Chephren glares at the scorpion while thinking, I wonder if Elneiros will attack, go in a defensive posture or maybe pull a rabbit out of his pack. I could really do with a rabbit stew about now.
Undeterred by his previous failure to harm the snakelike creature, Andrei raises his blade and brings it down hard again, with similar results.
"I have seen this scorpion before in my travels. It is known as a Ghost Scorpion. The poison is no different than that of most scorpions. The poison will drain your power to make it harder for you to escape its grip."
As Brennan and Suru shift up and around, or change weapons, to fight the sandling, the noise has drawn the attention of two things from the other room. Rushing out of the space between the eastern doors left ajar come to spider-like insect creatures. These tan-colored creatures looks like ten-legged spiders. Oversized jaws grind together slowly beneath beady eyes.
The big bugs rush out and leap at the two gnomes, right-sized meals for the overlarge bugs. The first manages to latch right onto Gustar's neck, and there is a pop and crunch as it snaps its jaws, all Gustar can do is gurgle out a bloody rasping breath before he goes unconscious. The second one snaps hard onto Z'ael's leg, and the little gnome cries out in pain, he looks like he will drop any second.
Despite the injury, Gustar could just make it, if the thing doesn't keep chewing on him that is.
Andrei tries once again to follow his own advice and just hit hard enough to overcome the protections the creature has, but his intensity is not allowing him to concentrate on hitting the large writhing sandling.
Despite her desire to hit the thing back after it just took a big chunk out of her, Morana instead decides to turn and lance out with her longspear towards the thing that just started chewing on Gustar. Unfortunately the thing is just too small and quick for her to target effectively.
With the moisture created by Gustar finally absorbed, the sandling resumes it normal speed and lashes out again at the armored woman who just turned away from it. No matter how it tries, it just can't seem to find the opening between the two men standing in its way, and it lashes out ineffectually.
One would expect Z'ael to look panicked, given his lack of options, but instead he looks resolute. He begins to cast as carefully and cautiously as he can. At one point he almost looks like he's going to lose consciousness as he does, but instead grits his teeth and is renewed. Safely getting the spell off, he creates a sticky ball of mud, which he manages to toss right into the face of the thing that chomped down hard on Gustar. He exults with a weak, "Yeah, in your face.. litera..[/b] before he collapses.
---------------------
Elneiros steps back, giving himself time to draw and load his weapon, and be out of the way for the others to act. He gives them as much help as he can by telling what he knows of the creature.
The thing doesn't know fear, being a big stupid bug, so like they tend to do, it fights to the death. It scuttles forward toward Chephren and strikes out with stinging tail and grasping claws. The man is able to avoid the first claw, but due to being stuck between a ledge and a wall, he is not fully able to dodge the follow-on attacks.
It's looking grim for Chephren, but Malik manages to step over and conjure one of his special acid bolt, and is just able to hit the thing in melee with the man. The conjured weapon slams into the cracked carapace and the is a squeal and a hiss and pop as the stuff eats through the innards exposed by the crack. It shivers and twitches, then ceases to move.
"Chephren, are you ok?" Malik will cast Acid Splash on the scorpion until it stops twitching.
Hearing the sound of a fight still coming, Malik is eager to continue, but will wait while Chephren heals himself, if he chooses to do so. The fighting sounds brutal and Malik feels compelled to help after his other companions were brutally slain so recently.
+
Brennan moved in close and lashed out with his dagger, and then rolled right past the serpent. He came up on the other side, blade slicing into the amorphous form.
-1 Str
"I think I am ok. Gather near Malik and Elneiros, and I will call on Anubis to heal us once more."
-1 Str
Sweat on his brow and a shaking to his legs, Chephren steadies himself in the corner, "I can still feel the scorpion's poison flowing in me, but I believe I can manage it. Shall we continue down this rope?" he asks, trying to hide the agony he is in.
-1 Str
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On Going Effects: Strength Damage -4 (-2 Str penalty);
Malik looks at Chephren skeptically after the cleric channels his god's energy, but remains silent. It was up to the man himself to place his own limits. Malik will slowly climb down the rope, taking care to use the knots so conveniently placed.
Looking down the shaft Chephren begins casting guidance on each of associates as they begin thier climb.
"As Anubis guides the newly departed, allow him to guide you also as you climb down this shaft." Chephren casts on Malik and Elneiros in turn.
Malik attempts to climb down, nodding his thanks to Chephren for his divine help.
Surubi is momentarily disoriented by too many things happening at once: the sandling requickening, Brennan tumbling past, and the crunching horror of the giant gnome-eating spiders with too many legs. "ZA'EL! GUSTAR!" 'he' screams in a pitch much higher than one would expect from a young man, and rushes towards the gnomes on the ground through the doors, only to stop short and turn back and slam the sandling with the morningstar.
;
"What, what are those things?" 'he' asks, then trails off realizing that no one standing is likely to answer.
Brennan's previous strike on the thing, managing to hurt it even though he is using a bladed weapon, allowed him to roll past the sandling to fight from the other side. With him in place, Suru stepped out of the alcove, and swung hard at the thing, trying to get back to help the two little gnomes. Suru doesn't know much about the things beyond the fact that they kind of look like ten-legged spiders.
'He' better hurry, though, because the one not blinded by Z'ael grabs the little man by the legs and drags its meal back through the double doors into the room the things emerged from. The one that struck Gustar, however, is furiously trying to shake off the stuff blinding it, and failing. Instead it starts using two of its forelimbs to try and clean the sticky mud from its face.
Malik steadily climbs down the rope, using the knots to his best advantage and bracing on the wall when needed.
As Malik is finishing his climb down, Chephren will retrieve his length of rope from his pack and offer to tie on to Elneiros to help lower Elneiros down. He will cast Guidance on him, as he watches him go down next.
Elneiros thanks Chephren for the assistance before climbing slowly down the rope.
"Help the others!" yells Andrei to Morana and Surubi. "I will hold this thing off!" Twice stymied by the thick hide of this creature, the paladin takes a deep breath and slams his sword into it with every ounce of power he can muster.
Andrei lets out a yell as his blade connects, trying to grab the beast's attention. Covering for Surubi, the paladin intentionally leaves himself open to attack.
seeing his compatriots safely reach the bottom of the shaft, Chephren starts his decent.
- 5'
- 15'
- 25'
- 35'
- 45'
- 55'
Seeing the floor just below him, he lets go of the rope and falls the remaining 5 feet.
"Great Anubis, thank you for allowing the living to follow the path you prepared for Akhentepi." Chephren says just before kissing his holy symbol.
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On Going Effects: Strength Damage -4 (-2 Str penalty);
Right when the situation becomes dire, Andrei buckles down and heaves his sword in a mighty arc that manages to tear through multiple coils of the sand and dirt body of the sandling. The thing immediately loses substance as it drops to the floor, becoming a motionless pile of sand once again.
Morana, in needing to get in close with the bug threatening to carry off Gustar, drops her longspear and steps protectively over the little gnome's body. The jagged metal claws of her suit of armor lash out in succession, hitting and gouging the thing's hard shell.
The sandling continues to shift apart as it loses form.
--------------------
The group decides to climb down the rope, Malik going first while Chephren ties off Elneiros. Once the elf makes it to the bottom, Chephren himself decides to make the perilous climb. It is a little slower going, given his poison-induced weakness, but he manages to make it.
The room is decorated with mirrored images of a warrior in side profile, facing inward, carved on an ornate pair of stone doors in the west wall of this square room that sit open. The figure is depicted wearing padded armor, with a scarab-shaped shield on the arm facing the viewer, and a raised khopesh held aloft in the other. A crumpled humanoid body lies directly in front of the doors. A hint of decay hangs in the air, and a dried stain mars the stone floor under the body. The square shaft in the ceiling sits centered on the ceiling of the room.
While Malik is waiting on his comrades, he will light a torch and inspect the room, particularly the body.
Brennan charged forward over the defeated sand snake, moving quickly to stop the mecanical spider thing from dragging Gustar off.
Even as 'he' pulls 'his' morningstar out of the dissolving sandling, the guide continues rushing to the other fight, only to see a wide bloody trail across the floor from where the adorable little gnome was lying a moment ago. "Za'el! Noooo!" the guide shrieks, nearly in tears now, and follows Brennan, forgetting the sandling. Seeing Gustar protected by Morana and Brennan, 'he' dives past the muddied bug and heads straight through the double doors on the other side, looking for Za'el and the bug that dragged him away, ready to attack.
;
Once Elneiros arrives on the bottom he takes a moment to get a look at his surroundings.
"It could have possibly been some kind of trap that caused this death. While you are looking over the body I will check to make sure there are none that could still be remaining around the door."
With that Elneiros methodically checks over the door for any possible traps that were triggered or still remaining.
Brennan wastes no time in celebrating the felling of the one enemy. He moeves quickly and deftly past the insect hovering over Gustar to take up a position of flank.
Suru, however, doesn't even bother with trying to finesse 'his' way past the thing. 'He' instead rushes right by it and into the adjoining, previously unseen, room where Z'ael was dragged. It does not work out to 'his' advantage, as the thing still manages to nip 'his' leg.
Rushing through the doors into the next room, Suru sees that pillars line the walls of this rectangular chamber, interspersed with stone jackal heads extending from the walls. A stone altar, covered in a layer of dust, sits at the eastern end of the room.
The insect, alone, is dragging Z'ael around the altar along the south side. Suru is just able to get close enough to use the corner of the altar as cover from the thing's attacks. Lucky for her she did, as the thing thrashes wildly against the stone slab.
--------------
The corpse is wearing old rotted leathers, and has a small deteriorated satchel of belongings, most of which have also rotted or rusted away except for a couple of metal pitons and a usable hammer, as well as two vials of alchemist’s fire that have remained miraculously unbroken. The body in front of the doors is mostly skeletal, with a thin layer of dessicated tissue. In looking it over thoroughly, Malik can tell it is the body of a male human or half-elf, whose legs are both broken from a fall from a great height. It looks like he managed to crawl toward the doors before the injury did him in.
As Elneiros inspects the doors, the only trap he finds is the obvious big hole in the floor sixty feet above, probably expected to do enough harm to not worry about trapping the doors. At least from the looks of the dead guy.
"Mister Constantine! I'm cornered! Za'el is dying! Help!"
Unable to savor the victory over the sandling, Andrei turns to Surubi's yell and dashes after 'him'.
As Malik waits for his fellows, he will stow the hammer and pitons, as well as the alchemist's fire. He will prepare to proceed towards the sounds of the fight if Elneiros declares the door free of traps. While not reckless, he would like to help if he could.
As Andrei rushes past the bug contained between Morana and Brennan, he is only able to move far enough to make it just behind Suru. Morana, now with the aid of Brennan at its flank, once again lashes out at the insect with both claws. She gouges deep rents into the thing and it shudders and twitches, before it stops moving, except an odd spasm in a limb or two.
Meanwhile, both the sandling and Z'ael rage on in their battle against death.
-----------------
After getting to the bottom of the shaft, Chephren studies the doors briefly then is ready to continue on further.
"Are we ready to proceed, my friends?"
------------------------------------
On Going Effects: Strength Damage -4 (-2 Str penalty);
"The door is clear. It's safe to go on. I suggest we move quickly. I'll lead on."
With that Elneiros draws his mace and moves onward into the next room pausing briefly after a few steps in to look over everything.
"Malik is ready, surely."
The conjurer follows the alchemist closely, looking around warily as they proceed.
With the bug before him dying, Brennan turns and follows the others into the next room where Z'ael was dragged. As the thing gets backed into a corner, he moves up and over the altar to block it from escaping out the other side.
----------------
The small group moves past the engraved double doors to the hallway beyond. The walls of this ten-foot-wide corridor feature bas-relief carvings of great battles. Armies with spears and shields clash at the direction of generals, while other leaders direct troops from chariots that are ruthlessly overrunning their enemies. Engraved stone double doors stand opened at the end of the hallway.
The engravings on this set of doors resembles those in the room you just exited, except that Akhentepi is depicted as an older man riding in a chariot. He carries the same scarab shield, but his other arm appears to be pointing at you.
Elneiros notices something unnerving about the way the eyes feel like they follow him as he moves, his well-trained eye easily spots a pressure plate at the end of the hall filling the space in front of the opposite doors. The feeling of the watching eyes comes from the fact that the eyes are actually small tubes loaded with darts, that would fill the chamber if anyone were to step on the plate.
All the same, he notes that the plate has already been pressed, yet there are no signs of darts or injury. Either it has been set off and failed to work, or it has been disarmed by those whose combat can be heard ahead.
Surubi clambers up onto the empty altar to get a better angle at smashing the bug that is now below 'him'. "STOPHURTINGZAEL!" Surubi hears her own voice, half command and half high-pitched battle cry, as 'he' brings the morningstar down on the bug.
;
"There appears to be a faulty or already triggered pressure pad at the end of the hallway. I suggest we avoid stepping on it just in case. If it were to trigger darts will fill the room. Lets keep moving."
Elneiros presses on through the hallway. Making sure to avoid the pressure pad as he steps into the next room.
Chephren follows down the hallway.
Malik nods that he understands, not keen on trying to avoid darts of any kind. He will attempt to avoid the indicated plate, following Elneiros and Chephren.
"That's quite far enough!" Andrei strides over the prone body of his desperately wounded gnome companion, striking at the giant bug with his greatsword."
Suru scrabbles atop the altar, using the corner between 'himself' and the bug to keep it from snapping 'him' as 'he' did so. Once atop the thing, 'he' swings both angrily and a little high-pitched at the thing trying to finish dining on it's prey. Despite the advantage of being above, the angle 'he' is forced to swing over the edge of the altar and how low to the ground the bug sits, the swing goes too wide.
As the first bug stops twitching, the second one determines that it is vital that it fight off the other being so staunchly trying to take its meal from it. Suru is able to avoid most of the snapping limbs, but with so many coming at once, it was tough to avoid taking at least a little nip on the shin.
Andrei moves up defensively over Z'ael and attacks the bug as well, but his weapon just deflected off the hard carapace
Morana, recovers her longspear, and moves up with the others to help finish off the last enemy.
With the thing no longer dragging him around by the leg, Z'ael's wounds cease bleeding openly.
Surubi is visibly relieved to have others around 'him'. Seeing that the morningstar doesn't reach the bug on the floor below, and that the bug is also having trouble reaching up, 'he' drops the morningstar on the bug, and draws 'his' bow. "Somebody help Za'el! Mister Constantine?" An arrow thwaps down past the bug.
;
Andrei concurs with Surubi's judgement about the severity of Z'ael's situation. "I am here - it is not yet his time, should I have my say!" Dropping his sword, Andrei scoops up the fallen gnome as gently as expedience allows and shields his comrade with his body as he heads for the door to the room, and safety.
+ sneak attack
"Die, you long legged freak!" shouted Brennan as he slid in to put the bug between himself and the others. He drove his dagger forward, hoping to get it under the carapace and into a vulnerable spot.
Brennan finishes stepping out from behind the altar, and brandishes a knife, ready to skewer the creature as soon as he gets a fellow combatant on the other side of it. Luckily, Andrei had already been in position to aid him, and Brennan was able to just slip a blade in past its defenses.
Suru, instead switches 'his' tactics by foregoing the melee weapon, and soaking the difficulties in firing into a melee. Regardless, the creature is still a hard target to hit, and her shot is just enough off to be ineffective.
The bug maintains its focus on the threat to its food, continuing to snap at Suru atop the altar. It uses its many legs to grip the side of the altar as it reaches up with both claws and grasps for Suru. The jaws are too far from their mark, but the claws each find a calf and dig in hard. The spiky protrusions along them combined with the grip of the creature is painful. But Suru manages to take it, until the creature begins pulling, which not only begins to lift it, but the weight also drags the spines down 'his' legs. This is actually more than Suru can take, and 'he' crumples atop the altar.
Andrei decides that he needs to pull Z'ael to safety before any more can happen to the little man. He drops his weapon and reaches down to pick up the gnome. As he does so, he gets too close to the insect, and it manages to snap a bite on his arm.
Morana decides to stay in place, using her longspear to stab at the insect from a safe distance, but between Suru crumpling on the altar and avoiding hitting Andrei during his movements, she just clanks hard off the altar.
The door opens to a square room, twenty feet to a side. There are a set of opened stone double doors exiting the chamber to the north and south. A faded tapestry hangs on a wooden frame on the western wall of this chamber. Faded and delicate, the tapestry depicts a middle-aged man, accompanied by a woman and two children, with a small estate in the background. To either side of the tapestry are two small pedestals, upon which sit two dead and preserved animals.
Not seeing any immediate danger or obvious obstacles in the direction of the combat that they hear, "I suggest we continue on in this direction." Chephren says pointing in the direction of the sounds of battle.
------------------------------------
On Going Effects: Strength Damage -4 (-2 Str penalty);
Malik nods his assent to the wisdom of the Garundi cleric, moving along behind the man.
Andrei hears Surubi go down as he reaches the doorway.
Damnation! This is not going well at all!
"No time to be gentle. Sorry, little one!"
Andrei lowers Z'ael to the ground, then pulls his dagger from its belt sheath as he rushes back to engage the murderous insect, trying desperately to keep all his new companions on this side of the great veil.