Everyone braces as best they can...
However Sour Heck and Iesha take the worst of it, becoming completely dislodged and spinning in the on rush of water that threatens to take the entire group out.
Sour Heck's grunt is but a burst of bubbles as the rope goes taut around his waist the knot slipping enough to injure him.
When the water abates finally, you all are completely soaked but thankfully still on the ledge. Water continues to trickle out of the open doorway now. The sound of a waterfall can be heard somewhere within as well, the obvious source of the flooding the building suffered.
Sunset picks herself up gently,
"That.. was not fun..." She sighs, wiping wet hair from her face. She looks around to see what state every one else is in and how best to help.
Adelram goes into the now open doorway and uses the wall to brace himself as he helps get everyone else inside as well.
Muttering darkly about boobytraps, Eloise adds her strength to Adelram's.
The water has subsided enough that it no longer yanks you towards the mountainside. However beyond the door Adelram's boots slosh and he finds himself in upto three foot deep water.
Just inside the doorway was a set of stairs going up, which had water running down it as well. To the left and right was flooded halls, looking to be about 3 ft deep as well and carved out of the stone of the mountainside. In the darkness he can tell that both left and right hall end about the same distance.
Eloise mutters a cantrip, conjuring three balls of light, which she sends spinning and dancing into the tower's interior.
"Wonderful," she growls. "Just wonderful. Another sleazy wrongdoer who fails to illuminate his house."
The Magus draws her sword....
Adelram
Working on a map atm. Ice fog is mucking everything up right now -.-;
Sunset edges closer and peers around the corner of the door and hence down into the dank, damp depths.
"Un-inviting..." She comments.
"A swimming pool on the inside? Seems rather posh to me." Adelram wades into the water.
Sunset hesitates before descending into the 'Pool', as Adelram so cleverly puts it, and hesitantly steps into the water.
Before deftly removing the heaver items of her garments... leaving little of Sunset's form to the imagination. Gripping her large sword firmly in one hand she prepares to follow Adelram cautiously into the dank depths.
Trial of the beast map 5 additional link for convenience
These towers appear to be carved out of the rockface and masonry added later to complete it. Water is running loudly somewhere within and the chambers, which appear slightly lower then normal, are flooded completely. Aside from the water it is hard to hear any other noises. Directly ahead from the door you had to pry open is a stairwell leading up, which has very little water running down it now. To the left and right are ten foot wide hallway's.
""No need for sneaking. If there's anything in there, it'll know we came in because the water ran out," Eloise decides. "Still, take it slow. Clear the hallways before we go up."
Putting action to words, Eloise starts to move down the left hand corridor.
Adelram follows.
Eloise moves down the dark hall and manages to wade her way up to what appears to be a sharp right hand corner. When she made her way into the corner she felt the floor slip away from her feet. Forcing her to start swimming to avoid her head going under water.
Eloise manages to keep her head above water, but immediately whispers to the others: "Pull me out! Get me out of here before something tries to bite me leg off!"
Aren't we still tied to each other? Now that we know of the sinkhole, can we roll Aid Another check to help overcome the trap?
[oc]I think we're still roped?[/ooc]
Sunset gasps as Eloise plunges, grabbing their connecting tether and helping pull.
The group successfully uses the rope to pull the now bobbing Eloise back out of the sudden hole she found herself in. However as they were pulling Eloise felt something brushing along her legs and thighs.
Party is first!
The place where Eloise had sunk upto her neck at appears to be darkening, though with the lack of light and the murky water it was hard to tell what the cause was.
"Gahh! Get me out of here!" Eloise shouts as she struggles to get out of the water. "Pull! Pull! There's something in here!"
Between the five of you, you are able to retreat to dry ground. Soon after you can see the water become clouded with dark shapes. This lasts several minutes, these dark shapes were small and moved fairly fluidly in the water but after several minutes they seem to disappear completely.
Sunset peers into the darkness.
"Some sort of... ooz...?" She hazards a guess...
"Maybe just fish or some such thing. Let's be careful crossing that. Anyone have a suggestion on how we're going to cross that?"
"But what kind of fish?" Eloise asks, suspiciously. "Could be pirañha or something. Hmmm. Does either of you have any lightning-based magic?"
"I have a minor light spell... Not sure if it will travel into the water though..." Sunset offers.
Eloise will join Sunset in casting Dancing lights, sending the luminous orbs into the water.
Sunset sets one of her orbs to flit down below the water's surface. Adjusting its hue the better to illuminate what lies beneath.
Be each the water surface appears near sliver thin creatures swimming back and forth in the water. Without the additional light it would be hard to make them out. Dozens of themy appear to be swimming back and forth independent of each other. These things are black in color but with no discernable head or tail.
"Leeches?" Eloise asks out loud, her upper lip curling up in disgust.
Indeed, a massive swarm of leeches. These creatures possibly have been starved, locked beneath the trap for so long. Making them swarm anything viable to feed on...
"Um.... do we have enough salt?" Sunset hazards to ask... having no real idea with how to deal such a thing.
"We'd need a whole lot to saturate the water," Eloise says. "But we'd better sicken them as best we can; they're laden with disease, they're immune to weapons and they'll move as a swarm."
"Ah!" Sunset has a thought.
Input DM?
Sour Heck offers up a solution. "Perhaps up and over is the trick? he offers up his rope of climbing in an attempt to help.
Posts coming soon
Posts! Posts! Posts!
With the help of the magic rope, everyone is able to safely bypass the leeches that swarm in the deeper waters. Though it meant exploring the lower area would be impossible without dealing with them. Somehow.
The area you are standing in has a slight trickle of water coming down from the roof aboe, which is cracked and damaged. Two metal doors are closed on either side of the hallway's though don't appear to be barred when tested...
Sunset approaches the door(s) carefully and cautiously, bare feet making small ripples in the water sl=pilling across the floor. She searches for anything which might constitute a danger.
Adelram is already tired of sloshing through the waterlogged building. "Let's hope that our goal is behind this door so that we can be done with this aquatic home."
He also tries to determine if anything dangerous is on the other side of the door before using a cantrip to open the door (Open/Close)
When the left chamber door opened a heavy stench of rot filled the small hall you were standing in, revealing the remains of a shattered scaffolding walkway. Torn down by unknown means. It looked hazardous to traverse, possible but failure would result in a fall. Though on the far side of the broken scaffod is a door, leading further into this strange tower of flooded stone.
Heavy growling and panting could be heard from below and from your vantage point you saw what appeared to be cages. What they contained was hard to see but it seemed to be where the noise was coming from, the water was fairly deep in the chamber as well, flooding the cages as well.
The right hand door has much the same, a broken scaffold walkway and what appears to be an empty chamber. Flooded with water. Another doorway leading further in on the otherside of the shattered walkways.
As you are examining this Iesha cries out. "Behind us!" drawing her weapon as she was at the bottom of the stairs. From Adelrams vantage point, he can see what is clearly a leech covered undead human rising out of the water, brandishing a longsword and wearing a similar tattered tunic like Eloise. This walking corpse looks like a zombie, but is dripping with water, bloated and giving off a nauseating stench....
The doors of each room open Eloise and Sunset witness it individually, though nothing appears to be above water...
Sunset readies her sword, assuming a defensive pose. "So, the best way to make such a shambler desceased again?" She asks.