Seeing that perhaps she's more of a monster with a couple SLAs, Therena will switch tactics and cast a simple bless spell next round. +1 to attacks and saves vs fear
The hag, seeing that Bromen is in range of her bite and claws, rips into the dwarf with all her attacks and rends him, doing substantial damage to him.
Kreig UP
Rikar notes that his blunt arrows seem to affect the creature – when he can manage to hit it. ”Get out of there, Bromen!” he shouts, as he looses three more blunt-headed arrows at the hag.
Therena moves up to I23 and casts another spell, causing a frigid ball of ice and snow to appear in her hand. She enjoys it's coolness compared to the heat of this cavern before she hurls it at the hag. It explodes in a shower of ice crystals which coat the creature's hide.
and Fort save DC 17 or be staggered for one round
Knowing the arrows aren't doing much good, Kreig shoulders his bow and withdraws his silk rope and grappling hook from his pack. "Rikar, you n' Josef...grab a end o' this..." He whispers, stepping 5 ft away from the hag and covering his activities with his body. His stubby, dwarvish fingers fly along the rope as he knots the end onto the grapple. "I'm gonna catch her stinkin' hoop...then we're gonna yank her ugly into the lava..."
》5 ft step away
》Switch "weapons"
》 ...tie on the grapple
》 ...covering my actions
Staying put, Misha casts a spell, and slick grease appears under the hag's feet. (DC 14, I think. On phone.)
She also pulls out her whip.
The hag moves along the bridge slowly, the grease spell seemingly not affecting her, and bumps into Misha. However she is so staggered that she does not have time to do anything about this puny invisible thing in her way.
Kreig UP
"Let's see ifn we can't get a leg..." Kreig hops into position (j27) and gives the grapple line a mighty spin and hurl. "C'mon, Longshanks, give her a heave, while we got the angle o' the dangle!" He shouts, hoping the grapple holds onto the massive crone. "Brommen, Josef, ya waitin' fer an invitation? "
》 (Haste, bless, improvised)
》 ... to trip her into j22
Therena recasts her previous spell, and another seemingly-simple ball of snow flies at the hag.
+ DC 17 Fort save or be staggered
Misha was hoping the hag would stay in the grease long enough to help make it easier for her to be tripped, but apparently she didn't get her timing right. She decides to rejoin her friends, zipping off to I27, grabbing Kreig's line, and helping pull.
Rikar slips his bow onto his shoulder, then lays hold of Kreig's rope and assists with trying to tip the hag into her nice warm pool of lava.
The hag, ignoring the rope for a moment, slowly walks up to Bromen, but is unable to attack him.
Kreig UP
Rikar drops the rope he's holding onto and cries out, "Everyone fall back a bit! We need to be able to fight her where there's a bit of room, not one at a time on the bridge!"
He gestures to Latys to move back down the corridor, then draws his blade and steps up against the wall.
"Confound it!" Kreig discards the rope, grinding his teeth because he'd bought it in Kaer Maga, and retrieves a bread loaf size object from his pack. "Fall back...gotta regroup. Brommen, quit playin' tiddley-winks n' c'mon!"
Kreig heads down the corridor, acutely thankful for Therena's spell. Ain't never scooted this hoop so fast before... As he hits the bend, he hunkers close to the wall so he's out of sight of the hag. In his hands he holds the first of his wolf traps. He hits his knees and sets it up, spooling out the line of thread he'd use to pull the safety when the time was right.
》 ...activate device / spool out thread
》
》 ...signaling the others to move further down the corridor and away from the blast radius
》Proximity Trigger
》Perception DC 20
》Disable Device DC 20
》Reflex Save DC 20 (half damage)
》Attack Bonus +10
》Average Damage 20 (combo oil + alch. fire)
Therena lets a third snowball fly.
Alas, it appears that third time's not a charm, as the snowball flies high and down into the lava.
Misha lets go of the rope, sidestepping to clear more room (). She felt like they had almost had her but just didn't have the right leverage. She swings Spice the whip at the hag's ankle, becoming visible as she does so, and tries to entangle the hag and give a good yank.
Meanwhile the hag, claws, bites and rends into the dwarf in her face, and with the rending of the dwarfs chest, she removes his heart and holds it alot. "Hahaha, you killed my lovers, now I take your heart! Now where is the other cutey dwarf, he is mine also!"
Kreig UP
Kreig finishes with his set up and peers around the bend. His eyes see the lack of movement on his team's part...save for Rikar and Latys. He readies himself to unleash a string of withering expletives when he sees Bromen being torn apart.
"No..."[/smaller]
He slams his fist against the stone wall, his other hand working the spooled thread through his fingers, brow caving in anger. Kreig tries to think straight and roars out his next words.
Kreig pulls the closest weapon at hand, his trusty maulaxe, and backs his way down the tunnel southward, spool of thread trailing out from his fingers.
》Unspool thread and move back 10 more feet
》Pull maulaxe
》Ready Action to yank trigger when folks are clear behind him
Misha gasps as she watches their new comrade torn apart. And as Kreig yells, she is about to argue--loudly, violently, and if necessary, vulgarly--when she realizes Kreig has a plan. She tumbles out of reach of the hag and hoofs it out of the cave--but stays as close as she can without being in his way, ready to provide support should anything go wrong.
"You ain't woman enough to handle him, you stupid b#$@&!" Misha taunts as she vacates the premises.
"Bloody stubborn dwarves!" Rikar mutters fiercely as Bromen falls to the bridge, "They never listen!" He grips his sword tightly, wanting nothing more than to drive it into the hag's gut, but he knows a fight on a narrow bridge over lava is a dance with death.
"Dammit!" he cries out, peeling himself away from the wall where he'd been waiting, hoping to surround the hag and cut her to ribbons. He darts down the hall after his friends, his eyes on Bromen's shattered body as he moves across the room. We'll finish her, and come back for you!
As he passes Latys, he flicks his hand, telling her to move up the spur corridor in the hopes of surprising the hag from behind.
The hag stands, and as the lava flows into the pit and fills it, she screams out "No, I will not end like this. I will not loose to the others. Saitara help me!" You watch as she is consumed by the lava and dies.
Misha takes a few steps in, horrified as she sees the unexpected results from Josef's spell. She snaps a glare at him. "You couldn't have placed that a little more carefully?"
She runs up as close as she safely can to the pit (well before the ground slopes) but she cannot imagine a way to fish Bromen out before he is burned up.
What a horrible thing... he believed he was being sent to his destiny. Instead, the dwarves had sent him to his death. She hardly knew him but the seeming injustice of it all still stung deeply.
"This was not in vain, Bromen.... watch over us as we unearth the mysteries of this mountain. You will not be forgotten." She turns and walks away, not even seeming to pay any attention to the brutal slashes on her face. "Let's go. If we ever want to try to retrieve his remains at all, we will have to wait for the lava to cool, if it ever does."
|
"I just watched that monster tear out a friend's heart. Forgive me if I was a bit quick on the draw with my spell. My intention was to save us all. Bromen's body being lost is a wound, yes, but one which we will heal from. Having organs outside our bodies is slightly more problematic."
Josef turns and walks away from the angry bard.
"Or perhaps when my organs are outside my body you'll dispatch me too? Hells' teeth, you're just like my-" Misha stops, shakes her head. "Never mind."
""And before you stomp off, can you dispel this pit? We may as well see if this thing had anything in her nest."
”Enough you two!” Rikar cries out. ”The man is dead, through his own stubbornness for the most part, but we all must die. Josef defeated our foe, and Bromen might have died trying to get away from the hag or might not have, but he made his choice.”
He looks at his angry companions a moment, then says, ”This is a dangerous life we’ve chosen, and Bromen made that choice too. Now let’s do as Misha says, see if that hag had anything of value. And maybe we think of a few things to say about Bromen, toss some ale into the fiery pit for him, and move on. At least he went back to the mountain, as a dwarf should, eh, Kreig?”
Kreig grinds his teeth and turns his attention to his wolf trap. In silence he goes a about disarming it and stowing it away on his pack. But when Josef and Misha begin their argument he slams the head of his maulaxe into the wall next to him. Rikar steps in and works on easing the tension, but Kreig is like a kettle set to a boil.
"Yeah.." He responds to Rikar. His right fist clamps down on the haft of his weapon until the ash wood creaks, his eyes take in Misha and Josef. "Ain't gonna have you two muckin' up a dwarf's last stand thinkin' ya had more than jus' arena tickets to the show. Bromen stood toe to toe with that ugly cuss, nearly brought her down all on his onsies." Kreig realizes how angry he is and slips his axe into the loop at his belt. "Way I sees it, fella went better n' most. The sparks over Torag r' carryin' him to his rest, we can respect it or we can keep our flappers shut."
He turns his attention to the tunnels leading away from the hag's haven and hocks a spit wad on the ground. "Go see what the ugly had was so special... I'll keep an eye on our backsides."
From his bearing it's clear Kreig needs a minute alone.
"Yes, please don't fight. We're all just riding waves of emotion: shock and fear and grief, and don't mean half the things we say. That hag would cackle with glee to hear us at each other like this, and that's the best reason there is for us to not."
Therena's eyes are full of tears; it would seem that, at present, she isn't able to find anything particularly joyful.
Misha starts to calm at Rikar's words, then her nostrils flare as Kreig accuses her of treating Bromen's death as if it were a show when she had just.... uuuuggh. Fortunately then Therena puts in more calming words which make sense to Misha, and she clamps her mouth shut. Adjusting her hat she reaches for a cloth to dab at the blood all over her face. Blood, that's all that's trickling down her face, really, just blood.
She waits for the pit to go away, then pick her way over to the far end to examine the area.
|
|
Josef clenches his teeth, running through a half dozen breathing and concentration techniques before responding.
Waving his hand he dismisses the pit.
"I apologize. I wish I could have helped Bromen more. At least he went out in a hero's manner, toe to toe with a beast and giving as good as he got."
Dwarven: "You will be missed, friend. Strike well on your path in the next world."
+1 Trapfinding, +2 Unusual Stonework, +2 Checks related to metals, jewels, gemstones
+2 Underground (ignore, rolled own)
+2 Underground
Saddened over the loss of Bromen, the group realizes that this mountain is a harsh mistress, and death does happen here. Even death of a comrade.
As the pit slowly vanishes, the lava that flowed into it spills onto the floor near the party, but it is easily avoided as the lava flows back into the larger pool in the western portion of the cavern.
Misha searches thru the bone pile in the north west corner, and finds some coins and small gems. Kreig once he has stowed the trap and recovered slightly from the death of a fellow dwarf, heads up to the area to help with the search, and he notices some unusual stonework against the wall where the bones are. With Rikar and Josef helping, he moves aside a cleverly disguised large rock, and you have found the witches cache of equipment that she looks to have collected for a long time. There are several, rotting suits of leather armor and weapons that are not in good shape, however the true prizes are a mithral breastplate, and a whip, both that glow when detect magic is cast. There is also a very solid looking small chest.
Rikar holds up the mithral breastplate they've found and admires it, saying somberly, "It's a pity Bromen didn't live to see this beautiful piece of work, he'd have appreciated it. I expect we'll have many such thoughts in the days to come." Looking at each of his friends, he says, "Let's watch each others' backs, especially when we're distracted by what's just happened, and remember we need to work as a team to survive in this place, eh?"
Pondering the small chest a moment, he says, "Mishinika, you've got clever little fingers, more so than my great mitts. Think you can get that box open? Or you want to let Kreig have a go at it, since I'm sure he's been itching to do so since the moment he laid eyes on it."
"You're right, I hate leaving a box unopened. Krieg, let's look this over, eh?"
"Yeah, I'll have a tug at 'er..." He fishes his tools from his hip pouch, the probes spinning in his dexterous fingers. He pauses and glances Misha's way. "Listen Misha...you too Josef...I uh, wanna say sorry fer my words back there. Rikar's right, this one hit me pretty hard, been a while since I seen a dwarf like him. Not since I was scoutin' with my pappy." He makes as though to say something further but decides against it.
Instead, he goes back to what he knows best, twirling the tools of his former trade and setting to work on the chest. He spies it first, nodding gratitude as Misha steps forward to point a thing or two out. That done, he sets about considering the box is trapped, no matter what his eyes or fingers see.
As he's prone to doing, Kreig begins chatting as he works. "Ya know, this here reminds me of a time back in Kaer Maga when me n' my buddy Marcum got hired up ta..uhm...liberate some goods in a safe down in tha basement of Lady Citwellem Ammillios..."
》 (traps)
》 (mwk thieves tools)
Misha shakes her head, taking a long breath and then exhaling deeply. "Let's not dwell on it. We can all agree that didn't go the way we expected, and we're devastated." She shakes her head."I tried to give him a boost, you know, while he was up there, but his own 'spell-bane'-ness shook it off. Maybe if I were a better caster..." she trails off, letting a rare moment of self-doubt creep up on her before she moves on, and focuses on the task at hand, watching Krieg at work and handing him tools or assisting with a catch as needed.
She also nods along with Krieg's storytelling. "One of my first expeditions we found this 100 year old box, bound tight as a swaddled newborn and just as fragile... the leaders of the expedition argued for a good hour about how to go about opening it. I might have wandered off with it in the middle there..." She adds after a moment, "To take it back to the museum, of course! I figured the fogies in the antiquities department would have the tools they needed to do it right. Fact, as far as I know, the old farts are down in that cave still arguing..."
Kreig inspects the chest at great length and finds a small pin hole next to the locking mechanism of the chest. Using his tools, and carefully poking at the lock and the pin hole, he manages to disable the trap that was set to go off if someone had not used a key.
Figuring that the key was destroyed with the hag, and figuring that he disabled the trap, Kreig and Misha take their time on opening the lock, which clicks open after a few moments.
Opening the chest, even the dwarfs eyes grow a bit big. Carefully removing everything inside, there are 13 potions, 8 scrolls, 4 amulets, 3 rings and 8 small pouches, of which 5 have a brown stain on the bottom of the pouch, and a pair of bracers with a unknown design carved into them.
As you lay the contents on the floor, you wonder how it all fit in the chest.
"Once again, it's a pity Bromen isn't here to see this - such a haul, and so beautifully made!" says Rikar with a mix of gusto and sadness. "Though I bet Misha and Kreig have their clever minds focused on how the chest seems so much bigger inside than out. You magic types think you can to sort out what all this stuff is?"
[b]"Wow. Josef, Therena, let's take a look at this."[b]
Misha casts detect magic and waits for the priest and the eldritch warrior to assist in the identification. In the meantime, she checks the 8 scrolls for traps before opening them. If Krieg wants to help he is welcome to.
Can we take 10 on these checks? If so, Josef will get 27s, with the two women aiding him. 28s if Therena uses guidance spells.