#70 - A Rude Arrival

The PCs were in a room quite different from the rest of the forger's opulent hideout. In the corner, trunk-like clusters of roots rose like columns. The earthen floor of the chamber roiled with strange mist, and it had a baleful effect upon Clarion, Szen, and Dafrena. Warforged, halfling, and dwarf all toppled to the ground. Unharmed but incapacitated.

An immense and quite hideous pale worm with a many-toothed maw rose up out of the ground in front of Magnus. For several long moments, he engaged it along with the others, but though it gnashes at him and dealt him minor injuries, his own weapon passed harmlessly through it. It took some time for them to realize it—and a thoughtful infusion from Cypher—to fully deduce that the beast was an illusion. Not merely an illusion, a phantasm—capable of dealing real harm, if you believe in it. Once this was realized, the worm faded away.

Meanwhile, writhing, root-like tendrils grasped anyone they could reach—the druid Dar, Kard, Cypher. Once the illusory worm was dealt with, Magnus pulped the animate plants, quieting them in time, while Dar wildshaped into a badger to escape the tendrils. She even dug into the packed earth, discovering that the chamber beyond was barred by stone from underneath.

Cypher tried out the dancing sword he believed he had, which he'd acquired in the cellar of the ir'Valish estate, casting it into the air to combat his enemies. At which point it immediately turned upon him, slashing into his body and dealing considerable damage. Soon Kard, with help from Magnus, sent it banging out of the air and into the earth. Bent, but now inanimate, the cursed blade was reclaimed by Cypher anyway (because of course it was).

When all threats had passed, the PCs brought the unconscious or disabled allies back through the painting they'd entered and lay them in the previous chamber. Cypher set Rungo to guard them.

The door to exit the earthen room had three locks, but Cypher expertly picked each and every one, using an infusion to guide his already skilled hands. With a detect magic spell, Kard learned that a section of the floor in the hallway that lay beyond it was enchanted with conjuration magic. Believing it to be a trap, they were sure to move around it.

The door at the end of the hall led into a comfortable study with a desk, bookshelves, extravagant carpet, and homey fireplace. A middle-aged gnome—well-dressed but obviously flustered—was busy gathering papers and tossing them into the fire. Obviously destroying documents as quickly as possible.

Into this chamber Magnus charged, bursting through the door and engaging in melee with a pair of dwarf bodyguards who's flanked the entry. In a corner, an ugly, much-too-large rat with bony spurs hissed and sputtered and quickly joined the combat.

Magnus made short work of the first dwarf, but a quick command from the gnome prompted the massive carpet underfoot rise up and wrap around the barbarian! Kard and Cypher rushed into the room, the cleric managing to knock the gnome to the floor. Unharmed but prone!

The diminutive forger looked...inconvenienced.