WiryBushes<Yvandel wrote>:
> Yvandel nods and begins to read from his scroll
> pointing his free hand forwards towards the door.
Blondung takes a few steps backwards, towards the baby choke creeper Larz had crushed as Yvandel starts to read the scroll.
Milo edges the other way, closer towards the door that Cleo had peeked through open a few moments earlier.
<Vaslin aka Ron wrote>:
> "No!" Vaslin yelps quickly. "It's not the door
> that's magical. Save your scroll for the plants...
Yvandel, having already started to read, flicks his eyes briefly towards Vaslin, and flashes his eyebrows in apology, not pausing in his reading.
<Vaslin aka Ron continued>:
> We know the Mask is back behind us. But lets look
> for a key or something in these other rooms first.
> Hopefully without having to fight any more plants."
"Maybe the dispel will take out the magical lock...?" comments Blondung, looking on anxiously.
As the younger man finishes reading, a glow of magic forms on the scroll and it crumbles to dust. Yvandel's brow is furrowed in concentration as he bends the powerful magic of the scroll, forming it's area of effect in his mind, and a flash of energy leaps out in a fan towards the wall only a couple of feet in front of him. The weave itself is momentarily visible, a nimbus of light coruscating around the edge of both the south east door and a web of energy crackling across the wall around it and down to the next door. A few lines of elvish looking script momentarily appear on both doors before fading along with the rest of the light, leaving the door remaining as blank and non-descript as it used to be.
With everyone distracted by the magical display, Milo quickly pushes open the door to the library room and slams it closed behind him, putting his back to it as he surveys the room.
Outside, Ceely yells in distress and quickly pushes on the door. Milo feels the door push against him but keeps it closed. Looking around the room, he can see the rest of the library that Cleo and Larz had glimpsed earlier. To his left is a fireplace, with a couple of empty torch sconces either side of it. Directly in front of him, a reading table, with four chairs neatly set around it. The room has four book cases in it - two long and two shorter ones. On the far wall, in between each of the rows, are more neat bushes. He glances to his right, at the three nearest bushes. The nearest one shimmers, and then changes into a larger bush with lots of long wiry whip like thorny vines. The botanist in Milo's mind, even as he backs away from the vines whipping through the air towards him, remembers having seen a similar plant to this before, on the trollmoors! In his mind's eye, he recalls how those vines had managed to put several of his companions to sleep through the poison in those sharp thorns! He realises his plan may not have been such a good idea after all.
Several things happen at once.
As Herod, Ceely and Cleo prepare themselves to shove the door open,
counting to three, Yvandel speaks up. "But these other doors.
Quick we must at least open them and keep them open while the magics
of their wardings are suppressed. I will handle this one."
So saying, he grabs the handle of the middle door on the right hand
wall, and shoves it open. There is a flickering on the door for a
moment as his hand touches the handle, and then silvery elvish writing
appears, hanging in mid-air, a few inches in front of the now open
door. Yvandel puts his foot inside the door to keep it open, though
he feels no pressure for it to close again.
This time however, the elvish writing is incomprehensible to Yvandel,
as well as to . Previously, although the writing had been in elvish,
it had still made sense to those who read it. Merrell, the one member
of the party who can read elvish is currently back close to where
the minature choke creeper is however, and is unable to see it.
Through the narrow gap, Yvandel can see an internal wall extending
away towards an unlit fireplace. A glimpse of the far wall reveals
what looks like bench and a window. The ceiling is again apparently
open to the sky.
ROUND ONE
Meanwhile, inside the library room, Milo backs away indecisively from the
questing wiry branches, moving away from the door towards the south
wall and the fireplace as he realises that the plant has animated
completely, moving on it's multiple branches towards him.
At that moment, Cleo and Ceely finish counting to three and the door
bursts open as they shove hard. The pair of them almost tumble into
the room as the door is no longer blocked by Milo, and they stumble
in, tripping over the whip-like branches of the wirybush. Both manage
to keep their balance, and as they glance around the room, locating
Milo, they realise that all of the other plants in the room are also
large whiplike bushes, now shuffling across the floor towards them.
Cleo glances down, feeling several sharp pinpricks around her left
ankle as a couple of wiry branches curl around her leg, pricking her
with their sharp thorns. Ceely similarly has three curl around her
right leg and one entwine itself around her right elbow, as she finds
the bush at he right hand side. She too winces at the pin-pricks.
Herod, having experienced this before back on the trollmoors, curses
as he finds a single branch pricking him around his ankle as well.
(OOC: No HP lost, but DM rolls some dice behind his screen and grins
wickedly.)
"Milo yer great babboon!" exclaims Larz "What 'ave
yer gone and done!" Spinning around, he looks at Yvandel, with
one foot in the door. "And yer no better!" he yells, striding
forward to the doorway to see what has befallen Milo, Cleo and Ceely.
Already, a few questing branches from the closest wiry bush spill
out into the corridor.
Blondung, peeks around the corner and grimaces. "Get them out of there!"
he says, making no move to do anything himself. Merrell, having been mid sketch
of the broken baby choke creeper, glances up, realising that something important
was going down. (OOC: Mike - have you finished your neuroscience conference
yet?)
ROUND TWO
Lucretia steps close to the corner, hesitating as he waits for the right moment to grab at someone and pull them to safety.
Directly opposite the crowded doorway, Vaslin pulls out two throwing daggers, readying them in her hands. Looking at the tangle of bodies and vegetation in the doorway however, she realises that she'd almost be as likely to hit one of her companions as the wirybush. She also thinks that given the thin wiry vines, slashing weapons rather than piercing or thrown weapons would probably be more useful.
Meanwhile, somewhat awkwardly with the cable like wiry branch wrapped around her right elbow, Ceely manages to draw her short sword and slashes at the thin thorny ones pulling at her leg. The blade chops through one of the three curly branches, loosening her right leg somewhat. She pulls backwards, wincing as the sharp thorns dig in more. "Serena used fire to help stop these! Does anyone have fire seeds or something like that?" she says.
"No fire!" Cleo shouts, just barely overhearing Ceely's suggestion over the sounds of her own struggle. "This is a library! The whole place would ignite!" She similarly pulls out her broadsword, chopping the heavy blade down at the two vines around her ankle. The vines prove very springy however, and even her enchanted blade fails to sever them.
Milo, although not currently attacked by the plant, realises that there was no way he was going to get out of the room with the doorway blocked as it was.
"No blades," Herod spits, remembering how his axe arm had become entangled last time. Gripping his holy symbol with one hand, he gestures with his other and murmurs words of prayer. "Great lord, please summon a hammer of your power." A glowing hammer appears, floating above the plant. With eyes narrowed, he concentrates and the hammer slams down into the central part of the vine.
"You push, I'll pull!" yells Lucretia at Milo, reaching over Herod's shoulder through the doorway and grabbing Cleo chain mail by the scruff of her neck. He pulls, and Milo pushes, bumping into Herod all at the same time. Like a cork coming out of a bottle, the group of them all stagger backwards, half falling into the corridor. Vaslin jumps out of the way as Herod staggers into the wall opposite, somehow managing to keep control of his spiritual hammer. Ceely and Cleo, barely keeping their feet, also find themselves back in the corridor, with Cleo shoved up against Herod. Lucretia, having skipped sideways as they came out is in the corner next to the unopened south east door. Herod, Cleo and Ceely STILL find themselves attached to the wirybush however, which is dragged along with them. Milo, finding himself coming through the doorway right next to the bush, struggles to avoid being caught by it, but feels them entangle his legs, pricking him with their sharp thorns.
(OOC: DM again rolls dice behind his screen and chuckles evilly to himself :-)
Behind Milo, in the library, the other wirybushes shuffle their way towards the doorway.
Meanwhile, Yvandel, still with one foot wedged in the door, watches what unfolds up the corridor. Dorn also watches, realising there was little he could do to help in the restricted space.
"Bastard plants!" Larz growls, stepping forward and chopping at one of the branches holding Ceely and managing to free up her sword arm.
Merrell, with his wand of fire in hand, hesitates.
Blondung, still near the corner, grimaces, then shoves his staff forward towards the centre of the bush. "Kzhenarh!" he says. There is a dry rustling sound, and the entire plant suddenly seems to shrivel and dry up. "Quick, close that door!" he barks.
ROUND THREE
Vaslin, pushing past the off-balance Ceely as she tries to pull herself free
from the now shrivelled wirybush, tries to help Milo to close the
door. The Painbearer, also somewhat entangled in the dead bush still,
twists, also trying to reach the door to pull it closed. Two fresh
bushes, shuffling forward on their lumpy roots over the flagstone
floor, stretch their branches out towards Milo and Vaslin as the pair
grab almost simultaneously at the door and pull it towards them. Vaslin
feels two branches curl around her right leg, and another around her
right wrist, their needle like thorns piecing through her clothing
and causing her to wince in pain. Milo, his hand on the door handle,
finds one whipping around his hand, and almost making him let go of
the door. Pulling hard at the door, the two almost throw themselves
backwards, hoping that the slamming door will sever the cord like
branches, but the door jams to a halt on the vegetation, leaving a
narrow gap still open, through which several long tendrils continue
to writhe.
"Get back!" Blondung barks, still close to the corner. As
Milo and Vaslin release the door, Blondung casts a quick spell, fanning
out his hands towards the narrow gap. A spray of liquid bursts from
his fingertips, covering the opening and beyond. The edge of the door,
stonework and vegetation all sizzle and release acrid fumes as the
acid covers it. Before their eyes, the thin whip like branches dissolve
into a goo. Milo leans forward and grabs the handle again, and jerks
the door towards him again. This time, the blockage simply squelches
out of the way, and the door manages to close.
"What were you thinking?" asks Blondung harshly, looking
at Milo as he disentangles himself from the withered plant.
Herod maintains his concentration, his enchanted hammer pounding the
remains of plant Blondung had shrivelled.
Dorn and Yvandel converse, the mage still holding the middle door
on the right hand wall ajar with his foot.
Ceely and Cleo struggle to disentangle themselves from the dead plant, and Vaslin
unwraps the now severed vine from around her wrist.
ROUND FOUR
<Milo aka Phil wrote>:
> Realising the poison is working fast, Milo turns to the other
clerics,
> "Do any of you have something to slow or neutralise the
poison? None
> of my herbs are ready yet, I don't know if the Goats Rue will
work on
> this poison and the poison acts too quickly for Tempin."
Larz nods. "I have a spell that can put off the effects of most poisons for a while..." he says, tugging his beard worriedly. He looks at Herod, Cleo and Vaslin, the three of them all having been spiked by the plant and tries to think about who best to cast it on. "Vaslin, yer seem to know most about the gods of this place" he says after a moment, and without anymore pre-amble, starts to cast a spell, grabbing at the crossed axe emblem on his chest as he stretches out a hand towards Vaslin.
As the dwarven Alaghor touches her Vaslin feels the magic course through her, making her skin tingle. At the back of her head, a tightness had been building, but it doesn't get any worse, and she merely feels like she has a headache.
Cleo, looking at Milo half carry half drag Ceely off towards the garden room with the statues of the gods, hesitates, a worried expression on her face. "Are you ok?" asks Merrell, looking at Cleo concerned. Cleo starts to nod, but suddenly everything blurs, and Merrell seems to fall sideways, lunging forward towards her as all goes dark. From Merrell's point of view, it is Cleo who suddenly topples sideways, and he barely manages to stop her cracking her head against the wall.
<Herod aka Malcolm wrote>:
> "Let's all get there," Herod says as the pain from
the thorns is
> ignored, but the fear of him being poisoned again is starting
to well
> up inside of him.
> "We have to get more coordinated, this should not have happened,"
he
> growls as he tries to herd the group back to the gods room. He
will
> help with Ceely if Milo can't handle her himself.
The Battleguard starts to try to cajole the others to follow Milo and Ceely, but only gets a few paces down the corridor, before he too stumbles, knocking the baby choke creeper over as he falls to lie unconscious on the flagstones.
Meanwhile, Yvandel continues to stand with one foot wedging open the middle door on the east wall, watching his plans fall apart. He knows that a dispel magic on permanently enchanted items tends to simply suppress the effect for a while - and he is worried that whatever good the powerful dispel magic might have done will soon be wasted by everyone heading off. He turns and looks at the elvish writing hovering in mid-air in front of him. He idly wonders for a moment why he can't understand the writing as he had with the other riddles, then realises that the magic that had performed the translation had probably been dispelled.
Dorn also looks on - frustrated that there seems nothing he can do to help the situation.