Colwyn eyes the magic ring and dagger, still coated with bits of hardening tar, as he gulps down breaths of fresh air.
"Who fancies a bit of magic?" he asks, probing to see who among his peers is interested in these treasures.
"Who fancies a bit of magic?" he asks, probing to see who among his peers is interested in these treasures.
Niadroub Kliip picks up the spellbook, peels off some of the cooling tar, and flips through the pages. He walks to another corner of the room to review the pages, ignoring the magic items.
W21. Secondary Entrance
Hewn stairs rise to the west from this room, and the air is foul with the stink of sulfur and tar.
A long passage heading up leads to:
W4. Hidden Overlook
A natural cleft in the side of the tower of stone creates a sort of
overlook here. The far wall contains a single stone door.
Through the door the Zombie Mage was guarding you find a passageway with two sets of stairs that take you upwards, ending in two doors. One to the North, one to the south.
What are you doing now?
Secure in the knowledge that the other stairs provide a potential egress from this foul tomb, Colwyn marches up the twisting, easterly stairs with the rest of the party. Finding a pair of doors at the end, he investigates them for any traps or locks.
Niadroub Kliip casts dimension door to transport the party across the tar and to the door Colwyn is leading them through.
Neither of the doors is locked.
Which one are you exploring first? North or South.
After the fight was done, when Marten asked if she could do something to help Tessara, Valeria nodded and said, "Most of us were hurt by that." Zelera pulled out her holy symbol and began to pulls out positive energy when those who needed it were gathered.
After the healing Zelera went along with the group as they continued their explorations.
Neither of the doors is locked.
Which one are you exploring first? North or South.
"All right, let's see what new horrors await," Colwyn mutters under his breath as he pushes open the northern door with one hand whilst gripping the haft of his magic trident with the other.
W22. Secondary Crypts
This crypt stretches into darkness. The floor of this crypt is strewn with rubble and the filth of opened graves. Sprawled on the floor is a fairly fresh corpse of a middle-aged Ulfen man, no more than a week or two old at the most.
Of more concern to you is the misty undead that resembles the dead man, it hovers in the room and stares hatefully at you.
What are you doing. It takes no actions as long as you are outside the room.
"Deadeye's teeth!" Colwyn exclaims, holding out the business end of his magic trident between him and the ghostly undead.
"It's a spectre! Jhod's told me tales about these things. One of 'em plagued a village he ministered. They're weak to sunlight!" he adds, looking around in vain for any sort of windows or ports to the outside world. "I don't know if magical sunlight works, though."
"Looks lek thet was him oover there," Niadroub Kliip says, pointing to the corpse just beyond the spectre.
He passes his familiar the wand of magic missile. When the attack commences, both arcanist and familiar hurl the force missiles at the spectre.
Colwyn is correct, it is a Spectre.
Niadroub & Waffles hammer the undead with force magic.
.
What are you doing?
Colwyn eyes up the undead with a grimace, then hefts up his magic trident and hurls it like a javelin - after all, he's not keen to go toe-to-toe with something so dangerously ephemeral.
Since he is unused to throwing rather than shooting, Colwyn finds that his trident embarrassingly clatters against the ancient stones, quite far from his target.
Marten unwisely shows no fear of the undead as he races to engage the spectre.
Tessara follows up with another volley of psychic force!
Zelera was in a abad place, she couldn't even see where teh thing was let alone attack it and she didn't want to force her way in to where she could see it. For now she prepared herself to cast teh one spell she had that should hurt the thing badly if she could get a shot on it.
[oocReadying to cast searing light on the specter when I can see it.[/ooc]
Colwyn's throw hit, but sadly passed through the incorporeal undead without effecting it.
Marten dashed forward and lightly cut it.
Zelera waited for the chance to see the thing.
Hissing in rage the Spectre lashed out at Marten
.
The party may now act
Niadroub Kliip spied Zelera further back in the hallway with a spell at the ready. Not having any more spells that have a significant chance of helping, he squeezes past Colwyn and indicates to Zelera that she should take his place.
Waffles fires another round from his wand of magic missile.
.
Marten is only able to manage a few more halfhearted swings, and fully expects this thing to kill him.
Colwyn quickly whips out his bow and fires an arrow at the spectre, having studied it as a target. He prays that his shot will do something of substance to the ghostly foe.
.
The Crypt has nothing of any value in it.
What are you doing now? Moving on to the other door or resting up?
While the others hover around the weakened Marten and discuss whether or not to continue on, Waffles investigates the nearby corpse.
You pass a quiet if uncomfortable night resting in W15.
What now?
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The corpse of Willas Gunderson has nothing on it either.
The corpse of Willas Gunderson has nothing on it either.
"Stop mucking around with dead things, Waffles!" Colwyn scolds the tiny dragon.
"I damn well don't want to backtrack through that blasted tar cavern, but I don't want Marten dying on us, either. Don't argue, Marty, I can see your arms tremble! You need to build your strength back up."
Colwyn will then lead the way back to a safe place to rest.
Marten removes his helm and starts to open his mouth, and Tessara takes the opportunity to smack him in the back of the head. He sheepishly replaces his helm.
"I hate that I'm getting used to sleeping on stone floors," Colwyn grumbles from his bedroll, awake but eyelids still clamped shut.
He kicks his way free from the bedroll and shoves himself up to a standing position.
"Well, let's have a bite then get back to it," he sighs.
When the group settles in to camp, Marten finally flags a bit and his exhaustion shows. The draining attack of the specter had a profound effect upon him, one that he tried to shake off, but by the end of the day he can no longer keep up the façade. Tessara helps to set up their bedrolls and their tiny cozy spot for supper and rest. Somehow Marten finds time to practice a few of his weird-posing-like-a-strange-statue exercises, but he's just too drained to do a lengthy routine, and Tessara eventually shuffles him off to sleep while she curls up nearby and simply watches him for a while.
~~~~~~~~~~
Fortunately, in the morning, Marten is back to his indefatigable self. He stretches as he rises, limbers up, tries a few more of those strange poses, then chuckles at his good fortune. "I feel much better! Like it was just a bad cold." Tessara smiles but continues brushing out her hair while Marten putters around digging out some small servings of dried foods.
"You know," he says, "someone could make a fortune selling magical devices to make dungeon camping safer and more comfortable. A tent that magically shadows itself and blends into the walls? A container that keeps food fresh and warm? Some kind of... glamorous camping. Glamping. Make a mint."
You return to where you left off the previous day and open the untrapped and unlocked south door.
W23. Feast hall
This door opens onto a short dais looking out over a large chamber. Thick pillars ascend to a twenty-foot-high ceiling, while a wide stone
staircase climbs to a darkened gallery above.
The true purpose of the chamber is apparent from the great stone table running across its center. Dozens of seats have been set about this massive affair and propped upon them is a feast of horror.
Each chair holds the corpse of a human locked in its death throes, its mouth agape in anguish, the top of its cranium brutally removed, and the
brains within excised.
Also in the vast room are four more of the Zombie Cyclops that you have had to destroy before.
You have a surprise round on the Zombies. What are you doing?
Niadroub Kliip's eyes opened in surprise at the sight of all of the corpses in this room, especially the corpses that are animate.
He immediately casts haste on the party.
Meanwhile, Waffles digs out the wand of lightning bolt and fires it into the room, getting two of the zombie cyclopes.
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.
"Aw Hell," Colwyn mutters a split second before reflexively snapping off a shot at the closest cyclopean zombie.
Marten steps in to block the zombies from approaching the party as best he can. Sadly, the long arms of the cyclopean zombies make it impossible for him to slide out in front of the lane for the one that Colwyn is shooting without eating a swing from the one just to the side, so he shifts in close and hopes that he can shuffle out a bit and perhaps keep Colwyn out of the worst of the assault to come.
Colwyn sinks an arrow into Red.
Marten steps in front of him.
Niadroub casts Haste
Waffles stings Yellow & Red.
.
Well that is nice and easy. The party may act first!