 Mithril mail shirt: Weight 10lb, Move penalty none, Max Dex bonus +6, Arcane failure chance 10%, Skill Check penalty none, Armour Bonus +4, price 1,100gp. |
| Standard mail shirt: Weight 25lb, Move penalty 10', Max Dex bonus +4, Arcane failure chance 20%, Skill Check penalty -2, Armour Bonus +4, price 100gp. |
The appeal of that much mithril was obvious; weapons and armour made of the light, flexible metal were legendary for their properties and efficiency. The metal itself was also very valuable. There seemed no hurry to return, though, and the party made camp for the night. Gorfang spent more time ranging through the pits of Gadûhvrás. Milennia of orcish instinct thrummed within his soul as he walked the dark, empty halls of his people. The place felt so right.
Later, they visited the ex-slaves and their ex-guards. These were still digging at the back of the chamber where Thykon had died. Borrowing Eloy's sword Berleloth, Gorfang experimented with its' ability to detect magic, and discovered faint traces in one section of the hole created by the diggers. He instructed them to concentrate on that area, but a short-cut occurred to them shortly afterwards. Méabh cast a Stone Shape, and twenty-six cubic feet of the rock simply flowed away down the corridor and into the abandoned hall they were using as a spoil heap. The workers past and present paled. All their hours of back-breaking labour dwindled outmatched by a wave of the hand from this strange, intense woman.
Peering past them, the adventurers could see an object in the gloom of the resulting aperture. On investigating, they discovered a strange metal object, comprising a square curved plate mounted on a structure of struts and braces. The plate was about six feet square and thinly plated with a silvery, glistering metal. When Gorfang wiped a section clear of dust and grit it shone with the unmistakable shimmer of mithril. He eyed the object, considering. The plating was thin, no more than a pound, perhaps a pound and a half of mithril; the whole object was around a hundred pounds in weight. He set some of the slaves to drag it away to a room he remembered from his exploration, out of sight. Then he directed the workers to resume digging. Muttering and unhappy, they did so, glancing hopefully at Méabh as they did so. The aasimar's expression did not change as she left the cavern, though.
Returning to the section, she cast an Identify on it. The results were interesting. As they expected, it was a part of a greater item, something called a g'narf'dula. It bore two enchantments, which seemed to have been added at different times. The first, and not a surprise, was the generation of an anti-magic field. As the Identify spell had worked, they had to presume that this required the whole item to be assembled, which was apparently what Thykon had been doing. The other enchantment, also dormant, was weather-related; projected outside the anti-magic, this effect would decrease temperature and enhance the effects of winter. This seemed similar to the increased snowfall they'd seen around the dragons.
She tried a Dispel Magic on it, and this acted as expected, suppressing the enchantment for a short while.
Next morning, Méabh sent an Arcane Eye through the portal as before, to scout things out before they went back. What she found was rather a surprise.
The huge sphere was still there, though more pieces were missing. The two smaller white dragons that they'd met the previous day were sprawled nearby, slain by bladed weapons. The sphere itself was surrounded by around a score of tall, powerful-looking lizard-like creatures in plate armour, busily and expertly dismantling it and stacking the sections off to one side.
Two groups of the same kind of creature stood watchfully between the sphere and the valley, each group comprising ten of the plate-armoured greenscaled ones surrounding two of the smaller blueish ones.
Of Vengan Doomstealer and the armoured worms, there was no sign.
Gorfang snorted; "They're nicking my mithril!" he snarled. The other three glanced at him sharply. "...our mithril," he muttered unapologetically.
Spells were cast, furs donned and weapons drawn. Eloy and Lynien went invisible. Then Méabh drew a mental bead on the valley and cast a Teleport without Error to take them right into the midst of the reptilian interlopers.
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The teleport dropped them right in the midst of the three groups of lizards, catching them completely by surprise. Méabh gave them no time to recover, sending a maximized Fireball streaking off to land in the midst of the right-hand group of lizards. Oddly, for a moment as the spell triggered, she felt its' energies waver, as if something was resisting it, but then the ball of flame erupted into being. The smaller, blueish ones appeared quicker, and managed to partly evade the blast, but the green armoured ones didn't move at all and were engulfed. As the smoke and steam began to clear, all were still alive but most of the larger soldier types were stumbling around badly burned.
Gorfang was already running into the area, swords lifted. Barrelling through the ring of soldiers, he exploded into the centre and struck a mighty blow at one of the smaller, bluer lizardmen, tentatively judged the leaders. The creature's scaled head spun away in a shower of green blood and the orc spun to face the other.
Eloy, secure in his invisiblity, drew his bow and sent a volley of arrows at one of the creatures gathered around the g'narf'dula, like Gorfang selecting a blue one. His shots were good, but as they struck home he realized that the usual blast of ice damage produced by Berulith's Arrows was absent, and that his shots were having less effect than usual.
Lynien, invisible and inaudible, raced around the circumference of the g'narf'dula until she discovered another blue lizard, then slipped around behind him and struck him from behind. It was a good strike, but it didn't kill the creature. These things were tough!
The moment of surprise wore off and the intruders were moving. Half the soldiers drew huge two-handed swords from their backs, while the other half unslung and strung bows - although the ones in the group Méabh had Fireballed rapidly discovered that their wood and string possessions were charred wreckage and switched to swords as well.
The smaller blue lizards reacted differently. The one facing Gorfang rolled rapidly to its' feet and drew a long sword. The two in the left-hand group lifted hands and pointed them at Méabh and - despite his invisibility - Eloy. From each came a barely-visible ray of some kind of energy. The one aiming at Eloy missed, but Méabh was struck. She narrowed her eyes waiting for the effect, but nothing happened.
Around the far side, Lynien was also targeted, despite being invisible, but though the ray struck her she felt no different afterwards. She dodged sideways and struck again, splattering more green blood but still not felling her foe. Méabh cast a Finger of Death at the blue lizard who'd targetted her, and cursed as it failed to slay it outright. Blood burst from its nostils and earholes as the spell wracked its' insides.
Gorfang beat aside an innefectual parry from the second blue creature in his group and cut it down. A slashing backhand from that blow tore the life from a soldier-type approaching him from behind. He glanced around. Nine more of the nine-foot armoured lizards surrounded him, closing slowly with greatswords lifted. Outnumbered, surrounded and flanked, his response was absolutely typical - all-out furious berserk attack. A whirlwind of blades and blood erupted; the orc took several wounds but didn't even notice them until after it was all over. In less than twenty seconds, all nine of the lizard warriors were dead or dying in the snow around the snarling orc.
Eloy changed tactics, reaching further into his quiver and selecting by touch the plain arrows he'd treated with the venom of the scorpion guarding the pyramid of Anshenkehra. When this smacked home, he saw the lizard creature gasp and buckle, and grinned in nasty satisfaction. This was short-lived, however, as the creature retaliated by shooting another ray at him. With a jolt, he realized that his invisibility was gone! The rays were dispelling magic. Gritting his teeth, he sent another couple of arrows whistling towards the lizard but they flew wide.
Méabh responded by lobbing a second Fireball, this time into the left-hand group with roughly similar results. As she did this, a flight of arrows arced over in the other direction, one striking her in the side.
Three soldiers charged from the group around the sphere towards Gorfang, and three from the left-hand group towards Méabh. Noticing this, Eloy stepped in front of the sorceress, bow still in his left hand and reaching for his sword with his right, but dodged back as he saw her unleashing another spell. Waves of flame erupted from the sorceress in a roiling ring all around her, washing outwards to engulf everything in a fifteen-foot radius. The oncoming lizard warriors were roasted instantly. Eloy let his sword slip back and nocked another arrow instead, shooting the blue lizard for a third time but still not putting him down.
The three soldiers charging Gorfang reached him and died almost instantly. Shaking the blood from his blades he charged towards the g'narf'dula where the remaining lizards were gathering for a concentrated attack.
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