Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 2039758" data-attributes="member: 143">Nah, it was a spell; I think he was an L13 sorcerer IIRC. * * * * * Chapter 328They had washed and been healed, and replaced their singed garments with fresh clothes, but an odor of char still hung about the companions as they gathered that evening in the sanctuary of the High Priestess in the Temple of Helm.  “It could have been much worse,” Arun said. “Five dead,” Jenya said, looking tired as she sat in the simple hardwood chair decorated with the gauntlet of Helm etched into its high back just above her head.  “Aslaxin, Jurgensen, Tiskensen, Ghelve, and Mispas.”“There was nothing that we could have done differently,” Beorna said.  “And the dead can be returned to life with Helm’s intervention, if they choose to return.”“I will have to contact the church in Almraiven,” Jenya said, not even bothering to look up as she responded.  “We have an insufficient supply of the diamonds needed to focus the spell, and I doubt that enough will be found in all of Cauldron, not after all of the deaths in recent months...”“We must concern ourselves with the living,” Dannel said.  Jenya had broken the derro savant’s polymorph spell, but he still seemed agitated.  He hadn’t sat down, and in fact his pacing seemed to grow more animated the longer that they remained there.  “Damn it… they’ve got her, and we aren’t doing anything!” “Dannel, I’m as worried as you are,” Mole said.  “But without knowing where the Cagewrights are, we cannot help her, not yet.”“What she’s sayin’, lad, is yer can’t be stupid,” Hodge said.  Despite having “bathed” earlier, Hodge looked gruesome, with great swaths of his beard and brows missing where the fireballs had burned them away, and an ugly scar across his balding scalp where a wound hadn’t quite fully healed cleanly. “There are several reasons why my divination may have failed to detect her, or why she may not have been able to respond to my sending,” Jenya said.  She hadn’t mentioned the most obvious one; none of them wanted to countenance the possibility that Zenna was dead, however probable that likelihood came to be with each passing hour.  “As I said earlier, I will pray for a more potent divination magic on the morrow, one that can pinpoint the location of something regardless of where it may be, here or on any other plane of reality.”“But if they do have her, she’ll probably be warded against even that,” Dannel returned. “It is very difficult to hide from a discern location spell,” Jenya said.  “But yes, it is possible.”“Blast it,” Dannel said, clenching his fists in frustration.  He opened his mouth to say something else, but he was cut off by a faint rumbling that was nonetheless clearly audible through the solid foundations of the chapel.  The sound was followed by a momentary trembling of the structure, just barely significant enough for them to feel it, which faded before they could do anything more than shift in their chairs.  “That’s the second tremor today,” Beorna said. “Do you think the volcano’s stirring?” Mole asked. “There have been no signs of a buildup of pressure beneath the caldera,” Arun said, but he frowned deeply as he said it. “Oh, come on!” Dannel said.  “This is obviously connected.  The Cagewrights are moving their plans forward, mark me.”“I’m not disagreeing,” Arun replied.  “But again, without information, there’s not a lot we can do right now.”“I just need to do something,” the elf said. “Right now, you need to rest,” Beorna said.  “We all do.  We’re like as to do more ill than good, exhausted and clouded in mind.”“Tomorrow, you can come with me, Dannel,” Mole said.  “There’s a few leads in town you can help me track down.”“We’d better go with you,” Arun said.  “Clearly our enemies know much about our movements, and we cannot afford to let our guard down, not even for a moment.”“I will continue my divinations,” Jenya said.  “There must be an answer here somewhere, awaiting our discovery.  Our enemies are very, very skilled… but they are mortals like us, and therefore not infallible.” “I’ll bring you Zenna’s notes,” Mole said.  “They might help you find the right questions to ask.”Arun stood, his armor clanking slightly about his body at his movements.  “I will check on the guards.  It will be a long night, I fear.”The others rose after him, gathering their gear before returning to their quarters in the rectory.  Dannel was the last to leave, staring through the narrow slit windows at the starlit sky above the city, asking questions for which there were no easy answers, no answers at all.</blockquote>

Verification