Got a roll o' 26 which is babble incoherently on the confuso-meter?
Are you meaning you did a separate roll resulting in the self harm?? - I actually prefer that one to be honest, Kaul using his hook hand to try and carve away to potential metamonkeyphosis... will leave you to inflict the damage ;)
Kaul continues to gibber and hoot.
Ignoring his spectral foe the thug frantically begins to pick at phantom fleas and claw at his scarred hide as if looking for signs of something...
Dibbets warily stands back while Kaul keeps a-picking and scratching. The ghostly undead priest turns its attention fully on Dingus. "Snake in the Temple!" it shouts as it rushes the skinny robed figure passing right through the barred partition to reach him. Its transparent claws reach into Dingus pulling shreds of sanity from the sorcerer.
Jim makes the undead thing pay for ignoring him, shreds of ectoplasm trailing from his new blade.
Fragments of mist trail from the thing after Jim's parting slash, but it reaches Dingus to deliver its assault and seems to regather some of its strength as it spreads its madness. Dingus blasts it with more vapor vipers causing it to hemorrhage off more of its phantasmal shroud.
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Round 6
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Back behind the portcullis, Kaul stops his gibbering and itching.
The thug's scowls, fixing his gaze upon Jimmer, then gnashes his gilded jaws, chuckling grimly;
"Hurrrr... Hurrrrr... Hurrrr.... We see you..."
Kaul lumbers toward Jimmer with murderous intent in his eyes, before attempting to bring his fell axe to bear on his pal:
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Wisdom Save
Vapor Viper
"Get away from me! Help!"
Jim follows the strange creature, blade in hand, and stabs at it again. "On my way, mate!"
Jim follows the insane ghost and strikes again feeling nothing as his blade passes through it, but seeing the thing tremble and fade. It makes a final grab at the Dingus before the sorcerer steps back and frantically hurls a final volley of hissing snake missiles at it. With a shuddering moan the skeletal apparition girded in finery of gilded green fog dissipates for good.
Will save
Ahhh! Die Stinky!
Then with a shiver a tiny giggle is emitted from the skinny Tian.
Thankful that his readied word was enough to still Kaul's hand from violent intent at self or crew harm Dibbs sighs and feels a weight falling back unto his shoulders... and his leg throbs with a steady and unyielding ache. Grunting he shifts his weight fully off the limb, rubbing vigorously at the mass of scar tissue knotted there. Half a tear at his eye he strangles out a strained "Ye back wi' us matey? Fecker were at ye nugget agin..." tapping the side of his own head by way of example.
Kaul sways a little and blinks at the scene unfolding;
"Hur... Wha... Who..."
The thug focusses on DIbbs and his strained tone;
"... Aye... Am 'ere an' Kauly... Where the spook go?"
Jim sheathes his sword and looks around. "I hope that thing was guarding something worthwhile, hey? Kaul! Pull yourself together, mate! We're not done here yet."
"Nei hurry Jimmer... keep a weather eye fer tha monkeysh1tes" approaching Kaul and squinting eyes for a span of ten seconds... before rousing and beckoning the nugget to lean closer and down to his diminuitive stance. As soon as Kaul's face is within an arm's length, Dibbets breaks forward and slaps the half-orc across the face. As he does he channels the force of individual will and indifference of the Skylord into the strike... looking to cast aside that which clouds and obstructs the path of dispassionate thought. Eyebrow raised he settles back with a whimper as his weight sits too heavy on the wrong leg asking "Feel any better like?"
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Dibbets delivers tough love to get Kaul back out of the trees and down to earth. Jim and Dingus join the pair in the nave. Dim light from the high clerestory windows filters through the heavy vegetation atop the colonnade. Brighter light seems to lie ahead toward the chapel end of the monastery.
"Your head back on your shoulders right, mate? Let's see what's ahead there." Blade in hand, Jim leads the way towards the chapel.
Kaul gives a nod of a sort though his mouth still hangs open and his eyes seem a bit glassy. Jim leads the way through the squelching mud between the columns. The columns end into an open area where a heavy bronze bell bigger than Dibbets lies upon the smashed ruins of a fountain. Water continues to swiftly flow from the broken feature creating the muddy morass you're standing in. It drains through a wide hall on the other side of the smashed fountain into the sanctuary where a glimpse of open sky appears beyond the altar.
Jim shakes his head at the sight. "The nut said he'd put the remains in the crypts, I think? Not being up on my Abadarian architecture, I have not a clue where they might be. Probably somewhere below--here's hoping they aren't flooded, hey?" He continues around the altar, alert for an ambush and looking for tracks.
Kaul stops at Jim's words and shoots him a concerned look;
"Nut? Nut ye say? You an't talkin' divine nuts are ye? Tum-type nuts??"
The thug thumps his own head and blinks, attempting to shake psycobwebs free...
Jim shakes his head with a grin. "No, the Grand High Admiral of all this island down on the beach. That nut."
"Best we take a good looksee afore we do aught else... don't some o'these bloody spectre things come back tae haunt even after ye snot em?" repositioning to get a good look t'wards the altar and the sky behind.
Jim almost sets Kaul off again with mention of the N word... but quickly reassures the cracked Nut as he edges forward through the deepening muck to investigate the chapel. The sodden ground beneath much of this chamber has subsided and the far wall collapsed leaving the fractured remains of the chapel's northern half open to the elements. The greenish patina of the once golden altar now stands silhouetted between the blue sky and the large muddy pond of collected water which drains eastward and likely feeds the river that cleaves through the island's highlands.
On either side of the entrance from the southern nave are shallow alcoves, each containing a large stone coffin. Jim notes with a start that there are muddy prints on the coffins. BIG muddy prints: clawed and vaguely reptilian.
The crew doesn't have but a moment to ponder this before there is a squelching noise from the muck behind the altar at the open end of the chapel. A mud covered figure with Kaul's broad dimensions rises with a loud, "HUFFALUMP!"
Dibbets-
Keelhaul Kaul-
Madman Jim-
Dingus-
Mudpie-
At the wet squelch, Kaul shoots Dibbs a wry look
"Hur... Dibbs you let one go mate?"
Afore turning his baleful beadies toward the muck monster lurching up;
"Guess not... lessen yer animatin' yer aft flotsam now?"
With a wee sigh, Dibbs gathers his indifference and calls to form a trident from the space between the air - a crackling and arcing lance forming in his hand. Thusly armed he sets jaw and growls back to Kaul "Nei matey... has the look o' it though don't it?"
The creature seems to cock its head at the buzzing trident that Dibbets evokes. Then with a loud "HUFFALUMP!", it waves a muddy pseudopod and the oracle feels his divine connection severed as the trident disappears!
Jim draws steel, but holds his attack and calls out, "What do you want, mud man?"
Dingus holds action as well, lightning crackling about his fingers, and a sightly unhinged sounding giggle starting deep in his throat.
Sense Motive
He tries to determine if the mud man is threatening...
Dingus finds the thing's motives as clear as mud and Jim's question hangs in the air as Kaul and Dibbets react....
Feeling the tenuous connection to Gozreh ripped from his grasp, Dibbets staggers back a step or two to allow one of the longshanks to take ascendancy.
Seeing Dibbs' divine trident dissipated, Kaul slows his malicious intent and stands ready - axe in paw.
At Dingus' unhinged giggle, the thug chuckles as well, limbering up his axe arm...
The crew seem a bit taken aback and the mudman's move. Dibbets retreats as Jim's question is answered with a hurled glob of mud. The swordsman nearly ducks in time, but still ends up with thick mud covering his face from the nose on up blinding him. "HUFFALUMP!"
Well, so much for talking. Jim tries to wipe the mud from his eyes.
Round 2
When Jim receives thick mud mask, Kaul's initial reservation is dispelled.
The brute rumbles toward the mire-man and seeks to bring Lopper to bear;
"Hef-a-feck-lump-this ye walkin' sack o' sh1te!"
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"Die! Die! Die!"
Dingus releases his pent up anger in a forked display of electrical violence.
Forked Tongue
If Jim's wiping hand is insufficient to the task, Dibbs seeks to augment it with a salty stream of his own fluids...
Dingus' response to the mud throwing is forked fury The thick figure moves with surprising grace and the bolt only blasts through a shoulder though it sprays mud across the room. Jim clears the mud from his face just in time to see Kaul meander forward axe raised and shin deep in the muck. The inevitable sounds much angrier as the thing charges forward with surpising speed. Kaul responds with a clumsy swing missing, but manages to avoid the rush.
The Taldan closes the remaining distance, moving to set up a flank with Kaul before attacking. "What the feck is this thing?"
Round 3
Flecked with stinky mud Kaul answers Jimmer's flanking stab with a backhand swing of his own;
"Its feckin' dead that's huffin' what!"
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Holding back Dibbets turns intent t'wards his firearm, and seeks to see it loaded. He replies to Jimmer "Aye Jim, less worry bout that once we put tha fecker back inna mud it's slingin."
"Hurry up and kill it. I'm running out of juice".
Another Forked Tongue, being careful to aim it where fleshy bodies aren't.
Forked Tongue
Another crackling bolt shoots forth from Dingus' hand . It hits, but again the creature partially dodges missing a direct strike. Jim and Kaul surround the thing. Jim drives his buzzing blade deep into the much feeling something twitch at the end of his blade's probing touch. Kaul chops at the muddy mass, but doesn't feel anything vital.
The mudman is resilient though and clobbers Kaul with two thunderous slams before pulling the hapless thug into its gooey mass engulfing him!
"Aw, feck--it's eaten our Kaul!" Jim stabs at it twice, but in his effort to avoid the struggling half-orc fails to get much behind his blows.
Round 4
Engulfed by the muck man's muddy embrace, Kaul attempts to slip free;
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