Adrin steps up to Karralo, now backed into a corner, and swings the sap up into the archers stomach as hard as he can, hoping to capitalize on the man's fearful state to subdue him.
Karralo, panic clear on his weaselly face, drops the longbow and pulls out a longsword, swinging wildly at Adrin. Even still, the vigilante barely manages to catch the butcher's blade on the edge of his shield in time. Despite the missed strike, the blade seems to calm his jittery nerves a bit, and Adrin can see the little man steel himself once more.
Baldrago swings his longsword again in a wide arc, but the air in front of Andakos's chest shimmers and sparks as if metal had struck metal; the energy of his extract has saved him from an ugly chest wound.
[color=green]
Adrin (4/13 hp)
Parns (0 dmg, 17 NL, unconscious and stable)
Karralo (0 dmg, 7 NL)
Baldrago (11 dmg)
Maelis (16/16 hp, +2 AC, -2 ranged attack)
Malder (25 dmg, unconscious and dying)
Andakos (11/18 hp, +4 AC)
Trell (14/17 hp) [/color=green]
Andakos shrugs. "Suit yourself." He punches Baldrago again.
Andakos's fist connects with Baldrago's wide jaw, and he feels the bones crack and shatter under the strength of his punch. Baldrago tries to scream with a ruined mouth, then falls to the floor, blood dribbling from one ear, his jaw a complete ruin of unnatural angles. A small white shard juts out of the skin on the left side of his face. His eyes roll into the back of his head as more blood begins to pour from his mouth. Clearly something important was severed under his flesh, either from the punch or from hitting the hard tiles of the floor.
Maelis decides to get back into the fight and reloads his crossbow and lets it fly at Karralo, doing his best to aim at the man but avoid offending a noble with a bolt in the shoulder.
Trell strides up to Karralo and tries to bash the butcher in the face with the hilt of his sword.
NL
[color=green]
Adrin (4/13 hp)
Parns (0 dmg, 17 NL, unconscious and stable)
Karralo (0 dmg, 7 NL, shaken)
Maelis (16/16 hp, +2 AC, -4 all attacks)
Andakos (11/18 hp, +4 AC)
Trell (14/17 hp) [/color=green]
Frustrated with his near miss to the stomach, Adrin brings his sap down on the man's head knowing that he must take him out before too long. After his swing, Adrin steps back, holding his shield forward to protect Trell as much as possible.
Karralo rears back with a bellow that doesn't sound like it should come from a mortal man and pulls back his blade in preparation to strike. Seeing the opening, Adrin places a perfect shot directly to the temple, and Karralo's bellow ends--not with a sharp cutoff, but with a tangled, confused petering out that ends with the little man crumpling to the floor like dirty laundry.
The party stops to take stock of their surroundings. Two men lie unconscious on the floor; another lies bleeding out before Andakos. Malder, the biggest of the three, gives up the ghost mere seconds after the battle ends, and the light forever leaves his eyes. His entrails slowly loop and slide out of the hole in his stomach, steadily floating down a river of blood thanks to a slight decline in the floor, toward the drain at the south end of the room. The stench now is overwhelming, a reek like bloody feces filling the killing floor.
Outside of whatever else there may be of interest in this room, there are also three doors (aside from the one you came in) all in the northern wall: a door directly before Adrin and Trell, in the northeast; a set of double doors to the northwest; and a door between the two, standing open, where Malder and Baldrago came from. In that hall, both Andakos and Maelis can see a stairwell leading to a second floor, and another open doorway leading to the storefront, as well as a closed door on the east wall of the hallway.
Adrin gasps, collapsing to one knee as the exertion of his last strike hits home now that his adrenaline is fading. He clutches the largest of his wounds at his side, and between pants he inquires, "can anyone stanch Baldrago's wounds before he dies? Before we continue further to seek out Verik," at the mention of the traitor's name, Adrin attempts to spit, but a thick glob of blood does little more than drool from his mouth. He wipes the blood away from his lips with the back of his leather glove before continuing, "before we continue, I think I will need some ministrations as well. I do not feel quite myself at the moment." Adrin leans against the wall, still panting, and closes his eyes for a moment.
Seeing Adrin finally take down their final foe, Andakos leans heavily on the table next to him. He reaches up to touch the wound in his neck and winces at the pain. He coughs violently a few times, causing fresh blood to escape from the wound. "Maelis. I think Adrin and I could use some healing if it isn't too much trouble." He smiles weakly at the cleric. "Then we should shackle the ones that aren't dead and search the rest of this place. I don't think any of these guys is Vancaskerkin."
He then squats down and gathers the pieces of his ruined spear and puts them into his backpack. ”Maelis, I would be grateful if you would help me mend my spear when this is all over. For now, I will make do with this.” He holds up his spiked gauntlet, which he only now notices is covered in blood and other assorted gore. His face contorts in disgust and he wipes it off on Baldrago’s pants.
"Tie them, quickly!" Maelis urges to the others before raising his hands grandly towards the sky, closing his eyes tightly and letting forth a burst of healing energy. All in the room feel a wave of warmth flow into them, and the familiar, painful itch as their wounds knit themselves closed.
Even with the burst of healing, Parns does not stir. His clock was thoroughly cleaned by Adrin and it looks like he won't be back with the living for some time--an hour at least. Karralo and Baldrago do wake up, though Baldrago's jaw does not look like it has entirely set correctly. Karralo immediately begins shivering. Baldrago tries the bonds, grumbling angrily as he does, but after a moment apparently decides the knots are beyond his abilities and gives it up with a scowl.
"It doesn't look like this one will be able to tell us much, and by the looks of it he may not be speak well enough for anyone to understand him ever again," Maelis says in a whisper, nodding to Baldrago, "but perhaps we can learn something from Karralo. Andakos, you are clever, perhaps you can question him?"
After a look around the room, Maelis spots something glittering in the muck of a drainage gate. "Look, there is something down here in the sewage drain, about 4 feet down. Adrin, Andakos, your Strength may be needed to help me lift the grate and fetch it."
Trell watches as the final foe falls. He shakes his head. I am...sorry.. he says to the group. I was not try to kill anyone...but...apparently I do not know my own strength. Even being the traitors that they are...death was not needed... He approaches Maelis after he is done with healing Perhaps a prayer could be said for the fallen? Perhaps your god is not their god...but I think it might be nice for his departed soul...
Trell attempts to help Maelis with the grate ignoring the fact that he asked the other 2 and not him...
...and now he knows why he skipped over him....
Andakos puts a hand on Trell's shoulder. "You needn't worry, Trell. We did the best we could. Frankly, I'm surprised we managed to keep three of them alive. Fighting to disable is surprisingly harder than fighting to kill."
He walks over to the grate and attempts to lift it with Maelis's help..
With a grunt of effort, Andakos and Maelis heft the grate up and lean it against the nearby wall.
As soon as the grate is up, the long, grotesque rope of Malder's severed intestine droops down into the grate. There is a flash of movement, and a weird, warbling, chittering sound as three figures rush up the four-foot-tall, ten-foot-wide tunnel. They are difficult to describe, like some nightmarish amalgamation of a massive lobster, a deformed prawn, and a sea snake.
One leaps up onto the killing floor and begins slurping at the length of intestine like a s!%#-smelling, bloody spaghetti noodle. The other two hiss menacingly at Maelis and Trell from below their feet.
Initiative:
[color=green]
Lobstrosity 1 (0 dmg)
Adrin (6/13 hp)
Lobstrosity 2 (0 dmg)
Lobstrosity 3 (0 dmg)
Andakos (13/18 hp)
Trell (16/17 hp)
Maelis (16/16 hp)
[/color=green]
The first of the creatures spends its turn gobbling up the length of intestines on the floor. It doesn't actually look up until Karralo starts screaming, at which point its weird, chitinous head snaps upward and finally notices something other than its gross poop-noodle and hisses at Adrin.
Taking a short step next to the closest disgusting creature, Adrin drops his sap, drawing his rapier in the same hand. While trying to maximize his shield coverage for both himself, and Andakos, he thrusts hard at the horrible thing that climbed out of the grate.
Adrin draws his rapier as the creature hisses at him and plants his rapier right down its throat, puncturing several important bits on the way through it. He plants a foot on its... shoulder?... and pushes it off his blade. The creature flops onto the floor and immediately begins thrashing violently, its wicked claws snapping out in all directions, and Adrin barely manages to get out of its way. It finally stops thrashing after a few moments.
The creature in front of Maelis snaps at him and gouges his leg and he feels something enter his flesh and the wound immediately begins to go numb.
As soon as the claws penetrate Maelis's leg, it latches on and squeezes. Even with the paralytic poison numbing the area, Maelis can feel the agonizing pain shoot through the meat and bone.
The other creature lashes out at Trell, but slips in the greasy, bloody muck of the sewage.
[color=green]
Lobstrosity 1 (14 dmg, unconscious and dying)
Adrin (6/13 hp)
Lobstrosity 2 (0 dmg)
Lobstrosity 3 (0 dmg, flat-footed)
Andakos (13/18)
Trell (16/17 hp)
Maelis (12/16 hp, grappled, poisoned)
[/color]
"Reefclaws! Nasty creatures!"
Andakos sees the trouble that Maelis is in and rushes over to help him, carefully stepping to avoid the unconscious creature's sharp claws. He punches it with his gauntlet, hoping he won't hurt Maelis too.
Maelis quickly realizes that he has little chance against these creatures and begins to feel his strength seeping out of his body. In a panick and unsure of what else to do, he prays to Calistria for her divine providence, and attempts to break free of the creature's grasp.
Trell quickly gets back into a fighting stance once the creatures appear. He swings his still glowing sword with one had at the creature he is flanking with Andakos and in his other hand a sickly glow begins to form and then quickly turns into arrow made of acid hovering about Trell's open hand. Once the sword travels through it's ark the arrow shoots off of Trell's palm and heads towards the Reefclaw.
Trell's acid splash forms perfectly and without interruption, but his sword skips off the creature's chitinous carapace.
[color=green]
Lobstrosity 1 (14 dmg, unconscious and stable)
Adrin (6/13 hp)
Lobstrosity 2 (9 dmg, grappled)
Lobstrosity 3 (0 dmg)
Andakos (13/18 hp)
Trell (16/17 hp)
Maelis (12/16 hp, grappled, poisoned)
[/color=green]
Adrin looks over Andakos's shoulder, wishing he could help Maelis, but seeing no opening in which to act. Instead, he rounds the grate to approach the other reefclaw, bringing his rapier in an upward slash before rotating at the wrist to deliver a thrust from above, hoping to confuse the creature.
Adrin just barely miscalculates his thrust and the rapier's tip wings off its carapace.
Maelis manages to shake off any further effects of the paralytic venom. The reefclaw struggles to maintain its grip, but the blood pouring off Maelis's leg actually helps him and the claw slips away, allowing the cleric to free his gored leg.
The other reefclaw lashes out at Trell and, while it doesn't manage to latch on, does gouge his thigh just under his chain shirt and inject some of the paralytic toxin.
The magus feels his limbs begin to weaken from the venom.
[color=green]
Lobstrosity 1 (14 dmg, unconscious and stable)
Adrin (6/13 hp)
Lobstrosity 2 (9 dmg, grappled)
Lobstrosity 3 (0 dmg)
Andakos (13/18 hp)
Trell (15/17 hp, poisoned, 1 Str dmg)
Maelis (12/16 hp, 2 Str dmg)
[/color=green]
Andakos grunts. "Foul creature!" He punches it again.
Finally free of the disgusting creature, Maelis staggers back a few steps, his leg throbbing. He can see his hand shaking slightly as he loads his crossbow, and as he is looking down he notices his breeches are coated with blood. I must be careful not to hit Andakos, he thinks to himself, and attempts to steady his hands.
Deciding to ignore the reefclaw directly in front of him for the moment, Trell unleashes spell combat on the reefclaw he's flanking with Andakos.
When it falls, the reefclaw shrieks and lashes out violently in uncontrollable spasms. Andakos and the reefclaw's buddy both have to duck out of the way of its lashing claws.
Trell hops back a step to avoid the thrashing claws and fires an orb of acid at the remaining reefclaw.
[color=green]
Lobstrosity 1 (14 dmg, unconscious and stable)
Adrin (7/13 hp)
Lobstrosity 2 (17 dmg, unconscious and dying)
Lobstrosity 3 (2 dmg)
Andakos (14/18 hp)
Trell (16/17 hp, poisoned, 1 Str dmg)
Maelis (12/16 hp, 2 Str dmg)
[/color=green]
Adrin cautiously circles around the horrifying sewer creature, trying to gain an advantageous angle before slashing out in a quick strike.
The reefclaw snaps at Adrin's heels as he moves, but can't quite make purchase. The vigilante's blade skewers it in its side, causing strange fluid to leak from the wound. It squeals in pain and lashes out at Adrin, but its flurry of claws appear to make it disoriented for a moment.
[color=green]
Lobstrosity 1 (14 dmg, unconscious and stable)
Adrin (7/13 hp)
Lobstrosity 2 (17 dmg, unconscious and dying)
Lobstrosity 3 (8 dmg)
Andakos (14/18 hp)
Trell (16/17 hp, poisoned, 1 Str dmg)
Maelis (12/16 hp, 2 Str dmg)
[/color=green]
Andakos carefully steps on the nasty looking grate and punches the creature.
Andakos slides into the muck of the sewage tunnel and barely keeps his feet, slamming his fist into the creature's... face? The force of the blow caves the carapace into its brain, and it thrashes violently in its death throes. Both Andakos and Adrin easily avoid the whipping claws, and it finally stops moving.
Maelis turns to Trell and begins lancing the wound and applying a tourniquet to slow the onset of the reefclaw's venom.
Unfortunately the tourniquet doesn't seem to help; apparently too much of the venom has already moved up his bloodstream.
Thankfully the elf's constitution is surprisingly sturdy, and he shakes off any further effects.
Maelis, remembering why they opened the grate in the first place, sifts around a bit in the muck just above the water line before finding the object he'd noticed earlier.
He finds a mithral ring set with tiny slivers of obsidian. More disturbingly, however, the ring is still being worn by a severed finger.
"This ring is quite valuable. This finger, however, is gross."
Adrin carefully cleanes his rapier blade before returning it to his hip, and collecting his sap. He looks over shoulders to examine the ring, and finger. He sees the grisly damage done to the finger, "I wonder what became of the rest of the body. It's pretty clear that the reefclaws must've been chewing the finger. I've seen plenty of clean cuts, and that finger was not severed cleanly."
Adrin looks down at his hip, then up at Andakos, his face a frozen rictus stuck halfway between a grimace, and a smile. "Perhaps you would like to wield my… my rapier," he offers, stumbling a bit at the end, "I'm loathe see it used on the traitors, but I fear we may need every tool at our disposal when it comes to the fight ahead."
Andakos looks at the rapier, then shakes his head. "That won't be necessary, thank you, Adrin. This" -- he holds up the spiked gauntlet -- "has actually been quite therapeutic." His eyes flash red and he flashes what is probably a more sinister smile than he intended.
"I suggest we make sure our new friends here can't go anywhere and then we search the rest of this place. We still need to find Vancaskerkin."
Baldrago hasn't moved, even during the fight with the reefclaws. Karralo is a shaking, gibbering mess; it appears he soiled himself when the reefclaws appeared. Parns is still unconscious, and will be for some time.
There are still two unopened doors in this room, as well as the open hallway leading to the storefront, a door, and a stairwell leading up.
Andakos enlists the others' help to ensure that the prisoners are well bound and unable to escape.
Then he approaches the northeast doors, downs an extract, and checks them for traps/locks.
+1 traps
Adrin gets close behind Andakos, ready to interject his shield should any trouble arise from behind the door. While his infernally descendant companion checks the door, Adrin leans his ear forward, hoping to hear anything amiss on the other side. There is so much noise in the room with the bound guards, and faint sloshing under the grate that Adrin can't make anything out.
...
...
...
Adrin hears nothing from the other side of the door.
Maelis is feeling a bit shaken from the gruesome reefclaws, the finger, the entire scene. What exactly did I sign myself up for? he thinks to himself.
"Are any of you injured?" Trell, how are you feeling after that bite? I can offer healing if anyone is in need, before we open that door."
Trell looks at where the bite landed and shrugs. I will be fine, Maelis. Thank you for your concern. It looks worse than it is, to be honest. Trell then approaches the door and attempts to see if he hears anything on the other side.
Nothing can be heard from the other side of the door.
Andakos waits until the party is gathered, then opens the door.
The air in this room is stale, stinking of day-old meat and blood. Straw litters the floor, scattered to catch the drips from the meat as it hangs (though no meat hangs currently). Meat hooks are affixed to the walls and ceiling on metal rods. To the north is a low, blood-stained table and two barrels of salt, while double doors stand in the wall to the south. An iron bar extends through a narrow hole at the top of the doors; the bar runs along the ceiling for five feet before ending at a vertical pole running floor to ceiling. Bits of missed scrap litter the table and floor.
Andakos immediately recognizes the implications of what he is seeing and has to fight back a gorge in his throat. Once he is able to fight it back, he says, "If I am not mistaken, the reason they have so much meat is because they're using people." He excuses himself back to the main room, coughing and gagging in equal measure.