”Nicely done, Ketra,” says Garret admiringly, ”Yes, let’s follow your plan.”
Search Posts
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’?”
”Indeed, we have no quarrel with you unless you are part of this cult that seeks to do harm to our city,” adds Garret, stepping up with empty hands open to show a lack of hostility.
Garret remains silent, but prepares to jump in if Ketra wishes negotiation backup.
As he stops, Garret hears something too. He tries to determine what direction it came from.
Garret shrugs his shoulders and casts Detect Magic, searching the cultist knights for anything of use.
”Well, it worked last time,” thinks Garret. He sends another volley of magic missiles at the cultist knight.
Noting that the blinded knight cast Bull’s Strength in himself, Garret hopes he has neglected to cast Shield as well. He shoots five missiles of force at the knight, hoping to take him out of the fight.
With one golem going down from the party’s ferocious assault, Garret decides to continue to focus on debilitating the cultist knights instead of trying to damage the golems with magic. He sends a silent scream into the head of the purple cultist (non-blinded one). Sonic damage and dazed 1 round
As they prepare for battle, Garret refreshes his Shield spell. Combat starts, but the foes are too far away to capture all with one spell. He whispers to Ketra, "Go ahead and engage, I'm going to try and debilitate the cultist knights. I'll hit the golems next." Calling on the holy power of pure light, Garret summons a sphere of radiance around the knights, hoping to blind them!
Garret quietly describes what he knows about these golems. He is unaware of any particular control mechanisms, but he at least knows how to fight them.
"Hmmm...How does one 'handle' a golem? Some kind of control mechanism perhaps? My guess would be that if we take out the cultists before they can repurpose the golems to attack us, we may prevail," suggests Garret, considering what he knows about golems.
Garret will have Detect Magic up and usually taking a 10 (for a 15 Perception), primarily checking for magical effects.
”A little stink isn’t going to slow me down,” says Garret bravely, ”Let’s keep going while the tracks are still fresh!”
”What do you guys think of these drag marks?” Garret asks, following the path of the scuffs with his eyes to see which way they went.
”I would guess these are the betrayed Crows that rose as Exiled Shades,” says Garret. Casting Detect Magic, he scours the area for clues magical and mundane. He also puts another Searing Light into the spell-storing dagger.
Looking into the building, Garret sees the frightening shades flit around, his Deathwatch eyes confirming they are indeed undead. Gripping his Selective Metamagic Rod, he carefully casts a roaring fireball into the room, its magic seeking to incinerate the spirits while leaving his allies unscathed!
”Exiled Shades—incorporeal undead! exclaims Garret, wishing he had refreshed his Shield spell before entering the battle.
”Excellent plan, Ketra,” says Garret. ”Now that the lieutenant is safe left us clear the main house while there may still be crows alive left to question.” Garret prepares to follow the group into the main building.
Realization dawning, Garret answers, ”My guess is that your location is a bargaining chip any remaining crows are using to stay alive assuming they are being interrogated by the cultists. Evil groups feeding on each other seem to have given us the opportunity to pluck you from both their clutches.”
"Corporal Hernan Entietor survived the hanging long enough for us to rescue him. He is safe in Vigil now. It has been hours, not days, since your abduction, so we hope to stop whatever it is the cultists have planned before it befalls the innocent. Did your captors let anything slip about their plans? What can you tell us of this place--I take it we have much more to do tonight to forestall the cultist plans," responds Garret. "Captain Rosalind Sunstone here can give you more details on the military implications, but I am inclined to just incinerate whatever cultists we find after what they did to my hometown," he adds, gesturing to the captain.
”Don’t worry—we are here to help,” says Garret gently as she comes awake. ”We are trying to rescue Lieutenant Doeswen—are you she?”
Gathering up the treasure, Garret says, ”Right, let’s move along before our spells expire.”
Garret takes a deep breath and casts Detect Magic, scanning the room for anything unusual.
”It was well-hidden and emerged with pseudopods long enough to almost reach us all. Do not apologize to me for being up front and risking first contact with the foes—I depend on you to do so, though perhaps this time you did get a little close,” replies Garret. He adds, ”You knowing and communicating the ooze’s resistances gave me the information I needed to choose spells for maximum effect. You did well this battle, whether it feels that way or not.”
"Let me try and freeze it--then maybe it will be brittle enough to crack and allow you to break free!" calls out Garret. Aiming carefully, the sorcerer gesticulates and summons a torrent of frigid dragon's breath to assault the ooze!
As Rosalind describes the ooze’s capabilities while being pummeled, Garret backs off and launches a flurry of magic missiles at the creature, having no other good way to damage it given its resistances to his other spells and its proximity to his allies.
Garret casts Shield and See Invisibility with his Rod of Extend Spell. (18 minutes for Shield, 180 for See Invisibility). ”I will keep an eye out for anything invisible and use one of my scrolls (Faerie Fire) to illuminate it at need,” offers Garret. He adds, ”As for where to start, I suspect everything of interest will be on the main building.”
”Let us proceed quickly to the dyeworks,” says Garret. ”Their efforts to silence the Crows are irrelevant as long as we keep capturing documentary proof of their crimes as well as bodies of their leaders to question. If we hurry, perhaps we might save some innocents as well as bring the cultists to justice,” he adds.
Garret casts Daylight on a coin and hands it to Rosalind. ”Feel free to use this if you see movement out there.”
”A teleportation spell was cast here—within the last few minutes,” relates Garret.
|