Without hesitating, Sorathel slashed out at the webs with her blade, aiming to cut through enough of them to stop them from causing trouble for her mistress.
for
Iris, for her part, simply gestured with her staff as she examined the creatures-
for
-and sent out a bolt of force towards one of them. As much as she liked using light to smite her foes, the way they were sucking it in suggested some unpleasant things, and she wanted to get a measure of their strength right now.
The spiders are Large and appear to be venomous, although they've clearly been infused with shadow.
Despite the shadows making precision targeting difficult, your blast cleanly strikes one of the spiders. While it remains alive, it's obviously severely injured. It attempts to blend into a dark corner of the room as the other vermin leaps at Sorathel.
Sorathel winced slightly as the poison sunk into her, although it wasn't quite enough to weaken her blows - yet. With a pair of quick swings, she lashed out at the spider-
for
-although neither of them were as accurate as she would have liked. Iris stepped forward to join her, though, whipping out with a quick pair of overhead swings. Together, they'd hopefully be able to put this beast out of their misery - and heal up Sorathel before the poison really managed to sink its fangs into her.
for
for
Your first strike narrowly missed, but your second blow connected solidly. Unfortunately, as it turned out, the spider hasn't fallen into Evil yet. It attempted to sink its fangs into your flesh.
Sorathel winced slightly as the poison began to sink further into her body, although the spider came nowhere close to harming Iris.
for
Sorathel's strike takes down the spider. The other one is still skulking around in the shadows somewhere, but it seems to have decided to lick its wounds as you're clearly not prey.
After a moment of thought, Iris whipped off her cloak and settled it around Sorathel's shoulders. She didn't need it at the moment, and its powers would hopefully help her beloved angel overcome the poison - and let Iris treat her.
The magic in your cloak provides the necessary boost to Sorathel's immune system, allowing your companion to fight off the remaining poison. There's nothing of interest in this room (aside from a badly-injured spider attempting to hide from you), so you proceed through the door to the north. After traversing a short hallway, you find yourselves in a chamber filled with ancient, rusty cages of various sizes. Yellowed, moldering bones lie in haphazard fashion within them. Open doors on rusty hinges moan slightly, pushed by faint subterranean draughts.
As they moved, Iris took the time to heal Sorathel's ability damage - although not the drain, which wasn't a problem all by itself but would need more effort to cure... effort she might need for other things. Sorathel herself, perhaps unsurprisingly, had no complaints - she was intellectually aware that she could challenge her goddess' decisions, but her loyalty was such that it was never a real option for her. (She did, however, return the cloak.)
Before rushing through the next chamber, Iris took the time to gaze around, looking for signs of life and anything that might have been lying in wait around here. They'd already been ambushed once, and she wasn't inclined to let it happen again.
Each of the eight cages in this room contains the scattered bones of a magical creature. You recognize parts of a bulette, catoblepas, gorgon, owlbear, peryton, and a unicorn. With the exception of the unicorn's horn , the bones are almost fossilized . They've clearly been here for an extremely long time.
As you proceed down the next hallway, a nearly-undetectable patch of darkness on the ceiling attempts to grab the two of you!
Fortunately, your reflexes are quick enough to dodge the grasping tendrils.
Iris stepped back, right alongside Sorathel, then pointed up towards the ceiling and let out a blast of light from the edge of her staff. All the darkness in this place... and she really couldn't resist the urge to illuminate as much of it as possible. She didn't pump it quite as full of energy as she could have, but hopefully it would let whatever was there know she wasn't to be trifled with. ...Unless it wasn't sentient. That happened sometimes. Bah. The point was, she had reflexive behavior about this kind of thing.
for
The shadowy tendrils vanished when your light struck them. The patch of darkness remained, but the area appeared safe to cross for the moment.
Iris kept a wary eye on them, but hurried onwards with Sorathel at her side, fully intending to keep an eye out for other patched of darkness. To help with that, she summoned a Daylight spell onto her staff, which ought to do nicely for highlighting any particularly resilient patches of darkness. As far as she was concerned, something as minor as the ground above them wasn't enough to stop the light from reaching where it wanted to go.
Up ahead, you see doors to your left and in front of you.
With a shrug, Iris checked the left-hand one first. Directly forward doors tended to advance through an area, while checking side chambers was more likely to result in other useful bits of information. Like finding out whatever other dark monsters inhabited this place.
Broken glassware covered by a thick blanket of dust is strewn about this small chamber. The floor is stained by the spills of a hundred strange chemicals and reagents. The air seems to roil and swirl, casting a rainbow of dull lines as if soap bubbles were caught in a draft. A moment later, the swirling air coalesces into a pulsing mist filled with horrid shadowy shapes.
You identify the mass as something similar to a Hungry Fog. Unsurprising now that you think about it, as these oozes are drawn to concentrations of dark energy. While not quite as desirable as a graveyard, this place's affinity to the Shadow Plane is a natural fit.
Ah, mindless beasts. Fortunately, this particular one didn't seem to be incorporeal - which meant it would be much easier to dispose of, given its clearly hostile intent. Calmly, she gestured with Mihrel and sent a bolt of force arcing through the air.
for
Sorathel darted out in front of her a moment later, ready to intercept and attack the moment the creature got within range.
for
One good thing about this sort of creature: it's incredibly easy to hit. Of course, to counteract this obvious evolutionary weakness, they're extremely durable. The ooze barely seems to notice your attacks connecting as it drifts forward and attempts to engulf the two of you.
Neither of them were quite staggered by the blow - and, more usefully, the creature was now in range. Sorathel wasted no time at all in lashing out with two solid blows-
for
for
for
-and Iris joined with a rapid series of strikes from her staff - with a little bit of a boost, of course, just to be sure. Her powers meant that she was fairly dangerous at any range, but to be quite honest, it was close range where she was the most dangerous. Each of her strikes wasn't quite as strong as Sorathel's two-handed blows, but she made up for them being individually weaker with sheer speed.
for
for
for
The ooze is almost completely dispersed by your attacks and only manages one last desperate action before you destroy it completely.
As the ooze was dispersed, Iris promptly set about starting to heal the damage - and took a closer look through the area, peering closely to be sure there were no more threats and double-check the way forward.
The contents of this room are largely beyond salvage, as the various alchemical instruments and materials are rusted, rotted, or smashed. You do find three iron beakers with intact wax seals. They contain potions that still radiate magic. However, upon closer examination, you realize that their extreme age has caused them to become corrupted over the eons.
The next room is more interesting, as much of it is taken up by a large spherical vessel resembling a round amphora. This 10ft-diameter container has a large hole in its side, allowing a glimpse into its empty interior. The flagstone floor is stained by some ancient spillage and covered by dust. Inside the grand vessel lie the remains of a corroded iron ladder.
After a moment of consideration, Iris simply smashed the vials, checking to make sure the poison couldn't be recovered. She disliked such things, and saw no reason to leave them for others to use, either. That said, potions that were corrupted were rare - most of them were good basically forever once sealed.
As for the next room, Iris looked thoughtfully thoughtfully around it for a few moments.
The ladder is severely rusted but should still support your weight.
If possible, Iris was simply going to bypass using the ladder and warp to the other end - she trusted her abilities more than ancient ladders, and as far as she was concerned, it was better to stick with something reliable in a situation like this.
The bottom of the chamber is unnaturally still and (if the entrance opening was repaired and closed) completely silent. Despite the age, you feel a lingering sense of peace here. If this chamber was partially filled with some sort of liquid, an individual shut inside would probably feel incredibly relaxed after a relatively short amount of time.
Hm. Not something she particularly appreciated, to be honest. Peace wasn't necessarily a bad thing, but she felt it was better to face things and work to get yourself a better life.
This chamber appears to have been furnished by tomb raiders and grave robbers. More than a dozen sarcophagi in various styles and conditions are placed about the room. Some stand upright, while others lie flat on the cracked flagstones. The caskets all bear the covers, obscuring what (if anything) they may contain. One sarcophagus glows an eerie green color, like foxfire in a dismal mire.
Iris paused as she saw the glowing light, and Sorathel was already bringing her shield up just in case. For her own part, Iris simply focused on her ability to analyze magic, and focused on trying to identify and understand what it was before she approached. No sense in going forward without information, after all. Fortunately, she was rather good at this sort of thing.
The coffin radiates a strong aura of necromancy, similar to that of a lich's phylactery. Not identical, though, and it's definitely missing a component.
Iris raised her hand and gestured towards the light-
-only for her attempt at dispelling it to simply shatter against the force of its light. That had been... rather less successful than she might have hoped. More immediately, however, was the potential for having woken up whatever that light actually belonged to. Perhaps this wouldn't be going so easily after all... although she did have Sorathel in front of her as a guard, so at least there was that.
The coffin glows, and a trio of black skeletons materialize around you and Sorathel.
The moment the skeletons finished materializing, Sorathel lashed out at the closest one with a quick series of strikes.
for
Meanwhile, just behind her, Iris focused slightly before letting out a rapid series of strikes, allowing magic to cloak her weapon as she spun through her attack routine, opening with a pretty darn heavy strike from the end of her staff. "More undead, is it? Can't say I'm surprised, really..."
for
for
for
for
The force of Sorathel's blow is partially deflected by your foes' unholy resilience, but your strikes pierce their defenses with no difficulty. Two of the skeletons shatter. The remaining undead lashes out at you with vicious claws infused with shadow energy.
---------------------------------
Buoyed by the added defense that her attack routine gave her, Iris smoothly dodged both of the attacks from the undead. Sorathel moved into position on its other side to flank, and the two lashed out together. As before, Iris went for a series of quick blows, using sheer numbers to overwhelm the skeleton's defenses.
for
for
for
Not much can stand up to repeated blows from your staff, and the skeleton is no exception. The question now is whether or not you want to continue trying to destroy the sarcophagus' magic, as it can apparently summon undead to defend itself.
Power gathered in Iris' hands as she threw a bolt of magic at the sarcophagus, trying to animate it. The first attempt was... less than successful. Her eye twitched slightly... and then she focused and sent out another blast. The second time, however, she didn't bother with simply casting the mundane version of the spell. She'd learned that the thing was resistant to magic, and she just so happened to know how to pierce such defenses. That time? Things worked out rather better.
As your first spell fizzled against the coffin's magical defenses, another trio of powerful skeletons materialized and attacked.
Once the undead are vanquished, your second attempt successfully pierces the protections, and a moment later, the sarcophogus animates under your control.