With his second attempt, Artair manages to force the door open. The room is filled with water, probably as deep as the outside corridor. The chamber is in an advanced state of decay, with a gaping hole in the ceiling admitting a constant trickle of water. The three stone sarcophagi in this room are almost completely covered in a thick carpet of moss and fungus. On top of one sarcophagus is a huge frog, easily the size of a man. It gives you all a very hungry look.
There's a door on the South side of the room that looks swollen just like the door you just came through.
"Oh how I do love frogs, might I have a look at him?“
Finnrick makes his way into the room to see just what kind of frog it is.
"Millsy you stay here the waters too deep and I don't need you swimming around trying to catch this poor frog."
Thoughts on if we should just attack this thing? I have a bad feeling about this thing, Finnrick.
"It doesn't look like a friendly frog to me. Do as you please Finnrick but if it gets any closer we may dinner frog legs today."
Jaed advances with difficulty inside the room and gets ready to attack if the frog gets in range.
"I do not believe this to be safe, master Finnrick. I urge you to come back, you are far too vulnerable there." Etam says whilst trudging down on the water, heavy armour significantly hampering his movements.
He readies himself for a strike at anything that comes within range.
Artair moves next to Etam and likewise prepares to attack anything that comes close.
The water then ripples suddenly as two more frogs appear from where they had been peacefully swimming under the water. With a loud croak, their long tongues dash out, eager to grab and pull the adventurers closer. As they do so, the visible frog hops a bit closer and likewise attempts to grab his own snack.
Their sticky tongues fail to grab on to anyone though.
"Oh, he's got friends, and their hungry. Don't worry their not poisonous."
Finnrick fishes out a trail ration and tosses it to the two frogs to the south.
"Here you are little guys." he says attempting to placate the frogs.
"Ambush! Master Artair, master Zandorias, charge! Try and flank them if you see the opening!", Etam yells. He jumps on top of the sarcophagus in front of him and strikes at the giant frog to the southeast.
Damn, Finnrick. We are badly positioned, but cannot back down and leave him alone, these beasts would kill him!
are we dinner? I hope not.
Moves to the SE and attacks the southernmost frog.
"Finnrick, stop trying to befriend every damn creature that wants to eat us for Kassen's sake.", Jaed says as he charges forward.
"I'll take care of this one!" I'm still feeling weak. I hope my strength won't leave me completely while fighting these frogs.
The frogs watch as the food is thrown in their direction, but they are quickly distracted by the onslaught of attacks. Though all the blows hit, none of the frogs are taken down. Croaking in annoyance, each frog tries to bite their attacker.
Jaed just barely manages to dodge his frog's bite while Etam and Artair have a bit less luck. Etam at least manages to pull away from his amphibious foe while Artair is unable to shake the frog off of him.
Shrugging off the bite with a grunt, Etam seizes the opportunity to jump on top of the frog with his spear, aiming squarely inside the beast's mouth:
From the corner of his eye Jaed sees his companions being bitten by the frogs. I must be careful. One of those bites can take me out.
Jaed strikes again with his sword.
Seeing his attack was too weak Jaed takes a step back trying to get away from the frog's bites.
With a mighty blow, Etam's spear goes through the roof of the frog's mouth, piercing its brain and killing it. Meanwhile Jaed stabs at his own frog before leaping back. His leap backwards, however, causes his blow to go wide and miss the creature.
am I stuck in the frogs mouth? I can try to ungrapple or hit it. Correct? Can I hit the inside of its mouth of try to damage it tongue? Are there anything that I can exploit in my situation?
I will attack its tongue. On a phone as well.
Well it looks like we are hell bent on slaughtering these poor frogs. I guess in the long run I have to do ehat needs to be done.
Finnrick pulls out the wand of flame and fires a fireball past Jaed.
Despite his best attempts, Artair is unable to swing his waraxe to properly hit the frog's tongue. Meanwhile Finnrick throws a small fireball at another frog. His attempt to miss Jaed in the process almost causes the throw to miss the frog, but he does manage to singe its flank. The frogs continue to come on anyway, the now slightly crispier one hopping forward to bite the rogue.
It successfully bites into Jaed, but is the man manages to wiggles out of its grasp and avoid being held. Meanwhile, the frog holding Artair almost looks like its trying to swallow the man, but the dwarf is just a bit too big for that. Instead is simply seems to gnaw at him.
The awkward maneuvering of trying to recover from having something so large in its mouth seems to throw the frog off as Artair manages to find an opportunity to escape from its hold.
"Master Zandorias! Retreat, I will give you cover!" Etam shouts, jumping towards the eastern frog. He strikes with an even louder yell, trying to attract attention to himself.
Seeing Jaed take a vicious bite from the frog Finnrick quickly remembers what his main priority is, keeping his friends alive. He reaches for his other wand and pulls out the wand of cure.
"Here this might help," he says as he steps forward and taps Jaed on the shoulder with it.
"Oh, and I almost forgot about Millsy."
"Millsy!" he yells, "Get in here."
Using gravity to aid with his attack, Etam slams his spear into the frog attacking Jaed. With a gurgle the body goes limp as its blood begins to mix with the water surrounding it.
Swinging at the darn frog that thinks I am dinner...
The frog's bite made the world around Jaed start to vanish. As his eyes were closing and his body fell unconscious he could hear the noise of Etam impaling the frog. At least the damn frog is dead.
But then a tickle in his shoulder made him wide open his eyes. Suddenly his strength was back. Actually he fell stronger than ever. Not completely sure about what happened but feeling the rage in his veins Jaed rushes towards the remaining frog.
"Aaaaarrggg"
Still dizzy from blood loss, Jaed practically trips over his own feet in his attempted rush at the frog. Luckily, Artair's blow combined with the frog other wounds fells the creature before he gets too close.
Things start to make sense in Jaed's head after he calms down. Another close call but this time I almost collapsed.
Kind of ashamed, he turns towards Finnrick and Etam and trying to avoid his eyes he says: "Thank you. If it's not for you two that frog would have eaten me. I know it was specially hard for you Finnrick."
Not waiting for a response that could make him uncomfortable, Jaed starts inspecting the room giving special attention to the sarcophagi. "Artair, your stone knowledge may be useful here."
Last, he approaches the door and checks if it is locked or trapped.
Do I need to roll separately to look at everything else?
Anything else around the room?
Etam opens his mouth to reply but stops, noticing Jaed's embarrassment. Not the time, Etam, not the time. I need to command the battlefield, not only myself. If we had been less reckless and more methodical, this wouldn't have happened.
Whilst the others are searching the room, he goes to the door and tries to listen for any sounds that might be coming from behind it.
I guess we had to kill the frogs once they attacked, but I'm sure I could have won them over if I had just been given the chance. Well whats done is done at least it means we are one step closer to getting out of here.
"Artair, Etam, you both look a bit battered and bruised. Do you mind if I take a look at those wounds?" Finnrick says holding up the wand of cure.
Finnrick takes a look around the room paying special attention to the sarcophagi.
A simple cursory examination reveals the frogs' nest towards the end of the chamber. Inside is a mostly devoured corpse of a human man. On the man's right hand is a beautiful golden right set with a single aquamarine. Tied to his belt is a pouch that contains 24 gp in coins identical to those you found on the dead body by the lake.
No traps are found, either in the room or at the unopened door, which appears bloated and jammed like the one you used to enter the room but unlocked. Nothing is to be heard on the other side other than the occasional drip of water.
"Well, I guess killing these frogs wasn't such a bad idea."Finnrick thinks to himself when he notices the corpse in their nest. As he bends over to inspect the dead man he notices that he is adorned with a beautiful piece of jewelry. As well as a pouch seemingly filled with gold.
Maybe this will cheer Jaed up.
He takes of the ring and pouch and tosses them to Jaed. "Looks like there is something here. Any idea what it's worth?"
After clearing away any debris from the man Finnrick gives hime a through inspection.
Jaed catches the pouch and the ring. A quick look inside the pouch was enough for him to count the coins. However, his attention rapidly drifted towards the ring. Clearly excited and apparently recovered from the incident with the frogs he speaks back to Finnrick. "Wow, a golden ring with an aquamarine. This may be worth a few hundred gp." All this trouble may be worth after all.
Suddenly an idea came up and Jaed wide opened his eyes. "What if this ring is magical? After all the weird things we've seen in this crypt I wouldn't be surprised. Does anyone know how to check it or should we put it away until Erazmus can take a look at it?"
Dwarves are good with rocks...
...AND BODIES?
Or neither...
Looks like a blue-ish rock and a dead guy...
"The door is jammed, but a good push should be enough to open it.", Etam says turning to his companions. He walks towards Jaed and Finnrick and looks at the body and the coins:
"It seems he is somehow connected to the other dead man we found by the lake. Why would someone besides Kassen villagers be here? Anyway, Master Finnrick, I am feeling fine, but I would not mind you taking a quick look at my wounds."
"Here you are Etam, better to be healed up before proceeding."
Many thanks! I feel refreshed. Should we go and find this wheel???
"Of course Artair just a moment." Finnrick says.
Walking up to Artair Finnrick opens up his mind and allows the wand to imbue him with the energy to heal the dwarf. He lays his other hand on Artairs shoulder and allows the energy to flow from the wand and into the wounds sealing them and cleansing the dwarf of the pain.
Thanks, I feel refreshed! Shall we move on to figure out this wheel???
I am just anxious to get out of this foul place...
Jaed puts away the pouch and the ring, sheaths his sword and prepares his crossbow. If there are any more of those frogs around better keep my distance.
He then positions himself to the left of Etam, crossbow ready for when the door is opened.
"Whenever you want, gentlemen."
"Thank you, master Finnrick, this feels much better."
Etam turns to Artair "I am ready as well. Master Artair, shall we join forces to push this thing open?"
I am ready when you are. I will push if you want Etam, but you can lead just as well as any of us. Artair takes the other flank.
We're Ready
Let's do it...
Well that was a warm up...
Yeah, third time is the charm...
After a few hefty shoves, the door finally budges open. You're half struggling against the water on the other side. Luckily, the flow from this side down the hallway suggests that it does get at least a little shallower. Looking up from the water, you see a hallway that continues on to the South before forking. One path continues South while the other veers back West.