(OOC: CON save if needed)

20

(OOC: I think Theldrin takes half damage for moving into the area of effect)

Avery steps forward, slicing through the blade of disaster along with Khessa's bolts of magic, destroying it. At that same time, Theldrin's spell goes off and destroys the Cloudkill. The room falls silent again as the green fog quickly dissipates.

You have a chance to take a breather before your next decision. You've got multiple possible exit's from this Hall of Audience.

Khessa pats everyone on the shoulder: "Good work! This was truly a tough fight... I wonder if these..." she struggles to find the right definition "...spell-creatures were created by Fadheela or were merely the residual effect of some great magic from the past."

"Considering that this route seemed the most use one," the blonde arcane warrior reasons "the former seems more likely... else, anyone who entered this corridor would have been killed—and the path would not have seemed so frequently traveled."

Meanwhile, the shrinking effect wears off, and the tall (again) adventuress sits down and tries to catch her breath, while making notes in her spellbook about these dangerous but very interesting creatures: "Shall we rest for a moment? I'm not too eager to encounter another threat of this magnitude in our current state."

[[Just to clarify, Asclepius is not destroyed?]]

Coriana dismisses her blades, looking over the snake, says, "Me and Asclepius could use a refresher, but I can cope if we're not in a good space."

[[Coriana is maintaining concentration on hex, 8 hr. duration.
  If we take a full short rest, Coriana gets a spell slot and Asclepius can get up to full.
  If we take a once-a-day "action short rest" Asclepius will stay out and at 43/60 hp.
  If we do neither, Coriana will use magical cunning to get back a spell slot.]]

Yep, Asclepius is not destroyed

Quote from Painted_Beyond >>

Khessa pats everyone on the shoulder: "Good work! This was truly a tough fight... I wonder if these..." she struggles to find the right definition "...spell-creatures were created by Fadheela or were merely the residual effect of some great magic from the past."

Xanrym stands up, tears still streaming down his face from the poisonous fog.  As he splashes some water in his eyes, he exclaims, "What were those things?!"  He sounds shaken by the fight.  Now that the fight is over, Xanrym realizes that the Living Blade of Disaster nearly skewered Khessa, and it probably would have gutted Asclepius if they had been any slower in destroying it.  And that's not even mentioning the Lightning Bolt or the Cloudkill!  He looks around this hall with renewed concern over the threats that they face in the Necromancer's Spike.

Xanrym tries to remember whether he has heard any stories about such "spell-creatures," as Khessa called them.
History: 16  

Regarding Khessa's suggestion to take a rest, Xanrym looks pointedly at each of the doors and asks, "I don't know.  Is it wise to rest in a room that has five exits, four of which we haven't explored?"

Quote from drumdigby >>

Two stone doors both open stand near each other on the western wall and a closed door is farther to the north on that same wall. A shut stone door is set in the eastern wall not far from where you entered.  

Xanrym suggests, "Could we at least check that there's not something lurking in the other rooms?  Or maybe blockade the closed doors so that nothing else can enter while we rest?"  He immediately starts to implement his own advice, moving farther into the Hall of Audience and heading to the west side, lantern in hand, to look through the first of the two doors nearest him.  He doesn't step all the way in the room, merely looking throw and swinging his lantern's beam through the room, looking for any more of the spell-creatures...or anything else that looks like a threat to The Company.
Perception: 12

Syllen moves Nav back to his pocket dimension; takes a breath having avoided much of the damage Syllen will join Xanrym to see if he can hear any noise coming from the other rooms.(OOC: Completely forgot to bring Nav back earlier). 

Perception Roll: 26

“I fully agree that we should take a second before continuing.”

[[ OOC: I'm fine with what was suggested in the OOC chat, which is to return to the first room on this level. ]]

Khessa smiles at Xanrym and admits: "You're right, my friend. This fight must have taken its toll on me more than I thought, if it made me forget all about caution to this extent. Yes, it's definitely better to get to a safer position. Perhaps we could even return to the first room we encountered on this level, the one where the only unbarred access points are the stairs and the secret door. The position there should be much more defensible."

Avery scans the area, agreeing about taking a breather before pressing on. "Good fight though, different."

can I play? i am new and don't have discord so its been hard to find a group. 

name: Tony

Race: dragon-borne

class: Barbarian

Ability scores:15,14,13,12,11,13

Theldrin coughs as he tries to shake off the effects of the poisonous cloud, then says quietly, "Different indeed, I've never seen anything quite like that before..." He continues as he looks around at the others to make sure everyone is okay, "Yes, let's fall back to a safer location and regroup."

Xanrym has heard of Living Spells before; something that great wizards often create to act as guards to their sanctums. You surmise that, assuming these spells have been here a while, the Spike must be saturated with some powerful negative magical energy to normalize a spell in perpetuity. Before settling down you check the two rooms to the west:

The bottom room has a stone font on a slender stand near the door. Beyond that, on the western wall, a stone desk and chair are set. The southern wall is dominated by carved bookshelves that stretch from floor to ceiling. Part of one shelf is fashioned into a scroll rack. 

The top room has bookshelves carved into the eastern wall, and two smaller sets are carved from the western wall. Stone desks also jut from the western wall, each with a stone chair in front of it. A pair of similar chairs faces each other near the center of the room. A small font on a slender stand occupies the northeastern corner. Two doors pierce the eastern wall, and another is set in the northern wall. Just to the west of that door, an iron spiral staircase rises into the ceiling. 

All the doors on this floor have been closed for quite some time, and you feel it is safe to take a Short Rest. Do you share any campfire tales or insights into your current situation in the hour it takes to rest?

57

Khessa has been so impressed by the Living Spells that her entire conversation revolves around them throughout her rest. She eagerly absorbs Xanrym's information, never taking her blue eyes off him even for a moment if he reveals what he knows about it.

The blonde arcane warrior otherwise continues to converse on the topic with anyone who cares, taking notes in her imposing tome with its spider-web-like cover on what others know (or have heard) and trying to formulate educated guesses about what is unknown.

As he rests Theldrin listens attentively to the conversation about living spells, intent on learning as much as he can about them.

Coriana dismisses Asclepius for the hour, then resummons him. She otherwise keeps uncharacteristically to herself.

The socially observant will notice she is avoiding talking to Khessa.

After confirming that nothing seems to be lurking in the the two rooms to the west and seeing that the only other door (the one on the east wall) hasn't been opened in decades, Xanrym consents to resting in the Hall of Audience itself: "It's the first room we've found since entering the Necromancer's Spike that's large enough for the whole Company to rest without having to be right on top of one another."  Those who know Xanrym best can tell that the fight with the Living Spells must have rattled him. Other than a cursory glance at the bookshelves when he was checking for other threats, Xanrym doesn't look at the books or scrolls at all.  He instead prioritizes spending the time with his real living and breathing companions.

Xanrym definitely shares what he knows about Living Spells.  While he is happy to quickly read poems and old histories, he loves to share what he knows with an interested audience.  

Xanrym explains, "You probably know of spells that can be triggered, like the Glyph of Warding on the stairs.  A wizard might design his tower so that intruders cannot easily escape the effects of their warding spells, but the condition that triggers such a magical ward is still fairly limited.  Wouldn't it be better if the spell could be deployed with more intelligence?  I didn't recognize it in the magical sword spell that attacked Khessa, but we're all familiar with the [Tooltip Not Found] spell.  And I recognized the big hand that grabbed Asclepius from conversations with Bigby.  Those things that attacked us were Living Spells!"

Xanrym says that he first heard of Living Spells while working for the Circle of Eight.  He believes that some Circle of Eight members, like Bigby, and certainly its leader, Mordenkainen, are powerful enough to create such a thing.  He explains, "It's a construct, but instead of creating a golem and empowering it with the ability to cast a spell, some arch-wizards have apparently learned the art of turning a spell itself into a magical construct!  It is imbued with some rudimentary intelligence, whether a trapped spirit or some spark of the Weave of Magic itself, I know not.  That way, the Living Spell can improvise based on the situation and deploy....well, deploy itself, the spell, to greatest effect.  Apparently, powerful wizards often use these Living Spells to guard their sanctums" 

Xanrym says that he came across other accounts of Living Spells while studying at the Great Library in Greyhawk.  The oldest legends dated back to the Suel Imperium, over 1000 years ago.  "Legends say that powerful Suloise wizards apparently used Living Spells.  Of course, that was before the Twin Cataclysms, over 1000 years ago, so there weren't that many details.  Much was lost when the Suel unleashed the Invoked Devastation on the Baklunish Empire.  And, not willing to let such a cataclysm go unanswered, the Baklunish wizard-clerics opened the skies above the Suel Imperium and brought down the Rain of Colorless Fire on their enemies.  Everything beneath that shining rift in the heavens was burned to ash: creatures, plants, buildings, everything.  Nothing survived!  The Suel Imperium was reduced to dust in a day -- no -- in mere hours!  It is said that, to this day, nothing will grow in that great 'Sea of Dust' that stretches league after league where the once-prosperous empire reigned."

Quote from Painted_Beyond >>

Khessa.... I wonder if these..." she struggles to find the right definition "...spell-creatures were created by Fadheela or were merely the residual effect of some great magic from the past."

"Considering that this route seemed the most use one," the blonde arcane warrior reasons "the former seems more likely... else, anyone who entered this corridor would have been killed—and the path would not have seemed so frequently traveled." 

Xanrym admits that if Fadheela has the magic to turn a troublesome goblin to stone and cross the Sullen Sea on her own, perhaps she is also powerful enough to create Living Spells.  But based on what they've heard, since she arrived in Pedestal, Fadheela has been busy with the Assassin's Guild and, apparently, also trying to have The Company of the Grey Chain killed.  He doubts that she would have had the time to create four such constructs.  Xanrym thinks that the Living Spells are more likely the work of the Necromancer for whom the Necromancer's Spike is named.  He suggests that Fadheela may have just used her magic to avoid the Living Spells, like she got past the magical death in the mausoleum downstairs.

But Xanrym also points out one oddity: "Constructs of magical energy like this should have faded with time, especially in a place suffused with such necrotic energy."  In discussion with Khessa and Theldrin, they whatever caused the Plagueburst itself may have saturated the Necromancer's Spike with powerful negative energy, and that energy fed the Living Spells.  That would explain how the Living Spells were sustained all this time with no wizard here to keep them from fading.  Xanrym wonders aloud about what other effect such powerful negative energy could have here in the Necromancer's Spike.

Once they exhaust their knowledge and even speculation on the topic of the Living Spells, Xanrym tries to turn his attention to something less gloomy.  He tries to engage Avery, Syllen, and Coriana in some conversation about their past exploits before joining The Company of the Grey Chain.