”Good catch,” says Garret. Fanning his hands in an approximation of a gold dragon’s fiery maw, he projects a cone of fire over the nasty-looking monster’s teeth and vicinity…then he steps back to get a bit of cover from his allies.
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Garret scans the way forward with his Detect Magic spell, hoping to get some clue as to the nature of the trap.
Realizing that, although he can be quite convincing himself, Garret was no great judge of character, the usually loquacious halfling nods and accepts the new information. Looking sadly at the bright facade but corrupted character in the jail cell, he follows the others away without a word.
”I am no great healer, but I can usually get this wand to work,” offers Garret. He pulls out his wand of cure light wounds and starts using it on Ketra.
”Bards have indeed been known to…embellish…their tales, for certain,” responds Garret, adding ”Nevertheless, we are pleased to be of service, whatever our stature. Tell us, how did you come to be in such dire straits and what have you learned about your recently departed captors’ plans?” He assesses the gnome before him, looking for any inconsistencies that might reveal her as a trickster or spy deceiving them into letting down their guard.
”Sometimes you just have the right tool for the job,” replies Garret, though in truth he is himself impressed by the potency of that last fireball. Focusing his arcane sight as well as more mundane senses on the remains of the room and the foes, he searches for items of interest.
Seeing that fire seemed to work well enough last time, Garret launches another fireball at the enemies--though this time he uses the Rod of Selective Spell to avoid injuring his companions (Zsofia and Ketra)!
Garret moves to where he can see (3 squares up and one to the left to get behind Zsofia) and quickly intones a few arcane words. He positions his Fireball spell so it gets all four enemies in the room, including the new arrival! Fire damage
Garret's name is still highlighted, but from context I think he has already taken his turn this round. Let me know if I am mistaken.
Not wanting to move forward with the others staying back, Garret can still only see two of the foes. He casts a spell at the closest one (blue) who is in melee with Zsofia, trying to stun it so her attacks will land with more effect!
Garret moves up to the edge of the caltrops and targets the cultists he can see in the room. Worried about throwing a fireball into a room only partially visible with a possible ally inside, he instead uses his rod of intensification to explode a Burst of Radiance on the two foes he can see.
"Get me a line of sight on the blasphemers and I'll do it," responds Garret, though he reacts too slowly to immediately deliver fiery death...
"Well, as far as I know my magic won't touch it," calls back Garret, sending some more healing energy into Rosalind assuming he is able to coax the wand to obey...
With no spells that would affect the golem available, Garret moves in adjacent to the heavily-injured Rosalind, whipping out his healing wand from the spring-loaded wrist sheath as he goes. He then tries to activate it and heal his ally a modicum of the damage she has taken.
With little else to do, Garret casts Shield on himself and tries to stay out of the way.
"It's a crystal golem!" shouts Garret, also sharing what he remembers of its construct traits and magic immunity. He also quickly communicates what he recalls of its special attacks and any spells that might bypass immunity (from Arcana roll).
Garret continues to follow along and look for anything unusual, keeping Detect Magic up and scanning as he walks.
”Indeed. It says, ‘The Red Crusader shall shield the Just.’ Now we just have to offer the proper prayers,” responds Garret.
”Please, whatever you do, don’t open that jar—it could destroy us all,” mutters Garret. Trying to regain his composure, Garret stands again and says to his friends, ”I am sorry—the necrotic aura of that last jar overwhelmed me. I am okay.” Catching the last bit of Cleverquill’s words, Garret suggests, ”Oh, excellent. Let’s go take care of the death cultist knights.”
Garret suddenly drops to the ground, sitting unceremoniously on the hard stone and rubbing his eyes. He murmurs something about artifact level necromantic power as his eyes lock on one of the jars. ”Too big for an arch-lich’s phylactery, surely. Another necrotic bomb—but where is the corresponding corrupted life energy? Perhaps a prison for an undead lord of some kind?” he trails off quietly, seeming to have forgotten all about the current negotiation or dire peril he is in from the bridge guardian.
Noticing one jar does not look like the others, Garret focuses his Detect Magic on it, hoping to learn something useful.
”Indeed, it is a pleasure to converse with a being as powerful and erudite as you,” says Garret. ”But what is the purpose of a bridge if no one may pass? Surely there are some exceptions, otherwise it would not be in existence at all,” he reasons. ”We have business with these death cultists and seek to preserve the lives of all creatures from the horrible atrocities imposed by their necrotic cataclysms. Surely there is some accommodation we can reach that doesn’t include unnecessary violence with you,” he proposes.
”I have nothing that would directly help against profane blades, though perhaps if someone can Dispel Magic we might be able to pass,” answers Garret in response to Silvia’s question. ”Thank you again for your help, priest. Might I know your name, that I may remember you in my own prayers?” asks Garret carefully of the spirit.
Striding over and retrieving the rapier, Garret hands it to whomever seems to be interested in having such a magic weapon. ”Thank you for your help. We should be going soon—What kind of prayers can stay the halite bridge guardian?” he adds as he prepares to depart.
”Thank you very much,” responds Garret, pausing a moment for others to ask questions if they wish. Then he adds, ”Perhaps that magic rapier under the bed would be of use as well—may we take a look?”
”Greetings, Foe of the death cultists,” responds Garret, making the title into a honorific. ”We seek to destroy the death worshippers and foil their plans to corrupt the living in the city above. If possible, we would also restore this holy place and help you find your eternal reward,” he adds. ”With that in mind, can you grant us any information that might aid our cause, or perhaps items of power that may aid us in defeating our common enemy?” requests Garret, his eyes cutting briefly towards the area under the nearby bed.
”Pray stay thy hand a moment and hear our story. We are not here to despoil your home, but to redeem it! Search my heart—I am devout as you once were in life!” proclaims Garret passionately, adding in Celestial, ”The dawn brings new light.”
Peeking into the room, Garret sees the apparition and lines up an attack with the only spell he thinks might have a chance against the undead.
Nodding, Garret climbs aboard and keeps up his magic detection, hoping to get early warning of any arcane attacks.
Waiting for the others to investigate, Garret does eventually say, ”I am no expert, but perhaps if we could repair the statue, the spirits would be mollified. I have no magic to reassemble it, though.”
”Nicely done, Ketra,” says Garret admiringly, ”Yes, let’s follow your plan.”
Garret starts drifting towards the brazier, saying, ”I detect the remnants of a powerful blessing…” Focusing his spell, Garret tries to recall if he learned anything about such iconography in his admittedly scant religious studies.
Standing down from combat readiness at Ketra’s words, Garret casts Detect Magic and scans the room, including the dead sealbreakers.
Working his way down the steps and into the room (30’ movement rate), Garret gets line of sight to a door on the western side of the room but not quite to the last Sealbreaker. He readies to cast a spell on the foe if it comes into his view.
Staying in the back and out of the way, Garret releases a silent scream completely contained within the mind of the blue Sealbreaker!
Sliding to the side, Garret gets an angle on the room past the Sealbreakers and detonates a fireball inside!
Garret offers to load a spell into the spell-storing dagger if desired. He casts See Invisibility on himself and then Shield as soon as they are about to enter.
Garret investigates the figure, murmuring, ”Royalty, perhaps?” as he tries to recall if he has heard of such a person before.
He also looks for patterns of wear or cleanliness on the stone that may indicate repeated touching that might open a secret or magically hidden portal.
Garret spends his time helping to instruct the guardsmen in this dangerous crossing, with a focus in avoiding angering the great beast.
Let’s distribute the wand of lesser restoration and the wand of cure moderate to Silva. Garret will keep the cure light wounds wand and take the wand of magic missiles VII. Sounds good? (Garret has to roll a 20 or higher to use the wand of CLW, but he gets 1d20+17 to do it)
Garret reviews their resources and girds himself for battle, casting Mage Armor on himself as they prepare to move out.
”Ketra, I have an additional potion of invisibility, and I can grant you the power of flight for 8 minutes, if you still want to try this. Or we could just wait and deal with it in the morning—I don’t have the type of magic needed to calm the creature, though, so it would have to be a very quick recon,” offers Garret.
”Good idea,” says Garret.
Garret has enough spells remaining for another couple of combats, so if we want to push forward, that is okay too. Thankfully sorcerers get a good amount of spell slots to make up for limited spells known.
Garret looks a bit worried about the upcoming fight, but he puts a brave face on the situation, saying, ”I know we are in a rush to foil the plans of the cultists, but I have used much of my magic today. Could we rest for what is left of this night and start the assault in the morning at full strength?”
”Ah, we will have to either use magic to free your priests from the mind control or dispatch the cultists exerting the mind control,” says Garret. ”That does make things more complicated, especially if your priests are forced through the mind control to attack us. Still, I think we should try,” adds Garret.
”An excellent idea,” suggests Garret to Ketra, ”Especially if we have a way to identify ourselves as allies to these priests when the time comes—perhaps as simple as ‘Grimetongue sent us to rescue you’?”
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