening; likely the ceiling height would permit them to stand normally once inside the cave. The three men on horseback drew their mounts to a halt, then leaped down from their saddles and tied their horses' reins to the spokes of the wagon wheels. Alewyth and Wakuren stepped down from the wagon and everyone cautiously approached the cave, weapons drawn and ready. "You're sure this is the right place?" asked Xandro. "It looks like a cave opening, in the right place the Queen said it'd be," replied Alewyth. "Pretty sure it's the right one, but if it isn't we can scout around a bit and see if there's another one nearby." "Ladies first," offered Thurloe, waving the priestess ahead of him. She scowled at him, thinking he was merely offering to allow her to be attacked first by anything that might be guarding this cave, but then she decided it made sense that one of the group's two clerics should be the first to enter the cave: they were the only two capable of seeing perfectly fine in absolute darkness and there was no light coming from inside the cave. It was probably only about five hours or so past noon, but the mountains cast plenty of shadows and there was not a whole lot of light available with which to see inside dark cavern openings. "All I see so far is a bunch of scattered bones," she whispered to those behind her as she approached the cave. "Human?" asked Xandro. "Nah, smaller: bunnies and squirrels, more likely." By now, though, Alewyth could detect a distinct animal musk emanating from the cave - that, and the unmistakable coppery scent of blood. She gripped her warhammer tighter and stepped fully inside, ducking her head as she did so to ensure she didn't bonk her metal helmet on the top of the cave opening. There was a growl from the right; spinning in place, the dwarven priestess saw a pair of timber wolves in the back of the cave. Both were growling now, the fur on their backs standing up, one of them approaching. Then that one - the male, Alewyth surmised - pounced to the attack, trying to bite her leg and drag her to the stone floor where he could more easily rip out her exposed throat. Xandro and Thurloe raced forward into the cave at the snarls and growls, followed by Wakuren, although it was a tight fit getting them all inside for the entryway was somewhat small. From outside the cave, Zander saw the timber wolf try to bite Alewyth and, with a good line of sight on the beast due to his low-light vision, the elf cast a [I]magic missile[/I] spell, sending a dart of pure energy striking the wolf in the side of the head. Wakuren decided he didn't necessarily want to kill the wolf; this was, after all, his own den and the half-orc assumed the other wolf was his mate and the adventurers were the ones trespassing into the wolves' den. So rather than bring the side of his shield crashing down on the wolf's skull, he tried punching it with a gauntleted hand, hoping merely to knock the thing senseless rather than slay it outright. The wolf let out an involuntary whimper at the half-orc's blow, sounding more like a dog than Wakuren was comfortable with. Alewyth, however, was the one getting bit and she had no compunctions about fighting back with all of her might. Her warhammer came crashing down upon the wolf's head, knocking it in a heap upon the stone floor of his own den. Wakuren noted the wolf was still breathing and turned to look at the other one. This was apparently a female, for her belly seemed swollen in pregnancy. She belatedly leaped to the attack now that her mate was down, determined to fight for her unborn litter. Her teeth bit at Alewyth, the nearest foe and the one who had struck her mate into unconsciousness. Xandro stepped forward, rapier in hand, and thrust his blade into the wolf's flank. Thurloe stepped up beside and mirrored the maneuver, but his bastard sword was a much heavier weapon and the blade slew the female instantly. She collapsed to the floor in a pool of expanding blood, causing Wakuren to wince in empathetic pain. The wolves taken care of, Zander walked around the perimeter of the cavern interior, looking for secret passageways. "I hope this is the right place after all," he said. "But I don't see any dreamstones lying around." It was Alewyth, with her darkvision, who spotted the way forward. "Up there," she said, pointing to the east side of the cave, but higher up the nearly vertical wall. About 20 feet up, the stone wall looked to level off, with a ceiling some 15 feet or so higher than this upper ledge. The dwarf could see stalactites hanging from this higher ceiling; the wolves' den didn't seem to have much in the way of stalactites. After some discussion, the group came to their first decision: Thurloe would climb the stone wall with the [I]everburning torch[/I] providing him the illumination he needed on the way up; once there, he'd hammer a piton into place and lower a rope for the others to climb their way up. Wakuren went to fetch the fighter's silk rope from the wagon, and while the half-orc was out of visual range Xandro stabbed the male wolf in the head with the point of his rapier, killing it. "Just thinking ahead," he told Zander. "We'll want to bring the mounts in here while we go looking for those dreamstones, and we can't have the wolf waking up and deciding to eat our horses." Zander nodded in agreement. Thurloe resheathed his bastard sword, looped the coils of rope over one shoulder, tucked the [I]everburning torch[/I] between his armor and the leather strap holding his bastard sword scabbard on his back, and looked about for the best hand- and footholds. Then, plotting his course, he began climbing up. He took his time; there was no hurry and no reason for a careless fall from a great height because he was going faster than he needed to. It took him some time - during which his new friends worriedly watched his progress, Wakuren standing directly beneath him so he could try to catch him if he slipped - but the determined fighter made it to the top without incident and pulled himself over the edge. Then, on the sloped rise, he pulled out a piton and attached one end of the silk rope to it. He tossed the other end over the edge into the wolf den to get it out of his way, positioned the piton in a solid area where he could pound it in good and secure, and started hammering it into place. The bats roosting among the stalactites up there above him did not like his hammering at all. An entire swarm of bats dropped from their ceiling perches and flew about in a panicked frenzy. Thurloe, very much aware he was balanced at the edge of a 20-foot drop, hunkered down low on the stone floor of the elevated area and started crawling away from the edge. Down below, Alewyth heard the frenzied screeches of the bat swarm and cast a [I]sanctuary[/I] spell upon herself, ensuring she'd not be a victim to their mad rush to attack anybody and everybody in the area. Thurloe made it to the side wall and crawled further east, while the bats flitted about above him in a blind panic. Eventually, instinct if nothing else led them down to the wolf den, which was their normal exit into the outside air; it was earlier than they normally went out to hunt but the light wasn't bright enough to bother them; the dreamstone hunters wisely dropped to the cave floor and let the bats exit without incident. Then, once they'd all trickled out in waves, Alewyth called up to the higher ledge, "Are you all right up there, Thurloe?" "I'm fine!" he called back. "You guys can start climbing up!" They sent Zander up first as he was the lightest, while Wakuren and Xandro went to go fetch the horses. They dragged the bodies of the wolves outside and far enough away from the cave entrance that carrion eaters hopefully wouldn't find their way back to the cave, then untied the horses' bridles from the wagon wheel and brought them inside the cave. The mules were used to maneuver the wagon adjacent to the cave opening, then unhitched from the vehicle and brought inside as well. Finally, Wakuren and Xandro tipped the wagon over, blocking the cave entrance, then scrambled over it to climb their way back inside. It was crowded, but hopefully the steeds would be safe inside from any predator who might show up while the adventurers were inside the cave network. With any luck, they'd pop inside, find the dreamstones, and be back before that became an issue. One by one, the remaining three climbed up the rope after Zander and followed Thurloe east so he could show them what he'd discovered: the bat ledge connected the wolf den to a much larger cavern, with a natural vertical tunnel plunging down into darkness. A series of natural stone steps wound around the interior of the shaft, looking very much like simple elevation changes worn about by water over the centuries but just a little too even to consider that some guiding intelligence hadn't influenced the design of the winding stairway. "Could be there was mining done down here at some point," suggested Alewyth. "There's no telling what all we might find down in these lower depths," warned Wakuren, looking over the edge of the vertical shaft and seeing it went straight down for almost 50 feet before flattening out at the bottom. He could see a pile of bones on the floor in the center of the shaft; obviously, others had come this way before and not made it back out. "I think it might be best if we readied our magical protection." So saying, he cast a [I]shield of faith[/I] spell upon himself. Thurloe drank down his potion with the same effect, then spent a moment rubbing his [I]oil of bless weapon[/I] onto the blade of his bastard sword. Alewyth, in the meantime, cast a [I]bless[/I] spell upon the assembled group. "May Aerik's watchful eye guide our attacks, that they be true," she intoned. After checking around this upper cave for dreamstones and finding none, Wakuren led the expedition down the winding slope. Aelwyth walked directly behind him, the only two with darkvision taking the lead. Xandro came next, his lute on his back and his light crossbow in hand, armed with a quarrel and ready for action should it be needed. Then came Thurloe, providing illumination with the [I]everburning torch[/I] for those who needed it, while Zander brought up the rear. The steps made several full clockwise circuits around the central shaft before Wakuren got close enough to the thin strands to see what had been all but invisible from the top of the shaft: a spider's web, spanning the entirety of the vertical tunnel about 10 feet above the floor below. "Spider web," he called back to the others, then looked at the single strand of webbing stretched across the twisting passageway, right where he'd been about to step. The web's crafter, no doubt, used this to trip any prey who didn't otherwise fall into its web. Not wanting anyone to trip over it, he stepped over the all-but-invisible trip-line and then bent down to break it in his hands. But breaking the trip-line was, to the spider who had laid it there, the same as having potential prey trip over it as intended: it caused the whole web to quiver from the impact, alerting the arachnid there was prey at hand. It scurried up from its hiding place, on the ceiling of a section of spiraling passageway the heroes had yet to traverse, and came scrabbling towards Wakuren. Alewyth cast a [I]magic stone[/I] spell on the handful of sling stones she pulled from a pouch at her belt, dropping the first into her sling and whirling it about her head, ready to fire. Xandro raised his light crossbow and tried to make out the black form of the spider against the deep shadows of the vertical shaft and the steps spiraling down its inner surface. Thurloe resheathed his bastard sword, activated a sunrod and tossed it into the center of the web - a light source not in constant movement like his [I]everburning torch[/I] would help them all see the spider they were about to fight - and readied his own shortbow, nocking an arrow and pulling back the bow, sighting along the arrow's length to line up his shot. But the spider dashed up to Wakuren faster than the half-orc had expected a creature that size to be able to move; its torso was about as long as he was tall, with long, spindly legs adding to its overall bulk. The half-orc's torso was crushed in the spider's mandibles and poison dribbled into the wounds pierced by its sharp mouth-parts. Wakuren could feel the strength start to leave his limbs but vowed not to be slain by a giant spider, of all things. With a series of arcane syllables, a [I]magic missile[/I] spell went streaking from Zander's finger to strike the spider's bloated abdomen. Wakuren slammed the bottom point of his shield into the top of the spider's cephalothorax, right between some of the smaller eyes ranging above the central, forward-pointing pair. Alewyth's magic sling stone went flying into the spider's side, just above the junction where its legs grew out of the underside of its abdomen, while a crossbow bolt shot into the spider's side at full force, burying itself up to the feathers on the end of the shaft. Then Thurloe's arrow followed Xandro's crossbow bolt and the spider died from its many wounds, what passed for blood in its arachnid body leaking out of the many rents in its shiny, black exoskeleton. "Are you okay?" Alewyth asked Wakuren as he extricated himself from the dead spider's mandibles. "I will be," answered the half-orc, pulling out a scroll of [I]cure light wounds[/I] he'd purchased earlier in the day, back at Port Duralia. "Do you want the vial of antivenom we found in the kenku nest?' she asked. "No, thank you - we'll save that for some time when we really need it; that spider's venom didn't do that much damage to me." And he was right: while he wasn't up to his full strength he was already feeling pretty much like his old self now that he'd healed himself from the scroll. Continuing their spiraling journey down to the bottom of the cavern floor, the group examined the pile of bones and assorted junk that had been piled at the bottom of the vertical shaft. There was a rusty sword and a backpack covered in mildew; even the bones were glistening with wetness. That in itself was odd, for although Zander's elven hearing picked up the distant sounds of water dripping, it was from some distance away and the area here at the bottom of the spiraling slope was otherwise completely dry. "I don't like those bones," he muttered to the others. "What? Why?" asked Thurloe. "They're just bones. Probably former victims of the spider." "You just watch: they'll animate or something as soon as our backs are turned." Wakuren raised his hands to his holy symbol, preparing to channel a wave of positive energy through it should the skeletons turn out to be undead, but after nothing seemed to happen he turned to the nervous elf. "I think you're just being--" he began. "It moved!" Zander called, pointing. Wakuren turned his head and sure enough, there was some slight movement over in the pile of bones. One human arm was rising up, setting its hand down as a support as if to pull itself upright. Wakuren raised his holy symbol but then noticed something: the skeleton getting to its feet was completely covered in a thick, translucent slime. He recalled having heard of these things in his training: while turning undead was a powerful weapon in any combat cleric's arsenal, there were some creatures who gave every indication of being undead but were not and one of these "false undead" was a translucent slime-beast that used skeletons as a means of getting around faster and approaching new prey. Alewyth, however, had readied her sling to attack the skeleton and she let fly with her second [I]magic stone[/I], not particularly caring whether this thing was truly undead or not. The stone hit true, splashing through the nearly-invisible goo coating the thing's skull and striking bone. Xandro shot his crossbow at it and Thurloe fired off an arrow from his shortbow, both shafts hitting their marks as well. Zander cast an [I]acid splash[/I] spell at the thing, not realizing the translucent goo was itself acidic in nature and the creature was immune. By then, the goop ghoul had gotten its skeleton mount fully standing and it swiveled it in place, swinging a bony arm at Wakuren, who happened to be the closest. The half-orc easily blocked the simple attack with his shield. Then he used his shield as a weapon, bringing it crashing down upon the skeleton's skull, crushing the neck that supported it and smashing into the translucent slime granting the thing its mobility. The slime lost its cohesiveness, causing the individual bones to scatter in a pile. Making sure there were no other goop ghouls in among the other bones, Thurloe eventually declared it safe and stepped into the pile to root around for possible treasure; after all, a spider wouldn't have the sense to value the items left behind by its previous victims. The others gave him a hand, unearthing a well-crafted dagger, a small coin pouch filled with several dozen copper pennies, and a gem looking to be much more valuable. ("A dreamstone?" asked Xandro, but it was not.) Then, seeing nothing else of value, Thurloe called for the group to move on. There was a slight illumination coming from around the corner to the right of the cavern they were currently occupying. Alewyth led the group around the corner, but Zander was squinting up the cavern wall just ahead. He called Wakuren over. "Is that a cave or something up there?" he asked, pointing. Wakuren, with his darkvision, was able to confirm it was. The opening was an area of darkness about 25 feet up the cavern wall, a wall about as steep as the one Thurloe had climbed to get them into the bat cave which had led them all here. Wakuren brought the cave to Thurloe's attention as Alewyth and Xandro continued on around the corner. But then, seeing the commotion going on behind them, they returned to the others. "What's up?" asked Alewyth. "There's a cave up there," Thurloe replied. "I want to check it out." Zander had another coil of rope from his own gear that he passed over to Thurloe and the fighter pulled out another piton and his hammer and shoved them into his belt. Then, [I]everburning torch[/I] still in place with the strap to his bastard sword, he found his initial footholds and started his careful ascent. Wakuren and Alewyth each decided they'd give climbing a try as well; they had darkvision and would have a much easier time seeing the rock face than either Xandro or Zander would. But climbing - without a rope to guide them - proved to be much more difficult than it looked, and after each fell after ascending only a few feet they decided to let Thurloe handle it; he'd already proven he could climb nearly sheer vertical stone surfaces before, after all. Alewyth, however, soon got bored watching Thurloe's slow and cautious ascent and decided to go check out the illumination; it was coming from the same direction as the occasional drippings sounds. As she walked down the corridor, a beetle popped around the corner, exposing itself as the source of the illumination: glowing glands on its carapace and at the ends of its antenna were giving off a ghostly, white light. The thing was smaller than the spider had been but was still as big as a decent-sized dog and it skittered towards the dwarf in hungry anticipation of an easy meal. But its meal was not to be, for Zander cast a [I]magic missile[/I] spell at it and the thing was slain immediately. "Wow, that thing's not very tough," he said. As if summoned by the elf's disdain, two more fire beetles skittered around the corner, speeding down the corridor towards all but Thurloe, who by now was halfway up the slope. Alewyth used her third and final [I]magic stone[/I], sending a pebble crashing into the lead fire beetle's head, right between its glowing antennae. This wasn't enough to kill it, though, and it continued its hungry approach. Xandro slew it moments thereafter with a well-placed shot from his light crossbow. Zander cast another [I]acid splash[/I] spell, coating the head of the last beetle in corrosive fluid, but again it kept on coming. This one actually made it to the line of adventurers, biting Alewyth on the leg with a set of strong mandibles. But that just put it close enough to her for her to bring her warhammer smashing down upon the middle of its back, snapping its carapace and crushing its internal organs. It oozed fluids as its legs twitched spasmodically in death. Thurloe was almost to the top of the ledge immediately outside the cave opening when he heard a word being echoed inside the chambers beyond. It sounded like, "Doom!" being repeated by numerous voices, as if this were some sort of battle chant. But the voices increased in volume rapidly - more rapidly, in fact, than the fighter could pull himself fully up onto the ledge. He had his arms straightened out and his waist level with the floor, about ready to try to swing up a leg, when the creatures rounded a corner and were upon him. At first Thurloe thought these were more kenku, like the archers they'd fought in the basement beneath Sandoval's Scriptorium. But while the kenku wore clothing to disguise their avian build, these creatures were completely naked. Thurloe decided whatever they were they were probably still part of the kenku family tree, for their avian bodies were covered with oily, black feathers and their heads looked very much like those of ravens or crows, but these creatures had bulging chests and powerful arms - if they were kenku they were the primitive, savage part of the line - and they seemed incapable of saying anything other than, "Doom! Doom!" But it looked like there were at least three of them rushing him and Thurloe didn't want any part of trying to fight off barbarian kenku while balanced at the edge of a 25-foot drop, so he lowered himself back down, found the footing he'd just left, and started climbing back down again. He started his descent just in time, for two sets of avian claws grabbed at his head; had he been a few seconds later he'd likely have been raked on both sides of his face. Just as the fighter was congratulating himself on avoiding a whole lot of pain, a whole lot of pain came to visit him. One of the dire corbies, intent upon not letting this human interloper invade its nest, leaped forward onto Thurloe, clawing at his back and shoulders. Thurloe doubted he could hold both of their weight for long and realized he had but a split second to make a choice: drop from the wall and hope he could finagle a midair twist such that the kenku barbarian took the brunt of the landing, or cling to the wall and hope the bird-man fell off. Almost without conscious thought, Thurloe instinctively went for the clinging-to-the-wall option. That turned out not to be the optimal course of action, for he couldn't support the weight of the dire corby as well as his own and his fingers lost their purchase. Both figures plummeted the 20 feet to the hard floor below, the dire corby turning it into some sort of acrobatic roll that ended up with him stumbling but at least still remaining on his clawed feet, while Thurloe just fell straight down and was knocked unconscious instantly from the impact. Up at the cave opening, two more dire corbies fell to their feathered bellies and started climbing down the sheer rock face - but unlike Thurloe, they climbed down head first in the manner of lizards. This was quite a disturbing sight for Xandro and Zander, who had never seen these dire corbies before and had expected them to act more like the kenku they resembled. These things didn't even seem to have any weapons! Alewyth and Wakuren, by this time, had wandered down the corridor in the direction the fire beetles had come from. There was a sort of T-intersection up ahead; to the right was a clear pool, the source of the dripping sounds they'd heard (every few seconds another drop of water plummeted from the small stalactites overhead), while the left passageway opened up into a vast cavern covered in various stalks of mushrooms and other fungi. A large rock sat in the middle of this fungal cavern, swirls of light and dark forming patterns along its surface; Wakuren wondered idly if this might be one massive chunk of dreamstone and if so, how they were ever going to get the thing back to Port Duralia, for it was wider than the half-orc was tall. Xandro called to their clerics for help as he stabbed his rapier forward at the dire corby before him. Zander cast an [I]acid splash[/I] spell at a fourth dire corby that had just appeared in the cave entrance and was flopping on its belly in preparation of beginning its headfirst climb down the cliff-side; the elf had hoped he might startle it into falling over the edge, but no such luck. These things seemed much tougher than the kenku they'd fought earlier; the one Xandro stabbed merely cawed "Doom!" in his face and swiped at the bard with a set of sharp talons at the end of his hand. The two dire corbies climbing down leaped to the ground and took up positions on either side of the one Xandro was facing off against, and now two more had taken their place climbing down the cliff wall. With a look of despair, Zander saw a sixth creature appear at the top of the upper cave opening. These things were not only tougher than the kenku, but they outnumbered the adventurers as well - and would have had Thurloe still been up and about to aid their side. But at least Wakuren and Alewyth were running back to help. By the time they caught back up, Xandro had managed to kill the first dire corby with another stab of his rapier, this time through the thing's heart - but still the others continued crying, "Doom, doom, DOOM!" Zander bent low and grabbed the unconscious fighter by the strap of his bastard sword, dragging him farther back and out of the reach of the two other dire corbies already on the ground. But these two had leaped forward to attack Alewyth and Xandro, slashing out with the talons on their hands, while behind them the next two leaped to the floor and advanced, one slashing out at Zander while he was preoccupied with his task. Then Wakuren ran forward into a slide, slamming next to Thurloe's unmoving form and casting a [I]cure light wounds[/I] spell upon him. The fighter shook his pounding head and looked about him, momentarily forgetting exactly where he was and what he'd been doing. (The cries of "Doom! Doom!" quickly refreshed his memories on that score.) While Alewyth swung her warhammer into the one who'd attacked her and Xandro did likewise with his rapier, Thurloe whipped out his bastard sword and stabbed at the one who'd attacked Zander. The elf, for his part, backed up even further away and cast an [I]acid splash[/I] spell at the one who'd clawed at him, wishing he had more powerful spells still at hand. Still calling out "Doom!" the dire corbies rushed forward again, clawing at their enemies. Xandro got hit with both claws from his foe and the dire corby rent his talons across the bard, cutting open deep gashes that spilled forth his blood. He collapsed onto the hard floor, bleeding out at a horrendous rate. Seeing this, Wakuren pulled out another of his [I]cure light wounds[/I] scrolls, casting it upon Xandro and seeing the bard's wounds heal up. But still the bard lay there unmoving, causing the cleric of Cal to worry he'd been too late for his friend, only to belatedly realize Xandro was faking, hoping to catch the bird-men unawares. Alewyth continued swinging her warhammer for all it was worth, wishing these stupid avians had bones as light as most other birds did. But no luck; these dire corbies had long ago lost the power of flight and their wings had formed into arms, their bones apparently hardening up at the same time. There were now five living dire corbies on the ground with the heroes, arranged in an arc surrounding their foes. Xandro suddenly stabbed upward at a dire corby almost standing over his prone form, apparently having fallen for the bard's ruse and believing him to be dead. The point of his rapier went deep into the avian's body, causing him to squawk something other than "Doom!" for a change as he staggered backwards with a cry of pain, allowing Xandro to regain his feet and step backwards out of immediate range of any retaliatory strikes. Thurloe swung his bastard sword with his full might, cursing the dire corbies' blasted resilience - why wouldn't they fall? Zander stepped even further back out of range, realizing of the five of them he was the one probably least suited to physical combat; worse yet, he was rapidly running out of even his [I]acid splash[/I] spells and before too long was going to have to rely upon his dagger, something he did not look forward to at all. And still the dire corbies surged forward, sending drops of the heroes' blood flying with each slash of their talons. Realizing they were hopelessly outclassed, Wakuren cast an [I]obscuring mist[/I] over the entire area - maybe they could manage to get out while they were still all alive and mobile. Immediately figuring out the half-orc cleric's stratagem, Thurloe called out "Retreat back to the stairs!" at the top of his lungs and hoped the damned barbaric kenku didn't understand the Common tongue - very likely, if all they could say was "Doom!" Alewyth connected a solid hit with her warhammer against the dire corby directly in front of her and then stepped back and to the side; the dire corby vanished immediately into the dark mist. Xandro couldn't see any of the avians but had a good idea where the stairs were, so he resheathed his rapier in his belt and pulled the lute from his back, playing an inspiring ballad that would hopefully grant an extra bit of courage to his friends - and hoping against hope that the music reverberating and echoing off the cave walls would help obscure his exact location to the dire corbies, who he figured couldn't see him since he couldn't see them. The [I]obscuring mist[/I] took the dire corbies off their stride, since they couldn't spot their foes and spent some time stumbling around searching them out. But every moment they spent seeking the heroes was a moment they weren't actively attacking, and the heroes could use as many of those moments as they could get. Xandro's music fought against the dire corbies' continued cries of "Doom!" and both echoed across the cavern. But then some of the cries of "Doom!" were cut short, as if the dire corbies were being hit hard. As none of the heroes could see each other, each was glad at least someone from their team was able to get in a few good hits during their tactical retreat. But one by one, they exited the confines of the [I]obscuring mist[/I] spell and still the sounds of combat came from within the dark cloud. "Are they hitting themselves?" asked Alewyth. "Who knows, who cares?" replied Thurloe, heading for the ramp, his [I]everburning torch[/I] lighting the way for the others - although his activated sunrod was still sitting in the middle of the spider's web above, where he'd left it. A hulking dire corby stepped out of the [I]obscuring mist[/I], his talons dripping with blood - probably Xandro's. "Doom!" he cried, heading straight for Alewyth who, judging herself the least wounded of the five, had taken up a guard spot at the base of the sloping ramp while her friends started their cyclical ascent. The priestess of Aerik readied herself for the avian's attack, warhammer held out laterally before her like a shield. But before the dire corby could attack her, a disk floated out of the mist. This was a strange disk indeed, unlike anything the young priestess had ever seen before in her life. As it flitted laterally through the air towards the dire corby, she could see the underside held what looked like tiny stalactites in miniature, although some of these wobbled and shifted and she realized those ones were actually tentacles. Two more slender tentacles rose up from the top of the disk, an unblinking eye poised at the tip of each. And the disk sped forward, only to drop down upon the dire corby's head, the stalactite-spikes piercing the avian's skull. His repeated cries of "Doom!" came to an abrupt halt - as did his forward motion - as he turned to look at what had just attacked him from above. But the flumph had jetted straight up after its initial assault, well out of range of the dire corby's swinging talons. Another dire corby stepped out of the [I]obscuring mist[/I], but it was followed by an entire line of flumphs, hovering at about an 8-foot height and speeding forward with powerful blasts of air from a series of holes centered along the edges of the rims of their disk-like bodies. These new arrivals, Alewyth noted, were a pasty white in color, whereas the first one had been of a more greenish-yellow tint. The white flumphs dropped down upon the dire corby pair, breaking up into two flying wedges of three flumphs each and attacking in sequence. The dire corbies swatted at the flumphs and tried raking them with their talons, to little effect. Thurloe, seeing they now had reinforcements, took advantage of the dire corbies' attention being diverted by the flumphs to stab a dire corby through the torso with his bastard sword, dropping him instantly. Alewyth attacked the other one with her warhammer, crushing his skull as he fended off the flumphs' assault. And then the heroes looked expectantly back at the [I]obscuring mist[/I], waiting for more of the dire corbies to emerge. None came. Gulping in a mouthful of air, the yellowish flumph spat out a few words in a rather squeaky voice. "No more. All dead," it said. Wakuren dismissed the [I]obscuring mist[/I] spell and saw the greenish-yellow flumph had spoken true: the other dire corbies lay dead on the stone floor of the cavern, their skulls pierced by the flumphs' spikes. A few of the white flumphs maneuvered over to the dead avians, dribbling acid onto their bodies from their hollow tentacles and slurping up the slurried remains as the acid broke down their skin and muscle tissue. Another gulp of air by the yellowish flumph and a query was squeaked out of one of its rim-holes. "Why here?" Alewyth stepped forward and decided to be their spokesperson. "We were sent to find a pile of dreamstones said to be somewhere within this cave network," she answered. She opted not to get into the whole deal with the Queen of Dreams - it would require far too much explaining if she started down that path. Another gulp of air. "Describe dreamstones." "Black stones, smooth, with flecks of white and gold," the priestess replied, basing her description on the ones the Queen of Dreams had shown them in the Dreamlands. Another gulp of air, and then, "Dreamstones yours. We fetch." The flumph swung its eye-stalks around to encompass each of the heroes in turn. It waggled its tentacles about a bit and announced, "detecting good" - and Alewyth realized she was facing some type of cleric! She absently wondered what god the flumphs might worship. The flumph cleric lowered in elevation and approached Xandro. "Not good," it squeaked, causing the bard to back away, wondering if this strange little creature was about to attack him. But after some further tentacle-wiggling, it announced, "Not evil" in its squeaky little voice and was apparently satisfied. Upon some unspoken communication that seemed to be a sort of tentacular sign language, the six white flumphs jetted up to the dire corbies' cave and had a look about, returning shortly thereafter and giving their report to the yellowish-green leader. Their findings - likely that the dire corbies had all been taken out by the combined efforts of the flumphs and the heroes - were received with apparent satisfaction. "Follow us," the flumph cleric squeaked, leading the heroes back towards the large stone Wakuren and Alewyth had spotted in the vast fungal cavern around the corner to the northwest. Once there, the group saw the "large stone" had been in fact the calciferous shell of a flail snail, who had extended its head back out and was busily devouring a choice growth of lichen with a raspy tongue. "Wait here," the flumph cleric squeaked, while the six flumphs darted high up into the cavern and disappeared for a few minutes inside a pair of narrow openings near the top of the cavern wall to the north. When they returned, each of the six dropped two dreamstones onto the floor before the feet of the heroes. "Dreamstones yours," the flumph cleric reiterated. While the others bent down to gather up the objects of their quest, Wakuren looked over to the far wall to the west, for he'd noticed movement. What he had at first taken to be lumpy outgrowths of stone from the side of the cave wall had likewise proven to be snail shells, only the creatures who bore them were not flail snails but snailfolk, human-sized gastropods who could maneuver their pliable bodies into the semblance of arms and legs. They ambled over to say hello, emboldened by the fact their flumph guardians showed no fear before these five newcomers. After having been told the heroes had slain the dire corbies who occasionally preyed upon the snailfolk, each insisted upon thanking each hero in turn, a process which involved placing a slime-coated right hand upon the heroes' left shoulder. Alewyth looked at the sticky spot in distaste but kept any looks of disgust from her face. "There are a full dozen," Zander reported back, taking stock of the dreamstones. "Just like the Queen said." "Then we should get back," prompted Thurloe, not wanting to spend any more time in these fungal caves - no telling what kind of nasty spores might be floating around. They said their goodbyes and returned the way they'd come. "Too late in the day for the full ride back," Xandro observed when they'd returned to the wolf den. "We want to just camp out here for the night?" "It's kind of cramped, isn't it?" asked Alewyth, frowning. It was plenty spacious for five adventurers, but when you added five riding mounts into the mix.... "We're plenty safe in here," remarked Zander. "And the horses and mules are safe as well. We probably won't even need to post a guard - we'll hear anything trying to get past the wagon." That seemed true, so the group spent their first night "in the field" camped in a crowded cave with a bunch of animals. They practiced their meditative "fall asleep" rituals and were out like lights, reporting back to the Queen of Dreams of their success and sleeping contentedly until the bats returned in the wee hours of dawn, flying over the upturned wagon and into the wolf den, to flap up to their own nesting area to sleep the daylight hours away. That was as good a signal as any for the group to reattach the mules to the wagon and start back to their own homes themselves. - - - We played this in a short session: just over three hours, in fact. I had thought it might run short so I had the fourth adventure all prepped - as that one was definitely a short one, probably playable in a little over an hour. However, Vicki had hurt her back two days earlier and was still rather sore; when I offered up a short adventure to follow this one, she admitted she'd really rather go back home and take some more of her pain meds. So next time we play we'll probably run through adventures four and five in one go. - - - T-shirt worn: My white "Walking Dead" shirt, to represent the goop ghoul. It would have also fit in nicely with the short adventure I had planned to run after this adventure, but we opted not to do that this same game session. [/QUOTE]
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