Crossover – Hoyce's Gaming

Crossover: The Fire Key Part 3

Beybulat Tasho – Human Galmarian Swashbuckler and only member of the Notorious Nine on this expedition. Still a little confused about the details of what is going on but happy to be traveling with new folks for a bit.

Kelathadan (aka Kelli) – Elf Rogue. Continuing to follow along and hang back until it’s time for action, at which point she proves deadly when her rapiers and daggers find the backs of her enemies.

Fernith (aka Fern) – Half-elf ranger. Twin sister of Fynn and deadly archer. Although not necessarily thrilled to dealing with fiery threats she’d never allow Fynn to go into danger on his own.

Fynnhannar (aka Fynn) – Half-elf sorcerer with an affinity for fire. Twin brother of Fern and absolutely thrilled to be traveling into a fiery realm on the Astral plane. Accompanied by his rat familiar, Mr. Cheese.

Jasper Conroy – Human cleric and something of an unofficial father figure for Fynn and Fern. Finds traveling to new lands and having new experiences to be something of a religious requirement.

Skolax – Gargoyle NPC sent along to help the group by his master, Wrylish the Wizard.

Date unknown, Swallowed City, Astral Plane

The group proceeded to the warehouse to finding a large building seemingly without any windows. Jasper gathered everyone around to administer some healing after their recent skirmish and they approached the building.

Jasper advocated just charging in, feeling that with the Traveler protecting them and Bey’s assistance they would overpower any opposition. Fynn agreed to the plan with a shrug and a muttered “Ok.”

Fynn cast a magic detection divination through the door, revealing that beyond the door was mid-powered illusion magic in one area. He shared this information with his companions.

“There are child hostages within,” Jasper warned. “So try not to let them murder the children…”

With that Jasper gestured for Bey to kick in the door. Bey snuck up to the door and tried to listen at the door, hearing what might have been footsteps moving past the door. He decided to see if he could access the building from the roof and with a few swift jumps found himself upon the roof, and found a hatch that led down.

Bey gestured to the others, urging them to join him on the roof and go through the hatch, and they moved to join him. Once they were all on the roof, Bey moved to the hatch found that it was locked. They lacked a way to open it, but there was also a vent on the roof.

Peering through the vent they could partially see some fiery figures patrolling. Fynn drew a wand and used it to turn Fern into a gaseous form so she could get inside. Once inside, Fern realized she would be spotted soon should she become corporeal again. She did so, and immediately cast a spell to allow her to blend into the surroundings.

She made her way to the hatch and opened it as stealthy as she could, allowing those on the roof to get inside. They saw several dwarf like creatures with fiery heads patrolling as well as different larger creature. Jasper suggested that the dwarf creatures were Azers while the larger creature was an Ifreet and was probably Rannog.

Fynn peered down and cast a spell on the fiery head of one of the dwarf creatures causing it’s fire to explode into a massive fireworks display, blinding one of the creatures, but not affecting Rannog at all.

Kelli leaped into the building, landing gracefully thanks to magical boots she wore and moved towards Rannog. Meanwhile the Azers began moving into position, with the blinded one feeling his way along one of the many towers of crates and leaving smoldering sparks behind in the wood.

Rannog spotted Fern coming down the ladder and moved back to a defensive position and drew his sword. He gestured for Fern to attack him and said “Come to me mortal, and fall upon my blade.”

Fynn cast Feather Fall on himself, Jasper, Bey and Fern and they all leaped through the hatch, floating gently to the ground. As soon as he landed Fynn muttered “This goes against everything I believe in…” to himself and summoned an large Ice Elemental to engage Rannog. The creature had no sooner appeared than a magical energy cage appeared around it. Rannog repeated himself, pointing to the entire group now. “Come mortals, and fall upon my blade.” Fynn too decided to repeat himself, by summoning another Ice Elemental in response.

*“You know, we have lives of our own, half-elf…”*

The new elemental started trying to pummel Rannog and the attacks just passed straight through the creature. He again gestured at them and repeated himself a third time “Come mortal, and fall upon my blade.”

“Ugh..he’s an illusion,” Fynn declared with disgust. “Don’t even bother with it.”

Fern, while falling with Fynn’s spell, pushed herself onto a stack of barrels, and Bey clambered up behind her. Skollax swooped through the hatch with his wings open to float down to the floor safely.

Bey noticed one of the stacked crates moving and pointed it out, suggesting there was an animal in there, though Jasper quickly posited that it might be one of the town’s children they were there to get. Bey ran off to join the battle, but Jasper went to investigate it, and his arm seemed to reach through the crate and he found he was holding the muscular leg of a humanoid. Taken aback he exclaimed “Who are you?! Friend of or Foe?” but he received no response.

Several of the Azer attacked Fynn’s Ice Elemental, though it was able to evade. Fynn climbed up onto the crates and used his Wand of Ice Storm to conjure a storm in the middle of the warehouse, killing four of the Azer’s immediately.

Two Janni suddenly came bursting from the small closed office, enlarging themselves to twice their size at the sight of the heroes though Fern, from her new vantage, fired a hail of arrows at one of them with several striking home. Bey followed up by leaping off the crates onto the same Janni, mortally wounding the creature.

*A Janni…thankfully susceptible to arrows and blades…*

Kelli, still invisible, slipped behind one of the Azer and cut him to ribbons, somewhat dismayed that the creature seemed sadly resigned to his death.

Meanwhile, the leg Jasper found ripped itself out of his grasp and the real Rannog appeared behind Jasper. With a word of magic his enormous blade burst into flame and he slashed at Jasper, his blade glancing off a magical protection spell that was on the cleric. Rannog screamed in a rage at this failure.

*Rannog*. Come and fall upon his blade, mortal.

Fynn, seeing Rannog attacking Jasper drew a wand and fired a thin green beam of light that enveloped Rannog and he bellowed in rage and agony. The Ifreet survived the Disintegration but was left horribly wounded. Jasper attempted to scramble away from Rannog, climbing up the crates, narrowly avoiding a slash from his flaming sword. Jasper called on The Traveler and blindly fired a Spear of Purity behind him, though Rannog dodged it. Finally atop the crate, Jasper fully swiveled and followed up with a casting of Holy Smite, injuring the Ifreet further.

Meanwhile the Janni counter attack Bey, slashing at the Galmarian while the other turned himself invisible. Kelli, still invisible, charged up beside Bey and stabbed the large Jani that was still visible. Bey followed up by cutting the Janni down before it could do anything further.

Fern, seeing Jasper in trouble, shot Rannog with a flaming arrow and Skollax leaped onto the boxes and interposed himself between Rannog and Jasper, missing him with his claws. In response Rannog fired two fiery rays at Jasper and Skollax, missing the former and striking the latter. They were soon joined by Fynn’s summoned Ice Elemental, which engaged Rannog from behind while he focused on Jasper and Skollax.

Fynn then drew forth a petrified eye and fired a greenish/purplish beam of light that struck Rannog and very obviously drained his power. At the same time, the other Janni attacked Jasper from behind, turning visible as he did so. The blow struck the cleric, wounding him. Jasper fell back in response, drawing and chugging a Potion of Bull Strength as he went. Fern pivoted, firing on the Janni and filling him full of arrows. Skollax followed up, leaping on the Janni attacking it furiously with claws, teeth and horns. Kelli charged up and followed Skolax’s attack with a rapier to the back of the creature. Bey followed along behind, charging up to the Janni and finishing the creature off.

Rannog fell back, his back against a set of double doors, and magically erected a Wall of Fire to try to defend against the Ice Elemental, but the creature just charged through the stacked boxes and crates around the Wall of Fire. Fynn, from his invisible perch let loose with a flurry of Magic Missiles, slamming Rannog into the doors over and over until he finally slumped to the ground, unconscious or dead.

The wall continued to burn, however, catching the crates aflame. They began to fall back, searching for the missing children. Bey searched the office where the Janni had been, finding lots of paperwork related to operating a warehouse, but nothing that helped determine where any children might be hidden.

“Fynn, put out the fire!” Kelli urged.

“I start them, I don’t put them out,” the half-elf deadpanned back. He did have his conjured Ice Elemental begin moving flammable objects out of the path of the rapidly expanding fire though.

Jasper, looking around with a Detect Magic spell active, soon located a large area with illusion magic. A moment later he was able to pierce the illusion, seeing a cage with several children in it, screaming for help but silenced so none could hear them. As he approached the cage his voice cut out, due to the Silence spell obviously on the children.

Bey followed Jasper after a moment, but as the cleric was within the illusion, saw nothing, and it seemed as if he had simply vanished! He called to the others, informing them that Jasper had vanished.

Kelli and the twins came to investigate, with Fynn using Detect Magic to promptly realize that there was an illusion. This announcement allowed Fern to see through the illusion, where she saw Jasper smashing at the door of the cage with a club, but of course they could not hear him.

Jasper and Fynn managed to break the door and lead the children out, shocking Bey who still had not managed to see through the illusion.

The children began to panic about the fire. “It’ll burn the ship!” one of them said.

“What ship?!” Jasper asked.

“There’s a ship on the other side of those doors. The mean fire man made us clean it all the time!”

Realizing that the ship might be the vessel they need to reach their destination Fynn pulled out his wand and cast another Ice Storm to put out most of the fire. Jasper urged the children to go and find their parents while the rest of them went through the double doors Rannog had died near.

They found a strange ship in the next room, with odd fins and unusual sails. It was about 80’ long and around 20’ wide and could no doubt hold a good amount of cargo and crew. Even without the benefit of divination spells, Fynn and Jasper could tell the ship was incredibly magical.

Exploring the ship revealed some muffled noises below deck at the fore of the ship. As they went below decks and got closer they heard two voices, one that was still clearing calling for help and another that they could not make out the language of.

Bey went to the door where the man inside was speaking common and kicked the door down. Within they found an older man, who appeared somewhat burned. He introduced himself as Rhoderes.

“Ah, yes! the town wizard!” Bey declared. “They are wizard too!” he said, gesturing to Fynn and Jasper.

“No,” Fynn answered, annoyed.

“Close, I guess.” Jasper retorted.

They told Rhoderes that they slew Rannog and saved the children. He asked why they were here and they explained they sought the Planar Key of fire.

“Then the gods have sent you here to me,” Rhoderes said. “I have seen it. Rannog’s allies, Vrenex, a creature that calls itself a Draconian, and a ratman called Squik all serve a creature called the Dark Star . If you seek the Planar Key, you must know of the sphere.”

When they confessed they did not, he informed them that the creature that Rannog, Vrenex, and Squick worked for had pulled a star from its original location and housed it within a sphere that was shielded. He advised them they would have to go through the Ithonnak Expanse and disable the shield to access the Sun Sphere and reach the Planar Key. “They forced me to help them in these endeavors, but I can help you defeat them.”

Rhoderes advised that there was a Rougarou named Sek that the djinn had enslaved to help them operate the ship and that he could help them. Realizing that this must be the creature in the other room that was not speaking common. They released Sek and he seemed willing to help.

Fynn cast a spell that let him communicate with Sek, and he proved highly articulate and explained that the ship, the Prisim, was his ship before he was captured by Rannog and forced to serve them. Sek immediately agreed to pilot the ship for them.

The group retreated back to town to visit Rhoderes’ magic shop to acquire anything they might need for the coming battle. Making use of the pocket of real time that Rhoderes maintained his his store to rest and recover spells.

“DM’s” Notes: A fun, exciting fight! With Rannog defeated and the children of the Swallowed City safe, our heroes can move on in their search for the Planar Key of Fire. The main question, however, is who all these baddies call master?

Uncategorized

Crossover: The Fire Key Part 2

Fernith (aka Fern) – Half-elf ranger. Twin sister of Fynn and deadly archer. Although not necessarily thrilled to dealing with fiery threats she’d never allow Fynn to go into danger on his own.

Jasper Conroy – Human cleric and something of an unofficial father figure for Fynn and Fern. Finds traveling to new lands and having new experiences to be something of a religious requirement.

Skolax – Gargoyle NPC sent along to help the group by his master, Wrylish the Wizard.

Date unknown, Swallowed City, Astral Plane

The Swallowed City was actually a series of small independent land masses with buildings upon them that were all tethered together. However despite Wrylish claiming it was a bustling trade port, it seemed mostly abandoned. The odds of finding a ship seemed small.

“I think that wizard lie to us,” Bey suggested.

“Maybe, or perhaps something changed since he was last here,” Jasper suggested.

Despite how empty things seemed, they spied a few humans, heading towards a building with a large overflowing tankard upon a sign. Fynn saw a building with a sign identifying it as a Mage Hall and headed there immediately, with the others following.

Though once a no doubt large and grand building, whatever pulled these buildings to the Astral Plane and sheered off much of the top of it, and a new roof and chimney was clearly added afterwards. The stonework was well done, however, and some of the bricks had magical runes upon them. As they approached they saw that some of the stones were blackened and/or missing. Jasper knocked upon the door, but no one answered.

“Maybe we’ll break in later…” Fynn mused, and the party decided to find someone who might be able to provide information for them. Jasper tried to stop someone moving through town, but they ignored him and told him to just go to the tavern if he wanted to talk.

Inside the tavern, though Fynn detected some magical auras indicating that some folks had magical items, they decided to head in. There were only two folks at the bar, though they left abruptly when the group entered. Past the bar portion of the building was a room with a sign that said “Real Time Lounge”.

Jasper approached the bartender, a tiefling who identified himself as Zarbor, greeted him and informed Jasper that the lounge was, indeed a time where there was real space, though he urged Jasper and his companions to have a drink and move on, implying the lounge needed to be fumigated.

When Fern asked what happened to the mages he stated the the town was attacked by some raiders that the mages tried to help them fight off.

Fynn cast a Message spell upon Zarbor and his companions so that they could talk freely and not be overheard. The tiefling breathed a sigh and quietly informed them that the town had been taken over by Ifreeti and Djinn and that they were soon going to be noticed and enslaved by them if they did not leave immediately. He said that the mages were taken out by them, and that the chief mage, Rodaries, was missing.

Zarbor stated that they could stay in the Real Time Lounge if they wanted, but he didn’t recommend it as he suspected that the Djinn would see them and try to enslave them. Jasper, forgetting to whisper because he’d been drinking, promised to help them defeat the evil Djinn before Zarbor cut him off, denying knowing what he was talking about. Whispering, he promised to sneak them around and in the back so their presence would be less obvious.

Leaving, they slipped around and met the tiefling at a back door and he slipped them in. Although the rest decided to wait outside of the real time, Jasper went in, had a few drinks and a meal and rested for several hours.

While Jasper slept the rest head some noise in the main bar area. Kelly was able to determine that someone was interrogating Zarbor, claiming he was harboring outsiders. Zarbor told them the group had left and led them off in the wrong direction. With a threat to return later if the group was not found, the interrogator left.

A short time later Jasper emerged, fully rested and a moment later Zarbor returned and urged them to leave immediately and find Lord Alfred if they wanted to help, as he feared the Ifriti would return and burn the place down and possibly harm their children.

“Wait, what?” Fynn said. “Way to bury the lead!”

“They have your children?!” Bey asked.

Zarbor admitted that the Ifrit in charge, Rannog, had kidnapped their children to safeguard their behavior. He urged them to talk to Lord Alfred, claiming he was the only reason Rannog and the Djinn hadn’t killed everyone already.

They decided to visit the keep and find Lord Alfred. It was a fairly imposing stone structure guarded by a pair of armored humans. They nodded to the group with no preamble one of them said “you are expected, please follow me.” They did, passing through halls with strange paintings and tapestries showing different scenes of the Prime Material Plane as well other parts of the Astral Plane.

After being led through a richly furnished palace they came to a large wood paneled hall with a man in a military style tunic seated behind a desk upon a dais. The man introduced himself as Lord Alfred Kinnebar, Solamnic knight of the Sword. As Lord Alfred met spoke several in the group saw that there was a figure hiding in the curtains behind him and that Lord Alfred was visibly nervous.

Fynn was able to get a peek behind the curtain and recognized the large red skinned horned creature as a Janni, which swiftly realized it had been seen realized he’d been seen.

“Come forward strangers,” Lord Alfred said, waving the group forward. “If you are outsiders you are my guests here, for now. Come before me so we might speak.”

Although everyone was hesitant, fearing a trap, Jasper and Skolax ultimately approached Lord Alfred’s dias, followed reluctantly by the others who.

Seeing their trepedation Lord Alfred announced, some what loudly, to them “I have named you my guests, so know that while you are here your safety is assured. “s you are not from the city,” he continued, “I will advise that we were recently attacked. As a result the city has been closed to outsiders while we repair the damage. You may gather the supplies you need to move on, but if you do not leave you will be arrested.”

Jasper thanked Alfred for his concern and inquired if he needed any further assistance while they were here.

“You must understand, raiders attacked our merchants and beat our citizens and I cannot take any action until I can protect my citizens. You must understand” he repeated with emphasis, his eyes flicking to the Janni behind the curtain.

Deciding that action was needed, Fern, Bey and Kelli began sneaking towards the Janni while Jasper and Skollax tried to keep it and Alfred distracted. Fynn, flanked by his summoned fire elementals and flaming sphere, simply opted not to move.

Realizing what the group was doing, Alfred leaped to his feet and ordered his guard to bar the door and to no let the Janni escape. Fern moved first, firing four arrows through the curtain, two of them striking the Janni, and the other two pinning it to the wall outlining the creature. Kelli moved next, running up and stabbing the Janni with her rapier.

The Janni sliced through the curtain and stepped through to get away from Kelli before getting stabbed again and then turned himself invisible. This was stymied, however, as Fynn cast a spell that caused the curtain to drape forward, revealing the Janni’s location.

Skollax took a gliding leap towards the outline in the curtain, pulling a longbow as he went, and fired at the Janni but missed. Bey followed up, moving close enough to the Janni and impaling it with his magical short sword and felling the creature.

Alfred thanked them, but warned that he’d put them all in grave danger. He stated that Rannog would kill all of them and the town’s children if he learned of it, and that he had an army of fire monsters.

Jasper was utterly unconcerned “Yea, yea, whatever. Where is this guy so we can go kill them and save your children.”

Alfred did tell them where Rannog’s headquarters was, but warned he was very powerful and served a greater master. “They call his master the Darkstar,” the lord told them. “It’s whispered he’s a celestial cast out of paradise. He came here with his consort, an Ifritti royal. I will never forget the moment they arrived,” he added with a shudder. “Rannog serves the Darkstar, and you must not draw HIS gaze here when you fight Rannog. Please be careful or we will all be destroyed even if you slay Rannog. I have never seen a being of such terrible beauty and unspeakable horror as the Darkstar.”

“So…that sounds like the guy who has the thing we need…” Fynn muttered flatly.

They group agreed to be as careful as possible so the children did not come to harm, and Alfred wished them well, “I give you the blessing of the Knights of Salamnia,” he said.

“Does that do anything?” Fynn asked.

“No…it’s just a wish of luck really…”

With that, the heroes left the keep and headed straight for the warehouse where Alfred stated they believed Rannog and his minions made their headquarters.

As they were on their way, Fern noted that they were being followed by a few townsfolk. She informed Jasper, Fynn and Kelli of this in elven. Jasper immediately switched to the Common Tongue and advised Bey and Skollax to confront them.

The group whipped around, hands on their weapons, and the visage of the townspeople disappeared and was replaced by strange fiery creatures that Fynn later speculated were Burning Dervishes. They whipped back their fiery cloaks and drew their swords.

Ready for combat, the Dervishes immediately leaped into action. One gazed at Skollax, looking to affect his mind but the gargoyle shrugged off the effect. Another charged Fern, striking her with his blade. Another physically changed into a column of fire. Yet another turned invisible, and the fifth grappled Fynn’s flaming sphere and shoved it into his cloak, absorbing the flame into itself.

Fern, feeling the one that absorbed the power of Fynn’s spell was likely now stronger, ignored the one stabbing at her and fired several arrows at that one, wounding it.

Fern was backed by Bay and Jasper, the former charging in and stabbing the Dervish who attacked her and the latter stepping up and delivering healing toher.

Skollax, meanwhile, took to the air, flying out of reach of the enemy and preparing to dive.

Fynn turned himself and Kelli invisible, telling her “Go ahead little murder elf.” With a smile, Kelli slipped forward and stabbed the Dervish that had absorbed the flaming sphere, wounding it badly.

The creature fighting Fern continued to slash at her, undoing Jasper’s healing and wounding the half-elf again, while another Dervishes continued to strike at Skollax. A third lashed out at one of Fern’s fire elementals, striking it and causing it to wink away back to the elemental plane of fire. The fourth struck Bey, wounding him, but the barbarian was able to disarm him a second later. The final enemy, who had transformed into a column of fire, lashed out at Bey with flame, burning him. Bey retaliated with his magical short sword, wounding the Dervish in turn.

Kelly, invisible, lashed out with her rapier and short sword, brutally killing the Dervish that had been attacking Skollax.

Fern retaliated on the enemy that was attacking her, filling him full of arrows and grievously wounding him.

Skollax took to the air, dodging the attacks of the Dervish near him, and fired his bow down at them, nearly killing the one Fern had filled with arrows.

Fynn drew a wand and used it to conjure a small, localized but powerful storm of ice, striking the column of fire and the enemy who dropped his sword, harming both them badly.

Jasper moved and healed some of Bey’s wounds.

“Thank you cleric man,” the Galmarian said, getting a nod back from Jasper in response.

The Burning Dervishes frantically tried to move out of the effect of the ice storm, one turned and fled in a panic, while the other moved out of the storm and cast a spell that turned him invisible. The Dervish who was filled with arrows lashed out at Jasper but was unable to penetrate his armor. He was killed a second later by Kelli.

The final Dervish took out Fynn’s other fire elemental, while Fern shot at him, although her arm hit Bey on the pull, causing the arrow to go off course and strike the invisible Fynn instead.

“Sorry!” she called to her brother.

“Careful!” Bey admonished Fern, as he ran up to the Dervish she’d just shot at, lashing out with his magical short sword and cleaving into it. Skollax followed up from the air with a pair of arrows, wounding the enemy further.

Fynn, for his part, targeted the Dervish that turned into a column of fire and cast a spell on him that dampened the fire, causing a huge plume of smoke to emerge and injuring it. Then, in recognition of his sister’s error, followed up with a Protection from Arrows spell.

Jasper moved up and struck at a Dervish and the two traded ineffectual blows while the invisible Dervish suddenly appeared behind Jasper, lashing out at him and striking him with a sneak attack. He was cut down a moment later by Kelli, and the next one was killed a second later by Fern’s arrows.

They turned their attention to the Dervish who had turned into a pillar of flame and was fleeing, with Skollax flying after him and firing with his bow, though missing. Fynn, however, merely used his wand again, pummeling it with ice and hail while Kelli gave chase Fern slowed it in a hail of arrows, allowing the elf to catch up to the creature and finish it off.

The group collected themselves, ready to continue onto the warehouse to rescue the town’s children, though they knew that if the enemy was aware of them enough to send assassins that whatever they would find at the warehouse might be prepared for them.

“DMs” Notes: The Fire Team continues their adventure. The idea of how the Swallowed City came to be never really was explored (or even inquired about) by the PC’s but I like the concept. Essentially portions of a city got yanked from some world on the Prime Material Plane and existed floating around in the Astral now. The citizens pulled with their buildings tethered the chunks of floating land together so they would remain together and now they are just a floating town drifting through the Astral.

Being a Dragonlance fan I also appreciated Lord Alfred’s origins, showing again that the Astral connected to all worlds and serving as a little Easter Egg in the adventure. I’m not sure it was caught by most of the players as I believe only me and my co-DM Tim are fans of the franchise within our group, but I enjoyed it and that’s enough for me.

Uncategorized

Crossover: The Fire Key Part 1

Fernith (aka Fern) – Half-elf ranger. Twin sister of Fynn and deadly archer. Although not necessarily thrilled to dealing with fiery threats she’d never allow Fynn to go into danger on his own.

Jasper Conroy – Human cleric and something of an unofficial father figure for Fynn and Fern. Finds traveling to new lands and having new experiences to be something of a religious requirement.

Astral Plane, Date unknown

Tasked with tracking down and getting the Fire Planar Key, Jasper, Fern, Fynn, Bey and Kelli were told by Dillman and Aquibius that the first step would be finding the Ith’thannok Expanse, where the Planar Key of Fire was. To that end, Aquibius advised that they would need to visit a wizard named Wyrlish, who was said to know how to get there. Everyone except Beybulat was acquainted with Wyrlish from their last trip to the Astral Plane though they did not recall him being especially receptive to visitors and last time they had needed Xarth to smooth things over.

*“This one is not coming with you this time…”*

As expected, the Wyrlish was displeased at having this studies interrupted, but they were able to convince him to help, though he’d only agree to do so if they bested him in a game of chess. Fynn agreed to play him, though things got off to a rough start, and Fynn’s inexperience in the game showed. However soon Wrylish’s over-confidence worked against him as Fynn began taking several of the wizard’s pawns. Unfortunately it was not enough to defeat the far more skilled Wyrilsh, who laughed gloatingly upon his victory.

*Wrylish the wizard is not what might be described as a gracious winner.*

“Ok, you lost,” Wyrlish announced. “Now get out.”

Jasper offered instead to make him a magical feast for information and Wrylish agreed, as he hadn’t eaten in years (food not being neccessary for survival in the Astral Plane). Jasper called upon his god Namas to conjure a vast feast and Wrylish agreed to tell them what he knew in exchange for the sumptuous meal.

Wyrlish stated that he sensed a great magical disturbance from the Ith’thannok Expanse and that a Spelljammer ship could likely take them there. He directed them to the Swallowed City to find a Spelljammer captain and crew. He offered to show them there, and when Jasper agreed Wrylish yelled “Skolax” causing one of the statues in his home to come to life, revealing that it was a gargoyle.

He ordered it to take them to the Swallowed City, help if he wanted, and to not bring them back to his home. Skolax led them away, and Jasper asked the gargoyle about his history. Skolox revealed he was a magical creature who guarded his master, a wizard, on his home world.

“There are rivalries between wizards there,” Skolox explained, his voice sounding something like two rocks crushing gravel. “When my master was attacked by a rival I was caught up in the battle and teleported to the Astral Plane, where I eventually came into the service of Wrylish.”

Before they could talk much more the group encountered a tiger humanoid who identified himself as Chargain and demanded they help him return to the Prime Material Plane.

“We can’t do that. We don’t have the ability.” Fynn deadpanned.

The creature swore and demanded they give him a boon or tithe.

“What will you give us?” Fynn asked, and Chargain agreed to barter with them. After talking back and forth, where the creature provided no concrete evidence of his magical ability or possession of magical items worth bartering, Fynn declared “You don’t have any power at all do you.”

“Of course I do!” he spat back angrily and waved his staff, causing a quartet of winged snakes to appear. Jasper quickly drew an amulet and offered it in trade, but Chargain ordered his creatures to attack.

Bey floated himself towards the nearest winged snake to try to attack it, but maneuvering through the Astral was difficult and he blew past it. Unable to reach his target he drew his gnomish weapon, the Punchstabbing Dartflinger, and fired a poisoned dart at it instead, striking the creature.

Skolax moved to attack Chargain, but overshot him and flew past, fruitlessly swiping at him. Fynn, for his part, conjured a pair of small fire elementals to appear in front of two of the winged snakes, and they immediately engaged the creatures. He then drew a magical compass that helped him navigate the astral and handed it off to Kelli, figuring it was more important that she be able to maneuver in battle than him.

Chargain moved and began to cast a spell on Skolax, who then concentrated incredibly hard and his head tilted as though he was considering something deeply or perhaps hearing a voice no one else could hear. Chargain then followed up by casting a magical acid spell at Fynn, but missing.

Jasper tried to talk Chargain down, but he refused to listen. Mumbling a complaint about not knowing when he will be able to rest again, Jasper cast a spell that caused a spear of pure light at one of the nearby winged snakes, destroying it instantly. He followed by casting a spell that caused a floating hooked chain to appear near Chargain and engage him, though he was able to block its attack.

Armed with Fynn’s magical compass, Kelli pirouetted and maneuvered insanely around the field, coming to rest behind one of the snakes fighting one of Fynn’s fire elementals and skewered it with her rapier.

One of the the snakes attacked an elemental, taking far more damage for biting fire than it inflicted, while the other charged Fynn, barely missing the sorcerer. One of his summoned elementals, however, clumsily moved to interpose itself between him and the snake, striking the creature in the process and setting it on fire. Jasper joined in by beating the winged snake several times, inflicting minimal damage. Fern followed up immediately with her bow, however, shooting the creature 3 times and killing it and carrying it off away from the battle.

Bey, trying to get his bearings, was unable to stop his momentum and drifted further and further from the battle.

Fynn then conjured a flaming sphere, placing it straight on the tiger creature. Not quite realizing that Fynn was responsible for most of the spells, Chargain fired a lightning bolt from his staff at Kelli, who was fortunately able to avoid the blast. He followed up with a Magic Missile spell instead, and 5 yellowish orange blasts of magical energy slammed into Kelli. In retaliation the elf maneuvered herself over to Chargain, stabbing him with her rapier and wounding him quite badly.

Only one of the winged snakes remained alive, and it flew towards Kelli, as she was attacking the tiger creature, but it missed and flew by.

Bey finally managed to control his movement and flew towards the tiger creature, giving him a grievous wound to his hip.

The fire elementals went in after the tiger creature as well, however the first one could not control itself and tumbled away spinning, and the other passed under him and kept going as well. Fynn waved his hand and the burning sphere moved onto the creature, burning him.

Chargain suddenly surrendered, offering to give them boons if they spared his life. He banished his last surviving snake creature upon Kelli’s demand and Jasper accepted the creature’s surrender, approaching him.

The creature promised not to harm them and had to cast a spell to grant the promised boons. He spoke a word of magic and a small box with intricate carvings on all sides appeared.

Fynn cast a divination spell upon it and determined that it radiated necromancy, abjuration and evocation magics and that it required one spell of each type cast upon it to activate it. He could not make out the runes, but Kelli recognized them as belonging to an insectoid race native to the Astral Plane called the D’ziriak. This allowed Fynn to cast a spell that allowed him to translate the runes. He used that to determine that the spells needed to open it were Quell Energy, Animate Dead and Wind Wall.

Chargain also also warned them that a powerful force has disturbed the fabric in the It’honnak Expanse and that something created gravity there. He also warned that he met an ice devil traveling towards the expanse and that it dismissed him stating he had more important business. True to their word, the party allowed Chargain to depart.

The group, now joined by Fynn’s summoned Fire Elementals, continued their trek to the Swallowed City.

“DM’s” Notes: I put DM in quotes here because I was not the DM for this one, my co-DM Tim was. Still, IMHO this was a good start of the “Fire Team” on their quest. We hadn’t intended for this one to be half of the Fate Fighters+Bey but overall it seemed to be working out alright, the oddities of fighting while floating in the Astral Plane notwithstanding.

The real question now was what they would find once they reached the Swallowed City.

Emeron Liveplays

Crossover: The Water Key Part 4

Dame Edella Montfort – Human Paladin member of the Notorious Nine. Cheery, Stalwart champion of justice. Though out of her element she is determined to do what is needed to save the day.

Elriel (aka “the Opal”) – Elven Druid member of the Fate Fighters. Not the most personable of elves, but good hearted and powerful. Seems to prefer to remain the shape of a large tiger, but willing to take his normal form as needed. Currently in the form of a large water elemental.

Raskin Daggermaw – Half-Orc Rogue member of the Notorious Nine. Surly and braggadocious, he seems to be helping begrudgingly, but looks forward to using his skills at violence and (hopefully) getting paid.

Ron Cunningham – Halfling Bard member of the Notorious Nine. Good natured and willing to ride along for another adventure, crazy as this one seems to be. His artistic stylings are strange, but his magic is powerful.

Wu Xen – Human Monk/Cleric member of the Fate Fighters. Disciplined and holy, he seeks to do good and help to defeat the evil that threatens the Astral Plane. Nobody but Edella seems interested in his stories and parables.

Furreltuff “Furrel” Mellburrow – NPC Kender “handler.” Originally just a (mediocre at best) guide Furrel has decided to stick around and help. The fact that he has no idea what a Planar Key is or where might be found in no way deters him. Currently in the form of a small sheep.

The Living Sea, Astral Plane. Date unknown.

The the Sahuagin all slain, the group was left only with an enormous pile of treasure and the Planar Key they came for to collect. Edella ran to Ron, who had been injured and stunned when Furreltuff grabbed the planar key without checking for magical traps. He swam over and bleated sadly to see Ron inured.

“See,” Edella admonished, examining Ron. “This is why I said to hold off on getting it until after the battle.”

Furrel bleated sadly. Fortunately Ron was not badly hurt and Edella applied some healing to the entire party. Raskin barely waited to be healed before he immediately began shoveling coin into his backpack. Furrel followed him bleating insistently.

“Oh, you want some buddy? Here you go.” Raskin said, shoving some coin into his wool coat. Furrel merely shook it out again and kept bleating while Edella collected the Planar Key from him.

Opal, figuring it would be eaiser to work out what the kender wanted if he was no longer a sheep, cast Dispel Magic upon him, returning him to his Kender form.

“Wow! That was awesome to be a sheep” Furrel blurted excitedly. “Too bad I didn’t get to eat any grass. I guess I could eat grass now that I’m a kender again, but I bet it tastes better as a sheep.”

“Uh huh,” Raskin said, contining to shovel coins into his pack.

“Anyway,” Furrel continued, reminded of what he was trying to say as a sheep. “this money was all stolen from the people of Wativia. We should give it back!”

“That is the right thing to do Raskin…” Edella chimed in immediately.

“I concur,” Wu added.

“Look, I killed a lot of Sahuagin. We earned this money. You can do what you want but I’m getting paid.”

“I’m sure the town will reward us if we take it back to them,” Edella said.

“That’s true!” Furrel added. “The mayor is a pretty nice guy I bet he’d give us a reward for sure!”

Raskin grunted. “I’m rewarding myself, thanks.”

Edella, seeing that she would not convince Raskin, sought instead to mitigate his greet in an effort to help the people of Wativia. “Very well Raskin, you can take whatever can fit into your pack and that’s it. We’ll return the rest.”

“A generous compromise,” Wu agreed.

“Fiiiiiine,” Raskin agreed rolling his eyes.

Edella apologized to Wu for Raskin’s actoins. “Its the best I could negotiate out of him,” she explained.

“You’ve no need to apologize,” the monk assured her. “I’ve one very much like him among my companions too.”

Among the treasures they also found a small chest with the markings of the church they’d visited while in Wativia. Opal identified the sigil and remarked that the cleric there, Maelinnus, had commented that much of his wares had also been stolen by the Sahuagin.

Edella proceeded to search the Sahuagin minions, figuring that their belongings were spoils of war and thus fair game, and collected the items they found to be divvied up among both groups once they were all together.

Eventually Raskin’s bag would hold no more coins and the others had gathered up the remainder to take back to Wativia and they departed. Soon enough they reached the town and Furrel suggested they visit the mayor, K’vell, to give them back their goods.

K’vell turned out to be an old water gnossi. He initially greeted Furrel with suspicion, reminding the kender that he had banished him for causing trouble that prompted the Sahuagin to retaliate on the town.

Chagrined, Furrel stumbled over his words attempting to explain himself, but Edella stepped in and assured the mayor that they would have no further trouble from the Sahuagin or their aboleth lord, Ku’lub’thig.

Overjoyed, the mayor thanked them profusely and this only intensified when they reveled that they’d brought as much of the treasure as they could carry back for the town.

“There will be an immense celebration!” K’vell promised. “Please, stay and be our guests of honor!”

“I’m afraid we are on a quest that is somewhat time sensitive,” Edella explained. “Otherwise we would love to.”

“Well, in that case please, chose an item or some coin as a reward from what you’ve brought back. You’ve earned it! I insist.”

“Well, if you insist…” Raskin began.

Edella gave Raskin a look but seemed reluctant to call him out in front of others for his greed. Wu held no such compunction, however. “I believe that you already claimed your reward for your actions, Goodman Daggermaw, in the from of the thousands of coins in your pack, did you not?”

“I did murder a lot of Sahuagin,” Raskin muttered under his breath, but he was chagrined nonetheless.

The mayor sent for Maelinnus and with his help he quickly identified the magical items recovered. Opal claimed a small ebony figurine of a fly that could magically transform into a fly large enough to ride. Wu took a pair of silk slippers that would allow him to walk upon walls. Edella claimed a Wand of Eagle Splendor and Ron too a magical obsidian Longsword, despite the fact that it was not sized for a halfling. Furrel claimed an oddly colored seashell that was among the treasure and held no magical properties. The mayor also lifted his exile and Furrel declared that he would remain behind to partake in the festivities. Opal wished to do so as well, but reluctantly agreed with Edella and Wu that they should return with the Planar Key as soon as possible.

The group departed Wativia and Opal led them back the way they came through the Living Sea, eventually emerging into the Astral Plane proper. In the distance they saw the gnomish ship that they’d ridden on earlier, somehow towed back out of the water.

Gnimmin was hard at work repairing the vessel and Blash greeted the group and again offered his services and wares…for a price. Unfortunately he did not have a way to magically get them back to the asteroid where their companions were, so they were forced to head out into the Astral. Again, Opal recalled the way back and after taking a wide berth around an enormous number of mirrors that were simply floating in the ether, they eventually arrived.

They found that the group who had sought the Earth Key had beaten them back and sat around playing cards with Sir Imlott. They group joined them and they began comparing notes and discussing their missions. Few noticed right away that Opal and Delilah had been chatting intensely and had wandered off to be alone for a time.

They now had only to wait for the final group, the one that had sought the Fire Key, to return before they could continue their quest.

DM’s Notes: This was mostly an after adventure session. The group had only to collect their treasure and decide what to do with it. Raskin, sadly, was with the wrong group if he wanted to keep it all, and he probably belatedly regretted going on the mission with the Paladin and the Monk.

The only question now was how the group that was going after the Fire Key was doing…

Emeron Liveplays

Crossover: The Water Key part 3

Dame Edella Montfort – Human Paladin member of the Notorious Nine. Cheery, Stalwart champion of justice. Though out of her element she is determined to do what is needed to save the day.

The Living Sea, Astral Plane. Date unknown.

Opal had just enough time to warn Wu, who was just swimming up to the tower, that he had heard voices below. The monk attempted to swim below the window to the tower so he could ambush any Sahuagin that might come to investigate.

He had barely hidden when two of the creatures emerged and, spotting Opal in the form of a water elemental, said something to him in a language neither Opal nor Wu understood. When they failed to get an answer, the creatures began to yell loudly and attacked. Wu swam into the tower and unsuccessfully attempted to grapple one, while Opal began pummeling the other.

The rest of the group, seeing that things had turned into a full battle, began to swim to that tower as quickly as they could. Edella swam to one of the towers as quickly as she could, aided considerably by a spell that Opal had cast on her. Drawing a magical Rod of Darkness to be able to see in the murky darkness, the paladin managed to get into the tower and strike one of the Sahuagin, though it did not do much damage.

While the others swam to the tower, hampered by the water, Wu was able to grapple the Sahuagin he had attacked, putting it in a chokehold, so it could not continue calling for help. Opal meanwhile pummeled the other Sahuagin to death, before also killing the one Wu was holding.

Another call came up from down the tower as the rest of the group arrived. None knew the language, but Edella’s magical trident, the Mermaid’s Spear (which went by the nickname “Wave“) did. It told the paladin that the Sahuagin below were asking their companions if all was well. With Wave feeding her the words, Edella tried to answer back that all was well, but her inability to bluff caused the Sahuagin to immediately realize that it was a ploy.

Realizing the jig was up, they all began to swim down the hole that led into the main keep.

Opal, in his form as a water elemental, was fastest and got down into the keep first. As outside the walls were all made of coral and the furniture seemed to be made of stone, coral or just carved straight into the walls. The room he was in held a weapon rack and what looked to be a wardrobe carved into the coral wall. Opal spied one Sahuagin in the room and another beyond him in the main welcome hall, seemingly ready to flee for help. Opal engaged the nearer one, pummeling it badly. Edella swam down next, using her spell to swim straight past the nearer Sahuagin and impaled the Sahuagin preparing to flee with Wave, striking it down. A moment later Opal finished off the other Sahuagin and the others joined them.

“So, what’s up. Is the alarm sounded?” Raskin asked Wu, who had arrived in the room a moment before him.

“I do not know,” the monk admitted. “A couple of them were able to scream, but so far there has been no response. Still, it would be prudent to presume an alarm has been sounded.”

Despite Wu’s feelings, no counterattack immediately came, and so they regrouped before continuing into a nearby room that had some comfortable looking benches and chairs carved out of coral and a small stone table. Raskin offered to sneak ahead and scout the path out of this room, finding himself in a corridor.

They continued on through a room that had a large amount of shelves carved into the coral walls and several “books” on them consisting of thin sheets of slate bound together. A few tables and chairs made of coral or stone led them to conclude they had found the library.

Continuing through the group came upon a junk room and while searching it found a magical scroll written on sealskin. This prompted them to backtrack to the library where Ron and Opal used Detect Magic to find a few more scrolls in with the books.

While they were in the library, though, a number of Sahuagin soon entered the room. It seemed some form of warning or alarm had, indeed, taken place. The creatures swam into the room en masse, tridents at the ready.

Edella immediately swam out to engage them, wounding one of the creatures with the Mermaid’s Spear before getting charged by another. Raskin swam over and knifed the creature in the face so brutally that several of the Sahuagin immediately fled. One of them swam past Edella and she struck it down as it went.

One of the braver Sahuagin swam up behind Raskin, evidently hoping to take out this terrifying half-orc, wounding him with his trident. It did not watch it’s flanks, however, because Furreltuff then swam up behind IT, impaling it with the spearpoint of his hoopack staff and killing it.

A flurry of crossbow bolts assailed them from down the corridor where more Sahuagin had arrived but Opal decided to put a quick end to the combat. Still in the form of a Water Elemental, he turned into a living whirlpool and began to go down the corridor, sucking up the Sahuagin, battering them and spitting them out. Any that survived this brutal attack were soon struck down by Raskin, and, Furrel. A pair of Sahuagin crossbowman had ducked into a room in the north, but Edella and Wu pursued them and slew the creatures. With the fight quickly over Edella administered healing and they continued to explore the Coral Castle.

In short order they found a large hole in the floor that seemed to lead deeper into the complex. Opal, still in the form of a water elemental, swam down to investigate. He immediately found himself before several lines of crosbow wielding Sahuagin, several of whom loosed their bolts. Retreating in among the hail of bolts, Opal went back to the others to get healing and advise the of what was ahead.

They formed up and decided a charge with Shock and Awe was the best method forward. Transforming himself into a whirlpool again, Opal led the charge. Behind him were Edella and Wu, with Raskin, Furrel and Ron bringing up the rear.

“If you got any tricks to blast them with now’s a good time,” Raskin said to the group.

“I do have one or two more in the staff, but Alexi and especially Edrick said I shouldn’t use them…” Furrel advised.

“Eh, screw ’em. I’m sure it’ll be fine. Do it little man!” Raskin assured him.

“Ok! I will!” The kender responded excitedly.

Opal hit the lower floor and charged immediately, again suffering a withering fire of crossbow fire, but quickly absorbing four of the attackers in his whirlpool form.

Past the first line of Sahuagin he could see several more of the creatures and, seanted on a huge stone throne, an enormous three eyed creature with four long tentacles writhing from this its flanks, its green body glistening with thick, clear slime. It began to speak but none knew the language it was using. Fortunately Edella had drank a Potion of Comprehend Languages and could understand it.

“Who dares disturb the sanctuary of Lord Ku’lub’thig?” It demanded.

“Can you understand me?” Edella asked.

“Your worthless mewling mean nothing,” the creature continued, not seeming to comprehend the paladin’s words. “You will receive no mercy from me.”

Before anyone else could act, however, the coral walls that led to the throne room began to stretch and grow, closing off the room. Raskin, Wu, Furrel and Edella swam in to back Opal up and fight the Sahuagin that were still near them. Opal also used his magic to summon another water elemental to help him.

Before Ron could swim in to join his companions, however, the coral walls seemed to close on him as well, separating him from the others. The Sahuagin were swiftly slain and Opal and his elemental continued to scout ahead followed slowly by the others.

As they began to move from the chamber they were in to follow Opal and his elemental, Ku’lub’thig suddenly appeared behind them. Wu and Furrel spotted the creature’s sudden appearance and called a warning to the others.

Raskin charged Ku’lub’thig but his Onyx Razor passed harmlessly through it. Furrel followed suit, but his hoopack also did not harm it.

“Uh…I can’t seem to hurt it, Edella. We may need your help…” Raskin called back to his companions.

“Is it an illusion?” Edella asked, thinking of some of the ideas and magics that Froderik often told her about in their private time together.

“I don’t think so,” Raskin replied. “I think it’s just real powerful or something…”

“Definatley not an illusion!” Furrel added hastily as his hoopack attack went harmless through the creature.

At this, Wu and Edella quickly swam back to help their companions, and Opal did likewise taking up a position on the other side of the creature (followed by his summoned water elemental.)

Unsure of what to do to try to affect the enemy Furrel shouted “I have an idea but it might not be effective…”

The kender was looking to Edella, the obvious knight in shining armor when he said this, but Raskin spoke first barking “Do it!”

“Ok!” Furrel replied eagerly and began spinning the hoopack staff above his head before bringing it down as if slamming it on the ground and uttering a command word. Unfortunately it was obvious that the magic went wrong, and instead of whatever he meant to do, he merely transformed into a small sheep.

Edella then attacked Ku’lub’thig and the Mermaid’s Spear went right thorough it. She immediately figured out it was an illusion and called that to her companions.

“Opal, is there a path around to the throne room?” She asked. He barely had a chance to respond, however, before his own summoned water elemental attacked him, slamming him in the back. He quickly dismissed it, though he wasn’t quite sure what had happened.

“I guess we’ll have to go around since this thing is too cowardly to fight us.” Edella said, taunting Ku’lub’thig.

“Is that what I’m doing?” the illusion asked, before somehow managing to flip them off with his tentacles and vanishing.

“Yes,” Edella said to the empty air. She then collected Furrel, who seemed unable to remedy his situation, and put him into her backpack with his upper torso and head sticking out. He bleated in response and licked her face.

They group then swam around the way Opal told them was another entrance to the throne room. There they found several more Sahuagin and an enormous water elemental. Opal used the vortex power of his own water elemental form to go around and suck in the Sahuagin and kill them while Wu, Edella, and Raskin engaged the elemental.

Wu and Edella laid into the creature with all they had, but were hardly wounding it. Meanwhile the elemental was slamming into them with increasingly powerful blows that saw both noble warriors forced to heal themselves and keep fighting what seemed like it could have been a losing battle.

Ron, meanwhile, was able to determine that the coral wall that had separated him from his friends was an illusion, but he strongly suspected that it had addiitonal magic that would harm him if he tried to pass through it. He explored to find another way to find his friends, but could find none. Eventually he gritted his teeth and walked through the illusary wall, suffering from no ill effect and soon he was able to the others just in time.

Upon seeing his friends battling the enormous Water Elemental he cast Glitterdust and blinded the elemental and the Sahuagin near it.

Meanwhile, aided by the elemental’s blindness, Edella and Raskin kept whaling away on it, aided by Ron’s magical singing, while Opal was able to scoop up the remaining Sahuagin and kill them. Edella and Wu rallied and struck a series of devastating blows on the Elemental, with Wu finishing it off by striking the same vulnerable spot over and over.

Opal finished off the last, blind Sahuagin that he had absorbed. With no sign of Ku’lub’thig and several of his Sahuagin , Edella and Wu administered some healing and they began to look around, with Opal and Ron using Detect Magic and Edella using Detect Evil. They learned that the enormous stone throne was enchanted. Opal was convinced it was actually an illusion, but Ron diplomatically assured him it was real and enchanted to summon a Water Elemental, presumably the one they’d just fought. Further exploration of nearby rooms turned up some small amounts of treasure but no indication of their quarry or the Planar Key.

Eventually Raskin had the idea to search the throne, speculating that Ku’lub’thig had a “coward hole”.

“What’s a coward hole?” Edella asked.

“You know, a hole for a noble to escape battle. A coward hole,” the half-orc replied simply. He soon found a small button that caused it to slide to the side, revealing a hole leading down. “See. A coward hole”

They headed down the hole, with Opal in the lead. He reached the bottom and saw Ku’lub’thig as well as a warrior Sahuagin and a cleric Sahuagin . They were joined by an octopus as well as an enormous tentacles creature.

The Octopus immediately acted, blasting Opal with a jet of ink, casting the bottom of the hole in concealment and completely enveloping Opal.

Raskin swam down past Opal, groping his way through the ink. He was barely out when another Sahuagin snuck out from behind a large stalagmite and attempted to backstab him. Fortunately Raskin saw him coming with enough time to turn and make it merely a flesh wound.

“Ooooh, you’re quite good…” the Sahuagin rogue spat.

Raskin had no time to gloat, however, as the huge water creature lashed out at him with several tentacles, causing the half-orc to duck and weave to avoid being hit.

Meanwhile, Opal had turned his Water Elemental form into a Vortex and went straight for the Octopus and the warrior Sahuagin, sucking them both up. The Octopus vanished immediately, causing Opal to suspect it was a summoned creature. The Sahuagin warrior, on the other hand, responded by simply screaming in a rage and trying to kill Opal from within the vortex.

Ron, still in the tunnel, cast dimension door and brought Edella, Wu, Furrel (still in the form of a sheep) and himself into the room, and Edella offered prayer to Vesper to allow her allies to help her smite the evil creatures within.

They immediately targeted the huge being, with Wu going first and striking it with the holy power of Vesper that Edella granted him. Furrel, despite his current form, was eager to join the fight and swam out at the Sahuagin that had stabbed Raskin, biting it. With the power of Vesper he dealt a massive wound to the creature, causing it to withdraw. It swam to the wall and manipulated some sort of mechanism, opening a secret door through witch it fled.

Rather than give chance Raskin swam to the huge creature Wu had attacked and plunged his dagger into the beast. He was perplexed when he drew no blood, however. Edella soon swam up as well, finishing it off with a flurry of attacks from the Mermaid’s Spear.

As soon as the creature fell the entire room seemed to change. The stalagmites all vanished and were revealed to be enormous piles of treasure. Additionally the shape of the slain beast changed to reveal the body of Ku’lub’thig, while what they thought was Ku’lub’thig vanished. They quickly realized the creature had used illusions to disguise things. Of the most interest, however, was a glowing blue cube suspended in the water and surrounded by some sort of green energy. Raskin, for his part, stood gobsmacked at all the gold for a moment.

Ron cast Detect Magic on the cube and was briefly blinded by how magical it was. “Ow. I think we found it. Very magic…very magic,” the halfling muttered.

Furreltuff, upon seeing the Planar Key, immediately swam to it, but Edella was able to scoop him up and prevent him from getting to it. He urged the kender to wait until it was fully examined before touching it.

Meanwhile, Opal continued to bash the Sahuagin barbarian in his vortex form and had picked up the cleric as well. The barbarian continued to fight from within, while the cleric managed to slip out and follow the one who had ambushed Raskin earlier and fled through the secret door. Opal soon spat the Barbarian out so that he could be slain by his allies. Furrel enthusiastically jumped at him, but missed and landed in a pile of coins. Raskin and Edella soon finished off the warrior though.

Edella, concerned about what the two fleeing Sahuagin might be up to gave chase, easily opening the secret door and finding the cleric with a few other Sahuagin.

“We should just leave them, we have the money and…er… the key thingie…” Raskin advised.

“Yes, but we can’t just stir up this hornets nest and leave or they’ll take it out on the town,” Edella reminded him. This was followed by a bleat from Furrel that seemed to agree with her.

“Dame Edella is correct,” Wu added. “We mad a promise to ensure these creatures no longer hurt the people of the nearby town.”

“Ugh…whatever,” Raskin muttered.

Edella and Wu swam towards the cleric and other Sahuagin and realized, too late, that they were in a room that held two large pens full of sharks only held in place by two large nets. Indeed, as soon as the two entered the room a pair of unarmed Sahuagin opened those nets commanded the sharks to attack. Rapidly the beasts filled the room and attacked Edella and Wu. Opal soon came into the room, grabbing up what sharks and Sahuagin he could.

Raskin, for his part, opted to stay in the treasure room and guard Ron and Furrel, barely hiding his desire to not risk losing access to the treasure. He too came under attack, however, as a number of Sahuagin from other parts of the castle attacked him.

What followed was a flurry of bloody attacks with Wu and Edella surrounded by sharks, fighting back to back slaying the creatures, while Opal scooped up as many as he could to bludgeon to death in his vortex form. Near the treasure room Raskin single handled slew the five Sahuagin that attacked him, brutally knifing them with Onyx Razor. Midway through the fight the group heard an explosion from the treasure room and saw a flash of green light.

Only one Sahuagin seemed to escape, and it was one of the unarmed shark wranglers who had avoided combat, fleeing out of the castle and into the distance when it became clear his companions were slain and his beloved sharks all killed.

Once the battle was over, the group returned to the treasure room (passing the carnage at the doorway of Raskin’s battle) to find Furreltuff holding the Planar Key in his mouth. Ron was nearby and stunned from the magical explosion the kender had set off.

“Furrel!” Edella chided. “I told you to wait!” A slightly chastised bleat was the only response she received.

The group decided to pull into the treasure room for healing and to attend to Ron before determining their next step.

DM’s Notes: This battle took place over a series of sessions over a kind of long period of time due to player availability issues an some holiday delays. It was a little sloggy, but I wanted to the castle to seem realistically populated with enough Sahuagin to terrorize a town.

The challenge of creating a spherical 3-D dungeon in an underwater realm with no gravity proved difficult, and while I’m sure I did ok at best, my players are wonderful and ran with it and seemed to grasp things. I feel like it would have gone better had Roll20 not performed an update which undid all of the dynamic lighting work I’d performed, but that is neither here nor there. At the end of the day, everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and that’s the important part.