"I shall take that as refusal then. Very well, on with the data acquisition."
The remaining skeletons began filtering off shortly after the force wall went up. By the time the rest of the group clambers down into the tunnel, it is quiet and empty for as far as you can perceive.
Dropping down with the rest of the party, Lawrance releases the Wall spell and tunnel is now open. Watching carefully through all the methods he has, including the aid of his familiar, he checks for anything unusual in the new path. Once they've reached a suitable area, he follows Velon's request and begins the ritual for setting up a Hut in the enclosed space. Grinning at the irony as he goes through the lengthy spell, the impregnable hemisphere forms around the group. Pointedly, he doesn't say a word - mentally or out loud - about the irony.
OOC - Perception for various things that may be around in various dimensions - 25, Gamliel's perception with the Mark I eyeball - 21
“Can you tell me the difference between a witch and a wizard?" "Sure, a wizard is what they call you when they want to hire you, and a witch is what they call you when they're getting ready to run you out of town.” SunWolf replied ― Barbara Hambly, The Witches of Wenshar
The barrier goes up, and people start to rest as best they can in the cramped conditions. A few minutes later, there is some movement above. A force wall, not dissimilar to the one Lawrance just used, pops up, blocking the group from the entry they just used. A trio of skeletons drop down. They ignore the group and instead set to fixing the trapdoor mechanism Mari had just finished messing with.
Lia laughs as the skeletons repair the trapdoor. She says through the link, " Our host is nothing if not efficient. We have him worried though. He wouldn't have made that offer of employment if he wasnt concerned. We have him on his heels After this rest we will finish here. "
Mari grins at this. She responds via the link. " Yes, it is past time to get out of this maze. We cant be too long. Old White Death will be worried about you Lia. " She looks at Velon and laughs.
After a few minutes, the skeletons finish their work, climb back up, and the trapdoor closes. Shortly afterwards, you can hear the grinding of stone on stone in the opposite direction, and then the sound of glass shattering.
All goes quiet for a time. But then something comes creeping up the tunnel in your direction. Its a slowly but steadily rising layer of some sort of liquid.
Poljen looks at the liquid, and displays a firm grasp of the obvious. "That is probably acid or something equally nasty, right? So, how long does this hut last? And does anyone have an idea how to escape it?" He eyes the ceiling, wondering if they can simply smash their way through?
OOC: Does the tunnel go east, or some other direction?
Velon chuckles a little at Mari's remark and says "should have left you..." in jest. "What made you think we'd leave you, anyhow? The wizard, maybe, but you?!"
As the liquid starts to flood into the tunnel and Poljen speaks, Velon says "I think I know how."He exits the hut and says aloud "ok, ok, you win." "We'll get back to your games now. Sound good?"
Mari grins at Velon. " I like that. We can always find another wizard who can summon steeds or huts. "
Lia follows Velon out and looks in alarm at the oncoming liquid. Hoping that Velon's comments help them in their current situation she still frowns in thought. A smile then replaces the frown as she graps the tiny cube in her pouch.
Perry is tuning his mandolin in the hut as the skeletons pass by behind him to work on the trap door. He shrugs and largely ignores them and continues tuning the instrument. After what seemed to be only a brief moment to the bard, he turns around to not only see that the skeletons have fixed the trap door and left, but that there also appears to be a force wall blocking the path back now as well.
The bard is alarmed by this.
Now in shock and in a frenzy, Perry hastily approaches Lawrance and says, "Lawrance, Lawrance, LAWRANCE! I...I need you to explain magic to me. I will admit I am not the most studied bard like Niko. Cs get degrees and all that. But how the HECK is this possible?! I mean, I've seen you do amazing, incredible things. You've summoned elementals, you've summoned huts and steeds, you've teleported while slashing people like some sort of magical ninja, and you have even summoned force walls like that too recently. But you always need to at least see or be within a certain distance to do such things, right?! I mean, even my immensely powerful and incomparable Eldritch Blast can only go about 120 feet AND I have to see my target AND it only works on creatures. What manner of devilry is this Lawrance? OH SUNE WHAT IS THAT GREEN STUFF?!!??!!"
He notices the green stuff.
"Is it poison, is it acid, is it acid-poison!?!?" Perry asks in a panic. He throws a coin at it.
Help action to Lawrance to identify the green stuff. Tossing a copper coin in there to see if there is any fizzing or reaction.
There's a moment of silence after Velon speaks. Eventually the voice answers, "I am glad to hear it, but if you're waiting for the acid to start going back down, it is not something particularly easy to stop. So instead it will stand as your current challenge."
When Perry tosses the copper piece into the slowly rising pool of liquid, it emits a small cloud of reddish brown gas as the coin disappears in a flurry of bubbles.
Aside to Mari and Velon, giggling over their jokes, Lawrance interjects "A fine way to treat the caster who just saved your bacon and eggs from skele-geddon! Maybe next time the force wall should appear between you two?"
To Perry's anguished speech, he says "I don't know, Perry. Magic has limits, hard limits that shouldn't be broken. The owner of this maze seems to have ways of breaking what I've always considered Mystra's mandates. Normally, you need to see the target of a spell, although once a spell is in place you can go a great distance from it and still maintain it. The greatest of mages have those same limits. Perhaps it's some advantage he has with the spy-eyes scattered around, or somehow channeling spells through his undead? We should ask him, when we get there, hmmm?"
Seeing the encroaching dangerous liquid, Lawrance says through the link %Hold up! I'm going to call forth Geode the earth elemental again! I'll have him dig a deep pit quickly under the tunnel, and make a place for the acid to fall into. Be ready, Lia, because I will need to drop the Hut to have him do his work and we'll need your Cube to keep the acid at bay until he finishes.. Then we'll have him dig us a path to the heart of this experiment!% With that, Lawrance spends the next minute within the opaque dome of the Hut, carefully edging the barriers between the Planes and asking for the help of the elemental he needs. Waiting for Lia to put her Cube in place, Lawrance wraps up the spell with a flourish! The room shudders as the being arrives, and the Hut is cancelled just before the creature manifests. "Go, Geode my friend, and dig a nice, deep pit to store all this acid. Leave the floor intact until you are ready to let it drop, but be swift! We need you for a lot of that digging you enjoy so!"
OOC- Estimate how deep a pit we need (30'?) and have him dig that +20% , starting about 1' under the floor. Once he's done with the prep, he can drop the floor so he doesn't get any acid on himself. Then back up and start digging in the direction towards to center of the maze, unless something comes up.
“Can you tell me the difference between a witch and a wizard?" "Sure, a wizard is what they call you when they want to hire you, and a witch is what they call you when they're getting ready to run you out of town.” SunWolf replied ― Barbara Hambly, The Witches of Wenshar
Lia looks in horror at the approaching acid. To be scarred by that is worse than death. Her breathing speeds up with her anxiety. Hearing Lawrance startles her from thoughts " Oh.. sure. " She has the cube ready and activates it when Lawrance drops the hut. It is set to block all non living matter again. " This will only last for a handful of minutes before it is depleted for today. " The force barrier springs up and blocks the passage totally.
Mari snickers at the wizard " Velon, next wizard we get must not have the hut, summon steeds and that missile spell in their spellbook. It should be a prerequisite Also, they must have detect magic. " She grins and shakes her head.
Ooc: It is on setting 2 and will last for 8 minutes.
Velon snickers a bit at Mari and says "oh relaaaaax, wizard." "And you would not be alive either if the rest of us didn't do the heavy lifting while you were, what, taking a nap in Neronvain's bedroom? While we were busy killing a green dragon, I believe it was? You're welcome for that staff you yammer on with, by the way, from that powerful wizard of Cyanwrath's that I defeated swiftly while you were busy conjuring sparks hither and thither. Lighten up, or we'll have Cratol here give you a lesson in showing some personality and really living life to its fullest, away from your books!"
He turns to Cratol and asks "how are you feeling about this place anyhow, your Lordship?"
He turns to Mari and asks "wait, did the current wizard just threaten us both?" He winks at her as he squeezes his hammer.
As Geode is summoned and starts digging Velon does admit "see, that is a good trick right there." "I cannot deny it. The wall wasn't bad either, Lawrance." He winks at his and feigns blowing a kiss.
Perry approaches Geode as he appears and begins digging, "Hey there Geode, my name is Perry. I just wanted to say that you are a hero and that we appreciate your hard work. You made the ultimate sacrifice for us and those Elven children back when we fought the dastardly dragon Chuth. In all of my travels throughout the realms and various planes, I've met very few individuals or creatures who went so far to help others. Truly, you inspire us all to be better, Geode. It is often the sacrifices of others that remind us that there's good in this world, Mr. Geode. And it's worth fighting for. Thank you and Sunespeed, my friend."
Perry pats Geode on the back and watches as he digs. He begins writing in his songbook.
Cratol looks over at Velon. "Ypour lordship is a but much but I would feel much better if we were not facing acid and could get out of here still alive. I think out adversary has many surprises for us and had lots of years to see that it all works in their favor".
Through the mental link Velon replies "indeed, it's true." "No doubt many have come here and have fallen to these traps. I hope our potential new employer here has still underestimated us, despite what we have shown him thus far. We have quite a few more tricks up our sleeves! Do not worry too much, everyone. If we can save the last few charges of the cube we could always teleport out of here. For now I still say we show the king of this ice palace what we're made of!"
Velon turns to Geode. "Come on friend, you heard the Lord here regarding the acid! Oh, well, maybe you didn't actually. Ah well, dig on..."
Poljen knows to stay out of the way when his currently-weakened muscles are of no use against a threat. He stays near the back, and watches the tunnel behind them for any further threats in the direction. He would not put it past their tormentor to attack their rear as they watch the acid. He even occasionally tosses a copper coin at the force wall to see if it remains during all the conjuring and digging.
The elemental is summoned quickly enough. While Lia holds the acid at bay, it starts digging down into the stone below your feet. But the going is much slower than you've seen from him before. If asked about it, the creature grumbles in primordial, "Stone's not right." A little later, the elemental breaks through the stone floor, and finds ice instead. Its progress slows even further from there.
A few minutes later, with the acid having risen to over a foot in depth up against Lia's barrier, the hole is no more than three feet deep. But then the force wall behind you winks out.
"I shall take that as refusal then. Very well, on with the data acquisition."
The remaining skeletons began filtering off shortly after the force wall went up. By the time the rest of the group clambers down into the tunnel, it is quiet and empty for as far as you can perceive.
Dropping down with the rest of the party, Lawrance releases the Wall spell and tunnel is now open. Watching carefully through all the methods he has, including the aid of his familiar, he checks for anything unusual in the new path. Once they've reached a suitable area, he follows Velon's request and begins the ritual for setting up a Hut in the enclosed space. Grinning at the irony as he goes through the lengthy spell, the impregnable hemisphere forms around the group. Pointedly, he doesn't say a word - mentally or out loud - about the irony.
OOC - Perception for various things that may be around in various dimensions - 25, Gamliel's perception with the Mark I eyeball - 21
“Can you tell me the difference between a witch and a wizard?"
"Sure, a wizard is what they call you when they want to hire you, and a witch is what they call you when they're getting ready to run you out of town.” SunWolf replied
― Barbara Hambly, The Witches of Wenshar
Poljen decides to stay near the front of the group as they move down the tunnel. He keeps watch as Lawrance begins creating his magical sanctuary.
Perception 19
Cratol follows the others down into the area where Velon and Mari were at and then follow the others as we advance ahead.
The barrier goes up, and people start to rest as best they can in the cramped conditions. A few minutes later, there is some movement above. A force wall, not dissimilar to the one Lawrance just used, pops up, blocking the group from the entry they just used. A trio of skeletons drop down. They ignore the group and instead set to fixing the trapdoor mechanism Mari had just finished messing with.
Lia laughs as the skeletons repair the trapdoor. She says through the link, " Our host is nothing if not efficient. We have him worried though. He wouldn't have made that offer of employment if he wasnt concerned. We have him on his heels After this rest we will finish here. "
Mari grins at this. She responds via the link. " Yes, it is past time to get out of this maze. We cant be too long. Old White Death will be worried about you Lia. " She looks at Velon and laughs.
After a few minutes, the skeletons finish their work, climb back up, and the trapdoor closes. Shortly afterwards, you can hear the grinding of stone on stone in the opposite direction, and then the sound of glass shattering.
All goes quiet for a time. But then something comes creeping up the tunnel in your direction. Its a slowly but steadily rising layer of some sort of liquid.
Poljen looks at the liquid, and displays a firm grasp of the obvious. "That is probably acid or something equally nasty, right? So, how long does this hut last? And does anyone have an idea how to escape it?" He eyes the ceiling, wondering if they can simply smash their way through?
OOC: Does the tunnel go east, or some other direction?
Velon chuckles a little at Mari's remark and says "should have left you..." in jest. "What made you think we'd leave you, anyhow? The wizard, maybe, but you?!"
As the liquid starts to flood into the tunnel and Poljen speaks, Velon says "I think I know how." He exits the hut and says aloud "ok, ok, you win." "We'll get back to your games now. Sound good?"
Mari grins at Velon. " I like that. We can always find another wizard who can summon steeds or huts. "
Lia follows Velon out and looks in alarm at the oncoming liquid. Hoping that Velon's comments help them in their current situation she still frowns in thought. A smile then replaces the frown as she graps the tiny cube in her pouch.
Perry is tuning his mandolin in the hut as the skeletons pass by behind him to work on the trap door. He shrugs and largely ignores them and continues tuning the instrument. After what seemed to be only a brief moment to the bard, he turns around to not only see that the skeletons have fixed the trap door and left, but that there also appears to be a force wall blocking the path back now as well.
The bard is alarmed by this.
Now in shock and in a frenzy, Perry hastily approaches Lawrance and says, "Lawrance, Lawrance, LAWRANCE! I...I need you to explain magic to me. I will admit I am not the most studied bard like Niko. Cs get degrees and all that. But how the HECK is this possible?! I mean, I've seen you do amazing, incredible things. You've summoned elementals, you've summoned huts and steeds, you've teleported while slashing people like some sort of magical ninja, and you have even summoned force walls like that too recently. But you always need to at least see or be within a certain distance to do such things, right?! I mean, even my immensely powerful and incomparable Eldritch Blast can only go about 120 feet AND I have to see my target AND it only works on creatures. What manner of devilry is this Lawrance? OH SUNE WHAT IS THAT GREEN STUFF?!!??!!"
He notices the green stuff.
"Is it poison, is it acid, is it acid-poison!?!?" Perry asks in a panic. He throws a coin at it.
Help action to Lawrance to identify the green stuff. Tossing a copper coin in there to see if there is any fizzing or reaction.
There's a moment of silence after Velon speaks. Eventually the voice answers, "I am glad to hear it, but if you're waiting for the acid to start going back down, it is not something particularly easy to stop. So instead it will stand as your current challenge."
When Perry tosses the copper piece into the slowly rising pool of liquid, it emits a small cloud of reddish brown gas as the coin disappears in a flurry of bubbles.
Aside to Mari and Velon, giggling over their jokes, Lawrance interjects "A fine way to treat the caster who just saved your bacon and eggs from skele-geddon! Maybe next time the force wall should appear between you two?"
To Perry's anguished speech, he says "I don't know, Perry. Magic has limits, hard limits that shouldn't be broken. The owner of this maze seems to have ways of breaking what I've always considered Mystra's mandates. Normally, you need to see the target of a spell, although once a spell is in place you can go a great distance from it and still maintain it. The greatest of mages have those same limits. Perhaps it's some advantage he has with the spy-eyes scattered around, or somehow channeling spells through his undead? We should ask him, when we get there, hmmm?"
Seeing the encroaching dangerous liquid, Lawrance says through the link %Hold up! I'm going to call forth Geode the earth elemental again! I'll have him dig a deep pit quickly under the tunnel, and make a place for the acid to fall into. Be ready, Lia, because I will need to drop the Hut to have him do his work and we'll need your Cube to keep the acid at bay until he finishes.. Then we'll have him dig us a path to the heart of this experiment!% With that, Lawrance spends the next minute within the opaque dome of the Hut, carefully edging the barriers between the Planes and asking for the help of the elemental he needs. Waiting for Lia to put her Cube in place, Lawrance wraps up the spell with a flourish! The room shudders as the being arrives, and the Hut is cancelled just before the creature manifests. "Go, Geode my friend, and dig a nice, deep pit to store all this acid. Leave the floor intact until you are ready to let it drop, but be swift! We need you for a lot of that digging you enjoy so!"
OOC- Estimate how deep a pit we need (30'?) and have him dig that +20% , starting about 1' under the floor. Once he's done with the prep, he can drop the floor so he doesn't get any acid on himself. Then back up and start digging in the direction towards to center of the maze, unless something comes up.
“Can you tell me the difference between a witch and a wizard?"
"Sure, a wizard is what they call you when they want to hire you, and a witch is what they call you when they're getting ready to run you out of town.” SunWolf replied
― Barbara Hambly, The Witches of Wenshar
Lia looks in horror at the approaching acid. To be scarred by that is worse than death. Her breathing speeds up with her anxiety. Hearing Lawrance startles her from thoughts " Oh.. sure. " She has the cube ready and activates it when Lawrance drops the hut. It is set to block all non living matter again. " This will only last for a handful of minutes before it is depleted for today. " The force barrier springs up and blocks the passage totally.
Mari snickers at the wizard " Velon, next wizard we get must not have the hut, summon steeds and that missile spell in their spellbook. It should be a prerequisite Also, they must have detect magic. " She grins and shakes her head.
Ooc: It is on setting 2 and will last for 8 minutes.
Velon snickers a bit at Mari and says "oh relaaaaax, wizard." "And you would not be alive either if the rest of us didn't do the heavy lifting while you were, what, taking a nap in Neronvain's bedroom? While we were busy killing a green dragon, I believe it was? You're welcome for that staff you yammer on with, by the way, from that powerful wizard of Cyanwrath's that I defeated swiftly while you were busy conjuring sparks hither and thither. Lighten up, or we'll have Cratol here give you a lesson in showing some personality and really living life to its fullest, away from your books!"
He turns to Cratol and asks "how are you feeling about this place anyhow, your Lordship?"
He turns to Mari and asks "wait, did the current wizard just threaten us both?" He winks at her as he squeezes his hammer.
As Geode is summoned and starts digging Velon does admit "see, that is a good trick right there." "I cannot deny it. The wall wasn't bad either, Lawrance." He winks at his and feigns blowing a kiss.
Perry approaches Geode as he appears and begins digging, "Hey there Geode, my name is Perry. I just wanted to say that you are a hero and that we appreciate your hard work. You made the ultimate sacrifice for us and those Elven children back when we fought the dastardly dragon Chuth. In all of my travels throughout the realms and various planes, I've met very few individuals or creatures who went so far to help others. Truly, you inspire us all to be better, Geode. It is often the sacrifices of others that remind us that there's good in this world, Mr. Geode. And it's worth fighting for. Thank you and Sunespeed, my friend."
Perry pats Geode on the back and watches as he digs. He begins writing in his songbook.
Cratol looks over at Velon. "Ypour lordship is a but much but I would feel much better if we were not facing acid and could get out of here still alive. I think out adversary has many surprises for us and had lots of years to see that it all works in their favor".
Through the mental link Velon replies "indeed, it's true." "No doubt many have come here and have fallen to these traps. I hope our potential new employer here has still underestimated us, despite what we have shown him thus far. We have quite a few more tricks up our sleeves! Do not worry too much, everyone. If we can save the last few charges of the cube we could always teleport out of here. For now I still say we show the king of this ice palace what we're made of!"
Velon turns to Geode. "Come on friend, you heard the Lord here regarding the acid! Oh, well, maybe you didn't actually. Ah well, dig on..."
Poljen knows to stay out of the way when his currently-weakened muscles are of no use against a threat. He stays near the back, and watches the tunnel behind them for any further threats in the direction. He would not put it past their tormentor to attack their rear as they watch the acid. He even occasionally tosses a copper coin at the force wall to see if it remains during all the conjuring and digging.
The elemental is summoned quickly enough. While Lia holds the acid at bay, it starts digging down into the stone below your feet. But the going is much slower than you've seen from him before. If asked about it, the creature grumbles in primordial, "Stone's not right." A little later, the elemental breaks through the stone floor, and finds ice instead. Its progress slows even further from there.
A few minutes later, with the acid having risen to over a foot in depth up against Lia's barrier, the hole is no more than three feet deep. But then the force wall behind you winks out.