As you stand in the room, you see spikes form fully on the ceiling and drop, apparently trying to hit you and draw your blood. They follow you around the room but as you keep moving, you manage to avoid them and they crash harmlessly into the floor. Enziver, with help from some of the non-dinky party members, drags the fiendish nautilus quickly over to the door. There he splatters some of it on the door and the door opens. He is soon glad he acted quickly as the nautilus disappears back to its home plane, now that it has been slain. The door opens, revealing a pitch blackness that even Halgrin, Olivia, and Enizver can't see through.
Wrinil takes some valuable notes on the nautilus.
Enizver squinted at the darkness. "I've heard of magical darkness my folk can't see through, but I've never seen it before." He tried to remember if there were anyways to counter it.
Horat peers at the darkness, trying to discern its secrets.
Enizver concludes that this is indeed magical darkness. He can't see through it. He thinks there are multiple possibilities for dealing with it. 1. Dispel magic. 2. A light spell of sufficient power. 3. Given that it seems to be a long-lasting darkness spell tied to this location, there may be some way to activate or deactivate it present in the darkened room.
"I don't suppose anyone has a potent Light spell or the power to dispel this, do they?" Enizver squinted at the darkness. "If not, there is likely a trick to it...shouting Light in abyssal, maybe?"
"I don't suppose anyone has a potent Light spell or the power to dispel this, do they?" Enizver squinted at the darkness. "If not, there is likely a trick to it...shouting Light in abyssal, maybe?"
With a shrug, Halgrin tries shouting out the word "Light!" in Orcish, Giant and then finally Dwarvish.
Halgrin enjoys a nice echo. Seems to be a smallish room he's shouting into, stone walls.
Halgrin turns to others and says, "Worth a shot."
Wireline attempts both thaumaturgy and prestidigitation to produce light.
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Wrinil's magic seems insufficiently potent to penetrate the darkness!
Horat grips his halberd and begins advancing, turning it at intervals to prod and sweep in the dark. He seeks to explore the room, checking floor in places, and ceiling as possible.
Horat advances into the room and finds it to be about a twenty foot square with a ten foot ceiling. Stone walls and floor. He finds opposite door but notes the door he came through is slowly starting to close!
"Oh, bugger." Enizver looked at the others. "Horat, have you found anything? This door is closing. We'll feed it more blood when it gets to halfway done, if needs must." Hopefully this room wouldn't trap the warrior.
Wrinil rubs his chin with curiosity as he ducks into the closing room, "This could be fun!"
"No, but I will try blood on the far wall."
Horat nicks himself and splatters the blood on the opposite wall from the door he entered.
"I prefer to able to see when I have fun," Enizver commented wryly. "It makes seeing what you're doing much easier. Although I suppose doing things by touch has its...charms."
The door closes, leaving Wrinil and Horat locked inside the dark room. Wrinil's vision leaves him as he is in complete darkness but he can hear Horat moving around.
As soon as the door closes, the magical darkness goes away and the chamber is very weakly illuminated by the small, illusory candle Wrinil created earlier.
You see a golden hourglass set in the wall with sand just beginning to run down it. Next to the hourglass is a golden button set in a steel facet in the wall. Horat bleeds on the door but this time nothing happens. The sand runs down quickly in the hourglass.
You estimate that the hourglass will take two minutes to empty.
Horat says in a low voice:
"Wrinril, we must act swiftly to find a way out. That hourglass is ominous."
And he begins to search, rapidly.
Blinking, Olivia cut her hand and smeared more blood on the door, hoping that would cause it to open again.
Olivia bleeds on the door but it doesn't seem to want to open while there are two inside the next room.
Horat doesn't figure out anything but Wrinil presses the button and the sand rises back up, refilling the top of the hourglass, at which point the sand begins falling back down again.
He looks around the room very carefully and decides that he can't perceive any hazards, magical or otherwise here.
Olivia is unsurprised by this development. She pulls out a crowbar, offering it to Halgrinn. "Perhaps you might be able to pry the door up?"
Enizver looked around for something to potentially wedge in the door.
Horat looks for a small stone, to try and wedge the button pressed.
Neither Enizver nor Horat notice anything particularly helpful other than what they found around them, except maybe the nautilus shell could be wedged into the door if it were opened.
Olivia continues to hold out the crowbar to Halgrin.
Wrinil holds a hand up toward Horat, "I can't see anything else in here. We might as well see what happens when the sand empties."
Horat relucantly nods.
"There is little else to be done here unless a door opens. Should it, I will seize the nautilus shell and use it as a wedge."
Horat stands ready by the entry doorway, in case he gets an opportunity to grab the shell swiftly.
After several minutes pass, the hourglass drains all the way to the bottom. At that point, you hear a click and the doors ahead of you and behind you open. You feel a slight rumbling of the stonework, almost like a chuckle. Your friends reunite with you and pass through the next door. You find yourselves looking at a spiral stairway leading down deeper into the temple.
"...did this temple just play a prank on us, or did we fail to solve a puzzle?" Enizver scratched his head in confusion.
Horat, true to his plan, immediately lunges to seize the nautilus shell and drag it to the door.
And then sees the situation.
"I dread to think which is the likelier answer.", replies Horat to Enizver.
"Shall we continue?"
Wrinil chuckles at the simplicity of the solution. "Who knew?" He then looks expectantly at Horat and Halrgrin.
"I'll lead the way down the stairs."
Olivia put her crowbar away, eyeing the staircase warily. Hopefully, there weren't too many floors to this complex. Getting back on her broom, she followed the rest of the group down.
You head down the old steps, mold growing in the corners of the stairs which seem to have been dark for centuries. The stairs level out in a lower level of the temple and you walk forward into a chamber with stone alcoves on either side. Out of the alcoves step tall, creatures with horns, odd beards, long tails, and wicked-looking glaives held in their hands. They brandish their glaives and say in unison
"Our contract to defend this place will last until after your kind have ceased, intruders."
Enizver, Olivia, and Halgrin snap to attention, acting quickly!
These are bearded devils. They are resistant to magic and their spikey beards can deal poison to their foes.
Something looks a little different about these bearded devils. From a gleam in their eyes and the way they look at Wrinil and Olivia almost hungrily, you can tell they are mage slayers, special servants of Hell tasked with dealing with troublesome magic users.
Enizver considered. "I...have no idea what these are. Maybe they're friendly?" He sounded vaguely hopeful, but raised his weapon in case they attacked.
"Bearded devils!" Olivia gasps. "Be careful, their beards are poisonous and they're resistant to magic!" As she speaks, she pulls out her crossbow but follows Enizver's lead, holding her fire until they act aggressively.
No you fool! Liv silently screamed. Shoot first! Attack before they kill you! Devils are not to be trifled with!
Horat sees additional danger.
"These are mage slayers! Protect Olivia and Wrinril!"
He begins to move, but not as swiftly as the foe...
You see? *This* is exactly why you must strike first!
I haven't cast any spells yet. Maybe they won't realize I'm a mage and leave me alone? Or...maybe they know my soul is tainted and they've come to collect on it? Olivia felt sick, but she still held her shot.
Halgrin steps forward and slashes at one of the devils with his longsword.
The devil winces in pain as Halgrin attacks him but seems to resist the strike. Then he and his comrade rush forward, being struck again by Horat for full effect. They attack Halgrin, Wrinil, and Horat in a flurry of attacks with their horrible, horn-like bears and wicked glaives.
But in their urgency, they miss with all four attacks!
Enizver reloads, and goes for another shot. It's a little awkward with some many people in front, but the gnome is a decent shot. He targeted the one wedged between Wiril and Halgrin.
Horat strikes back at the devil who struck at him!
[Ooc]Using last round's reaction to riposte[/dice]
He keeps swinging!
Mage Slayers, Wrinil thinks to himself as he quickly looks around. He steels himself, I can make sure they don't get to Olivia. He then drops into a slight crouch and says a quick prayer.
Hands shaking slightly, Olivia shoots her crossbow on whichever devil looks the most injured.
Despite her fear, her shot was well-aimed, and she continued to keep her other half from coming out. You can do this. You're not the weakling she thinks you are. You don't need her to protect you. You'll be fine without her.