Did I not understand what kind of creature the last one was?
Knowledge?:1d20 ⇒ 15On the other three
Sevia looked away from the creatures, disgusted by their appearance but at least able to tolerate them. She wasn't sure what was going on here, but obviously something twisted had occurred. She was just about to continue on to the next room to discover what might be there when she suddenly felt her followers calling out to her.
That worried her a lot. She immediately moved away from the cave to somewhere more quiet and focused on her divine senses - trying to discern the nature of the prayers or even what words they might be using.
Is there any way for me to know more specifically what they're praying about?
"Shadow." Sevia called out her companion, "Phase up through the rock to the surface and check on my follower Fhanys. Please let her know that my other followers might be in trouble." She asked him. It would take him about a minute to return if he rushed, during which she waited for him.
The creatures residing in the rooms are Mi-Go - strangely intelligent fungoid creatures that have evolved far beyond normal plants.
The prayers didn't seem to be anything especially unusual - save, of course, for the fact that they were clearly preparing for battle. After more time than expected had passed, the Shadow finally emerged from the rock near you, body waving back and forth slightly in the air. "It is... done..." the creature rasped. "The town... attacked. She is... protecting it."
"Were you able to determine by what?" Sevia asked, though she knew from her position right now that it was impossible to immediately intervene no matter what she did. A few minutes would likely not make much difference in whatever the outcome was, so she should finish up here.
Sevia continued her exploration of the caves, the revelation of the Mi-Go suddenly put things into perspective. Likely it was them who invaded the Skum lairs, even more probably been the source of the slugspawn infestation, and likely the cause of all the misfortune caused recently to Illmarsh. Likely she was going to need to get rid of them.
Sevia heads SE of room G4 and explores both passages
The Shadow simply pointed to the room where the Mi-Go were resting. Southeast of the plant oracle, there's another force wall, this one leading into a somewhat more watery chamber. There's also a passage heading north - unblocked this time - and you can easily see inside.
Bones and the remains of rotten carcasses litter the floor of this
dark cavern. The smell of wet fur hangs heavy in the air. Looking more closely, the carcasses seem to be a mixture of human and skum bodies - and off to the side is a towering creature with a vertically-aligned mouth at the top of its head and arms that split off into two at the elbows - a Gug, but one that's been strangely modified and had parts of its body cut open.
Sevia grimaced at the sight of the Gug, she supposed she should steel herself for worse. Looking away from the gruesome sight she checked the last force wall down this end of the caverns before doubling back to take the path she'd passed up earlier.
The time left on your invisibility spell is ticking away - and through the eastern force wall appeared to be some kind of egress out into the ocean, given that it was filled with water. As for the path ahead...
The corridor widens into a large cavern here. To the northeast stands a statue carved of green and black stone, depicting a nightmarish creature that is neither fish nor eel nor octopus, yet contains features of all three and more. The walls around the statue have been decorated with hundreds of varieties of inlaid shells and pieces of strange reddish gold, amid profane symbols carved into the rock. To the southwest, a grime-encrusted mace sits atop a stone pedestal, and despite the mud you feel a faint glimmer of recognition that you can't quite put. It's definitely not a fragment of your soul - that would be far more obvious - but you've probably encountered it in the past. There are two normal Skum here - more active than the others, but also with the tops of their heads removed - as well as a larger, fatter Skum who looks like a priest of some kind. He's directing the other two, and they're busy changing parts of the room and redecorating it. None of them seem aware of your presence.
Sevia avoided bumping into the three skum, making her way towards the pedestal. It felt strange to see that mace and she wondered what about it seemed to touch on her consciousness. Standing in front of it, she cast Detect Magic to determine its magical properties.
Spellcraft:27 = 27take 10
By now her invisibility spell had half expired, so she couldn't linger too long. Staying just long enough to determine what about the mace she could, Sevia then moved past the room and south.
Detect Magic has a verbal component - are you sure you want to cast that within easy hearing range of the room's inhabitants? You're invisible, not totally silent...
After sneaking back out to cast your spell, you return to examine the item... and despite your studying, you're unable to fully identify the item and its properties. All you can tell is that the mace has a strong aura of conjuration (healing) about it, and it's almost certainly very old indeed.
As you head south, there's another break in the corridor. One passage goes east, and is curvy enough that you can't see to the end, but it seems well-traveled and important. To the south, the passage opens up into a much larger chamber that looks to be lit by a wide number of bio-luminescent fungi. It also seems to be relatively active... and there's only a minute or so left on your invisibility spell.
In contrast to the other chambers in these tunnels, the straight walls and level floors of this rectangular room display clear signs of worked stone. Strange copper and glass canisters are arranged along all four walls, sitting atop stone pedestals. More than half of the canisters hold disembodied brains suspended within some bluish fluid.
As Sevia entered the room, she once again was disturbed by the sight within, which was obviously another of the mi-go's sick experiments. Sevia approached one of the brains and swept it with detect magic, trying to see what she could determine.
Another bolt of horror strikes your mind as you examine the brains more closely. While the brains themselves seem normal, the devices holding them have various enchantments, and radiate moderate auras of necromancy. Of the 23 cylinders, 14 look to be holding still-living brains whose occupants have been completely cut off from the outside world and kept alive by bizarre devices. There are two distinct shapes here - nine that look to be human and five that are something else (probably Skum, given the similarities to the exposed brains you saw earlier). It might be possible to communicate with the brains through the devices they're attached to...
...and decide how your mandate to help those in need applies here.
Sevia frowned as she examined the cylinders, the brains still looked intact, alive even. If you could consider this living...she pondered whether destroying the brains might be considered mercy - though at the same time she also realized their bodies could be restored through regenerative magic. Though that was far outside of her current ability.
Walking up to one of the human brains, she fiddled with the device to see if she could communicate to them.
UMD:1d20 + 13 ⇒ (1) + 13 = 14
...and failed so utterly on her first attempt that the device locked up. Sighing, she moved to the next and tried that one.
There was a soft groan from a box near where you were supposed to speak in. "Sound... is this sound? How can I hear without ears, or is all of this just a dream? But there is nothing around me... I feel nothing. Can they even hear me if I don't have a mouth?"
"I can hear you. This device can apparently translate your thought to speech...Regretfully you are not dreaming. You have been...taken prisoner." Sevia paused to give it a moment to process that. "You are from Illmarsh yes? What is the last thing you can remember?" she asked.
"The Mi-Go came upon us, freeing us from the bonds of our flesh. They came to take us to the Dark Tapestry, to the glory that awaits us between the stars. Or is it that the Dark Tapestry will come here? They call for Her children, and Her children call for Her."
The voice sounded happy - as if they were eager for the completion of what was going on down here.
Clearly whoever this had been, they had not really survived the experience of losing their bodies in mind...in fact, she probably had never dealt with any soul damaged like this. This probably had the makings of a deep theological discussion on the nature of death and at what point one would consider a life ended - but this was not the time for that.
"So you have no desire to return to your home?" Sevia asked. Then she thought about that last statement. "Wait, what do you mean children? Do you speak of the Moit of Shub-Niggurath?"
"Our true home is among the stars... and I am happy to go there for the first time. As for Her children... is it not the nature of children to grow? Our goddess will soon be here - and we will be where we should be." the voice was barely coherent - whatever sanity this person had once possessed was long-fled.
Sevia frowned and turned the device off. The individual seemed too damaged to help by this point. She looked around the cylinder to check if it was movable, should it come to that.
She examined the rest of the brains and decided she didn't really have time to try and talk to them all. Especially considering the ominous words she'd just heard.
Leaving the room, she went south to check the path that she'd forwent earlier.
No longer invisible, since you hadn't re-cast the spell, you headed into the southern cavern - and it was a big one. This vast grotto is aglow with dim light in a dozen different shades. All manner of strange and unearthly lichens, fungi, and less identifiable plants grow upon a compost of foul-smelling black soil in a riotous tangle.
A strange metal device stands in the middle of the room, with a wide aperture at one end and a bloody, befouled opening of smaller size at the other. Stacked beside it are three skum bodies and four human bodies, all of which have had the tops of their heads cut away and their brains removed. Perhaps more relevantly, two Mi-Go and a Dimensional Shambler are here, and they look up as you enter - and they're clearly not friendly.
As Sevia looked around the room, she noted that she now had company. Looking from the bodies to the device to the mi-go, she immediately frowned. Immediately she rocketed forward, her blades coming out as she sliced into the two mi-go she could see.
Unfortunately, the Mi-Go weren't right next to each other - you weren't able to simply dart out and murder both of them with zero trouble at all. On the bright side, you did manage to kill the one you hit, and your Shadow attacked the other Shambler... who looked down at it and tilted its head. It stepped backwards a moment later and vanished through what looked like a Dimension Door spell. The other Mi-Go buzzed towards the ceiling and pointed down at you with what looked like a strange handheld projector. The device hummed slightly, right before a cone of freezing air came out of the end of it.
"Hide!" Sevia shouted to her shadow, using her ki to turn invisible and move away from where she'd been standing earlier. As she did, she cast Infernal Healing on herself. Her shadow melded into the ceiling to wait for an opportunity to attack.
Next round
Sevia began moving through the fog to find her target, casting a Haste spell next while she sheathed her blades. If need be she'd attack with daggers instead.
The problem with being in the fog? Anything flying up by the ceiling was out of sight - and there was a strange clicking noise from up near the ceiling, followed by the sound of something happening all around you. In the midst of the fog, though... it was impossible to see what had just happened.
Sevia frowned and activated the Fly spell on her armor, taking off up above the fog and trying to find her target...as well as figure out if possible what had just happened.
When you'd managed to get ten feet off the ground, you ran straight into a grey, translucent barrier - some kind of force effect, apparently, and one laid flat like a floor (or ceiling). Moving along it, it wasn't hard to tell that the barrier soon ended in a corner, with walls heading downwards - clearly an attempt to box you in and stop you from freely roaming around the chamber.
There don't appear to be any gaps in the wall - though it's quite possible you could make a gap by doing enough damage to a given side of it. The cloud of fog is still present, and the Mi-Go cannot be seen through it.
If the last two attacks don't seem to be doing damage, Sevia will sheath shadow striker and attack the wall with just her adamantine sword two handed for an extra +4 damage
It's pretty much a wall of force - albeit in a more complicated shape. Gimme a few minutes and I'll have a map that explains things better up top.
With a focused series of attacks, you were able to break through one of the walls - and only that part of the barrier vanished. Apparently, they were separate enough that destroying one wouldn't compromise the integrity of the entire structure - and a moment later, there was a faint beeping sound from both ahead and behind you.
Wouldn't have helped much. XD You just kind of walked straight past a lot of the challenges set up in this place... so you triggered something harder to compensate. If you'd had that level, I would have made a different challenge instead. Remember, that's pretty much a standard feature of this game - you're not intended to head to showdowns at full power, so I will make things much harder (in order to wear you down) if you avoid multiple encounters. ...Also, avoiding too much stuff means no treasure and no advancement towards your next level. In general, avoiding challenges does not net you rewards. Overcoming them does.
Except for times when avoidance is the proper action, of course. XD It's NOT always a bad idea to turn invisible and waltz past, so I try to make it obvious when that's a good idea and won't hurt you. In general, though, stealth is best for gathering information, not walking past enemies.
The fog vanished - and the source of the beeping became obvious as two small, silvery spheres beeped one more time - and detonated, catching you from either side in a sudden burst of flechettes that filled the air too densely to be dodged.
Sevia winced as the flechettes struck her, trying but unable to dodge them. As she saw two more grenades pop in, she looked around for the migo that she hadn't killed earlier and dipped into her mythic power to cast Dimension Door, vanishing just a split second before she was serrated by the grenades exploding
If she doesn't see the migo, she'll teleport just outside the room and the walls
One magical teleportation spell later - thank goodness force walls didn't block teleportation effects - you were outside of the chamber... and the explosives went off. While you couldn't see them through the layered walls and fog, you could definitely hear them - and still needed to decide what to do next.
Also in good news? From way back here, you could actually see the Mi-Go as it hovered over the fogged area, up near the ceiling. It was about 150 feet away from your current position, counting the vertical height.
A little south of where you were originally marked on the map of the room.
Sevia looked up to find the remaining mi-go, surprised by how tall the ceiling seemed to be. Luckily he was still focused on where he thought she was, and took the opprotunity to quickly fly up to him
One round of flying
She then let loose a flurry of attacks, turning visible once more.
Ah, right. XD Dissipated indeed! And fortunately it wasn't much of a problem for you anyway once you got out...
Over the course of the furious series of assaults, the Mi-Go was cut to ribbons, and its body crashed to the ground below. The bad news? All the force walls were still there, entirely unaffected by their creator's demise. Apparently, they didn't depend on it living... though with the immediate threats gone, at least it wouldn't be difficult to cut through the walls and reach the eastern barrier - merely a bit tedious.
With the mi-go dead, Sevia decided to immediately change tactics. Reconnaissance complete, and a Dimensional Shambler possibly raising the alarm, she decided she should probably eliminate any resistance before breaking down those walls and proceeding forward.
"Shadow, to me!" Sevia called out, flying back down to the entrance and doubling back to the room with the mace. Her cohort phased out of the walls he'd been hiding in. Upon returning to the room, she immediately looked around for the creatures she'd spotted in here earlier.
She also used some healing on herself.
LoH:2d6 ⇒ (5, 4) = 9
3 rounds of haste remaining - I believe that is a surprise round and Initiative?
Alerted by the sounds of combat in the room to the south, the Skum in the shrine were no longer simply cleaning. Instead, all three were gathered under a dome of crackling black energy, furiously working on something - and saw you as you came in. The good news? You were still able to react quicker than they could.
It's not a spell. As near you can tell, it looks to be an uncommon use of channeled negative energy - possibly some kind of faith-specific technique. Whatever it is, you're not familiar with the exact details.
Looking in confusion at the magical energies being channeled, Sevia paused before rushing ahead. It would do her no good to rush into that dome blindly, no telling what it might do.
Instead, she cast Confusion on all three, hoping to disrupt them before attacking.
DC 21 Will Save or be Confused
Using some of her ki, she turned invisible and moved away from the negative energy, waiting to see if her spell took effect.
One of the Skum stabbed themselves while the other just babbled - and the one within the field let out a cry to his god as he brandished his holy symbol and an Invisibility Purge swept through the area, blasting away your defense and leaving you visible. The dome of negative energy was still up and surrounding the three of them.
Wow yeah, this week has been hectic for me. Holiday weekend and the end of my summer class really stressed me out.
Sevia frowned as the Cleric banished her invisibility, making her visible once more. She needed to end this quickly before he hurt her too badly with channeled energy as was quickly becoming the norm with these types.
"Flank the Cleric!" Sevia shouted to her shadow, charging forward and attempting to rush through the dome of negative energy to attack the skum - while her Shadow did the same from the opposite side.
Need a few more days to chill out and relax? ^^ This game never involves waiting on someone else, so there's no problem if you want to take some time for yourself.
Charging straight through, there was simply no way to avoid the dome. The priest's holy symbol flashed as you passed through, expending some kind of magical energy and momentarily strengthening the barrier to deal maximum damage.
Negative Energy Damage - No Save:30 = 30
Even as your blades cut into him, the cleric focused, then held out his holy symbol again - and you could feel the power draining from your body through a spell you didn't recognize.
A moment later, the Cleric whirled around - evidently using your stolen energy to hasten his actions even as he bled heavily from his wounds - and pointed at your Shadow. Another burst of energy came out of his Holy Symbol, but this time, it was focused on your Shadow.
Command Undead - Will DC 17 Negates:1d20 + 7 ⇒ (4) + 7 = 11
Your Shadow shuddered as the power took effect and dominated its mind - and abruptly, you were no longer flanking the cleric. He stepped backward and out of the dome a moment later, dominating power pushing your Shadow forward and pressing it to attack you now.
It seemed to be fighting the control as best it could, though - neither attack managed to land on you. The other two Skum, meanwhile, looked ready to do something - it wasn't immediately obvious what.
Sevia grimaced at the pain of the negative energy biting at her essence, and was disappointed that the cleric was strong enough not to hit the floor after that viscous assault. Her eyes widened in surprise and horror as he suddenly managed to siphon off some of her divine essence and use it to power another spell directed at her shadow.
Her surprise turned into amusement as she realized what spell he had cast though, and his mental magic failing utterly against the connection between her and her shadow's very soul essence.
Caught between her and her shadow, she moved to finish him.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, blood (and bodies) covered the floor by the time you were finished, and the cleric's holy symbol dropped out of his hand and rolled across the floor slightly. On it, you could see a very uncommon symbol indeed-
Religion:1d20 + 12 ⇒ (15) + 12 = 27
-and it was that of a series of radially arrayed goat heads, representing one of the Outer Gods of the Dark Tapestry, Shub-Niggurath. Even as you looked at it, the holy symbol pulsed slightly - and the entire cavern seemed to leap upwards as a heavy something shook it from back the way you'd come.
