(G485 23/04/2022 via Roll20 - AP, JF(GM), KT) WA96

 

(G485 23/04/2022 via Roll20 - AP, JF(GM), KT) WA96

[And now back into the Underdark with Fenrir and Reinward, who have entered the Lair of Queen Arachnia and with one of the magical keys in their possession they are now going to go after the second.]

DAY 506(21th Flamerule)(july) cont ...

Having finished with Lord Vengariss, Xama Niriwin, Priestess of Ghaunadaur, led them back to the keep occupied by the Descendants of Addar.

It was late now and they were tired, so in an abandoned room deep in the keep they lay down their magical bedrolls and went to sleep.


DAY 507(22nd Flamerule)(july)

Xama Niriwin lead them to Lady Petal-Ash's mansion after breakfast.

It was surrounded by ruins and much of it was falling down, but they eventually worked their way in to the central area where the remaining part of the mansion still stood.

They entered a large store room, that had a high ceiling, with many paintings on the walls. As they explored the room a barrel came sluggishly towards them, a hungry mimic, looking for a meal.

Fenrir stepped back and blasted it. As they explored further, they found that nearly all the barrels, sacks, shelves and chests were either mimics or illusions. In the end Fenrir stepped back to the entrance and with his eldritch blast in a cone laid waste to the entire room.

More mimics were scared out of their hiding places, but they were too slow. Soon the whole room was a smoldering ruin full of dead mimics.

The only thing that survived was the paintings high up on the walls. Fenrir flew aboutand found one that was magical. Using the Ring of Knock he revealed it to be a door.

The room they came to next they entered though an illusionary mirror. Two sets of steps led up to a larger chamber where two lizard head statues were built into the furthest wall.

They came under attack buy flurries of arrows. The arrows did not do much damage at all as both Fenrir and Reinward were protected by deflection magics of various kinds.

All the arrows came from one being though, and although they did not know it, from the description and my research I suspect it was a Cuprilach, a type of Extraplanar Outsider known for their stealth and expertise with a bow.

The Cuprilach cast illusions, and used Dimension Door to sneak about, but it was outmatched by the two men. Reinward could locate it with his blindsense magic and Fenrir could blast away constantly at anything and everything. As its arrows and sneak attacks did little it was not long before it was vanquished.

The next room they came to would prove more of a challenge. It was a Hall of Mirrors, much like the type you wound find at a Carnival, illuminated by mysterious gloomy light.  As they worked their way through its confusing maze-like passages they were confronted by an orc cracking a whip at them.

It did not attack, but Fenrir blasted it anyway. The ray went right though the orc (as it was an illusion) and broke the mirror behind it. As the mirror shattered an exact copy of Fenrir came into existence.

The two Fenrir's blasted away at each other for some time, as Reinward stood back and listened. The real Fenrir took some damage, but in the end he blasted the duplicate and it fell to the floor in a shower of broken glass.

They moved on, Reinward leading the way. At the next junction he found an illusionary floor, anything dropped on it went straight through, falling to who knew where. They could jump it easily enough though, and eventually found there way to a door that led them out of the mirror maze.

Reinward listened at they door and heard what sounded like a husky female voice making odd sounding noises of pleasure. He opened the door and looked round the corner.

There was a hugely tall, horned female being, easily ten feet tall, lounging on an equally massive sofa at the back of the room. She was provocatively dressed.

The men were well hidden, but however she did it, she knew they were there.
'Well hello there!' she said.
'Err.. who are you?' they asked.
'My name is Evengelina!' she replied. 'Come on in!'

Neither of them trusted her though and they backed off into the maze again. They had not explored the eastern portion of the maze yet so they pushed on in that direction. As they went deeper into the maze though, the lights suddenly started strobing. Blinding light then total darkness, flickering from one to the other. Fenrir was effectively blinded, so  Reinward led the way.

At the end of a long corridor section he sensed a figure. It mocked him in his own voice and attacked. The two Reinwards fought. Both were well protected by all their defensive magic (such as the Ring of Blink) that they could hardly hit each other. Fenrir, still blind, decided to speed things up and took a guess as to who the real one might be.

He missed both though and his blast hit the mirror at the far end of the corridor and another Fenrir clone sprung into life! This clone fired off a blast of its own. This one missed too, and another mirror broke and yet another Fenrir was born!

The real Fenrir had had enough by now. This was too dangerous an area for a fight and even defeating the first clone had been hard. He legged it back to the Cuprilach room.

Reinward did so too, nearly falling down through the invisible hole in the process, but managing to grab the edge of the pit and continue his escape.

Here they had more room to manoeuvre, but fighting two versions of himself was impossible for Fenrir and it was not long before he was bleeding and badly injured from all the incoming blasts. He turned invisible and tried to hide in the chamber. The enemy Fenrirs were not much interested in Reinward, who they could barely see anyway.

Then he remembered something. And just as well, as it would have been all over for him if he had not. There were some shards in his bag, given to him as gifts as thanks from the grateful people of the FAMP.

There use had been explained to him and he remembered that they were all very powerful. He reached into his Bag of Holding and pulled out the one that had Chain Lightning engraved on it.

Fenrir appeared and blasted them with the spell in the shard. A massive bolt of lightning hit all of the enemies, killing the fake Reinward in a single hit. The other two staggered and where killed off in showers of glass when the second wave of lightning arced between them.

Fenrir said a thankful prayer to the 'God of Recollection' or the 'Memory Fairy' or whatever it was that had suddenly remember those shards as up until about 30 seconds previous he had completely forgotten about them!