Your observation of not matching things makes you suddenly pierce through the illusion in front of you. These are not prisoners, but a duergar female, an earth elemental and the jailer covered by some powerful illusion effect. The female actually is dressing the party missing equipment.
The woman seems a bit surprised by Marigold's words "Something should be amiss, you have not understood us probably. We just want to help. They really are in the northern room" she points again to the northern door "I hoped you were coming to help us, not judge us. Please let's go moving!" the woman steps to the west, towards Marigold.
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
As the woman takes a step towards her, Marigold's eyes widen with shock and surprise. she shrieks, pointing at the three 'prisoners'. She takes a step back as her hand goes for her mace...
Breaking away from his study of the temple room and remembrance of fonder days, Ryan is surprised to hear Marigold screaming about deurgar. Looking closely at the prisoners she's pointing at.
Umm, what's she going on about?
Kikinnin winces a little as Marigold shrieks, but is glad for her insight. His growing trust in his fellow Watchers' insights gives him reason to doubt his own eyes. And he's glad the gruff is no true dwarf, as it should make it easier for him to plant his axe somewhere soft.
His axe comes up...
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Ryan, JJ and Kikinnin try to pierce through the illusion Marigold says to see, but they can just see some prisoners.
And so, only the halfling is ready to face the reality when it happens. Brilmara sighs deeply "Insidious halfling, why you did have to spoil my great plan?" while she casts a wall of stone that divides the group in half.
"Finish them off"
The duertar next to Brilmara, which you recognize as the escaped jailer, starts to grow in size smiling as he sees the wall splitting the group.
"Kill the dwarf"
The false dwarf, which results made of stone, attacks Kikinnin trying to crush him with his stony arms.
Despite being unprepared, Kikinnin's loyal armor deflects the earth as it comes over his body.
Reacting quickly, Marigold reaches out and taps JJ on the shoulder and points insistently at the trio of so-called prisoners - even as the stone wall springs up behind her.
______
Seeing few options, Marigold grips her mace in hand and moves up to try and help Kikinnin. She stops just short of Brilmara and adopts a defensive position until JJ can close the distance.
______
-Posted with Wayfinder
As Marigold shrieks, the is a commotion then half the group are separated by a sudden wall of rock!
"Hell's Teeth! It's a god's-be-darned trap!"
if unable to see past the wall
As the wall comes up between the two groups, Ryan rushes forward, swinging the heavy mace against the intervening wall in frustration.
if able to see beyond the wall
Seeing Marigold trapped beyond the wall Ryan calls out in celestial. "Stand tall Miss Montajay, they have yet to meet a one of such great heart and hidden strength."
Inspiring word +2 to everything except damage basically for 3 rounds; use 3 of 7
Marigold brings a divine guidance on JJ while readying to help Kikinnin in a defensive position.
Observing the wall fully blocks the corridor, Ryan makes an attempt to break through the wall of stone with his mace. The hardness of the wall though is enough to completely deflect the weapon.
As an instantaneous creation, it cannot be dispelled, but it can be broken through with a DC 24 strength check or by share damage.
This is a 2 inch wall. This translates to hardness 8, and 30 hp. The stone is somehow resistant to energy, slashing and piercing damage (half damage). It is though vulnerable to picks and similar weapons, which do normal damage +50%. Bludgeoning deals normal damage.
The elemental swings again its earthy arms trying to crush Kikinnin, yet again it finds the dwarven armor harder than ever.
Brilmara sighs profusely "Really, you should go through that door and check the northern room, it will be the end of all your problems if you break it down" she clearly says this to Kikinnin while drawing a snake's tongue.
The jailer completes his size growing, steps to the front and swings his large warhammer over Marigold.
The attentive halfling just ducks on time to avoid the hammer smashing her head, but the weapon hits her right shoulder nevertheless.
"Maxim, Ryan! The only way I know to get through that wall is smash through it."
"Energy, as well as slashing and piercing weapons won't damage it."
"My spells are useless against it. We might have to just do it the hard way."
With that, Juraan tries hitting the wall with his mace:
And more of the same:
Marigold hisses with pain as the jailer gives her a solid thump with his weapon and she realizes that she'd be better served trying to keep a little distance between herself and their enemies. To that effect she drops her mace and instead pulls out her longspear, attempting to jab Brilmara with it.
______
Shocked by the sudden change of prisoners to antagonists, JJ is somewhat slow to react. However react he does, skirting along the wall to try and gain as much cover as he can.
Faced with a giant dwarf and a regular sized one, JJ opts for putting his sword into the (presumed) spellcaster.
The enchanted silver blade slides into the dwarf with distressing ease, and comes out covered with blood.
Maxim listens to his comrades and scowls at the stone barrier;
"Ain't breakin' through this lads... but we got other means o' fixin' this problem..."
The dwur recovers a scroll from his pack with a hard smile ;
"Dispels magicks. Once cast be ready when the wall comes down..."
and casts the incantation inscribed
"Verdrijven Magie!"
:
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
AC = 23
HP = 52/64
Weapon Equipped = +1 Dwarven Greataxe
Condition(s) = Fatigued
Kikinnin watches as the wall of stone goes up.
He loses interest in it almost immediately, as he acknowledges no pick in hand, nor time for demolitions. He turns back to the 'prisoners'.
Kikinnin starts turning towards the northern door... while something scratches at the back of his mind. Something about a bleeding halfling girl not standing too far away, injured and outnumbered if he were to turn his back on her now...
"Enough."
Kikinnin turns his weapon on the one whispering words to turn his head.
Juraan hits the wall with his mace once and again, but he seems not strong enough to pierce through the wall hardness.
Marigold uses her spear on Brilmara, but her breastplate deflects it with ease.
The enlarged dwarf swings his hammer over JJ as the young boy approaches. He is fast and easily dodges the weapon winning a better position to attack the duergar. JJ then spins his sword and stabs at the female's neck forcing her to spit blood "Bastard!"
Maxim unfolds a scroll and uses it over the wall. It seems the magic was just used to create the stone but it does not longer do anything to hold it on this level of reality. The dispel is thus wasted.
Kikinnin has a second thought of things, it will be not correct, even for a dwarf to leave his companions fighting alone. He swings his axe at the offending caster but the blade finds just the breastplate armor.
The Earth elemental tries again to slam Kikinnin, without success.
The large duergar makes his best against JJ.
Brilmara steps back and casts a spell defensively.
She suddenly disappears.
Marigold curses as Brilmara vanishes from her sight. With no means of dispelling the magic, she's left to try and pinpoint the duergar's position the old-fashioned way as she stabs at where she thinks the woman might be.
______
Ryan waits for Maxim's spell to take effect, frowning as the magic washes over the wall and nothing occurs. <sigh> "As you said the hard way"
With the priestess out of sight, JJ turns his attention, and blades, on the giant dwarf before him.
"I've had some bad experiences with giant dwarves..." he mutters as he attacks with a rapid sequence of strikes, thrusts and feints.
AC = 23
HP = 52/64
Weapon Equipped = +1 Dwarven Greataxe
Condition(s) = Fatigued
Kikinnin watches his first two swings go way wide, before he watches the Grey-Face disappear. He delays just long enough to observe Marigold attempt to pinpoint the caster, so he leaves Marigold to work on Brilmara, while he turns his full attention on the stone that won't leave him alone. "You should return to earth, rather than support the evil that lurks here, Stone-heart."
Marigold sends her spear forward to the last place she saw Brilmara, and luckily it seems she finds something as some drops of blood suddenly smears the floor.
Ryan, still fatigued, waves his mace against the wall, but he finds out no vital spots, neither he seems able to scratch the stone.
JJ makes a gruyère cheese of the jailer by repeatedly stabbing his shortswords on him. The giant duergar falls unconscious to the floor.
Kikinnin breaks part of the elemental with his axe, the thing still recklessly trying to demolish the dwarf.
Kikinnin's armor is not enough this time, and the stony arms crush his chest brutally.
You do hear Brilmara casting another spell.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Seeing Kikinnin in trouble, JJ steps forward and does his best to help the ratcatcher.
Once again his enchanted blade proves its worth as it slides into the creature with distressing ease.
"Move round Kikinnin, we can surround it."
AC = 23
HP = 35/64
Weapon Equipped = +1 Dwarven Greataxe
Condition(s) = Fatigued
Kikinnin nods wordlessly, the wind knocked almost completely from his lungs. He sidesteps the elemental, then twists at the hip, hoping his axe is enough to down it. Listening to the invisible she-Grey was starting to unnerve him.
"Damn! We need picks or some such to break this wall."
"My mace will never scratch this thing!"
"I'm going to see if I can find a pick or some such."
"That's about all that punch through this wall."
Juraan darts into the store room to see if he can find any more picks
Juraan will try hitting the wall with a new-found pick
+ 50 % = (1)
To figure out if the magic missile spell can damage the wall.
Energy won't work, so I'm grasping at straws.
Just in case force is different from elemental damage in this case.
Though she can hear Brilmara's casting, Marigold can't make any sense of the words being used. Deciding that it might be better to help Kikinnin and JJ finish off the elemental so they can all focus on Brilmara, she steps up and attempts to distract the creature...
______
As his Dispel magic fails to take, Maxim scowls and swears under his breath;
"Hell's Teeth! That ain't the reaction what I was lookin' fer!"
The dwur eyes the stone wall shaking his head;
"Ain't no way we get through this boys... Picks will take too long, and 'sides looks like none of us are in the best shape after our imprisonment."
The dwur recovers two flasks of acid, then throws the first against the stone;
:
It bubbles on the surface then vaporises without even pitting the rock wall.
With a sigh he stows the other flask and shrugs his shoulders;
"Stymied me good an' proper..."
He eyes the wall with baleful stare before mulling another possibility;
"If we can create a deep enough channel I could pack it with my black powder... Try and explode the lot. Would be dangerous, but what we got to lose?"
"At this point not a whole lot, that ain't on the other side of that wall."
Ryan cast around for a pick as well to help dig the channel that Maxim proposes.
JJ's swords clash against the stone, opening dangerous crevices despite his fatigue.
Kikinnin moves around the elemental and helps JJ with his axe. The hit makes the elemental to crumble into a pile of stone and dust.
Juraan rears back to the place the group left the picks, then starts his way back as fast as he can after picking three of them.
Suddenly discovering the elemental is not in place, Marigold tries to attack instead Brilmara without success.
Maxim tries the wall in various ways, but the construction seems solid.
Ryan looks around but sees nothing that might help open a way in the wall. He does soon hear Juraan coming back with a pile of picks.
Brilmara starts to cast a new spell and she suddenly appears in the room. Her skin has now a metallic taint and there are in fact two of them. As she finishes the spell JJ feels a paralyzing force trying to take over.
"Ah! This might be a confusion. There is no need to fight, we can reach an agreement on which we both end up winning" says Brilmara in soft voice, for a duergar. She then steps between the warriors.
"Get out of my mind... Witch" screams JJ.
He steps to the side of her to give Kikinnin a chance at flanking and then sends his swords darting at her again and again.
Again the swords dance around the dwarf, and again they seem to draw blood.
JJ creates a wall of swords in front of Brilmara. His first attack finds only an image, his attack destroys the decoy. The rest of his attacks are deflected by the metallic skin of the High Priestess.
"Ah! I see you are not the talkative ones!" the duergar tries to defend herself with a heavy mace "What if I tell you you can leave with the prisoners? Otherwise you will never came out of this temple"
The temple ground is made of stone tiles.
"Right! Got some picks here!"
Juraan presents Ryan and Maxim each with a pick and will try hitting the wall with one himself:
+ 50 % → (4.5) → (4)
Ryan thanks Juraan for his quick thinking and fast feet. Taking the pick he swings at the intervening wall.
* 1.5 = 12
Unable to make any sense of what the female duergar is saying, Marigold takes a step back again and continues trying to skewer the persistent foe...
AC = 23
HP = 35/64
Weapon Equipped = +1 Dwarven Greataxe
Condition(s) = Fatigued
"Get out of my mind... witch."
"Ah! I see you are not the talkative ones! What if I tell you you can leave with the prisoners? Otherwise you will never came out of this temple."
Kikinnin doesn't waste time, stepping into flank with JJ, and swinging his weapon, sizing this woman Grey as the most powerful of the duergar, so the most dangerous. He doesn't engage in the conversation, hoping any further banter between the boy and the Grey is cut short, literally.
Juraan and Ryan jump over the wall after the first one brings some picks. Whereas the professor seems to fail to damage the stone, Ryan manages a strong hit that makes some of the stone to jump out of place.
Marigold tries to help with her spear over Brilmara, but she makes short to reach her.
Kikinnin does swing his axe, Brilmara being focused on fighting JJ cannot effectively defend from the two warriors at the same time and the axe ends up cutting her cheek once "Bastard"
"You had an opportunity. Now die!" Brilmara completes an spell and her hand seethes with eerie dark fire. She then touches Kikinnin and the black energy extends all over the dwarf's body. Like black tendrils the dwarf veins start to become dark while they go up to his neck menacing to kill him of suffocation.
She then duplicates again creating an image of herself and steps next to the door.
AC = 23
HP = 18/64
Weapon Equipped = +1 Dwarven Greataxe
Condition(s) = Fatigued
Kikinnin feels the woman's painful, painful touch, and his vision goes black, the way his vision normally never does. When the vision ebbs, then returns, he turns to JJ.
"Finish her madness, JJ. I don't think I can hold out much longer as it is."
Although she doesn't recognize Brilmara's second maneuver, she recognizes the first and feels a chill race through her body as Kikinnin very nearly succumbs to the magic.
she cries.
With little aid to offer, she reaches out with all of her being for any spark of magic left in her, anything at all...and finds something. She steps towards her dwarven friend and places a hand on his shoulder...
______
Bereft of any ideas Maxim just shakes his head in frustration;
"Don't make no sense them Grayfaces blockin' themselves in o'er the other side of this wall. Reckon there must be a longer way round..."
The dwur nods toward the wall, then his companions;
"Pick'll take too long to break through... I aim to find another route. Quicker than breaking stone an' if it don't exist then likely other side o' that stone is a tomb fer our friends or those dvergr..."
He moves back through the chamber eying alcoves and walls as he goes;
:
@Ryan/Juraan: Remember we're fatigued gents (-2 STR and DEX)
With some headway being made, Ryan swings the pick once again
* 1.5 = 9
before catching Maxim's parting words.
"There was a set of steps back near the jail cells perhaps that will bring us around, we'll need to hurry though."
JJ again steps sideways, hoping that Kikinnin will be able to continue to benefit from the flanking, even if he cannot himself.
"If only I believed you. But with all the male dwarves dead now... your little outpost here is doomed to die too."
Two of his rapid series of blows seem to draw blood, while a third against knocks out the image that she tries to bring to distract everyone.
"ಪಾದ್ರಿ? ನಾನು ಅವರು ಪವಿತ್ರ ಎಂದು ಭಾವಿಸಿದ್ದೆ. ನಾನು ಮಾಟಗಾತಿ ಎಂದು ಭಾವಿಸುತ್ತೇನೆ."
A priest? I thought they were holy. I think a witch.
Kikinnin stout nature overpowers the strength of the spell and he waves his axe destroying Brilmara's image in retribution.
Maxim discusses with Ryan the way to overpass the wall, while the cleric succeeds to scratch it once more.
JJ makes his swords spin once more, one piercing the priestess left arm, the other nearly striking at her neck.
"Why you dwarves are so stubborn to not die?" says Brilmara in frustration. She pushes the door behind her open, and steps into the next room while completing a new spell "Droskar smite my enemies!"
A cold, cloying miasma of greasy darkness takes form around you and you suddenly feel a terrible pain and difficulties to breath.
"Come Juraan, we'd best stay together with Maxim, better to find any other surprises as a group than individually." Ryan says dropping the pick to follow after Maxim, readying shield and mace as he goes. Ioun stone circling above his head to light the way.
AC = 23
HP = 32/64
Weapon Equipped = +1 Dwarven Greataxe
Condition(s) = Fatigued
Kikinnin can't decide if he's happier that the Grey Lady didn't renew her mirroring magic, or angrier that she struck him and his with more painful, smiting magic.
He puts the thoughts on a high shelf in his mind's cupboard, something to be taken down at a later time and mulled over.
He steps closer to Brilmara, and tries to silence her conversation with her unfortunate god. "Droskar won't stop us from sending you to meet him, Brilmara. Bow to Abadar's Might, and say 'hullo' to Pharasma, if you meet Her."
Maxim shakes his head at Ryan, urging him to press on;
"You langshanks move a darn sight faster than me! Press on and hollar if you find anything!"
The dwur hustles as best he can
Although she could point out to JJ that priests of Asmodeus and other such dark gods were a thing, Marigold decides that now isn't really the best time for it. She hisses with pain as she's assaulted with unholy energy but thankfully manages to weather the worst of it.
As Kikinnin presses the attack on Brilmara she steps up behind him and places a hand on his shoulder, offering what little divine guidance she can summon.
______
"You're both right, this bashing is a bloody waste of time."
Juraan then drops his pick and moves as fast as he can toward the other stairs.
"I hope we can get to them in time! Follow me!"
Along the way, Juraan makes sure his bow is out and ready to use.
JJ staggers under the effect of the dark words. Each syllable seems to unravel a small bit of his very being.
"AARRGgggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh" he moans in agony.
Still, he grits his teeth and continues to press his assault on the foul witch.
These attacks however are slowed by the horrible effects of her words..
Ryan, Maxim and Juraan keep moving all fast as they can towards the jail entrance.
Kikinnin swings his axe against the duergar and cuts her at her left hand.
Marigold also supports the unholy damage stoically while adding some divine guidance on the dwarf's axe.
JJ suffers the most from the blight, but he also resist the wors of it and counterattacks. Protected by the doorstep cover, his swords find nothing else than stone this time.
Brilmara performs a gesture and a strong sonic burst hits JJ, Marigold and Kikinnin.
Brilmara suddenly duplicates once again while holding her stand in the doorstep.