November 3, 2024

Beggar 24, 5043  (cont)

(9:00 am)

We solve the puzzle!

XP: 2,500

We notice the keyholes. Happily we have a key. Does it fit? Hmmm…

Five archways, each with a keyhole that seems to match up. Solving the puzzle tells us that the next-to-leftmost is the correct arch. We all link up; Arden and Zora activate their boots but don’t leave the ground.

We go through.

We are in a hollow spherical area surrounded by sand. An “inside-out” world that measures 100’ across. Gravity is towards the surface everywhere inside the sphere. Zora consults her Memory Card. Conflicting gravity will cause the center of the sphere to be in a vacuum. Probably also an area of no gravity, Arden speculates. There is normal air, but it is all so dry that everyone takes 2hp damage from dehydration every round. The inhabitant of this world is immune to non-touch spells, elemental spells, good- or evil- -designated spells, and mind control spells; also immune non-bashing weapons, to flanking and sneak attacks, but NOT immune to criticals. Has high Spell Resistance and Tremorsense. Can grow four sand arms on each person each round to bash for subdual damage

Init order: Beari, Zora, Arden, Ben.

Round 1:

SandWorld (SW) attacks Arden for 25 subdual, Zora for 50, Beari for 65, Ben for 44;

Beari casts Fly and moves;

Zora activates boots and moves, hits with Morningstar for 53, miss, 23, miss;

Arden activates boots, flies to Ben, picks him up and discusses plan;

Ben reserves for Arden Spring Attack.

Round 2:

SW attacks Arden for 16, Beari for 35, Zora for 12, Ben for 13;

Beari casts Magic Missile for 18, moves;

Zora hits for 28, miss, 23, miss;

Arden springs down – Ben hits with Morningstar for 30, miss, miss – Arden springs up.

Round 3:

SW miss Arden, hits Zora for 16, Beari for 14, Ben for 11;

Beari casts Magic Missile for 22, moves;

Zora hits for 21, miss, miss, miss;

Arden springs down – Ben hits for 12, 16, miss – Arden springs up.

Round 4:

SW miss Arden, miss Zora, hits Beari for 11, Ben for 18;

Beari casts Magic Missile for 19, moves;

Zora spring attacks for 22, miss, miss, miss, 23;

Arden springs down – Ben misses, misses, misses – springs up.

Round 5:

SW hits Arden for 17, hits Zora for 12, misses Beari, misses Ben;

Beari casts Magic Missile for 20, moves;

Zora spring attacks for 16, miss, 13, 14, 19;

Arden springs down – Ben hits for 12, 10, miss – springs up.

Round 6:

SW misses Arden, hits Zora for 12, Beari for 16, Ben for 16;

Beari casts Magic Missile for 18, moves;

Zora spring attacks for 15, 15, 19, miss, 16;

Arden springs down – Ben hits for 14, 15, miss – springs up.

Round 7:

SW misses Arden, hits Zora for 12, misses Beari, hits Ben for 17;

Beari casts Magic Missile for 19, moves;

Zora spring attacks for 15, 18, 15, miss, 15: SW is subdued

XP: 1,526

The surface calms and a 6’ deep, 20’ diameter pit opens up, with some sort of mechanism on one side: 5’ off the floor, about 8” in diameter.

Ben casts Mass Heal to remove all the subdual damage, plus the 14 points of dehydration real damage.

Arden begins working to solve the puzzle mechanism. Every eight minutes Ben casts another Mass Heal to remove 160 points of dehydration real damage from everyone. After half an hour -- with the realization that the SandWorld will wake up from its subdual and have to be fought all over again – Arden asks for suggestions. Ben offers to cast a request for help. Ben casts Lesser Planar Ally, who arrives and bargains to provide a hint if he is given a non-weapon magical device of at least 1,000gpv. Arden suggests giving one of the two Dawn Masks; that is accepted, and the LPA gives a hint.

Ben uses up the last of his replacement 8^th level Mass Heal spells and will need to start casting individual Heal spells on each adventurer. But before he needs to do that, Arden solves the puzzle, opens a hatch, and finds a keyhole inside.

XP: 1,000

Given the adverse conditions on SandWorld, we link up and go through immediately.

(10:00am)

We find ourselves in the middle of an on-going melee. At a quick glance, we seem to be in a small agricultural village: two stone buildings, 10’x20’, and about ten 10’ diameter round huts. There are fields outside the village. Inside the village are a large number of villagers fighting with a dozen Lizard Men. The LM have spears, but are casting nooses at villagers. Any villager caught by a noose ceases all independent movement. There is also a 10’x10’x10’ cube; as the watch, a ray comes out of one side of the cube and utterly destroys one of the villagers.

[Brief Rules – pending Zora having time for Memory Card reference -- for this world:

1. Everyone, on all sides of the melee, gets only movement plus one strike, or two movements, per round;

2. Nobody is Hasted;

3. All weapons of +3 or greater are to be treated as if they were +3 with no additional attributes;

4. Displacement is not working.

Initiative: Zora, Arden, Ben, Beari.

Round 1:

Zora consults Memory Cards;

Arden attacks LM₃₇ for 29;

Ben attacks LM₄₂, hits for 15;

Beari casts Otiluke’s Resistent Sphere around the Cube, but it does not work;

LM₃₇ misses Arden; LM₄₂ misses Ben; Cube misses Zora.

Round 2:

Zora tumbles behind LM₃₇, kills;

Arden, says “see if they wake up” [referring to people noosed by LM₃₇], criticals on LM₃₆ for 29;

Ben hits LM₄₂ for 13;

Beari casts another spell which fails, moves to a noosed villager;

LM₄₁ nooses a villager; LM₃₂ & LM₄₂ miss Ben; LM₃₆ & LM₃₈ miss Arden; LM₃₅ & LM₄₀ miss Beari; Cube shoots Ben for 30.

Round 3:

Zora charges LM₃₅ and crits, kills, cleaves on LM₄₀, kills;

Arden crits and kills LM₃₆, tumbles to the back of LM₃₈;

Ben hits LM₄₂ for 15, kills, takes 5’ step;

Beari removes noose from V₂₇, moves to new Villager;

Ben AoO on LM₃₂ for 10; LM₃₁ & LM₃₂ miss Ben; Arden AoO on LM₃₈; LM₃₈ misses Arden; Cube moves closer.

Round 4:

Zora crits on LM₃₃, kills;

Arden kills LM₃₈, moves to LM₄₁;

Ben attacks LM₃₂ for 15, takes 5’ step;

Beari removes noose and hides;

Cube blasts V₁₂, moves 10’ closer.

Round 5:

Zora crits on LM₃₉, kills, moves to LM₃₂;

Arden hits LM₄₁ for 14;

Ben tries to cast Weapon of the Deity but fails, moves back;

Beari removes noose from V₂₀;

LM₃₄ & LM₄₁ miss Arden; LM₃₂ misses Zora; LM₃₁ misses Ben; Cube advances 10’ and blasts V₅₄.

Round 6:

Zora hits LM₃₂ for 28, kills, cleaves LM₃₁ for 22;

Arden hits LM₄₁ for 26, kills;

Ben hits LM₃₁ for 10;

Beari pulls V₁₃ to safety;

LM₃₄ misses Arden; LM₃₁ misses Ben; Cube blasts V₁₀.

Round 7:

Zora kills LM₃₁, moves behind building;

Arden hits LM₃₄ for 15;

Ben casts Detect Evil (which works!), moves to LM₃₄, does not detect any evil;

Beari removes noose from V₁₃;

LM₃₄ misses Ben; Cube moves 10’, destroys V₃₉.

Round 8:

Zora grabs V₂₄ and hides;

Arden gets on top of Cube;

Ben hits LM₃₄ for 14;

Beari tells V₁₃ to run, pulls V₃₈ to safety;

L₃₄ misses Ben; Cube kills V₁₈.

Round 9:

Zora moves to V₂₆;

Arden searches top of cube, finds nothing, checks out the back side;

Ben hits LM₃₄ for 10, kills, stays where he is;

Beari un-nooses V₃₈;

Cube shoots Ben for 36.

Round 10:

Zora flies to top of Cube;

Arden looks in hole in back side: four LM – two moving the cube and two maneuvering some device;

Ben moves, yells, “Beari do you have Acid Fog?”, tries to cast Mass Heal but fails;

Beari moves to V₂₅;

Cube shoots Arden for 51.

Round 11:

Zora drops to a corner of the Cube, tries to lift it and succeeds (see picture), yells, “Everyone kill them quick!”;

Arden attacks LM₄₅ for 30;

Ben attacks LM₄₀ for 14;

Beari un-nooses V₃₀;

Lizard Men lose round.

Round 12:

Zora attacks L₄₃ for 19, kills, cleaves LM₄₄ for 15;

Arden hits LM₄₆ for 14;

Ben hits LM₄₄ for 16, kills;

Beari un-nooses V₂₆;

LM₄₅ & LM₄₆ stand up.

Round 13:

Zora hits LM₄₆, kills, cleaves LM₄₅, kills.

XP: 420

Someone who seems to be a leader comes up to you and says, “Thank you for your assistance – for your rescuing us. I want to talk to you, but later. I need to look after my people.” And he hurries off to an injured villager. Another injured villager, as he himself has a slash on his left arm that is dripping blood through a hasty bandage. Others are taking the nooses off of victims, after which those villagers are animated again.

Ben casts Cure spells on Arden for 51+ points, on himself for 66+ points.

Zora relates to the group what the Memory Cards are telling her about the Here And Not Here world, which she has concluded they are now on.

The village leader comes back. Says his name is Gervaise, and that the village is Beune. He wants to know if youall are some of Zim’s Champions, and how you heard about their problems and were able to arrive so quickly.

He is startled that youall don’t know about Zim and his Champions. He wonders out loud where youall could be from, to not know about the Leader, and his castle in Dun Add, and his sending Champions out to defend common folk from Monsters from Not Here or from the Wastes. “Are youall from Not Here?” he asks suspiciously.

We explain about having come through a portal from another world, and are now looking for a portal to take us to our home world.

That certainly sounds like Not Here – not that he’s very knowledgeable about such things. But youall look human; and you were certainly on their side in the fight; so probably youall are ok. But perhaps it would be good for youall to move on, sometime soon. Not to be unhospitable, but as you can see we have a lot of hurt people to care for.

[After some reluctance, Ben heals Gervaise’s wound.]

That is … That is simply miraculous. We do not know how to thank you. What can we offer you? (His tone has completely changed.)

Ben goes off with him and casts minor healing on many of the villagers – all who were injured but are still alive. Ben finds he can only use Cure Serious Wounds, Cure Moderate Wounds, Cure Light Wounds, and Cure Minor Wounds spells; but he can use them many times by casting them via higher level spell slots. After he has treated everyone, he and Gervaise come back to the other three.

Going to Dun Add and talking to the people there would probably be your wisest course. There’s Zim the Leader, and Falco his Wizard, and Ralf his warlord, and Jolene his wife. And I’m sure there are dozens of other famous people, but we wouldn’t hear about them this far out in the Marches.

Oh. Oh well of course you wouldn’t know how to get to Dun Add. Actually, none of us have ever been there either. What you need to do is go to the nearest town, Haxfort, and ask them for better directions. We’ll take you to the landing, and then when you go out on the road, turn left, and Haxfort will be about there days walk from here. There are overnighting spots along the way.

Oh, how stupid of me. Of course you don’t have a dog to guide you. I’m sorry, but we really cannot spare anyone just now.

What’s that? Oh, your weasel. Yes, that will work as well as a dog.

Oh, wait. I am so stupid. The nearest overnighting spot is most of a day’s walk from here. You should stay here tonight and start out tomorrow morning. I’m afraid we don’t have much…

Arden explains that they have their own supplies (he doesn’t try to explain the rings or Iuon Stones).

Oh, so you don’t need any of our food – I’m ashamed to say that I am actually relieved at that.

Beari explains that they can create food and water for the villagers.

You can just make food? That you’re willing to share with us? Oh, oh, how can we ever repay you?

When you get to Haxfort, could you tell them about the incursion we had here, please? I will hope that they’ll be able to send some help for us.

Overnighting in Beune; getting used to the Here And Not Here differences (i.e., character sheet modifications); selecting spells based on those restrictions and with liberal use of metamagic rods.

End of Run.