Risbeth stretches. "It is rather useful to have someone around who can not only heal me, but isn't a frothing mad woman." She grins. "I do miss Mommy though sometimes."
Sonny laughs at Lisbeth. "Such a way to talk about your mother."
He then turns to Xerice with an exaggerated hurt look on his face, "But I didn't abandon you? What? Am I not man enough to have been thought of coming to your aid?" He then winks at her and turns to the rest.
"You should come out of this in a very short time. It's one of their abilities."
"Should you ever have the misfortune to meet her, I would suggest you do not do so yourself. She would no doubt find your blood delicious, given the spirits in your ancestry. She's rather partial to spirit blood." Risbeth smiles at Sonny, her own teeth looking somewhat sharper than normal.
The shuffling sound from the south is getting louder. And closer.
"Risbeth, you may want to move toward that door to "greet" whatever comes through"
Sonny then prays briefly to Sarenrae and heals his wounds.
"Shouldn't we come closer to this noise that comes closer?" suggests Augustus, half-curious, half-afraid.
Risbeth grins. "Well, since you asked so nicely..." She takes up position to block whatever is coming closer.
In the entrance hall, the door to the west suddenly bursts open to reveal a strange sight: a flesh golem, huge and hulking and eyeless, is being lead by six tiny homunculi, who guide it by pulling on tethers that attach it to them or by whispering in its ear as they perch upon it. The golem lets out a wordless cry of outrage as the chorus of homunculi chime in with high pitched voices: "INTRUDERS!"
Initiatives!
Round 1:
26 Zanu
22 Xerice
20 Augustus
18 Caesare
10 Sonny
7 Risbeth
6 Golem
"Don't be silly, we aren't intruders. These are friends of the owner of the home, and they are here trying to rescue him." Risbeth says in response.
The homunculi look confused and exchange worried glances amongst themselves. "Intruders? Intruders? Friends?" The large flesh golem pauses, clearly at a loss.
"She is speaking the truth. We are here to rescue your master. We even made friends with the large flesh golem called the beast, who went into town. Why, we rescued him from terrible people who tried to pin their murders on him. Hasn't he come by yet? "
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The six homunculi break into a discussion as tiny piping voices argue back and forth. "Master? Rescue the master? No, rescued the Beast! No no no! No Beast back yet, not here, not here! In the Master's Laboratory, perhaps? On the hill? Yes, yes, maybe!" The voices pipe back and forth, shrill and high. One tiny voice, from the flesh golem's back speaks up hopefully, "Intruders? Smash intruders?" but the chorus of voices seems to drown it out as they argue. The large blind flesh golem simply waits and makes confused noises.
Sonny's hand glows and he touches his chest, "I am Sonny Wright and we saved the beast. Now we would like to save your master. We have killed the trolls trying to get in here and befriended the hound out front and the spider inside. Please be our frined as well."
"Yes, we are trying to get to the hill to rescue your master."
The homunculi chirp and nod as you reassure them and finally even the lone voice hoping for violence calms down. One of the homunculi steps forward while the other crawl over the flesh golem, petting and soothing it with their words and touch. "You seek the Master! Master taken by dark cloaked men! Men with touch and smell of the dead. They come in, disrupt the museum, release the sleeping dead! Take the Master up the hill to the Laboratory! They wish the Master to do something the Master does not want to do! They threaten him, loud angry voices! He refuses, but they hit him and take him away!" The homunculus leans forwards and whispers. "We hear them speak of making the Beast do bad things, using the Device. Stealing things. Dark things. Bad things. We find this left behind." The homunculi pass something small and metallic forward to the speaker and he holds it out to you. It seems to be a holy symbol, of a skull gagged with barbed wire: the symbol of the Whispering Way.
"The Whispering Way! Undead loving maniacs! It sounds like they got the Beast to do what they wanted as he stole from the museum in town. We must free their Master. What is the device and are there still sleeping dead here?"
"Can you lead us to your master. We wish to coordinate his defense!"
The homunculi all look up in alarm. "No no no! Eyes must stay here in museum, guard museum. Not allowed up the hill, no no! Master is allowed up the hill. No more dead here. Screaming heads in chest upstairs, must not open! None loose. None free."
"Screaming heads in the chest upstairs. Right. We'll leave that alone. Can you direct us to the way out of the museum and up the hill so we can rescue the master?"
"What is this about a device to control the Beast? Where is that located, and how does it work?" Xerice asks with a slight smile.
"On the hill! On the hill! The device, the device!" The homunculi murmur the name as if it's holy. Finally one of them quiets the others and points toward the northern hall where you fought the mimic and the mummy. "Beyond that door is the hill. Up the stretching way! Up the way to the Hill!" The refrain of 'hill! hill!' continues.
"Let's head out that door and up the hill then, shall we?" Sonny says as he heads to the door out.
Out the door and up a long, steep and hand-rail free path you go, which takes longer than it should, as you have to pause several times to haul up a party member that is in danger of falling over the waterfall below. At the top of the stairs you enter into the base of a series of four towers built into the cliffs. Far above a fifth tower is connected by a narrow bridge. The rusted iron door is hard to open, requiring Risbeth and Sonny and Caesare and Zanu to pull hard on it before it finally gives way and opens, revealing a flooded hallway. The stairway going up is blocked by tons of rubble, leaving only the hallway going east and west into the towers beyond.
Risbeth grimaces as Caesare and Zanu insist on pulling on the door. "You do realize I could have smashed it's hinges off faster? It's not as if that would have made more noise than we just made forcing it open..."
Risbeth flips a small coin with a square hole in the center.
She points to the left, and puts one finger against her nose. "Shall we go right?" She asks, louder than needed, while still pointing left and raising an eyebrow.
Sonny shrugs and nods at Risbeth.
Augustus sighs in relief when Sonny and the others succeed in avoid a useless fight.
Loudly Risbeth proclaims their desire to go right, then heads left. The water is deep enough that it's slowing your movement, but as Risbeth discovers, there is a hidden pit trap! The floor suddenly isn't there anymore but since it's all flooded, there is just a lot of splashing and cursing. Risbeth is able to stay afloat without a lot of worry. However, the water around her begins to suddenly bubble and writhe as hundreds of leeches rise from the bottom, sensing a new source of blood!
Initiatives!
Round 1:
21 Caesare
17 Augustus
16 Leeches!
13 Sonny
12 Zanu
11 Xerice
10 Risbeth
Augustus casts guidance on Zano.
Caesare retreats as he knowsa, he is of no help
Risbeth's surprise at the leeches makes her not swim quite as well as she normally would, but she still swims fine. "Leech's, how fun. Like a family reunion." She swims back, but cuts a finger on her tooth and lets a few drops hit the water. "Do you like dead blood?" She asks with a grin as she swims back to the shallower water. "Anyone know how to kill these things?" She asks, backing up to avoid the swarm.
Augustus studies the writhing worm things as Caesare wisely retreats!
Driven mad by the dead blood in the water, the swarms surge forward! Sonny, Xerice, Zanu and Risbeth are coated in two swarms, each taking and damage!
and
and
and
and
Okay, after clarification, it appears you can't suffer two attacks from two swarms in one space, so you each only take 11 pts and we'll use your first poison fort save, which means... you actually all take the same amount of Dex DRAIN...
And you're all up!
Rummaging through his kit Caesare grabs a dose of salt and throws it into the water.
Risbeth grumbles under her breath. "Leeches are always a problem..." She swims back and our of the swarms.
"Let's get out of the water, folks, they might not follow us!" says the old wizard as he retreats.
Sonny moves back and out. As he passes Xerice he says, "I think this one is one for your channeling abilities. He then turns green and loses his lunch.
Sonny and Zanu retreat as the disgusting nature of the foe and the blood loss cause them to feel less than well. Risbeth, too, gets out of the swarm.
"Very nice choice Risbeth. I always wanted leech accessories. And if you don't mind Suny. I'm getting out of here first." Xerice says and swims out of the water as far as she can go.
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Xerice moves away from the leeches who still swarm and cause the water to boil!
Round 2:
21 Caesare
17 Augustus
16 Leeches!
13 Sonny
12 Zanu
11 Xerice
10 Risbeth
Caesare throws more salt.
The Professor delays, his expertise not extending to the swarming leeches! Caesare throws a handful of salt, then another as the leeches boil and squirm. There seems to be damage to the swarm, but it's still mostly intact and swarming!
The swarm moves forward to where Caesare still stands, dealing damage and eliciting a from the investigator, who resists the poison! However, the combined blood loss seems to have left him nauseated!
"Anyone have some oil we can pour out and burn them up with?" Risbeth thinks back to the labs. "I think there was some alcohol in the lab, we could pour that out and burn them..." She says, before running back to the lab to look for alcohol or oil on the shelves.
From the side of the water Xerice places a hand around her necklace and familiar dark energies exude from the neckless and soon from Xerice herself, washing past her colleagues, their neckhairs rising on end, pleasantly through Risbeth, and causes the leeches to wither and coil.
Within a few seconds, the water stops bubbling and the bloated, blackened bodies of leeches float to the surface. The water seems safe and after a few moments, you manage to swim past the open pit and into a very tall cylindrical room that is partially flooded. A rotting stench comes from a trio of headless, apelike creatures inside heavy iron cages. The waters lap against these corpses, while the twisted remnants of an iron walkway lie half-submerged in the water. Two doors sit high in the north and east walls, thirty feet above the floor.