** TURN 8 **

Western tunnel:

*rolls dice*
The Hag looks at the advancing Ghast and barks a word of power - the Ghast collapses into a pile of bones and skin.

40 - Gilius - Dwarven Druid orders his Stone Elemental to close on the Hag and grab it. The Elemental advances *rolls dice* It reaches to grab the Hag but is stopped short by an invisible barrier. The Hag sneers at the Elemental.

25 - BenKii - Human Warrior pulls himself to his feet and attacks the Hag *rolls dice* but his attack is repelled by a magic barrier. *rolls dice* The Hag backhands BenKii sending him flying 8 feet back down the tunnel.

The second Ghast attacks the Hag as instructed *rolls dice* the Ghast manages to rake the Hag with its claws. *rolls dice* The Hag flinches back but resists the paralyzing effect of the claws. *rolls dice* The Hag grabs the Ghast and sucks the life force out of it, leaving a hollow shell in its place.

13 - Roosevelt - Human Paladin stands to face the Hag who has fixed her beady little eyes on him. You attempt to shield bash her back into the room. *rolls dice* The hag grabs the rim of the shield and raises Roosevelt of the ground. She licks her lips, drool dribbling down her chins.

67 - Rufus - Human Cleric enters the left room, just behind his Holy Guardian. He feels the reassuring presence of his Globe of Protection. Seeing movement in the painting straight ahead of him, Rufus quickly lights it with his torch.
He asks if anyone could trap the other paintings?
On alert, you don't see any living beings moving in the other paintings.

*A booming voice shouts out "You FOOLS!" as the flying creature draws closer in the now burning painting. A Gold Dragon comes into view as the sides of the painting curl inwards.

68 - Peloquin - Dwarven Thief rushes into the left room, away from the Hag. He shuts the door quickly and starts inspecting the room. His senses are shaken as a booming voice sounds out from a fast burning painting ahead of him.
Peloquin closely inspects the painting on the left, he can almost feel the cold mountain air as he gets near. He suggests using the painting as a trap.

63 - Fish - Half Orc Berserker cursing those around him rushes the Hag, axe raised. *rolls dice* He is unable to get a clear strike as the Hag is holding a Paladin aloft as a human shield, looking at him hungrily.

38 - Roy Jenks - Half-Orc Battemage asks if the paintings would be big enough to trap someone in? You notice that the room is now starting to fill with smoke as the center painting burns brightly.

*The left room is fast filling with smoke*

57 - Siegfried - Human Paladin moves to attack the Hag. *rolls dice* He cannot get in range to strike as Roosevelt and the Elemental are blocking his path.

58 - Tanea - Halfling Shaman casts Protection from Elements on Siegfried. Her Ice Elemental moves to the wall by where the warded door used to be, trying to remain unnoticed by the Hag. Its way to the Hag is blocked by the Earth Elemental.

74 - Yeenwi - Drow Necromancer tries to trick the Hag into going down the tunnel where great power awaits. *rolls dice* The Hag ignores you, intent on the Paladin in her grasp.

38 - Roy Jenks - Half-Orc Battemage casts Reflect Spells on himself. He grabs the closest painting of the wall which is the one with the long swaying grass on the right wall. He attempts to leave the room with it *rolls dice* some idiot has shut the door and you can't see the handle through the smoke.

*It is becoming hard to breath in the left room.*

45 - Loradan - Elven Mage casts Dispel Magic on the Hag. *rolls dice* The Hag Shrieks and snaps her head around to glare at Loradan.
She begins casting a spell towards Loradan *rolls dice* the Earth Elemental manages to grab hold of one of her arms breaking her concentration now that the invisible barrier is gone.
*rolls dice*
The Hag curses and mutters a quick spell. The Hag teleports out of the area *rolls dice* taking Roosevelt with her.

45 - Loradan - Elven Mage earns the achievement *Useful After All*

4 - Strigon - Drow Necromancer casts Death Armour on himself. He sees the thief shut the left door after himself.

(I just can't stop giggling. When I read that Rufus wants to burn the painting I was wondering, if starting an uncontrolled fire was a good idea, but I didn't read about anything besides the paintings in the room, so stopped thinking about it. But picturing the line of events while the painting burns up, is funny. Well, only because Tanea isn't in the room, probably.)
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Tanea, Halfling Shaman (female)
Shortly after, I'm shaken out of my musings as the right door explodes outwards, sending BenKii and Roosevelt flying from it, causing them to land hard on the ground. My eyes shoot back from where they fell to the now doorless right wall and I have trouble believing what I see. There is a greyish old naked woman with a bloated belly, but the most disturbing things about her are her long sharp teeth and seemingly equally sharp incredibly long ... can those even still be called fingernails? They look like weapons. I'm very glad, I stayed away from the door, otherwise she might have demonstrated how sharp they are by cutting me to pieces with them! I shudder and feel the coldness stir. What do we do now? Maybe someone could try to hide near the wall that has no door anymore and when she steps out of the doorway try to hit her head from behind? I look at my companions. There is a lot of movement going on, some of it through the left door? They're leaving?! All attempts of attack fail. Something is protection her. Worse, she manages to grabs Roosevelt's shield and lifts him of the ground like he were a doll. When Siegfried tries to attack, I cast "Protection From Elements" on him too. I don't know what else to do. Siegfried can't even get near her. What should I do?! The coldness stirs again. Suddenly the woman shrieks. Who is she looking at? Loradan! She doesn't look happy, but before she can retaliate with something nasty, I'm sure, the Stone Elemental tries again and this time he can grab her! And then she is gone ... and Roosevelt with her. What just happened? Is Roosevelt really gone? I look around.

Tanea, Halfling Shaman (female)
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58 - FlockeSchnee - Tanea - Halfling Shaman
Tanea shakes out of the shock and looks around. When she notices the now closed left door, she stomps over and opens it with a "Hiding in here while ..." on her lips. Once she notices the smoke in there, she will hurriedly give the door a shove to open fully and scramble out of the way, so she doesn't get trampled by those surely desperate to get out of there.
Tanea will then carefully peek into the room and try to pinpoint the fire. I she can pinpoint it, she will cast (*sigh, this is getting old*) "Protection From Elements" on what is burning, hoping, that this might extinguish the fire, because it has "no food" anymore. (No idea of this could actually work though.)
The Ice Elemental will stand next to the former right (warded) door, take a look inside and ... send Tanea a picture of what he sees or if that doesn't work, just tell her what he sees.
Should anyone coming out of the left room require healing, Tanea will heal them.
Should Web (or anyone else) get out of there with a painting in hand, she will ask incredulous "Why are you carrying that around?"

Loradan thanked the Seldarine gods for suggesting him the correct spell to use against the Hag.

The mage had never encountered such powerful creature before, but luckly he recalled a stoy told by his old mentor about how he managed to defeat one.

However.. this witch managed to escape, so they could all still be in danger.

But.. where was Roosevelt? And why was the left door closed?

Thank you, Loradan. Quick thinking there.

As the dragon painting is burning, we get A booming voice shouts out "You FOOLS!" as the flying creature draws closer in the now burning painting. A Gold Dragon comes into view as the sides of the painting curl inwards.

As I said before, in post 387, " It would be a shame if the creature coming out of the paintings was friendly and wanted to attack the Hag in our defence"

It would be a good idea to get the door of left room open soon to get our trapped teammates out and also to put out the flames on the painting being burned.

If the door is stuck, I suggest destroying it with physical weapons as soon as possible.

My god.... What have I done? Now that Hag has Roosevelt and we don't know where she took him. I keep thinking to myself how this could have been prevented if I hadn't been so head strong into trying to open that damn door. I have to try and make this right. She most likely would've taken him back further into the right room and where her "sisters" may be waiting for us. She will also be vulnerable now that her magic shield is down so time is of the essence. I'm going to lead a party into this room to try and rescue Roosevelt. I know I don't deserve it but I'm asking if the rest of you will help me save our captured paladin?

Fish the Half-Orc Berserker

Let's worry about the hag later. There's a dragon coming for us!

I'll try smashing the left door to let out those who are trapped inside.

40 - Gilius, dwarven druid

I'll try to act first if possible.

I open the door to the left room. When it is done, as soon as I see the smoke, I cast Clean Air in it ASAP.
Seeing the central painting in fire, I yell : "Tanea ! Can you use your Ice Elemental to somehow extinguish the flames ? Maybe igniting that painting wasn't the best idea at all !! Tanea or anyone, extinguish that goddamn fire ! All others, get out of that room NOW !!"

I stay outside of the room, near the door. And I also take a quick glance through the busted door into the room which the hag came from.

[68 - Peloquin - Dwarven Thief]

"You FOOLS!" shouts a Gold Dragon as it fast approaches the outer limits of the burning painting that Rufus set on fire. The cold mountain air blowing from the left painting in front of me jolts me into action!

Friendly or not, that fast approaching Golden Dragon cannot possibly fit inside this snug room we are in when it pops out of that burning painting. I dash towards Rufus and forcefully steal the burning painting from his grip. Trying as much as I can to extinguish some of the flames as I bolt back to the left painting carefully insert the flaming painting into the desolate scenery, hoping the cold mountain air will extinquish the remainder of the flames. All this, in the hopes that should the Golden Dragon be a friendly entity, it would have more room to manifest within the desolate scenery rather than inside this tiny smokey room. If Golden Dragon is not-so-friendly, well, this may all buy us some precious time!

++++++++++++++++++++++++
High constitution. Leather armour.
1 x cure poison potion. 1 x heal potion.
Lockpicks. Trap disarm kit. Rope.
Ring of free movement - this ring means traps and spells to ensnare me will not work.
Shortbow and quiver of enchanted arrows (paralyze).
Lucky dagger. Light hammer.

Edit: Out of respect for Testor0 who cast an action against my character, I decided to republish my post to include the orginal statement: "hoping the cold mountain air will extinquish the remainder of the flames".

67 - Rufus - Human Cleric

To the running dwarf: "What are you doing?! We need to stop that dragon now!"
Rufus takes his Returning Silver Light-Hammer, looks the direction taken by Peloquin , aims at the center of the evading smokey painting and he launchs the weapon in order to tear the painting apart.

Right after, he whispers in the ear of the Holy Guadian. He takes a big and clean breath at the breathable ground, then lets the Guardian helps him. The guardian launches Rufus in the air toward Peloquin, Rufus will try to stop Peloquin and to tore the burning painting.

He finally lets his returning weapon come back to him by itself.

Thr first priority should be taking everybody out of the left room, then find Roosevelt and finish off the Hag.

Of course! That's the only reasonable course of action. Roosevelt would do it for any of us.

I think we can assume the teleporting spell was short-ranged, as it was an emergency plan B by the Hag. I don't think there are more witches in the right room (they didn't come in aid of the Hag during the fight). What I'm not sure is if the Hag would decide to come back there. I hope she didn't go to the central chamber...

Perhaps further down the tunnel? Maybe this was a blessing in disguise and the Hag will guide us to the exit of the dungeon.

If the left door cannot be opened by other means, I use brute force with my sword and rescue whoever is still lying there.

I join BenKii in the search of the Hag and Roosevelt, sword in hand.

~~~~~~~
Siegfried the Human Paladin

(I guess Peloquin doesn't know how fires work. It doesn't matter if the air is cold or not, fires thrive on oxygen and you just gave it giant fuel canister of it. The only way to stop a fire is to either douse it in water or starve it of oxygen. Since we don't have water, you could find something to throw on top of the fire to starve it of oxygen. Or, this might be a long shot, drop the painting facedown on the ground. The fire is on the front side so by letting it fall down, it should instantly extinguish itself.)

Captain's Log Stardate 73255.7
The damsel in distress was nothing more than a trap. The door blasted back and sent me and Roosevelt backward stunned. When I came to, a monstrous old woman with sharp teeth stood before us. I tried to get back up as fast as possible and strike at this new threat but my weapon had no effect. If my phaser was operational then I would've used that but I have a feeling it also would have no effect. All she did was snicker and tossed me further down the tunnel. All I could do was watch in horror as Roosevelt was lifted off the ground but then Loradan casted a spell which seemed to have worked on the witch and then the Stone Elemental was able to restrain her. Shortly after, she disappeared taking Roosevelt with her.

Feeling responsible for the disaster that struck, I volunteer to go into the right room and attempt to rescue Roosevelt and ask if others will join. I know he would do it for us. I only pray that we get there in time before she kills him or worse.

I move to the scene where the Hag teleported and examine the area for clues where she could've taken Roosevelt (Damn, why did my tricorder have to been inoperable as well? Would come in handy right about now). I then move to the entrance of the right door and inspect what's inside. I rally others to follow me to save our missing comrade.

(*Blushing in total embarrassement* >> What a total idiot I am. I removed those stupid words from my orginal post. Thx BenKii.)