Lynnda joins in conversation as you cross town.
"You are certainly well-traveled, Cerin! I've never left Varisia. For that matter, I've never really left the Lost Coast. What are the Gunworks?"
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Lynnda casts a spell, and seems to examine the triangular pool again. "Cerin, I think you're right. The aura of this pool seems dormant now. I think we don't have anything to worry about down here again." The mystical glow in her eyes subsides. "I think we're all pretty tired, but the Sheriff did ask us to secure the far end of the tunnel. I think we should head there next and see what we can do."
"Thanks Cerin! That's much better." At the sorceress' feet, her cat rubs its fuzzy head against Cerin's leg. Seeing another misshapen horrid thing rise from the larger summoning pool, Lynnda casts a spell. A ray of blue-white energy shoots at the thing, striking it in the back.
Lynnda walks up the stairs to the pulpit and peers quizzically at the triangular pool with the glowing golden water. She reaches out with her hand and holds it a few inches above the pool. After a moment, she stands. "This water—or whatever it is—is even colder than the other pool. It almost felt like it was pulling the heat out of my hand." She steps back and casts a spell, causing her eyes to glow faintly with a bluish light. She stares intently at the triangular pool.
After a moment, she takes a step back. "That was kind of scary. This pool is an extremely potent magical source. It has very strong aura—the strongest I've ever seen—but I can't identify the type of magic. And I also can't tell exactly what it does. We noticed that the demon cut herself and let blood drip into this pool, and that caused one of those ugly f**kers to rise out of the other pool. The second one she conjured caused the glow of this pool to lessen. I wonder if it's running out of power? Does it need demon blood to activate?" She draws her dagger and holds her left hand near it. "Should we test it?"
Standing at the edge of the pool, Lynnda casts a spell. A cone of bright, multicolored rays explodes from her hands, engulfing the hovering demon. "Take THAT, b1tch!"
Lynnda's fear subsides somewhat, and she steels herself to return to face the demon. Turning on her heels, she attempts to grab Halvor as she runs past her, but he pushes her aside. Shrugging her shoulders, she re-enters the weird cathedral, fixing the demon with a hateful glare. She raises her right hand, as if about to start casting a spell.
Lynnda shrieks in fear at the tiny demon and runs out of the room.
"Ow! Damn you! Stop moving! And... ugh" Lynnda grits her teeth at the pain of the bite and from what feel like waves of fire coursing through her veins. "I think I've been poisoned!" She tries to zap the monster again.
Lynnda shrieks at the sudden appearance of the fiendish centipede. "Gaah! That thing has WAY too many legs!" She draws the iron wand recovered earlier, speaks an arcane word and the forked tip crackles with energy. She attempts to touch the centipede with it...
The wand crackles when she touches it to the centipede's exoskeleton. Electricity arcs over the monster.
"Cerin, I don't know much about unholy altars, but messing with it might be dangerous. Maybe Father Zantus would have some ideas about what to do with it?" Turning toward the double doors to the southeast, she casts detect magic and examines them. "I don't sense anything magical about the doors."
Looking over Cerin's shoulder as he thumbs through the book, Lynnda's expression turns from curiosity to horror. "Lamashtu! It's all going back to her! Tsuto's journal said that Nualia has become a priestess of Lamashtu and wants to become a demon herself!" Still holding the metal wand, she asks, "Does anyone mind if I keep this? I'm pretty sure that I know how to use it."
Lynnda casts a spell, causing her eyes to glow blue. She examines the three items she retrieved from the strange gravity-free room, picking up each item in turn.
"Well, the rod appears to be a magic wand. Activating the wand causes the forked tip to charge with magical electricity, which would cause a nasty shock if you touched it to something."
"There seems to be a magical scroll in the scroll case." She opens the case and retrieves a rolled parchment. She casts another spell and the color that her eyes glowed changes from blue to amber. She unrolls the scroll and examines it for a moment. "This is a spell scroll that will evoke a fan of searing flames." She looks at Krissina and remarks, "Very much like the spell you cast at those ranseur-wielding creeps with the little arms on their chins."
"The book isn't magical."
"Why, Cerin, I didn't know you cared! ...uh, actually I did know. That you cared. Um...kidding aside, you're probably right."
Lynnda takes Shadow off her shoulder, cradling the cat in her arms. The two lock eyes. --Bad idea-- In a quiet voice, Lynnda says, "Probably, but I'm doing it anyway." She sets the cat on the floor, and walks to the doorway next to Cerin. She looks back at the rest and smiles, then steps into the room. Instead of landing on the floor, Lynnda floats through air, lazily gliding across the room. She knocks a few of the broken pieces of glass away from her as she approaches the book. She reaches out and grabs the book as she floats by. She then reaches out with her other hand as she approaches the far wall. Black energy crackles around where her hand touched the wall, forming another rune, but Lynnda seems unaffected. Absorbing the impact, she pushes herself in a different direction, this time toward the floating rod. Grabbing that, she uses it to knock away the rotting dead bird as she approaches it, sending a dozen maggots floating away in different directions. "Eww. Hey, if it weren't for the dead bird and the maggots, this would be a lot of fun!" She stows the book and rod in her satchel as she pushes off another wall toward the scroll case. This time, she misses, clipping a large piece of the broken wine bottle, and sending it spinning toward the door. The bottle crosses the threshold of the doorway just three inches above the floor, and it clinks on the floor. The label of the wine bottle is still visible. Lynnda then manages to grab the scroll case, and then pushes back toward the door. As she approaches the open doorway, she grabs the door frame before she crosses the threshold. She then pulls herself slowly toward the hallway, stepping out with one foot. Her foot firmly on the ground, she steps back into the hallway. With a big smile, she quips, "Actually, that was a lot of fun!"
"Now that is weird!"
Answering Cerin's question, Lynnda replies, "Yeah, it sure does look like the old Arodenite holy symbols I've seen for sale as trinkets. Of course, Aroden died like, what, a hundred years ago? Y'know, I think I've seen that symbol on ships' flags in Magnimar Harbor too!"
"I dunno, Red. You look pretty roughed up. I think you should use some of the healing balm." She offers her friend the pot of unguent that Hannah had given her earlier today. Lynnda walks over to Halvor. "Okay, big guy. I've used this stuff before, and it really, really stings, but it will heal those wounds. Hold still." She tears open the parchment packet and pours a liberal amount of the yellowish powder into his wounds.
Looking at her friends, Lynnda comments, "Wow. We're all pretty banged up." She rifles a moment through her satchel and produces both a small pot of unguent and a packet of yellowish-white powder. "Does anyone want to use either of these?"
"Krissina!" Lynnda rushes over to Krissina's unconscious form and drags her away from the grasping reach of the trapped zombie.
Seeing Krissina get mauled by one of the caged zombies, Lynnda casts a spell, and a ray of icy magic shoots from her outstretched hand at the thing.
Running down the stairs and taking in the room, Lynnda exclaims, "Aroden's arse! What in the Abyss is that thing?" She then casts a spell. Ghostly motes of multicolored light appear around the mutant goblin's head, floating and twinkling dreamily. Spellcraft (DC15):
Daze Perched on her shoulder, Shadow looks at the rising cages holding zombies, and hisses menacingly.
"Sure, I'll have a look." Lynnda casts a spell and her eyes glow with a faint bluish glow. She picks up each of the items in turn and looks at them intently for several seconds before moving on to the next. Spellcraft (DC 15):
She casts detect magic
"Well, the bracelet doesn't have a magical aura. It just looks valuable. The wand looks like it contains magical healing energy, with a good number of charges. The first potion is restorative, returning lost vigor to the person who drinks it. The other vial is also a magical potion, but I can't tell what it is. And there's something magical inside the scroll tube." She opens the scroll tube and carefully takes out an ancient parchment covered with spiky runes. She casts another spell and the scroll seems to shimmer. Spellcraft (DC15):
She casts read magic "This is a magical spell scroll that summons a ball of flame that the caster can roll around with his mind."
Lynnda casts the same spell, and shoots another ray of cold at the thing.
"Yikes! Be careful around that thing-- it looks like a magical construct called a necrophidius! You want to bash it with something blunt-- that smashes the bones. Cutting or poking it won't hurt it much! And don't let it bite you-- it can stop you in your tracks! And they're immune to any magic that affects their mind or health-- because they don't have either!" She casts a spell, and a ray of cold shoots from her fingertip.
"Yeah. For as ugly as those creeps are, they do seem to die if you hit 'em hard enough. They're obviously not immune to my magic, but it looks like they are particularly strong-willed—It took three tries before I could get a hex to stick on this one! And... I still have no idea what they are!"
Lynnda steps toward the creature and stabs it with her spear.
While dodging the creature's ranseur, Lynnda casts another spell.
Another cone of scintillating colors explodes from her hand around the thing.
Lynnda runs down the stairs on the right, and casts a spell at the creature. Ghostly motes of color dance in the air around its head. Spellcraft (DC 15): Daze
"$#!t! Not more of those creeps!" Perched on the woman's shoulder, her cat folds back its ears and hisses loudly at the abominations. Lynnda casts a spell. A cone-shaped burst of dizzying colors explodes from her outstretched hand at the same creature Krissina had just immolated. Spellcraft (DC 16): color spray
Lynnda pokes the vargouille with her spear a few times to make sure it's dead. Assured that it is, she looks curiously at the skull-lined pool of water. She casts a spell, and her eyes glow with a faint blue radiance. Spellcraft (DC 15):
detect magic She then peers intently into the pool.
After a moment, the glow on her eyes fades. "That's kind of interesting. As far as I can see, the water is just plain water. There is some kind of magic in the pool that creates fresh water--that's what's bubbling up--but prevents it from spilling over. I think the skulls are just decoration--I get no sense of necromancy at all." She pauses a moment and adds, "I'm still not going to drink it, though!"
"Ugh! That thing's disgusting!"
Lynnda casts the same spell, and another ray of magical cold shoots from her outstretched hand at the thing. This ray also strikes the creature.
Spellcraft (DC15):
Lynnda casts ray of frost.
"Take this, fugly!" The spell Lynnda started casting goes off. A ray of blue-white energy arcs from her finger at the creature, striking it right in its face. Frost crystals appear on the creature's sickly green skin where the ray hit.
Lynnda gasps audibly at the sight of the creature, and braces herself at its screech. Grimacing, she shakes off its effects and starts to cast a spell.
Lynnda points at the seven-pointed star-rune carved on the door. "Hey! I've seen that before! That's an ancient Thassilonian rune called the Sihedron. It's a symbol of arcane power." She looks around the chamber. "I wonder if this whole complex is Thassilonian..."
"The first word means, 'danger.' Cerin, the second phrase literally means, 'not this way,' but you're right that the Sczarni use it to mean 'bad idea.' Among the Sczarni, that's a much stronger warning than 'accesul interzis'', which just means 'do not enter.' I think that confirms who had been using the tunnels...
Lynnda shakes her head at the guards. "You're playing Towers? Besides the obvious, don't you know it's bad luck to play games with a Harrow deck?
To Hannah, Lynnda replies, "I have to agree-- you did an excellent job with all of us last night!" She then starts perusing the wares for sale in the shop. When Kyrian holds up a potion to show her, the sorceress holds up a small clay pot. "Actually, I used something more like this!" Lynnda purcahses one pot of the healing salve and one packet of troll styptic.
Lynnda picks up a finely-crafted light crossbow, with a decoratively-carved stock and etching on the prod, trigger, and lever. She blanches slightly when she sees the pricetag, and puts the weapon back on the rack.
"I guess her father got part of his wish-- she's a priestess, alright!"
Lynnda had been sitting quietly listening to the conversation, cradling her cat in her arms, absently stroking it. The cat's loud purr fills the room. Lynnda nods at Halvor's assertion. "I'm in. We'll root out whatever creeps might be down there, demons or not!" I can't believe I'm thinking this, but I'm almost enjoying working on this side of the law!
Uh-oh. THAT'S this 'Shalelu' person? I need to play this cool...
Lynnda smiles, and shakes the elven woman's hand. "Good morning! My name is Lynnda, and it's nice to meet you." The sorceress' cat, perched on her shoulder, cocks its head sideways at Shalelu and gives her an almost quizzical look.
"We found that side passage in the tunnels, with an old warning message in Varisian not to go down there. I wonder if that's connected? Anyway, we all took a beating from the goblins and from Tsuto-- he's got a mean right hook!" The sorceress sighs, and rubs her bruised face. "Between that awful hunt with that awful Foxglove guy... and him getting handsy..., seeing what Tsuto and his goblins did to all those people, and then getting punched out, I need to lie down for a while. And a drink. And not in that order."
Lynnda groans at Kyrian's terrible pun. Standing over Tsuto's unconscious body, Lynnda begins to speak arcane words and makes some odd gestures. Her eyes glow faintly blue in the moonlight. She stares at the half-elf for a long moment.
She then kneels beside the fallen Tsuto, picking up his right hand. "This ring is enchanted," she says as she slips it off his finger. She continues to stare at it.
"It's a ring of protection, which can magically turn away an enemy's blade." She looks up as the glow fades from her eyes. "A very useful item, though certainly not foolproof! It's also worth a lot of money. Thousands." "I think we should go through his pockets, then tie him up and bring him back to town. And someone needs to break the news of her father to Ameiko."
"Wow! Looks like you got him! What happened?" The eyes of her black cat seem to glow in the moonlight. It's the only part of the cat any of you can see.
Pointing to the charcoal writing on the wall, Lynnda says to Halvor, "That's Varisian. It says, 'Danger! Stay with the plan!'" She thinks for a moment, and adds, "That's a Sczarni phrase, meaning 'Bad idea.' But which way did Tsuto and the others go?"
Lynnda tries to disentangle herself from Halvor, and finds that her left ankle is entwined in one of the tripwires. "Enough of this!" Disgusted at their inability to get through the apparent morass of tripwires, Lynnda holds her torch low to the ground and starts cutting the wires with her dagger.
"Urf! Ugh. Really?!!"
Lynnda picks herself up off the floor and tries to follow her companions, but finds a second tripwire in the passage the hard way, falling flat on her face again. Her cat sits in front of her, staring at her in an almost-mocking manner, its eyes glowing amber in the flickering torchlight. "Easy for you to say!" snorts the sorceress.
"Ugh. Thanks." She rubs her nose as she gets to her feet. "I'll try my best." --Good?-- Shadow purrs loudly and hops onto Lynnda's shoulder as she gets to her feet.
"Oww! You little f@&%er! Take that!" Lynnda casts a spell, and the goblins both go down.
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