ADVENTURE 44: ON THE WAY HOME
PC Roster:
NPC Roster:
Game Session Date: 24 January 2024
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The meeting with Viscount Torl went well - ashamed of the poor impression the citizens of Chendl behind the Ministry of the Father scam had given to Furyondy as a whole, he not only gave the five heroes the 1,000 pieces of gold each he had offered for their investigations into the cult, but he sweetened the pot with the addition of five gemstones, each valued at 500 pieces of gold. That was more or less a bribe to keep quiet about the details of how far the cult had infiltrated into the Church of Zilchus and how many of the farmers had been swindled, but the heroes didn't mind; the extra money would be put to good use and they had no real inclination to spread the word about how bad the situation in Chendl and its surrounding environs had gotten in any case.
Now they were returning to Ghourmand Vale, but not by the way they had come - they'd gone northeast into Furyondy, then west to get to Chendl; now they were headed more or less straight south to return home. They were making their way not along roads but through forest paths, which had a tendency to wind this way and that rather than remain straight for any length of time. But with a nature-loving druid among their number, and by sending Ambrose out ahead to make sure they were headed the way they wanted to go, the group was making decent time through the lightly wooded forest.
The grackle generally flew just out of the range of vision of his master, Alistair, then perched on a tree limb until the rest of the group caught up to him. Then he'd fly off again and the process would be repeated countless times throughout the day. This method also served the purpose of letting the innocuous bird scout out the way ahead for danger, for if Ambrose saw anything troubling he'd fly to his master's shoulder and report his discoveries.
Such was the situation in the late afternoon of their third day of travel. The group was several hours north of Littleberg, the next town of decent size they'd be hitting on their travels - probably tomorrow morning, at the rate they were going. Alistair sensed his familiar's nervousness over the mental link they shared, and then the grackle returned to report what he'd seen. "Panthers," he told Alistair. "Panthers, with tentacles." Alistair, from his talks among the other sorcerers and wizards back at the Vale, knew these to be displacer beasts - six-legged panthers with a set of horn-ridged tentacles growing from their shoulders. And they had an odd trait: they were able to send an image of themselves off to one side, so they were never exactly where they seemed to be. Chaevaris, the sorcerer knew, would have a difficult time shooting such a creature, who wasn't where it appeared to be. (Alistair figured he'd just use ranged spells, like cone of cold, to strike them wherever they happened to be.)
"How many?" he asked Ambrose.
"At least four or five," Ambrose replied. "And one was much bigger than the others - like, way bigger."
Alistair called for the others to halt and passed on what he'd learned, as well as what he knew about displacer beasts. Orchid began casting spells for an imminent battle, starting with a greater magic fang spell upon Shushitan. She sent Law creeping slowly ahead until she could see one or two of the displacer beasts ahead; they didn't seem to have spotted her yet. Chaevaris approached quietly at her side upon Talkacha. The pack of six were on the other side of a slow-moving stream, and as the elves watched, the larger pack leader strode forward, head and body low to the ground as if smelling the trail of a passing deer.
Harlan pulled on Nova's reins in the manner which meant he wanted the celestial pegasus to take to the air. The noble steed did just that, flying over the treetops in a circle, as the paladin cast a bull's strength spell upon himself, in preparation for the coming fight. He slid the Starblade from the scabbard at his belt and readied it for action.
Seeing the two groups were about to meet over by the stream if the predators continued on their present course, Alistair decided to get the fight off to a surprise start - at least on the part of the displacer beasts - by riding Zephyr forward, until he could see a handful of the dark-furred predators ahead between the trees. The young sorcerer cast a cone of cold spell, the frost blast exploding out from his outstretched hand and covering four of the pack members, including the leader. Ambrose took that as his cue to depart Alistair's shoulder for the safety of a high tree branch, well away from the combat.
Ageratum coaxed her pony Munson forward and pointed her wand of magic missile at the largest displacer beast. The wand had been cantankerous in the past, but magic missiles were a good strategy against displacer beasts, for the caster merely envisioned where she wanted the missiles to strike and they went out and did her bidding at that point, ignoring any visual tricks the tentacled prey might be playing. But the wand eluded the halfling's abilities to activate its magic, and Ageratum was left pointing her useless stick at the displacer beast pack lord.
Now alerted to potential prey, one of the displacer beasts bounded up and sent a barbed tentacle striking at the nearest foe: Shushitan, who was himself loping forward into battle. Another raked a tentacle across Alistair's chest, and the sorcerer's first irrational concern was that his newly-purchased vest of charisma would be ripped; he'd paid a goodly sum of money for the item back in Chendl, ensuring it was tailor-made of the finest black silk and embossed with arcane symbols sewn with golden thread. But he was pleased to see the tentacle-barbs had ripped a tear along his outer robe while leaving his magical vest unscathed.
Orchid cast a faerie fire spell at a clump of three of the displacer beasts, resulting in an odd situation: despite the great cats' images being shunted off to a side of their actual location, said actual locations were now indicated by a glowing shape in the form of a displacer beast. Now Chaevaris would have three of the six she could target with her arrows, at least!
With a snarl, Shushitan snapped at the displacer beast who had struck him with a tentacle, avoiding another such attack as he moved in to bite the offender. His jaws clamped around the foe's neck, one of the three whose actual location was indicated by the faerie fire. Chaevaris aimed an arrow at another such beast, ignoring the false image and concentrating on the glowing silhouette.
The pack leader moved up, sending both barbed tentacles ripping at Alistair, who was nearly unsaddled by the strength behind the attack. But he managed to remain on Zephyr's back, although the horse was giving every indication he wanted to flee. From up above, Harlan concentrated on the auras surrounding the pack, not at all surprised to see the telltale indications of evil natures staining them. He sent Nova charging down in a dive at one of the glowing silhouettes - the one fighting Shushitan - and the paladin reached over on one side and sent his blade, charged with Pelor's holy energy, swinging into the displacer beast's side. The Starblade cut deep, the displacer beast gave a howl of pain, and then it dropped to the forest floor, dead from a single blow. Nova banked back up out of immediate striking range of the waving tentacles of the rest of the pack.
Zephyr backed up, but Alistair saw he had another shot available to him and cast another cone of cold blasting into the pack, since he was able to cast his spell in such a way that none of his friends were within the blast area. He managed to hit four of the five remaining foes and was suitably pleased with how he was faring in this combat - a world of difference from his fight against the hezrou several days ago!
Ageratum gave her wand a shake for good measure and lined up another shot against one of the displacer beasts not covered in faerie fire, figuring she should leave those ones to those who needed to target a foe's actual location. To her surprise, the wand fired normally, sending three glowing missiles from its tip to strike unerringly at the target's muzzle. At the same time, Chaevaris released her arrow at the displacer beast she'd been targeting, but the shot went wide as the predator crouched for a charge against Shushitan.
A high-reaching tentacle slashed at Nova as the pegasus flew by overhead, cutting a score across his belly. Two other displacer beasts went for Shushitan, but the wily wolf managed to avoid all of their attacks. Then Orchid cast a spell that shaped the rest of the entire battle; a wall of thorns sprang up from the forest floor, zigzagging in a fashion as to catch up all of the remaining displacer beasts, no matter where their false images showed them to be. All five were now imprisoned by thorns poking at them in all directions, digging in deeper as they tried to move their way to freedom. One of the displacer beasts dropped into unconsciousness while fighting against the thorns, piercing herself in so many places she passed out from blood loss.
Shushitan darted forward again to bite at another displacer beast near enough to the edge of the wall of thorns that the attack was feasible. The wolf took several hits from tentacles on his way, for they were long enough to extend outside the boundaries of the thorns. Chaevaris, meanwhile, aimed another arrow at a glowing silhouette imprisoned in a thorn cage, lining up her shot. With a growl of irritation, the pack lord forced his way a little closer to the edge of his confinement, ignoring the fact that he had opened up several new gashes in his pelt for having done so. But another few attempts and he would likely be free.
Harlan had Nova drop back down to the ground and he stabbed into the thorns with his flaming blade, piercing the side of a displacer beast and slaying it where it stood, more of less helpless against the paladin's attack. He then cleaved his blade into the side of another one nearby, and when it tried slashing its sharp-tipped tentacles in retaliation Nova took to the skies once more, flying in a loop and approaching from the opposite direction.
Alistair moved Zephyr into position for him to fire off another cone of cold spell into the mass of imprisoned displacer beasts; the horse was much more manageable now that the predators had such limited mobility. His spell slew the last of the pack members, bringing the pack's numbers down to just the oversize leader. Ageratum fired off another round of magic missiles from her wand, once again striking the pack leader without any issues. Orchid brought a flame strike spell down onto the last of the displacer beasts, singeing his fur with her holy fire.
Shushitan, in the meantime, was done with fighting; a tentacle hung limply outside the confines of the wall of thorns and the wolf did his level best to chew his way through the rubbery appendage.
Chaevaris, unable to target the displacer beast pack lord well due to not knowing its exact location, decided to try quantity over quality; activating her boots of speed, she blanketed the general area where the beast was imprisoned with a series of four arrows, all of them finding their mark due to the creature's overall size. The pack lord struggled once again to free himself from the thorns piercing his fur and flesh, to no avail.
Nova flew over the imprisoned beast and Harlan swung at it with his sword, but due to the displacement effect he wasn't even close to hitting the creature's true location. Alistair tried a new tactic: firing a scorching ray through his metamagic rod of maximization, thinking he'd have a better shot at not hitting Harlan or Nova by doing so. One of the two rays went wide - for again, the sorcerer wasn't sure of the displacer beast's actual location - but the other hit true, leaving the pack lord looking rather bedraggled and almost pitiful. Ageratum knocked it out cold with another shot from her wand (she was starting to get the hang of it, she told herself), and when it collapsed, Orchid dismissed her wall of thorns spell and the little halfling went slitting the throats of those who still managed to cling on to life.
Orchid cast a mass cure light wounds spell to heal up the worst of the damage from teeth, claws, and barbed tentacles, and then the group moved on. Their way took them in the direction from which the displacer beasts had come, and thus it was no surprise that they passed right by the pack's lair: a set of ruins, stone walls that had once been buildings surrounding a mostly-intact ziggurat of some type. Ambrose warned his master there was another displacer beast lurking in the shadows of one of these smaller buildings, and the sorcerer alerted the rest of the team. Orchid cast a baleful polymorph spell at the hiding displacer beast, only to have it fail miserably. Shushitan growled at the unseen menace, but refused to step any closer, giving his mistress the idea this sole remaining pack member was very possibly not alive any more, but rather some sort of undead figment.
Chaevaris activated her boots of speed again and shot a flurry of arrows in the umbral beast's direction; only one of the arrows found its target, several others having passed right through the incorporeal creature's body. Alistair fired a maximized magic missile spell at it and Ageratum tried to do something similar with her wand of magic missiles, but the wand was once again giving her trouble and refused to fire. But Harlan had Nova charge forward while he floundered with his hands, trying to touch the umbral displacer beast, whose actual location he couldn't actually discern. However, once he felt the creature's mangy fur in his hands, he channeled Pelor's positive healing energy into the creature, power enough to burn it out of its undead existence. With an echoing howl, the creature faded away like a shadow on the ground when a cloud passes over the sun.
Ageratum insisted on looking about the various lairs for any treasure that might have been lying about and surprised everyone by actually finding a few purses of coins and gems, no doubt the holdings of some of the pack's previous victims, if the scattered bones and rusting swords littering the area were any indication. Proud of having found a "reward" for having slain the dangerous pack of vicious predators, the little halfling remounted her pony and followed the rest of the group as they made their way towards Littleberg.
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Dan told us after the game session was over he had discovered the "Umbral Creature" template and just wanted to try it out, so he didn't really have any in-game reason for the one displacer beast to have gained the template other than his own curiosity. But Orchid was definitely our MVP in this session, as her faerie fire and wall of thorns spells really turned the encounter our way.
PC Roster:
Ageratum Purslane, halfling rogue 11
Alistair Mandelberen Pastlethwaite, human sorcerer 11
Chaevaris Noarunal, elf archer 11
Harlan Starblade, half-elf paladin 11
Alistair Mandelberen Pastlethwaite, human sorcerer 11
Chaevaris Noarunal, elf archer 11
Harlan Starblade, half-elf paladin 11
NPC Roster:
Orchid, elf druid 11
Game Session Date: 24 January 2024
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The meeting with Viscount Torl went well - ashamed of the poor impression the citizens of Chendl behind the Ministry of the Father scam had given to Furyondy as a whole, he not only gave the five heroes the 1,000 pieces of gold each he had offered for their investigations into the cult, but he sweetened the pot with the addition of five gemstones, each valued at 500 pieces of gold. That was more or less a bribe to keep quiet about the details of how far the cult had infiltrated into the Church of Zilchus and how many of the farmers had been swindled, but the heroes didn't mind; the extra money would be put to good use and they had no real inclination to spread the word about how bad the situation in Chendl and its surrounding environs had gotten in any case.
Now they were returning to Ghourmand Vale, but not by the way they had come - they'd gone northeast into Furyondy, then west to get to Chendl; now they were headed more or less straight south to return home. They were making their way not along roads but through forest paths, which had a tendency to wind this way and that rather than remain straight for any length of time. But with a nature-loving druid among their number, and by sending Ambrose out ahead to make sure they were headed the way they wanted to go, the group was making decent time through the lightly wooded forest.
The grackle generally flew just out of the range of vision of his master, Alistair, then perched on a tree limb until the rest of the group caught up to him. Then he'd fly off again and the process would be repeated countless times throughout the day. This method also served the purpose of letting the innocuous bird scout out the way ahead for danger, for if Ambrose saw anything troubling he'd fly to his master's shoulder and report his discoveries.
Such was the situation in the late afternoon of their third day of travel. The group was several hours north of Littleberg, the next town of decent size they'd be hitting on their travels - probably tomorrow morning, at the rate they were going. Alistair sensed his familiar's nervousness over the mental link they shared, and then the grackle returned to report what he'd seen. "Panthers," he told Alistair. "Panthers, with tentacles." Alistair, from his talks among the other sorcerers and wizards back at the Vale, knew these to be displacer beasts - six-legged panthers with a set of horn-ridged tentacles growing from their shoulders. And they had an odd trait: they were able to send an image of themselves off to one side, so they were never exactly where they seemed to be. Chaevaris, the sorcerer knew, would have a difficult time shooting such a creature, who wasn't where it appeared to be. (Alistair figured he'd just use ranged spells, like cone of cold, to strike them wherever they happened to be.)
"How many?" he asked Ambrose.
"At least four or five," Ambrose replied. "And one was much bigger than the others - like, way bigger."
Alistair called for the others to halt and passed on what he'd learned, as well as what he knew about displacer beasts. Orchid began casting spells for an imminent battle, starting with a greater magic fang spell upon Shushitan. She sent Law creeping slowly ahead until she could see one or two of the displacer beasts ahead; they didn't seem to have spotted her yet. Chaevaris approached quietly at her side upon Talkacha. The pack of six were on the other side of a slow-moving stream, and as the elves watched, the larger pack leader strode forward, head and body low to the ground as if smelling the trail of a passing deer.
Harlan pulled on Nova's reins in the manner which meant he wanted the celestial pegasus to take to the air. The noble steed did just that, flying over the treetops in a circle, as the paladin cast a bull's strength spell upon himself, in preparation for the coming fight. He slid the Starblade from the scabbard at his belt and readied it for action.
Seeing the two groups were about to meet over by the stream if the predators continued on their present course, Alistair decided to get the fight off to a surprise start - at least on the part of the displacer beasts - by riding Zephyr forward, until he could see a handful of the dark-furred predators ahead between the trees. The young sorcerer cast a cone of cold spell, the frost blast exploding out from his outstretched hand and covering four of the pack members, including the leader. Ambrose took that as his cue to depart Alistair's shoulder for the safety of a high tree branch, well away from the combat.
Ageratum coaxed her pony Munson forward and pointed her wand of magic missile at the largest displacer beast. The wand had been cantankerous in the past, but magic missiles were a good strategy against displacer beasts, for the caster merely envisioned where she wanted the missiles to strike and they went out and did her bidding at that point, ignoring any visual tricks the tentacled prey might be playing. But the wand eluded the halfling's abilities to activate its magic, and Ageratum was left pointing her useless stick at the displacer beast pack lord.
Now alerted to potential prey, one of the displacer beasts bounded up and sent a barbed tentacle striking at the nearest foe: Shushitan, who was himself loping forward into battle. Another raked a tentacle across Alistair's chest, and the sorcerer's first irrational concern was that his newly-purchased vest of charisma would be ripped; he'd paid a goodly sum of money for the item back in Chendl, ensuring it was tailor-made of the finest black silk and embossed with arcane symbols sewn with golden thread. But he was pleased to see the tentacle-barbs had ripped a tear along his outer robe while leaving his magical vest unscathed.
Orchid cast a faerie fire spell at a clump of three of the displacer beasts, resulting in an odd situation: despite the great cats' images being shunted off to a side of their actual location, said actual locations were now indicated by a glowing shape in the form of a displacer beast. Now Chaevaris would have three of the six she could target with her arrows, at least!
With a snarl, Shushitan snapped at the displacer beast who had struck him with a tentacle, avoiding another such attack as he moved in to bite the offender. His jaws clamped around the foe's neck, one of the three whose actual location was indicated by the faerie fire. Chaevaris aimed an arrow at another such beast, ignoring the false image and concentrating on the glowing silhouette.
The pack leader moved up, sending both barbed tentacles ripping at Alistair, who was nearly unsaddled by the strength behind the attack. But he managed to remain on Zephyr's back, although the horse was giving every indication he wanted to flee. From up above, Harlan concentrated on the auras surrounding the pack, not at all surprised to see the telltale indications of evil natures staining them. He sent Nova charging down in a dive at one of the glowing silhouettes - the one fighting Shushitan - and the paladin reached over on one side and sent his blade, charged with Pelor's holy energy, swinging into the displacer beast's side. The Starblade cut deep, the displacer beast gave a howl of pain, and then it dropped to the forest floor, dead from a single blow. Nova banked back up out of immediate striking range of the waving tentacles of the rest of the pack.
Zephyr backed up, but Alistair saw he had another shot available to him and cast another cone of cold blasting into the pack, since he was able to cast his spell in such a way that none of his friends were within the blast area. He managed to hit four of the five remaining foes and was suitably pleased with how he was faring in this combat - a world of difference from his fight against the hezrou several days ago!
Ageratum gave her wand a shake for good measure and lined up another shot against one of the displacer beasts not covered in faerie fire, figuring she should leave those ones to those who needed to target a foe's actual location. To her surprise, the wand fired normally, sending three glowing missiles from its tip to strike unerringly at the target's muzzle. At the same time, Chaevaris released her arrow at the displacer beast she'd been targeting, but the shot went wide as the predator crouched for a charge against Shushitan.
A high-reaching tentacle slashed at Nova as the pegasus flew by overhead, cutting a score across his belly. Two other displacer beasts went for Shushitan, but the wily wolf managed to avoid all of their attacks. Then Orchid cast a spell that shaped the rest of the entire battle; a wall of thorns sprang up from the forest floor, zigzagging in a fashion as to catch up all of the remaining displacer beasts, no matter where their false images showed them to be. All five were now imprisoned by thorns poking at them in all directions, digging in deeper as they tried to move their way to freedom. One of the displacer beasts dropped into unconsciousness while fighting against the thorns, piercing herself in so many places she passed out from blood loss.
Shushitan darted forward again to bite at another displacer beast near enough to the edge of the wall of thorns that the attack was feasible. The wolf took several hits from tentacles on his way, for they were long enough to extend outside the boundaries of the thorns. Chaevaris, meanwhile, aimed another arrow at a glowing silhouette imprisoned in a thorn cage, lining up her shot. With a growl of irritation, the pack lord forced his way a little closer to the edge of his confinement, ignoring the fact that he had opened up several new gashes in his pelt for having done so. But another few attempts and he would likely be free.
Harlan had Nova drop back down to the ground and he stabbed into the thorns with his flaming blade, piercing the side of a displacer beast and slaying it where it stood, more of less helpless against the paladin's attack. He then cleaved his blade into the side of another one nearby, and when it tried slashing its sharp-tipped tentacles in retaliation Nova took to the skies once more, flying in a loop and approaching from the opposite direction.
Alistair moved Zephyr into position for him to fire off another cone of cold spell into the mass of imprisoned displacer beasts; the horse was much more manageable now that the predators had such limited mobility. His spell slew the last of the pack members, bringing the pack's numbers down to just the oversize leader. Ageratum fired off another round of magic missiles from her wand, once again striking the pack leader without any issues. Orchid brought a flame strike spell down onto the last of the displacer beasts, singeing his fur with her holy fire.
Shushitan, in the meantime, was done with fighting; a tentacle hung limply outside the confines of the wall of thorns and the wolf did his level best to chew his way through the rubbery appendage.
Chaevaris, unable to target the displacer beast pack lord well due to not knowing its exact location, decided to try quantity over quality; activating her boots of speed, she blanketed the general area where the beast was imprisoned with a series of four arrows, all of them finding their mark due to the creature's overall size. The pack lord struggled once again to free himself from the thorns piercing his fur and flesh, to no avail.
Nova flew over the imprisoned beast and Harlan swung at it with his sword, but due to the displacement effect he wasn't even close to hitting the creature's true location. Alistair tried a new tactic: firing a scorching ray through his metamagic rod of maximization, thinking he'd have a better shot at not hitting Harlan or Nova by doing so. One of the two rays went wide - for again, the sorcerer wasn't sure of the displacer beast's actual location - but the other hit true, leaving the pack lord looking rather bedraggled and almost pitiful. Ageratum knocked it out cold with another shot from her wand (she was starting to get the hang of it, she told herself), and when it collapsed, Orchid dismissed her wall of thorns spell and the little halfling went slitting the throats of those who still managed to cling on to life.
Orchid cast a mass cure light wounds spell to heal up the worst of the damage from teeth, claws, and barbed tentacles, and then the group moved on. Their way took them in the direction from which the displacer beasts had come, and thus it was no surprise that they passed right by the pack's lair: a set of ruins, stone walls that had once been buildings surrounding a mostly-intact ziggurat of some type. Ambrose warned his master there was another displacer beast lurking in the shadows of one of these smaller buildings, and the sorcerer alerted the rest of the team. Orchid cast a baleful polymorph spell at the hiding displacer beast, only to have it fail miserably. Shushitan growled at the unseen menace, but refused to step any closer, giving his mistress the idea this sole remaining pack member was very possibly not alive any more, but rather some sort of undead figment.
Chaevaris activated her boots of speed again and shot a flurry of arrows in the umbral beast's direction; only one of the arrows found its target, several others having passed right through the incorporeal creature's body. Alistair fired a maximized magic missile spell at it and Ageratum tried to do something similar with her wand of magic missiles, but the wand was once again giving her trouble and refused to fire. But Harlan had Nova charge forward while he floundered with his hands, trying to touch the umbral displacer beast, whose actual location he couldn't actually discern. However, once he felt the creature's mangy fur in his hands, he channeled Pelor's positive healing energy into the creature, power enough to burn it out of its undead existence. With an echoing howl, the creature faded away like a shadow on the ground when a cloud passes over the sun.
Ageratum insisted on looking about the various lairs for any treasure that might have been lying about and surprised everyone by actually finding a few purses of coins and gems, no doubt the holdings of some of the pack's previous victims, if the scattered bones and rusting swords littering the area were any indication. Proud of having found a "reward" for having slain the dangerous pack of vicious predators, the little halfling remounted her pony and followed the rest of the group as they made their way towards Littleberg.
- - -
Dan told us after the game session was over he had discovered the "Umbral Creature" template and just wanted to try it out, so he didn't really have any in-game reason for the one displacer beast to have gained the template other than his own curiosity. But Orchid was definitely our MVP in this session, as her faerie fire and wall of thorns spells really turned the encounter our way.