Following behind, Keil too steers clear of the grubs (although the temptation to capture a few is alluring). Noticing the cold air the shadowy man hisses, "Hold!" Changes in temperature and evidence of wrecked armor are not clues to be ignored. Waving the goblin over the fetchling advises caution, "Don't rush. I smell a trap." Quietly advancing along the north wall, the fetchling peers around the corner to take a peek himself.
While Keil peers down the corridor he sees nothing untowards, but while the corridor *looks* safe further verification will require entering the corridor itself.
Brok will advance 5 feet into the corridor to retrieve some of the smashed bits for further examination.
Brok feels a chill pass through his bones as he enters the corridor, and is successfully able to gather up bits of bone and other assorted smashed pieces of equipment. The best thing he can guess is something pulverized the remains, though the corridor is free of obstructions.
"Looks clear...." he tells Keil.
The goblin shrugs as he tries to determine the source of the smashed debris.
Grey takes a moment to look for magical auras from a distance.
The witch-doctor spends his time scanning the room for magical auras, paying close attention to both corpses, and his search proves fruitless...only revealing the magical auras from your carried equipment. A quick scan of the corridor, again reveals nothing magical in nature.
"Nothing of value here."
"We should proceed" - the wizard pipes in.
Brok will advance cautiously down the hallway against his suspicious goblin nature.
(+2 for traps)
Grezzor waits for Brok's return and report.
As Brok proceeds further down the corridor he is acutely aware how silent it is, and also feels the cold growing progressively worse. He can tell this is not a natural phenomena, and as he gets about halfway down the corridor he sees a patch of what looks like black patches of mold growing on the wall to his left. The chill is growing unbearable to his bones and he feels his extremities turning blue at this point...
Brok backs up out of the hallway.
Shivering, he reports to the others: "Brown mold makes hallway freezing to walk through."
Turning to Grey he suggests.
"Send your not-deads to look, they won't mind freezing cold."
Keil spits then scowls at the idea of being held up by a few patches of mold. The shadowy man's yellow eyes narrow as he ponders the situation, thinking of a way to push past this hurdle.
Despite the lack of illumination Keil is reasonably certain this is indeed brown mold, which as Brok discovered sucks the very warmth out of the air surrounding it. While fire sources actually feed it, the mold can be dealt with by applying a cold source to it.
Rudely snapping his fingers at the magiks, because for Keil there is no such thing as manners, the fetchling tsks, "Brown mold. Sending toys is a waste of time. Send in cold. Deal with the mold then Brok and I can puzzle the cause for the smashed armor."
While the others sort through their options, Keil follows the next available course of action open to him. On the off chance the cold laced hallway connects with the next door the shadowy man retraces his steps to the main hallway. The fetchling steps lightly and, out of routine, examines the door to the north.
"I can make an alchemical cold grenade. Brown Mold is one of the things that can be used as ingredients."
Grey sends his minions in with sample jars and carefully talks them through collecting some of the mold.
"We can either take a different path for now, or make camp while I cook."
It takes some time for the skeletons to gather enough samples of the mold to fill the jars, then as the witch-doctor's minions approach he soon realizes the brown mold has lost none of its effectiveness.
Keil quickly unlocks the door and sees the corridor beyond zig-zags north, west, then south before ending at a stone door which looks like it indeed leads to the room beyond the corridor blocked by the mold.
Grey instructs the ogre skeletons to stay at least 5 feet away from the living members of the party at all times.
Cautiously the fetchling enters the room.
The door creaks open noisily as the fetchling peers into the room on the other side. It is empty, though the reason for the smashed bones and other assorted equipment is soon apparent as a huge ball rolls down this corridor, about 3 ft. in diameter and covered with sharp spikes. The corridor leaves enough room between the wall and the spiked ball for the very brave to attempt to pass. As the fetchling watches it slows down as it reaches the end of the corridor then turns back to traverse its way to the beginning again.
The shadowy man does the math then, leaving the door open, rushes back to inform the others of the impending perilous globe.
...
Returning to the other chamber, "Keep back from the corridor!" The fetchling blurts out his warning like a threat to anyone daring to ignore him. "An interesting puzzle looms." Bringing his hands up, Keil presses his finger tips together, gently flexing them in anticipation.
"Arlok can pass. What keeps ball moving? Magic?"
Arlok waits to see what the plan is.
Grezzor stops dead in his tracks, eliciting not to follow the scouts this time around.
Initiative
.
As Keil quickly returns to where the others await his report, he hears a grinding noise behind him, as if a wall shifted, before he sees the entire area plunge into darkness! Not even his darkvision (nor anyone else's) is able to pierce the unnatural darkness. Also the fetchling hears a hideous shrieking noise that seems to grow and multiply as other shrieks soon join the cacophony of noise...and your blood grows cold...
Returning to the others the shadowy man reports what has transpired; both the spiked ball and now the room being plunged into shrieks and darkness, "There is more to fear than just a spiked ball. Two, maybe more threats approach."
Grey mutters and incantation and at the edge of the darkness he summons a cloud of gnashing teeth than bite and tear.
He sent it into the dark slowly, waiting until it sounded like it hit something.
Grezzor delays until he can understand what exactly is happening.
"Ambush!"
Arlok's grip tightens on the club as he prepares for what may come.
;
;
.
;
;
As you all watch warily the darkness flows into the entry hall where you have made your stand and the area is plunged into darkness! Brok feels the effects first as he feels a pair of blades plunge into his body, and also feels the strength being sapped from his body.
Grezzor is also not immune to the assault as he feels a pair of blades slash into his body.
As they both find themselves in mortal combat the shrieking seems to have grown louder, threatening to completely unnerve both the goblins!
While you cannot see the ogre skeletons now, it is soon apparent they are both fighting for their existence against their shrieking foes.
Grezzor, Keil, ??, Brok, Arlok, Praetor, Vargrenz.
Grezzor grunts against the pain and retreats as far as possible.
Brok's eye's widen as darkness floods the hall. As the weapons of whatever is in the dark seek him out, he rolls away from the damaging strike, bouncing out of the darkness with a look of terror in his bulging eyes.
(Using Hero Point for +4)
but he fails the will save!
Staggered in this round, is he running with his move action?
Cursing Keil tries to determine what the party has suddenly found themselves up against.
Not sure how to engage Arlok takes a defensive position.
Minions are at 28/32.[/ooc]
Brok feels an unrelentling sense of terror suffuse his bones and immediately flees away from the battle!
As Arlok and Vargrenz make their stand further back from the front lines, Praetor sends his bone shards into the darkness...where the witch-doctor hears the bony shards impacting upon a steel surface with a staccato of *crack*- *crack*- *crack*-s. Without some sort of way to penetrate the darkness, there is no way to tell how effective the spell is working.
As Grezzor flees the scene a dark blade lashes out at him...
...and manages to duck under the clumsy stab!
Keil is unsure what the party is combatting, but something about the noises does ring a bell...
You realize what these things are...Black Skeletons! And more than what you fought previously back at the Gut...
Brok hightails 40' south with his move action.
"Flee! Flee!" he cries to the others in goblin speak.
And then the sounds come together and the shadowy man's face groans. Signalling to the others Keil reports what he fears, "Black skeletons. Sounds like more than previous times."
Remembering how much trouble these were in the past, the fetchling backs further down the hall, in the opposite direction.
Arlok switches over to his club hearing they are the skeletons.
"So we fight or run?"