Kyrie launches another force missile at one of the ghasts.
The ghasts press the attack, shredding Bat and Domeric!
One claw manages to nip the paladin.
Zinnath is visible again.
Zinnath fires a snowball at the critter attacking Bat!
vs touch
Avendryl maintains his song, yet again, while taking a pair of shots at the ghast attacking Bat.
(bless, insprire, PBS, cover, rapid shot)
(inspire, PBS)
(bless, insprire, PBS, cover, rapid shot)
(inspire, PBS)
Zinnath blasts one of the ghasts into the ground; it actually shatters from the cold as it topples over.
Avendryl misses with both arrows.
Kyrie launches a magic missile with her arcane bond (I don't think she's used it yet).
This is just powerful enough to turn the last ghast into a grease stain.
After about half a minute, mobility returns to Bat, Domeric, and Fezzik.
With the fight over, Avendryl casts curative spells on Bataleigha.
"Let's get the hell out of this place. We're in no shape to continue and those people we just freed need to be anywhere but here."
”Yeah, we need to go!”
Anything good on the dead monsters though? detect magic while they are doing the healing stuff.
A quick scan doesn't find anything magical.
As for the room itself (115):
The south wall of this chamber bears a bas relief of a hideous head—a humanlike face with squashed features, the face low upon a mushroom-shaped cranium. Various humanoids, monsters, and demoniac creatures prance and jape in the background. The remains of a sandstone altar lie in fragments before this sculpture. All furnishings are gone, but six heaps of old clothing, rags and whatnot remain, indicating that something yet dwells herein. A wooden box is near the north door. The west door has a peep hole, usable from inside the room.
Avendryl doesn't note any traps on the wooden box; it rattles with metal (coins, probably) when jostled.
Once she regains movement and speech, Bat thanks the others for eliminating the tough ghasts. She's in agreement that getting the prisoners back to civilization is the #1 priority and suggests that maybe the rags and old clothing might help clothe the few remaining captives who are without. She also channels positive energy three more times to bring herself and the other wounded back toward full health (prisoners included).
Fezzik is relieved everyone survived the undead but he hangs his head in shame. "New magic cloak and headband not help me from being frozen. I put group at risk. Need to return to town fast before something else comes," he says as they start to lead the prisoners back upstairs.
As you gather up the hapless and ragged civilians and hustle your way back up the side-stairs you hear growling and hissing below. Something else - more ghouls or ghasts, maybe something worse - is shuffling around in the trail of devastation that you left behind.
You find that the box contains an old worn cloak (no value, no magic, but you can at least put it on one of the refugees), 263 copper pieces, and a 6-inch tall finely carved ivory statuette.
We should go far, get these civilians to a safe spot!
"The statuette is pretty...don't know if it's worth much, but pretty." Avendryl comments before steering the conversation back to leaving the temple for now and what to do with the refugees.
"Returning to Nulb would seem to be the simplest, as it seems to be where most of these folk are from anyway...unless someone has a better idea."
Approaching his traveling companions, Avendryl quietly asks of each of them, "I think there is still entirely too much work that needs to be done at that temple once we heal up, reprovision, and get these fine folk on their way to where-ever. Do you believe we should go back? Do we need greater numbers?"
You hustle back to Nulb as quickly as you can. This takes some time, considering that you are escorting people who are barefoot and in some cases nearly naked. Every bush and shadow and tree and bird seems like a potential threat.
When you arrive in Nulb, people gawk. Pirates stare and chuckle. Some point. Fezzik snarls at a few rivermen and they back off, but whisper among each other. You do your best to shield your refugees from view and hustle them into the Waterside Hostel, where you crowd them into rooms. With some spare copper coins (likely the ones from the wooden box), you purchase some cheap clothing from the Nulb Market, which is run by a middle-aged fellow with a squint named Skole. Skole doesn't question your purchase of several cloaks, chemises, tunics, belts, and buskins; likely he'll find out later anyway.
You discern eventually that two of the men are merchants, one of the women is the wife of one of the merchants, the other woman is a serving-lady to the merchant, and two other men are also servants/pack handlers for the other merchant. Though they have nothing to their names any more, they are profusely thankful for being saved from durance, and wish only to escape to Hommlet and try to find some way to repair their lives.
The five remaining men include one riverboat pilot and four mercenaries, all of whom are willing to swear to your service if you choose to arm them and pay them the standard rate (3 sp/day). They are:
Andrew, the river boatman - He is a professional in this area and can swim and pilot a raft or boat up or down the Imeryds river, if needed. He is also decent in a scrap, as he's had to fight river pirates before.
Brex, Carlton, Devore, and Emmet - These four are mercenaries, who have worked for various merchants in the area. They relate that until recently, travel was relatively safe; the Gnarley Rangers usually look out for dangerous monsters near the forests, and the roads around Hommlet have been safe for many years. Now, of course, this is no longer the case, and since they have little in the way of other prospects, they are only too happy to join your cause to defeat the forces that kidnapped them. (If you choose not to hire them they, too, will make their way to Hommlet and probably take up labor jobs working on the new keep there for Rufus and Burne.)
All of these potential hirelings are level 1 human warriors.
The party: "Well, well, well, henchman! What dragon doesn't want as many of those as he can muster? Now, do we spend the night before going back?"
Avendryl shrugs. "I'm not so sure it wouldn't be a good idea to escort these folk that will not be joining us back to Hommlet. The roads are no longer safe and I think its fair to say they have suffered enough already."
"Can they wait here until we finish our mission, and then we take them back?"
Andrew the boatman says, "I used to live here in Nulb. If me an' some of the other fellas here have some weapons, and you can spot us the money for it, we can keep everyone safe at the Waterside Hostel. It's not the best spot but it will at least keep us mostly out of trouble until you're done doing whatever it is you're doing. Or we can try to escort these poor merchant folk back to Hommlet on our own. Roads're dangerous now, but we might could take the High Road to Hommlet if we're armed, send them on their way, pick up work there an' wait if you decide to call on us."
Party: ”Let’s arm them up.”
Taking the time to do things right, you have Elmo and your warrior assistants lead the other survivors back to Hommlet, in hopes that they can at least safely travel that far. Elmo promises to return in a couple days with news of how the trip progressed.
Then, it's back to the temple...
You return to the temple and down the same staircase. The shriveled corpses of the ghouls and ghasts are gone - someone must've come through and cleaned up.
Where to explore?
"Probably one of those jelly cubes cleaning the place up! Which way guys? Fezzik, do you want to choose where you will be paralyzed next?"
Avendryl will take the time to thoroughly search each of the remain doors in this room for traps or anything else of note.
Fezzik looks at Zinnath with a puzzled look on his face. "Me no want to get frozen," he says as he follows Domeric.
Group: ”That is no doubt true my gargantuan friend, but if it is going to happen anyways, you should be given the choice as to where! It is only proper.”
After returning to Nulb, Bat uses her remaining channels and spells to further heal herself, the party, and the recently-freed prisoners.
Bataleigha stands watch as Domeric and Avendryl examine the nearby doors to decide where to proceed next.
While in Nulb, you manage to see to the dispositions of the captives rescued from the temple; but you have some interesting news, some positive, some less so.
During your short stay in the village, you are sought out by a half-orc of seedy disposition. This is in itself not terribly surprising, as half-orcs are semi-common in Nulb, and most of them have a seedy disposition, but few bother to approach you. At a glance this one seems less inclined toward the martial matters or riverboat piracy and more like a traveling scribe - a curious appearance - and while you are wary at first, Zinnath quickly recognizes the fellow as another apprentice of Burne's. Conversation ensues at Otis' smithy in the backroom, and you verify his credentials and recognize that he has some command of arcane powers that might be useful to your expedition. Burne, it seems, has informed his apprentice of the situation regarding the evil cult rising again in the region, and is keen to have as much help as possible to stop it.
The sad news comes when Kyrie explains that she will be leaving your troupe.
"I um... I feel like Tronar here can help out," she explains, "and I uh... I want to go find Enoby. After all we've seen, it's obvious that this cult is far bigger and more powerful than we thought. She's out there on her own running from them, in a world that wants to kill her on her best days! I think she could use the help. I'm going to cash out my share of treasure and head north and see if I can pick up her trail. Who knows, maybe I'll hire some handsome swordsman along the way."
And with that, your expedition is re-formed; when you set out for the Temple once more, Kyrie waves goodbye as she travels north along the old road, assuring you that with the newer spells at her command, she can easily evade anything as egregious as trolls or hill giants, and she can use her missiles to defend herself from the typical goblins and orcs.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You quickly and quietly make your way back to the point of your prior excursion. Avendryl checks the western door carefully in the room where you faced down the ghouls, then opens it quietly, to reveal a hallway that heads north. Domeric cannot sense any evil emanations from it... so far.
"As I said, Zinnath, you do seem to get yourself into some troublesome predicaments." winks at the "scary" white dragon.
Group: "If you are referring to that little incident with the fruit merchant of last year, I still insist that he gave me those bananas!"
"If you know Zinnath already, I'm not so sure that's a good thing." the tall, blue-ting skinned, dark-haired "elf" says with a mischievous grin.
"Good to meet you all the same. I'm Avendryl." he says extending a hand.
---------------------------------------------------
"Which way would we like to go?" Avendryl asks.
"I still say Fezzik should get to choose."
Fezzik looks back and forth between the 2 doors. He shrugs his shoulders and points to the north door. He prepares to attack anything in the room beyond as he waits for the door to be opened.
Seeing Fezzik ready to go, Bataleigha gives the big guy a quick smile and kindly opens the northern door for him.
Bat pushes open the northern door and clears the way to the next room, from which several of the ghouls had come.
(116) The stench of ghouls lies heavily here, as well. Parts of rotting tapestries still adorn the east and west walls. A battered table and two stools occupy the center of the room. Mounds of cloth line the walls, apparently beds for the occupants. A water barrel is near the south door, and a full sack rests near the north door.
The sack contains several sets of clothing - the clothes of the prisoners that you already rescued, apparently; sorting through it you don't find any coins or notable items, but you do notice that there are more clothes than there were people (by about three).
Tronar steps forward to gain a better vantage for viewing the next threat given the history of how bad Zinnath's antics have gotten in the past.