MavrickWeirdo
First Post
jeremy_dnd said:
I second the motion.
Adventure in the Open Skies: The Liralen Irregulars (Eberron, Updated 5/10)
- Thread starter PhoenixAsh
- Start date
I second the motion.
PhoenixAsh
First Post
Wow, its been nearly 4 months since I've updated hasn't it?
I've taken a long hiatus from writing, but I think the time is coming where that hiatus will come to an end. But just in case, Micah and I have struck an agreement.
She and I will be working together on a few installments. In fact Micah will be doing most of it in the shortterm, finishing out our current adventure in Whitehearth while I will be looking forward. So hopefully between the two of us, we should have regular updates in the near future!
Thanks to those that have stuck things out this far, I hope to reward your patience soon!
I've taken a long hiatus from writing, but I think the time is coming where that hiatus will come to an end. But just in case, Micah and I have struck an agreement.
She and I will be working together on a few installments. In fact Micah will be doing most of it in the shortterm, finishing out our current adventure in Whitehearth while I will be looking forward. So hopefully between the two of us, we should have regular updates in the near future!
Thanks to those that have stuck things out this far, I hope to reward your patience soon!
PhoenixAsh
First Post
Update #28: Fire and Frost
Music, laughter and the sweet scent of flowers reaches Ruel Dunnanne d’Phiarlan, seated amidst Sharn’s privileged in the tower-top restaurant, Galdin’s Garden. The air is cooler here, lacking some of the cloistering heat and cloying dampness of the city’s lower regions. His eyes briefly lift upwards as he muses, “No doubt a pleasant side effect of being in such proximity to the nexus between Eberron and Syrania. How quickly this whole city would fall and be crushed were that link with the Azure Sky ever broken. Over two hundred thousand people…”
“What did you decide?” A slightly hesitant voice breaks his reverie. His eyes fall upon the golden haired woman seated across the table from him. The wizard smiles and lifts his glass of Orla-un wine, one of his favored Aundarian vintages. As he sips from it, he savors the rich flavor almost as much as he enjoys savoring the slow telling of his story to his companion. Never a good judge of character, Ruel can still tell he has baited her interest.
“As I recall, we were not of the same mind on how best to proceed…”
***
As he returns, he finds the Irregulars sitting around the circular chamber. Ruel is running Rorsa’s pearl around his palm. He looks up as the changling sits nearby and sighs, “Well, shall we press on without Elisa or call in the other team and let them take all the credit?”
Ruel slips the pearl into his Handy Haversack as the other party members consider the question. Audric is first to speak, “I would be in favor of returning to the ship and getting Elisa some healing.”
Alexandre, lovingly cleaning wolf blood from the handle of his elven blade, clears his throat, “If they come down and find the goods we lose out on Elaydren’s finders fee.”
Dox looks to Audric,. “Well I’d better go talk to Rorsa, if you’re going to summon the pinnace. I talked her into being a guard doggie.” The party looks at the changling who shrugs his shoulders, “She likes getting rubbed behind her ears. . . . Besides we don’t have to give the other team this.” Dox tosses the green key chain to Alexandre who grins.
Audric weighs the situation as Dox rises. He realizes that he is in the minority about leaving the underground complex. Ruel hasn’t spoken, but he hardly needs to. The idea of letting Kashandi get more gold and more glory would not sit well with the wizard.
Audric turns to ask Loki’s view on the matter when Ruel does speak, “We might be able to find a sheltered place here where healing magic might work.” The monk nods. Even if Loki were to agree with him a majority of the Irregulars would prefer to remain. He looks to the comatose barbarian and checks her vitals one more time then nods definitively, Elisa is stable.
“Then let’s see what we can find,” Audric answers, rising to his feet. As the party collects its gear, he murmurs underneath the echoing din, “I just hope we will not regret this later.”
***
“Brown, Orange, Red, Yellow, Purple, Blue, and Green. We have blue and green keys, we need to keep a look out for more.” Dox analyzes the circular chambers that the party has found. After some discussion the Irregulars decide to start the search methodically from the beginning of the complex. That leads them back to the charred hallway with the twisted, melted metal door at the end. Heat and light flicker down the corridor and into the sphere that just seconds ago stopped revolving under the now familiar application of a keystone.
Ruel retrieves the Protection from Energy scroll the party recovered, “I would hate to waste this if it is not needed. It is quite valuable.”
“I’ll do some reconnaissance,” Dox nods to the wizard.
“Are you going to change yourself?” Alexander off-handedly inquires.
“Uhm, I think that ‘fire elemental’ is beyond the scope of my disguise kit.” Dox laughs good-naturedly.
Alexandre cocks an eyebrow, fingering a tindertwig from his belt pouch, “We could help with that,” his expression is serious before breaking into a lop-sided grin. Dox shakes his head and slips down the charred walkway silently, avoiding the charred bits of bone that ominously scatter the long hall. Steeling himself against the heat, he sees a side door at the end of the hall and guardedly ducks through it.
The room contains a long narrow pool of clear water and beyond it another small room looks to be a latrine of sorts. Dox pauses in the doorway. It is refreshingly cool and there are no scorch marks at all on the stonework.
Dox twists around the corner for a quick glance at the larger room at the end of the hall. What immediately registers is a nearly blackened and blasted chamber with a roiling mass of white-hot flame floating in the air, fuming at the wall in the corner. He ducks quickly back into the bath area hoping that whatever it is doesn’t notice him. He casts about for buckets on a whim, but a quick scan of the pool area reveals none. After a breath or two, he ends his scouting foray and slips back down the corridor to report his findings.
Ruel greets him immediately with, “Any key charms?”
“I didn’t see any, but I didn’t exactly do a thorough search. There’s a big fiery blob floating about in there.”
“Nothing else?” Loki rumbles.
“We’re dealing with a creature that doesn’t use the bathroom.” Dox quips, explaining that the room with the pool and latrine is untouched.
The party debates on how to best the fiery blob. Alexandre has several ideas: one of which includes drinking the rest of the contents of his wineskin to use it to squirt water on the fire. When he realizes the idea isn’t gaining much ground he tries another tack, “What about fighting fire with fire? You’re a wizard Ruel. Can’t they do stuff like that?”
Ruel shakes his head, “I do not practice that sort of magic. We could use the scroll on someone, preferably someone who could do a great deal of damage quickly. With Elisa down that leaves. . .”
“Me!” Loki grins and hefts his axe. Ruel nods and digs out a flask out of his pack before casting the protection charm upon the half-giant, “It is alchemist’s frost. You just throw it hard and it will break on impact. Should put out some flames at the very least.”
Loki takes the flask and nods, pounding down the blackened hall. Fire-hardened bone crunches loudly under his heavy footsteps. Loki turns at the door and throws the flask. The faint sound of fire and frost meeting in a faint sizzle can be heard, but so to can the sound of the flask impacting against stone, not the blob. As firelight illuminates his profile, the Irregulars can see Loki’s face contort into a grimace as he grips his axe and shifts to a fighting stance.
Music, laughter and the sweet scent of flowers reaches Ruel Dunnanne d’Phiarlan, seated amidst Sharn’s privileged in the tower-top restaurant, Galdin’s Garden. The air is cooler here, lacking some of the cloistering heat and cloying dampness of the city’s lower regions. His eyes briefly lift upwards as he muses, “No doubt a pleasant side effect of being in such proximity to the nexus between Eberron and Syrania. How quickly this whole city would fall and be crushed were that link with the Azure Sky ever broken. Over two hundred thousand people…”
“What did you decide?” A slightly hesitant voice breaks his reverie. His eyes fall upon the golden haired woman seated across the table from him. The wizard smiles and lifts his glass of Orla-un wine, one of his favored Aundarian vintages. As he sips from it, he savors the rich flavor almost as much as he enjoys savoring the slow telling of his story to his companion. Never a good judge of character, Ruel can still tell he has baited her interest.
“As I recall, we were not of the same mind on how best to proceed…”
***
As he returns, he finds the Irregulars sitting around the circular chamber. Ruel is running Rorsa’s pearl around his palm. He looks up as the changling sits nearby and sighs, “Well, shall we press on without Elisa or call in the other team and let them take all the credit?”
Ruel slips the pearl into his Handy Haversack as the other party members consider the question. Audric is first to speak, “I would be in favor of returning to the ship and getting Elisa some healing.”
Alexandre, lovingly cleaning wolf blood from the handle of his elven blade, clears his throat, “If they come down and find the goods we lose out on Elaydren’s finders fee.”
Dox looks to Audric,. “Well I’d better go talk to Rorsa, if you’re going to summon the pinnace. I talked her into being a guard doggie.” The party looks at the changling who shrugs his shoulders, “She likes getting rubbed behind her ears. . . . Besides we don’t have to give the other team this.” Dox tosses the green key chain to Alexandre who grins.
Audric weighs the situation as Dox rises. He realizes that he is in the minority about leaving the underground complex. Ruel hasn’t spoken, but he hardly needs to. The idea of letting Kashandi get more gold and more glory would not sit well with the wizard.
Audric turns to ask Loki’s view on the matter when Ruel does speak, “We might be able to find a sheltered place here where healing magic might work.” The monk nods. Even if Loki were to agree with him a majority of the Irregulars would prefer to remain. He looks to the comatose barbarian and checks her vitals one more time then nods definitively, Elisa is stable.
“Then let’s see what we can find,” Audric answers, rising to his feet. As the party collects its gear, he murmurs underneath the echoing din, “I just hope we will not regret this later.”
***
“Brown, Orange, Red, Yellow, Purple, Blue, and Green. We have blue and green keys, we need to keep a look out for more.” Dox analyzes the circular chambers that the party has found. After some discussion the Irregulars decide to start the search methodically from the beginning of the complex. That leads them back to the charred hallway with the twisted, melted metal door at the end. Heat and light flicker down the corridor and into the sphere that just seconds ago stopped revolving under the now familiar application of a keystone.
Ruel retrieves the Protection from Energy scroll the party recovered, “I would hate to waste this if it is not needed. It is quite valuable.”
“I’ll do some reconnaissance,” Dox nods to the wizard.
“Are you going to change yourself?” Alexander off-handedly inquires.
“Uhm, I think that ‘fire elemental’ is beyond the scope of my disguise kit.” Dox laughs good-naturedly.
Alexandre cocks an eyebrow, fingering a tindertwig from his belt pouch, “We could help with that,” his expression is serious before breaking into a lop-sided grin. Dox shakes his head and slips down the charred walkway silently, avoiding the charred bits of bone that ominously scatter the long hall. Steeling himself against the heat, he sees a side door at the end of the hall and guardedly ducks through it.
The room contains a long narrow pool of clear water and beyond it another small room looks to be a latrine of sorts. Dox pauses in the doorway. It is refreshingly cool and there are no scorch marks at all on the stonework.
Dox twists around the corner for a quick glance at the larger room at the end of the hall. What immediately registers is a nearly blackened and blasted chamber with a roiling mass of white-hot flame floating in the air, fuming at the wall in the corner. He ducks quickly back into the bath area hoping that whatever it is doesn’t notice him. He casts about for buckets on a whim, but a quick scan of the pool area reveals none. After a breath or two, he ends his scouting foray and slips back down the corridor to report his findings.
Ruel greets him immediately with, “Any key charms?”
“I didn’t see any, but I didn’t exactly do a thorough search. There’s a big fiery blob floating about in there.”
“Nothing else?” Loki rumbles.
“We’re dealing with a creature that doesn’t use the bathroom.” Dox quips, explaining that the room with the pool and latrine is untouched.
The party debates on how to best the fiery blob. Alexandre has several ideas: one of which includes drinking the rest of the contents of his wineskin to use it to squirt water on the fire. When he realizes the idea isn’t gaining much ground he tries another tack, “What about fighting fire with fire? You’re a wizard Ruel. Can’t they do stuff like that?”
Ruel shakes his head, “I do not practice that sort of magic. We could use the scroll on someone, preferably someone who could do a great deal of damage quickly. With Elisa down that leaves. . .”
“Me!” Loki grins and hefts his axe. Ruel nods and digs out a flask out of his pack before casting the protection charm upon the half-giant, “It is alchemist’s frost. You just throw it hard and it will break on impact. Should put out some flames at the very least.”
Loki takes the flask and nods, pounding down the blackened hall. Fire-hardened bone crunches loudly under his heavy footsteps. Loki turns at the door and throws the flask. The faint sound of fire and frost meeting in a faint sizzle can be heard, but so to can the sound of the flask impacting against stone, not the blob. As firelight illuminates his profile, the Irregulars can see Loki’s face contort into a grimace as he grips his axe and shifts to a fighting stance.
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LordVyreth
First Post
Wow! Glad to see you guys again! I'll have to catch up with some of the last updates to make sure I understand everything again, but it'll be worth it. So how goes the game itself? What level is the party? Is everybody still playing it?
PhoenixAsh
First Post
LordVyreth said:
The game goes well! In the storyhour the party is currently 3rd level, but we've hit 4th level and are nearing 5th if our DMs' hints are to be believed. We've had to take a small hiatus from playing due to holiday stuff and our DMs moving, but things are getting back on track. We're all eager to get to playing again.
That said I have plenty of material left to catch up on for the storyhour. Micah has been helping me catch up.
We've lost a player and gained a player, so our number still stands strong at 6.
MavrickWeirdo
First Post
YaY Irregulars
PhoenixAsh
First Post
Update #29: Loki and the Living Spell
The living spell surges towards Loki, intent only on consuming the intruder. The room is awash with a sun-like glare as the blob bears down on the half-giant. Loki stands firm, confident in both his magical protection and the strength of his axe. He swings the heavy great-axe through the blob, spraying bits of it against the wall where the droplets sizzle and sputter out, but it envelopes him unabated. He feels a slight, almost pleasant warming sensation, but no pain. Still, he frowns as he finds his movements sluggish and difficult in the heart of the mass, like wading through jelly.
The hallway behind him erupts with indecision. The rest of the Irregulars want to help, but each is unsure of what to do. Dox runs down to the pool area while emptying Aundarian wine out of his skin with a grimace of regret, looking to fill the empty vessel with the clear water. Alexandre shrugs at Ruel, who then turns to Audric. The monk’s posture flows into a defensive stance at the back of the passageway. "If it gets through all of you, I will stand between it and Elisa." Ruel smiles confidently, “The spell will hold, Loki should have no trouble besting it.” He takes a couple hesitant steps into the hallway, showing less eagerness to put his confidence into practice.
Dox stares at the placid water of the pool. It's clean and crystal clear. Perhaps it is the atmosphere of the dead place, but he doesn't trust it. A grunt from Loki in the next room spurs the changeling to action and he plunges the empty skin into the water. To his relief, the pool does not object.
Loki struggles clear of the mass only to have it bear down upon him again, his vision filled with the haze of the fiery creature. He slaps the mass away through brute force and swings the axe again, this time using the flat of the blade. Its edges glow a dull red with the heat of the meeting of metal and magical jelly-like flesh, a heat that he is thankful he has yet to feel burning his flesh. Dox slides into the room, waterskin at the ready, as Loki tears the largest mass of the living spell away with his axe, where it sprays across the wall and fizzles, the remainder collapsing in on itself. The Liralen’s bartender sighs - "I run for flour - I'm too late; I run for water. . . . not that I'm complaining too loudly here," he grins at Loki.
The Irregulars sift through the ash in the room, finding tiny melted pieces of metal, hints of burned bodies, but not the colorful glint of a keycharm. Ruel spends some measure of time trying to capture some of the ooze’s remains with assistance from Loki, but succeeds in only drawing a laugh from the massive psychic-warrior as the clump of goop burns through his bag and turns to crisped gel amidst the rest of the debris on the floor.
Alexander sneezes at the ash in the room, “What a waste of time, anything of worth is long gone!”
Dox leaves the rest of the group and slips back to the pool room. It is not the pool this time that has his attention but the small stone cubicles beyond it. He is pretty sure he knows what they are and a few seconds of searching confirm that area was once a latrine. Cannith ingenuity has kept the area pristine and without the smells usually associated with such a place: except for the body in the last stall. A body that looks like it was walking seconds ago. Dox deftly pockets the contents of the belt pouch, the Cannith signet ring, and grins, loosing the clasp of a necklace on which a brown keycharm is hung from the dead man’s neck, concealed under his shirt, “A new keycharm, looks like this was worth the trouble after all!”
“It was expensively bought, between the scroll and wasted flask of Frost,” Ruel points out, sparing a wry glare at Loki, returned with a sheepish grin from the big man. Audric nods, admonishing the changling. “A more thorough search may well have given us the keycharm without wasting several hundred gold pieces of valuable resources.”
“Oh lighten up! Hey, maybe this water here is magical healing water! Don’t you think so Ruel?” Dox interjects brightly.
“Well, it is possible it could contain any number of enchantments…” Ruel muses. Dox grins big and strides past him and Audric to pour the contents of his waterskin into Elisa’s mouth. After a moment his shoulders sag, “No good.”
Alexandre walks over to Dox after a quick glance down the side passage, slapping the changling on the back. “I’ll be sure and tell Elisa you gave her toilet water when she wakes up.” Alexandre’s grin goes unseen as Dox stares wide-eyed at his retreating back.
The Irregulars check on their fallen comrade once more before further exploring the underground vaults of the Cannith research facility.
The first brown door brings them to a small dining hall. Bodies lie hunched over a table strewn with plates and flatware. The table and bodies are blanketed in a heavy layer of dust. Food has spoiled long ago, to the point that even the smell has faded in the stale air. All liquids have evaporated, though many cups show stains of wine residue. Under the dust the bodies are eerily warm to the touch and limp, as if they had merely fallen asleep moments ago. Audric tries to shake one awake, but it becomes apparent that this isn't an enchanted sleep, rather the occupants of the hall, like the rest of the facility, are long dead.
Pockets are picked and the room looted for anything of value. In the end the party has nine more blue keycharms and two more brown to add to their growing collection.
The kitchen beyond the hall is also covered in dust. The work area is small but functional, with a large ebony cabinet dominating one end of the room. Dox examines the cabinet, noting the intricate mithral designs worked into the polished surface. He checks for traps, looking for triggers in the light of a flickering ever-burning candle ensconced nearby. Finding none he pulls open a drawer and the room fills with the scent of mint. Other drawers open with other scents, while a large drawer at the top of the cabinet pours off heat and a similar structure at the bottom of the unit gives off cold air. It's quite the marvel of modern magic, and more than one Irregular wonders if the meals onboard the Liralen could benefit from it. Plans are made to return and try to remove the cabinet if time permits.
For now the need of a downed crew member pushes them onward. A metal door locked with a brown charm is opened to reveal a long storage area. There is no dust in this room and food stores on the shelves appear to be preserved and edible. Cloaks and gear are hung neatly toward the back of the closet along with a neatly marked box containing several vials. Ruel bends to examine them and finds them clearly labeled, and he tallies them swiftly, “Two potions of Cure Moderate Wounds and three Lesser Restorations.”
“The items in here seem unusually well-preserved… is it possible those potions would retain their function, even while we are in the Mournland?” Audric queries.
“I do not see how… to my knowledge as long as one stands within the confines of the Mournlands curative magicks do not work.” Ruel looks about the room appraisingly. “In theory, there might be wards that could protect against its effects, and this facility is suffused with such magick. It might work.” He muses.
“Try it. Elisa is no good to us if she’s slung over my shoulder the rest of our trip down here.” Loki remarks.
Ruel nods slowly. First, he dips a finger in one of the healing potions brought down from the Liralen and presses the restorative to Elisa’s lips, turning her battered face back and forth carefully for any reaction. There is none. With some misgivings he tries a drop of one of the vials from the storage chamber. A cut by the barbarians lip starts to close and the bruising around her temple recedes.
Ruel looks at the other members of the party. At Audric's nod he gives Elisa the entire vial.
***
“Did it work?” the woman asks.
“Yes it did. We gave her both potions and she made a near full recovery.” Ruel smiles, pausing as their first course is served.
“That is amazing! I’m not an expert, but I’d heard that no healing could work in the Mournland. Well, not exactly, I know the spell Goodberry is supposed to work and that there is even a market for Goodberry wine growing among some adventurers, maybe this was an…” The woman pauses, and then smiles bashfully. “But that’s… not important. What happened next?”
Ruel smiles, “Not at all, had we known about that it would have been very useful. We could certainly use someone like you aboard the Liralen.”
“Do you think so?” The woman smiles brightly and Ruel cannot help grinning at her honest enthusiasm.
“Yes indeed. Now where was I? Oh yes, we spent some time searching around, but I will spare you the details. As you might imagine, we ran into trouble soon enough again. It was another creature like the fiery blob, though of a more… colorful variety.”
The living spell surges towards Loki, intent only on consuming the intruder. The room is awash with a sun-like glare as the blob bears down on the half-giant. Loki stands firm, confident in both his magical protection and the strength of his axe. He swings the heavy great-axe through the blob, spraying bits of it against the wall where the droplets sizzle and sputter out, but it envelopes him unabated. He feels a slight, almost pleasant warming sensation, but no pain. Still, he frowns as he finds his movements sluggish and difficult in the heart of the mass, like wading through jelly.
The hallway behind him erupts with indecision. The rest of the Irregulars want to help, but each is unsure of what to do. Dox runs down to the pool area while emptying Aundarian wine out of his skin with a grimace of regret, looking to fill the empty vessel with the clear water. Alexandre shrugs at Ruel, who then turns to Audric. The monk’s posture flows into a defensive stance at the back of the passageway. "If it gets through all of you, I will stand between it and Elisa." Ruel smiles confidently, “The spell will hold, Loki should have no trouble besting it.” He takes a couple hesitant steps into the hallway, showing less eagerness to put his confidence into practice.
Dox stares at the placid water of the pool. It's clean and crystal clear. Perhaps it is the atmosphere of the dead place, but he doesn't trust it. A grunt from Loki in the next room spurs the changeling to action and he plunges the empty skin into the water. To his relief, the pool does not object.
Loki struggles clear of the mass only to have it bear down upon him again, his vision filled with the haze of the fiery creature. He slaps the mass away through brute force and swings the axe again, this time using the flat of the blade. Its edges glow a dull red with the heat of the meeting of metal and magical jelly-like flesh, a heat that he is thankful he has yet to feel burning his flesh. Dox slides into the room, waterskin at the ready, as Loki tears the largest mass of the living spell away with his axe, where it sprays across the wall and fizzles, the remainder collapsing in on itself. The Liralen’s bartender sighs - "I run for flour - I'm too late; I run for water. . . . not that I'm complaining too loudly here," he grins at Loki.
The Irregulars sift through the ash in the room, finding tiny melted pieces of metal, hints of burned bodies, but not the colorful glint of a keycharm. Ruel spends some measure of time trying to capture some of the ooze’s remains with assistance from Loki, but succeeds in only drawing a laugh from the massive psychic-warrior as the clump of goop burns through his bag and turns to crisped gel amidst the rest of the debris on the floor.
Alexander sneezes at the ash in the room, “What a waste of time, anything of worth is long gone!”
Dox leaves the rest of the group and slips back to the pool room. It is not the pool this time that has his attention but the small stone cubicles beyond it. He is pretty sure he knows what they are and a few seconds of searching confirm that area was once a latrine. Cannith ingenuity has kept the area pristine and without the smells usually associated with such a place: except for the body in the last stall. A body that looks like it was walking seconds ago. Dox deftly pockets the contents of the belt pouch, the Cannith signet ring, and grins, loosing the clasp of a necklace on which a brown keycharm is hung from the dead man’s neck, concealed under his shirt, “A new keycharm, looks like this was worth the trouble after all!”
“It was expensively bought, between the scroll and wasted flask of Frost,” Ruel points out, sparing a wry glare at Loki, returned with a sheepish grin from the big man. Audric nods, admonishing the changling. “A more thorough search may well have given us the keycharm without wasting several hundred gold pieces of valuable resources.”
“Oh lighten up! Hey, maybe this water here is magical healing water! Don’t you think so Ruel?” Dox interjects brightly.
“Well, it is possible it could contain any number of enchantments…” Ruel muses. Dox grins big and strides past him and Audric to pour the contents of his waterskin into Elisa’s mouth. After a moment his shoulders sag, “No good.”
Alexandre walks over to Dox after a quick glance down the side passage, slapping the changling on the back. “I’ll be sure and tell Elisa you gave her toilet water when she wakes up.” Alexandre’s grin goes unseen as Dox stares wide-eyed at his retreating back.
The Irregulars check on their fallen comrade once more before further exploring the underground vaults of the Cannith research facility.
The first brown door brings them to a small dining hall. Bodies lie hunched over a table strewn with plates and flatware. The table and bodies are blanketed in a heavy layer of dust. Food has spoiled long ago, to the point that even the smell has faded in the stale air. All liquids have evaporated, though many cups show stains of wine residue. Under the dust the bodies are eerily warm to the touch and limp, as if they had merely fallen asleep moments ago. Audric tries to shake one awake, but it becomes apparent that this isn't an enchanted sleep, rather the occupants of the hall, like the rest of the facility, are long dead.
Pockets are picked and the room looted for anything of value. In the end the party has nine more blue keycharms and two more brown to add to their growing collection.
The kitchen beyond the hall is also covered in dust. The work area is small but functional, with a large ebony cabinet dominating one end of the room. Dox examines the cabinet, noting the intricate mithral designs worked into the polished surface. He checks for traps, looking for triggers in the light of a flickering ever-burning candle ensconced nearby. Finding none he pulls open a drawer and the room fills with the scent of mint. Other drawers open with other scents, while a large drawer at the top of the cabinet pours off heat and a similar structure at the bottom of the unit gives off cold air. It's quite the marvel of modern magic, and more than one Irregular wonders if the meals onboard the Liralen could benefit from it. Plans are made to return and try to remove the cabinet if time permits.
For now the need of a downed crew member pushes them onward. A metal door locked with a brown charm is opened to reveal a long storage area. There is no dust in this room and food stores on the shelves appear to be preserved and edible. Cloaks and gear are hung neatly toward the back of the closet along with a neatly marked box containing several vials. Ruel bends to examine them and finds them clearly labeled, and he tallies them swiftly, “Two potions of Cure Moderate Wounds and three Lesser Restorations.”
“The items in here seem unusually well-preserved… is it possible those potions would retain their function, even while we are in the Mournland?” Audric queries.
“I do not see how… to my knowledge as long as one stands within the confines of the Mournlands curative magicks do not work.” Ruel looks about the room appraisingly. “In theory, there might be wards that could protect against its effects, and this facility is suffused with such magick. It might work.” He muses.
“Try it. Elisa is no good to us if she’s slung over my shoulder the rest of our trip down here.” Loki remarks.
Ruel nods slowly. First, he dips a finger in one of the healing potions brought down from the Liralen and presses the restorative to Elisa’s lips, turning her battered face back and forth carefully for any reaction. There is none. With some misgivings he tries a drop of one of the vials from the storage chamber. A cut by the barbarians lip starts to close and the bruising around her temple recedes.
Ruel looks at the other members of the party. At Audric's nod he gives Elisa the entire vial.
***
“Did it work?” the woman asks.
“Yes it did. We gave her both potions and she made a near full recovery.” Ruel smiles, pausing as their first course is served.
“That is amazing! I’m not an expert, but I’d heard that no healing could work in the Mournland. Well, not exactly, I know the spell Goodberry is supposed to work and that there is even a market for Goodberry wine growing among some adventurers, maybe this was an…” The woman pauses, and then smiles bashfully. “But that’s… not important. What happened next?”
Ruel smiles, “Not at all, had we known about that it would have been very useful. We could certainly use someone like you aboard the Liralen.”
“Do you think so?” The woman smiles brightly and Ruel cannot help grinning at her honest enthusiasm.
“Yes indeed. Now where was I? Oh yes, we spent some time searching around, but I will spare you the details. As you might imagine, we ran into trouble soon enough again. It was another creature like the fiery blob, though of a more… colorful variety.”
PhoenixAsh
First Post
Update #30: Irritating Illusions
"Aha, an orange one!" Dox produces an orange keystone from the pocket of his newly acquired cloak, made of darkweave, a material that makes the already elusive changling even harder to spot in the shadowy halls of the Cannith facility.
"This is what it's all supposed to be about," Alexandre muses, running his fingertips through the platinum pieces the Irregulars discovered using the brown keycharm in the room adjacent to Rorsa's former shelter. "Any of those weapons there magic Ruel?"
"Not at all," Ruel replies, his eyes losing the arcane luster of Detect Magic. "Neither is the silver ring, nor any of the armor. The keystones have a mild conjuration effect, those two vials house oils of Magic Weapon and that one there is an elixir of Silversheen. Oh, and the closet has a combination of simple magical enchantments. I would suppose it keeps the clothes clean."
Elisa is gathering up the myriad arms and armor displayed in the room. Examining a chain shirt briefly she shrugs off her old armor and dons it instead. "It fits better," Elisa offers by way of explanation, “And you never know when you might need more weapons.” Loki nods, stepping forward and picking up one of the swords, "We can always sell them. They look of fine make.”
The party files out of the room after collecting everything of value to try their new keycharm, and Ruel departs last, re-pocketing the pearl from Rorsa’s chain with a grin. It radiated a magical aura as well.
***
With the orange keycharm in hand, the Irregulars are able to make their way into a new circular chamber, with a whole new set of five separate colored depressions. Dox tests out one of the orange depressions along the circumference of the central sphere and the chamber turns, opening to reveal a corridor brightly lit in a flickering multi-hued menagerie of color. The corridor bends and despite its walls, floor and ceiling being covered with reflective mirrors, the Irregulars cannot spot the source of the prismatic display.
Dox inches forward, stepping with extreme care, trying not only to be mindful of keeping his footsteps silent and out of sight, but also to keep his reflection from revealing his presence to anything around the bend of the hall. Before moving into the mirrored portion of the hallway he checks the reflections for abnormalities, tossing a silver coin on the floor and checking each mirrors reflection for anything unusual. With nothing unwelcome befalling him, he steps into the mirrored area. Slithering out along the wall he can see the source of the light: a glowing mass of rainbow light hovering in front of a fully mirrored room with a curtain blocking sight of the far end. He shifts back quickly to keep out of sight. It occurs to him that he is being unusually silent, even for him. Carefully he taps the mirror and it makes no sound. He kicks it, still no sound. Backing out of the room, he returns to the circular chamber where the Irregulars are still huddled.
“It’s a ball of light. And that whole corridor and the room beyond it are mirrored up, except for the far wall that had a curtain over it. And the room is silent, I couldn’t hear anything when I moved or tapped the wall.” Dox reports.
“Ball of light? Huh, sounds a bit like that blob of fire I dealt with.” Loki comments.
“Perhaps,” Ruel nods. “I would suspect that some sort of prismatic magical effect is contained in that ball you describe Dox. This could be very dangerous, prismatic effects can be potent, even a simple Color Spray is a favored spell of mine for disabling a quantity of opponents at close range. Also, I suspect these mirrors may be able to amplify any such effect.”
“Perhaps we could lure it out then?” Audric asks.
“I believe I may have just such a solution,” Ruel agrees.
Ruel recites from a scroll outside the Silence effect and ahead in the chamber a sizeable beetle bursts into being. It quickly rounds the corner, seeking to engage the blob of light beyond it. There is a surge of color and the Irregulars squint. “Definitely Color Spray,” Ruel reports, loading his crossbow. The Irregulars train their weapons on the turn of the corridor, but after several seconds the ball of light does not show signs of approaching.
Audric lowers his heavy crossbow with a sigh, “It is either some sort of guardian or simply unwilling to leave the room.”
Alexandre smirks, “Probably likes staring at its reflection too much.”
Loki hefts his greataxe and strides into the hall, “Time to change that.”
The massive half-giant swings his axe heavily into the first wall-mirror in the corridor. Surprisingly, it does not shatter, merely denting under the impact. The sound is absent from the powerful blow, though Loki can clearly feel the ringing in his arms from the impact. He moves back to the circular chamber, grousing, “Aren’t there other ‘orange’ chambers we can try?”
A chorus of agreement is voiced and Dox immediately places the orange keystone in the central depression and twists it. The whole chamber lurches sharply to the opposide side and the everbright lantern suddenly winks out above them, a large pit opening under the feet of the Irregulars!
Dox clutches the keystone pedestal, Loki braces himself against the floor and ceiling of the chamber, Ruel slips but grabs onto Loki’s boot, Audric balances himself perfectly on the suddenly inclined sphere, as does Alexandre, while Elisa stumbles forward but braces herself at the last moment over the edge of the pit using her greatsword to keep from tipping in.
The crew takes a collective breath before Dox pipes up, “Everyone okay?”
A bright flare causes the Irregulars to blink as Ruel lights a sunrod. “It would appear so,” the wizard replies, shifting to the edge of the pit and peering down, he sees it is filled with liquid thirty feet down. He hands the sunrod up to Dox then strikes up a torch and tosses it at the surface of the liquid. Unsurprisingly, it is extinguished.
The Irregulars elect Dox once again to move forward and explore the pit. With a rope tied around his waist held steadily by Loki and Elisa, Dox gradually descends towards the surface of the water, checking for any signs of another exit.
Several minutes of examination and the sore arms of the two Irregulars result in the discovery that the pit is no more than a well. The Irregulars turn the circular chamber back to the only road forward for them: the corridor with the prismatic ball of light.
Ruel considers, “Look here, if we surround it, if four of us rush in and surround it on different sides… it can only spray one of us. The spell is not harmful in the long-term after all, I think the rest could destroy it.”
Audric frowns, “But what of the mirrors? What if they amplify the effect as you said?”
Ruel shrugs, “Close your eyes?”
With no better alternative in mind, the Irregulars make ready to charge the creature, Ruel first casting Mage Armor on Audric. Raising his thinblade, Alexandre shouts a silent battle cry and surges forward, stabbing at the center of the mass of prismatic light with perfect accuracy. Unfortunately, it has all the effect on the mass of sticking a pin into jelly. Audric marks this as he moves in behind the deckhand and his curiosity gets the better of him as he continues through the room just beyond the curtain.
The sight is oddly blurred, as if peering through foggy glass; all details are hazy. He blinks away the image of what looks disturbingly like a multi-headed metal beast and returns his attention to the mirrored room and its guardian. “One thing at a time,” he reminds himself.
Dox and Ruel move to the edge of the corridor, loosing an arrow and a bolt at the blob, which seem to do it no harm when they strike it. Elisa is next, running past Alexandre and to one side of the ball, striking it two-handed with her greatsword. The blow is powerful, but clearly not as telling as it should. Still flecks of it are shredded from the central mass and Elisa is heartened that her weapon can harm it. Loki is last but in the cramped room his axe stroke is wide, failing to even connect with the blob of light.
The blob ripples with color and expels a sudden wash of it upon Elisa, bathing her in dazzling light. The Irregulars immediately re-double their attacks, Alexandre’s weapons continue to be ineffective, while Audric comes back through to call out the contents of the room behind the curtain, only to be foiled from his warning by the magical Silence, its effect extending even to the curtained entryway. More arrows and bolts fly and continue to be ineffective.
“That really wasn’t too bad,” Elisa thinks, blinking away a few dark spots in her vision. Her vision swam for half a second, but she can see just fine now. She hefts her greatsword in a massive overhand swing, angling the attack just enough so her blade doesn’t scrape the mirrored ceiling in the cramped cell. The blob distorts as her attack connects, bending like a gelatinous bladder in the center until it pops, prismatic gore spraying across the Irregulars and the mirrors. “Not too bad at all,” she smirks, flicking gobs of goo off of her face.
The Irregulars attempt to communicate with hand signals and gestures in the Silenced room. Ruel plucks one of the colorful pieces of the destroyed blob his person and puts it into a new sack, satisfied that this time he will be able to study the creature later. Noticing Audric gesture to the curtained room ahead, he moves through it to investigate.
He steps into a large, domed room and ahead of him he can see a massive machine, with all the appearance of a large mechanical hydra. Thankfully, it appears inert. The room is fire-blasted and some of what appears to be the source of that damage remains in the room. Two roaring fires are moving with a mind of their own, Ruel swiftly recognizes them as fire elementals.
And one of them is moving towards him.
Ruel throws his arms up as the elemental bears down on him, immediately regretting using his Mage Armor spell on Audric. The elemental is taking an oddly zig-zagging pattern, as if navigating invisible walls while approaching him. But certain enough it moves towards him and Ruel calls out in alarm.
It passes right through him.
Blinking, Ruel turns and watches the elemental proceed on its winding path. There was no heat and no contact. “An illusion,” the wizard murmurs with relief, “And perhaps… a divination?” The wall distorts, rippling behind him and Ruel whirls. Dox comes charging in the room at his alarmed call, drawing his blade and charging after the elemental. A few feet past Ruel he runs headlong into a solid barrier, apparently in mid-air and falls flat, dazed.
Ruel approaches Dox and helps him to his feet. “The room, it is an illusion. But I believe it is also an image of one of the rooms in this facility, or a very similar one.”
Dox rubs his head as he gathers himself back up, whirling around with a perplexed expression on his face, “But… what… how did I…?”
“It would appear this chamber is actually much smaller than what we see, we should be cautious.” Ruel answers.
Elisa and Audric move in quickly behind Dox, but a hasty explanation from the pair already inside arrest any more sudden contact with invisible walls. Elisa, Audric and Ruel begin carefully feeling out the circumference of the chamber, while Dox stares hard at his surroundings. He shakes his head, murmuring, “I just don’t get it. Why would somebody make something like this?”
Elisa laughs, “You’re a changling! You look like other people all the time! You’re just jealous that a room got the better of you for once!”
Dox eyes the guardswoman darkly for a moment before moving to give the room a more thorough search.
The changling’s careful examination reveals the room is circular, no more than a quarter as large as the rectangular chamber the four Irregulars are viewing. Aside from the inert multi-headed mechanical monstrosity at the head of the room, the larger room holds two back chambers, one of which is destroyed and burned by fire while the other is sealed behind a crystalline wall, housing a small library and desk. Two levers are prominent, of unknown purpose, at either side of the large chamber and underneath the mechanical hydra a crystalline box is seated. Dox can just make out what can only be the schema Elaydren described, as well as several other arcane-appearing items within.
“That’s got to be what we’re looking for! I’ll bet we’re close!” He exclaims. “Wish we kept that scroll you used on Loki though, those fires could be tricky.”
Ruel nods, “Agreed, but we still need to find the red keycharm before we can proceed any further.”
Dox studies the room one more time. One of the mechanical hydra’s mouths is ajar, curiously pained red. Squinting at it, he sees it is not paint, but actually a red keystone placed on the invisible wall. He steps forward, but hesitates to grab it. Ruel did say it was just an illusion, but that maw looks all too real and it has really sharp looking teeth. Canting his head, he sees Elisa watching him with a smirk on her face. He reaches down and quickly grabs it, turning to hold it up with a triumphant grin, “Found it!”
“Nicely done!” Ruel exclaims. “Come, let us move on.
Dox twirls the keycharm around one finger, then reaches down to pocket it. His hand connects with something solid instead however, a lever, which he accidentally pushes down. The room distorts and all the Irregulars tense, reaching for their weapons. The illusion, however, merely fades away, revealing smooth stone and several other levers with colored keystone depressions behind Dox. Colors the Irregulars do not yet have.
“Yeah, good job, looks like you unmasked the room,” Elisa chuckles, moving up beside Dox. “There are more colors, maybe we aren’t as close as we thought,” she reasons.
“Perhaps, or perhaps these other colors represent other facilities. This could be valuable information to Lady d’Vown,” Ruel considers.
Elisa raises an eyebrow, “Bonus pay?”
“Precisely,” Ruel smiles.
With a new spring in their step, the Irregulars depart the chamber to rejoin the rest and to try the red keycharm in the circular chamber. After bracing themselves for any other sudden surprises, they twist the keystone into one of the slots and the chamber rotates to reveal a new passageway. It is immediately apparent that this one is warm, and as they step out towards a large metal door, it begins to become uncomfortably so.
Alexandre draws his thinblade and dagger, “Twenty to one your fire beasties are behind these doors.”
“No bet,” Audric nods, loading his heavy crossbow. The Irregulars all ready their weapons and Loki kicks the door open.
"Aha, an orange one!" Dox produces an orange keystone from the pocket of his newly acquired cloak, made of darkweave, a material that makes the already elusive changling even harder to spot in the shadowy halls of the Cannith facility.
"This is what it's all supposed to be about," Alexandre muses, running his fingertips through the platinum pieces the Irregulars discovered using the brown keycharm in the room adjacent to Rorsa's former shelter. "Any of those weapons there magic Ruel?"
"Not at all," Ruel replies, his eyes losing the arcane luster of Detect Magic. "Neither is the silver ring, nor any of the armor. The keystones have a mild conjuration effect, those two vials house oils of Magic Weapon and that one there is an elixir of Silversheen. Oh, and the closet has a combination of simple magical enchantments. I would suppose it keeps the clothes clean."
Elisa is gathering up the myriad arms and armor displayed in the room. Examining a chain shirt briefly she shrugs off her old armor and dons it instead. "It fits better," Elisa offers by way of explanation, “And you never know when you might need more weapons.” Loki nods, stepping forward and picking up one of the swords, "We can always sell them. They look of fine make.”
The party files out of the room after collecting everything of value to try their new keycharm, and Ruel departs last, re-pocketing the pearl from Rorsa’s chain with a grin. It radiated a magical aura as well.
***
With the orange keycharm in hand, the Irregulars are able to make their way into a new circular chamber, with a whole new set of five separate colored depressions. Dox tests out one of the orange depressions along the circumference of the central sphere and the chamber turns, opening to reveal a corridor brightly lit in a flickering multi-hued menagerie of color. The corridor bends and despite its walls, floor and ceiling being covered with reflective mirrors, the Irregulars cannot spot the source of the prismatic display.
Dox inches forward, stepping with extreme care, trying not only to be mindful of keeping his footsteps silent and out of sight, but also to keep his reflection from revealing his presence to anything around the bend of the hall. Before moving into the mirrored portion of the hallway he checks the reflections for abnormalities, tossing a silver coin on the floor and checking each mirrors reflection for anything unusual. With nothing unwelcome befalling him, he steps into the mirrored area. Slithering out along the wall he can see the source of the light: a glowing mass of rainbow light hovering in front of a fully mirrored room with a curtain blocking sight of the far end. He shifts back quickly to keep out of sight. It occurs to him that he is being unusually silent, even for him. Carefully he taps the mirror and it makes no sound. He kicks it, still no sound. Backing out of the room, he returns to the circular chamber where the Irregulars are still huddled.
“It’s a ball of light. And that whole corridor and the room beyond it are mirrored up, except for the far wall that had a curtain over it. And the room is silent, I couldn’t hear anything when I moved or tapped the wall.” Dox reports.
“Ball of light? Huh, sounds a bit like that blob of fire I dealt with.” Loki comments.
“Perhaps,” Ruel nods. “I would suspect that some sort of prismatic magical effect is contained in that ball you describe Dox. This could be very dangerous, prismatic effects can be potent, even a simple Color Spray is a favored spell of mine for disabling a quantity of opponents at close range. Also, I suspect these mirrors may be able to amplify any such effect.”
“Perhaps we could lure it out then?” Audric asks.
“I believe I may have just such a solution,” Ruel agrees.
Ruel recites from a scroll outside the Silence effect and ahead in the chamber a sizeable beetle bursts into being. It quickly rounds the corner, seeking to engage the blob of light beyond it. There is a surge of color and the Irregulars squint. “Definitely Color Spray,” Ruel reports, loading his crossbow. The Irregulars train their weapons on the turn of the corridor, but after several seconds the ball of light does not show signs of approaching.
Audric lowers his heavy crossbow with a sigh, “It is either some sort of guardian or simply unwilling to leave the room.”
Alexandre smirks, “Probably likes staring at its reflection too much.”
Loki hefts his greataxe and strides into the hall, “Time to change that.”
The massive half-giant swings his axe heavily into the first wall-mirror in the corridor. Surprisingly, it does not shatter, merely denting under the impact. The sound is absent from the powerful blow, though Loki can clearly feel the ringing in his arms from the impact. He moves back to the circular chamber, grousing, “Aren’t there other ‘orange’ chambers we can try?”
A chorus of agreement is voiced and Dox immediately places the orange keystone in the central depression and twists it. The whole chamber lurches sharply to the opposide side and the everbright lantern suddenly winks out above them, a large pit opening under the feet of the Irregulars!
Dox clutches the keystone pedestal, Loki braces himself against the floor and ceiling of the chamber, Ruel slips but grabs onto Loki’s boot, Audric balances himself perfectly on the suddenly inclined sphere, as does Alexandre, while Elisa stumbles forward but braces herself at the last moment over the edge of the pit using her greatsword to keep from tipping in.
The crew takes a collective breath before Dox pipes up, “Everyone okay?”
A bright flare causes the Irregulars to blink as Ruel lights a sunrod. “It would appear so,” the wizard replies, shifting to the edge of the pit and peering down, he sees it is filled with liquid thirty feet down. He hands the sunrod up to Dox then strikes up a torch and tosses it at the surface of the liquid. Unsurprisingly, it is extinguished.
The Irregulars elect Dox once again to move forward and explore the pit. With a rope tied around his waist held steadily by Loki and Elisa, Dox gradually descends towards the surface of the water, checking for any signs of another exit.
Several minutes of examination and the sore arms of the two Irregulars result in the discovery that the pit is no more than a well. The Irregulars turn the circular chamber back to the only road forward for them: the corridor with the prismatic ball of light.
Ruel considers, “Look here, if we surround it, if four of us rush in and surround it on different sides… it can only spray one of us. The spell is not harmful in the long-term after all, I think the rest could destroy it.”
Audric frowns, “But what of the mirrors? What if they amplify the effect as you said?”
Ruel shrugs, “Close your eyes?”
With no better alternative in mind, the Irregulars make ready to charge the creature, Ruel first casting Mage Armor on Audric. Raising his thinblade, Alexandre shouts a silent battle cry and surges forward, stabbing at the center of the mass of prismatic light with perfect accuracy. Unfortunately, it has all the effect on the mass of sticking a pin into jelly. Audric marks this as he moves in behind the deckhand and his curiosity gets the better of him as he continues through the room just beyond the curtain.
The sight is oddly blurred, as if peering through foggy glass; all details are hazy. He blinks away the image of what looks disturbingly like a multi-headed metal beast and returns his attention to the mirrored room and its guardian. “One thing at a time,” he reminds himself.
Dox and Ruel move to the edge of the corridor, loosing an arrow and a bolt at the blob, which seem to do it no harm when they strike it. Elisa is next, running past Alexandre and to one side of the ball, striking it two-handed with her greatsword. The blow is powerful, but clearly not as telling as it should. Still flecks of it are shredded from the central mass and Elisa is heartened that her weapon can harm it. Loki is last but in the cramped room his axe stroke is wide, failing to even connect with the blob of light.
The blob ripples with color and expels a sudden wash of it upon Elisa, bathing her in dazzling light. The Irregulars immediately re-double their attacks, Alexandre’s weapons continue to be ineffective, while Audric comes back through to call out the contents of the room behind the curtain, only to be foiled from his warning by the magical Silence, its effect extending even to the curtained entryway. More arrows and bolts fly and continue to be ineffective.
“That really wasn’t too bad,” Elisa thinks, blinking away a few dark spots in her vision. Her vision swam for half a second, but she can see just fine now. She hefts her greatsword in a massive overhand swing, angling the attack just enough so her blade doesn’t scrape the mirrored ceiling in the cramped cell. The blob distorts as her attack connects, bending like a gelatinous bladder in the center until it pops, prismatic gore spraying across the Irregulars and the mirrors. “Not too bad at all,” she smirks, flicking gobs of goo off of her face.
The Irregulars attempt to communicate with hand signals and gestures in the Silenced room. Ruel plucks one of the colorful pieces of the destroyed blob his person and puts it into a new sack, satisfied that this time he will be able to study the creature later. Noticing Audric gesture to the curtained room ahead, he moves through it to investigate.
He steps into a large, domed room and ahead of him he can see a massive machine, with all the appearance of a large mechanical hydra. Thankfully, it appears inert. The room is fire-blasted and some of what appears to be the source of that damage remains in the room. Two roaring fires are moving with a mind of their own, Ruel swiftly recognizes them as fire elementals.
And one of them is moving towards him.
Ruel throws his arms up as the elemental bears down on him, immediately regretting using his Mage Armor spell on Audric. The elemental is taking an oddly zig-zagging pattern, as if navigating invisible walls while approaching him. But certain enough it moves towards him and Ruel calls out in alarm.
It passes right through him.
Blinking, Ruel turns and watches the elemental proceed on its winding path. There was no heat and no contact. “An illusion,” the wizard murmurs with relief, “And perhaps… a divination?” The wall distorts, rippling behind him and Ruel whirls. Dox comes charging in the room at his alarmed call, drawing his blade and charging after the elemental. A few feet past Ruel he runs headlong into a solid barrier, apparently in mid-air and falls flat, dazed.
Ruel approaches Dox and helps him to his feet. “The room, it is an illusion. But I believe it is also an image of one of the rooms in this facility, or a very similar one.”
Dox rubs his head as he gathers himself back up, whirling around with a perplexed expression on his face, “But… what… how did I…?”
“It would appear this chamber is actually much smaller than what we see, we should be cautious.” Ruel answers.
Elisa and Audric move in quickly behind Dox, but a hasty explanation from the pair already inside arrest any more sudden contact with invisible walls. Elisa, Audric and Ruel begin carefully feeling out the circumference of the chamber, while Dox stares hard at his surroundings. He shakes his head, murmuring, “I just don’t get it. Why would somebody make something like this?”
Elisa laughs, “You’re a changling! You look like other people all the time! You’re just jealous that a room got the better of you for once!”
Dox eyes the guardswoman darkly for a moment before moving to give the room a more thorough search.
The changling’s careful examination reveals the room is circular, no more than a quarter as large as the rectangular chamber the four Irregulars are viewing. Aside from the inert multi-headed mechanical monstrosity at the head of the room, the larger room holds two back chambers, one of which is destroyed and burned by fire while the other is sealed behind a crystalline wall, housing a small library and desk. Two levers are prominent, of unknown purpose, at either side of the large chamber and underneath the mechanical hydra a crystalline box is seated. Dox can just make out what can only be the schema Elaydren described, as well as several other arcane-appearing items within.
“That’s got to be what we’re looking for! I’ll bet we’re close!” He exclaims. “Wish we kept that scroll you used on Loki though, those fires could be tricky.”
Ruel nods, “Agreed, but we still need to find the red keycharm before we can proceed any further.”
Dox studies the room one more time. One of the mechanical hydra’s mouths is ajar, curiously pained red. Squinting at it, he sees it is not paint, but actually a red keystone placed on the invisible wall. He steps forward, but hesitates to grab it. Ruel did say it was just an illusion, but that maw looks all too real and it has really sharp looking teeth. Canting his head, he sees Elisa watching him with a smirk on her face. He reaches down and quickly grabs it, turning to hold it up with a triumphant grin, “Found it!”
“Nicely done!” Ruel exclaims. “Come, let us move on.
Dox twirls the keycharm around one finger, then reaches down to pocket it. His hand connects with something solid instead however, a lever, which he accidentally pushes down. The room distorts and all the Irregulars tense, reaching for their weapons. The illusion, however, merely fades away, revealing smooth stone and several other levers with colored keystone depressions behind Dox. Colors the Irregulars do not yet have.
“Yeah, good job, looks like you unmasked the room,” Elisa chuckles, moving up beside Dox. “There are more colors, maybe we aren’t as close as we thought,” she reasons.
“Perhaps, or perhaps these other colors represent other facilities. This could be valuable information to Lady d’Vown,” Ruel considers.
Elisa raises an eyebrow, “Bonus pay?”
“Precisely,” Ruel smiles.
With a new spring in their step, the Irregulars depart the chamber to rejoin the rest and to try the red keycharm in the circular chamber. After bracing themselves for any other sudden surprises, they twist the keystone into one of the slots and the chamber rotates to reveal a new passageway. It is immediately apparent that this one is warm, and as they step out towards a large metal door, it begins to become uncomfortably so.
Alexandre draws his thinblade and dagger, “Twenty to one your fire beasties are behind these doors.”
“No bet,” Audric nods, loading his heavy crossbow. The Irregulars all ready their weapons and Loki kicks the door open.
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PhoenixAsh
First Post
Update #31: Escape From Whitehearth
Dox has a plan. The two levers in the room must provide a means to bypass its fiery defenders. Almost as soon as Loki’s boot makes contact with the door, he springs into action, rushing through it and into the sweltering heat of the inner chamber. He maneuvers easily around one of the fire elementals, reacting fast enough that it barely seems to register his presence.
The other one moves in front of him, cutting off his access to the levers. Nearly blinded by its heat and light, Dox swings at it but fails to connect with the mass of the flames. The elemental slams fiery tendrils into the changling, who gasps as his skin sizzles and ignites, collapsing under the onslaught. His skin and hair smokes and his clothing is charred, and is only by good fortune that the downed Irregular is not on fire.
The elemental Dox bypassed comes roaring at the rest of the Irregulars, sealing off the doorway with its bulk. Elisa and Loki lash at it with axe and sword, causing gaping injuries to the creature which vents curious burning injuries with a wailing like steam escaping a kettle, but the elemental being does not go down, and slams into Elisa, charring her skin but failing to bring her down the gritty guardswoman or set her alight.
Sensing the urgency of Dox’s situation, Ruel tries a different tact. Freeing his waterskin and throwing it into the mass of flames where it bursts in a slight spray of water with a great sizzle of steam, the wizard throws insults at it, “Your mother was a water elemental and your father a fish!”
Unfortunately, the elemental seems utterly uncomprehending of the barbs.
Alexandre and Audric resolve to get through any way they can to save their crewmate. Alexandre tries to roll under the creature, but is unable to maneuver in the tight space of the doorway, and it is all he can do to roll out of the way of a fiery counterattack and stab ineffectually at the mass from the ground.
Audric however used the opening to leap through the opposite end of the doorway, tumble back to his feet and sprint to the aid of Dox. The elemental does not seem intent on finishing off the changling however, and it moves to aid its companion at the doorway. The elemental blazes into the fray, laying into Elisa and searing her with terrible burns, setting her chain armor sizzling against her skin. Already injured, the guardswoman collapses. Its partner lashes at Loki, but the half-giant ducks behind the doorway and the creature fails to connect with him.
From the floor, Alexandre lashes up with his thinblade, nicking the injured elemental. Loki steps in to plug the gap Elisa left and plows his great-axe into the elemental, rending its form so badly it bursts apart in a shower of sparks and smoke. Loki swallows as he eyes the remaining uninjured elemental, bringing his axe up defensively. A green flicker out of the corner of his eye draws his attention, Ruel has hurled an Acid Splash at the elemental, but it seemed to barely notice.
Audric looks between Loki and the rest of the Irregulars, Dox and the two levers on the floor. He grimaces, knowing that any wrong decision or wasted actions here could spell the death of one or more of his companions. Hoping Dox’s reasoning was sound, he moves to one of the levers and pulls.
There is a great metallic grinding sound and for a moment, Audric’s hopes sag as nothing visible happens. Then the domed ceiling of the chamber lifts slightly, exposing no more than a few feet of space around its circumference to the open air of the Mournlands. The elemental immediately bolts for it, eagerly pursuing the open air and freedom from its long captivity within the Cannith facility.
With Elisa and Dox down, the Irregulars are only too happy to let it go.
The peculiar nature of the Mournlands makes stabilizing the pair unnecessary and, after making certain they are indeed still alive, the two are returned to the sealed room with the functional healing potions. The remaining Cure Moderate Wounds potion is used on Dox and he stirs back to conciousnesss, retaking his feet.
Dox winces at the charred appearance of his skin and with a moment’s concentration; it retakes the smooth appearance of the healthy half-elf he is imitating for this expedition.
“It was a good idea Dox, but next time you might want to let us know about it. Or not run ahead like that,” Audric chides the changling.
“Right,” Dox smiles ruefully. “Did you get that crystal box open?”
Loki clears his throat from the doorway, “We’ve been waiting for you.”
The Irregulars return to the elemental chamber and Dox immediately starts working on the lock on the crystalline box. The Irregulars are finding the room already to be a lot more comfortable with the small space in the ceiling letting out the hot air.
“Got it!” Dox grins, unlocking the box and opening it up he pulls out a circular disk, the creation schema. “Oof, that’s heavy,” Dox grimaces and hands the object up to Loki, who studies it curiously.
“Potions and a scroll too,” Dox pulls out four labeled vials and a piece of parchment. Ruel studies them for a moment, “Two Cure Moderate Wounds and Two Resist Energy. The scroll holds a Resist Energy spell as well.”
Alexandre snorts, “That would have been useful before we fought the damn things.”
“Hey look, there’s a second schema!” Dox holds up another schema. Loki takes it in his other hand, comparing the two together. “They look the same… except this one seems to be missing some parts,” the half-giant observes.
“A copy perhaps,” Audric says, looking at the schema from around Loki’s shoulder. “We cam bring them both to Elaydren, I am sure she can make sense of them.”
“Right,” Dox agrees, rising to his feet. “Now let’s see what we can do about that crystalline door there.”
***
“Oh come on!” Dox screams, pounding his fists against the solid crystal wall. “This lock is ridiculous! Who would make a lock this complicated to protect some stupid books!”
“Someone who does not want those books read by casual interlopers, keep trying Dox.” Ruel urges gently.
Loki is impatient. Dox has spent several minutes on the lock with no success and the room, while no longer stifling, is still far from pleasant. He looks again at the disks in his hands, “Think its adamantine Alexandre?”
Alexandre taps it experimentally, “I’d say so, why d’ya ask?”
Loki nods, “Dox, duck.”
“Duck? What do you mean duck, I’m trying to… Oh Gods!” Dox hits the dirt as he sees Loki spinning around with the schema like an athlete with an adamantine discus. With a clipped grunt Loki lets it fly and it slams into the crystalline door with a heavy crunch.
“Are you crazy!? You could break the schema! Or somebody’s skull!” Dox cries, obviously shaken. Loki calmly strides up to the door and picks up the schema from the floor, not even a dent. He looks to the door. It is not destroyed, but a good deal of the crystal is crumpled at the point of impact. He prods it with a finger and wedges a chunk free, “Its adamantine, nothing is stronger than adamantine.” He grins and begins to hammer at the damaged section with the schema. It’s not more than a couple minutes before he has broken a hole large enough to reach in and unlock the door.
Dox and Ruel peruse the shelves, but most of the parchment and books crumple when handled or touch. Two books on the desk do not, however. One is a large tome filled with complex symbols, equations and script. The other has the appearance of a journal, but is completely blank inside. They are gathered up for later study and the Irregulars attempt administering one of the newly found Cure Moderate Wounds potions on Elisa. Thankfully, it too seems to have somehow retained its effectiveness despite the pervasive suppression of healing effects in the Mournlands.
“This is getting really old,” Elisa grouses, plucking a charred scrap of cloth from half-healed skin along her arm with a wince as she regains her feet.
“Do not pick at it! It will only make it worse, we will get you to the Liralen soon enough,” Audric scolds her.
“I believe we have spent all the time that is required in this facility,” Ruel agrees, scooping up the remaining potions. “And we have everything Lady D’Vown asked for and more.”
“Right, back to the open skies!” Alexandre grins, leading the way back to the surface. “Give me a bank of fog on the open seas over these gray mists any day of the week,” he mutters. “Almost reminds me of…”
“Of what?” Audric asks, overhearing the deckhand.
“Never mind, never mind. Old sea tales, not worth mentioning.” Alexandre replies quietly. Audric notes the deckhand is strangely serious, but does not press the point.
As he climbs up the ladder back to the cavern the Irregulars began their search from, Alexandre comes face to face with Rorsa, the massive dire wolf they rescured, staring eye to eye with him.
“Pack hungry,” she says simply.
“Er… right,” Alexandre answers, swallowing hard.
“Get dishes? Dishes make food every day,” Rorsa continues.
“Right,” Alexandre sighs. “Alright lads and lassie, back it up, the doggies need their dishes!”
Returning a few minutes later with several stacks of food and water dishes in hand, the Irregulars spread them out in the cave for the pack to eat once they magically refill. Dox moves over to Rorsa, scratching her neck and drawing a happy rumble from the great wolf’s throat. “Are you sure you want to stay here Rorsa? It’s not a great place to be anymore, we could take you away, anywhere else really…”
The wolf seems to consider this, “How?”
“Well we have an airship… er, a boat that flies?” Dox tries, getting a blank look from the wolf. He shakes his head, “It doesn’t matter, you can just trust me, I could let you go free anywhere you want, or you could even stay with us if you wanted.”
Rorsa seems to mull that over with a low rumble in her throat, “Rorsa like Dox, but Rorsa’s place with pack, pack’s place is here. Rorsa stay with pack, Dox go with his pack.”
Dox sighs, his burgeoning dream of a dire wolf fighting companion quashed, “Alright, well, good luck okay?”
Rorsa suddenly bristles and growls, “Horses.”
Dox blinks, “Horses?” His eyes widen and he runs to the rest of the Irregulars, “Hey guys, Rorsa hears horses, look alive!”
Rorsa shepherds the rest of her pack deeper into the caverns while the Irregulars hide against the cave walls, hoping against hope that the horses don’t notice the facility’s entrance. As the horses stop just outside and footsteps approach the mouth of the tunnel, those hopes are dashed and they draw their weapons.
Emerald Claw soldiers swiftly surge into the tunnel entrance, immediately drawing their own flails upon spotting the Irregulars. With them are emaciated troops, skeletons with heavy armor draped across their frames. At the mouth of a tunnel a man in heavy plate steps forward and barks out at the Irregulars, “Surrender!”
Tired and injured, the Irregulars none-the-less are unwilling to give up their goal so close to its safe return to the Liralen and as one they move to repulse their attackers!
Ruel is first to react and with a hasty invocation, a pool of thick Grease spreads along the floor, dropping three of the soldiers, including the heavily armored man who called for their surrender, who curses colorfully, if impotently, from the floor, “That trick saved you once, it won’t save you again!”
Alexandre and Elisa charge in to engage two of the soliders already inside the cavern. Alexandre has his strike parried off of one of the soldiers’ shield, but Elisa breaks her opponent’s guard, causing a terrible injury but failing to drop the man, who snarls at her, “You miserable lot are no match for the Emerald Claw!” He swings his flail at Elisa who catches it on her blade and deflects the strike with practiced ease and a grim smile.
The soliders in the Grease struggle to back out of it, looking for any kind of purchase in the cave floor. Dox and Audric send a volley of missles into one of the soldiers, Dox’s arrow glancing off his chainmail but Audric’s heavier bolt punching through it, drawing a gasp from the man.
The soldiers maneuver to press their numbers advantage, one trying to flank Alexandre, who whirls and parries a flail strike off of his dagger, the other going after Elisa who gets struck across her back. She grimaces and coughs, struggling with her injuries for the third time on this trip, but she grips her greatsword tighter, refusing to let them overcome her this time.
A massive furry shape leaps from the back caverns into the melee, the soldier with Audric’s bolt in his belly has only a moment to look on in horror as Rorsa bears down on him and clamps him in her jaws, tearing him open in a horrific display that makes even the surrounding Emerald Claw blanch.
It is then that a familiar voice echoes in the cavern, “It’s futile to defy us! Give me the third schema and I’ll let you live, defy us and I’ll kill you and raise your corpses to serve us!” It is Garou. The Irregulars feel a terrible will oppose them, filling the cavern oppressively and sapping their strength. Loki arrests his charge as the Irregulars reconsider their odds.
Ruel recovers first. As soon as the trouble had started he had pushed the emergency button on the ‘callbox’ that Levic, the ship’s artificer had given him. Reinforcements are no doubt on the way, and if he can buy some time…
“Here, take it, but leave quickly or we will take more of your soldiers with us than you can afford to lose!” Ruel calls back, grabbing the copy of the schema from his haversack and holding it up for all to see clearly.
Before the wizard, Garou appears, his red eyes staring malevolently at him. But he grins and holds out a pale hand, “Agreed, give it to me!” Swallowing hard, Ruel quickly gives him the schema and steps back.
Garou laughs, taking on a misty form and floating back to the entrance of the cavern, “Finish them off!”
The battle is quickly rejoined. Outside, they can hear a large portion of the Emerald Claw force mounting their horses and moving off. There is a still significant force of soldiers left to kill them, but the Irregulars take hope that the odds are no longer so hopelessly stacked against them.
Dox carefully sights an arrow, letting it fly into the leg of one of the soldiers attacking Elisa. “See how your master abandons you! You should back off, while you still can. Walk away!”
“Silence cur! We’re more than a match for you! Come on men, show them we are worthy of the Lady’s blessing!” The heavily plated man calls, struggling to retake his feet in the middle of Ruel’s Grease effect. He gets to his knees before tipping over again with a heavy crash.
One of the skeletons behind him attempts to navigate the Grease as well, but suffers a similar fate as its master, crashing to the floor with a clatter of bone and steel. Another moves forward, slipping through the grease effect, waving its bony arms wildly to keep its balance. Somehow it manages and clumsily lashes at Rorsa, but finds itself hard pressed just to keep upright and the attack is no more than a wild flail through empty air.
Ruel grimaces as his Grease spell evaporates suddenly, as swiftly as it came. The spell has been an effective barrier for the Irregulars, keeping all of them from being surrounded, but he only prepared one casting today. Reaching into his haversack, he draws forth the magical pearl and clasps it tightly. “If this is to work, I should simply reconsider the formulae I memorized this morning and then… ahh!” Ruel’s eyes alight as the pearl thrums in his hand and the Grease field reappears under the soldiers before him.
Alexandre presses his thinblade through the guard of the soldier he is fencing with, piercing through the guard’s chainmail and right out through his back. The soldier grunts, but Alexandre’s strike miraculously manages to miss anything vital and the deckhand’s eyes widen in disbelief as he dodges out of the way of the soldier’s whirling flail. Nearby Elisa delivers a much less artful and far more deadly gash across the chest of one of her soldiers, dropping him instantly.
Outside the cave, a small vessel descends through the dead gray mists of the Mournlands, a pinnance. Aloysius, the Liralen’s first mate, is at the helm and guides the craft down to a gentle landing. His eyes widen at the sight of the battle at the entrance to the Cannith facility. A woman still lingering outside begins incanting and a bolt of force shoots from her fingertips, hitting the pilot like a sack of bricks. He grunts and fumbles for his weapon as she points to him again, “Kill that one, do not leave them any escape!” The two remaining soldiers still outside charge Aloysius, but their whirling flails chip only the pinnance’s hull as Aloysius desperately deflects their attacks.
“The panic button! I hit the panic button, where are the reinforcements?!” Ruel shouts in frustration.
The grounded soldier laughs at Ruel’s discomfiture, “You’re friends have abandoned you and soon, so to will your life…” THUD! He falls back into the grease helpless as a baby, “Damnation! Your death will be torturous, wizard, do you hear me! You will know PAIN!”
Audric drops his crossbow and lays into the skeleton threatening Rorsa with his fists, a well-aimed chop splintering bones along its rib cage. A moment later Rorsa rears back and crunches her maw around the skeleton’s hipbone, crunching it in one snap of her powerful jaws.
Loki finally strikes home against a soldier as well, one potent blow from his giant whirling axe felling his opponent instantly.
Ruel smirks, “Your threats would hold more weight if you could support your own.” He incants and gestures at the trio assaulting Aloysius outside and immediately the spell-caster and one of the soldiers drop unconscious. Audric whirls into another skeleton, staggering it with a palm strike to its midsection then breaking its skull from the rest of its frame with a high kick.
The downed man’s eyes widen as he sees Rorsa tensing to leap at him. Hastily he invokes a blessing from his dark Goddess, warding himself against attack but it is too little too late. Rorsa leaps upon him and her dagger-like teeth clamp down around his head and with a single violent thrust, separate it from his body. She spits it into the grease, where his surprised expression remains fixed on his face. “Pack eat well today,” Rorsa growls, red blood staining her white fur.
Elisa leaps forward to aid Aloysius, but slips and falls on the Grease effect. “Ruel, get rid of this thing!” she cries, struggling to rise. Outside both Aloysius and the last standing soldier have traded blows and drawn blood. The spell dissipates as Ruel incants a simple clipped phrase, and the soldier suddenly hesitates, Dazed. Alexandre and Elisa are soon upon him, and he is quickly felled between their twin attacks.
The Irregulars survey the field; all their foes are dead or unconscious. Swiftly the spell-caster and the soldier are disarmed, bound and gagged. The Irregulars explain the situation to Aloysius and a plan is hatched.
Four pinnance trips later, all the Irregulars, the captured soldiers, their gear, and all the treasure of the facility, including the magical dresser and kitchen appliance, are onboard the Liralen. Her great elemental ring flares to life, heading for the nation of Breland and the City of Towers, Sharn.
Dox has a plan. The two levers in the room must provide a means to bypass its fiery defenders. Almost as soon as Loki’s boot makes contact with the door, he springs into action, rushing through it and into the sweltering heat of the inner chamber. He maneuvers easily around one of the fire elementals, reacting fast enough that it barely seems to register his presence.
The other one moves in front of him, cutting off his access to the levers. Nearly blinded by its heat and light, Dox swings at it but fails to connect with the mass of the flames. The elemental slams fiery tendrils into the changling, who gasps as his skin sizzles and ignites, collapsing under the onslaught. His skin and hair smokes and his clothing is charred, and is only by good fortune that the downed Irregular is not on fire.
The elemental Dox bypassed comes roaring at the rest of the Irregulars, sealing off the doorway with its bulk. Elisa and Loki lash at it with axe and sword, causing gaping injuries to the creature which vents curious burning injuries with a wailing like steam escaping a kettle, but the elemental being does not go down, and slams into Elisa, charring her skin but failing to bring her down the gritty guardswoman or set her alight.
Sensing the urgency of Dox’s situation, Ruel tries a different tact. Freeing his waterskin and throwing it into the mass of flames where it bursts in a slight spray of water with a great sizzle of steam, the wizard throws insults at it, “Your mother was a water elemental and your father a fish!”
Unfortunately, the elemental seems utterly uncomprehending of the barbs.
Alexandre and Audric resolve to get through any way they can to save their crewmate. Alexandre tries to roll under the creature, but is unable to maneuver in the tight space of the doorway, and it is all he can do to roll out of the way of a fiery counterattack and stab ineffectually at the mass from the ground.
Audric however used the opening to leap through the opposite end of the doorway, tumble back to his feet and sprint to the aid of Dox. The elemental does not seem intent on finishing off the changling however, and it moves to aid its companion at the doorway. The elemental blazes into the fray, laying into Elisa and searing her with terrible burns, setting her chain armor sizzling against her skin. Already injured, the guardswoman collapses. Its partner lashes at Loki, but the half-giant ducks behind the doorway and the creature fails to connect with him.
From the floor, Alexandre lashes up with his thinblade, nicking the injured elemental. Loki steps in to plug the gap Elisa left and plows his great-axe into the elemental, rending its form so badly it bursts apart in a shower of sparks and smoke. Loki swallows as he eyes the remaining uninjured elemental, bringing his axe up defensively. A green flicker out of the corner of his eye draws his attention, Ruel has hurled an Acid Splash at the elemental, but it seemed to barely notice.
Audric looks between Loki and the rest of the Irregulars, Dox and the two levers on the floor. He grimaces, knowing that any wrong decision or wasted actions here could spell the death of one or more of his companions. Hoping Dox’s reasoning was sound, he moves to one of the levers and pulls.
There is a great metallic grinding sound and for a moment, Audric’s hopes sag as nothing visible happens. Then the domed ceiling of the chamber lifts slightly, exposing no more than a few feet of space around its circumference to the open air of the Mournlands. The elemental immediately bolts for it, eagerly pursuing the open air and freedom from its long captivity within the Cannith facility.
With Elisa and Dox down, the Irregulars are only too happy to let it go.
The peculiar nature of the Mournlands makes stabilizing the pair unnecessary and, after making certain they are indeed still alive, the two are returned to the sealed room with the functional healing potions. The remaining Cure Moderate Wounds potion is used on Dox and he stirs back to conciousnesss, retaking his feet.
Dox winces at the charred appearance of his skin and with a moment’s concentration; it retakes the smooth appearance of the healthy half-elf he is imitating for this expedition.
“It was a good idea Dox, but next time you might want to let us know about it. Or not run ahead like that,” Audric chides the changling.
“Right,” Dox smiles ruefully. “Did you get that crystal box open?”
Loki clears his throat from the doorway, “We’ve been waiting for you.”
The Irregulars return to the elemental chamber and Dox immediately starts working on the lock on the crystalline box. The Irregulars are finding the room already to be a lot more comfortable with the small space in the ceiling letting out the hot air.
“Got it!” Dox grins, unlocking the box and opening it up he pulls out a circular disk, the creation schema. “Oof, that’s heavy,” Dox grimaces and hands the object up to Loki, who studies it curiously.
“Potions and a scroll too,” Dox pulls out four labeled vials and a piece of parchment. Ruel studies them for a moment, “Two Cure Moderate Wounds and Two Resist Energy. The scroll holds a Resist Energy spell as well.”
Alexandre snorts, “That would have been useful before we fought the damn things.”
“Hey look, there’s a second schema!” Dox holds up another schema. Loki takes it in his other hand, comparing the two together. “They look the same… except this one seems to be missing some parts,” the half-giant observes.
“A copy perhaps,” Audric says, looking at the schema from around Loki’s shoulder. “We cam bring them both to Elaydren, I am sure she can make sense of them.”
“Right,” Dox agrees, rising to his feet. “Now let’s see what we can do about that crystalline door there.”
***
“Oh come on!” Dox screams, pounding his fists against the solid crystal wall. “This lock is ridiculous! Who would make a lock this complicated to protect some stupid books!”
“Someone who does not want those books read by casual interlopers, keep trying Dox.” Ruel urges gently.
Loki is impatient. Dox has spent several minutes on the lock with no success and the room, while no longer stifling, is still far from pleasant. He looks again at the disks in his hands, “Think its adamantine Alexandre?”
Alexandre taps it experimentally, “I’d say so, why d’ya ask?”
Loki nods, “Dox, duck.”
“Duck? What do you mean duck, I’m trying to… Oh Gods!” Dox hits the dirt as he sees Loki spinning around with the schema like an athlete with an adamantine discus. With a clipped grunt Loki lets it fly and it slams into the crystalline door with a heavy crunch.
“Are you crazy!? You could break the schema! Or somebody’s skull!” Dox cries, obviously shaken. Loki calmly strides up to the door and picks up the schema from the floor, not even a dent. He looks to the door. It is not destroyed, but a good deal of the crystal is crumpled at the point of impact. He prods it with a finger and wedges a chunk free, “Its adamantine, nothing is stronger than adamantine.” He grins and begins to hammer at the damaged section with the schema. It’s not more than a couple minutes before he has broken a hole large enough to reach in and unlock the door.
Dox and Ruel peruse the shelves, but most of the parchment and books crumple when handled or touch. Two books on the desk do not, however. One is a large tome filled with complex symbols, equations and script. The other has the appearance of a journal, but is completely blank inside. They are gathered up for later study and the Irregulars attempt administering one of the newly found Cure Moderate Wounds potions on Elisa. Thankfully, it too seems to have somehow retained its effectiveness despite the pervasive suppression of healing effects in the Mournlands.
“This is getting really old,” Elisa grouses, plucking a charred scrap of cloth from half-healed skin along her arm with a wince as she regains her feet.
“Do not pick at it! It will only make it worse, we will get you to the Liralen soon enough,” Audric scolds her.
“I believe we have spent all the time that is required in this facility,” Ruel agrees, scooping up the remaining potions. “And we have everything Lady D’Vown asked for and more.”
“Right, back to the open skies!” Alexandre grins, leading the way back to the surface. “Give me a bank of fog on the open seas over these gray mists any day of the week,” he mutters. “Almost reminds me of…”
“Of what?” Audric asks, overhearing the deckhand.
“Never mind, never mind. Old sea tales, not worth mentioning.” Alexandre replies quietly. Audric notes the deckhand is strangely serious, but does not press the point.
As he climbs up the ladder back to the cavern the Irregulars began their search from, Alexandre comes face to face with Rorsa, the massive dire wolf they rescured, staring eye to eye with him.
“Pack hungry,” she says simply.
“Er… right,” Alexandre answers, swallowing hard.
“Get dishes? Dishes make food every day,” Rorsa continues.
“Right,” Alexandre sighs. “Alright lads and lassie, back it up, the doggies need their dishes!”
Returning a few minutes later with several stacks of food and water dishes in hand, the Irregulars spread them out in the cave for the pack to eat once they magically refill. Dox moves over to Rorsa, scratching her neck and drawing a happy rumble from the great wolf’s throat. “Are you sure you want to stay here Rorsa? It’s not a great place to be anymore, we could take you away, anywhere else really…”
The wolf seems to consider this, “How?”
“Well we have an airship… er, a boat that flies?” Dox tries, getting a blank look from the wolf. He shakes his head, “It doesn’t matter, you can just trust me, I could let you go free anywhere you want, or you could even stay with us if you wanted.”
Rorsa seems to mull that over with a low rumble in her throat, “Rorsa like Dox, but Rorsa’s place with pack, pack’s place is here. Rorsa stay with pack, Dox go with his pack.”
Dox sighs, his burgeoning dream of a dire wolf fighting companion quashed, “Alright, well, good luck okay?”
Rorsa suddenly bristles and growls, “Horses.”
Dox blinks, “Horses?” His eyes widen and he runs to the rest of the Irregulars, “Hey guys, Rorsa hears horses, look alive!”
Rorsa shepherds the rest of her pack deeper into the caverns while the Irregulars hide against the cave walls, hoping against hope that the horses don’t notice the facility’s entrance. As the horses stop just outside and footsteps approach the mouth of the tunnel, those hopes are dashed and they draw their weapons.
Emerald Claw soldiers swiftly surge into the tunnel entrance, immediately drawing their own flails upon spotting the Irregulars. With them are emaciated troops, skeletons with heavy armor draped across their frames. At the mouth of a tunnel a man in heavy plate steps forward and barks out at the Irregulars, “Surrender!”
Tired and injured, the Irregulars none-the-less are unwilling to give up their goal so close to its safe return to the Liralen and as one they move to repulse their attackers!
Ruel is first to react and with a hasty invocation, a pool of thick Grease spreads along the floor, dropping three of the soldiers, including the heavily armored man who called for their surrender, who curses colorfully, if impotently, from the floor, “That trick saved you once, it won’t save you again!”
Alexandre and Elisa charge in to engage two of the soliders already inside the cavern. Alexandre has his strike parried off of one of the soldiers’ shield, but Elisa breaks her opponent’s guard, causing a terrible injury but failing to drop the man, who snarls at her, “You miserable lot are no match for the Emerald Claw!” He swings his flail at Elisa who catches it on her blade and deflects the strike with practiced ease and a grim smile.
The soliders in the Grease struggle to back out of it, looking for any kind of purchase in the cave floor. Dox and Audric send a volley of missles into one of the soldiers, Dox’s arrow glancing off his chainmail but Audric’s heavier bolt punching through it, drawing a gasp from the man.
The soldiers maneuver to press their numbers advantage, one trying to flank Alexandre, who whirls and parries a flail strike off of his dagger, the other going after Elisa who gets struck across her back. She grimaces and coughs, struggling with her injuries for the third time on this trip, but she grips her greatsword tighter, refusing to let them overcome her this time.
A massive furry shape leaps from the back caverns into the melee, the soldier with Audric’s bolt in his belly has only a moment to look on in horror as Rorsa bears down on him and clamps him in her jaws, tearing him open in a horrific display that makes even the surrounding Emerald Claw blanch.
It is then that a familiar voice echoes in the cavern, “It’s futile to defy us! Give me the third schema and I’ll let you live, defy us and I’ll kill you and raise your corpses to serve us!” It is Garou. The Irregulars feel a terrible will oppose them, filling the cavern oppressively and sapping their strength. Loki arrests his charge as the Irregulars reconsider their odds.
Ruel recovers first. As soon as the trouble had started he had pushed the emergency button on the ‘callbox’ that Levic, the ship’s artificer had given him. Reinforcements are no doubt on the way, and if he can buy some time…
“Here, take it, but leave quickly or we will take more of your soldiers with us than you can afford to lose!” Ruel calls back, grabbing the copy of the schema from his haversack and holding it up for all to see clearly.
Before the wizard, Garou appears, his red eyes staring malevolently at him. But he grins and holds out a pale hand, “Agreed, give it to me!” Swallowing hard, Ruel quickly gives him the schema and steps back.
Garou laughs, taking on a misty form and floating back to the entrance of the cavern, “Finish them off!”
The battle is quickly rejoined. Outside, they can hear a large portion of the Emerald Claw force mounting their horses and moving off. There is a still significant force of soldiers left to kill them, but the Irregulars take hope that the odds are no longer so hopelessly stacked against them.
Dox carefully sights an arrow, letting it fly into the leg of one of the soldiers attacking Elisa. “See how your master abandons you! You should back off, while you still can. Walk away!”
“Silence cur! We’re more than a match for you! Come on men, show them we are worthy of the Lady’s blessing!” The heavily plated man calls, struggling to retake his feet in the middle of Ruel’s Grease effect. He gets to his knees before tipping over again with a heavy crash.
One of the skeletons behind him attempts to navigate the Grease as well, but suffers a similar fate as its master, crashing to the floor with a clatter of bone and steel. Another moves forward, slipping through the grease effect, waving its bony arms wildly to keep its balance. Somehow it manages and clumsily lashes at Rorsa, but finds itself hard pressed just to keep upright and the attack is no more than a wild flail through empty air.
Ruel grimaces as his Grease spell evaporates suddenly, as swiftly as it came. The spell has been an effective barrier for the Irregulars, keeping all of them from being surrounded, but he only prepared one casting today. Reaching into his haversack, he draws forth the magical pearl and clasps it tightly. “If this is to work, I should simply reconsider the formulae I memorized this morning and then… ahh!” Ruel’s eyes alight as the pearl thrums in his hand and the Grease field reappears under the soldiers before him.
Alexandre presses his thinblade through the guard of the soldier he is fencing with, piercing through the guard’s chainmail and right out through his back. The soldier grunts, but Alexandre’s strike miraculously manages to miss anything vital and the deckhand’s eyes widen in disbelief as he dodges out of the way of the soldier’s whirling flail. Nearby Elisa delivers a much less artful and far more deadly gash across the chest of one of her soldiers, dropping him instantly.
Outside the cave, a small vessel descends through the dead gray mists of the Mournlands, a pinnance. Aloysius, the Liralen’s first mate, is at the helm and guides the craft down to a gentle landing. His eyes widen at the sight of the battle at the entrance to the Cannith facility. A woman still lingering outside begins incanting and a bolt of force shoots from her fingertips, hitting the pilot like a sack of bricks. He grunts and fumbles for his weapon as she points to him again, “Kill that one, do not leave them any escape!” The two remaining soldiers still outside charge Aloysius, but their whirling flails chip only the pinnance’s hull as Aloysius desperately deflects their attacks.
“The panic button! I hit the panic button, where are the reinforcements?!” Ruel shouts in frustration.
The grounded soldier laughs at Ruel’s discomfiture, “You’re friends have abandoned you and soon, so to will your life…” THUD! He falls back into the grease helpless as a baby, “Damnation! Your death will be torturous, wizard, do you hear me! You will know PAIN!”
Audric drops his crossbow and lays into the skeleton threatening Rorsa with his fists, a well-aimed chop splintering bones along its rib cage. A moment later Rorsa rears back and crunches her maw around the skeleton’s hipbone, crunching it in one snap of her powerful jaws.
Loki finally strikes home against a soldier as well, one potent blow from his giant whirling axe felling his opponent instantly.
Ruel smirks, “Your threats would hold more weight if you could support your own.” He incants and gestures at the trio assaulting Aloysius outside and immediately the spell-caster and one of the soldiers drop unconscious. Audric whirls into another skeleton, staggering it with a palm strike to its midsection then breaking its skull from the rest of its frame with a high kick.
The downed man’s eyes widen as he sees Rorsa tensing to leap at him. Hastily he invokes a blessing from his dark Goddess, warding himself against attack but it is too little too late. Rorsa leaps upon him and her dagger-like teeth clamp down around his head and with a single violent thrust, separate it from his body. She spits it into the grease, where his surprised expression remains fixed on his face. “Pack eat well today,” Rorsa growls, red blood staining her white fur.
Elisa leaps forward to aid Aloysius, but slips and falls on the Grease effect. “Ruel, get rid of this thing!” she cries, struggling to rise. Outside both Aloysius and the last standing soldier have traded blows and drawn blood. The spell dissipates as Ruel incants a simple clipped phrase, and the soldier suddenly hesitates, Dazed. Alexandre and Elisa are soon upon him, and he is quickly felled between their twin attacks.
The Irregulars survey the field; all their foes are dead or unconscious. Swiftly the spell-caster and the soldier are disarmed, bound and gagged. The Irregulars explain the situation to Aloysius and a plan is hatched.
Four pinnance trips later, all the Irregulars, the captured soldiers, their gear, and all the treasure of the facility, including the magical dresser and kitchen appliance, are onboard the Liralen. Her great elemental ring flares to life, heading for the nation of Breland and the City of Towers, Sharn.
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