"The barrier is my doing" Julian explains. "The ward contains magic that is trying to seep out from the complex within. I suppose I just hoped others would arrive to help, since the Shoanti sent for aid. They themselves have a taboo when it comes to Thassilonian ruins. It seems my hope was well placed.
And yes, I have been maintaining the ward since I raised it several days ago. Four? Five? I've lost count. I'm out of restorative spells and have little food left." Julian accepts the rations offered by Arin and digs in hungrily.
"If we are to make this place safe, you must go beyond the door and eliminate whatever focus of magical energies you can find: it might be a creature or an object. Once you’ve done that, I should be able to finish a permanent ward.”
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Dale listens intently, even taking a few notes as Julian describes what he expects them to accomplish "Sounds quite interesting. I'm sure we'll recognize the focus." He hands Harold his journal and begins to limber himself up with some stretches.
"Medical data shows some stretching and light cardio before strenuous exercise is good for you." He starts doing a few jumping jacks, looking at the others expectantly.
"We're going in stealthy? Sounds good, I can be pretty sneaky on a good day." Dale assumes stealth mode, blending in as best you'd expect someone like him to.
Myth slinks into the shadows, slipping between the Thassilonian portals as Julian creates a brief opening for you.
As the rest of you follow, the clank of your steel-shod boots is barely loud enough to be audible at 200 paces...
You find yourselves in a worked-stone passageway, 8 feet tall and 5 feet across. Yellow light fills the corridor, given off by regularly spaced sconces that bear enchanted flames.
A stone door is visible ahead, at the end of the corridor. Some way before the door is a large pile of ancient-looking books arranged haphazardly in a great heap, many of them showing obvious signs of damage.
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Dale quickly realizes his stealthing isn't very good, certainly not compared to the Myth, the Legend. Luckily he's quickly distracted by the runed, magical torches.
He pulls out his wayfinder and clicks it onto scan mode and checks out the magical auras as they present themselves.
He lifts one off the sconce and smiles "Continual flames, very nice. If anyone doesn't have a lights source I suggest you take one with you!" He hands one to Harold then continues on. Harold returns it to the wall and shakes his Dwarven head.
"Tomes? Oooo baby, let me at 'em!" He pushes his way ahead to check them out, first with detect magic then with 'detect Dale'.
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Arin approaches the pile of books and glances at the spines for a sampling of them, to see if there is a theme that they represent or if it's a collection of truly random titles.
Arin will use his comprehend langauges SLA to identify such books.
Dale detects magic auras from the books, and excitedly pushes forwards to examine them as Arin notices text in a number of languages, including Common and Thassilonian, though too haphazard to be sure of the contents. Myth thinks the pile is safe, but sadly Dale proves him wrong. The book pile conceals a sensitive tripwire, which Dale activates - and discovers that the books also conceal multiple sharp iron spikes fixed into a wooden board, that springs up scattering ancient paper and vellum...
...impaling the sage on the spikes!
Both Dale (once he extracts himself from the dastardly trap) and Malaz still sense magic from the pile of ruined books. Searching through, they find a scroll and a small metal box containing a glass bottle, and on the inside cover of one of the books is a metal plate.
The scroll holds four spells:
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Harold slaps his forehead as Dale falls for the oldest trick in the book: a nail. "Maybe next time you should look before you try to read Dale..."
Undeterred Dale pulls the impaled board off his face, whining and grunting the entire time "Who would do such a thing? Priceless relics, the written word is just..." He quickly stops himself as he answered his own question. "GOBLINS. To them these things are evil. That makes a lot more sense now... stupid goblins."
Dale draws out a wand, at least you suspect its a wand. It looks more like a long handled grilling fork though. He licks the tines and then proceeds to gently poke himself with it, inciting the following phrase each time.
"Oooo Juicy!" Drool!
"Oooo Juicy!" Drool!
"Oooo Juicy!" Drool!
"Oooo Juicy!" Drool!
Afterwards he turns his attention to the items that seem to be troubling Malaz so much.
"Oh, that one is interesting... a metal plate?" He blasts it with his wayfinder and studies the auras left behind.
"Its magic. What kind I'm not sure though." He moves on to the bottle and has much better luck.
"A word bottle." He looks closer to see if there are indeed any words on the parchment inside.
"Lots of neat things here. The books alone are still valuable and worth a good read!" He waves Harold over to help gather the up and load them into Dale's Haversack.
There are no words sealed in the word bottle. However, Dale notes words inscribed on the magic metal plate, even though he cannot divine the function of the device.
Hskoro opens the door at the end of the corridor.
A hallway runs north and south here, its walls carved with images of fire and destruction. Humanoids from many races peer out from the flames in the upper portions of the carvings, their faces alight with excruciating pain. The lower two feet of the carvings show other figures on hands and knees, their faces toward the north, the brutal fires just above their backs. Near the center of the hallway on a low plinth stands the statue of a cruel faced woman wielding a ranseur in her right hand. Her left hand gestures to the south, giving the impression it is the source of the carved flames. A large bronze plaque is affixed to the southern wall of the passage, covered in spiky, spidery runes.
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”I have the utmost respect for goblins. Their whims are unrestrained by convention or fear. We samurai spend our lifetimes learning how to live as those already dead. Their fearlessness in the face of death provides a lesson to us all.”
Ayo pauses to write another poem.
”Moonless summer night
Their explosives dance and sing
Fuses nearing fire.”
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Dale reads the inscription, at least how he believes its pronounced, then translates it into common "Humble yourself and show the respect Runelord Alaznist is due."
"Sounds like flames to the face. I wonder why no goblins got it.. unless of course their natural height was sufficient to avoid the fire.." I really should learn that recipe for flame retardant skin and hair.
None of you see any sign of nozzles or openings that would project flames. Arin notes that the statue's outstretched hand is well above his head height, at about 5 feet above the floor.
Knowledge (arcana) DC16
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Dale blasts the area with his wayfinder's detect magic spell and quickly remarks "Low level evocation.. or for those of you that aren't magically inclined: Boom magic."
He puts his wayfinder away then proceeds to get down on all fours and prepares to crawl through the room. "Harold don't be a nit wit, just because you're a Dwarf doesn't mean that you might not get your whiskers roasted!"
Arin moves cautiously forwards, followed by Hskoro and Myth. Myth bows, and Dale gets down on his knees, as your suspicions are confirmed and a blast of flame engulfs you! The fires do not extend to the bottom two feet of the room, and so Dale escapes them entirely - but evidently the statue's hand was not the source of the flame, and Runelord Alaznist was not satisfied with a bow.
Yet, the fires do no more than singe your hair and leave your faces and clothes coated with soot. Either this was intended to humiliate those who failed to show proper respect, or the passage of the millennia sapped the magic of its strength.
You note no traps on the double doors ahead.
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Ayo follows the lead of the others without a second thought or complaint, making sure her writing materials are carefully stowed away first. She is completely unperturbed by the soot covering her. She casts create water over herself to wash away the soot, also remaining stoic the entire way through the process, as if she was merely scratching an itch or brushing her hair.
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Dale uses the opportunity of fresh water being summoned to refill his water skin and wash his hands and face. He stands up and proceeds to slick his hair back to keep it out of his eyes then returns his hat back to his head. "Well that was fun, are we ready to continue on? I'm sure there's many more books where those came from!"
He pushes the door open after its been thoroughly searched, then hustles back behind the 'bigguns' with Harold.
The door opens...
This large room’s walls are decorated with carvings extolling the virtues of wrath: scenes abound of warriors crushing their opponents with a combination of martial and magical skill. Above all these warriors stands the magnificent figure of a striking woman clad in armour and wielding a ranseur. Her face is contorted in a mixture of rage and elation, and she stands atop a veritable mountain of corpses.
In sharp contrast to the intricate beauty of the carvings, the contents of the room are in shambles. Broken tables and chairs litter the floor, once-magnificent banners are torn and strewn about, and several small fires smoulder throughout the room. Anything that can be burned is blackened with soot, and anything breakable has been shattered into tiny pieces. The pungent smell of an animal warren permeates the entire room.
The air in the room is hazy - but the haze is not thick enough to obscure vision.
Three mounds of quivering green, tumorous flesh react to the door being opened and slowly ooze towards you. One of the mounds appears to have goblin ears.
DC18
DC23
DC28
Combat Round 1
Myth
Dale
Ayo
Ears, Greenie and Meanie
Arin
Malaz
Hskoro
The bold may act!
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Dale peeks into the hazy room and wastes no time reaching for one of his bombs on his bandoleer, shakes it up and tosses it underhand through the doorway at the green hungry flesh then retreats down the hallway a bit.
"These are a type of ooze called "Hungry Flesh". They have ooze traits (mindless; blind; Immunity to poison, sleep effects, paralysis, polymorph, and stunning; not subject to critical hits, sneak attack, precision damage, or flanking)."
"Hungry Fleshes regenerate damage not caused by acid or fire."
"Hungry Fleshes have many peculiar qualities. Their shapeless bodies can Compress to fit through small gaps. They can grow to Gargantuan size by eating creatures (they'll eat any flesh) and by a form of regeneration triggered by attempts to cut or pierce them (this reactive regeneration is in addition to their standard regeneration ability). They leave a trail of slime that acts like a Grease spell, until it hardens and dries about a minute after the creature moves."
"Hungry Fleshes transmit a disease called Tumour Infestation with their slam attack and with their slime trail (though the slime trail must contact exposed flesh); anything that dies from Tumour Infestation becomes a Hungry Flesh. The disease attacks CON and CHA. Hungry Fleshes constrict with their slam attack."
Normally Dale talks fast, but to spit all that out he was really motoring!
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Ayo strides forward, relying on her powers of persistence to advance faster than might be expected , holding off from drawing her sword at Dale's mention of the regeneration issue.
She recognizes the creatures as well, though not to nearly the same degree as Dale. She takes a moment to pray to Shizuru for her favor before she enters the melee.
Dale spills the life-cycle of the hungry flesh whilst tossing a bomb. But the gap between his comrades and the doorframe is too little, and the bomb goes astray.
Arin is exposed to the back-blast of the errant explosive!
The ferocious back-blast burns the gnome!
Myth shoots his bow at Greenie, choosing a blunt arrow in response to Dale's verbose warnings.
Myth's arrow proves more accurate, injuring the ooze. However, the disgusting creature rapidly heals...
All three tumorous oozes flow forwards, leaving trails of slime behind them.
The nagaji's armour protects him from harm - for now. But Arin is struck:
The little gnome is caught by the massive Hungry Flesh, whose blubbersome form crushes him!
Combat Round 1/ 2
Myth
Dale
Ayo
Ears, Greenie (-1hp, grappled) and Meanie
Arin -25hp, grappled
Malaz
Hskoro
The bold may act!
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Arin's body glows a bit in reaction to the encroaching disease... for now it's staved off.
Once per day as an immediate action, whenever you fail a saving throw against a disease or poison, you may ignore its effects for 1 hour per level. At 7th and 15th level, you can use this ability one additional time per day.
The gnome wriggles, trying to break free.
Arin squirms free of the lumpen, cloying flesh!
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Dale responds to Arin
"You sound so demonic when you're nervous!"
"Ummm, yes, best to not get grabbed up by that thing Arin... not good is right." He gets a bit wishy washy though about tossing another bomb through such a mess of targets.
"I'm afraid things are a bit too congested for me to toss bombs at this time. A pity too, these are perfect targets!" Instead he draws out a crystal wand and tries to activate it at the front green ooze.
A pair of magic missiles streak up, around, and between the crowd to strike the green ooze.
Greenie takes a battering from Myth. Hskoro and Dale's attacks.
Combat Round 1/ 2
Myth
Dale
Ayo
Ears, Greenie (-34hp) and Meanie
Arin -25hp, disease delayed; move action available
Malaz
Hskoro
The bold may act!