[dice=Dueling sword attack]1d20+3
Túrante moves up to fumble a sure thing and open herself to a poisoned bite.
Túrante slips on some ichor as she moves through, throwing her swing off balance.
Black, beady eyes observe the attackers of her nest, as Boris raises her fangs for a strike.
Venomed fangs glance off the layer of force covering Túrante's chest.
Boris then steps back, up the dais, and poises herself above the stone lectern in the corner.
Selja moves forward when the spider moves back and continues to slash away from a distance with her glaive.
;
Túrante regains her footing and thrusts her dueling sword forward, skewering poor Boris right between her eight eyes. A widow, and likely mother of tens of thousands, falls to the ground, murdered in her own burning home.
Selja cleans the ichor from her glaive. "Yeesh, that was a damn big spider!" She turns to Moira. "Sorry 'bout insultin' the song--I was startin' to get into it at the end."
With the immediate threat abated, Selja picks up the torch she dropped and starts looking around in the room. Though it takes a bit before she musters the nerve to get within arms' distance to the spider.
The only thing remarkable about the room is the low dais and stone lectern in the corner. Fenchurch is more than willing and able to lift Boris' corpse off the lectern so that Selja can check it out. Selja notices there seems to be a hidden compartment within the lectern, but is unable to figure out how to open it.
"Thanks, Fench," says Selja appreciatively as the giant spider corpse is moved out of the way. She checks out the lectern and notices the hidden compartment. "I swear there's somethin' in here--anyone wanna figure out how ta open it?"
Moira says, "I'm very skilled in disabling devices, let me have a look."
...but even her next-level skills in deceit can't really convince the party.
She laughs and says, "Yeah, just kidding. Sorry."
Túrante is a bit surprised that she mananges to skewer the spider. She takes a moment to wipe down her blade from the ichor.
"Give me just a moment," she says cheerfully. "I'll be right there."
Once she's made sure that nothing will remain on the blade to damage it, she sheathes her sword and steps up to carefully inspect the lectern and its surroundings. She leans in to look at the seams on the hidden compartment that Selja noticed and very softly runs a pair of fingers along the seam to figure out where it starts and ends, and then presses very gently along the edge, seeing how it flexes (if at all) in an attempt to figure out where it might have a release or a hinge.
"Hmm. Not sure. Sorry."
"We oughta keep tryin'," suggests Selja. "These things aren't here by accident. I'll pray ta Shelyn for your success, Turante!" Which is exactly what she does.
Túrante initially struggles to find a way to open the secret compartment. Moira tries to help by lightening the mood. Selja prays to Shelyn for success, and Túrante doubles down and careful,y takes her time.
Meanwhile, unbeknownst to our heroes, a fine red vapor begins seeping up from the cracks in the stone beneath their feet. Just as Túrante exclaims "Got it!", Liamae let’s out a scream as a cloud of red mist forms around her and attacks with extended claws.
All watch in horror as the mist siphons Liamae’s blood straight from her body. She begins to look pale and wan, as if she didn’t already!
While everyone clamors into action, the red vapor attacks again.
Liamae’s fine silk dress becomes soaked in blood. She looks about to feint.
Severely weakened, Liamae steps back and into the corner, and unleashes her last ray of pure fire energy.
She burns away part of the red mist, and it seems especially vulnerable.
Selja didn't know what this red vapor was, but it sure seemed evil to her. And so Selja conjures a burst of purifying light to try and drive it out!
After it drains Liamae of her blood, the crimson mist seems more and more robust with each attack.
Whatever the creature is, it doesn't seem to fall u der Selja's wheelhouse of knowledge.
The inherent goodness in Selja emits as a burst of light, dazzling the creature and burning away more of its misty form.
"What in all hells is that?!"
Not knowing what else to do, Moira stabs.
If she hits, she lets Chill Touch loose:
The princess launches another beam of positive energy, with the usual lack of effectiveness.
Moira cuts through the amorphous form of the red vaporous creature, unleashing her stored spell. The mist reacts to the spell as a living creature would.
The red mist speaks in a hissing voice:
Fenchurch doesn't understand the dark tongue, but replies nonetheless, "Oh yeah?!" Then she brings her axe to bear.
Clang! her blade makes sparks against the stone floor.
Laughing, the red mist swipes back at Fench.
"If it talks, it must have a mind!" shouts Liamae between screams of pain. She reaches out to the vapor to cloud its mind.
She screams again in mental anguish as the creature's will overpowers hers.
Blood continues to soak through her dress as her skin grows more and more palid.
"Well, this is terrifying!"
Moira steps over to set up a flank for Selja, then takes another swing...
"Just kill it fast!" is all Selja can suggest as the mist seems to become invigorated as it feeds off the party. She prays and a spiritual glaive of force appears beside her. It lashes out at the mist!
;
Moira cuts through the red mist again, discharging another stored spell. Selja summons a spiritual glaive that mimics her own, also cutting through the mist. The combined force of their attack is enough to fell the terrifying creature. It plops to the floor as a gloppy mess of coagulate blood.
But all is not safe. Fench and Liamae continue to bleed out.
As the battle comes to an end, Selja quickly prays to Shelyn, and a wave of positive energy fills the room.
The wounds the party has suffered heal, although Liamae and Fench's lost vigor is not restored. "You okay, Liamae? That mist was real bad, whatever it was. Might be time to think about takin' a break soon."
"Out of all the gross, dirty, filthy holes we've crawled into, I think this one's the worst," says Liamae, likely, "Just look at my dress. I feel feint." And indeed, she does swoon a little, falling in Túrante's direction.
"I can do this all day," boasts Fenchurch.
"What about what's in the secret compartment?" someone asks.
"Oh yeah!" replies everyone else.
Within the secret compartment is a green velvet bag. Within the bag are charred and blackened, ash stained human teeth. A grotesque find, but they detect as magical.
Liamae identifies them as Spartoi Seeds.
Selja is awfully confused as they find what apparently are magical teeth. "So yer tellin' me that we can use this thing ta summon an undead skeleton? Sure wasn't what I'd have ever expected in there."
As expected, Túrante drops her sword so that she can catch Liamae.
"We need to do something about this bleeding," she says seriously. "Anyone?"
The bleeding has stopped after Selja's channeling. But damage has been done and Liamae is in a vulnerable state.
Selja cleans up "Bleeding's stopped, but Liamae lost a lot of blood--gonna need some rest and maybe some magic to get her better again. Let's find a spot to hole up in."
The group decides to head back upstairs and lick their wounds.
As you reach Thaena's chamber once again, you find the lunar naga still slumbering with her eyes wide open. It must still be daylight outside.
As the party rests and recovers, Selja occasionally tends to Liamae, Moira, and Fenchurch--mainly making sure they're warm and comfortable. She brews some tea, which is rather bitter but does seem to help. "You oughta chew and swallow the herbs when yer done with the tea," Selja says. "It's how the orcs do it." Anyone who does so finds that they are not tasty and difficult to swallow. Anyone who declines finds that the tea itself is perfectly adequate to help them feel better.
Moira sets up a comfy newt, kicks back, lights a pungent pipe, and pulls her hat over her eyes.
Proposed spells for the new day:
2nd: Burst of Radiance, Resist Energy, Resist Energy, Barkskin (domain)
1st: Divine Favor, Hide from Undead, Protection from Evil, Remove Fear, Shield (domain)
Lots of Resist Energy because I think we ought to get Resist Energy: Cold before we walk into the cold room.
A day and a night pass by quietly, peacefully. During the night, Thaena wakes and is pleasantly surprised to find your company in her chambers. She inquires into what you found within the temple below, and is not surprised by the reported presence of undead forces. She then spends the night above ground, staring longly up at the stars twinkling through the forest canopy. When she returns in the morning, she states, rather prophetically, "The starssss bemoan the fate of our world. Darknessss, death, rot and disease lurk below, feeding on the world from the inssside out. Everything consumessss everything, like a sssnake eating its own tail. Even the wormssss that lick our bones are not long from returning to stardussssst."
As the sun illuminates the world above, Thaena coils up on the large stone sacrificial slab and returns to her dreaming.
"The stars are beautiful, and the world can be beautiful too," says Selja in partial response. She didn't agree that the world was so miserable, but kept her mouth shut because she lacked graceful words to respond. She decides instead to express her feelings by painting of a starry night over this temple and tucks it beside Thaena.
As their rest is complete, Selja prays to Shelyn for her blessings and miracles. "Think we head straight for the cold room now, right?"
The group lines up outside the eastern door, their backs to Boris' once home. With a shove, Fench throws the stone door open. A gust of cold air greets you, then silence.
The chamber is 25 feet square, with a deep pit 15 feet across. The actual depth of the pit is indeterminable, due to it being filled with humanoid bones, glittering white with frost.
Selja casts all her magics before the door is opened. She also transfers life force into her Shawl of Life-Keeping, then heals herself with a wand .
When they are met with silence, she's rather disappointed.
"Okay, guess this wasn't as scary as I thought. The bit o' bones reminds me a bit of the fire pit room. Wanna come with me, Fench?"
Trusting in the magical protections of her prayers to Shelyn, the half-orc enters and begins to explore.
Moira wakes healthy and vigorous for the first time in a while. Before sleeping, she reloaded her spell-storing blade with another Chill Touch.
"Yeah... I wonder who de-boned all these people. What a story."
"Absolutely," answers Fench as she hoists her axe and follows Selja into the room.
As they begin to circle around the parameter of the bone pit, neither of them notice the huge black ooze seeping upwards through the bones until it is too late.
Selja gets walloped by a freezing cold psuedopod, but her spell helps to protect her from the cold.
Moira moves up, grabs her sword with both hands, and swings at the ooze:
Finding herself cramped for space, Selja falls back and then attacks with her glaive!
;
The cold black ooze whips another pseudopod Selja's way.
But Selja easily dances out of the way.
Both longsword and glaive cut sizeable chunks out of the ooze. Fench follows with her greataxe.
She cuts out as much ooze as Moira and Selja combined!
Liamae rushes bravely into the fray, and conjures a cone of fire around the cold dark ooze.
The blob boils and bubbles under the baking heat of Liamae's burning hands!
Túrante steps up to swing her blade, hoping that the ooze won't damage it with acid.