"Well, this is a problem." Unable to take a step back and draw his crossbow, Khalaban instead swung his club, hoping to avoid the worst of the splash...and to trust in his robust consitution to defend against the likely results.
Khalaban's club strikes the green pustule on the zombie and ruptures it, causing the undead creature to explode in a shower of rank gore & filth. Both Vixie & Khalaban get absolutely drenched in diseased fluids.
Vixie opens her mouth to politely ask Mister Khalaban to stay his hand, but doesn't get a word out before he strikes.
Luckily, she's able to close her mouth before it gets filled with pus.
Adriana will back off and fire her Fire of Belief at the zombie in front of her...
She also readies her bow
Bertrand takes another shot.
Sensing something adjacent to an opportunity, Vixie's bill lashes out over the coffin.
...but she doesn't seem to have figured out how to effectively attack over it.
Adriana's flame & Bertrand's bolt find their marks easily enough.
Max backs up to give the big folks space to work
The zombies continue to shuffle forward. The maimed one staggers up to Vixie and swings...
...and the halfling nimbly dodges its flailing fist!
Adriana will shoot the red zombie with her
Fires of belief...her last one for the day I think...
Nope!
Khalaban retched at the smell a little, but managed to get his shield between him and the worst of the foul stuff. As one of the creatures left his range he swung at the opportune moment.
With a grunt, he continued his assault. He really, really wished he wasn't though.
Khalaban strikes down the zombie as it shambles forward with two quick strikes, and manages to get his shield up in time again as the thing explodes in a burst of filth.
Adriana's burst of flame strikes the remaining zombie in the head, cooking off most of the fluids caked on its face and exploding it.
After the two zombies explode, Vixie is utterly caked in filth and rancid fluids.
Poking around this room reveals something of a stash in the room's southeastern corner. It contains the following items:
--a bunch of rotted rations;
--a map of the immediate area, similar to the map pieces each of you were given;
--a bottle with a deep blue fluid inside;
--a pouch with 13 gold pieces;
--a small handbill (of the sort posted in taverns). The handbill reads as a notice of employment, telling all those interested to meet at "The Ranger's Lament."
Vixie finds a corner away from the rest of the group and shakes herself off like a wet dog. It's... not totally effective. She's still pretty nasty by the time she returns.
She doesn't seem to have enough of an appetite to check the gold pieces for chocolate, either.
Cleaning anything too gooey that got on him, Khalaban studied the maps to see if they had any useful information that there own maps didn't contain.
The maps are rough, but mostly identical to the map pieces you have. They're much older than the pieces you have now, certainly. Otherwise, there's not much you can glean from it.
"You know Vixie if you want to be clean and smelling of roses all you have to do is wish it..."
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"I'd certainly be willing to wish at this point," Khalaban murmured wryly as he stashed the old maps. "If I have to smell those things much longer I'd be willing to beg." Khalaban's nose was far too sensitive for these undead things.
"The decayed rations and the corpses -- they can't have been buried here originally, or the rations would have been dust and the zombies been skeletons by now, right? Could a group of adventurers come here by accident and opened something they shouldn't've by mistake?" Max offers thoughtfully.
"And if so, that doesn't sound hopeful for the person we're looking for -- they would have had to have come through here since we haven't seen them anywhere else, right?"
Vixie blinks up at Adriana. ”I-I do want that, b-but h-how do I w-wish it?” she asks.
"All you have to say is...'I wish I was clean and smelling like roses'..."
Vixie nods. ”I-I wish I was c-clean and s-smelling like roses!” she repeats. Presumably, wish magic won’t mind a stutter.
"Your wish is my command." Adriana intones...and it happens...
Looking rather envious, Khalaban headed for the door leading out of this room, checking the area as he went.
"A reasonable deduction, Maxilla. Let us hope the person we're looking for is at least as lucky and/or resourceful as we!"
Bertrand scratches his beard. "Ranger's Lament? Hmm. I'm unfamiliar."
Now that she's considerably less nasty, she picks up the bottle and sniffs at it. "C-can anyone tell w-what this is?" she asks. She's getting rather used to bottles containing magic.
"I'm afraid not," Khalaban replied before opening the next door. Magical items of all kinds were beyond his ability to identify.
Bertrand casts Detect Magic and squints at the bottle for a few moments. "Perhaps if I had the equipment to run a few tests, but I'm afraid it just looks like something blue and magicky to me. Looks like conjuration magic, though."
"Let me try..."Adriana takes it and try a drop...
"Nope...I can't place it."
Vixie hmms and uncorks the bottle, giving a quick taste to the liquid inside, which is now a Potion of Moderate Backwash in addition to whatever it previously was.
”I-I don’t feel any different.”
Max stares at the rest of the team trying to figure out the fluid, then shrugs a bit.
"Don't understand what the fuss is about, it's just a better version of the fountain water, is all."
”O-oh! You’re s-so smart, M-Mister Max!” she cheers.
"If I was really smart, I'd've figured out a way to deal with some of the stuff we ran into better, instead of kinda just being there for some of the fights." Max offers soberly. "I guess it comes from being with smart and dedicated people on the team?"
The door opens easily, revealing a new room.
A shallow reflecting pool divides this long chamber, running from one end to the other. The water looks cloudy and stagnant. What must have once been marvellous murals covering both walls are now scorched and ruined, the original subject lost in the destruction.
On the southern end of the room is a raised portcullis, held in place in the ceiling, and leading into another set of catacombs.
Khalaban looked around the room, but saw nothing.
Adriana will look around...
"Watch out for that pool, it'll have all kinds of nasty in it, possibly even ACID. We used to do stuff like that back in the snarl..."
There is a blood-curdling screech, and the halfling leaps half her height in the air. As soon as her feet hit the ground, provided no one stops her, they are carrying her away, back towards the previous room, and faster than most halflings can be seen moving, even without armor.
Vixie starts running pell-mell back the way she came--it looks like she's running for the entrance to the dungeon.