Having been afflicted by the poisonous black spores, the group decides to retreat and regather their constitution. Khari resumes her human form, and all fall back through the tunnels and caverns to where Nighttail and Varkol are waiting with the rest of the kobold survivors. Varkol is particularly interested in what happened and what you saw. He counts on clawed fingers...
"All that is left is Boss, Dregreb, and your human boy. Dregreb is trapmaster, very dangerous."
The kobolds are happy to share their rations, mostly rat meat, and their campfire. Nighttail slips out to check on Hak at the cave entrance. When she returns, she asks:
Moira treats the party and the kobolds to the delights of Prestiditigated Rat. "It can flavor one pound of nonliving material!" she explains. She asks each partymember to request their most-craved flavor, providing each with custom nibbles fit for a gourmand. When she gets it right, that is. Spice levels are hard to control...
...she nails it! Maybe not the food of a master, but inspired amateur arcane flavors are delightful in their own way.
She offers to carry excess loot for now, sweeping unclaimed bits and pieces of treasure into her knapsack.
As for Nighttail, M encourages the bold 'bold to join them. "A trapmaster, eh? I bet you can spot traps, right?"
Then, after Prestidigitating herself clean, she arranges herself for sleep, reflexively tipping her hat over her eyes before remembering that it is the party's main light source and utterly unsuitable as a sleeping mask. She hangs it on a stalagmite and tucks the lumpy knapsack under her head. Not ideal. But she drifts off, hand on her sword hilt, muttering...
"Can't wait to wake up feeling better. I'll be more useful with a full set of spells."
Khari asks Moira if she can keep, for her research, the six vials of inert alchemical liquid from the fungbold bomber.
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Liamae slips into the bedroll beside Turante, hoping her body heat will help keep the princess warm during the night and speed her recovery.
Fenchurch groans a bit a Moira's puns, but they help her let go of the fury built up from the preceding melee and she's appreciative of the magical healing. She grimaces a bit, watching the burn marks on her skin fade to a freshly healed, pink-ish hue. "That bomber had us dead to rights. Sometimes your only chance is to just march straight through the briar."
The forest knight is eager to see this situation with the kobolds through to the end, but agrees that the blasted spores have taken enough of a toll to warrant a strategic retreat.
Assuming someone is translating for Nighttail, Fenchurch is reluctant to take on another charge to look out for, but reasons that having someone along that might know some of what to expect will be valuable.
Fenchurch beds down close to the pathway deeper into the caves, ensuring any fungbolds electing to make an offensive have to go through her first.
Khari asks Moira if she can keep, for her research, the six vials of inert alchemical liquid from the fungbold bomber.
"Sure. What do you know about alchemy?"
"Sure. What do you know about alchemy?"
Khari holds the vials up and inspects them, "Not much, I'm afraid. But I do know s-s-something about poisons." She smiles, suspiciously, at Moira, "Do you mind if I draw s-s-some of your blood?"
Antivenom Effects: A single dose of antivenom automatically neutralizes the first exposure of the specific poison it is made to combat and provides a +8 alchemical bonus on saving throws against additional exposure to that specific poison; this bonus decreases by 1 every hour, until the effect ends after 8 hours.
Crafting Antivenom: To create a dose of antivenom, a living creature must first be exposed to a half dose of the poison in question. The creature suffers the poison’s effects normally, except the saving throw DC to resist the poison is reduced by 2. In order to be able to produce antivenom, the creature must succeed at the necessary saving throws to be cured of the poison. If the poison’s duration expires without the creature being cured, no antivenom can be harvested.
Once the creature has resisted the poison’s effects, a viable sample of the creature’s blood can be extracted with a successful DC 20 Craft (alchemy) or Heal check. This blood must then be refined to extract the natural antibodies that combat the poison in a process that takes 1 hour and requires a successful Craft (alchemy) check (DC = 5 + the poison’s saving throw DC). Success yields 1 dose of antivenom.
Antivenom can also be harvested in the same fashion from a creature that has been afflicted by a full dose of poison, rather than a creature deliberately given a half dose for this purpose. Regardless of how much poison the creature is exposed to, the antibodies in its system can be harvested only for 24 hours after it has recovered from the poison.
Moira cocks a skeptical eye from her bedroll and says, "You'll leave some, right?"
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"Hold still," says Iagon as he presses a dagger into Moira's arm.
"Did you sterilize the blade?" asks Fenchurch.
"No, my vein is here," Moira points.
"Not too deep," suggests Liamae
"Careful, Iagon," warns Turante.
"Yes, perfect," applauds Khari.
Iagon pricks Moira's arm and Khari collects the blood in one of the bomber's vials.
She then gets to work.
Moira and Liamae become invested in Khari's amateur alchemy, while everyone else loses interest. Khari spins the vial of blood, mixes in some inert reagents from other vials, holds the vial over the flame of the campfire, and finally takes a sip.
After a moment swishing it around her mouth, she spits it out, "No. S-s-sorry. No good."
After a night's rest, the group wakes, some more refreshed than others, and prepares for the fight ahead.
"No good!? No good!! That's the best stuff there is, good grade-A magical peasant blood." Moira jokes wanly, pale and tired.
"Ok, now I'm definitely going to sleep. Don't let anything eat me. If anyone tries, give them the non-potion and tell 'em that's all they get."
Nighttail happily tails along, and prepares Detect Snares and Pits as her daily spell.
Returning down the cavern to where you were, you find the dead bodies of kobolds and and fungbolds alike, where you left them. The fungbolds have decayed more rapidly, and are little more than mold and mushroom patches on the cavern floor at this point. Nighttail is rightfully disturbed by this.
Khari casts Mage Armor on herself and offers to do the same for Liamae and Túrante.
Returning safely to the black patch of fungus that was the fungbold bomber, the tunnel from here stretches ahead into darkness (assuming Moira’s hat is aglow). Carefully the group inches forward.
(+2 in forests)
(+1 vs traps or in forests)
Túrante notices a narrow cleft in the cavern wall on her left. It seems to lead down a hidden passage, while the main tunnel continues forward.
Fenchurch is up early and immediately attends to stowing her bedroll and donning her armor.
When the group heads out she takes point, anxiously gripping her greataxe as she anticipates danger.
Yawning, stretching, and donning the lightsource, Moira says "I haven't felt this good in days. Magic at my fingertips, a song on my lips, and soon... breakfast."
After attending to the needs of the body, Moira's ready to advance.
She follows Fenchurch from just-farther-than a fungal bomb cloud's distance with the head-light glowing.
At the fungused corpses, Moira says, hopefully consolingly, "We all decompose eventually. Some just get there faster."
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At the fungused corpses, Moira says, hopefully consolingly, "We all decompose eventually. Some just get there faster."
”Yeah. Like if you’re eaten.” Fenchurch responds over her shoulder without a trace of humor.
Liamae thanks Khari for the mage armor, keeping her own wand in reserve. She meditates as the other get ready, investing her clothing with psychic power, then she follows the others.
The elf makes a face at the patch of composition, then turns when Turante points out the secret tunnel. "Should we check there first?" she asks the others.
Fenchurch muses over Liamae's suggestion.
"It couldn't hurt. Might be one of these poor rotters is hiding down that way - one of them is supposed to be some sort of trap master, right? Doesn't sound like the type to look for a straight fight to me. If nothing else, maybe we'll get lucky and it will take us around behind the infected kobolds and let us get the drop on them?"
"I'm game. Let's try the secret way."
The hidden passage is narrow, allowing only for one person at a time. The going is slow, as the floor and walls are craggy and uneven. The tunnel curves up and around and finally ends in an open chamber up ahead.
Moira whispers, "Nighttail, you can see in the dark, right? Take a look..."
Nighttail gulps, but she wants to be helpful. Khari turns her invisible with a touch, and Nighttail vanishes before your very eyes.
She moves into the chamber with caution.
The first thing she notices is a bear trap set just at the entrance of the chamber.
The second thing she sees is a fungbold crouched on a ledge with shortbow aimed at an open space below. The fungbold doesn't seem to notice her. Taking her chances, she steps over the bear trap and into the chamber.
She's as quiet as an invisible, silent mouse. She sees she is on a ledge with the fungbold, overlooking a larger, colonnaded chamber below that falls into darkness beyond the scope of her vision. A set of stairs starts from the far end of the ledge and descends 30 feet into the chamber below. A set of large, carved stone double doors lead off the back wall of the ledge.
Using her one spell, Nighttail detects the presence of simple traps in the large chamber below.
Feeling this is a good enough reconnoiter, Nighttail returns to the group waiting in the hidden passage and reports what she knows.
"Want to do some mushroom hunting? Who's sneakiest? Turante? Maybe you and Nighttail can drop that fungbold before it notices you... and if it makes a ruckus, we'll be here to help." Moira whispers.
Túrante is glad of the warmth on the previous night, though she still winds up shivering uncontrollably much of the evening. In the morning she is still dragging and slow, bleary-eyed and with difficulty getting out of the meager bedroll.
"Want to do some mushroom hunting? Who's sneakiest? Turante? Maybe you and Nighttail can drop that fungbold before it notices you... and if it makes a ruckus, we'll be here to help." Moira whispers.
"Probably not the sneakiest... but I can try," says Túrante. "Maybe we can fell it quickly with arrows and spells, and then I can try to deal with the traps in the chamber beyond?"
In response, Moira pulls out her sling and loads a bullet. "Or should I throw my hat again?"
Nighttail lacks a ranged weapon and only has her spear, but, being invisible, is confident she can sneak up on the fungbold. Khari is willing to make Túrante invisible as well, and web the fungbold as part of the initial assault.
Fenchurch doesn't love the idea of others going in first, but agrees that she's not best equipped for stealthy tasks. She awaits the ambush anxiously, gripping the haft of her greataxe.
Liamae keeps her bow drawn and at the ready as the stealthy members of the group advance.
Khari turns herself and Túrante invisible to return back to the chamber with Nighttail and try to get the jump on the fungbold trap master.
All three manage to get into the chamber with the trapmaster unawares.
Khari launches the assault with a spray of webs.
The fungbold trapmaster is suddenly entangled in a net of sticky webs, come out of seemingly nowhere. It turns to see a creature with arachnid face standing along the ledge.
Nighttail continues to creep closer, still cloaked in invisibility.
Liamae moves closer when the battle begins. She nocks an arrow and fires at the trapmaster!
*WHOOSH* goes the arrow as it sails off into the darkness!
Túrante rushes the fungoid creature under cover of invisibility and lashes out with her sword as soon as she is close enough!
Moira, figuring we've lost the element of surprise, moves out of the corridor into the nearest corner and starts to sing.
The large chamber soon echoes with the sounds of Moira's voice, as arrow and blade fly wide of the webbed fungbold.
Nighttail, still invisible, takes a step up and thrusts her spear forward with an ancient kobold battlecry, "Heeya!"
Her spear punctures the fungbold, spilling forth black sludge from its fungal body. It's entangled in webs, shortbow out, but as you all know by now, still poses a great threat to those nearby.
The princess makes one more cut against the fungoid before scrambling back to try to stay out of range of another spore-cloud.
Túrante's strike lacks the force to get through the trapmaster's chain shirt and moldy scales.
Iagon emerges from the secret tunnel and steps in front of Moira to take a shot at the fungbold.
As Iagon unleashes a blast of elemental wood, small twigs erupt from the skin of his forearms.
The blast connects with enough force to push the trapmaster over the edge and onto the stairs below.
Badly hurt and worse insulted, the trapmaster plucks a golden bead off a necklace and hurls it up onto the ledge. As the bead lands, it explodes into a fireball which quickly engulfs everyone but Fenchurch, still safe in the hidden tunnel.
It then tries to climb back up onto the ledge.
And succeeds.
Khari casts Resistance on herself and stays put.
Túrante collapses to the ground, dying.
Fenchurch shields her eyes from the light and heat of the fireball, frustrated her allies were under fire before she was able to take the field.
Axe at the ready, Fenchurch strides past her allies' formation to stand alongside Nighttail in facing down the trapmaster.
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Moira decides to end this now. With humor. She moves to where she can see the bad guy, then she unleashes this monstrosity:
"Ever hear the one about the mushrooms that colonize living tissues? You won't like it at first, but it will grow on you!"
Liamae cries out as the flames scorch her, but fortunately her skin--and more importantly, her clothes--emerge largely unscathed. "Argh! How about a taste of your own medicine?" she asks as she strides forward to get a clear shot. With a snap of her gloves, she calls upon her mental focus and unleashes a ray of fire upon the fungbold!
As the smoke clears, Fenchurch emerges from the tunnel to stand before the fungbold.
Usually, that joke kills, but this time, the fungbold seems unamused by Moira's comedy.
Liamae returns the heat and scorches the fungbold. It looks like the ambush could pay off, as the fungbold trapmaster seems badly injured. It's up to Nighttail, Túrante, and Iagon to try and finish it off before it's next attack!
Nighttail lunges forward with her spear.
Her strike glances off its chain shirt.
Iagon runs past Liamae to get a clear shot on the fungbold and places his palms together. The small twigs growing from his arms begin to sprout leaves as he puts a bit more of his life force into his next blast to try to knock the fungbold off the ledge again. After all, every little bit counts if it means saving his friends from another poison spore cloud.
Túrante sheathes her blade and prepares to use ranged cantrips instead.
The fungbold trapmaster flexes his fungal gills and releases the inevitable poison spore cloud.
Third time’s a charm, and Fenchurch finally gets a nostril full.
Chuckling, the fungbold takes a step back and draws a dagger.
Khari steps forward and offers Resistance to anyone who needs it.
Moira brings her song to an incredibly high pitch and then ends its abruptly, hoping to give Fenchurch a chance at a Saving Finale!
Moira rushes forward and takes a hack with her longsword:
"We miss you, fungbold!"
Fenchurch hacks and sputters, cursing the fungbold as she backs away out of the cloud.
She drops her greataxe on the ground and draws her shortbow, readying an arrow.