How are the rest of you arranging yourselves when Venedictus tickles the water with his glaive (assuming you let him do that)? If you take a look at the map, the slightly hazy area on the stairs shows where the water starts, so Venedictus is currently on the stairs right beside the water, but not in it. I currently have Udaya beside him, but since he's said he's waiting for you to prepare, let me know how you want to rearrange people.
UU is good being where you have her located. FWIW - I'm about to hop a flight so I expect to be offline until tomorrow. Feel free to NPC me as needed... but there will be NO slap n' tickling! ;)
Venedictus begins "tickling" the water. He pushes his glaive back and forth, stirring it up. A few seconds later, the water begins to agitate and slosh over the higher steps. Venedictus notices something moving quickly through the water, a shape barely discernible amidst the surrounding water, a shape that seems to be made of water itself.
Dara, round 1 For now I'll delay so that if someone wants to move out of the way, I can step up and take over their spot (I'm guessing Venedictus will want to pull back and attack with reach).
"Hey Vene, take a step back. I'll give it hell for ya!" With a flick of her wrist, Dara spins the head of her waraxe around so that she can hit with the hammer-headed side. "I wanna see this sucker splash when I cream it!"
It's definitely a water elemental. You know that it is slightly stronger if both it and its opponent are in contact with water (+1 to hit). It is at a bigger disadvantage if its opponents are in contact with the ground (-4 to hit; the two situations can overlap if the opponents are touching both the water and the ground, such as in the case of Udaya and Venedictus in the front rank where the water is sloshing up over the stairs). You also know that it is immune to flanking, critical hits, and other things that affect physiology (such as poison and so on).
Hey all, I tried to post the next few steps in the combat earlier this morning, but the boards were being funny and wouldn't let me. I don't have a lot of time at the moment, but I will get to things later this afternoon. Sorry for the delay.
No worries, the site is getting hammered by all the subscribers who are downloading copies of the APG. From what I can see, it looks like the downloads have been pre-personalized so at least that is helping to ameliorate the server strain.
The ripple bursts from Bears fist and through the water at the vague watery shape and seems to impact it. Although it's hard to tell just what sort of physical damage it does, the emotional effect is obvious as the creature shakes in rage and bursts out of the water at Udaya.
Udaya stands ready for it, however, and slices down with her scimitar.
scimitar: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (6) + 4 = 10
Unfortunately, it dodges her blow, ducking to the side of the blade. Its watery form swirls, forming a sort of fist that strikes at Udaya.
Venedictus withdraws back through Dara's space. He moves back 10 feet and readies for Dara to move so he can move back into her square (or he just moves into her square for the split second it takes her to move up to his spot if that's easier).
Unsure if his light spells will have any effect, he opts to assist the defenses of Udaya.
Move up next to Udaya, and Aid Another for +2 to AC for her. 1d20+0 vs. AC 10
Bear has already moved up into that space. Sorry, I should have updated the map. Will do so now.
Map Cairn3 Updated
Aid another would also not be an option anyway, since you need to be threatening the water elemental in order to aid Udaya, and you wouldn't be threatening in that square anyway. Does Fredrik have any blinding rays left? As far as he knows, there's no reason the elemental should be immune to that. Although it doesn't have eyes in the same way people do, it still needs to see.
In attempting to fire past Bear and Udaya, Fred aims too high and the blinding ray shoots into the descending ceiling over the stairs, missing the water creature by a large amount.
Venedictus backs away from the creature, and swaps places with Dara. By strict RAW, he moves behind her and readies, since he can't share her space. Then she uses her delayed turn and moves forward, allowing Venedictus to take his readied action and step into the space she just left. However, the final effect is identical to them just swapping places, so the fluff can easily say they just swap places. :)
Dara raises her axe and brings down in a diagonal slicing motion right through the creature. If it were made of flesh and blood, she would have sliced it in half. Instead, it wobbles for a moment, then just seems to drain away. A moment later, the water is still again.
"I fear we shall have to traverse this deep eventually, but I agree, for now, let's move onto more pleasant prospects, like descending one at a time down a centuries-old dumb-waiter into a dark monster-filled hole."
He pauses for a moment. "One second thought..."
He slaps the water with his glaive to see if there are any more of those things in there.
"Shouldn't we check what the elemental was guarding? Generally elementals don't come to the Material plane unless they are summoned for a specific task."
"I fear we shall have to traverse this deep eventually, but I agree, for now, let's move onto more pleasant prospects, like descending one at a time down a centuries-old dumb-waiter into a dark monster-filled hole."
He pauses for a moment. "One second thought..."
He slaps the water with his glaive to see if there are any more of those things in there.
Slapping the water causes it to swish around a little bit, but not in any way that one wouldn't expect it to when slapping water with a glaive. It returns to still a few seconds after Venedictus removes his glaive.
Dara gives a short laugh at Venedictus' words, "See now me, the dark holes don't bother me so much. Least as long as there's air to breath. Down there though," she gestures to the water, "I ain't so good at breathin' like a fish."
"I'm inclined to at least give this water passage a try... I'm already half-wet." She looks to Dara expecting at least a snicker.
If the group agrees to carry out the previous plan...
Udaya unselfconsciously strips down to her underwear and puts her clothes in a pile with her armor. What mitigates the slightly prurient sight are the fencing scars across her arms and body and the long-healed whip-marks across her back. She buckles back on her sword belt and quiver and puts her bow diagonally across her back. She ties the rope around her waist and descends into the water.
With a big gulp of air, Udaya dives down under the water.
Udaya:
The water is cold at first, but she soon adjusts to it. She swims around the tan wall and gets a look at the rest of the chamber. It’s an odd sight. There is another such wall at the far side, and between the two are several pillars, made out of the same stone as the two walls. On the pillars and along this side of the two walls, numerous small cylindrical metal objects project out about seven feet up, about three feet apart from each other. On the floor, along the bases of the walls and pillars, are several metal drains that have been clogged with stones, bones, and other refuse.
Udaya Perception: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (18) + 4 = 22
A closer look at the clogged drains shows that the refuse has been very deliberately jammed in so as to make sure the drains stay clogged. It would take a lot of work to unclog them.
Fredrik blushes and trys to avert his gaze, without much succees, looking at her lean, supple form. Ya know, I think she did that on purpose! He thinks to himself.
UU returns after a bit of time. Flash sees she is now in wet undergarments and the water is apparently cold. Nosebleed time! Emerging like any number of Bond models...
UU notes the glances and seemingly doesn't care. "OK. So the room continues on. There are pillars and a large space. There are drains in the floor that look purposefully clogged. With a good deal of work, we could clear them... and gents, you can expect some shrinkage in this water. Dara and I will be disappointed but not surprised."
Fredrik looks over at the other men, studiously pretending to ignore the ladies responses. "Well, my curiosity is piqued. What say we take a swim gents, and who knows, we may prove nature wrong in this case."
Bear watches unabashedly as Udaya strips down and takes a swim, and gives her an equally and openly appraising look when she comes back up.
"Only thing I like better than a beautifully built woman is a beautifully built woman unafraid to broadcast her gods-given gifts." Then, with a friendly wink, "'Specially one with a whip-crack tongue."
He takes one calculating look at the water, "Well, no use putting off what needs doin'. Also, boys, time to show these ladies what raw masculinity looks like, shrinkage and all. No use beign ashamed o' what the Good Lady Desna gave ya, I always say." And without preamble, he joins Udaya in stripping down to his loin-cloth (which is obviously fitting tighter than usual), leaving only his weapon and arcane defenses in place.
"Down boy!" you hear him mutter as he tests the water with his toe.
Bear, being a strong guy (despite no actual swimming training) will help with this endeavor as best he can, unless we again decide to change courses of action.
Seeing that people are removing clothing, Venedictus strips off his robe and his studded leather. He puts guidance spells on everybody before they descend, to help with the swimming.
Fredrik takes off his robe, and sets his taff down on top of his robe. Trying to ignore the looks from the others, especially the ladies, he takes a few deep breaths to calm himself, and prepares to get wet.
The DC for swimming in this water is 10, so most of you can manage that by taking 10. Only Venedictus and Fredrik actually need to make Swim checks. As long as everything stays calm and you remain out of fights and stuff like that, naturally.
As is standard, you can hold your breath for a number of rounds equal to double your Constitution score before having to make Constitution checks to avoid drowning, but if you do anything more strenuous than move actions or free actions, you reduce your total rounds by one for each strenuous action you take.
Which side of the room would you like to explore first, the east or west?
And since neither of us are at risk of failing by 5 to start drowning, we don't really need swim checks either, unless holding our breath is going to become an issue. Venedictus will explore for 1 minute, then return to the top of the stairs for another breath before returning.
He examines the drains first. Just how difficult would it be for all of them to work together to unclog one of them?
If we're all going, then i'd say we buddy up and try to explore the whole room, the stronger swimmers (or at least those with higher con scores) going farther into the room.
Also, I'm hesitant to start messing with the drains while we're all in here. I'd rather have two of us in the other room with ropes connected to the swimmers... pull them out if something horrible happens. Like, I don't know.. the water turning red.
How long you can hold your breath may well become an issue...
It will take two successful swim checks for Venedictus to reach the first drain. He already has one.
Vendictus Swim check 2: 1d20 - 2 ⇒ (14) - 2 = 12
It takes Venedictus 2 rounds to reach the drain and start examining it.
Venedictus Perception: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (20) + 2 = 22
Venedictus can see that the stones, bones, and other refuse have been very carefully jammed (by the water elemental?) into the gaps in the metal grating. However, even there, not every hole could be perfectly blocked, and if there were even the tiniest of holes, over time, the water would eventually drain. It is apparent that there must be more blockage beneath the drain as well. Even working together to unclog it, it would probably take much longer than any of you can hold your breaths.
Meanwhile, the others move farther into the room...
The others move out into the room. Dara is the slowest swimmer, so falls a bit behind as Udaya and Bear move further in. Udaya goes along the west side of the central pillar and Bear along the east. Fredrik, as another one of the weaker swimmers, stays back with Venedictus.
Two further chambers open up near the north end, one on the east and one on the west. Both chambers contain benches.
I'm going to continue swimming north in the hopes that this room in symmetrical with another flight of stairs leading up. Although hopefully Bear will be able to see that before the rest of us.
Udaya, looks for breathable air pockets and holes in the celing briefly, then grabs the skeleton and hauls it back to 'base'. She will signal to anyone she passes that she found something.
Udaya heads towards the west room, while Bear and Dara continue to the north end. Udaya notices there is a door at the north end of the chamber.
As Udaya is about to enter the west room, Bear notices a body in the east room. Its eyes suddenly open, and it begins to move.
There is a surprise round during which only the body and Bear can act. Rolled swim checks will now be required each round. The total number of rounds since entering the water is four.
