Moving past Nuveril and into position in BY,216 with a graceful somersault over her head, Sajan lands a powerful but careful blow on the second beast.
Acrobatics to avoid AOO.
The beast staggers back a step from the power of Sajan's blow, the monk easily clearing a horizontal swipe.
Hampered as it, the gnoll beast presents a good target for Zeladiel's bow but with his companions in the way, the elf is forced to chance a harder shot and misses, the enchanted arrow slicing a groove in the stone wall and sending up a shower of sparks.
First Contact
Round 6
Ordered Initiative
Gnoll Beast 22
Khalid 21
Grall 13
Nuveril 11a
Linah 11b
Sajan 11c
Zeladiel 9
Effects
- Mage Armour (Sajan, Zeladiel)
- Light (Linah, Khalid)
- Spiritual Weapon (Linah)
- Gravity Bow (Zeladiel)
Notes
- Excavated corridors are a bit over seven feet high, the other structures are higher.
- Note light rules. A light spell generates 20'of normal light and 20' of dim light (20% miss). Zeladiel doubles the later to 40'.
Despite its predicament the beast shows no signs of backing down. With a plethora of targets, it shakes its head back and forth but focuses again on Grall. In his own rage, the gnoll barbarian is not difficult to hit but the creature's attacks are clumsy and Grall manages to sways back out of reach.
Claw vs Grall miss
Claw vs Grall miss
Bite vs Grall miss
Grall attacks the beast again with everything he has, hoping to be more successful against the beast who is fighting in cramped quarters...
potential crit...
Khalid's bolt blasts the beast in the side, wounding it moderately and distracting it.
Grall takes full advantage, stepping in to slash deeply into the creature's belly. It rears up in pain, smashing its head into the roof of the corridor and sending stone and dirt showering down. Reversing his grip on the falchion, Grall stabs straight up with the blade, driving it up through the bottom of the beast's muzzle. It takes a few more moments for it to die but die it does, ending the short but furious battle.
As you quickly pick through the bodies, the barbarians recovering from their fatigue, you strain your ears, alert for any sign that the temple might be mobilizing but you can't hear anything at least.
The mosaic room reeks of gnoll, sweat and wild beast. About the room, wooden stakes pounded into interior mud-brick walls secure several dangling chains with thick and ugly metal collars. The mosaic itself is of a huge, snarling, insect-like beast with bulging eyes and yellow mandibles. Its many arms clutch falchions, gemstones and screaming women in various stages of being devoured.
The beast is Rovagug clearly.
As above although the falchions are unusual iconography.
Leaning up against one of the walls are two of the unusual hollow spears you found in Kelmarane. Each removable spear point is filled with a thick, white liquid.
The gnolls carry no purses and have little of worth. Each of the three scimitars carried by the chainshirt gnolls is of different make but masterwork quality, clearly the product of raiding rather than of gnollish craftsmanship. The archer's bow looks valuable and you take that as well.
Linah stares defiently at mosaic and rejuvenates the light spell on her weapon. "What an abomination. This whole structure should be raised to the ground"
DO you want Grall to do the invisible scouting?
Knowledge (Religion)
Rovagug.
"No thanks," mutters Zeladiel looking over the gnoll beasts. He peers at the foreheads. "They've undergone a magical ritual. Possibly Growing of the Third Eye, which gives great strength and insight at the cost of the mind... assuming the subject survives. I think it's safe to say we're dealing with a powerful and well resourced cult to Lamashtu."
Knowledge: Religion
Zeladiel gathers arrows from the fallen gnoll archer. "Hmm, falchions are unusual iconography for Rovagug. An alliance of cults perhaps? Linah?"
|
Knowledge (Religion):
"Agreed. It is Rovagug, but usually the rough beast is associated with axes, not falchions. In terms of religious iconography, the falchion is associated with Lamashtu."
The inquisitor turns his attention to Grall, "Yes, I believe that would be in order." he says as he casts an invisibility spell on Grall.
"Let's move on."
Grall stands amazed that he is for once unscathed from the battle other than a hit he took earlier that Linah had already healed.
Grall will move quickly starting with the direction the beasts came from trying to scout out the area around the group.
Sajan grimaces as Grall proposes more "scouting" but says nothing.
With the rest of you following with the lights, Grall moves up the western corridor. The excavated section only runs fifty feet or so before reaching another older chamber. After a quick walk around, Grall signals for the rest of you to join him.
The room is spartan although more cobwebs and refuse litter the floor and your attention is drawn to the sign of a massacre near the western door. The remains of three (you think) corpses lie on the floor, the surrounding sections and nearby wall spattered with fresh blood.
Each body lies in several pieces and all have been partly consumed (prior to death, you can only hope). Such is their state, its not easy to be sure what race the victims belonged to.
From closer examination the corpses were human.
From the shreds of rags near the bodies, you deduce the victims were most likely slaves.
The northern door is a massive slab of stone, sturdy looking despite its age. Marks in the stone around the edge seem to indicate that the gnolls tried to get this open with tools but there is no indication that they succeeded.
The western door looks much less solid, although its been partly splashed with blood.
Grall looks up the northern corridor and it seems to continue running more or less north except for a break just past the corner. He can see some kind of makeshift construction there, several large rocks cemented or mortared together to create a barrier about two feet high which partly blocks entrance to another corridor or chamber to the west (while the main corridor continues north).
Sajan grimaces as Grall proposes more "scouting" but says nothing.
@Sajan as they rest after the battle, You have failed nothing my frrriend. I am what I must be. I embrace my ferrral nature even though I dislike it. I have always known that I will do what I must to help you, the otherrrs and my kind. As much as I don't want to slay my kind, if I am to everrr to help rrre-shape my people into something else, I must firrrst brrreak theirrr mold...
Grall will have them stay here while I scout the north, east, and south passages a ways before we open any doors.
Their desire to open it could mean whatever is inside benefits us. It would also be an excellent place to rest if we could close it once more.
"We are here to kill gnolls. There are no gnolls behind the door. Hence, it is a waste of time." The chance to kill the massive gnoll has re-invigorated Nuveril after the long and frustrating journey, and she is itching to get at the rest of the Carrion King's servants.
Allies. Resources. Haven. Weapons. Artifacts. All could help us. Sajan lectures.
Besides... there could be Gnolls behind it. You do not know for sure.
"We are here to kill gnolls. There are no gnolls behind the door. Hence, it is a waste of time." The chance to kill the massive gnoll has re-invigorated Nuveril after the long and frustrating journey, and she is itching to get at the rest of the Carrion King's servants.
Grall snaps at Nuveril, You might be herrre to just kill Gnolls, the rrrest of us arrre herrre to stop them from unifying underrr the bannerrr of a grrreat evil and save Kelmarrrane!
If the only rrreason you arrre herrre is to kill things, then you arrre no betterrr than the Gnolls you despise so much! says the disembodied voice of Grall...
"Really?" she snaps back. "And what did pulling a lever and robbing a tomb have to do with the fate of Kelmarane, other than unnecessarily risking the lives of those upon whose shoulders it rests? Every irrelevant side passage we explore wastes the resources we should be marshalling against our foe. We stop the gnolls by killing them. You have slaughtered more of your own kind than I have managed to, with no signs you do so reluctantly or under duress."
Grall scouts the north passage while the rest of you consider the door (and continue your discussions).
By the time the gnoll makes it to the slight bend he can see that the northern passage ends shortly thereafter, the excavation ceasing there. He examines the rock barrier from the bend, realising that moving up to it will expose him to the view of anything watching from beyond unless he were to crawl, an unappetising prospect given the state of the floor.
From what he can see, it does look like a medium size room running west of the same general age as the other solid parts of this section. The barrier is definately recent though, fairly crude and already weakening in places. You'd have to climb over it to proceed further that way.
The northern door does seem to have a lock although its no more than a small hole in what looks like the stone itself. From its size and sturdiness you doubt you could man-handle it open without a major engineering effort or assault with an appropriate tool.
From your closer look it does seem as if the gnolls didn't manage to breach the portal (at least mechanically).
He won't spend much time here just let them know he is moving on to the east and south passages while the invisibility lasts...
"That door could be why the gnolls are here. There are plenty of ruins in these mountains and hills. I doubt they chose this ruin at random. This 'house of the beast' probably isn't referring to the Carrion King himself. Something that Lamashtu or Rovagug 'house' is probably something we don't want to unleash."
"Enough you two!" Linah tells Grall and Nuveril as she finishes a blessing over the torn corpses. "We are here to stand against the Carrion King and his minions, not to bicker among ourselves. How you can witness something like this and still hold grudges against each other is a mystery to me."
"If the gnolls wanted to open this, i doubt we would like what we find in there. Unless it was just curiosity that caused those scratches", she says as she looks at the giant stone door. "Either way i would not think the chances high that we would like what we found behind it. This is a place of evil, do not forget that."
He won't spend much time here just let them know he is moving on to the east and south passages while the invisibility lasts...
He won't spend much time here just let them know he is moving on to the east and south passages while the invisibility lasts...
Grall lopes off, soon past your hearing, while you take up a defensive position in the room and continue to examine the northern door.
Leaving the rock wall for last you circle back, trying to make the most of the spell's duration.
You follow the corridor to the north and east of the mosaic room. After about seventy feet the corridor slopes slightly upward, leading to what appears to be a collapsed staircase buried beneath tons of rock and rubble.
Moving back to the east you quickly double check the room with the sarcophagus. It looks like the gnolls looted this tomb long ago and it seems nothing remains inside but dust and a few crumbled bits of yellow bone.
Turning back again you head down the southern passage. It runs straight for about fifty feet before opening up into what seems to be an enormous diamond shaped chamber.
Seems to be because you stop about ten feet short of a crude wooden barricade partly blocking the entry way at the sight about thirty feet further on of a muscular gnoll in a chain shirt mounted on a hyenadon. The beast paces back and forth as the gnoll watches the passage, its eyes sweeping over your invisble form.
Beyond, in the north eastern part of the room, you can see a great curving flight of stone stairs which heads upwards.
To your left and right the walls of the room run at a widening angle out of sight and you cannot see how far back the room goes or what other exits there might be. Concentrating for a moment, you can hear the occasional snarl from further in the room. It seems as if there is more than one hyenadon (and perhaps more gnolls) somewhere in the darkness.
You can also hear from the darkened area what sounds like a lot of gnolls but distantly as if the sound is drifting up or in from some adjacent area. The rank smell of the place if anything is intensified here.
Studying the guard he looks alert rather than alarmed. Judging the distance he might well have heard something of your earlier fight but he seems to be waiting and watching for now. The room is big but your not sure of your chances of getting past the hyenadon without some chance of it smelling you.
Grall returns quickly and shares everything in the spoiler, not wanting to chance being detected again. If there is any remaining time on the invisibility he will crawl over the barrier to look on the other side.
While waiting, Detect Magic on this door and the rest of this room. Look at the 'third eye' too.
To Zeladiel's not very great surprise a faint abjuration aura cloaks the door, the focal point the lock.
The dead gnoll beasts themselves radiate no magic whether from the scars on their foreheads or otherwise.
Grall still has minutes of invisibility remaining after his scout and heads back up the northern passage. Negotiating the rock barrier, he feels something tug at his right leg as he moves forward. He barely has time to process the thought that this could be bad before something square and large and metal is swinging down from the ceiling.
Sharpened iron gate vs Grall hit
damage
The trap is primitive but effective, a sharpened iron gate hanging from the ceiling and connected to a thin trip wire. It would have been obvious to anyone approaching from the west.
The room itself is about 40' long, the only apparent exit a normal looking stone door in the west wall.
Grall returns describing the room beyond the barrier...
Wherrre do we go next Khalid?
Grall puts his hand on Zel so he knows where he is, Can you place that illusion magic I bought on me? I will trrry to get up to the Hyenadon quickly and end it...
"Gah...um, sure."
Zeladiel takes out a scroll and recites the arcane words, placing the blur on Grall.
"I believe that worked."
Leaving the mysterious door you make your way back to the mosaic room (realising that if the gnoll Grall saw had moved just a little way further forward he would have seen the bodies still lying in the corridor).
Linah locates Grall and heals his wounds with a few taps with one of her wands.
CLW healed
CLW healed