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<blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 9221803" data-attributes="member: 508"><p><strong>ADVENTURE 65: HALFWAY ISLAND</strong></p><p></p><p>PC Roster: <p style="margin-left: 20px">Alewyth Putterpye, dwarf priestess of Aerik 13</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Thurloe Pulver, human fighter 3/wizard 3/spellsword 7</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Wakuren, half-orc cleric of Cal 7/paladin 6</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Xandro Silverstrings, human bard 6/rogue 7</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Zander Quilson, elf sorcerer 13</p><p></p><p>NPC Roster: <p style="margin-left: 20px">Bat Fiercehunter, halfling ranger 4</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Croc Swiftlizard, halfling ranger 4</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Crow Straightspear, halfling ranger 4</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Mouse Quietmoon, halfling ranger 4</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Robin the Balladeer, human bard 4</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Rose Brightpetal, halfling druid 8</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Snake Slytracker, halfling ranger 4</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Spider Greenbow, halfling ranger 4</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Squirrel Fleetfoot, halfling ranger 4</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Talon Farseeker, halfling ranger 4</p><p></p><p>Game Session Date: 9 December 2023</p><p></p><p> - - -</p><p></p><p>"Land ho!" came the cry. "Halfway Island off the port bow!"</p><p></p><p>The cry had been a long time coming. For the past month, the ship, crew, and passengers had been at sea with nothing but ocean all around them; this was their first sighting of a land mass, and small as it might be, it was a welcome sight. At first nothing more than a speck of green off to the right, as the whale-borne vessel approached, they could see a single mountain rising up out of the surrounding jungle ringing the island. As might be expected by the island's name, once they departed from it and continued on their journey to Talonia, it would be another month of ocean voyaging before they arrived at the new continent. But for now they looked forward for a few days of stretching their legs as they gathered fresh water and island fruits and sought to hunt down some fresh game.</p><p></p><p>As the halfling vessel was towed by a pair of baleen whales who'd be at risk of beaching themselves if they swam too close to the island, they entered a lagoon and the ship dropped anchor there. Then the whales were released from their tow-chains to go about their business for the next two days, Rose Brightpetal thanking them for their service thus far and wishing them a happy rest period. She and two of her crew would be staying behind on the ship for the initial trip to the island, while the other six halflings readied three of the four rowboats to head ashore. The heroes split themselves up among the three oared vessels, save for Wakuren who summoned Nimbus from the heavens and rode his air element cloud-steed to the island.</p><p></p><p>As such, he was the first to arrive at the beach just ahead, and the first to see the message that lay there in the sand. "Look," he said when the halflings pulled their rowboats onto the beach and started unloading the empty barrels they'd brought for fresh water. The half-orc pointed down at a series of stones that had been laid out on the beach, arranged to form the word "HELP" in large letters.</p><p></p><p>"This island is uninhabited, 'cept for animals," replied Mouse Quietmoon, one of the halfling rangers. "Looks like there must be a shipwreck survivor or something."</p><p></p><p>"I didn't see any signs of a shipwreck," pointed out Xandro. Indeed, the waters all around the island - at least the southeastern side of it, the side from which they had approached - had no conspicuous ships poking up from beneath the waters.</p><p></p><p>"Could have been miles out to sea," suggested Bat Fiercehunter. "Sahuagin raiders, maybe - if they'd've overcome us when they attacked us weeks ago, they'd likely have scuttled our ship, just out of sheer spite."</p><p></p><p>"We'll have to see if we can find any survivors," said Snake Slytracker. "Common law of the sea. We can give them a ride to Talonia, or back to Armaturia during our next trip, if it comes to that. But in the meantime, we need to split up and tend to the ship's needs. We'll need folks filling up barrels with fresh water, we'll need a barrel or two of fruit, and we'll want to see if we can track down a boar or two - we can have ourselves a good beach-roast tonight, and then dry the rest into jerky." Four of the six halflings immediately called "Dibs!" on the boar hunt, that apparently being the most exciting of their chores. Spider Greenbow was left with the task of gathering fruit - a task Alewyth opted to join with him - and Croc Swiftlizard was assigned with the fresh water detail. The other adventurers were offered the opportunity to join in on the boar hunt, but Wakuren spoke for the group and said they'd see if they could find any signs of the shipwreck survivors.</p><p></p><p>"They're human sized," pointed out Xandro, indicating the remnants of the footprints left on the beach sands around the stones forming the word "HELP." The winds had eroded the footprints in the days since they were left, but they were much larger than the feet of halflings, the only people known to frequent the island as a refueling station.</p><p></p><p>"Makes sense," replied Crow Straightspear. "A halfling'd probably've spelled out the word in our own language, rather than use the Common word."</p><p></p><p>"Going barefoot," pointed out Thurloe, indicating a print that still bore the imprint of distinct toes. "And there might have only been the one." He was right; there was no way to tell if the footprints had all been made by one person or several, not in their present condition.</p><p></p><p>"Pretty strong guy," added Robin, noting the size of some of the rocks used to spell out the word "HELP."</p><p></p><p>Alewyth cast a series of spells on herself - <em>magic circle against evil</em>, <em>stoneskin</em>, and <em>magic vestment</em> - before heading off with Spider to pick fruit. The halfling frowned in derision at her precautions, pointing out there was nothing dangerous on the island other than boars and the occasional snake, but the dwarven priestess merely replied that protection was never a foolish thing, and off they went. Wakuren mounted back up on Nimbus, intending to seek out any shipwreck survivors from an aerial view, when Zander's keen eyesight picked up something else of note on the beach. A bit of wood stuck up out of the sand; a quick bit of digging produced a piece of flat, broken board. "Part of a crate or something," he suggested. He tossed the board back down onto the beach. "Could have been washed ashore with the wreckage. Okay, let's go find any survivors. Petey, you go ahead and scout from the air with Wakuren." The pseudodragon telepathically acknowledged his master's orders and took to the air.</p><p></p><p>Using Alewyth's logic, Thurloe cast a <em>shield</em> spell upon himself with his wand before joining the others in trekking through the jungle. Zander cast a <em>mage armor</em> spell on himself as well. Wakuren had already cast his standard morning <em>endure elements</em> spells on himself, Xandro, and Robin, but he cast a <em>shield of faith</em> spell on himself as Nimbus took to the skies, just in case. Then he cast his sight downwards, looking for signs of shipwreck survivors on the ground below.</p><p></p><p>Petey was the first to spot something, although it wasn't the survivors they sought - rather, it was a group of six wild boars passing through a clearing in the jungle below. Wakuren dismissed Petey from the search for shipwreck survivors, directing the pseudodragon to go find the halflings looking for fresh pork and directing them to their prey. Petey offered to help the halflings, figuring his sleep venom could come in handy in taking down a wild boar. With a flash of reddish wings, the pseudodragon dropped from the half-orc's side and went to go find the intrepid halfling hunters.</p><p></p><p>Then another flash captured Wakuren's attention, this one a momentary flash of light. It came from the top of the mountain - "Bald Mountain," he had been told by one of the ship's crew, for the way it rose up from the jungle canopy below - and was repeated again after a few seconds. Directing Nimbus to the top of the mountain, Wakuren soon found the source of the intermittent flashing: a hand mirror that had been tied to a bit of overhanging rock jutting out from above a cave opening, secured by what looked to be strips of cloth from a torn garment. Feeling he'd found where any survivors had likely holed up, Wakuren turned Nimbus around and went to go find the others.</p><p></p><p>Zander, Thurloe, Xandro, Robin, and Croc Swiftlizard, on his way to fetching water from a nearby pool he knew of, had spread out in a line, each one still able to see the person at their side through the ever-present foliage as they slowly advanced through the jungle. Thus far, they'd only disrupted a small flock of parrots (which were good eating, according to Croc, who'd been too slow to put down his empty water barrel to bring one down with his sling) and heard the cried of nearby monkeys in the trees, when Robin was alerted by the sound of buzzing flies ahead. "Over here!" she called to the others, then stifled a scream when she pushed aside the broad leaves of a plant and saw what had attracted the flies' interest: the torn-apart carcass of a monkey.</p><p></p><p>"What could have done that?" asked Xandro, aghast. The poor monkey looked to have been ripped apart, his limbs pulled from their sockets.</p><p></p><p>"No idea," admitted Croc. "It doesn't look like he's been eaten much, either - just a few rat bites after the fact. But no rat could have done that."</p><p></p><p>Wakuren and Nimbus came landing nearby, calling out their names and stating he thought he'd found a cave where the survivors had gone. They left Croc to continue on with his water-gathering, after he pointed them in the direction of the fruit trees where Alewyth and Spider would have gone. After collecting Alewyth, the heroes entered the extradimensional interior of <em>Hesperna's lamp</em> and let Wakuren ferry them up to the mountain-top cave upon Nimbus. Upon reaching the cave, Wakuren dropped down from Nimbus's back and pulled out the magic lamp, placing it on the stone floor. Alewyth, who had been watching events from within the lamp using her magic headband (which allowed her to see through the gem Wakuren wore on a band across his brow), told the others they had arrived and they said the words that shunted them back out into the Material World.</p><p></p><p>Looking around in the dim light, they could see there were two main passageways leading deeper into the mountain, one to the north and the other to the east. Alewyth, Xandro, and Zander went north, while the other three took the east route. Alewyth and Wakuren each had darkvision and had no trouble seeing as the light dimmed the further they went; Zander activated a charge of his <em>scout's headband</em> and granted himself the same abilities.</p><p></p><p>Turning a corner to the right, the elf sorcerer saw a bedraggled-looking man lying upon a few slats of wood in the back of a long cavern. At the far end, a smaller opening to a tunnel of some sort likely looped back to the way the others had gone. Xandro tossed down his <em>figurine of wondrous power</em> and called out the command word, causing the statuette to expand into a living dire tiger. Xandro commanded his feline companion to guard the sleeping man from anything from the tunnel beyond and the tiger silently padded over to do as commanded.</p><p></p><p>The tunnel led to an enormous cavern, the same one Robin, Thurloe, and Wakuren had entered. Hundreds of rats skittered along the ground, among piles of white guano. Looking up, they could see an equal number of bats hanging among the stalactites, some 30 feet above them. Not wanting to startle them - for they'd been in the midst of bat swarms before and did not relish a repeat experience - Wakuren motioned for the other two to back away the way they had come. Robin had her lute out in case a song of inspirational courage would be useful, but at Wakuren's hand motion she put a hand over her strings. But then Thurloe moved up (none too quietly) and they could hear Alewyth's voice coming from the other side of the cavern, and, seeing the bats stir to wakefulness, Wakuren decided to take matters into his own hands and cast a <em>thunder strike</em> spell into the southern half of the cavern. The roar of thunder and a blast of holy energy rolled over the bats and rats in the southern half of the cavern, causing dead bats to drop from the cavern ceiling among the rat corpses and the odd dead beetle slain by the half-orc's spell.</p><p></p><p>Alewyth had approached the sleeping man and called out to him, but had gotten no response, when the <em>thunder strike</em> sent reverberations blasting into the cavern, followed by the shrieks and flapping wings of the bats who had been rudely awakened by the spell and the frantic squeaks of the rats from the northern half of the adjacent cavern. As a swarm of irritable bats headed over towards the dire tiger and a rat swarm followed beneath them along the ground, Alewyth decided her castaway needed none of that kind of attention and cast a <em>wall of stone</em> spell that sealed off the two caverns along the narrow passageway between. No offense to the dire tiger, but he was on his own; the dwarven priestess knew if he were to be overcome by the swarming mammals, he'd simply revert back to statuette form, none the worse for wear.</p><p></p><p>The other swarms of rats and bats headed for the exit to the west, currently occupied by three frantic adventurers. Wakuren slammed his shield down upon the backs of the first wave of rats to approach him, but was quickly engulfed by the furry bodies that followed, as the bats then swarmed all around him and the others. Thurloe and Robin soon found themselves bleeding from multiple, panicked bites from the bats seeking to flee their cavern. The dire tiger likewise had several bite wounds bleeding freely, as he swatted rats away with his paws, only to have others rush forward to take their place.</p><p></p><p>Zander heard the cries of the other three heroes and backed away from the narrow cavern where Alewyth was trying - and failing - to wake the castaway. It worried her, but she was starting to wonder if the man was somehow the victim of a dream coma, although Mogo had assured the dreamwalkers that those trapped in dream comas had been awakened all at once upon the defeat of the Nightmare King. He looked to be doing poorly, with sallow skin pulled tightly to his bones and long, tangled hair coming down around his shoulders; his shirt in tatters and his pants ragged along the bottom edges; he wore no shoes. But while Alewyth was leaning over the man and trying to shake him awake, Zander came upon the others and sent a <em>lightning bolt</em> blasting away at the rats and bats who had made it past the three other heroes, killing those members of their respective swarms instantly. Xandro, upon hearing Robin voice a scream, departed from Alewyth's side and came running her way, his fingers already playing the song of inspirational courage on his <em>Dardolian Lute</em>. Robin stepped away from the attacking mammals as best she could, and cast a <em>sound burst</em> spell into the rats and bats biting Wakuren. Between them, they had taken care of most of the rats; the few remaining broke off and returned to their larger cavern, hoping to hide away until these intruders left. After all, the southern half of the cavern was littered with the still-warm corpses of the rats and bats Wakuren had killed with his <em>thunder strike</em> spell, so it wasn't like they were hurting for food....</p><p></p><p>Thurloe backed away from the flapping swarm of bats, deciding to go check on Alewyth rather than contend with bats too many in number to deal effectively with his bastard sword <em>Spellslicer</em>. He cast a <em>detect magic</em> spell when he entered the cavern where Alewyth bent over the castaway. Worried about his appearance, the dwarf cast a <em>heal</em> spell upon the man, touching his narrow chest as she did so. His eyes snapped open at his touch, as she was first noticing how cold his skin was - but then, it was rather cold is this dank, narrow cavern. She could feel his ribs move as he breathed, and struggled to recall if she'd even noticed him breathing before as concerns about him being undead filled her head. But then, if he had been undead, the <em>heal</em> spell should have caused him considerable harm, and it seemed to have no effect, one way or another, other than waking him from his deep slumber - a sleep which even the sound of a nearby <em>thunder strike</em> spell could not awaken him.</p><p></p><p>Wakuren cast a <em>mass cure light wounds</em> spell on those bitten by the rats and bats, then entered the large cavern to see how the dire tiger fared. He'd been doing his best against the rats skittering up and biting him and the bats that flew all around him in a confusing aerial tangle, and while the piles of bodies all about him told he'd been successful at killing the handful he'd slain thus far, there were far more still about and eager for tiger blood. The tiger got a boost from Xandro and his magical tune once he got within range, and eventually enough of the mammals had been slain for the others to slink away, breaking formation to go save their own individual lives. "You want me to heal him?" Robin asked, noticing the many bleeding wounds matting the tiger's fur.</p><p></p><p>"He'll be fine," scoffed Xandro, half wondering how long the dire tiger could go without having his wounds healed up, and also realizing that no permanent harm would come of trying it out as an experiment - after all, the tiger would be back in full health the next time he activated it from its statuette form. Robin frowned, her mind telling her Xandro was right but her heart not liking to see the big cat suffer when she could do something about it. But the three left the remaining rats and bats behind, reversing their course and going back the way they'd come, the dire tiger leaving droplets of blood in a trail behind him as he walked.</p><p></p><p>The castaway stared into Alewyth's eyes with his own bloodshot pair as he pulled himself off the planks of wood upon which he slept and assumed a sitting position. Alewyth had been about to ask him how he felt, but the words died in her throat as she felt a mental pull at her mind and realized she was under some sort of magical attack. When the <em>domination</em> attempt failed, the castaway tried slamming his fists into the priestess, but protected as she was in heavy armor and spells, the sudden attacks came to nothing.</p><p></p><p>However, by then Zander had returned to the sleeping man's cavern and saw his attempts to strike the dwarf. Alewyth responded by casting a further protective spell - <em>death ward</em> - upon herself, not knowing what this man would try to do next. As Wakuren entered the chamber, the elf sorcerer cast a <em>wall of force</em> spell, sealing the castaway off in the back of the cavern, right next to the <em>wall of stone</em> Alewyth had erected moments before. Zander wasn't sure why he'd attacked her, but he wasn't going to allow him to try it again. Alewyth took a step back from the <em>wall of force</em>, staring at the man in confusion. He stood there, weak-looking and frail, staring back at her with a look of absolute lust in his eyes--</p><p></p><p>--and then he was gone.</p><p></p><p>Alewyth let out a gasp of surprise, for she'd been looking at his bloodshot eyes and had missed what Zander had seen just fine with his own <em>darkvision</em>-enhanced eyes: the castaway had moved his hands in a gesture that accompanied the casting of an <em>invisibility</em> spell. "He's still in there!" he called to the others, activating the remaining charges in his <em>scout's headband</em> to grant himself the ability to <em>see invisibility</em>. Sure enough, the bedraggled-looking man was still there, right where he'd been standing before disappearing from everyone else's view.</p><p></p><p>"What's going on?" Thurloe demanded. "Who is this guy?"</p><p></p><p>"He might be undead," Alewyth suggested, but explained about his nonchalance about having a <em>heal</em> spell cast upon him, which didn't make a very strong case towards him no longer being among the living. Little did she know it, but the vampire imprisoned behind the <em>wall of force</em> was not only a cleric of Rale, God of the Night, but also wore a <em>ring of positive protection</em> that prevented healing energy from affecting him.</p><p></p><p>"Well, if he's still in there, let's give him someone to play with," suggested Thurloe, casting a summoning spell that brought forth a fiendish monstrous scorpion in the back of the cavern sealed off with Zander's <em>wall of force</em> spell. The man-sized scorpion could sense the vampire's position with the fine hairs upon its legs and snapped its claws at him, but the intended victim spun about and sidestepped the attack quite easily. Wakuren snorted in frustration, for he'd been about to cast a <em>blindness/deafness</em> spell upon the castaway to rob him of his vision, but the half-orc couldn't cast the spell on a target he couldn't see.</p><p></p><p>"He's casting another spell!" Zander warned the others as the vampire, invisible to all but the elf, began the motions to call forth an <em>obscuring mist</em>. But Alewyth had been casting a spell of her own at the time, and her <em>flame strike</em> sent holy fire raining down upon everyone on the far side of the <em>wall of force</em>, killing Thurloe's demon-scorpion in the process. And then the area behind the <em>wall of force</em> was filled with swirling vapors, the <em>obscuring mist</em> spell preventing even Zander from seeing the castaway's exact whereabouts.</p><p></p><p>"This is ridiculous!" scoffed Zander. He then did several things in rapid succession: dropped the <em>wall of force</em> spell to allow him a straight area of effect with the invisible castaway; briefly considered that if he cast a <em>fireball</em> at the back wall it would definitely engulf the castaway but would very probably catch up Alewyth in its area of effect as well; decided Alewyth was a sturdy gal and could probably take it; and cast his <em>fireball</em> spell with wild abandon. Sure enough, the flames of his explosive spell engulfed Alewyth as well as the unseen vampire, but Zander had also been right about her ability to survive such unexpected "friendly fire." His spell also had the added effect of burning away the <em>obscuring mist</em>.</p><p></p><p>Or most of it, anyway - there was a small patch of mist that had somehow survived the blast. But as the elf concentrated on it, he could see it had taken on the rough shape of a man, and he realized it was their castaway, now in <em>gaseous form</em>.</p><p></p><p>"Is he a vampire?" Wakuren asked, puzzled, as he stared at the mist floating above the three boards the castaway had been sleeping upon when they had first encountered him.</p><p></p><p>"But then why wouldn't my <em>heal</em> spell have hurt him?" asked Alewyth, equally puzzled.</p><p></p><p>"Stand back," commanded Thurloe, before casting a <em>shout</em> spell at the floating mist, just in case. But it had no further effect upon the vampire in mist form, if that was indeed what they were facing - which made a bit of sense, as you couldn't really "kill" a vampire any deader once you'd damaged him enough to cause him to lose control over his own body cohesion.</p><p></p><p>Alewyth decided to try an experiment. Bending over, she scooped up the three planks of wood and smiled when she saw the mist mindlessly following in her wake. If this was a vampire they had been dealing with, now reduced to its mist form, it would mindlessly seek out its coffin - or what, she surmised, was all that was left of it once it had crashed against the rocks after the ship on which the vampire had been traveling had been sunk. She'd never know it for sure, but she had been absolutely right: the vampire's only bit of luck was that his coffin was washed ashore and broke upon the rocks during the moonlit hours, so he could rise up out of the smashed coffin and make his way to land before the surging waters destroyed his undead flesh. It had been all downhill from there, though, for the vampire had found himself trapped upon a small island uninhabited by any of the intelligent beings upon which he preyed, and had been reduced to surviving off the blood of <em>monkeys</em> of all things. That was, until the touch of a living cleric had awakened him from his daytime slumber atop the remains of his coffin; it had been all he could do to remember to fake breathing so as not to further arouse her suspicions about his nature....</p><p></p><p>But none of that mattered anymore, for when Alewyth tossed the three planks of wood over the edge of the cave opening, the mist flowed after it, directly into the sunlight - and was quickly dissolved away into nothingness.</p><p></p><p>"Weird," summed up Thurloe.</p><p></p><p>Upon returning back down to ground level, the heroes discovered the halflings had successfully downed a boar and dragged his carcass back to the beach. Crow and Mouse were hard at work digging a fire pit in the sand, while Croc busied himself with the task of gutting their fallen prey. "It'll be a feast of fresh meat tonight!" he boasted. "We'll all eat to our fill, for whatever's left over gets turned into jerky!"</p><p></p><p>"Looking forward to it," Alewyth replied with a smile, looking over at Petey, whose reptilian face somehow managed to provide an expression of pride and satisfaction. She could only guess the little pseudodragon had been more helpful than just leading the halfling hunting party to their prey, although the halfling rangers were keeping any such details to themselves. Alewyth vowed to herself not to bring the subject up, to give the rangers their due.</p><p></p><p> - - - </p><p></p><p>This adventure went way faster than I had anticipated. I thought some of the PCs would want to get involved in the boar hunt, but everyone decided to go search for castaways (except Alewyth, who went picking fruit out of a feeling of guilt of leaving the boring task to the halfling rangers), so I ended up handwaving the hunting away, since I had no desire to run a combat between NPC halflings and NPC boars. And then, upon finding the cave, the PCs immediately split up, ensuring the rats and bats would be slain before the sleeping vampire had a chance to summon them. And then, as the final insult, my vampire cleric was pinned onto a four-square section of the cavern in which he'd been encountered. In retrospect, I probably should have given him a few more levels of cleric so he'd have had some more spells at hand, possibly with which to escape his imprisonment.</p><p></p><p>Oh well, that's the way it goes sometimes. At least everyone leveled up to 14th level at the end of this adventure, so the players had something to do after our adventure time was severely cut short.</p><p></p><p>This is it for this campaign this year, as Dan, Vicki, and their boys will be away for the Christmas holiday. Our next session is scheduled for New Year's Day, when we traditionally exchange Christmas gifts between the two families after our game session.</p><p></p><p> - - - </p><p></p><p>T-shirt worn: My Duck Dynasty "Happy Happy Happy" T-shirt, given that was the general mood upon being able to spend a day or two on land after a month at sea.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Richards, post: 9221803, member: 508"] [b]ADVENTURE 65: HALFWAY ISLAND[/b] PC Roster: [INDENT]Alewyth Putterpye, dwarf priestess of Aerik 13 Thurloe Pulver, human fighter 3/wizard 3/spellsword 7 Wakuren, half-orc cleric of Cal 7/paladin 6 Xandro Silverstrings, human bard 6/rogue 7 Zander Quilson, elf sorcerer 13[/INDENT] NPC Roster: [INDENT]Bat Fiercehunter, halfling ranger 4 Croc Swiftlizard, halfling ranger 4 Crow Straightspear, halfling ranger 4 Mouse Quietmoon, halfling ranger 4 Robin the Balladeer, human bard 4 Rose Brightpetal, halfling druid 8 Snake Slytracker, halfling ranger 4 Spider Greenbow, halfling ranger 4 Squirrel Fleetfoot, halfling ranger 4 Talon Farseeker, halfling ranger 4[/INDENT] Game Session Date: 9 December 2023 - - - "Land ho!" came the cry. "Halfway Island off the port bow!" The cry had been a long time coming. For the past month, the ship, crew, and passengers had been at sea with nothing but ocean all around them; this was their first sighting of a land mass, and small as it might be, it was a welcome sight. At first nothing more than a speck of green off to the right, as the whale-borne vessel approached, they could see a single mountain rising up out of the surrounding jungle ringing the island. As might be expected by the island's name, once they departed from it and continued on their journey to Talonia, it would be another month of ocean voyaging before they arrived at the new continent. But for now they looked forward for a few days of stretching their legs as they gathered fresh water and island fruits and sought to hunt down some fresh game. As the halfling vessel was towed by a pair of baleen whales who'd be at risk of beaching themselves if they swam too close to the island, they entered a lagoon and the ship dropped anchor there. Then the whales were released from their tow-chains to go about their business for the next two days, Rose Brightpetal thanking them for their service thus far and wishing them a happy rest period. She and two of her crew would be staying behind on the ship for the initial trip to the island, while the other six halflings readied three of the four rowboats to head ashore. The heroes split themselves up among the three oared vessels, save for Wakuren who summoned Nimbus from the heavens and rode his air element cloud-steed to the island. As such, he was the first to arrive at the beach just ahead, and the first to see the message that lay there in the sand. "Look," he said when the halflings pulled their rowboats onto the beach and started unloading the empty barrels they'd brought for fresh water. The half-orc pointed down at a series of stones that had been laid out on the beach, arranged to form the word "HELP" in large letters. "This island is uninhabited, 'cept for animals," replied Mouse Quietmoon, one of the halfling rangers. "Looks like there must be a shipwreck survivor or something." "I didn't see any signs of a shipwreck," pointed out Xandro. Indeed, the waters all around the island - at least the southeastern side of it, the side from which they had approached - had no conspicuous ships poking up from beneath the waters. "Could have been miles out to sea," suggested Bat Fiercehunter. "Sahuagin raiders, maybe - if they'd've overcome us when they attacked us weeks ago, they'd likely have scuttled our ship, just out of sheer spite." "We'll have to see if we can find any survivors," said Snake Slytracker. "Common law of the sea. We can give them a ride to Talonia, or back to Armaturia during our next trip, if it comes to that. But in the meantime, we need to split up and tend to the ship's needs. We'll need folks filling up barrels with fresh water, we'll need a barrel or two of fruit, and we'll want to see if we can track down a boar or two - we can have ourselves a good beach-roast tonight, and then dry the rest into jerky." Four of the six halflings immediately called "Dibs!" on the boar hunt, that apparently being the most exciting of their chores. Spider Greenbow was left with the task of gathering fruit - a task Alewyth opted to join with him - and Croc Swiftlizard was assigned with the fresh water detail. The other adventurers were offered the opportunity to join in on the boar hunt, but Wakuren spoke for the group and said they'd see if they could find any signs of the shipwreck survivors. "They're human sized," pointed out Xandro, indicating the remnants of the footprints left on the beach sands around the stones forming the word "HELP." The winds had eroded the footprints in the days since they were left, but they were much larger than the feet of halflings, the only people known to frequent the island as a refueling station. "Makes sense," replied Crow Straightspear. "A halfling'd probably've spelled out the word in our own language, rather than use the Common word." "Going barefoot," pointed out Thurloe, indicating a print that still bore the imprint of distinct toes. "And there might have only been the one." He was right; there was no way to tell if the footprints had all been made by one person or several, not in their present condition. "Pretty strong guy," added Robin, noting the size of some of the rocks used to spell out the word "HELP." Alewyth cast a series of spells on herself - [i]magic circle against evil[/i], [i]stoneskin[/i], and [i]magic vestment[/i] - before heading off with Spider to pick fruit. The halfling frowned in derision at her precautions, pointing out there was nothing dangerous on the island other than boars and the occasional snake, but the dwarven priestess merely replied that protection was never a foolish thing, and off they went. Wakuren mounted back up on Nimbus, intending to seek out any shipwreck survivors from an aerial view, when Zander's keen eyesight picked up something else of note on the beach. A bit of wood stuck up out of the sand; a quick bit of digging produced a piece of flat, broken board. "Part of a crate or something," he suggested. He tossed the board back down onto the beach. "Could have been washed ashore with the wreckage. Okay, let's go find any survivors. Petey, you go ahead and scout from the air with Wakuren." The pseudodragon telepathically acknowledged his master's orders and took to the air. Using Alewyth's logic, Thurloe cast a [i]shield[/i] spell upon himself with his wand before joining the others in trekking through the jungle. Zander cast a [i]mage armor[/i] spell on himself as well. Wakuren had already cast his standard morning [i]endure elements[/i] spells on himself, Xandro, and Robin, but he cast a [i]shield of faith[/i] spell on himself as Nimbus took to the skies, just in case. Then he cast his sight downwards, looking for signs of shipwreck survivors on the ground below. Petey was the first to spot something, although it wasn't the survivors they sought - rather, it was a group of six wild boars passing through a clearing in the jungle below. Wakuren dismissed Petey from the search for shipwreck survivors, directing the pseudodragon to go find the halflings looking for fresh pork and directing them to their prey. Petey offered to help the halflings, figuring his sleep venom could come in handy in taking down a wild boar. With a flash of reddish wings, the pseudodragon dropped from the half-orc's side and went to go find the intrepid halfling hunters. Then another flash captured Wakuren's attention, this one a momentary flash of light. It came from the top of the mountain - "Bald Mountain," he had been told by one of the ship's crew, for the way it rose up from the jungle canopy below - and was repeated again after a few seconds. Directing Nimbus to the top of the mountain, Wakuren soon found the source of the intermittent flashing: a hand mirror that had been tied to a bit of overhanging rock jutting out from above a cave opening, secured by what looked to be strips of cloth from a torn garment. Feeling he'd found where any survivors had likely holed up, Wakuren turned Nimbus around and went to go find the others. Zander, Thurloe, Xandro, Robin, and Croc Swiftlizard, on his way to fetching water from a nearby pool he knew of, had spread out in a line, each one still able to see the person at their side through the ever-present foliage as they slowly advanced through the jungle. Thus far, they'd only disrupted a small flock of parrots (which were good eating, according to Croc, who'd been too slow to put down his empty water barrel to bring one down with his sling) and heard the cried of nearby monkeys in the trees, when Robin was alerted by the sound of buzzing flies ahead. "Over here!" she called to the others, then stifled a scream when she pushed aside the broad leaves of a plant and saw what had attracted the flies' interest: the torn-apart carcass of a monkey. "What could have done that?" asked Xandro, aghast. The poor monkey looked to have been ripped apart, his limbs pulled from their sockets. "No idea," admitted Croc. "It doesn't look like he's been eaten much, either - just a few rat bites after the fact. But no rat could have done that." Wakuren and Nimbus came landing nearby, calling out their names and stating he thought he'd found a cave where the survivors had gone. They left Croc to continue on with his water-gathering, after he pointed them in the direction of the fruit trees where Alewyth and Spider would have gone. After collecting Alewyth, the heroes entered the extradimensional interior of [i]Hesperna's lamp[/i] and let Wakuren ferry them up to the mountain-top cave upon Nimbus. Upon reaching the cave, Wakuren dropped down from Nimbus's back and pulled out the magic lamp, placing it on the stone floor. Alewyth, who had been watching events from within the lamp using her magic headband (which allowed her to see through the gem Wakuren wore on a band across his brow), told the others they had arrived and they said the words that shunted them back out into the Material World. Looking around in the dim light, they could see there were two main passageways leading deeper into the mountain, one to the north and the other to the east. Alewyth, Xandro, and Zander went north, while the other three took the east route. Alewyth and Wakuren each had darkvision and had no trouble seeing as the light dimmed the further they went; Zander activated a charge of his [i]scout's headband[/i] and granted himself the same abilities. Turning a corner to the right, the elf sorcerer saw a bedraggled-looking man lying upon a few slats of wood in the back of a long cavern. At the far end, a smaller opening to a tunnel of some sort likely looped back to the way the others had gone. Xandro tossed down his [i]figurine of wondrous power[/i] and called out the command word, causing the statuette to expand into a living dire tiger. Xandro commanded his feline companion to guard the sleeping man from anything from the tunnel beyond and the tiger silently padded over to do as commanded. The tunnel led to an enormous cavern, the same one Robin, Thurloe, and Wakuren had entered. Hundreds of rats skittered along the ground, among piles of white guano. Looking up, they could see an equal number of bats hanging among the stalactites, some 30 feet above them. Not wanting to startle them - for they'd been in the midst of bat swarms before and did not relish a repeat experience - Wakuren motioned for the other two to back away the way they had come. Robin had her lute out in case a song of inspirational courage would be useful, but at Wakuren's hand motion she put a hand over her strings. But then Thurloe moved up (none too quietly) and they could hear Alewyth's voice coming from the other side of the cavern, and, seeing the bats stir to wakefulness, Wakuren decided to take matters into his own hands and cast a [i]thunder strike[/i] spell into the southern half of the cavern. The roar of thunder and a blast of holy energy rolled over the bats and rats in the southern half of the cavern, causing dead bats to drop from the cavern ceiling among the rat corpses and the odd dead beetle slain by the half-orc's spell. Alewyth had approached the sleeping man and called out to him, but had gotten no response, when the [i]thunder strike[/i] sent reverberations blasting into the cavern, followed by the shrieks and flapping wings of the bats who had been rudely awakened by the spell and the frantic squeaks of the rats from the northern half of the adjacent cavern. As a swarm of irritable bats headed over towards the dire tiger and a rat swarm followed beneath them along the ground, Alewyth decided her castaway needed none of that kind of attention and cast a [i]wall of stone[/i] spell that sealed off the two caverns along the narrow passageway between. No offense to the dire tiger, but he was on his own; the dwarven priestess knew if he were to be overcome by the swarming mammals, he'd simply revert back to statuette form, none the worse for wear. The other swarms of rats and bats headed for the exit to the west, currently occupied by three frantic adventurers. Wakuren slammed his shield down upon the backs of the first wave of rats to approach him, but was quickly engulfed by the furry bodies that followed, as the bats then swarmed all around him and the others. Thurloe and Robin soon found themselves bleeding from multiple, panicked bites from the bats seeking to flee their cavern. The dire tiger likewise had several bite wounds bleeding freely, as he swatted rats away with his paws, only to have others rush forward to take their place. Zander heard the cries of the other three heroes and backed away from the narrow cavern where Alewyth was trying - and failing - to wake the castaway. It worried her, but she was starting to wonder if the man was somehow the victim of a dream coma, although Mogo had assured the dreamwalkers that those trapped in dream comas had been awakened all at once upon the defeat of the Nightmare King. He looked to be doing poorly, with sallow skin pulled tightly to his bones and long, tangled hair coming down around his shoulders; his shirt in tatters and his pants ragged along the bottom edges; he wore no shoes. But while Alewyth was leaning over the man and trying to shake him awake, Zander came upon the others and sent a [i]lightning bolt[/i] blasting away at the rats and bats who had made it past the three other heroes, killing those members of their respective swarms instantly. Xandro, upon hearing Robin voice a scream, departed from Alewyth's side and came running her way, his fingers already playing the song of inspirational courage on his [i]Dardolian Lute[/i]. Robin stepped away from the attacking mammals as best she could, and cast a [i]sound burst[/i] spell into the rats and bats biting Wakuren. Between them, they had taken care of most of the rats; the few remaining broke off and returned to their larger cavern, hoping to hide away until these intruders left. After all, the southern half of the cavern was littered with the still-warm corpses of the rats and bats Wakuren had killed with his [i]thunder strike[/i] spell, so it wasn't like they were hurting for food.... Thurloe backed away from the flapping swarm of bats, deciding to go check on Alewyth rather than contend with bats too many in number to deal effectively with his bastard sword [i]Spellslicer[/i]. He cast a [i]detect magic[/i] spell when he entered the cavern where Alewyth bent over the castaway. Worried about his appearance, the dwarf cast a [i]heal[/i] spell upon the man, touching his narrow chest as she did so. His eyes snapped open at his touch, as she was first noticing how cold his skin was - but then, it was rather cold is this dank, narrow cavern. She could feel his ribs move as he breathed, and struggled to recall if she'd even noticed him breathing before as concerns about him being undead filled her head. But then, if he had been undead, the [i]heal[/i] spell should have caused him considerable harm, and it seemed to have no effect, one way or another, other than waking him from his deep slumber - a sleep which even the sound of a nearby [i]thunder strike[/i] spell could not awaken him. Wakuren cast a [i]mass cure light wounds[/i] spell on those bitten by the rats and bats, then entered the large cavern to see how the dire tiger fared. He'd been doing his best against the rats skittering up and biting him and the bats that flew all around him in a confusing aerial tangle, and while the piles of bodies all about him told he'd been successful at killing the handful he'd slain thus far, there were far more still about and eager for tiger blood. The tiger got a boost from Xandro and his magical tune once he got within range, and eventually enough of the mammals had been slain for the others to slink away, breaking formation to go save their own individual lives. "You want me to heal him?" Robin asked, noticing the many bleeding wounds matting the tiger's fur. "He'll be fine," scoffed Xandro, half wondering how long the dire tiger could go without having his wounds healed up, and also realizing that no permanent harm would come of trying it out as an experiment - after all, the tiger would be back in full health the next time he activated it from its statuette form. Robin frowned, her mind telling her Xandro was right but her heart not liking to see the big cat suffer when she could do something about it. But the three left the remaining rats and bats behind, reversing their course and going back the way they'd come, the dire tiger leaving droplets of blood in a trail behind him as he walked. The castaway stared into Alewyth's eyes with his own bloodshot pair as he pulled himself off the planks of wood upon which he slept and assumed a sitting position. Alewyth had been about to ask him how he felt, but the words died in her throat as she felt a mental pull at her mind and realized she was under some sort of magical attack. When the [i]domination[/i] attempt failed, the castaway tried slamming his fists into the priestess, but protected as she was in heavy armor and spells, the sudden attacks came to nothing. However, by then Zander had returned to the sleeping man's cavern and saw his attempts to strike the dwarf. Alewyth responded by casting a further protective spell - [i]death ward[/i] - upon herself, not knowing what this man would try to do next. As Wakuren entered the chamber, the elf sorcerer cast a [i]wall of force[/i] spell, sealing the castaway off in the back of the cavern, right next to the [i]wall of stone[/i] Alewyth had erected moments before. Zander wasn't sure why he'd attacked her, but he wasn't going to allow him to try it again. Alewyth took a step back from the [i]wall of force[/i], staring at the man in confusion. He stood there, weak-looking and frail, staring back at her with a look of absolute lust in his eyes-- --and then he was gone. Alewyth let out a gasp of surprise, for she'd been looking at his bloodshot eyes and had missed what Zander had seen just fine with his own [i]darkvision[/i]-enhanced eyes: the castaway had moved his hands in a gesture that accompanied the casting of an [i]invisibility[/i] spell. "He's still in there!" he called to the others, activating the remaining charges in his [i]scout's headband[/i] to grant himself the ability to [i]see invisibility[/i]. Sure enough, the bedraggled-looking man was still there, right where he'd been standing before disappearing from everyone else's view. "What's going on?" Thurloe demanded. "Who is this guy?" "He might be undead," Alewyth suggested, but explained about his nonchalance about having a [i]heal[/i] spell cast upon him, which didn't make a very strong case towards him no longer being among the living. Little did she know it, but the vampire imprisoned behind the [i]wall of force[/i] was not only a cleric of Rale, God of the Night, but also wore a [i]ring of positive protection[/i] that prevented healing energy from affecting him. "Well, if he's still in there, let's give him someone to play with," suggested Thurloe, casting a summoning spell that brought forth a fiendish monstrous scorpion in the back of the cavern sealed off with Zander's [i]wall of force[/i] spell. The man-sized scorpion could sense the vampire's position with the fine hairs upon its legs and snapped its claws at him, but the intended victim spun about and sidestepped the attack quite easily. Wakuren snorted in frustration, for he'd been about to cast a [i]blindness/deafness[/i] spell upon the castaway to rob him of his vision, but the half-orc couldn't cast the spell on a target he couldn't see. "He's casting another spell!" Zander warned the others as the vampire, invisible to all but the elf, began the motions to call forth an [i]obscuring mist[/i]. But Alewyth had been casting a spell of her own at the time, and her [i]flame strike[/i] sent holy fire raining down upon everyone on the far side of the [i]wall of force[/i], killing Thurloe's demon-scorpion in the process. And then the area behind the [i]wall of force[/i] was filled with swirling vapors, the [i]obscuring mist[/i] spell preventing even Zander from seeing the castaway's exact whereabouts. "This is ridiculous!" scoffed Zander. He then did several things in rapid succession: dropped the [i]wall of force[/i] spell to allow him a straight area of effect with the invisible castaway; briefly considered that if he cast a [i]fireball[/i] at the back wall it would definitely engulf the castaway but would very probably catch up Alewyth in its area of effect as well; decided Alewyth was a sturdy gal and could probably take it; and cast his [i]fireball[/i] spell with wild abandon. Sure enough, the flames of his explosive spell engulfed Alewyth as well as the unseen vampire, but Zander had also been right about her ability to survive such unexpected "friendly fire." His spell also had the added effect of burning away the [i]obscuring mist[/i]. Or most of it, anyway - there was a small patch of mist that had somehow survived the blast. But as the elf concentrated on it, he could see it had taken on the rough shape of a man, and he realized it was their castaway, now in [i]gaseous form[/i]. "Is he a vampire?" Wakuren asked, puzzled, as he stared at the mist floating above the three boards the castaway had been sleeping upon when they had first encountered him. "But then why wouldn't my [i]heal[/i] spell have hurt him?" asked Alewyth, equally puzzled. "Stand back," commanded Thurloe, before casting a [i]shout[/i] spell at the floating mist, just in case. But it had no further effect upon the vampire in mist form, if that was indeed what they were facing - which made a bit of sense, as you couldn't really "kill" a vampire any deader once you'd damaged him enough to cause him to lose control over his own body cohesion. Alewyth decided to try an experiment. Bending over, she scooped up the three planks of wood and smiled when she saw the mist mindlessly following in her wake. If this was a vampire they had been dealing with, now reduced to its mist form, it would mindlessly seek out its coffin - or what, she surmised, was all that was left of it once it had crashed against the rocks after the ship on which the vampire had been traveling had been sunk. She'd never know it for sure, but she had been absolutely right: the vampire's only bit of luck was that his coffin was washed ashore and broke upon the rocks during the moonlit hours, so he could rise up out of the smashed coffin and make his way to land before the surging waters destroyed his undead flesh. It had been all downhill from there, though, for the vampire had found himself trapped upon a small island uninhabited by any of the intelligent beings upon which he preyed, and had been reduced to surviving off the blood of [i]monkeys[/i] of all things. That was, until the touch of a living cleric had awakened him from his daytime slumber atop the remains of his coffin; it had been all he could do to remember to fake breathing so as not to further arouse her suspicions about his nature.... But none of that mattered anymore, for when Alewyth tossed the three planks of wood over the edge of the cave opening, the mist flowed after it, directly into the sunlight - and was quickly dissolved away into nothingness. "Weird," summed up Thurloe. Upon returning back down to ground level, the heroes discovered the halflings had successfully downed a boar and dragged his carcass back to the beach. Crow and Mouse were hard at work digging a fire pit in the sand, while Croc busied himself with the task of gutting their fallen prey. "It'll be a feast of fresh meat tonight!" he boasted. "We'll all eat to our fill, for whatever's left over gets turned into jerky!" "Looking forward to it," Alewyth replied with a smile, looking over at Petey, whose reptilian face somehow managed to provide an expression of pride and satisfaction. She could only guess the little pseudodragon had been more helpful than just leading the halfling hunting party to their prey, although the halfling rangers were keeping any such details to themselves. Alewyth vowed to herself not to bring the subject up, to give the rangers their due. - - - This adventure went way faster than I had anticipated. I thought some of the PCs would want to get involved in the boar hunt, but everyone decided to go search for castaways (except Alewyth, who went picking fruit out of a feeling of guilt of leaving the boring task to the halfling rangers), so I ended up handwaving the hunting away, since I had no desire to run a combat between NPC halflings and NPC boars. And then, upon finding the cave, the PCs immediately split up, ensuring the rats and bats would be slain before the sleeping vampire had a chance to summon them. And then, as the final insult, my vampire cleric was pinned onto a four-square section of the cavern in which he'd been encountered. In retrospect, I probably should have given him a few more levels of cleric so he'd have had some more spells at hand, possibly with which to escape his imprisonment. Oh well, that's the way it goes sometimes. At least everyone leveled up to 14th level at the end of this adventure, so the players had something to do after our adventure time was severely cut short. This is it for this campaign this year, as Dan, Vicki, and their boys will be away for the Christmas holiday. Our next session is scheduled for New Year's Day, when we traditionally exchange Christmas gifts between the two families after our game session. - - - T-shirt worn: My Duck Dynasty "Happy Happy Happy" T-shirt, given that was the general mood upon being able to spend a day or two on land after a month at sea. [/QUOTE]
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