The stink of mold and sulfur clings to the air in this damp basement. A single arched doorway leads down into a flooded portion of the basement, adjacent to a tall circular shelf loaded with mushrooms, glass jars of desiccated insects, dried herbs, and other reagents. A small table outfitted with a cauldron and alchemical gear fills a nook by a large, ascending staircase. A small workbench covered with carving tools and whittled bone and bits of jewelry stands to the west, next to a large table laden with scraps of paper and fragments of etched stone tablets.
Simon does not find any traps.
The shelves contain alchemical reagents worth 1,250 gp. Simon easily finds a loose cobblestone on the floor in front of the shelves. When pressed, a secret compartment opens. Inside the chamber is a chest of coins, along with other treasure!
Victrix whistles at the sight of the loot.
"Looks bloody amazing. But don't forget why we're really here."
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Simon will return the chest and everything other than the scrolls and sword to the hiding place to be retrieved later.
"Kip and Ema, you should split up these scrolls.
Ema, can you use a shortsword? If your magic fails for some reason, you might need protection. You should take this sword.
Kip, the Vampiric Mists resist non-magic weapons. If you don't have a way to enchant your rapier, you can take one of my Oils of Bless Weapon. It should allow the weapon to damage the mists.
Give me a minute to brew a new extract of Shield. Then we can start upstairs and try to get as close to the hag as possible before activating our short term buffs."
Simon uses the alchemical lab to create the new Shield extract, then drinks his extract of Barkskin.
Anyone else want to enact any long term buffs before we go back upstairs?
After casting your preparatory spells, you head upstairs, continuing on past the level containing Aeroclyse's prison. The stairs spiral around the tower's wall under finally emerging at the top level.
A colossal device of jeweled, copper-lined globes, steel rings, and dazzling lights fills this room. The contraption—an elaborate orrery—rises from an octagonal dais at the center of the tower peak. The instrument surges with phantasmal depictions of constellations and cosmic phenomena. Periodically, a lens pauses, briefly concentrating the light of some distant star upon one of the glowing glyphs circling the perimeter of the massive orrery. Around the room, windows twenty-five feet tall and five feet wide allow a spectacular view of the crater lake outside. The copper plates forming the dome of this chamber form a mechanical iris engraved with arcane sigils.
A hideous hag Helekhterie works to fine-tune the orrery. Hair like rotting seaweed drapes the ancient witch. Loose, algae-colored skin sags off her starved frame. The two vampiric mists float in the air near her, clouds of crimson vapor reeking of fresh blood.
Helekhterie looks up in surprise as you enter the chamber. "Intruders! How did you get here without me noticing? No matter. I will not let you interfere with my destiny!"
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As they neared the top of the next set of stairs, Simon heard the hag cackling and moving around. Stopping the party, he motioned them back down to the last landing.
"I think this is it. We are probably in for a tough fight, so let's get final preparations ready and head up."
Simon quickly drinks his extracts of Shield and Blur. Holding his sword in one hand, he readies to head back up the stairs into battle.
Unfortunately, Simon is not as stealthy as he'd like to be. Helekhterie hears his approach as he crests the stairs, and she turns to confront him.
When they found the scrolls and short sword Ema was not all that impressed and she nearly laughed in Simond's face as he asked if she could use. as it was she gave a snort as she suppressed it and said, "I'm afraid not Simon, if anything gets past all of you and tries to kill me there isn't much that I can do to protect myself if I can't flee. No," she shook her head, "better to give it to another who can make use of it."
At the Suggestion of splitting up the scrolls Ema was much more accommodating and said, "That makes sense, Kip?" she looked at the grippli, "would mage armor help you? It's the rough protection of a chain shirt without the weight and encumbrance." She looked at the others as they were identified and said, "This one I can't use, Kip you should keep it as I think you can," she held the restoration scroll out to him, "I can make use of this one though," she slides the corrosive touch scroll gently into her pack.
When they prepared to go and face the hag Ema said, "Let me call up something to help, I'd suggest you show no fear of it and pretend it is beneath your notice. I hope it can deal with the mists." With that she opened a gate to a realm of fire and from it came a creature of living flame. She looked at it and stared the serpentine thing down until it subsided with a displeased crackling and then gestured for it to follow her.
When they reached the room above and saw the hag Ema felt the strength leave her body at it's hideousness. She suddenly felt sluggish under the weight of her gear and glared at the elemental who seemed to be unaffected.
As Simon falls back, Helekhterie shrieks, "Slay them! Drain their blood!" The vampiric mists swiftly fly down the stairs in pursuit of the half-orc. Fortunately, the stairs are only wide enough for one of them to attack at a time. Unfortunately, the one that can reach him touches the investigator, siphoning his blood and causing him to begin bleeding profusely!
Gorged on Simon's blood, the mist surges with speed and drifts backward, allowing the other one to move in to attack! Fortunately, this one misses.
Victrix doesn't take too kindly to Simon suddenly getting smacked, and throws her axe to the floor to unlimber her glaive.
"OI! LEAVE HIM ALONE!" She bellows, bringing the weapon to bear...
Both vampiric mists are two slow to dodge the fire breath. They let out whispery shrieks as the fire burns away part of their gaseous bodies. Victrix chops through the nearest one with her glaive, and red liquid splashes to the floor as it discorporates!
"If it comes down to sticking her with my rapier, I think things have gone horribly wrong, Simon. But if you have an extra, I'll hold on to it for now just in case. Ema, I don't think the mage armor would do much for me, I've got the real deal already. But yes, I'll hold on to that restoration just in case one of you end up in a real bad place."
"Oh no! The mists--" Kip cut off as Simon erupted in flames, "are incredibly flammable! Good job Simon, now keep your blood inside and let's go take care of the other one!" He punctuated his statement with sudden pulse of magic conducted along his tongue to staunch Simon's bleeding.
With one mist down and one still to go Ema pointed at it and said, "Flara, kill that one!"
The elemental crackled in delight and leapt forward, it's serpentine shape letting it move between everyone with ease and it lashed out at the mist.
Ema, seeing that the elemental was doing as told, cast a spell and sent an arrow of acid out at the hag.
her arrow on the way Ema took out the wand that made a fiery sphere and prepared to use it as soon as she could
The vampiric mist avoids Flara's fiery strike, but Ema hits it with an acid arrow, the corrosive energy weakening it.
Avoiding the fire elemental, the mist stretches its body into a thin line of vapor to squeeze past it, then touches Simon again, siphoning more of his blood.
You can hear Helekhterie chanting a spell, but nobody has eyes on her at the moment, so you don't see the effects.
Flara, it's target now on the stairs, gave the elemental a chance to move and flank it as the fiery being attacked.
In it's eagerness though Flara missed completely as it began to notice the hag and thought she would be even more fun to burn.
Ema, the wand now in hand, dropped a ball of fire on top of the mist and then rolled it up the stairs and out of the way so the others could pass once the mist was gone. At the same time the last of the acid sizzled away at the misty thing further erroding it's strength.
The vampiric mist manages to dodge the flaming sphere, but the lingering acid arrow deals just enough damage to finish it off, melting its amorphous body into vapor!
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Relieved that the Mist was gone, Simon tried to focus and ignore the sickly pallor of his skin and the dizziness caused by the blood loss.
"I learned some tricks from our friend the demon. Let's see how she like this."
Moving into the main room, and skirting around the edges, Simon gets his first glance at the hideous hag. Reeling from the hideous countenance, his limbs feel weaker.
He quickly quaffs an extract. At first, nothing seems to happen. Then Simon's stomach starts to bulge. He makes a series of quick retching noises, then bends double as a stream of thousands of spiders spews from his mouth.
Pointing toward the hag, Simon directs them to bite and distract the spellcaster.
Getting a look at the hag, Simon can she is surrounded by a coat of starry radiance, a protective spell of some sort.
Victrix runs up the stairs and tries to get as close to the hag as she can.
Kip hurried up the stairs after Simon to seal up his wounds, but first caught sight of the nasty hag.
"I've seen worse," Kip shrugged, then conjured a powerful blast of healing magic.
Helekhterie barely flinches as the spiders bite at her. She steps away from Victrix and shouts at the aasimar, "Kill your friends, dearie!"
Flara quickly sped up the steps to get to the hag zipping right past Victrix in the process. Once in range into threw itself at the hag.
It plowed into the hag and her body began to smolder from the heat.
Ema, meanwhile went up the stairs but on seeing the hag suddenly felt her strength leave her at the hideous sight of the thing. Still she was able to direct the sphere of fire to roll right into the hag and begin trying to burn her too.
At first, it seems like Victrix only heard part of the hag's kill command. Perhaps she was momentarily distracted by the hag's ugliness.
But then she turns her glaive on the nearest ally--the unfortunate fire elemental attacking the hag.
And promptly demonstrates that her striking power has not been negatively affected. At all.
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The field of combat had become very confusing, but the hag appeared to be pinned into the center of the orrery, so Simon rushed up to attack it.
As Victrix slashed out and hit the fire elemental, he stumbled momentarily, then jumped onto the steps. "Snap out of it, Victrix! You need to get some protection from her evil spells!"
Attempting to angle his breath weapon to miss the swarm, Simon let out a second blast at the hag.
Ema's elemental lunges at Helekhterie, slamming into the hag. She shrieks as its fiery touch sets her dress ablaze! She manages to barely dodge the flaming sphere.
Victrix succumbs to the murderous command, turning on the elemental. Her glaive tears it in half, and it dissapears as it is banished back to the Plane of Fire.
Simon breathes his fiery breath at Helekhterie, but her spell resistance renders her immune to the flames. They incinerate the spider swarm, causing them to wink out of existence.
Kip conjures a spiritual rapier that stabs at the hag, but it disappears as it strikes her, foiled by her spell resistance!
Keeping her concentration despite being on fire, Helekhterie points to Victrix again. "Excellent! Now the green one, dearie! Kill your friends!"
Victrix lunges after Simon, swinging her glaive—but it seems she’s trying to fight it, forcing her swing to go wide!
As Victrix's glaive slammed into the elemental it gave n angry betrayed crackling sound. Ema, having just seen this as she felt the elemental return home gave a cry of anger as she yelled, "Victrix, what are you doing?!" She then realized what that spell was and said, "If you can cast protection from evil do it now!"
Ema focused and moved the sphere of fire onto the hag once more then, drawing on her reserves and tearing open an ethereal gateway. She called out in a Terran for the summoned creatures to attack the hag. There was no indication of movement at all but suddenly there was a whooshing sound from three side of the hag as something invisible tried to smash into her.
Aether Elemental
Helekhterie just manages to dodge the flaming sphere again before it winks out of existence. She cries out in surprise as she's battered by two of three invisible elementals. Simon dodges Victrix's chop and slashes at the hag, but her defensive spells deflect his attack.
"I got, you, Vicki!" Kip says as he pulls out a scroll of protection from evil. He casts it before hopping over and tapping Victrix with his tongue, warding her from further attempts to control her mind.
Wincing as the flames scorch her flesh, Helekhterie clashes her bracers together as she casts a spell defensively. A twisting pattern of subtle, shifting colors weaves through the air above her head, threatening to fascinate the aether elementals.
Under the protection of Kip’s magic, Victrix refocuses her rage on the hag and lunges at her!
With everyone scattered about fighting, Kip stamped his feet, then stretched out his hand in a wide arc. Iridescent bubbles sprayed out, filling the room, then quickly popped leaving only a faint shimmer in the air that seemed to bolster his friends.
Helekhterie shireks as both Simon and Kip slice her with their weapons. "I've nothing yet, but now that you are here, you have forced my hand! Once I've dealt with you, I'll wipe you all out and secure my destiny once more!"
Tha hag cast her spell, successfully no less, and Ema tried to identify what it was.
As the lights began to show Ema realized what was happening and knew her elementals would likely be incapacitated for a short time at the least. Luckily the hag couldn't keep the spell up and do anything to fight back though it would persist a short time even if she didn't bother to maintain it. She also realized that she could shake them out of the effect if needed.
All three of the elementals succumbed to the effects of the spell, not that Ema could readily tell since she couldn't see them. She realized this problem almost immediately when the creatures did nothing but by then it was too late to do anything about it as she had already chanted, gestured, and sent an arrow of acid sailing in at he hag.
As the acid arrow splatters harmlessly against the room's central pedestal, Helekhterie's milky eyes bulge obscenely as she glares at Victrix, attempting to hex the aasimar with her evil eye!
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Simon tries to puzzle through the hag's statement. 'I've nothing yet?' What could that mean? She's trying to gain prophecy, but it hasn't been working. Maybe she has killed all the colonists already in her attempts to gather power?
Trying a slightly different tact, Simon uses a mocking tone to attempt to goad the hag.
"You are a formidable enemy, but we assumed you would have more minions protecting you. What happened? Did the aboleth steal them from you?"
In the meantime, he tries to keep her on the defensive.
His efforts to decipher the puzzle affect his concentration and his swing goes wide.