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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Sagiro" data-source="post: 4582579" data-attributes="member: 726">You'll have to wait until the next update for the annoying secrets, but this one sure does have Null Shadows in it!Sagiro’s Story Hour, Part 291Null and VoidLess than an hour after receiving the sending from Cobb, the Company stands in a tastefully decorated foyer.  They have teleported directly to the Cosnor Estate in the Silent Quarter of Kallor.  Below them is the former Black Circle headquarters, where the Company prevented Mokad and his fellows from expediting Emperor Naradawk’s arrival in Charagan.  “We could just have Morningstar cast miracle to get the cauldron back,” says Dranko.  And the idea has some merit, but is ultimately discarded because it wouldn’t tell them who stole the cauldron, or why.  Instead, Morningstar fills all of her empty spell slots with thought captures, and then everyone arms themselves with non-magical weapons (in case the cauldron was used before being stolen) before descending into the basement.Morningstar casts her thought-gathering prayers every few yards as they go, but none of the thoughts are interesting or illuminating.   When they reach the room that once housed the Null Shadow Cauldron, no one is surprised that, in fact, it’s gone.  The 20’x20’ room is empty, its darkness entirely non-magical and completely native to the Prime.  Only a faint trace of unease remains, the last vestige of the horrible creatures that were once conjured here.  There are circular patterns chiseled and gouged into the walls, with flakes of rock scattered on the floor below them, as if someone had hastily pried out some round ornamentations or other wall-mounted objects.  Similarly there are three ragged holes in the center of the floor, as if some large object had been bolted to the ground and then ripped out.  The stone below where the cauldron had squatted is predictably discolored.  Morningstar casts another thought capture in the doorway to the room while the others wait outside.  Nothing.  Then she goes to stand next to some of the holes in the wall and casts again.  Finally, she gets a thought – and it’s addressed to her!Hello Morningstar.  You had something of mine, so I came to get it.  Have fun.And that’s when the Null Shadows come boiling out of the holes, accompanied by waves of psychic nausea.  The five of them completely surround Morningstar and attack, their vaporous arms flailing.The analytical part of Aravis’s brain (as he stands in the hall looking in) notes that these Null Shadows are different than the previous ones they’ve encountered.   Heretofore the shadow creatures have been a flat black, but these are a deep, dark green, as if a sickly jade light were glowing in the center of each roiling smoky mass.   The primal part of his mind is screaming with unreasoning terror.Morningstar tries to ward them off with her shield, but due to its magical properties, the arms of the Null Shadows go right through it, and indeed, through her, as if each smoggy appendage is reaching into her body and pulling out bits of her life force.  She resists in part, but her vitality is slightly reduced, on top of the stinging wounds that leave black smears on her skin.Despite the horror of the moment, the Ellish priestess retains a smidgen of humor and thinks over the mind-link:  “Oh, crap!  A Null-Shadow-o-Gram!”“Morningstar!” shouts Dranko.  He immediately activates his boots of haste, moves into the room, and unleashes a flurry of whip-cracks at the closest shadow-creature.  With the final snap the monster disperses, leaving a faint haze of sickening green smoke behind.    Grey Wolf runs into the room himself, heedless that his arcane nature makes him a choice target for these creatures.  He slashes a mundane longsword at another of the monsters.  He thinks he’s wounded it, but its hard to know given the Null Shadows' lack of discernable anatomy.It gets worse.  Another four Null Shadows stream out of the cracks in the walls, bringing their total number to nine.  Their gut-twisting wrongness washes over everyone in the party, and Grey Wolf finds himself beset by all four newcomers.   Shadow-fists reach into his body and yank out life-force, and not only is he drained of constitution, but spells are forced painfully out of his head.The rest, with no arcane targets within reach, attack Morningstar and Dranko.  Dranko mostly shrugs off the assault, but Morningstar’s knees start to buckle.  (She is now down six points of constitution, on top of the significant damage from the monsters’ fists.)Aravis casts a mass haste on the party; against creatures utterly immune to magic, maximizing weapon-swings seems the best use of his abilities.   Flicker tumbles into the room and attacks, while Ernie activates his winged shield and flies in high along the ceiling.  Kibi casts a wall of stone that blocks off all of the holes in the walls, in case there are more Null Shadows waiting to emerge.  He follows this up with a self-targeted quickened bear’s endurance.   His earth elemental familiar Scree is yammering cautionary words over their empathic link.   Kibi, don’t go in there!  Those things eat wizards.  You’ll be killed!Morningstar attempts to cast her newly-acquired mass heal for the first time, but cannot muster the concentration for so complex a prayer, surrounded as she is by Null Shadows.  With a grunt of frustration she casts an additional quickened cure critical wounds upon herself.  Dranko again executes a deft series of whip-cracks; another Null Shadow is destroyed, and an additional one is (presumably) wounded.   Grey Wolf swings his sword again and a third monster is slain.   Seven Null Shadows still remain, and these swarm around Grey Wolf.  Five of them are able to attack him, eagerly pummeling such a ripe arcane target.   Grey Wolf practically vanishes in a cloud of green-black smoke, twisting in pain as they tear at his essence.  By some miracle he stays conscious by the thinnest thread, his exposed skin a mass of dark smears.  He drops to one knee, blinking, reeling from the psychic stench, feeling that death cannot be far away.   Through bleary eyes he thinks he sees Morningstar and Dranko under attack from the remaining two.Aravis bestows a dimension door on Pewter, with instructions to rescue Grey Wolf.  “Are you serious?” demands the cat.  “In there?!  You know, if you weren’t some demigod of Cats, I’d...”“Just go!” urges Aravis, and the cat does so, weaving in a panic through the Null Shadows and touching Grey Wolf, returning to the relative safety of the hallway.Flicker and Ernie launch full attacks on the Null Shadows, but with their non-magical short-swords (and in Flicker’s case, inability to sneak attack these creatures), cannot muster the damage to slay even a single one of the remaining enemies.  Morningstar activates her magical necklace that makes her immune to attacks of opportunity, and gets herself out of the room in a hurry.  Once out she quickens a restoration on herself to restore her decimated life force.Dranko is the most effective Null Shadow-killing machine in the party:  another series of whip strikes, another Null Shadow dispatched.  Half a dozen still remain.Out in the hallway Grey Wolf fumbles out a healing potion and gulps it down.   Dranko and Flicker are now in the doorway, blocking access to the hallway where the rest of the party (including all the wizards) are apprehensively waiting...The Null Shadows vanish, fading away into nothing over a two-second span.  Dranko peers around the room with his magical eye-patch.“Heads up!” he shouts.  “They’re gone, and not invisible.”“It’s possible that their additional strength came at the expense of a shorter lifespan...” says Aravis, though no one really believes that.Ernie takes advantage of the enemies’ absence to fly into the hallway and cast restoration on Grey Wolf, who despite the potion, really really needs the lift.  Morningstar casts mass cure serious wounds, also popular.  Aravis casts greater arcane sight and looks around the room and hallway – nothing.  Dranko does a quick perimeter of the room while Kibi scoops up some of the flaked rock, thinking he can cast stone tell on the rubble even if they’re forced to flee this place.  Whether the Null Shadows retreated momentarily into the Ethereal Plane, or just shifted briefly into the Plane of Shadow, none can say.  But they do reappear, in the hallway, next to the wizards.  Kibi is overcome with horror and veritably snowed under with Null Shadows.  He can feel the stinging, smeary wounds gouged in his skin, the pain of his six most potent dweomers forced from his head, and life force pulled grotesquely out of his body.  In seconds he is reduced from full health to near death.The remaining two attack Aravis, hungry for his powerful arcane core.   As the Company remembers from its previous encounters with Null Shadows, the creatures' physical attacks are much more devastating against wizards than against divine casters and non-magical types.  Flicker and Ernie gamely hack away at the Null Shadows with their vanilla swords, and Ernie gets lucky, landing two hits on one of the monsters that was previously damaged.  It deforms into a harmless green cloud.  Five monsters remain.Morningstar casts heal on Kibi, which takes care of the damage but not the ability drain; the dwarf is still dangerously weakened.   Aravis has the idea to polymorph into a hill giant, better enabling him to deal damage, and simultaneously improving his fortitude.  He has to duck a bit to keep his head from hitting the ceiling.  Kibi, at the frantic urging of Scree, casts xorn movement and sinks safely into the ground.Just stay here and wait it out urges the little elemental.  Up there, you’re just a target.Dranko methodically annihilates another Null Shadow with his whip; now only four remain.  It seems like the Company may finally be turning the corner against their ghastly assailants.One of the remaining Null Shadows attacks the giantish Aravis, and even that is staggering.   The remaining three vanish.   Everyone looks around frantically.  Flicker and Ernie fail to eliminate the one enemy still visible, while Morningstar moves to protect Aravis.  Aravis himself rips a nearby door off its hinges and smashes the remaining Null Shadow, destroying it.The three Null Shadows reappear, all adjacent to Aravis.  That turns out to be a crucial tactical problem – with his increased Giantish size, the rest of the party cannot surround him for protection.  Grey Wolf and Dranko take readied attacks as the monsters appear, but do not kill them.  And then the three Null Shadows rip out Aravis’s life.  Their smoky limbs reach into his oversized giantish body and make a quick, horrific end of the wizard.   He reverts to his own body upon death and slumps to the ground, the black smears on his skin so ubiquitous, it looks as though he’s been dipped bodily in tar.  “Aravis!  No!”  Ernie screams.   But his voice is further drowned out by Pewter’s piteous meowing over his master’s death.  Kibi, overwhelmed with guilt that he was hiding while Aravis fought on, emerges over Scree’s protests and tries too late to administer a healing potion to his friend.  But Aravis’s facial features have been smeared so thoroughly, Kibi can’t even find his mouth.Morningstar and Flicker, numb at the sight of their slain friend, manage to kill one of the remaining three Null Shadows.  Dranko, likewise in shock, kills another with his whip.  The last Null Shadow vanishes, and this time, give a few seconds pause, they entirely surround Grey Wolf, while Kibi retreats back into the ground.  The remaining Null Shadow, unable to find a spot to reappear that offers access to an arcane caster, settles for an arrival point next to Morningstar.  It doesn’t matter; numerous readied attacks are launched, and Flicker delivers the killing blow.  Pewter continues his caterwauling, and now, in the silence that immediately follows a violent scrum, the party can hear something else.  High above them on the streets of Kallor (and indeed throughout all of both Charagan and Kivia), cats everywhere are wailing with grief....to be continued...</blockquote>

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