Lernys' Veranda

(missed a day - catching up - work and life interposed on my silly pursuits)

V is for Veranda, because an under-lord still appreciates a room with a view....

The sorceress Lernys comes to this balcony to meditate and take in the view of the yawning chasm before her. Sometimes she just enjoys the luminous fungi lining the dripping walls, or listens to the soothing susurrations of the hoards of vampire bats as they rise and decend through the gap. Twice a year, she marks the scintillating migration of the luminous jellies as they rise to the towering cavern roof to mate and hang their mucous-like egg cases. Then she awaits the birth-fall of the young as they drift downward, a portion consumed by filter-feeding sieve-bats.

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The veranda extends out over the chasm, ringed by stout columns (closely arrayed, but not so close that a disappointing servant or spent sacrifice can't easily be pitched into the abyss).

Lernys reclines on an azurite throne, absconded from some dwarven stronghold.  Braziers behind her hold not flames, but tiny flame elementals (2HD, atk 1d8).

To her right is a massive onyx sacrificial alter, cut through with an s-shaped gutter for collecting the blood of the lost. Sensitive about her height, a minion provided curved steps for Lernys to access the alter for ease in plunging the knife.

A pasha's pavilion tent, captured in some surface raid, jauntily occupies one third of the veranda. Inside are the usual array of simpering servants, cushions and delicacies both subterranean and surficial.

The entrance is guarded by a pair of Tusken ogres, each armed with a feersum double-bladed axe (2 hits per round, 1d12). If attacked, they will use their mirror image ability, and one will hold the entrance, while the second moves to free the sorceress' 'pet.'

She keeps as a pet, a small acid wyrm, (6HD, atk bite 2d8 or acid spit [20' range, successful hit causes 1d8 first round, 1d6 second round], no tail sting).  The creature is chained to an azurite pedestal.  If one of the ogres manages to free it, the wyrm will fly free to attack, otherwise it will thrash and defend itself from its position.

Lernys, 11th level sorcerer, 30 HP, AC 6/14 (leather / ring of protection +2),  obsidian dagger +1, healthstealer (save or 1d3 CON loss), scrolls (charm, summon monster I, invisibility)