"Ah right, Dalkk-purrs chicken and goats-meow.
Yeah, we could try the well.
Or go with Cains all-out destruction.
Anyone knows how to destroy solid stone sockets-miii?"
A cloud of trouble passes through her eyes at the mention of the well. "I am concerned if we simply jump down the well, we would not have a safe escape route."
She grips her new Morningstar more tightly. "In my experience, smash it hard enough and long enough and you can destroy almost anything... unless it's magical. I'm more concerned with how we'd climb up there. "
"Well, we found the chicken Dalkk tossed down the well some levels deeper down.
So we could still get back out using the way we showed you last time-meow.
Meeew, I miss Dalkk, he certainly would have had some flask in his pockets to blow up those statues-meeew."
Unless the explosions are really big, no flask is going to even scratch a Gargoyle. The only thing that hurts them consistently is magic. ... And they aren't immortal, at least typically. Are you sure it isn't just a large tribe of them?
~earlier~
In response to Vuzi's comment about a key, Grelthe will search the dwarven statue for somewhere a key might be.
~later~
"How deep is the well? I am not very good at climbing in my armor, and if any of us fell, we might get quite hurt, depending on the depth." As long as the well is quite a distance from the gargoyles, she will pick up a rock and drop it in the well and listen intently.
"I assume you all have fought the gargoyles more than we have, so you'd have a better idea of how difficult of enemies they are. I do have a magic weapon, but whomever doesn't is free to use some of my oils of bless weapon."
look I know we want to kill these things again, but can we go after the rats? Kayla asks (unless the gargoyles are actually attack us.)
Grelthe, you estimate the well to be just shy of 100 ft. deep, though there are plenty of tombstones to secure a knotted rope to for safe descent.
The gargoyles remain dormant. The key is in it's tray inside the dwarven statue.
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"Mhhh, yeah, the well is creepy, so maybe we should just go the usual route again-miii?
At least we know the way to where the rat-lady was from up here."
If there are no objections, Simon will lighning-snatch the key from its hold and quickly open the massive door - keeping the gargoyles well in sight...
The gargoyles do animate, but the party can easily enter now that they don't have to fight them off while they get the key.
The trip down is uneventful, but the smell hasn't improved. When you arrive at your current level you find a sign across from the stairway lit by a pair of magical torches. It reads, Vance's Underground! Buy, Sell, Trade!
Vance, or more specifically one of the twins, has set up shop in the antechamber of Saracek's old crypt. The inner door has been replaced with a normal looking wooden one and a counter has been built mid way through the room. If it weren't for the frescoes depicting the fall of a holy warrior to evil it might actually feel... normal. No, maybe not. There was a zombie troll behind the counter. And he was smiling which helped things not at all.
It's amazing what you can get done when you don't sleep! Vance exclaims and vaults over the counter. Youall can go on ahead. Something tells me I have lots of Organizing to do!
"Good thing we didn't have to fight those gargoyles again, I imagine that could get annoying fast."
She congratulates Vance on his shop and awkwardly shares "You've taught me to look at the world less judgmentally. I never imagined I would travel with an undead. Good luck with your shop! I'm sure we will be back soon to be your first customers."
She turns back to the rest of the group "So now where exactly did you see the rat lady?"
Kayla follows along, keeping an eye out for signs of the rats. but upon finding the shop, she starts to look about the wares to see what there is to offer.
Right now the shop has... Not much. Mostly building materials. Vance seems a little embarrassed at this, but does sure you that he can procure more as he gains customers. [B]I did, however, pick up a few scrolls in town that I could part with. Scrolls of Liberating Command, regular Command, Ray of Sickening [3rd] (not that you'd need it down here, I bet), and one of Undetectable Alignment [3rd].
Simon looks over Vance stand with big, proud eyes - while trying his best to breath through the mouth rather than his sensible nose.
"It is marvelous, Vance-meow!
I bet you will be successful in your endeavour - not even your death could stop you-mehmehmeh.
I am sure we will be regular customers as soon as you have settled down and restocked fully!"
Turning to the others, Simon waits if everyone wants to buy some of the mystery-scroll - he never learned how to use them.
If not, he will say Goodbye to Vance and the twins and lead the others to the place of the big rat fight, were they encountered the crazy lady.
That actually requires a trio back up, but it's easy to get to. It's mostly as you left it, though the poo monster has cleared the corpses.
"Ve carful Vance. Ve vill be back soon." She follows the group up to the crazy rat lady. "De poo monster did gud vurk. Too bad he smells so bad."
Grelthe inspects the area, looking for any ratholes or clues what direction the rat lady might have made her getaway...
She does a double take at Vuzi's comment "...did you say POO monster?" and looks around again, suspiciously this time.
Cale sighs "sadly it is probably the most appropriate description for the beast. It appears to be some kind of slime made of shit.
With big eyes, Simon pleas:
"Can we ... not go there, please-miii?
Took three full days until my smell fully returned after the encounter with that thing-iarch."
Grelthw, you notice that several rat tunnels seem to go in the same direction, but you can't see far enough to tell where.
The party leaves the shop and process north. The next door on the right is unlocked and not trapped and feels child to the touch. When it opens your hit with a wave of fog and bitterly cold air. Inside is nothing but a small sphere floating in the center of the room.
Zadira moves closer to inspect the sphere.
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Zadira goes into overdrive with prestidigitation, cleaning slime and filth away before her in big swaths before stepping anywhere. She also carries her bow, ready to take down any rats that they see.
(to spot rats)
There are no rats to be seen, but she does put together that all the tunnels in a certain area tend to run up and toward a point not far behind the current wall of the cave.
Edit: She also spots a glowing eye that disappears deeper into those tunnels, but can't make out who or what it belonged to.
"Iz anyone gud at taking down valls? Dat might draw the rat voman out." Vuzi makes sure she has Mage Armor cast on herself. She also taps herself with her brand new wand of Magic Circle Against Evil.
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Cain shapes his bone swords into hammers and causes them to produce acid with the magic in his gloves [b]”worth a shot?1/b]
Zadira trains her bow on the place where the glowing eye was, and stands ready to shoot if anything comes out.
Kayla searches about for a possible secret entrance or passage. rats always have secret passages.
If Cain's attack appeared to actually do some damage to the wall, Grelthe will join in the destruction as well. (If it looks futile she won't bother.)
Knowing this wicked place and the swarming, hideous nature of rats all too well, Simon and Emily covers the rear of the group.
Without averting his gaze, Simon calls: "Any progress, Cain-Marco-Cain-purr?"
The hammers aren't very effective, so Cain switches to picks and makes a bit more headway. It's still very... very slow. And noisy. The rest of the group actually had to set up a pocket lone to ward off periodic zombie, rat, and other pest attacks.
Kayla searches for a better way, but doesn't find anything here.
Several hours later you make it into a kind of nest or hideaway. Nobody's home, but the place is full of scraps and piles of cloth that are the telltale marks of rat activity.
Simon keeps himself focused by fighting off the various attacks - otherwise the sometimes inpatient catfolk would have become bored.
In a particular long break towards the end, he will sit down and eat some rations with his earplugs in and filtration hood up.
His keen senses clearly stressed by the horrible stench and loud rock-working.
As Cain finally breaks through, he snorts - clearly unhappy by the anti-climatic outcome.
"Meour, what now?
Damn things fled from all the noise I'd guess-chh.
Remind me ... why are we doing this-miii?"
After a closer inspection the party comes to the conclusion that this nest was evacuated fairly recently, though more than a day ago. Tracking the rats in their own tunnels would be impossible for anyone present, so the party moves on to discover the freezer room. From there they continue further north away from Vance's new shop. The next door and the last before the hallway turns west, leads into a room that looks extremely unstable. Dirt drips from the ceiling like water whenever anyone takes a step in the room.
If you move on you find that the rooms on this westward hall are all on the left and all are ruined and rotted save for one ruby on a golden chain worth 300g. It is retrieved from a long neglected chamber pot containing absolutely vile liquid that reminds half the party of a certain pit of pestilence. You also discover a set of downward leading stairs in the center of these rooms.
At the end of the hall appears to be the home of the berserker. Here you find a lump of furs that are worth nothing in their ruined state and a bloody spike in the wall. Judging from the blood beneath, it looks like the berserker liked to impale things on it and you're suddenly glad you didn't meet him in his own lair.
From here the route turns south. One route leads back to the stair, completing the square, and the other branches out to the west.
"I think it makes sense to continue to explore the west of this level. I am curious what happened to the rat lady, though. Simon, you have an enhanced sense of smell, don't you? If we don't run into her whilst exploring, is there any way you could track her by scent?"
Kayla is rather disappointed at the lack of success in finding the rat people.
I should have followed them in that hole when we first saw them she mutters.
after some thought, that room that looked a bit unstable, that is most likely where rats would go.
Kayla starts to head that direction pausing to see if any will follow.
Simon looks displeased.
"Yeah I do, Grelthe-purr.
But that is not a boon in this place, I can assure you.
In every other place, I'd agree and would probably be able to track her down easily, but here ...
Every room, every damn level stinks worse than the last-grch.
I have a few pheromone bolts from Dalkk-purr, maybe if we could hit her with one of those, I could follow her-meow."
At Kaylas words, Simons nods.
"Mhh, maybe. Rats go were others don't want to be.
I can check the wet areas for tracks, to check that possibily out-miii?"
The room rumbles and sprinkles dust on you as you pass. There are many tracks of many creatures here, including rats. None seem particularly new.
This room leads to a savers full of mushrooms of many different species and sizes ranging from the mundane to the kind that stand as tall as you and glow.
Simon places his feets carefully, stopping after every other step to look at the many traces in the muddy ground.
"Many rats pass by here, but none during the last couple of hours-meow.
There are lots of other tracks as well."
Zadira examines the mushrooms.
Vuzi follows the group quietly as they move from room to room. "I vonder vere the rat voman went. Maybe she does not vant to see us vith her rat army gone."
"I don't belif we should eat anything ve find down here, especially de mushrooms." Vuzi mutters to herself.
Zadira grabs Kayla and pulls her away, and ushers everyone away from those ones, explaining why after they have gotten some distance.
Looking over Zadira's hand-drawn map, Grelthe agrees it makes sense to continue exploring in the northern direction, based on their current location.
She looks over the mushrooms to see if there's anything medicinal...
They all look like screaming mushrooms to her and she keeps her distance.