Using Jocasta's roll
Using Toruk's roll
As Musami and Filnefillan move off the stairs a dark green slime drops from the ceiling above the landing, sensing the men as they passed below. Filnefillan takes a blotchy splatter along the front of his tunic, while Musami steps clear moments before it lands, some unease spurring him to hustle. Everyone else should be able to step clear of the mess as they depart the stairs. Filnefillan may be in need of assistance in removing the slime. As he stares in horror down at his chest he notices the goo is run through with rubbery tendrils of inky blackness, almost as though the slime is infected with a secondary slime.
Two shadows move from behind the stairs as Filnefillan cries out, the Green Slime beginning to burn through his clothing, a strange numbing sensation sizzling and chilling all at the same time.
Surprise Round
You notice two gnolls coming out from beneath the stairs, armed with loaded crossbows. They are moving to fire on your group as you come off the stairs. You spotted them in time to act in the surprise round, before they fire.
Initiative Rolls
Initiative Order:
First Group: Braggi, Jocasta & Musami vs Special A
Second Group: Cedryk, Hedgewyk, Filnefillan & AToruk vs Special B
"STO- oh, dammit," shouts Jocasta as she spots the green slime, too late. Almost as quickly, before she switches to her journal, her dagger whips out of her hand and past the front line toward some enemy beyond.
Jocasta's dagger buries itself in Shadow A's abdomen with a yelp, clearing the creature's crossbow in it's tumbling approach.
Startled by the appearance of the shadowy gnolls on top of the splattering green slime, Braggi fails to capitalize on his moment, it passing by in an instant.
The gnolls fire off their crossbows almost simultaneously, Gnoll A aiming at Jocasta, his missing high from his pain, while Gnoll B fires off at Braggi, the striking the stairs and deflecting into the shadows.
Initiative Order:
First Group: Braggi, Jocasta & Musami vs Gnoll A
Second Group: Cedryk, Hedgewyk, Filnefillan & Toruk vs Gnoll B
Jocasta draws and hurls another dagger at the same gnoll!
Musami steps to his right and approaches the gnoll there
With a grunt of effort he swings his earthbreaker at the gnolls knees.
Filnefillan, seeing the horror on his shirt, takes the most reasonable course of action he can think of. he drops his bow and tears his shirt off, throwing it at the pile of goo on the floor before him.
"Ahh ahh get it off get it off!" he screams in near panic as he has no clue what this strange acidic creature is.
Jocasta's second blade takes the gnoll a few inches higher, piercing the dogman's heart and dropping him to the floor in an expanding pool of blood.
Musami smashes the other gnolls knee completely backwards, shock setting in almost immediately. The beast drops his crossbow, fumbling for the shortsword at his belt. His eyes glaze over black, and he lapses into unconsciousness as his body seizes up.
Filnefillan's next action is the important one, hopefully something other than a scream.
Suddenly, the combat starts... and all of the old memories invade Braggi's mind. He's frozen, just standing there, images of a storm and a loose rope constantly repeating under his eyes. He seems to look nowhere at all.
"No! No one else is going to drown!" Braggi returns to his senses, helped by the projectile that has just struck the stairs beside him, and stomps through the floor, sword in hand, and stops right in front of one of the gnolls.
"No!"
"One!"
Everyone is momentarily shocked as Braggi steps up and brutally hacks apart one of the dying gnolls, eviscerating the dogman in a shower of blood and entrails, spilling the beast's undigested stomach contents all over the floor with a nauseating stench.
As everyone is distracted by Braggi's actions, the sheer sudden viciousness of it, Filnefillan stands in shock of his own predicament. The strange green slime begins to burn through his chest, the thin black tendrils burrowing into his skin, spreading outwards in a spidery pattern that sends cold chills up and down his spine even as his flesh starts to boil and dissolve away under the corrosive splotches growing over him.
Everyone crowds around Filnefillan, unsure how to help the mage as the green and black slime continues spreading over his chest, the twisting black tendrils reaching up towards his shoulders and beginning to wrap around his waist. The elf cries out in continued pain as his robe and undershirt dissolve away, the paleness of his skin turning bright red, peeling and tearing back from the ooze, edges grey and ashy.
Jocasta tears a piece of fabric off the hem of her cloak and says, "Someone give me a stick!" She pulls a tindertwig from her pack and prepares to light the makeshift torch.
Musami draws a light hammer from his pack. He passes it to Jacasta. here, you can use the handle of this maybe? If that isn't good enough Musami will run back upstairs and grab a chair leg.
"You'll have to buy a new one later," she says as she wraps it in cloth, lights it, and then tries to burn the green goo.
Jocasta attempts to light the torch and shove the fiery brand at Filnefefillan, but the elf instinctively recoils from her, jerking himself away, panicking from pain and disorientation.
Seizing upon the idea though, Cedryk mumbles a spell to himself, his hand bursting into flames once more, as he hurls a burst of fire , striking Fil across the sternum and left shoulder, the fire charring the slime and doing to the mage as it passes on to hit the wall beyond. The elf drops himself immediately to the ground into unconsciousness, his skin a burnt and scarred mess, the pain of raw and scalded nerves too much to process.
Filnefillan lays spread across the dirty stone floor, a clear puss oozing from the burnt wounds and weeping blisters covering his upper torso. If not treated quickly the young elf will surely perish.
Toruk lays a hand over Fil's wounds and whispers a prayer to Fharfalanghn.
Braggi witnesses how the elf is removed of the ooze and secretly thanks that it wasn't him who got caught. The poor lad was quite unlucky.
Toruk's spells ease the burns and draw back the charred bits of flesh, leaving soft pink tones to the skin, faint scars the elf will carry for several years, but much better than the alternative. He is still severely drained, his vigor and energy depleted from the ordeal. Toruk literally brought him back from death's door. In his current condition a single sword blow could spell his end. The elf wakes weakly from the ordeal, smiling faintly at his companions as he realizes how close he came to joining his ancestors.
Fil has a ragged coughing fit. "Thank you, Toruk. What in the gods name is that thing?" He says, shivering, realizing his shirt is off. He finds his second shirt from his pack, and puts it on.
He attempts to find his feet, finding them unsteady, picking up his bow as well. "I think being not first in line may behoove me for a while at least." He smiles weakly before coughing loudly again.
He casts Mage armor on himself at this point.
"Green slime," says Jocasta. "A relatively common dungeon hazard. It eats flesh or wood and turns it into more slime. Has to be burned away. Sorry, Fil... you're going to be under the weather for a while."
Toruk helps Fil to his feet. "We better keep moving."
He searches the gnoll bodies and then moves to the door on the east wall and opens it.
Jocasta recovers her daggers and keeps an eye out for any other unexpected foes, given that slime falling from the ceiling led to a pretty bad time.
Fil follows the others, but he seems distracted. Perhaps about the burnt flesh, or about the tendrils from the slime. But he is alert, looking about the ceiling for dangerous foes as well as scanning walls.
DM:
Whichever is appropriate, dungeoneering or arcana, Fil is going to try to figure out what the slime was and the tendrils were, as well as if they were the same creature or if they were separate.
Just to rehash with everyone, there is a patch of green slime still clinging to the ceiling over the stairs. In this room you have two gnoll bodies dead on the ground. Each is armed with a battered light crossbow, 5 bolts each, and a sharpened short sword. They are dressed in leather armor, have a wooden light shield on their backs, all serviceable but nothing extraordinary. Their cloaks however bear the emblem of the Flaming Eye . The larger of the two gnolls also has a large key ring with three keys on it, two smaller keys (roughly three inches long, one inch wide) and one larger key (five inches long with a two inch wide notched end). Between them they have 3 gold, 12 silver and 19 coppers.
From the stairs you can see the two doors close by to the west, side by side, each fitted with a lock. Moving to see the door to the east has an inset bolt closure that needs pulled back before opening. The large room to the south has five barred cells with matching doors on the western wall, the eastern wall opens into another chamber via a wide arch.
There appear to be huddled or shadowed forms within the cells, but the room is currently in shadow from your vantage point. The forms do not appear to be moving at the moment, though it is difficult to be certain. A sputtering torch is burning somewhere within the archway chamber, and it is casting elongated, flickering shadows back into and around the prison area.
At the moment you are all within 15' of the stairs, ready to commence.
"Should we see if our friends here have the proper keys for the rooms they guarded?"
Fil does not want to mess around with the slime any longer, and, seeing the slime on the ceiling, he casts Magic Missile on it.
DM:
Fil's magic missile splatters into the patch of slime, causing tiny droplets to spray outwards, raining down over the area. Each one wiggles, plops and slithers, slipping into the grooves, cracks and pits on the floor, devouring anything they can touch, starting the growth cycle all over again.
"Burn it! Cedryk, use that magic fire again," says Jocasta.
Fil stands, his jaw agape at the slimes resilience.
"What in the darkest pits is that stuff?!" He exclaims before coughing again. "Cedryk, if you can, do as Jocasta advises!"
Toruk will move to the cells and will use the light from his walking stick to peer within. "We have come to liberate you. Who are you? Why are you here? Who are your captors?"
Assuming the cell inhabitants don't look hostile, Toruk will attempt to use the gnoll's keys to open the cell doors.
"Sorry, Fil," says Jocasta. "I've read that it's a common hazard in underground places like this. It eats flesh - mostly rats and things down here, but it will get bigger prey when it can - and grows. After dripping down from a ceiling it will seep into the floor and slowly grow outward. Fire is the only sure remedy that I know of."
Cedryk uses the last of his pyro-magic to burn away the patch of slime on the ceiling, though the bits that were scattered to the floor will likely come back to haunt the area at a later date.
Braggi puts all his effort in dodging the flying bits of slime caused by Fil's spell. "Hey!"
When confronted to the doors, he agrees on checking the cells. He approaches the closest one, with or without Toruk. "Hey, we're no gnolls. We're here to help."
Here is a map for the Expanded Cellar, let the fun begin...
Against DC 15 due to shadows, DC 20 for Surprise Action
As Toruk and Braggi approach the cells they realize too many of the figures are not in fact people, or rather were only once people, now they are something far worse. The stench of rot and decay has faded somewhat over time, viscera and bodily fluids long ago having dried up or shriveled away under the dank conditions of these dungeon cells, the deceased corpses having refused to give in to the clutches of death.
Animate forms, the creatures turn their attentions from lazily bumping against the walls of the cells to instead facing the light and life represented by the new arrivals, your party. Their voices crack as they hoarsely begin moaning and calling, a faint whisper of Braiinnss belaying their excitement.
The figures in cell 2 seem to cower and huddle against the back wall, pushing close against the light and noise, the smaller form mostly hidden from view.
Initiative Order:
First Group: Cell 2, Filnefillan, Toruk and Cell 5
Second Group: Braggi, Cedryk, Musami, and Cell 4
Third Group: Hedgewyk, Jocasta, Cell 1, and Cell 3
Once able, Fil will follow the others, avoiding any slime he can on the floor, taking a place currently one square south of Musami next to the pillar. Once he sees the danger, with his bow out, he will fire upon one of the formerly living creatures if he has a shot
Toruk draws his bow but holds his attack. "The undead are constrained by the cells - they can't hurt us. I say leave them to rot here. Let's focus our efforts on destroying the cult members whom likely created the undead."
"Assuming the doors are barricaded and can't be pushed open from the inside."
Filnefillan's arrow shot miraculously clears the bars and embeds itself in the closest zombie as it stumbles into the bars of the cell, reaching outwards at Braggi and Toruk.
As Toruk makes his pronouncement the other zombies in the first cell begin shuffling forward, the others along the procession likewise awaking to the presence of the party. The prone figures in the last cell climb to their feet, though it seems someone remains prone on the ground.
One of the figures in Cell 2 glances at Toruk, but them immediately turns back to it's companions, the group huddled and shivering together.
Initiative Order:
First Group: Cell 2, Filnefillan, Toruk and Cell 5
Second Group: Braggi, Cedryk, Musami, and Cell 4
Third Group: Hedgewyk, Jocasta, Cell 1, and Cell 3
Musami grips his earthbreaker, but makes no move to attack the creatures in the cells. I agree with Toruk. If they stay in there we can leave them
Braggi is quite undecided on the way to take, and he expresses his doubt out loud.
"We can leave the killing for later, but if they somehow manage to escape... I don't want to imagine what would happen if they got out of control and reached the outside, much less if they get to the village." He puts down his sword. "Now or later, it needs to be done anyways."
Moving past Fil and Musami, Cedryk attempts to get a look at the zombies, his past never bringing him into range of the undead. His nature spirit seems repelled by the very existence of the creatures, his skin crawling at the look of them. But why would cultists create a horde of zombies only to lock them away in cages, it doesn't make sense does it?
At his question the gods share an answer, the door to Cell 4 swinging open with a bang as the zombies within slam against the door, shoving it open and stumbling into the room. The door was apparently closed but the key never turned to lock the cell. Panic starts to rise as you realize the other doors may well be likewise closed, the keys hanging from Toruk's off hand, Braggi's sword arm now limp by his side, Musami clutching his hammer close realizing once again Moradin shows him the folly of unchecked optimism.
The shambling forms come stumbling and shuffling forward, their stench rising as moving and lunging seemingly opens old wounds, exposing their rotted interiors to air once more. Moaning and groaning the creatures surge forward, closing the distance to Toruk, their blackened and pulpy eyes glowing with a strange blackish purple light, growing in intensity as they come closer to the warrior priest's flesh, soft, pink, and juicy. Braaiiinnnsss
Initiative Order:
First Group: Cell 2, Filnefillan, Toruk and Cell 5
Second Group: Braggi, Cedryk, Musami, and Cell 4
Third Group: Hedgewyk, Jocasta, Cell 1, and Cell 3
"And there it is," mutters Jocasta as she fumbles for her dagger again.
Musami mutters a curse under his breath.
Jocasta hugs the wall and wings one of her daggers at the zombie south of her, facing off against Toruk. She gives the dagger a sideways spin so that it will rip across the rotting flesh as it goes.