Drawing his rapier, Jim takes a step forward and stabs at the hostile plant.
Buoyed by his hatchet's bite drawing sap, Kaul presses home with another swing;
With Kaul and Jim now fully engaging--and damaging-- the monster, Corliss feels secure enough to introduce some plant-based humor into the situation. "En gourd!" he yaps at the creature, taking a fencing stance before striking out with his rapier!
for
Likely stunned and injured by Corlss' terrible pun, the plant is reduced to a platter of crudites by the combined assault of Jim and Kaul. In the quiet following the melee, Dingus hears a moan from the darkness in the rune room behind him...
"Maybe that's a sign that you should stick to di-vine magic for now and leaf the mayhem to me and Kaul, hey?"
The vegetable bits writhe anew.
Corliss flashes one of his crooked smiles at Jim's words as he stabs the tip of his rapier into the dying plant to make sure it's dead. "Point taken," he says, in part to the plant monster.
The Besmaran then examines his own wounds and those of Kaul. "I'm gonna hold off healin' folks up fer now," he announces with a grimacy smile. "All them endure elements spell I prepared 'gainst the cold mean I got no simple spells fer switchin' out fer a quick fix."
Raising his torch high, Jim advances slowly in the direction of the moaning.
Corliss takes rearguard, trying repeatedly to renew the light spell on his rapier until it (hopefully) starts working again.
Corliss finds that the magic interference continues.
"Hold up a minute Jim. Give me a light on this here lantern. Can't trust Magical light for some bizarre reason".
Dingus uses Jim's torch to light up his lantern, then follows into the room he just looked at.
Dingus ignores the moaning to ask Jim for a light. As the others enter, the room, they see a wide circular room that is relatively clean and clear of debris. A stylized map woven of metallic fabric hangs on the east wall. Faintly glowing runes are embossed into a crescent-shaped pedestal near the center of the room. The pedestal is 4 feet high with its top surface sloping down toward the center of the room. Six large runes on raised buttons form a hexagon, with many smaller symbols woven around them.
A heap of rubble along the west wall covers what were once stairs leading up leaving a gap in the ceiling. To the north, a wide staircase descends into darkness. As Jim helps Dingus, Corliss finds that his light spell works again. The anti-magic effect must have been limited to the previous room. The moaning from the shadowy stairs down grows louder and a terrible creature slither forward into the dim light.
It may well have once been a man, but now its lower body is that of an immense slug. It still has a head, arms and torso, but all are twisted, fleshy, and covered in slime. Its eyes are vacant, but its moaning grows more agitated as it approached the small group.
Keelhaul Kaul-
Madman Jim-
Dingus-
Corliss-
foe-
"Ack! What is it"?
Knowledge: Arcana
"Quick! Move faster before it gets to us".
Dingus takes any apparent cover and casts "Haste" on his shipmates.
Dingus ducks behind the arcane pedestal and casts a quickening spell that actually works now.
Seeing the cramped quarters, Corliss decides to stay out of combat and let Jim and Kaul do their thing...at least until he feels Dingus's haste spell take hold and make him want to move! The twin Corlisses start hopping through the rubble to the west at great speed; it's apparent he means to flank the beast while Jim and Kaul launch a frontal assault.
The pair of Corlisses move at a blur only slowed by crossing over the broken masonry to the west of the structure that Dingus is hiding behind. Even at his rapid pace, he ends up just shy of the twisted creature as Jim closes.
Jim cautiously approaches the slug-man, blade low and to the side. "Here, mate. What's your name?"
Jim can see that there is no flicker of intelligence in the thing's rolling eyes. Ooze drips from the jagged rasp-like teeth that fill its wide maw as it glides ominously closer on a trail of slime. Suddenly, it vomits forth a torrent of bile that flies at the swashbuckler!
The Taldan dodges the worst of the corrosive spew, then circles the enemy to set up a flank with Kaul before stabbing it and holding a parry against a potential bite attack.
Jim doesn't have much room as he circles, but dodges the slimy slash while setting up a flank with Kaul. The creature continues moaning piteously as it turns with Jim and then vomits at him again!
Kaul rushes up behind the twisted slug-man swinging Lopper in a gleaming arc cutting deeply into its back.
Jim continues to evade the worst of the acid, then unleashes a flurry of blows at the creature.
Jim dodges most of the burning barf and finishes off the monster with a pair of surgical strikes. It flails wildly as it dies tearing at itself until its slimy skin rips and ruptured organs spray stinking and irritating fluids everywhere.
The Taldan's exultation at defeating the fleshcrafted horror helps him keep his last meal firmly in place. He wipes slime from his face and glances over at Dingus. "I can't remember--do you have that spell that cleans things up? Anyone within fifty feet is going to smell us coming, hey?"
Jim looks around to find everyone else scratching and gagging at the burning gunk sprayed everywhere. Even Dingus peeked over the pedestal at the wrong time and got a face full of caustic guts. It takes a few moments, but those impacted manage to clean off enough to recover. Surprisingly, Dingus apparently doesn't have a cantrip to clean up, but does have one to conjure a puff of air and or scoop up liquids
The crew looks around again to see a wide circular room that is relatively clean and clear of debris. A stylized map woven of metallic fabric hangs on the east wall. Faintly glowing runes are embossed into a crescent-shaped pedestal near the center of the room. The pedestal is 4 feet high with its top surface sloping down toward the center of the room. Six large runes on raised buttons form a hexagon, with many smaller symbols woven around them. A heap of rubble along the west wall covers what were once stairs leading up leaving a gap in the ceiling. To the north, a wide staircase descends into darkness.
Feck. Good thing I'll be able to clean up a mite before we get back to the ship.... Jim looks around the room and shakes his head. "Shall we see what's upstairs first? I've got rope, and Kaul and I can both climb. Ding, you can float, right?"
When he stops wretching, Corliss calls upon Besmara to heal the damage to her servant and his crewmates. "Only got one o' them channels left," he informs the others.
As Jim turns to look at Dingus and ask him about levitation, he is not surprised to see the thin Sorcerer standing butt ass naked, wiping himself down with the inside unstained side of his fancy robes. "This is ruined. I'll never get these stains out.
"Yes! Yes! I can float along if someone pulls me... Say this metallic fabric with the map pattern might serve as a beautiful cloak". Dingus walks towards the metallic map intending to cut it down and cloak himself in it if not stopped.
He then gets distracted and looks at the runes to see if they are familiar in any way.
Spellcraft
"Map? Feck, how did I miss that?" Jim saunters over and sees if he recognizes the area it shows.
Seeing that Dingus has the arcane angle covered, Corliss examines the map and runes from a more history-based position, trying to compare them to the Thassilonian intellectual gobbledy-guk he'd examined in the manor of fair Lady Heidmarch.
Jim can tell by the coast and mountains that the landform shown by the map is Varisia. Corliss notes some dark smudges and maybe writing on it, but he doesn't get much of a look before Dingus yanks it down and drapes it over his body. Despite the smudges, it is much cleaner than his robes and is an intriguing material!
Dingus immediately turns to the runes and, though they are not familiar to him, he notes that they are raised from the stone surface and thinks that pressing them in might activate them.
"Umm... Comfy... It looks like to me that we could press these runes down and activate something, though for the life of me I can't fathom a reason to do so".
Dingus then decides to pull out the books he had been given by his benefactor and see if there are any clues about the runes in there.
Dingus starts flipping through his books. The metallic material he has draped around himself isn't the warmest or most comfortable material, but it has been said that one must suffer for fashion. As Jim considers the stairs again, he realizes based on the debris in the stairwell going up and the lack of tower to be seen from the outside that this is likely the highest floor remaining and there is only rubble above.
Corliss politely points out the potential writing on Dingus's latest wardrobe addition before examining his own wounds and casting a cure moderate wounds spell upon himself just in case something (else) horrible lurks below.
Corliss, his rapier again awash in magical light, takes the rearguard position as the party heads down into the tower's depths.
Jim waves his torch overhead to reveal the gooey glitter of the slugman's slimy trail that leads down the stairs and beyond. With Kaul in the lead, the crew head down into basement. The lights reveal a room with the same dimensions as the one above. The air here is cool, but not as cold as the winter air in the upper floor, and the room is relatively clean and clear of debris. The walls, though made of stone, bear the carved likeness of fresh soil riddled with tree roots. An open doorway leads to the south and so does the trail.
Kaul nods his no-necked noggin toward the open doorway;
"Hur. Southward beckons lads... looks a might forebodin'..."
He hefts Lopper then grins as the axe's eye swivels balefully;
"... Then again, so is we... Hur-hur..."
The brute bosun moves stealthily forward...
Softly, softly Kaul creeps forward to the edge of the threshold. In the darkness beyond he sees much the same layout as the level above with a large round central room incut by a trio of smaller diameter towers including the one he stands within. An open doorways allow passage to the south, and a closed door made of petrified wood stands in the middle of the curved eastern wall. The area between the southern and eastern tower look to be a laboratory with tables full of equipment and vats big enough to hold a pony if not a horse.
In the center of the room, two stone counters have been overturned and Kaul spots a pair of elves lurking behind one. Another slug-thing moans softly between the tables. None appear to have spotted Kaul as he presses against the concave wall of the tower.
The slug-thing faces the tower where Kaul hides and there is an uncertain tone to its moaning with glances back to the elves as if waiting to be commanded.
Jim waits for Kaul's signal, blade in one hand and torch in the other.
With nary a glance back, Kaul charges forward dropping Lopper on the second slug!
The thing moans horribly as Kaul's axe buries itself deeply, but survive for the moment.
Madman Jim-
Dingus-
Corliss-
foe-
Dingus reviews the scene and tries to figure out what is going on here. Why is the Slug not attacking the elves?
Sense Motive.
He then holds action to attack one of the elves with a Forked Tongue (Lightning bolt) if they turn out to be the real villains here.
As he focuses on the elves, Dingus notes that they are different from any other elf he has met. They look somehow faded and their hair is white contrasted by the fine dark clothes in black and purple that they wear, while their eyes look red in the reflected light. Finally, some sort of sigil has been incised into their foreheads so that it is raised in an ugly purple scar. They don't look undead, but they are definitely strange looking.
Corliss moves forward before casting prayer, beseeching Besmara's aid in the coming battle with the strange elves and their slug-servants.
Corliss and Dingus rush forward to the doorway and while Dingus readies a retaliatory spell just in case, Corliss assumes the worst and says a prayer to boost his allies and hinder the near certain enemy. The pair of elves rise only high enough to fire over the table barricade. One throws a glass bottle directly at Dingus! It flies high though shattering against the wall behind him in a fiery blast.
Dingus responds with a bolt of lightning that lashes like a striking serpent! The bomb thrower is scorched by the blast.
The other elf tosses his cape back as he rises and all goes dark again. Only Kaul sees the elf level his hand crossbow and fire at the thug, but the shot is rushed and misses even at the close quarters.
Not getting the signal that he was waiting for, Jim chases after the others belatedly. His torch works until he gets to the threshold.