Haka grins in relief at Talon's gracious answer, letting out a breath he didn't even know he was holding and saying, "Me too, Talon, me too."
"Welcome back, Haka. You nearly bested our strongest fighters," says the sorcerer. "Now, let's go kill a worm."
"Rest assured that we never doubted you, Haka. There are strong and terrible magics in this place that have overtaken our minds on more than one occasion before. I'm only sorry you were so slippery that Talon and Drovya had to throttle you to keep you in one place. Fortunately, I can help with that."
Rohini will proceed to heal Haka from the wand:
"Thank you, Ro, for your kind words and your healing," responds Haka. With a glance at Talon and Drovya, he adds, "Good to know I've been throttled by the best in the business."
"I can only cast Gaseous Form four more times. If four of us go in, we will have to dig our way out," says Kanthuun. "Unless anyone has a better idea as to how we reach this worm."
"Heh. Damn right."
I'm really more of a basher than a throttler, but it's nice to be appreciated. Drovya thinks for a minute, sword blades swinging faster and faster until suddenly they stop. Kanthya, that pit spell of yours, could you use it to open a passage to and from the worm? That might be a better way to travel, and keep us together too. If not, he shrugs I still say we dig. I don't want to fight that thing on it's own ground without a way to move strategically, and I don't like the thought of leaving anyone behind either.
"The worm is out of range of my spell, and I'd have to alter it again. Perhaps thirty feet in, and the deepest pit I can make with a scroll is ten feet. We will need another way in."
Kanthuun considers dropping acid protoplasm on the bones, then realizes this would be disrespectful. He rubs his chin and turns to the changeling cleric.
"Rohini. I know little of communing with spirits and the dead, but I wonder if there would be a way to reason with the former owners of these bones and convince them to move aside."
"It's a strange, but admittedly clever, idea you have, Kanthuun. My Lady concerns herself little with the dead, and I'm not sure how we'd accomplish that feat. I feel as if there is something obvious we're missing... Could something be accomplished by sending my magical rope down to where the creature rests? I don't suppose there is any way of luring it out."
"If there really is space for us down there and there really is no other way, one option to get three of us down there is for me to cast dimension door, bringing two others with me. I can then re-cast to get the three of us back out using one of my pearls. That is, unless we decide to rest safe down there in the hole. Kanthuun, do you have enough castings of gaseous form to take care of yourself and one other? "
"Sounds like the best plan we have."
Drovya examines the bones and tries to puzzle out whether a tunnel to the ampoule is at all feasible.
It would be flimsy, but Drovya thinks he can manage it. It will take a good half of an hour with everyone working together, unless someone summons something with uncanny construction abilities.
Magic sounds the best plan to me as well. Any construction we made would be easy to destroy, and serve no purpose that I could see. Shall we prepare ourselves for this monstrous worm?
"It occurs to me that I can take three others in...and then we just have to dig our way out. I also think I can make us all invisible; that way, when we rematerialize, we won't be seen."
Kanthuun ponders this, then nods.
"Who stays on the surface?"
I'd rather none of us, but if you mean who goes first, well, we'll probably want to soften up that giant worm from as far away as we can, so perhaps Haka and Hanethes with myself or Talon to run interference? Drovya thinks a moment. How big would you say this cavern is? Will we have room to maneuver, or will it be cramped confines?
"I can do that."
"It's cramped. I just don't have the spells to get all of us to it. We can try digging, though."
"That approach sounds fine to me," says Haka, patting his sling with a grim smile, "I'd love to rain destruction down on the thing that took over my mind, if we can figure out how to get to it."
Drovya sheathes Black Ivan and begins to move aside the bones of his elven forebears, doing his best to balance the need for haste with the need for reverence for the dead. Pharasma guide them. he murmurs. Grant them peace in the life beyond.
Talon will help with the digging, opting for speed over grace.
Kanthuun considers. "I can make you two as large as a small giant, and thus, stronger," he offers.
The digging was almost complete when there was a shaking in the bones. Yet again, an arm grabbed out of the masses, but it didn't attack anyone so much as use its attached hand to beckon as if moved by the wind.
The chamber, once digged and propped, looked much as Kanthuun said it would. It was spacious enough to fit the party, but only just, and the massive worm in the middle, below the sphere and the corpse, took up quite a bit of space.
It did not react, at first.
The sorcerer frowns at seeing the creature and child-corpse again.
Rohini is disturbed by the vision before her, but maintains her composure.
Give me a knowledge religion check, will you?
Kanthuun will Glitterdust the worm right in the facehole.
Drovya casts mirror image and other Drovyas pop into existence around him. He sends a surge of his own arcane energy into Black Ivan as he draws the blade and moves between the Worm and Rohini.
Talon moves up and readies to swing at whatever bad guy stepped close enough.
Rohini uses one of the level 4 pearls of power to re-cast blessing of fervor. Staying to the rear of Droyva, she moves as far away from the worm as possible.
The worm is definitely extraplanar, warped by Abaddon to become fiendish. However, the child is something new. You'd heard stories of monsters close to this coming from beyond this stars, but this is no starchild, despite similarities, and the magus could thank whatever god he prayed to for that.
The cleric had heard tell of vampiric beings that sprouted from psychopathic children murdered by their loved ones. Full of malice and hedonism, these creatures become psychic vampires that jump from body to body, sucking out memories and co-opting them as they see fit.
The only way to kill them is to destroy the host body.
Drovya cast his defensive spell, causing his dopplegangers to appear as he moves forward.
Hanethes tooka shot at the worm instinctively. The monster sustained a wound next to its head and bared its circular fangs at the adventurers, static no longer.
Drovya cast her blessing of fervor, washing the heroes in divine power, palpably shifting the power in the air in her favor.
The worm made its move, leaving its master behind. Its form crackled with profane energy that seemed to linger around Drovya while it charged him.
Talon intervened, Stark leaving a stenciled gash into the massive beast that spurted gore whilst the worm lunged on Drovya's position with deadly force. Thankfully, he only destroyed a mirror image, leaving the magus unharmed.
Haka takes a quick step backwards, spinning up his sling while he begins a rapid rhythm on the small finger-drums mounted on the sling's staff. He then unleashes a sling stone at the worm-beast, its accuracy improved by Rohini's divine magic.
Haka began his tapping performance, enhancing the effects of the buffs in the room and again bolstering his allies' resolve. The worm sustained more damage from the sling staff, but it was nowhere near done!
Of course, Kanthuun was ready for this beast and cast his apt Glitterdust in such a way that it harmed his foes and left his allies untouched. The size of the fiend made that easier to accomplish. Judging from the otherworldly bellow it emitted, Kanthuun succeeded in blinding it.
The undead child's withered arms raise in somatic gestures.
It's a Blade Barrier!
A whirling vortex of blades erupt from the walls to the left and right of Talon and Drovya, converging on their locations to form an entire barrier of whirling metal.
Talon grunts as he is hit seemingly a million times. He swings Stark three times at the purple worm before stepping back.
"Blade barrier. We have an undead divine magic worker. Well, it will block the worm as well. Shoot at range through it, mayhap, and I'll target that caster."
Kanthuun smiles at the child, almost kindly.
"I have heard tell of psychic vampires that sprout from psychopathic children murdered by their loved ones. Perhaps this child is of that sort, although I do not know if this is the child itself or a different child host invaded by the being. In any event, we should be able to kill the creature by killing the host. This, indeed, is an entity we must put out of its misery, driven to cruelty through the torture of knowing it was murdered, probably by its parents who had no idea how to handle the child."
Rohini reaches out and touches Talon with a cure light wounds spell:
Drovya cries out as the blades of force slice him to ribbons, but strikes out at the worm all the same before backing away from the barrier to stand with the rest of the party.
The essence of the plane has corrupted that worm, it will resist our attacks unless our weapons are aligned with the cause of good, as well as fire and cold! Spells may slide right off of it as well, just like the rest of the daemons in this place!
MAP
"Talon, give me a chance to align your scythe to good before you make your next attack."
Kanthuun casts Ear Piercing Scream. "I suppose this won't daze you," he says to the child.