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Message: <blockquote data-quote="steev42" data-source="post: 1562778" data-attributes="member: 17162">TransparencyGryffth was a bit annoyed with himself. Only one true encounter since they had returned to Jzadirune, and he had already pretty much run out of spells. Fharlanghn would not grace him with any more until morning, which meant that if he was to be effective, they would have to stay in this room for the rest of the day and all night. The plight of the children nearly drove him onwards, but they would never be rescued if he and his companions, flighty as they might be, were killed in the attempt. Fortunately, the others seemed to agree, and a watch was set. He passed the first watch in peace, munching on rations provided by Crunch. At least he had forseen being stuck underground for multiple days, something Gryffth wished he had thought of.Suddenly, Isaura spoke up. "Gryffth, wake up!" Gryffth stared at her, but confirmed his waking status. Then he heard it to; a rythmic thumping. When they woke up Owen and Crunch, who were using the darkness of Jzadirune to be able to sleep even this early, Owen pointed out that the sounds were in time with the fan on the ceiling. Cursing himself, Gryffth helped others break the belt activating the fan. A loud series of thumps followed, and then the rythmic sound stopped. Seeing as it was nearly time for the watch to switch anyway, Gryffth turned it over to Crunch and Owen, and went to sleep himself.---------------------------------------------------------------------------Nov 3, 9713---------------------------------------------------------------------------As they rose, Owen set about studying his spellbook. Thus, he was startled at Gryffth's question. "Uh, Owen? You feeling alright? You look a little pale..." Looking down at himself, Owen was startled to discover that he could see through his own hand to some extent. This was horrible! Crunch poked him...at least he was solid, then. Gryffth came over and started poking and prodding at him with his herbs and spices. After a few minutes, the cleric rose. "You look halfway to Fharlanghn's home...I think you're diseased, but there's nothing I can do at the moment. We'll just have to hope it's not contagious for now, and I can try to help you fight it off later."Crunch thought this was hilarious. The mage was see-through, and there was nothing the cleric could do about it. Seeing an opportunity to have this joke played on everyone, he made fun of the rogue. "Don't you wish you could've had that disease Isaura?" She just shrugged off the joke though. No senses of humour, sometimes. Regardless, he started to remove the door they had created the night before. It was time to move on, as everyone started talking about the reward money. It seemed Isaura wanted it all for herself and Owen wanted it mostly for himself. "Money...need money to buy ale," he contributed."None of you has an altruistic bone in your body, do you?" Gryffth sighed as they started to move."Well, if you really MUST know, it's for my mom. And I'll ask you kindly to just leave it at that," Owen said. Crunch felt kind of sorry for him. But not enough to interject. He was beginning to get in the mood to crunch things again, and there was nothing around. They arrived at a room that was mostly empty, except for a sheet covering some sort of bundle in the middle of the room."Crunch, why don't you open your present there?" Isaura asked him. Crunch looked at it, a good idea of what was in her mind, but played dumb anyway. "Yeah, it's under the sheet. Go see!" All right! This was his chance to crunch, and he knew it. He ran forward, and with a mighty sweep (he sensed the others backing away), he pulled the sheet off....and the metal lobster underneath it stabbed his leg.Now that whatever it was was revealed and attacking, Isaura tried to circle around it. Getting to where a good location would be, she snaked out her chain, trying to trip the thing. It seemed to have more dexterity than she thought, however, as it basically jumped over her weapon, making the swing useless. Crunch shouted out, "this is a bad present!" And swung his flail heavily...and found it bouncing off his armor. As the others moved in, they quickly discovered that the metal on this thing was good at preventing damage to what was likely the clockwork insides. Gryffth learned the hard way that spells drawing upon negative energy wouldn't affect creatures without flesh like this construct. A number of ineffectual attacks later, the creature (whatever it was) still having taken absolutely no damage, and barely a nick in the outer shell, it turned itself lumberously towards two of its attackers. A horrid shreak of metal on metal rushed out of the hole on its head, causing Crunch and Gryffth to grab their ears in pain, and Owen and Isaura to wince. Fortunately, it seemed to have little other effect except to piss Crunch off. A mighty swing of his flail finally succeeded in putting a large dent in the creature's side, and shortly thereafter, Gryffth's quarterstaff came down on the top of it, crumpling the beast and causing it to cease moving.As Crunch recovered from the effects of his angry spell, the others searched the beast. Owen realized that it had the capabilities of distinguishing creature types and following simple commands, and the words "activate" and "deactivate" written in gnomish on the creature's back (though Isaura was needed to translate those). In addition, a nice large gem was discovered to be the center of the automoton, and it was pocketed for future selling. Crunch now recovered, they moved on through a corridor to the side (finding the power source for the fans, now destroyed). Isaura soon discovered a pair of secret doors, and realizing one of them merely led to the room they had slept in the previous night, chose to move north. While she busied herself searching it for traps, Gryffth and Owen moved around through the remaining rough tunnels, finding one that seemed to be heading in the direction of the secret door. They discovered this one ended in a wall of mist; not recognizing the effect, they wisely chose to retreat and regroup.In investigating the door to the north, Isaura realized that it was set to be very hard to open. The leverage wasn't right, and the way it moved slightly seemed to indicate a weight on the other side. She motioned for Crunch just as the mage and the cleric returned. "There may be a trap in there," the cleric indicated. Isaura inwardly rolled her eyes. Had she not pointed out every trap that had hit them so far (and even one that hadn't)? And here he was saying that she was missing something. She motioned again to Crunch, who tried to open it, and failed. The half-orc shook his head and set himself more firmly, this time slowly pulling the door open...and revealing an opening full of mist. Isaura could barely make anything out inside, and didn't want to think of entering it. Owen was apparently pleased to see bookshelves on the other side of the door that Crunch had pulled open, and Isaura smiled that she had been able to sense that. Still, somebody would have to enter first. Owen pulled a bat out of his Bag of Tricks and sent him in, pleased to see that the creature returned successfully, then realizing he couldn't speak with the beast to discover what he had seen. Finally, it came down to just them. Crunch was the chosen victim.The rest of them suddenly heard a curse, then Crunch shouting back at them. "Centipedes, big'uns!" Rushing in to help, they all discovered that five feet was about the limit of their visibility. Moments later, four splattered centipedes littered the walls and floor of the room, which Owen now recognized as being filled with Obscuring Mist.Crunch was now sorely damaged, and Gryffth moved over. "Do you accept the blessings of Fharlanghn with all your heart?" Owen laughed at this, having experienced it already himself.Crunch already had an answer prepared. His life's philosophy, perhaps. He'd never decided. Nevertheless, "I accept any blessings that anyone chooses to bestow upon me."This was not the answer Gryffth was expecting, and it disturbed him slightly. "You should be careful with that attitude, lest the blessings and attentions of Hextor or Nerull cross your path. With that in mind, however, you are a worthy soul. Accept the protections of Fharlanghn, in the form of His Blessed Healing bestowed upon you." The healing power flowed through him into Crunch, and Gryffth was close enough to see the wounds knitting themselves.As he finished, Owen leaned in close to whisper to the cleric. "I think he wouldn't care whose blessings he got, so long as there was ale to be had." This got a small chortle, as they all moved to the walls gingerly. The group searched the room as best they could, when Isaura announced that she had found another hidden doorway. Crunch helped her open it, and they were pleased to see that the room was clear of mist, and crowded in. As they did so, Owen announced disappointment that the shelves were all empty.As they went into the room that was nearly too small to contain them all, they were surprised when an elderly gnomish woman suddenly appeared in front of them, with a ruby in her left eye socket instead of an eye. Though they were disturbed, they still listened carefully as she spoke to them in the common tongue. "The scrolls you seek have been destroyed to keep you and others from fading into nothingness. The curse of the Vanishing began here, in these mystical halls, and here it will remain. Be careful what you find, and mind whatever magic was wrought here."Gryffth and Owen spoke nearly on top of each other. Gryffth, saying "We seek no scrolls, but some missing children." Owen, sensing a relation to his own plight, "Vanishing like me?" Unfortunately, neither question would be answered, as the gnome woman quickly vanished. Owen cursed his luck, then realized that the woman must have been a Programmed Image spell, one he had heard of but never dreamt of having the power to cast. It seems that these gnomes were powerful after all. Still, it meant his questions would have gone unanswered anyway.Owen paused to look at himself again. Was it possible that he was even more translucent than he had been this morning? What would happen if he faded away completely? He hoped against hope that Gryffth would be able to help him fight off this infection, disease, poison, whatever it was. But whatever it is, it didn't seem to be affecting him all that much at the moment. He would have to leave it be, and hope that he got better rather than worse.</blockquote>

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