Kylar blasts the behir... but fails to drop the beast that roars in in pain.
Seeing Deaglan as harmless, it shifts attention to his aasimar ally!
Varian is nearly felled by the same powerful combo that it did to Deaglan, first biting to lock the aasimar in place before wrapping him in its neck, crushing Varian for more internal injuries!
Init Order (bold = up)
Group buffs:
Haste 5-rounds remaining
Kylar (11 damage)
Sindar
Behir (104 damage)
Deaglan (49 damage)
Varian (55 damage)
Sindar blasts the behir with the magic missiles, the creature releasing Varian as it falls limp. A vortex then appears behind the behir, sucking in its body which disappears as if it was never there other than the severe injuries on the polearm warriors.
The party, now recovered from the battle, finally head upstairs.
A massive triangular table carved with arcane sigils dominates this room. Three ornate chairs offer a commanding view of visitors. The north, east, and south walls each feature a door brightly colored blue, yellow, and red, respectively.
Kylar can tell that they are locked, and are magical, too. Looks like they are specially arcane locked with a passkey required. The sigils are a plausible form for a passkey.
Sindar places his blue-marked hand on the door. The sigil on Sindar's hand glows and a matching rune on the door illuminates as well. The door then slides open. Faded frescoes cover the walls of this cold, dank hallway. They show skeletal warriors garbed in the fluted ceramic plate armor of an ancient empire. The floor is decorated in mosaics of various blue stones. A single door to the east continues the path.
Deaglan and Kylar feel a throbbing pain in their head as the party sees the blue outline of three humanoids walk into the chamber: an elf in religious garb, a half-orc with a large axe, and a human with a broad chin. About 20 seconds later, the human runs out in a panic and heads down the stairs towards the statue room before it vanishes, the headache now gone from those afflicted.
You realize that what you are seeing are temporal after images. It's only a theory, but this place must be located in an existence outside of normal time, which would explain why you're seeing parts of the past and thus explains the Rozimus conundrum: the Rozimus you saw inside here is the same Rozimus you found at the Greenforest Inn, but from an earlier time!
@Sindar: You're not quite sure, but it seems that the wards are just a locking mechanism via arcane lock and nothing more.
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"Of course, temporal after images! It's only a theory, but this place must be located in an existence outside of normal time, which would explain why we're seeing parts of the past and explains that fool's Rozimus conundrum: the Rozimus we saw inside here is the same Rozimus we saw before, but somehow stuck in this time too. A bit of a paradox that last bit."
Sindar heads to the next door, but a palpable feeling of dread hits him as he approaches. The entire party feels it as they follow the snarky wizard.
Sindar opens the door, finding a relatively empty hallway with a single door to the south, although the unnerving feeling still permeates in this chamber as well, causing the flagstone to feel even colder than normal.
Sindar detects an unhallow coming from some source behind the door, but whose radius is still affecting you even now. He also picks up some illusion magic coming from the other side of the door, but cannot identify it without being able to see the aura properly.
Sindar opens the door, the hallway looking otherwise unassuming.
There is a specialized phantasmal killer bound to the room, set upon proximity to the next door. It looks like it'll hit everyone in the room when it goes off.
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"I know reptiles have underdeveloped visual senses, but do you not see I already opened the door."
Sindar strokes his ear, thoughtfully.
"Now here we appear to encounter a problem. Do you believe in the boogeyman? Because the next door has one. I suppose if we're being technical, I'd call it a phantasmal killer."
He harrumphs.
"Well, one moment then." Moving his hands in a complex pattern, the wizard casts dispel magic.
Sindar summons and concentrates on the area, putting a nulling magical effect into it. It takes a bit of sweat, but he feels now that only the underlying alarm that is the trigger for the trap remains!
The party continues to the next door and, after hearing nothing from the other side, opens it.
The floor of this short corridor is specked with faded blue stone mosaics, but the walls remain completely bare save for five niches in
the east wall: three at eye level and two more below and between them.
Each niche in the top row contains what appears to be the skull of a long-dead human. The niches in the top row each bear small metal placards, but the niches in the lower row have no similar inscriptions. Simple wooden doors at the north and south ends of the hall lead elsewhere. A palpable sense of evil suffuses the room, making the distance from door to door seem even longer than it is.
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"I suppose it would be an understatement to say 'I've got a bad feeling about this,' but I DO have a bad feeling about this place." Varian looks for traps between the door and the first niche on the wall... if he's pretty sure there are none, he'll walk up to it and read the placard on that one - but only silently, not aloud.
Varian moves into the room, finding no traps on the door, but as he begins reading a placard, some of the skulls begin to move, dry spinal cords dangling from the base of the skulls as bones begin to cackle!
These are penanggalens; undead that can disembody the head and spinal cords to corrupt flesh, savor blood, and become vampiric monstrosities. Often, they are witches that undergo a ritual to turn themselves into such evil abominations, although the fact these are in skeletal form is different the horror they typically are, organs and viscera dripping from the necks as they fly around feasting on the living.
Penanggalens are senstitive to light and require slashing silvered weapons to fully harm them. They resist cold, fire, and waves of positive energy and also naturally repair damage to their forms.
Offensively, they retain any spellcasting or supernatural powers they had before their transformation . Worse, though, are their undeath-infused attacks. Their bites are virulent, and attacks from the spinal cords with flesh and skin as well as wrap around the target. Woe be to one pinned by a penanggalen as it begins to feast upon the blood of its prey and women slain in this manner risk rising as undead to serve their evil unliving masters.
Init Order (bold = up!)
Varian
Skull/cord Red
Kylar
Sindar
Skull/cord Yellow
Skull/cord Blue
Deaglan
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Varian backs away from the creatures back to the party and casts blessing of fervor on all.
With this blessing, you call your allies to move forth and empower them to conquer and become victorious. Each round for the duration of this spell, each of your allies can choose one of the following bonuses for that round at the beginning of its turn (their choice).
Increase its speed by 30 feet.
Stand up as a swift action without provoking an attack of opportunity.
Make one extra attack as part of a full attack action, using its highest base attack bonus.
Gain a +2 bonus on attack rolls and a +2 dodge bonus to AC and Reflex saves.
Cast a single spell of 2nd level or lower as if it were an enlarged, extended, silent, or still spell.
These effects are not cumulative with similar effects, such as those provided by haste or a speed weapon, nor do they actually grant an extra action, so you can't use it to cast a second spell or otherwise take an extra action in the round. Blessing of fervor does not stack with haste.
Varian buffs the party as he explains what the undead are!
The reddened skull looks at Varian and glares evilly...
He feels he is cursed, but thinks he'll end the effect quickly.
It then flies towards the party, approaching the two arcane casters.
Init Order (bold = up!)
Group buffs (Blessing of Fervor: 8 rounds remaining)
Varian (evil eyed)
Skull/cord Red
Kylar
Sindar
Skull/cord Yellow
Skull/cord Blue
Deaglan
Kylar melts some bones off the of the penanggalen as he reappears! Sindar meanwhile blasts all of the skeletal undead with his angry words!
Only one of the penanggalens is rattled while the others seems to float on with minor damage.
Despite the effects, one of them tries to cast a spell.
That's a stinking cloud.
Noxious fumes fill the air as the clouds try to choke out the party!
Only Deaglan is nauseated, feeling his breakfast trying to come up once more.
The rattled skull floats towards the dwarf and lashes at him with its spinal cord!
The dwarf is smacked by the bony tendril, his neck and chest shriveling painfully! Luckily, Deaglan's near-vomiting shakes him enough that the undead cannot get a good grip on hit!
Init Order (bold = up!)
Group buffs (Blessing of Fervor: 8 rounds remaining)
Varian (evil eyed - saves)
Skull/cord Red (25 damage)
Kylar
Sindar
Skull/cord Yellow (3 damage)
Skull/cord Blue (12 damage, deafened 9 rounds)
Deaglan (5 damage, 3 Dex damage, 2 Cha damage, nauseated in cloud + 3 rounds)