.
Having no idea what she was facing, Selja tries to get far enough away that she can slash at it with her glaive!
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Túrante's ray of positive energy fires astray.
Selja seems bewildered by the happenings in the room. As she moves away and swings her glaive, Fenchurch steps forward to likewise cut through the burning orb. Both glaive and axe pass through the great ball of fire as harmlessly as through thin air.
"Not sure that thing's alive!" warns Selja. "Maybe we just grab that chest and get out of here?"
"That may be a sound strategy!" Liamae says, hanging back nervously.
Moira singsongs, "Chill Touch just might/ Help with this, right?"
She takes a swing with her longsword:
She misses, probably.
"Pesky flame.../ what a shame..."
Moira's blade, just like Selja and Fench's, passes harmlessly through the ball of ectoplasmic flame. Being as there is nothing substantial there to be hit, her spell does not go off.
"How are we supposed to fight this thing?" Liamae asks incredulously. She tries to wrack her brain for anything that might help.
Actually, I'll give you this much; although Liamae is unsure of exactly what they are facing, the rolling ball of spirit fire seems to be behaving not unlike the effects of a Flaming Sphere spell.
"Fall back! Maybe the fire will die down if we leave and return later!" Liamae suggests.
Next the goodness gracious great ball of fire rolls at Fenchurch.
The green knight becomes engulfed in flame. Her scream is drowned out in the myriad cries echoing from the strange rolling fire.
Deciding that she wasn't going to let the chest go, Selja heads straight for it, and tries to grab it unless she notices anything amiss.
Selja does not notice anything amiss with the chest. It is carved of green stone with golden filaments, with the expected serpentine motifs, probably worth a pretty penny itself to the right collector. It weighs a good 50 pounds and will take two hands to carry.
Realizing the chest is quite heavy, Selja spends an action stowing her glaive rather than immediately grabbing it.
Moira stops singing and accepts Liamae's suggestion... she falls back as quickly and elegantly as she can.
The princess likewise back off, wondering that if there's a magic flaming sphere, there should be a spellcaster nearby somewhere... unless it's a magical trap.
Moira backtracks on their former path, hoping to avoid or outlast the Sphere spell...
While Selja goes for the chest, everyone else backs out of the firepit chamber. The screaming ball of ectoplasmic fire does not follow them, but it does go after Selja.
Even with heavy chest in hands, Selja deftly dances out of the way, then follows the rest of the crew out. As she exits the chamber, the rolling fire dwindles down into a spark before blinking out, the winds die down, and the tormented scream fades into the unfathomable abyss from which it resounded.
Selja opens the chest to find a shining scimitar with golden hilt and blade of alchemical silver. It's obviously magical, as no mundane blade could look so pristine after all these ages. Liamae holds it for a moment and reveals that it is a Corrosive Scimitar.
"Hah! That rolling ball of fire couldn't catch me!" boasts Selja as she makes it out unscathed with the treasure. As Liamae explains that the weapon inside is a corrosive scimitar, Selja looks to the others. "Can anyone make use of this? Looks a little bit like your sword, Turante." Selja gestures toward Turante's dueling sword.
As Fenchurch was scathed, Selja gives a bit of healing with her wand of Cure Light Wounds.
"Not quite the same, I'm afraid," says Túrante. "See, this one has a heavier curve, while my sword has a very slight curve with a narrow point. The scimitar's made for draw cuts while mounted or spinning, while the elf blade's curve helps it bind for disarming. They fight differently," she explains apologetically.
Moira looks at the fine blade with interest and says, "Yeah, I can't use it, but it's nice. Uh, about that fireball... we might have a caster on our hands."
Selja nods as Turante explains the differences between her dueling sword and scimitar. "Yup, I'm a lot better fightin' with me glaive than anythin' else. I sure can't use this fancy sword, though, so you may as well keep it for emergencies?"
"That fireball was pretty weird, but could be part of the magic of the room. I think there's a reason that place smelled like burnt flesh." Selja shrugs, having no actual idea what she had seen. "Anyway, back to clearin' the level?"
Selja looks westward and examines the next door. If all looks well, she opens it!
Selja stops herself from opening the door when she notices it is locked, and the locking mechanism itself is trapped.
"Looks like we'll need the expert," mentions Selja as she points out the trap.
Before letting Turante get to work, Selja pulls out her wand and makes sure she's about fully healthy.
"That tingles!" says the princess. She waits patiently for Selja to finish and then give her a little room to work.
"Let's see what we have here..."
She takes a peek at the door's mechanism.
"Hm. Yeah. A definite 'no strangers' fiddling allowed here' going on."
Trying to help, Selja chips in some divine guidance from Shelyn.
Túrante takes a look and finds a simple yet classic trap, a poisoned needle hidden within the tumblers of the lock. Apparently, this design is more classic than she could have ever imagined. She works her tools nimbly into the lock and with some careful patience, disarms the trap, but is unable to recover the vial of poison hidden within.
"Poison needle. I broke the reservoir while removing it, but at least that should avoid any stabbings," explains the woman of surprisingly many skills. "Let's see about the lock now..."
The lock proves a bit more difficult, and Túrante fails to get it open initially, but feels with enough time she can figure it out.
"Are we in a hurry here?" Túrante asks after fiddling with the lock for a short time.
Selja shrugs. "These things have only been sitting here for a few hundred years," she estimates.
Well, I'll let you know the risks:
The fireball in the room next door is so far unexplained, but your best working theory so far is a caster of sorts is involved. However, it didn't follow you out of the room and actually fizzled out once you left the room.
The next nearest entrance are the stairs you recently came down, and you should be fairly confident you've cleared out the level above.
So, no known nearby threats, however your first encounter was with incorporeal undead. There may be more wandering randomly around.
”Keep an eye out. This may take a few minutes.”
Moira takes the suggestion and wanders around, looking for threats...
Moira keeps an eye on their backs while Túrante continues to work on the lock, but all is quiet. The silence is broken with a *click* as the ancient tumblers fall into place. The heavy stone door, carved with the likeness of a serpent with jaw unhinged, is unlocked.
Selja nods as Turante finesses the lock open. She was ready.
"Ah, you got it!"
Moira moseys over to see what's inside the door.
With a shove, the unlocked, disarmed stone door opens, with an unavoidable gravely sound as it scrapes along the dungeon floor.
Beyond the door lies another long, rectangular room, with a series of small columns running down the center. Immediately to the north is a hallway, and past that a set of five niches set into the wall. Along the southern wall runs a long bas relief mural, with a low bench at the foot of the wall. This bench holds an array of ornately carved jars and urns, fashioned of the same green stone with golden veins so many of the serpentfolk artifacts have been.
But those are just extraneous details. More significantly, being at the door when it opens, Túrante and Fenchurch catch a glimpse of something move behind the pillar in the far back of the room.
Map updated! Slide 35, bottom left. Tree roots along the floor denote Difficult Terrain
"Just another room, right?" says Selja, slow to recognize the danger.
Túrante says quietly, "Not entirely, there's something behind that pillar."
"Moira, be quick with the light," whispers Fench as she creeps into the room, axe held aloft and ready to strike whatever might jump out at her.
Túrante holds and waits for more to be revealed. Something, or nothing, stirs in the darkness in the back of the room.
Moira moves to the door and tosses her hat into the ring:
"Hat there be light!"
Selja approaches cautiously, ending up slightly behind Fenchurch.
Moira flicks her wrist and her hat sails elegantly through the air with a slight curve to it's trajectory. She lands it neatly next to the third column in the middle of the room. The room is now bathed mostly in light.
Liamae steps into the room and to the left, bow drawn, ready to fire on the first menacing thing she sees.
From behind the furthest pillar appears a terrifying sight, the long skeleton of a giant snake, but its head a humanoid skull with fanged jaws. Bones scrape across the stone floor as it slithers forth, but stops halfway across the room. From there, Liamae takes her shot.
It's a difficult shot threading between the columns, and her arrow goes astray.
The serpentine skeletal creature rears up and begins swaying in a hypnotic dance.
Selja sees Fench lower her axe and a bit of drool form in the corner of her mouth as she becomes dazed by the hypnotic dance.
Túrante shrugs and tries another blast of undead-destroying energy, though if this is a construct as she suspects that it is, it won't have any effect.
"Fench, snap out of it!" Selja nudges Fenchurch as she moves to engage, but Fench seems to still be dazed. The half-orc attacks anyway.
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