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The great wizardess lies immobile on the ground, her wound growing blacker by the moment. After a few seconds, her entirely blackened corpse and robe dissolves in a shadowy dust. Outside the dungeon, Piedmontina sees Sevren, or what was Sevren, flying away far faster than she can explain or match. Soon, she can't make him out anymore.
Hours later after you've had a chance to fully rest, Lucian sends Noxious to call you all back to her study. The area has been cleaned and re-organized with magical tomes and arcane ingredients back on the proper shelves and in the proper boxes. In the middle of the study, a metal clamp holds some sort of shiny funnel that is about eight inches long. Lucian stands next to it, her robes pristine and showing no signs of the recent battle. "Welcome, my minions. You served me well recently so I will let you see my greatest accomplishment. This artifact took me decades to perfect." She points to the funnel, which has rubies inlaid in spiraling patterns on its exterior. "This inter-planar funnel will allow me to channel the power of extraplanar creatures, beings older and stranger than a typical mortal can understand, and use them for my purposes." Noxious hovers cheerily behind her master, cackling quietly and respectfully at key moments. Sevren stands next to and behind his mother, his face downcast. Lucian begins slowly weaving her arms through the air and chanting while consulting a large, open book on a nearby table. You hear a faint humming coming from the funnel that grows louder and louder. Suddenly, a massive shadow bursts from the funnel and twists and writhes as a great, corporeal cloud over the heads of Lucian and Sevren. In a commanding tone, Lucian exclaims "You are a tortured creature of pain, chaos, and destruction! That is all you have known and all you seek! But you will bend to my iron will and serve me!" She clenches her fist, a ring with a clear gemstone on her finger, and the dark cloud begins compressing and shrinking toward the gemstone. It writhes and tries to twist away but is drawn inexorably toward Lucian's finger. But when it is inches from her finger, it twists suddenly away and rushes inside Sevren's chest. His head jerks upward, a shadowy aura forming around him, and his eyes fill with blackness.
Lucian looks down her nose at the telepathic ooze and shrugs "You were an experiment gone wrong. Now you're an intelligent ooze. It seems you have developed telekinetic powers to complement your telepathic powers. Very interesting indeed... Come by my study in a few hours... I f you need a designation, I suppose Launch Bob is quite appropriate."
Gorthug swipes his axe at the wizard who attempts to dodge out of the way but Gorthug tracks his movement with Goldslips help and his axe cuts deeply into the wizard's neck, dropping the human to the ground, dead. Without the wizard pestering her or buffing her enemies, Lucian whirls through the air, hurling lighting and fire in all directions and enchanting the fighter to attack the rogue, which ends in a bloody mess. She descends to the ground afterwards and smiles slightly at all of you. "That was... helpful... You may go now." She looks past you "Sevren! Stop cowering loosely in that hallway and come clean up my study!" She mutters under her breath "Useless boy..."
You rush toward Lucian's study and find the door unusually ajar. Flashes of light and the sound of clashing metal reach you and you rush in to find her normally orderly study in disarray. The tables and shelves of scrolls and potion ingredients are disturbed and many of tem are singed. You see Lucian flying in the air with noxious nearby, a large man in armor flying alongside her. A woman on the ground throws daggers at Lucian, who is bleeding from a wound in her side. Another woman incants some sort of prayer while a man with his back toward you waves his hands while blue energy glows from them. Without taking her eyes from her opponent, Lucian yells to you "Distract the small wizard!" The man looks over his shoulder but continues his spell.
Snowball and Cindy: Snowball blasts a prodigious amount of cold energy while Cindy manages to keep the apparatus in place while supplying the bird song perfectly. Lucian finishes her chanting, waves her hand and throws a pinch of purple dust into the air. There is a flash and bang. Then she scoops up the blue crystal and looks deeply inside it. To herself, she comments "Excellent. It will work flawlessly." She turns to her two helpers. "You may leave."
Snowball and Cindy: You wait outside Lucian's study for a little while then the door opens. You see Lucian standing over parchments spread on her desk inside. "Well? Come in." she states coolly. Her study is just as you've seen it before, shelves full of arcane instruments and books with titles in bizarre languages (including draconic). A heavy scent of alchemical reagents hangs in the air and the jars of pickled creature parts on the walls attest to the many experiments Lucian has conducted. Set on a table in the center of the study is a strange object. It appears to be a brass stand holding a blue crystal in a center setting with several rotatable arms keeping four other, smaller crystals in contact with the main blue crystal. The smaller crystals are one red, one blue, one brown, and one transparent. Lucian Aldor looks to the two of you. "I am conducting an experiment. When I say go, Snowball will blast the apparatus" she points to the middle of the table "as hard as he can. Do not freeze any other part of my study. Doll 23 will carefully keep the arms in place while applying very light sonic energy, with the frequency of a bird call, to the crystal. Very well. GO!" Her eyes close and she begins muttering arcane words under her breath.
Lucian whirls on Snowball, her eyes burning red. She glares at the young ice dragon, an expression that often is accompanied by pain. But this time, she merely breathes quietly "Know your place, wyrmling." Then she rises off the ground and flies back over the second flooded chamber toward her study.
The dark-haired ruler of the dungeon stalks out of the flooded chamber and begins pointing at monsters who were standing around listening. "Ooze! Go drip in the pit. It's running low on acid" she directs to Bob. "Nixie. Don't heal Cinder yet. Wait a few hours then go patch him up." She continues walking along without waiting to see that her instructions are understood or carried out. "Draugr, a turtle ended up in the first flooded chamber. Kill it and give it to Sevren." She turns to Cindy and the young ice dragon. "Be outside my study in two minutes." Then she turns to Piedmontina who is hovering nigh-invisibly nearby and sighs. "Go into the woods with the other atomie. There are some troublemakers heading this way and I can't be bothered to scry on them." With that, she whisks off back toward her study. |
