"Friend Jaxom, I doubt we will be attacked from this side, now. Let us return to the stairs."
"East again, to start with? One way seems as good as another."
Yes, onward!
Jaxom will again take point as the group checks out the eastern door.
You open the door and proceed up some stairs...
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.
There is an oddly shaped, human sized goblin in the room. The goblin has an arm that has grown from it's left shoulder. As soon as Jaxom reaches the top of the stairs the goblin and human see eachother.
The weird goblin opens its mouth and out spews a line of vile acid.
Norhalo moves up to the square just "below" the doorway (i.e., to Jaxom's right as he looks into the room) and casts daze on the goblin.
Reflex save:
Dodging most of the stream of bile Jaxom rushes the creature atacking with his longsword.
Attack roll:
Damage:
Dodging most of the stream of bile Jaxom rushes the creature atacking with his longsword.
Reflex save:
The goblinoid is completely unaffected by Norhalo's spell.
Jaxom just manages to leap off the wooden platform covering a pit in the floor of the chamber. There is a loud groan as the debris lands on something down there. Jaxom's blade connects with the goblinoid.
Calathes rushes into the room and up to the goblinoid, barely avoiding the swing of its sword, before touching the creature and causing its body to spasm uncontrollably for a moment as it is wracked with electricity.
Jedech, hearing the sound of combat, rushes to the top of the stairs, nearly knocking both Ameiko and Issak down the stairs, and into the room, sees the goblinoid creature and launches a bolt from Bessie at it, which it bats away as if an annoying fly.
Ameiko yells out, "Damn you man! You're likely to hurt us more than whatever they're fighting up there if you're not careful!"
Issak moves up behind Calathes and strikes past him.
Glaive to hit
damage
Though he mightily swings his blade, Issak fails to hit the goblinoid.
Ameiko moves into the chamber, kicks one of the covers off another pit and looks down into both the open pits. "Zombies. One in each."
The goblinoid yells and strikes Calathes with its longsword and handaxe, and strikes Jaxom with its dagger. Calathes collapses.
Norhalo curses in Varisian as Calathes goes down, then moves to the other side of the pit he's adjacent to and casts burning hands, angling the cone so as to catch the gobbo and miss everyone else.
Seeing Calathes go down under the goblins assault, Jaxom will step over to provide cover so his allies can reach then fallen body.
Attack roll #1:
Damage:
Attack roll #2:
Damage:
Issak drops his glaive and pulls a small vial out of a belt pouch. Unscrewing the cap, he carefully pours the liquid into Calathes' mouth.
The goblin ducks under Jaxom's blade, but fails to evade his shield.
Thanks to Issak, Calathes stops bleeding to death.
Jedech moves around and manages to strike the goblinoid with a bolt from Bessie.
Ameiko steps up to the goblinoid and punches it square on the face.
Blood drips from the goblinoid's nose and it strikes at both Ameiko and Jaxom, missing them both.
Jaxom continues to protect the fallen Calathes and swings at the mutant goblin.
Attack roll #1:
Attack roll #2:
Issak picks up his glaive, steps over Calathes' unconscious body, and strikes again at the goblin creature.
Glaive to hit
damage
Norhalo will move around the pit now to his right and expend another use of Thunderstaff on Jed's crossbow.
The goblinoid evades the various attacks of Amieko, Issak and Jaxom.
Jedech fires another bolt at the goblinoid, and lets loose with a stream of profanity as it shatters against the wall, missing its target. He swings Bessie behind him and draws his blade.
The goblinoid strikes Jaxom with its sword and Ameiko with both its axe and dagger.
Norhalo moves two squares diagonally up and to the right, then one square up. He again casts burning hands at the goblin.
Jaxom swings both sword and shield while shoutng at the creature "Just die already!"
Attack #1:
Confirm Critical:
Damage:
Critical damage (if applicable):
Attack #2:
Issak goes still for a moment, waiting for an opening; seeing one, he quickly thrusts with his glaive, impaling the resilient goblin creature.
Glaive to hit
damage
Norhalo's second cone of fire appears to only be as annoying as the first against the goblinoid.
Seeing Jedech draw his sword, both Issak and Jaxom wait the fraction of a second for the woodsman to reposition himself. The goblinoid strikes Jedech with a blow that would drop most men, but only rattles the woodsman, and causes Jedech's own strike to miss.
Issak and Jaxom both manage to connect with all their attacks. Jaxom drops it and Issak's blade cuts the creatures head off, which bounces once and then falls into one of the pits.
After making sure that Calathes is in no immediate danger, Norhalo will search the room. He'll also check the goblin over with detect magic to see if it was carrying anything interesting. "Mistress Ameiko, while I am examining our fallen foe, I would also like to see the items you found near the room with the pools.
"A question for those of you who live in the area: Did any of you know of this place?" One other thing--does it look like there's any way for the zombies in the pits to get out? If not, he'll see if they're susceptible to ray of frost.
The zombies does not appear to be immune to cold.
The pits in this room are 20 ft. deep, each containing a zombie.
As Norhalo concentrates on his detection spell, a small smile comes over his face. He opens his eyes, looks around, and says, "My friends, the goblin's longsword and the ring Mistress Ameiko recovered are both magical. I would not care to attempt further analysis while this spell has sapped my wits; besides, Calathes is likely to be better at such things than I. In the meantime, I would not object to the longsword going to the one most experienced in its use." he looks over at Jaxom as he says this, "How say the rest of you?"
"Now, unless any of you object, I should like to take a few moments and put the things in the pits to rest."
Part way through destroying the pit zombies, Norhalo's mind clears.
While Norhalo is taking care of the pit problem, Ameiko wanders down the hall to the south. She returns to say, "There's a small side tunnel that leads to a staircase going up, but it's collapsed a short distance up, and another door at the end of the hall. I didn't hear anything on the other side of it."
While Norhalo is killing zombies, he remarks, "It is good that this thing wasn't with the goblins who attacked the town, or things might have gone a little differently, eh?
"Do any of you have more healing for Calathes? I think we can press on if he can be roused. If not, perhaps we could return to town long enough for Father Zantus to heal Calathes, Jaxom, and Ameiko."
"I am wounded as well; a temporary retreat would be wise."
Wincing in pain from his wounds, Jaxom looks at Issak and says "Yes, perhaps a tactical withdraw would be most appropriate. Calathes needs more medical attention than we can give him right now, so let's withdraw to the temple and let Father Zantus see to him."
Ameiko says, "You guys go ahead, I'll check the door at the end of the hall first. For all we know it could be a vault." She winks and heads down the hall alone.
Norhalo whistles soundlessly in admiration as Ameiko walks out, then murmurs to the others, "A bladed scarf, indeed." Then, more conversationally, "Let us wait a moment here, in case Mistress Ameiko should need our aid. We can leave if we don't hear her scream (either with pain, or delight at the size of the treasure chest)."
"I think we can leave the pants with the goblin."
If Ameiko doesn't show any sign of needing help, let's head back up for healing.
Jaxom will heave an exasperated sigh and dutifully follow Ameiko down the hall to the door.
The door at the end of the halls opens easily,
This strange room consists of a fifteen-foot-diameter sphere. Several objects float in the room, spinning lazily in space—a ragged book, a scroll, a bottle of wine, a dead raven surrounded by a halo of floating and writhing maggots, and a twisted iron wand with a forked tip. Yet perhaps the most unnerving aspect of the room is the walls, for they are plated in sheets of strange red metal that ripple every once in a while with silent black electricity that seems to coalesce into strange runes or even words far too often for the effect to be chance.
Despite being unnerved at the sight of the lightning Jaxom, with hid sword and shield at the ready, will step into the room before Ameiko has a chance to do something so foolish.
"Friend Issak, perhaps we should see what they are doing. I shall carry Calathes, though I will not be able to move quickly while doing so."
As soon as Jaxom steps into the room, he feels himself floating. Unlike water, there is no pressure on him at all. He's just floating, like the rest of the things in the chamber.
Jaxom will see if he can 'swim' towards one of the floating objects.
"Yes, we'd best stay with them...though I have a bad feeling about this."
Since he didn't move far into the room, Jaxom is able to push away from the wall and manages to grab the book, and then bounces up against the wall as one of the electricity runes fades.
Working together, Issak and Norhalo carry Calathes' body down the hall and see Jaxom floating in the chamber against the opposite wall, tattered old book in his hand.
"I would prefer to consult with Calathes, but he is not likely to awaken for some time. There is a thing I would try...let us see how this works."
Norhalo executes a rapid series of fluid gestures with one hand while chanting in Auran. A light breeze blows around him for a moment as he chants, stirring the ends of his headscarf before concentrating into a small knot of agitated air.
He will then see if he can pull small objects out of the room, starting with the bottle of wine.