Boulder Dash

==Season Ten, Episode Five==
Preceded by: Season Ten, Episode Four: Emet-ic Mutation
Followed by: Season Ten, Episode Six: It Grinds Our Gears
==Summary==
:: 8:50 hours remaining.
:: Sending to Ethan Dragonslayer: Thanks for Claire and the lantern. Gears permanently fucked up my innards (whores), now I'm reverse-engineering golems in my head until I feel better.
: The puzzle of the cards is not one that seems likely to go quickly. Ashra and Leilah have very different ideas about what should go where. Leilah is filling Kruglor in on relevant things he may have napped through when an unexpected figure appears and immediately berates the party for not having seen her earlier.
: It's Claire, but not quite the Claire that the party knows, loves, and fears. She seems to have aged a good eight years or so, and she is now much taller, with long blonde hair, one red eye, and full plate mail. She is also, as she quickly reveals by detecting evil, a paladin of Ethan Dragonslayer. She notices and relays to Ashra that Aether detects as evil; Ashra's Undetectable Alignment hides her own evil alignment.
: Ashra and Claire have a quick burst of teasing each other and catching up; Claire reveals that Ethan teleported her into this temple to help Ashra out and to deliver her The Dark Lantern. Once that's sorted out, Ashra leads Claire over to the card puzzle and the two get to work. Claire comes up with the idea that each level of the puzzle has to do with a level of the temple they're in. The two swap things in and out, trying to come up with a perfect matrix.
: To get more information in case there is a relationship between the dungeon and the puzzle, they decide to investigate the hole in the bottom floor. Claire ties a rope around Ashra's waist and hands the end to Eleven to hold. Ashra levitates carefully down the fifteen-foot chasm, then examines it. Something really big clawed its way out of here through five feet of solid rock. It could be a gargoyle; it's too big to have been the golem they fought.
: Meanwhile, Leilah analyzes the magic circle on the floor nearby. It would allow communion with Corellon Larethian. Claire and Ashra look at the golem in the mirror, where it appears as silver over clay. Claire looks at the altar in the mirror, resists its power, and sees it growing gears.
: Ashra and Claire go back to the puzzle. They also catch up in general; Claire apparently ran into the giant space portal in Wroth's End after the Axiomate fight, and spent the next many years making sure that great evil would not come through that portal. Somewhere along the line she became lawful good and vegetarian. Though she still seems to like Ashra, she can't adventure with her after the party leaves, because she can't knowingly associate with evil and no one really believes Ashra is True Neutral. Ashra is okay with this, and decides she owes Claire several drinks, because when the end of the world is no longer nigh there will be some fantastic stories to be told.
: Eleven strips silver off of the golem's body and gives it to the party, then takes some of the mirror golem's mirror substance to make himself a mirror zanbatou which can resist spells. Cicero makes himself a glass ring of spell storing, similar to what Ashra has.
: Claire thinks she's got it, and Ashra warily agrees to be the one to lay the cards on the altar. Leilah waits behind her with Remove Curse. She lays out the cards one by one, but the pattern is incorrect and she fails to resist the altar. Leilah is ready with Remove Curse and a hand to pull her off, but by the time she's free, the gears have permanently damaged Ashra's internal organs.
: Ashra spends the next few minutes stalking around, bitching people out, and clutching her side. Claire works on a better solution, and offers that if no one else will do it, she'll place the cards on the altar, even though she'd be far weaker to the altar's effects and less able to resist. After pouting for a while, Ashra helps come up with a new matrix, using some of the cards that seemed right. Ashra asks around if anyone has Mage Hand; Cicero does, and the party decides to try that in order to bypass physically touching the altar.
: Cicero tries the new combination from afar. It's not all correct, but by his miraculous luck he resists the altar. Since he was not pulled onto it, the cards that are correct remain and the incorrect cards flip, giving the party more of a clue. Claire and Ashra look at what remains, realizing that there are multiple correct solutions and that the physical appearance of the cards may be involved as well. Claire gets all but the last card, which Ashra picks. This looks good.
: Cicero would need luck as incredible as before to save him from the altar again, so Ashra has him cast Mage Hand into her ring, which Leilah puts on. Leilah will be the one to set the cards out, as she's the most likely to resist the altar, and if worst comes to worst and she does fail, Zaph is ready with Break Enchantment. After a slight mishap activating the ring, requiring a second cast of Mage Hand, Leilah lays out the cards.
: And the party isn't in the temple any more.
: After a moment's blinking and looking around, the party realizes they have all been teleported into a small room. A large door with a masterwork lock is on one wall, flanked by two metal eyes fueled by gears. Ashra thinks the party is still on the Prime, but Leilah thinks they're on Mechanus.
: One of the eyes looks at the party and states in a flat, mechanical voice "I-DEN-TI-FY YOUR-SELVES."
: Claire shrugs, imitates its voice and says "I AM CLAIRE THE RE-DEEMED." It hits her with Magic Missile.
: Kruglor smacks one of the eyes with his bone, at which point both eyes start casting spells at the party. ... Burning Hands, Magic Missile, and Sleep. Really pathetic spells. We're talking fifth level wizards here. Ashra realizes that the eyes should be completely incapable of beating her spell resistance, takes Zaphodel's mace, and stands between the two, hitting one. Eleven and Kruglor help to bash in the two eyes as Zaphodel moves among the others and heals them. Soon they are destroyed.
: Aether and Claire pick the lock, and the door opens onto a long corridor. Claire goes first, checking for traps. She finds a ten foot square where the floor is hollow, flanked by doors; there are two other doors down the hall. Ashra levitates along with a ten foot pole, holding the pole to stop the floor or ceiling if they try to crush her. Nothing happens to her, and the others start jumping or tumbling over the dangerous floor.
: Several of them fail and smack into it, then crawl away; nothing happens to them, either. Leilah stays back, watches as the floor takes the full impact of a 1,500 pund warforged jumping on it, then walks across. Ashra floats back and gets Zaphodel, and the party gathers by one of the doors as Aether and Claire pick it.
: After several tries and a broken lockpick, the two rogues manage to open the lock, but the door does not open. Instead, there's a strange noise as the hallway rounds and the hollow floor rises up. The hallway extends off into the distance and an enormous metal ball appears over the hollow floor.
: Kruglor and Eleven start off down the hall, where they see turrets and several kinds of mechanical mook. Claire picks the lock to the second door as the ball starts to spin, catch on fire, and be surrounded by a Wall of Force. Kruglor considers glitching behind the ball by rolling the die before realizing that the die would be caught by the Wall of Force and he'd appear right in front of the ball.
: When Claire picks the lock, the door opens onto a new passageway... and a second ball appears behind the first. The party runs off into the new passageway, except for Kruglor. The first ball slides along, blocking him from the rest of the party.
: There's a column of about eight clay golems in front of the party, waiting.
: Claire wants to know if Kruglor is okay, but he's only in telepathic range, and his Mind Blank means that Ashra can't check in with him. Cicero suggests that she ask Ecphrasis instead. She does so, and Ecphrasis tells her long-windedly that he was horribly killed by the machines which are now shanking him.
: Claire immediately Dimension Doors off to reclaim his body as the balls roll nearer. She finds him alive but surrounded, blends in against the wall, but fails to hide him. He is hit by a couple of wounding strikes, and she takes out one of the mooks with her sword.
: Ashra tosses a fireball from her wand at the golems to test if they are immune to magic. They aren't, but they are immune to fire. Aether takes out her whip, swings over the mass of golems, dodges between them, and gleefully shanks two of them. Cicero engages one, but it strikes him and paralyzes him.
: Ashra has the ability to deal with the golems, but will not be able to escape the ball in time. Leilah offers to Dimension Door the party to the other side once the golems are gone, so that no one will be crushed by the ball and the party won't be caught in a pincer by the golems if there's an enemy on the other side.
: Claire tosses Alchemist's Fire at a bunch of the small wounding constructs, which are destroyed; several stronger constructs remain in the way. She grabs Kruglor, takes out her shield, and charges down the hall, slamming them out of the way.
: Ashra takes out her spellbook and casts Sonic Ball over the golems, destroying all of them. Leilah grabs everyone and Dimension Doors down the hall as the ball rolls nearby.
: Cicero recovers from his paralysis and runs into the next room to stab whatever is there. He meets the dredge golem and discharges his magic sword into it in an incredibly powerful attack. The golem does not like hexblades suddenly attempting to one-shot it, and punts him back into the hall where the party stands. He lies unconscious on the ground, near death.
: Kruglor is bleeding badly from the wounding strikes, and Ashra telepathically tells Claire to Dimension Door him over to the rest of the party, where Zaph can easily stop his bleeding. Claire wants to get him to safety, but she's surrounded by constructs which would all get to strike her as she casts!
: This seems very dire until Leilah and Ashra realize not everyone knows all the caster tricks, facepalm, and telepathically coach Claire through casting on the defensive. She successfully poofs the two into the corridor. Claire turns to Cicero and stabilizes him, while Zaph tends to Kruglor's wounds. Cicero lies in his pool of blood, attempting to look as cool as possible and pretty much succeeding.
: Ashra hits the dredge golem with Arcane Fire, which actually goes off and works like it's supposed to for once. Aether tumbles and whip-swings over to the other side of the golem, jumps on it, and shanks it, though its pancreas is not on offer at the moment. Eleven tries to chip in with his guns, but they all jam one after another, except for one which shoots out a little flag that says "Bang". Leilah, faced with an enemy and without her buffs, shrugs and casts Cone of Cold, then prepares to be beaten upon.
: Zaphodel heals Cicero, who appears to accept it as it's saving his life and letting him do more than crawl. More of the tiny wounding constructs surround Aether, with a few others heading towards the party. They're running out of time. Eleven lays into the golem with his zanbatou; he hurts it, but it breaks his arm. Ashra takes out most of the wounding constructs with Magic Missile before they can stab Aether.
: The balls are going to hit the party if everyone doesn't get out of the way. Leilah grabs everyone's hands and Dimension Doors them into the middle of the room. Cicero slams his sword into the golem a couple of times, using his magic to steal some of its life, as well as Doche Pointing Eleven's turn since she can no longer wield her zanabtou. Kruglor bashes it with his bone. Aether flips around to the other side of the golem; since Ashra threatens it with her tentacles, she can shank it in the pancreas. She does so. The golem falls, and the party dodges the balls as they strike its corpse.
: A door appears, magically sealed. Ashra stares at the remains of the golems, reducing them into component parts in her mind. If they can fuck her up, perhaps she can learn to fuck them up as well, and to make things of her own ... and this totally doesn't have to do with the rumors that Xenteroth created golems in his tower. Eleven takes a spare wounding construct and kidnaps it as a pet, shoving it inside his chest. The party turns to the door.
Category: Episodes Category: Season Ten Episodes