From what Lord Akkron has said, he and Khessa are not from Eosia, and it's not clear whether he could have come across the name in his long existence. Therefore, Vrox finds it a little eerie when Lord Akkron suddenly recalls General Phadanar's name and wonders, is it even his memory? Vrox feels a shiver run down his spine and marvels at the undead wizard's powers.
Vrox returns with Lord Akkron to Vairae's throne room (on the 3rd floor, IIRC). When Lord Akkron shares the third name with Khessa, Vrox leans down to the small hole to the room where Khessa and Clarac are. He says, "Hello? Khessa? Could you hold for just a moment? I know that you're a woman of action, but perhaps we should join you before you try to open the adamantine door. If a lich were to set guards or wards anywhere, it seems like he would definitely use them to protect his phylactery. I wouldn't want you to get into trouble there when the rest of us are unable to reach you. From that side, can you see any other exits? Any way out of there other than the adamantine door and this little crack?"
Khessa and Clarac are not entirely out of Vrox's reach, of course. He could Misty Step into the other room, and since Vrox is a Fey Wanderer, he could also take one other party member with him. Vrox is just hoping that there's a secret door between Vairea's throne room and the other room, and maybe it would be easier to find it from Khessa's side. He doesn't know much about liches, and he doesn't know whether they need to hurry to destroy the lich's phylactery right away. The magical device prevents the lich from dying, but no one has said anything about how long it takes a lich to reform once his soul retreats to his phylactery. Vrox simply hopes that they have enough time to join up before Khessa and Clarac attempt to open the adamantine door.
[[OOC: From the map posted earlier, it looks like there's a stairway at the north end of the room where Khessa and Clarac are. Not sure whether it goes up or down. Even if that doesn't give the rest of the party a way to join them, Vrox could use his Marvelous Pigments to create a door where Tyek's greataxe could not.]]
(OOC: Feel free to assume that Akkron shared whatever knowledge he gleaned).
Lord Akkron glances at Vrox with ancient, glowing eye sockets. Though his skull is bare, he somehow looks tired. And perhaps even unnerved himself by the ancient history that he managed to pull forth by sheer force of will. But his look doesn't last long, as he turns his attention back to the matter at hand.
"I tend to agree with Vrox on this matter,"Akkron says simply. "It is really not in our best interests to have the two of you fight whatever is in the High Mage's sanctum without us."
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If Khessa is made aware of what has been discovered, she goes to the door and confidently pronounces the three names, one after the other: "Geherel! Aethilen! Phadanar!"
Then the blonde arcane warrior tries to open...
After you recite the names, you hear the locking mechanisms work, and the door slowly opens. Inside you find an octagonal chamber that has sheer icy walls. A stone pedestal in the room’s center bears a sphere of ice.
Clarac casts her spell again. If it points Clarac to sphere of ice, she says as much to Khessa. If it points elsewhere, Clarac goes in that direction and searches for the phylactery.
Khessa quickly returns to explain to her companions: "It worked! The door opened and we found the phylactery! It's inside an ice sphere! Get to us! If you can do it with magic, go for it... if not, there's a spiral staircase that leads down, here... so there must be a spiral staircase that leads here, from the previous floor!"
While waiting for the others to arrive, one thing the blonde arcane warrior tries is to test the ice sphere's resistance to magical fire: she tries to throw some Fire Bolt at it to see if it shows any signs of being affected, of starting to melt.
Khessa quickly returns to explain to her companions: "It worked! The door opened and we found the phylactery! It's inside an ice sphere! Get to us! If you can do it with magic, go for it... if not, there's a spiral staircase that leads down, here... so there must be a spiral staircase that leads here, from the previous floor!"
Vrox stomps one of his hooves in annoyance. There's another stairway, but Khessa didn't mention it when he and Lord Akkron were going down to the statue room to look for clues?! Hasty humans!
Vrox does not remember seeing another staircase leading up from the 2rd floor. There was just the one that the party used to come up at the south end of Vairae's throne room. If there's another staircase, it must be concealed by magic or hidden in some way. Vrox is worried that if Khessa and Clarac have already found the lich's phylactery, they could already be in danger. He doesn't want to go downstairs to look for the secret staircase in case Khessa and Clarac are attacked or ensorcelled while the others are searching the rooms one floor below. It's also possible that the staircase requires some magical trick to find it, just like the adamantine door.
Vrox decides to remain here in Vairae's throne room and use the Marvelous Pigments that he found in Count Glauer's towers. He reaches into his backpack, and he's not surprised to find the pot of magical pigment and brush right at the top. There's only enough pigment left to make a small door. (Tyek will only be able to pass through when he's not raging.) Vrox swirls the paint with the brush and then touches it to the wall between him and Khessa. He concentrates on the wall and moves the brush slowly, paint flowing from the brush to the wall. The paint forms an image of a small, dark blue door, just over 5-ft tall. There's an intricate pattern in lighter blue in the middle of the door that frames panes of frosted-white translucent glass. Once he's done painting the door, Vrox reaches out to turn its doorknob of cut crystal and open the door.
That's meant to be a symbol of Titania, the Summer Queen. I got it from this reddit post by John_Cheshirsky.
[[OOC: Here's hoping that whatever magic prevented Tyek from chopping an opening in the wall doesn't prevent Vrox from creating a door in the wall. Technically, the door is mundane once Vrox is done painting it. Also note that it actually takes 1 minute for Vrox to pain a 10 sq ft door, so there are 10 rounds before he can join Khessa and Clarac. Hopefully, nothing happens to them in that time!]]
Khessa quickly returns to explain to her companions: "It worked! The door opened and we found the phylactery! It's inside an ice sphere! Get to us! If you can do it with magic, go for it... if not, there's a spiral staircase that leads down, here... so there must be a spiral staircase that leads here, from the previous floor!"
While waiting for the others to arrive, one thing the blonde arcane warrior tries is to test the ice sphere's resistance to magical fire: she tries to throw some Fire Bolt at it to see if it shows any signs of being affected, of starting to melt.
In the minute it takes Vrox to create the door, Khessa, seeing the ineffectiveness of the Fire Bolt, tries with a more powerful spell: a Fireball fired from her Staff of Power (and obviously centered so as to envelop the ice sphere without roasting the characters...)
Does this more powerful spell manage to destroy (or at least start to damage) the ice sphere?
In the minute it takes Vrox to create the door, Khessa, seeing the ineffectiveness of the Fire Bolt, tries with a more powerful spell: a Fireball fired from her Staff of Power (and obviously centered so as to envelop the ice sphere without roasting the characters...)
Does this more powerful spell manage to destroy (or at least start to damage) the ice sphere?
The next minute, when her companions are with her, Khessa reveals that she has already tried with fire spells, but to no avail... and asks for advice: "Perhaps dispelling the magic might have an effect? Do you want to try, Master Akkron? I can try too, but surely you would have a better chance of succeeding..."
"Or," the blonde arcane warrior looks at the other companions "does anyone have other ideas?"
Clarac for Khessa to test her spells and for someone to attempt to dispel the magic, if anyone.
"Let us see if simple force will work," Clarac says. She levels the sledgehammer she received from the dwarves, winds up, and swings it down at the sphere of ice.
"Let us see if simple force will work," Clarac says. She levels the sledgehammer she received from the dwarves, winds up, and swings it down at the sphere of ice.
Tyekanik chuckles and says, "I like it. When all else fails, hit it with a bigger hammer!"
If nothing prevents them, Tyek will try to help Clarac shatter the icy sphere. He follows Clarac through the adamantine door and into the octagonal room. As he enters that room, he enters a rage again and hefts his greataxe. He allows Clarac to strike the icy sphere first. Assuming that the sphere is still intact, that nothing changes when she hits it, and that nothing bad has happened, he uses his action to attack the icy sphere, trying to shatter it.
Movement: Walk into the octagonal room, positioning himself on the opposite side of the icy sphere from Clarac. Bonus Action: rage, growing to Large size and imbuing Annam's Greataxe as his Elemental Cleaver with [rule]thunder damage[rule] Action: Two Attacks with Annam's Greataxe as his Elemental Cleaver (thunder) Attack 1: 34, Damage: 31 (magical thunder) + 15 (force) = 46 (total) Attack 2: 30, Damage: 34 (magical thunder) + 15 (force) = 49 (total) Free Action: Talking.
Akkron watches everyone for a moment, then gives his two-cents.
"Might I suggest using some holy power against this?" he asks. "In fact..." Akkron produces a dagger, lines it up carefully, and flings it with a spell
"Or," the blonde arcane warrior looks at the other companions "does anyone have other ideas?"
Vrox really just wanted to rejoin Clarack and Khessa so that they could provide support and help them in case something went wrong. He doesn't have any other great ideas here. He shrugs and says, "Perhaps there are wards on the lich's phylactery that make it immune to harm? We could try to Identify what spells are in use. Or at least detect what schools of magic are in use. Otherwise, I agree with Khessa: we could just attempt to dispel the magic of the phylactery. I can also make an attempt."
[[OOC: While Vrox cannot upcast Dispel Magic to 9th level, he's happy to make a couple of attempts, casting it at 3rd level. Maybe he'll get lucky, and as I said before, he doesn't tend to go through his spell slots very fast.]]
Vrox is proficient in Arcana, and if nothing seems to damage the icy sphere, he will try to Help Lord Akkron figure out what they should try next. Having seen Lord Akkron pull General Phadanar's name out of nowhere, he wonders whether their lich will similarly be able to summon up knowledge of Vairae's phylactery!
[[OOC: I didn't want to risk having Vrox roll a lucky nat-20 on an Arcana check here. With a lich in our party, it would be laughable if Vrox came up with the solution to destroy the phylactery! I thought that maybe he could combine his knowledge of Elves and the Feywild with Lord Akkron's knowledge of necromancy and more powerful magic. Together, perhaps they can figure it out.]]
From what Lord Akkron has said, he and Khessa are not from Eosia, and it's not clear whether he could have come across the name in his long existence. Therefore, Vrox finds it a little eerie when Lord Akkron suddenly recalls General Phadanar's name and wonders, is it even his memory? Vrox feels a shiver run down his spine and marvels at the undead wizard's powers.
Vrox returns with Lord Akkron to Vairae's throne room (on the 3rd floor, IIRC). When Lord Akkron shares the third name with Khessa, Vrox leans down to the small hole to the room where Khessa and Clarac are. He says, "Hello? Khessa? Could you hold for just a moment? I know that you're a woman of action, but perhaps we should join you before you try to open the adamantine door. If a lich were to set guards or wards anywhere, it seems like he would definitely use them to protect his phylactery. I wouldn't want you to get into trouble there when the rest of us are unable to reach you. From that side, can you see any other exits? Any way out of there other than the adamantine door and this little crack?"
Khessa and Clarac are not entirely out of Vrox's reach, of course. He could Misty Step into the other room, and since Vrox is a Fey Wanderer, he could also take one other party member with him. Vrox is just hoping that there's a secret door between Vairea's throne room and the other room, and maybe it would be easier to find it from Khessa's side. He doesn't know much about liches, and he doesn't know whether they need to hurry to destroy the lich's phylactery right away. The magical device prevents the lich from dying, but no one has said anything about how long it takes a lich to reform once his soul retreats to his phylactery. Vrox simply hopes that they have enough time to join up before Khessa and Clarac attempt to open the adamantine door.
[[OOC: From the map posted earlier, it looks like there's a stairway at the north end of the room where Khessa and Clarac are. Not sure whether it goes up or down. Even if that doesn't give the rest of the party a way to join them, Vrox could use his Marvelous Pigments to create a door where Tyek's greataxe could not.]]
(OOC: Feel free to assume that Akkron shared whatever knowledge he gleaned).
Lord Akkron glances at Vrox with ancient, glowing eye sockets. Though his skull is bare, he somehow looks tired. And perhaps even unnerved himself by the ancient history that he managed to pull forth by sheer force of will. But his look doesn't last long, as he turns his attention back to the matter at hand.
"I tend to agree with Vrox on this matter," Akkron says simply. "It is really not in our best interests to have the two of you fight whatever is in the High Mage's sanctum without us."
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After you recite the names, you hear the locking mechanisms work, and the door slowly opens. Inside you find an octagonal chamber that has sheer icy walls. A stone pedestal in the room’s center bears a sphere of ice.
Khessa immediately inquires of Clarac: "What does your magic say? Is that the Phylactery?"
Clarac casts her spell again. If it points Clarac to sphere of ice, she says as much to Khessa. If it points elsewhere, Clarac goes in that direction and searches for the phylactery.
You are pulled towards the sphere of ice in the center of the room, from inside it.
Khessa quickly returns to explain to her companions: "It worked! The door opened and we found the phylactery! It's inside an ice sphere! Get to us! If you can do it with magic, go for it... if not, there's a spiral staircase that leads down, here... so there must be a spiral staircase that leads here, from the previous floor!"
While waiting for the others to arrive, one thing the blonde arcane warrior tries is to test the ice sphere's resistance to magical fire: she tries to throw some Fire Bolt at it to see if it shows any signs of being affected, of starting to melt.
Vrox stomps one of his hooves in annoyance. There's another stairway, but Khessa didn't mention it when he and Lord Akkron were going down to the statue room to look for clues?! Hasty humans!
Vrox does not remember seeing another staircase leading up from the 2rd floor. There was just the one that the party used to come up at the south end of Vairae's throne room. If there's another staircase, it must be concealed by magic or hidden in some way. Vrox is worried that if Khessa and Clarac have already found the lich's phylactery, they could already be in danger. He doesn't want to go downstairs to look for the secret staircase in case Khessa and Clarac are attacked or ensorcelled while the others are searching the rooms one floor below. It's also possible that the staircase requires some magical trick to find it, just like the adamantine door.
Vrox decides to remain here in Vairae's throne room and use the Marvelous Pigments that he found in Count Glauer's towers. He reaches into his backpack, and he's not surprised to find the pot of magical pigment and brush right at the top. There's only enough pigment left to make a small door. (Tyek will only be able to pass through when he's not raging.) Vrox swirls the paint with the brush and then touches it to the wall between him and Khessa. He concentrates on the wall and moves the brush slowly, paint flowing from the brush to the wall. The paint forms an image of a small, dark blue door, just over 5-ft tall. There's an intricate pattern in lighter blue in the middle of the door that frames panes of frosted-white translucent glass. Once he's done painting the door, Vrox reaches out to turn its doorknob of cut crystal and open the door.
That's meant to be a symbol of Titania, the Summer Queen. I got it from this reddit post by John_Cheshirsky.
[[OOC: Here's hoping that whatever magic prevented Tyek from chopping an opening in the wall doesn't prevent Vrox from creating a door in the wall. Technically, the door is mundane once Vrox is done painting it. Also note that it actually takes 1 minute for Vrox to pain a 10 sq ft door, so there are 10 rounds before he can join Khessa and Clarac. Hopefully, nothing happens to them in that time!]]
Your firebolt appears to do no damage to it
To move this along, a pathway has been created through the wall of the tree, so the group may join.
In the minute it takes Vrox to create the door, Khessa, seeing the ineffectiveness of the Fire Bolt, tries with a more powerful spell: a Fireball fired from her Staff of Power (and obviously centered so as to envelop the ice sphere without roasting the characters...)
Does this more powerful spell manage to destroy (or at least start to damage) the ice sphere?
The fireball has no effect
The next minute, when her companions are with her, Khessa reveals that she has already tried with fire spells, but to no avail... and asks for advice: "Perhaps dispelling the magic might have an effect? Do you want to try, Master Akkron? I can try too, but surely you would have a better chance of succeeding..."
"Or," the blonde arcane warrior looks at the other companions "does anyone have other ideas?"
Clarac for Khessa to test her spells and for someone to attempt to dispel the magic, if anyone.
"Let us see if simple force will work," Clarac says. She levels the sledgehammer she received from the dwarves, winds up, and swings it down at the sphere of ice.
OOC:
Concentration: Locate Object
Tyekanik chuckles and says, "I like it. When all else fails, hit it with a bigger hammer!"
If nothing prevents them, Tyek will try to help Clarac shatter the icy sphere. He follows Clarac through the adamantine door and into the octagonal room. As he enters that room, he enters a rage again and hefts his greataxe. He allows Clarac to strike the icy sphere first. Assuming that the sphere is still intact, that nothing changes when she hits it, and that nothing bad has happened, he uses his action to attack the icy sphere, trying to shatter it.
Movement: Walk into the octagonal room, positioning himself on the opposite side of the icy sphere from Clarac.
Bonus Action: rage, growing to Large size and imbuing Annam's Greataxe as his Elemental Cleaver with [rule]thunder damage[rule]
Action: Two Attacks with Annam's Greataxe as his Elemental Cleaver (thunder)
Attack 1: 34, Damage: 31 (magical thunder) + 15 (force) = 46 (total)
Attack 2: 30, Damage: 34 (magical thunder) + 15 (force) = 49 (total)
Free Action: Talking.
Akkron watches everyone for a moment, then gives his two-cents.
"Might I suggest using some holy power against this?" he asks. "In fact..."
Akkron produces a dagger, lines it up carefully, and flings it with a spell
True Strike Dagger vs. Phylactery (thrown, in case of backlash)
Attack: 21 Damage: 10 + 8 (radiant) = 18
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[[OOC: I've never used a sledgehammer, like the one Clarac got from the dwarves. Since it's not a weapon, I guess it just helps with an Athletics check to smash things?]]
Vrox waits to see whether that's effective. As a follower of Mystra, he can certainly exert holy power against the icy sphere. His Dragon's Wrath Longbow also comes from the hoard of a legendary moonstone dragon and deals radiant damage
Vrox really just wanted to rejoin Clarack and Khessa so that they could provide support and help them in case something went wrong. He doesn't have any other great ideas here. He shrugs and says, "Perhaps there are wards on the lich's phylactery that make it immune to harm? We could try to Identify what spells are in use. Or at least detect what schools of magic are in use. Otherwise, I agree with Khessa: we could just attempt to dispel the magic of the phylactery. I can also make an attempt."
[[OOC: While Vrox cannot upcast Dispel Magic to 9th level, he's happy to make a couple of attempts, casting it at 3rd level. Maybe he'll get lucky, and as I said before, he doesn't tend to go through his spell slots very fast.]]
Vrox is proficient in Arcana, and if nothing seems to damage the icy sphere, he will try to Help Lord Akkron figure out what they should try next. Having seen Lord Akkron pull General Phadanar's name out of nowhere, he wonders whether their lich will similarly be able to summon up knowledge of Vairae's phylactery!
[[OOC: I didn't want to risk having Vrox roll a lucky nat-20 on an Arcana check here. With a lich in our party, it would be laughable if Vrox came up with the solution to destroy the phylactery! I thought that maybe he could combine his knowledge of Elves and the Feywild with Lord Akkron's knowledge of necromancy and more powerful magic. Together, perhaps they can figure it out.]]
Akkron's Arcana check...
NAT 20!!! (total: 37), rolled in game log
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