Thorn's strike is just strong enough to dissipate the shadow standing near him, leaving a faint trace of black mist behind.
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Green
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Grint & Sivar
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Unidentified
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Elsa & Father Burdock
Sivar casts lesser restoration on himself to remove the fatigue and str damage.
Enlarge person then
Sivar grows in size, maybe it will hasten the battle.
Grint
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Distorted Shadow
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Elsa & Father Burdock
Grint 5-foot steps back east and fires two arrows at the shadow, though he lifts his bow up slightly more uneasily.
Grint's arrows fly swift, but the shadow remains unhurt.
It flies closer though, extending its claw again.
It saps a bit of strength from Grint.
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Elsa & Father Burdock
Elsa once again gathers power and unleashes a blast at the Shadow
*1.5= 22 Cold Damage
Right before Elsa launches a blast, the shadow reaches out at her.
A bit of strength is sapped as its cold claws touch her.
Father Burdock
Burdock steps back to make sure he casts outside of the shadow's reach, then starts casting a spell.
"May spectral steel banish thee!", the dwarf shouts as a floating hammer appears behind the shadow and then swings at it!
The shimmering hammer hits the shadow, causing it to jilt its head at him too.
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Thorn
Grint & Sivar
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Distorted Shadow (-15)
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Elsa & Father Burdock
Seeing as Father Burdock attempted to empower his allies, Thorn finishes the job Blessing them all against this foe, the resounding sound of the Weighted swing guiding their strikes.
Thorn conjures more divine blessings.
Grint & Sivar
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Distorted Shadow (-15)
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Elsa & Father Burdock
Grint fires two arrows again after 5 feet stepping somewhere else on the map.
And with that, the shadow disappears, and the area near the entrance is clear.
" I abhor s-such creatures. S-Shadows usually stay around s-somewhere they want to protect. "
Upon examining the two remains at the stairs, you find them to be of dwarven stature, with aged broken weapons lying beside them.
The practical but ungraceful craft would suggest these could have been duergar.
Their chainmails are bashed beyond repairing, and their bones show fractures on the sternum.
The opened doors show an emblem of Torag.
You cautiously open the doors further, to find yourself in a 10 feet wide hallway, which leads to a large round hall with a desk ahead.
A statue of Torag stands behind the desk against the wall.
Here and there lie the remains of dwarven stature, some in tattered half decayed robes, some in rusty mail armor, with different symbols.
Whatever transpired here, it was conflict for sure.
Some bear the mark of Torag.
----------------------------
While some the sign of the lesser spoken of dwarven god Droskar.
Want to look at anything here?
If not, there are pathways to your right (south) and left (north).
Thorn tries to see what transpired between the two.
" It seem those of Torag fought another such enemy, maybe Duergar. "
Regardless Thorn searches around for anything of note before venturing forward.
" I would not be surprised if it be trapped here either. "
"You're right, Droskarites.", Burdock confirming Thorn's suspicions.
The armor is pretty ancient.
Although before your time, you recall some tomes on early dwarven armor smithing techniques, most likely adapted by the split off faction later to become the duergar.
This would potentially make these, although rusted, armors several thousands years old. (approx 8k years)
Booyah to dwarven quality smithing.
The robes are made of wool, and since wool is essentially hairs, they can last several hundreds of years, provided good circumstances.
Of course, the tailoring performed on Torag's clergy's robes was to last for far longer than several hundreds of years.
Magics & ancient dwarven expertise. ;)
Burdock grabs a few things, if nothing else but for historical purposes. "Which direction do you think we should head?"
" I have not seen any traps so let us head South and loop around. This place seems to be a Temple to Torag Father Burdock. "
"Hopefully it still retains his blessings?"
Sivar says as he looks inspects the area as he walks a bit forward
"And an old one, too, given the armor that I collected. I cannot say if the layout will be similar to what we use now."
At Sivar's comment, Burdock nods. "Aye, that would be a good thing. Of course, given its abandoned state, I wouldn't put it past those cursed duergar to have desecrated the site."
Hanging on the right of the two columns flanking the desk, is a plaque.
Though damaged clearly by a weapon, your keen patient eyes can read some of the almost illegible names.
They seem to be some sort of introductions, a who-to-see maybe?
Translation of their occupations require dwarven, however.
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A.fric, c..ta.er
Gurl.c, he.d sc..be
K.rn For..ham..r, bla..sm..h ..str.c..r
.uric The C.lm, .are..ker o. gue..s
A.bot Durin B.r..ck
Mu..din St.neha.mer, .ea. P..adin
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As you walk through the doorway to your right, a faint smell, an unpleasant odor of spices gone bad, welcomes you from a doorway ahead.
Another doorway lies to your left ahead.
Thorn moves to the immediate door and observes it before opening to the room likely on the other side.
Nothing of note catches Thorn's eye, but the sight of what looks like an old kitchen of sorts.
A centuries cold fireplace lies in front of a column, with open boxes of dried spices and bones of uncut meat on the tables to his right.
Small pots stand on the ground.
The smell is stronger, as he stands within the doorway.
Burdock looks around, taking in notes about the locale. "I have to say, this is somewhat fascinating."
Sivar will move forward cautiously with light on his fauchard poking it into the dark places
Grint looks around as the others stand still to do the same.
Grint spots the faint outlining of a vague humanoid face, within the ashes of the former fireplace.
"There's something inside the ashes of the fireplace. Keep on your guard for sudden moves."
Grint readies an arrow to fire at the thing, whenever it comes out of hiding.
Not moments after Grint called out a warning, does a cloud of dust and ashes spew forth, filling part of the kitchen.
While tales of air elementals are not uncommon, there have been rumors of magically created 'cousin' variants some decades ago.
These are known as dust elementals, and can manifest from any sort of dusty substance, wherein they were called into existence.
They share the normal traits of the air elementals, but have a few extra abilities.
Thorn & Grint
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Dust elemental
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Sivar & Father Burdock
Elsa
Sivar reels but he is able to shield his face from the ashes ans he is ready for whatever comes forth.
"Thankyou Grint for the timely warning, lets deal with the creature."
Thorn rushes into the coarse mist of debris, using his cowl and axe to shield his eyes somewhat.
Once he arrived where Grint had fired Thorn tried to figure out what they were dealing with.
Dust elementals can spew from their bodies a cloud of dust, creating a fog like environment.
They can, like air elementals, turn into whirlwinds and have small chances of hampering vision with their slam attacks.
Thorn closes some distance, remaining unaffected by the cloud of ash & dust.
Grint
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Dust elemental
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Sivar & Father Burdock
Elsa
" This is a Dust Elemental my allies. It's coarse winds may seeking to impair your senses "
Grint shuts his eyes only just in time to avoid getting them filled with ashes.
He steps closer to aim an Arrow, but sees no shape yet to attack.
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Dust elemental;
A whirl wind of dust and ashes violently erupts in a 10x10 area.
With a violent torrent, its content tear at the skin of Grint and Thorn.
, after which it moves to the center of the room.
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Sivar, Father Burdock & Elsa