ADVENTURE 53: IRONCLAD
PC Roster:
NPC Roster:
Game Session Date: 15 May 2024
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"It sounds to me," replied Holyrood Carp, "like that's an iron golem you'd be facing."
The bard had listened while the Trained Professional Adventurers - with Alistair restored to a non-petrified state - explained about their recent exploits fighting off the beholder in the chamber they'd unearthed. Chaevaris pressed him about details on how best to fight an iron golem, as the group had never faced one before.
"You'll want to avoid fire-based spells," Holyrood advised, "but electricity-based spells will slow it considerably. That's probably the best way to go about fighting an iron golem. Most other spells won't affect it in the least." Alistair made a mental note to lead off with a lightning bolt spell, but then realized after that he'd be pretty much useless against the construct. They'd have to rely upon Harlan's swordcraft - with the flaming burst aspect of his Starblade deactivated, of course.
"But tell me more about the bronze doors with the rope binding them closed," Holyrood pressed. Orchid described it in detail, her elven eyesight having been able to make out more of the bas-relief carvings in the dim light of the chamber in the time they'd been there. The bard got more and more excited as she described the two figures etched on the door, a four-winged being cutting off the bat wings of another figure. "And the words inscribed at the top - what did they say? Did they mention 'the Cutter' at all?"
"The Cutter?" repeated Orchid. "No, I think it just said, 'Devicor daemoniorum,' something like that."
"I thought so!" exclaimed the bard. "My friends, I believe you have discovered the internment site of Scalptor the Cutter, Slayer of Devils, a glabrezu that once walked the mortal world during the time of Grazzt, Iggwilv, and Iuz! He was said to have sliced the wings from a pit fiend before being imprisoned in torment himself, as were many of the other demons and devils summoned forth to aid in battle as demigods waged war against each other. It would make sense, then, to have the place where he is bound guarded by a creature like an iron golem, ready to come to life if anyone tried opening the door imprisoning Scalptor."
"But then wouldn't it be best if we just left him in there?" reasoned Chaevaris. "If he's been safely entombed all this time...."
"That, sadly, is no longer the case," Harlan argued. "The beholder has made an opening from the hillside into the tunnel - and the gnolls burst into the main chamber from their own den. There are now two easy ways for anyone to enter the demon's cell and release him - better that we open the door to slay him once and for all." Arguing against a paladin slaying a demon, the other heroes knew, was pretty much wasted breath, so they geared themselves up for a trip back to the chamber where they encountered and slew the beholder.
"Those 18 or 19 dead gnolls aren't going to be smelling any better than the last time we were there," Ageratum warned.
Despite having paid a wizard to fully charge up their thieves' coil, given that the "hidden" chamber was no more than 6 hours away by horseback, the group opted to take off the following morning on their trusty steeds, giving Chaevaris an opportunity to hunt up an arrowsmith who worked in adamantine in the meantime. And thus it was early afternoon the next day when the heroes arrived at the spot where they'd first heard the beholder calling out a feigned need for help. The archer activated the extradimensional door from her amulet, projecting it onto the side of the hill by the beholder's circular tunnel. Then Alistair ordered Carruthers out, after which they led the horses - and Nova, Harlan's celestial pegasus - into the abandoned gnoll cave where they'd hopefully be safe from any harm. Alistair set his grackle familiar on guard duty outside the beholder's circular tunnel out front, ready to warn them should anyone approach from that direction. Orchid stationed her timber wolf Shushitan out at the front entrance as backup for Ambrose. Then Harlan called for the casting of any spells anybody wanted up and running when they entered the chamber inside.
Orchid began her casting by placing a rusting grasp spell into Carruther's hands, which were fortunately carved from wood and stone. Now, upon Alistair's orders, the shield guardian could release that spell upon touching the iron golem, for it was one of the only spells known to actually harm such a construct. Alistair cast a mage armor spell upon himself and another upon Carruthers, a haste spell upon the group, and a greater invisibility spell upon Ageratum. (She had a magic bracelet that allowed her to cast invisibility spells upon herself, but those always deactivated whenever she attacked a foe; with Alistair's spell she'd remain unseen.) Orchid cast a longstrider spell upon herself, and then a series of six barkskin spells, one upon each hero and the last one upon Carruthers. She then cast an air walk spell upon Chaevaris and the spells mass bull's strength and mass bear's endurance spells upon the five heroes. Harlan cast a bless spell upon the group and announced he was ready. Chaevaris took that as her cue to air walk up to the higher tunnel that opened out into the chamber holding the iron golem and the door behind which was likely imprisoned Scalptor the Cutter. She then opened the visor to her bullseye lantern and let it shine into the open chamber, providing some much-needed illumination for those not blessed with elven vision.
(Ageratum, by the way, had been absolutely right: the smell was simply horrific, what with 19 decaying gnoll bodies and a dead beholder still floating in the air where it had been slain, the buoyant gases keeping it aloft not yet having dissipated after its death. Alistair, upon getting his first whiff of the horrid stench, immediately cast a prestidigitation spell to flood the chamber with the scent of roses.)
The group had settled on a plan: take out the iron golem first, before opening the bronze doors. And it would be best if they could somehow incapacitate the iron golem before it even activated. The halfling had therefore suggested she use her rope of entanglement to wrap around the construct's ankles, which would hopefully trip it in the same way tying someone's shoelaces together did. She fully expected "attacking" the iron golem's ankles in this way would likely activate it, but with the others all ready to react to its initial movement, they hoped to take it out smoothly and easily - potentially immediately after it face-planted onto the floor.
Standing 20 feet directly in front of the iron golem - the furthest distance her rope would reach if she held it like a whip - Ageratum was about to snap its far end at the golem's ankles when she suddenly had a better idea. "You know," she said, "I can have my rope attack its ankles while I'm standing on the ceiling. That way, he won't be able to retaliate against me - I'll be out of reach!" Having convinced herself of the logic behind the sudden change (and that was assuming the construct had some way to see past her greater invisibility spell), she activated her cloak of arachnida and started spider climbing up the wall of the chamber and across the ceiling until she stood directly overhead. But then, in flicking the rope of entanglement in preparation of releasing it to fall down and slither around the iron golem's ankles, she accidentally crossed an imaginary line 20 feet from the back wall - the wall on which the two bound bronze doors stood - and that was enough to send the iron golem into immediate motion.
Orchid cast a second rusting grasp spell onto her own hand and stepped forward to touch the advancing golem. The area around where her fingers brushed against the construct's metal body immediately became pitted and corroded. Harlan charged up beside her, swinging his Starblade for all he was worth. (He had remembered to deactivate the flames that normally blazed down the length of the blade.) His sword struck with a resounding peal of metal upon metal, but it didn't even leave a scratch upon the golem's body - it had apparently been ensorcelled during construction to resist a good deal of physical damage, the paladin realized.
Alistair cast a lightning bolt at the iron golem's head, as its great height ensured that way he wouldn't accidentally catch either of his friends in the spell's path. The electrical attack had the expected effect of causing the construct to slow down significantly. The sorcerer beamed with pride until he realized that was the one and only spell he had on hand that could affect the iron golem; like it or not, he was now nothing more than a spectator in this fight, but perhaps he could find a way to boost one or more of his companions' combat prowess or something....
"Attack the iron golem, Carruthers!" Alistair called out. "And use your rusting grasp spell against it!" Carruthers ambled forward to do his master's bidding, slamming a stone fist into the iron golem's side and causing another area of rust to form. At the same time, Ageratum flipped her rope of entanglement down at the golem, which wrapped itself around the golem's ankles as commanded. However, as three individual foes had all moved up to engage the automaton, it didn't need to move forward to attack them in return, and it remained standing on its feet in the spot in which it had first animated. In fact, its initial attack didn't even require it to move its arms. Its mouth hinged open and a stream of gas ejected from the opening, quickly expanding into a cloud of poisonous vapors. Carruthers was of course completely unfazed by the attack, but so was Orchid, for her druidic training had made her immune to poisons. Harlan was not so invulnerable on that front, but he managed to get a good gulp of fresh air before he was surrounded by the nasty vapors and managed to gut it out for the duration until the cloud dissipated on its own.
Up from her beholder-tunnel perch, Chaevaris shot off a flurry of adamantine arrows in quick sequence. All four hit, although only one hit at the right angle to penetrate the iron golem's body and remain sticking out of it; the other three just plinked off its armor and fell to the floor. Orchid, her rusting grasp spell still active, reached over and hit the golem in a new spot, causing another patch of corrosive metal flakes to appear on its leg. Harlan backed up over by Alistair, out of immediate range, and cast an eagle's splendor spell upon himself.
Alistair moved back to the brass doors leading to the entry tunnel, calling out for Carruthers to press on with his attacks. The shield guardian slammed the iron golem again, the blow causing another spot of rust to form. Then, upon his master's orders, he backtracked a few paces, as Alistair was hoping to get the golem to try to move so the rope of entanglement could do its work and send it crashing to the ground. But Orchid was still well within range, and the slowed construct slammed a swinging arm into her side, sending her sprawling. From her perch upon the ceiling, Ageratum cast a web spell from her cloak down at the iron golem, webbing him from floor to ceiling with an anchor point along the back and side walls. Then she herself backed up, remaining both invisible and on the ceiling.
Four more adamantine arrows came shooting at the iron golem in rapid succession, once again with only one of them penetrating at just the right angle to do any serious damage. Orchid slapped the golem again and caused another rust spot, while Harlan cast a magic circle against evil spell upon himself. Then Carruthers stepped forward again - webbed as it was, the iron golem wouldn't be coming forward to him, it seemed - and brought a massive fist slamming into the golem's midsection, causing it to pit and corrode. The golem slumped forward, its bound legs limp behind it as the weight of its upper torso was suspended by the web spell. But it was quite apparent that the iron golem's days of animated movement were now behind it.
Alistair's mind went immediately to the upcoming fight: demons, he recalled, were resistant to most forms of energy and immune to electricity, so his lightning bolt and chain lightning spells would be of no use. But with the iron golem taken out, the heroes regrouped in front of the bound bronze doors (all but Chaevaris, who remained in her sniper's perch in the beholder tunnel). "Miss Purslane, are you here?" asked Alistair, calling out to the air. "I'd like you to examine this door, if you would be so kind."
"Right here behind you," replied Ageratum's voice from off to the side. "I don't see any obvious traps, but let me try a wand of knock before I try anything else." She activated her wand, but it had no effect upon the doors. Alistair tried a mage hand spell to try to undo the elaborate knotwork binding the doors shut by their handles with a sturdy-looking rope (not wanting to touch the rope himself), also to no avail. Harlan tried channeling a burst of positive energy at it, in the same manner as when he tried to turn undead creatures away from him, with just as much success as the other attempts. Finally, Ageratum's unseen voice called out, "Hey, Harlan, try cutting the rope with your blade. I think the fact it has a holy enchantment might make the difference."
It absolutely did. With a single downward thrust of his Starblade, the knot was cut in twain and the bronze doors groaned as air started flowing out from the cracks beneath; apparently, the ropes had done more than just make it impossible to open the doors - it had sealed off the room beyond from sound or air making its way through. Now, though, the heroes could hear the sounds of heavy chains falling to the floor in the room beyond.
Orchid tugged on the western door, getting it to open and allowing her to see inside the chamber beyond. There was a glabrezu on a raised platform in the center of the room - three steps up, she noted - rubbing its clawed pincer-arms with its smaller, humanoid set; apparently the chains piled on either side of the platform had bound the larger pair of arms, tugging them in opposite directions for all this time. But the druid didn't spend any time at all checking out the room before firing off a wall of thorns spell, surrounding Scalptor and the back half of the chamber, leaving enough room in front for those who wanted to be able to still attack the demon without having to wade through thorns. The glabrezu was tall enough that its head and shoulders rose up out of the 10-foot-tall mass of twisted thorns.
Harlan took immediate advantage of Orchid's new layout. Charging into the chamber and channeling Pelor's smiting energy into his blade, he swung for all he was worth and felt a successful blow drive deep into the fiend's chest, likely slicing through a rib or two on its way in. Scalptor roared in pain, swearing oaths of vengeance in his own horrid tongue.
Alistair pulled open the eastern door to allow everyone a better view - especially Elfy, up there in her perch. He fired off a cone of cold spell, angling it upwards over Harlan's head so he wouldn't also get encompassed by the blast of cold energy. As expected, the glabrezu's demonic nature allowed him to shake off the worst of the spell's effects, but the sorcerer figured every little bit helped eventually slay this foul beast.
Carruthers came charging into the chamber, slamming a fist into the fiend's jaw. Ageratum ran in right behind the shield golem, but she was still running along on the ceiling and still covered by Alistair's greater invisibility spell. She swung her sling in a circle beneath her, letting fly with a stone that struck the demon on the nose but didn't seem to do much more than surprise it. It snarled in irritation and looked her straight in the eye, something she hadn't thought possible, but she'd failed to take into account the fiend's true seeing ability.
Chaevaris, unhappy with the vantage point from her initial perch, air walked above the floor of the first chamber until she had a better view into the internment chamber and the demon imprisoned within - it had apparently swapped out heavy chains for stabbing thorns, but it was still imprisoned. Aiming carefully, she pierced the demon's right eye with an arrow charged up with sonic energy from her magic longbow. Scalptor retaliated with a mighty power word that left the archer stunned for several precious moments where she stood in mid-air. Harlan swung a second time but failed to do as much damage as his first strike, but Carruthers slammed his other fist into the glabrezu's wolfish muzzle, causing bright red blood to start flowing. Orchid cast a freedom of movement spell upon Harlan, thinking to give him the ability to wade unhurt through the mesh of intertwined thorn branches, but he was already swinging back and forth with his Starblade, cutting deep gauges in the glabrezu's flesh with each swing. Pelor's smiting energy surged through his blade, adding to the damage he was dealing to this fiend from the Lower Planes. And sure enough, by the time he was done, the demon was dead before him, although its body remained here in place on the Material Plane instead of returning immediately to the Abyss, for it had been gated instead of summoned. The half-elf gave a grim smile, for he knew that meant Scalptor's death was a permanent one.
"That's one less demon anyone will ever have to worry about," he said with satisfaction in his voice.
"Yeah, but too bad there's no treasure or anything in here," griped Ageratum, as Orchid dismissed her wall of thorns spell, allowing the glabrezu to fall to the floor of his raised platform.
"I wouldn't be too sure of that," remarked Alistair, entering the chamber for the first time. He had Carruthers lift one of the massive, black chains that had been imprisoning the foul demon, and a bit of scraping revealed solid gold beneath the black. "Hey, Elfy, if you'd like to activate the door in here, we can have Carruthers toss these chains inside and we can see about unloading them when we get back to Ghourmand Vale!"
There was no response - Chaevaris was still under the effects of Scalptor's power word stun. But once it wore off, she helped get the chain loaded into their extradimensional dwelling place and then they returned to the gnoll caves to retrieve their mounts. Then, after catching back up with Ambrose and Shushitan, they started their way back to Ghourmand Vale. Ageratum spent a good chunk of the ride back estimating the rough value of the golden chains they were bringing back with them.
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According to Dan, the chains were worth 10,000 gp - not a bad haul!
I wrote this up as if Ageratum moving to the ceiling before employing her rope of entanglement against the iron golem was her own idea, but Dan was the one who had talked his wife Vicki into it - and then, once she was positioned above the golem, he ruled she had stepped close enough to the back wall to activate the iron golem. He swears it was all innocent, but from our point of view (that is: mine, Logan's and Harry's) it certainly looked like he went out of his way to prevent the "bound ankles" attack from working and more or less forcing Ageratum to trigger the golem into movement. (The space where she had said she was going was far enough away from the back wall not to have triggered anything; Dan went with where Logan had moved the Ageratum mini - off the combat map altogether and off to the side, since she was on a spot above and in front of the iron golem - as an indicator of her actual location.) So, although it seemed like willful vindictiveness to us at the time, it may well have just been failure to pay attention on Dan's part - an attribute he's demonstrated before.
PC Roster:
Ageratum Purslane, halfling rogue 12
Alistair Mandelberen Pastlethwaite, human sorcerer 12
Chaevaris Noarunal, elf archer 12
Harlan Starblade, half-elf paladin 12
Alistair Mandelberen Pastlethwaite, human sorcerer 12
Chaevaris Noarunal, elf archer 12
Harlan Starblade, half-elf paladin 12
NPC Roster:
Orchid, elf druid 12
Game Session Date: 15 May 2024
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"It sounds to me," replied Holyrood Carp, "like that's an iron golem you'd be facing."
The bard had listened while the Trained Professional Adventurers - with Alistair restored to a non-petrified state - explained about their recent exploits fighting off the beholder in the chamber they'd unearthed. Chaevaris pressed him about details on how best to fight an iron golem, as the group had never faced one before.
"You'll want to avoid fire-based spells," Holyrood advised, "but electricity-based spells will slow it considerably. That's probably the best way to go about fighting an iron golem. Most other spells won't affect it in the least." Alistair made a mental note to lead off with a lightning bolt spell, but then realized after that he'd be pretty much useless against the construct. They'd have to rely upon Harlan's swordcraft - with the flaming burst aspect of his Starblade deactivated, of course.
"But tell me more about the bronze doors with the rope binding them closed," Holyrood pressed. Orchid described it in detail, her elven eyesight having been able to make out more of the bas-relief carvings in the dim light of the chamber in the time they'd been there. The bard got more and more excited as she described the two figures etched on the door, a four-winged being cutting off the bat wings of another figure. "And the words inscribed at the top - what did they say? Did they mention 'the Cutter' at all?"
"The Cutter?" repeated Orchid. "No, I think it just said, 'Devicor daemoniorum,' something like that."
"I thought so!" exclaimed the bard. "My friends, I believe you have discovered the internment site of Scalptor the Cutter, Slayer of Devils, a glabrezu that once walked the mortal world during the time of Grazzt, Iggwilv, and Iuz! He was said to have sliced the wings from a pit fiend before being imprisoned in torment himself, as were many of the other demons and devils summoned forth to aid in battle as demigods waged war against each other. It would make sense, then, to have the place where he is bound guarded by a creature like an iron golem, ready to come to life if anyone tried opening the door imprisoning Scalptor."
"But then wouldn't it be best if we just left him in there?" reasoned Chaevaris. "If he's been safely entombed all this time...."
"That, sadly, is no longer the case," Harlan argued. "The beholder has made an opening from the hillside into the tunnel - and the gnolls burst into the main chamber from their own den. There are now two easy ways for anyone to enter the demon's cell and release him - better that we open the door to slay him once and for all." Arguing against a paladin slaying a demon, the other heroes knew, was pretty much wasted breath, so they geared themselves up for a trip back to the chamber where they encountered and slew the beholder.
"Those 18 or 19 dead gnolls aren't going to be smelling any better than the last time we were there," Ageratum warned.
Despite having paid a wizard to fully charge up their thieves' coil, given that the "hidden" chamber was no more than 6 hours away by horseback, the group opted to take off the following morning on their trusty steeds, giving Chaevaris an opportunity to hunt up an arrowsmith who worked in adamantine in the meantime. And thus it was early afternoon the next day when the heroes arrived at the spot where they'd first heard the beholder calling out a feigned need for help. The archer activated the extradimensional door from her amulet, projecting it onto the side of the hill by the beholder's circular tunnel. Then Alistair ordered Carruthers out, after which they led the horses - and Nova, Harlan's celestial pegasus - into the abandoned gnoll cave where they'd hopefully be safe from any harm. Alistair set his grackle familiar on guard duty outside the beholder's circular tunnel out front, ready to warn them should anyone approach from that direction. Orchid stationed her timber wolf Shushitan out at the front entrance as backup for Ambrose. Then Harlan called for the casting of any spells anybody wanted up and running when they entered the chamber inside.
Orchid began her casting by placing a rusting grasp spell into Carruther's hands, which were fortunately carved from wood and stone. Now, upon Alistair's orders, the shield guardian could release that spell upon touching the iron golem, for it was one of the only spells known to actually harm such a construct. Alistair cast a mage armor spell upon himself and another upon Carruthers, a haste spell upon the group, and a greater invisibility spell upon Ageratum. (She had a magic bracelet that allowed her to cast invisibility spells upon herself, but those always deactivated whenever she attacked a foe; with Alistair's spell she'd remain unseen.) Orchid cast a longstrider spell upon herself, and then a series of six barkskin spells, one upon each hero and the last one upon Carruthers. She then cast an air walk spell upon Chaevaris and the spells mass bull's strength and mass bear's endurance spells upon the five heroes. Harlan cast a bless spell upon the group and announced he was ready. Chaevaris took that as her cue to air walk up to the higher tunnel that opened out into the chamber holding the iron golem and the door behind which was likely imprisoned Scalptor the Cutter. She then opened the visor to her bullseye lantern and let it shine into the open chamber, providing some much-needed illumination for those not blessed with elven vision.
(Ageratum, by the way, had been absolutely right: the smell was simply horrific, what with 19 decaying gnoll bodies and a dead beholder still floating in the air where it had been slain, the buoyant gases keeping it aloft not yet having dissipated after its death. Alistair, upon getting his first whiff of the horrid stench, immediately cast a prestidigitation spell to flood the chamber with the scent of roses.)
The group had settled on a plan: take out the iron golem first, before opening the bronze doors. And it would be best if they could somehow incapacitate the iron golem before it even activated. The halfling had therefore suggested she use her rope of entanglement to wrap around the construct's ankles, which would hopefully trip it in the same way tying someone's shoelaces together did. She fully expected "attacking" the iron golem's ankles in this way would likely activate it, but with the others all ready to react to its initial movement, they hoped to take it out smoothly and easily - potentially immediately after it face-planted onto the floor.
Standing 20 feet directly in front of the iron golem - the furthest distance her rope would reach if she held it like a whip - Ageratum was about to snap its far end at the golem's ankles when she suddenly had a better idea. "You know," she said, "I can have my rope attack its ankles while I'm standing on the ceiling. That way, he won't be able to retaliate against me - I'll be out of reach!" Having convinced herself of the logic behind the sudden change (and that was assuming the construct had some way to see past her greater invisibility spell), she activated her cloak of arachnida and started spider climbing up the wall of the chamber and across the ceiling until she stood directly overhead. But then, in flicking the rope of entanglement in preparation of releasing it to fall down and slither around the iron golem's ankles, she accidentally crossed an imaginary line 20 feet from the back wall - the wall on which the two bound bronze doors stood - and that was enough to send the iron golem into immediate motion.
Orchid cast a second rusting grasp spell onto her own hand and stepped forward to touch the advancing golem. The area around where her fingers brushed against the construct's metal body immediately became pitted and corroded. Harlan charged up beside her, swinging his Starblade for all he was worth. (He had remembered to deactivate the flames that normally blazed down the length of the blade.) His sword struck with a resounding peal of metal upon metal, but it didn't even leave a scratch upon the golem's body - it had apparently been ensorcelled during construction to resist a good deal of physical damage, the paladin realized.
Alistair cast a lightning bolt at the iron golem's head, as its great height ensured that way he wouldn't accidentally catch either of his friends in the spell's path. The electrical attack had the expected effect of causing the construct to slow down significantly. The sorcerer beamed with pride until he realized that was the one and only spell he had on hand that could affect the iron golem; like it or not, he was now nothing more than a spectator in this fight, but perhaps he could find a way to boost one or more of his companions' combat prowess or something....
"Attack the iron golem, Carruthers!" Alistair called out. "And use your rusting grasp spell against it!" Carruthers ambled forward to do his master's bidding, slamming a stone fist into the iron golem's side and causing another area of rust to form. At the same time, Ageratum flipped her rope of entanglement down at the golem, which wrapped itself around the golem's ankles as commanded. However, as three individual foes had all moved up to engage the automaton, it didn't need to move forward to attack them in return, and it remained standing on its feet in the spot in which it had first animated. In fact, its initial attack didn't even require it to move its arms. Its mouth hinged open and a stream of gas ejected from the opening, quickly expanding into a cloud of poisonous vapors. Carruthers was of course completely unfazed by the attack, but so was Orchid, for her druidic training had made her immune to poisons. Harlan was not so invulnerable on that front, but he managed to get a good gulp of fresh air before he was surrounded by the nasty vapors and managed to gut it out for the duration until the cloud dissipated on its own.
Up from her beholder-tunnel perch, Chaevaris shot off a flurry of adamantine arrows in quick sequence. All four hit, although only one hit at the right angle to penetrate the iron golem's body and remain sticking out of it; the other three just plinked off its armor and fell to the floor. Orchid, her rusting grasp spell still active, reached over and hit the golem in a new spot, causing another patch of corrosive metal flakes to appear on its leg. Harlan backed up over by Alistair, out of immediate range, and cast an eagle's splendor spell upon himself.
Alistair moved back to the brass doors leading to the entry tunnel, calling out for Carruthers to press on with his attacks. The shield guardian slammed the iron golem again, the blow causing another spot of rust to form. Then, upon his master's orders, he backtracked a few paces, as Alistair was hoping to get the golem to try to move so the rope of entanglement could do its work and send it crashing to the ground. But Orchid was still well within range, and the slowed construct slammed a swinging arm into her side, sending her sprawling. From her perch upon the ceiling, Ageratum cast a web spell from her cloak down at the iron golem, webbing him from floor to ceiling with an anchor point along the back and side walls. Then she herself backed up, remaining both invisible and on the ceiling.
Four more adamantine arrows came shooting at the iron golem in rapid succession, once again with only one of them penetrating at just the right angle to do any serious damage. Orchid slapped the golem again and caused another rust spot, while Harlan cast a magic circle against evil spell upon himself. Then Carruthers stepped forward again - webbed as it was, the iron golem wouldn't be coming forward to him, it seemed - and brought a massive fist slamming into the golem's midsection, causing it to pit and corrode. The golem slumped forward, its bound legs limp behind it as the weight of its upper torso was suspended by the web spell. But it was quite apparent that the iron golem's days of animated movement were now behind it.
Alistair's mind went immediately to the upcoming fight: demons, he recalled, were resistant to most forms of energy and immune to electricity, so his lightning bolt and chain lightning spells would be of no use. But with the iron golem taken out, the heroes regrouped in front of the bound bronze doors (all but Chaevaris, who remained in her sniper's perch in the beholder tunnel). "Miss Purslane, are you here?" asked Alistair, calling out to the air. "I'd like you to examine this door, if you would be so kind."
"Right here behind you," replied Ageratum's voice from off to the side. "I don't see any obvious traps, but let me try a wand of knock before I try anything else." She activated her wand, but it had no effect upon the doors. Alistair tried a mage hand spell to try to undo the elaborate knotwork binding the doors shut by their handles with a sturdy-looking rope (not wanting to touch the rope himself), also to no avail. Harlan tried channeling a burst of positive energy at it, in the same manner as when he tried to turn undead creatures away from him, with just as much success as the other attempts. Finally, Ageratum's unseen voice called out, "Hey, Harlan, try cutting the rope with your blade. I think the fact it has a holy enchantment might make the difference."
It absolutely did. With a single downward thrust of his Starblade, the knot was cut in twain and the bronze doors groaned as air started flowing out from the cracks beneath; apparently, the ropes had done more than just make it impossible to open the doors - it had sealed off the room beyond from sound or air making its way through. Now, though, the heroes could hear the sounds of heavy chains falling to the floor in the room beyond.
Orchid tugged on the western door, getting it to open and allowing her to see inside the chamber beyond. There was a glabrezu on a raised platform in the center of the room - three steps up, she noted - rubbing its clawed pincer-arms with its smaller, humanoid set; apparently the chains piled on either side of the platform had bound the larger pair of arms, tugging them in opposite directions for all this time. But the druid didn't spend any time at all checking out the room before firing off a wall of thorns spell, surrounding Scalptor and the back half of the chamber, leaving enough room in front for those who wanted to be able to still attack the demon without having to wade through thorns. The glabrezu was tall enough that its head and shoulders rose up out of the 10-foot-tall mass of twisted thorns.
Harlan took immediate advantage of Orchid's new layout. Charging into the chamber and channeling Pelor's smiting energy into his blade, he swung for all he was worth and felt a successful blow drive deep into the fiend's chest, likely slicing through a rib or two on its way in. Scalptor roared in pain, swearing oaths of vengeance in his own horrid tongue.
Alistair pulled open the eastern door to allow everyone a better view - especially Elfy, up there in her perch. He fired off a cone of cold spell, angling it upwards over Harlan's head so he wouldn't also get encompassed by the blast of cold energy. As expected, the glabrezu's demonic nature allowed him to shake off the worst of the spell's effects, but the sorcerer figured every little bit helped eventually slay this foul beast.
Carruthers came charging into the chamber, slamming a fist into the fiend's jaw. Ageratum ran in right behind the shield golem, but she was still running along on the ceiling and still covered by Alistair's greater invisibility spell. She swung her sling in a circle beneath her, letting fly with a stone that struck the demon on the nose but didn't seem to do much more than surprise it. It snarled in irritation and looked her straight in the eye, something she hadn't thought possible, but she'd failed to take into account the fiend's true seeing ability.
Chaevaris, unhappy with the vantage point from her initial perch, air walked above the floor of the first chamber until she had a better view into the internment chamber and the demon imprisoned within - it had apparently swapped out heavy chains for stabbing thorns, but it was still imprisoned. Aiming carefully, she pierced the demon's right eye with an arrow charged up with sonic energy from her magic longbow. Scalptor retaliated with a mighty power word that left the archer stunned for several precious moments where she stood in mid-air. Harlan swung a second time but failed to do as much damage as his first strike, but Carruthers slammed his other fist into the glabrezu's wolfish muzzle, causing bright red blood to start flowing. Orchid cast a freedom of movement spell upon Harlan, thinking to give him the ability to wade unhurt through the mesh of intertwined thorn branches, but he was already swinging back and forth with his Starblade, cutting deep gauges in the glabrezu's flesh with each swing. Pelor's smiting energy surged through his blade, adding to the damage he was dealing to this fiend from the Lower Planes. And sure enough, by the time he was done, the demon was dead before him, although its body remained here in place on the Material Plane instead of returning immediately to the Abyss, for it had been gated instead of summoned. The half-elf gave a grim smile, for he knew that meant Scalptor's death was a permanent one.
"That's one less demon anyone will ever have to worry about," he said with satisfaction in his voice.
"Yeah, but too bad there's no treasure or anything in here," griped Ageratum, as Orchid dismissed her wall of thorns spell, allowing the glabrezu to fall to the floor of his raised platform.
"I wouldn't be too sure of that," remarked Alistair, entering the chamber for the first time. He had Carruthers lift one of the massive, black chains that had been imprisoning the foul demon, and a bit of scraping revealed solid gold beneath the black. "Hey, Elfy, if you'd like to activate the door in here, we can have Carruthers toss these chains inside and we can see about unloading them when we get back to Ghourmand Vale!"
There was no response - Chaevaris was still under the effects of Scalptor's power word stun. But once it wore off, she helped get the chain loaded into their extradimensional dwelling place and then they returned to the gnoll caves to retrieve their mounts. Then, after catching back up with Ambrose and Shushitan, they started their way back to Ghourmand Vale. Ageratum spent a good chunk of the ride back estimating the rough value of the golden chains they were bringing back with them.
- - -
According to Dan, the chains were worth 10,000 gp - not a bad haul!
I wrote this up as if Ageratum moving to the ceiling before employing her rope of entanglement against the iron golem was her own idea, but Dan was the one who had talked his wife Vicki into it - and then, once she was positioned above the golem, he ruled she had stepped close enough to the back wall to activate the iron golem. He swears it was all innocent, but from our point of view (that is: mine, Logan's and Harry's) it certainly looked like he went out of his way to prevent the "bound ankles" attack from working and more or less forcing Ageratum to trigger the golem into movement. (The space where she had said she was going was far enough away from the back wall not to have triggered anything; Dan went with where Logan had moved the Ageratum mini - off the combat map altogether and off to the side, since she was on a spot above and in front of the iron golem - as an indicator of her actual location.) So, although it seemed like willful vindictiveness to us at the time, it may well have just been failure to pay attention on Dan's part - an attribute he's demonstrated before.
