Crossing the Courtyard
Gruknal takes the lead in working out how to cross safely the foggy, smoky courtyard full of peril. The rest of us ought to follow, if only for the sake of the plot, we just need to work out how. Adran follows Gruknal, with his long ranger stride letting him catch and pass the dwarf within a few seconds. I have a utility spell that lets me assume the form of a raven and take flight, gliding above the action but remaining close enough to provide assistance if needed. Krafft is confident he can span the courtyard in a single round, but he doesn't want to leave our dwarf shaman behind and unprotected. He has an idea. 'I'll stuff Grimstorm in the bag of holding, run across, and dump him out the other side. It should be fine if he takes a deep breath to start with, it will only be ten seconds or so.'
'Will Grimstorm fit in the bag of holding? I know it has plenty of volume, but he is a dwarf and so has rather broad shoulders.' We aren't quite sure whether a bag of holding magically enlarges its opening to accommodate what is to be put inside or not, and if it can do that my nay-saying quickly gets us off-topic to consider whether one could pick up an entire castle that way.
'Okay', Krafft gets us back on track, 'I'll take off all my armour and weapons and put them in the bag of holding. Grimstorm will do the same, and I'll carry a naked dwarf across the courtyard'.
'Grease yourselves up first and I'll pay you to do that', but my piqued interest only causes the GM to allow Grimstorm to be shoved in to the bag of holding, keeping the dwarf and half-orc fully armoured. And with that, Krafft is off. He runs headlong in to the dense mist in the rough direction where Gruknal left swirling vortices, diverting to his left to avoid a building. Just as it looks like he runs out of manoeuvring room, Krafft shimmers and phases, passing directly through the fountain in the middle of the courtyard, avoiding a large construct and its controller at the same time, before returning to corporeal form and sprinting the remaining distance to the end of the courtyard.
'Made it! What sort of action is it to empty a dwarf out of a bag of holding?'
'It's a move action', replies the GM, with so little pause that it's like he's been asked the same question before. However, the co-operative effort to traverse the courtyard safely isn't over. Grimstorm may have had a helping hand getting across himself, but now that he is at the other side he can offer his own help.
'I summon my spirit, then cause it to switch places with an ally', he states as a matter of fact, like his magical abilities are commonplace.
'Actually', starts the GM, 'that will place your ally on to a burning flame. But as it's Adran, and he's immobile, I'm going to allow it.' Poor Gruknal ends up last to the finishing line, after starting first and so boldly, although being continually slowed by attacking drow isn't helping. I swoop down and return to my badger form, biting Gruknal's leg and dragging him the last few steps to where the rest of the party waits.
The pursuing drow are quickly defeated, the golem and controller lose interest almost as soon as they appear, not even giving chase, and the spider-lizard guarding the entrance to the temple proves little challenge. We are ready to storm the temple itself.