Richard Rawen said:
Shhh! Don't remind him!
Heh heh... as to the Ghost Touch, what about a simple Death Warding item, I mean, sure not everyone would have one... but None of them? Esp the priest... seems just wrong.
Actually, that very topic will come up in a little while. But I wouldn't call an item that grants a Death Ward "simple"; an always-on item would cost 112,000gp by the item-creation rules in the SRD. A wand would be cheaper (but not cheap), but as you've probably noticed, Camar does not have a particularly large number of spellcasters of 7th level or higher.
Back to the story - I misread the first description of the room, re-reading it appears that it is full of steel pillars... but the middle pillars have been destroyed (by the Ravager) is that about right? My question revolves around the Dread Wraiths... were they released from the destroyed pillars or did they come up through the floor where it was damaged or ?
This part of the dungeon has unique properties that limit magical transportation. I ruled that this kept the wraiths from traveling ethereally through intact walls and floors, thus they had to come up via the crack in the floor (it's actually a stone plate that fell to cover a pit when the outer seal was breached), or via the damaged pillar.
The steel pillars are actually part of an elaborate trap designed to stop or delay the Ravager from escaping. Only a few were sufficiently damaged to allow the wraiths to slip through.
This entire sub-complex is not in the original modules (AFAIK), only the RAR boxed set.
It's Friday, so you know what that means...
* * * * *
Chapter 229
ONWARD
Dar’s “rest” was not very long. Nelan brought him back around with a minor healing spell, although it did little to dispel the chill that seemed to pervade his body. Allera helped that with a
restoration spell that replaced the life force that had been stolen by the dread wraith. She then did the same for Alderis, Honoratius, and Talen, using her wand of
lesser restoration to supplement her own healing abilities. Nelan assisted, using
cure wounds spells and one of his own wands to counter the more mundane effects of the wraiths’ chilling touch.
In the end, they were brought back to nearly full strength, but it had been another close call. Dar, Honoratius, and Alderis had been brought to the brink of death, and only the archmage’s quick thinking and potent magic had saved them.
“Your mastery of spell-shaping is impressive,” Alderis said to Honoratius, once he had been revived. “Even when I was... at my best, I could not accomplish that feat.”
“With discipline, study, and practice comes mastery,” the archmage said simply. She adjusted the seating of the
Web of Transposition on her head; some of the strands of her hair had come loose in the brief melee.
Shay and Talen stood close together on the edge of the forest of steel pillars. “Talen, we’re in way over our heads here,” the scout said. “Just
one of those red bastards up there nearly tore us apart, and we don’t know how many more might be down here.”
“And if they all break out together, and head for Camar?” Talen asked quietly.
“It’s your call. If you say we go on, we go on.”
“Shay...”
But they were interrupted as Dar came over to them. “Nothing like a good old-fashioned ass kicking, eh, commander?” He grimaced and popped his back. “Damn it, I think Allera missed a spot on that last healing.”
“She probably leaves a few wounds to remind you that you’re not indestructible,” Shay said. She drifted back from Talen; the moment between them was broken.
The others came over to join them. “How are you doing for spells?” Talen asked the mages.
“You have witnessed the casting of numerous spells from my higher valences, commander,” Honoratius said. “My more destructive magics have been depleted, but I have adequate means for self-defense left to me, should it come to that.”
“Alderis?”
“I am prepared,” the elf said. He looked no worse off than before, but that was not an ideal indicator, as he looked barely healthy at his best.
Allera came up to them. “I think we need to go on, Talen.”
“Why?”
“I... I don’t know. It’s just a feeling I have. I’ve had it ever since we entered this place. There’s something...
important here, that we need to see.”
“Those wraiths were nearly the death of us,” Mehlaraine said dubiously. “If they were just the door guards, we could expect further resistance deeper in.”
“Yeah, they certainly punch a hole in the ‘not aligned with Orcus’ theory, eh mage?” Dar said.
“Not necessarily, colonel,” Honoratius replied. “Such creatures, while not mindless, can be bound to a place to serve as defenders. There are other plausible explanations as well.”
“Or maybe Orcus also has an interest in these monsters, and where they came from,” Talen said. “All right, we’ll go a bit farther, but keep an eye on the time,” he said to Allera and Honoratius.
They made their way through the forest of steel pillars, wary of another attack. But they were not molested by more wraiths or by anything else, and soon they found their way to the other side, where another round opening, partially blocked by a mithral door, greeted them.
“Growing back?” Talen asked. Honoratius investigated, and then nodded. The circular portal filled almost half of the space of the opening. It was regenerating too slowly to see with a casual glance, but the knowledge that it was slowly resealing added a certain urgency to their steps.
The space beyond the door was a large, irregular chamber, and it was packed with junk.
The objects that cluttered the room looked as though they might have been valuable at one time, long, long ago. A lot of the clutter was made up of remnants of wood or soft metals, and some were still recognizable, crates and chests and assorted objects of furniture or art. A strong hint of decay filled the place.
“Well, our friend left us a clear trail, at least,” Shay commented.
A swath of destruction passed through the room, the already ruined collection of objects pulverized into small fragments by the passage of the ravager. The creature’s path left an open avenue that they used to cross the room. There was another vault door there, again partially reconstructed, and beyond they could see another room.
“Light, up ahead,” Selanthas warned, fitting an arrow to the string of his bow. The head of the missile began to sparkle, strings of electrical energy flaring around it as the bow imparted its magic to the shot.
They made their way cautiously forward. The space beyond the door was cluttered with bits of debris; apparently some of the contents of the storeroom had fallen or been knocked into this next room when the creature had moved through. But they could not see that far into the new chamber, due to the glowing grid of energy that cut the chamber in two directly ahead.
“What is that?” Dar asked, taking a step forward.
“Careful,” Shay said. “If that’s not a trap, then I am a half-dragon.”
“Who your mother slept with is none of my concern,” Dar said, but he kept his distance from the flickering barrier. The pattern of interlocking lines of force was exceptionally precise, forming perfect squares one inch across through which they could see the room beyond.
“I do not see any exits,” Selanthas said, peering through the barrier.
Shay crouched low for a moment. “Some of the debris from the last room... it’s on the far side.”
“How does it look?” Talen asked.
“Intact,” Shay replied. She ran her fingers across the floor. “Something here... I’m not one hundred percent certain, but I think that the creature made it through here, and the barrier hurt it.”
Dar took a small object from his pouch and tossed it at the barrier. Everyone flinched, but the object—a silver coin—passed through harmlessly, and clattered on the ground beyond.
“That was an unnecessary risk,” Nelan chided him.
“The sands are trailing down, or have your forgotten?” the fighter said. He sidled toward the barrier, and drew out his club.
“Dar,” Talen said.
“Don’t worry, I’m not going to try to jump through or anything.” The fighter carefully tapped the shield grid with the end of his club; the head of the weapon passed through it unharmed.
“Maybe it was created to only hurt the monster,” Allera suggested. Dar nodded, and reached out his hand to touch it.
Honoratus had closed her eyes; now she opened them and looked out over the room with a distant stare, seeing more than what was visible to mundane sight. “There is power here,” she said. She fixed her stare on Dar. “Do not touch it.”
Dar paused, his fingers an inch from the glowing lines. The archmage came forward, until she was standing right in front of it. “This barrier is fashioned of
brilliant energy,” she said. “Unliving items pass through harmlessly, but living flesh would be cut like the edge of the sharpest blade that you could imagine.”
“Nasty,” Mehlaraine said. “How do we pass it?”
“Or do we even want to?” Shay asked. “There doesn’t appear to be anything up ahead, just a dead-end room, with some biers along the edges. It looks like some kind of tomb.”
“That appearance is misleading,” Honoratius replied. “The creature came this way; there is a residual trace of magic upon the floor, where I assume it burrowed up from another place below. The stone walls here are laced with the same regenerative magic that is reconstituting the doors. There is also some sort of shielding around the biers, possibly some kind of
wall of force.”
“Can we follow its course?” Talen asked.
“I will need to examine the room in more detail,” Honoratius said.
“Well, unless you want to be turned into diced mage, I assume you have some means of getting past this barrier,” Dar said.
Honoratius nodded. “Stand back, if you will.”
The others retreated to the doorway, while the mage spread her arms wide and began an incantation. The spell took only a few seconds, and was answered by a faint rumbling, which grew as a hulking form materialized before her.
The earth elemental was not big for its kind, standing maybe a foot taller than Dar. But it moved with a ponderousness that belied its considerable mass. The creature looked down at Letellia, who spoke to it in a husky, gravelly voice. The creature listened impassively, then turned and walked over to the wall.
As the companions watched, the elemental pressed its fist, and then its entire arm,
into the wall. The crystal-streaked stone seemed to resist it at first, but then the elemental pushed more insistently, and the surface gave way before it. Within a few seconds it was entirely gone, absorbed into the wall.
“Where’s it going?” Dar asked.
“Just be patient,” Allera said. “I’m sure Honoratius knows what she’s doing.”
Dar nudged her. “I see you’re doing it too.”
“What?”
“Referring to him as a ‘her’. Hard not to, in that body.”
“Oh?” she asked, an eyebrow arching. “What about that body?”
Dar was rescued by a deep rumbling throughout the chamber. Large chunks of rock detached from the ceiling and came crashing down, through the energy field. The cascade continued for almost a minute, descending along first the left wall, and then over to the right. In the midst of the damage, the grid dissolved, leaving the way open.
“Swiftly,” Honoratius said, stepping through the now empty space. They could see that the fallen rock was already starting to dissolve into the floor, and the damaged walls were beginning to reform, much faster than the mithral doors earlier. “I believe that the field will be restored once the damage is done, move quickly!”
“How do we get back across?” Talen asked, even as he hurried the others forward.
“I have other resources that will suffice,” the archmage said. “The field requires the surrounding walls to be intact; mundane damage is enough to make a way through.”
“I don’t like this,” Shay said. “We’re cutting off our retreat. What if we have to come back this way in a hurry?”
No one had an answer; they could only watch as the damage to the walls was slowly but inexorably erased.
“Perhaps this will be of use,” Alderis said. The elf had found a panel in the wall about six feet back from the barrier; the cleverly concealed stone plate swung open on a recessed pivot to reveal a gleaming metal lever behind.
“That makes sense,” Mehlaraine said. “Whoever created this place would likely want a safety in case they needed to exit.”
“That assumes they’re still here,” Dar said. He put his club away again, and drew
Valor. Honoratius was already searching the center of the room, using her
arcane sight to probe the magic here. “It burrowed up through the ground here,” she said, indicating a space of floor that looked otherwise unremarkable.
The attention of most of the group was focused there, but Dar walked over to one of the stone biers set in alcoves around the edges of the room. There were three of them, and each supported a skeleton, clad in fragments of ancient garments that had decayed with age. The skeleton on the bier that Dar was looking at was missing its skull.
“I wonder what happened to him,” Dar asked. He reached for it, but his hand was blocked by an invisible
wall of force that protected the bier. “Doesn’t look like he had anything worth looting anyway,” he said, turning toward Allera.
The healer’s face told him that something was wrong. He spun back toward the entry,
Valor at the ready.
Another pair of stone panels had opened in the walls. A pair of skulls drifted into the room, suspended in mid-air by some form of magical levitation. Their eyes and teeth had been replaced by huge, multifaceted gemstones, which glimmered with a faint inner light. Their “eyes” fixed upon the companions, and there was a grim power there, accompanied by a deep, ageless malevolence.
“Undead!” Dar yelled, but the others had already sensed the threat, and turned, weapons and spells at the ready. Dar was the first to respond, and he stepped forward to face the first skull,
Valor already coming down to smash it to bits.
The blow never landed. One of the skull’s eye-gems flared, and a pulsing nimbus of hollow light stabbed from it into the fighter’s body. Dar stiffened, and the light retreated back into the gem, dragging with it a gray outline of diaphanous vapor. As the surge of light faded, Dar collapsed like a broken doll.
Allera screamed.
The other skull unleashed a howl that echoed through the room. The deadly
wail of the banshee tore through the room like an invisible tsumani. Shay clutched her head and collapsed. A moment later, Talen joined her, falling across her body. Mehlaraine and Selanthas both dropped in mid-attack, their weapons clattering from their hands as they fell. Nelan staggered back, calling upon the Father, but he too eventually succumbed, his armor crashing loudly as he hit the floor.
I've always liked Dar of course, it's just... I'll miss Varo.
