”Adamantine arrows?” Praxim suggests.
"A good first place to start. If there are no backlash effects, we could escalate to Thordakking them," Lym says.
"We might try Aurora before Thordak."
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”After all, wandering into that room is probably what turns you into a lich,” Praxim jokes, ”And the world isn’t ready for Thorda-lich!”
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Thordak just stares dumbfounded at the elf. "Thorda-lich? What in the Nine Hells is that?! I'll be no lich, elf, that's for sure! I'll be dead before I become a lich I can guarantee ya that!" he nods emphatically. "Anyway, I'm for smashin' it. If 'Sticks' here doesn't get the job done," he motions with a head nod toward the elf, "then I will."
Praxim takes a vantage point where he can shoot through the door, lines up a shot with an adamatine arrow, and looses.
If the crystals count as evil or undead, there’s a pile more damage, too. .
...I'll be dead before I become a lich I can guarantee ya that!"
Praxim's arrow flies true, burying itself in the pylon. Thin, spidery cracks form around the embedded arrow.
Praxim fires four more arrows.
"When this thing finally breaks," Wonders Tomaru, "will there be an explosion of death and mayhem?"
Tomaru casts Wall of Stone, leaving arrow slits for Praxim to fire through.
Aurora readies to cast Resilient Sphere.
Each arrow flies in succession, burying themselves deep in the crystal. Each time an arrow strikes, the vein-like cracks propagate a little more. On the second arrow, a low hum begins to emanate from the damaged crsytal. On the third, the low frequency hum can felt in your chest. On the fourth, the floor vibrates with it.
Tomaru's wall goes up. The crystal is lined with the cracks over it's entire surface. The portal shakes and twists chaotically, dark energy barely contained.
"You're close, elf. Looks like yer only needin' a couple more shots ta finish it off. Get ready, lot, this thing is about ta go 'BOOM'."
"Hold up! Everyone out of the room. Tomaru's wall will offer some protection, but I want to add distance. Wish I'd studied Wall of Force today... As soon as we're outside, I'll cast Magic Missile at the pylon and we slam the doors shut. Let's move, folks!"
Unless anyone objects, Lym does as she suggested.
"Whatever keeps me from gettin' blown up," the dwarf readily agrees and heads out.
Lym fires her missiles at the damaged pylon. You never get to see the result, but you can certainly hear it and feel it. There is a loud crack, followed by what sounds like the rapid intake of air as if a huge implosion had occurred. Then a second of silence...one that seems like an eternity...and then...
The force of the explosion smashes the closed doors against the magical stone wall, shattering both. Luckily the energy from the explosion was spent in that effort, and you are unharmed...
...so you might believe. It takes a moment for the debris to settle in the hall where you stand. Choking mildly from the dust, you take stock in your situation. No physical damage, no wounds of any kind. But soon you can hear a sound beginning, a strange noise, sounding far off as if it were a thousand yards away.
And it's getting closer.
If it slammed the doors open then that Wall of Stone was shattered.
"That does not sound good at all."
"Ready defenses!" Lym snaps. "Odds are, the lich just noticed us!" The Wizard casts a spell, and if there is time, gets started on a second one.
The volume of the noise increases rapidly as it closes in. It's a voice, wailing and moaning with unfathomable pain. The voice becomes ten, then a hundred, then a thousand voices all vocalizing ten thousand years of torment. An intense chill of dark energy fills the hall around you.
Suddenly the walls spew forth wraiths by the hundreds. The undead spirits fill the hall, clawed incorporeal hands reaching, grasping for you....
....but they do not touch you. Mere inches from your faces the claws turn to wisps of air and dissipate. Wave upon wave of wraiths come at you, each successive wave crumbling to nothingness within a hair's breadth of ending your life essence.
Then it is over.
The stone wall and the doors lay in ruins. The dark portal no longer hums with Negative energy. Of the wraiths, there is no sign. Praxim instantly notices that the walls of the Ravenous Crypts no longer radiate evil. All is silent.
"... Right, then," Lym says.
She coughs once.
"Well... Looks like we've done some good. I'm glad. Let's hope their souls are at rest now."
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Visibly shaken, it takes Praxim a moment to get his wits back. He turns to the others and mutters, ”Haven’t seen a display like that since the last time Thordak took off his boots.”
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"Don't be silly; that bebilith wasn't nearly this stroppy."
Aurora comes out from hiding behind Thordak, "Is that it? Did we defeat the Runelord of this place?"
"Let's sweep the whole place to be sure. Liches are notoriously resilient, and I doubt they'd be stupid enough to use a portal for a phylactery."
Visibly shaken, it takes Praxim a moment to get his wits back. He turns to the others and mutters, ”Haven’t seen a display like that since the last time Thordak took off his boots.”
The dwarf is about to respond to the paladin but pauses as he finds himself unsure if that was a compliment or an insult and just simply shrugs.
"Don't be silly; that bebilith wasn't nearly this stroppy."
With a look of shock, "Bah! It was too! It was totally stroppy!" He then turns his head toward Aurora and speaks in hushed tones, "Quick, lass, what in the blazes is 'stroppy'?!"
Aurora pats Thordak. "You, dear. You're stroppy. You define stroppy for all others."
Tomaru side whispers to Lym, "Am I stroppy? Do I want to be stroppy or more stroppy?"
"You're just right the way you are, dear," Lym replies.
Praxim stage whispers to the angel, ”We forgot to mention that the rest of the group has all paired off with each other. Rexil and I aren’t a thing, in case you were wondering...or interested.”
"Let's move on and sweep this horrible place, top to bottom."
The angel does not turn to look at Praxim, but gives him a sidelong glance. "You, perhaps." She stares forward. "But him? Not a chance."
"Let's reconnoiter all the passages and doors we haven't been to yet, starting with those closest to our current location and working on- and outward from there," Lym says.
Praxim is intrigued by the angel’s reply, though of course one such as this noble angel would be interested in someone like him. He thinks that, if true, next time they need the angel’s services instead of gems or magic items, he could just offer the creature a good time.
Then he remembers (whether true or not) that angels have telepathy and she/it probably just read all that in his mind, and the elf turns a shade of red never before seen.
”I’ll scout ahead,” Praxim croaks hoarsely and moves out front, scanning for evil.
"Let's reconnoiter all the passages and doors we haven't been to yet, starting with those closest to our current location and working on- and outward from there," Lym says.
"Works for me. I guess if we gotta clean this place out we better get started."
Your search takes you back to the crypts were you flamed the second set of Thassilonian mummies. The first 'dead end' as it were. Taking a closer look, Praxim notices that the end of the hall has a secret door. Beyond that, he can sense nothing.
"The explosion must have knocked some bricks loose allowing us to see the secret door."
"The explosion must have knocked some bricks loose allowing us to see the secret door."
"Alright, everyone stay alert. Odds are, the lich is somewhere in there. Soldier of Righteousness, will you take point?"
Tomaru says to Lym in a bold voice and manner. "Don't worry, my love. You are safe here, next to me." He takes a hero pose.
"Indeed."
The angel moves to the front and stands before the door. She looks back once over her shoulder, then activates the hidden latch. The door slides open, and she steps in.
The narrow hallway forces you into single file, making it hard to see ahead. What you can see is a dark shadow in the room strike the deva.
The angel screams in agony as the shadow's hand reaches into her chest cavity and seizes her heart. Wisps of light energy curl around the thing's arm, turning to black as it absorbs her very soul.
"Angel! Either holy smite or side-step into the Astral Plane, heal up and get back to us! Aurora, magic missiles! Full power! Tomaru, death wards!"
Don't forget the effects of Heroes' Feast!
Tomaru uses Death Ward on Lym
Aurora casts Haste for the group and then Quickened Intensified Fireball at the back of the room.
Squinting in an attempt to make out what he's seeing, "What in the blasted Nine Hells is that thing?! I've never seen nothin' like it and it doesn't look very solid ta me at all! Will me axe cut through it?!" he asks, absolutely unsure of what to do. "Tell me I can cut through it, lass, and I promise ya, ya won't have ta tell me twice," he tells Lym, chomping at the bit to move in and kill the thing.
Praxim’s supernatural aura of care kicks in, and he’s able to find the channels through the bodies of his allies for his arrows to fly. He activates a smite evil and goes to work with his +5 Holy undead bane bow.
The first arrow to hit does an additional 15 points of damage.