HP 61/93
AC 32, touch 23, flat-footed 32
Fort +6, Ref +13 (+3 vs. traps), Will +5 CMD 20 Touch of good: 2/5; Hunter's Howl: 1/3
Effects: -3 Con, BoF (+2 bonus on attack rolls and a +2 dodge bonus to AC and Reflex saves.)
Stepping to the side so the others have more room to join her, Jessamy continues cutting at the creature.
Ensu taps himself with a wand.
Jessamy perforates the remaining slimy monster's hide but her blade struggle to cause any significant damage.
The heroic rogue's wounded opponent strikes back with a flailing of its inhuman appendages.
Krojun is no longer revolted!
He calls out to the thunder and directs it onto the remaining monster! damage! Fort save DC 19 for half!
Pirknok tilts his head at the creature, unable to get its vile "face" out of his mind.
HP 33/93 (-24 due to Con loss)
AC 32, touch 23, flat-footed 32
Fort +6, Ref +13 (+3 vs. traps), Will +5 CMD 20 Touch of good: 2/5; Hunter's Howl: 1/3
Effects: -5 Con, BoF (+2 bonus on attack rolls and a +2 dodge bonus to AC and Reflex saves.)
Jessamy reels, unable to move as her mind can't cope with the horror of what's before her and her once-again impending death.
Ensu activates his Deflection Aura.
Siolad manages to tear his gaze away and notices Jessamy's paralyzed this time. He grabs her by the collar and starts dragging the two of them away from the battlefield.
The summoned lillend, on the other hand, turns her ire on the last tentacle beast standing and lays into it with sword and tail.
The lillend strikes with the might of the Heavens but even its blows are largely dulled by its opponent's gummy flesh.
The monster turns its attention on the celestial and returns the favor.
Pirknok finally shakes off the horror of the monster's visage and brings his sword to bear once again.
Krojun again feels less disgusted and calls thunder! damage!
Ensu smirks as he remembers a joke about the disgusting thing and then taps himself with the wand.
HP 33/93 (-24 due to Con loss)
AC 32, touch 23, flat-footed 32
Fort +6, Ref +13 (+3 vs. traps), Will +5 CMD 20 Touch of good: 2/5; Hunter's Howl: 1/3
Effects: -5 Con, BoF (+2 bonus on attack rolls and a +2 dodge bonus to AC and Reflex saves.)
Jessamy continues her useless hacking at the monster.
Overcoming their collective disgust, the party piles on and hacks the remaining tentacled monster to slimy bits.
Pirknok staggers backward, wiping his eyes with the back of his hand as he tries to forget the very-recent horrors. "Those were..." he shakes his head, at a complete loss for words.
He kneels to clean his katana, then trudges stolidly over to Jess. Still breathing heavily from the exertion of the battle, he puts a hand tentatively on her shoulder. "You okay?" he asks, concerned.
Jessamy whimpers as Pirknok touches her shoulder.
"Ow!" she cries out. "That sucked! We can't do that again! I mean, dragons were easier to kill than those ... whatever they were!"
The dwarf grimaces sympathetically and jerks his hand back. "Sorry," he offers. "Ensu, can you help her?"
Ensu reads a scroll and touches Jessamy with a light touch.
and again.
He also hands her three potions of cure moderate wounds.
In retrospect Siolad realizes that the horrors the party just vanquished were a type of qlippoth known as chernobue - living manifestation of the vile fecundity of the Abyss.
"...chernobue qlippoth. Living manifestations of Abyssal filth." Siolad winces as his summoned lillend fades from existence. "They're even uglier when they're dead."
HP 62/93
AC 32, touch 23, flat-footed 32
Fort +6, Ref +13 (+3 vs. traps), Will +5 CMD 20 Touch of good: 2/5; Hunter's Howl: 1/3
Effects: -1 Con
"I think we need to stop and regroup," Jessamy says.
"...yes. And I need to readjust my spells."
Returning to the central hub of the Runeforge, the party finds it much the same as they left it when they passed through minutes ago. After setting up camp and assigning watches the heroes try to get some rest. Hours pass without incident and soon the party finds their inner reserves of magic replenished but nobody feels particularly refreshed. Something about this unnatural place keeps everyone on edge and makes true rest nigh impossible.
"Let's explore the rest of this place and then get out of here!" Jessamy says. "This place is the worst."
With a radically altered spell loadout (namely, no area-of-effect harmful spells and an overabundance of magic missile), Siolad gets ready to go.
"Indeed. I'll be quite happy to see the sun again."
The party is able to return to the filthy halls without incident. Along the way they pass the elder water elemental still diligently cleaning the area around the drain where it appeared. It briefly regards the party with indifference before resuming its task.
Returning to the site of their last battle, the party finds that the bodies of the hideous chernobues are missing. Who or what removed them remains unseen.
Venturing further north the party finds the way blocked by a pair of enormous iron doors. They are crusted with filth much like everything else but the scrape-marks along the floor suggest they were opened recently.
"There's definitely something else in here still," Jessamy says, looking around.
If nothing else grabs her attention, she'll check the doors themselves for any traps and/or a way to open them.
After a quick examination Jessamy finds no signs of traps magical or otherwise.
Krojun shrugs and pulls the doors open.
With a mighty pull Krojun heaves the filth-crusted iron doors open revealing the chamber beyond.
This room reeks of strange chemicals. A five foot wide metal walkway looks out over a large pool of foamy, filthy water ten feet below, from which five metallic pipes emerge through the walkway above. Four of these pipes are five feet in diameter and extend up in the four corners of the room to a height of about a foot above the balcony; each is filled with a different colored bubbling fluid. The fifth pipe is twenty feet wide and extends up to the north—this pipe is filled nearly to the rim with shuddering, glowing green sludge. Thin streams of fluid flow through the air from the four corner pipes to drain into the central one. A stone throne floats in the air above this slime upon which sits an impossibly obese man. Within his chest is a hideous open wound through which the man's swollen black heart visibly beats.
"Intruders!" the man shouts setting his multitude of chins quivering. "You will regret setting foot in Jordandus's domain!"