Intoning a brief prayer to her goddess, Calla will look at the wand and see if she can discern what it is.
"A bit obvious what it is, really..."
"A nice little find, now let's get that traitor Saul!" Kel readies to leave the small cavern and pursue their foe.
"Yes, let's!" Anklebiter agrees, patting Kelendra chastely on the knee. "So, who takes the wand this time? And what about the cat-faced statue? Looks old. Osiriani goddess, I think."
"For now, let's just grab it all and go."
"If it is Osiriani, it's a long way from home. Still, we have bigger mysteries to solve," Calla says as she starts looking for Saul's trail again.
"Well, it would obviously have been a stolen dwarven chest," Bruendor continued. "Pirate, after all. But yes, let's sack this quick and be back after Saul. We're just fortunate this thing didn't hinder us nearly as badly as those barracuda did." He helps the barbarian shovel the coins into their packs before returning down the way they came to take the other, smellier path.
"But... don't pirates live on the sea?" Anklebiter asks as the group heads back to the other passage. "How'd he get underground to steal from a Dwarf? And how'd he get out again? No offence, but you Dwarves are something nasty when you get all riled up!"
"Forgive me, Anklebiter, but I do not share your curiosity and don't see how it could be sated even if I did. We put down a monster, and to the victor go the spoils. Does WHERE the spoils come from really matter?" Lefrik finishes helping load the wealth and then prepares to follow the dwarf.
"It does if the original owner is still alive," Anklebiter replies. "I hear lawyers bite even harder than Barghests."
"Lawyers are precisely why so many Ulfen lands have trial by combat. At least then, you know your representative is committed." Whether the barbarian is joking or not is hard to say.
"No lawyers? The Ulfen lands sound like a wonderful place!" Kel portrays a wistful look for moment, then prepares to advance down the tunnels.
"Black market, maybe? Then again, we're in smuggler's tunnels right now. Who's to say a criminally-minded dwarf wasn't behind this?"
Anklebiter gives Bruendor a wide-eyed, flabbergasted look.
"Does that kind of Dwarf exist?"
"They're rare," Bruendor replies without missing a beat. "Almost as rare as the beardless variety."
Lefrik gives a suspicious look between Anklebiter and Bruendor, and back again. I cannot be sure, but I suspect 'sarcasm' is at play here.
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*That's* sarcasm? Amateurs!
Moving North from the wight's resting place, you come to another chamber where stalactites hang ponderously from the ceiling. The twisting tunnel is thick with hanging stalactites that glitter strangely. Crystalline veins wind through the stalactites with larger nodes of crystal protruding outwards. The musty stench that you have noticed since entering the underground passage seems to be even stronger here, the source of which apparently further down the passage.
Lefrik paws at his nose as the stench grows stronger, but keeps following Bruendor
"What a wonderful smell you've discovered..." Calla says to no one in particular.
The dwarf blanches at the musty breeze blowing towards them. "If it's this bad here, what be the source?", he wondered aloud. He kept an eye on the crystals, mostly out of curiousity of whether the stuff was worth mining, but also just in case piercers or some other cave aberration was hidden down here.
Bruendor, ever on the lookout for underground perils, noticed that the crystalline stalactites seemed to be pulsing flashes of light in some sort of rhythm. It was definitely not a natural phenomena, and looking closer, he could see that the stalactites were actually different from the stone they were attached to.
"Smells like troglodyte. Vicious creatures; the smell surprisingly isn't the worst thing about them. ... Though it's close."
She pulls out a cloth and puts it over her mouth and nose to try to mask as much of the scent as she can.
"Hold up, stop!" Anklebiter hisses.
The Goblin looks at the stalactites with undisguised suspicion and mutters a brief spell.
While he waits for the magic's results, the little Wizard holds his nose and scowls. "Smells like chief's laundry hamper at end of month," he complains.
Kel waits for her companions to scan the way ahead. "I could use mage hand to knock a rock about those things and we'll see if they react?"
"Bad idea without knowing what they are, Kel," Bruendor said, retrieving his tools from his pack. "Might be some sort of alarm, and then we've got a whole cave of trogs that are ready for us. Best to see what Anklebiter's spell reveals before we do anything else."
Lefrik sounded intrigued at the idea of more foes to fight, but his mind kept racing back to a thought, "Unless Saul worked with these creatures, how can we possibly be on the right path?"
"He worked with the wererats, so let's not put anything past him."
"No magic," Anklebiter reports, frowning at the glowing stalactites. "Hrm. Proceed with caution, much, much caution. Giant friend Lefrik Olegson, have you ever heard of such rocks?"
"Well, I myself never went into many caves, by my Uncle Jymir was a friend to the dwarves of my home land and he told a few stories..." Lefrik tries to recall if any of those stories mentioned something like this. Of course, his uncle was more fond of dwarven ALE than he was their underground travels, but still.
"Should we bounce a rock around now? If something is going to react I'd prefer it not be while we're under those things."
"Whatever they are, I've never seen 'em before. They're not common to Janderhoff, anyway. Might be something else. Might be throwing a 'rock at them' time after all."
"I suppose the worse it could do is cause a collapse somehow," Lefrik says
"Everyone Ready? Let's see what a little bouncing rock triggers." Using mage hand, Kel lifts a (5 lbs.) rock and bounces it against the crystalline stalactites, then sends it bouncing from the floor to the walls to the stalactites and back around the chamber several times.
Calla waits to see what happens with the thrown rock.
Initiative rolls:
anklebiter
kelendra
bruendor
calla
lefrik
enemies
As the rock clacked around the ceiling the stalactites began flashing even harder. Finally, one shifted slightly and an arc of electricity lanced out to strike near Kelendra. As she dodged that one, another lance shot from a second stalactite, striking her in the chest. The flash of actinic light caused everyone to squint and blink their eyes. The flash also hid the approach of four forms approaching through the tunnels.
Kel cries out as the electricity blasts her, then she dances back from the stalactites and draws her crossbow.
AC 15, touch 12, flat-footed 13
Fort +4, Ref +3, Will +7
CMD 14
HP 15/15
Divine retribution (DC 13) 0/6; Judgments 0/1
Effects: 1 arrow
Calla steps aside to make room for Lefrik to go charging past her, then quickly raises her bow and snaps off a shot at the approaching creatures.
As Calla makes room, Lefrik moves forward and flings a javelin at one of the four figures.
Unfortunately, the throw goes very wide and clatters against stone.
Anklebiter janks a scroll out of his sleeve and quickly mutters the words of a familiar spell. A puddle of rancid, green oil appears under the feet of the hindmost creature.
Bruendor winced at the bright flash of light caused by the arcing electricity, and the smell of ozone briefly overpowered the trog stench coming from ahead of them. He spied the four creatures approaching as the stars faded from his eyes, and raised his crossbow. "Contact!", he cried, snapping off a shot at one of them.
Fire a shot at the figure at V53 as well.
As Lefrik rushed his throw, Bruendor smoothly brought his crossbow to bear. The string twanged and the fletching of the bolt appeared in the target troglodyte's eye as if summoned there by magic. The creature crashed to the ground. Anklebiter crept forward, and pulled a scroll from his clothing. Muttering the arcane words, he activated the scroll and a thin coating of slime covered the floor where the next troglodyte stood. The creature gazed about stupidly as its feet started to slide. Arms pinwheeling, it hit the floor with a loud thud and a groan of pain. Another troglodyte rushed to leap over its fallen companion, but it too slipped on the slick floor.
From around the other side of the dividing wall came a fourth troglodyte. This one took the narrower passage and was barely impeded by his dead companion. It rushed up to Lefrik, and as it approached, its musk body odor became nearly overwhelming; a smell so strong that it had a flavor of its own.
More electric arcs spewed from the flashing stalactites, this time raining down around Bruendor and Anklebiter. The goblin ducked behind the dwarf for cover, which is probably why the beardless dwarf took one of the bolts square on the chin.
1 dead and 2 prone, not too shabby!
Bruendor takes 2 damage.
Everyone needs to make a DC13 Fort save or be Sickened for 10 rounds.
Initiatives:
group
enemies
Lefrik doesn't speak to his onrushing air, the less he speaks, the less he'll have to taste this odious beast's stench. Instead he brings his great axe to bear and slashes at the troglodyte with his axe.
AC 18, touch 12, flat-footed 16
Fort +4, Ref +3, Will +7
CMD 14
HP 15/15
Divine retribution (DC 13) 1/6; Judgments 0/1
Effects: 1 arrow
"Ugh, they smell worse than the goblin's monkey!" Calla chokes out.
Realizing she has no shot, she drops her bow and pulls out her shield, then calls for Calistria's aid to send misfortune toward one of her foes as she steps forward.
In answer to her prayer, a small spark of electricity shoots forward again, hitting one of the creatures attacking them.
Free action: Drop bow
Move action: Pull shield
Five-foot step: To AB-52
Standard action: Divine retribution on Lefrik's opponent if he doesn't kill it or on the thing at X-50:
Trying not to breathe the stink through her nose, Kel readies a shot, but holds it waiting for a viable target.
Bruendor shouted in pain as electricity coursed through his body. He was left gasping for breath as the troglodyte approached - exactly the wrong thing you want to do when a troglodyte intrudes on your airspace. He coughed and sputtered, his eyes watering at the pungency.
"Lefrik!" he said between choked gasps for breath. "Reposition!" He dropped his crossbow and pulled his blade, moving up to stab one of the creatures.
If Lefrik dropped the trog, then I'll head over to W52 and stab him. If not, then I'm after the same one as him and in Z51.
"Hey, Minkey does not smell anything as bad as these!" Anklebiter protests. Then the two troglodytes go crashing, and the Goblin cackles with glee: "Grease spell is top spell!"
Still snickering, Anklebiter chants a quick spell.