"Sure would be nice to have somebody with a wand or staff or fireballs.... Oh, necromancy, divination and transmutation on those big guys. Maybe the casters could detect something through them?"
Flouncy also tries to guess what is up.
Wish I had that.
The circular objects glow and after a minute they illuminate a magical symbol of somekind between them. The first minecart wagon moves onto the magical symbol and it with its skeletal horses and skeletons disappear. A round passes before the next wagon team gets on the symbol.
The symbol is about a mile from your location. They look like ants from this distance. You know it will take you at least minutes to go down the stairs. There are faster routes but far more dangerous without flight or other abilities.
"A teleportation gate. Reaper, watch." Beorn says and sends a mental image of their immediate area. The great bird goes aloft and begins to circle about like a giant buzzard. "They may have a gate on this side somewhere. We need to be careful."
Seeing the activity Rouqar calls out, "I can cast Fly on someone. I'm not our strongest fighter.... Renia? Do you want to fly?"
"I can cast Dimension door too.... The range is pretty far, 680 feet. Would that be far enough? I can take 2 with me."
Renia nods. "Sure, but I don't want to be down there alone. No telling what those leader-types might be able to do to me. I can do a dimension door, too, so no need to take me with you with that."
Rouqar casts Fly on Renia.
"I can take 2 with me by Dimension Door to that last rim of the pit. Who wants to come? Watch for intelligent undead and spread out a little once we get there. No point in being great targets for fireballs and such."
I have 2 fly spells and a Dimension Door prepared, too. We can get everyone there at once.
"I can go down mounted. So we go see if we can break up their little party?" As he says this Beorn waves for Reaper sending him a mental message and waits for the great bird to land.
"Sounds good, just give me a second to fix up the suit." Renia runs his hands over the broken spots in the insectile armor, fusing the cracked carapace back together in less than half a minute.
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He looks around and states, "Beorn is able to fly Reaper. That leaves Reina, Olchaina, Flouncy, Rouqar, and myself. I don't have any great ways to escape... maybe we save one of the dimension doors in case we need it to escape. Rouqar dimension doors Flouncy and myself down after Renia gets close to our landing spot? I am just trying to make sense of the plan. Let me know if something doesn't work. Reina will you be able to carry Olchaina?"
As Reina now has the fly spell on him he likely tries to pick up his elven hound which weighs about 750 pounds. But there is no way for him to pick up the large canine and fly at the same time.
Flouncy can cast Fly on it.
He has one more Fly spell and a D. Door for later.
A few more wagons disappear. There is still a stream of them though you can see that the line does end. You estimate that there are about 30 more minecarts. Maybe a fourth of them have gone through the teleportation circle already.
Every round a new husk begins to descend the walls, mostly falling in the process, to get to the bottom of the pit.
The quarry is eerily alive with activity. Skeletal miners, clad in tattered remnants of clothing or armor, move in a relentless, methodical rhythm. Their exposed bones gleam faintly under the dim light filtering through the clouds, some tinged with the metallic dust of silver. These undead laborers wield pickaxes and shovels, their motions silent except for the clink of tools against stone and the crunch of boots on gravel.
Most of the robed overseers are guiding the skeletons on the minecart wagons to move them to the symbol. They leave the others working.
The atmosphere is thick with the metallic tang of freshly unearthed silver, mingling with a subtle chill that seeps into the bones of any living observer. The quarry seems to pulse with an unnatural energy, as though the silver itself carries an ancient curse, binding the skeletons to their eternal toil.
"Looks like we should take out the overseers first. The mined ore can stay here for the folk that live here if we can stop the carts. Maybe break a wheel or two at the front of the line?"
I don't know, but I'm pretty sure these portals can't stay open forever. Let's slow up the line first, then go after the overseers.
"Onward and upward then." Beorn says as he mounts Reaper who has landed by now. "Flouncy, climb on up and let's go take a look at these portals."
If he comes over, Beorn reaches down and give him a hand up on the bird. They then take flight and head for the portals. "How close do you want to get?" Beorn asks.
30 minecarts, 20 black-robed lashers, 500+ skeletal miners.
These 30 minecarts are on rails. One after the other, they are lined up to be teleported. There are other rails and minecarts spread about in use or set aside.
The rickety wooden stairs are rather clean and would not be difficult terrain. Most of the place unless on rails would be difficult terrain.
The dimension door gets you down the three steep cliffs and onto a platform. You will need to get down the 70 foot steep decline still to the quarry's lowest floor. Then it is another 700 or so feet to the middle.
There are no portals. There is a magical glowing symbol on the railway. The skeletal crew and minecart wagon get onto it then vanish.
As the group moves down Rouqar watches the enemies around them. It is strange seeing so many undead working. Controlling such a force must be powerful magic!
"The workers can't see us. But if you push them to get by they may blindly attack just like if an invisible enemy struck at you. Let's get to the carts and see what we can do to stop them. It they are moved by the skeletons a simple channel or two might do the trick! A wall of fire might be nice to keep the rest of them from taking the places of those destroyed...."
Beorn has Reaper drop within about one hundred and twenty feet of the symbol but avoid flying directly over it. No need in taking a chance of being teleported elsewhere. To Flouncy he says, "I've still got 10 bottles of acid we were given when we fought those trolls. If we could get to a rail we might be able to damage it enough with those to stop the carts from moving forward. What do you think?" Beorn says as he ponders the situation himself.
The wagons appear to be 10 feet long and 5 feet wide. The skeletal crews are lined up on the rails which would get caught up in a lightning bolt. A fireball would likely catch four of the wagons in a blast.
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Rouqar uses his dimension door bringing Loarin and Flouncy to the platform and you can see what is on the back side of the platform, a sure sight to see. At this point Reaper is descending with Beorn in front of Reina and Orchen. Reaper moves at 160 feet as the fly spell is 60 feet.
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He gags seeing the dead and sympathy for the bound, "We will be back for you. First we need to deal with them!" He then moves forward down off the platform to the edge of the cliff.
Walking to the edge he looks over and states, "Shall we go down the fast way then? Or use the Dimension door to get there now?!" He looks to Flouncy knowing that they were the slowest of the group and he has the other spell.
"Let's try to destroy the rails, then we can focus on the robes." Renia and Orchen fly after Reaper, trying to figure out the situation on the ground.
Seeing the prisoners Rouqar hesitates for a second, then rushes off toward the wagons heading for the teleportation symbols. If they were successful they could free any survivors. If not....
Hand me some of those acid flasks, big guy.
There are other rail lines. There is one rail the wagons are upon heading to the one symbol.
Rouqar starts off sliding down the cliff, with rocks and dirt falling in his path he can slide down two-thirds before faltering. He falls the last 20 feet,
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Loarin does his best to slide down as well but knows pain is likely soon upon him.
He falls like a trash can to the waiting rocks and dirt.
There, he gets up and heals himself, dusting himself off and seeing Rouqar doing a better job of sliding down the incline; he states, "Save channels for the undead? I need to get me some boots of the cat."
He helps Rouqar up and begins rushing forward. Knowing he can't run he moves forward and heals. Then, once healed, he double moves to a railway.
He looks over at Rouqar and asks, "Straight through or try a different path that is smoother?
On the railway, he sees if it will connect with the railway goal.
A bit deflated he states, "I can't see where it goes..."
It takes Reaper 3 rounds to descend to the 120 feet above the skeletal crews. Reina will be there in 6. Rouqar and Loarin are 500+ feet away from the center.
More husks descend into the pit. Several more wagons get through in those rounds.
"Straight through unless we get spotted by one of the intelligent undead. They still have to pierce the veil of the spell, but they can. Then we have to either try to go around them or destroy them."
Once in range, Flouncy uses his ring to cast Fireball (acid) on the first wagon in the line, hoping to dissolve the rails and affect as many undead as he can.
(DC 22 for 1/2)
Renia and Orchen fly after Reaper as fast as they can.