Ganer drew his silver weapon and approached the stairs, stopping short there and waiting for the others to close. He wondered if he could make it up the stairs, but decided against giving the beasts a free shot.
Drawing her silver morningstar as she does so, Carmina quickly interposes herself between the nupperibos and Yamyra, before trying to swing her weapon towards one of the devils. With abysmal results.
Fancy strides forward to swing an outsized arm at the Nuperibo nearest Yamyra. Unfortunately, the swing is wide.
Ganer swung at the nearest Nuperibo with his silvered morningstar.
As Ganer stepped forward and readied himself to meet the monsters, Gared fired a pair of arrows at the devil the tiefling hadn't engaged.
The dwarf moved to retrieve his arrows, pulling out his whetstone as he went. "Everyone alright? Shall we continue?"
"Yes," Yamyra replies to Gared's query as she looks around at the others. "...and, yes." She adds, nodding firmly before striding firmly up the stairs.
"Do we want to put Ganer's thoughts on that Circle to the test, or see what lies to the East first?" Yamyra asks.
"If there was reason to be wary of the circle, I would know better than most, would I not?" Ganer asked, irritation clear in his voice. He had risked his safety for the others' sakes, and what did he get for his trouble? Ignored, at best. "There is little left to explore anyhow, why put it off any further?"
Gared nodded in agreement. "Seems as good a path as any. I suspect we'll encounter that imp the other devil spoke of when we head that direction. We best be prepared."
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Initiative
C
Gn
Gr
H
Y
F
.
E
After a brief discussion, you decide to brave the magical rune circle. As you look on it, it appears exactly as you left it before. Ganer steps through the circle...and, other than a faint tingling all over his body, is completely unharmed.
Unfortunately while the circle itself is no problem, the same cannot be said for the flame in the middle of the circle which seems to expand outwards before splitting into a pair of living, mobile bonfires, tongues of flame darting over their bodies. They immediately move towards you to attack!
"They are minor fire elementals. Stay back, they will set you on fire if they can." Ganer said, wondering if a sling would work on creatures such as this. He decided that there was but one way to find out.
He stood his ground as he placed a bullet into the pouch, and then swung and launched it at one of the elementals.
Oh bother.
"Right then." Yamyra replies before stepping forward to toss an acrid gobbet at one of the elementals.
Brushing past her friend, Fancy steps forward, unfortunately missing the elemental in her haste.
Gared fired an arrow at the injured elemental in front of him, hopping to finish it off, before stepping across the circle and into the room and firing a second arrow at the other elemental.
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Gared steps in front of the others and with two well-placed shots sends the elementals back to where they came from.
As the elementals dissipate into their fiery components you notice that both the flickering flame burning with no apparent source of fuel in the middle of the room is still there, as is the glowing rune circle. Heading south there is a corridor continuing as far as you can see, broken up by a door in the east wall about 20' down.
"Well, that seems rather anti-climactic." Yamyra states, somewhat flatly. Turning to Ganer, she adds. "I apologize. If we had heeded your earlier statement, we might have already dealt with this."
"Fancy, we should take advantage of your present enlargement. With that, Yamyra & Fancy proceed down the Southern corridor.
Fancy joins Yamyra, quickly moving ahead of her before the two of them reach the bottleneck of the Southern corridor.
"Well, that was some pretty shooting!" Carmina says, giving Gared a friendly and light (in her opinion, at least) pat in the back, then follows Yamyra and Fancy down the southern corridor.
Gared missed a step as the tiefling "patted" him on the back, but his face lit up as he continued along, hustling to take point with Fancy again.
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Perception
C
Gn
Gr
H
Y
F
.
L1
L2
.
Stealth
.
Initiative
C
Gn
Gr
H
Y
F
.
L
Leaving the west door behind you, you continue down the corridor. After several dozen feet the passage opens to the west while continuing south. You see a room a short distance away so Fancy and Gared peek inside.
This room appears to have once been an ancient alchemical laboratory, but most of the equipment here has been smashed. As you take in the scene, you see two vaguely humanoid figures consisting of roiling waves of flesh, half-formed limbs and a dripping tumorous face. With a rolling wave of flesh they advance towards you!
Interposing herself between the creatures & her companions, Fancy slaps the closest one resoundingly.
Quickly scooting forward, Yamyra begins her incantation to enlarge Fancy.
There were any number of things that Ganer might have said to Yamyra, that he'd become accustomed to being disregarded, that they would have taken this path anyway, or several other replies. He kept his silence though, because he was s surprised by the apology in the first place. He had no idea how he should take her words, so he simply didn't.
In the next room, he continued the now familiar pracatice of trying to identfy their foes bcore rushing to combat thm.
"These beasts are called lemures, the lowest of all devils. All the usual weaknesses apply.
He drew his silver weapon and approached the nearest one and waited for the devils to approach him. He would attack when they closed the distance.
Carmina squeezes herself past Fancy, then swings her morningstar at the same devil that the eidolon had attacked.
Gared stepped forward, thoughtfully picking out arrows that weren't silvered so as to conserve ammunition as he considered Ganer's information. The dwarf unfortunately misjudged the slowness of the creatures and his arrows each flew hopelessly wide.
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Ganer and Carmina advance on the closer lemure and succeed in sending it back to the Hell it came from. Fancy steps forward and strikes at the remaining lemure. Her blow is partially deflected by its rubbery skin however. Yamyra slips behind her eidolon and enlarges her. Gared's two bolts are wide of their mark.
The remaining lemure advances towards the eidolon, provoking a blow which again is lessened by its skin. It rains a pair of claws on Fancy, one of them slashing her skin moderately.
Horven cocks his crossbow and fires at the last lemure but his shot goes wide.
Swinging powerfully, Fancy punches at the remaining Lemure.
Yamyra steps back out to the hallway to watch for other possible threats from farther down.
Carmina once again swings her morningstar, this time towards (In a very loose definition of the world) the repulsive devil assaulting Fancy.
Gared held back for a moment, his hand on the fletching demarcating the end of a silver coated arrow...
Ganer headed for the remaining lemure, intending to whack it with his morningstar.
"Stupid devils. I don't know why they even try," Carmina says before continuing to walk down the same hallway they were traversing when the lemures interrupted them.
Ganer chuckled, Carmina surely didn't know how correct she was. "Lemures are almost mindless, so I suppose they don't know either." He said as he followed her down the hall.
"Hmph..." was all the dwarf had to say as his companions ended the fight without his aid, moving to take the lead again after collecting his arrows, a sour expression on his face.
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After a quick search of the ancient distillery, which shows nothing of value left, you exit the chamber where you see an additional entrance into this chamber.
The corridor continues south before it bends to the left after a short distance, heading east and continuing as far as your vision shows where it appears to descend downwards. However you also notice there is a stone door mounted in the east wall opposite of the distillery chamber.
"We should be certain we aren't leaving a possible threat behind us..." Yamyra opines, inclining her head toward the door to her right as she does so.
Fancy quickly squeezes back past the others to once more stand between her anchor & possible danger.
Gared cursed as he failed to bring his strength to bear...
Carmina shakes her head at her companions' pitiful attempts at opening the door. "When go back to the city, I'll have to make sure that you get more exercise... Now move a bit so I can show you how it's done.
But despite her boasting, Carmina succeeds in budging the thing only a little more than Fancy had.