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While digging in his pack, Selter says, Self has rope.
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He throws the end to Kurse, I will hold thisss end while you othersss crosss. When a few can hold the other end, Sithiss can ssslither acrosss on the rope with no problem then I will crosss.
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Selter says a short incantation to bestow Nalvinati's grace on each as they prepare to cross.
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Letting out a low, grumbling squawk at the smell of the sewers, Kūtayak watches Kurse successfully make his way across. "Nnh, agile for..." he cuts himself off, shaking his head. Then, without further word, buth Kūtayak and Shūkantayāk leap and hop across the stones to the other side of the sewer, only the rustling of feathers and loose cloth to signal their passing until talons click loudly on the other side.
Once the rest of the party has made it across, you investigate the great door. There is no light here beyond what your party have with them. The iron door looks well built and when tested, is found to be firmly locked as well.
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Looking at the narrow opening around the door, Kutayak lets out a noisy squaek and motions for Shukantayak to remain where he is. The tengu approaches the door, rolling back the sleeves of his robe and widening his stance. Watching Selter, the avian summoner readies to time his blows against the door with the nagaji's. When Selter moves in to slam the door, so too does Kutayak, bashing into it with his shoulder, until finally, the door gives way with a tremendous CRASH—
(You can't take 10 on a skill check to aid another.) Text for reference
As the great door crashes inward, you hear a soft groan in the chamber beyond and a foul stench hangs in the air. A purple radiance washes over this cold chamber from a variety of lichens and fungi that grow on the walls and ceiling creating an otherworldly sheen. Straw-filled cages line the north and south walls. In the room’s center, a strange pedestal, carved in the likeness of dozens of grasping tentacles, sits fixed into the stone floor.
Selter notices the prone forms of six men sealed in the cells and steps into the room to determine if they yet live. But as soon as he moves into the room, he coughs and gags as he is met with a foul aura of the stench of death and decay.
The source of the foul stench immediately becomes clear as a pallid creature steps out of the gloom, snapping ravenously at Selter with a maw of long vicious teeth and raking at him with terrible claws. Fortunately it's attacks are rebuffed by the druid's armor.
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Kūtayak is quick to move back when it becomes clear Selter is ambushed in the doorway. "Draw it out or push it further in!" He croaks in a raspy Taldan, talons clicking together in anticipation. Without being able to see the creature, Kūtayak has no idea what he and the others are up against.
______________
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"That ssmell is poop gass. It'ss every where down here in the ssewerss." Kurse notices that he my be in the way of some of the heavier hitters and move toward the back of the group. Not wanting to stand around doing nothing Kurse begins to dance.
"I've sseen people dance to inpssire their alliess, let me know if it'ss working."
Initiative Order - Round 1
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Enemy - move(surprise) and attacked, missed
Ka - delays
Maedhros - casts grease and know check
Selter and Sithiss - draws club and casts shillelagh
Kūtayak and Shūkantayāk -ready attacks
Kurse - dances... badly
-------------------------------------Round 2
Enemy - stands from prone,
Ka
Maedhros
Selter and Sithiss
Kūtayak and Shūkantayāk
Kurse
Maedhros recalls his religious instruction on the many varieties of undead and proclaims, "It's a ghast! They are more powerful types of ghouls, and can sicken with their stench and spread their fever with their bite while the claws can cause paralysis. Beware!" Finished with his warning, he casts his patented grease spell and the ghast slips down prone.
The undead thing scrabbles back to it's feet and snaps at the air, missing the Nagaji.
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Excellent friend Maedhros! As the creature stands, Selter swings at its head.
, if hits
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Selter takes another swing trying to cripple filthy thing.
, if hits He then takes a step back trying to entice it toward the others.
.
Doesss the touch of the ssserpent feel sssoothing to sssuch asss you? No. Perhapsss you ssshould try to ssstop me.
At Selter's call, Sithiss attempts to move up along the walls to get over the doorway.
But initially seems unable to find purchase upon the well made walls.
.
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Kurse continues to dance.
"How about now? Sslipss ssayss you need to let the sspirit of the dance into your ssoul."
-Posted with Wayfinder
Initiative Order - Round 1
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Enemy - move(surprise) and attacked, missed
Ka - delays
Maedhros - casts grease and know check
Selter and Sithiss - draws club and casts shillelagh
Kūtayak and Shūkantayāk -ready attacks
Kurse - dances... badly
-------------------------------------Round 2
Enemy - stands from prone, misses bite (11 damage from AOO)
Ka - BoL on Selter
Maedhros - 5 ft step and shift, begins summoning
Selter and Sithiss - misses attack, moves / climbs
Kūtayak and Shūkantayāk - delays
Kurse - dances... much better... to no effect
-------------------------------------Round 3
Enemy -
Ka
Maedhros
Selter and Sithiss
Kūtayak and Shūkantayāk
Kurse
Selter strikes a blow as the creature regains it's feet, but then misses his second swing. The druid leaves himself open to attack and the ghast snaps at the empty air in his wake. It pauses as if contemplating pursuit and then the creature seems to shrink back from following into the more open spaces and retreats back to it's original hiding place, moving through the grease with apparent ease.
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Unwilling to venture into the narrow entrance while the grease plugs the corridor, Kūtayak continues to wait in crouches posture with claws at the ready for whatever is holed up in the chamber to emerge. Glancing back to Shūkantayāk, the tengu conveys wordless concern to his eidolon, then swiftly sharpens his focus back on the bottneck of the doorway.
_________________
-------------------------------------Round 2
Enemy - stands from prone, misses bite (11 damage from AOO)
Ka - BoL on Selter
Maedhros - 5 ft step and shift, begins summoning
Selter and Sithiss - misses attack, moves / climbs
Kūtayak and Shūkantayāk - delays
Kurse - dances... much better... to no effect
-------------------------------------Round 3
Enemy - retreats back to chamber
Ka - delays
Maedhros - summons eagle, dismisses grease
_
Maedhros' eagle moves in, overcoming the creature's stench and rending it with mighty talons. The ghast goes down, and the terrible stench dies away with it.
You notice it clutched a potion in it's claws and find a strange, cruel looking hooked prod hanging from the thing's belt. By the look of the men trapped in the cells, the monster had been using it to strip bits of their flesh away for consumption.
The men in the cages look to be in very poor condition. Although they yet live, they moan in unconsciousness, their flesh burning with fever to the touch. They wear the garb of The Swift Prison's Thief Takers, and are likely the party that was sent after the derro and their captive prisoners.
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"They may have it, but it would be really easy to identify it in that case, I figure. Please come closer everyone." Ka channel positive energy, healing his companions and the prisoners.
Then he checks each prisoner for signs of disease or anything similar, and asks one of the group with a slicing weapon to cut the head of the ghoul for him, please.
Ka channels, bringing the men in the cages back to consciousness. It only takes him a moment to identify the ghast's bites on them and deduce that all of the thief takers suffer from ghoul fever and will change into ghouls in 48 hours if not cured.
Selter locates no magical auras, but finds a treasure chest in one of the empty cells containing 1,600 gp worth of Cassomir trade bars. Beside the chest, leans a masterwork longbow with 20 arrows.
The thief takers are still somewhat sickened and confused with fever, but offer what help they can.
“The derro left through the same door you entered, but they rotated this chamber somehow and left through another tunnel. I am not exactly sure how, but I saw the derros playing with the floor tiles in the far end of the room. Please, take the bow if you have use for it. We will have to requisition more gear, if we survive this illness.”
Selter finds the switch in a similar place as the last rotating chamber and soon the Thief Takers are on their way back to the Swift along the path you have made safe. A flip of the switch and the way forward is open again. You continue through the Ismacco tunnels for some time before you begin to notice scraps of paper discarded in key places. Selter is able to discern the trail and soon you have left the rank sewers behind and proceed further into the natural caverns deep below Cassomir.
Salt deposits line the cavern ahead and several side passages branch east and west and run rich with blue crystals before ending at cave-ins. Eight smoldering torches illuminate a small tunnel ahead—beyond all is pitch black, though the sound of running water echoes out from the darkness.
Sithiss and Shūkantayāk seem especially interested in a rock they find in the corner, a closer look reveals that a note tucked under a rock, written in the same hand as the journal entry found earlier.
Kurse picks his nose when he thinks no one is looking.
The Pathfinders proceed quietly and cautiously through the torch-lit tunnel and find a glut of people in the cavern ahead. The bustle and noise is so much that it covers your approach and you are able to observe for a few breaths before you are noticed.
A large pool fills most of this chamber, its green waters bathing the high ceilings in an eerie green light. The pool is open to the cavern on the south and east sides, but borders the cavern walls to the north and west. On the north side of the cavern, a small alcove sits above the water line, inside of which rests a small stone table. Dozens of corpses float serenely on the surface of the pool.
Hundreds of prisoners, both human and mite, fill the caverns to the west of the pool. A line of prisoners, herded by injured derros and mites, marches from the western caverns into the pool. Each time a body dips beneath the water, the stone table in the alcove north of the pool flashes in a near-blinding green brilliance, filling the entire cavern with an eerie, near daylight brightness, though it does not seem to trouble the derro or mites as true sunlight would.
Your approach is spotted by friend and foe alike and the prisoners surge against their captors so strongly that only a handful of aggressors are free to engage you as the others quell the herd.
Initiative Order
----------------------------
Kurse
Enemy
Maedhros
Ka
Kūtayak and Shūkantayāk
Selter and Sithiss
