[Group 2] The World's Largest Dungeon - IC

[Mr. X]

For Malthos:

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As the detection spell takes effect, you are nearly blinded by the dazzling glow of magic. Everything, from sigils traced over the mummified priests, to the various tiers and carvings of the fountain, the furnaces the that eternally burn to keep the gold fluid, the frescoes chiselled into the walls, the chests, and strings of instcriptions spiraling off the fountain and running up the walls, are all enchanted, channeling the power and flow of magic in this place, and off to places unknown.

[Fates]

Gah! This room is...suffused with magic. I fear that this may be dangerous- I have never seen so many powerful auras in my life.

[Sucrose]

Kulkav nods.

"Can you parse it out, or shall I simply be careful?"

[Fates]

Malthos looks excited but also nervous. I can try.

Malthos focuses the spell on one of the chests, trying to determine exactly what magic is within.

[Mr. X]

The chests are to far away for detailed examination. You'll need to go to them, or perhaps have Kulkov drag one to you.

[Sucrose]

Seeing Malthos's perplexed expression, Kulkav steps forward, aiming to pull one of the nearer chests over to Malthos.

[Mr. X]

Pressing into the vault, the heat off of the fountain is extremely intense, causing you to sweat profusely as you step carefully through the crowd of gold coated mummies, and make your way to a row of chests.

Gripping one, you are surprised to find it almost cool to the touch. Lifting it, it is not light, but not nearly heavy enough to be filled with gold, so you must assume other treasures reside within.

So laden, you return carefully the the golden masses, and back to the party, no worse for wear, save perhaps for a mild case of heat stroke.

[Fates]

Excellent work, Kulkav. Murgan, would you be so kind as to check it for traps?

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Sorry I forgot to reply to that last post.

[Mr. X]

For Malthos:

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The enchantments etched into the chest appear to be transmution spells, working in channelling the apparent 'lasting value' of whatever is contained within into charged magical force. It was intended to connect with other enchantments in the floor, and as such, now that it's been moved, the spells have de-activated.

For Murgan:

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Just chime in whenever you get back. I'll keep going with you till you re-appear.

Murgan stoops over the chest, blood still oozing from the wounds in his back.

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Search:(1d20+14)[30]
Open Lock:(1d20+9)[27]

The chest appears trap free, and even the lock is fairly simple. Murgan makes short work of it, and lifts the lid.

Contained within is a well ordered collection of books and scrolls. Histories, arcane formulae, poems, songs, and star charts... A true wealth of cultural knowledge.

[Fates]

Malthos' mouth is agape. We could learn much from this. I would need weeks to study it, but regardless...this is incredible. Kulkav, could you drag another one here?

[Mr. X]

As Kulkov goes to retrieve another chest (if that is in fact what you do), Fredric sits himself down, and begins extracting his Alchemist's apparatus.

"Malthos, if you could give me a hand here," Fredric gestures to the fountain, "I have a formulae that shall help me continue, and may yet help us all, but I shall require a fair bit of gold for the procedure."

[Fates]

Of course, Fredrick. Do you wish for me to collect some of the molten gold? I can create a ward against flame on myself so as to be able to collect it.

[Mr. X]

"Yes, that would be most helpful." Fredric replies.

[Fates]

Malthos nods, and turns to her innate mastery over fire to ward himself from the fountain's heat- he begins to glow with soft, blue flames, and takes a vial from Fredrick. He carefully gathers the molten gold, handing it to the wizard. He then decides to gather more of it, and wordlessly removes the cauldros which he normally uses for cooking from his pack, filling each of them in turn with gold. Does anyone else have something that could hold any of the molten gold? We should collect as much as possible.

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Using my flame ward ability from the flame domain to gain fire resistance 13 for 4 minutes.

[Sucrose]

Kulkav returns from carrying another chest, and calmly withdraws ten vials of oil.

"If we dump these, we ought to be able to store at least a little more of the gold in them..."

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The oil vials carry a pint apiece. This amounts to 180.5 lb. of liquid gold, or 9,025 gp-worth.

[Mr. X]

Fredric provides a small iron pot from his alchemical tools.
"The oil may yet be of use in its own right." Fredric replies to Kulkov. "If I require more gold, I can wait for Malthos' spell to recover."

For Malthos:

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Stooping over the lowest pool of the fountain, the heat is severely intense despite your ward. You wouldn't want to be this close without it.

The gold retrieved, Fredric sets to work carefully pouring small doses into heated vials, and sprinkling various salts and alchemical powders over the stewing mixture, and chanting quiet spells over it as he goes...

"What I am making is a substance I developed in school, that I'm afraid was rather frowned upon at the college, though I understand it did quite well on the shadow market." he glances at Murgan, My objective had been to create a pain deadener, and in this I succeeded..." He pauses, "However, I'm afraid the side effects are rather extreme... It produces a dizzying euphoria, along with significant thinning of the blood, and decrease in coagulation, and is, I'm afraid, quite addictive.

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Fredric crafts 'Fredric's Painkiller', DC:18:
Craft(Alchemy): (1d20+9)[27]

A spoonful of the Painkiller Lasts 2 hours. The distracting euphoria applies a -2 penalty to all rolls taken while under the effect. Additionally, all wounds takeb while under the effect shall continue to bleed at a rate of -1hp/round.

While under the effect, subjects are immune to pain effects, and may not be knocked unconscious by damage, and may continue to act normally passed 0hp, as per the 'Die Hard' feat. However, taking such actions shall cause them to bleed out at an additional -1hp/round.

[Sucrose]

Kulkav nods slowly.

"...We'll just have to try to find a less extreme numbing agent when we can."

[Fates]

Malthos fills the oil vials and iron pot with gold as well, and brings it all out of the room with the fountain so as to be able to work with it without the heat. I'd like to take advantage of this opportunity to try to craft some magical objects.

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Appraise check to find out how much the gold we've collected is worth: (1d20+7)[10]

[Mr. X]

For all:

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You've got around 15,000 gp so far, though if you want to sit around and craft, you can pretty much consider yourself to have all the gold you need.

"Before you get too far, perhaps you could look through those chests and see if there's any books or scrolls we could use."

[Fates]

Malthos nods, removing the objects one by one from the chests, taking time to look over each one. He then gingerly places them on the ground, and scans them for magic auras, his pale blue eyes turning amber.

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Taking 10 on appraise checks for everything in the chests, then casting detect magic on everything.

[Mr. X]

For Malthos:

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A cursory inspection of the numerous books and scrolls reveals 2 books and 6 scrolls that are clearly magical. A 'Read Magic' spell shall determine the following:

Scrolls:
Mnemonic Enhancer
Haste
Blade Barrier
Bark Skin
Forbiddence
Bless Water

Books:
Flesh Golem Manual
Clay Golem Manual

[Fates]

After identifying the auras around the books and scrolls, Malthos casts the necessary spell to find their purpose. He smiles. Many of these are quite useful, and those that aren't can be sold for a good price.

Malthos decides to craft a magic item for himself, using gold gathered from the fountain and around the room as needed. He draws the magic inherent in the gold to weave a blindfold. He channels his power through the metal for hours, running it through his fingers and crafting it to his desired shape, and after five of work, it turns from molten gold to soft, silvery cloth. The shaman smiles, knowing that he now has nothing to fear from the darkness.

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Crafting a Blindfold of True Darkness (Magic Item Compendium)
Crafting it costs 2500 gp (negated due to the unlimited gold) and 200 exp.
The item grants Malthos Blindsight in a radius of 30 feet, and immunity to effects that rely on sight. He uses a casting of See Invisibility to do so.

[Mr. X]

As the casters sit down to do some crafting, Murgan and Kulkov set up camp, and break out rations.

Finishing the painkiller, Fredric pours over the tomes and scrolls, stopping suddenly midway through one of them...

"This... I can use..." he turns to Kulkov, "Kulkov, would you please break one of the legs off of one of those priests, and bring it to me? Malthos, I shall require your help with this as well..."

For All:

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The Keys the bone golem was wielding are of varying size, and serviceable as weapons. Comparable types are as follows:

Greatsword x2
Long Spear
Spiked Chain
Dagger
Discus
Hand Axe
Bastard sword

They are poorly balanced as weapons, and so using them incurs a -1 penalty to attack rolls. However, their keen edges and jagged blades shall cause extreme and horrible damage. As such, the damage dice for any given weapon type is doubled. (i.e. the 'Greatsword' sized one, shall deal 2d10 base damage.)

They are all heavily enchanted, however none of the enchantments pertain to combat. They may be enchanted further, however they are considered to already possess a +2 enchantment level.

For Malthos:

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The blindfold is awesome. Be aware, however, that while you are wearing it, you cannot actually 'see'. You won't be able to read, discern color or shape, or anything that actually requires vision.

[Sucrose]

Kulkav nods calmly, and advances on one of the priests, planning to cut off a leg with one of the guardian's greatswords.

The dead are no longer a concern; their challenges have passed, and they need to get out of the way of today's competitors...

"Can you somehow restore your own leg with this corpse's limb, Fredric?"

[Mr. X]

"In a sense, yes." Fredric replies, "There's a spell here by which I could bind an undead spirit to the limb, under my control... Then, it's a simple matter of attatching it to me..." he glances to the fountain of gold, "I expect welding it shall suffice." He speaks as casually as he can, but it's clear that he's not looking forward to the prospect.

[Fates]

Are there any other chests left? We should probably see what's in them. Malthos asks, excitedly. We may want to find food at some point soon. For now, we could use some of our rations, but if we stay here much longer without food, we'll be eating leather.

[Mr. X]

For all:

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The chests you've got so far contain a wide array of writings and histories, but very few actively useful items, just those already noted. All are written in that ancient language, and while there is a high likelihood that many of the tomes may contain useful magic and knowledge, it will take weeks, at the very least, of study to piece them into comprehension.

There are many more chests, but you suspect they all contain similar materials...

Just so you are aware.

Fredric leans over the mummified leg, propping the tome up before him... Speaking a string of sharp sylibles, he passes his hand over the limb, and the gold coating it peels off in swirling flecks around his hand.

The limb's flesh, long since turned to dust, crumbles to the ground in an ashen powder, leaving the bones bare. He spends some time shaving the top end to the desired length.

Another pass of his hand, and the gold returns, flowing over the bones and coating them like a congealed wax. With a fine chisel and hammar, from the smithing kit, he sets to work carving intricate series of arcane sigils and formulae over nearly every portion of the bones.

Hours pass as he works intently, and more than once he is required to stop to rest.

At length, he turns to the book, and begins reading off his set page. As he progresses, the edges of the page char and curl, the writing shines with firy light, and a palpable, unsettling energy fills the room...

This is dark magic that he is working with...

Suddenly, there is a presence in the chamber. Something vile, something hateful... All at once, the sigils on the leg ignite, and it's as if flames leapt out from them, shackling the spirit as it screams and writhes against its torment, pulling it down, and binding it to the vessel.

The leg jerks and shudders, and nearly tries to crawl away, but Fredric barks a sharp command, and it goes limp and lays still, the light from the sigils slowly fading.

Fredric stoops over it, focusing intently. Slowly, the leg's toes and ankle curl and flex...

He sits back and exhales.

"Well, now only the hard part remains. Malthos..." he indicates a line along his lower leg, just below the knee, and just above the horrid bag of shattered bone that is what remains of his foot, "If you would be so kind as to amputate my leg here. Then Kulkov shall dip my stump in the molten gold, providing a base to which I shall adhere the bone limb in similar fashion."

He pales as he describes his request, and takes a spoonful of the painkiller.

"Quickly now, please... While I've still got my nerve."

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Fredric casts 'Read Magic'
Fredric casts 'Animate Dead' from the Flesh Golem Manual. Caster Level check, DC:8
(1d20+3)[12]
Uses 19,600 gp worth of gold
Spends 784xp
Takes 19 hours

(if anyone has actions to take in the interim, go ahead and take them.)

[Fates]

Malthos spends most of the time Fredrick spends on his leg brewing potions. Channeling his innate healing power, he turns twenty six vials of gold to a thick, silvery substance, twelve of which are notably darker. He hands three dark and three light potions to each member of the group.

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Making twelve potions of cure moderate wounds and fourteen potions of cure light wounds. Takes 3 hours, 100 exp.

When Fredrick asks for the amputation, Malthos nods grimly, and carefully sets to work with the shorter bone blade. He then covers the wound with healing ointment.

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Heal Check:
(1d20+14)[17]
Reroll, if needed
(1d20+14)[28]

[Sucrose]

Kulkav pales rather starkly when Fredric binds the spirit to his commands.

"...You can free this spirit when a better alterative is found, can you not?"

Nevertheless, the only course remaining is to make the best of the situation. Thus, as soon as the ointment has been applied, the dragonborn grasps his necromantic ally, hefting him up bodily, and dipping his severed leg's end into the cauldron of molten gold.

"BEAR THIS, MY FRIEND; IT WILL BE OVER SOON!"

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Does Kulkav need to make a new saving throw against his disease? I've forgotten how long it'd be before the next portion.

[Fates]

Malthos responds to Kulkav's question. Yes, the spirit can certainly be freed once a better option is found, and it does not please me to allow this, but for now, it is as good an option as we can find.

Truthfully, however, Malthos doesn't care in the slightest about the soul- it meant nothing to him. Taribo's death had taught him that he must think of his friends first, and the fate of an anonymous soul really didn't concern him.