"I have one of those, too," Cori says, drawing her own vial of liquid ice from her bandolier. She hands it to Slid. "Give this one a toss, and let's see if we can kill all of it."
Tossing a second vial kills the remaining mold making it safe to go down the passage.
Good work group. Though, we could likely have let Reginald tear away at it without spending our resources. As I don't believe it would effect our bone boy. Vinnick gives a small shrug.
But best be off.
”What’s the fun in having Bony Reg do everything?” Cori replies. ”And we still have the big frost bomb, so no great loss.”
The hallway turns south and goes for a bit and then turns and goes east finally ending with an archway.
Another inscription above the doorway reads
"Chamber of Darkness"
"Know your enemy. Shatter all that blinds you and then burn thy adversary to ashes."
There are torches on the walls that light the hallway but beyond the archway you see only darkness the light doesn't seem to past beyond the arch into the next room (even darkvision doesn't work)
Cori nocks an arrow and prepares to fire it into the darkness. She looks to Vinnick and asks, "Do you want to send Bony Reg in first?"
Were you able to heal your minion up from its fall? If so, lest move.
The torch stays lit but once in the darkness it seems to emit no light.
Spellcraft can identify the magic at work here.
Deeper darkness lv 3 spell. Only a magical light with an equal or higher spell level will work inside it's radious.
My eyesight can usually penetrate the darkness as well, since my,.. event. Stanislav says, obviously perplexed. I am not sure how to proceed. Perhaps the darkness emanates from something within? If so perhaps it can be covered?
"Well...we know it isn't normal darkness, so it's fair to assume it's magical..." Cori says, tapping her chin in thought. "I wonder if magical darkness works the same as magical light." She reaches up and touches the ioun torch hovering near her head, allowing it to come to a rest in her palm for a moment before letting it go and resume its orbit. "Does the spell start from one focal point, an object? The riddle says to 'shatter all that blinds you'. Maybe there are some objects in there that are holding the magic. If we break them, the magic disappears. I guess the trick is, how to do it? What are we shattering? I mean, someone could walk in there and start swinging around, but I have a feeling that would be bad."
She ponders a moment longer, then reaches for her bandolier. "I have this," she says, holding out a thunderstone. "If I toss this in there, it will release a blast of sound like thunder. If there's anything fragile in that darkness, there's a fair chance it'll shatter. What do you think?"
She looks to the others for their thoughts on the matter.
Vinnick seems to ignore the questions as he keeps his gaze locked on the room. He walks forward a bit, before tentaivly placing his hand through the blackness.
hmmm. interesting, well seeing as I am not dead, I can safely surmise this is a darkness spell of sorts. I've seen such magic before, though have never conjured any myself, personally never saw any practical use in it. Then again, I never really had a dungeon full of traps either. Unfortunately, knowing does little help for us now. Unless any of you have an ever-burning Ioun stone with you in your sacks. While the dark doesn't hurt you, it does keep whatever is in there hidden, be it monster, trap or something else entirely. He turns back to Slid and stanly, Well, Welcome to how those without the blessing of dark vision see in the pitch black. I can send in Reginald if you wish, to see if anything lurks within, but other than that, I doubt he would find anything quickly.
Yes, that is a good idea Vinnick. He might whatever threat is within and a least reveal its nature.
"You mean one of these?" Cori replies to Vinnick, once again touching the ioun torch that was floating next to her head. She catches the stone and moves over to Reginald. She holds the stone out to the skeleton.
"Let's see if it will attune itself to him. If it works, he can walk into the darkness and we'll see what it does."
Once the brown mold had reduced completely, she packs away the blue gem back into her spell component pouch. She follows Stanislav, Coriandrinne, and Slid through the cold passage.
Upon arriving at at the entrance of the third room, she reads the description, while scratching her chin. Seeing Slid placing the torch into the darkness only to vanish even for her darkvision, she speaks, This is definitely not natural darkness. Seems we need to burn the source of this magical darkness. Only catch is how many sources are there in this room of unknown size.
Hearing of sending in Reginald, Well we will know if we dealing with a monster or an object that needs to be destroyed. Perhaps tie a rope to him, just in case we need to drag him back.
Vinnick looks over the stone. Well, Having the actual spell would be better, magical items are rarely as powerful as the magic being cast immediately, however I think This should work. Though I doubt it will work as well as I, or we, would hope. But, I believe it is better than nothing. If you wish to tie a rope go ahead.
After everyone does their assignments, Vinnick sends in Reginald.
"You mean one of these?" Cori replies to Vinnick, once again touching the ioun torch that was floating next to her head. She catches the stone and moves over to Reginald. She holds the stone out to the skeleton.
"Let's see if it will attune itself to him. If it works, he can walk into the darkness and we'll see what it does."
Reginal walks into the darkness and returns after a short while and is unharmed.
If you move into the room just let me know were you go aproxmatly.
I'll let you know if you bump into anything.
Stanislav stands back from the entrance ready to help Slid if he needs help or strike an enemy that steps into view.
She lets out a sigh, [b]Guess we have no easy way to do this,[b] as she unhooks her scimitar stepping up to the black wall, [b]I going to try the left side,[b] tapping the scimitar before her, and her other hand on the wall.
Following R’yzzn’s lead, Cori replaces her ioun torch in its orbit around her head, draws her cat of nine tails, then steps into the darkness and moving along the right side wall. She holds the cat in her left hand, and uses the right to feel along the wall. She steps cautiously, applying steady pressure with each step before shifting her weight forward. She runs the fingers of her right hand along the wall as she moves.
As slid walks forward he feels a cold sensation and suddenly starts to feel prickling as he starts to bleed all over and something is draining the blood from his body...This attack inflicts 1 point of bleed damage and con damage.
As you each move forward you encounter no physical obstacles so far but you feel like there are small holes in the floor at regular intervals but nothing happens as you step and prod them.
Hearing a scream, Cori asks, "What is it? What's happening?"
Hearing shouting that he is bleeding, she speaks out, I can come back to heal you. There is a long pause, before you hear her voice again, Oh wait. I can't heal you. Though on my route along the northern wall I have come across regular holes in the floor. I guessing either a spike or gas trap.
Looking worried, Stanislav tries to Summarize. Ok. Something is in this room that drains life force and causes bleed damage. We cannot see it. Slid, did you feel it attack you? Where were you bleeding? It's a good bet that whatever is in there is not coming out so we have to figure out how to attack it in there without seeing it or knowing what it is.
|
Slid says a little scared "I felt very cold and then something prickling me. That's when I noticed something was sucking my blood. Others also entered the room and didn't feel a thing. Maybe it's something in the middle? Or it just attacks the first who enters. All I know is I'm not going in there for now. It could be more of that mold, maybe?"
A cold prickling.. lives in darkness... drains blood.... we can likely rule out any type of spell, otherwise I would have seen its aura. So it must be a creature of sorts, that doesn't rely on sight to hunt, and likely is relatively weak... I may have read something similar but it escapes me at this time..
I.. do have an idea. If it is a creature, and we cannot see it, then our best course of action would be items that affect large areas. And I fear that we may be forced to harm ourselves in the process. Damnation. If I knew or could remember what this thing is it would be easier to formulate a proper plan. As it stands, we could all walk in with an alchemist fire, and whichever one of us feels something draining us, we could throw it at our feet, near where we feel the sensation. But I can't in all good conscious recommend that without knowing at least in general what type of creature we are dealing with. I have a wand that can mend wounds, as long as you don't die. And, to my utter chagrin, without my wold grimiore and stone whose power I clearly relied far to heavily on, have little say in matters over death at this time.... How much money do we have left? I know a few spells that might could help, but I cannot cast them, if I had a scroll however, it would be a fairly simple thing...
From the information available Vinnick deduces that the creature that attacked slid was most likely a vampiric mist. A type of living fog that feeds on the blood of the living. While this creature is difficult to kill with normal weapons (you need a magical weapon to bypass it's dr 5) it is vulnerable to fire and would be helpless in sunlight. Normal magic spells can also kill it fairly easily as it is not very tough (thought it does gain temp hp by feeding)
The creature can "see" by sensing blood within 60 feet.
As for the darkness the easiest solution would be to purchase a heightened continual flame torch (350 gold) or get Vinnick to cast daylight from a scroll.
If you can find the object that the darkness is coming from you could also cover it up or destroy it to stop the darkness.
Arcane Scroll (Hold Portal
Arcane Scroll (True Strike)
Arcane Scroll (Rope Trick)
Divine scroll (Cure light wounds)
Arcane Scroll (detect secret doors)
Divine Scroll (Produce flame)
Hearing Vinnick describe the creature, she lets out a sigh as she looks at the door's description, No wonder Reginald was fine, he is a skeleton. Not much to suck off him. Well the door's description does tell us we need to burn our foe.
As for the darkness, it does seem to serve a dual purpose, one to hinder us to move through the room, yet also to contain the misty creature inside. If the source of darkness is a small object, I rather keep it by wrapping it up, than destroying it. Could come in handy elsewhere.
If need, I have some gold still to buy items, saying it rather softly and reluctant. Parting from gold is so not a dragon thing to do.
”Are we allowed to come back out once we’ve begun, or will our new Master mark that as a failure? I don’t fancy being torn to shreds body and soul because he felt we lacked imagination.”
So this mist can retreat into the floor through all the holes. We need to be able to see to target it. Yes, we can exit and come back in as long as we are done in 3 days. I have 217 gold I can donate to this cause. Is it too late to send for items? I have multiple ways to enchant my weapon so if I can see it I can attack it. I also have two alchemist's fire.
Now that is an interesting thought, of preparing a blood trap, as she gets excited. I doubt it will leave the darkness, though perhaps get it to the edge of the darkness at the doorway, where can put the darkness area by door way ablaze!
The living fog is actually an aberration and not an undead.
”The bowl of Blood idea is worth a try. Who’s volunteering to get bled, or are we sending back to town for a chicken or piglet?” Cori asks.
She chuckles in response to Cori, while pointing her hand in Slid's direction, Perhaps Slid here. We already know it likes his blood, seeing of the three of us in there, he was the only one to be attacked.
She takes her backpack off and fiddles inside to pull out a flask of oil, Think I need to get more of this. Some oil to splash the area with to help burn our foe, when we set the area ablaze. Though to be effective, think we need to get rid of the darkness first, so it can't escape from the fire.