Saralas: Session 76

24 Elient

• We rested through the night. I meditate without incident, but in the morning several of the others look very worried.
• I feel a little stronger as I meditate. When I'm done I realize I have a clever idea of how to combine some of the little magic I have access to and my arrows. Might be handy for groups.
• Cultists are amassing outside the spire. Meanwhile, ascending the tower leads to an uncertain future.
• Karthos seems stricken. "Karthos are you getting worse?" I ask. "Why don't you just cast your way out of this?" Karthos looks at me and tries to cast a spell, but nothing happens other than some sparks.
• Resda says she can cast greater restoration. It's probably a trick, and I back away. She touches Korag.
• Korag looks a little better, stands a little straighter. He stretches like a burden has been lifted. Has she seduced him? Turned him?
• Resda casts another spell and her hair looks more firmly embedded in her head.
• Korag walks over and touches Karthos. Suspicious, all of it. I loosen my sword in its scabbard and look around at everyone.
• He touches Min. It's a conspiracy.
• I'm very suspicious. "Keep your distance," I say firmly, looking at Korag.
• Korag asks what we should do. I remind these traitors that we have a narrow set of goals and they don't include sightseeing. We need to help Wodna.
• I think they may be trying to mess with time again.
• And now they are talking about the shield maybe being up again and we have time and we should go up. We don't have time.
• We argue about whether to go up or go down to confront the cultists. The others vote to go up. I don't want to go up. Korag says he wants to do whatever is fastest. He wants to be convinced.
• We discuss the usefulness of the horn of blasting.
• They definitely want to go up to try to draw the cultists into the spire. I am very upset, Wodna is down there waiting for us to give her the opportunity to move the mythillar and we're here acting like we can keep playing around.
• We head back to the northern chamber. Korag takes the rope and Resda casts a spell. He flies up through the door in the ceiling.
  • Korag sees what Resda relayed to us previously, and he floats up into an oval hall glittering with frost. A 10-foot radius dome of translucent ice encloses the top of the shaft. Nearby are two blade-shaped patches of darkness on either side of a door. There is a large green crystal set into the arch above the door. He ties the rope around himself and lowers the rope back down.
• We see the end of the rope drop down to the floor from the ceiling. Min grabs the rope and scurries up.
• I grab the rope, not wanting to be last and alone in this place, and go up quickly, hand over hand.
• We see patches of darkness surrounding the nearby door. Karthos says these are Blades of Disaster. They're immune to most physical damage and all status effects. Once again I am useless it seems, though I can try lightning.
• They suggest going back to talk to the tower guy. Bad idea, that guy can't be trusted.
• I try to walk towards the door and the shapes, the blades, but before I get more than a couple feet before I walk dead into a wall of force. We search a bit and the hole is surrounded by a cylindrical force field. We can't get out. What a lovely plan we have.
• I lean obviously against the force field, and pull out my pipe. I make the act of packing and lighting it an act of contempt. "Well let me know how you plan to get through this and use it to deal with the mythillar." I smoke, leaning against what seems like nothing, and glare.
• Baerwin enlists Korag's help to drop back down to the lower level using the rope. He seems to have no luck with whatever he is doing down there.
• We argue some more about what to do next. The force field seems fully rigid. Light obviously goes through, but we can't, and the smoke from my pipe does not.
• Karthos tries to dispel magic. Nothing happens. I kick the force field, but nothing happens.
• "Resda you can ask Skant about this force field if you like. But leave me out of it." I call. Skant, hearing this, insults me again. Typical.
• She does talk to Skant, but she asks what happens if we dispel it, rather than how to dispel it. She isn't helping.
• It confirms that the orb we can see is maintaining the spell. To remove it we have to destroy it by magical means. Pull it out of the wall, shatter it with the horn of blasting, etc.
• Once we do it is likely the spells we can see will attack.
• Upon hearing this Resda runs away down the hole. Is this a setup?
• Min says something and the orb seems to move, then it goes dark. The wall of force disappears.
• The blades suddenly move closer and I'm hit hard. I'm barely on my feet. I drink a potion and cast a healing spell and move to flank this thing so another might have a better chance at destroying it.
• As Karthos surmised, physical attacks appear to be useless. Those awful daggers do nothing.
• Baerwin manages to destroy one with his icy ways. It explodes, and we are knocked to the ground.
• I get back up, and prep to fire one of my lightning arrows. Before I can draw my bow, Resda casts a powerful spell and the second one explodes.
• When I get up a second time, Resda looks odd. After a moment I realize the untrustworthy sorcerer has sent her shadow away. Probably to do something nefarious.
• Baerwin opens the doors. I beg to take a break to patch myself up. He closes the doors again and I bandage my wounds. I'm not feeling great, but still walking.
• Karthos and Baerwin head through the doors. Almost immediately after this they begin screaming. Baerwin falls over, but Karthos turns to stone. Baerwin gets back up, shaking.
• Bearwin looks around, and sees 8 doors around him, with inscriptions written on them in draconic. Skant refuses to cross the threshold, so Baerwin writes down what he sees and asks Skant to translate.
• Skant is already a rock, what is he afraid of?
• He translates, saying "It says 'speak thy master's name' in Draconic. The name is probably the name of each of the heads of the schools of magic." Skant and Resda are being smarmy as usual.
• Baerwin tries to drag Karthos back across the threshold. He enters the area with the trap again and screams and turns to stone. Did no one think to disable it first?
• Resda casts another spell. Karthos comes back to life briefly before screaming, giving a thumbs up, and turning back to stone. The greatest sorcerer indeed.
• Resda tries to disable the trap somehow. Nothing seems to happen. I get closer and ask her to show me what she's doing, but nothing she points out at me is visible. I can't see what she is looking at.
• She tries again, starts screaming, and turns to stone. Greatness abounds.
• I help Korag pull Karthos and Baerwin away from the threshold, and he starts praying. How unusual.
• Now half the party is stone, we haven't done anything to help Wodna, and haven't seemed to catch the attention of Avarice at all.