Why are you special?

The walk isn’t overly far; we’re just a mile from the place. The area is mostly desert, it seems… hot, dry… and I’m fine.  The “tin cans,” however, are sweating up a storm.  Wally seems to be fine… a quick Arcane Sight spell tells me why: He’s got Endure Elements up and running.  I leave the Arcane Sight up for now; the blue eyes aren’t really a problem, and it’s good to be able to see magic coming… most trap makers don’t cover the aura.  While we’re walking, I also nab a Find Traps spell, to give me early warning against things that are hidden; gives me a free roll within ten feet, and a nice little plus two bonus on finding traps.  Not much, but… well, that puts me up at a modifier of twenty nine, and I can “roll” a twenty whenever.  Which means if the DC is forty-nine or less, I see it.  And quite frankly, that’s overkill… I think the highest printed DC is just thirty five or so.  I can probably take ten and be fine.  But hey: The bonus is basically free.

I take pity on Carter, and drop an Endure Elements spell on him.  He smiles when he feels cool.  

Paul sees me touch Carter, and the look of relief on Carter's face… “Can I get one of those?”

“Oh, sorry… I didn’t prepare another.” Bluff rocks.  To be fair, I didn’t prepare one, either… but with Wally as a Wizard, Paul as a Paladin, and Carter as a Cleric, I think ‘I didn’t prepare enough’ is going to be believable.  And if not… well, I ‘roll’ nothing but twenties, and I have an unbuffed Bluff modifier of twenty seven now that I’m level four… which means his sense motive of… whatever it is… faces off against my result of forty seven… yeah, he’s fooled.

Paul sighs, takes a drink of water from his waterskin, and continues on.  I quietly drop Energy Resistance on myself, going ahead and hitting all five versions.  Fleeting, of course, not that there’s any visual manifestation with it.  It’s just ten points of resistance… and I also drop Protection From Energy - again, all five versions - on myself as we go.  That’s fifty points of protection… once.  Then I’ll need to renew whichever version soaked it.

The dungeon entrance itself is quite simple: There’s an outcropping of stone in the middle of the desert sands, with an open cavern for an entrance, leading down a slope into darkness.  Of course, the party is full of humans… I’ve got darkvision, the others?

Wally looks at me: “Got any more of those Channel the Gift spells?”

I smile, “For you?  Plenty,” and we team up and start spamming.  Not that his Darkvision spell is actually any better than mine… worse, as it’s dispellable and will eventually wear off… but I don’t want everyone else wondering why they bothered coming.  I mean, this is better for spells that actually scale with level, like Magic Weapon and Magic Vestments - Wally’s and Carters caster levels are better than mine - but for something like this?  Not so much.

Still, appearances.

We descend into the darkness… after a short while, the unhewn rock of the cave gives way to masonry… a bit uneven, as is the floor. And it’s hotter down here than it is up above.  Looking at Paul… too hot.  He’s sweating like a stuck pig.  And he kind of is one… fine.  But I’m not doing it myself.

“Hey, Wally?”

“Yeah?”

“OK, so… you clearly prepared an Endure Elements spell for yourself… I got Carter earlier, but I can help you recover your expended spell.  Here, just focus on the one you want back…”

I tag Wally with the Heroic Fortune spell, and - as he’s focusing on recovering spell slots - the free hero point is burned to recover Endure Elements… which Wally then uses to cover Paul.  No, I don’t want to help Paul directly.  He’s a prick.  Carter’s… OK.  Wally seems nice.  Heat dealt with, we move on.

Wally does ask me, though: “How many of those spells to power spells do you have?  You’ve done that for two Magic Vestments, three Greater Magic Weapons, and now an Endure Elements…”

I smile, and simply say, “Enough.”

As we get close, Carter tags Paul and himself with Delay Poison spells.  Hmm… wonder why?

The first thing we encounter is a heavily locked door.  The Summon Tools spell gives me a masterwork set of thieves’ tools (I’ll need them for traps anyway), and I make short work of the lock.  Behind it?  Way too many Efreeti.  Like, why in the world would there be SEVEN of these things just kind of hanging out in a room?  This makes no sense… explains the heat, at least.…

I go first, of course.  And I bypass immunities… but I don’t want to advertise that yet, so I drop four quick Scintillating Sphere spells on them (it’s basically Fireball, but electricity instead of fire). I’m using Wild Arcana, so they’re at a caster level of six; Twenty four dice of damage… and I do NOT use Divine Providence on these: I’m going to need that if there are any survivors.  Four sparks quickly fly from my fingers, exploding in the middle of the room into blazing balls of lightning, which lash out and severely wound the fiery creatures.

… and the joke’s on me: They all live, and use Scorching Rays, nothing that requires a save. They burn right through Protection From Energy… but it doesn’t matter.  Between my Hardness and Energy Resistance, none of the rays actually do anything.  Wally goes next, dropping a Stinking Cloud on them all.  It’s hard to tell for sure, but I do hear most of them retching. Carter and Paul head into the fog… this is a standard tactic for them, it seems… both drawing their weapons as they go; Carter’s mace, Paul’s greatsword… and they begin chopping.

Those poor, poor Efreeti.  Softened by mine and Wally’s spells, the Efreeti don’t live long under the assault.  It still takes a few rounds, though.  At least with the opaque fog, I don’t have to see the splatter.  I still hear the screams of the dying through the retching, though.

As we wait, I chat with Wally, “So… you guys do this often, then?  This was clearly a premeditated attack plan.”

Wally nods, “Oh yes.  And we wait here to deal with anything that tries to flee through this door.  Forting up to rest in a dungeon is… not a great idea, so we try to be efficient.  Speaking of… pace yourself.  I don’t know what those were, or how you managed to get four of those off so quickly, but nobody can keep that up forever.  We really don’t want you getting exhausted in the middle of this.”

I actually can keep it up forever, “You can relax… I’ll be fine.  I can extend my endurance to you as well, like I did with the Endure Elements spell … although Paul won’t need more than healing, I expect.”

Wally pauses, “How long have you been doing this, exactly?”

I consider, “I don’t recall exactly… long enough that I recognized you planned that tactic.  Carter had himself and Paul mostly immunized against that cloud before you ever cast it.  And, I imagine, he’s got a few Neutralize Poison prayers readied so they don’t suffer so much once the Delaying spell wears off.”

Wally shrugs, “He does, but he’s not going to use them for just that.  The cloud will be long gone by the time the delaying spell wears off, and so this is just going to make them feel really bad for a short period of time.  If they get seriously poisoned, yeah, then he’ll neutralize it first.  But this?  Nah, not worth it.  Better to save it for simple healing.”

“Of course, there is a risk involved: If the delaying spell is dispelled…”

Wally expected that, apparently, “Then there’s good odds the lingering effects of the poison spell will be dispelled as well, as Carter and I have about the same strength in that regard.  And of course, sometimes they fight it off entirely.  No, it’s not certain, but nothing is within a dungeon’s walls.  We consider it an acceptable risk.  Also, of course, not all creatures can break magic apart… most can’t, really.  So… it barely ever comes up.  But it HAS come up, you’re not wrong: The risk is absolutely there.”

“Fair.  So… do you have other standard tactics?”

“Oh yes.  I mean, this won’t work on demons, devils, undead, constructs… or anything else immune to poison, really.  So I’ve got some illusions for dealing with mindless constructs, a spell to make Paul more of a meatgrinder than he already is, a couple of walls ready… I knock ‘em down, Paul keeps them down, Carter keeps us up.  And Lorin got us in, but he can’t do that anymore.”  Wally’s eyes are downcast; he seems sad.

“You still miss him, then?”

“Yes…” the sounds of slaughter die off, “But now’s not the time for mourning.  Now’s the time for looting!  Come, let’s see what they had,” Wally shouts into the fog, “Apple, Whisky, Mead!”

I hear Paul’s voice: “Pie, Glass, Drinking!”

And Carter: “Cheese, Bread, Wine!”

Wally nods, “It’s clear.  We’ll need to get you four of those sets as well… it’s a little trick for dealing with the possibility of shapeshifters and illusionists when we've lost sight of each other."

"And of course, you don't re-use a code phrase in the same dungeon, which is why four of them."

Paul walks out of the cloud, "You’re pretty quick on the uptake. You said you can recharge us?"

I nod, "Yes, there's a way for me to give Carter and Wally back all those spells they burn. I can keep it up all day."

Paul considers, "So earlier when you said you didn't have enough of the keep cool spells…."

I cop to it, "Lying through my teeth. You prevented Wally from lending me his spare clothes. And I did charge Wally up to take care of you once we hit the dungeon, I'm not going to get you killed, but I also can't exactly let you get away with such things."

Paul hanga there with his mouth open for a minute, clearly trying to think of a retort, and Wally interrupts, "We should probably revisit our conflict resolution methods and revise our code of conduct to account for the different needs of men and women, now that we're a mixed group."

Apparently, Wally has some ranks in diplomacy… I choose to run with it. "As I said: I'm not going to get you killed over it. Comfort items? Yeah, I'll skip those when you're being a smeghead. But down here? Well, what was a comfort item is now a survival item, so I arranged it for you."

Paul takes a breath, "... fair enough."

After the stink clears, we loot the bodies, and move on.