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Message: <blockquote data-quote="tmart" data-source="post: 1445444" data-attributes="member: 11198">Bad vibesThe rest of the party was camped out in the newly emptied ant tunnels in front of a large and highly out-of-place stone door, engraved with runes. It had no handle or knocker, and could not be budged with any degree of force. The paladin detected no evil, but both he and the cleric Andria sensed negative energy within it. Together they channeled positive energy into the door. Its negative energy was overcome, and it shattered.The inside was walled with masonry. Cursory exploration revealed two very rotted doors. One led to a defunct dormitory containing two metal boxes. "I'll detect magic," offered the nameless sorceror. "It's abjuration." Astor impetuously opened it and was rewarded with a clear spindle ioun stone and a fire trap.* The other box held 120 platinum pieces.The other door opened to an armoury full of 75 matching sets of profane armour, shields, and longswords, all rusted and useless. A sword was mounted to the back wall, immediately inspected by Sorceror. Pendric was slightly disturbed by its presence. It didn't detect evil as such, but was black, seemed to contain blood, looked vaguely insane, and rippled impossibly with the heartbeat of its wielder."That's curious," said the sorceror after detecting its magic. "Its magic is somehow at less than its full potential.""May I see that for a moment?" asked Pendric."Sure. Here you are."Pendric took the sword from him. He shivered and immediately dashed it against the wall as hard as he could. It vibrated intensely, along with the hapless paladin, but didn't break. Clearly, this item was crucial to the plotline."I don't trust this thing. I think I had better hang onto it, just in case," he said, still literally shaken.Having nowhere else to go, the party went down the staircase in the middle of the room and found that a vicious mass of palpably evil darkness blocked their descent. Pendric entered it and screamed."What? What happened?" Astor demanded."It felt as though it were sucking the life from me." Pendric shuddered. On a hunch, he channeled positive energy directly in front of him, and found that the darkness parted enough for the group to continue down the staircase. The effect was aesthetically pleasing, like a fan on water, but menacing. They descended nervously, enveloped by a malicious mass of black.Finding the bottom took a very long time. Finally they reached the bottom, and gladly found that the darkness subsided ten feet above the floor. A chitter was heard, and then a yelp from the sorceror. The others turned their heads to see the same vampire spawn that abducted Festrell scamper up the side of the stairs into the darkness. Sorceror hit the ground, unconscious.Weapons were drawn. Nervous minutes passed as the group stared into the darkness, waiting for another attack. None came. Andria healed the sorceror.The party walked up to an enormous set of double stone doors. Its engravings depicted a sort of cosmogony, definitely not in agreement with our heroes' beliefs. It featured two figures, one dark and one light, in constant battle. The light prevailed and cast down the dark figure, only to be cast down itself by four entities with elemental connotations.The door swung open easily, perfectly balanced, and the company proceeded down three miles of gradual stairs. At the bottom stood a man, alert, in front of another set of large double doors, one white, one black.* Pendric has always suspected that Sorceror knew that this would happen. He's a shifty one...   <img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/paranoid.png"  class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":uhoh:" title="Paranoid    :uhoh:" data-shortname=":uhoh:" /></blockquote>

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