Narnel puts an arrow to his long bow and moves in with the others slightly to the right and flanking.
”Ready, Blackrazor? So long as there aren’t any undead, you will soon feast.”
Molok moves slowly into the space with the others, looking wide-eyed at the strange membrane that holds the water back.
"Whelm-hammer have you ever experienced anything like this before? Is this why the doors were so odd?"
He stops when he hears that there might be some creature ahead of them under the sand.
"Anyone have anything to keep these doors from slamming shut behind us? Hopefully they won't, but this place has had just a couple traps built into it. Hmm..." Lyraath feels around in his pockets, "I have... uh... a ladder, I guess. Not sure if that would be strong enough. Ah well, all else fails, we have enough windows for two of the doors." he says with a shrug and then turns his attention back to the impressions in the ground.
"So... uh... should we throw something in there and see what happens, or what?"
Once through the final door you can inspect the membrane up close even before you really approach the chest and larger chamber. It is very thin and slick like a bladder or balloon, but should you dare to touch it you would find it scalds your fingertip instantly. The water (?) its holding back is apparently boiling hot.
To Molok, hammer says "Ach, I know about stones not gelatin. I'm not the spirit of a dessert chef!"
Urth steps through and suggests, "um. Try to avoid the walls with pointy objects. If it breaks, we're probably dead. As in dead, dead."
”Quite an ignominious way to go.” Godric walked forward, holding the blade more carefully than before.
Making your way out to the chest across the sand, you can see the chamber opens into a vast underground lake of sorts, the water clarified from the heat. The sandy bit appears to be just a temporary ledge that soon drops off into the depths of the volcano.
As expected, the ground begins to rumble in response to your footsteps and what emerges is an enormous crab-like creature, sending sand showering over everything (especially in the boots between toes). One of its claws has a strange copper band covered with runes and slightly oxidized to green embedded in its exoskeleton. Its giant pincers snap here and there menacingly, dangerously close to the membrane...
Round 1:
Narnel, Lyraath <--UP
Enemy
Godric, Urth, Nine, Molok
Narnel fires at the crustacean from a distance.
Both arrows miss their mark, sailing between the eye-stalks, and puncture the thin membrane with a *pop pop*! As the barrier collapses, the slow steady stream from the 2 puncture marks seems to be getting bigger and bigger as a boiling wave now threatens to engulf everyone and everything...
Lyraath moves up and towards the side, hoping to stay clear of the water spray, then calls upon his heritage to manifest a mage hand and attempt to put it against one of the holes or even plug it with a mage finger to block or at least slow it.
Then he eyes the creature carefully and studies its aura closely.
The hand flaps across the membrane uselessly, getting blasted by the high pressure/temperature spout.
Lyraath's Aura Sight, repeated to group
You strip away the cloudy layer of reality seperating your mind from true knowledge, and see the creature at once for what it truly is. Once a natural, if unusually sized, skuttler of the Coast the beast has been rune-forged...enhanced through magical means cutting into its very core, the taint of a powerful archmage still lingers. It will never know friendship. The part of its mind controlling fear has been removed. Its physiological metabolism has been enchanced, shattering all attempts to slow it down.
"Dead. Dead. Run! Nine, close the door when me and my companions leave this room!" Urth shouts and runs around the monster toward the tears.
”Let us retreat. Burst all of the walls, flood the creature. Come back when it is dead.”
Not a bad idea...I have already started.
Narnel continues to move towards the door.
After Lyraath's aura sight, the crab advances perhaps to likewise escape or just out of some mindless duty...but it aggressively attacks Godric just as he expressed his intention to retreat...
+auto grappled
...the powerful claw captures Godric fast, crunching the armor that constitutes his being.
Urth moves further into the bubble near the leak, but finds it difficult to place his hands directly on the tear hole, given the boiling hot water that streams forth.
Narnel begins his retreat to the south. Nine sluggishly follows him.
Round 1:
Narnel, Lyraath
Enemy
Godric, Urth, Nine, Molok <--UP
Godric broke free, but wasn’t able to attack...or flee. ”This is going to be a problem.” An understatement if there ever was one.
Seeing the giant crustation having grabbed Godric, and his subsequence escape, Molok winds up and hurls Whelm at the creature.
Attack:
Damage:
As the hammer flies back to his hand, Molok lets it cock his arm back and lets loose with another toss.
Attack:
Damage:
Narnel, as you reach the 3rd door with the window in it, you see the halfling from the Blackrazor room back near the first door peeking around the corner. It seems to be about to the close the door, and has a wicked grin on her little face...
Round 2:
Narnel, Lyraath <--UP
Crab, Halfling
Godric, Urth, Nine, Molok
Narnel fires two quick shots at the halfling closing the door.
The second arrow smarts her well, penetrating up at her right shoulder. She starts to cry like a little girl but then stops suddenly, obviously just playing around. She yanks out the bloody arrow and smashes it in one tiny hand, giggling.
Round 2:
Narnel, Lyraath <--UP
Crab, Halfling
Godric, Urth, Nine, Molok
Whelm crashes into the crab's exoskeleton, exposing the juicy crab meat beneath "Ach...if'n ye wanted a taste o' the coast theres easier ways to be gettin a seafood feast!" jumping back and forth rapidly through the air deftly from Moloks hand "UUOmmpf! A little butter, a little lemon!"
Round 2:
Narnel, Lyraath <--UP
Crab, Halfling
Godric, Urth, Nine, Molok
Narnel will move towards the halfling as he fires.
"No worries, Godric, this will be just fine. The sailor is dealing with the water now, which is good because he knows all about water! But, yes, let's all step out for a mo-NOOO!!" As Lyraath is moving towards the exit he sees the halfling.
"You worthless piece of... uh... crab droppings!" Lyraath's anger drops for a moment as he wonders if he should try again with a better taunt, but then shrugs and flips back into a raging hatred! He prepares to unleash a mental assault that will shame the halfling into cowering rather than closing the door... but then realizes he's too far away, so he curses and with another shrug just mentally punches her in the back of the head.
The halfling has a surprising resilience and Lyraath's psionic assault seems to be brushed off. However, she doesn't seem to be getting anywhere with the door, especially with her wounded shoulder, and disappears around it.
The crab again reaches for its metallic meleer, snapping its pincer and rolling its googly eye stalks...
...but this time the slow chitinous mass pummels into the sand.
The bubble is still collapsing quite rapidly. The sand seems to be absorbing most of the water for now, but the bubble ceiling has lost about half its original height...
Round 2:
Narnel, Lyraath
Crab, Halfling
Godric, Urth, Nine, Molok <--UP
Urth realizes that Mending takes a minute to cast and is out of position.
He shouts, "Two-toed sloth" attempting to polymorph the crab monster into something that cannot survive the imminent flood.
Urth seems to hold up a caterpiller cacoon which soon melds with the air in a stream covering the crab's body...
...the exoskeleton fractures and sprouts a forest of thick brown hair, its giant pincers shrink to fingerlike claws and suddenly the entire girth of the beast shrinks to the size of a child and plops on the sands...it now appears to be a two-toed sloth.
Godric didn’t know what happened, but this place made very little sense anyways. He slashed Blackrazor down to kill the crabsloth, before it had a chance to change into a platypus.
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Godric scrapes Blackrazor over the fresh sloth flesh and it instantly explodes back into its full sized crab-ness. His second strike is deflected from the still somewhat hairy claw.
If Godric could have looked surprise then he would have. Instead he just yelled ”...that’s not fair.”
"Godric! The two-toed sloth would have drowned!" Urth is so disappointed that his most powerful spell was wasted.
Narnel sprints to the corner and fires at the retreating hafling.
Narnel spins and fires back at the crustacean.
Still a distance from the creature, Molok readies to throw the hammer once again, when the crab suddenly changes into some sort of little furry creature. He checks his throw in slight confusion and watches as Godric slashes the new creature with his sword, and it suddenly explodes back into the giant crab. Shaking his head in confusion, he releases the hammer for a single strike.
Attack:
Damage:
Glad that the threat of being locked in by the halfling has seemingly passed, Lyraath pauses for a moment - then his eyes go wide, ”The chest!”
He hurries back around the crab - trying to keep his distance - and makes sure one of his potions is readily accessible in case this goes very bad. He then grabs the chest and sees if he can lift or drag it.
Narnel spots Ruby Fenseq, once imprisoned with Blackrazor, now bracing herself on the other side of the door, using her entire body to try and slam it shut. Remarkably, she is making progress, but slowly. The arrows once again distract her, finding rest inside her small frame. Her eyes glow a radiant, deep, white and she raises a palm angrily, sending a blast of intense cold filling the entire corridor! The blast rolls through all the doors and captures Nine as well...
or con save DC 13 for half, Narnel
Whelm seems confused himself at Molok's lack of vigor after the first successful strike "Bah, wot are ye waiting for, wielder?!"
Lyraath, the chest is firmly attached to the floor () by what appears to be some kind of glass-like mineral that has grown, or been grown, around its base. Perhaps it could be opened, however.
The crab again pinces and clacks forth at Godric...
Round 3:
Narnel, Lyraath
Crab, Halfling
Godric, Urth, Nine, Molok <--UP
Lyraath, oddly enough you hear a strong salty voice singing from apparently inside the chest, or perhaps you have gone insane...
"Naow whin Oi wuz a little boy an’ so me mother told me,
‘Way haul away, we’ll haul away Joe!
That if Oi didn’t kiss the gals me lips would all grow mouldy.
‘Way haul away, we’ll haul away Joe!
An’ Oi sailed the seas for many a year not knowin’ what Oi wuz missin’,
Then Oi sets me sails afore the gales an’ started in a-kissin’.
Oi got meself an Amnish gal an’ her name wuz Flannigan,
She stole me boots, she stole me clothes, she pinched me plate an’ pannikin!"
”Blackrazor! We end this!”
Channeling the majority of his power, and swinging with all of his strength, Godric leapt at the crustacean. His tattered black robes billowed out behind him as he threw caution to the wind, putting everything he had into the attack.
Urth shouts an unintelligible word and three missiles of blue magical force surge out of his right hand.
The starred blade shears across the body of the crab, removing half its legs instantly, the crab lets out a terrible shriek and rears up, awkwardly (perhaps magically) still balancing itself upright on its remaining legs and pincers. The bubble has fallen down far enough to crush its eye-stalks.
Godric feels his materials swing past the crab's body, leaving nothing left, Blackrazor stirs "Yes...this one..." as a starved beast with salted meat before it. Godric feels a sudden surge of power and flicks the astral blade back once again, tunnelling up through its body and bursting out its eye...but it isn't over. A crack in existence ripples from the blade as the memories of the crab creature flood into its essence, feeding it. Godric senses in an instant the life experiences and honed instincts of the enchanted creature wash over him in what he might mistake for the presence of his queen.
Narnel drops to the ground in frosty unconsciousness.
"Nine! Put the creature that my missiles hit down! Prevent the door from closing." Urth commands when he sees the cone of cold.
Nine moves toward the halfling and swings his heavy fists.
Damage at 0 Hit Points. If you take any damage while you have 0 hit points, you suffer a death saving throw failure. If the damage is from a critical hit, you suffer two failures instead. If the damage equals or exceeds your hit point maximum, you suffer instant death.
The bubble appears to be ready to collapse, any second now...the heat from the liquid it holds back is quite uncomfortable...a sense of utter doom hangs in the air...
Round 4:
Narnel, Lyraath <--UP
Crab, Halfling
Godric, Urth, Nine, Molok