The mace is a simple magical +1 mace.
"It's magical, but only a simple enchantment.. Almost weird that it's sitting there like that.."
"Maybe it's from a former adventurer. Perhaps it's on a pressure trap."
"Leave it. It isn't important. We can come back for it later if we want to."
Garet maintained his flight, hovering an inch off the ground.
"I think I'm starting to get used to this. How long will it last?"
Ferrek rubs his arms where they've started to ache from clinging to Garret in fear of falling. "I'm not sure I am." He carefully approaches the oddly out of place mace and peers at it and the floor beneath.
The mace and the floor around it are not, in fact, trapped, and neither is the door.
Aviel examined the mace, making sure to carefully study its weaves of magic.
"Interesting. Hmm? Oh, the flight spell won't last much longer. About 6 more minutes or so. I will say, however, that mace will be far more useful than you might think. Upon activation it will not only become fully active as far as magical weapons of the sort can go, but it will also disrupt the necromantic energies binding Undead creations together."
Looking at the mace.. "Hmm.. Guess i missed that.. Good catch Aviel.."
Ferrek eyes the mace warily. "An undead-killing mace? Just lying on the floor of a lich's tomb, without even a trap? There's something really wrong with that."
"...from a former adventurer. I suppose the cleaning crews around here aren't that efficient."
"I definitely don't trust it. We already know that this place has it's traps manually reset and the bodies and equipment cleared out. Why would there be a mace like this, uniquely suited to destroying the person who built this place, just left behind?"
Aviel snapped his fingers with a smile on his face and pointed at the mace. "Well one can never be too sure in a place like this. Those webs certainly weren't cleared out. Oh, assistant please pick that up and carry it with you for now."
The magical mace floats easily up into the air, held aloft by the invisible force Aviel controls.
Ahead, the steel door still looms.
Garret and Ferrek move forward to check the door.
The door is, in fact, untrapped.
Shadassa loads up a bolt to her crossbow, aware of its inadequacies. "Shall we open this perplexing portal?"
"Might as well."
Garret attempts to open the door.
The door opens to reveal a decayed crypt furnished with rotting divans, broken chairs, and other refuse. All has gone to rot, save for a golden couch on which resides a humanoid clothed in funerary wrappings with a crown upon its head. A jade coffer lies at the foot of the couch.
As Garret takes his first step into the room, the humanoid begins to rise, mummified eyes beginning to glow a fiery red and affixing on Garret. A booming voice reverberates through the cavern, seeming to come from everywhere at once.
From a glove in the undead creature's hand springs a long bone staff, one end flickering with a shadowy flame. The creature rises to its feet.
Lich - 21
Isletta - 20
Garret - 10
Shadassa - 8
Aviel - 6
Impassively, Ferrek raises his crossbow, a bolt already loaded, and looses at the undead spellcaster. Still unready for battle, the creature has no time to avoid the bolt as it strikes a vulnerable point. Even with the strike to the soft spot, the creature doesn't seem as hurt as it should.
The lich cackles, waving a hand and calling into being a faintly shimmering wave of force around it and then flashing a hand forward to shoot a quintet of purple bolts of force at Garret. They strike him unerringly.
She frowns as she realizes no spell she has can affect him now.. So instead she will cast speeding up her crew.. She will move away from the group after casting..
Garret didn't move a muscle as the sizzling bolts slapped into him. He pulled up his hood as he moved toward the lich, slow at first, then picking up speed. The Spiral of Pharasma erupted at his feet, swirling inward, the shadowlight tendrils reaching toward the undead arcanist as if trying to draw it in.
Garret's eyes flared with the power of his Lady. This... person had escaped Her grasp for far too long. Of all his duties, this one, the destruction of those who cheat death, was perhaps the most sacred.
Aviel was worried about allowing the enemy caster the chance to continue unhindered from magic. So he decided to undo such a protection.
Ferrek dives for cover behind some of the rotting furniture, then reloads his crossbow with a frown. "I knew I was forgetting something," he mutters to himself.
Isletta retreats down the hallway, casting a speed spell on her and her allies. This doesn't make everything more frantic, but to the party, what appears to be happening is that everything except them slows down, but just a tad.
Incensed by the appearance of the undead creature, Garret flares with divine power. He advances on the lich, slamming his axe into its pathetic excuse for flesh.
Shadassa casts Communal Protection From Evil and unfurls wings of flame, flying into the air at extraordinary speed. If there is room she will fly behind the lich.
"Seems awfully early to meet Acerak," says Shadassa in the midst of fiery flight. "And it's settled. When I die, let me sink down to be eaten by bottom dwellers. This undeath is just in poor taste, especially in terms of interior decorating."
Shadassa spreads a protective shroud over her allies, the divine magic infusing them with a momentary flash and a feeling of safety. She then spreads a breathtaking array of flaming wings and flies to the other side of the lich.
Aviel raises a hand and shoots a blast of antimagic at the lich, pushing the magical protections he's raised about himself away.
The lich snarls, angry to be bereft of its protection, and raises a hand. A tiny red bead appears from nothing in its slightly-curled fingers, growing until its a swirling inferno a foot across. The lich hurls this ball into the middle of the room, and the resulting explosion is violent and loud, and threatens to burn Garret, Aviel, and Ferrek badly.
Ferrek manages to avoid all of the harm by flattening himself completely on the ground, and Garret manages to step just out of the blast radius (although he's still singed) but Aviel is caught unawares and is exposed to the entire blast.
Initiative:
Isletta - 20
Garret - 10
Shadassa - 8
Aviel - 6
Ferrek - 22
Lich - 21
Garret's swirling ward of force swung round to shield him from the flames.
Aviel's eyes widened as he saw the spell coming but he was unable to to get out of the way as the Fireball struck him squarely in the chest.
Gaaaaahhh!!
The horribly burned form of Aviel dropped to the ground. Unmoving.
Shadassa swoops down to heal Aviel. "We need you, Aviel," she mutters. "That lich is quite the nasty sort."
With the globe of protection gone Isletta moves up to the lich as to not hit her allies and unleashes a torrent of acid in his face..
Garret's wounds began to close and a pulse of white erupted from the spiral at his feet.
He brought his axe down in a heavy blow, then followed up with a low scything kick that crunched toward the lich's bony knees.
Then he swung again with a powerful overhand chop!
Then he let go of his axe with one hand, willing his swirling ward into place, and reaching toward the Lich, daring him to keep fighting.
Isletta's searing acid burns through much of what little remains of the creature before Garret's flurry of axe blows and kicks demolishes it. Its body charred and brittle, Garret's axe chops significantly less than it causes "crunch" noises when it hits the lich, and after the third blow the lich drops helplessly to the ground and disintegrates.
a glove of storing
a staff of dark flame
a ring of protection +2
a headband of mental prowess (Intelligence, Charisma) [Perception] +2
and boots of levitation.
In the coffer at the couch's feet, there are:
six potions of cure serious wounds
ten rubies
a scroll of dominate person
a scroll of teleport
a scroll of invisibility
a scroll of hideous laughter
a scroll of summon swarm
and a scroll of read thoughts.
Isletta looks through the items carefully.. "The Staff and the Ring interest me.. Aviel we should split up the scrolls.. I cannot use the dominate one or the hideous laughter one so you can take those.. Take the teleport/read thoughts scrolls as well.. Ill store the invis and summon swarm one.. Of the 2 items I would take the staff over the ring.. Perhaps the front liners need the ring?"
"I only care about finding it's phylactery." Garret says grimly.
Garret moved to Aviel and helped him up off the ground. "Are you alright?"
"Was that...really a lich? The lich? I would have thought he...it...would have more powerful spells."
Shadassa glances at Aviel. "I would say a curative potion is in order."
"I agree we should search for its phylactery and destroy it.. We don't want that bastard coming back on us when we're in a tight spot.."
"Ascerak has survived for who knows how many lifetimes. He put this place here as a big sadistic game to taunt anyone who was trying to stop him, or bring him to justice for his crimes. We've come through here over the course of a few days, literally smashing our way in, and setting off almost every trap we've come across."
"He knew we were coming. A person who thinks like he does wouldn't have been by himself, and wouldn't have been unprepared."
"There is just no way that was Ascerak."
Both Shadassa and Isletta are pretty sure that it was an undead spellcaster, but that's about it.
Besides the valuable items scattered around the remains of the creature, very little of interest lies in the room. The couch looks to be a couch of some value, but other than that the room is filled with rotten furniture and dust.
Aviel took the offered hand and stood up. He did not feel well after that fireball strike. He cursed himself for being so careless. And that is how you end up dead.
"I have to agree with Garret, though while I can now account that Lich we destroyed was certainly powerful, he seemed to only be as strong as a member of the sixth circle. Which is, while impressive, very much not in keeping with the aura that was found on the altar we came across before. I do agree with you, Shadassa. A multitude of curative potions, or better a wand of such magic would have been advisable and was unfortunately a rather large oversight on my part." Aviel then takes one of the potions and proceeds to drink it.
"I will gladly take the scroll of Teleportation as well as the Enchantment based scrolls."
Ferrek emerges from behind his defensive rubble as the "lich" falls.
"Impressive." He opens his mouth, then pauses, before clearly forcing himself to look straight at Garret and continue. "I'm definitely glad you're here."
He quickly looks away and goes to examine the loot.
Aviel examined himself, the fresh scars from the blast of fire had turned white thanks to the healing magics but he found them to still be very sensitive and unpleasant to touch. A soft click of disapproval sounded from him and he turned to Shadassa.
"I find this very embarrassing but I don't suppose you might have the magical strength to aid me in restoring myself fully. I would ask to use another one of the curative extracts we have come across but they seem quite potent compared to my harm."
He did not usually consider carrying divine magics about with him. He was not against such things. All magics had their place of course, he simply did not put much thought into concerning those who received the blessing of Gods.
Perhaps a large error in my part.
"I still want to find that lich's phylactery." Garret said grimly. "Maybe we can put Gramalin on Divination duty to dig up some informatin for us. Let's head out, bring thins thing's head back to camp, and come back to look for the real Ascerak in the morning."
"Never be embarrassed to ask healing of a healer," says Shadassa as she places hands upon Aviel's burns. She turns to Garret. "Didn't you say that the traps here re-set from time to time? Are you sure we can go back outside without fear of facing these adversaries and machinations a second time?"