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<blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 9341309" data-attributes="member: 508"><p><strong>ADVENTURE 52: A GNOLL IN THE ROAD</strong></p><p></p><p>PC Roster:</p><p style="margin-left: 20px">Ageratum Purslane, halfling rogue 12</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Alistair Mandelberen Pastlethwaite, human sorcerer 12</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Chaevaris Noarunal, elf archer 12</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Harlan Starblade, half-elf paladin 12</p><p></p><p>NPC Roster:</p><p style="margin-left: 20px">Orchid, elf druid 12</p><p></p><p>Game Session Date: 8 May 2024</p><p></p><p> - - -</p><p></p><p>Carruthers walked all night down the road, headed back to Ghourmand Vale, holding in one hand a tower shield built for someone his impressive size. The shield guardian's shield served primarily as a place where the heroes could place the magic door from the interior of the amulet Chaevaris wore, so they could all sleep inside the extradimensional dwelling while their untiring shield guardian got them that much closer to home while they slept. The dwelling didn't really have a good place for the horses, so they bunked down in the main living area while the heroes all retreated to their bedrooms for the night. The next morning, after everyone awoke and get ready for the day, Alistair opened the door, popped his head back into the Material Plane, and ordered Carruthers to stop so they could get their mounts back out, Alistair could clean up after them with a <em>prestidigitation</em> spell, and they could mount back up. Then Carruthers was ordered inside the dwelling so Chaevaris could return the door to her amulet, and Carruthers was transported in the extradimensional space for the day while they resumed their ride back to Ghourmand Vale.</p><p></p><p>That had been the plan, and it worked just fine that first night after the heroes fought the hags on the mountain. Now over halfway home, Alistair cast his morning's <em>mage armor</em> spell upon himself and his grackle familiar Ambrose, and Orchid cast her traditional <em>longstrider</em> spell upon herself. They then continued on down the road, Harlan in the lead on his celestial pegasus Nova, after having summoning him from the Celestial Planes.</p><p></p><p>The day was pretty uneventful until that afternoon, when they found the dead body in the road ahead of them.</p><p></p><p>Orchid urged Law forward and leaped from the white horse, heading over to examine the dead body. It was a gnoll, its head smashed in by what looked to have been a single blow with incredible force, the skull crushed and deformed inward.</p><p></p><p>"Is the brain intact?" asked Chaevaris, from her mount Talkacha. She was concerned the gnoll might have been slain by an illithid, who were notorious for consuming the brains of intelligent creatures. Gnolls weren't particularly known for their intellectual brilliance, but they were intelligent enough to make a tasty snack to even the most discerning of mind flayers.</p><p></p><p>"Well, it's all squooshed," replied the elven druid, "but it's pretty much all here." She looked down upon the dead gnoll, laying in the dirt of the road upon his back. "No blood, though - that's kind of odd."</p><p></p><p>"I don't see any footprints, either," observed Harlan from Nova's broad back.</p><p></p><p>"Maybe he fell from the sky," suggested Ageratum, pulling her pony Munson to a stop. But Alistair pointed out the lack of any impact marks in the dirt beneath the gnoll. "If he fell, there would likely be signs of the impact," the sorcerer suggested.</p><p></p><p>"So, you're thinking...?" prompted Chaevaris.</p><p></p><p>"Trap," replied Alistair, looking all around. "Or at least bait," he modified.</p><p></p><p>Almost as if on cue, a voice came calling their way from the west. "Help...help!" came a frantic cry through the trees. Chaevaris shielded her hand over her brow, squinting in the sun. She was able to make out a hill that way, with a round hole in the side of it, near the ground. "It's coming from over there," she told the others, pointing, then sending Talkacha through the trees and up the slope to the hillside. The hill rose up for a hundred feet or more, but the hole was a mere 10 feet in diameter - and almost perfectly circular. It led to a tunnel burrowing into the hill, also 10 feet in diameter and sloping down at about a 20-degree angle.</p><p></p><p>"Purple worm?" suggested Ageratum as she rode Munson up alongside the mounted archer.</p><p></p><p>"Possibly," agreed Chaevaris, frowning in thought. As another round of "Help me, please, someone help!" came out of the tunnel, the archer activated her <em>ring of invisibility</em> and stepped down out of the saddle. She slapped Talkacha on his rump to get him to move away from the opening, just in case there was a monster hiding in there, trying to lure them in. The little halfling followed suit, activating her own <em>bracelet of invisibility</em> and taking up position on the other side of the hole from Chaevaris, while Munson stepped to the side and devoted his attention to a tasty bit of grass.</p><p></p><p>Harlan had Nova take flight, not too high up but enough to allow him to peer down the tunnel as the pegasus hovered in place. "It goes down for about 20 feet," the paladin reported. "Then there's a stone wall that it pierces, right in the middle. It looks like there are colored tiles just beyond, but I can't see very well that far in." He let Nova drop to the ground as Orchid and Alistair approached on their own mounts, the druid's faithful timber wolf companion Shushitan trotting along behind his mistress.</p><p></p><p>"Combat prep spells," Harlan ordered, ignoring the occasional "Help me!" cried from further down in the tunnel, for none of the heroes believed the cries were anything but the lure of a trap. But if whatever beast was in there could crush a gnoll's skull like that in one blow, and was actively calling forth travelers from the road, it was the paladin's sworn duty to take the vile creature out. While Chaevaris opened the extradimensional doorway on the side of the hill and swapped out the five mounts for Carruthers, Harlan cast the spells <em>bull's strength</em> and <em>magic circle against evil</em> upon himself and a <em>bless</em> spell upon the group. Alistair cast a <em>haste</em> spell and a <em>Rary's telepathic bond</em> spell on the group, a <em>flame arrow</em> spell on their assorted ammunition, a <em>shield</em> spell upon himself, and then brought forth Ogilvy with an <em>unseen servant</em> spell. Chaevaris handed the invisible force her bullseye lantern, powered by a stone with a permanent <em>light</em> spell cast upon it. Orchid cast a <em>mass bear's endurance</em> and a <em>mass owl's wisdom</em> spell on the group, following it up with an <em>animal growth</em> spell on Shushitan, <em>barkskin</em> spells on herself, Harlan, and her wolf, and a <em>speak with animals</em> spell on herself so she could communicate verbally with her best friend and be perfectly understood.</p><p></p><p>"Ready," Chaevaris announced as she put the magic doorway back into her amulet. Alistair directed Ambrose to stay outside and report if anyone or anything approached, and told Carruthers to come with him, as the archer shimmied up the side of the hill to reach the hole and pull herself inside. She could see the wall with the circular hole in it just ahead was in excellent condition other than its missing, circular piece, and she saw no rubble around the hole, indicating this was likely no purple worm tunnel, but probably the work of a <em>disintegrate</em> spell. Her feelings were further enhanced when she saw the vertical shaft leading straight up from the ceiling about 15 feet in, the vertical tunnel the same size and shape as the nearly-horizontal one in which she stood. <Guys?> she called over the link, so the creature still calling out, "Help me, please!" now and again wouldn't hear her. <I'm thinking this is the work of a beholder.></p><p></p><p><I say!"> declared Alistair, excited about his first actual encounter with a beholder. He'd read about such creatures, beginning as a child with <em>Elfy and the Eye Tyrant</em>.</p><p></p><p>Chaevaris poked her head through the hole in the wall and looked beyond, a task that became easier when Ogilvy approached and held the lantern up just behind her invisible form. The other side of the wall contained a 10-foot-wide corridor, tiled in alternating squares of white and black, and ending in a pair of brass doors at the far end. Then she backed up and looked up the vertical shaft, which appeared to rise about 15 feet up and then make a right angle turn to the side. Still invisible, she readied an arrow in her bow, lest anything pop out at them.</p><p></p><p>Ageratum, also still invisible, got a closer look at the tiled hallway and noted that section had a vaulted ceiling, rising some 15 feet at the top. She <em>spider climbed</em> up the vertical shaft, and could pinpoint the cries of "Help me!" - which were really starting to get annoying - as coming from down past the turn in the tunnel above her. As Harlan approached the pierced wall with his <em>Starblade</em> out, its flaming length providing illumination, the little halfling scrambled up the tunnel and peeked around the corner, seeing a second tunnel, this one circular in cross-section, paralleling the tiled passageway below, up and off to the side. Strange!</p><p></p><p>Orchid came up behind Harlan and, after discussing it silently over the link, cast an <em>air walk</em> spell on the paladin, allowing him to easily climb to the upper passageway beside Ageratum.</p><p></p><p>"Carruthers, if you would be so kind as to go open those doors?" asked Alistair nicely, and the shield guardian, recognizing it as a command by the one wearing his control amulet, stomped down the corridor to obey. The sorcerer had some concerns the hallway might be trapped and he figured the shield guardian would be likely to set off any trap that might be prepped and ready. But the construct made it to the end of the 70-foot-long passageway without incident, only to turn the doorknobs on the brass doors to no effect: they were locked. The sorcerer, who had been following a short distance behind Carruthers, had stopped when he saw another vertical tunnel in the vaulted ceiling overhead. Like the first one, it was circular in cross-section with a 10-foot diameter. He told the others of his discovery over the <em>Rary's telepathic bond</em> spell and theorized this passageway met up with the one Harlan and Ageratum were traversing. In the meantime, with Ogilvy still shining the lantern's beam up the first vertical shaft, Alistair cast a <em>darkvision</em> spell upon himself. Now he could see in the dark just as well as his shield guardian. And sure enough, the tunnel above him took a turn to the side, aimed in the same direction as the first one had done. Chaevaris still had her arrow nocked and ready to fire, following behind Alistair, still invisible, with Orchid close behind her.</p><p></p><p>On the upper level, the halfling excused herself and scrambled past Harlan, climbing back down to the lower tunnel when Alistair informed the group the doors were locked. She used the tunnel closest to the doors, proving they did indeed connect, as Alistair had surmised. Harlan, in the meantime, was concentrating on his paladin senses and was able to detect a source of evil coming from the end of the tunnel he was traversing - which ended when it opened into a much larger chamber, apparently the room on the other side of the locked brass doors. From the flickering light of his unsheathed sword, he saw the room beyond was about 30 feet tall - the tunnel he was in pierced it right about along the halfway height - and there was some sort of metal statue ahead, the figure of a large man in heavy armor, easily twice the paladin's own size.</p><p></p><p>"Help - it's getting bad!" called the voice from the other side of the brass doors. To keep it occupied, Alistair called back, "We're on our way! Stay where you are and we'll be with you shortly! But who are you? What's your name?"</p><p></p><p>"Hurry!" replied the voice, ignoring the sorcerer's questions. Ogilvy, no longer needed to shine a light up the first vertical tunnel, ambled over by Alistair. Orchid cast a <em>spider climb</em> spell on Chaevaris, so the archer could scamper up the vertical tunnel beside Harlan, where it sounded like she'd get a better shot at whatever was in the room beyond.</p><p></p><p>Once Ageratum was back onto the tiles - and could see the brass doors - she used her <em>wand of knock</em> to unlock and open them. Alistair had a <em>scorching ray</em> spell at the ready, eager to fire it off as soon as he saw the beholder he was certain hovered somewhere in the room beyond. As the doors swung into the chamber, those in the tiled-floor tunnel saw the central section of a room that would later prove to measure a good 85 feet wide. Directly ahead stood another set of metal doors, this pair made of brass with some sort of bas-relief carving covering it, along with some sort of phrase etched along the top. The handles were tied up in an intricate-looking knot with a length of rope, and there was a pair of metal statues flanking the doors - Harlan had already gotten a good look at the one to the left, and the one to the right seemed to be its identical twin. A nasty smell wafted towards Alistair, the overly sweet odor of decaying bodies.</p><p></p><p>But despite the doors below having been opened, Harlan was the first to enter the chamber from his higher tunnel - the one seemingly carved by a beholder's <em>disintegrate</em> ray. With his <em>air walk</em> spell intact, he stepped off midair into the chamber, discovering the following things all at once:</p><p style="margin-left: 20px"></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px">1. There was indeed a beholder at the other end of the chamber, hovering near the top of the ceiling around the corner from the now-open brass doors.</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px">2. The beholder had its central eye open and looking straight at him.</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px">3. He could no longer hear anyone talking over the <em>Rary's telepathic bond</em> spell.</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px">4. His <em>air walk</em> spell wasn't active after all, as he plummeted to the ground below with a crash, the flame from his <em>Starblade</em> no longer present.</p><p></p><p>Harlan crashed to the floor with a clatter of armor and fell prone. Fortunately, he had rolled with the fall and wasn't seriously hurt, and being prone meant he was presenting a much smaller target than normal should the beholder decide to close its central <em>anti-magic</em> eye and send one or more of the rays from its other 10 eyes, each bulbous orb at the end of a flexible eyestalk, his way.</p><p></p><p><Harlan's in there alone!> cried Orchid over the link, adding <We need to--> before she too dropped out of the shared telepathic communication link, since by then she had run into the chamber and inside the area of effect of the beholder's <em>anti-magic ray</em>. But she knew exactly what had happened, and while she readied an attack spell, she held off casting it until it closed its central eye (or, the elf thought with a smile, a certain archer took care of that little problem for all of them....). Shushitan followed at his mistress's side, seemingly oblivious to the fact he shrank back to his normal size once he too entered the field of <em>anti-magic</em> blanketing a good portion of the chamber. But his eyes caught the whiff of death and his keen eyes picked up the sight of a collapsed wall behind and beneath the beholder, with the scattered corpses of over a dozen gnoll corpses here and there, all within easy reach of the right-hand statue.</p><p></p><p>Carruthers and Alistair entered the chamber next, the sorcerer using the shield guardian as a non-living shield to keep him safe from any eye rays. Ogilvy advanced to just outside the open doorway, for Alistair knew he'd simply wink out if he got within the area of effect of the <em>anti-magic ray</em>. But the light from the archer's lantern spilled into the chamber, helping those without darkvision to see what was going on.</p><p></p><p>That worked perfectly to Chaevaris's benefit. Moving to the end of the upper tunnel which pierced its way into the larger chamber, she rapidly lined up her shot - realizing the beholder's central eye would neutralize the <em>thundering</em> aspect of her magic bow as well as Alistair's <em>flame arrow</em> spell - and let fly. The arrow crossed the length of the chamber and hit its mark, piercing the central eye and causing the beholder to cry out in pain - in the same voice as that of the "helpless victim" who'd tried to lure the heroes in to their doom.</p><p></p><p>With the <em>anti-magic ray</em> no longer in effect, Shushitan returned immediately to his larger size and Orchid and Alistair cast their readied spells. The beholder was struck by the druid's <em>baleful polymorph</em> spell but nonetheless managed to avoid being turned into a bunny in mid-air; it was less able to dodge the sorcerer's <em>scorching ray</em> spell, although only two of the three gouts of flame hit true. The beholder cried out in pain again, then asked, "Why are you attacking me? I was just trying to get someone in here to help me open the sealed door, so we can all share in the free <em>wishes</em> stored beyond!"</p><p></p><p>"Unlikely," replied Harlan, getting back to his feet and pinpointing the beholder as the source of the evil he'd detected earlier. His <em>holy flaming burst longsword</em> was blazing brightly again, although the beholder was a good 20 feet off the ground and well out the paladin's reach for the moment. But the beholder, seeing this bunch wasn't about to be taken in by its lies, fired off a trio of eye rays at three of the targets arrayed before it.</p><p></p><p>The first struck Orchid and tried tugging her over towards the doors, whose bas-relief showed a four-winged creature cutting off the bat wings of another vaguely humanoid shape. The caption along the top of the door mentioned something about "the devil slayer." But Orchid dug in her heels and fought off the beholder's <em>telekinesis ray</em>, although she now had a pretty good idea of how the dead gnoll outside had come to lie in a dirt road without leaving any footprints or blood in the area.</p><p></p><p>The second beam struck Alistair, who'd had to come out from behind Carruthers' shielding body to fire his <em>scorching ray</em> spell up at the eye tyrant. The beam hit the sorcerer straight in the chest, and he had only a moment to get out "I sa--" before his entire body was turned to solid stone. Worse yet, everything he wore was turned to stone as well - including the control amulet that allowed him to give Carruthers his orders. Without access to the amulet, none of the others would be able to tell the shield guardian what to do, so it stood there much like a statue itself, awaiting new instructions from its current master. A piercing squawk came from outside the chamber and down the tiled hallway as Ambrose, still on watch outside, suddenly felt the empathic link he shared with Alistair get instantly severed. He came flapping down the corridor in a panicked flight.</p><p></p><p>The third ray, the same <em>disintegrate ray</em> that had carved passageways through solid stone, struck Carruthers - but fortunately, the shield guardian had been well constructed of sturdy materials, and while the attack dealt the construct some harm, his automatic repair functions kicked in at once.</p><p></p><p>But then Ageratum entered the chamber. She'd made some preparation while outside in the hallway, plucking a red bead from her <em>necklace of fireballs</em> and placing it into her sling; there'd only been three of the beads remaining when she took it from the fire giant they'd slain on the way to the Karkaletch quarry, and she chose the one of middle power. Stepping into the room, still invisible as she swung her sling over her head to build up momentum, she suddenly popped into view when she released her bead and sent it flying across the room, up at the beholder - which it promptly missed by a large margin.</p><p></p><p>But the crafty halfling hadn't been aiming at the beholder - rather, she'd hurled her <em>fireball bead</em> at the wall directly behind it. It exploded upon impact, engulfing the beholder and killing it instantly. Surprisingly, it didn't fall to the ground upon death but remained floating in place; the halfling imagined it would start to sink once its decaying body released whatever gas kept it afloat when it was alive.</p><p></p><p>Harlan gave the entire room a sweep with his temple-enhanced senses, seeking out the aura of evil. "It's clean," he announced, as Ambrose flew into the chamber and landed upon the petrified shoulder of his master. Orchid cast a <em>detect magic</em> spell and declared the statue closest to the piles of dead gnolls radiated magic, as did the rope binding the bronze doors closed.</p><p></p><p>"So now what?" asked Ageratum, looking at the petrified form of the young nobleman and the dejected grackle perched upon his shoulder.</p><p></p><p>"Let's get him inside the house," suggested Harlan. "Chaevaris?" The archer activated her amulet and placed the door onto the nearest wall, then the others carefully tipped Alistair over and lugged him inside. They then had to do the same with Carruthers, who weighed far too much for them to handle themselves on their own; they ended up having to tie ropes around the shield guardian and have a couple of their mounts lug him inside.</p><p></p><p>While the others were thus engaged, Ageratum - who wouldn't have been all that useful in feats of strength in any case - checked out the area behind the collapsed wall. That, she learned, had been the gnoll lair and was now serving as the beholder's lair. She picked up several thousand gold coins and quite a bit of fancy artwork - who knew beholders could appreciate such works of art as paintings and sculptures? - and tossed them inside their extradimensional dwelling as well. Then, as the group was ready to mount back up and spend the rest of the day headed back towards Ghourmand Vale, Ageratum reminded them of the "secret extra use" of the <em>thieves' coil</em> she owned. "It's got one charge remaining," she prodded them. "We could get back to the Vale in no time at all, and start looking for a wizard who knows the spell that'll turn Alistair back into flesh."</p><p></p><p>"Good idea," agreed Harlan. "While we're at it, we can see if any of them know the <em>teleport</em> spell. Alistair told me the <em>thieves' coil</em> can be recharged with multiple castings of that spell."</p><p></p><p>"Why didn't he do it himself?" the halfling griped. "He knows how to <em>teleport!</em>"</p><p></p><p>"He knows the <em>dimension door</em> spell," Orchid corrected the halfling. "It's not as powerful as <em>teleport</em>."</p><p></p><p>"Figures," snorted the halfling to herself, mentally calculating how much of the beholder's treasure would have to go towards getting the <em>thieves' coil</em> recharged. Once Alistair was restored, she'd have to get on him about figuring out how to cast <em>teleport</em> himself. But in the meantime, she gathered the rope around everyone, pressed the hidden button, and said the command word that instantly sent them back to the street outside the Dark and Light Club, where they normally placed their extradimensional door on the upper level.</p><p></p><p>"We're back!" Ageratum called to the patrons drinking at the bar as she entered the drinking establishment. "Did you miss us?"</p><p></p><p> - - -</p><p></p><p>Alistair's sudden paralyzation actually ended being a good thing as far as session length went, because it was getting late and we had only encountered the first of three foes Dan had prepared for this adventure. So having to <em>teleport</em> back to Ghourmand Vale to get Alistair restored back to flesh forced the adventure into two parts; best of all, Dan's now already got the work done for him for next week's session. (He'll just have to come with a new name for the second part, hopefully something more creative than "A Gnoll in the Road 2.")</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Richards, post: 9341309, member: 508"] [B]ADVENTURE 52: A GNOLL IN THE ROAD[/B] PC Roster: [INDENT]Ageratum Purslane, halfling rogue 12[/INDENT] [INDENT] Alistair Mandelberen Pastlethwaite, human sorcerer 12[/INDENT] [INDENT] Chaevaris Noarunal, elf archer 12[/INDENT] [INDENT] Harlan Starblade, half-elf paladin 12[/INDENT] NPC Roster: [INDENT]Orchid, elf druid 12[/INDENT] Game Session Date: 8 May 2024 - - - Carruthers walked all night down the road, headed back to Ghourmand Vale, holding in one hand a tower shield built for someone his impressive size. The shield guardian's shield served primarily as a place where the heroes could place the magic door from the interior of the amulet Chaevaris wore, so they could all sleep inside the extradimensional dwelling while their untiring shield guardian got them that much closer to home while they slept. The dwelling didn't really have a good place for the horses, so they bunked down in the main living area while the heroes all retreated to their bedrooms for the night. The next morning, after everyone awoke and get ready for the day, Alistair opened the door, popped his head back into the Material Plane, and ordered Carruthers to stop so they could get their mounts back out, Alistair could clean up after them with a [I]prestidigitation[/I] spell, and they could mount back up. Then Carruthers was ordered inside the dwelling so Chaevaris could return the door to her amulet, and Carruthers was transported in the extradimensional space for the day while they resumed their ride back to Ghourmand Vale. That had been the plan, and it worked just fine that first night after the heroes fought the hags on the mountain. Now over halfway home, Alistair cast his morning's [I]mage armor[/I] spell upon himself and his grackle familiar Ambrose, and Orchid cast her traditional [I]longstrider[/I] spell upon herself. They then continued on down the road, Harlan in the lead on his celestial pegasus Nova, after having summoning him from the Celestial Planes. The day was pretty uneventful until that afternoon, when they found the dead body in the road ahead of them. Orchid urged Law forward and leaped from the white horse, heading over to examine the dead body. It was a gnoll, its head smashed in by what looked to have been a single blow with incredible force, the skull crushed and deformed inward. "Is the brain intact?" asked Chaevaris, from her mount Talkacha. She was concerned the gnoll might have been slain by an illithid, who were notorious for consuming the brains of intelligent creatures. Gnolls weren't particularly known for their intellectual brilliance, but they were intelligent enough to make a tasty snack to even the most discerning of mind flayers. "Well, it's all squooshed," replied the elven druid, "but it's pretty much all here." She looked down upon the dead gnoll, laying in the dirt of the road upon his back. "No blood, though - that's kind of odd." "I don't see any footprints, either," observed Harlan from Nova's broad back. "Maybe he fell from the sky," suggested Ageratum, pulling her pony Munson to a stop. But Alistair pointed out the lack of any impact marks in the dirt beneath the gnoll. "If he fell, there would likely be signs of the impact," the sorcerer suggested. "So, you're thinking...?" prompted Chaevaris. "Trap," replied Alistair, looking all around. "Or at least bait," he modified. Almost as if on cue, a voice came calling their way from the west. "Help...help!" came a frantic cry through the trees. Chaevaris shielded her hand over her brow, squinting in the sun. She was able to make out a hill that way, with a round hole in the side of it, near the ground. "It's coming from over there," she told the others, pointing, then sending Talkacha through the trees and up the slope to the hillside. The hill rose up for a hundred feet or more, but the hole was a mere 10 feet in diameter - and almost perfectly circular. It led to a tunnel burrowing into the hill, also 10 feet in diameter and sloping down at about a 20-degree angle. "Purple worm?" suggested Ageratum as she rode Munson up alongside the mounted archer. "Possibly," agreed Chaevaris, frowning in thought. As another round of "Help me, please, someone help!" came out of the tunnel, the archer activated her [I]ring of invisibility[/I] and stepped down out of the saddle. She slapped Talkacha on his rump to get him to move away from the opening, just in case there was a monster hiding in there, trying to lure them in. The little halfling followed suit, activating her own [I]bracelet of invisibility[/I] and taking up position on the other side of the hole from Chaevaris, while Munson stepped to the side and devoted his attention to a tasty bit of grass. Harlan had Nova take flight, not too high up but enough to allow him to peer down the tunnel as the pegasus hovered in place. "It goes down for about 20 feet," the paladin reported. "Then there's a stone wall that it pierces, right in the middle. It looks like there are colored tiles just beyond, but I can't see very well that far in." He let Nova drop to the ground as Orchid and Alistair approached on their own mounts, the druid's faithful timber wolf companion Shushitan trotting along behind his mistress. "Combat prep spells," Harlan ordered, ignoring the occasional "Help me!" cried from further down in the tunnel, for none of the heroes believed the cries were anything but the lure of a trap. But if whatever beast was in there could crush a gnoll's skull like that in one blow, and was actively calling forth travelers from the road, it was the paladin's sworn duty to take the vile creature out. While Chaevaris opened the extradimensional doorway on the side of the hill and swapped out the five mounts for Carruthers, Harlan cast the spells [I]bull's strength[/I] and [I]magic circle against evil[/I] upon himself and a [I]bless[/I] spell upon the group. Alistair cast a [I]haste[/I] spell and a [I]Rary's telepathic bond[/I] spell on the group, a [I]flame arrow[/I] spell on their assorted ammunition, a [I]shield[/I] spell upon himself, and then brought forth Ogilvy with an [I]unseen servant[/I] spell. Chaevaris handed the invisible force her bullseye lantern, powered by a stone with a permanent [I]light[/I] spell cast upon it. Orchid cast a [I]mass bear's endurance[/I] and a [I]mass owl's wisdom[/I] spell on the group, following it up with an [I]animal growth[/I] spell on Shushitan, [I]barkskin[/I] spells on herself, Harlan, and her wolf, and a [I]speak with animals[/I] spell on herself so she could communicate verbally with her best friend and be perfectly understood. "Ready," Chaevaris announced as she put the magic doorway back into her amulet. Alistair directed Ambrose to stay outside and report if anyone or anything approached, and told Carruthers to come with him, as the archer shimmied up the side of the hill to reach the hole and pull herself inside. She could see the wall with the circular hole in it just ahead was in excellent condition other than its missing, circular piece, and she saw no rubble around the hole, indicating this was likely no purple worm tunnel, but probably the work of a [I]disintegrate[/I] spell. Her feelings were further enhanced when she saw the vertical shaft leading straight up from the ceiling about 15 feet in, the vertical tunnel the same size and shape as the nearly-horizontal one in which she stood. <Guys?> she called over the link, so the creature still calling out, "Help me, please!" now and again wouldn't hear her. <I'm thinking this is the work of a beholder.> <I say!"> declared Alistair, excited about his first actual encounter with a beholder. He'd read about such creatures, beginning as a child with [I]Elfy and the Eye Tyrant[/I]. Chaevaris poked her head through the hole in the wall and looked beyond, a task that became easier when Ogilvy approached and held the lantern up just behind her invisible form. The other side of the wall contained a 10-foot-wide corridor, tiled in alternating squares of white and black, and ending in a pair of brass doors at the far end. Then she backed up and looked up the vertical shaft, which appeared to rise about 15 feet up and then make a right angle turn to the side. Still invisible, she readied an arrow in her bow, lest anything pop out at them. Ageratum, also still invisible, got a closer look at the tiled hallway and noted that section had a vaulted ceiling, rising some 15 feet at the top. She [I]spider climbed[/I] up the vertical shaft, and could pinpoint the cries of "Help me!" - which were really starting to get annoying - as coming from down past the turn in the tunnel above her. As Harlan approached the pierced wall with his [I]Starblade[/I] out, its flaming length providing illumination, the little halfling scrambled up the tunnel and peeked around the corner, seeing a second tunnel, this one circular in cross-section, paralleling the tiled passageway below, up and off to the side. Strange! Orchid came up behind Harlan and, after discussing it silently over the link, cast an [I]air walk[/I] spell on the paladin, allowing him to easily climb to the upper passageway beside Ageratum. "Carruthers, if you would be so kind as to go open those doors?" asked Alistair nicely, and the shield guardian, recognizing it as a command by the one wearing his control amulet, stomped down the corridor to obey. The sorcerer had some concerns the hallway might be trapped and he figured the shield guardian would be likely to set off any trap that might be prepped and ready. But the construct made it to the end of the 70-foot-long passageway without incident, only to turn the doorknobs on the brass doors to no effect: they were locked. The sorcerer, who had been following a short distance behind Carruthers, had stopped when he saw another vertical tunnel in the vaulted ceiling overhead. Like the first one, it was circular in cross-section with a 10-foot diameter. He told the others of his discovery over the [I]Rary's telepathic bond[/I] spell and theorized this passageway met up with the one Harlan and Ageratum were traversing. In the meantime, with Ogilvy still shining the lantern's beam up the first vertical shaft, Alistair cast a [I]darkvision[/I] spell upon himself. Now he could see in the dark just as well as his shield guardian. And sure enough, the tunnel above him took a turn to the side, aimed in the same direction as the first one had done. Chaevaris still had her arrow nocked and ready to fire, following behind Alistair, still invisible, with Orchid close behind her. On the upper level, the halfling excused herself and scrambled past Harlan, climbing back down to the lower tunnel when Alistair informed the group the doors were locked. She used the tunnel closest to the doors, proving they did indeed connect, as Alistair had surmised. Harlan, in the meantime, was concentrating on his paladin senses and was able to detect a source of evil coming from the end of the tunnel he was traversing - which ended when it opened into a much larger chamber, apparently the room on the other side of the locked brass doors. From the flickering light of his unsheathed sword, he saw the room beyond was about 30 feet tall - the tunnel he was in pierced it right about along the halfway height - and there was some sort of metal statue ahead, the figure of a large man in heavy armor, easily twice the paladin's own size. "Help - it's getting bad!" called the voice from the other side of the brass doors. To keep it occupied, Alistair called back, "We're on our way! Stay where you are and we'll be with you shortly! But who are you? What's your name?" "Hurry!" replied the voice, ignoring the sorcerer's questions. Ogilvy, no longer needed to shine a light up the first vertical tunnel, ambled over by Alistair. Orchid cast a [I]spider climb[/I] spell on Chaevaris, so the archer could scamper up the vertical tunnel beside Harlan, where it sounded like she'd get a better shot at whatever was in the room beyond. Once Ageratum was back onto the tiles - and could see the brass doors - she used her [I]wand of knock[/I] to unlock and open them. Alistair had a [I]scorching ray[/I] spell at the ready, eager to fire it off as soon as he saw the beholder he was certain hovered somewhere in the room beyond. As the doors swung into the chamber, those in the tiled-floor tunnel saw the central section of a room that would later prove to measure a good 85 feet wide. Directly ahead stood another set of metal doors, this pair made of brass with some sort of bas-relief carving covering it, along with some sort of phrase etched along the top. The handles were tied up in an intricate-looking knot with a length of rope, and there was a pair of metal statues flanking the doors - Harlan had already gotten a good look at the one to the left, and the one to the right seemed to be its identical twin. A nasty smell wafted towards Alistair, the overly sweet odor of decaying bodies. But despite the doors below having been opened, Harlan was the first to enter the chamber from his higher tunnel - the one seemingly carved by a beholder's [I]disintegrate[/I] ray. With his [I]air walk[/I] spell intact, he stepped off midair into the chamber, discovering the following things all at once: [INDENT][/INDENT] [INDENT]1. There was indeed a beholder at the other end of the chamber, hovering near the top of the ceiling around the corner from the now-open brass doors.[/INDENT] [INDENT][/INDENT] [INDENT]2. The beholder had its central eye open and looking straight at him.[/INDENT] [INDENT][/INDENT] [INDENT]3. He could no longer hear anyone talking over the [I]Rary's telepathic bond[/I] spell.[/INDENT] [INDENT][/INDENT] [INDENT]4. His [I]air walk[/I] spell wasn't active after all, as he plummeted to the ground below with a crash, the flame from his [I]Starblade[/I] no longer present.[/INDENT] Harlan crashed to the floor with a clatter of armor and fell prone. Fortunately, he had rolled with the fall and wasn't seriously hurt, and being prone meant he was presenting a much smaller target than normal should the beholder decide to close its central [I]anti-magic[/I] eye and send one or more of the rays from its other 10 eyes, each bulbous orb at the end of a flexible eyestalk, his way. <Harlan's in there alone!> cried Orchid over the link, adding <We need to--> before she too dropped out of the shared telepathic communication link, since by then she had run into the chamber and inside the area of effect of the beholder's [I]anti-magic ray[/I]. But she knew exactly what had happened, and while she readied an attack spell, she held off casting it until it closed its central eye (or, the elf thought with a smile, a certain archer took care of that little problem for all of them....). Shushitan followed at his mistress's side, seemingly oblivious to the fact he shrank back to his normal size once he too entered the field of [I]anti-magic[/I] blanketing a good portion of the chamber. But his eyes caught the whiff of death and his keen eyes picked up the sight of a collapsed wall behind and beneath the beholder, with the scattered corpses of over a dozen gnoll corpses here and there, all within easy reach of the right-hand statue. Carruthers and Alistair entered the chamber next, the sorcerer using the shield guardian as a non-living shield to keep him safe from any eye rays. Ogilvy advanced to just outside the open doorway, for Alistair knew he'd simply wink out if he got within the area of effect of the [I]anti-magic ray[/I]. But the light from the archer's lantern spilled into the chamber, helping those without darkvision to see what was going on. That worked perfectly to Chaevaris's benefit. Moving to the end of the upper tunnel which pierced its way into the larger chamber, she rapidly lined up her shot - realizing the beholder's central eye would neutralize the [I]thundering[/I] aspect of her magic bow as well as Alistair's [I]flame arrow[/I] spell - and let fly. The arrow crossed the length of the chamber and hit its mark, piercing the central eye and causing the beholder to cry out in pain - in the same voice as that of the "helpless victim" who'd tried to lure the heroes in to their doom. With the [I]anti-magic ray[/I] no longer in effect, Shushitan returned immediately to his larger size and Orchid and Alistair cast their readied spells. The beholder was struck by the druid's [I]baleful polymorph[/I] spell but nonetheless managed to avoid being turned into a bunny in mid-air; it was less able to dodge the sorcerer's [I]scorching ray[/I] spell, although only two of the three gouts of flame hit true. The beholder cried out in pain again, then asked, "Why are you attacking me? I was just trying to get someone in here to help me open the sealed door, so we can all share in the free [I]wishes[/I] stored beyond!" "Unlikely," replied Harlan, getting back to his feet and pinpointing the beholder as the source of the evil he'd detected earlier. His [I]holy flaming burst longsword[/I] was blazing brightly again, although the beholder was a good 20 feet off the ground and well out the paladin's reach for the moment. But the beholder, seeing this bunch wasn't about to be taken in by its lies, fired off a trio of eye rays at three of the targets arrayed before it. The first struck Orchid and tried tugging her over towards the doors, whose bas-relief showed a four-winged creature cutting off the bat wings of another vaguely humanoid shape. The caption along the top of the door mentioned something about "the devil slayer." But Orchid dug in her heels and fought off the beholder's [I]telekinesis ray[/I], although she now had a pretty good idea of how the dead gnoll outside had come to lie in a dirt road without leaving any footprints or blood in the area. The second beam struck Alistair, who'd had to come out from behind Carruthers' shielding body to fire his [I]scorching ray[/I] spell up at the eye tyrant. The beam hit the sorcerer straight in the chest, and he had only a moment to get out "I sa--" before his entire body was turned to solid stone. Worse yet, everything he wore was turned to stone as well - including the control amulet that allowed him to give Carruthers his orders. Without access to the amulet, none of the others would be able to tell the shield guardian what to do, so it stood there much like a statue itself, awaiting new instructions from its current master. A piercing squawk came from outside the chamber and down the tiled hallway as Ambrose, still on watch outside, suddenly felt the empathic link he shared with Alistair get instantly severed. He came flapping down the corridor in a panicked flight. The third ray, the same [I]disintegrate ray[/I] that had carved passageways through solid stone, struck Carruthers - but fortunately, the shield guardian had been well constructed of sturdy materials, and while the attack dealt the construct some harm, his automatic repair functions kicked in at once. But then Ageratum entered the chamber. She'd made some preparation while outside in the hallway, plucking a red bead from her [I]necklace of fireballs[/I] and placing it into her sling; there'd only been three of the beads remaining when she took it from the fire giant they'd slain on the way to the Karkaletch quarry, and she chose the one of middle power. Stepping into the room, still invisible as she swung her sling over her head to build up momentum, she suddenly popped into view when she released her bead and sent it flying across the room, up at the beholder - which it promptly missed by a large margin. But the crafty halfling hadn't been aiming at the beholder - rather, she'd hurled her [I]fireball bead[/I] at the wall directly behind it. It exploded upon impact, engulfing the beholder and killing it instantly. Surprisingly, it didn't fall to the ground upon death but remained floating in place; the halfling imagined it would start to sink once its decaying body released whatever gas kept it afloat when it was alive. Harlan gave the entire room a sweep with his temple-enhanced senses, seeking out the aura of evil. "It's clean," he announced, as Ambrose flew into the chamber and landed upon the petrified shoulder of his master. Orchid cast a [I]detect magic[/I] spell and declared the statue closest to the piles of dead gnolls radiated magic, as did the rope binding the bronze doors closed. "So now what?" asked Ageratum, looking at the petrified form of the young nobleman and the dejected grackle perched upon his shoulder. "Let's get him inside the house," suggested Harlan. "Chaevaris?" The archer activated her amulet and placed the door onto the nearest wall, then the others carefully tipped Alistair over and lugged him inside. They then had to do the same with Carruthers, who weighed far too much for them to handle themselves on their own; they ended up having to tie ropes around the shield guardian and have a couple of their mounts lug him inside. While the others were thus engaged, Ageratum - who wouldn't have been all that useful in feats of strength in any case - checked out the area behind the collapsed wall. That, she learned, had been the gnoll lair and was now serving as the beholder's lair. She picked up several thousand gold coins and quite a bit of fancy artwork - who knew beholders could appreciate such works of art as paintings and sculptures? - and tossed them inside their extradimensional dwelling as well. Then, as the group was ready to mount back up and spend the rest of the day headed back towards Ghourmand Vale, Ageratum reminded them of the "secret extra use" of the [I]thieves' coil[/I] she owned. "It's got one charge remaining," she prodded them. "We could get back to the Vale in no time at all, and start looking for a wizard who knows the spell that'll turn Alistair back into flesh." "Good idea," agreed Harlan. "While we're at it, we can see if any of them know the [I]teleport[/I] spell. Alistair told me the [I]thieves' coil[/I] can be recharged with multiple castings of that spell." "Why didn't he do it himself?" the halfling griped. "He knows how to [I]teleport![/I]" "He knows the [I]dimension door[/I] spell," Orchid corrected the halfling. "It's not as powerful as [I]teleport[/I]." "Figures," snorted the halfling to herself, mentally calculating how much of the beholder's treasure would have to go towards getting the [I]thieves' coil[/I] recharged. Once Alistair was restored, she'd have to get on him about figuring out how to cast [I]teleport[/I] himself. But in the meantime, she gathered the rope around everyone, pressed the hidden button, and said the command word that instantly sent them back to the street outside the Dark and Light Club, where they normally placed their extradimensional door on the upper level. "We're back!" Ageratum called to the patrons drinking at the bar as she entered the drinking establishment. "Did you miss us?" - - - Alistair's sudden paralyzation actually ended being a good thing as far as session length went, because it was getting late and we had only encountered the first of three foes Dan had prepared for this adventure. So having to [I]teleport[/I] back to Ghourmand Vale to get Alistair restored back to flesh forced the adventure into two parts; best of all, Dan's now already got the work done for him for next week's session. (He'll just have to come with a new name for the second part, hopefully something more creative than "A Gnoll in the Road 2.") [/QUOTE]
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Ghourmand Vale (3.5 campaign)
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