Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
The
VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX
is LIVE! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Community
Playing the Game
Story Hour
Ghourmand Vale (3.5 campaign)
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 9326454" data-attributes="member: 508"><p><strong>ADVENTURE 49: CIRCUS CIRCUS</strong></p><p></p><p>PC Roster:</p><p style="margin-left: 20px">Ageratum Purslane, halfling rogue 11</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Alistair Mandelberen Pastlethwaite, human sorcerer 11</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Chaevaris Noarunal, elf archer 11</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Harlan Starblade, half-elf paladin 11</p><p></p><p>NPC Roster:</p><p style="margin-left: 20px">Orchid, elf druid 11</p><p></p><p>Game Session Date: 17 April 2024</p><p></p><p> - - -</p><p></p><p>"That looks like it," announced Harlan. Before them, just beyond the eastern edge of the town, a massive, canvas "tent wall" had been erected, the location of "<strong>Anastasia</strong>'s Curiosities of the World," a combination traveling zoo/freak show making its rounds around the area. As the prominent adventures in Ghourmand Vale, the five members of the Trained Professional Adventures had been invited to come see a pre-show viewing and have dinner with the owner. The attraction wouldn't be opened to the public until tomorrow, but that was one of the perks of being local celebrities. This was likely all on the up-and-up, but just in case, Alistair had cast a <em>mage armor</em> spell upon himself, and Orchid was under the effects of a <em>longstrider</em> spell.</p><p></p><p>"Plenty big," commented Chaevaris. Indeed, the canvas wall stood a good 20 feet tall and stretched north to south at least 100 feet in length. A painted wooden facade with an archway situated on the southern quarter of the wall facing them was the obvious entrance, with a slit down the center indicating where the tent flaps stood. A slender, dark-haired woman lounged in a canvas chair beside the entrance and seemed absorbed in reading through some papers. Immediately to her left stood a large, muscular creature some nine feet tall in spite of its hunched posture, playing with a small weasel it held in its massive hands. At the approach of the party, it abruptly stopped playing and stared at the party with all six of its insectoid eyes. The weasel leaped over to the woman who rose, patted her gray render bodyguard gently on its massive arm, adjusted her hair, and greeted the newcomers you. "Welcome to my circus of curiosities! I am Anastasia; you must be Harlan, Alistair, Chaevaris, and Ageratum, the Trained Professional Adventurers!"</p><p></p><p>"And I'm Orchid," introduced the elven druid. "I'm a relatively new addition." Wherever Anastasia had gotten her information about the TPA, it was somewhat out of date.</p><p></p><p>"Allow me to give you the quick tour," Anastasia offered, sweeping open the canvas flaps. Beyond, the ground was covered in sawdust and contained a half-dozen cages of various sizes, constructed of sturdy iron bars along the walls with wooden roofs. Each was on a wooden support platform, elevating the creatures within by a foot or so. The way directly ahead made a wide path, with cages on either side. To the immediate right, a quartet of snakelike creatures with snapping beaks at the center of four claw-tipped tentacles clicked and slithered about; to the immediate left, four fierce-looking cats paced about. Anastasia laughed at their antics as they snarled and pulled back the skin of their faces, revealing musculature and the bone beneath it. "Lesser folk may be frightened by these krenshars, but surely not you."</p><p></p><p>"I say!" declared Alistair, never having seen such antics - or the hyenalike krenshars - before. His grackle familiar Ambrose gave the cats a wary eye as he perched upon his master's shoulder.</p><p></p><p>Just beyond the first two cages was a perpendicular walking path, with another two cages further back. The one to the right held but a single creature: a fawn-colored, scaly-winged beast with large teeth and claws and a rather forlorn expression. As Anastasia neared the cage, she took the weasel from the pocket of her robes and casually flipped it between the bars of the dragonne's cage. The hungry beast caught the hapless mustelid out of the air, chewed it but once, and swallowed it down. "My dangerous dragonne from the hills," Anastasia announced. "She's got a roar that can unnerve even such stout fellows as you. Thankfully, she knows if she doesn't roar she'll get a fresh weasel. Don't approach her without a weasel or she’ll let you know about it - quite loudly."</p><p></p><p>"So noted," replied Orchid, frowning. She didn't seem too impressed with the idea of keeping creatures locked up in cages.</p><p></p><p>"Now, on to the greatest member of my collection," Anastasia said, turning the corner past the krenshar cage and ignoring the pair of four-armed girallons in the cage directly across from the dragonne. To the north stood a male figure the size of a human, in a cage with bars along most of one side but a "privacy area" enclosed in wooden walls along the western end. The young man wore velvet knee-length pants and an embroidered waistcoat. An eyepatch covered his left eye, and his head seemed partially caved in, as if he'd suffered a serious injury that was still healing on its own. "Behold, <strong>Salissis the Snake-Boy</strong>!" As the group approached, they could see a scattering of scales in patches along the visible areas of skin, and he seemed to lack elbows. Of even greater concern was the metal pin stabbed through his right heel, just behind the ankles, through which a sturdy chain secured him the the center of the floor. The chain was long enough to allow him the full range of his lengthy cage, but it was still disconcerting to see a "zoo animal" wearing clothes and imprisoned in this fashion, even if the heroes had all recognized the boy as a yuan-ti. "He is a prince of his kind, from the jungles where we found the savage apes," added Anastasia. "He ravenously devours all flesh he comes into contact with. Beware that he doesn't charm you with his malevolent gaze!" Orchid looked at the pathetic boy, whose one visible eye was almond shaped, with a vertical pupil. But there wasn't much in the way of intelligence behind the boy's gaze, just a dumbfounded stare, much like that of a cow.</p><p></p><p>Alistair, however, wasn't looking at the Snake-Boy; his attention was focused upon the last cage, to the east of the yuan-ti's. It was smaller, but was also equipped with a "privacy area" along the northern side, and it held a striking young woman: striking in the fact that her skin was bright red and she sported a pair of upthrust horns from her brow. She wore a short skirt, from which a pointed tail extended to the floor of her cage. And unlike the Snake-Boy, her eyes beheld a humanlike intelligence.</p><p></p><p>"I say!" declared Alistair again, turning to Anastasia. "Why in the world do you have an intelligent creature locked up like this?"</p><p></p><p>"Oh, she was found in the jungle as a baby," Anastasia replied. "She enjoys her role in our little setup; she occasionally reads fortunes when she's not on display." The tiefling said nothing to contradict the proprietress, but that seemed unlikely to the young nobleman; he couldn't put a finger on it, but he suspected Anastasia was lying to them about the young girl. Alistair turned to look at Harlan, his mouth open to ask a question, but the paladin was one step ahead. "Yes," he answered the unspoken question. "The tiefling, the yuan-ti, and our hostess - and none of the others." Without being asked to do so, Harlan had been inspecting the auras of those they'd encountered thus far.</p><p></p><p>Chaevaris immediately realized there was a good chance they'd soon be fighting Anastasia, so she stepped around the corner, out of immediate view of the proprietress, and activated her <em>ring of invisibility</em>. Then, in a practiced move, she pulled an arrow from her quiver and set it in place upon her magic longbow. But then a bit of movement by the tent flap caught her attention, and she saw what was clearly a yuan-ti abomination - a massive serpent with a humanoid chest and arms below a snake's head and neck - slither into the closed attraction and follow the way the heroes had come as they took their tour. Immediately deducing this snake-man was after Snake-Boy (who was, after all, supposed to be some sort of yuan-ti royalty), the archer silently replaced the arrow she'd grabbed up with her last <em>sleep arrow</em>, hoping to send this abomination snoozing before it could even start combat against the heroes.</p><p></p><p>Back by Snake-Boy's cage, Alistair was still arguing with Anastasia. "I can certainly see locking up dangerous creatures like the girallons," the sorcerer continued. "But these two" - and here he indicated the tiefling and the yuan-ti halfblood - "are intelligent beings! They do not deserve to be caged like mere animals!"</p><p></p><p>"Actually," began Orchid, wanting to press the point that <em>no</em> living creature belonged in a cage, but she was cut off by Anastasia and decided to head over the way Chaevaris had gone. She was surprised not to see her fellow elf, and looked around before she realized what had likely happened - Chaevaris was already anticipating combat! The druid cast a <em>detect magic</em> spell and noted the areas around Snake-Boy and Anastasia radiated an aura of magic - interesting.</p><p></p><p>"Neither of them has ever made any objection about their living conditions," Anastasia argued. Ambrose, already bored with the conversation, took off from his master's shoulder and did a quick aerial reconnaissance around the enclosed cages. He spotted the yuan-ti abomination from the air and gave a quick call to his master in the language they shared. Alistair responded by calling out, "A yuan-ti approaches!" in a low hiss, then cast a <em>haste</em> spell that encompassed himself, Ambrose, Ageratum, and Harlan - the two elves were too far away (and Alistair didn't see Chaevaris around anywhere in any case). Warned of the approaching enemy, Harlan cast a <em>bless</em> spell on the entire party of heroes, specifically avoiding granting the benefit to Anastasia or her gray render bodyguard; no sense in aiding the potential enemy. Then he turned to face the tent flap, spotting the advancing abomination as it slithered past the grick cage towards the pathway leading to Snake-Boy's enclosure.</p><p></p><p>Chaevaris, in the meantime, had a bead on the yuan-ti's left eye with her <em>sleep arrow</em>. Ageratum ran over by the elves, slapping at her own <em>bracelet of invisibility</em> as she did so. Then the yuan-ti abomination made some hand gestures indicating he was casting some sort of spell, and Chaevaris let loose with her <em>sleep arrow</em>. Her training allowed her to place it right on target - the creature's unblinking left eye - but as its eye was covered in a translucent scale in the same manner as a snake, it didn't cost him his vision on that side of his head as it would had he been a human target. In addition, the reptile fended off the magical attempt to cause him to fall asleep, but Chaevaris got the impression the arrow-strike had caused him quite a bit of discomfort nonetheless.</p><p></p><p>The gray render didn't like the accusing tone of Alistair's voice even if it didn't understand all of the words he was saying, and interposed himself between the sorcerer and his mistress. Snake-Boy wandered over to the bars of his cage and started sniffing the air, his head cocked at a quizzical angle. It was apparent he was smelling something, and was trying to recall where he had picked up that odor before in his life....</p><p></p><p>Anastasia began casting a spell of her own, placing a hand upon her gray render associate as she did so - perhaps readying him for combat just as the heroes had been doing for themselves? But then Orchid spun around and cast a spell directly at the proprietress, striking her with a narrow beam of energy. The <em>baleful polymorph</em> spell did its work, and suddenly, in Anastasia's place directly behind the gray render there was only a little bunny. She looked around in astonishment at her new form, a good indicator that her original intelligence still dwelt behind the rabbit's fluffy exterior.</p><p></p><p>With Anastasia apparently taken care of, Alistair ran over towards the girallon cage, then cast a <em>scorching ray</em> spell at the yuan-ti abomination, sending the gouts of flame through the bars of the krenshar cage. The flame-blasts struck true, scorching the reptile across his broad chest and arms. At the same time, he picked up through his empathic link with Ambrose that the little grackle was not concerned about any other late arrivals to this little show; apparently the abomination traveled alone.</p><p></p><p>Harlan ran past Orchid (the invisible Ageratum saw him coming and stepped out of his way) and charged at the abomination, swinging his flaming <em>Starblade</em> for all he was worth. The sword bit deep into the abomination's body, sending scales flying and causing a gush of blood to spurt out of the wound. Ageratum ran up behind the yuan-ti and stabbed at his snakelike lower torso with her silver short sword, driving the blade in up to the hilt and then pulling it out, the blade coated in blood. With a hiss of pain, the yuan-ti crashed to the ground, its snake-tail twitching spasmodically as it lost consciousness.</p><p></p><p>Chaevaris, in the meantime, had grabbed her original arrow back up and was taking aim at the gray render, not wanting it to be able to join in the melee without immediate repercussions. It was good thing, too, because the gray-skinned brute looked around for its mistress, failed to spot her (it lacked the wherewithal to realize the bunny now at its feet was Anastasia in a new form), and roared in defiance - obviously, one of these strangers was responsible for his mistress's sudden disappearance. He charged forward at the nearest stranger - Orchid, as it turned out - and was struck in the side of the head with an elven arrow as he spanned the distance between them. But he didn't allow Chaevaris's arrow to slow him; rather, he bit at Orchid as he scooped her up in his claws and ripped them across her lithe body. Orchid screamed in pain, tried casting a spell to get herself out of its crushing grip and failed, and finally wildshaped into a garter snake to wriggle free. In snake form, she plopped to the ground and darted into one side and out of the adjacent side of the girallon cage, before either of the two multilimbed apes even noticed her presence.</p><p></p><p>Snake-Boy was now eagerly watching the combat with eyes blazing with intelligence; something had apparently triggered his awareness in a manner he hadn't experienced since receiving the head-wound immediately before his capture. A sudden hissing noise came from his cage, but none of the heroes was able to give him enough attention to realize it wasn't him making the hissing sound, it was coming from the metal pin piercing the yuan-ti's ankle, as the acid he generated from his skin started eating away at his chain....</p><p></p><p>Anastasia, in bunny form, hippity-hopped down the length of Snake-Boy's cage, over by the girallons, where she could get a good view of the heroes in the north-south corridor between the cages. She was once again behind the gray render, although whether this was intentional or not was not readily apparent. Alistair raised his <em>metamagic rod</em> and channeled another <em>scorching ray</em> spell through it, this time aiming at the gray render that had just caused Orchid so much pain. His flame-blasts struck true, causing the gray render to roar in pain. Immediately afterwards, Harlan charged back the way he'd come and brought the <em>Starblade</em> slicing into the render's thick hide. And Chaevaris, back to visibility after having fired her previous arrows, fired another arrow straight into the gray render's belly, where half of its length stuck out. Black blood oozed from the wound and the gray render's mouth, and it backed off a few steps, clearly nauseated by the gutshot wound.</p><p></p><p>Ageratum, during this time, was tending to one of the things she did best: making sure downed enemies didn't get back up. She could see the yuan-ti abomination breathing, but a quick slice of her blade across the reptile's throat soon put an end to <em>that</em>.</p><p></p><p>Snake-Boy, now freed from the chain around his ankle, walked over to the door to his cage and gave it a powerful kick, causing it to swing open wide. He gave a wide grin and stepped through the doorway for the first time in as far back as he could recall. He touched his wounded head, certain his head wound was why his memory was so fuzzy.</p><p></p><p>Then, without any warning, the <em>baleful polymorph</em> spell that had turned Anastasia into a bunny undid itself, and she rose up to a standing position in her original form. None of the heroes had any idea what had caused this sudden reverse-transformation, but Orchid didn't worry too much about it for the moment; rather, she cast a <em>wall of thorns</em> spell that completely engulfed the gray render, Anastasia, and Snake-Boy, leaving the area directly to the side of the gray render relatively open (so that Harlan would be able to rush in and attack - she didn't want the paladin prevented from reaching the gray render with his longsword by her spell). Alistair stepped in front of Chaevaris (with a polite, "Excuse me, Elfy!" in passing), and cast a <em>lightning bolt</em> at the gray render and Anastasia both, as they were conveniently lined up for him and unable to move due to the numerous thorns stabbing at them from all directions. The spell dropped the gray render instantly; it took even more damage on the way down as its body was stabbed and ripped by thorns.</p><p></p><p>And then Harlan ran up to the gray render, seeing the open space beside the beast for what it was: a means for him to apply his sword to the enemy. But as the gray render was already dead, he stepped over it (into the <em>wall of thorns</em>) and swung his sword at Anastasia, standing just behind her bodyguard's corpse. The sword-strike was enough to drop her as well.</p><p></p><p>And that left only Snake-Boy to deal with. The yuan-ti was pinned in place by the <em>wall of thorns</em> spell and knew it; he called for a truce immediately. "Release the thorns, and allow me to leave!" he called out. "I'm just a helpless victim to that crazy woman's schemes!"</p><p></p><p>"You," corrected Harlan, "are a yuan-ti, a member of a race that reproduces by transforming innocent, unwilling human victims into your own vile forms!"</p><p></p><p>"Uh, yes, yes, exactly! You said it yourself: I'm an innocent victim! I never wanted this for myself!"</p><p></p><p>"You were," the paladin agreed. "And it saddens me that this has happened to you. But what has been done cannot be undone - you are, and will be forevermore, a vile creature with a heart filled with evil. The best thing we can do for you is to free you--"</p><p></p><p>"Yes, yes, free me!"</p><p></p><p>"--from life as the thing you have become. I will leave it to the gods to determine your fate in the next life."</p><p></p><p>"Well, now, wait...." began Snake-Boy as he realized the paladin wasn't offering to free him in quite the way he had anticipated. But Harlan nodded over to Orchid (still in her garter snake form) to drop the <em>wall of thorns</em> spell so he could dispatch the wretched yuan-ti from this existence. But Alistair spoke up, saying, "Allow me," before sending a <em>maximized magic missile</em> spell through the twisting masses of thorns and nettles to strike Snake-Boy down dead.</p><p></p><p>"Hey, guys," said Ageratum, "all the snake-guy had on him was this scimitar and this composite longbow; they're quite nicely crafted, I'd say masterwork at the very least, but way too big for any of us to use." She dropped the items in question on the ground before her. "We can probably get some decent coin if we sell them to someone big enough to use them."</p><p></p><p>After some discussion, it was decided that they'd let the tiefling out of her cage. Yes, she registered as evil under Harlan's aura-scrutiny, but she was the offspring of a fiendish heritage and that couldn't really be blamed on her. She introduced herself as <strong>Tina</strong> and was able to fill in a few details the heroes were missing: Anastasia was an aranea, a type of shapeshifting spider-creature, which explained how she was able to "undo" the effects of the <em>baleful polymorph</em> spell. She had in fact bought Tina from a slaver and used enchantment magic to keep her in line ever since; her tale of rescuing Tina as a baby and raising her was all a line of rubbish. After further consideration, they decided to release the dragonne as well, after learning it was as intelligent as any human. (It only spoke Draconic, but Alistair knew a few words of that language - many arcane texts used that language, after all - and they determined it had been captured after it had hurt its wing, which had prevented it from flying away. It lived primarily by hunting deer in the forests and mountains, and after extracting a promise it wouldn't hunt intelligent races for food, a practice the dragonne claimed to find abhorrent, they opened its cage and allowed it to fly away.)</p><p></p><p>"What about the rest of these creatures?" Ageratum asked. "Are we going to free them, too?"</p><p></p><p>"We should," Orchid insisted.</p><p></p><p>"I would advise against it," Alistair countered. "These other creatures would not hesitate at all to devour any of us for their next meal. Were we to let them go free, they would be a menace to the populace of our small town."</p><p></p><p>"I'll tell you what," suggested Harlan. "Anastasia didn't transport and assemble all of these cages on her own. There must be workers nearby; 'roadies' I believe they're sometimes called. Let's go see if we can find them and see what they'd like to do from this point on."</p><p></p><p>Orchid sighed, but acknowledged the reasoning behind the paladin's suggestion. "Very well," she agreed.</p><p></p><p> - - -</p><p></p><p>Dan was a bit surprised at how this adventure went down, as that wasn't just a yuan-ti abomination he had tracking Snake-Boy - it was a yuan-ti abomination to whom he had added four or five cleric levels. And the poor sucker never got to stab, shoot, or cast a spell at any of the TPA! But Chaevaris did a lot of nonlethal damage with her <em>sleep arrow</em>, which meant we didn't have to deal as much physical damage as normal before he dropped into unconsciousness.</p><p></p><p>At the end of the game session, we all (finally!) got to level up to 12th level. Everybody just added a 12th level to their existing class; I don't think any of us is interested in multiclassing our PCs for this campaign.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Richards, post: 9326454, member: 508"] [B]ADVENTURE 49: CIRCUS CIRCUS[/B] PC Roster: [INDENT]Ageratum Purslane, halfling rogue 11[/INDENT] [INDENT] Alistair Mandelberen Pastlethwaite, human sorcerer 11[/INDENT] [INDENT] Chaevaris Noarunal, elf archer 11[/INDENT] [INDENT] Harlan Starblade, half-elf paladin 11[/INDENT] NPC Roster: [INDENT]Orchid, elf druid 11[/INDENT] Game Session Date: 17 April 2024 - - - "That looks like it," announced Harlan. Before them, just beyond the eastern edge of the town, a massive, canvas "tent wall" had been erected, the location of "[B]Anastasia[/B]'s Curiosities of the World," a combination traveling zoo/freak show making its rounds around the area. As the prominent adventures in Ghourmand Vale, the five members of the Trained Professional Adventures had been invited to come see a pre-show viewing and have dinner with the owner. The attraction wouldn't be opened to the public until tomorrow, but that was one of the perks of being local celebrities. This was likely all on the up-and-up, but just in case, Alistair had cast a [I]mage armor[/I] spell upon himself, and Orchid was under the effects of a [I]longstrider[/I] spell. "Plenty big," commented Chaevaris. Indeed, the canvas wall stood a good 20 feet tall and stretched north to south at least 100 feet in length. A painted wooden facade with an archway situated on the southern quarter of the wall facing them was the obvious entrance, with a slit down the center indicating where the tent flaps stood. A slender, dark-haired woman lounged in a canvas chair beside the entrance and seemed absorbed in reading through some papers. Immediately to her left stood a large, muscular creature some nine feet tall in spite of its hunched posture, playing with a small weasel it held in its massive hands. At the approach of the party, it abruptly stopped playing and stared at the party with all six of its insectoid eyes. The weasel leaped over to the woman who rose, patted her gray render bodyguard gently on its massive arm, adjusted her hair, and greeted the newcomers you. "Welcome to my circus of curiosities! I am Anastasia; you must be Harlan, Alistair, Chaevaris, and Ageratum, the Trained Professional Adventurers!" "And I'm Orchid," introduced the elven druid. "I'm a relatively new addition." Wherever Anastasia had gotten her information about the TPA, it was somewhat out of date. "Allow me to give you the quick tour," Anastasia offered, sweeping open the canvas flaps. Beyond, the ground was covered in sawdust and contained a half-dozen cages of various sizes, constructed of sturdy iron bars along the walls with wooden roofs. Each was on a wooden support platform, elevating the creatures within by a foot or so. The way directly ahead made a wide path, with cages on either side. To the immediate right, a quartet of snakelike creatures with snapping beaks at the center of four claw-tipped tentacles clicked and slithered about; to the immediate left, four fierce-looking cats paced about. Anastasia laughed at their antics as they snarled and pulled back the skin of their faces, revealing musculature and the bone beneath it. "Lesser folk may be frightened by these krenshars, but surely not you." "I say!" declared Alistair, never having seen such antics - or the hyenalike krenshars - before. His grackle familiar Ambrose gave the cats a wary eye as he perched upon his master's shoulder. Just beyond the first two cages was a perpendicular walking path, with another two cages further back. The one to the right held but a single creature: a fawn-colored, scaly-winged beast with large teeth and claws and a rather forlorn expression. As Anastasia neared the cage, she took the weasel from the pocket of her robes and casually flipped it between the bars of the dragonne's cage. The hungry beast caught the hapless mustelid out of the air, chewed it but once, and swallowed it down. "My dangerous dragonne from the hills," Anastasia announced. "She's got a roar that can unnerve even such stout fellows as you. Thankfully, she knows if she doesn't roar she'll get a fresh weasel. Don't approach her without a weasel or she’ll let you know about it - quite loudly." "So noted," replied Orchid, frowning. She didn't seem too impressed with the idea of keeping creatures locked up in cages. "Now, on to the greatest member of my collection," Anastasia said, turning the corner past the krenshar cage and ignoring the pair of four-armed girallons in the cage directly across from the dragonne. To the north stood a male figure the size of a human, in a cage with bars along most of one side but a "privacy area" enclosed in wooden walls along the western end. The young man wore velvet knee-length pants and an embroidered waistcoat. An eyepatch covered his left eye, and his head seemed partially caved in, as if he'd suffered a serious injury that was still healing on its own. "Behold, [B]Salissis the Snake-Boy[/B]!" As the group approached, they could see a scattering of scales in patches along the visible areas of skin, and he seemed to lack elbows. Of even greater concern was the metal pin stabbed through his right heel, just behind the ankles, through which a sturdy chain secured him the the center of the floor. The chain was long enough to allow him the full range of his lengthy cage, but it was still disconcerting to see a "zoo animal" wearing clothes and imprisoned in this fashion, even if the heroes had all recognized the boy as a yuan-ti. "He is a prince of his kind, from the jungles where we found the savage apes," added Anastasia. "He ravenously devours all flesh he comes into contact with. Beware that he doesn't charm you with his malevolent gaze!" Orchid looked at the pathetic boy, whose one visible eye was almond shaped, with a vertical pupil. But there wasn't much in the way of intelligence behind the boy's gaze, just a dumbfounded stare, much like that of a cow. Alistair, however, wasn't looking at the Snake-Boy; his attention was focused upon the last cage, to the east of the yuan-ti's. It was smaller, but was also equipped with a "privacy area" along the northern side, and it held a striking young woman: striking in the fact that her skin was bright red and she sported a pair of upthrust horns from her brow. She wore a short skirt, from which a pointed tail extended to the floor of her cage. And unlike the Snake-Boy, her eyes beheld a humanlike intelligence. "I say!" declared Alistair again, turning to Anastasia. "Why in the world do you have an intelligent creature locked up like this?" "Oh, she was found in the jungle as a baby," Anastasia replied. "She enjoys her role in our little setup; she occasionally reads fortunes when she's not on display." The tiefling said nothing to contradict the proprietress, but that seemed unlikely to the young nobleman; he couldn't put a finger on it, but he suspected Anastasia was lying to them about the young girl. Alistair turned to look at Harlan, his mouth open to ask a question, but the paladin was one step ahead. "Yes," he answered the unspoken question. "The tiefling, the yuan-ti, and our hostess - and none of the others." Without being asked to do so, Harlan had been inspecting the auras of those they'd encountered thus far. Chaevaris immediately realized there was a good chance they'd soon be fighting Anastasia, so she stepped around the corner, out of immediate view of the proprietress, and activated her [I]ring of invisibility[/I]. Then, in a practiced move, she pulled an arrow from her quiver and set it in place upon her magic longbow. But then a bit of movement by the tent flap caught her attention, and she saw what was clearly a yuan-ti abomination - a massive serpent with a humanoid chest and arms below a snake's head and neck - slither into the closed attraction and follow the way the heroes had come as they took their tour. Immediately deducing this snake-man was after Snake-Boy (who was, after all, supposed to be some sort of yuan-ti royalty), the archer silently replaced the arrow she'd grabbed up with her last [I]sleep arrow[/I], hoping to send this abomination snoozing before it could even start combat against the heroes. Back by Snake-Boy's cage, Alistair was still arguing with Anastasia. "I can certainly see locking up dangerous creatures like the girallons," the sorcerer continued. "But these two" - and here he indicated the tiefling and the yuan-ti halfblood - "are intelligent beings! They do not deserve to be caged like mere animals!" "Actually," began Orchid, wanting to press the point that [I]no[/I] living creature belonged in a cage, but she was cut off by Anastasia and decided to head over the way Chaevaris had gone. She was surprised not to see her fellow elf, and looked around before she realized what had likely happened - Chaevaris was already anticipating combat! The druid cast a [I]detect magic[/I] spell and noted the areas around Snake-Boy and Anastasia radiated an aura of magic - interesting. "Neither of them has ever made any objection about their living conditions," Anastasia argued. Ambrose, already bored with the conversation, took off from his master's shoulder and did a quick aerial reconnaissance around the enclosed cages. He spotted the yuan-ti abomination from the air and gave a quick call to his master in the language they shared. Alistair responded by calling out, "A yuan-ti approaches!" in a low hiss, then cast a [I]haste[/I] spell that encompassed himself, Ambrose, Ageratum, and Harlan - the two elves were too far away (and Alistair didn't see Chaevaris around anywhere in any case). Warned of the approaching enemy, Harlan cast a [I]bless[/I] spell on the entire party of heroes, specifically avoiding granting the benefit to Anastasia or her gray render bodyguard; no sense in aiding the potential enemy. Then he turned to face the tent flap, spotting the advancing abomination as it slithered past the grick cage towards the pathway leading to Snake-Boy's enclosure. Chaevaris, in the meantime, had a bead on the yuan-ti's left eye with her [I]sleep arrow[/I]. Ageratum ran over by the elves, slapping at her own [I]bracelet of invisibility[/I] as she did so. Then the yuan-ti abomination made some hand gestures indicating he was casting some sort of spell, and Chaevaris let loose with her [I]sleep arrow[/I]. Her training allowed her to place it right on target - the creature's unblinking left eye - but as its eye was covered in a translucent scale in the same manner as a snake, it didn't cost him his vision on that side of his head as it would had he been a human target. In addition, the reptile fended off the magical attempt to cause him to fall asleep, but Chaevaris got the impression the arrow-strike had caused him quite a bit of discomfort nonetheless. The gray render didn't like the accusing tone of Alistair's voice even if it didn't understand all of the words he was saying, and interposed himself between the sorcerer and his mistress. Snake-Boy wandered over to the bars of his cage and started sniffing the air, his head cocked at a quizzical angle. It was apparent he was smelling something, and was trying to recall where he had picked up that odor before in his life.... Anastasia began casting a spell of her own, placing a hand upon her gray render associate as she did so - perhaps readying him for combat just as the heroes had been doing for themselves? But then Orchid spun around and cast a spell directly at the proprietress, striking her with a narrow beam of energy. The [I]baleful polymorph[/I] spell did its work, and suddenly, in Anastasia's place directly behind the gray render there was only a little bunny. She looked around in astonishment at her new form, a good indicator that her original intelligence still dwelt behind the rabbit's fluffy exterior. With Anastasia apparently taken care of, Alistair ran over towards the girallon cage, then cast a [I]scorching ray[/I] spell at the yuan-ti abomination, sending the gouts of flame through the bars of the krenshar cage. The flame-blasts struck true, scorching the reptile across his broad chest and arms. At the same time, he picked up through his empathic link with Ambrose that the little grackle was not concerned about any other late arrivals to this little show; apparently the abomination traveled alone. Harlan ran past Orchid (the invisible Ageratum saw him coming and stepped out of his way) and charged at the abomination, swinging his flaming [I]Starblade[/I] for all he was worth. The sword bit deep into the abomination's body, sending scales flying and causing a gush of blood to spurt out of the wound. Ageratum ran up behind the yuan-ti and stabbed at his snakelike lower torso with her silver short sword, driving the blade in up to the hilt and then pulling it out, the blade coated in blood. With a hiss of pain, the yuan-ti crashed to the ground, its snake-tail twitching spasmodically as it lost consciousness. Chaevaris, in the meantime, had grabbed her original arrow back up and was taking aim at the gray render, not wanting it to be able to join in the melee without immediate repercussions. It was good thing, too, because the gray-skinned brute looked around for its mistress, failed to spot her (it lacked the wherewithal to realize the bunny now at its feet was Anastasia in a new form), and roared in defiance - obviously, one of these strangers was responsible for his mistress's sudden disappearance. He charged forward at the nearest stranger - Orchid, as it turned out - and was struck in the side of the head with an elven arrow as he spanned the distance between them. But he didn't allow Chaevaris's arrow to slow him; rather, he bit at Orchid as he scooped her up in his claws and ripped them across her lithe body. Orchid screamed in pain, tried casting a spell to get herself out of its crushing grip and failed, and finally wildshaped into a garter snake to wriggle free. In snake form, she plopped to the ground and darted into one side and out of the adjacent side of the girallon cage, before either of the two multilimbed apes even noticed her presence. Snake-Boy was now eagerly watching the combat with eyes blazing with intelligence; something had apparently triggered his awareness in a manner he hadn't experienced since receiving the head-wound immediately before his capture. A sudden hissing noise came from his cage, but none of the heroes was able to give him enough attention to realize it wasn't him making the hissing sound, it was coming from the metal pin piercing the yuan-ti's ankle, as the acid he generated from his skin started eating away at his chain.... Anastasia, in bunny form, hippity-hopped down the length of Snake-Boy's cage, over by the girallons, where she could get a good view of the heroes in the north-south corridor between the cages. She was once again behind the gray render, although whether this was intentional or not was not readily apparent. Alistair raised his [I]metamagic rod[/I] and channeled another [I]scorching ray[/I] spell through it, this time aiming at the gray render that had just caused Orchid so much pain. His flame-blasts struck true, causing the gray render to roar in pain. Immediately afterwards, Harlan charged back the way he'd come and brought the [I]Starblade[/I] slicing into the render's thick hide. And Chaevaris, back to visibility after having fired her previous arrows, fired another arrow straight into the gray render's belly, where half of its length stuck out. Black blood oozed from the wound and the gray render's mouth, and it backed off a few steps, clearly nauseated by the gutshot wound. Ageratum, during this time, was tending to one of the things she did best: making sure downed enemies didn't get back up. She could see the yuan-ti abomination breathing, but a quick slice of her blade across the reptile's throat soon put an end to [I]that[/I]. Snake-Boy, now freed from the chain around his ankle, walked over to the door to his cage and gave it a powerful kick, causing it to swing open wide. He gave a wide grin and stepped through the doorway for the first time in as far back as he could recall. He touched his wounded head, certain his head wound was why his memory was so fuzzy. Then, without any warning, the [I]baleful polymorph[/I] spell that had turned Anastasia into a bunny undid itself, and she rose up to a standing position in her original form. None of the heroes had any idea what had caused this sudden reverse-transformation, but Orchid didn't worry too much about it for the moment; rather, she cast a [I]wall of thorns[/I] spell that completely engulfed the gray render, Anastasia, and Snake-Boy, leaving the area directly to the side of the gray render relatively open (so that Harlan would be able to rush in and attack - she didn't want the paladin prevented from reaching the gray render with his longsword by her spell). Alistair stepped in front of Chaevaris (with a polite, "Excuse me, Elfy!" in passing), and cast a [I]lightning bolt[/I] at the gray render and Anastasia both, as they were conveniently lined up for him and unable to move due to the numerous thorns stabbing at them from all directions. The spell dropped the gray render instantly; it took even more damage on the way down as its body was stabbed and ripped by thorns. And then Harlan ran up to the gray render, seeing the open space beside the beast for what it was: a means for him to apply his sword to the enemy. But as the gray render was already dead, he stepped over it (into the [I]wall of thorns[/I]) and swung his sword at Anastasia, standing just behind her bodyguard's corpse. The sword-strike was enough to drop her as well. And that left only Snake-Boy to deal with. The yuan-ti was pinned in place by the [I]wall of thorns[/I] spell and knew it; he called for a truce immediately. "Release the thorns, and allow me to leave!" he called out. "I'm just a helpless victim to that crazy woman's schemes!" "You," corrected Harlan, "are a yuan-ti, a member of a race that reproduces by transforming innocent, unwilling human victims into your own vile forms!" "Uh, yes, yes, exactly! You said it yourself: I'm an innocent victim! I never wanted this for myself!" "You were," the paladin agreed. "And it saddens me that this has happened to you. But what has been done cannot be undone - you are, and will be forevermore, a vile creature with a heart filled with evil. The best thing we can do for you is to free you--" "Yes, yes, free me!" "--from life as the thing you have become. I will leave it to the gods to determine your fate in the next life." "Well, now, wait...." began Snake-Boy as he realized the paladin wasn't offering to free him in quite the way he had anticipated. But Harlan nodded over to Orchid (still in her garter snake form) to drop the [I]wall of thorns[/I] spell so he could dispatch the wretched yuan-ti from this existence. But Alistair spoke up, saying, "Allow me," before sending a [I]maximized magic missile[/I] spell through the twisting masses of thorns and nettles to strike Snake-Boy down dead. "Hey, guys," said Ageratum, "all the snake-guy had on him was this scimitar and this composite longbow; they're quite nicely crafted, I'd say masterwork at the very least, but way too big for any of us to use." She dropped the items in question on the ground before her. "We can probably get some decent coin if we sell them to someone big enough to use them." After some discussion, it was decided that they'd let the tiefling out of her cage. Yes, she registered as evil under Harlan's aura-scrutiny, but she was the offspring of a fiendish heritage and that couldn't really be blamed on her. She introduced herself as [B]Tina[/B] and was able to fill in a few details the heroes were missing: Anastasia was an aranea, a type of shapeshifting spider-creature, which explained how she was able to "undo" the effects of the [I]baleful polymorph[/I] spell. She had in fact bought Tina from a slaver and used enchantment magic to keep her in line ever since; her tale of rescuing Tina as a baby and raising her was all a line of rubbish. After further consideration, they decided to release the dragonne as well, after learning it was as intelligent as any human. (It only spoke Draconic, but Alistair knew a few words of that language - many arcane texts used that language, after all - and they determined it had been captured after it had hurt its wing, which had prevented it from flying away. It lived primarily by hunting deer in the forests and mountains, and after extracting a promise it wouldn't hunt intelligent races for food, a practice the dragonne claimed to find abhorrent, they opened its cage and allowed it to fly away.) "What about the rest of these creatures?" Ageratum asked. "Are we going to free them, too?" "We should," Orchid insisted. "I would advise against it," Alistair countered. "These other creatures would not hesitate at all to devour any of us for their next meal. Were we to let them go free, they would be a menace to the populace of our small town." "I'll tell you what," suggested Harlan. "Anastasia didn't transport and assemble all of these cages on her own. There must be workers nearby; 'roadies' I believe they're sometimes called. Let's go see if we can find them and see what they'd like to do from this point on." Orchid sighed, but acknowledged the reasoning behind the paladin's suggestion. "Very well," she agreed. - - - Dan was a bit surprised at how this adventure went down, as that wasn't just a yuan-ti abomination he had tracking Snake-Boy - it was a yuan-ti abomination to whom he had added four or five cleric levels. And the poor sucker never got to stab, shoot, or cast a spell at any of the TPA! But Chaevaris did a lot of nonlethal damage with her [I]sleep arrow[/I], which meant we didn't have to deal as much physical damage as normal before he dropped into unconsciousness. At the end of the game session, we all (finally!) got to level up to 12th level. Everybody just added a 12th level to their existing class; I don't think any of us is interested in multiclassing our PCs for this campaign. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
Playing the Game
Story Hour
Ghourmand Vale (3.5 campaign)
Top