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Horven rushes out of the room and expels the breakfast he had earlier, soon followed by Carmina. Fancy and Carridan are able to hold the contents of their stomach inside, though the druid prudently steps out of the eidolon's way.
Gared finds himself alone in the room now with the carrion golem, but he feels Fancy behind him ready to back him up.
Gared gritted his teeth and held his breath as he noted the solid blow Fancy struck the golem. Seeing his companions fleeing from the room, Gared grabbed a blunted arrow from his quiver as dashed around the room to flank the creature with Fancy.
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Gared waits for Fancy's blow to connect with the golem (and it is indeed a solid blow) before he maneuvers behind the foul creature and looses an arrow at it. It bounces off the hide of the creation without effect.
It then turns to face the dwarf and swings its misshapen arms at Gared, one of the arms striking his back painfully.
Continuing her vigil, Yamyra maintains her watch for unwanted interuptions.
Gared swore as the thing managed to hit him despite his best defensive efforts. As he shrugged off the blow, the dwarf dropped his defensive posture and launched a pair of arrows at the center mass of the creature.
Horven falls to his knees in a puddle of his own breakfast.
Carridan intones a quick spell then steps in behind Fancy, touching her elbow. Strength surges through her otherworldly frame as the magic passes from the druid. "Make quick work of it, if you please!"
HP: 36/36
AC: 19 (12 T / 17 FF)
CMD: 16
F/R/W: +8/+6/+9
Wild Shape used: 0/1
Storm Burst used: 0/7
Spells Prepared:
Orisons (4): create water, detect poison, know direction, purify food and drink
Level 1 (3+1+1*): faerie fire, magic stone, obscuring mist*, produce flame, shillelagh
Level 2 (2+1+1*): bull's strength, fog cloud*, gust of wind, hold animal
*domain
Ongoing Effects
Bull's Strength (Fancy): 1/40 rounds
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Horven is overcome by another wave of nausea, soon joined by Carmina in shared misery. Yamyra wrinkles her nose as the smell assaults her senses but maintains her vigil over the three unconscious derror. No one else seems to take note of the ongoing combat.
Gared opens up with another volley of arrows, striking once. Meanwhile Fancy's spell-aided blow knocks a large chuck off of its body. It does not look like it will last much longer, yet it still fights on. Its feeble blows are batted down away by the doughty dwarf, however.
Overcome by his delicate senses, Horven decides to at least take a step back from his own sick. There wasn't much he could do in this fight and, in that, he was a bit disappointed.
His face still twisted in disgust, Carridan slips back around Fancy and does his level best to provide the lumbering eidolon with an opening to smash the carrion golem to bits.
HP: 36/36
AC: 19 (12 T / 17 FF)
CMD: 16
F/R/W: +8/+6/+9
Wild Shape used: 0/1
Storm Burst used: 0/7
Spells Prepared:
Orisons (4): create water, detect poison, know direction, purify food and drink
Level 1 (3+1+1*): faerie fire, magic stone, obscuring mist*, produce flame, shillelagh
Level 2 (2+1+1*): bull's strength, fog cloud*, gust of wind, hold animal
*domain
Ongoing Effects
Bull's Strength (Fancy): 2/10 rounds, 1/4 minutes
Yamyra continues to watch for unwanted interlopers.
Gared dodged under one of the thing's grotesque arms and launched a blunted arrow right into the monster's... well what somewhat resembled a face...
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Gared's shot is more than enough to send the carrion golem to the floor, separated into several fleshy components. With the golem destroyed the awful stench permeating the chamber abates long enough for both Horven and Carmina to recover from their condition.
A closer look at the room shows the surgical tools are of quite good quality, and are worth 200 gp as a set. The two doors in the chamber both lead to unused (and empty) chambers.
"Ugh, I hope that's the last of those we deal with," Horven says, wiping his mouth on his sleeve. "I guess I'll need my laundry done again."
"We know there is at least one more," Yamyra cautions. "Oh, you meant that...
thing, didn't you?"
"Well, we know there isn't anything more here, yes?" She concludes, looking around the 'surgical chamber' with a shudder of revulsion. "Down the stairs, or check another door?"
Carridan shudders, the sheer unnaturalness of the carrion golem still unnerving him even after it's fallen. "Such things should not be. And I fear- do any of you think that is... -is what the kidnapped victims are being used for? Parts?"
"Perhaps," Horven says after a moment. "It...would make sense."
"It would," Yamyra interjects, "if they hadn't all, or nearly all, been found again. They have lost memories, not body parts!" She admonishes.
"Well, there's that nearly all bit," Horven points out. "Who's to say these...whatever they are, don't have multiple hobbies? I make wooden crafts, I also do...whatever this is we're doing. The word 'adventuring' implies that this is enjoyable."
"The ones that are found are without memory, what if the ones that aren't found don't turn up because they're... parts. A horrible thought, either way." Carridan casts a worried glance at the carrion golem's remains once more as he leaves the strange operating room. Repsonding to Yamyra's earlier question, he points to the door, "Best not to leave any potential surprises behind us before we descend mysterious, subterranean stairs, yes?"
Carmina gives Horven a puzzled look as she finishes cleaning her clothes from once-eaten breakfast. "But... This is enjoyable. Or at least I'm enjoying it. Well, perhaps not the throwing up part but on the whole I'd say the good parts overshadow the bad parts."
"While I enjoy the company, I am not fond of the locale or the locals," Horven says. "Bandits or goblins, that I could deal with."
-Posted with Wayfinder
While Gared had remained relatively un-phased by the stench of the monstrosity, all of the blood drained from his face at the mention of the golem's potential origin. The dwarf quickly strode out of the room and steadied himself against the worked stone, slowing his suddenly rapid and shallow breaths.
Horven sees Gared leaning against the wall and goes to his oldest friend. "You alright, Gared?"
Gared shook his head slowly. "It's just quite a bit o' horror we've dealt we deal with now and again. Hard to make sense o' it sometimes." The dwarf's breathing was starting to steady and he straightened up. "Thanks fer checkin' in, me friend. I'll be doing fine in just a minute." The dwarf put squeezed the halfling's shoulder appreciatively.
"If you say so, Gared," Horven says, looking up into Gared's face. "We seem to run into the worst the world has to offer sometimes, don't we?"
The dwarf nodded solemnly. "For better o' worse, fate seems to guide us to all kinds of evil and suffering. If that's to be our lot for now, the least we can do is aim to right some o' the wrongs o' the world. Gared's eye's light up fiercely then and the dwarf punched his fist into his hand. "Bah! It's to be a heavy burden now and then, but we've an opportunity to be makin' a bit o' difference in this realm that most folk never see. That's worth a bit o' misery as far as I'm thinking." The dwarf slapped Horven heartily on the back, retrieved his arrows from the room and set about sharpening their heads, a slight but determined smile on his face.
Emboldened by Gared's resolve, Horven lights up and follows the dwarf. "Alright, let's go do some more good then!"
Shakingher head ruefully at her companion's 'debate', Yamyra interjects. "As down seems our ultimate destination herein, perhaps we should eliminate 'up' as a hiding place for any more of these..." pointing to the unconscious Derro, "beings." Having said, she glances toward the stairs ascending along the Northwest wall.
"Sounds good," Carmina opines on Yamyra's suggestion. "But I don't really know how to go up stairs that go down. Unless we first go down them and then up. Although then we wouldn't be going up stairs that go down anymore, but up stairs that go up. And despite all that going up and down we would end up on the same floor. Strange, isn't it?" she rants, spending way too much of brain power into pondering the philosophical dilemmas associated with stairs.
Horven shakes his head and lets Carmina figure out the great stair debate.
Carridan looks askance at Carmina, scratching his the back of his head as she seemingly rambles. When she finishes, he's quite sure he didn't understand her philosophical musings on the nature of stairs and directional travel through a three dimensional space, so he simply shrugs and offers a sheepish grin.
"So.... does that mean you all want to go down the stairs?"
"It'd be easier to just walk down the stairs instead of trying figure out what Carmina said," Horven says to Carridan. "I'd trust her to have my back in a fight, but I'd never ask her the time of day."
"No, no, no!" Yamyra exclaims. "There are at least two more doors up here!"
"If we're going to be methodical about this, we should eliminate them before moving down."
"Oh..." Horven says, derailed by the talk about stairs. "Then doors it is."
The halfling makes his way to the other side of the hall and picks the closest door, looking it over for locks or traps.
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Carmina watches as Horven works with the door, arms crossed and deeply offended.
"It's not like I would tell him the time of the day even if he asked! Hmph!"
"I don't know how you'd know this far underground anyway," Carridan offers before squinting and shaking his head in irritation at the eerie light from the strange fungus on the walls. "I know we haven't exactly been down here long, but I already miss the fresh air of the wood and an open sky over head."
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Fenster
Horven moves to the door in the northwest corner of the room and examines the door closely. He finds no traps on it and determines it is unlocked. Opening the door reveals a passage leading to a room, with the passage continuing onwards. The square room seems to serve a dual purpose as a bedroom and a torture chamber, judging by the instruments and also the furniture placed here.
As you approach the room, movement catches your eye. A figure who was laying down on the bed rises to his feet. You are considerably startled as all of you, save Carridan, recognize him: Fenster the Blight! He stares at you for a moment before recognition floods his face. "I 'member ye all! Ye came ta me fer a favor, but now I gotta ask ye ta leave now. Me friend dinnae want anyone headin' down 'ere. Ye gets one warnin'." You can see he has already drawn a rusty dagger raised in a threatening manner.
"Now just one moment you!" Yamyra cries out, pointing accusingly at Fenster. "How did you even get down here?"
"Oh dear..." Horven mutters.
Carmina stares blankly at Fenster a while before recovering her senses. "Who might this friend of yours be? I hope he isn't an animated pile of rotten flesh... I have uh, bad news if that's the case."
Carridan looks from Fenster to the others then back to Fenster, "You all have had dealings before?"
"A bit."
Though not present when Yamyra & her other companion's first encountered the human Fenster, Fancy could tell by the emotional roil within her anchor that this was not an individual Yamyra looked upon with joy. Consequently, she moved to interpose herself between Yamyra & Fenster.