"It is Amanorn's own fault that he provoked the creature, regardless of whether its retaliation was just. But perhaps he might not have taken that shot in the first place, if I had been quicker to explain the creature's peculiar behavior. We may not have had to fight at all."
Jones crosses his arms, looks to each of his companions.
"You see, we can spend all day pointing fingers and assigning blame, but it won't accomplish anything. If we can bring him out of here alive, it shouldn't be difficult to find a town with a priest who can restore him."
"And you, Amanorn..." he looks into his old friend's blank, clueless eyes. "...Perhaps this will finally teach you to exercise caution."
Sledge checks the area for treasure.
Sledge finds nothing valuable on the Mi-Go, but does find a ring and a piece of only slightly singed parchment that looks valuable on the innocent creature Zin murdered.
"Poor space mushroom. I liked him."
Sledge hands the ring and parchment to one of the nerds.
No, they're just normal, fire proof objects
Yes
Jones Identifies them.
Jones identifies the ring and the rock on the poor fungus, and identifies them as a Ring of Sustenance and a Dusty Rose Prism Ioun Stone respectively.
Vänne awakens in the pile of...
Ye gods, what is this? Body parts?!
...and sits up slowly, carefully, trying to get his bearings. The last thing he remembered was there was trouble in that cave beneath the lake, leople missing, and he figured it would be no issue to slide in and warp someone's mind to figure out what the problem was with no bloodshed.
That...didn't work so well.
How long had he been in here? He didn't even recognize this room, but then he heard the voices outside...talking about someone dying, defending friends...that...that didn't sound like monsters. Not really. Right? Slowly, he edged to the door to listen closer, a vanish spell at the edge of his lips just in case.
Vanne finds himself on top of a pile of corpses, some half-eaten, and some entirely stripped of flesh. Skum, Human, and other unidentified creatures' bodies intermingling.
He sees no occupant to this cave, though the smell of wet fur hangs heavy in the air, almost suffocating.
Vänne flicks pieces of gore off of his clothes and grimaces, trying not to stare at the blood that soaked parts of him. Strength, V, Strength...now is...no...never the time.
As Vanne climbs down from the corpse pile and touches the ground, he feels sharp pain in his legs. He looks down to notice holes have been poked through his feet! But by what, he can't tell...
Hmm...caltrops maybe? Strange
Vänne detects magic while taking a break to use mage hand to move body chunks out of the way if he has tock searching for the source.
Vanne detects magic in every direction for as far as his senses stretch, but still can see nothing.
Son of a mohrg, could be invisible caltrops for all I know. Hmm. I should really work on learning to purge invisibility, or at least seeing it. Damn. And I know I hear people outside that door...I hope I don't regret this...
"Um...hello?" He calls out to the entrance. "Is...someone out there?" I'm an idiot, I know that, right? Well, at least I am on a safe island surrounded by invisible magical spikes if it turns out to be a threat.
Again, just in case, he readies a vanish spell.
Jones perks up when he hears a normal-sounding voice, but keeps a hand on his sheathed rapier.
"Well, that depends. Are you associated with the evil plant creatures from the depths of space?"
"Um. No. No, not really. I'm associated with my mother. Her name is Lola. We live on a farm about thirty miles from Ardis. So...I guess I'm associated with humans from Ardis?"
Well, that was a pleasant start. The fish people would not have asked such a question, right?
Jones nods, satisfied.
"Alright, we're coming in. We won't attack you if you don't attack us."
He opens the door, and takes in the sight of a pallid man standing amidst a heap of rotting corpses.
"Gods...are you hurt? How long have you been down here?!"
"Stay away from it Jones, it's another of those odd white things from the cave. This one can talk."
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"Be careful, there's something invisible lining the floor!"
He shouts out as soon as the door opens, and when Jones sees him, he smiles...a half elf! Normalcy! ...close lipped, obviously - doesn't wanna give his heritage away yet. "I'm...not sure. I seem to have been out a while. I came down here to see about some missing people in the surrounding areas, and...something grabbed me and knocked me out. I woke up here...maybe ten minutes ago?"
Z comes into the room on her wings of fire, still crowned with her halo of flames, and wearing a sheen of fire.
"The only thing I see is corpses." she says before directing her gaze to the pale man and subjecting him to her aura.
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Darius places a firm hand on the back of Zin's neck, " And your vision is blurred at best. We will check this one first but at no point will whatever.. fiasco that was before happen again ", the Lupine man growls.
He looks over the man now sniffing and evaluation him.
"Wow. Um...That's not very nice. I'm not dead, lady. I'm not undead, either. You seem a user of magic. Subject me to a detect undead spell, if you would. I'm alive. I breathe."
He stands up and inhales a deep breath, loudly.
"Geeze. Judge a guy by the color of his skin. Racist much? I didn't call you a thief, even though you're obviously a varisian. Stereotypes are so pre-the-fall-of-Aroden. Seriously, though, could you calm that fire? I'm not keen on being burned after I wake up from being clubbed to death. Please?"
Vänne is obviously not hostile.
"Um, wow...uh, can I help you? Yeah. I just woke up among a bunch of dead stuff, so I haven't had time for a bath, but....uh..."
He prestidigitates himself clean.
Darius sneers as his inspection is complete. " Dhampir.. He aligns with Good... Unlike some people. What is your name? "
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"Um...wow. Okay. Yeah. So that little secret is out. Well you're not chasing me with torches and pitchforks, so that's nice. I'm Vänne. Vänne Mørkevinter. Nice to, uh, meet you...I mean, all things considered. You guys here about the missing people, too? I heard there was trouble and came to help, but...well...plants are a little resistant to mind control, and...that's kinda my thing. I prefer to solve problems nonviolently, if I can. You know, Sarenrae says we all deserve a second chance and all..."
"Well, the fact that you aren't feeding on the corpses at your feet speaks volumes about your conscience and self-control. I saw no reason to fear you, even before Darius's examination."
"But yes, we are investigating the missing people." He tips his hat. "I am Jones Shei'lac. These are Darius, Zin, and Sledge. That poor soul back there is Amanorn, who was recently Feebleminded."
"Now, let's see about freeing you from that trap. Darius, what do you see?"
"I'll admit I like a steak tartar or blood pudding, but no, eating corpses... that's...horrible! Oh, man, the poor elf. That's...awful. Sometimes I wish my gifts extended to healing magic, but I'm afraid I can't do anything to help him."
He stretches and looks around with a frown. "All I could tell was there's magic around, and it felt like I stepped on a caltrop or something. Did that once before...those things hurt like you couldn't believe."
"Hey."
Sledge shakes Vanne's hand.
"He seems trustworthy enough. And if he gets some sort of control over one of us, we're all perceptive enough to sense it."
Darius hesitates at the mention of Sarenrae and Mind Control. " You say the Goddess's name but speak of taking away a creature's free will... Mind control is never a magic I have seen that those of more benevolent position use for long. "
He looks upon the man warily.
Vänne shrugs. "It is temporary, and I think preferable to slaughtering someone out of hand. Death leaves no repentance, unless you're made into something like my forebear, and that is an abomination. I prefer to nudge into friendship over domination, but my cursed nature brings a gift with necromancy and enchantment. I know what I am...I prefer that gifts created from suffering move towards a greater good."
Darius spots something invisible...but it's not on the ground. On the ceiling, watching and waiting, lurks an INCREDIBLY ugly creature.
Jones can tell that, hey! The whole floor is covered in spikes. Made of rock.
"You may want to stay where you are, Vanne. The entire floor is covered in spikes of rock. They must have been designed to blend into the stone floor. Quite clever, actually. Do you, by any chance, have some means of flight?"
"No, but I do have a means of disabling magic, if their entirety of existence is magical. I didn't try it at first because if it was natural spikes made invisible, frankly, I would have wasted magic. If you think that will work though..."
Provided the land is clear and Sledge gets up safely to shake his hand, Vänne smiles, and shakes back, but his grip is clearly pretty weak. "Thanks, Mr. um....Sledge? Look, I can't really offer any more assurances than my word if you don't trust me, but, well, with an accomplished magic user I'm pretty sure you can tell when I'm casting a spell or not, and what kind. This obviously isn't an ideal situation, but I'd like to get out if here, preferably after stopping whatever is causing these disappearances. If we're after the same goal, I think many can succeed where one fails, no?"
He smiles again. He seems genuinely amiable. It's a bit weird that someone who looks half dead seems so nice, but there doesn't seem to be a falseness to it.
"Miss Zin, I'm terribly sorry if my appearance disturbed you. As I said, I know what I am. I don't like it any more than you, I'm afraid, but I only have it to work with."
Darius stops angles his head up, trying to see what the beast might be before striking.