Tor channels the power of Torag, calling down the most powerful healing magic in existence, and releasing it in a wave of gentle light.
The stairs crumble to dust. The healing keeps youall healthy even as it renders the statues to nothing. Little stone replicas sit at the core of each statue and their eyes seem to follow you as you blast your way pay.
The party pushes on up the stairs.
"Impressive," Taerine tells Tor, nodding at the spell's effects. "Shall we go see if we can find Talon before he gets into trouble?"
She gestures for the dwarf to precede her and follows once she sees it is in fact safe.
You easily catch up to Talon at the top of the stairs. A natural fissure has formed in the ice of the waterfall here where it meets the stone of the cliff face, climbing to a height of one hundred sixty feet. The rock face itself is broken by a series of shallow, natural terraces covered by only a few feet of ice. The ice is transparent enough to see the blackened corpses of hundreds of human warriors manacled to the cliff face. Many of the manacles hang empty or hold only the dismembered remnants of limbs. In some places, the ice has actually been chipped away to expose the rock wall, and the exposed manacles hang empty—their previous occupants conspicuously absent.
You must either climb the ice or fly up to the top to continue.
"Before we ascend, can you tell if there's undead there, Master Deathsteel?"
"I don't have any way to detect undead. It's a common misconception that all clerics can innately do so."
"Very well then, I guess we'll find out the hard way."
Activating her celestial armor, she begins ascending, trying to keep as far from the corpses as possible. She calls a fiery sword to hand as she leaves the ground.
At first Taerine rises into the air without trouble, but this is the Veil and trouble is never far.
About a dozen feet up, spectral hands and arms slide from the grisly wall and begin to grasp at her! The entire wall comes alive and soon everyone is being assaulted by ghost limbs! There is no escape but up!
Tree ghostly touch is strangely similar to a wraith's in that it saps the very strength from your bones.
Talon remained at the top of the stairs. He had no means to fly, and after seeing the effect climbing seemed out of the question.
seems going back out is the way to go. I have no means to get past this
would shadow walk work here or is it to bright? last option is plane shift to shadow plane then go. but both require Talon to enter the shadowplane thus putting him in probably a worse case.
so I can die slowly by climbing or die quickly in the shadow plane. If planar travel is possible
"Damn it. Now you want us to wait for you?" Taerine curses as she descends again. "I can try to carry you if you wish, but it may be difficult. If Tor can heal us afterward."
Talon, you feel some shadow above you. It's not much, but it may be enough. No telling what's going to happen on the way to, but it's a possibility.
Tor will stride up the stairs to the top, then draw out his wand and use it to remove his strength damage.
Taerine continues flying to the top, hoping to avoid as many of the ghostly limbs as she can.
Everyone dashes to the top as they are able and everyone arrives feeling like they are nearly spent. Taerine and Tor especially are weighted down by armor and Talon is nearly ripped apart by Dread Wraiths and the shadow limbs when he jumps. But, you all are here. You've made it. Lucky you.
The domed ceiling of this large, round room rises thirty feet
overhead. Bars of ice block alcoves flanking a door to the
north, as well as passages to the east and west. An elaborate
ice throne sits within a raised alcove to the south, surveying
the chamber. Heavy manacles are inset into the throne’s
arms, back, and legs. Several more sets of manacles are
spaced about the chamber’s walls, interspersed with various
diabolical instruments of torture. A fifteen-foot-diameter cage
of ice bars that extend from floor to ceiling dominates the
center of the room. Floating within this cage is a huge sphere
of crackling, gray energy.
HP 235/250; Burn (max 12)/non-lethal damage 3/51; Internal Buffer: 3/3
AC 36, touch 22, flat-footed 31; CMD 34
Fort +23, Ref +20, Will +15
Effects: Force Ward (17/17 temp hp); 10/150 stoneskin; magic vestment (40 hours; +5 enhancement, +2 over normal); -7 Str
"I don't think we can go on as we are," Taerine says, breathing heavily as she struggles to hold herself erect. "Can you do anything, Tor? If not, I fear we may need to retreat for the moment."
Having failed to make it up the ravine and ready to continue, Talon looks to the other two.
We have lost enough already, many of us did not even make it this far so before we continue, either we all retreat or I retreat to a safe spot and rest for a bit. most likely we will have to retreat for several days unless we can find some divine help
Talon will give a short wait for suggestions then he plane shifts to the plane of shadow and leaves to find a safe spot to rest. (might be back where we first met.)
Tor will give both Talon and Taerine a Heal spell, which should fully take care of them, then cast both of his lesser restorations on himself.
With your wounds healed and strength restored you edge forward. The orb of (probably negative) energy doesn't respond, thankfully. You can now spot two monsters of ice and half rotted tissue. They look lacerated and broken, as if they tore themselves from the ice wall you just passed, but you're not fool enough to think them harmless.
Feeling refreshed and vowing to never go through that again Talon tries to slip into the room as stealthily as he can drawing his blade in the process.
Hoping to catch one of the creatures off guard (as well as testing its defenses), Talon flings a shuriken at the closes one (don't see them on the map)
As a full-round action, a ninja with this master trick can take careful aim and pool all of her attack potential into a single, deadly shuriken throw. When she does this, she throws a single shuriken at a single target, but makes as many attack rolls as she can, based on her base attack bonus. She makes the attack rolls in order from highest bonus to lowest, as if she were making a full attack. If any of the attack rolls hit the target, the attack hits. For each additional successful attack roll beyond the first, the ninja increases the damage by 1d6. Precision damage and extra damage from weapon special abilities (such as flaming) are added with damage modifiers and are not increased by this advanced talent. If one or more rolls are critical threats, she confirms the critical once using her highest base attack bonus –5. For each critical threat beyond the first, she reduces this penalty by 1 (to a maximum of 0)
Talon leads off with a powerful and precise strike to the back of the right undead's skull.
HP 235/250; Burn (max 12)/non-lethal damage 3/51; Internal Buffer: 3/3
AC 36, touch 22, flat-footed 31; CMD 34
Fort +23, Ref +20, Will +15
Effects: Force Ward (17/17 temp hp); 10/150 stoneskin; magic vestment (40 hours; +5 enhancement, +2 over normal); +2 Dex and Con
"Thanks, Master Deathsteel," Taerine says with a nod. "Now, there's more work to be done here."
Watching Talon's work, she focuses on the other creature, unleashing a blast of blue flame at it.
Tor will cast his extended disrupting weapon spell on his warhammer then 5' forward.
Taerine roasts the other monster, Tor steps up.
Talon slips closer catching the creatures somewhat off guard (still against the same creature he hit once already)
In a flurry of movement a barrage of shuriken fly at the flat-footed giant.
Talon's stars lodge deep in the monster's spine and it falls to the ground.
The grey thing in the cage in the center of the room stirs! It's an elemental! Negaitve energy bursts through the room as it awakens from it's stupor!
Tor will cast Mass Cure Critical Wounds. Given the spacing, I should be able to effect all combatants.
HP 235/250; Burn (max 12)/non-lethal damage 3/51; Internal Buffer: 3/3
AC 36, touch 22, flat-footed 31; CMD 34
Fort +23, Ref +20, Will +15
Effects: Force Ward (17/17 temp hp); 10/150 stoneskin; magic vestment (40 hours; +5 enhancement, +2 over normal); +2 Dex and Con
"Blast," Taerine snarls, stepping back as spins her arm in a quick circle, gouts of flame bursting into a wall around the negative energy elemental.
You create a wall of churning elements, flensing debris, or roiling energy. The wall appears within 30 feet and can be either up to 10 feet high and up to 120 feet long or up to 20 feet high and up to 60 feet long. All creatures and objects in one of the wall’s squares when you create it take 1/4 the normal damage from your blast with no saving throw (or half the normal damage for an energy blast). Anytime a creature crosses the wall, it takes half the normal damage from your blast (or full damage for an energy blast). The wall is not completely solid, but it does provide cover against attacks from the other side of the wall.
The wall lasts for 9 rounds or until I use a wall infusion again.
The other monster pops from the one-two fire/holy combo.
The negative every ball in the center seems barely fazed, but it does fix it's faceless gaze on Tor who has just made it rather angry.
[dice=will DC 22]1d20+11
Talon starts to circle around hoping to blend into the shadows of the room