"Indeed. Good job everyone." She takes her torch to burn the remains of the creature, making sure it doesn't not reform, if it could do that.
Then she access everyone's wounds before tending to her own. "Is anyone else hurt?"
"Don't worry about Tree, I've got healing for him that works better on his special plant-y anatomy."
She pulls out her wand of lesser rejuvenate eidolon and uses it on him.
She nods to the gnome, waiting for the answer of the others. "You?"
"Left or right, by the way?"
"Can anyone provide healing? I'm not feeling very good." Tsura's wounds are covered in a sheen of viscous slime.
Quarick ponders Elxurian's question then, oddly, spins around very fast many times. After a moment he stops, eyes closed pointing left. "I vote left! he says with a stupid grin on his face.
"Unfortunately, my healing abilities extend only to Tree. His anatomy is a bit different than yours or mine!"
She unfortunately had to spend her recent ability completely to heal them, but it would certainly be worth in the future. "Stand still"
She is panting after the effort, but soon enough she recovers and is ready to proceed.
"Well," Jonas remarks, chuckling softly at Quarick's method of choosing, "I suppose left is as good as right at this point. Unless we want to split up?" His tone makes it evident that he finds it to be a bad idea indeed.
"Splitting is not a good idea indeed."
"Thank you, Elxurian. I appreciate it." Tsura brushes herself off and stands. "The paladin is right. Splitting is never a great idea, and should be saved for desperate times. Let's stick together."
After some divine healing from Elxurian, the party elects to head left, and begins the slow movement through the tight tunnel, the larger members of the party having to turn and move sideways through the corridor in many spaces. Dirty and scraped by roots, Elxurian emerges in a small opening in the tunnels. Cracks and crevices line the walls and two more tunnels branch off to the northwest and southwest. Stuffed into one of the crevices is the mangled and torn form of a centaur. Much of its flesh has been stripped away and its internal organs have either been removed, or devoured.
Seeing the Centaur clearly dead, Elxurian does not immediately rush after it. She instead moves to the center of the room to give the others room to follow.
"What did that, I wonder," Jon remarks as he follows Elxurian and notices the centaur's remains. "Not those... oozes we took care of surely?"
"Oh no! I don't think the other centaurs will be happy to hear about this..."
The work on the centaurs appears to be a mixture of bites and claws, not man-made weapons. Enough pieces are missing to support the thought that it was partially eaten before being crammed into the crevice.
The wounds match those similar to the patterns observed by feeding ghouls. It is also well known that ghouls will store a body, coming back to it at a later time to continue feeding.
Tsura stares intently at the corpse, furrowing her eyebrows in concentration, but no epiphany or surge of insight occurs.
Elxurian left the party to examine the corpse while she stood guard, but through Tsura's confused face and the inertness of the others forced her to act, and she sheathed her hammer and approached the corpse, keeling near it to take a better look at the stinky corpse.
"There are bite and claw marks in here, and also too much of the muscle is missing. It was probably eaten before being brought here." She supports her chin with the right hand, thinking for a bit. "This seems like... a ghoul!" He eyes shine with anger at the realization. "Nasty undead creatures, evil as one comes. They eat flesh and may store a corpse to come feed on it later. The creature is around."
"Well, let's go.. this way then?"
Penka points to a tunnel branching left.
"Good as any." The paladin moves to assume the front line, again.
Picking the tunnel to the left, Elxurian takes the lead again, slowly moving through the cramped confines of the earthen cave. After fifty feet or so of inching along, the group comes to the end of the tunnel, which opens into a massive room by comparison. Nearly forty feet wide and disappearing into the darkness beyond, this chamber has been carefully worked from the earth and stone. The floor is well worn and packed solid, and bone and scraps of cloth litter the ground. Ahead the group can make out three small tables, each holding a humanoid form. Scrapes and scuttles echo further inside the room, beyond the reach of your light.
Elxurian approaches the humanoid forms to check what they really are, if people or something else.
"Ooh, what are those? Oh my... are they okay?"
Jonas walks behind Elxurian, ready to provide support if any of the figures proves more conscious -or alive- and hostile than they first appear.
"Hopefully, nothing jumps at us like the last time," he muses. Still, despite his hope, he keeps his bow at the ready as he scans the room.
Penka and Tree look around as well.
Moving closer to the tables, the group discovers the forms of two humans and a half-orc. Tied down securely, it appears that the humans have expired some time ago, and have been experimented on and cut open in several places. The half-orc appears intact, but it unconscious and wounded. Off to the side, another table stands, its surface covered in wicked looking instruments of torture as well as several open scrolls and pieces of parchment with various symbols and runes covering their surfaces. Another parchment appears only partially completed, its contents apparently a record of the research conducted here.
To the north the sound of claws on stone can be heard, the flapping sound of flesh on stone echoing through the chamber.
"We must act quickly. Do we rescue this half-orc and get to safety, or do we stay and fight whatever coming down the hallway?"
That was horrible. Experiencing on dead people. And who were they? They were in the middle of two centaur territories, and other people were not supposed to be here, but they heard of human activity here and also saw a camp. Maybe they belonged there. In any case, Elxurian holds her torch lightly in her left hand, ready to drop it when needed, and drops her greatsword, holding it with only one hand for now, while she moves slowly north to find the creature.
"I don't run in the face of evil!"
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"...okay then. Good to know." Tsura walks to the nearest table holding a deceased human. She mouths the word "Sorry." to the corpse and pulls it off the table, gently placing it nearby. She grips the edge of the wood, and heaves the table over onto its side. "Take cover, if you can." She draws a large knife from her jacket and crouches behind the barrier.
"Let's save the poor man! If we leave him, he might end up like them!"
Penka directs Tree over toward where the sounds are coming from, ready to attack something that comes at them.
"So, basically fight -and preferably kill- whatever comes and then attend to the half-orc," Jonas says as he joins Tsura behind the table, shortbow at the ready. "Elxurian, make sure to draw it here. No need to try to fight it on your own."
She is not abandoning to his own luck, of course, so she stops mid-way, to let the others do what they want first. "I'll cover ya." So she keeps an eye on the shadows and on the noise, to avoid being surprised by anything hidden there.
As the group gathers, the clawed feet draw nearer, finally revealing a pair of gaunt looking humanoids in the combination of flickering torchlight and magically created light. The beasts have gaping mouths that are lined with wicked looking teeth, vile saliva dripping from them as they eye the group with hunger. What appear to be wood and metal plates have been literally stitched to their bodies, forming a protective layer of armor on an otherwise vulnerable form.
Obviously some form of ghoul, these undead have been somehow modified with a process to incorporate armor into their bodies. Ghouls are undead and have the normal undead traits. They can paralyze their victims and can carry disease.
Seeing flesh, both creatures charge towards the party, the hunger in their eyes an obvious thing as they strike out at Penka and Elxurian, the closest sources of fresh meat. The first one, rushing towards Penka, bites at the gnome and lands a hit, tearing away bits of flesh which it quickly gobbles down, much to her dismay. The second launches a charging bite at the paladin, but the woman is quick to react, deftly parrying the attack and preparing a counter-strike.
"Their claws cause paralyses! Don't let them hit you!" The paladin is quick to react, although not enough to beat the creatures. She was expecting these vile monsters already, identifying them in a heartbeat. It was very weird to notice the extra detail, which made her save some of her energy for later, so she just let the torch drop to grab her sword with both hands and deliver justice to the horrible monster!
Tree slams at the ghoul that is trying to slash his master.
Penka steps away from the ghoul and casts acid splash at it.
"This is not a nice place," Jonas quips as he lets loose an arrow. His aim proves anything but true though, and the projectile hits nothing but air.
Tsura flings her blade, sending it spinning end over end toward the nasty creatures.
mindblade
Quick to react to the sudden attack, Tree takes a swipe at the approaching ghoul, but fails to connect as it closes with Penka. His follow up attack however slams into the thing with a violent impact, the sound of crunching bones coming from the undead creature. Tsura and Jonas both attempt to attack the beasts from range, but neither hits their target due to the close confines. Elxurian, her blade high, cleaves down on the unliving beast attacking her, the blade in her hand tearing through flesh and bone and nearly cutting the creature in half. It falls to the ground at her feet, motionless. Penka follows up Tree's slams with an attack of her own, conjuring a glob of acid which connects with the creature, sizzling away at its skin.
The remaining ghoul, severely wounded by Tree's attack, does not relent, clawing and biting at the gnome in wild hunger and careless abandon. The claws catch empty air as the tiny gnome bobs and weaves with the attacks, but the bite comes in low and the creature latches on to Penka with its teeth, tearing and gobbling more bits of flesh.
Penka once agains saves against the creature's evil attacks, and steps back from it again, firing off another acid splash.
Then Tree slams the creature twice more.
But he misses twice!
Conjuring up another blob of sizzling goo, the gnome launches the arcane attack against the remaining ghoul. The shot is true and the acid clings to the neck of the undead creature, burning a massive hole in it and causing the head to hang limply to the side for a moment until the thing collapses to the ground.
"Great! Well done guys!" She looks at the gnome, who resisted all the effects the creature tried to inflict. "You are very strong."
Tsura and Jonas seems not to be hurt too, but Elxurian in the way was not a good option for them, since she spoiled their ranged attacks. Anyway, seeing the ghouls, and knowing they can create other spawn, she worries about the body on the table. From where she is, Elxurian detects the presence of evil auras, both in the half-orc and in the body, just in case it wanna surprises them...
Scanning those on the tables, Elxurian can make out a faint aura surrounding the two dead bodies that leads her to believe there could be undeath at work, just not fully taken hold yet. The half-orc, still living, does not detect as evil.
She shakes her head, disappointed by that. "The bodies will probably become zombies or something like that if nothing is done." She will give the others some seconds to do something if they want.
"Are you suggesting we disable the bodies?" Tsura raises a surprised eyebrow.
"I suppose cutting their heads off might do the trick? After all, burning them is out of the question in here," Jonas says with a shrug.
"In my experience, the best way to keep a zombie from happening is to destroy the body. But, if you're against that, Elxurian, we could use some divine energy on them perhaps? That's your specialty, of course."