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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 2263063" data-attributes="member: 143">Never really worked out the details, but a few possibilities come to mind (spoilers removed): [someone] could have had each step into a portable hole and crouch down, then pick it up and teleport to Shatterhorn (two trips); or maybe [someone's] friend [someone] could have wished them there (I would allow that to work despite the golem's spell immunity). Heck, maybe they walked (would have to compare a golem's overland speed to the time since Lords of Oblivion; since they don't get tired and don't need air, they could have even crossed the Shining Sea walking across its floor, given enough time). Like you said, given the resources of the Cagewrights, there's not a lot they can't do given the opportunity. No comment.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> * * * * * Chapter 395 The cowled spellcaster’s slow spell did not have its full intended effect upon the companions. Bolstered by the protective aura emitted by Dana’s planetar ally, and their own considerable collection of magical augmentations, nearly all of them were able to resist the spell, with only Mole and Hodge succumbing to the lethargic grip of the magic upon their bodies. But the golems were another matter, and the warriors quickly spread out to confront the hulking constructs before they could fully rise and assault the companions.  The golems were considerably resistant to even their magical weapons, however, and while Lok delivered a powerful blow to the side of one that sent chips of stone flying, it clearly didn’t do more than inflict minor damage upon it. Dannel lifted his bow, a white-fletched arrow fitted to the string.  “Wizard first?” he said as an aside to Benzan. The tiefling had likewise drawn and aimed, but held his shot for a moment.  “Cal!” he shouted. “On it!” the gnome said, defensively casting a dispel magic that sliced through the magical defenses of the enemy caster, disrupting both his shield and the displacement.  That was the cue for both archers, who released upon the same instant, both missiles knifing scant inches above the altar to sink heavily into the shoulders of the enemy.  The caster let out a scathing hiss as he staggered back, the holy arrows driving pure goodness through his torso like a purging flame.  His situation grew rather more desperate a moment later as the planetar invoked a holy smite that ripped mercilessly through him.  Falling back to the cover of the dark exit on the far side of the chamber, he tried to teleport away. He barely got his mouth open before another pair of arrows sank to the feathers in his back, and he crumpled in a heap in the doorway. But the golems were up now, and inflicting considerable damage with pounding blows from their massive fists.  Those impacts battered the warriors like sledgehammers, and both Lok and Arun were driven back under the force of their attacks.  Hodge went to Arun’s aid, but the slowed dwarf was ineffective due to the cloying magic that reduced his usually impressive charge to a lumbering stagger. But the golems quickly came under heavy attack from the companions.  The planetar lifted herself into the air with powerful beats of her wings, driving her sword down into the head of one of the golems with a fierce power attack that smashed its granite cranium into fist-sized fragments.  Unfortunately the absence of its head did not seem to hinder it, and it caught the angel with a potent punch that knocked her back roughly across the chamber.  But the celestial’s assault provided Lok with an opening; loosing his shield, taking his axe into both hands, he unleashed his own series of mighty attacks against the golem’s legs.  Stone chips flew, and although the golem outweighed the genasi many times over it was the construct that staggered back, unsteady on its seriously damaged lower limbs. On the opposite flank, Arun recovered and launched his own renewed assault upon his foe.  He took another blow on his shield, deflecting the golem’s attack upward while he brought his own holy blade up into its elbow from below.  The golem was immune to the blessings infused in the blade, but the paladin’s strength was enough to crush the rock joint, and as the construct drew back it gave way, the lower half of its arm falling free to the ground with a loud crash. In the rear of the company, Dana found her way to the melee blocked by the others before her in the narrow space between the flanking entry pillars.  Upon seeing the golem’s she’d drawn out her new weapon, the adamantine nunchaku taken from the corpse of Ardeth Webb.  She moved around the pillars, intending to flank the constructs, but as she passed a dark alcove something stirred and leapt out at her.  It was a foul skeletal creature, some sort of undead, its ribs occupied by tendrils of ugly, bloated flesh, one of which ascended along its spine, through its empty skull, and out of its mouth like some horrific serpentine tongue.  Her reflexes were adept but the thing moved with surprising speed, slamming her with a powerful blow that nearly knocked her off her feet.  “Undead!” she shouted, to warn her companions of this new threat.  The creature did not pause to give her time to recover, coming at her again with its bony fists raised again to strike.  She snapped her weapon around, slamming it into the skeleton’s side, but the blow hardly seemed to faze it as it punched her solidly again.  For lacking muscles, the thing was incredibly strong.  As if that wasn’t bad enough, its “tongue” lashed out, extending to almost five feet in length, and stabbed into her shoulder before snapping back.  The injury was not serious, but Dana could feel her body stiffening as a numb coldness spread throughout her. No! she thought, but could not do more before the mohrg’s paralysis took her, and she fell helpless to the ground at its feet. Dannel drew the feathers of his latest arrow back to his ear, releasing the shaft to fly point-blank into Arun’s golem adversary.  The missiles he and Benzan had been firing appeared to do little damage, but the veteran adventurers knew that each little tally brought them closer to overcoming the foe.  They heard Dana’s cry, and the elf spared his companion an instant’s attention.  “Go!” he said, before drawing another long shaft from his magical quiver. Benzan was off instantly, darting back around the pillar toward the source of his wife’s voice.  Cal, who’d been holding back, conjuring minor enchantments to aid his companions, likewise heard and was already moving to assist.  The two rounded the corner a mere second apart, to see the mohrg standing over Dana’s motionless form. Cal drew out a wand in a flash and spoke the word of command that caused a fat gob of green acid to shoot out at the undead monstrosity.  The acid struck the mohrg on the side of its skull, burning away the bone, revealing only empty space inside.  And then Benzan was rushing past the gnome, discarding his bow as he drew his sword and charged.  The mohrg leapt eagerly forward to meet him.The golems were continuing to dish out damage to the warriors, but it was clear that the paladin and genasi could simply absorb more punishment than the constructs.  Aided by Dannel’s continuing barrage, and Hodge’s support, Arun had created great cracks in the golem’s torso through powerful ringing blows from his holy sword.  The golem had released a spell power upon them, but the paladin resisted the slowing magic once more, and Hodge, already affected by the sorcerer’s earlier magic, could not be further hindered by another application of the effect.  The hesitation cost it, as the two dwarves laid into its legs from opposite directions, finally toppling as its knees were sundered, crumbling into inanimate debris as it hit the floor. Less than five seconds passed before the other golem likewise fell to the combined assault of Lok and the planetar.  The golem mindlessly split its attacks between its two foes, and while it landed several more devastating blows it likewise absorbed damage that it simply could not withstand.  Lok finally put it down with a two-handed overhead stroke of his axe that cracked the sigil plate installed in its chest.  The crack widened with the golem’s struggles to continue its assault, and finally it split down the middle, disintegrating like the first into component rubble that offered no further threat. Meanwhile, off to the side, in one of the galleries formed by the flanking row of pillars, the battle raged on.  Benzan and the mohrg met in a violent exchange, with the mohrg’s potent blow glancing off of the tiefling’s shoulder.  Its long tongue snapped out and nipped the tiefling’s neck, but Benzan fought off the cold clinging touch of its paralysis.  He in turn delivered a powerful blow with his sword that knocked it roughly back, crushing several of its ribs and scoring the bloated knot of purple flesh that filled its chest cavity.  He should have pressed it, ensured that it was destroyed, but he bent quickly to check on Dana.  The gesture took only a second, but it was a costly one, for as he touched his wife’s skin the icy chill that held her paralyzed spread into his fingers and through his arm. And this time, he was unable to resist succumbing to the paralysis. The mohrg, quickly recovering, stepped forward to deliver a coup de grace against its helpless foe.</blockquote>

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