Beware the water, it may be harmful! Kalev says, looking at Kip at his shoulder. Can you make me fly?
"That thing is an undead. As fearsome as you are, Kalev, Malthir would probably be better suited for destroying it, if he is bolstered by Iomedae's power." Casimir says, then coughs as he inhales the noxious vapors. "You are probably right about that black foulness. Fenna, can you extend your moonlight bridge to let us cross safely? In all event *cough* we might be better served by picking a better battlefield if possible. Also, stay alert for signs of our fleeing foe."
Whilst his comrades organize themselves, Ricter draws his longbow and sets to work stripping away the foe's illusionary defences
As he hears Kalev's requested to Kip he looks to Fenna:
"Better yet, Fenna, could you make the foe NOT fly?"
Unless you think its flying ability is constant, could we not pull back and let its spells
expire? If it chooses to follow, then at least we don't have to fight it here.
One of the old looking Undead's images shattered as Ricter's arrow crashed into it, the projectile falling into the pool of tar and dissolving almost instantly from the obvious, noxious heat.
Retaliating in kind, the Undead pulled a spell component from the pouch he wore and hurled a bead of fire at the gathered Guardians. It exploded in the midst of them, the flashy evocation spell obvious as flesh burned and sizzled.
The spell cast, the Undead flew up to directly above the tar pool, taking cover amidst the stalactites there.
Fenna turned to nod her agreement with Ricter's suggestion when the pea-sized orb of flames began to approach in her peripheral vision. Shielding herself from the blast just in time with the Hellknight's heavily armoured leg, Fenna begins a prayer.
"I ask for the subtle aid of the Thief, that the power holding our foe out of reach might be stolen away."
Turning away from the fiery blast, Casimir fires two arrows from his longbow, after first imbuing them with his arcane energy.
"Keep sending arrows after it to clear away those images, but one of you ready an attack for when it tries to cast another spell."
Kip avoids the brunt of the flames but the foul odors cause him some distress.
The air in this chamber is hideously noxious. Every round a creature breathes the air in the room, it must make a DC 15 Fortitude saving throw— failure indicates the creature is nauseated for 1 round. A saving throw of a natural 1 results in 1d4 points of Constitution damage from the toxic air. This is a poison effect.
Casimir stepped up and also began to fire arrows from his bow. Despite the newly gained cover from the stalactites, one of them shattered another of the, apparently arcane-gifted, Undead.
Malthir delays for the moment.
"We should fall back. His defensive spell is of short duration, as is likely his flying spell. If he pursues, we fight on better ground, if he stays, he will have to waste ressources to renew his defenses."
Kalev has no trouble resisting the toxic fumes, but is unable to avoid the brunt of the fireball.
When Casimir suggests a retreat, Kalev nods in agreement and starts moving cautiously back the way they came.
Though his shield is sheathed, Ricter still just manages to duck and cover well enough to avoid some of the blast.
"I'm loathe to risk it escaping, but we cannot take many more blasts like that without a plan. Retreat it is."
Malthir will wait until the others are out of danger then cover their retreat.
Betweens gags, Kip reminds everyone to stick close to him as he is carried away by Kalev.
buuuuuummmmmmmp...excuse me.
The Guardians swiftly began to retreat in accordance with Casimir's suggestion, somewhat gagging on the toxic fumes emanating from the hellish pool of heated tar that the several images of the mage floated above. Although the mage's neck seemed to be broken, he croaked out a few words of power as he hissed out the verbal components for another evocation spell- this time sending two individual, focused jets of flame akin to a dragon's breath at Casimir. The Aldori swordsman saw the two gouts of flame coming over his shoulder, evasively somersaulting as he rounded the corner. He was not quite quick enough on this occasion and one of the jets made contact briefly with his back, burning straight through both his magical cloak and his armour and scalding his back, setting clothing alight and forcing him to swiftly duck and roll in order to put out the flames.
Scorching Ray(s).
The Guardians lost sight of the mage as they continued down the corridor back towards the large chamber that seemed to serve as some kind of central crypt. Other than the door leading west they had used to chase the Soul Eater and the door leading north they had entered from, there was another stone door leading south-east. Casimir in particular was badly burnt, but all of the Guardians bore singes from the mage's fireball.
The two smoldering marks on Casimir continue to glow and expand, rapidly darkening his entire body. Within three heartbeats, the entire figure crumbles to nothing, leaving only four identical copies of him.
"That was close. Now that we know what we are facing in there, we can either go back and try to defeat him once his spells have expired, or try another door. I figure that with such a powerful undead spellcaster guarding that chamber and with the Soul Eater also fleeing that way, I imagine there is something worth guarding on the other side. Fenna can use her moonlight bridge to help us cross the tar safely, but we still need to figure out a plan to take him out quickly, so we don't have to spend much time in the noxious air."
This chamber offered little but the exits from it upon a casual inspection. The Guardians caught their breath, occasionally glancing around for danger but seeing little beyond the walls lined with burial alcoves; many holding assorted pieces of ancient pottery.
We should deal with it now. I don't want that thing getting the drop on us... or maneuvering in behind us.
That being said, I have little to offer by way of magic. I could try and get it to waste more spells against an illusory target? Or try and lure it out of that room, where it doesn't have all the advantages?
Kip begins to worry that his lack of effective magic versus undead may become a bigger issue the further they proceed...
"Getting it to waste more spells is a solid plan. The sooner the better, before it has time to make its own preparations."
"It won't be expecting the bridge. Could we charge that monstrosity over it, grapple it and lay into it in melee? It doesn't exactly look physically strong"
Won't it be difficult tricking it with illusions? It is obviously a highly intelligent and powerful sorcerer. Won't it just see right through our tricks?
Can we dismiss it's flight?
Can we dismiss it's flight?
"Fenna tried and failed. If we try again, we're trading one of our spells for the chance of taking out one of his. Better to wait a few minutes and let it expire."
"Presuming that it is indeed a spell, and not some innate ability of the creature... if so and we cannot simply out-wait it's flight, we may need to resort to bows."
I could create a silent image of Cas and see if I can get the thing to waste another spell on it.
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The Guardians continued to discuss and plan their next move.
As the group continues to discuss possibilities as they wait out for spells to hopefully expire, Kip steps away and prepares to cast a silent image of Cas in the threshold of the chamber's entrance.
Casimir moves over and motions for Kip to wait before he begins casting the spell.
"Hold on, Kip. Our objective here should be to conserve as much of our magical energy as possible, and to make our enemies expend as much of theirs. Trading one of our spells for one of his is a poor deal. Especially if we're not sure he will even be fooled by it. I have several alchemical items and scrolls that it might be better to use instead. For instance, we could light a smokestick and use it for cover. Or I can go back in while my mirror images are still active. It's risky, but it might make him expend another spell or two without putting all of us at risk."
Kalev readies his bow, preparing to face the foe again.
I fear this won't do much, if the creature is impervious to mundane weapons.
We wait for 15 minutes, to make sure the enemy's min/level spells have expired (if he's CL 15th or above, we turn and run :-S).
Before moving in, everyone gets a hit from Fenna's wand of resist energy for fire resistance. Anyone who wants get a feather step from Casismir's wand for good measure.
One of our sneaky members move up and try to get a peek into the cave, to give us more info.
Assuming the zombie is still on the far side of the tar pit, and his spells have expired, we do the following:
Kip uses Casimir's scroll of silent image to make a fake Cas who appears to move into the cave and aim his bow at the zombie. Hopefully this triggers a spell from him.
Fenna moves up and sets up the moonlight bridge across the tar.
The rest of us move up, ready to rush him. Cas hangs back and readies a bow-shot to disrupt any further spellcasting. Kip readies his wand of magic missile to disrupt spellcasting. Fenna stands by to provide emergency healing and levitate anyone who should be so unlucky as to end up in the tar.
The objective must be to effectively shut down his spellcasting and get at many of our heavy hitters next to him as possible. We adjust as the situation calls for it, but we should avoid lumping together or lining up until we are reasonably sure we have shut down his casting.
Everyone say OK or offer adjustments to the plan.
move up and try to get a peek into the cave, to give us more info.
move up and try to get a peek into the cave, to give us more info.
When the group is good and ready, with all preparations in place, Kip sneaks over and takes a peek into the cavern, trying to spot the undead defender...
Clinging to the wall of the corridor and dashing from stalagmite to stalagmite, Kip whispered the words of a spell as stealthily as he could, also alerting the Guardians to the fact that the zombie was stood upon the far ledge, simply watching the corridor.
An image of Casimir strode from the corridor, bow half-nocked. Seeing the archer approach, the zombie, rather than strike out, plucked a glowworm from a rotting pouch on its belt and rasped the words to a spell of its own. Fierce green flames seemed to surround the mage as he finished the spell, not yet reacting to the archer but watching him as he approached. The mage did not appear to have any other obvious spells active, including the mirror image he had fifteen minutes ago.
The spell cast was Fire Shield; but the Chill Shield version.
Round 1-
Ordered Initiative-
Casimir-
Malthir-
Fenna-
Ricter-
Kalev-
Kip-
Mage-
Kip- 23
Malthir- 19
Ricter- 17
Casimir- 11
Mage- 11
Kalev- 8
Fenna- 3
Active Effects-
Map-
Notes-
[ooc]Consider yourself 30 feet from Kip's position.
Action-
Kip remains hidden, stepping back and continues to concentrate upon the spell, having the illusory Cas draw and aim at the undead creature.
He whispers back to the others, All spells appear to be down except for Chill Shield!
I'm not familiar with that spell. Some sort of protective spell I assume. Do you know how long it usually lasts? If it has a short duration, we should simply hold position for a minute or two, and wait for it to expire. Casimir calls softly back to Kip.