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Message: <blockquote data-quote="LordVyreth" data-source="post: 1631917" data-attributes="member: 9626">The ol' SwitcherooTal sighed.  “Okay, let’s try this again…”    He had been trying to explain where they were to Grockith, but he doesn’t seem to be getting it.  At the end of the tunnel, there was nothing but a well-furnished room, with a wooden motif that seemed totally out of place with the mountain they were supposedly inside.  Tsine, Thorrun, Tebryn, and Galeron were investigating the books of a nearby bookshelf, Robin was napping, and Fnipper was repeatedly stealing some of the many art decorations of the room, running back down the tunnel, and returning disappointed after all the decorations somehow teleported back into the room.  This let Tal with the unfortunate task of explaining things to Grockith.  Tal had figured out that he was from an earlier time fairly quickly after Grockith explained how he got here, but Grockith was clearly having trouble with the issue.    “I’m afraid Tal is telling the truth, Grockith.  You have been waiting here for over a thousands years, I’m afraid,” a mysterious voice said from the middle of the room.  Everyone turned as one, and saw the guardian standing there.  His skin was now a normal hue, and he didn’t look like he had a scratch on him.    “But how?  It barely felt like a few days.”    “Merely the master’s powers at work.”    Grockith finally looked like caught up, but the shock of it had hit him suddenly.  “But that means everyone I know is dead!  My friends, my family, the very kingdom I came here to save!  Why would you do this to me?”    The guardian continued to show no emotion, and simply responded, “You did agree to wait a while for a chance to speak to the master.”    “A thousand years is a while?”    “It’s barely an eye blink to my master, I assure you.  Now, maybe you can get some help from my master about this, but you must speak to him first.  And to do that, you must finish the test.”    “How are we supposed to do that?” Tebryn, who also wanted some answers about why he was stuck on this plane, asked.    “Why, use that door,” the guardian replied, and pointed at a door that wasn’t there a few seconds ago.  “You may rest here as long as you like first, but as soon as you pass through the door, the test will begin immediately.    After taking a night to recover from the injuries and spells lost in the battle with the guardian, the party prepared to cautiously go through the door, with Fnipper and Grockith taking the lead; Fnipper for his scouting ability, and Grockith because he really wanted to kill something at this point to a degree that paladins really shouldn’t want to kill something.    The room they entered looked like the interior of a castle.  In fact, it looked like a bedroom, but the décor suggested the owner wasn’t the most pleasant person.  The entire area was very dark, with only a few candles lighting the entire room.  There was an unlit fireplace, black curtains on the walls, blood red carpeting and most ominously, a wooden coffin where the bed should be.  Fnipper and Grockith were coming to the obvious conclusion about the room’s owner when Tebryn pushed his way in after getting impatient.      “A vampire, eh,” Tebryn comments, having grasped the situation almost instantly.  “Okay, Fnipper, you get ready to attack.  Grockith, you move to the side and prepare to charge with your…mount, and I’ll ambush him with a fireball.  If he survives the fireball, you two attack, okay?”    The other two nodded, and took their positions.  Both tensed as Tebryn tossed a fireball, destroying was apparently a very empty coffin.  Suddenly, Grockith was pelted by arrows from the real enemy, who had been hiding behind the curtain.  However, despite being totally unaware of the attack, his thick armor and hide blocked all the arrows.  The three warriors whirled around to face their new foe…    And realized too late that it was a medusa.  Tebryn, who was waiting by the door, was out of range of her potent attacks, and Grockith was able to resist the power of her gaze, but Fnipper wasn’t so lucky.  He barely had time to utter a few choice gnomish curse words before turning into a statue!    Realizing what this enemy is capable of, Tebryn summoned a sphere of darkness around him, which proved problematic when the rest of the group arrived moments later.  Galeron, Tal, Tsine, and Robin prepared to leave the sphere as carefully as possible, but Thorrun was still stuck in the sphere when everyone left, and because the rest of the group was busy fighting, he spent the entire fight wandering in circles in the dark!    However, it wasn’t a very hard fight at this point, now that everyone knew what their enemy was.  The entire group quickly scattered while trying to avoid both the darkness and her devastating gaze, and attacked her en masse with missile weapons and magic.  She was clearly trained at defensive maneuvers, for she easily and completely dodged Tebryn’s fireballs and Tsine’s lightning bolts, but the volley of arrows and Tal’s magic missiles finished her off quickly enough anyway.      As soon as she was defeated, a doorway appeared in the far wall.  But before the party went through it, they of course had to deal with Fnipper.  “Can’t you do anything?” Tal pleaded with Galeron.    “Nothing orthodox.  I’m not prepared to handle the incredible divine energies needed to restore a petrified being back into the flesh.  But perhaps I can cure him with a more all-purpose spell?  I have one that can break any enchantment placed upon a being, but it will be difficult.”    Nonetheless, he tried his best, but failed.  Fortunately, Thorrun also knew that spell, and he was able to restore the now very confused gnome back to his true form.  The elated party traveled through the second door, and this time everyone went through more or less as once.    Surprisingly, the area beyond the doorway had nothing to do with the earlier location.  They appeared to be in a sunny hillside garden, covered with beautiful trees, stone artwork, and a giant reflecting pool at the other side of the forest.  The only suspicious object they saw was a strange pile of dust located near where they entered from.  As soon as they entered, the pool began to ripple, and then turned into a portal.      This was puzzling.  Had they finished this test already?  Suspicious, Fnipper took point, and carefully began to cross the garden, this time ready for any enemy that might appear.  However, once the rest of the party began to follow, they were suddenly stopped by a strange force that clearly wasn’t there when Fnipper crossed.  They began to feel around the wall, and found it had enclosed them on all four sides!  Even worse, as soon as they realized this, Fnipper and the rest of the party were simultaneously attacked!  Fnipper was caught at point-blank by a force of overwhelming goodness, manifested in one simple word!  The rather amoral Fnipper was unprepared for it, and began to stagger around, blinded and deafened by the experience.  Despite this, he still knew which direction the portal was, and broke into a run for it.  The rest of the party, meanwhile, was struck by a cone or prismatic energy!  Robin was almost electrocuted by the cone, and Tebryn was almost teleported to another plane, but the rest of the party was lucky enough to get through with only minor burns or corrosive wounds.  They realized they had to get out of there quickly, but no sooner did they begin to make plans, then yet another magical attack got them!  This time, it was a pair of strange lions, which seemed to glow with a holy energy.  Finally fed up, Robin, Tebryn, Tsine, and Tal used magic or their natural climbing and jumping abilities to scale the wall, while Galeron, Thorrun, and Grockith made short work of the lions.  Another trio of lions appeared on the other side and tried to attack Fnipper, but he didn’t even seem to notice, which was just as well as the lions’ attacks went right through them.  They were obviously illusions, but Fnipper’s current condition ironically made him unable to even recognize the threat!Finally, he managed to reach the pool, though even that was well-guarded.  A nearby tree fired a lightning beam at him, which he expertly evaded despite his total inability to even see it.  Robin, Tebryn, Tsine, and Tal weren’t so lucky, as parts of the lightning curved around and hit them!  Fnipper didn’t seem to notice or care, and continued his run.  As he neared the pool, he evaded a giant saw blade that also appeared out of nowhere, and again despite having any way to know it was there beyond a few vibrations in the air and his own finely-honed danger sense.  He narrowly dodged a beam of life-draining light as he dove into the pool, safe.Meanwhile, the rest of the group wasn’t doing so well.  The group trapped inside the walls didn’t have any more threats, but they still had to get out of the box, which took the strength and general height of Grockith and his rhino to easily perform.  Meanwhile, the illusionary lions vanished almost as quickly as they appeared, but they were replaced with a strange man whose lower body was made of nothing but clouds.  He saw the party, and immediately transformed into a whirlwind before attacking them!  This caught the unfortunate Tebryn, but as he struggled to escape, the rest of the party fired on the living whirlwind until it safely dissipated, and the group was able to collectively escape.  Well, they were able to escape a few minutes later, once the saw blade over the pool finally vanished.OOC Notes: Ah, I love magical traps.  The party was convinced that they were under attack by invisible enemies.  But that happens next game…It was a mixed game for Fnipper.  On one hand, he was blinded, deafened, and turned to stone in one day.  On the other, he was perfectly dodging traps while totally unaware of their presence, which has to count for something.Oh, did you figure out how the challenges in this thing are set up yet?  Here’s a hint: think about the dust pile in the garden.</blockquote>

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