(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 about
and 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!