Why are you special?

It's weird to see flying stone in real life.  There's a giant, fantasy castle, just kind of floating there, twenty feet up.

Stone shouldn't DO that.

The ground is rocky - which is good, as it means I can use Wall of Stone with impunity - it's dark and spiky, though, which means walking down here would be unpleasant… if it weren't for the little issue that Damage Reduction applies. So we're all fine.

Also, we can fly. Which also makes tall walls kind of meaningless.

The castle is made of the same dark stone as the ground. Curious, I try casting Greater Create Demiplane to add the dead magic trait… sadly, it only works on my own Demiplane, apparently. Pity; turning off everyone else's magic would have been sweet. Trap the idiot here, turn off everything dangerous, and take my time going after him when I'm the only one that can cast. Oh well.

Just for grins, we start at the gate. It's a standard killbox setup: Drawbridge (to nothing…) and a double portcullis, with a small zone between in which the ceiling has murder holes: Small gaps through which defenders in the room above can fire arrows, drop boiling oil, or whatever. Five Delayed blast fireballs through the holes (it inherits a clause from Fireball about getting through small spaces) followed by a wall of stone sealing them off takes care of whatever was up there. Disintegrate takes care of the Portcullis in our way.

No, I have no idea what was waiting up there, if anything. But it’s probably dead now. The room up there will be quite the oven.

Next up comes a courtyard… where we have two adamantine golems waiting. Annoying beasts; huge constructs of black metal, all built out of spiked armor except for some smokestacks on their backs and crown. They have magic immunity like most golems, but these ones have fast healing, and only stay dead if you use a vorpal adamantine weapon, wish, or miracle on it after beating it into negative hit points. Which makes them useful… as packmules for this party. Trap springers would work too, but so do summmons. Still, waste not, want not. Attuned Mysticism (Construct) on Command Undead puts them both permanently under my control. They'll make fine vehicles for buff spells, I guess.

The stairs to the keep have mechanical traps. Apparently they shoot out poisoned spikes when anyone steps on them. Harmless, but we fly over them anyway. The double stone doors of the keep are also trapped: The handles have a contact poison, a Symbol of Death is inscribed on the portal, and the archway is set to collapse on anyone who actually opens the door. Disintegrate does a fine job of "opening" the doors, reducing one to black dust without moving it, and Golem Immunity does a fine job letting us ignore the Symbol glowing with dark power inimical to all life as we walk through untouched.

We're pretty much wrecking balls.

Inside, we find ourselves in a well-appointed ballroom with crystal chandeliers, a stage, musical instruments, silk tapestries, the works. The room is, however, overrun by humanoid zombies. All female, all naked, all headless. They are, however, very well preserved: Each was clearly zombified within seconds of death, and have obviously been under a Gentle Repose spell the entire time. They practically look alive, even under True Seeing. Without it? "Fred" used Fleshy Facade to make them look exactly like the living beings they once were. A few of them have fluid dripping down their inner thighs; my nose tells me exactly what it is. Eugh. Disgusting isn't the half of it.

Paula, Christine, and Wendy all shudder,  as do I. They start to cast area spells, but I stop them, "Don't. I plan to restore them to life, and it's easier if they're still animated, odd as that sounds. Please let me."

Paula pauses, "You realize if you do this, there will be no hiding who you are and what you can do, right?"

I sigh, "I have an opportunity staring me in the face to undo some of the damage this monster caused. Yes, it will cost me, but I'm still going to take it."

Christine nods, "I can respect that."

Wendy takes a breath, "You have my support, in anything." 《And you know why. This is foolish, but… well, you're the one at risk.》

Paula shakes her head, "Are you sure you're not a Crusader at heart? Very well; it's your neck."

They all wait, basically ignoring the zombies as I work. I start by separating them out with Wall of Stone spells. Earth Glide will let me walk through those mostly unhindered, but they're basically impervious to the humanoid zombies… and that will be important, as these folks will be revived naked and largely defenseless. I takes several castings, but soon enough I have all the zombies in individual boxes. I also take a moment to cast Create Greater Demiplane myself, and Greater Plane Shift back: I want a safe place to put these people while I do other things.

And then… I get to work.  There's a clause in the undead type: "Resurrection and true resurrection can affect undead creatures. These spells turn undead creatures back into the living creatures they were before becoming undead." The named spells work differently on undead, just like some spells do on golems. It doesn't matter how long they've been dead when I'm using that clause… but that requires that the undead creature still be active.

For each one, I walk into the impromptu cell, cast True Resurrection on the defiled corpse, and briefly explain, "This is a rescue operation; I'm about to send you somewhere safe, please stay there and remain calm, I plan to explain when I'm done; for now, I'm in a hurry." Then I Plane Shift the now living (and still naked) woman to the Demiplane I created for the purpose, and move onto the next. It takes about ten minutes, all told, to clear the room: I'd use a Time Clone, but I need to rest and regain spell points to alter my talents known.

As I go, Greater Arcane Sight gives me a listing of the active spells on the defiled corpses: Command Undead, Fleshy Facade, and Gentle Repose.  Occasionally, I find one has a Fly or Swim spell, sometimes Polymorph Any Object instead of Fleshy Facade (always done to exaggerate curves when present)... and thanks to True Seeing, I see both forms of each one… up close and personal. Disgusting. The shorter term spells seem odd, but now's not the time.

I cap the cells off just in case the mindless beasts try climbing, which means Paula, Christine, and Wendy have very little to watch. Still, they don’t come from a society where nearly everyone has a distraction in their pocket all the time, so they are - compared to me, anyway - very patient.  There’s little to loot here, but we do take and stow the silk tapestries, instruments, and crystal chandeliers - they’re quite nice, and will probably fetch a good price. Not that we need the money, but eh.

I also take a moment to follow up on the short-term spells, casting Summon Nature's Ally VI out of my Staff of the Woodlands, nabbing a Dire Tiger.  Sure enough, it's still hanging around following the orders I give it well over two minutes later, when it should only last fifteen rounds (a minute and a half). This Demiplane must be Timeless, at least with respect to magic. That would allow him to preserve corpses forever via Gentle Repose, and permanently maintain control of them via Command Undead… saves looking at the headless corpses too, as Fleshy Facade won't expire either.

There are plenty of other, much better, uses for that planar property, but that’s clearly the one used here.

Wendy picks up on what I'm testing when she sees the creature's magical aura, "So this place is timeless, then?"

I nod, "With respect to magic, at a minimum. And that's probably it - one can't normally rest in a generally timeless plane, and that's occasionally going to be important. He'd need to renew spells on minions prior to taking them outside, but it would let him stockpile various flavors of mind slaves, and save magic power on his 'hobbies' to boot."

Checking, I find that he's managed to sever my mind control link; pity. It would have made this easier.  Still, not too big of a deal, I'm immune to most anti-divination methods thanks to Primordial Lore… one quick Greater Scrying spell later, I see him… in a vault, surrounded by shortswords, rings, scrolls, very old oil lamps, and … a Monkey's paw? How'd he get that? If that's the real deal, it's absolutely a last resort….and as I watch, he grabs a ring with three rubies, and says, "I wish for Greater Heroism; I Wish for Divine Power; I wish for Righteous Might," and tosses the ring aside as the three rubies crumble to dust… and it lands in a pile of similar rings missing gemstones. A very large pile. And he reaches for another as he lobs a Disintegrate at my Scrying Sensor, which apparently will end the spell here.

And his spells won't expire here. Great. So me, but limited to this Fractal, and probably a better chassis. I'm only level eight here, he's… shooting 9th level spells, so at least seventeenth? Running melee and ranged, too, with a lot of attacks, so one of the hybrid Prestige classes, like Eldritch Knight?  Would explain the Quickened Weird when his hands were full… ugh. I don't feel invulnerable anymore.

I want to feel invulnerable again.