Mal, steadying himself, swings at the Gug he faces with his holy mace.
But, sadly, the creature dodges out of his way.
TSG hits it with one of his ghost bolts, which, , causes the heavily wounded creature to collapse on the floor, its face paralyzed in a rictus of fear and confusion, arms splaying out across the room.
Delyliath smiles at the entangled Gug in the doorway and attempts to Charm it.
And the creature is charmed—although the concept of "friendship" is not one that fits easily into a Gug's mind. Shaking its head, it bellows, in grating, spittle-filled Undercommon, "Who are you, and why have you entered our hunting grounds?"
Meanwhile, four other Gugs have begun to climb the wall, spaced at various intervals. Drisquar fires at one, and the other three each get dive-bombed by one of the three Celestial Dire Bats.
Anaxian flaps out of his hiding place and moves closer to the edge of the chasm, latching onto the wall just behind Illia.
Please don't knock any more of them down the chasm. That makes retrieving their corpses much more difficult.
"You nullify their ability to be threats, and I'll stop using every advantage I have to take these things down." Illia's statements in another tone could be taken as adversarial and sarcastic, but Illia seemed to mean it straightforward and honestly. "Among the most replenish-able and deadly resources available we have against these beings is gravity. Care to give me a good reason not to run down the wall and swordify them?"
Zhu Da tusha waits patiently for his enemies to show themselves.
"Besides that I asked you not to? I believe I can, in fact, nullify their ability to be threats. I have not been sitting idly. I am quite prepared."
"Oh. Alright then."
Illia will go ahead and fall back then, seeing Anaxian has things handled. She sets about to inspecting her wounds to see if any of them are bleeding onto the cloth or lace portions of her armor, and to make sure such doesn't happen too much more if it is.
::"As mighty as you are, my diminutive friend, you can't take out all four of these creatures at once. I will thin their numbers some"::
::"As mighty as you are, my diminutive friend, you can't take out all four of these creatures at once. I will thin their numbers some"::
One of them has been damaged by a dive-bombing celestial bat. It is the one closest to Drisquar.
Shimsil once again flings spectral blades at his foe.
I'll attack the same one. If there are none to attack
I'll take up position and ready an action to hit
The next one to climb over the edge.
Suns edge (Holy morning star B/P)
After listening to the gug's skitter up the walls for a moment, Da tusha decides to take action. He moves to the ledge and manifests mind thrust a second time, again, targeting an undamaged adversary.
"Come," Delyliath cajoles the charmed, entangled Gug, "Stand aside. This will be over soon, and a fearsome hunter like you must be curious what the flesh of your brethren tastes like?" The Gug nods its head and meekly pads to the corner of the room, smiling horrifically.
Shimsil and Mal's attacks go wide. The Summoner's bats flap ineffectually at their smite targets, and the four Gugs continue their pace up the wall. One, surprised by Da tusha's mental attack, staggers from the wall and falls backwards into the chasm. This time, no shouts greet its arrival at the bottom.
Two of the remaining Gugs squeeze into the doorway, side-by-side, while the third swings up onto the bridge to face him, some distance away.
Zhu Da Tusha centers a burst behind the gug's, hoping to paralyzing.
The spectral dragon skull snapped out twice
Dris fires off another pair of arrows at the approaching gug
Da Tusha's mental scream paralyzes one of the Gugs at the doorway, which collapses, although the other grabs onto it and shoves it forward as it falls to keep it from going over the edge. Shimsil's second soulbolt collides with the fallen Gug, which just lays there limply.
With Anaxian's first skull-slap, the Gug on the bridge collapses, and is quickly hit by both of Drisquar's arrows, now lying helpless and wounded.
Attacking the same as before or holding and positioning if none are present.
Suns edge (Holy morning star B/P)
The single unparalyzed Gug, still in the doorway (and taking penalties for sharing such a small space), lashes out with its claws against both Mal and Da tusha.
Against Mal:
Against ZDt:
Mal stands resolute, the Gug's claws and teeth bouncing harmlessly off his armor. Da tusha is slightly less lucky, and gets raked for 10 damage.
Summoner's bats return to charge the one Gug still standing, and each hits, dealing a total of 38 damage. The creature reels from the pain, and Delyliath, flashing a toothy smile, convinces it to suddenly drop to its knees and surrender.
As far as you can tell, the Gugs that fell back into the chasm are either dead or simply not eager to rejoin the fight. Delyliath has charmed two, and a third lies dead, sprawled across the room in which most of the party stands.
Coup De Grace the paralyzed Gug
(1d8+6+2d6 vs. Evil) = 26 X 2 (crit range) = 52 DMG
Zhu Da tusha wraps his tentacles around the creatures skull, tearing open a hole through which he devours the monsters brain.
Anaxian lazily flies down the chasm to investigate the gugs that fell and look for a possible lair.
The chasm appears to cut all the way down to one of the fabled Vaults of Orv, large carved chambers that form a cavernous network at the lowest level of the Darklands. This does not appear to be one of the named, great chambers, but rather an old, forgotten space, filled with aberrations and possibly strange and wild magic.
Exploring the entire thing at this point in time may be unwise. But it does seem an odd place to build a city on top of.
Mal easily bashes the Gug to death, and then Da tusha steps forward and devours its brain. Dely's charmed Gugs seem a bit... put off by this, but she keeps them in line with a stern glance, and then one of them politely requests permission to eat one of the arms of the Gug that Mal has just killed.
Anaxian finds two crushed Gug corpses at the bottom of the chasm. There is no obvious sign of their lair, but with (I assume) a single casting of Treasure Map, he's able to find a cave entrance several hundred yards away leading to a tunnel full of slimes and jewels.
Drisquar, of course, has found a bridge across the chasm, which ends in a door identical to the one across from where the Gugs attacked.
Zhu teleports to the bridge next to Drisquar and...
casts detect magic, looking over the northern door.
wraps his tentacles around the creatures skull, tearing open a hole through which he devours the monsters brain.
Drisquar notices that the last Gug is only paralyzed, and Da tusha quickly sucks out its brain before turning to examine the northern door. (For the purposes of Detection, both doors appear to have identical runes and spells on them).
There are a number of magic auras immediately visible with Detect Magic, but most of them appear to be wards and locks on the other side of the door.
However, with his perception check, Da tusha is able to identify a single particular magical trap on this side of the door; it is a triggered insanity effect on anyone who looks at the door while within 10 feet of it.
The door also appears to be substantially locked.
Da Tusha finishes his meal quickly and wipes his mouth as he drops the gug's limp body to the bottom of the chasm.
It would be best to let one of the flies open these doors, or perhaps a spider.
"Want me to slip through the cracks and see what's on the other side, before deciding if we want to attempt entry? Also, maybe opening it from that side would be easier."
The doors on either side of the chasm roughly match. Hewn stone with iron crossbars, half a foot thick, eight feet wide and ten feet tall, set into a stone wall that here appears to be carved from the wall of the chasm itself; here, there are no flagstones or mortar visible. A single keyhole can be seen, and an arcane lock holds the door shut in addition to other runes dimly painted on the door.
There may be a very, very small crevice at the bottom for Drisquar to slip through. The Bebilith that tore open the other door could probably do the same to this one, were it not for the Insanity trap painted on its surface.
That is a very powerful ward. I think it may be useful.
Anaxian pulled a black arrowhead from somewhere and a small case of paint pots. Using a claw he finger painted over the arrow head, quickly layering the paint until it magically took a real form and he had a long, sturdy, sharp-tipped rod. He passed it to Mal.
This should suffice to remove the ward from the door. Simply chisel it out, perhaps a foot around the outside, careful not to damage it, if you would. I will handle the rest.
The door is a good six inches thick; chiseling off the runes leaves quite a lot left. It would actually take quite a bit of strength to drive the chisel all the way through, for the same reason that wearing a diamond ring doesn't let you punch dents into concrete.
When you get the time to study it (which you can safely do, being undead), you determine that the symbol is subject to a Permanency effect. It appears to be triggered by either touching the warded object (which is now a small stone tablet with rough edges) or by approaching within one foot of the symbol itself, but like any symbol, poking somebody with it wouldn't trigger the symbol. Mal likely triggered it several times while removing it, without anyone noticing.
With a Spellcraft check of DC 26, you can identify a specific password (which is a random set of syllables) that disables the symbol for a 10-minute period.
"Stand aside," the Summoner's Ghost says, speaking suddenly for the first time in hours, "This is no way to get things done." He points his ghostly hand and three fiery Thoqquas appear on the bridge, each of which eagerly burns its way into the door, leaving smoking holes large enough for a man to squeeze through. There are a few bursts of light and magic as the door's wards fire, and one or two of the elementals writhe around in some sort of pain, but in the end the door is nothing but a silent, smoking hole.
Shaking his head, the ghost quickly drifts through the hole—when you peer through, he is nowhere to be seen.
The room inside appears carved directly out of stone. Dim, ever burning torches in sconces light the walls. The floor, walls, and high ceilings are carved with rows of worn text and friezes depicting ancient battles.
The carvings are faded, but you can make out two armies that appear to be doing battle, led on one side by a giant winged demon and on the other by some sort of large knight. A small dragon appears in several of these scenes, always whispering in the ear of the giant demon. The weathering and style of the carvings suggest this room to be three to four thousand years old, and the demon lord depicted does not appear to be one mentioned in contemporary history.
The inscriptions, written in an archaic and poetic form of Abyssal, appear to name battles and leaders. Apparently, this room depicts a coalition of Serpentfolk, Drow, and their various demonic patrons who banded together to overthrow and imprison "The Black Prophet of and His Armies of Death."
Nothing remarkable sits in this room—its walls and floor appear bare. At the far side of the room is a fifteen-foot stone archway, under which hang thick, black curtains of what appear to be heavy fabric, possibly preserved through magic.
There is an inscription over this arch, as well, in large, clear letters—but it is not in the same language as the rest of the inscriptions.
The arch reads, Fiend! You stand at the precipice of death. Only the living may pass through, and only the lucky may pass twice."
There are two spells present in this room—a minor transmutation effect on the curtains, and a very strong conjuration spell that appears to form a barrier over the archway.
There are two spells present in this room—a minor preservation spell on the curtains, and a very strong conjuration (healing) spell that appears to form a barrier over the archway.
The healing spell appears to be some sort of unusual resurrection effect, forming a barrier that extends over the archway and into the stone itself. This barrier has a slight curve to it.
As the party moves into the next room, Mal walks a bit ahead of the rest, and, curious, starts to sweep aside one of the archway's curtains... and recoils in horror. Turning back to the group, he slowly removes one of his gauntlets, revealing a raw and bloody—but very much alive—human hand underneath. "I think... I should go no further," he says, in a troubled tone, and retreats into a corner of the room to pray.
A few minutes after that, you hear a polite coughing sound, and three heads fall out of the air to roll on the floor of this chamber. You may recognize them as the three guards left to guard the entrance to this floor.
"A token of goodwill," an invisible voice says, politely, before there is a rattling sound and a pile of rather unique-looking magical weapons falls to the ground, "Although the next time you rob a Drow treasure vault, you might not want to forget to search the armory. This is to thank you for getting me this far in, but there's something in particular I'm looking for, and I was wondering if I could follow you until I find it."