Istevan cautiously opens the door to the second room.
You open this door and catch a glimpse of a lush garden—but are immediately distracted by an enormous emerald ogre-thing rushing to attack you! A short, single-edged sword, like a machete, is set into each of its oversized hands!
Exchanging a glance with Zathra and Roscoe, Istevan hefts shield and sword: "We'll hold them off -- Mirinde, try using the secret word!"
If the ogre thing is just an innocent villager-turned-monster, the cleric attempts a spell that might buy Mirinde some time. Raising his warhammer and shield, he invokes the divine might of Justicia to paralyze this foe.
But instead he finds himself on the wrong side of his patron's good graces!
Cleric must gain a new follower by the next sunrise or take -1 to all checks on the following day. Penalty resets after 24 hours.
The emerald ogre parries Istevan's attack as Clancy's magic falters. It then ripostes, slicing Istevan with one of its deadly blades! The attack nearly cuts the warrior in half!
Mirinde draws the blade of her mithril dagger across her forearm, summoning the magic and smiles as it flows into her body.
Power...this is true POWER!
she then calls out in a clear voice a word of POWER...
""Yasmilon!"
Degan is understandably terrified at this thing and the way it just eviscerated Istevan.
He draws a flask of oil and throws it at the emerald-ogre's feet, hoping to cause it to lose its balance.
Noticing the size of the beast Roscoe deems it best to attack from a distance. His hands automatically reach for his trusty hand-axes... then think better of it and swiftly draw his shortbow and looses an arrow at the Ogre.
Shortbow
Arrow
Critical Results
Furious blows hammer target prone. Make another
attack.
Follow up bow
Follow up arrow
And is startled when his precisely aimed arrow seems to somehow upset the behemoth's balance, and he tumbles to the ground. The beasts falling however upsets his follow up attack the the second quickly loaded arrow flies high and out of range.
One hand hugging his abdomen, hoping desperately that it's not his intestine that he feels leaking through his hand, Istevan stabs down at the creature on the floor:
Unfortunately, Istevan's injury causes him to overcompensate, and he misses wildly.
As Mirinde's power doubles back on herself, Degan shatters oil around the ogre eidolon's feet. The slipperiness helps Roscoe as he delivers a hammering blow, knocking the much larger ogre to the ground with a well-placed arrow!
Zathra follows up with a powerful blow to the ogre's head, temporarily blinding it. Unfortunately, neither Istevan or Clancy are able to finish the creature off.
The ogre gets back to its feet, slashing wildly at Zathra. Despite its blindness, the ogre slices the barbarian woman twice, cutting her down!
Near-blinded by pain, Istevan gasps: "Clancy... Help her," before taking another desperate swing at the ogre.
Degan, panicked and desperate, hurls his dagger at the construct.
Mirinde feels the dark energy wash over her and for a brief moment her hair flies out wildly before falling back to her shoulders. Staggering backwards she fumbles for her bow here, wisely holding her shot for a better angle!
Degan lands a lucky hit with his dagger, the blade impaling the emerald ogre. Then Istevan delivers the finishing blow, and the eidolon clatters to the ground before its emerald body transmutes back into the flesh, the ogre changing back to normal in death.
It takes Clancy two tries, but he manages to stabilize Zathra and heal her seconds before she slips away!
Now that you have a chance to look around, you can see that this large room is a garden, but not like any garden you have ever seen. In the center of the room is a shimmering globe hanging in mid-air. Heat and light radiate from the globe. Cultivated plants line walkways throughout the area, but these plants do not look friendly. They are covered in barbs, whips, tentacles, beaks, and, in some cases, what appear to human-like hands and heads.
Mirinde stows her bow here and eyes the glowing globe closely, "Fascinating. That globe must provide these plants their sustenance here. Perhaps there is a way to douse the light..."
Mirinde can feel the magical energy surrounding the globe. She may be able to manipulate it with a concentrated effort.
Degan moves up to the remains of the eidolon and retrieves his dagger.
He does his best to stay far away from the dangerous-looking plants.
Istevan sinks to the floor trying to catch his breath. After a minute, he begins wrapping his wounds to staunch the bleeding.
"Clancy... I would hate to see the Lady Justice's eyes regard you with disapproval, but any help [sss--- ah!] you can provide would be very appreciated."
Roscoe scouts around the rest of the chamber looking for anything interesting as the smart ones debate the orb.
Clancy, who is in a bit of a daze after Justicia pulled the rug out from under him, seems to gain a little confidence after healing Zathra. The cleric breathes a sigh of relief as the ogre goes down, and then he moves to treat Istevan with a few words of apology. "My mind is a bit fogged, forgive me, my friend. Here, may Justicia grant you healing." Then he summons his magic and touches the warrior's stomach gently.
= 2 Dice Healing for Adjacent Alignment
After treating Istevan, the cleric moves up next to Mirinde. "A very odd garden. Disturbing. Does the globe act like the sun? Giving the plants their life? Perhaps it can be extinguished?"
Istevan pats the cleric gratefully on the arm: "Oh no, best for you to have taken care of Zathra, my friend. Thank you, once again."
Roscoe spots a iron grate in the floor in the room's corner, concealed by some plants. However, getting to the grate would mean braving the snapping leaves and lashing vines, unless the plants were dealt with first.
Mirinde nods in agreement, "Yes I believe so Clancy. I don't think it can be extinguished yet I believe it can be moved..."
Closing her eyes here she reaches out with her senses to try to grasp the orb...
...and finds it much easier than she thought!
Clancy returns Istevan's smile and continues to channel Justicia's healing...
= 2 (or 3?) dice of healing to adjacent alignment
"Well done!" The cleric congratulates the wizardess. "If it cannot be extinguished, perhaps you can burn the plants up? Though maybe it's not generating enough heat to do that..." He waits to see what Mirinde has in mind.
"Might the plants go dormant if their 'sun' is moved away? Maybe to a corner or even out the door?"
Mirinde shakes her head at Degan, "I dare not move the globe out of my sight lest I lose control of it. As you have seen the magic may cause a backlash effect which endangers us all. I like Clancy's idea better...let's see how much these plants like the heat..." She then concentrates on the globe, nudging it closer to the tangled mass of vegetation.
The plants writhe and let out horrific human-like shrieks as the miniature sun incinerates them! Soon enough, all of the carnivorous foliage has been reduced to withered remains and ash.
The iron grate in the corner is heavy and chained shut, but it is a simple enough matter for Istevan or Zathra to hack at the chains until they snap. The grate opens onto a 40-foot vertical drop down into a dark tunnel carved from solid rock.
"Well that looks inviting. Who wants to go down first"?
Istevan begins unhooking things from his pack and rooting around inside.
"I have some rope, so let's start by lowering a lantern down there before we jump in."
Istevan will light a lantern, and slowly lower it on his rope until it sits at the bottom of the shaft.
"Don't everyone thank me at once..." Mirinde sniffs, before peering down the dark shaft. "While I have the means to see in the dark, the thought of being the first one down the shaft does not appeal to me."
Clancy winces as the strange plants let out very human-like screams of agony as they burn up. But in his heart, the cleric knows that the wizardess has likely saved them from further injury. Besides, he'd agreed with the idea - he just hadn't expected that kind of reaction from the plants, despite the fact they looked to be much more than simple shrubbery.
The cleric smiles at Mirinde and claps her on the shoulder lightly in response to her words. "I think perhaps we were all just a bit shocked at the screams. Not exactly plant-like behavior. But thank you, I'm quite certain you saved us from further injury and me from beseeching Justicia for yet more healing."
Clancy moves to stand next to Istevan as the ranger lowers a lantern down on a rope, his shield at the ready and the other hand free to call upon his magic if needed.
Mirinde slowly maneuvers the miniature sun down to the bottom of the tunnel. It seems the tunnel only moves in one direction away from the bottom of the shaft, but you can't really see anything that's down there from your current vantage point. Nothing moves or makes a sound in the dank tunnel below.
Seeing that Mirinde has found a solution to the lighting problem, Istevan puts away his lantern and instead looks for somewhere to secure his rope
before climbing down after the miniature sun.
You climb down the rope and begin to make your way down the tunnel, the miniature sun lighting the way. After about 30 feet, the tunnel turns and opens into a vast cavern. This irregular cavern has a shadowed ceiling hidden behind stalactites. The pock-marked walls hold deep pools of darkness, making the exact dimensions of the room hard to identify.
In the exact center of the room is a pentagram inscribed in some white powder. Inside the pentagram is an enormous bestial creature with moon-white skin, mighty tusks, and thick limbs. Delicate gold chains hang from the ceiling to encircle its wrists, which are pierced with brass tubing. The tubing vanishes into the ground under the edge of the pentagram.
The massive thing weakly turns its head to you, and you hear a voice in your mind. "You are not minions of the Emerald Enchanter. What is your purpose here?"
Mirinde staggers along behind the others, the strain of controlling the miniature sun clearly showing on her face. On seeing the beast she nods in understanding.
A prisoner of the Enchanter clearly...
"We seek to free those the Enchanter has enslaved. Who are you? Are you one who he has bound against your will?"
"I have no name. What I am is far beyond your comprehension, but the Emerald Enchanter calls me a moon-devil," the creature replies. Indeed, it doesn't seem to be any sort of demon Mirinde is familiar with, if it is a demon at all. "I am prisoner to the enchanter. The pentagram keeps me trapped, and the gold chains drain my strength. The tubes suck my life-sap from my veins to power his transmogrification vats. I am in constant agony and too weak to even lift my own weight.
"Please, mortals, I beg of you to free me. I can offer you great success if you lend me your aid."
Mirinde nods in understanding, "While the pentagram is easy to disrupt, , and the tubes would be easy to shatter, the gold chains present a problem. Perhaps I can melt the gold chains away..." she adds as she contemplates the miniature sun globe still under her control. "Will the heat from this sun harm you?"
"Fire does not faze me," the moon-devil replies.
"Very well," Mirinde replies as she proceeds to maneuver the miniature globe through the pentagram and towards the gold chains binding the moon-devil...
The burning sun incinerates the salt that makes up the binding circle and melts through the gold chains holding the moon-devil down. The creature flexes its muscles, rises to its full 15-foot height, and lets out a powerful bellow that shakes the cavern! The being stares intensely at you, and you are all bathed in a white glow. You can feel the air charged with strange energy. Then, there is a *POP!* and the moon-devil vanishes into thin air, returning to whence it came.
Istevan nudges Degan and whispers: "Didn't she say that releasing such creature was dan... Oh, she's doing it. And hey! We didn't die!"
"Nice work, Mirinde! Do you need to release the sun and have a rest now?"
Either by the light of sun or lantern, Istevan will look around the room to see if there's anything else of interest.
"That went surprisingly well," Mirinde nods in approval, "Shall we find the so-called Emerald Enchanter now?" She nods in relief here. "Yes I believe the sun has served its purpose."
"Yep let's go find that piece of crap".
Roscoe speaks from the floor where he is trying to pry up some of the globules of gold melted on the floor.
Degan is interested in the gold, but not that interested. He is somewhat concerned that it will come alive and bind him like it did the moon-devil.
"I believe Isteván suggested having a rest. I don't know much about magic - do you need to rest, Mirinde? Or you, Clancy?
Otherwise we can keep going."
Though Clancy didn't exactly trust the 'moon-devil', still the cleric didn't like seeing any creature imprisoned as it was - and the emerald enchanter had proven himself an evil entity, after all. He is relieved when it disappeared after Mirinde freed it - more than relieved, actually. At Degan's words, the cleric glances at the others. "I can go on, and if any need further healing before we go up against the wizard I will petition Justicia to do so. But speak now, before we find ourselves in peril."