"I'm at a bad angle, the floor and the ceiling here are both... thick, or something. Is it safe to get closer if I step on that part of the floor?"

"It is most likely some version of the Alarm spell, which is unlikely to be harmful to your person." Pause. "In the event I am wrong, I will memorialize your contributions to the study of magic in my encyclopedia."

Sigh. "It is improbable that we will with this team composition and our axe-enabled entry successfully surprise him, go ahead and trip the alarm."

She steps forward slowly, looking between the two staircases. (It's the silent type of Alarm, if that's in fact the spell it is.)

"Lots of Evil auras down there," she reports. "I don't see any upstairs."

"Excellent, it seems that my prediction was correct! Now, what can you tell me about that magical sign?"

"...I don't know, I can't read it."

Blai sighs and passes out Greater Hide from Undead and sets about trying to find the way down.

When the literate members of the party approach the sign, it turns out to read "Welcome," with store hours underneath.

...Also, it explodes, hitting everyone within several feet of it with a burst of ?hard air? that hurts about as badly as a Fireball.

"How the Abyss is that abjuration??"

"Abjuration spells are distinguished by their unique topological properties, such as—"

"Not what I meant."

"It seems our necromancer has a sense of humor."

He channels for them, twice.

"Thank you, Count Arendae."

Down they go.

There is in fact a gnome in the basement, surrounded by zombies and corpses. He's taken the opportunity to cast a few buffs on them; he's feeling pretty good about his chances here.

"So you've come to disrupt my experiments? Attack, my creations!"

His zombies... stand there, not moving.

"I said, attack!"

He stomps his foot angrily and points a finger at Blai's party on the staircase. "Lightning Bolt."

Well, that's not great but Blai kind of wanted to drop a channel here in this room anyway.

It's a good pull, or maybe the well he's pulling from is deeper; nearly half the zombies drop, and the rest are looking battered.

—Oh, this formation leaves them vulnerable—

He channels as well. He's further back, so he can't catch them all, but the ones in his radius drop.

The other members of the party set to attacking the wizard, as the zombies continue to stand there.

Why aren't his zombies working?? This is really not ideal!

"Wait, I didn't realize you were crusaders! I'll set my creations on the demons, just don't kill me! I just, uh, thought this was the best way to defeat Evil, like Iomedae says!"

"Iomedae says," says Blai, whacking a zombie out of the way of his path to the wizard, "no undead."

"This is why the crusades keep losing, because you aren't willing to do anything that would actually win!"

They're still shooting this guy, right? He's definitely still shooting this guy.

Yeah that sentence doesn't even need the dignity of a response.

"Dimension D-"

Oh look who's gotten through all the zombies now. It's this mace('s cleric).