The air in this basement is damp and musty-smelling. The
walls and floor are packed earth, while dozens of gourds hang
from the ceiling beams. A sludge of rotting plant matter covers
the floor. Against one wall, a wooden table holds a strange
apparatus that looks like a clockwork toy of a snake-bodied, sixarmed
woman holding a sword in each hand. A tightly corked
bottle, filled with what looks like water, sits before the statue.
A wooden chest covered with engraved runes stands under the
table, and a sinister image of a star surrounding a goat’s face is
painted on the wall above the table.
”Fookin’ abyss...are these symbols of...”
Cautiously moving down off the stairs, Terry looks at the room with some disgust.
"Not what I would call welcoming. Little concerned over whether that clockwork is active defense or not. Don't think we should trust anything over there. Watch that stuff, I want to give the rest of the room a once over if she doesn't try to stop me . . .."
Terry will begin a careful examination of the room, working his way around it in arc, saving the area around the table and the table itself for last.
"Definitely some kind of abyssal cult symbol. This store was just a front," says Jocasta with disgust after she casts dancing lights so that she can see in the dark room. She sends one of the bobbing lights over to the statue so that Terry can see it more easily.
"I agree, Terry, that statue is suspiciously intricate."
She moves carefully to one side of the room, sword in hand, pushing gourds out of the way as she peers about looking for any threats.
The statue and symbol seem eerily familiar to Lorena...
That is a more rare symbol of Baphomet, one used by Human Cultists as opposed to Demonic worshipers."
Terry feels like there is more to this and the little statue and bottle have something to do with it but he is to far away to inspect what he feels is a trap
Jocasta moves about some of the vegetation but finds nothing other than what the Alchemist might have used to grow some of his ingredients.
"So what's the word, Terry? Traps? Tricks?"
Lorena feels a flash of memory being pushed into her head, like her dreams but much less visceral. Either way, she clearly knows what is being shown here. "The symbol of Baphomet again, just like that woman in Horgus's home. Looks like their cultists have been in the city for a while. And that statue is of a demon, of course...I'd be careful."
Jocasta lowers her sword slightly and frowns, then turns to look at the statue and the symbol and casts detect magic.
After concentrating for about 20 seconds you can see that on the Unholy symbol a spell from the school of Illusion is placed there.
"Hm. It's enchanted - some kind of illusion. Take extra caution, Terry," says Jocasta.
"A quick check of the rest of the room didn't give me reason to worry about anything other than that table . . .. Guess it is time to start looking it over. What have we here?"
”Another cultist hideaway. Mayhaps we will find some evidence pointing to other cells.”
As Terry approaches the mouth on the Unholy symbol moves. "mouth—“Ahh... I hope you are among Iomedae’s slaves... I would hate to think of mere peasants wasting such a personal greeting from Lord Baphomet!”
As the last word rings out the tiny Marilith swings a small sword and breaks the bottle. The Vapor quickly fills the room.
d8 Result
1 The subject takes 1d6 points of acid damage.
2 The subject’s eyes glow red for 2 hours, during
which time it gains darkvision out to 30 feet.
3 The subject takes 1d6 points of fire damage.
4 The subject develops wheezing, labored breathing for
2 hours, which imposes a –2 penalty on Stealth checks.
5 The subject takes 1d6 points of cold damage.
6 The subject develops a persistent nosebleed, taking
1d4 points nonlethal damage every 10 minutes for
the next hour.
7 The subject takes 1d6 points of electricity damage.
8 The subject experiences a persistent adrenaline rush.
For the next 2 hours, subject receives a +2 bonus on
Initiative checks but takes a –2 penalty on Dexteritybased
skill checks due to uncontrollable trembling
A horrible looking plant creature crawls out of the vegetation to the south.
The Creature lets out a shriek that fills the room.
Lorena keels over at the sound, and stays still until it passes.
[ooc}The Shriek is sonic mind effecting, the bottle is poison[/ooc]
Terry nearly doubles over as the two attacks wash over and through him, hands to the side of his head. A quick look at the table and he starts stumbling away form the threats he can barely even acknowledge right now . . ..
Once per day when you fail a saving throw against an effect created by a demon that would kill or physically incapacitate you may immediately reroll that saving throw as a free action. You must take the second result, even if it is worse.
Khaz digging deep is able to shrug off both attacks.
Shaking off the effects of the evil outsider, Khaz ran forward with his mace raised overhead.
”Bolka!” He yelled, his mace glowing with a golden light.
While the mace did not have the stopping power of his old axe, it had the distinct benefit of being a holy weapon gifted by his goddess. Invoking her name had predictable effects on the demon.
Firinn shrugs off both the gas and the shriek, having endured far worse in his time at the cult of Zon-Kuthon. He draws and fires rapidly, hoping to down the thing quickly. Unfortunately its fibrous exterior proves proof against his arrows.
Jocasts shrugs off the poison in the room, the Shriek echos around the room and it just to much for her.
The Creature turns on Khaz as he just came up to smash it.
Coughing and sputtering Khaz barely beat the creature back.
Her mind clearing up, Lorena moves forward to strike at the plant thing.
Nauseated by the gas, Jocasta is unable to help.
Khaz being in front of the creature then falling into a coughing fit bare able to defend himself causes Lorena's attacks to miss the creature.
The creature launches itself at Khaz again.
The Creature just cannot penetrate Khaz's armor
Fighting through the nausea, Khaz held his breath and swung his mace with every ounce of strength he had. And with a silent prayer to Bolka for her protection.
Lorena tries again with the stabbing, more successfully this time.
Firinn fires a lot of arrows, to very little effect.
Khaz and Lorena manage to kill the plant creature, .
After the cloud goes away, the room is quiet. The Chest contains 5 holy Symbols of Iomedae. A note lays in the chest as well.
“We don’t need these anymore, but figured if you survived our surprise, it would be just plain rude to leave behind an empty chest for your troubles!"
For over half a minute Khaz kneeled, couched, sputtered, and tries to keep his breakfast in.
When it was finally over he looked around at the group and said ”That was the worst experience of my life! Certainly not as heroic as I imagined this day could have been. Are ye all alright?”
Firinn retreats up the stairs, rather than face the rest of the gas. Once it's dispersed and he hears Khaz speak he looks down the stairs again. "We'll at least we won..."
Jocasta staggers into one of the corners and coughs and staggers until the smoke finally clears.
Once she catches her breath, she casts detect magic again to check the holy symbols.
"I bet this is another trap," she says wryly. "If I were the person laying these traps I'd stick a spell or poison or something on these."
Lorena moves up to look in the chest, then back towards the stairs, still unaffected by the gas. With a bit of ridicule in her voice, she muses, "So much effort to protect absolutely nothing of worth. Let's move on."
Jocasta detects no magic on these silver holy symbols. The only other thing of interest in this room is the small toy Marilith on the table that smashed the bottles.