Drusellia fires off a magic missile at the nearest cloud creature.
Spells: U/6/7/5/4
Drusellis's arcane missiles slam into the creature, further dissipating the - now rather less turbulent - cloud of acidic vapours.
Indeed, the creature is that diminished that, instead of pressing the attack, it withdraws to the north... and flies out of view to the east. Undeterred by the departure of the first of the creatures, the remaining two continue to smash at Eldar... high above the rest of the group, the creatures coat Eldar in caustic substances... yet, somehow the warrior remains unperturbed by the assault...
Eldar, shrugging of the minor injuries from the creatures, tries to end one of those flanking him. His Ka Stone glows, and almost instantly, he grows to almost twice his size
Eldar's sword slams twice into the closest of the creature's, cleaving great chunks of foaming acid from it's form...
Symon aims at the creature that Eldar struck, in hopes of getting it out of combat sooner then later.
Attack-ranged:
Damage:
From the shadows, Symon lets loose with a crossbow bolt... but, perhaps distracted by Eldar's sword play above him, he misses by quite some margin.
Luther swings twice.
Galahad has little option with the mist creatures high overhead. He drops his glaive unceremoniously and draws his longbow. After nocking back an arrow he lets it fly at the more wounded of the two creatures.
Luther realizes the creatures are too high to attack.
He heals all allies.
Drusellia, knowing that she cannot reach the opponents, settles for a guarded ready. If any descend to their level, she attacks with her rapier.
Badly wounded by Eldar’s attacks… and with the heavily armoured warrior showing little sign of injury… there is only one sensible strategy for the gaseous creatures. Withdrawing, and losing their semi-humanoid form as they do so, the clouds of swirling acid soar into the tunnels to the north of the cave… and, heading eastwards, away from the combat…
…taking a moment to examine their surroundings now that the creatures have fled, the group find nothing in the cave of note and, not tarrying in the oppressive heat, move across the bridge. The rocky formation groans a little beneath the weight of the travellers, but the prediction that it would be structurally sound comes true… with no further difficulties, the group find themselves on the far side of the bridge… the cavern to the north leads into passages that head to the west and, where the gaseous creatures fled to, to the east.
Symon and Kaspar move forward, keeping to the shadows as they lead the others deeper into the caverns.
To the west, a passageway leads into a relatively small cavern… there, rivulets of magma course down the walls before running across warped black metal plates and seeping back into the wall. The creature that fled the group, floating near the plates, is cornered in this cavern…
…whilst, to the east, the passageway narrows to little more than two feet in width – and then meanders out of view… the gaseous creatures, having retreated in this direction, are nowhere to be seen.
Eldar comes to land near his allies. His sword ready. His shield too
"I do not know. Suggestions on which way we travel to next."
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Galahad attempts to stick close to Symon, still not knowing how the other man would take to meeting foes alone. I know they must be strong to have made it this far into this place, but... I must do my best to protect my new companions. He motions to the creature to the west, "Let us meet this creature where it cannot run away." He will walk into the small cavern if no one stops him.
The fleshy eye suspended within bladed metal plates, backs away from Galahad as he moves closer to it... and now, cornered, it starts to scratch against the wall of the cavern... one letter at a time, in a remarkably byzantine script...
Scratch, scratch...
'H'
Scrape...
'E'
"Well that is odd. I wonder what it is trying to say? Shall we let it complete its message?"
Symon and Kaspar stand off to the side, Symon's bow at the ready as they watch the odd creature write it's message.
Galahad has his glaive ready to strike, but doesn't seem inclined to attack the creature while it spells out its message. "It does seem rather rude to attack it like this." He studies the creature as it writes, trying to interpret its intentions.
"If it does not wish to harm us, I will not harm it." he nods and lowers his weapon, but not his shield
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Dru watches the creature with interest.
Luther speaks to the creature "Help, you need help?"
The creature, unchallenged by the group, continues to scrape into the wall of the cavern…
Scritch, creak…
‘L’
…and then, as suggested by Luther…
Scritch
’P’
Floating towards the plates of metal beneath the rivulets of molten rock, the creature floats... staring… unblinking…
"Hmmm..well do we help it? Can anyone speak to it...or can it even speak? '
Turning to the floating creature Symon asks, "Do you understand me?"
Scrape, Scratch
'Y'
"Yes then..ok. Can you communicate in any other fashion? Nod or something?"
Luther affirms
"We help you!"
"Of course we'll help. What do you need?"
"This one will help and aid you in anyway it can." he crosses his sword arm over his shield
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The floating eye, responding to Symon's question, bobs up and down - floating in a peculiar approximation of a nodding head... but as the questions come, asking how the creature can be helped, it reverts to scratching messages in the rock...
Scrape... scrape... scrape...
'Knights fell here... the end... the end... Down?'
"I wonder if it means the knights we are seeking?"
Moving towards a set of buckled metal plates semi-embedded into the rock, the armoured eye scratches a name into the wall... it's blades, razor sharp, cutting directly into the stone.
'CHAID'
"You are called Chaid?"
"Was one of these knight Signifier DiViri?", Symon asks as the creature finishes carving its last answer into the wall.
The orb, at Luther’s question, scrawls an ‘N’ into the rock before drawing an arrow in the rock between the name ‘CHAID’ and the buckled plate.
"Well, now we know what happened, at least. We just need to find their remains." (To the orb) "Where are their physical remains?"
Symon nods in agreement with Dru and waits for the orb to lead them to the bodies.
"So we are in search of them. We would like to find them and return them to the surface"
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Galahad stares at the creature in bemusement, despite it's original words he had no expected it to be quite so articulate, "Hold on now, I don't think we can assume they are dead, they could be wounded or captured." He asks the creature for specifics, "Do you mean to say they are dead? All of them?"
Unblinking, the armour-clad eye gazes at the group as ask questions of it… beneath the etched out name of ‘CHAID’, it scratches into the wall once more…
‘DEAD’
…and then scrapes an arrow from the words towards the buckled plates of metal embedded into the cavern’s wall…
"I think that our friend is trying to tell us that they are inside the wall."
"Yikes...what could have caused that? Or are they on the other side of that wall??"
Looking for secret door:
"There are magics, beyond my ability I'm afraid, that can allow men to pass through walls, and might leave them trapped inside if the magic ran out while they were in the wall. A horrible way to die." Dru suppresses a shudder. "There are also magics that can transform rock to mud or mud to rock. Perhaps a mudslide began and they became trapped when someone turned the mud to stone."
Dru considers the wall for a moment, trying to determine if this is natural or the work of a spell of some kind.
"Most unfortunate if that is true. None wish to be entombed against their will" he nods. His hamd absently touching the gem on his forehead
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Examining the metallic plates embedded into the rockface... all the time, trying to avoid the slow-flowing rivulets of magma... the friends confirm their sudden suspicions. That indeed, the metal plates are the badly warped remnants of Hellknight armour. On the evidence of what can be seen, all told, four separate Hellknights died here - trapped within solid rock, the armoured corpses have been subject to intense heat and, other than the metallic plates pointed to by the floating eye, the trapped armour is utterly ruined.
- the Hellknights were probably caught by a sudden incursion of magma... caught by the intense heat of molten rock, death would have been instantaneous.
The plates pointed at by the floating eye and highlighted as 'CHAID' are considerably more intact than the others... although they are still well-embedded into the rock - indeed, of a full set of armour, there is less than one quarter visible.
"Yikes...what could have caused that? Or are they on the other side of that wall??"
Looking for secret door: Rolling Dice
Symon examines the wall but, as far as he is able to tell, it is solid rock... there is no evidence of secret doors nor other access / egress points....
"I do not have the means to remove them from the wall. Perhaps some form of magic could do this? "
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Galahad asks the orb, "Do you know of a way we can remove them from this wall? We are tasked with at least returning their remains."
"As I said, there are forms of magic that can accomplish this; most notably transmute rock to mud. However, such magic is as yet beyond my capability to draw upon."