Squaring off, Nara looses an arrow at the creature.
Seeing the gelatinous blob threaten Andrazi, Hekirin moves in on the creature. His blade slices a wide gouge through the "meat" of the amoeba. While normally devastating to most creatures, the fluid form of the slime makes it impossible to identify vital organs. Nara's arrow flies true, burying itself halfway up the shaft, but the amoeba only vibrates with what you assume is pain - or rage.
Trading the torch for his weapon as he re-evaluates his tactics, Andrazi finally shrugs and thrashes at his opponent. Like his companions, his blow strikes home, causing the creature to leak a viscous fluid, but is insufficient to end its existence.
Always eager to join the fray, Tanrov dashes up to the amorphous blob and enthusiastically pummels it with his maul. There's an audible popping noise as the creature ruptures, spraying a slick transparent gel in all directions. Bits of unidentifiable fibrous material hang limply over the weapons and clothing of those surrounding it.
As the party collects itself, Andrazi again makes to open the door. Having received the all-clear from Hekirin, he pulls at the handle. Inside, he finds a cramped chamber stinking of something worse than rotten eggs. A black mildew cover the walls and the three doors the lie beyond the entrance. Each has a small metal slot at its bottom, but the latched covers long ago rusted away.
Repulsed, Nara wipes the slime from her face and torso while making less than savory noises. Her disgust only increases at the stench that emits from the door Andrazi opens. She pulls her linen scarf over her nose and mouth and follows behind.
As he steps into the room, Hekirin nearly gags as the noxious odor within assualts his senses. Moving with efficient haste, he examines all three doors. Finally stepping back from the last one, he looks to Andrazi, "No traps, but they're all locked." A quick glance at the reinforced doors suggests that age and mold have conspired to weaken the once sturdy barriers.
The doors yield under the jolt of Tanrov's broad shoulders. Behind each is a small enclosure just large enough to hold a single humanoid creature. The bones and tattered possessions within reveal that three individuals had the misfortune of being held captive when Taliq Asad brought the fortress down around him.
The bones and tattered possessions are brittle and broken. Some thread bare scraps of fabric still clothe the remains, as well as a few leather straps and metal buckles suggesting the presence of footwear and/or satchels, but overall nothing of value appears to remain.
As Andrazi paws through the scraps that still linger in each of the cells, he manages to pull forth a brittle piece of browned paper. The script in barely still legible, but written in a flowing script of language other than Common. The broken seal features a kirin flying amid three clouds.
A third room, the remains of a third prisoner, and his aged possessions. Searching the debris fails to turn up anything of significance.
Nara and those still outside the small prison area hear a noise break the silence of the lost keep. Somewhere further in the darkness, the hollow sound something clattering echoes forth.
Leading the way with his torch, Andrazi heads deeper into the keep.
Cracked and crumbling frescos line the walls of this large empty room. The sections of the frescos not destroyed by the passing ages show Qadiran men engaged in battle. A rough stone tunnel leads off to the northwest, as if the ground simply cleft in two ages ago. A pile of bones rests just inside the passage.
As he rounds the corner, the Varisian spies what is making the noise. Standing amongst a heap of bones to the south are a pair of skeletons, shaking and rattling as they mill about the pile. As the torch's illumination washes over the mindless undead, they turn in unison to gaze in Andrazi's direction.
All the while, Nara continued to quietly keep up the rear, hovering in doorways, keeping her eyes behind them as they continued to break through and make way through the keep.
When the skeletons rear up, she draws her sword and darts forward with the rest, slipping between the larger men like a newt and slashing at the skeletal fiends!
With barely enough to to extract themselves from the bone pile, your group falls upon the undead. Contact with Tanrov's maul causes the first to explode into a cloud of shrapnel that harmlessly pelts those nearby. At the youth's side, Andrazi drops his shoulder and manages to crush the second skeleton between his shield and the wall.
Sifting through the rubble reveals a small hoard of treasure. Prying fingers extract a few handfuls of coin, a gold crown, a short sword of master quality, and a wax-sealed scroll tube.
The crevasse in which the skeletons were occupying collapses in on itself after several more feet, leaving you with a narrow hallway to your right or a wider hallway to your left.
The narrow hallway terminates after only about 30 feet. A door occupies both the left and right side, but what draws your attention the most is a sinister-looking fountain in a rounded alcove at the end of the corridor. A four-headed hydra, displayed in cross formation, protrudes from the middle of the rounded wall. The hydra’s heads all face directly down the hallway. Its top head’s mouth is firmly shut, its socketed eyes staring darkly down the corridor, and its head fin is flared and up. On that head fin, a single Kelish word is carved into the stone. The other three heads have toothy mouths open wide and reclined head fins; these obviously served as spouts for the fountain. Just below the mouths is a ceramic basin. The basin has been dry for many long centuries now.
Tanrov spends a few moment poking around the fountain, sticking his hand in the hydras' mouths, and tapping firmly around the basin. Finally he steps back and frowns, convinced there are no hidden trinkets or secret switches.
Nara chuckles to herself regarding Tanrov, though tilts her head at the inscription instead of following Andrazi toward the door on the right. "Wait, what's this say?" She reaches up and rubs away some spiderwebs and dust with the heel of her hand.
Andrazi pushes open the door along the right side of the hall. Beyond he sees a large room that looks like it was once a scribing chamber. The remains of many desks are scattered about, other writing utensils, and scraps of paper. These things are covered with block mold and patches of light green mushrooms.
"Oh," she just chuckles. "Water, of course. Ironic." Stepping away from the dried up font, she follows Andrazi into the next chamber.
As Nara announces the translation of the cryptic Kelish word, the fountain springs to life. Three jets of water shoot out of the bottom three hydra heads.
Distracted by her own revelation, Nara takes one of the streams full on, tumbling backwards. Tanrov reaches out to catch the woman, but is struck by a jet of water as well and both go toppling over in a soggy heap on the floor. Andrazi hops quickly into the doorway he just opened to sidestep the streams. Despite wet trousers, he manages to avoid the worst of the streams.
The commotion seems to have stirred a creature in the adjacent room. From a particularly thick patch of fungus in the far corner, a froglike humanoid trembles and twitches as it stands. Its skin is patchy and dry, like a squid left out in the sun and sand.
Attempting weakly to scramble up onto her feet on the sopping wet ground, she slips and fails, pushing a hand against the tender spot on her chest where she was blasted by the fountain springing to life.
Round One
With purposeful strides, Andrazi closes the distance between himself and the creature. His starknife cuts it's leathery skin and the frog-man lets out a hoarse croak. Hekirin swiftly follows the Varisian into the room and prepares to lend his lethal skills to his companion. Still reeling from the gout of water from the fountain, Nara takes her time recovering her footing.
The dry, patchy eyelids of frog-like beast peel back to revel glowing white orbs. Almost immediately, its eyes flare with a blinding light, illuminating the room as if you were outside at high noon.
Hekirin cries out in surprise as his world goes white!
Squinting in the face of the piercing light, Andrazi is just fast enough to avoid the rending teeth of the frog-man. However, his defensive reaction puts him in squarely in the clutches of the creature's claws and it rakes his flesh with enthusiasm.
Standing to either side of the doorway, Tanrov and Thoradin look at each other as a radiant light pours into the hallway.