Day 147: Toilday the 12th, Calistril, 4708
After a short two hours, I woke up with everyone else, feeling fully refreshed. These enchantments that decrease the amount of time needed for restful sleep are just fucking fantastic. I mean, it is just that I can get SO much more shit done. I started out with the preparations that I knew I would be needing before I even left my pilot's "suite". Faunra ended up leaving the co-pilot "suite" at exactly the same time. We nodded to eat other and headed from the cockpit and into the passenger compartment.
Jonathan and Dame Rebekah were already there when we walked in. Faunra let me know that if it wasn't needed for the fight, we were going to have to work together on something a little later to further increase our chances of success. I was a bit puzzled by the phrasing, but shrugged and said okay, not knowing exactly what she was talking about. Dame Rebekah admitted that she would request my aid for something similar as well. I looked to Jonathan, and he just shrugged, saying that it had not been discussed with him. I asked everyone it they were all ready, and there were nods all around.
We started out after dawn, after a good meal from Jonathan. We made our way thru the old lava flow fields while floating, for the most part. I could now fly, slowly, along with Faunra and Jonathan, and Dame Rebekah was carried by me, since I was technically the physically strongest flyer. That is all thanks to my armor. We stealthily made our way to the city's former mint, where we were informed that the dragon was said to stay. Since we were up in the early morning, we were lucky enough to avoid any kinds of patrols at this point.
We stopped short of the building and decided that we would have to go in all gangbusters, entering in through the exit that the dragon uses, just to make sure that we were in the best location for our attack, and that it didn't get a chance to flee us. We did not know what kinds of traps would have been ahead of us, but with Jonathan and me leading the way, we were not very worried. We got close enough to the area and discovered, to our dismay, that there was a magical alarm set up. There was not any real way to get past it without triggering it, as even dispelling it would alert the creator that it was dispelled, so we decided to just get ready with all our effects and spells, before zerg-rushing in.
We all started our various preparation: a series of spells and different benefits for me, from enhancing my own armor, for getting my shield to stop spells, increased my ability to get some deadly accuracy with my rifle, and to get everyone faster. Faunra got everyone set up by enchanting my rifle with the quieting effect, along with my chainsword, her own bow, Dame Rebekah's longsword, and Jonathan's favorite Kama. She also set my rifle and her bow up with her flame arrow effect before casting another spell that seemed to enhance her bow with some further effect at doing damage. Then she started blinking around.
While all of this was going on, Jonathan was doing his standard focusing to get his forcefield up to full, getting some water from his hydration bladder to make a literal water bending shield, then he did something else that I did not notice before focusing up in the last minute to get a mixed field of roiling winds, aether, and water around him, like a freaky ghostly hurricane. Dame Rebekah, during this time, hit us all with a Protection from Electricity spell, a Blessing, invoked the Righteous Might of Iomedae and grew to be nine feet tall, and a Prayer for our success in the battle. Now we thought that we were ready.
After our preparations were finished, we ran in and I heard snickering from the other room. We looked around and out of the nowhere, the dragon appeared as it launched a lightning bolt from its mouth towards us. Dame Rebekah's protection from electricity effect helped us out greatly, except of course for Jonathan, who just deftly avoided it. That was the dragon's first mistake. We split up as Jonathan rushed over to a fairly safe location and let loose with a telekinetic blast and then an even MORE massive blast. The dragon did not make it past the second blast. I was amazed. We had spent about thirty seconds and an unknowable amount of magical, psychic, and divine blessings, just for Jonathan to come in and drop it in six seconds by himself.
I must admit, I was really kind of annoyed. Dame Rebekah saved us, saying that we could empty this place quick and rush over to where the Devil was, to take care of them as well. I sighed and summoned up the Unseen Craftsmen to get to work cataloguing and collecting all the items that they could. It was no small amount. Honestly, it was not even all that difficult, as the dragon had apparently had a flair accounting and proper storage, so with all of us and the Unseen Crafters there, we could get the new loot all into the bags, while Jonathan and another batch of summoned up Unseen Butchers went to work on the dragon, carving it up for whatever purposes that he had.
Before five minutes were up, we were done with loading up everything, dragon charcuterie and treasure. We worked quickly enough that the only effects that had worn off were those that only lasted a minute or two at most, Dame Rebekah's prayer and size increase, and Faunra's blinking. I asked Dame Rebekah if it was really wise to go to the Devil without all of our best effects up. Dame Rebekah noted that she thought that we would have enough benefits that we could access that it would be sufficient.
We hotfooted it to the location where the Devil was said to be and got to a safe location outside of the building just as the haste effect wore off of all of us. Standing in this secured area, we took turns using the amulet of silence to keep everything silent while the person using the amulet was unaffected by it. I got my headset set up for seeing Invisible things, because I did not want to get hit again like that, fucking invisible dragon, turned myself invisible in turn, and got the group sped up again.
Dame Rebekah, in her wisdom, enhanced my chainsword with being an evil outsider bane item, to further press our advantage, a Resist Energy on all of us for cold, since the devil was one composed of ice, and another blessing. Faunra, for her part, cast her mirror image spell, her blur spell, and then a Vanish spell to get her to be able to get into position quicker. Jonathan did his thing, and we rushed into the ruins.
Again, with Jonathan and I in the front, as we expected to run afoul of traps. We discovered and bypassed a lot of the traps, frequently just by flying over them or Jonathan utilizing his telekinetic powers to trigger the traps that we could not bypass. The first actual combat that we encountered was a huge reddish spidery looking thing. It was so evil that even I could tell. I swear that it was trying to drain the blood out of my body through my eyes, even with the face shield of my helmet. Dame Rebekah took the initiative and rushed towards the thing.
While it apparently focused on Jonathan for some reason, Dame Rebekah was full speed. There were no brakes on that Pain Train. It tried, unsuccessfully, multiple times to swat her away. With one final vicious slash, she bisected the thing in twain, causing it to dissipate into foul smelling ichor. We kind of rushed around the whole area, taking out another nine of the stragglers. Faunra and I were basically the back up for this, as between Dame Rebekah and Jonathan, these "scarlet walkers" were not much of an issue.
We got to the main area, and I swear it looked like it was a set piece from ECW. A lot of blood and violence occurred here, in the long past and even recently. I swear that I could hear Saliva playing in the background when we made our way in. As we made our way in, we saw a large, insectoid humanoid standing on a balcony. It had a spear in its hands that a fog drifted off of it.
On the ledge below him was a group of eight bone devils, all ready to pounce on whomever was close. I reacted before anyone else, I guess it was because I was still invisible that I wasn't all that noticed. I wished that I had my bolter. Faunra had reminded us on the way that this ice devil was immune to ice and fire at the same time. As were the bone devils, from what I remembered. I decided that the best thing that I could do would be to jump into position and try and keep the ice devil from jumping around.
I got up right close to the thing after I drifted into position. I focused up on my inner JSOC and got quickly into position, aiming while I had been flying to get there, before revving and slashing with my silent Chainsword. I hacked deeply into the thing's side with a desperate wish that it could not get away from us. I felt something fade from me and the thing was covered in a shimmering emerald field. I stepped further around the insect, in the opposite direction of my slash, just to try to make sure that I wasn't in the completely obvious location.
In the time that I had done that, Faunra had taken out two of the bone devils with her barrage of arrows, her black bow blazing with a holy fury. Jonathan followed that up with such telekinetic fury that it didn't matter anymore. He certain took a fair amount of injury to himself to do this, but he launched out with his new attack and disintegrated all of the bone devils, turned the scarlet walkers to bloody mist, and nailed the Ice Devil with enough force to knock him out, even with the ice devil's resistance to the force, due to it not being holy.
I shrugged, sighed, and cut its head off with my chain sword. It didn't disappear. Apparently, this was a devil that had been called to this plane, rather than summoned. His death was a true one. Unlike the bone devils, who had been summoned and thus went back to where they were from. Something tells me that I REALLY do not want to visit there, after all of the things we have sent back. Faunra came up to where I was (I was STILL invisible) and asked me if I could dismiss the invisibility and talk to her.
I focused on dismissing the spell and then I was visible again. Faunra asked me if I was able to tell her what I had just done. I shrugged and asked her if she was referring to the emerald field that had surrounded the Devil. Faunra stared at me and said confirmed that this was what she had wanted to know about. I told her that I just thought about how I didn't want thing to be able to escape.
Faunra told me that she had identified the effect I had invoked as spell that she didn't even have the ability to cast, but that would prevent the creature effected by it from teleporting or leaving while it was in effect. I nodded and noted that it was at least effective in that regard. Faunra laughed and said that this was a real game changer, in that we could now definitely prevent something or someone from escaping if we needed to. I smiled and the three of them went back to ransacking the place while I kept a look out for anything that could be trying to attack us.
After everyone was done, we decided to rush back thru secret paths back to the quad-jet. We tried to be stealthy about getting back, but it wasn't to be. We were walking back among the secretive alleys and thought that we were in the clear, until there was a barrage of arrows flung at us from above. Well, Faunra and I got hit by arrows. The glanced off armor for the most part, or Jonathan's whirlwind field, but Faunra actually got hit by one arrow and two of them even got past my armor! Two filthy arrows. Gods I hoped that they didn't practice the punji stick method.
Faunra fired back at them with a response of her own arrows, at a slower pace than before, the haste effect having worn off long ago. She hit five of them with arrows and launched off a series of three rays for pure fire that scorched the vulture men. They didn't drop. I followed up with a series of four quick shots from my rifle. That didn't drop them, but they were very wounded. Jonathan dropped them with his telekinetic blast. He didn't hit with the same force as earlier, but it was sufficient.
After Jonathan's hit dropped the lot of them we quickly gathered up their bows and such before running off at a quicker pace. We made our way back after that and made our way to the plane. As we all got inside, we locked up the plane and got ourselves contained in secured areas. Faunra took the various enchanted items and sequestered herself into the copilot's room, while Jonathan and Dame Rebekah took turns keeping watch outside.
I decided to go over the wounds that I had received and took a couple of potions to offset the damage that I had taken from the arrows. Then I went to go look into the armor and study more from my scanned copy of the Iron Serpent Manual that I had gotten from the Tokage's. There right in the manual was the technique that I had used to keep the Devil stuck on this plane. Jonathan poked his head into my room to let me know that he'd be making lunch soon, to just give me a heads up. I thanked him and asked him to let me know when it was ready.
I went back to study the manual for another hour before Jonathan indicated that the meal was ready. I went out there and we all enjoyed a meal of a hearty stew. I didn't ask him about what it was made from because I figured that it would have had something to do with the dragon that we had just slain. I guess I'm now a sentient eater. For what it is worth anyway.
We all professed our enjoyment of the meal and I felt that there was distinct difference but that I'd figure out what that was later. At least I wasn't understanding the speech of birds. That would have been a bit freaky. Especially since there are not any real birds up at this elevation. I went back to studying the book after everyone parted from lunch.
After a few hours, Faunra knocked on the door of the room that I was in and asked if I had a minute. Faunra told me that there were only two more of the Sihedron Rings, after Jonathan got one. She indicated that there had only been three of the "lieutenants" down here, according to both the Oni and Morgiv. This caused her to ask who I thought should be the wearers of the rings. I told her that I thought that it should be her and Dame Rebekah, because they were both "known" to anyone who might be scrying for them or the wearers of the rings.
Faunra thought about it for a minute and said that she could agree with that and asked how I thought that we should proceed. I told her that I'd figure that I should just march alongside the others, as a construct would, and that we should just figure out what we need to do when we get to it. Faunra indicated that there might be a way for me to get a "pass" by getting attuned to the dimension that it is associated with. I blurted out Leng, as I had heard Jonathan reference the Men of Leng before, as to who it was that had been behind his history. Faunra said that she'd look into it and get back to me before tomorrow.
I nodded and thanked her. She headed out to get the two Sihedron Rings to their appropriate wielders. I continued my studies in the book for any further tricks or methods that I could use in the future battles. I didn't have the ability to really put up more focus into this all at this point, but I'd be thinking about it as we go on. It was a fair amount of information to absorb, but I had hopes that it could be the linchpin for our future battles.
I got a set of unseen craftsmen to work on the armor, ensuring that there was a full list for them to work on, including cleaning all of the firearms. When this was in process, Dame Rebekah came in and brought her armor over to the rack to get the same treatment. She told me that Faunra would be coming in next and that she wanted to make sure that I was okay with not getting one of the rings. I told her that it made the most sense, and that we were working on getting something else done to get the same effect.
Dame Rebekah nodded and said that she thought that we were ready for what came next. I nodded and told her that we would definitely be as ready as we could be. Dame Rebekah thanked me again and she went to go deal with her further tasks for the day. I ensured that the armor was in the right position in the queue, to be checked in the right order.
I went back to my books and started to look into other options for the field that I would need to get past. After another hour, Faunra came in with her armor. I indicated the location where she should put it on the stand, and she walked over to sit on my bed while I was at my desk. I looked up after a minute and asked her if there was anything that she needed. She told me that she had encountered a spell that might work, but that it would have to be cast right at the field.
I shrugged and said that if it would work, it would be the best. She said that she'd make sure to prepare it tomorrow morning before we head out. I asked her how long it would last, and she told me that it would last at least half a day, even longer with one of the rods that we have access to. I nodded and told her that I would definitely appreciate that. I also asked if she could get me a copy of the spell so that I could study it to attempt to work it into something that I could cast. She smiled and said that she would go get it before she literally skipping while she left the room.
I went over to my armor to look it over. If I went into the schematics that I had for the armor when I looked into the circuit relay for the armor. It was formerly the grounding circuit for the armor and had worked to help decrease the amount of damage that we had received from the dragon attack. I'm glad that it did its job, but all three sets were ruined by the attack. They'd be fixed and I could maybe reinforce it later after all of this was done, but it would definitely be expensive.
The circuit relays could possibly be energized in a specific frequency to simulate the energies of the plane in question. This wouldn't even be all that expensive in the long run. I mean, it was a long-lasting spell which means that it shouldn't require much of the thaumaturgic energies. If I included a variable frequency generator, I could even puzzle out different planes to get different positive effects. Faunra came in while I was postulating all of this while staring at the prints of the armor.
She looked over the prints for a few seconds before she tapped on my shoulder to show me the spell information that she had found. It looked like it was a fairly simple thing, something that even an apprentice could accomplish. At this point we decided to work together on the armor, modifying the conductor relays so that it will at first accept the occlusion field's essence to reflect it back. I'd have to have a possible exposure to it first, but then it would reflect it back. It would also not show me as anything that was supposed to have a Sihedron Ring or any other protective force.
This was the best possible solution, as it would back up me being a "construct" or a "golem". Especially since it wasn't obvious that there was anything human underneath this armor unless someone was very observant. Maybe it would even help us by making someone waste an attempt at getting rid of the control of the "construct". We were overjoyed and went to go tell the rest of the group what we had gotten done. When we got into the room, with the repaired and upgraded armor, and summoned everyone else in.
When they showed up, Dame Rebekah looked to be dressed in simple laity robes of Iomedae. Jonathan was dressed in his simple monk robes. I looked at them a bit askew, but Faunra explained that the Sihedron Rings had a couple of additional effects, Including being able to generate illusions to change what your clothes looked like. I nodded with the explanation and broke down to the group how the armor would now reflect the occluding field back on itself. Faunra added that it would also later be able to generate any kind of planar field to make it provide different benefits.
Jonathan asked what kind of benefits it would provide for me. Faunra explained that it would provide different bonuses based on which plane that it was associated with, but with the Occluding Field, it seemed likely that it would provide bonuses to me to be more intimidating and more protected from being intimidated and the like. Jonathan laughed and said that with my Chainsword I was intimidating enough. Faunra agreed but noted that we couldn't pick and choose what the effect was, only that since the occluding field was associated with that demiplane.
Dame Rebekah asked if it would have a long-term influence on my behavior. Faunra told her no, that we can simply associate it with a higher plane for an equal or longer period time. Dame Rebekah seemed a bit off and hemmed and hawed about how it shouldn't be that easy to throw off the works of evil. Faunra countered with asking if a single, temporary, and external effect should produce a long-term effect, as opposed to the good deeds that had already been done. Dame Rebekah looked to waver a little with that, and Faunra offered up that Dame Rebekah can do a full review and assessment of whatever measures she feels would get me back to baseline.
With Dame Rebekah feeling a bit mollified, and Jonathan intrigued by the additional option, Jonathan decided to ask if it would be smart if we left Cytheria back in the plane, or if the spell would be useful for her as well. Faunra countered that the Familiar could come with us, but it would be in danger of being slain with the amount of rampant force and damage that is being flung around. I offered up that if we could have her enchanted with the spell, it might be okay, as she would look to be regular vermin, and would thus be "ignored" by the others inside the occluding field as well.
We all decided that we should spend our last night before out next assault getting in touch with our loved ones and preparing them that we are planning a full-on assault on the next area. I asked everyone if we should plan on flying up before dawn to try to get as close as we can to deal with the next menace. Jonathan perked up and said that he had had a vision of something months ago, that had just been triggered by me saying that exact phrase. He said that he had to confront a group of giant spiders from where his history came into play.
I asked him if he would like us to come with him. Jonathan seemed to hesitate for a minute, looking back to Cytheria and having an unheard conversation with her before deciding that yes, we can assist in a portion of his vengeance, even though he is exhausted. I asked him if it would be better to wait a day until he was rested, and he shook his head, noting that we were going to have to face this today, and that they had access to some knowledge that might help us before we killed them.
We all got into our armors, and I set up the various other armor and gear that we had recovered on the platform to be worked on by the Unseen Crafters. Hopefully, we could get back before they finished, and I wouldn't have to re-summon them to get any more nicks or dings repaired. I also realized that I need to do something to get a more temperate bonding to these armors to decrease the requirements of repair and downtime to get them functioning. Thankfully, a portion of the time had been spent charging the armors back up, so they were all topped off and ready to act as the enhanced gear that we needed.
We all went to the back of the plane and took stock of what we had still ongoing for effects and spells. We were running REALLY low on spells that we had access to, but Jonathan said that it HAD to be today. I asked if he knew where the event would occur, and he said that it would be most of the way up the mountain. I asked why we were going to walk up the mountain when we could fly most of the way. Jonathan pointed to me, stopped, pointed back to me, stopped with his head cocked, then shrugged.
Everyone else said that they didn't think that it was a bad idea, so we went back to where we needed to be. Faunra and Dame Rebekah stayed in the passenger compartment, while Jonathan was in the copilot seat, as he needed to tell me where we needed to go. We lifted off of our reinforced platform and flew up and away from the city to circle around the mountain from the other side, to minimize our exposure to giants and such. We made our way slowly up the mountain, carefully going to find the area of Jonathan's vision.
When we got close enough, I had Jonathan go back and get our hover system ready. When I called over the radio that we were fifty feet above ground level, Jonathan called back that he was ready. I ramped down the engines and felt the immovable rods take over. I left the engines in a ready state, in case we needed to get away quickly, and we all made our way back to the ramp. When everyone was there, we jumped out and slowly landed on the ground beneath us. Jonathan pointed out the way that we needed to go, and we floated/flew off in that direction.
I had decided that it would be best to minimize the amount of noise that we would be dealing with when we were heading into this conflict, especially with the risk of avalanches for anything extremely loud, so I left my noise producing items back in the plane. Which meant my rifle, my machine gun, my bolter, and my Chainsword. All I had was my "grenade launcher" which was more of a modified crossbow without any of the loud grenades. It should be quiet enough and I hoped that it wouldn't cause us problems from the lack of rapid firepower.
I am only now realizing that almost ALL of my equipment is very noisy. If it didn't affect the rest of the group, I'd wear that silencing amulet, if only to keep my weapons from warning all of our enemies before we got there. Maybe I'll learn that spell that Faunra uses, to take some of the load off of her for her spell preparation choices. I mean it is something that we use often enough, and that seems to be whatever I can do is designed for.
We rounded a peak to look down on a valley and Jonathan perked up. I did too when I saw what it was, but for obviously different reasons. Spiders. Fucking mammoth sized spiders. Purple Spiders. With an odd number of legs for what that is worth. Fucking Square Cube Law. I froze when I saw them, act be damned.
Faunra stopped us and pointed out, in her best fake Australian accent, that, "Crikey, those over there are Leng Spiders. They're from that dimension that we are figurin' that the occlusion field is associated with. These wily buggers can see right through illusions and know right where a feller is. They can't be hurt by the cold, are unmoved by loud noises, and are even resistant to spells directly affectin' 'em. We're not gonna trip 'em up with any kind of web or anythin', and poison is enough to drop a rhino, and cause it to go berserk at the same time."
I looked at her and asked her to please refrain from sticking her finger up its bum. She looked back at me with a grin and said "Aww, that wouldn't make 'em very happy." I stopped myself from facepalming or shaking my head, but it was touch and go there for a few seconds. We all readied ourselves as the spiders eventually noticed us and cautiously started walking forward. Jonathan was in the back of the group, as his mobility wouldn't be hurt, and his hostility wouldn't be immediately evident. Not like he couldn't just nuke them with some marbles or something.
When they were about forty feet away, or extreme close range from where I was considering a Mammoth sized Arachnid should be, the lead one used a spell like ability (yay a slowly increasing understanding of the abilities of monsters) to be able to talk to us. It told us that it had a task for us other that acting as mere sustenance for him and his three companions. I swear his voice sounded like Tim Curry. You know that oily, smarmy voice with just a hint of callous seduction. He continued by telling us that their enemies, the men of Leng, have returned to this world to honor some kind of alliance with Special K, apparently.
The Spider-Curry then went on to straight up demand that we go and execute the denizens of Leng and destroy the device that they were working on in the occlusion area. Faunra asked what was in it for us. The Tim Leng laughed at us in his characteristic condescending laugh. I didn't like that at all one bit, and I could see where this was going to go from here. Jonathan spoke up from the back and said that we wanted to know what was in it for us if we went to kill them. The laughter stopped and they looked to get ready to pounce.
I made up my mind to let loose with my loaded acid grenade. I had previously loaded it since I figured that since it was the cheapest item to make, that it would be the least likely to be missed much if the creature was immune to it. This is important because I pulled up my grenade launcher with the fury of one thousand ban hammers and launched it into the face of the one that I saw twitch to jump at us first. Fortunately, it was the Tim Scurry one. Unfortunately, it had been a slight feint, because the one on his left leapt at Faunra before I could even react enough to reload.
I slipped a bit on the treacherous ground and missed on all four of its web-flail and bite attempts. Damn they were quick. All of the strikes failed to find purchase on Faunra, but the armor was definitely taking a beating. What happened next was a flurry of motion, made even worse because we were not hasted or anything. Faunra, seeing no other good option, stepped back five feet and fired several times while trying to avoid swings from the spider thing that she was shooting arrows into the very same thing. Her armor took the brunt of the responses to her close combat archery, but nothing opened any wounds or interfered with her sufficiently to stop her shafted rain of reprisal.
While this was going on, Dame Rebekah was already rushing forward to attack Leng Curry with her black blade. While she was running, she invoked some kind of effect and ignited the blade. She too, was hit with several attacks from the thing's flail, but with the fact that she was exceptionally armored, and that it was still reeling from the burning in its eyes, she managed to turn them aside enough to get in a good hit. It was looking really rough. But I guess that the burning acid in its eyes was a bit more of a thing to piss it off than her hit, because it ignored her to rush forward and attack me.
The blows, for the most part, landed on my armor. I even managed to dodge one entirely. Dame Rebekah must have been distracted by the fact that the one that she was fighting just up and left her, because the third one snuck up behind her and got in a good flail hit and bit her as well. I fretted that this just got serious.
Then Jonathan finally got into the fight. Maybe he was thinking the enemy of his enemy kind of thing, and that was what caused him to pause? I didn't ask him then or later. He launched his bearings at the three giant spiders, and I awaited the deaths. Jonathan didn't really disappoint. The ones that attacked Faunra and me dropped to the icy dirt. The one that had attacked Dame Rebekah was hit, but it wasn't dropped. I could tell that Jonathan was basically running on empty.
However, it wasn't all that necessary for us to worry. I shot the last one with another acid grenade, not as deftly placed as the first one, but it was definitely reeling. Enough that just a few well-placed shots from Faunra finished it off after my own burning acid hit to it. Jonathan noted that these things did have the stench of the realm that he had been a prisoner of, but that it seemed odd why they didn't just work to destroy the workings of the Denizens of Leng themselves. I shrugged and suggested that we just get out of here.
After we confiscated any goods could be gathered, Jonathan used his powers to rocket the bodies off into the far distance, a good several hundred feet away in different directions. We loaded ourselves back into the plane and found a better hiding spot. I conjured up a pair of stone walls to work as a stable platform for the plane and a simple cover. We took the invisible tarp and draped it over the plane just to get a little bit more security.
Faunra indicated that she should return to her studies, as she now didn't think that the planar infusion system would block the effects of the occlusion field. I shrugged, noting that at a worst-case scenario, I could hide out in an extradimensional space until we figure out how those inside the area deal with the field. Faunra shook her head and said that it was more likely that they were either acclimated or had a spell cast on them by Special K to stay in the field. Only those who needed to come and go would likely need a ring or similar. Faunra said that she'd look into it further in the books tonight.
I told her that the infusion field was still a good idea, that we might be able to offset or mitigate the effects of the occlusion field with it. Faunra nodded and said that she'd be lost without getting more information from the field itself, but that it likely dealt with resisting things with strength of body or mind. I asked her which one would be more important, and which planes would be the best ones to associate with each. Faunra said that she'd look into it a little more and tell me tomorrow morning. I thanked her and decided that I'd spend the rest of the night getting Savah updated about my minor victory in being able to actually react to Pennywise's big brother.
After a while I got in touch with Savah, and we talked for a bit. The last twenty-four hours for the home group was interesting even for them. Apparently, the town had been attacked by the Sandpoint Devil while we were gone. Luckily, Savah and crew were more than sufficient to deal with it. Now Ilsoari will have the chance to have an actually stuffed Sandpoint Devil. Savah was immensely proud of my working through my issues with spiders to get in a first strike.
We talked for a while longer and said our good nights. It was good to get some kind of contact before we'd be assaulting the pinnacle. She told me that she was sure that we'd get this done promptly, and to keep her updated whenever I could. I promised her that I would keep her up to date as best I could. We finished off our conversation and I felt even better about our chances. If Savah and her crew can take on the Sandpoint (Jersey) Devil, then we can definitely deal with a pissy little wizard.