"I wish we: Heshan, Ryhan, Khedron, Omari and Ohrmizd, were permanently immune to fire" answers back Ohrmizd.
He will then use detect magic to sense the direction from where the artifact effect is more powerful "Mmm... seems I can feel the power of the artifact too guys, if you look for it, it permeates everything, every piece of wall, but it seems to be more intense from one place" and points to that place.
"Then we have out way to track the place! Let us go." Heshan let Ohrmizd go ahead with his superior tracking skills, but put up his own Detect Magic spell to help lead the way to their destination.
"That is not how it works. Immunity for you, or if you insist to have the whole group involved, then only resistence."
"Then I wish for the party to be resistant" Ohrmizd proclaims, no doubt in his voice.
"As you wish." Sharzathared oblieges with gesture of her arm.
Discerning the direction of the source of power isn't that hard, once one recognizes it. But the knowledge is not really helpful without the possiblity to move through stone or earth. The paths that should lead there regularily are still a mystery and as the distance isn't know either, a blind dimension door is no guaranteed success either.
Ohrmizd bows in front of Sharzathared as the group is blessed by the water elements "I won't easily forget the blessings of Shazathared, if there is anything else I can do to placate your loneliness, just call me up"
As towards the others, he explains what is discovered by the detect magic "It seems we will need to uncover new paths for this side of the fortress is apparently explored. Let's trace back to the labyrinth, maybe now that we are better protected we can find if we left some relevant exit, or perhaps we can try to explore the caves in the vortex of lava"
"It is enough that you don't forget about me, once you find a way out of here."
"It is enough that you don't forget about me, once you find a way out of here."
"We will keep faith, Lady, we will keep faith"
"I could not forget of Shazathared, the freshness of the Plane of Fire" Ohrmizd smiles before giving farewell.
"Time to find other paths in the upper levels" Ohrmizd traces back to the stairs and starts making it back to the previous rooms trying to find alternative path.
Also keeping detect magic up from time to time in case it helps to find the way.
"Ooh, that could have been bad." Heshan remark as they walked out. While they continued on their journey, Heshan walked on.
"The thing with wishes is that they might not end up the way you hope. There isn't magic that I know of that gives you complete immunity to fire."
The party tracks their way back to the starting point. On the way back you come past the bodak and the mamluks in their original camp again who are discussing where to go next, why and how.
The trap door is still walled off as a reminder and safety meassure and can be passed safely. Finally you are back in the basement with the fire curtains in the passages. The first passage has no fire curtain and has the number four written in ignan over the door. Other than the other rooms you've been in this room has no stylized animal on the roof.
Once we are safely away (out of hearing) from the Bodak and the Mameluks again, Omari looks to Ohrmizd: "Should we settle with the undead abomination before we go any further?"
"Is there anything we can do to counter his death stare, or at the least to make a battle with closed eyes something doable?" Ohrmizd looks specially at the casters who probably have a hard time using magic with closed eyes at any degree of success.
Meanwhile, he points to the sheet of fire the group came from "We can try to find out hidden rooms in the maze of fire. What do you think?"
"Most magic relies on eye contact, so that likely will not be possible... but I can make it so that he is hard of seeing," Heshan suggested, flashing a bit of magic on his hands.
"Is there anything we can do to counter his death stare, or at the least to make a battle with closed eyes something doable?" Ohrmizd looks specially at the casters who probably have a hard time using magic with closed eyes at any degree of success.
Meanwhile, he points to the sheet of fire the group came from "We can try to find out hidden rooms in the maze of fire. What do you think?"
"Given a few minutes to pray, I could ward one of us against necromantic effects , or I could protect us all with a more generic warding against evil , but I think that the best solution might simply be to kill it quickly..."
"Ok, let's have this done so we can focus on our primary mission. Let's just try to avoid killing the azers, ok?" Ohrmizd finally concedes after evaluating the needs of the fight against Javhul, the possibility of redemption of an undead, the apparent status of the azers and his tenets to strike on evil "Let's offer the azers to leave the bodak and join the fight against Javhul before we start the fight"
Ohrmizd will renew his shield of faith if needed and add flames of the faithful before going back into the bodak's room.
"Ok, a rough plan - Heshan as we walk in, distract them - whether it's a display of magic , or letting rip the world's largest fart, I don't care, but get their eyes on you . Ohrmizd, you get right up in it's face, so it's more than 30' from the rest of us and it can't rush up to us. Avert your eyes and try to intimidate the Azers into staying out of it. At that point, Rayhan, Heshan, and I bombard the Bodak with everything we have, and Khedron protects us from any of the Azers joining in. What does everyone think?"
When Ohmizd is buffing, Omari will share Protection From Evil, Communal with the party (20 min apiece for Omari, Ohrmizd, Heshan, and Rayhan, 30 minutes for Khedron).
"Best I could do is wall off the Mamluks for the fight. To shoot at the bodak I'd need to look and I'd rather not. But I can as well send a fireball in. Which would harm neither Ohrmizd nor the Mamluks."
"In case of doubt, throw fire. I will try to be fine. And yes, agreed to give the wand to Rayhan" Ohrmizd takes the device from the party bag and hands it to the sage.
"Well, it sounds like a plan to me. So, let's do it." the Keleshite agrees.
As the first time you came along, four of the azer mamluks are in the first room and three are together with the bodak in the next. They wonder why you are back again.
"That we can agree with." Heshan replies with a nod. "Except for the farting part. Not even I would be that undignified. Besides, the undead would not be affected by one anyways."
"We come to free you from the evil grasp of the undeath. This is not about you Mameluks, stay away and you will be safe, leave free or fight with us against Javhul. Step up to protect the undead and you will die" Ohrmizd menaces while he strides towards the bodak, closing his eyes if he sees it up to do its thing.
1 rank +3 trained
Omari and Khedron move into the room, taking a position on the wall opposite the door to where the bodak is (with Khedron shielding Omari from the Azers).
Omari fires a shot at the Bodak...
Omari prepares to shoot the bodak as soon as it shows itself
[ooc]Ready an action – shoot the bodak as soon as it appears...
8 bab +4 dex +1 enhancement +1 Heroes feast and deadeye bowman trait, so I ignore 1 person's worth of soft cover penalties (ie. Ohrmizd)
(magic (bow), cold iron (arrow)
+1 enhancement +2 str
"Do not lose your time with fire for this bodak is immune to it" Ohrmizd explains the group from what he has observed.
Without any lose of time, he proceeds to judge the bodak with a rapid succession of swings on the undead.
Then, he closes his eyes, knowing what the bodak is most likely to attempt next.
Rayhan fires a migic missile at the bodak.
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"Luckily for me, fire is not my standards of expertise." With a smile, Heshan maneuvers himself next to Khedron before flinging a spell of electric fireball. Not at the bodak, but in the area behind it so that it would hit the undead but not Ohrmizd as well as avoiding its gaze.
Ohrmizd cuts deep into the rotten flesh, and the magic missiles hit too. Omari's arrow goes wide. The bodak doesn't seem to bother about electricity either. It stares at Ohrmizd and everyone not closing their eyes is in danger of dying. Two of the Mamluks die.
The other Mamluks are confused and indecisive.
Thanks to his bloodhound scent, Ohrmizd knows where the despicable corruption of life is, and he slashes in succession to bane the undead "In the name of Light and Life, I sentence you to the true death!"
Despite his good olfactory senses, Ohrmizd ends slashing just in the air.
Rayhan takes out the wand and is glad that the reach of the magic is further than the deadly gaze of the bodak who is blacked by Ohrmizd.
Ohrmizd swings his blade into the general direction of the bodak, but with his eyes closed his attempts are in vain. The magic missiles disintegrate the undead.
The mamluks are aghast, but with two of their own dead they feel no urge to retaliate against the group.
Ohrmizd keeps slashing forward until he is informed the bodak is already destroyed, time when he opens slightly one of his eyes, then finally both "Good, well done. The power of Light wins once more the curse of undead"
Then he raises his head to look at the mamluks "You are free now my good friends. I am sorry you had to force yourselves in front of the undead menace. But now you can go or you can join us in our fight against Javhul, the better you prefer"
"And one less abomination wanders the universe. Well done Ohrmizd."
While Ohrmizd is talking to the mamluks, Omari will search the bodak's remains (using detect magic) (and whatever it's been using as a bedroll & camp gear).
11 rank +4 wis+5 racial
The bodak has nothing but the rags it wore. And nothing in the room looks like it belonged distictly to the bodak.
Taking the silence of the mamluks for an answer, Ohrmizd just shrugs and turns to his own group "Well, now we can focus on our search for Jhavhul and the artifact that keeps trapped Shazathared"
"Do you think we left any room unvisited in the labyrinth of fire doors?"
"I am unsure if there are rooms unvisited in the labyrinth of fire doors, but if we can make our way back to where we started, we can get outside the maze to the lava tunnel. Once there, with appropriate magic , we could at least explore the lava tunnel a ways..."
"Right, electricity does not work well on the undead. This will be annoying," Heshan said in a rare grimace.
Back to the group, Heshan nods. "At least moving around will not be much of a problem with our magic."
Heshan uses this time to cast Mage Armor and Protection From Arrows on himself.
"Good. Sounds like a plan" Ohrmizd comments, then he starts to do the fire doors in reverse order to which they initially made, trying to find once more the lava vortex.
Omari facepalms and says "Hold up, we are fools! The Azers got into this place by some route, and it was not through the chamber of the brass-men, as they did not fight them for us. So they can tell us how they got into this place, and thus tell us where a route out is. This will also uncover a portion of this complex that we have not explored..."
The azers are kind of unwilling but admit that they entered through the lava stream.
"That will not be easy, even with the resistance to fire we have," Heshan admits, looking at the terrain. "Omari, can you ask them if there is any lava-free area on the other side of that stream?"
"So they came through the lava stream? Well then... even more of a reason to go back to there" Ohrmizd resolves after hearing the explanations "You are right Heshan, let's just not do dump stupid things, we just fly over carefully, and if we find the way blocked by a full mass of lava, we trace back and find another solution."
Then, he starts to do the fire doors in reverse order to which they initially made, trying to find once more the lava vortex.
Ohrmizd easily finds the way back, but that is not the preferred way to not get burned. Three out o ffive flame curtains are not cold.
A low brass landing with a short plinth standing at its northern edge extends along one wall of this large chamber that is otherwise filled with a bubbling pool of bright red molten lava. A wide tunnel extends to the north, from which the lava issues in a languid flow. A single lancet archway extends from the landing to the east but is backed by a curtain of crackling flame. Most menacing of all the chamber’s features, however, is the wide swirling vortex of lava that occupies its western wing, pulling the liquid rock in an inexorable whirlpool of infernal heat and death.