Seeing two of her friends go rigid, Mara said, "Hang on guys — let me see if I can do something about that!" She dropped her wand, received a scroll and read it.
Theo steps back. He then Misfortunes the ghasts.
Dervak breaks free of the paralysis. He drops the longspear, draws his falchion, and strikes at Klades.
Julius also breaks free from the grip of the ghast's paralysis.
Finally Theo gets a curse to go through.
Woo-hoo!, the excited gentleman Cackles!
Rowan flurries Klades using guidance.
Rowan's punch connects directly to the ghast's nose knocking him over and down the stairs dead.
One of the ghouls manages to break free enough to escape and climb after their leader. The other manages make some progress but gets entangled again.
Dervak dropped the longspear to switch to the falchion once Klades got close. If he still gets an AOO based on the ghoul's movement as it tries to climb, I'll take it.
But a miss.
Who's up?
Dervak dropped the longspear to switch to the falchion once Klades got close. If he still gets an AOO based on the ghoul's movement as it tries to climb, I'll take it.
Sara seemingly looses interest in the fight and runs around with Shuck some more.
Julius attacks the ghoul that has presented itself, but can't seem to get a good angle with the railing in the way.
Mara dropped her crossbow and moved to the railing, squeezing around a crate while drawing her axe. Reaching over the railing, she tried to swung down at the ghoul, but she found it hard to do without exposing herself too much.
"HA!"
Dervak chops at the ghoul.
He moves back - using Acrobatics to avoid AOOs if the ghoul is still up.
The ghoul somehow is still standing and looking for flesh, Dervak manages get away cleanly.
Rowan takes advantage of his high ground (and bless for the first attack) and does a flurry of kicks at the monster before him.
The ghoul falls over dead. With all of its companions dead the final very sticky ghoul easily succumbs to anything the party offers in the way of violence.
Mara healed Dervak, using the last of her prepared spells, and then carefully climbed down the ladder.
Fearing the worst, she went to check on the patient they had left tied to the bed.
He is sleeping but all things considered ok. The ghouls had no loot.
Relieved, Mara had a closer look to make sure the sleeping patient was OK, and then rejoined the others.
She told her friends, "Good news — the guy we left in the other room is OK! I guess the ghouls thought we'd be more tasty."
Theophilus winks at Mara.
Certainly, a most abhorrent alternative!
Theophilus casts Guidance.
So, we continue? I haven't a Web spell left, but I am far from depleted.
Mara replied to Theophilus, "I'm pretty depleted, but our friend hasn't got much time left; I say we press on! We'd better check that there's nothing more in this area to threaten the patient."
When everyone was ready, she moved to the double doors south of the main stairs. After praying for guidance, she opened opened one side of the double doors.
Theophilus also peers into the room.
Dervak takes up the longspear again and looks into the room.
Cracked, river-green tiles cover the walls and floors of this communal shower in wavering patterns. Dry metal spouts jut from several walls, overlooking grates in the tile floor. A sizable portion of the floor drops into a shallow pool, filled with something other than water: a vile stew of corpses and blood. The smell of rot and copper fills the air in this room. Three alcoves, providing minimal privacy, run along the south wall. In the center, a simple chair has been transformed into a gruesome throne covered with draped viscera and gnawed bones.
Julius takes out his want of cure light wounds and uses it on himself and Dervak.
Dervak looks at the carnage. Like the pile of bodies in the basement, the corpses remind him of his victims. From battles with the Kellids, from fighting for survival as an outcast, the new body count from this asylum... and the knowledge that there are more from the missing years.
"I don't think we need to stay here."
"Ugh!", Mara said in disgust. She uttered a prayer and moved into the room, holding her nose, and scanned for magic auras.
Theophilus abscently places a handkerchief over his nose.
The Witch casts See Invisibility before peering into the room.
Mara finds no aura’s hidden amidst the gore and sees no treasures buried in the blood.
Theo sees nothing invisible among the carnage.
Mara quickly searched the rest of the room and declared, "That's enough time in here! Let's move on."
She had to check a couple of more doors to make sure that the patient was safe. She picked her way through the rubble from the wall collapsed by the ghouls, and opened the southern door at the end of that hallway.
Dense, sour mist fills this spacious courtyard. Eddies in the fog create phantom shapes among the shadows of bent trees and wilted foliage. A cobblestone path winds along the wall to the north and south.
Mara closed the door and told the others, [/b]"That leads to a courtyard; this other door probably does too."[/b]
She opened the other door just to the north, expecting to see the same courtyard.
Mara finds what she expects.
"I don't see any reason to go in the courtyard. Unless, Mara, do you want to throw the, uh, the fog-man out there? I think he's beyond help. All his insides are missing. I can do it if you want."
Mara closed the door and said to Dervak, "I don't have any desire to go into the courtyard. I think it's time to go back to the large room with the cultists, and go up the stairs after Zandalus."
Theo nods in agreement.
He casts Guidance.
The party is met with little resistance as it heads back to the cultists camp. A few of the cultists gape their mouth as you brazenly walk up the stairs but no one stops you.
This chamber that has almost entirely collapsed upon itself. Shattered pieces of wall and ceiling timbers, knotted like broken fingers, slump precariously. Despite the chamber’s near ruin, a number of tables, chairs, and bedrolls lie about the room. A hall choked with fog lies through a gap in the wall to the north. You expected some sort of resistance but strangely there is none.
Wand at the ready, Mara moved into the room, trying to be quiet; she looked around the chamber and listened for sounds from the hall to the north.
Theophilus conjures Dancing Lights, sending them ahead to light up any dark areas, as they pass through. The gentleman tips his hat at any that meet his cold-blue eyes gaze.
On a table you find a battered harrow deck delt out as if being used for some game. Mara notices the Foreign Trader card depicts a veiled figure in yellow bearing an armful of misshapen rubies. Searching the pallets about the room turns up a bag that contains 200 gp worth of assorted coins and jewelry, 12 bite-sized pieces of jerky and a pearl tooth worth 10gp. Mara also hears faint chanting from the north west.
Through the hole in the wall to the north you see cracked pillars bent at broken angles support a sagging ceiling. While most of the walls look ready to fall apart, the northern wall has done so, creating a massive gap open to the strange weather beyond. Opposite it, the wall in the best repair is laden with parchment pages covered in stark lines of coal and chalk. A hall stretches to the west. Three oneirogens sit here in pools of their own blood spewing yellow mist endlessly from their mouths and noses.
I only have one handkerchief.
Mara reported back to the others, "There's three more fog-spewers in the room to the north; I didn't see anyone else, but I could hear chanting coming from the northwest. We'll have to go in there and shut them down — that fog is bad news."
"Once we're in position, I'm going to need to tie a rope around my waist, in case I fall asleep," Mara said. She clutched her 'daddy' doll and prayed for guidance, then made her way though the hole in the wall to the next room. She looked around to make sure there were no enemies before going any further.
Dervak follows along a bit behind Mara. He has the longspear out and lets the rope trail behind her. If she falls asleep, he will pick it up and drag her to safety. However, at the moment he wants both hands on his spear - there is no guarantee that all of these fog-spewing monstrosities are as sedate as the ones they have seen so far.
He turns to Sara. "Why are you here with us? We are on the way to battle - to put an end to Zandalus. This is not a place for a child."
In her best mocking voice Sara replied to Dervak, “I’m not a child. You said I was a ghost. And Mara told me to stay close so I’m helping!” she then childishly blows a raspberry.
When Mara enters the room her eyes are drawn to the parchment pieces which depict scenes of chalky mist filled with impossible, ominous shapes. She sees the sketches flutter in an unfelt wind.
Just after Mara sees something is wrong with the drawings they begin to swirl hypnotically. Mara try as she might cannot stop looking at them.
The yellow fog in this area is incredibly thick and the chanting continues to the west.