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Message: <blockquote data-quote="MerakSpielman" data-source="post: 488021" data-attributes="member: 7464">They stepped into the tower and found themselves in a thirty-foot wide corridor leading due east toward the center of the tower. Evenly spaced every five feet along each wall were a series of bare alcoves. The hallway was illuminated by a series of stones set along the center of the ceiling that glowed with supernatural light. The floor was covered in large, square, gray tiles. There seemed to be no way to go except ahead.    Canter raised his hand, "Just a moment," and inconspicously raised his Gem of True Seeing to his eye.    "Nothing not as it seems." he decided, leading the way forward.    “It seems our entrance has gone unnoticed,” observed Cloudtoucher.    “I can’t believe the main entrance is unguarded,” snorted Glim, “ I mean what kind of security is this? Door unlocked, no guar...”    The gnome was cut off in surprise as the floor dropped away from Canter’s feet. The cleric barely managed to leap back in time to avoid falling. One of the large tiles had given way, revealing a pit. Fjorda stomped over and peered in.    “Can’t see the bottom,” she announced, “Even with my darkvision. Why didn't your Gem of True Seeing warn us?”    "That is not its function," Canter replied, breathing heavily, "It only unmasks magical deceptions, such as illusions or invisibility."    More wary now, the party skirted the pit and started to proceed down the corridor, but before they had gotten far, another pit opened, almost catching Fjorda. Her barbarian reflexes served her well as she spun about, catching onto the edge and pulling herself out. Her arsenal clanked around her belt and back as she regained her feet and composure.    “I don’t think we, or anybody else, are welcome here,” commented Serena.    “Wonderful observation,” said Canter dryly, “Once again, your superior intellect has revealed what was hidden to us lesser mortals.”    “Enough of this disguise,” said Kellen, “If the main entry of this place is this hostile, I don’t think bluffing is going to get us anywhere. If we’re going to be fighting a vampire, and possibly his spawn, we need to eliminate their coffins. I’m going to find out how to reach them.”    He started casting a spell. Canter and Serena smiled as they recognized Find the Path.    The spell concluded.    “Well?” asked Glim.    Kellen concentrated, trying to feel how the spell was directing him.    “Nothing,” He reported momentarily, “Something’s not working right.”    “Well, if I was a vampire,” Serena said smugly, “And a powerful wizard like Murnig Ulbrig, I would have protections around my coffin. I could have told you your spell wouldn’t work if you had asked before you cast it.”    “If you’re so smart, why don’t you suggest something,” snapped Kellen.    “All right then, I will. So far in our adventuring, we have depended upon our ability to come and go as we please via Teleports. That ability is useless as long as the Dimensional Anchor is in place. I suggest we find the mechanism by which it is operating and disable or destroy it. Then, no matter how bad things are getting, we’ll have a way to retreat.”    Cloudtoucher nodded. He knew that Serena always kept a teleport or two in her ring of spell storing, and Canter’s god let him Teleport occasionally as well, “I second this plan,” heannounced.    “Fine,” said Canter, “I’ll try a Find the Path myself. Perhaps this location is not as well guarded."    He cast his spell and closed his eyes, perceiving the direction of the mental tugging.    “There,” the cleric announced, pointing at the nearest pit in the floor, “The fastest path to the Dimensional Anchor device involves entering that pit.”    The others stared at him.    “Are you sure?” asked Glim incredulously.    “This Murnig Ulbrig is more clever than I thought,” exclaimed Serena, “By riddling the front entryway with pits, intruders will assume they are traps, not passages. No doubt they’re not safe for us to enter to enter,” she added hastily, “but vampires can assume gaseous form and climb sheer surfaces with magical ease. These pits are only significant obstacles to non-vampires.”    “And non-clerics of the great Fharlanghn!” Canter added, “My god allows me to Fly, if I wish it.”    “I’ll turn into a bat,” Kellen shrugged, “If you really believe we should go down there.”    “My god would not put my feet on an incorrect road.”    “Of course not,” Kellen said sarcastically, “What was I thinking?”    “ I can cover the rest of us with Mass Fly,” Serena suggested, “I just learned it at the Cabal. The only catch is that you can’t go further than thirty feet from somebody else who is affected, or the spell ends for you.”    Cloudtoucher, Glim, and Fjorda agreed to be placed under the Mass Fly spell. Canter invoked his domain power of flight, and Kellen turned into a bat. Cautiously, they entered the pit.    They flew down for about twenty feet before the pit proper ended and the party found themselves at the top of a huge, shaft-like room leading deep into the bowels of the earth. They could see in the ceiling above them numerous holes leading from other pits in the main entryway. The room continued down further than they could see.    “Well, let’s go,” decided Canter, leading the way again.    Down they went, another one hundred and twenty feet, before they found their progress down blocked by a sheet-like magical barrier. The purple field extended floor-like over the entire shaft, shimmering with power.    The party halted, considering it.    “It reminds me of the Prismatic Walls in Myrtolo Keep,” observed Glim, “The ones guarding the Vaults. They had colors other than purple, though.”    “We saw something exactly like this when we raided Riznik Q’baltho’s tenement to get my spellbook back,” Serena remembered, “I looked it up. It’s an Otluk’s Dispelling Screen. It must have been made permanent somehow. Passage through it is harmless, but has a good chance of ending any spells you have effecting you at the moment.”    “Like our Mass Fly,” growled Fjorda.    “I think my flight would be disabled too,” added Canter.    “What about Kellen?” asked Cloudtoucher.    Serena considered, “I think he would remain in bat form. I should be able to Dispel this wall, though, so it doesn’t really matter.” She hiked up her sleeves, “Ready?”    The others indicated readiness. Serena started casting Dispel Magic.    Quite suddenly, a minor sort of hell broke loose.    Serena reeled from the simultaneous attacks of two creatures that had quietly appeared floating in mid-air next to her. Her spell fizzled as she cried out in pain. The touch of the creatures seemed to be trying to suck her very life essence out of her, but she managed to resist the drain and pull back from the creatures. Looking around, she saw that the rest of the party was engaged in battle as well. The creatures were humanoid and dressed like the villagers they had seen in the snow-locked village that morning, though they were clearly no longer human. Their faces were pallid, their skin hung loosely from their muscles, and their eyes shone with hatred. When their lips parted, wicked fangs were revealed.    “Vampires!” Shouted Serena, “Lesser spawn, by the looks of them.”    One of the spawn had snatched the bat-form of Kellen out of the air and was vigorously sucking blood from a wound in his neck as he struggled. Another two had appeared next to Canter, flanking him and trying to lock him in a deadly embrace. So far, he had managed to fend them off. Another vampire had popped into sight next to Cloudtoucher, but hadn’t even managed to touch the agile monk. Glim and Fjorda were the only ones not being attacked.    Fjorda flew over and attacked one of the spawn next to Serena, getting its attention with a strong blow from her enchanted axe. Glim pulled out his crossbow and started pelting off shots at the same spawn from only ten feet away. Canter pulled out the wand of Searing Light he had purchased at the Cabal and blasted off a charge at one of the spawn attacking him. Kellen, weakening due to blood loss, managed with a great effort to win free from the grasp of the vampire attacking him. Squeaking in fury, he dived down below the Dispelling Screen and emerged to flank one of the vampires attacking Canter. Cloudtoucher was raining a devestating flurry of blows down on his attacker, the permanent Magic Fang Serena had given him working wonders against the vampire’s undead form. Serena cursed at the loss of her Dispel Magic, stepped back, and surrounded herself with a shield of flames. She was in pain from the dread touch of the vampires that had attacked her and knew that she wouldn’t be able to take much more punishment than she had already.    The vampires continued their assault fearlessly. The one Fjorda had struck looked her in the eyes, and she felt her anger dissipate. These vampires were her friends! What a truly odd thing, to have two groups of trusted friends attacking each other like this. The other vampire that had surprised Serena looked apprehensively at her Flame Shield and decided to help his comrade attack Cloudtoucher. Those two together managed to lock the monk in an embrace and start drawing out his blood. One of the vampires attacking Canter had had similar success, though he managed to fend off the other one. The vampire that had been sucking the blood of Kellen the druid turned to join his two comrades attacking Canter. It seemed they had a dislike of clerics.    Fjorda, charmed, was facing something of a dilemma. Two groups of her good friends were hacking and slashing at each other in apparent mortal combat. Then she brightened. This was similar to the gladiatorial combats the party had staged to entertain local crowds soon after meeting. This battle was clearly a free-for-all, and she could attack whomever she wanted! Certainly Canter would heal everybody up afterwards - no harm done. She stepped forward and simultaneously attacked Glim and the vampire who had given her such a loving gaze, damaging both severely. It was difficult to say which was more surprised.     Behind her, Canter blasted a vampire with his wand of Searing Light again. The spawn, already heavily damaged, dissolved into vapor and started drifting upwards. Cloudtoucher similarly finished off one of the vamps facing him, and another gaseous vampire joined the first.    Serena didn’t want the gaseous vampires to get away just yet. She flew up above one of the “poofed” vamps and cast a Gust of Wind straight down. The poor creature was blown straight through the Dispelling Screen, but suffered no ill effects and began to creep upwards again.      The spawn that had Charmed Fjorda seemed baffled by her dual attack of itself and Glim. Deciding that something must have gone wrong, it attempted to Charm the dwarf again. Fjorda promptly sliced it in half with her axe, rendering it gaseous and dispelling the Charm effect.     The remaining two vampires were quickly dispatched as the party surrounded them.    “Follow them!” cried Canter, “We need to find out where the coffins are hidden!”    “Stay close!” Serena reminded them, not wanting to have a comrade leave the area of the Mass Fly spell.    The gaseous vampires rose up through one of the open pits the party had entered the shaft from. Back in the hallway, they drifted into one of the alcoves and issued slowly into a crack in the wall.    “Heh. Got’em.” Fjorda chuckled, triumphantly. She raised her axe and started hacking at the wall, knowing nothing non-magical could damage the enchanted blade. Progress was, however, painfully slow. After a couple minutes of this, Kellen, back in Druid form, pulled her back gently.     “I can just Stone Shape it Fjorda,” he said.    Glim peered into the crack.    “Something odd,” he announced, “It doesn’t seem to lead anywhere I can see. Not into another room anyway.”    Fjorda took another look, applying her intuitive knowledge of stonecraft to the puzzle, “This crack was constructed here deliberately,” she decided, “It doesn’t mean the wall is any weaker here, like a crack normally would.”    “For all we know, this place could be riddled with vampire cracks,” muttered Serena, “Allowing them to get anywhere, including their coffins, without us following. Quite brilliant, actually.”    The party considered their next course of action. They knew they had little more than an hour before these very spawn would be back, ready to fight again. The Find the Path spell was still in effect, telling Canter that the fastest way to the Dimensional Anchor device was below them. Meanwhile, this first level remained unexplored. They had never even reached the end of the first hallway.    What to do, what to do...Next, What they do and What Becomes of it.Note: This is where we ended the game on Saturday the 16th. The next game is not until December 14th, since this campaign is only run every third week, and we’re taking Thanksgiving weekend off. Wait until then for the next update, and please leave any comments you have!</blockquote>

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