Oh no you don't! I remember what you buggers can do. Kynrael barrels forward into the flash beetle, delivering a strike intended to crush the creature between hammer and wall.
Kynrael's swing smashes the beetle.
Round 2. There is one guard left, and two that have been sleeping, but have started to awaken. They will not get actions until round 3.
Porks tries to prevent the group from being flanked by picking off one of the newly awakened mites.
As Rois crosses the room, he flips his blade in his hand. He reaches his target, and stabs downward.
Argor quickly turns about and releases another blue beam at the remaining awake guard.
Pork's arrow strikes Mite 3, and he grunts in pain. Rois' slash ends the life of Mite 4.
The standing mite guard attacks Kynrael.
Kynrael growls as the mite lands a blow, and makes to return the favor, unleashing a flurry of swings from high above.
Kynrael's attack is slighly overzealous, and the mite practically explodes from the smahing hammer strike leaving a lump of blue flesh and crumpled armor.
Seeing the Kynrael utterly obliterate the mite makes Pork go into a blood frenzy and he draws his bow far behind his head before releasing it into the pitiful creature.
Folding his arms into his robes, Argor smirks slightly and scans the room for anything to provide them clues as to the mage and miners location.
With a downward cut, Rois tries to fell Pork's target.
Rois' slash kills the last remaining mite. A quick search of the guards reveals each has a sickle, 10 darts, an unholy symbol, and a key. All of the keys are the same.
The room is lttered with personal effects, and the weapon rack contains a medium silver longsword.
Argor spots nothing of interest.
The hallway north leads to a door. In addition to the weapons rack, there are several mattresses on the floor in this room, and a crude shrine. Any actions?
Argor mutters a quick arcane phrase, and looks over each item carefully, as well as the shrine.
Argor you notice some small auras coming from a couple of the mattresses, but no others.
Rois finds no traps on the door. You hear slight shuffling coming from the room on the other side of the door.
Argor kneels down to examine the glowing items, and stores them away for later thorough examination.
The glowing items are hidden within two of the mattresses. You find two scrolls and a potion of cure light wounds.
Rois strides carefully back to the center of the room. "Rustling on the other side of that." he murmurs, indicating the door. He draws his second sword.
Kynrael retrieves the silver longsword from the weapon rack. Admiring it momentarily, he turns to the group. "I doubt this blade would be first choice for any of us, but a silver blade might come in handy. I was told during my time at the Temple of Iomedae that such weapons are particularly effective against certain creatures."
"We should all take one of the keys off the dead ones as well. Never know what might happen further in." Kynrael kneels down over the pulpy mess of the mite he recently ended, fishing out the key from the gory remains. He tucks it gently into his coin purse and stands up once more, turning his eyes towards the northern hallway.
"Wise plan, Kynrael." Good to see he can use his head as well as his brawn.
After storing the items away, Argor makes his way to the group, placing everyone between himself and the door Rois mentioned. "Well I doubt we have the surprise on them, given the ruckus we caused here. We've probably lost it altogether at this point anyway. If anyone is still alive, our best chance of finding them that way is to move quickly, but cautiously, and take advantage of every resource we find in here. Such as..." Argor removes the newly found potion from his pack, and hands it to Kynrael, "I found this in one of the mites things. Should help keep you alive should your healing magics be needed elsewhere."
"Agreed." Rois grunts as he opens the door in front of them.
The room you enter is bare of all furnishings. There are four people in the rooom in desheveled clothes. Thes must be some of the miners that have disappeared. They look to be in a sorry state, possibly ill.
A young man looks up as you enter. Thank Erastil. I thought I would die in here. Are you here to rescue us?
Argor's eyebrow rises as he looks over the people in the room, looking for any who may be the wizard. Perhaps they have him imprisoned elsewhere within these caverns. Unless he was slain outright...
"Be sure of that." Rois slides his short swords back into their scabbards. "Just the four of you? Any other prisoners, that you've seen?"
The strange blue creatures took away one of the miners that was with us, other than that, no. All we have seen is the blue creatures, some giant insects and their leader. He appears to be some sort of wizard, but his body is made of worms. He infected us with something using giant bugs that look like cockroaches.
"Infected?" Kynrael's face washes over with concern upon hearing the miner's words. "Tell us exactly what these 'cockroaches' did to you, if you could. We've a wizard of our own, and he may know something more about it."
Kynrael fetches his cooking kit from his bags, and sets out some small bowls. He holds his hand out over them and closes his eyes for a moment, a small chant making its way through his lips. As he opens his eyes, water begins to fill all of the bowls, which he then sets to distributing among the prisoners.
Rois's face twists in anger. Damnable creatures!
"They will answer for what they've done. Be sure of that."
Argor: You vaguely recall rumors, that particularly evil wizards sometimes come back as a being made of worms and refuse, but you don't remember any specific details about such a transformation.
Turning from the group of prisoners, Argor mutters, "Not any sort of spell or curse I'm aware of, and I'm not as versed in diseases as you may think. However this wizard sounds like serious trouble. Keep a keen eye out for anything suspicious..."
"Keep a keen eye out? Surely." Rois growls. "I'll have a pair of keen blades out too, when we meet this...wizard."
"Been going in a circle, haven't we?" Rois grumbles. "Let's lift a foot, and keep with it."
He makes for the door, but hesitates, and turns back to the prisoners. "We've cleared the way. Think you lot could make it back to town?"
There are a lot of different critters wandering around here, and a couple of us are not doing so well, so it might be best if you accompany us to the entrance.
"I gladly volunteer to see these folks safely back to the surface." Kynrael begins to survey the room and slain mites for a moment before continuing, "We should see about distributing some of this gear as well. Gods willing, it won't come to it, but I'd feel more comfortable if they had weapons to defend themselves with."
"Agreed." Rois nods as he slides one of his swords back into its scabbard and lifts his lantern. "We'll see them out, then see ourselves back in."
Before the group sets out, Argor says, "Gentlemen, a word..."
Once at least Rois and Kyndrael are out of earshot of the miners, he whispers, "Perhaps this isn't the best course of action. These men admit to an entity infecting them with something. Letting these men just return unsupervised could lead to whatever it is they have spreading and running rampant through the land. I suggest a cautious plan, clearing out and finding all the people we can, and escort them directly to a temple to be cleansed both physically and mystically."
"Wise words." Rois agrees, speaking quietly. "Yet what if we fall, or face capture ourselves? They're no better then than they were afore we came."
"Perhaps, but at least then we haven't risked the safety of our homeland. I could be fretting over nothing, but I prefer to err on the side of caution."
"Right you are. Right you are." Rois nods. "Let's be underway then, but first we should leave the miners with some of the arms we've recovered, and an explanation as to why 'here' is better than 'there,' eh?"