Expedition: Ablesforth: The Demon Hole: Part 2 - 30 Aug 2021

[Zhym]

If the scroll is purpose-built for closing the portal, I don't it's likely that Dispel Magic will work if the scroll doen't. Does the scroll have to be used right next to the portal?

[Rusty Tincanne]

viewtopic.php?f=356&t=5480&start=40#p320249
It is just a scroll of dispel magic.

Marullus, is it a new-agey labyrinth or an old fashioned maze?

Able studies the floor as well, looking for the path ahead.

[Marullus]

It's a maze. (Not sure what a "new agey labrynth" means... do you mean a mandala?)

It is difficult to accurately trace the pathways with the eye alone, but it does seem that it would be possible to traverse. If you didn't any wrong turns, it would take about ten minutes (one turn) to navigate. (Roll a 1d20 WIS check)

It is just a maze made of mosaic tile - it is black and white, two dimensional on the floor. It doesn't look like it would impede you physically.

[Spearmint]

Idriss Wayfarer

Still in a 'demon hole' any mosaic could have an effect, spirals that mesmerise, gushing blood fountains. So walking a path to the centre while trap-finding ahead might be prudent.

I wouldn't just cast your 'dispel' spell without a proper focus and seem to remember that Brother Mylo stating that we had to be close by the portal to close it. Suggest we walk the path until we detect something? Could you use 'detect magic' first?

[Rusty Tincanne]

Could you use 'detect magic' first?

Not until tomorrow.

Upon Idriss's recommendation, Able tries to traverse the path, hoping it isn't there to mesmerized and confuse a person. Before starting, he tore a rope to his waist, using a bowline hitch. Mebbe a couple folks stay over here t' pull me back. In case this goes sideways.

I sure hope this ain't a case of good intentions bein' the party t' hell. He gets a vow from the Templars to try and get Dolph back to town if Able falls. I s'pose I could close it from the other side, to. In case I fall through, I mean.

When he gets 5’ from the portal, he will cast Dispel Magic.

WIS 17 vs [1d20] = 6

[Spearmint]

Idriss

Follows hoping the unseen Pendleton is behind.

[Zhym]

Pendleton asks the thieves to inspect the floor. Is it perhaps a trap, magical or mechanical? Or is it just a pretty pattern?

[Marullus]

Pendleton hangs back, asking Rhe and Kerr to inspect the mosaic. They report that the labrynth is definitely ensorcelled, minute runes lining the boundaries between black and white throughout, but they cannot discern more about it as a trap.

Ablesforth starts through the maze, Idriss close behind and holding his balance-pole to help discern any dangers ahead of them. The pole reveals nothing, and with Ablesforth's wise choices, they find their way through the labrynth correctly, reaching the center. Rhe's torch lights those that stand at the side, the reddish light coming from the portal giving its own eerie illumination to Able and Idriss.

Looking through the portal, Ablesforth finds that it is a literal door to hell. The redstone landscape glows with its own ruddy glow and a feeling of dry heat blasts him in the face as he stands before its perpetual wind, blowing through the standing doorway. Figures move, obscured by the wavy haze of heat, but the tortured nature of their movement is unmistakeable.

Ablesforth begins to intone the prayers of Eruanna, the powerful words that willbreak enchantments bound in this world. A flock of eyeballs floating in the air orients towards him. They begin rushing towards the doorway from across the hellscape.

Ablesforth continues to chant. The portal falters. The eyes glower, a half dozen of them escaping through the doorway and into the room. A voice hisses, dark and angry, from the land beyond. It knows what you're doing.

Ablesforth completes the spell. The doorway collapses upon itself, the portal sizzling and then dissappearing with a "pop" - the five eyeballs float, staring angrily at Ablesforth, floating just beyond his reach, their gaze fixed upon him. Screams of rage and anger, dozens of them, echo from adjacent chambers. The door to your left - closest to Pendleton and the Templars - bursts open and ten half-headed demonspawn burst in, moving with uncanny speed guided by the floating eyes' sight.

Ablesforth is both exhilerated and exhausted as the magical energies course through him. With the portal gone, he and Idriss stand alone in the circle at the middle of the maze, the eyeballs, all with them inside the center-circle's boundary.

Actions!

Date: 02 September 2021, 4:15pm
Light: Rhe's Torch (until 4:50pm)
Effects: Protection from Evil (Able, Pendleton, Idriss, Dolph, Jacques, Molay); Invisibility (Pendleton); magic incense (until 10:00pm) Idriss' mirror image (until 4:30pm)
Injuries: Dolph (Dead); Ablesforth (minorly injured); Jacques (superficially injured)

[Spearmint]

Idriss

Still with his Idriss 'mirror images' casts a Light spell into the eyeball flock. I think the demonheads will only rage against the protection of Eruanna. So deal with the eyes and leave the rooms the way we came.

[Rusty Tincanne]

Has the floor changed any with the Dispel Magic cast? If not, I am guessing that we need to follow the maze, and that it will lead us through the sniffers several times as we try to leave.
Also, you mentioned a "center circle" does that give us free movement within that area?

Able could:
- also cast light
- try and use his winter blanket to cover one of the eyeball-beasts
- talk with the sniffers and eyeballs, convincing them to leave well enough alone
- cast Hold person on the sniffers
- start fighting

[Marullus]

The floor has not changed. The center of the maze is a circle about 12' with you and Idriss in it and room to maneuver with the door now gone. The eyeballs (which are tiny, human-sized, floating like a flock) are obeying the circle's boundary.

The maze doesn't cover the whole floor, and the sniffers are currently all outside of it. They're on the end of the room with the rest of the party, who are in more iminent danger.

[Rusty Tincanne]

One last question. Maybe. Does Able, Idriss, or Pendleton only what these eyeball things are? What kind of threat they pose, other than directing the sniffers? If needed:
[1d20] = 13

[Marullus]

23 July - 10 August 2021 - Packs of supposedly infernal creatures - flock of floating eyeballs, vicious humanoids with their skulls cleaved off and insides removed, winged demonlings - spotted in the farmlands and ransacking the herds pasturing to the east of Gaul. The Church of Baudh takes credit for the divine barrier which protects all those within Gaul's walls. The Templars of Eruanna suffers some hostility as they take blame for the occurrence.

They're common since you led the demons out of the hole. They appear to be surveillance and lead other threats to you.

[Marullus]

*bump*
Actions?

[Spearmint]

Idriss

Cast a Light spell at the flock of eyes,.hoping to blind the nearest one.

[Rusty Tincanne]

Uhhh... Uhhh.... More questions!

1. What is the incense doing now? Is it leading us farther, or was that the only portal from what we can tell?
2. Are these eyeball things the same as what took down Dolph? (The other ones were not floating.)
3. Were those things immune to Protection from Evil, or was it just holy water that Able tried?
4. Zhym? Ideas?

If the portal is closed, Able would tell the others to stop up the door with a flask of oil and run for it, leaving him and Idriss behind. But Zhym could try his Sleep spell. Hopefully it isn't just Idriss and Able that are affected.

Also, can someone roll initiative?

[Marullus]

1. The incense burned itself out in close proximity to the portal. (Apologies for not updating.)

2. Not even remotely. These are tiny eyeballs (the size of a real human eye) floating in the air. Those were rolling balls of tentacles with a giant eyeball, feet across.

3. Yes, the monsters that killed Dolph were unaffected by either PoE or Holy Water.

[Rusty Tincanne]

These are tiny eyeballs (the size of a real human eye) floating in the air. Those were rolling balls of tentacles with a giant eyeball, feet across.

Oh! Well unless they shoot lasers, or hypnotize us, or whatever else...

Able calls to Molay and Jacques to act as a blockade at the doorway. Use Eruanna's Graces t'keep them sniffers away from the rest. Idriss an' me'll try an' get back yer way. Then we'll figger out what t'do from there. He starts to puzzle his way back through the maze.

if needed: WIS 17 vs [1d20] = 2, bonus for only backtracking?No bonus needed, I guess.

[Zhym]

Pendleton stays behind the templars, hoping that between them, his protection from the infernal, and his invisibility, something will keep him from being attacked.

He holds a web spell ready to delay the eyes and/or sniffers from pursuing the group's retreat—if they can get the monsters on the right side of the retreat, that is.

I'm assume that Pendleton can't target the eyes with a web without getting Able and Idriss, and that the sniffers are blocking our retreat (so webbing them would be problematic)?

[Rusty Tincanne]

I thought the party has started in the throne room, and the sniffers were in the portal room, from a different door. If that wrong?