Looking from one direction to another, "I say we go that way," he states, pointing in said direction. "Let's move!"
"As good a choice as any. Move out!"
Looking from one direction to another, "I say we go that way," he states, pointing in said direction. "Let's move!"
"Towards 'Inib', very well." the angel says and moves off with Thordak.
The scene in this octagonal room is appalling — a half-dozen brutally savaged human bodies dressed in light blue, bloodstained robes lie sprawled about the place. Several of the bodies seem to have had limbs or organs removed.
There are two exits from this room, one north and one south.
"This is definitely the work of a necromancer with a lot of experience and too much time on his hands. Let's start with the northern passage."
Nodding, "Aye aye, captain," the dwarf replies as he narrows his eyes toward the northern passage. After a moment, he heads out.
Unlike the doors you've been through so far, the north door is a single portal. It opens into a hallway that turns immediately to the right, and bends around the outside of the abattoir you were just in. After 30' or so, the hall opens into a laboratory.
Tables made of stacked sarcophagi support alchemical apparatuses, books, carved bones, scrolls, and various pieces of anatomy that have
been dissected and preserved in dozens of ways. This well-stocked research room is capable of supplying a gifted necromancer with all of the base materials necessary to craft magic items, research spells, or create undead creatures.
This chamber appears to have gone unused for thousands of years, but the supplies remain fresh thanks to Runeforge’s preservative aura. An alchemist’s lab sits atop one table. The books are both interesting and horrifying in their subject matter of the dead.
At the far end of the lab are two more doors, one north, and one south.
"Blast! How many blasted doors are in this place?!" he complains, huffing. "Alright, I'm goin' through the north door."
”Just wait. The magic people might want to search through a bit of this stuff for anything useful...though let’s not take too long about it.”
Shrugging, "Sure. Fine by me. The longer it takes, the longer the break I get ta take. And I do like me breaks," he says with a grin and a nod as he finds himself a somewhat comfortable spot.
"Let's wait until we've finished with the residents here before taking time for any light reading."
"Just dump the books in the bag. I have no intention of creating undead, but it's as well not to leave anything for less scrupulous explorers or lackeys of Karzoug to find. We'll sort them out later."
"That's not what I meant. This place makes my skin crawl. This is the worst of them so far and I want to be done with it as fast as we can."
The door leads down a long hall, approximately 90'. It ends at yet another door, one that opens silently on it's iron hinges into a room of nightmares.
The bookshelf-lined walls of this room contain a large collection of dog-eared tomes, manuals, and scrolls, as well as jars of fluid in which float humanoid organs and bits of flesh. A dissected human torso sits atop the room’s stone table.
"Echh," Lym hisses, revolted. "F&+@ing Necromancers..."
Trying to lighten the mood, Praxim quips, ”If that’s how they do that, they’re doing it wrong.”
Shaking his head at the gruesome sight, "We need ta cave this place in after we burn it to the ground. This whole place is full of sick and twisted freaks."
"I'll sign on to with that mission."
"So would I."
There is nothing else of note in this room. No other exits. This leaves you moving back to the laboratory and the door in the south of that room.
You head straight south from laboratory along another 90' hall. This one does not end at a door however. Where it ends, a room opens to your right. Both walls of the room (to your right and left) are lined with crypts. A shuffling of undead feet precedes the emergence of six more mummies of ancient Thassilon! They lurch down the hall in single file, ready to attack!
"Everybody in front of me, DOWN NOW!" Lym bellows as she rises up in the air as far as she can go.
Provided the others do as she says, Lym launches a bead of orange light, which erupts into a cloud of fiery death in the middle of the shuffling mummies!
The movanic deva is in front. Where else would she be?
When she hears the Mage shout for everyone to duck, she does go to one knee to let the bead of explosive fire go over her -- but she hardly resigns to letting these mortals do all the fighting!
The angel's magic erupts in the middle of the mummies, holy power ripping through bandages and dessicated flesh alike!
Praxim ducks under the fire bead, then straightens, sending arrows whizzing past Thordak and the angel. He’s not too particular about which mummy he hits at this point.
Tomaru ducks down. If he can reach Thordak, he will give him a Bit of Luck.
Aurora follows Lym and releases a fireball into the midst of the approaching mummies.
Fireball, Quicken Intensified
The ancient Thassilonian mummies are engulfed in roaring arcane fire. They stumble forward, humanoid-shaped torches reeking of evil and burnt flesh. One manages to reach your front line, but is cut down by Praxim's arrows. It's over in seconds.
The flames consume the centuries-old undead in a matter of moments, leaving behind an acrid pall of smoke and piles of ash. The hall with the crypts in front of you stretches out 50' and then comes to an end.
Just as he's about to move in and slaughter the new set of liches, he reacts quickly and stops as a firebomb goes off. "Well that was easy. Nice work, lass. Looks like these liches have bitten off more than they can chew. That'll teach 'em ta mess with us," he states with a firm nod. "Well? Do we keep goin'? Or do we go through some other random set of doors? We've got plenty of options I tell ya. Too many for my likin' that's for sure."
"Whatever you think best. Where Thordak leads, we follow."
"We need to sweep and sterilize the whole place in any case. Move out, private Ironheart."
Nodding, "Off we go then." He then heads back the way they came and this time goes through the south door.
The hall with the crypts in front of you stretches out 50' and then comes to an end.
Unlike the doors you've been through so far, the north door is a single portal. It opens into a hallway that turns immediately to the right, and bends around the outside of the abattoir you were just in. After 30' or so, the hall opens into a laboratory.
Tables made of stacked sarcophagi support alchemical apparatuses, books, carved bones, scrolls, and various pieces of anatomy that have
been dissected and preserved in dozens of ways. This well-stocked research room is capable of supplying a gifted necromancer with all of the base materials necessary to craft magic items, research spells, or create undead creatures.This chamber appears to have gone unused for thousands of years, but the supplies remain fresh thanks to Runeforge’s preservative aura. An alchemist’s lab sits atop one table. The books are both interesting and horrifying in their subject matter of the dead.
At the far end of the lab are two more doors, one north, and one south.
North door: "The door leads down a long hall, approximately 90'. It ends at yet another door, one that opens silently on it's iron hinges into a room of nightmares.
The bookshelf-lined walls of this room contain a large collection of dog-eared tomes, manuals, and scrolls, as well as jars of fluid in which float humanoid organs and bits of flesh. A dissected human torso sits atop the room’s stone table."
The South door led to this hall with the mummies. There are no other apparent exits. Let me know what you want to do/where you will look.
Was there another door or way we didn't take?
Was there another door or way we didn't take?
Back you go, into the room with the cross-shaped bridge, but this time you head north. Double doors of iron open into what may the strangest room you've seen in the Runeforge yet.
The walls of this room have been plated in iron, each plate of which bears a single rune—the upside-down, hooked “U” shape. What appear to
be two ten-foot-tall smooth crystal pylons stand in the middle of the room. A rippling curtain of blackness shimmers between these crystals. On the opposite side of each crystal, strange tendrils of black energy—reverse lightning crackling in extreme slow-motion—extend out from the
crystals into spheres of roiling blackness in circular caverns to the left and right of the entrance. The air in the room is shockingly cold.
"This...is not good..."
"... Indeed. Now to determine just how bad it is and how we should go forth," Lym says, quietly.
Praxim takes a breath to steady himself, then opens up his mind to sense if there is evil in that room.
"What is it? What does it do?"
It appears to be a portal comprised entirely of energy from the Negative Material Plane.
Praxim's senses determine that this room is much like every other part of the Ravenous Crypts: even the walls radiate evil.
"Ohhh... This is VERY not good," Lym says. "It's a portal made of negative energy. Maybe even to the Negative Energy plane...? Great for the undead, grim death for the living. Might even cause planar imbalances...?"
Lym glances at the deva for confirmation.
"Ok. Then how do we destroy it?"
"My specialty is the legions of the Abyss, not this...thing. It certainly is a portal of some sort. And that dark energy gathering in the opposite ends of this room is powering something here."
She pauses, deep in thought.
"As far as how to destroy it, I would guess those crystal pylons are a key to that."