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Message: <blockquote data-quote="PhoenixAsh" data-source="post: 2815230" data-attributes="member: 18230">Update #29: Loki and the Living SpellThe 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.”</blockquote>

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