Bruendor deftly withdraws his sword and flicks the blade in a swift arcing motion, sending the sizzling acid off of his weapon and onto the stone of the cavern. Stepping next to Lefrik, he likewise slashed at the babau with murderous intent.
fort saves:
anklebiter
bruendor
calla
lefrik
Anklebiter's spell and Calla's arrow both slammed into the troglodyte, and though the creature shook its head to clear it, it clearly wasn't out of the fight. Lefrik and Bruendor collapsed on the babau, tearing into it with their weapons, but not quite killing it. The troglodyte waited to see if the remaining demon would shift in combat, and the moment it did, the troglodyte pounced on Lefrik, claws and teeth slashing at the barbarian.
Lefrik was slashed and bitten by both the demon and the troglodyte, and his wounds mounted as the assault continued. From behind came the rushing of feet and Kelndra spotted a group of charda rushing the group from behind. She waited until they were almost to her before loosing her spell.
Lefrik takes 5 hits for a total of 70 damage after DR.
R3: kelendra,calla, bruendor, lefrik, anklebiter, babau, troglodyte, charda
current status:
anklebiter 77/77
bruendor 72/110
calla 87/92
kelendra 80/91
lefrik 60/168
trog -53
babau (yellow) -119 (dead)
babau (blue) -52
charda (red) -0 (stunned)
charda (magenta) -0 (stunned)
charda (green) -0 (stunned)
Anklebiter startles at the arrival of the chardas.
"More company!" he shouts. "Need to settle this quick!"
The next moment, the little Wizard hurls a spell at the trog and takes a step north so Kelendra can retreat from the chardas.
Kel slams her morningstar into the lead beast and then takes a defensive stance.
HP 87/92
AC 26/29, touch 18, flat-footed 21/24
Fort +11*, Ref +9*, Will +13*; CMD 26
Divine retribution (DC 18) 0/6; Judgments 0/4; Bane 0/11; Discern lies 0/11
cold iron arrows 0/21; elf-bane arrows 0/3; human bane arrows 0/4
Spells: 0/5 (first-level); 0/5 (second level); 2/4 (third level); 0/1 (4th level); Consumables: Gravity Bow ring 1/3
Effects: heroism (+2 morale bonus on attack rolls, saves, and skill checks); greater magic weapon (+1/+2 to bow), gravity bow, Destruction judgment (+3 damage); Justice judgment (+3 to hit; +6 to confirm criticals)
Calla waits a moment, hoping Lefrik and Bruendor can kill the demon threatening her, then unleashes more arrows on the troglodyte .
"Get back in here!" Calla calls out to Anklebiter and Kelendra, hoping to open up an easy way to shoot whatever's attacking them out there.
Saying nothing, Bruendor maneuvers the remaining babau into a bad position, and redoubles his onslaught against the demon.
Lefrik is a mass of wounds, half way towards death, and yet he can honestly say he's had worse.
"Really this thing to die already, Desna, if it's not too much to pray for... but realizing you might help those who help themselves..." He tastes the blood in his mouth ,and grins like a maniac as he lets the rage overwhelm him.
*Plus bane*
*Plus bane*
*Plus bane*
"Quick, before they wake." Kel moves away from the entrance and places a healing hand to Lefrik.
Both of the remaining foes in the egg chamber drop, mutilated beyond recovery. As you turn to deal with the unconscious chardas from behind, a raspy voice from the hallway says in broken common, "Hold! Everyone put weapons aside. Can talk?"
An ancient-looking charda wearing bead fetishes interspersed with some kind of thin, translucent scales hobbled into the tunnel so that Kelendra could see her. The fact that she was female was evident, not in the presence of obvious sexual organs, but in the shape of her head, the smoothness of her curves, and likely the fact that she wasn't leaping to attack.
Then, she rattled off a string of fluid-sounding syllables.
"Please let me know if you understand the words I am speaking. That mish-mash of grunting bird-speak you surface-dwellers use hurts my throat."
She seemed to wait to hear your response.
"... I have no idea what you are saying," Anklebiter says. "Do you speak any of these?" The little Wizard repeats the sentence in Auran, Azlanti, Celestial, Draconic, Dwarven, Elven, Thassilonian and Undercommon.
Bruendor likewise stays his blade as Anklebiter attempts to parley with the chardra crone. "Or possibly this foul tongue?", he responds in Abyssal.
In undercommon, the charda spoke again "This one will do. I am reasonably fluent. Please tell me why you are here, and why you attacked our egg protectors."
In Undercommon, Anklebiter replies: "We desire no quarrel with the charda, milady, and we wish no harm upon your eggs. But the Drow have planted evil magic sigils all around Orv to perform a terrible ritual. If it is allowed to go forth, the magic will lay waste to large areas of Golarion's surface and the damage will likely spread to these Lands Below. We were told by that one of the sigils is here and came to stop it. When we met your door guards, we tried to speak with them, but they are not as good with languages as you, and they attacked us. Please believe me when I say we regret what has happened, but we must stop the ritual. Millions of lives may otherwise be lost, and the natural balance distorted for centuries to come!"
"Yes, well, the troglodyte, Orrn, that Allevrah-drow placed here to guard our eggs was also there to ensure that we would fight to protect the glyph, with all our lives if necessary. May I see the egg room, and ensure that none of our young have been endangered?"
The charda leader's shoulders slumped in what you took to be relief.
"None of the eggs have been damaged, thank the Mother. My name is Klirikit, and this is my tribe. We have been waiting for weeks under the bootheel of that drow sorceress and her pet troglodyte. Waiting for the attack that we knew would come, when someone such as yourselves would rush in here, slaughter us all, and turn our hatchery into an abbatoir. I cannot thank you enough - both for ridding us of Orrn, and for not endangering our eggs as you did so. We are in your debt."
Even as she spoke, you noticed more figures in the tunnels, peeking out around the edges and helping the fallen regain consciousness. Klirikit spoke in their language, and weapons were hung back on belts or in sheathes across backs.
"We would be happy to help you in any way we can to remove this Allevrah-drow and allow us to return to peace. She called the glyph here the glyph of watching and warned us not to cast any sort of spells on it that might cause blindness. She also said she could watch us at any time through the glyph, so she may be watching even now."
Anklebiter translates for all those who do not speak Undercommon, then bows his head to Klirikit.
"Honoured to meet you, Klirikit; I am Anklebiter. I believe you have given us a good clue as to how to subdue this vile glyph, but we will analyze it to make doubly sure before we proceed. Allevrah already knows we are in Orv, fighting her, so that's alright; it hasn't stopped us breaking some of her other works. The first, and I mean the very first thing we should do, is to remove your eggs and your people from this chamber so they won't get hurt when we start fighting the glyph."
Turning to the others, Anklebiter says: "Klirikit says Allevrah may be looking through the glyph."
He makes a rude gesture towards the glyph, then - once the eggs have been moved - casts read magic on it.
Calla finally relaxes as it appears the charda are being sincere and that the fight is over.
"Good," she snarls as she hears Allevrah may be watching them. "Then she'll know we're coming for her."
She looks at Kelendra and Anklebiter to see if either of them have a way to blind the sigil.
Unable to follow the exchange, Kel waits for the party to translate. Once the situation is made clear, her concern is for the eggs. "The glyphs have the power to damage, we should make sure the eggs are moved to safety before we destroy it. I have only the prayer of color spray that can blind a creature, if that is our approach?"
When things are translated, The barbarian frowns, "I certainly do not want to hurt the young. Even if I don't know the peoples... if I killed everything I didn't understand I'd be on a mountain bodies and never wiser."
You step aside and the charda move into the hatchery, removing the eggs to a safer location. Once that was done, Klirikit said, "I have no idea how to disable or destroy that glyph, but if you can do so, I and my people will be doubly in your debt."
Kel attempts to help Anklebiter with the investigation of the glyph...
...by shielding him from the watchful eye while he does his work.
Bruendor's jaw tightens as Klirikit describes the situation. "I wish the bloodshed could have been avoided. I swear, we will make the drow pay dearly for everything they have done. The injustices done to you by them will be avenged." He meets her gaze uneasily, and asks an uncomfortable question. "How can we make amends for what we've unwittingly done thus far?"
"Grithak and Brrith died defending the nest, and now you have killed those threatening it. And you are set against the Allevrah-drow. Make amends by killing the one that threatened our nest and young. And we will help you along."
Even as the others talked with the charda shaman, Anklebiter and Kelendra were looking over the glyph. Anklebiter could read the runs almost with ease now, and he knew that the runes read "“Abraxas sees all, hears all, knows all. Such is his power.”
The runes continually morphed from jagged, spidery text, to the eyes of a thousand different creatures as they swirled around the glyph. Anklebiter was certain that someone used to manipulating magical traps and devices could close the eyes before they turned back to text, deactivating the glyph.
Bruendor nods at Klirikit's words. "Then let's rid you of the drow's oversight once and for all." He sets to work at disrupting the glyph's power, putting his skills to the ultimate test. Perhaps this is why Torag set me on this path all those years ago, he thinks. Perhaps this is what I was born to do.
Calla casts guidance on Bruendor before he begins .
Bruendor's hands flashed out, closing the eyes as soon as they appeared. He missed the first couple, but once he figured out the pattern, he was on it, not missing another. Within a minute all of the runes had been converted to closed eyes. The arcane symbols floated together and merged into a single eye, which opened wide and flew straight into Bruendor's forehead. The dwarf's eyes went wide in surprise, then again as the world seemed to explode in color...even in the darkness!
The glyph shut down, becoming inert, as had the others you had disabled. A spiraling beam of color lanced out towards the area on your map marked as Bloodstone.
"Excellent!" Anklebiter exclaims. "Well done, Bruendor!"
Turning to the charda, he addresses Klirikit: "The glyph must not be interfered with after this, but ... is it possible for the charda to collapse the passages leading up to this room? It might not stop any high-level spellcasters who have been here and know how to to teleport, but if we can turn the chamber into a lightless, airless dead end, it might give them pause."
Turning back to the others: "Who's in favour of finding a place to camp out for the night, and move on to the next glyph for tomorrow?"
Bruendor winced as the magic shot into his head, but his eyes are forced open by the mystic power rewriting his very soul. His eyes, once a dark brown, now burn orange with abyssal flame. "By the gods," he whispers, glancing around the room. "It's all so clear, so vivid." He runs his hand across the cool stone. "It's like a bright summer's day in here, when it used to be dim and dreary!"
Half-listening to Anklebiter's discussion with Klirikit, he eventually chimes in. "I've a head for excavation work, I can definitely assist with the collapse, if we want to go that route."
"Are we sure he's okay? He's talking a bit crazy." Lefrik whispers to the others as Brue talks about her clear it all is.
Calla frowns at the goblin's suggestion, though holds her tongue on any commentary. She can't do the same for Bruendor.
"Imagine that, a dwarf who can see in the darkness. Who's ever heard of such a thing?" It lacks some of the acid of her usual commentary, though -- it might even be a gentle gibe, or as close to such as thing as Calumny Tas'Vere ever comes.
Kel will heal the party's wounds as they plan the path forward. "I can continue, it may be good to move on from this place as the eye has alerted our foes to our location."
"We can and will do that. I don't think we will want to use this room at any rate until the glyph is permanently removed. I don't suppose you know how to do that? No? Ah well. Yes, collapsing this room is certainly something we can do."
"A dwarf who sees in the dark is commmonplace," Bruendor says. "One who sees in color, quite another."
Calla shrugs at Bruendor's rejoinder, willing to let the matter drop.
"I don't think we need to be the ones to collapse the room, so let's get to the next glyph..."
Bruendor composes himself enough to nod at Calla's suggestion.
OOC: yup.
BIC: Lefrik says "Then Brue's eyes will guide us even better than before while this lasts."
Klirikit offered to send a charda guide with you, to help you find the most direct path and avoid the dangers of the Land of Black Blood. but, once you demonstrated your ability to simply fly over the terrain, she acknowledges that the guide would be relatively useless.
So, you made your farewells and took off, heading for the spot on your map marked Bloodforge. It was a few hours' of flight, but you were getting used to navigating in the strange blackness of this place. Bruendor's newfound vision and dwarven senses together brought you to the area you sought, and you found a tiny island in the middle of several rivers of black blood. On the island is a structure composed of a small ring of towers surrounding a wide, tent-filled courtyard. Each of the towers is about 40 feet tall, with 10-foot-wide walls connecting them all on the second floor.
"Remind me, please," Anklebiter says. "What manner of creatures were we supposed to expect in this place again...?"
"Drow," Duchess supplies. "The stone lady said there are several Drow there. So no pulling your punches or talking peace this time!"
"Yeah, Drow suck," Magpie agrees.
"I don't remember them fondly, no," Lefrik feels itchy thinking about the time he spent as one. He ponders, "They have good senses. I would not be surprised if darkness , magical or mundane was used to their advantage. Brue's new sight could not come at a better time"
"I prepared Communal darkvision, too," Anklebiter offers. "Unless dispelled, it will last for eleven hours, divided among you, that makes four hours for Lefrik, three for sister Kel (she can make her own lights) and four hours for Calla. Want me to cast it right now?"
If the others agree, Anklebiter immediately casts the spell on them.
Calla nods, agreeing that the magic's worth using now.
"It's about time we ran into some more of the cursed dark elves," Calla says, a dark edge of glee in her voice. "They have some vengeance coming."
She looks over the site again.
"Perhaps we aim for the camp in the center of it all, before they even realize we're here? A fireball would make for a rude awakening for them... Invisibility for Blondie would let him land among them easily enough."
"Yes, strike them before they can act against us. We're sure those are the drow, right?" Kel strains for any sight of the enemy.
Lefrik nods at the talk of revenge.