Wren doesn't care enough about the woman to do anything, wanting to move on.
Eldon looks from the strange woman to Arval. "Uhm, Arval doesn't look like he wants to go..."
His eyes widen. "The dummies are all human! All female, but I doubt that'll save Arval."
Eldon jumps up to grab hold of Arval's shoulders, pulling the tall man down to his own height. He places his hands on Arval's temples and casts dispel magic.
"Well, I guess we'll just have to head toward the light and destroy its source. That should work."
Eldon heads toward the glowy tunnel.
Eldon casts a dispel magic spell on his listless friend but is unable to get Arval to snap out of the weird disconnection he's feeling.
As you look over the room it's here you realize its likely purpose.
Wren recalls an earlier fact: that skum cannot breed on their own, and instead must impregnate human women whose male offspring are born human and slowly become skum over their lifetimes. With the child bring brought here, it is very likely this child, and all of the women here were the fosterlings from Illmarsh. The skum are the Neighbours Down the Bay, and have been propagating themselves on human women given to them freely through a gruesome pact with Illmarsh.
Or were, something has happened here. Everything has been sucked not just of life, but of colour, and the lone survivor is a glowing, maddened husk of what was once a woman.
Despite the urge to stay Kawrock finds himself following Eldon down the tunnel. Passively looking for any danger that might give him an excuse to run back to the room.
Wren, ready to move on (as she doesn't really care about humans too much), followes Kawrock.
"Well thank you, Lena," Eldon says, appreciative of the compliment.
"I am indeed the bravest halfling ever. There is no one as brave as I am, nor will there ever be anyone else quite as brave."
For a brief, awkward moment, Eldon shuts up.
"Then again, I shouldn't hog all the glory," he decides a little later. "I already know I can deal with anything life, or unlife, throws at me. I'll let Whiskeyjack and Kawrock prove their worth this time."
Eldon pauses his advancement toward the tunnel and gives Whiskeyjack and Kawrock an expectant look. "Living in my shadow has to be hard. Go on, you deserve this tiny moment."
He winks at Lena and whispers: "This should be good for their self-esteem."
The tunnel winds for quite whjile before it comes to a cavern. As you approach, you see the now-desiccated corpses of skum, which have succumbed to the same fate as the women and children in the prior room.
Finally it opens up into a nondescript cavern. Its inhabitant is anything but.
An eerie radiance, a glow unlike anything else, suddenly suffuses the area, bringing with it a stifling sense of latent malignancy.
This radiance shifts about in the room. A shimmering blue line extends from the radiance to a metal contraption on the ground, extending as it moves. As you all enter the room, it rises up, and races towards you. Whatever this thing is, it's hostile. Your mind reels at the thought of such a Thing.
This is a Colour Out of Space. A truly alien creature from the Dark Tapestry, and a notorious one at that. Its lack of physical body does little to impede its ability to cause incredible devastation. It is a mobile radiance with a glow unlike anything in nature. Its very existence is beyond anything a human mind can comprehend, describe, or explain.
The Colour Out of Space's touch is incredibly deadly, disintegrating flesh and bone. It may also feed on any target within reach, draining them of colour. Those who are fed on to completion become colour-blighted, the fate of the lone survivor to your north. The Colour Out of Space is incorporeal and immune to most energy attacks: acid, cold, fire, poison, sonic, and mind-affecting affects.
The strange contraption attached to the creature appears to have created a leash made out of force magic.
The Colour out of Space is vulnerable to force magic.
Will -
Arcana
Arval yelps as the things races towards the group, but is otherwise not affected.
"I think I might go back... The woman back there seemed much friendlier..."
He says, glancing back.
Round 1, Init 16
"Oh, dearie! I don't like that at all! Not at all!" Wren fires a pair of scorching rays at the creature that should not be, the horror before others get in her way.
touch to hit;
fire damage.
touch to hit;
fire damage.
Unable to stand to look at the Thing, Wren flies out of sight after shooting her rays.
HP: 55/55
AC: 17 (3 dex, 4 mage armor)
Arcane Bond: 0/1 used
Open spell slots:
Left Hand: none
Right Hand: wand of magic missile
Sage Advice: (0/9 used)
:
"Move back!" Eldon yells. "That shimmering line is a leash, made of force magic! Move out of its reach and attack it from a distance!"
Assuming the strange light to be about as corporeal as a ghost, Eldon takes out his crossbow and loads it with the last +1 ghost touch bolt he still has from the party's adventures near Harrowstone.
Kawrock does his best to stay out of the things way. He narrows his eyes at Eldon's comment, "You mean it's not a feisty worm?"
Wren thinks about the creature some more, trying to figure it out.
Know (Planes)
Wren recognizes this "thing" as a Colour Out of Space. A truly alien creature from the Dark Tapestry, and a notorious one at that. Its lack of physical body does little to impede its ability to cause incredible devastation. It is a mobile radiance with a glow unlike anything in nature. Its very existence is beyond anything a human mind can comprehend, describe, or explain.
The Colour Out of Space's touch is incredibly deadly, disintegrating flesh and bone. It may also feed on any target within reach, draining them of colour. Those who are fed on to completion become colour-blighted, the fate of the lone survivor to your north. The Colour Out of Space is incorporeal and immune to most energy attacks: acid, cold, fire, poison, sonic, and mind-affecting affects.
Wren squawks a bunch of stuff she realizes about the creature, including how important it was to not touch it or be touched by it.
whiskeyjack hefted his hammer and looks around uncertainly. Giant fish monsters were one thing, but a ball of abhorrent light that leeched you of color and life energy was something entirely else. Maybe if he had time to prepare some spells specific to this creature...
"I dinnae hae anythin' t' take care o' this beastie. Ken we no' jest leave i' here t' starve to death? Or jest take a day to prepare specific spells?"
As the group tries to figure out what to do with the thing, Wren sends a magic missile flying. The force magic blasts a hole clean through it, and although it quickly coalesces, it's clear the magic missile really hurt it.
"Can we hit it with a sword...?"
Arval asks, doubt in his voice as the body of the thing merges back together.
"I think they only kind of work on ghosty things if they are magic. At least that's how it worked back in that haunted prison," Kawrock says to Avral while drawing his magic bastard sword.
"Can we hit it with a sword...?"
"Well, you *can* hit it with a sword, I'm sure, but not sure it will have lots of effect, but some. It's somewhat ghosty, as you can see. What I don't recommend is getting close to it or touching it, but outside of that, maybe we just panic. I don't know," Wren chitters a response.
"This might be a good chance to fall back to the previous room. It's much more comfortable there." Kawrock says as the previous enchantment seems to still be drawing him back that way.
Wren and Lena quickly confer, realize this thing is probably vulnerable to force magic and blast it twin magic missiles! Wren's does terrific damage - unfortunately Lena's fails to overcome its magical resistance.
The Colour Out of Space humms eerily as it moves through the room, and the colour reaches out to touch Kawrock. As the colour touches the tengu, he moves as quickly as he can but his feathers peel back and the flesh beneath is annihilated. Thankfully, only in a small place.
Wren
Lena
Eldon
---
Colour Out of Space (-27)
---
Whiskeyjack
Kawrock
ARval
Arval, having magic weapons, decides to go for it. He takes a step forward and slams his blade down into the ghostly form.
Seeing Kawrock so hideously injured, Whiskeyjack moved forward and cast a quick spell to heal the birdman of his injuries.
Round 2, Init 16
Wren casts her second and final Magic Missile, then draws out her pearl of power 1.
force damage
SR (+elf,+spell pene)
She wishes she had her wand of magic missiles back.
HP: 55/55
AC: 17 (3 dex, 4 mage armor)
Arcane Bond: 0/1 used
Open spell slots:
Left Hand: none
Right Hand:
Sage Advice: (0/9 used)
:
As Arval moves in, the Color out of Space moves with him, enveloping him as he moves. Although he a near impossible to hit foe against a regular opponent, the color reaches through his armour, annihilating the flesh that it touches. He gives as good as he gets, slashing into the strange thing with his magical sword.
Lena and Wren try magic missiles again. This time their fortunes are reversed as Lena's missile does damage while Wren's is resisted.
Wren
Lena
Eldon
---
Colour Out of Space (-71)
---
Whiskeyjack
Kawrock
ARval
Eldon loads his crossbow with the +1 ghost touch bolt he was still carrying, and shoots it at the color out of space.
"THAT is how it's done," Eldon states. "Did you see that? That was epic! Like all of me."
The quick aid given by Whiskey Jack inspires Kawrock to stay in the fight. The Tengu makes a fast double slashing move as his counter attack.
Kawrock moves in and slashes twice, managing to score a hit once as the magical energies of his sword find a little bit of purchase on the Colour out of Space.
The Colour out of Space reaches out once more, and Arval feels the agony of his flesh being disintegrated by another attack.
Wren
Lena
Eldon
---
Colour Out of Space (-71)
---
Whiskeyjack
Kawrock (-17)
ARval (-21)
Round 3, Init 16
Wren stays (or flies) out of sight and back, and uses her Pearl of Power to recall the Magic Missile spell.
Well, this is inconvenient.
Arval winces but keeps attacking, slashing wildly with his sword.
Sighing, Whiskeyjack clomps over to Arval, aware that his spell repertoire was draining dangerously low. He decided that making the thing blind probably wouldn't be very useful, so he converted that spell to healing energy, closing some of Arval's wounds.
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Eldon reloads his crossbow with a regular bolt and shoots it at the color out of space. As the bolt leaves his magic crossbow, it's automatically also enhanced with magic.
"Yet another marvelously epic shot!" Eldon brags, inspiring courage into his rookie assistants.
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Eldon's ghost touch bolt, kept from what seems forever ago back from harrowstone manages to impact the Colour Out of Space with tremendous force, and his second bolt does almost as well. Wren continues to bemoan the loss of her precious wand while Whiskeyjack heals Arval. Arval continues to do great damage to the living colour with mighty whacks of his sword.
Rather than attacking Arval, the Colour out of Space reorients, and a strange green beam flies from it, striking Wren!
Wren
Lena
Eldon
---
Colour Out of Space (-98)
---
Whiskeyjack
Kawrock (-17)
ARval (-21)
Wren stays (or flies) out of sight and back...
Rather than attacking Arval, the Colour out of Space reorients, and a strange green beam flies from it, striking Wren!