Meanwhile Yugatta recalls even more about the mad astrologer, Ralzeros the Overwatched, who built what is now the Blakros Museum thousands of years ago, as an observatory to contact distant worlds. She recalls that Ralzeros carved his stronghold from a single block of volcanic stone with the help of fell powers granted to him by otherworldly patrons, supposedly to hide some powerful artifact secreted in the catacombs beneath the keep. However, neither the secret tunnels nor Ralzeros’s hidden treasure have ever been discovered. In addition, some stories claim that Ralzeros’s disappearance was actually an abduction at the hands of the alien monsters from the worlds he had studied so obsessively.
John studies the rainbow of molds on the corpse, and realizes that the mold colonies on the corpse are too small to be harmless. However, he recognizes several types of mold that could be potentially be dangerous in large enough quantities. He sees small patches of brown mold, a heat-absorbing mold, and nubs that might grow eventually into shrieker mushrooms.
Now that you have searched the Scriptorium, where would you like to go? Do you go to Storeroom 3 to the East, or The Archives - Private to the South?
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
You all check at the door, then peer cautiously inside. This musty storeroom is filled with boxes and crates stacked in disorganized piles, some only a few boxes high and others reaching all the way to the ceiling. Small puddles stand on the floor, and the occasional drip of water echoes in the darkness.
A single unlit oil lamp hangs from a bracket to the right of the northern door. The wooden sign over the doorway from which you just came is marked Scriptorium — Quiet Please.
Partially concealed by a stack of cartons to the south is part of a sign. All you can see of it are the letters, —ate.
It looks pretty ordinary to you, but then Yugatta, Falam and Ser Willem hear a slurpy sound from behind the crates and see a pair of red tentacles poke out, with eye stalks and gibbering mouths!
★ --- ★ --- ★ --- ★
★ --- ★ --- ★ --- ★
Round SURPRISE
Active conditions: None
Yugatta
Falom
================================
Gibbery
================================
Ser Willem
★ --- ★ --- ★ --- ★
Round 1
Active conditions:
John
Yugatta
Falom
================================
Gibbery
================================
Oloch
Ser Willem
BOLD is UP! We’re in the Surprise Round, one move or standard action please!
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Yugatta lightly leaps onto a barrel. Falom, aim put off by its sudden appearance, misses the creature entirely. And John scratches his head, wondering what the heck that oozy thing with all the tentacles and the mouths is.
Gibbery, seeking its moment of glory, starts gibbering in Aklo, singing the same song with six different mouths, all out of sync with one another and off-key. John (due to lingering comprehend languages) and Falom both understand the lyrics, but to everyone, the effect is maddening.
♫ I've been lurking in the dungeon
All the livelong day
I've been lurking in the dungeon
Just to blow your ass away
Can't you hear the tendrils slurpin’
Rise upon you in this room
Can't you hear my mouths start burpin’
Calling out your doom
Calling out your doom
Calling out your doom
Calling out your doomIty doo-oo-oom
Calling out your doom
Calling out your doom
Calling out your doomIty doo-oo-oom
Someone's in the dungeon with Mouther
Someone's in the dungeon I know
Someone's in the dungeon with Mouther
Humming in the old Aklo, and singing
Fie, fi, fiddly I o
Fie, fi, fiddly I o
Fie, fi, fiddly I o
Humming in the old Aklo ♫
You feel confused! Roll a d100 for what you do this round!
01-25 Acts normally
26-50 Does nothing but babble incoherently
51-75 Deals 1d8 points of damage + Str modifier to self with item in hand
76-100 Attacks nearest creature
★ --- ★ --- ★ --- ★
Ser Willem (Surprise Round)
★ --- ★ --- ★ --- ★
Round 1
Active conditions: Gibbering!
John
Yugatta
Falom
================================
Gibbery
================================
Oloch
Ser Willem
BOLD is UP!
|
John chuckles a little, not a bad little ditty!
However, he quickly recognizes the danger from the creature and releases a practiced guttural scream directed at it, trying to throw it off its groove.
Special: You also gain a +4 bonus on Intimidate checks if you are larger than your target and a –4 penalty on Intimidate checks if you are smaller than your target.
Demoralizing an opponent is a standard action.
*Shaken: A shaken character takes a –2 penalty on attack rolls, saving throws, skill checks, and ability checks. Shaken is a less severe state of fear than frightened or panicked.
Yugatta manages to hold it together long enough to strike at the aberration, but the horror of the song has clearly had an effect on her. She misses twice.
John manages to throw off the effects of the confusion and manages a scream that throws Gibbery off its groove! In addition, John is now immune to this creature’s gibbering!
Gibbery is demoralized!
Falom fails her will save, and babbles incoherently!
Then it is Gibbery’s turn again! As a free action, it gibbers again! You start to realize that it can and will gibber every turn until you find a way to shut it up. Everyone but John needs to make a will save!
♫ Fie, fi, fiddly I o
Humming in the old Aklo ♫
You feel confused! Roll a d100 for what you do this round!
01-25 Acts normally
26-50 Does nothing but babble incoherently
51-75 Deals 1d8 points of damage + Str modifier to self with item in hand
76-100 Attacks nearest creature
★ --- ★ --- ★ --- ★
Then it decides to all out attack those who are nearest! That is only Yulatta, but because she cleverly leapt up onto that barrel, I am going to rule that only the three uppermost mouths can attempt to bite her.
As one of the mouths manages to grab on to Yugatta, she can feel it trying to suck her blood away unless she manages to free herself!
★ --- ★ --- ★ --- ★
Round 1 / 2
Active conditions: Gibbering!
John (immune to gibbering)
Yugatta (-5, grappled)
Falom
================================
Gibbery (demoralized)
================================
Oloch
Ser Willem
BOLD is UP!
Yugatta manages to shake off the gibbering effect and is now immune! Alas, she was not able to free herself from mouth that starts to suck her blood...
★ --- ★ --- ★ --- ★
Round 1 / 2
Active conditions: Gibbering!
John (immune to gibbering)
Yugatta (-5, grappled, immune to gibbering)
Falom
================================
Gibbery (demoralized)
================================
Oloch
Ser Willem
BOLD is UP!
|
Willem, having no idea what this thing is, sees that his companions are having a time with that incessant noise, decides to shut it up once and for all. "Listen you. I don't know what you are or where you came from, but you're going back!" His sword comes down in an arc to sever as many tentacles as he can.
Willem slices down at the monstrosity, but — even with it being demoralized — he discovers that it is still a pretty dodgy creature. Willem just barely misses it!
★ --- ★ --- ★ --- ★
Round 1 / 2
Active conditions: Gibbering!
John (immune to gibbering)
Yugatta (-5, grappled, immune to gibbering)
Falom
================================
Gibbery (demoralized)
================================
Oloch
Ser Willem
BOLD is UP!
|
|
John stands back and focuses his gaze on one of the eyestalks, sharing a bit of the chaos that tries to overwhelm him daily. Hopefully he's not as good at handling this as I have become, maybe it'll at least give us a little break.
Click. Whirr.
John casts Warp Touch, causing a disruption in Gibbery’s eye stalks.
John dazes Gibbery for a round! Gibbery twitches his eyestalks, looking at himself cross-eyed and says, “Who-o-oa!” in Aklo.
★ --- ★ --- ★ --- ★
Round 1 / 2
Active conditions: Gibbering!
John (immune to gibbering)
Yugatta (-5, grappled, immune to gibbering)
Falom
================================
Gibbery (demoralized, dazed for one round)
================================
Oloch
Ser Willem
BOLD is UP!
Oloch concentrates and enters a war state of mind. He then takes a circular route toward the gibbering beast while drawing his greatsword.
Click. Whirr.
Falom manages to hit the demoralized Gibberer, but her piercing arrows manage to do no damage to the creature...
★ --- ★ --- ★ --- ★
A new round begins! The gibberer does not drain Yugatta’s blood because it is DAZED. It does not gibber to all of you because it is DAZED.
It just sits there, ungulating a little, eye stalks looking unfocused. Go, get it!
★ --- ★ --- ★ --- ★
Round 2 / 3
Active conditions: None
John (immune to gibbering)
Yugatta (-5, grappled, immune to gibbering)
Falom (immune to gibbering)
================================
Gibbery (demoralized, dazed for one round)
================================
Oloch (still need will save from previous turn)
Ser Willem
BOLD is UP!
using his sacred weapon ability as a swift action, Oloch makes his greatsword gain the shocking ability he then comes down hard ( using power attack and furious focus)on the monstrousness blob of mouths and tries to slash it asunder.
|
|
Pulling a small bead of sweat from his forehead, John steps up and simply says, "aren't you feeling a bit tired?" His hand glows with grey energy and his arms seem to elongate again as he tries to reach out past his allies, trying to touch the gibberering thing.
Casting Time 1 standard action
Components V, S, M (a drop of sweat)
Range touch
Target creature touched
Duration 1 round/level
Saving Throw Fortitude negates; Spell Resistance yes
You channel negative energy through your touch, fatiguing the target. You must succeed on a touch attack to strike a target. The subject is immediately fatigued for the spell's duration.
This spell has no effect on a creature that is already fatigued. Unlike with normal fatigue, the effect ends as soon as the spell's duration expires.
Fatigued: A fatigued character can neither run nor charge and takes a –2 penalty to Strength and Dexterity. Doing anything that would normally cause fatigue causes the fatigued character to become exhausted. After 8 hours of complete rest, fatigued characters are no longer fatigued.
Yugatta is able to pull free, if only because the Gibbery is unable to maintain the grapple!
Oloch saves against the gibbering effect, and lathers a world of hurt upon the creature. Although not all of his damage goes through the DR, he certainly makes a dent.
Sir Willem makes a valiant attempt to slash at the monstrosity, but still misses.
John sticks out a very long arm to touch the gooey Gibbery (ewwww) and remind it that it is fatigued. He manages to hit... but only because he demoralized it earlier!
Falom discovers that not only does it have DR against piercing and slashing, but it's untrippable! This monster is so unfair!
★ --- ★ --- ★ --- ★
Speaking of unfair... It's once again Gibbery's turn! Unaware that everyone in the party except Ser Willem is immune, it starts gibbering again!
♫ Calling out your doom
Calling out your doom
Calling out your doomity doo-oo-oom ♫
You feel confused! Roll a d100 for what you do this round!
01-25 Acts normally
26-50 Does nothing but babble incoherently
51-75 Deals 1d8 points of damage + Str modifier to self with item in hand
76-100 Attacks nearest creature
John fatigues it, making it easier to hit, and giving it a harder time hitting you. Which is a good thing, since it has six mouths to bite all of you with!
Oloch is bitten once, but not grappled!
Ouch! Ser Willem is bit and critted! He is grappled!
Yugatta is not bit so much as gummed and licked. Ewww! But she takes no damage, thanks to the fatigue that John laid down on Gibbery! She is also not grappled this turn!
★ --- ★ --- ★ --- ★
Round 3 / 4
Active conditions: None
John (immune to gibbering)
Yugatta (-5, immune to gibbering)
Falom (immune to gibbering)
================================
Gibbery (demoralized, fatigued, grappled, -15)
================================
Oloch (immune to Gibbery)
Ser Willem (grappled)
BOLD is UP!
|
|
John darts up and rubs his hands together rapidly, building electrical current. It crackles into his palm and his arms elongate again as he reaches forward to touch El Gibberer, Monster of Legend!
for
School evocation [electricity]; Level sorcerer/wizard 1
Casting Time 1 standard action
Components V, S
Range touch
Target creature or object touched
Duration instantaneous
Saving Throw none; Spell Resistance yes
Your successful melee touch attack deals 1d6 points of electricity damage per caster level (maximum 5d6). When delivering the jolt, you gain a +3 bonus on attack rolls if the opponent is wearing metal armor (or is carrying a metal weapon or is made of metal).
At 3rd level, your reach increases by 5 feet whenever you are making a melee touch attack. This ability does not otherwise increase your threatened area. At 11th level, this bonus to your reach increases to 10 feet. At 17th level, this bonus to your reach increases to 15 feet.
John misses, but still retains the held spell if he can hit Gibbery again. I will let you retain that damage roll if you manage to hit Gibbery again.
★ --- ★ --- ★ --- ★
Round 3 / 4
Active conditions: None
John (immune to gibbering)
Yugatta (-5, immune to gibbering)
Falom (immune to gibbering)
================================
Gibbery (demoralized, fatigued, grappled, -20)
================================
Oloch (immune to Gibbery)
Ser Willem (grappled)
BOLD is UP!
Oloch uses his Fevor to swiftly cast his Weapon of Awe spell. Oloch then, grimly sets about destroying the monster that, somehow...seems oddly familiar to him.
Yugatta only hits one of its eyes, but all her damage goes through on her second hit! Then Falom tries to attack, but Gibbery dodges out of the way of her hammer! Finally, Oloch brings down his shocking greatsword, once again doing a tremendous blow to the creature. Not all of it goes through, but he still hurts Gibbery!
★ --- ★ --- ★ --- ★
Round 3 / 4
Active conditions: None
John (immune to gibbering)
Yugatta (-5, immune to gibbering)
Falom (immune to gibbering)
================================
Gibbery (demoralized, fatigued, grappled, -43)
================================
Oloch (immune to Gibbery)
Ser Willem (grappled, need will save)
BOLD is UP!
Poor Ser William fails to save against Gibbery, but does not do damage to himself! Why? Because Gibbery attacked him!
If a confused creature is attacked, it attacks the creature that last attacked it until that creature is dead or out of sight.
Ser Willem does 9 points of damage to the creature, four of which go through, and finally kills it! In his anger, he slices right through the aberration before the constitution blood drain can occur, leaving the storage room quiet once more!
★ --- ★ --- ★ --- ★
|
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
John looks around briefly, then realizes his hand is still crackling. Discharging it 'innocently' into the nearest pile of monster he starts looking around at his allies, "anyone hurt? Since Yugatta was so nice to use her healing stick after last fight, I'll let Oloch use mine this time to get you all back on your feet."
As an afterthought he adds while handing the wand over, "if Oloch doesn't mind of course."
He then activates Detect Magic and starts searching the aberration's body and the room.
The group searches the storeroom thoroughly, but only find crated up wall hangings, portraits, taxidermy and pottery. However, when you move the boxes around, you do discover that the crates were blocking the way to a doorway to the South, marked ‘Archives—Private’.
You decide that the door is not trapped. When you test the door, you realize that it appears to be stuck, and you can see some fungus growing under the doorway.
Falom manages to shift the door with help from everyone else, and you all stumble through!
This chamber contains several tall wooden bookshelves reaching to the ceiling, almost bursting with the weight of books and scrolls filling the shelves. The shelves and their contents are encrusted with thick growths of brightly colored fungus and glistening mold. Many tomes have fallen from the shelves, their open pages forming a base for more fungi and large mushrooms which carpet the floor. The air here is damp and close, and several of the fungal growths pulse with an eerie purple light that dimly lights the room.
Tall wooden bookshelves, bursting with books and scrolls and encrusted with a profusion of brightly colored mold and fungal growths, fill this library. The westernmost door in the north wall has a sign reading Scriptorium—Quiet Please. Two large iron candelabra, full of unlit candles, hang from the vaulted ceiling. Several varieties of the fungi glow dimly with pulsing purple bioluminescence, providing the room with shadowy illumination.
As you bust through the door, a nearby purple toadstool trembles as it emits a piercing scream.
“AAAaaaiiiiiiiiiieeeeee!”
^ You take the sonic damage!
Then you hear a weird voice in your head. Does a man-eating shark eat women, too? Do penguins have knees? I think it may be raining fingernails. Can you hear the plink, plink as they tap dance across the floor?
The psychic voice seems to emanate from a veiny, swollen bulb that bears a disturbing resemblance to an oversized brain squats atop five ropy legs, haphazardly encrusted with fungal shelves and bearing folds that resemble gills. A wide orifice with chitinous, teeth-like ridges gapes at the top of the creature, fringed with waving filaments and two long tendrils that lash the air. Its form seems overlaid with a confusing welter of rapidly changing, flickering images, making it difficult to see clearly.
In between you and it is a carpet of fungus, and one patch of it is brown.
★ --- ★ --- ★ --- ★
Round 1
Active conditions: None
John
Falom
Ser William
Oloch
================================
Brainy
================================
Yugatta
BOLD is UP!
Oloch shakes off the shrieking and double moves towards the fungus at the far end of the room