Everyone waited as long as it took for the Loot-stupor to subside and for Arradin to get her armour on. They were now faced with a good old dungeoneering dilemma. Left or Right? To the left, an open passageway curved around to where Torgor had believed light was emanating from the tower. To the right, a pair of large double doors.
They chose to go through the doors, Kerplak making sure they were not trapped and listening and hearing nothing. Inside was… Karzoug! Again! Disintegrate, Baleful Polymorph, Horrid Wilting!
The first somehow narrowly avoided turning Kerplak into a ball of dust but the second was successful in turning him into a Hedgehog. And then the third, caused everyone’s skin to dry out and crack, Horridly, we must assume. The party rushed in to get at Karzoug, Aided by some Bro-lanis, but only when Arradin passed her Domineering weapon through his projection did she actually disrupt the image and cause the Runelord to retreat to wherever. The Bro-lanis healed everyone a bit and then were damaged by the Occluding field’s pulsing. Albedon whipped out a wand and set to healing people – like an itinerant peddlar!
Kerplak was kind of out of luck, because no-one had Break Enchantment. Good news is that Dispel Magic will also work against Baleful Polymorph, although obviously it is contested vs caster level, whereas Break Enchantment isn’t. I don’t think.
But it worked out in the end.
Through this room, which was bare of interesting things that weren’t ostentatious decorations, they found a room with 40ft long beds and a massive table and oversized furniture. Nothing interesting there, although they really didn’t search it. Maybe there is a diary under an enormous pillow. An enormous diary detailing enormous crushes. Who knows?
Back out in search of this light then. They passed by some double doors on their left and continued around the passageway to a corner, the hallway jogging left, then forward, then turning left. On the right hand wall was a doorway, so they listened again. Hedgehog Kerplak could hear faint sobbing. He relayed this to his cousin, who since he is a Gnome can speak to animals once a day. So that’s handy. Forewarned, they opened the door, to find a white-winged, greatsword- holding, green-skinned being of extra-ordinary beauty. The being frantically shook her head from side, tears rolling from her eyes and she summoned a Fire Storm that dropped Albedon, Tersplink and Kerplak and set Halvard and Tersplink on fire. Halvard slapped the flames out as Arradin and Ron advanced.
As they engaged her, the Angel wordlessly pleaded with them/cast more spells at them trying to kill the shit out of them. Women, eh? Arradin put in a lot of good ground work, lopping off some fingers, stunning the Angel, causing some non-lethal damage and then fucking up her wings, preventing her from flying. This became more and more of a problem for the Angel because she had been backing up when Ron was trying to grapple her, and when he switched tactics, he booted her back towards the opening in the outer wall.
At this point, Halvard got his critical on, with two massive hits. At one point the Angel lost an entire hand and I can’t remember if that was Halvard or Arradin. Arradin was certainly conflicted as a Good person striking at an embodiment of Good. It was complicated for her.
But Halvard put the angel down. She collapsed, the non-lethal damage she had taken earlier on meaning she dropped before she was actually completely dead. Hovering between life and death or whatever the Angel equivalent is.. With some healing on hand (heh) they brought her back to life and whatever compulsion she had suffered that caused her to attack the party had apparently gone.
Arradin led the questioning and they found out that this Angel had been bound with a Planar Binding spell and forced to kill whoever entered this room. The room, she related, had been breached by a Stone Giant wizard using Disintegrate spells five years ago, he had managed to get in and apparently the inhabitants didn’t want that happening again. She had been bound here by Khalib, Karzoug’s apprentice but knew little else about the inhabitants or the complex itself. She asked to accompany the party in exchange for the right to deliver Khalib’s deathblow; righteous vengeance upon one who had usurped her most basic principles to amuse himself. Her hands and wings were healing up as they spoke, so it wasn’t as though she was offering the services of a limbless floating lady. That Fire Storm spell is a doozy and that is now at the party’s disposal (320 cubic feet of 16d6 damage, with 4d6 per round waiting on the other side of failed Reflex saves? DAAAMN). The Angel dished out some healing and everyone else pitched in until they were ready to go. Oh and she cast Break Enchantment on Kerplak, restoring him to his real form.
The party’s new ally: stats here…
They continued down the hallway, and came to a door. They opened that door. Behind that door, more doors. A small antechamber with doors set at a 90 degree angle. These doors were covered in a wiggly script that seemed to writhe under the viewer’s eyes. Kerplak listened at the door although he didn’t check for traps. Beep boop beep hummmmm beep beeop booowowowowowoop zzzzzorp. That’s what he heard through the door. Maybe it was all the blood rushing to his boner that caused him to forget to check for traps, but he reached out and WHOOMP
They are all in a maze.
I somewhat confidently predict that this wouldn’t have happened if the Bard had been here… Mike might prove me right…
Compleat Adventurer Award goes to Rolland this week. Not only did Halvard step in at a critical moment with some Gorum-seasoned greatsword strokes, but Rolland brought along whiskey-icing cupcakes that Jokes had made.
