Order is Ilysaria, Johannes, and Jian, then bad guys. Take your turns, gang!
Jian will five foot step between the yeth hounds and spin his urumi around in powerful arcs. The first attack will target the yeth hound to the north, the second attack, the one to the south.
That will be a confirmed crit, though your allies have their actions first.
Lys steps unto the platform, her whip trailing up the steps behind her. Setting her sights on the as of yet uninjured yeth hound, the Calistrian lashes out, hoping to draw the unholy creature's attention, if not its blood.
Johannes, not wanting to crowd the lane, will assault the yeth hound to the North. Ilysaria, you would have had to take a five foot step southeast to reach the yeth hound, so I will assume you do that; and that's excellent, because it frees Johannes up for a full attack with rapier and tankard.
Crit is not confirmed but there are two hits.
Johannes damages the yeth hound!
After your strikes, Ilysaria and Johannes, combined with Jian, you three bring the Yeth Hounds down before they have a chance even to act!
Unlike most foes you've fought before, the Yeth Hounds do not leave corpses; they simply disappear. The blood you spilled, black as pitch, still remains, that and your own laborious breathing the only evidence that a combat took place here.
Now that you have the time to examine the room, you find that it makes you deeply uncomfortable.
Stone fonts containing frothy dark water sit to the north and south of the eastern entrance to the room, and twin banks of stone pillars run the length ofthe long chamber. At the western end, shallow stairs rise to a platform about two feet off the ground. The walls surrounding this platform are lit by hanging braziers that emit glowing red smoke, giving the place an unnerving crimson lighting that throws the bas-relief carvings of countless monsters feasting on fleeing humans into lurid display. A black marble altar stone, its surface heaped with ashes and bone fragments, squats before a ten-foot-tall statue. The sculpture depicts a very pregnant but otherwise shapely naked woman who wields a kukri in each taloned hand and has a long reptilian tail, birdlike taloned feet, and the snarling head of a three-eyed jackal with a forked tongue. The left kukri flickers with fiery orange light while the right one glows
with a cold blue radiance.
From speaking with Orik you know the statue is of Lamashtu.
An examination of the altar reveals smears of ash and bone; someone's skeleton was burned here.
Johannes checks the statue's kukris for magic. The kukris are mundane; they merely have continual flame spells cast upon them.
The only exit from the cathedral that is not the way you came are the large doors to the east. Going through them, you come to a hallway. The hallway continues north and east and are blocked by doors. Your party hears nothing and detects no traps from either door.
Tell me what you'd like to do, but before that, you all have had enough combat to level up to level four! Please do so, and then we shall continue.
Johannes drags his finger through the ash on the altar, rubbing the grit between his fingers. "Some kinda sacrifice. Not too old, neither."
After checking the kukris, Johannes isn't sure if he's relieved that they're (mostly) mundane or disappointed. He tests one to see if he can wrench it free from the statue's grasp.
"I'm ready to leave soon as you two are. Don' much like this place. Ye can just feel the unholy energy," he groans, shuddering for effect. Seeking to escape the room, Johannes heads into the hallway and pushes open the eastern door.
Jian feels an inrush of strength. After his recent struggles, dealing with emotions he had never before experienced, he felt full of his own might, fierce and savage and primal. He had never felt so connected to the earth, and, to his own great surprise, when he looked by chance at his own hand, he found instead a leopard's paw, claws extended. Rather than cause panic, he felt calm, tranquil even. He knew that this was simply a part of him now, and he felt it well within his control. Through a simple effort of will, his hand returned to its normal state.
Well that will be useful.
Refocusing, Jian glanced around, then pondered Johannes remarks.
"If I remember rightly, Tsuto's journal talked about Nualia burning her father's remains...and we know that Ezakian Tobyn's remains were stolen from his tomb in Sandpoint. My guess is that's him and she's performed some profane ritual."
Johannes, the remains are easily identifiable as human. You may remove the kukris.
Opening the eastern doors leads you back into a hallway you had been in previously. There are doors to the north and east. As your standard operating procedure is to head right, and after checking it for traps and noise, the door and room beyond seem safe enough. You open it.
You find a chamber more natural cavern than open air, and there is a path north that you can see.
The floor of this cavern seems strangely polished and smooth. To the east, a thick curtain of vines and nettles hangs down over a wide, opening overlooking the Varisian Gulf.
As you move into the chamber and explore, however, around the corner, a tentacle whips out at Jian, attempting to grab him!
However, even unawares, Jian possesses cat-like reflexes and avoids the attack.
Jian can see the creature; some strange monster with a variety of tentacles.
The monster gets the drop on you, managing to attack again!
Jian, you take 5 points of damage, and the tentacle constricts around you; you are Grappled. Ilysaria, you are next, then Jian, then Johannes.
Jian will spend a point of Panache to use Opportune Parry and Riposte;
If that beats the monster's attack roll, it will have missed.
That does, in fact, beat the attack roll; however, it is 10 feet away, and you may not riposte.
On his turn, Jian will five foot step towards the monster and attack with Flurry of Blows;
Lys can't help but to admire the picturesque view offered by the room, and so it is that she is caught rather off guard by the presence of a hostile creature. Nevertheless, she shows that she takes after her elven ancestors by how quickly she reacts to the threat, slipping behind Jian and into the cavern, nimbly dancing across in an attempt to avoid the strange creature's attacks.
Once she is at what she assumes is a safe distance, Lys strikes out at the creature, taking advantage of her weapon's superior reach.
Ilysaria, a tentacle comes dangerously close, but you nimbly dip underneath it. And then, almost as suddenly as it started, it was over.
In a matter of moments, Ilysaria's whip cracked, drawing blood. With even greater vigor than the last fight, Jian's urumi flashes out, and the creature is hacked apart.
If anyone wishes to roll Knowledge Arcana, you might be able to identify the creature.
To the east, the cavern opens to the sea. The path continues south, and there is also the hall to the north.
To the south, you find what appears to be a storage room. Crates, barrels, and mounds of miscellaneous refuse lie heaped against the walls here. There is a door to the west, and it leads to the room that you initially came down the stairs into on this level.
Checking the path to the north, you come across what you can only assume was the lair of the creature that you defeated. Dozens of strange dead bodies lie scattered about this room. Most are sea birds and ospreys, but there are six dead goblins here as well. Each body is literally skin and bones, as if all of the interior organs and muscles have somehow been drained away, leaving behind skeletons draped with leathery, slowly rotting skin.
One of the bodies, however, does have some loot on it. Johannes checks the room for magic gear, and does come across a Small sized suit of Hide armor that seems magical. There is also a Small sized masterwork short bow. Johannes rolls Spellcraft;
He is able to determine that it is a suit of +1 Hide Armor.
The only path left is to the north. You go through the north door without issue and find a peculiar room. The lower four feet of the walls in this empty room are covered with crude drawings in mud, blood, and paint. Most of the drawings show goblins engaged in some sort of violence against humans, horses, or dogs. One picture on the north wall
is at least three times the size and complexity of the other scrawlings. This image shows Thistletop from the side, the goblin stockade perched atop it like a crown. A cave has been drawn into the center of the image, and looming inside is what appears to be an immense, muscular goblin with snakelike eyes and a dogslicer in each taloned hand. If the
scale compared to the rest of the drawing is to be believed, this goblin must be at least thirty feet tall.
Opening the next door, to the west, brings you into what is clearly a war room. A large table surrounded by chairs fills much of this room. A slate board to the north is covered with scribblings in chalk, but the map of Sandpoint that has been carefully inscribed on it leaves no doubt
as to the purpose of this room-this is doubtless where the recent raid was planned.
There are two doors in this room; one to the northeast, and one to the west. The room to the Northeast reveals a set of stairs going back up to the previous level.
To the west, you find what appears to be a research room. A large wooden worktable sits in the middle of this room, its surface cluttered with scrolls, books, stone tablets covered with dense, spiky runes, and fragments of carvings that appear to have been chipped off of statues or bas-reliefs. To the north, a floor-to-ceiling set of wooden shelves sags with picks, shovels, brushes, lanterns, and other equipment one might expect to see at an archaeological site.
This room, however, is occupied. A dark-skinned woman in flowing robes stands poring over a tome, and reacts as soon as you enter the room, taking an aggressive posture.
Jian, you have the first turn; then Ilysaria and Johannes, with this person last.
Jian five foot steps forward, using Flurry of Blows.
Jian, your urumi flashes out swiftly, and indeed, you may not know your own strength any longer, because the woman is dead, before she hits the ground and without making a sound.
You find quite a number of items on the woman; she was clearly a wizard. There is a potion of cure light wounds, and many scrolls. There is a scroll of comprehend languages, and four other scrolls with you have to identify. There is also a wand of some type. She has cloak that detects as magic; which Johannes easily identifies as a Cloak of Resistance +1.
She also has a mundane dagger, a silver comb, fine silk gown and pearl earring all of some worth, an everburning torch, 3 PP and 278 GP. Finally, she has a journal on her, which you may read at your leisure (I have added it to your handouts on roll20).
Furthermore, Jian and Johannes notice something odd about the wall in the southwest corner of the room. Upon closer inspection, it is a secret door. It is easily opened; it is simply cunningly cut into the wall and swings forward freely. It opens onto a set of stairs that lead down, apparently to another level.
You may continue downward whenever you wish, but you may wish to confer and check this woman's journal before you head down.
Jian scans the journal, eyebrows raising in a few points.
"Well, this clears up rather a lot! It seems many of our assumptions were right...and to be honest, I'm somewhat relieved this woman was so deeply in cahoots with Nualia. To be frank...I didn't really mean to...do what I did. There's nothing for it now but to continue, though.
The journal mentions a trap, so we should be on our guard. My friends...I've felt a deeper connection to the primal energies of nature. I...I think I can do what other druids can do, now. I think I can take the form of an animal. If I do so, though, I will lose the power of speech. I do think, however, our exploration of this place is nearing it's end, and it is time. If we've nothing to discuss, then I shall take such a form, and we shall continue on."
Johannes nods sagely as Jian tries to express his near-guilt. "I know what yer sayin'. We're gonna have to take a nice, long break after this is over. Bein' kill-happy doesn' suit us. But the apple don't fall far from the tree, so the sayin' goes, and I doubt much we're gonna find any innocents left in this place."
Alarmed at the sudden killing of the woman—who she assumes is Lyrie based on Orik's earlier information—Lys's first instinct is to render aid to the fallen arcanist. But, even from where she stands at the doorway, it's clear to the priestess that the woman is beyond her Goddess's intervention. Underneath her shock, guilt threatens to surface; after all, it was she who goaded Jian into unleashing his carefully restrained fury. Thankfully the feeling abates, if only somewhat, as the deceased woman's journal entries come to light, demonstrating her culpability in Nualia's schemes.
Afterwards, Lys regards Jian warily, not unlike the way one would eye an animal that they weren't entirely sure had been tamed. Which she might have considered a fitting analogy given his next admission, if she had been in the right frame of mind for such light-hearted thoughts. As it is, she finds herself wondering—worrying, even—whether the man would lose more to his animal side than just his capacity for speech. Only time will tell.
"No, I think everything that needed to be said has been," she says with short but grateful nod to Johannes. "Let's be done with this."
Jian nods, then swallows.
"This will be new, so...don't be alarmed? I guess?"
He dropped his weapon. Jian concentrates for a moment. Then, his body ripples, skin flowing and changing. There is no pain, which he was worried about. But his perspective shifted. He stood even taller than normal, and his limbs elongated, especially his arm. Where once had stood a muscular half-elf, now loomed a silverback gorilla.
Jian moved about experimentally. He didn't feel awkward in his new skin; instead it felt as though this had always been his body. He moved his arms, feeling their range of motion, and bounced up and down. Once he was satisfied, he focused for a moment. He channeled his ki, enhancing the natural hardness of his skin.
Current total AC- 27
Comfortable now, Jian the ape grabs his trusty Urumi and heads down the stairs, though he keeps pace with Johannes so that the halfling could check for traps.
The uncertainty Lys senses in Jian just moments before his transformation does little to inspire her confidence that there was nothing to be alarmed about. But she feigns calmness for her companion's sake, moving to stand beside Johannes so that Jian has room to shift and so that she and the halfling would be in a better position to find themselves should their friend lose himself to his new bestial nature.
Lys watches the entire strange process, wondering sympathetically if it feels as uncomfortable as it looks. Once it's over, Lys studies the handsome half-elf turned gorilla. Though his simian features are slightly more difficult to read than a humanoid face, she detects no aggression or hostility from him. But the question remains: how much of Jian was still conscious? That he didn't immediately consider her and Johannes to be a that was a good start, as was his seeming familiarity with his favored weapon.
Curious as to how much of his mind remained and if he could even understand them, Lys asks, smirking, "So... when does the change begin?"
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"Oh you're hilarious."
That's what he tried to say. Those were the words, in Common, formed by Jian's brain. What issued forth from his mouth, however, was a series of basso grunts.
Oh. Right.
Instead, he looked at Ilysaria. Jian stuck out his tongue and slowly, carefully, blew a big raspberry her way.
As you head down the stairs, you see a bit of light from a chamber to the east. A stone door just around the corner from the steps hangs slightly ajar, the detailed carvings that once covered its surface defaced by chisel marks and hammer blows to the extent that only a few remnants of images (mostly of gemstones and crowns) remain. The floor here is slanted downward toward the west. Other than that, the room is empty, save for a door to the east.
You pause and listen at the next door.
You hear and detect nothing. You open the door to a new room.
Two pillars support the ceiling in here. In many places the stone walls, floor, and ceiling are caked with ancient grime and soot. Alcoves in the north and south walls contain partially damaged statues of a man in robes clutching a book and a glaive. The entire room is canted toward the west, and whatever ancient upheaval caused the complex to tilt knocked the statues from their bases so that now they lean against the western walls of their alcoves.
The glaive is stone and part of the statue.
The only other feature is another door to the east.
You hear and detect nothing. You open the door to another room.
This short hallway rises in a slope to the east. Five feet from the western door, the floor is polished and shiny, unlike the dusty floor elsewhere. A pair of stone statues depicting stern men wielding glaives
stand in alcoves north and south of this section of the hallway. At the eastern end stand two stone doors, their faces carved with strange tunes. Just past the doors is a third alcove in which a partially collapsed statue sits. The top half of the statue is missing, leaving behind a ragged stump of a torso.
As you move cautiously into this room, Johannes, you become immediately aware of a most dangerous trap. You see that the floor in the middle of the room is, in fact, a pressure plate. Looking around, you spy two cunningly concealed portcullises that would prevent you from moving, and you and see that the glaives are designed to cut out at the space in between the movable gates. Furthermore, you are able to deduce that after that happens, the floor would fall away; you don't know how far down the drop would be, but it would not be good.
Glancing around at some of the mechanisms, you think you can disarm it.
Lys's smirk slowly turns into a full smile before the slight half-elf gives in to a round of soft chuckles, and just like that her previous doubts are erased. "I'm glad to see your wit has survived the transformation." Lys amiably pats Jian on one of his now hunched, hairy shoulders before following Johannes down the stairs.
"It doesn't look like the goblins come down here much," Lys remarks, taking note of the thick film of dust that covers the floors of the hall. "If the entries in that woman's journal are to be believed, Nualia is convinced there is something down here that could be of use in her foul schemes. Whatever it is, let's hope she hasn't found it yet." Nothing that was so important to an adherent of the Demon Queen could mean anything good for them or the people of Sandpoint.
As Johannes suddenly stops to intently study something not immediately noticeable to Lys, the Calistrian pauses just inside the doorway to watch the halfling work. Figuring it must be the trap mentioned in the deceased wizardess's journal, Lys blesses Johannes with a bit of her Goddess's fickle fortune.
It's been +48 hours, so rolling for Johannes;
That is more than sufficient. Johannes disables the trap adroitly, and you are all free to move on. Moving down the hall finds two doors; one going north, and one going south.
Ilysaria, through the Northern door, you hear a faint bubbling, as if from a fountain.
The southern door is silent, and no traps are detected. What do you all do?
"Do either of you hear that?" Lys asks, coming away from the door to the north that she had had her ear pressed against. "It sounds like bubbling water, like from a brook or a fountain." Even the untrained ear would be able to detect a hint of hopefulness in the half-elf's voice. After all the bloodshed, the horrors of the Lamashtan Temple and the unknown dangers that yet lie ahead, it was a pleasant thought that there might be something so tranquil as a fountain so far beneath Thistletop.
"Shall we see what's behind door number one?" she asks, stepping aside and then some to let Jian the ape assume his customary place at the lead.
Jian can only nod. He readies himself for whatever is beyond the door and opens it.
Wide stone ledges of red marble line the curving walls of this room, which is well lit by four burning skulls that sit in each corner. Three chairs
rest in the room, and both stone ledges are covered with old books, scrolls, teeth, bones, scrimshaw artwork, jars of deformed creatures soaking in brine, taxidermied animals and limbs, and other strange objects. To the north, a large round fountain filled with frothy blue water fills the room with the gentle sound of bubbling.
As soon as you entered the room, someone stood from one of the chairs. A large bastard sword rings free from a sheathe as she faces you. She is beautiful, with silver hair, and she appears human...at least in her face. Her left arm has become a misshapen claw, though it appears fully functional and quite dangerous. That, combined with the horrific claw marks on her belly, the Mark of Lamashtu, can leave no doubt that this is Nualia.
Another Yeth Hound is by her side, and it moves to it's master's side. She says no words, but falls into a stance, ready for combat.
Initiative order is at the top of the page! Jian, you are first!
His altered state had done nothing to dull his wits. Jian strode forward with purpose, moving somehow gracefully despite his transformation. He closed the distance to Nualia, deciding that the best thing he could do for his allies was to be the biggest, most problematic target possible. He lashed out with his urumi, and as he did so, he growled a challenge her way. As he struck, Jian focused, calling upon the primal energies within him. Strangely, he actually sprouted a small pair of steer horns as the strength of the bull suffused him.
As the door opens to reveal the chamber beyond, Ilysaria spares hardly a glance to the fountain that dominates the northern alcove or the foul curios that lend an aura of palpable evil to the room. Rather, her stormy grey eyes fix immediately upon the silver-haired woman and the demon hound at her side. Calistria, grant me strength! Lys silently prays as she slips in behind Jian, stopping just behind and to the left of the bestial warrior to square off against the yeth hound while he confronts Nualia. Her whip circles lazily overhead, slowly gaining momentum; as it swings around toward the Abyssal hound, Lys lunges and then pulls back, causing the whip to crack viciously against the beast's muzzle.
Jian and Lys, both your attacks hit.
The Yeth Hound releases a baleful howl, carrying with it potential terror; please make a Will Save, DC 12. If you fail, you will be panicked for rounds.
The Yeth Hound and Nualia each take five foot steps, moving into flanking position around Jian. Nualia is going to take a full attack action and attempt to strike Jian several times.
However, neither blow is able to land!
Will saves, then Johannes is up, then Jian and Ilysaria.
Jian's eyes narrow, though in his current form, that is likely imperceptible. This woman...
The raid on Sandpoint. Stealing her father's bones. Kidnapping Ameiko. The next raid she had planned...the denizens below the Glassworks...
Jian was in some ways glad he was not in a more humanoid shape, because he was not certain he could have kept his wrath from speaking volumes to his compatriots. As it was, he still cut loose, releasing the most devastating series of attacks he had ever delivered.
The room around Lys seems to fall away—and with it, her allies—as the yeth hound's sinister howl rings in her ears; all that remains in the encroaching darkness is the monstrous creature and her, alone. Primal fear the likes of which the priestess has never felt before threatens to overwhelm her mind, leaving her unable to think of anything but the sudden need to get as far away from the terrifying beast as she can. In the moment it takes her to falter back half a step, the fear vanishes and her widened eyes narrow with a determination to send the Abyssal demon back to the depths from which it came.
DM Ragnarok- Ilysaria rather helpfully pointed out something I had wrong in my build. Essentially, I can't have been using my Urumi for Flurry this whole time. I imagine that you don't want to go back and go through the previous 3 dungeon levels of combat, so here are, instead, updated numbers for my fight with Nualia so far;
First round attack to hit- 23
First round attack damage- 15
Second round flurry attack 1- 25
Second round flurry damage- 11
Second round flurry attack 2- 14
I assume 14 misses
Second round flurry attack 3- 18
Second round flurry damage- 11
I am exceedingly sorry. I misunderstood how the feat chain worked and believed I could use a weapon in the Monk weapon group with flurry, but I cannot until I actually attain the next feat. I conflated the two abilities.
Understood. Don't worry about it; I didn't catch it either. Nice catch, Lys. And yes, I have no interest in returning and re-hashing the fights because of a slight mechanical error. We shall continue apace.
Johannes moves south of Nualia, engaging her, and attacks;
However, he misses.
Jian, you have made your attack.
Ilysaria, your move!
"Nice try, pup. Here, let me give you something to be afraid of," Lys condescendingly comments, uncertain if the yeth hound possessed intelligence enough to understand her words but not particularly caring one way or the other. It would understand her meaning soon enough. With an underhanded flick of her wrist, her whip flies out toward the demonic hound, lashing its flank with a resounding crack.
The hound is brought to heel; the second vicious strike from your whip makes it disappear back to the hell that spawned it.
Nualia takes a full attack against Jian;
Unlucky for her, both attacks miss.
Players, take your turns.
Jian unleashes his might once again, attacking swiftly and from every conceivable angle. He channels his ki, adding even more strikes to his arsenal.
The yeth hound banished, Ilysaria at last turns her attention to Sandpoint's wayward daughter. "Why Nualia?" Lys asks, whip lashing out in an attempt to wrap around the hilt of the Lamashtan's bastard sword. Whatever the deranged woman's motivations for betraying her home and desecrating her father's remains, Lys is certain that she will never fully grasp them. But, there was little harm in hearing what might very well be the fallen aasimar's last words.
While Lys distracts Nualia with pithy questions, Johannes takes the opportunity to slip around behind her. For his part, Johannes wasn't much interested in whatever answers Nualia had to give. If he were a Saerenite, maybe talk would hold more appeal. But he was a Caedenite (and occasional Desnan), and he didn't have much talk for monsters. What he does have are a rapier and a tankard, and of those he gives as much as he's got.
Nualia bares her teeth, her face a feral mask of rage and scorn. She regard you, Ilysara, and a hint of mockery enters her features.
"Why? Why, you stupid Calistrian strumpet, is because every foul bit of drivel from the mouths of those that walk 'in the light of Desna', or Cayden Cailean, or any of your supposedly 'good' gods is a lie. There is no truth in beauty. Only pain, and only the love of the Mother can stop it. The people from that town are wicked, and I will cleanse them."
With that, Nualia seems different; it is almost as if she has started treating you seriously now.
She steps away, five feet to the northeast. As she does so, her heel brushes back some cunningly concealed bit of cloth, revealing a rune drawn onto the floor and pulsing with green energy. As she does so, it throws a pulse of energy around the room.
If you are injured, you are healed for hit points.
Then, she begins to move even more swiftly. What you thought was a small leather belt above her breeches unfurls from her waist, revealing that she has been transformed in more places than merely her arm. Her tail reaches into a large pouch on her hip, retrieving a slender rod. She casts a spell, and her wounds heal even further.
Finally, a wave of negative energy emanates from Nualia as her bastard sword comes around in a guarding posture. You all take 10 points of negative energy damage (Will save DC 10 for half).
Apologies; will save dc 18
Jian grunts as the negative energy washes into him painfully. Still, he continues on, and attacks Nualia again.
A cold sweat breaks out across Lys's brow as she succumbs to the worst of Nualia's unholy attack. Her free hand moves to rest protectively over her midsection as the profane energy called down by the crazed Lamashtan threatens to corrupt her from the inside out. "Lamashtu's love for you is the lie," Lys challenges, leveling a steely glare at the woman as the ill effects of the negative energy begin to subside. "Father Tobyn loved you. The people of Sandpoint loved you."
"But if you truly believe in that madness you spout, then let us send you to your Mother's loving embrace." Calling upon her Goddess once again, Lys lashes out at Nualia, her faith in Calistria empowering the priestess's weapon.
That is a miss, Ilysaria. Johannes takes a five foot step, and full attacks with both weapons.
Jian, two of your strikes hit, and your crit does in fact confirm; roll a bit more damage.
Again, an aura of negative energy pulses out of her. Jian, as you've proven the most problematic combatant, she is going to attack you once more.
All right.
Once more, there is 10 damage from the negative channeling; a Will save of DC 18 will make it half instead.
Jian, both strikes of her bastard sword land, the first doing 7 damage, and the second doing 16.
Players, you are up!