Quiddling is pressed backwards towards the edge of the platform as the frenzied creature lashes out at him with its wicked claws! When an opportunity presents itself, the halfling minstrel grits his teeth and jabs his rapier at the creature's torso.
The sinspawn tries to twist out of the blade's path...
... and immediately follows up by trying to bite the bold little bard!
Meanwhile, another two of the horrible creatures charge out of the door at the other end of the platform and race towards you (specifically, towards Thorgrund), screaming in incoherent rage!
Thorgrund stands his ground, bracing himself for the inevitablec clash. He smiles broadly, shouting "Come on, ya ugly bastids!"
As soon as the first sinspawn comes into range, he takes a swing with his axe.
[ooc]reserve 2nd action depending on result[/ooc
]
Your axe drinks deep of Sinspawn blood and another of the horrific humanoids falls before the might of your muscular arm!
As his axe slices through the hapless creature, Thorgrund brings his axe around again to swing at the 2nd charging beast.
With a snort of disgust, Natalie discards her sword (which is now so coated in cobwebs, it looks like a stick of white candyfloss) and continues trying to clear the spider silk from Serax's face with her bare hands [58%]:
Of the two remaining Sinspawn, one will try to bite Quiddling (after his player has acted) and the other leaps at Thorgrund, trying to knock the fearsome dwarf over the edge of the balcony....
Bracing himself for the charge, Thorgrund steels his nerves and his muscles.
Unfortunately, the creatures bulk was more than even the mighty dwarf can handle, and they pitch over the side.
Thorgrund absorbs the impact and tries to slam a mighty fist into the creatures slavering jaws.
Quiddling continues to fend off the second Sinspawn with his slender blade...
More by sheer, unpredictable luck than any sort of judgement or proficiency, the halfling bard drives his rapier into the creature's oozing, bloodshot eye and out the back of its misshapen skull!
Of the dwarf and the creature that fell with him (it took 8 damage in the fall, as it doesn't have a magic ring to soften its impact), the Sinspawn is the first to recover its wits and renew hostilities against the other.
Rather than sinking its teeth into your succulent flesh, it just sort of licks you with its long, rough tongue. It feels as though it is trying to shave of your beard with a strip of moist sandpaper. :s
Natalie continues trying to free Serax...
Thorgrund rolls away from the creature to his feet, chopping down with his axe.
Natalie quickly scrambles grabbing her web-launcher arm made earlier and fires it at the Sinspawn to entangle the beast.
entangling the monster for rounds.
Now that the final Sinspawn is ensnared in the synthetic webbing fired from Natalie's device, it is powerless to ward off the downward stroke of Thorgrund's axe, which ends its miserable existence.
The lower level of the prison is lined with cells, few of which are still sealed after what must have been thousands of years of disuse. The only evidence of occupancy are the small piles of chalky bonedust that lie undisturbed across the grimy flagstones. A set of ricketty wooden steps leads up to the walkway ten feet above the ground, this raised platform leads around to the room's only obvious exit in the eastern wall, the same door through which the Sinspawn reinforcements arrived but a few moments earlier.
Serax will wrack his memory to see if he can recognize the monsters. His teachers at the academy never discussed this nasty things with him. That may have been in the advanced monster class.
Serax will then makes his way down to the lower level joining Thorgrund. He suggests that the dwarf take a minute or two to bandage his wounds (to regain up to 5 hp)
Serax will then makes his way down to the lower level joining Thorgrund. He suggests that the dwarf take a minute or two to bandage his wounds (to regain up to 5 hp)
"Thanks, lad, but its just a scratch..." Thorgrund says, but he still breaks out some supplies.
Beyond the prison is an adjacent chamber. This room contains several ancient relics of what appear to be torture implements, although their function and style seem strange and archaic. In one corner sits a spherical cage with spikes protruding inward from its iron bars. In another stands what appears to be a star-shaped wooden frame, its surface studded with hooks. And in the center of the room is a long table covered with leather straps and a number of cranks that seem designed to rotate and swivel.
On the opposite wall, a door stands ajar, a flight of stone steps leads deeper into the bowels of the earth.... was that a low moan that you just heard from somewhere up ahead?
Search chamber
Also use Low Wizadry to detect magic in the chamber.
"That sounds like a low moan from somewhere ahead." A sly smile spreads across Serax's face. "Quiddling, here's your chance to shine as part of the SoS. Be a good lad and scout a bit ahead."
Search chamber Logic (79): 1d100 ⇒ 92
Also use Low Wizadry to detect magic in the chamber.
Seeing no one supporting his idea of sending Quiddling as a sacrifice, strike that, as a scout Serax ventures forward towards the sound of moaning.
As you descend the steep and narrow stair, the temperature becomes increasingly cooler, until your own breath frosts the air before your eyes. The ceiling of this strangely cold chamber arches to a vaulted height of twenty feet. The floor contains eleven wooden lids strewn haphazardly over eleven five-foot-wide pits in the ground. From the darkness within these pits echo up strange shuffling sounds and, every so often, a low moan....
Thorgrund slowly descends, cautious, but still very much at home.
"I have a bad feeling about this."
...woo-hoo...critical success
Entering via a second door in the southern wall, a strange, twisted creature lumbers into the room to check on the 'prisoners' in the pits. The newcomer looks as though it might once have been a goblin, but it is much larger and densely muscled than the other melon-headed little monsters that you have previously encountered. It also has three arms, the third of which is growing out of the side of its head. This extra limb is clutching a squirming rodent that the creature is taking delight in eating alive. It is carrying a sword, an axe and has a dagger tucked into the waistline of its ragged pants.
"I told you I had a bad feeling about this."
Serax gathers his will and manifests bolts of pure energy which fly with tremendous speed towards the goblin.
Cast Offensive Strike 1
Cast Offensive Strike 2
"Die mutant, die!"
Your first attack blasts a hole in the center of the creature's bloated/malformed torso, decorating the wall behind it with icky, black goblin intestines. It does look quite festive, in a gruesome sort of way. The second bolt hits it in the face and the monster goes down with a surprised shriek.
"Korvus no get to finish tasty rat...!" the mutated wretch wails as it watches its prey scamper off, "Korvus die hungry, so sad.... urghk!"
"Zombies!?! Why did it have to be brain eating zombies?"
Serax will move past the zombie holes and cautiously move into the next room. Assume no big nasty jumps out and attacks, he will look around to see if anything interesting can be found in the room.
Cast Low Wizadry Detect Magic.
Activating your Wizard Eye, you immediately notice that the dirty water in the stone basin is radiating a powerful magical aura. Short of actually drinking some of it, you can only speculate as to its potent, magical properties.
"The dirty water in the basin is magical...very magical. Is anyone interested in trying it? I'm sure that it is just a coincidence that a mutated goblin just came out of this room. I would do it, but, I uh, don't want to."
Beyond the room with the altar, the passage open up into a huge, cavernous space that looks like nothing more than an immense underground cathedral. Stone doors stand to either side of the main entrance, but beyond this, the walls are carved with strange, spiky runes. In the center of the room is a large pool, a ring of polished human skulls balanced on stone spikes arranged in a circle around the deeper midsection. At the far end of the room, a pair of stone stairways leads up to a pulpit on which sits a second pool, this one triangular and filled with churning, bubbling water that looks almost like translucent lava. Yet while wisps of what look like heat and steam rise from the strange orange liquid, the room itself is deathly cold.
The room is occupied by a strange assortment of characters. Tsuto is being grappled by two of the hideous monsters that you fought in the prison, his two goblin allies lie slain on the ground. As you watch, a third Sinspawned creature rolls the first of these bodies into the larger of the two pools. A few moments later, the second pool up on the raised dais begins to bubble alarmingly. Suddenly, a fourth monster emerges from the churning liquid, fully grown and just as ugly as all the others that you've encountered so far.
This process is supervised by a small, winged creature with tiny devil horns and elongated, claw-like fingers.
"You won't get away with this, Erylium!" Tsuto addresses the quasit, the fury in his tone almost - but not completely - disguising the traces of fear, "When Nualia learns of this betrayal, she will have your head!"
"Hahahaha! You really believe so?" the winged creature mocks, "It was on Nualia's instruction that I captured you, fool! Did you think that we went to all this effort to rescue your sorry carcass? We only sprung you from the human's prison to ensure that you could not reveal what you know of the Mistress' plans!"
"What?! No! Nualia and I... we...!" Tsuto seems lost for words.
"You proved a useful tool, but now you have outlived your usefulness." the creature called Erylium interrupts his stunned stammering, "Well, not quite. There is still one thing you can do to aid our cause. Once your blood stains the sacrificial pool, your wrathful spirit will create another sinspawned soldier for Nualia's army!"
Army?...This don't sound good... thinks Thorgrund. He tightens the grip on his axe, and looks at Serax.
"Well, lad..." he whispers to the elf. "D'ya think we should invite ourselves in?"
"Quiddling, here's a chance to redeem yourself. Web the enemy for a change.
"I'll give it a go..." the halfling replies, stepping hesitantly into the underground cathedral and drawing power to himself, as he did previously in the prison. He attempts to cast Entangle on the two Sinspawn closest to the entrance.
---
Realising that her lair is under attack, Erylium rasps out a spell and vanishes from sight!
Flitting through the air on her tiny wings, Erylium moves into a better position and spits and belches a was of foul phlegm into Quiddling's face!
Once it is Serax's turn...
Yells to the rest of the SoS"Take care of the Sinspawn...this other thing is mine"
Serax looks directly at the invisible beast. "You're little trick may have worked on the halfling but now you face a real magic user!"
Serax summons his power from deep within and hurls 2 bolts of pure energy at the winged devil.
Cast Offensive Strike 1
Cast Offensive Strike 2
Thorgrund advances into the room, carefully avoiding the two entangled sinspawn.
He strikes at sinspawn #3...
Missing his first strike, Thorgrund quickly resorts to an old trick his father taught him many years ago, consisting of a rapid grip change and a shift of body weight.
You father's savage tactics are as effective now as they were when he was a young dwarf himself, your axe sinks deep into the monster's flank and it falls, clawing ineffectually at your armour as its strength deserts it.
The other Sinspawn launches itself towards the fearsome dwarven warrior, voicing a piercing shriek of wrathful fury!
---
Serax! Thorgrund! Keep them busy!" Natalie cries, standing on tippy toe as she tries to help Quiddling clear Erylium's hideous spittle from his face.
---
Erylium takes 20 damage from your attack, the shock of being spotted and struck so easily causes her to lose the focus required to maintain her invisibility spell and the shaken quasit reappears, hovering in the air over Serax, her expression murderous!
"How'd that invisibility work out for you? Ready for some more fun?"
Wanting to end this combat before the devil can attack again, Serax throws 3 bolts of energy at the flying devil.
Absorbing the blow from the remaining sinspawn, Thorgrund gives a mighty roar and swings at the creatures head...
...but the creature is too swift. Thorgrund twirls the mighty axe above his head to bring in crashing down on the sinspawn.
Natalie aims her crossbow at the newly visible devil and fires:
However the panic of the monster appearing lead to all of her bolts flying wide.
Thorgrund slays the second creature, leaving just the two struggling creatures still entangled within Quiddling's magical cobwebs.
--
"Nooooooooooo -" - CRUNCH!
The quasit is knocked out of the air as the first crackling bolt of energy hits her. She spins out of control, collides with a stone pillar and crashes to the ground, smoking like burnt toast. Evidently she was not ready for any more fun.
Seeing that his captors have been incapacitated by your timely intervention, Tsuto staggers to his feet and eyes you all warily, his gaze flicking from you to the dead quasit then to a discarded dogslicer lying beside one of the slain goblins.
"Wait!" he urges you, "Maybe we can make a deal! I can lead you to Nualia! I though she loved me, but she double-crossed me! She's well protected - but I can help you get to her!"
"Wait!" he urges you, "Maybe we can make a deal! I can lead you to Nualia! I though she loved me, but she double-crossed me! She's well protected - but I can help you get to her!"
Thorgrund advances menacingly towards Tsuto, stopping a few feet away from him. He holds the battleaxe in a way that Tsuto can't help but see the sinspawn blood dripping from the blade.
"Keep talking, lad! Then we'll see if you live..."
"Thistletop!" Tsuto elaborates, the words spilling out of his mouth, "She's at Thistletop, the goblins have built a ramshackle fort out on some island to the north, beyond the Nettlewood! The five tribes are massing there, preparing for an assault on Sandpoint that will dwarf the force that you fought off during the Swallowtail festival! Unless you stop Nualia and her goblin allies, your beloved town will be drowned beneath a murderous green tide!"
"I can get you inside the fortress! I've been there, I can take you straight to where Nualia will be, bypassing all of the goblin traps and patrols! But you have to promise to let me go once that treacherous woman is dead!"
"Thorgrund, I will leave this weasels fate to you. I better see if I can help Quiddling."
Cast Heal (2D)
"There you go Quiddling, good as new.
Even healed from the physical harm of the quaist’s foul attack, Quiddling still has to work hard at keeping his lunch down. ”What was that?!” he complains and tries to wipe the goo of his face. Once the halfling has somewhat recovered he joins the conversation by whispering to his allies. ”We can’t let him go, can we? He’s killed alot of people, he must be held accountable.”
Even healed from the physical harm of the quaist’s foul attack, Quiddling still has to work hard at keeping his lunch down. ”What was that?!” he complains and tries to wipe the goo of his face. Once the halfling has somewhat recovered he joins the conversation by whispering to his allies. ”We can’t let him go, can we? He’s killed alot of people, he must be held accountable.”
"No, we can't, lad...I think we'll let the sheriff decide his fate" says Thorgrund.
"Sounds good. Perhaps the sheriff can strike some kind of deal with him to get his cooperation", Quiddling says cheerily then tiptoes up to the unmoving form of the quasit. First he prods Erylium a few times with his rapier to try and get a reaction. Confident that the creature is either dead or unconscious he begins to rifle through its belongings.