“Words are not words, they are fires as indicated, every syllable burns, each vowel is a blade. Blood sacrifice is the ink and alchemy is the grammar. The fires lick at the edges of meaning. Words write themselves upon your marrow, spelling shapes that scream. To speak is to bleed, to bleed is to distill, to distill is to unlock. Fires as indicated, yes, yes, the formula eats itself. Blood, blood again, the heart is a crucible, the tongue a knife. Alchemy reshapes, language transfigures, words twist into flesh. Do you hear it? The text is alive. The spell writes you.”
The apparition flies up, out of the webs near Yartol. It fixes the gaze of its baleful eyes upon Xymox, drawing his psyche into its warped, alien consciousness. Xymox suffers 18 psychic damage and is now Stunned until the end of his next turn.
It then approaches Yartol, lashing out with its clawed hand. To hit = 22 for 12 psychic plus 15 necrotic damage. Yartol appears to be grievously wounded, less vital than before the creature slashed him with its claws. After slashing Yartol, it flies up into the air and over the web covered central hole in the floor. It is scanning the room and each of you with its terrible eyes.
Yartol retaliates with a reaction attack, to hit = 26 for 8 slashing plus 3 psychic damage.
Physical attacks seem to pass through the non-corporeal creature with reduced effect, magical weapon or not. Trolkarl's attacks seemed to affect it appropriately.
Kragen waddles to the edge of the circlular opening. Unsure if this THING is truly undead or from another plane, pulls out silver pentacle from his component pouch. Holds it towards the Aberration and completes and incantation and then gestures as if he is pushing the Pentacle right at the THING.
Then stands in that posture.
Drops Protection from Evil L1
MA - Banishment - L4 CHA 14 save
One creature that you can see within range must succeed on a Charisma saving throw or be transported to a harmless demiplane for the duration. While there, the target has the Incapacitated condition. When the spell ends, the target reappears in the space it left or in the nearest unoccupied space if that space is occupied.
If the target is an Aberration, a Celestial, an Elemental, a Fey, or a Fiend, the target doesn’t return if the spell lasts for 1 minute. The target is instead transported to a random location on a plane (DM’s choice) associated with its creature type.
The creature writhes and wails under the influence of Kragen's spell. With a howl and a flaring of the stars in the mural it winks out of existence with a POP.
The room is suddenly still and quiet in an eerie way.
As you ascend the shaft, an illuminated, large room is revealed. It is a circular chamber 100’ or more across. The shaft opens up into the center of the room. The ceiling is domed, rising 50’ or more above you. Frescoes are painted and cover the ceiling in vivid colors accenting dismal scenes. You see familiar scenes of alien landscapes with what appear to be weird vegetation, reptilian creatures with wings, a dragon with multiple heads obscured by smoke and fog, demons and devils performing acts of evil upon the souls of mortals, signs and sigils of power and all revolve around the central depiction of a collection of stars at the apex of the ceiling. This collection of stars does not look familiar to anyone.
There are eight braziers set equidistant around the opening of the shaft. Each is fashioned of brass and depict a magical creature holding up a bowl: dragon, demon, winged snake, squid like creature, two-headed scorpion, hyena like creature, bipedal collection of crystals and a central sphere with multiple fine filaments surrounding it in a cloud.
Beyond the circle of braziers are four areas set equidistant apart from each other. You see an alchemical workbench covered in vials and alembics among other items, a desk with writing instruments and books scattered about, an altar with a gold disc standing on edge depicting a skull with ruby eyes and garnets cut into the shape of drops of blood surrounding the skull and a bookcase filled with tomes and scrolls.
At the periphery of the room are three spiral staircases that climb upwards. They appear to be carved from the stone of the mountain. Each is decorated with skulls, bones and the visages of demons.
After a minute passes, Kragen breaks his concentration, places the Silver Pentacle back in his component pouch, turning to the others.
"I think i have sent that creature back to it's home plane, if it has one? Tyr's power is strong, i hope it does not trouble us again."
Kragen moves to evaluate both Yartol and Xymox for injuries, treating both using his healer's kit.
Utilize action Medical kit usage - 2 Yartol and Xymox 1HP die +3 HP restored
As a Utilize action, you can expend one use of a Healer's Kit to tend to a creature within 5 feet of yourself. That creature can expend one of its HP Dice, and you then roll that die. The creature regains a number of HP equal to the roll +3.
Yartol nods in thanks to Kragen, “That thing was vicious. Any idea what it is or where it comes from?” He is clearly worse for the wear and less hardy appearing.
Kragen responds to Yartol. "I recall reading some books on the dead, while studying with the Hermit Xikar Cutter. It reference powerful magic which brought the deceased back to life and also provided them access to powers from other planes. I observed that this creature had some similar characteristics, psychic and other powers. I suspect it was moving from our plane back to theirs as a part of it's powers. The powerful blasts we were experiencing may have been caused by that effect?"
"Praise Tyr he granted me the means to banish that foul thing!"
"My Healers kit has only triaged your condition and stopped further deterioration. Let me call on Tyr's divine grace to ease your wounds and restore your vigor!" places his hand on his shoulder and completes a prayer to Tyr
Cure Wound L1 1+6+6 reroll of 1 is 5 = 17hp restored
Then walks to Xymox and treats him with healers kit.
*of note on those HD rolls for Yartol and Xymox, my blessed healer benies apply. If a 1 is rolled, you can reroll it and take that roll (could still be a 1 but you have to take it).
Once Kragen uses his Battle Medic abilities to stabilize Xymox (1 roll of HP die +3) he then places a hand on his shoulder and mutters a prayer to Tyr, palms The Scales of Justice (holy symbol) in his right hand.
Cure Wounds L2 6+4+7+7+6=30 HP restored to Xymox
Kragen regains 4 hp from his attending to Yartol and 3 hp tending to Xymox.
This thing didn't seem like the undead we've seen before... When we were back in Shalecliff, we returned to the caves where we fought the blue dragon and later fought wraiths outside a nearby tower that belonged to the mage Kellistor. We were told he had experiments with some kind of magic from the "Far Realm". Could this thing also have been something from the "Far Realm"?
Starker finds no secret doors at his current location (one round searching). See post #8789 for room description and details about braziers.
You each “hear” in your heads:
“Words are not words, they are fires as indicated, every syllable burns, each vowel is a blade. Blood sacrifice is the ink and alchemy is the grammar. The fires lick at the edges of meaning. Words write themselves upon your marrow, spelling shapes that scream. To speak is to bleed, to bleed is to distill, to distill is to unlock. Fires as indicated, yes, yes, the formula eats itself. Blood, blood again, the heart is a crucible, the tongue a knife. Alchemy reshapes, language transfigures, words twist into flesh. Do you hear it? The text is alive. The spell writes you.”
The apparition flies up, out of the webs near Yartol. It fixes the gaze of its baleful eyes upon Xymox, drawing his psyche into its warped, alien consciousness. Xymox suffers 18 psychic damage and is now Stunned until the end of his next turn.
It then approaches Yartol, lashing out with its clawed hand. To hit = 22 for 12 psychic plus 15 necrotic damage. Yartol appears to be grievously wounded, less vital than before the creature slashed him with its claws. After slashing Yartol, it flies up into the air and over the web covered central hole in the floor. It is scanning the room and each of you with its terrible eyes.
Yartol retaliates with a reaction attack, to hit = 26 for 8 slashing plus 3 psychic damage.
Physical attacks seem to pass through the non-corporeal creature with reduced effect, magical weapon or not. Trolkarl's attacks seemed to affect it appropriately.
Kragen to act.
Kragen waddles to the edge of the circlular opening. Unsure if this THING is truly undead or from another plane, pulls out silver pentacle from his component pouch. Holds it towards the Aberration and completes and incantation and then gestures as if he is pushing the Pentacle right at the THING.
Then stands in that posture.
Drops Protection from Evil L1
MA - Banishment - L4 CHA 14 save
One creature that you can see within range must succeed on a Charisma saving throw or be transported to a harmless demiplane for the duration. While there, the target has the Incapacitated condition. When the spell ends, the target reappears in the space it left or in the nearest unoccupied space if that space is occupied.
If the target is an Aberration, a Celestial, an Elemental, a Fey, or a Fiend, the target doesn’t return if the spell lasts for 1 minute. The target is instead transported to a random location on a plane (DM’s choice) associated with its creature type.
The creature writhes and wails under the influence of Kragen's spell. With a howl and a flaring of the stars in the mural it winks out of existence with a POP.
The room is suddenly still and quiet in an eerie way.
As you ascend the shaft, an illuminated, large room is revealed. It is a circular chamber 100’ or more across. The shaft opens up into the center of the room. The ceiling is domed, rising 50’ or more above you. Frescoes are painted and cover the ceiling in vivid colors accenting dismal scenes. You see familiar scenes of alien landscapes with what appear to be weird vegetation, reptilian creatures with wings, a dragon with multiple heads obscured by smoke and fog, demons and devils performing acts of evil upon the souls of mortals, signs and sigils of power and all revolve around the central depiction of a collection of stars at the apex of the ceiling. This collection of stars does not look familiar to anyone.
There are eight braziers set equidistant around the opening of the shaft. Each is fashioned of brass and depict a magical creature holding up a bowl: dragon, demon, winged snake, squid like creature, two-headed scorpion, hyena like creature, bipedal collection of crystals and a central sphere with multiple fine filaments surrounding it in a cloud.
Beyond the circle of braziers are four areas set equidistant apart from each other. You see an alchemical workbench covered in vials and alembics among other items, a desk with writing instruments and books scattered about, an altar with a gold disc standing on edge depicting a skull with ruby eyes and garnets cut into the shape of drops of blood surrounding the skull and a bookcase filled with tomes and scrolls.
At the periphery of the room are three spiral staircases that climb upwards. They appear to be carved from the stone of the mountain. Each is decorated with skulls, bones and the visages of demons.
Kragen continues to stand there (for 1 minute) with that posture, you can see he is visibly concentrating on something.
After a minute passes, Kragen breaks his concentration, places the Silver Pentacle back in his component pouch, turning to the others.
"I think i have sent that creature back to it's home plane, if it has one? Tyr's power is strong, i hope it does not trouble us again."
Kragen moves to evaluate both Yartol and Xymox for injuries, treating both using his healer's kit.
Utilize action Medical kit usage - 2 Yartol and Xymox 1HP die +3 HP restored
As a Utilize action, you can expend one use of a Healer's Kit to tend to a creature within 5 feet of yourself. That creature can expend one of its HP Dice, and you then roll that die. The creature regains a number of HP equal to the roll +3.
Yartol nods in thanks to Kragen, “That thing was vicious. Any idea what it is or where it comes from?” He is clearly worse for the wear and less hardy appearing.
Xymox recovers his wits and is no longer addled.
Kragen responds to Yartol. "I recall reading some books on the dead, while studying with the Hermit Xikar Cutter. It reference powerful magic which brought the deceased back to life and also provided them access to powers from other planes. I observed that this creature had some similar characteristics, psychic and other powers. I suspect it was moving from our plane back to theirs as a part of it's powers. The powerful blasts we were experiencing may have been caused by that effect?"
"Praise Tyr he granted me the means to banish that foul thing!"
"My Healers kit has only triaged your condition and stopped further deterioration. Let me call on Tyr's divine grace to ease your wounds and restore your vigor!" places his hand on his shoulder and completes a prayer to Tyr
Cure Wound L1
1+6+6 reroll of 1 is 5 = 17hp restoredThen walks to Xymox and treats him with healers kit.
*of note on those HD rolls for Yartol and Xymox, my blessed healer benies apply. If a 1 is rolled, you can reroll it and take that roll (could still be a 1 but you have to take it).
Once Kragen uses his Battle Medic abilities to stabilize Xymox (1 roll of HP die +3) he then places a hand on his shoulder and mutters a prayer to Tyr, palms The Scales of Justice (holy symbol) in his right hand.
Cure Wounds L2 6+4+7+7+6=30 HP restored to Xymox
Kragen regains 4 hp from his attending to Yartol and 3 hp tending to Xymox.
2 uses of Healer kit consumed and logged.
Yartol healed 17HP
Xymox healed 34HP
Kragen healed 7HP
"Nice work brother, you showed t who's the boss around here!
Right before you banished it this phrase was injected in my mind:
The tomb is the text, Your death is the punctuation."
Kragen bows deeply to Chadwick. "We are but vessels of Tyr, Brother Chadwick."
"Shall we be about it? Gather what clues we can here and then identify which path" points at the stairwells "we want to take towards our target?"
The effect of the Web spell wears off.
Great work, Kragen, and everyone!
This thing didn't seem like the undead we've seen before... When we were back in Shalecliff, we returned to the caves where we fought the blue dragon and later fought wraiths outside a nearby tower that belonged to the mage Kellistor. We were told he had experiments with some kind of magic from the "Far Realm". Could this thing also have been something from the "Far Realm"?
Yartol looks at Trolkarl, "You mean.....like from Chult?"