First round:
In hopes of redeeming himself, Gareth loads his crossbow and fires again when the creature draws near. Can't miss from here he thinks.
Attack
Damage
Nicely done all
Natalya smiles in a predatory fashion.
let's take a quick look at this place before we move on. Maybe they store things down here? she adds hopefully.
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Natalya casts a glance around, without climbing down and walking around amongst the fungi. She notices that to the left, on the same wall you just came out of is another opening.
It's nearly 60 feet away and has a similar, but larger stone landing. The only way to reach it would be to climb down or to cale the rock wall between the two entrances.
From the direction of the opening it likely leads back into the structure you have just left.
Valkus scrunches his face up at the mustiness of the cavern. "What would they store? Soup stock? With all this fungus growing, it seems a poor place for storage." He watches Natalya's figure moving about in the darkness, staying back behind the demi-humans with his gently glowing motes of light. "What do you see?"
Ah thank you Valkus, up until now I had thought that metal, such as the weapons and armor worn by those slain and brought back to the ant's nest to store as food, was impervious to such fungus. she raises an eyebrow and pokes him gently with her finger.
There's another cave entrance over there, about the same height as this one, that leads back in to the structure. I'm thinking it probably goes to the other side of the corridor we saw blocked with rubble. I think it's worth a look, but it will require a little climb
Natalya descends to the cavern floor, sword drawn, and makes her way across to the bottom of the wall leading to the other cave entrance. She'll wait until everyone else has arrived before doing anything else, as wants to remain on guard in case anything tries to ambush the party.
Gareth, the Might Antslayer follows Natalya, his masculine aura detectable on other planes of existence. (Or is that "masculine odor"?)
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Natalya climbs down carefully and makes her way across to the other platform, presumably everyone is following. No threats materialize, the fungi does not appear dangerous and no more ants show up.
This stone landing is bigger so you are all able to stand upon it without crowding, another stone door await you here.
Presuming it doesn't need our froggy friend to open it, Natalya opens the door, confident the others will back her should they meet anything icky.
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Nothinguntoward is hiding behind the door. Natalyas pushes through a short 15ft hallway to another door. She gives a careful listen and hears no dangers from beyond.
In here you find a kitchen. The room's stone tables have been covered with dozens of ceramic pots, each filled with smelly fungal concoctions. The smells in nauseating.
Fortitude save DC 10 for everyone.
That stuff is disgusting!
Natalya wrinkles her nose and puts her hand over her mouth, retching.
Fort Save
Gareth holds his breath as long as he can before inhaling and exhaling in quick bursts.
Natalya gags, dry heaving at the smell, and figuring it might get worse if they go down, decides to open the door ahead to get out of the room as fast as possible.
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Heading through the kitchen Natalya breaths fresh air on the other side of the door. Once her head clear,, she looks around and sees a collapsed tunnel to her right and two sets of double doors on opposite sides of the hallway to her left.
This is the hallway from which you entered into the workshop. Between you and the workshop doors are another set of double doors on the opposite, right side of the hallway. You can see that these doors are also carved with the image of a grinning frog, but these doors seem more elaborate and to have more detail than the others you've found.
Hmm, this may be his private chambers if the extra ornate decorations are anything to go by muses Natalya.
Garuum, would you mind opening the door for me please? I have the feeling Bactophran might take unkindly to a non-Boggard opening his bedroom door!
she makes ready in case monsters, darts or other nasties are released.
Marlani will sweep the room with Detect Magic, and perceive:
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"For a a friend of Marlani, anything," says Garuum. He walks towards the door confidently and pushes it open with one hand. He then turns to Marlani, his chest all puffed up. "It's safe for you to enter."
Within you find the shrine of some frog deity. There are rows of pews, and altar and an idol of large frog. The entire room is covered in dust and cobwebs, it does not appear to have been disturbed in some time.
There are no magic auras present.
Valkus raises his eyebrows as he allows his motes of light to wander around the room. "Now this is something to write home about! An underground chapel dedicated to some foul amphibious god!" He quickly adds, "No offense to our guide, of course."
Here I was, all talk of treasure and inner sanctums sighs Natalya, looking glumly around at the frog-themed decor.
Thank you nonetheless Garuum, it's always good to get an education in how other beings worship their gods, you can learn a lot from that
she scours the religious paraphernalia for anything untoward, blood channels in the altar and suchlike. She also looks for any hidden recesses or compartments.
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Here is a map of the area you have explored thus far.
Remaining options include the right path in the first room you entered. The double doors in the workshop, the elevator shaft in the workshop. You could, if you wanted, explore the fungal cavern more. There's also a set of stairs going down in the kitchen.
Valkus thinks about and realizes that the Bactrophan probably worshiped some froggy fertility deity.
Natalya looks around the place, but doesn't notice much of interest. As she's checking it out she rubs up against the frog idol, wiping away some of the dust coating it. Though she's oblivious everyone else notices that shine of gold beneath the coating of dirt.
Nothing of value to us here then Natalya sighs, moving back towards the entrance to the chapel.
I think we should go back to the double doors in the workshop room, the one with the mite's pit trap in. We are leaving the cavern and downstairs unexplored but I figure better to check out all the proper rooms first.
If there's no objections, Natalya will lead everyone to the double doors in the west side of the workshop room and move through them, ready for traps or mite ambushes.
"Ahem, perhaps not so quickly" Gareth says. He holds his arm up in a gesture suggesting that Natalya look at her sleeve. Silently he mouths the word "gold" to her.
She pauses as Gareth halts her, then looks back at her sleeve, then the idol, before there is the very faintest of blushes blooming in her cheeks.
Oh! she murmurs appreciatively, then dropping the familiar half-smile in place she responds to Gareth
Would you be a dear and carry it out for us?! she jests.
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The frog idol, once cleaned off appears to be solid gold, a cursory attempt to lift it reveals that it weighs perhaps 300lbs.
Before it becomes a thing Garuum explains that he has no problem with you taking this thing away. First of all "anything for Marlani" and secondly he personally worships the masculine fertility idol, again "anything ofr Marlani"
Perhaps given the weight we should keep exploring then come back to retrieve the more valuable things when we have something that will lift them, magic or otherwise!
Natalya plans on visiting those double doors now if there's no dissent in the ranks
"We're with you Natalya!"
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Returning to the workshop you head over to the double doors, which like all the others you've encountered are marked with a huge grinning frog.
You enter into a room that is part grisly laboratory and part terrible torture chamber.
Two small, pale-skinned creatures with white hair and large white eyes stare at you in shock. Each is holding a large glass jar with preserved humanoid brains in them. They immediately begin screeching in a mix of common and some other undecipherable language. From around a corner behind them comes a Orc. The orc's skin has been cut and stitched and experimented upon in awful ways, giving it the appearance of patchwork of torture.
Initiative
Swiftly, Gareth advances into the room and draws a handful of powders from a pouch at his belt then throws it into the air in front of the screaming creatures. The powders hit the air and explode in a riot of colors accompanied by a loud "POP".
Color Spray, save DC 13.
Soonest opportunity, Marlani will consider the creatures:
Caster level check
Natalya breaks in to a sprint, drawing her sword on the way and swinging in a wide arc to get momentum for her first blow, before bringing her blade back in a defensive cover.
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13 This pale-skinned dwarf-like creature is a derro, a degenerate and evil creature of the underground. This result reveals all monstrous humanoid traits.
18 Derro are afflicted by a form of racial madness that gives them delusions of grandeur and a sadistic streak a mile wide. Of course, though other creatures realise this, no derro is capable of recognizing he is out of his mind. A derro is so confident of himself that this manifests as a defence for magics that attack an individuals willpower, against which their deranged minds would naturally have little defence. Derro speak Aklo and undercommon.
23 Though their madness-induced high charisma make derro natural spontaneous casters, they are also highly adapted to a life of stealth and subtefuge. They have the ability to take advantage of unaware or distracted foes to place a telling blow much like a rogue does, are natural poison users and suffer no risk of exposing themselves to the toxins they employ, and have a racial knack for staying quiet and hiding from view.
The creatures are subject to the spell, but succeed their saving throws.
Natalya swoops in with her greatsword but misses her target.
This magical darkness does not stretch out to Valkus and Garuum. Obviously Natalya is not affect, but they didn't know that.
Group B
Natalya watches the strange creatures invoke their magic and grins, they think her blind so she has the upper hand for just a second.
She backs up almost to the wall looking like she can't see, before kicking off the stone and dashing back at top speed to surprise the horrible little humanoid thing and in frustration with missing the first time she puts all her strength in to the blow, screaming in fury as she does.
She shouts I've got one here, the other one's over by the doorway where the orc fell over!
Is the darkness still active?
The darkness stymies Gareth; he is unwilling to enter into an area where he cannot see his enemies. Instead he turns to Marlani and ask "Can you do away with this darkness somehow? I cannot."
While waiting, he speaks arcane words and suddenly his image is multiplied, with five Gareths standing in and moving in an overlapping area. The effect is disconcerting to say the least.
Mirror Image spell for
images
Natalya grins at the bloodied creature in front of her, spinning around and driving her blade around sideways in a crushing blow, more like a strike with an axe than a sword.
Unfortunately I don't have anything to remove the darkness. Natalya seems to be doing well enough though.
Marlani will move up behind Gareth and inspire confidence.
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Attacking into darkness confers a 50% miss chance.
Darkness works by dropping the light level down a step, not be creating a black void as it used to. The dim light in the room became total darkness. If someone were to change the light level from dim to full light this would become dim.
Anything as simple as dancing lights would do the trick.
After Gareth multiplies himself the one creature facing Natalya backs up five feet, and then both of them draw repeating crossbows.
One fires at Natalya and hits 4 damage and make a fort save dc 14 poison, fail means 1d2 str damage.
The other one is thrown off by the many Gareth's before him and his bolt skips across the floor.
Groub B, do your thing!