"Lae-Lae?" Ehren asks, before shaking his head. "Jahani told us where to find you all. But it was Aravashnial who first told us of your predicament, through a response to a sending."
"Locate creature would be useful since you know Najat and we do not, but unfortunately, I do not have any bloodhound fur on me," he laments, wishing he had access to more divination magic. "Still, the entire underground should be made of earth or stone, so I can scout ahead invisibly once we have an idea of what direction Aravashnial is in. Perhaps we can teleport in as Isilme says, but if the Blackfyre Adepts are all there, we will likely have a fight on our hands."
Ehren reaches into his pouch and retrieves another potion of lesser restoration, handing it over to Gerrard now that his hands work. "Here, get this to Mikael. It won't do anything for his tongue, unfortunately, but it is better than having broken hands."
With all of the slaves evacuated, Xander crouches by the hole into the sewers. The plan was apparently to close shut the hole before retreating to the coastline and summoning a boat. Xander knew just as well as any of the rest of them that there waas limited time before the authorities were onto them. He shakes his head at Gerrard's request. "I also don't use much divination, and don't carry any bloodhound fur," he says. "Come on, get down into the sewers. We can continue this discussion when we are a bit safer."
With no support from the others regarding going to search for Aravashnial the old-fashioned way, Xander waits until everyone else was headed for the sewer exit before jumping down himself.
"In any case, we should get moving soon. Whether or not we have everyone, we have a limited time remaining until someone catches us. If you all are going to do something to find Aravashnial, you should do it now." He looks to the azata that Isilme had summoned. "Isilme said you can locate creatures. Could you do so now?"
"Truth be told, I don't particularly mind not being released," the underfolk man admits with a shrug. "Assuming they didn't just ship me back to Mendev, I have no idea what I would have done with my freedom, seeing as our friends are all fugitives. I could hardly rescue Aravashnial all on my own." The elven half of his brow furrows. "I'm not sure what Hinagiku was thinking, but I'm glad that she's not actually dead."
For a moment, Lann goes quiet, tapping his cleft chin with one of his spade-like fingertips. "Are you sure it wasn't actually Isilme?" he asks, offering a more optimistic viewpoint. "This is her we're talking about. She used to pull all kinds of capers like this with Val. Just not, well, on you. But she did leave her gear behind when she went into the city - maybe she was just trying to recover it?"
Deciding against collapsing the barn, the heroes all head down the hole back into the relative safety of the sewers. They all stand close to the entrance where they came.
"I cannot try to divine for someone I haven't met," Aglais explains. "But, I could try to locate the direction of the closest elf."
He closes his eyes and spins in a very slow circle, before pointing in a direction towards where the heroes came from. His finger is pointed level, rather than up or down. "The closest elf is in this direction."
Once everyone has entered the sewer, Ehren proceeds to seal the tunnel as planned. He first obstructs it with a mound of conjured dirt, which he then covers by reshaping the ceiling of the sewer, sealing it shut.
"That's promising," Ehren remarks when Aglais finds that the nearest elf is at the same elevation as them. Of course, it could just as easily be an elven slave or slaver, or worse, a Blackfyre Adept. But now that they have time to properly ponder things, he realizes that there is a way for them to locate Najat. "Hm. Hold on. I think I can get you some of that fur, Gerrard."
Ehren begins to gesture, conjuring a dozen or so glowing motes of starlight - far fewer than his more powerful and bombastic summoning spells. After a few seconds, the lights coalesce at the Riftwarden's side and form a large, brown-furred dog with floppy ears and sagging skin. The bloodhound sits down and looks to Ehren expectantly, awaiting orders it would never receive.
"There. Right from the source," the druid says, gesturing at the sitting hound. Looking to Gerrard, he asks, "Could you cast your spell at the same spot Aglais cast his? With any luck, Najat will be in the very same direction."
True to her nature, Hinagiku does not push anyone, and attempts to limit her influence on the people around her. And so, she gracefully weaves her way between the people around.
Hinagiku attempts to duck into a side-street, thinking this would allow her to escape the crowds and hopefully lose her pursuers, but a quick look over her shoulder reveals that they are still tailing her in the distance. She knows that after traveling down this street some way, she will need to turn left, in order to find the main street that will lead her to the bridge to the other side of town. She sees an opportunity in a narrow street ahead, but it is blocked by a fruit cart. She could keep going the way she is going, and take a different left, but if she can get around the fruit cart quickly, maybe she would be able to escape her pursuers entirely.
In the sewers, the halflings huddle together and whisper amongst themselves in anticipation of their escape. Some nervously look around for imagined approaching pursuers. Others are transfixed by Aglais and the beautiful swarm of butterflies that Isilme has transformed into. At least one little halfling loudly whispers, "Mama, wîtan, ic pro êower sê wiðsettan, Desna ûser!!" His mother frowns and shushes him.
"Mom, look, I told you she would come, Desna answered our prayers!"
Xander can tell that his staff is pleased with this entire turn of events. It inquires, "Are there more slaves that remain, above? We should hurry. Bring these people to freedom."
While Ehren seals the entrance-way behind them, Valais conjures up a set of twinkling magical lights. Otherwise the halflings would be completely unable to see in the dark sewers. At the same time, Aglais flutters further down the sewers. "The closest elf to here is.... this way." he says, pointing.
Gerrard crosses the sewer canal to where Aglais was a moment ago. He smiles at Ehren's ingenuity. "Oh? You are a conjurer as well? Whomever you all are, I am thankful that Aravashnial knows you." He bends down to carefully pull a few of the bloodhound's furs, in-between pets. "Alright. I will find the direction that Najat is, should she still be within range of my magic." He then rubs the fur between his fingers as he recalls his last spell he had prepared before he was kidnapped by the Blackfyre Adepts.
He turns slowly and points, his finger also level, but in a different direction than Aglais had pointed just a moment prior.
Rushing through the side-street, Hinagiku thinks about flying over the cart for a moment, but when she locks eyes with one of the people loading the cart, she clamly motions for them to pull it sideways instead. Perhaps it is her calm, perhaps the urgency of the situation, but the person reponds to her demand, moving it just enough for her to squeeze past and continue down the side-street. Realising that the cart has blocked the legeions line of sigh, Hinagiku follows the flow of the ley around her and ducks into a small nook to hide herself and hopefully escape pursuit.
175/175 hp
0/40 delayed damage pool
0/10 shawl of life keeping (lost)
10/19 ki
1/11 mythic
Senses: 35’ blindsight, blindfolded oracle, prescience, battlefield sense.
Precogniscient smite: +3 insight hit/dg
Coward’s boots (2 essence) + 15’ move.
Unafe's eyes widen at the effectiveness of her new clasp. "Now that's handy work, Archdruid."
Then she goes to the unconscious daemon and gives it another punch in it's insectoid face, hoping to finish it.
Once it's clearly dead, she follows her companions.
"Alright, well, if we have a clear bead on Najat, shall we head that way?"
Before heading down the chute, Unafe finishes off the derghodaemon with a single punch. Its body dissolves into purplish-black goo.
She then follows the others down and watches as Ehren seals up the way back into the barn.
"How would we get there?" Isilme asks of Unafe, her voice seeming to come from multiple places at once. "The tunnel into the barn is sealed. We did pass by a door that certainly leads somewhere in the complex, but I sealed it up with stone to prevent our pursuers from chasing us."
"I could cast a spell to turn Ehren invisible, and then he could try to scout for us," she offers. "This would give further clarity to Gerrard and Aglais' divinations."
While the heroes discuss, Gerrard and Aglais move around the sewers, finding additional points of information regarding the targets of their spells.
"Let's walk as far through the sewer in the direction Gerrard is pointing as we can. Beyond that point, Ehren scouting sounds good. Just be careful; we know that these daemons can see invisible and there might be another out there. The Adepts probably know we're here, so I wouldn't be surprised if they're prepared to see invisible foes as well, at the moment. I think if you see anything that looks like an Adept, back out quickly."
Hinagiku looks back, and knows that the Legionnaires can see her talking to the fruit merchant. As soon as she can squeeze past, though, she ducks out of their line of sight. The way ahead clear, she can sprint forwards and find another corner to duck around before they can catch up to her again. After several minutes she feels certain that she has lost her pursuers.
Xander furrows his brows. "I mean, I'm all for continuing to rescue people, but if we use our resources to rescue Najat, we might not have anything left to save Aravashnial." Looking up at the now-closed sewer roof. "But I agree we should get moving at least. Ehren can scout, as we discussed, and we can decide what to do after."
He looks to Isilme and Ehren. "By the way, in case any of us get separated -- where are we supposed to meet each other, for the final escape from the city?"
Ehren looks back and forth between Gerrard and Aglais as they move, trying to get an idea of where Aravashnial and Najat may be in the compound. Unfortunately, it is rather apparent that they are not being held in the exact same location.
"All right, Isilme. I'm ready," he says to the swarm of butterflies with a nod. Between invisibility and his ability to phase through stone walls, he should be able to scout out the area undetected. With any luck, the area would be lightly guarded enough for them to execute a quick rescue.
Thinking on Xander's question, Ehren realizes that only he and Isilme know the exact path that leads to their exit. While he does not plan on getting stranded here, it would not hurt to alleviate that particular problem. "We exited and reentered the sewers through a grate on the south side of the city. It empties directly in the river, which we will be using to make our escape. Isilme can probably give you directions, but let's hope that you won't need them."
Once he has been turned invisible, Ehren approaches the tunnel to the south and starts to phase through the wall, in the general direction indicated by Aglais.
Ehren ducks through the wall, and in less than ten feet of burrowing, comes through the other side. The bright lighting in this wide chamber highlights the gruesome experiments and tortures performed within. A broad table with manacles affixed to either end restrains the form of Aravashnial, too weak to struggle, and a dark, sticky residue cakes a pair of broad stone basins. Along the north wall stand four stone statues of ghastly figures whose expressions suggest they delight in what they see.
There are four small cells along the left side of the room. From what Ehren can see, they are all empty.
The room is otherwise apparently empty of anybody save for Aravashnial.
Ehren walks further into the room, seeing that Aravashnial was bound in his underclothes. His hands were similarly mangled as Gerrard's and Mikael's. He has his eyes closed and his face tilted to the side. Because Ehren is invisible, he could not see him even if his eyes were open.
While Ehren cannot see anyone in the well-lit room, his supernatural senses alert him to the presence of at least three figures inside of the room, and two figures stationed in each of the hallways that shoot off from either side of this room.
Of the figures inside the room, one is a tall figure in a hood, wearing some sort of mask. Next to this figure on either side are two creatures - they cannot be human - their legs are jointed backwards, they have four arms, and they have large mandibles that jut around their mouths. They wield a shield on one arm, and a bow with the other two arms. They have two swords sheathed on their hips.
The figures in the hallways also wearing hoods, but they aren't wearing masks. Their relative sizes make it clear that one is a tall, bearded man, and the other is a smaller, slender woman.
The humans all have their faces pointed at Ehren, indicating that they can all see him clearly as he can see them.
As hundreds of gallons of conjured water suddenly roar into the room, Ehren quickly turns tail and runs right back out of the room, rejoining the others.
Ehren emerges from the wall again seconds later, his expression grim. He wastes no time in informing the others about what he saw.
"I've found Aravashnial," Ehren reports urgently, trying to convey as much information as possible. "He's manacled to a table in the room right through this wall. But he's under guard. Three Adepts and two other creatures, all of them invisible and able to see through my own invisibility. The creatures might have been daemons - they had four arms, backward legs, and large mandibles."
The masked person and one of the monsters smoothly dodge the appearance of Ehren's [i]aqueous orb[/b], but one gets bowled over by it. The other monster manages to scramble away all the same. That's all Ehren sees before he vanishes back through the wall.
These creatures are known as ethereal stalkers. Monsters with four arms, reptilian-humanoid features, and enormous mandibles, they appear and kidnap people, never to be seen again. Ethereal stalkers seem to possess intelligence, and generally speak the languages in the Material Plane where they stalk for victims.
Ethereal Stalkers tend to emerge fully armored and armed, preferring to wield combinations of one armed weapons, two-armed weapons, and shields.
Ethereal stalkers possess a grotesque ovipositor kept hidden behind their mandibles. They use these to forcibly lay eggs inside of helpless hosts while their mandibles keep their prey still. Obligate carnivores, their young require living flesh to grow. Their saliva contains a paralyzing agent, which aids them in this task.
Ethereal stalkers can see in the dark. Ethereal Stalkers can phase in-between the material and ethereal planes at will. They can phase into the material plane very quickly, but phasing into the ethereal plane leaves them vulnerable.
Ethereal stalkers are a term for a race actually known as the Xill.
The Xill are an alien race of evil-aligned outsiders which inhabit the ethereal plane. They are reliant on hosts from the material plane in order to breed. Xill reproduce asexually, and only possess one gender, meaning that all Xill are capable of laying eggs.
Most Xill are capable of speaking Infernal, which indicates that Xill society may worship devils.
The capabilities of Xill are difficult to generalize due to the variety inherent within their species. Some are capable of magic, while others have psychic talents, and so on.
Intelligent and cunning, Xill can be negotiated with, though they typically only view denizens of the Material Plane as incubators.
The Xill must constantly breed to produce new Xill in order to wage wars against other races of the Ethereal Plane, such as phase spiders. Their totalitarian, militaristic society in the Ethereal Plane seems to possess a hive mind, but the truth is that the majority of Xill seem to wish to do nothing but reproduce, conquer, and destroy. You have not heard of any encounters with Xill who have only desired peace.
Isilme was at once heartened to hear Aravashnial was there and likely alive, and horrified and enraged to have him used as bait. Of course there was no doubt they would do so, however. Clearly this is what had been taking time up until now.
Unable to think clearly herself on the subject, she instead looks to the others, "Xander, Unafe, what do you think we should do? I would teleport in in a heartbeat, but I am exactly the person who shouldn't make such a decision."
While Xander and Unafe deliberate, Isilme takes a moment to think about what Ehren had described. When she realizes what they're talking about, she shudders visibly. There was a very good chance Aravashnial had already been implanted with eggs, something that would need to be dealt with once they got him to safety, given the larvae would devour him from the inside if they weren't eliminated. "They are Xill, also known as Ethereal Stalkers. They are hard to classify, but they are all likely to be competent warriors. Xander, Gerrard, Aglais, do you all know anything further?"
"Xill are not creatures that you need to show mercy to," Aglais responds coolly. "They are an aberration of the planes."
"Xill wage ceaseless war on other beings of the Ethereal Plane," Gerrard agrees. "They are constantly fighting for dominance of plane. There is a settlement of Xill in the Ethereal Plane that intersects with Azir. They are the cause of many disappearances in the city. Najat and our sect were originally sent here to determine if there is anything that can be done..." He shakes his head. "In any case, you will need to be careful."
"Blackfyres manipulate a substance known as Blackfyre, a destructive matter that is formed as a byproduct whenever rifts are formed across the planes, whether they are for summoning, calling, teleporting, or so on. Like Riftwardens, Blackfyres seek to study the planes but wish to revel in its unmaking... as such, you only see them reliably summoning and calling evil outsiders."
When Ehren returns with news that their opponents were invisible and lying ready in wait with a trap, Xander signs the components necessary to see through the invisibility they employed.
He holds out one hand, palm open. "I'm ready to go whenever you are. I can find my own way to the riverbank meeting. When we find Najat, don't hesitate to bring them and Aravashnial back here and head for our destination on your own."
He makes eye contact with Isilme to make sure she understands. "If I don't make it, go into hiding. If I can, I will contact you tomorrow." Then he clasps her hand, ready to be teleported into battle. "Ready to go."
Unafe nods that she's ready, and prepares herself to leap into action as soon as they arrive.
"Then to battle we go again, let the Blackfyre adepts tremble when we appear. We are here to save our friends, and shall not falter when victory is so near!" she chants out to her friends. She then briefly traces the divine rune for 'freedom' in the air before them, protecting them from anything that might impair their movements, before reaching out to touch both Xander and Unafe as she finishes. Their surroundings warp around them and moments later they are in the room where Ehren had just been.
Unafe and Isilme appear in what appears to be an empty room, save for Aravashnial, who is strapped to the table. He opens his eyes, but he does not recognize any of the heroes for a moment - until he sees Cygnus. "Isilme!" he calls out, overjoyed to see his rescuer.
You can see a tall masked man with identical images of himself in the corner. He is invisible. He is wearing white and black robes, and he wields a staff in one hand.
Xander sees another invisible foe - another Garundi man in similar robes, with a beard. He stands in the hallway to Xander's left. He has identical images as well.
Unafe is up!
When Xander points to the corner behind the orb, Unafe silently prays, Ancestors, please guide my hand, and then bounds over and slams an elbow toward where she hopes the adept's chest is.
"You cannot hide from the stain of your deeds!"
She attempt to grab ahold of them, and then to pummel them into the ground.
"Maybe... and I can be hopeful for that. That Jerribeth isn't rolling around in a hoard of dragon-gold and priceless artifacts, laughing herself silly." she says, then tilts her head slightly, "Though... it does complicate things. We still owe them a fine to retrieve our things, which they no longer have, and all of the money that we had is now gone, regardless... along with things I had been entrusted to keep safe." she pauses for a moment, swapping tacks back to the earlier conversation, "I think you'd likely be deported to Cheliax or somewhere similar. Though I think that would still be significantly better than being locked in here for who-knows-how-long. Cheliax is at least tentatively allied with Mendev in that Mendev is fighting demons."
Unafe feels herself make contact with something soft, so she punches it to be sure. Her next jab hits what she guesses is a shoulder, and then her next jab grazes something non-vital. At the same time, she can hear spooky chanting in a man's voice coming from the hallway that is further away from her.
The spell being cast with vocal components is Summon Monster VI.
The spell being cast with vocal components is Summon Monster VI.
It was cast with a shorter cast-time than normal. Maybe it was quickened, or maybe the caster is a Summoner of some type.
Xander can see the bearded man in the hallway retreat further down the hall. At the same time, the masked wizard doubles over in pain (Unafe had blindly rammed her fist straight into his gut). Since Unafe is unable to see him, he simply steps right past her and around the corner down the opposite hallway from the bearded man. He moves extremely quickly for someone in so much pain - Xander thinks he's probably under a Haste spell or something similar. Xander can no longer see any enemies in the room.
Round 15!
Xander and Ehren are up!
The five Xanders rush into the room, running to stand by Aravashnial. He couldn't help the wizard escape (and anyway they still needed to look for Najat) but he could at least guard the man against any further torment. With his mystic sight he can see down the hallway towards one of the Adepts that had retreated, and he points down the hallway towards him. "There are two Adepts down this way!" he shouts, "The other one backed down the other hallway," he adds.
Then he focuses on his opponent -- a masked wizard that had slipped away from Unafe's grasp. Once again he summons the power of phantasmal illusion, but this time his goal is a sudden shock of fear so powerful that heart attack and instant death ensue. Summoning the best that his magic can muster, he speaks the words of death and sends the vision into his opponent's mind.
"Aglais, Valais, can the two of you lead everyone back to where you joined up with me and Isilme?" Ehren asks, thinking it wise to get the halflings as far away from Sophini's as possible. On the off chance that the fight spills into the sewers, they would not be able to properly protect the newly freed slaves. "The rest of us will catch up later."
The druid then phases through the wall once more, rejoining his companions in the torture chamber. This time, however, the room really is empty. He takes note of the enemies' new positions, as indicated by Xander, but rather than attack, he decides to deny them their line of sight.
The druid murmurs a quick incantation in Druidic; a blanket of thick fog quickly spreads out from him, covering everyone's feet, before rising to the ceiling. Ordinarily, the thick vapor would block off their sight completely, but thanks to the ashen path spell he cast on everyone earlier, they can all see as though it isn't there at all.
Xander casts the best his magic can muster, and arrests the enemy wizard's heart with just one incantation. The wizard slumps to the ground, dead, though, still invisible, until his magic wears off.
The woman watches Xander kill her comrade, and glares at him, weaving together a spell. As soon as she finishes, she ducks around the corner, out of sight.
"You'll pay for that!!" cries out a woman's voice. Suddenly, a thick, yellow-ish green fog fills the air, centered where Aravashnial's table lays. The fog spreads out to envelop Ehren, Isilme, and Xander. Aravashnial starts to cough and sputter as the thick fumes enter his lungs and begin to poison him.
The heroes can hear a voice cry out, "מהר, בוא לעזור לנו! פולשים הרגו תנאגר!"
"Quick, come help! Intruders have slain Thanegar!"
Moments later, the heroes can see the Xill appear at the edges of the fog. They ready their bows to attack anyone who emerges from the fog, completely unaware that the heroes can see them just fine.
You feel something unholy enter your body and mind... and attempt to wrest control!
Isilme and Unafe are up!
Isilme begins to cough as soon as the spell is cast, realizing quickly from the time she had used the spell from a scroll that this must be cloudkill. It had been quite effective in wiping out their foes back when they had been on the march. Thinking quickly she thinks back to her songbook, remembering the how to dispel an effect such as this, and then channeling it into magic to sunder the spell the wizard had cast, as she releases it she focuses Desna's blessing into the magic, enhancing its effectiveness even further.
"Aravashnial, you're alive! We will have you out of here in a moment. Would you prefer the red lace lingerie when we return home, or the black?" she asks the wizard, giving him a knowing wink.
Escaping notice during the day was much more difficult than Hinagiku had expected. So, perhaps the safest thing, and wisest, would be to stay where she was. She assumed she was not too far from Sophini’s and that her companions, with their skills, could easily find her when they would be ready to go into the compound and rescue Aravashnial.
Unafe hustles over to where her companions can see a xill, and tries to take it down. As she does, she grows to her full saurian height, filling the hallway.
Aravashnial frowns, unable to see anyone in Ehren's obscuring mist, even after Isilme manages to dispel the cloudkill spell. "What? Who are you?" he asks, sharply. "How did you get Cygnus?"
He does not seem to be lying.
The fog now gone, one of the Xill immediately fires on Xander, who is closer to it, causing one of his five images to vanish completely. The other Xill is visible to Ehren and Isilme, but it cannot see them, due to the obscuring mist that they are in. Unafe sees the arrow fly by, so she expands outwards in size, then hustles around the corner and clocks the Xill in the hallway in the jaw, sending it stumbling back.
As she fights, Unafe can feel repeated onslaughts on her mind from an unseen enemy, but she doesn't succumb to her invisible assailants.
You can see the bearded man emerge from the other hallway (opposite from Unafe). He incants and gestures, casting a spell, causing the cloudkill effect appear again in the room.
Afterwards, the heroes can hear a man's voice echoing out from the other hallway, incanting ancient magical words of power. Another cloud of sickly yellow-green gas fills the room, only seconds after Isilme had destroyed the first one. Aravashnial starts to cough violently.
Round 16!
Xander and Ehren are up!
Xander takes a deep breath in reaction to the first cloudkill spell and manages to hold it through the first's disappearance and the appearance of the second, not inhaling any of the deadly poison. With Unafe in the way of the female wizard that had fled, he turns and dashes to the other side of the room. Emerging from the edge of the cloudkill, he waves a hand. Speaking words of sacred light, he evokes a burst of radiance in between the bearded wizard and the xill beside him. If his luck held, it would blind them both and give Isilme some time to get Aravashnial to safety.
Both the Xill and the bearded man next to her cover their eyes in response to the burst of light washing over them.
Ehren is up!
Unafe looks left and right, and calls out, "Stay out of my MIND, witch!"
Ehren is up!
The acrid, yellow fog has no effect on Ehren's poison-immune body, but the same could not be said of his friends. He frowns when Isilme dispels it, only for it to return when the bearded man casts the very same spell. Hidden within the intermixed fog clouds, Ehren reaches out to the spellcaster with his fingers clawed inwards, as though trying to grasp him from afar. He imposes his very will on the man's physical form, attempting to warp it into something utterly harmless, an effect that would subsequently rob him of his very mind.
Simultaneously, Ehren gestures with his other hand, commanding his aqueous orb to roll over, blocking the hallway entirely.
The spell washes over the bearded wizard, causing him to scoff. The xill next to him watches Ehren block their passage into the room with aqueous orb, and so she takes off in the opposite direction, disappearing around a corner. Meanwhile, the remaining Xill struggles weakly in Unafe's grasp.
Isilme and Unafe are up!
Isilme moves closer to Aravashnial, for the moment ignoring the toxic cloud they were trapped within. She wasn't certain attempting to dispel it again was the wisest course of action, as it wasn't clear they'd not just summon yet another cloud atop them. Instead she opts to use her magic to move Aravashnial out of his fetters and into a safer position.
"Sorry for scaring you Ai'sintar, I had to be sure. we will get you out of here shortly, but first I need to get you out of this gas cloud," she says, laying a hand sympathetically on his shoulder. "We'll have a lot of time to talk on the trip out of Azir, I promise." She then expends her magic on teleporting him a short distance away to the wall next to Ehren, well within the safety of his circle of protection from evil.
Aravashnial is teleported out of his bonds and the toxic gas, over to next to Xander in the obscuring mist. He watches Xander but clearly does not recognize him.
Unafe is up!
Isilme shouts and points through the roiling ball of water at a wizard, and Unafe drops the xill to chase after him.
Avoiding the worst of the watery sphere as best she can she strikes out, hoping to pummel and grab hold of the wizard. As she does, she closes her eyes so as not to be confused by the swirling images that surround him.
Unafe lets the spirits guide her hand as she shoves him, gives a mighty War Honk, and attempts to pummel him into the floor.
Unafe lets go of the Xill, who growls and cuts into her flank as she leaves. The blade barely scratches her beyond the Demetae blessing on her flesh, but the blade was coated with poison, which now flows through her veins.
She heads to the other hallway and closes her eyes, attempting to punch the wizard through the orb. She grabs hold of him, pulling him into the orb. He wriggles once, vanishing from her grasp and appearing on his feet 15' away. He then raises a finger and points at Unafe, and a sickly greenish ray fires out from it, over the aqueous orb, and then straight into Unafe's enormous chest.
While Unafe's eyes are closed, an invidiak pops up behind her through the floor within the radius of the cloudkill appearing just long enough to plunge the room into darkness. The heroes, despite their darkvision, are completely unable to see. Not even a half-second later, an explosion roars in their ears as a fireball overtakes the room, followed by a blast of concussive magic.
Now only Xander can see, thanks to his blessings from his infernal patron. He sees Aravashnial fail to scramble out of the way of the second blast in time. He is covered in horrific burns, and he isn't moving. He's probably dead.
Xander turns and sees two more invidiaks down the hallway which the bearded man ran, barely poking their heads out from the floor. They must have been the culprits of the shadow fireballs. He had not seen them before. Shortly after they appear, a slightly transparent greenish dragon appears fluttering down the hallway, stopping just in front of the invidiaks. It appears to have no issue seeing through the invidiak's darkness, as it turns its head to acknowledge both Xander and Unafe (it cannot see the others due to the corner). It then opens its mouth and an enormous rush of pure force magic shoots out from its gaping maw, right at Unafe and Xander. The blast sends Aravashnial's body flying.
That creature is an extremely rare sort of dragon known as an Etheric Dragon. They are pragmatic beings that live in the etheric plane.
The average dragon is terrifying to behold, and most normal creatures (less than 4 HD) will run in a panic just to see one.
Etheric dragons are most well known for their ability to turn ethereal when they fly, and their attacks function as though enchanted with ghost touch. They have a reach of 5' when they are this small, but 10' for their bites.
Etheric dragons typically speak the local mortal languages (common most frequently), draconic and aklo.
Dragons have darkvision 120 ft. and blindsense 60 ft. They see four times as well as a human in dim light and twice as well in normal light.
Etheric dragons additionally possess see in darkness. They are immune to paralysis and sleep. They are resistant to all attacks save for magical weapons, and are also resistant to all forms of magic.
You estimate this dragon to be an adult dragon. Etheric dragons are smaller than normal dragons because they don't get much prey to feed on in the ethereal realm. They seem to have evolved the ability to feed on souls to ensure they get full nourishment. Any creature eaten by an etheric dragon has their soul cut asunder, making it difficult for them to be resurrected save for a mythic wish.
Etheric dragons also have basic psychic abilities - namely mind thrust and mage hand as well as blindness/deafness, false life, anticipate peril, detect thoughts (DC 14), magic missile, shield, bleed, detect magic, detect poison, ghost sound, grave words.
Round 17!
Xander and Ehren are up!
Unseen by anyone except Xander, the bearded wizard is caught unawares by the dragon's presence, and is hit full-blast by its breath.
Xander and Ehren are up!