Deepening Rift 2

"What mouth-breathing simpletons. No surprise, I suppose, but it's always disappointing when one's enemies fall into your trap so easily." Nulloc Toadbringer crouches in the darkness of his hidden chamber, staring with sensitive eyes down into the dimly lit cavern. He has been thoroughly briefed by his lady love, so he knows what the sunsuckers are capable of. "So predictable," he laments quietly to his darlings in the cramped cages behind him.

"Croaaak?"

"You see, they are conditioned to fighting undead, my little sweetlings. It will be no surprise when I out-think them and out-maneuver them with such ease."

Of course, that's no surprise. Nulloc is well aware that he can out-think anybody.

The upworlders' approach is obvious and loud, with no conversation but plenty of clanking. The detection spells pick them up far down the tunnel, giving Nulloc plenty of time to prepare. First he pulls out his disguise kit and makes himself look like a ghoul. Not perfectly, of course, but he intends to be using illusions, height and darkness to his advantage; even with true seeing he should reasonably appear to undead, and doubtless these "heroes" will be so used to trusting their magic that they won't bother to actually think. The ghoul disguise should distract their clerics and holy warriors long enough to waste a few turning attempts. Ha! Lloth's swollen abdomen, but he was clever! He reaches behind to pat a toad, reassuring himself, then goes back to finishing his disguise.

Once the disguise is acceptable, Nulloc winks at a toad, reluctantly puts down his mithral-chased mirror, and hisses a few commands to his useless lackeys in the cave below. He greedily drinks a potion of liquid glory, and laughs as his personal magnetism increase to inhuman levels. Then he systematically digs into his belt pouches.

First a sprinkle of nondetection dust in a semi-circle on the ledge in front of him, scattered just in front of the illusory wall that hides his niche fifty feet up the eastern cavern wall. This way, when the invaders detect magic or evil, the illusory wall won't be revealed. Then a second scattering of gray dust of silence. Now there is a sound barrier blocking him from the cavern; he can cast or even scream behind it, and no one on the other side will be able to hear him. Nulloc giggles to himself in self-satisfied anticipation, pausing only to dodge back into the small crevice and stroke the warty backs of several captive toads.

"Soon," he croons. "You'll have more friends."

As he heads back to the hidden ledge, Nulloc's heart thrums in his chest and his long fingers flex in sweaty anticipation. Incandescent with the magical power issuing from his arcane staff of the rising spell, his mind whirls with battle strategies and contingency plans. Nulloc is a drow elf planning an ambush; like a fish in the sea, he is in his element, and he glories in the feeling. He wonders briefly where that homicidal pest Quelm has gotten himself to, then decides that it's better that he's not on duty; this way, the victory will all be Nulloc's, as will the glory. And the toads.

Oh, here comes the first one! And more, and more. A lizard and a horse? How fun.

Now, while they look about, time for the preparatory spells. Mage armor and fly are already active, of course. First haste, with the inevitable rush of adrenaline. Then expeditious retreat and jump; Nulloc's legs bend and twist as the magic takes hold. Off go the boots as spider climb is cast, and then spectral hand. Nulloc flexes his spectral fingers, and his white teeth gleam in the darkness. Now, what next? See invisibility and true seeing, of course, finishing with the piece d'resistance, project image. Nulloc places the projected image safely behind a second illusory wall 50' up on the opposite wall of the cavern, completely out of sight.

Ready? Yes, he decides, although they aren't in ideal formation. Start... now.

From behind his sound barrier and illusory wall, Nulloc rhythmically chants the magical syllables of a chained polymorph other. He then uses his haste to cast the same spell a second time. Each should affect fifteen targets! Nulloc feels the staff bolstering his own magics, making the spells almost irrestible, and is shudders with pleasure as he feels the transmutation magics taking effect below. Glancing over the ledge, he's shocked to see that many of the sunsuckers resist the magic. How dare they!

Well, fine. The upworlders are still unbalanced and confused, trying to find a target, but more than half have changed into large white toads. They want a target? He'll give them one. On the far side of the cavern, Nulloc's projected image steps through an illusory wall out onto the stone balcony. It's still out of vision range for anyone using magical darkvision, but Nulloc speaks through it, giving in to his natural urge to gloat. Nulloc mouths the words from his hidden nook on the eastern edge of the cave, and they echo loudly from the illusory image to the west.

"Too easy! Change! All of you, change!" Emerald light bursts from the male paladin, clearly a positive energy burst. Nulloc cackles with laughter. "Hah! I knew you would do that. But I'm immune, idiot! You are a dullard who can't recognize the truth when it hits you in the face. Like.. this?"

Safe in his hiding place, Nulloc casts a quickened true strike. He follows with a chained enervation, targeting the male holy warrior as his primary target. The black ray races from the projected image to strike the human squarely in the chest; the black radiance buckles his knees before fracturing off into fourteen secondary rays. With his hasted action, Nulloc casts a third chained polymorph that strikes the weakened paladin and bounces into more than a dozen allies. Change, weaklings! Submit! Change! Change! Change!

Ah. Much better.