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<blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 6098881" data-attributes="member: 508"><p><strong>ADVENTURE 60 - BEHIND THE DOOR THAT DOESN'T BELONG</strong></p><p></p><p>PC Roster: <p style="margin-left: 20px">Cal Trop, human cleric of Kord</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Chalkan, half-elf ranger/cleric of Corellon Larethian/sorcerer/arcane archer</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Feron Dru, half-elf druid</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Telgrane, human conjurer</p><p></p><p>"We'd better buff up," commented Cal as he cast a <em>stoneskin</em> spell upon himself. "There's no telling what's behind this door."</p><p></p><p>"How'd it get here?" asked Chalkan. "Obviously, Greymantle doesn't know it's here."</p><p></p><p>"I imagine it's like our <em>Daern's dollhouse</em>," observed Feron. "Only it's just a door. But I'd guess you can probably take it with you somehow."</p><p></p><p>"Pilot didn't say anything about 'a statue of an elven woman carved out of black marble, <em>carrying a freaking door under her arm!</em>'" argued Chalkan.</p><p></p><p>"Maybe it's collapsible," suggested Feron. "Or it shrinks down."</p><p></p><p>"Maybe who cares?" said Telgrane. "Who wants to open it?"</p><p></p><p>"Nega-dibs!" called Chalkan, stepping back away from the door.</p><p></p><p>Feron was observing the silver runes which ran along the black door's frame. "Recognize anything?" asked Cal.</p><p></p><p>"These are elven runes," Feron replied. "I recognize this one, and this one over here - they're involved in extradimensional magic effects, I believe."</p><p></p><p>"Well, let's see if it opens," said the cleric of Kord, stepping up to the door and turning the knob. It was locked.</p><p></p><p>"We should have brought Rale," lamented Chalkan, earning him a dirty look from Cal.</p><p></p><p>"We don't need Rale to get us through a simple locked door," replied Cal, and then gave the door all of the strength a cleric of the God of Strength - and even more, one with the blood of that same god running through his veins - could muster. He forced his way past the locking mechanism and even past the <em>arcane lock</em> that had been in place. The door swung into the room behind - which had to be extradimensional, since the area behind the wall on which the Door was located was the octagonal corridor around the artificial garden at the center of the <em>Planar Scout</em> - which was cloaked in darkness.</p><p></p><p>But not for long. Entering the room and activating a sun rod, Cal saw it was a square room, 25 feet on a side, with a 5-foot-square projection on the center of each of the four walls. The Door which he had just entered was centered on one such projection; the other two were to the left and right and held closed doors, while the way straight ahead was blocked by a series of hanging beads at the far side of the projection. More importantly, the room contained not one but four statues of nude elven women, each carved from black marble in such a way as to appear to be holding a large sword in front of them. These statues stood in each corner of the room, upon black marble platforms, and balanced similar sized platforms upon their heads. Cal recognized the style: these were caryatid columns, each statue nearly 15 feet tall, a mere 5 feet shorter than the ceiling height of the room. But surely none of them were the intruder who had stolen the <em>Planar Scout</em>; these were much too big to have entered the cramped control room at the front of the vessel.</p><p></p><p>The sound of the Door slamming shut behind the heroes occurred in the same instant that the four statues animated and attacked.</p><p></p><p>Cal, not entirely surprised by such an occurrence, leapt at the closest statue and swung at it with his magic mace. It chipped off a few flakes of stone upon impact, but overall the caryatid column seemed mostly unaffected. She, in turn, swung her stone sword at Cal and struck him heavily in the side, but the cleric's <em>stoneskin</em> spell absorbed most of the damage, and he merely grunted and pressed on.</p><p></p><p>Telgrane responded as he did in most similar circumstances, by calling forth someone to do his fighting for him. A large earth elemental suddenly appeared in the middle of the room, and it stepped between Telgrane and the statue barreling down on him. Feron cast a quick spell of her own, and lightning bolts struck down at the caryatid columns from the room's ceiling. Chalkan, believing his arrows would have limited effect against opponents made from stone, opted to use a <em>wand of magic missiles</em> against the animated statues. It was a hard fight in somewhat cramped quarters, but eventually the heroes prevailed.</p><p></p><p>"Which way now?" huffed Feron, catching her breath. Cal impulsively chose the door to the left, and passing through it, found himself standing on a beach at sunset, with the sounds of the waves crashing onto the shore a soothing contrast to the sounds of recent battle in the room just behind him. There was a white marble bench on the beach, and a doorway flanked by marble pillars. Looking behind him, he could see that the door he had just passed through was flanked by white marble pillars as well.</p><p></p><p>"Nice," remarked Telgrane upon entering. "But it's all an illusion."</p><p></p><p>"Are you sure?" asked Cal.</p><p></p><p>"Strong aura of illusion magic permeating this entire room," replied the conjurer, using his arcane sight.</p><p></p><p>"For what purpose?" asked Chalkan.</p><p></p><p>"Meditation?" suggested Feron. "I'd imagine even animated stone statues need to recuperate their spells somehow. This might be some sort of relaxation chamber - kind of like Pinwhistle's regeneration booth back at Dr. Greymantle's manor." It made enough sense to adopt as a likely explanation. But rather than travel through the door on the beach, the group opted to backtrack into the entry room and try the other door. It led to a construct lab, where several other statues of nude elven women - or, upon closer examination, the <em>same</em> nude elven woman - were in various stages of carving.</p><p></p><p>"That's the same elven woman as the four caryatid columns," observed Feron. "Whoever this statue-woman is, she's got a pretty high opinion of herself." However, immediately upon Feron making this observation, one of the statues lurched forward and attacked. It was larger than even the caryatid columns had been, and after several minutes of trading attacks it became apparent that this construct had all of the characteristics of a stone golem, if a slightly different appearance. Still, the group had fought stone golems before, and the end result was the same as the others they had destroyed before: shattered construct pieces littering the floor.</p><p></p><p>There was another door to what the group arbitrarily decided was "north" from the construct lab, which led to a room with a sunken center. A series of beads hung from a doorway to the "west," which led the group to believe that the room that way likely had all of its entrances covered in hanging bead doorways. There was a short set of stairs leading down to the "sunken" portion of the room, which featured a large mirror on the wall facing the stairs. A helmet lay discarded on the floor. Telgrane noted it had an aura of divination, and placed it over his head. In doing so, the image of a small grove of trees appeared in the mirror. "Hey, I can move some kind of a sensor around by thinking about it!" Telgrane said, and demonstrated by changing the image in the mirror. To the others, it was if they were flying around a bunch of trees.</p><p></p><p>"Hey!" called out Feron. "That's Dr. Greymantle's manor!" And sure enough, it was. The view in the mirror was of the back of the archmage's dwelling - specifically, the back of the manor where the <em>Planar Scout</em>'s hangar stood. "This is how she knew when to attack Greymantle, when he turned off the shield above the hangar and landed the <em>Planar Scout</em> in the hangar," reasoned the conjurer.</p><p></p><p>"So which way now?" asked Chalkan. "How about we see what's behind these beads?" Impulsively, he walked up and put his hand through the metal beads to push them aside and see what was in the next room - and was attacked for his troubles. The bead strings animated, wrapping around the half-elf's hand and arm, as other strands started wrapping around his legs and torso. "Hey!" he cried in alarm. The others rushed to his rescue, Cal grabbing up his legs and tugging him away from the beads while Feron slashed at the strands above Chalkan with her scimitar. Telgrane summoned a celestial beetle to go in and wrestle with the beads, and it managed to keep them busy enough for Cal to free Chalkan, then slide him into the room beyond. He rolled under the flailing beads and into the larger room, and Feron and Telgrane followed suit.</p><p></p><p>The group was now in an even larger square chamber, this one 35 feet to a side. As expected, all four walls sported a doorway in its center, covered in hanging beads. Five white marble columns reached to the ceiling, arranged like the pips on the "5" side of a standard die. Telgrane approached the center pillar. "Odd," he said. "This one is radiating transmutation magic."</p><p></p><p>"Is it a trap?" asked Cal. "Touch it and get turned into a bunny or something?"</p><p></p><p>"I don't think so," replied the conjurer. "It seems to be self-contained: the magic affects the column, nothing else."</p><p></p><p>"Well, let's find out," said Feron, and cast a <em>stone tell</em> spell on the central pillar. "What's your deal?" she asked it.</p><p></p><p>"Please elaborate," replied the stone column.</p><p></p><p>"What is your function?"</p><p></p><p>"I am an elevator platform, leading to the upper level."</p><p></p><p>"How does one activate you?"</p><p></p><p>"By command word," replied the column.</p><p></p><p>"What is the command word?" Feron demanded.</p><p></p><p>"'<em>Saadenial</em>' to lower the column, and '<em>Lerretar</em>' to raise it." Feron couldn't help but notice that these were the Elven words for "home below" and "magic above," respectively.</p><p></p><p>"Shall we?" she asked. The others readied their weapons - and Telgrane released Infernia from her tinder box - and nodded their assent. "Saadenial!" called out Feron. The stone pillar started lowering into the stone floor of the room, until a three-foot circle on the floor was all that remained of it. The group looked up at the ceiling, but could see no corresponding hole directly above. However: "There's an illusion in the center of the ceiling," Telgrane said. "<em>Illusory wall</em> spell, no doubt."</p><p></p><p>A feminine voice muttered some arcane syllables from the ceiling above, and a <em>fireball</em> streaked down to engulf the heroes. Infernia and Telgrane shrugged off the effects, but the rest of the group scattered to avoid a repetition of these tactics. However, their unseen adversary quickly changed tactics, and the next spell streaking down from the ceiling was a <em>chain lightning</em> spell, striking Telgrane and arcing out to hit all of his companions. Chalkan backed even further away from his companions, trying to get out of spell range, and found himself within reach of another set of bead-strands. "Not again!" he called out as the beads tried entangling him within their lengths.</p><p></p><p>Telgrane assumed that the floor of the level above them was of a standard thickness, and cast a <em>summon monster</em> spell up there, reasoning that the best thing to throw against an animated statue was an earth elemental. His spell was greeted by a yell of surprise from above - which Feron identified as a powerful oath in the Elven language. "Got her attention!" she called to Telgrane, who grinned back at her. But their victory was short-lived, for in a flash an animated statue appeared in the room. It was a nude elven woman, carved in black marble, and she said a string of Elven words before casting a <em>cloudkill</em> spell in the middle of the room. Then she turned on her heel and walked imperiously through the beads in the western doorway, which parted effortless for her.</p><p></p><p>"Follow her!" commanded Telgrane to Infernia, as he cast a <em>gust of wind</em> spell to blow away the poisonous vapors. He aimed them to the south, to the entry chamber, then called for his summoned earth elemental to come down and aid them. The creature obeyed instantly, leaping effortlessly through the <em>illusory wall</em> spell in the ceiling to plummet through the marble floor, then rise back up as if on an elevator. "You go guard the front door, in that direction," he commanded. "Don't let any black marble statues exit through that door. The elemental obeyed, simply tearing the animated bead-strings from the doorway when they attempted to stop it from passing.</p><p></p><p>The rest of the group, recovering from the poisonous vapors they had accidentally inhaled, rescued Chalkan from the beads and they all followed the marble statue through another set of animated beads, Cal following the earth elemental's example and allowing them to wrap around his arm and then use his Kord-granted strength to yank them from the ceiling. "What did she say before she cast the <em>cloudkill</em>?" asked Telgrane.</p><p></p><p>"'None dare enter the sanctum of <strong>Ambrosia Black</strong>!'" quoted Feron. "It was Elven."</p><p></p><p>"It sounded like it," replied Telgrane, as they entered the next room. This was a scriptorium, with long desks holding various scrolls and cabinets of writing implements. It was empty, but the door to the north was open, and spilling out of the room beyond was a mobile cloud of sickly green vapors. "Another <em>cloudkill!</em>" warned Telgrane.</p><p></p><p>He was partially correct. This was a <em>cloudkill</em> spell, but one that had been granted a level of sentience by the elven spellcaster. The living <em>cloudkill</em> obeyed Ambrosia's commands - in Elven, for she deigned speak no lesser language - to kill the intruders. She stood in the midst of its billowing vapors, unharmed by its poisonous nature by virtue of her unliving marble form.</p><p></p><p>But Infernia was immune to poison effects as well, and she went wading into combat with the living statue. Of course, there was little chance that a marble statue would be set ablaze by a fire elemental's pounding fists, but she was willing to do whatever would help her master defeat his enemies. Telgrane, meanwhile, was lamenting the fact that he didn't have a second <em>gust of wind</em> spell ready, and was reduced to fleeing the living spell. Cal and Feron likewise backed away from it, and sent ranged spells into its mass in an attempt to kill it from afar. Ambrosia advanced as her living spell advanced, casting spells at the enemies who dared invade her sanctuary. The heroes were forced back into the central chamber. Not wanting to get tangled up in the northernmost set of animated beads, Telgrane again assumed the thickness of the wall was about five feet wide, and used a <em>stone shape</em> spell to burrow a tunnel to the side of the doorway, through the marble wall and into another square room beyond. This one was a mirror image of the entry chamber, only instead of caryatid columns in the corners it had a summoning circle permanently etched into the floor. He ducked into the tunnel and into the room, staying ahead of the billowing <em>cloudkill</em> spell.</p><p></p><p>Cal and Feron, the two highest-level spellcasters in this particular group of heroes, traded spell attacks with Ambrosia as best as they could, with the occasional spell thrown at the <em>cloudkill</em> for good measure. They did finally destroy the animated spell effect, causing a look of hatred to pass over the otherwise beautiful elven features of Ambrosia Black's marble face. She redoubled her efforts, using <em>dimension door</em> to disappear from view so she could attack from another direction.</p><p></p><p>"Half-elf abomination!" she spewed at Feron, striking her with a blow from her marble fist that sent the druid reeling across the room. "How dare your ancestors sully their elven heritage with the likes of a human!" Of the intruders, Ambrosia seemed to harbor the most ill-will towards the druid, perhaps because her half-elven beauty rivaled that of the living construct. Chalkan was as fully a half-elf as was Feron, but he was a male, and thus perhaps on a lower level of consideration to the bigoted elven wizard.</p><p></p><p>Eventually, as was often the case with drawn-out spell battles, all of the casters had used up their most powerful spells and were trying to do their best with their lower-level spells. At this stage, Ambrosia Black was clearly at an advantage, for her marble body had more strength than even Cal's mighty frame, and she gleefully traded blows with him while cursing him in her own native language - which flowed past Cal's ears like water from a duck's back, as he didn't speak the language. Still, he could guess the gist of her ranting, and responded with a snarled "Right back at you, lady!"</p><p></p><p>Eventually, a look of concern crossed Ambrosia's face, for while they were all casting their lower-level spells at each other, Chalkan's <em>wand of fireball</em> was just as powerful as ever. The other heroes backed away and allowed Chalkan to blast the living statue again and again with his wand, and while she appeared to be partially protected from the flames, each strike seemed to be doing some damage. All out of <em>teleport</em> and <em>dimension door</em> spells, Ambrosia raced to the elevator pillar in the central room, but Feron anticipated this avenue of escape and stepped into the circle, saying "Lerretar" to get it to raise up to the upper level and jumping off as it raised to the ceiling, landing nimbly back to the floor of the lower level. Apparently it was programmed to finish one action before accepting a new command, because Ambrosia simply glared in hatred at Feron rather than say the command word to lower the column.</p><p></p><p>A few more <em>fireballs</em> and Ambrosia Black was no more. "No!" she cried out in Elven as her exquisite marble body was engulfed in another explosion of flames. "I will not be defeated by members of the lesser--" She never got to finish her sentence.</p><p></p><p>Feron called the central pillar down, and then one at a time they each went upstairs (Telgrane having Infernia jump back into her tinder box to save a trip, then releasing her once they got upstairs). The upper level was not arranged as symmetrically as was the lower level, being made up almost entirely of an enormous library. "No touching," admonished Telgrane to his fiery familiar.</p><p></p><p>"Yes, Master," replied Infernia, putting her hands behind her back.</p><p></p><p>A pile of books on a table nearby configured itself into the semblance of a face, and asked "May I help you? And where is the Mistress?" in the Elven tongue.</p><p></p><p>"Dead," replied Feron in the same language, and then switched to Common. "Do you speak anything besides Elven?"</p><p></p><p>"Indeed," replied the animated pile of books in the Common tongue. "I am conversant in most of the common languages in the region, as well as several extraplanar languages. If you have defeated Ambrosia Black, then I suppose I am now yours. My name is <strong>Rhunic</strong>. I act as the permanent librarian here."</p><p></p><p>"So you know all about this pocket dimension?" asked Feron.</p><p></p><p>"Indeed I do," replied Rhunic. He caused a book to float out from its place on one of the many shelves in the library, and fly over to the heroes. "This book details the construction of the Door and the rooms beyond."</p><p></p><p>"Cool!" said Chalkan, then jumped to the chase. "Is there a treasure room?"</p><p></p><p>"Indeed there is," replied Rhunic. "There's a secret panel on the wall just behind you." He began to describe its workings, but Chalkan had beaten him to it. A section of the wall slid to the side with the rumble of stone on stone, revealing a short corridor ending in a blank wall. Not surprisingly, there was a similar secret door on that wall, leading into a room filled with treasure. Chalkan whooped with joy and raced into the room. Cal tried to pull him back, but it was too late. Fortunately, there were no obvious traps in the room, just a series of chests and ornate boxes. Chalkan opened each one eagerly, and it was fortunate that they were all untrapped. The first seven chests were all filled with either coins or gems and jewelry. A long wooden case contained an ornate longbow of exquisite elven manufacture, and Feron could tell the quiver stored next to it was a <em>quiver of Ehlonna</em> by the holy symbol engraved upon it. "This is quite a haul!" exclaimed Chalkan with glee.</p><p></p><p>"It sure is," admitted Telgrane. "But I'm more interested in what the library holds." He turned and re-entered the narrow passageway, noticing the arcane glyphs above the doorway only at the last second, when it was too late - and thus activated Ambrosia's final act of vengeance. In a second, a pile of Telgrane's clothes dropped to the floor in the doorway, followed by the quiet <em>thunk</em> of his <em>ioun stone</em> falling to the floor.</p><p></p><p>"Master!" cried Infernia, jumping through the doorway into oblivion - or at least, that's what it seemed like to the others, who watched the small fire elemental disappear from view.</p><p></p><p>"Nobody move!" commanded Cal to the others. "Feron, what are those runes?" The half-elf examined them, and replied that they looked to be involved in teleportation magic, possibly of an extraplanar nature. "I think they were <em>plane shifted</em> somewhere else."</p><p></p><p>"Any idea where?" asked Cal.</p><p></p><p>"No idea, sorry," answered Feron.</p><p></p><p>"Okay, we can't get out of this treasure room this way," reasoned the cleric. "Rhunic! Is there another way out of this room?" he called.</p><p></p><p>"Alas, there is not," replied the librarian from the other room.</p><p></p><p>"What's the point of having a treasure room you can't exit from?" asked Chalkan.</p><p></p><p>"Oh, I'm sure Ambrosia had no problem coming in or out of this room," replied Feron. "I imagine the runes are attuned to only affect living creatures, not animated statues. Or maybe there's a password or something."</p><p></p><p>"Rhunic, is there a password to allow us to get out of this room?" Cal demanded.</p><p></p><p>"Alas, if there is, it is unknown to me," called back Rhunic. "Ambrosia has not documented any details about protective measures in the treasure room in any of the books in this library. And I would know."</p><p></p><p>"Okay, we're making our own safe passageway," replied Cal. "We're going to do like Telgrane did downstairs, and carve a passageway with a <em>stone shape</em> spell."</p><p></p><p>"You have one readied?" asked Chalkan.</p><p></p><p>"On a scroll," replied Cal, digging through his scroll tubes for the right one. But it did the trick, and thereafter Ambrosia's treasure room had a second entrance and exit.</p><p></p><p>"How are we going to find Telgrane and Infernia?" asked Feron with a worried tone in her voice.</p><p></p><p>"We're not going to, today," admitted Cal. "We don't have the spellpower. We'll have to rest up, and try to find him tomorrow. In the meantime, let's go back to the <em>Planar Scout</em> and see how Greymantle is doing, and if Pilot's fixed the ship yet so we can get home. Remember, we're still on the first layer of the Nine Hells."</p><p></p><p>"Oh yeah," replied Feron. "I kind of forgot during all of the excitement."</p><p></p><p>Fortunately, Pilot had just about finished the repairs to the ship, and Dr. Graymantle was resting comfortable. Pinwhistle was glad to hear that the heroes had taken care of Ambrosia Black, and had high hopes that they'd be able to get back home, Thag would be able to repair the severed leg of the warforged, and the heroes would be able to find Telgrane and Infernia.</p><p></p><p> - - -</p><p></p><p>Pinwhistle was mostly correct. Dr. Greymantle's shield around the vessel managed to keep even a dedicated pit fiend at bay, and Pilot effected repairs and steered the <em>Planar Scout</em> up out of Avernus and back to the skies of Oerth. They landed in the hangar behind Greymantle's manor house, and the three heroes said their goodbyes. Rhunic had informed them how to remove and transport the Door That Doesn't Belong - the whole thing rolled up like a poster when not in use - and they took it with them.</p><p></p><p>The next day, though, once fully rested and with a full complement of spells, Cal began with some divination spells. From these, he learned that Telgrane was dead, although Infernia was still alive. "I can cast a <em>true resurrection</em> to get Telgrane back," he said. "I don't know how to get to Infernia, though."</p><p></p><p>Casting the spell caused Telgrane's body to materialize in its present form, before its wounds were healed and Telgrane's life restored. Telgrane's corpse arrived naked, with nasty-looking bites on his thigh that were swollen and purple. His torso was badly burned, with holes burned in two places on his chest. Once revived, Telgrane could explain the bites as having come from a phase spider - he had been <em>plane shifted</em> to the Ethereal Plane, where he had been set upon by one of the fierce arachnids who dwelled there. Naked and without his spell components, he was no match for the phase spider, and even Infernia was unable to fight off the creature before the poison worked its way through Telgrane's system, stopping his heart.</p><p></p><p>"I can summon her directly, once I regain my spells tomorrow," Telgrane said. "I hope she'll be okay until then."</p><p></p><p>She was. She had eventually managed to kill the phase spider whose bite had killed Telgrane, and any others in the area were smart enough to realize a fire elemental made for poor eating. And the burns on Telgrane's chest were the result of her throwing herself upon her master's unliving form in her grief, her magma tears burning through a body no longer protected by fire, since the <em>ring of fire protection</em> Telgrane wore had been left behind in Ambrosia Black's treasure room along with all of his other worn items.</p><p></p><p>When Infernia suddenly appeared in the Wing Three living room the day after Telgrane's <em>resurrection</em> as a result of her master's summons, she appeared in her ember form, as a small pile of ashes with a tiny spark of life left glowing in its center. "He's dead, he's dead," she cried out in anguish, over and over. Telgrane knelt down and blew softly on the ashes, causing the ember to glow brighter. Surprised, Infernia reassumed her fiery humanoid form, and was astonished to see Telgrane kneeling before her. "MASTER!" she cried in delight. "You're ALIVE!" She rushed to him and hugged him tightly, and it was a good thing Telgrane once again wore his <em>ring of fire protection</em>, or he'd have suffered similar burn marks once again.</p><p></p><p>To this day, nobody has ever complained about the scorch marks on the carpet in the living room of the Wing Three general quarters.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Richards, post: 6098881, member: 508"] [b]ADVENTURE 60 - BEHIND THE DOOR THAT DOESN'T BELONG[/b] PC Roster: [INDENT]Cal Trop, human cleric of Kord Chalkan, half-elf ranger/cleric of Corellon Larethian/sorcerer/arcane archer Feron Dru, half-elf druid Telgrane, human conjurer[/INDENT] "We'd better buff up," commented Cal as he cast a [i]stoneskin[/i] spell upon himself. "There's no telling what's behind this door." "How'd it get here?" asked Chalkan. "Obviously, Greymantle doesn't know it's here." "I imagine it's like our [i]Daern's dollhouse[/i]," observed Feron. "Only it's just a door. But I'd guess you can probably take it with you somehow." "Pilot didn't say anything about 'a statue of an elven woman carved out of black marble, [i]carrying a freaking door under her arm![/i]'" argued Chalkan. "Maybe it's collapsible," suggested Feron. "Or it shrinks down." "Maybe who cares?" said Telgrane. "Who wants to open it?" "Nega-dibs!" called Chalkan, stepping back away from the door. Feron was observing the silver runes which ran along the black door's frame. "Recognize anything?" asked Cal. "These are elven runes," Feron replied. "I recognize this one, and this one over here - they're involved in extradimensional magic effects, I believe." "Well, let's see if it opens," said the cleric of Kord, stepping up to the door and turning the knob. It was locked. "We should have brought Rale," lamented Chalkan, earning him a dirty look from Cal. "We don't need Rale to get us through a simple locked door," replied Cal, and then gave the door all of the strength a cleric of the God of Strength - and even more, one with the blood of that same god running through his veins - could muster. He forced his way past the locking mechanism and even past the [i]arcane lock[/i] that had been in place. The door swung into the room behind - which had to be extradimensional, since the area behind the wall on which the Door was located was the octagonal corridor around the artificial garden at the center of the [i]Planar Scout[/i] - which was cloaked in darkness. But not for long. Entering the room and activating a sun rod, Cal saw it was a square room, 25 feet on a side, with a 5-foot-square projection on the center of each of the four walls. The Door which he had just entered was centered on one such projection; the other two were to the left and right and held closed doors, while the way straight ahead was blocked by a series of hanging beads at the far side of the projection. More importantly, the room contained not one but four statues of nude elven women, each carved from black marble in such a way as to appear to be holding a large sword in front of them. These statues stood in each corner of the room, upon black marble platforms, and balanced similar sized platforms upon their heads. Cal recognized the style: these were caryatid columns, each statue nearly 15 feet tall, a mere 5 feet shorter than the ceiling height of the room. But surely none of them were the intruder who had stolen the [i]Planar Scout[/i]; these were much too big to have entered the cramped control room at the front of the vessel. The sound of the Door slamming shut behind the heroes occurred in the same instant that the four statues animated and attacked. Cal, not entirely surprised by such an occurrence, leapt at the closest statue and swung at it with his magic mace. It chipped off a few flakes of stone upon impact, but overall the caryatid column seemed mostly unaffected. She, in turn, swung her stone sword at Cal and struck him heavily in the side, but the cleric's [i]stoneskin[/i] spell absorbed most of the damage, and he merely grunted and pressed on. Telgrane responded as he did in most similar circumstances, by calling forth someone to do his fighting for him. A large earth elemental suddenly appeared in the middle of the room, and it stepped between Telgrane and the statue barreling down on him. Feron cast a quick spell of her own, and lightning bolts struck down at the caryatid columns from the room's ceiling. Chalkan, believing his arrows would have limited effect against opponents made from stone, opted to use a [i]wand of magic missiles[/i] against the animated statues. It was a hard fight in somewhat cramped quarters, but eventually the heroes prevailed. "Which way now?" huffed Feron, catching her breath. Cal impulsively chose the door to the left, and passing through it, found himself standing on a beach at sunset, with the sounds of the waves crashing onto the shore a soothing contrast to the sounds of recent battle in the room just behind him. There was a white marble bench on the beach, and a doorway flanked by marble pillars. Looking behind him, he could see that the door he had just passed through was flanked by white marble pillars as well. "Nice," remarked Telgrane upon entering. "But it's all an illusion." "Are you sure?" asked Cal. "Strong aura of illusion magic permeating this entire room," replied the conjurer, using his arcane sight. "For what purpose?" asked Chalkan. "Meditation?" suggested Feron. "I'd imagine even animated stone statues need to recuperate their spells somehow. This might be some sort of relaxation chamber - kind of like Pinwhistle's regeneration booth back at Dr. Greymantle's manor." It made enough sense to adopt as a likely explanation. But rather than travel through the door on the beach, the group opted to backtrack into the entry room and try the other door. It led to a construct lab, where several other statues of nude elven women - or, upon closer examination, the [i]same[/i] nude elven woman - were in various stages of carving. "That's the same elven woman as the four caryatid columns," observed Feron. "Whoever this statue-woman is, she's got a pretty high opinion of herself." However, immediately upon Feron making this observation, one of the statues lurched forward and attacked. It was larger than even the caryatid columns had been, and after several minutes of trading attacks it became apparent that this construct had all of the characteristics of a stone golem, if a slightly different appearance. Still, the group had fought stone golems before, and the end result was the same as the others they had destroyed before: shattered construct pieces littering the floor. There was another door to what the group arbitrarily decided was "north" from the construct lab, which led to a room with a sunken center. A series of beads hung from a doorway to the "west," which led the group to believe that the room that way likely had all of its entrances covered in hanging bead doorways. There was a short set of stairs leading down to the "sunken" portion of the room, which featured a large mirror on the wall facing the stairs. A helmet lay discarded on the floor. Telgrane noted it had an aura of divination, and placed it over his head. In doing so, the image of a small grove of trees appeared in the mirror. "Hey, I can move some kind of a sensor around by thinking about it!" Telgrane said, and demonstrated by changing the image in the mirror. To the others, it was if they were flying around a bunch of trees. "Hey!" called out Feron. "That's Dr. Greymantle's manor!" And sure enough, it was. The view in the mirror was of the back of the archmage's dwelling - specifically, the back of the manor where the [i]Planar Scout[/i]'s hangar stood. "This is how she knew when to attack Greymantle, when he turned off the shield above the hangar and landed the [i]Planar Scout[/i] in the hangar," reasoned the conjurer. "So which way now?" asked Chalkan. "How about we see what's behind these beads?" Impulsively, he walked up and put his hand through the metal beads to push them aside and see what was in the next room - and was attacked for his troubles. The bead strings animated, wrapping around the half-elf's hand and arm, as other strands started wrapping around his legs and torso. "Hey!" he cried in alarm. The others rushed to his rescue, Cal grabbing up his legs and tugging him away from the beads while Feron slashed at the strands above Chalkan with her scimitar. Telgrane summoned a celestial beetle to go in and wrestle with the beads, and it managed to keep them busy enough for Cal to free Chalkan, then slide him into the room beyond. He rolled under the flailing beads and into the larger room, and Feron and Telgrane followed suit. The group was now in an even larger square chamber, this one 35 feet to a side. As expected, all four walls sported a doorway in its center, covered in hanging beads. Five white marble columns reached to the ceiling, arranged like the pips on the "5" side of a standard die. Telgrane approached the center pillar. "Odd," he said. "This one is radiating transmutation magic." "Is it a trap?" asked Cal. "Touch it and get turned into a bunny or something?" "I don't think so," replied the conjurer. "It seems to be self-contained: the magic affects the column, nothing else." "Well, let's find out," said Feron, and cast a [i]stone tell[/i] spell on the central pillar. "What's your deal?" she asked it. "Please elaborate," replied the stone column. "What is your function?" "I am an elevator platform, leading to the upper level." "How does one activate you?" "By command word," replied the column. "What is the command word?" Feron demanded. "'[i]Saadenial[/i]' to lower the column, and '[i]Lerretar[/i]' to raise it." Feron couldn't help but notice that these were the Elven words for "home below" and "magic above," respectively. "Shall we?" she asked. The others readied their weapons - and Telgrane released Infernia from her tinder box - and nodded their assent. "Saadenial!" called out Feron. The stone pillar started lowering into the stone floor of the room, until a three-foot circle on the floor was all that remained of it. The group looked up at the ceiling, but could see no corresponding hole directly above. However: "There's an illusion in the center of the ceiling," Telgrane said. "[i]Illusory wall[/i] spell, no doubt." A feminine voice muttered some arcane syllables from the ceiling above, and a [i]fireball[/i] streaked down to engulf the heroes. Infernia and Telgrane shrugged off the effects, but the rest of the group scattered to avoid a repetition of these tactics. However, their unseen adversary quickly changed tactics, and the next spell streaking down from the ceiling was a [i]chain lightning[/i] spell, striking Telgrane and arcing out to hit all of his companions. Chalkan backed even further away from his companions, trying to get out of spell range, and found himself within reach of another set of bead-strands. "Not again!" he called out as the beads tried entangling him within their lengths. Telgrane assumed that the floor of the level above them was of a standard thickness, and cast a [i]summon monster[/i] spell up there, reasoning that the best thing to throw against an animated statue was an earth elemental. His spell was greeted by a yell of surprise from above - which Feron identified as a powerful oath in the Elven language. "Got her attention!" she called to Telgrane, who grinned back at her. But their victory was short-lived, for in a flash an animated statue appeared in the room. It was a nude elven woman, carved in black marble, and she said a string of Elven words before casting a [i]cloudkill[/i] spell in the middle of the room. Then she turned on her heel and walked imperiously through the beads in the western doorway, which parted effortless for her. "Follow her!" commanded Telgrane to Infernia, as he cast a [i]gust of wind[/i] spell to blow away the poisonous vapors. He aimed them to the south, to the entry chamber, then called for his summoned earth elemental to come down and aid them. The creature obeyed instantly, leaping effortlessly through the [i]illusory wall[/i] spell in the ceiling to plummet through the marble floor, then rise back up as if on an elevator. "You go guard the front door, in that direction," he commanded. "Don't let any black marble statues exit through that door. The elemental obeyed, simply tearing the animated bead-strings from the doorway when they attempted to stop it from passing. The rest of the group, recovering from the poisonous vapors they had accidentally inhaled, rescued Chalkan from the beads and they all followed the marble statue through another set of animated beads, Cal following the earth elemental's example and allowing them to wrap around his arm and then use his Kord-granted strength to yank them from the ceiling. "What did she say before she cast the [i]cloudkill[/i]?" asked Telgrane. "'None dare enter the sanctum of [b]Ambrosia Black[/b]!'" quoted Feron. "It was Elven." "It sounded like it," replied Telgrane, as they entered the next room. This was a scriptorium, with long desks holding various scrolls and cabinets of writing implements. It was empty, but the door to the north was open, and spilling out of the room beyond was a mobile cloud of sickly green vapors. "Another [i]cloudkill![/i]" warned Telgrane. He was partially correct. This was a [i]cloudkill[/i] spell, but one that had been granted a level of sentience by the elven spellcaster. The living [i]cloudkill[/i] obeyed Ambrosia's commands - in Elven, for she deigned speak no lesser language - to kill the intruders. She stood in the midst of its billowing vapors, unharmed by its poisonous nature by virtue of her unliving marble form. But Infernia was immune to poison effects as well, and she went wading into combat with the living statue. Of course, there was little chance that a marble statue would be set ablaze by a fire elemental's pounding fists, but she was willing to do whatever would help her master defeat his enemies. Telgrane, meanwhile, was lamenting the fact that he didn't have a second [i]gust of wind[/i] spell ready, and was reduced to fleeing the living spell. Cal and Feron likewise backed away from it, and sent ranged spells into its mass in an attempt to kill it from afar. Ambrosia advanced as her living spell advanced, casting spells at the enemies who dared invade her sanctuary. The heroes were forced back into the central chamber. Not wanting to get tangled up in the northernmost set of animated beads, Telgrane again assumed the thickness of the wall was about five feet wide, and used a [i]stone shape[/i] spell to burrow a tunnel to the side of the doorway, through the marble wall and into another square room beyond. This one was a mirror image of the entry chamber, only instead of caryatid columns in the corners it had a summoning circle permanently etched into the floor. He ducked into the tunnel and into the room, staying ahead of the billowing [i]cloudkill[/i] spell. Cal and Feron, the two highest-level spellcasters in this particular group of heroes, traded spell attacks with Ambrosia as best as they could, with the occasional spell thrown at the [i]cloudkill[/i] for good measure. They did finally destroy the animated spell effect, causing a look of hatred to pass over the otherwise beautiful elven features of Ambrosia Black's marble face. She redoubled her efforts, using [i]dimension door[/i] to disappear from view so she could attack from another direction. "Half-elf abomination!" she spewed at Feron, striking her with a blow from her marble fist that sent the druid reeling across the room. "How dare your ancestors sully their elven heritage with the likes of a human!" Of the intruders, Ambrosia seemed to harbor the most ill-will towards the druid, perhaps because her half-elven beauty rivaled that of the living construct. Chalkan was as fully a half-elf as was Feron, but he was a male, and thus perhaps on a lower level of consideration to the bigoted elven wizard. Eventually, as was often the case with drawn-out spell battles, all of the casters had used up their most powerful spells and were trying to do their best with their lower-level spells. At this stage, Ambrosia Black was clearly at an advantage, for her marble body had more strength than even Cal's mighty frame, and she gleefully traded blows with him while cursing him in her own native language - which flowed past Cal's ears like water from a duck's back, as he didn't speak the language. Still, he could guess the gist of her ranting, and responded with a snarled "Right back at you, lady!" Eventually, a look of concern crossed Ambrosia's face, for while they were all casting their lower-level spells at each other, Chalkan's [i]wand of fireball[/i] was just as powerful as ever. The other heroes backed away and allowed Chalkan to blast the living statue again and again with his wand, and while she appeared to be partially protected from the flames, each strike seemed to be doing some damage. All out of [i]teleport[/i] and [i]dimension door[/i] spells, Ambrosia raced to the elevator pillar in the central room, but Feron anticipated this avenue of escape and stepped into the circle, saying "Lerretar" to get it to raise up to the upper level and jumping off as it raised to the ceiling, landing nimbly back to the floor of the lower level. Apparently it was programmed to finish one action before accepting a new command, because Ambrosia simply glared in hatred at Feron rather than say the command word to lower the column. A few more [i]fireballs[/i] and Ambrosia Black was no more. "No!" she cried out in Elven as her exquisite marble body was engulfed in another explosion of flames. "I will not be defeated by members of the lesser--" She never got to finish her sentence. Feron called the central pillar down, and then one at a time they each went upstairs (Telgrane having Infernia jump back into her tinder box to save a trip, then releasing her once they got upstairs). The upper level was not arranged as symmetrically as was the lower level, being made up almost entirely of an enormous library. "No touching," admonished Telgrane to his fiery familiar. "Yes, Master," replied Infernia, putting her hands behind her back. A pile of books on a table nearby configured itself into the semblance of a face, and asked "May I help you? And where is the Mistress?" in the Elven tongue. "Dead," replied Feron in the same language, and then switched to Common. "Do you speak anything besides Elven?" "Indeed," replied the animated pile of books in the Common tongue. "I am conversant in most of the common languages in the region, as well as several extraplanar languages. If you have defeated Ambrosia Black, then I suppose I am now yours. My name is [b]Rhunic[/b]. I act as the permanent librarian here." "So you know all about this pocket dimension?" asked Feron. "Indeed I do," replied Rhunic. He caused a book to float out from its place on one of the many shelves in the library, and fly over to the heroes. "This book details the construction of the Door and the rooms beyond." "Cool!" said Chalkan, then jumped to the chase. "Is there a treasure room?" "Indeed there is," replied Rhunic. "There's a secret panel on the wall just behind you." He began to describe its workings, but Chalkan had beaten him to it. A section of the wall slid to the side with the rumble of stone on stone, revealing a short corridor ending in a blank wall. Not surprisingly, there was a similar secret door on that wall, leading into a room filled with treasure. Chalkan whooped with joy and raced into the room. Cal tried to pull him back, but it was too late. Fortunately, there were no obvious traps in the room, just a series of chests and ornate boxes. Chalkan opened each one eagerly, and it was fortunate that they were all untrapped. The first seven chests were all filled with either coins or gems and jewelry. A long wooden case contained an ornate longbow of exquisite elven manufacture, and Feron could tell the quiver stored next to it was a [i]quiver of Ehlonna[/i] by the holy symbol engraved upon it. "This is quite a haul!" exclaimed Chalkan with glee. "It sure is," admitted Telgrane. "But I'm more interested in what the library holds." He turned and re-entered the narrow passageway, noticing the arcane glyphs above the doorway only at the last second, when it was too late - and thus activated Ambrosia's final act of vengeance. In a second, a pile of Telgrane's clothes dropped to the floor in the doorway, followed by the quiet [i]thunk[/i] of his [i]ioun stone[/i] falling to the floor. "Master!" cried Infernia, jumping through the doorway into oblivion - or at least, that's what it seemed like to the others, who watched the small fire elemental disappear from view. "Nobody move!" commanded Cal to the others. "Feron, what are those runes?" The half-elf examined them, and replied that they looked to be involved in teleportation magic, possibly of an extraplanar nature. "I think they were [i]plane shifted[/i] somewhere else." "Any idea where?" asked Cal. "No idea, sorry," answered Feron. "Okay, we can't get out of this treasure room this way," reasoned the cleric. "Rhunic! Is there another way out of this room?" he called. "Alas, there is not," replied the librarian from the other room. "What's the point of having a treasure room you can't exit from?" asked Chalkan. "Oh, I'm sure Ambrosia had no problem coming in or out of this room," replied Feron. "I imagine the runes are attuned to only affect living creatures, not animated statues. Or maybe there's a password or something." "Rhunic, is there a password to allow us to get out of this room?" Cal demanded. "Alas, if there is, it is unknown to me," called back Rhunic. "Ambrosia has not documented any details about protective measures in the treasure room in any of the books in this library. And I would know." "Okay, we're making our own safe passageway," replied Cal. "We're going to do like Telgrane did downstairs, and carve a passageway with a [i]stone shape[/i] spell." "You have one readied?" asked Chalkan. "On a scroll," replied Cal, digging through his scroll tubes for the right one. But it did the trick, and thereafter Ambrosia's treasure room had a second entrance and exit. "How are we going to find Telgrane and Infernia?" asked Feron with a worried tone in her voice. "We're not going to, today," admitted Cal. "We don't have the spellpower. We'll have to rest up, and try to find him tomorrow. In the meantime, let's go back to the [i]Planar Scout[/i] and see how Greymantle is doing, and if Pilot's fixed the ship yet so we can get home. Remember, we're still on the first layer of the Nine Hells." "Oh yeah," replied Feron. "I kind of forgot during all of the excitement." Fortunately, Pilot had just about finished the repairs to the ship, and Dr. Graymantle was resting comfortable. Pinwhistle was glad to hear that the heroes had taken care of Ambrosia Black, and had high hopes that they'd be able to get back home, Thag would be able to repair the severed leg of the warforged, and the heroes would be able to find Telgrane and Infernia. - - - Pinwhistle was mostly correct. Dr. Greymantle's shield around the vessel managed to keep even a dedicated pit fiend at bay, and Pilot effected repairs and steered the [i]Planar Scout[/i] up out of Avernus and back to the skies of Oerth. They landed in the hangar behind Greymantle's manor house, and the three heroes said their goodbyes. Rhunic had informed them how to remove and transport the Door That Doesn't Belong - the whole thing rolled up like a poster when not in use - and they took it with them. The next day, though, once fully rested and with a full complement of spells, Cal began with some divination spells. From these, he learned that Telgrane was dead, although Infernia was still alive. "I can cast a [i]true resurrection[/i] to get Telgrane back," he said. "I don't know how to get to Infernia, though." Casting the spell caused Telgrane's body to materialize in its present form, before its wounds were healed and Telgrane's life restored. Telgrane's corpse arrived naked, with nasty-looking bites on his thigh that were swollen and purple. His torso was badly burned, with holes burned in two places on his chest. Once revived, Telgrane could explain the bites as having come from a phase spider - he had been [i]plane shifted[/i] to the Ethereal Plane, where he had been set upon by one of the fierce arachnids who dwelled there. Naked and without his spell components, he was no match for the phase spider, and even Infernia was unable to fight off the creature before the poison worked its way through Telgrane's system, stopping his heart. "I can summon her directly, once I regain my spells tomorrow," Telgrane said. "I hope she'll be okay until then." She was. She had eventually managed to kill the phase spider whose bite had killed Telgrane, and any others in the area were smart enough to realize a fire elemental made for poor eating. And the burns on Telgrane's chest were the result of her throwing herself upon her master's unliving form in her grief, her magma tears burning through a body no longer protected by fire, since the [i]ring of fire protection[/i] Telgrane wore had been left behind in Ambrosia Black's treasure room along with all of his other worn items. When Infernia suddenly appeared in the Wing Three living room the day after Telgrane's [i]resurrection[/i] as a result of her master's summons, she appeared in her ember form, as a small pile of ashes with a tiny spark of life left glowing in its center. "He's dead, he's dead," she cried out in anguish, over and over. Telgrane knelt down and blew softly on the ashes, causing the ember to glow brighter. Surprised, Infernia reassumed her fiery humanoid form, and was astonished to see Telgrane kneeling before her. "MASTER!" she cried in delight. "You're ALIVE!" She rushed to him and hugged him tightly, and it was a good thing Telgrane once again wore his [i]ring of fire protection[/i], or he'd have suffered similar burn marks once again. To this day, nobody has ever complained about the scorch marks on the carpet in the living room of the Wing Three general quarters. [/QUOTE]
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