”We’ll pull you out if your head starts getting too big,” Praxim says, ignoring the subsequent glare from Tomaru.
Aurora seems quiet as the group makes its way through the corridor, her skin itching at the touch of the illusion magic. As much as her heritage favored enchantment, her blood sang with magic at the other end of the scale.
Gritting her teeth she keeps herself mindful of her surroundings.
Following Lym's direction, Thordak steps out into the hall of the "T" section and turns to his left. The first thing he sees is his own reflection, repeated an infinite number of times times in front of him. Then one of those reflections at each end of the hall separates itself from the infinite number of Thordaks, steps out of the mirror and attacks!
”Thordak! Back up! Everybody back up!”
Praxim then fires arrows at the southern image.
Praxim shows remarkably little reluctance to put three arrows into the Thordak look-alike.
"The hell with that!" Lym snaps. "Take this!"
The Wizard chants harsh-sounding words, and five darts of power rocket away towards the same Thordak-lookalike already peppered by Praxim - unless it's already dead.
"Why Thordak," Lym says. "I wouldn't have thought human-sized women were your preference."
Thordak goes beet red and decides it's best not to respond considering he really doesn't know how to and he'll probably just get himself into more trouble.
Following Lym's direction, Thordak steps out into the hall of the "T" section and turns to his left. The first thing he sees is his own reflection, repeated an infinite number of times times in front of him. Then one of those reflections at each end of the hall separates itself from the infinite number of Thordaks, steps out of the mirror and attacks!
Thordak is caught by surprise at the multiple Thordaks. "Well now I gotta say, if we had all these fellas on our team this Karzoug fellow would be taken down in no time," he says with a grin and a wink to himself. Unfortunately for Thordak, he is caught by surprise by the dual Thordaks and never sees the attacks coming.
Thordak just manages to avoid getting completely eviscerated, yet, most of his blood still covers the floor where he stands. "I cannot believe ya just attacked me!!!" he yells in rage at the Thordaks. "Yer gonna pay for that!!! One second," he says, holding up a finger as he steps back in front of Tomaru and brings about his own bit of healing.
Swiftly realising what has happened, Aurora summons twin whips of fire that lash out either side of Thordak at the duplicitous doubles...
Praxim's arrows hit home, followed by missile of force and arcs of fire. But the fake Thordak's come on. The southern copy steps aside and attacks.
The northern Thordak moves to engage Praxim.
Praxim fires arrows, first at Thordak 2, switching to 1 if 2 goes down. His Snsp Shot Feat means no AoOs.
Rexil lobs some rocks at the most injured Thordak copy.
Cursing herself inwardly for not doing so earlier, Lym casts a spell on herself.
"Thordak, you really should stop hitting yourself."
Tomaru casts Summon Monster V and Silthanan appears behind the false Thordaks (Tchordak and Thordaak?)
"Thank the stars! If I had to sit through another scene of that horrible Riverdale.... when did Thordak have other Thordaks?"
Tomaru explains they are evil dopplegangers, though and Silthanan jumps right in. Knowing Thordak's reach, he steps back and casts Lightning Bolt down the hall at one of the Thordaks and into the wall.
Lightning bolt DC 15
Continuing to let the fire flow through her, Aurora keeps up the twin streams of burning magic.
burning arc x2
Silthanan appears in the hall, and suddenly two exact copies of the azata appear and move to attack!
The Bralani ignores his menacing duplicate, and casts his spell. The lightning hits the fake Thordak, and does not affect the copy azata, but more importantly it impacts the glass of the mirror on the southern wall. The mirror shatters into scores of melted glass shards, and with its destruction, the Thordak and azata copies disappear.
Of course. It was all part of my master plan.
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”I had thought about stepping out and shooting out the mirrors,” Praxim says, ”But I was afraid that just arrows wouldn’t be enough, and then there would be two mes shooting at me. Not ideal.”
He walks over and picks up the arrows that dropped from Thordak 2. ”Wrll, I guess I can scratch that off the ‘soneday’ list,” he mutters quietly to himself.
"Is there an actual corridor in there," Lym asks, "or was it just a mirror trap? If so, we need to start looking for secret passages."
Tomaru and Silthanan heals up the party.
from Tomaru
Thordak, Wand of Cure Moderate Wounds x4
Thordak, Wand of Cure Light Wounds
Praxim, Wand of Cure Light Wounds x3
from Silthanan
Thordak
Thordak
After healing, Tomaru will ask Silthanan to cast Blur on Thordak. Silthanan does so then leaves shortly thereafter.
Aurora moves over to the corridor and glances around, looking for anything amiss or out of place, hidden doors or similar.
As the cleric heals the nasty wounds dealt by himself to himself, "Thanks, lad. Blast I didn't know I could hit that hard." He pauses and thinks on that a moment before an arrogant grin forms and he pops his neck from one side and then to the other all tough like. "Alright, let's go whup us some more bad guys."
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"You're a bad guy now?" Lym asks, smiling a little. "Maybe we should just go ahead and blast you, then?"
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"You're a bad guy now?" Lym asks, smiling a little. "Maybe we should just go ahead and blast you, then?"
Crinkling his forehead in confusion, he's about to speak up but replays the conversation in his head. Mumbling as he runs through it, he nods. A moment later he nods again. Raising his head at an angle and holding that for a long pause, he then nods again with an absolute look of certainty about him. "Okay, okay, I think I got it. I'm not a bad guy, lass, why would ya say that? The copies were the bad guys. I understand your confusion, lass, but that just doesn't make any sense," he says with a pat on her arm, grinning, as he shakes his head at the silliness of her mistake.
”Hang on! How do we know this is the real Thordak? The real Thordak could have been consumed by the magic of the mirror leaving this duplicate to pretend to be him until it turns on us. How do we know you’re really you?”
Praxim waits for Thordak to look away before winking to the others.
"We could try flicking his ear," Lym says with a perfectly straight face. "Mirror Dwarves absolutely hate being flicked in the ear."
Unless Thordak leans out of the way or otherwise stops her, Lym ... flicks his ear.
"Feel angry yet?" she asks, smiling behind her veil.
"Wrong ear. They hate when the other ear is flicked."
Aurora limits herself to glancing skywards and grinning at Lym and Thordak.
Are we still following the sinister path Mistress Blackhand?
the gnome points left.
"Indeed we are," Lym agrees -- and reaches out to flick Thordak's other ear. "Angry yet?" she asks, sweetly.
”Hang on! How do we know this is the real Thordak? The real Thordak could have been consumed by the magic of the mirror leaving this duplicate to pretend to be him until it turns on us. How do we know you’re really you?”
Looking at the elf incredulously, "I am the real Thordak ya crazy elf! I'm no blasted mirror!" He looks to Lym, "And there'll be no flickin' of me ear. No flickin'!" Turning back to the elf, "And another thing, elf...," he continues with his rant, leaving himself open for Lym's sneak attack. Waving his hand by his ear in defence, "I said NO flickin'! And it's NOT the other ear... WAIT A BLASTED MINUTE! It's no ears! Why in the blazes are we talkin' about ears?! NO FLICKIN'!" he yells, managing to avoid the next attempt by the half-orc, albeit only barely. "NO FLICKIN'! And NO, I'm not ang...!" he stops, raising an eyebrow. Well, I might be a little angry. Irritated angry really. Angry enough to wanna smack 'em all around for sure. Suddenly though, his irritated visage melts away instantly into one of absolute contentment and strangely a smile forms out of nowhere. Well, except for Aurora, she is the most wonderful, sweet..., he stops in mid-thought, fearful someone might hear him. "Nothin'! I didn't say nothin'! Don't know what your talkin' about!" he says defensively, pointing accusingly at them all. "And I'm not a mirror! Or... whatever!" he nods emphatically.
He then turns to Aurora with a most pleasant demeanor, "I think that's a fine idea, lass. And thank you," he nods politely.
”Following the sinister path is a fine idea? Mirror Thordak for sure!”
Praxim chuckles before heading out.
"Very well, very well," Lym says in a soothing tone. "Let's get going. Time is blowing in our teeth."
Messing with Thordak was fun, but the situation was anything but. He continued on with the group ready for trouble.
The corridor opens into an immense cathedral of polished ivory flagstones. Mirrored walls rise to a height of nearly a hundred feet, where the vaulted ceiling arches majestically. Four immense chandeliers hang from golden chains and brightly illuminate the entire room. At the center of the cathedral, a three-step dais of polished wood supports a peacock the size of a wyvern, its feathers spread regally behind it. The creature’s eyes seem to hold a great depth of wisdom and ntelligence.
Evenly arranged about the dias are six identical figures: an immaculately dressed human man with shoulder-length blond hair. They are waiting for you as you turn the corner into the cathedral. With one sonorous voice, they speak:
The figures begin casting spells. Being prepared for something like this, you act!
Praxim has been scanning with detect evil. Do they register?
Praxim casts divine favour on himself then moves off, 30 feet southeast.
Seeing the massive mirrors, Thordak whines. "Not more blasted mirrors!" He then hears the look-alikes all start speaking at once, "Hey! What are they doin'?! What are they sayin'?!" Thordak draws his axe and prepares to charge one, "Should I kill 'em or not?! Anybody?!" Thordak's anger rises at the mere thought of them getting blasted by combined magic that could kill them all.
"Door guards, here to stop us from disrupting their 'master'," Lym translates. Next, she speaks in the same language as the identical strangers.
If that does not work, however, Lym starts chanting under her breath.
Hearing Lym speak in an odd tongue, Thordak cuts his eyes toward the look-alikes and reluctantly waits to see what happens while at the same time prepares to attack if necessary.
Tomaru casts Prayer.
They ignore Lym as one entity. They begin chanting as one. And, as one, six fireballs shoot out from six outstretched arms toward all those still in the hallway.
As the fireballs fly across and explode, Praxim instinctively reaches out, casting paladin’s sacrifice. Though the first fireball explodes in Lym’s face, it’s heat mystically vanishes from her body and burns Praxim instead.
Lym takes 30 points less, putting her at -3 instead of dead.
Not knowing what to expect next and needing time to heal everyone, Tomaru puts up a Wall of Stone (10'h x 35'l x 3" t) to provide the group with some cover.
Not keen on being alone with six hostile wizards, Praxim books it to get back behind the wall.
Unfortunately, it takes more than a single move, so he can’t heal anybody (or himself, since he spent his swift action saving Lym).