Round 1 Recap!
Ruhk's axe, Bethany, misses its target and the ghoul snarls at the man. Meanwhile Zirren's magical eagle and Caine's divine powers work together to obliterate their target and the undead dwarf's chest cavity explodes in a shower of rotten filth! Zilka tries to yank the legs out from beneath the other ghoul, but has no luck; however, Belladonna's crossbow bolt streaks between her friends' shoulders and punctures the nearest ghoul (Yellow)!
The other two ghouls give up on their carrion for fresh meat and rush over to engage the heroes! The quicker of the two clamps his teeth down hard onto Caine's arm, biting into the muscle tissue. Caine finds his body starting to rapidly tense up, but his is able to fight off the horrifying effect! He also feels a burning sensation begin to spread from the wound...
Round 2
Bold May Act
The ghoul standing before Artegal turns into full attention to the paladin as it tries to claw and bite him to death, but the bony claws and teeth cannot seem to find any purchase!
Green
Yellow: 9/13
Ruhk
Art
Zirren
Bella
Zilka
Caine - 14/18 HP;
Red
Blue
Ruhk, suddenly unable to reach a foe properly, adopts a stand where he is ready to spring forward if an opening presents itself.
Loading the bolt, Zirren took aim at the one biting Caine.
Caine shook off the ghoul that attacked him and swung his fist again.
"Caine, are you alright?! Can you move? Caine!"
Not sure how he ended up pushed to the front line, in front of Rhuk no less, Nathaniel swings his weapon down hard hoping to strike the foul undead hard enough to bring it down.
"I'm fine!" Caine barked. "Don't worry 'bout me, focus on them."
Belladonna will delay her turn until it is revealed who is dead or prone. Don't want to be shooting at stuff in melee and also either prone or behind cover.
Belladonna will shoot at a ghoul.
A sigh of relief escaped Zirren as Caine could still move. "Tougher than I thought." The stories he had heard of them felling hardened Pathfinder Adventurers raced through his mind.
Wasn't there... something about Elf blood making them immune? Do I have enough?"
Round 2 Recap
Zirren's eagle claws a wicked gash down one of the ghoul's backs while Caine completely crushes the rotting skull of another one with a divinely-empowered blow! Zilka uses her whip to pull the feet out from beneath the ghoul directly in front of Caine while Artegal and Bella make good use out of the distraction!
The tripped ghoul attempts to stand and immediately smashed back down into the cold stone ground! The remaining ghoul tears into the summoned eagle with relish, seeking to pull the avian from the air and bite its head off! The ghoul frowns and growls as its prey suddenly disappears in a flash!
Round 3
Bold May Act
Green
Yellow
Ruhk
Art
Zirren
Bella
Zilka
Caine - 14/18 HP; Poisoned
Red - 13/13
Blue
Ruhk deftly moves forward, scales the table and comes down on it's right, right next to the ghoul that remains, and swings Bethanny at it's ugly head.
"Here I am corpse eater, fresh as the day my mother birthed me! Come on, let's see if we can't do something about that nasty breath of yours!"
Caine adjusted into the room to let the others past more easily, scraping breifly on the wall as the poison in his veins made his pulse thud in his ears and behind his eyes. He lashed out at the remaining ghoul.
Belladonna shoots at the ghoul
Nathaniel darts into the room, sweeping past Zilka, and looks on the other side of the tables for anyone who might be injured and lying on the floor.
That wasn't so difficult, maybe we've seen the last of the foul creatures that plague this ruin. Zilka, do you have any idea what sort of curse would create these monsters or bring them here?
Heh, and people claim *I* have optimistic tendencies...
The intrepid group quickly dispatches yet another threat to their mission. Nathaniel finds no one else in the room other than several empty cells that clearly were once used to hold livestock before slaughter and the dead kobold upon the block...
Caine sat down on the edge of the dirty table, his head pounding and his blood hot. He let the others take care of searching about. He needed to get his bearings. He took long, slow breaths and tried to calm his shaking muscles.
Are there any more children to find here? Have we rescued them all? I say we abandon any more investigation of this place and make haste to return these children to a safe place.
Zirren shook his head, he was tired and wanted to rest but this wasn't all of the missing children.
"Yes, Art. We've found Savram, Kimi, and Mikra, but we're still missing two of the children. Hollin and Jurin. Then there's also Tommy's other companion, Tyran.
I'd say we could all do with some rest at this point but there's no telling how long the Kobolds will keep Hollin and Tyran alive. Then there's the even more serious problem of Jurin being taken further down. Worse still, even if we bring everyone else back, we still have Kreed breathing down our necks." He grabbed at his temple, he felt as though a headache was setting in.
"As long as that wand Caine has holds out, I think we can keep pressing forward. You'll have to talk with him about that though. I don't know if Kibo and Jarrdreg have any better idea on when their former leader is going to do anything but we could ask them too."
Squaring his shoulders, Nathaniel looks up at Zirren, and says, Then there is no time to waste, let's get moving. Tommy, stay toward the back and keep the children close to you. If things get rough I'll fall back and support you. If things get too dangerous, I recommend that Tommy and I retreat, back to the surface, with the children we have now, whether they like it or not. I won't risk putting innocent lives in harms way unless we have some confidence our efforts will be met with little or no resistance. This chain demon that some of you have mentioned, do we know much more than what it is called? How can we plan now to overcome it?
As Caine takes a moment to catch his breath, Belladonna's ever keen eyes spot the glitter of jewels and precious metal upon a finger of one of the ghouls. It is a mithral ring set with a tear-drop shaped sapphire [ooc[(Value of approximately 350gp)[/ooc]. A rotting, leather satchel is located in the far, northeast corner of the cage. Inside the satchel are several coins stamped with the ancient symbol of the fallen dwarven kingdom (10 platinum coins, 21 gold coins, and 20 silver coins), a scroll of lesser restoration (CL3), and three blue, glowing potions (Cure Light Wounds).
Kimi rushes into the room with a large grin upon her face. "That was amazing! You are so strong, these creatures did not even stand a chance! I bet my father can put down things like this too!"
Savram and Mikra shuffle quietly into the room behind Tommy, who stares at the ghouls. "Where did these things even come from? I never saw them when we ran through here..." He eyes the cages warily, but looks back at his brother with a shake of his head. "I don't know what it was, exactly. I've never seen anything like it before. It looked like a dwarf that was covered in heavy chains and pierced with hooks. And it's beard looked like it was made of burning embers and smoke..."
Zilka is suddenly distracted by Tommy's description of the dwarven chain-demon; you recall reading something once about a rare phenomena associated with dwarves that worship Droskar that have displeased him. They are often called Forged Spurned, they are the reanimated remains of Droskar's faithful that have angered him, keeping their souls from reaching the afterlife...
Zirren glances into the next room and spots a large, 10' diameter pit in the center of the room. Around the pit is a complex system of pulleys and a chain that dangles down into the pit. He can spot an tunnel of unworked stone leading off the far side of the room and a worked tunnel leading towards the south.
Zirren eyed the restorative scroll. "I can't really cast this, but it might be useful to Caine. This is more your expertise area anyway. It should help you recover from some of the poison done to you."
He glanced over into the next room puzzled by what he saw. "Some sort of contraption in the next room. Not sure what it is exactly. Maybe some kind of winch?"
Ruhk grins and gives Kimi a wink.
"All it takes is a bit of training, and having some good friends with you."
Caine took the scroll and looked it over. He whispered the words on the page, causing it to flare to ash and charge his hands with healing energies.
He touched Art instead of himself.
|
"Hmm. That description of the chain demon sounds familiar. Something I read in a Pathfinder Chronicles back at the lodge... Droskar had a thing with his followers who displeased him, made them into something called Forge Spurned, some kinda undead... I think that might be what that is."
Zilka goes to take a look at the contraption in more detail.
"Droskar, what a lovely fellow he seems to be. The more I hear of him the more "sympathetic" he appears."
Zilka moves into the next room and discovers that the contraption is actually a pulley system that appears to be a crudely, if cunningly, made elevator system. The heavy chain dangles down into the dark hole and she cannot currently see to what the chain is attached due to the darkness below. To the east, in the unworked tunnel she can see a ruddy glow from behind what appears to be thick smoke...
A momentary flash of insight flickers across Nathaniel's eyes, and then he says
Here now, get off! Why did you waste that scroll on me, I'm fine? Now, do we have a plan?
"You're welcome." Caine deadpanned. He stood up and took a deep breath to steady himself. He still felt like crap but it wasn't as bad as the last time they'd been here when he was in the early stages of alcohol withdrawal.
"Bella, can you get the kids and the kobolds and bring them this way. This room is a good place for them to hole up. It's defensible."
He walked over to where Zilka was checking out the well and cast his light into the adjacent room. He knew it was brash and sloppy to move out of formation, but anyone there knew they were coming and he was about out of patience.
Zilka, you hear the sounds of hushed whispering echoing from the room towards the 'south' where a set of double doors is pulled closed. You cannot tell what is being said, but you recognize the language of Draconic...
Caine as you approach the tunnel, you notice there is a thick, grey haze filling the tunnels that obscures your vision beyond ten feet; however, you light does illuminate the rough tunnel.
"You got it, Cp'n" Belladonna salutes before sneaking off to find the kids and kobolds before escorting them back here.
All the while she continues to think "Kids before loot, kids before loot."