The party stand stock-still in the narrow tunnel, the slithering, squelchy sound from the hole in the ceiling is getting slowly louder and louder. The party must act quickly and evasion seems to be the order of the day. Garrick and Lucian discuss possible magical options to allow the party to pass beneath the hole in the ceiling without attracting the unwanted attention of whatever is above them. The school of illusion provides the best options for our heroes and Lucian casts a minor illusion spell on the hole to make it blend in with the rest of the ceiling whilst Garrick casts a Mislead spell that causes him to vanish from sight whilst a perfect facsimile of himself appears, almost instantly and begins to slowly walk down the tunnel towards the now apparently hole-less...err, hole. The image of Garrick passes cautiously beneath Lucian's illusion, the party hold their collective breath but nothing happens. One by one the party edge forward. Ahead the ghostly form of Garrick notices something in the floor and holds up his hand to halt their progress.
"Trap" he whispers. On cue Finn makes his way to the front of the group and retrieves his tools from his pouch and begins working on the pressure mechanism. The halfling manages to wedge something in the floor plate and their journey continues. Making their way further down the passage an ominous sound from above causes them to look back to the illusory ceiling as Sigrid passes beneath it. There's a squelching sound followed by a "plop" as a Gelatinous Cube splats down into the tunnel and nearly completely envelops Sigrid who only just manages to dodge backwards out of its way. The cube moves towards Lucian and attempts to absorb the Wizard, once again his aptitude for strength based abilities comes to the fore and the only thing the party hear before he is swallowed whole are the words "Oh shi..."
The rest of our warriors draw their weapons and turn to face the gelatinous enemy, Sigrid morphing into the form of a Brown Bear, a roar of defiance echoes through the passageway. Finn is first to attack and unleashes a savage swipe across the cuboid with his rapier whilst his familiar, Binky sits on his shoulder, laughing at the unfortunate wizard as Finn disengages and moves away from the cube. The jellified cube begins to move forward towards Farraine and Garrick. The gelatinous ooze clamps around Farraine's arm and begins to pull the fighter closer and closer, despite all his muscles it appears the fighter wasn't ready for such a turn of events and is slowly absorbed into to cube. Garrick has had enough of this and quickly manages to cast a banishment spell and sends the cube to another plane of existence. There is a slap as Lucian and Farraine hit the floor, Lucian gasping for air as Garrick rushes over to him to administer aid.
"You knew we wouldn't go with the cube didn't you?" says the Wizard looking quizzically into the eyes of the Cleric "Didn't you?!".
"Of course", replies Garrick, almost convincingly. "Come on we need to get a move on it will only be gone for a minute or so"
The party quickly head down the passage, Lucian surprisingly in the lead, emerging into a large open cavern with makeshift tables constructed from barrels and planks of wood. Sigrid, still in Bear form knocks over a couple of barrels for no apparent reason, stale ale spills onto the floor. As the party make their way through the bespoke meeting area and into another tunnel, Sigrid morphs back to her human shape and asks Lucian and Finn if they have ever heard of a Pool of Radiance, it appears that she may have concern of what she currently has tucked away in her pouch. Lucian, ever the magical scholar proceeds to tell the druid of the story of Tyranthraxus, as the Wizard concludes his story a look of mild concern is etched on the face of the Druid. Now at the head of the group Garrick notices a door at the end of the passage. The door itself has a familiar look to it, in fact it looks identical to the one the party had seen at the top of the crater earlier. The carved runes around the frame spell out the same message as before "We are come from stone, we shall return to stone", three buttons of increasing size adorn the door, it appears that the correct combination is required for safe passage.
The party gather in a circle and begin to discuss the puzzle blocking their progress. The riddle appears to be a commentary on the circle of life, starting small, growing larger and then returning to that prior state. What happens over the course of the next few minutes, when described in written form is both long, convoluted and in the end relatively meaningless. Lets just say that whilst the party showed some ingenuity in using Finn's mage hand to press the buttons, their ability to solve the problem in front of them was less so and just about every combination of button presses as both attempted and failed. Whether during their discussions and increasingly frustrating attempts, a certain fighter may have mentioned the correct solution or not can neither be confirmed nor denied all you need to know is that after far too many attempts our group of warriors are utterly dejected and the door remains steadfastly shut. When they are at their absolute lowest, Lucian timidly says "I could just use my Knock spell to open the door you know". Dodging a barrage of small stones being thrown in his direction, the Wizard steps up to the door and retrieves a magical scroll from the depths of his robe. Lucian concentrates as he reads out the incantation and loud pounding is heard followed by a series of clicks and the door swings open, light pours into the tunnel. Finn cautiously moves through the doorway, hoping to be greeted by the sight of the enemy hanging, helplessly from his magical trap.
"Shit!! Looks like we missed them. Sigrid send Oscar up ahead see if we can track them down"
Sigrid whispers the command to the eagle and he takes to the skies and heads off at top speed in search of the enemy. The party begins to retrace their steps and after a while Oscar returns and perches on Sigrid's shoulder, "They're camping at that old Watchtower. If we hurry we might be able to catch up with them". With that, the party double their pace and head straight for the Watchtower.
The sun has long set by the time our heroes reach the tower, the faint glow from a fire emanates from the doorway at it's base. High up on the ruined roof top sits the Wyvern, surveying the area for intruders. Cautiously the party fan out and start to approach the tower, Finn casts and Invisibility spell on himself and vanishes from sight, followed by Binky, his Imp familiar. With each footstep the sense of dread grows within them. Finn is now close enough to the tower that he can hear the sound of something sniffing at the air, it appears that just because nothing can see him doesn't necessarily mean nothing can sense him. He slowly begins to move away from the tower but it is too late, they have been spotted and the alarm has been well and truly raised. The elven woman sits astride the Wyvern as it beats its wings and takes flight. Garrick calls upon his spirit Guardians and levitates into the sky, stopping their escape is of the upmost importance.
As the Wyvern begins to fly away from the tower, Farraine takes aim with his crossbow and fires a shot directly at the head of the winged creature, it's howls of pain echo through the night sky. Sigrid casts a spell of confusion on the Wyvern and its passenger as Finn takes aim with his crossbow and fires another shot at the creature, the bolt lodges firmly in the belly of the beast and blood drips from the wound to the ground below. Lucian steps out from the cover of a nearby tree and does what Lucian does best, unleashing a flaming ball of fire up into the sky enveloping the the Elf and the Wyvern, smoke trails streak across the sky. The singed Elf prepares to attack our heroes but in her confused state instead draws her dagger and attempts to plunge it into the head of the Wyvern. The blade bounces off the hardened scales, the wyvern screeches in annoyance.
Garrick notices that an Orc Chieftain has emerged from the base of the tower and is fast closing in on the party. He quickly casts a spell on the creature and summons his spiritual weapon. A gleaming battle axe appears beside the creature and swipes at its head. Unfortunately the Orc is able to dodge the blow and continues to advance. Sigrid is next to unleash an attack against the fleeing Wyvern. Bolts of Ice spring from her palms and shatter against its tough scales that crack crisp autumn leaves as a bolt from Farraine's crossbow whizzes, harmlessly past. Finn once more takes careful aim at the flying creature, the bolt streaks through the air and pierces the animal's flesh. Another fireball from the pyromaniac Wizard send the beast hurtling to the ground, a fraction of a second before impact the Elven woman leaps from the creature and vanishes from sight.
Finn punches the air in celebration but his joy is short-lived, he turns his head slowly and hears a familiar sniffing beside him, he tries to quickly dodge out of the way but is unable to see his attacker as claw marks suddenly appear and burn at his flesh, he screams in shock and pain as blood begins to pour from the wounds. Another series of gouges appear, pain sears through his body and the Halfling falls limply to the floor, blood oozing from his stomach. As darkness engulfs the helpless Rogue, all he can think is, "Where the fuck did that come from?"
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