Bugs! Bugs! More bugs!"
Bubba moves to attack Vug.
Desperately the drow (including the one Vug bombed, who has now recovered) turn their attention to Feres, who is hit by a crossbow bolt for 13 points of damage and stabbed for another 11.Did they pass their saves vs. Sanctuary?
They did, actually. And I think Bub has another attack to roll.
Vug steps away from Bub and throws another stink bomb at the wounded drow.
+ splash + nausea
Vug's bomb finishes the drow.
"I think we should heal and move on as quick as possible and come back and loot afterwards. We don't know how many more allies this mind flayer has and he could be mobilizing them."
Presumably we'll wait for the confusion to die down before moving on...
Realising that Bubba is seriously injuring his friends, Vulcan thrusts his hand forward as a massive torrent of water surges forward to slam into Bubba.
His prior disorientation affecting his ability to summon forth sufficient force to move the bard.
Bullrush
The confusion wears off soon enough, but so do your short-term (1 min/level) buffs.
There are two exits from this room, the iron door in the barred wall and the corridor going onwards. Just inside the iron door stand four rotting corpses with large gaping holes in their heads.
Valgrim looks at the rotting corpses, trying to identify them:
Do the drow have any treasure of interest?
Vug will take a minute and brew an extract of Disguise Self and disguise herself as the drow cleric. Hey, it can't hurt!
She'll also drink her extract of See Invisibility.
'Where did the bugs go?"
Bubba tries to tell how the corpses died.
Once the group ensures that the drow are indeed completely deceased, Feres channels a burst of healing energy to mend the companions' wounds.
The stout priest then expends a charge from his lesser curative wand to mend a portion of the remainder of his own wounds.
"Whoa! Free-standing rotting corpses with gaping holes in their heads. Undead, no doubt?"
The iron door is locked. The corpses look like they have had their brains forcibly extracted, and as far as you can tell they are normal zombies.
Once his companions unlock and open the iron door, Feres steps into the doorway with scimitar drawn and channels a burst of divine energy.
"Vug, the door please?"
Vug (disguised as a drow) takes a look at the door lock.
Perception (for traps):
Disable Device: take 10 for a result of 26
The drow warrior have the same gear as the ones you fought before. The priest has a magic breastplate, a magic shield, a magic morningstar and... er... the key to the iron door.
Feres obliterates the zombies and you enter the room, which is a natural cavern without exits. At the back of it a bunch of terrified people are crouching. They are two young women barkeeps, two merchants and an elven craftsman and look very relieved to see you, especially after Feres's display of holy might.
"Maybe you guys better stay here f-for the moment; there's some dangerous mold between here and the exit," Vug warns the newly freed prisoners.
"Perhaps there's something we could use to sset the mold on fire." Vulcan muses as her.
"But what if something happens and we fall to the mind flayer? Who will get these poor souls to safety then? Perhaps we should see them to the surface and come back?"
"Well then -- the exit's out that way somewhere, and stay away from any yellowish mold! Here's some torches and a tinderbox so that you can burn it out when you see it." Vug hands over 10 torches and a tinderbox.
Valgrim motions the party over and whispers, "I believe you are forgetting the naga. He/she may mind control them or us or want to eat these people as a tribute. It's best the prisoners wait for us here. We shall not fall before this mind flayer! Bubba, convince these good people to not move and wait for our return."
"The way back is not safe my friends.As my companions said there is dangerous mold and a snake man back that way. Wait for us here, it won't be long."
Bubba examines the magic items.
It is a heavy steel shield and it's not magic per se, but the subject of a Magic Vestment spell. It's +2 for a number of hours still if you should like to use it. Bubba isn't sure about the other two items.
Assuming you'll want to scout ahead: the cavern corridor widens into a small chamber before continuing onward. The floor has been smoothed here, and in the center is a large faintly glowing purple symbol.
Valgrim stops the party's progress and looks around.
As they Bubba passes over the other items, Vulcan takes a moment to study them for dweomers.
Breastplate
Morningstar
Vug tries to recall anything useful about the purple symbol.
Spellcraft: take 10 for 26
Know (arcana): take 10 for 26
The purple symbol is a likeness of the one the doppleganger carried on its forehead. This one is a Permanent Image. Valgrim discovers a more ominous glyph in the ceiling above.
Meanwhile Vulcan identifies the breastplate as +1 light fortification.
"Looks like a magical glyph in the ceiling. We can't waste time here. I don't think we can disarm. Wait here, I'll try to set it off." Valgrim, watching the glyph, will walk around the edges of the room, staying away from where the glyph is located.
"A magical glyph on the ceiling? A trap? Here, let me see if I can dispel it," Feres suggests.
"If you need something to trigger a trap in the f-future, I can summon up a weak minion to do it, by the way."
Feres's magic erases the glyph
Proceeding you soon find yourselves in a room with a pair of double doors on your right as the only visible exit.
Set into the cavern wall of this foreboding chamber are a pair of tall white marble double doors, streaked with veins of a faintly glowing purple mineral. Flanking the doors are a pair of tall ivory columns, each bearing a tentacular symbol burned into their surface (the same symbol you have seen several times now).
The doors are neither trapped (you think) nor locked, but barred on the inside, so you'll have to bash them down.
But before that, roll for initiative.
As you study the door, three tentacled monstrosities slither out behind diverse stalactites and rocks in various parts of the room and attack. They are medium (but have 10 feet reach with their claws) and look like this:
Six purple tentacles support a bulbous alien eye dripping with a viscous slime. Rarely blinking, the star-shaped pupil moves rapidly
about, scanning the area. Two longer tentacles end in razor-sharp claws and undulate hypnotically in the air around it.
You've never seen anything quite like them.
Valgrim, Bubba, Feres and Vug beat their initiatives.
They have a gaze attack, so if you want to attack them you'll need to make a Will save (except Valgrim).
The monsters are unique, but the texture of their skin tells Bub that they are resistant to electricity.
Valgrim moves to N12 and attacks the creature with Vital Strike and Power Attack:
Vug closes her eyes and tosses a stink bomb in the general direction of the monsters (aiming it at a grid intersection, not at a particular creature).
Attack vs. AC 5: , 9 splash damage, nausea, DC 19