Meredian (for reasons possibly only obvious to herself) is perfectly willing to tear a page out of her Blessed Spellbook for Anaxian to study. This can be used as a scroll of Blink for him to work with while the party keeps exploring. Illia-, meanwhile, does find that the cavern above the bridge (on which the Shadowdancer is currently trapped) is not warded against teleportation, and anyone who can fly a few feet up into the air should be able to warp in and out just fine.
Meanwhile, Drisquar waits around in the muddy hallway. Meredian, wearing a glamered holy symbol, allows everyone to pass as Illia-, searching for invisible things, forges ahead, while the others follow.
Right at the end of the hall, you see an invisible switch.
In her haste, however, Illia- crosses the threshold of the room's trap trigger, and suddenly the floor solidifies to solid stone, trapping everyone's feet.
There is also a clicking and whirring noise from the walls around you, and various hatches on the walls slide open. Tiny, squirming creatures like large stone beetles pour out, and swarm down the walls.
The clockwork creatures appear to be made out of hardened stone, and may resist non-adamantine weapons. (Note that there is an unidentified adamantine weapon on the party loot list, and that Shimsil counts as adamantine). The swarming creatures are about a foot long, and not too numerous, making the swarm still susceptible to normal attacks.
Illia, who was flying, shrugs as the floor solidifies to stone.
"Well, time to cast Detect Magic Resistance!" Illia casts unholy blight on the center of the room, catching all the stone beetles.
Zhu finds himself stranded in the stone.
Illia, who was flying, shrugs as the floor solidifies to stone.
Ref
Appraise
Engineer
Meredian nimbly takes a step back onto the threshold of the room easily avoiding the muddy trap.
Targeting the group closest Meredian tosses a ball of what looks like white hot molten glass.
If the east most door has bugs coming out that's my target.
DC19
Direct Hit
Splash Damage within 5' of direct (Ref 19 Half)
All damaged will continue to take 1d6 damage for
R2
R3
R4
ZDt attempts to teleport from the trap.
Meanwhile, Anaxian was ignoring everything that was happening past the resurrection field.
He had finished the second binding circle. It was a few feet wider in circumference than the one on the ceiling and carved right into the floor. It was ready, but Anaxian was not.
He had laid out what looked like a tiny tattoo needle made of bone and sinew and a small case of swirling inks that glowed faintly with various magics.
Then he carefully removed his left wing and laid it on the ground before him.
Looking at the page torn from Meridian's spell book the little dragon transcribed the arcane formula, translating it with a cypher of his own devising and making the necessary changes for the somatic components to suit his physiology. The translation was written in charcoal drawn directly on his severed wing. When it was finished he began tattooing it into the wing, careful to make no mistakes.
Anaxian considered himself a consummate artist. He took pride in the fact that everything he created was beautiful. Not every creature would agree with his ideas of beauty, but none would deny that he was a master of his craft. Even the tattooed inscription of this new spell was written in a pattern that aligned with the curvature of his wing and the small bones that lay with it. Draconic lettering, made elaborate in a sort of claw-like calligraphy, arced along the membrane. The magic of the letters caused them to fade from red to black to translucent, rippling across the bone white of his skin.
As he finished Meridian's scroll crumbled to dust and the tattooed spell was infused with power.
A hollow rasp in his chest and a wave of his hand slowly erased the new ink. It rippled and vanished trapped behind another magic that would only make it visible when he called for it.
Finally he reattached the wing, tapped the joint to restore his corpse-form to whole and let the seam of the wound heal with a faint flare of purplish light.
He settled into a state of meditation to clear his mind and regain his magical energies. In a few hours he would be ready to finish this little project.
ZDt attempts to teleport from the trap.
Still in his dust cloud form, Dris unleashes a blast of lightning at the swarms in front of him.
Drisquar instantly fries one of the swarms with a well-placed lightning bolt, while Illia's Blight causes all of the mechanical beetles to shriek and squirm. Combined with Meredian and Shimsil's attacks, another swarm is dispersed before it has time to act.
Zhu Da tusha attempts to teleport out of the trap, but his power fizzles out harmlessly, and he suddenly learns that the attack beetles pouring out of the walls seem to be immune to mental attacks—with no greater intelligence present, they appear to be blindly attacking everything that moves. Delyliath, seeing this, goes ethereal to escape from the trap—and, suddenly remembering the need for etherealness on the party's behalf, flies back towards the bridge to assist Anaxian.
The remaining swarms, dented but undaunted, surge forward to crawl over the three closest enemies, their metal claws dripping with painful acid.
Current HP: 19/28
Fort
Trying to hit as many as possible Meredian's spell releases a torrent of icy shards
Flurry of Snowballs
30' Cone
Ref 19 Half
SR No
Don't worry, I'll ask the craft construct thing to use these things claws to make a nice Adamantine Trowel.
Illia's second unholy blight hits even harder, and is met with crackling sounds and mechanical squealings. Meredian steps back and fires a cone of cold that finishes off the swarms enveloping her and Shimsil, although the possessed Drow sergeant takes 7 points of residual splash damage.
Undeterred, the Sergeant steps around the corner, letting Shimsil fire off two well-aimed blasts that knock large groups of mechanical insects off of Da tusha without scratching the mind flayer underneath.
A few injured adamantine creatures limp back to their holes in the walls, but the rest twitch and spasm on the floor, useless, their magical workings shredded by bursts of magic.
With a bit of help from Shimsil, who slices through the stone like butter, the party is able to cut Zhu Da tusha free of the stone trap. Drisquar leads the party south to another large room.
This room, like the previous large room, contains several guardian statues similar to those in the previous room. The statues appear to lie dormant.
The floor here is covered with even older-looking bloodstains, dried into the large stone tiles which appear to have been carved from the cave wall itself. The tiles, approximately four feet wide, each carved with what appears to be the world "death" in a different language.
A square door, approximately two feet wide, sits in the south wall of the room, made of what appears to be ancient dark-wood. The door bears a simple handle, and a large keyhole.
The sheer amount of magic in this room is enough to blind you for a round, but then it resolves itself somewhat. The ceiling and floors of this room are soaked in some sort of powerful evocation spell.
To the south, there are several other magic auras: necromancy and illusion, each powerful enough to bleed into the room around the edges of the tiny door.
The whole room appears to be an incredibly overdramatic death-trap, full of knives and flying saw blades and swinging axes and gouts of flame and acid. The trigger appears to be touching the floor or ceiling anywhere in the south half of the room.
The trap has magical components, but appears to be based on some sort of ancient and mundane machinery.
The whole room appears to be an incredibly overdramatic death-trap, full of knives and flying saw blades and swinging axes and gouts of flame and acid. The trigger appears to be touching the floor or ceiling anywhere in the south half of the room.
The trap has magical components, but appears to be based on some sort of ancient and mundane machinery. If you could just reposition them by about five feet, you're pretty sure you could set it off in a way that could demolish the stone guardians.
Percep
Engineer
"It's a massive death trap. Don't touch the floor or ceiling or it will go off."
If you could move the guardians by about 5 feet each they'd likely be destroyed when the trap activated, if that's the sort of thing you're into.
** spoiler omitted **
"If we could shift the statues about 5 feet this death trap of a room would annihilate them for us. Thoughts?"
"Umm... Well, could anyone make the floor slidey so we can just lightly shove them and they'll move? But, other than that, why don't we just evade the trap and the statues?"
Zhou Da tusha winces back, for a moment, from the staggering amount of magic tied to this room.
Delyliath reaches for Anaxian still meddling with the shadowdancer as she heard distant sounds of battle.
"of course.. you leave them for a couple of minutes to their own devices and those are the results" she says ironically.
"So... What are you exactly planning to do here? surely you don't want to have them just trapped here forever."
Anaxian paused for a long moment. It was a common failing among the extremely intelligent to get so wrapped up in the complexities of a train of thought that the obvious solutions down a slightly different path were overlooked.
A lifetime ago he would have been angry with himself. A brief reflection on the self loathing that had once consumed him caused little more than an emotional echo now. he couldn't even be bothered to feel empathy for the pathetic thing he used to be. Nor would he waste anymore time on such dalliances. The moment was done. Contrary to popular belief, liches did not live in the past. They had no reason to.
Anaxian looked to Delyliath with his flat glowing eyes and spoke silently.
"You are the plan. I understand that Succubi are able to transition to the Ethereal plane easily. There you will find the possessor demon's helpless body nearby, as it's consciousness is currently trapped within its paralyzed host. Simply incapacitate it and bring the body back with you. Then I will release the binding circle."
"I offer the host as trade for your services in this matter."
The fallen Bralani floats towards the door, examining it for wards or traps.
"You know? you offer all these exchanges .. but a please would be sufficient. Besides, is not like I would have not taken her anyway."
Said the succubus, then she winked while shifting into the ethereal plane.
She unsheathe her rapier and addresses her victim.
"Well not-a-demon, I guess this is the moment when you wish you could take your words back."
"It has been my experience that Demons rarely do anything for others without sufficient exchange or coercion. I will refrain from such in the future."
The final room of the dungeon is covered in murderous traps, with a small door set in the far wall. Every single trap appears wired to a mechanical or magical sensor on the floor or walls, and with little effort, Drisquar, in his wind form, flies past them all and into the door in the wall.
In a five-foot-wide cubic alcove sit two hideous, crumbling musical instruments and a pile of dusty bones. The air hangs heavy with illusion, but with the Bralani's incredible perception, he is quickly able to locate a skull glamered into invisibility. Deep cuts have been made in rings around the skull, lined with mithral and inlaid with patterned darkwood, and it is a simple matter to carefully pick the thing up in an ordinary sack, mist form and carry it back out to the waiting party.
Returning to the bridge is rather straightforward, although the skull becomes heavy upon nearing the shimmering barrier and the bag holding it refuses to budge within a foot of the thing. After an hour spent testing the air for weak points and a few targeted dispels from Meredian and Anaxian, the party is able to knock the barrier out for a few minutes, at which point the skull is easily dragged through.
* * *
Meanwhile, with a bit of experimentation, Delyliath realizes she can bring Anaxian to the ethereal plane by carrying him inside one of the party's bags of holding and then opening it while ethereal. After some poking and prodding, the dragon gets a bit bored and begins forcibly examining the devil's strange anatomy. And, realizing the creature cannot be effectively held or controlled for too long, he winds up bleeding it out before the party returns, leaving a suddenly corporeal 15-foot slug-fiend corpse in the magic circle with the paralyzed shadowdancer.
Upon the party's return, Anaxian easily identifies the strange skull as a Demilich (just as he had suspected), the remains of an ancient lich whose body and mind have crumbled away into madness and a shrieking desire to end life of all who might disturb it. Luckily, this one seems to be quite far from consciousness.
Seeing that the skull has been retrieved, Da Tusha asks the rest of the party to give him a few minutes of patience, and returns in half an hour riding the dungeon's other Bebilith, with four vacant-eyed Drow guards stumbling behind him. "I've taken care of the next patrol," he informs the party, as his servants lower him down into the cavern, where he seems to want to prepare something. "That should buy us twelve more hours without raising an alarm, according to these creatures' pitiful thoughts. After that time, my thralls and I will butcher every last accursed elf in this dungeon, which should allow you easy passage back to the castle. Tell the Stranger my debt is paid, and now we will part ways."
The Summoner continues to sob in the corner of the dungeon.
* * *
Anaxian spends a small amount of time inspecting the skull and simply says "This skull houses an extremely dangerous spirit. At the moment it may be malleable, but should it regain control of its capacities it could easily destroy us all. I recommend housing it in an extra dimensional space until we can turn it over to our patron."
Padding over to the crying summoner, he says "Would you like an end to your misery?"
"Yeah, that sounds awesome! This place is dull, what with all the baddies joining us instead of being eviscerated or set on fire. Or being killed by other baddies. Say, I know of a pretty good bar. They've got parfaits!" Illia- overhears Anaxian, and flits over, nodding her assent to the version of the plan that formed in her head at Anaxian's words to the summoner.
Anaxian's neck slowly snaked to eye Illia, fixing her with an unreadable expression. He blinked once (an odd thing considering he no longer had actual eyes).
"Yes. Clearly what he needs is a parfait. Strange I did not think of that."
Meredian casually stretches as if bored.
"So, are we going to burn down the city and loot something? I'd recommend finding something of value to steal in the chaos. What about that b$*@* that was bothering you when you first entered the city? Maybe we should raid her house vault for goodies before we leave. Better yet, lets find the house in charge of everything and raid that one. "
Knowledge Local
Delyliath smiles at the plans of wanton destruction of her peers.
"As you all know... I do not indulge myself in unnecessary massacre. but since we are pretty much set on turning this city upside down and enjoying the spoils, I hope you can spare some of the most beautiful drow specimen for... reeducation. Also.. I'm all for fun and play but.. let's make sure that the prize is secured before we enjoy ourselves.
I think either me or Illia could bring the skull away from here in a flash. Possibly directly to the crimson one."
she propose.
"and also yes... Delicious parfaits are definitely in order"
"Ooooh, yeah. Good plan. Juuuuust guessing, but I'm betting the penalty for losing to the Drow if something goes bad will be a lot less than that of not getting the skull to Crimson lady." Illia- still seems pretty perky, especially since everyone was pretty much down with her plan of parfaits. And she had forgotten about the wanton destruction of the town and looting! They wouldn't even need to use their own money for the parfaits.
Dris is quiet, thinking over their options. "Must we destroy the city? Could we not just take it over completely, eliminating those who stand in our way? Also, what is a Par-Fae? and how would one help our ghostly friend? I am unfamiliar with that type of fairy."
Anaxian tried as best he could to tune out his obviously brain-damaged companions and focused on the now-mortal Summoner, waiting for an answer.
"Taking over a city is fun, but ruling one is dreadfully boring. "
Regarding TSG "He was a ghost before? Well, you could just kill him and see if he reverts. It could work. "