Safia follows the others as silently as she can, though that isn't much.
With the tari leading the way, you head through the northern-most door out of the ruined tower and deeper into the ruins. Carrying the bodies of their dead clan mates, the tari pass swiftly down a sandstone hallway into a larger, irregularly-shaped room. A fire pit sits in the middle of the battle-scarred chamber, while a low stone table and crude cage made of bone and vines dominate the south end of the chamber.
Cutting quickly to the north, the ratmen sneak through the chamber and to another passage without a sound. Following close behind, Gorkhan starts to follow just as silently.
The rest of your group is ... less successful at escaping notice.
Hunched over and taking exaggerated ballerina steps, Raun is about halfway down the hall when her foot crashes through a rotten flagstone. Cursing, she pulls free but stumbles on the rubble and crashes into the wall to the south, destroying a marble panel concealing a small closet.
Startled by the noise, Grit's tigone jumps forward, bowling into the mul and sending him stumbling into the firepit chamber, spear catching on the doorframe and dislodging a shower of pebbles and dust.
Behind, Nnn'tkklik'l scuttles backward as more rocks and dust rain down on his carapace. One of his clawed feet comes down on Safia's own unprotected foot, drawing a curse from the distracted woman, who spins away, the shaft of her spear drumming a staccato rhythm against the wall.
Ahead of the group, Gorkhan sees the tari look back in horror before rushing away down the hall. He manages to duck behind the doorway just as several gith sentries rush out to investigate the cacophony.
Gorkhan shakes his head at the noise made by the others. {Yeah, right. Just be glad this time it wasn't you.} Shut up.
Attempting to keep to the stealth, Gorkhan activates one of his psionic powers, causing him to take on the coloration of his surroundings before moving towards the fire pit while drawing his sword, keeping it between the Gith and himself.
A howl goes up from the gith as your party stumbles and crashes toward the room with the fire pit. From the southwest room , one of the hunched and gangly creatures rushes out, shouting and gesturing at his fellows as he takes a position just west of the stone slab and flings a broad-bladed obsidian spear at Grit, missing the mul by a foot.
Another gith runs up from the same room and positions itself just to the south, where it begins cranking on a thick rope attached to the bone cage.
Three other gith emerge from the western hallway. Apparently oblivious to Gorkhan, one gith runs along the wall west of the fire pit to the northwest chamber. Disengaging a simple rope latch, the gith swings the door open and moves into the corner of the main chamber , hiding behind the door.
Two others keep their hunched, armored backs to the wall (on southern edge of 16) and stay west of the fire. The one in the lead launches another spear at Grit, but this one, too, flies wide.
As the broken flagstone beneath her feet triggers a series of noisy events Raun grits her teeth and hefts her hammer. Watching the hunched figures stream into the room ahead she smiles, before lumbering forward, pushing past Grit and his beast, as she moves up to engage the enemy, halting five feet from the main group, before swinging her hammer in an arc out over the campfire. The campfire and stone slab should provide a good funnel for the Gith...
Grit conjurs his sphere of fire once again. It appears atop of the Gith cranking on the thick rope attached to the bone cage.
He then moves around the corner and to the south, and sends his Togone forward to stand by and guard Raun. [ooc]Tigone move just the the south of Raun with a readied action to bite anyone approaching. [/occ]
The kreen will focus on one of the gith that are currently not receiving a hammer of a flaming sphere, and attempt to pull them into his collective. DC 16 will negates.
Safia follows Raun but only to the entrance of the hallway they were in so that she has a clear view of the attackers. Seeing the big girl move in she smiles and instead turns her head to some of the other Gith. Once she is satisfied that she has found her mark she blows it a kiss, dark grey smoke coming out of her mouth and going into the Gith's mouth and nose.
Gorkhan moves along the northern wall to attack the Gish standing in the corner.
Within seconds, two of the gith are dead.
One disappears in a red mist as Raun's hammer smashes it against the wall. To the north, Gorkhan is filled with a surge of energy as his enchanted blade slices through the neck of another gith, sending its head tumbling toward the fire pit.
Shrugging off Nnn'tkklik'l's attempt to draw it into the collective, the gith due west of Raun leaps toward the half-giant, vaulting over the pulpy remains of its tribe-mate. Raun batters the leaping gith with a backhand swing as it approaches but the creature lands a vicious blow of its own, its springing legs adding to the force of its charge.
To the south, the gith hauling on the rope to the bone cage bursts into flames as Grit's flaming sphere rolls over it. Dropping the rope, the scorched gith stumbles north into the hallway from the creatures emerged earlier, screaming for help.
The gith standing a few feet north of the flame ignores the rolling ball of fire and spits out the gray mist generated by Safia. Grabbing the fleeing gith's spear, the creature launches it at the dark-haired witch, who easily ducks the missile.
Despite the missed throw, the gith cheers -- following its gaze north, you immediately see why. A pair of giant cave spiders, each the size of Grit's tigone and covered with albino chitin and bristly hair, emerge from the northwest chamber. It appears the gith have been starving the creatures, as they immediately pounce on Gorkhan and Raun.
Weaving and dodging with enhanced reactions, Gorkhan evades the fangs and claws of the creature attacking him.
Raun isn't as lucky. Although her armor turns away the creature's claws, it sinks its fangs into the soft tissue of her thigh, ripping out a chunk of flesh and tearing a vein that starts pumping blood into the nearby fire.
Raun staggers from consecutive assaults, having to brace herself against the wall as she lets out a bellow of pain. When she straightens a few moments later that pained bellow turns into an angry roar in the face of the gith who hurt her, before she spins and tries to smush the spider.
Grit casts Shillelagh on his club and 5' steps to where the Tigone is currently shown. With a mental command the sphere rolls over onto the Gith adjacent to it.
Hearing and indeed feeling the pain that Raun is going through, Nnn'tkklik'l drops his attempt to bind a gith in the collective and focuses energies on binding Raun's wounds.
manifesting empathic transfer to heal 12 pts to Raun and Nnn'tkklik'l will take 6 dmg.
<<Grit, if you could use your magic to heal yourself, I could redirect the healing energy to Raun. If she suffers wounds such as these once more, there won't be much I can do>> the kreen broadcasts mentally, accompanied by a disconsolate chirp.
The cat 5' steps and full attacks the gith that Raun hit. But he seems to be unbalanced on the altar and is unable to connect.
The sounds of cracking carapace and knitting flesh can be heard as an arc of greenish-yellow insect blood floats to Raun's wounds, becoming red along the way.
Gorkhan turns to his new opponent, his quickened blade lashing out twice.
More or less stuck in the hall way Safia grinds her teeth. Determined to get this done with she spits in her hands before rolling her spittle between her hands, increasing the volume. Once she is happy with it she lobs the globule at one of the Gith.
The gith west of Raun cowers in the face of the half-giant's fury. It is struck by Safia's psionic goo as it turns and tries to flee, but manages to tear through the bonds with some effort.
Despite its impaired condition, the creature manages to fend off the clumsy blows of Grit's tigone cub. A few feet away, Grit's flaming sphere rolls over the other gith, which flees down the hallway in the wake of the gith burned earlier.
Raun's hammer, meanwhile, crunches into the carapace of the cave spider attacking her. The beast shivers under the force of the blow, but keeps fighting. It tears into the half-giant again with a claw and its bite.
To the north, Gorkhan fails to connect with the other spider but manages to fend off the blows it rains on him in return.
Grit mentally motions for the sphere to bounce over to attack the spider for its last round of life.
He then moves up adjacent to Raun to threaten the spider, even though he cannot attack it this round. At least he will present a second target to it to draw off attacks from his wounded half giant friend.
Meanwhile the Tigone tries to finish the gith beside it.
{Arghh! The speed! It was glorious! Do it again!}
Gorkhan ignores the flitting thought of his psicrystal as he swings his now slower blade at the creature again.
Seeing her enormous friend take a beating Safia steps forth and gently touches her, "It's good little sister, the Grey doesn't want you yet." Her voice sounded deeper when she spoke, almost manly, though it was still recognisable as Safia. With that her hand begins to glow a sickly white as some of Raun's fresh wounds close.
The kreen will once again apply his skill in The Way to try to knit Raun's flesh. Sadly, it was not enough to keep up with the injuries coming her way.
As seems to have been the case in the past Raun's awareness of her own body fades beneath the berserker's fury that has overtaken her. She seems to notice not at all as the previous wounds heal under the transformed blood of the kreen, and wavers only slightly as the spider opens new gashes to take their place. Her attention turns briefly to Safia as she feels the woman's touch, before she focuses on the spider in front of her again, seeking to end the source of her injuries.
The shaken gith manages to leap out of the way of Grit's flaming sphere. The druid's tigone bites a chunk out of the creatures shoulder, its claws scraping against the gith's armored back, before the gith turns tail and flees down the hall to the west.
As Raun's companions rush to her aid, the berserk half-giant roars and levels another crushing blow at the cave spider. Covered in Raun's bright blood and its own dark ichor, the beast strikes back, clawing and biting the raging warrior. This time the wounds are not so deep, as the creature clearly is slowed by its wounds.
To the north, Gorkhan's blade slashes across the carapace of the spider he faces, black ichor seeping from the wound. He manages to block several of the beast's attacks but one claw slips through, drawing a thin line of blood along Gorkhan's thigh.
Gorkhan grimaces from the pain in his thigh bit presses on and attacks the spider again.
"Die Spider Die!" Raun bellows, raising the hammer above her head and bringing it down, repeating it as fast as she can until the creature is smushed into a paste on the ground before her.
Nnn'tkklik'l steps forward (10ft, and south 5ft so he can see the spider on Gorkhan) and tries to pull it into the collective (DC 16 will negates)
Safia stays behind a bit, not sure she wants to get caught either between two spiders or between a spider and a Gith. She can't go anywhere, movement blocked by fire and spiders, so instead she waits.
Grit attacks the spider while signaling for his Tigone to take the fleeing gith.
The Tigone moves to engage the closest retreating gith.
Blood streaming from her wounds, Raun brings her hammer down with a final crunch, the remains of one albino spider spattering everyone nearby.
As Safia stands by waiting for the chaos to clear, Nnn'tkklik'l focuses his attention on the remaining cave spider, forcing his way into its alien mind and pulling it into the collective.
Wading through the carnage, Grit moves up behind the spider menacing Gorkhan and cracks the overgrown arachnid's carapace with a solid blow. Despite the benefit of his flanking companion, Gorkhan fails to damage the beast as it spins around to attack Grit, savaging the mul with its bite even as he blocks its claws with his shield.
Grit's tigone rushes after the fleeing gith but fails to catch it with its snapping jaws before the gith and its fellows flee further into the complex, away from the feeble light of the bonfire.
Raun makes sure the spider is dead a couple more times before simply looming over it, breathing heavily for several seconds. Finally she looks around, and lumbers up behind Grit, her swing passing over his head as she attacks the other spider.
Nnn'tkklik'l tries to sap life from the remaining spider and give it to Raun.
(DC 16 will negates, spider takes -2 penalty on the save, 11hp transferred)
Raun's hammer pounds the spider to the ground, then Nnn'tkklik'l sucks the last of its life force into the collective, transferring it to the wounded half-giant. The lifeless creature collapses to the floor, legs twitching.
Seeing the creature go down, the tari leader peaks out of the northeast hallway and mind-speaks to you:
<<Quick-quick, before more gith come. Must flee to tari warrens.>>
The ratman and his companions then make off to the east, toward the doorway at the far end of the hall.
To the west, you can hear the wounded gith calling for help as they flee into the darkened halls.
<<Head east, as quietly as you can, before the Gith come again.>> the kreen relays to those in the collective that weren't in on the mental chat with the ratmen.
Raun starts to raise her hammer again as she hears a voice in her head, but suddenly her body sags with weariness as the rush of adrenaline fades and it falls to the floor with a thunk. When she starts to move however she has the presence of mind to lift it off the floor however, and since she's not actually thinking too much about trying to move stealthily, she actually makes relatively (for someone of her size) little noise as she follows the kreen and ratfolk.
Satisified that the enemy is fleeing, Grit calls his togone back to his side praising it for its ferocity and loyalty. He then tries to move quietly with the others, his armor clanking as he moves.
A deaf mekillot could track you as you make your way, bloody and bruised, through the ruined halls.
Following the tari to the east, you pass through a heavy, agafari door - torn from its bronze hinges more than once, by the look of it, then rehung using with bone and hide strips - into a another series of rooms leading to the north.
The first is littered with refuse and the signs of past battles. Piles of bone are clumped in the corners and soot cakes the walls and ceiling. Only a few flakes of plaster remain on the walls, but the sandstone blocks beneath and the red marble trim appear to be surprisingly intact for a structure at the bottom of a crevasse.
To the north, another chamber contains a dry fountain edged with cracked red marble. To the west, the shifting light you carry illuminates a shrine of some sort with a carved figure - a robed humanoid with a third, flaming eye - on the wall above a marble altar.
Ignoring another hide-bound door to the west, the tari scuttle north into a long room lined with what appear to have been small cells. Phosphorescent mosses line the walls and create a thick carpet on the floor, through which gnawed bones protrude. Green and black cave moths flutter among the moss and you can hear the trickle of water coming from a marble fountain in the back of the room.
The tari stop and lay the corpses of their dead tribesmen on the mossy ground, then quickly strip them of clothing and valuables. The leader kneels and squeaks a short benediction before the other ratmen pick up the corpses once again and haul them to a pair of dark holes near the fountain and drop them in. You catch a glimpse of pale gray caterpillars, each the size of one of Raun's thumbs, swarming the bodies as they tumble into the bone-filled pits.
<<Now we go talk tari-chief. Maybe you fight-eat gith for tari, then go under, find tall not-gith>> the tari leader says, before leading the group back to the western door .
Passing through another ruined chamber, you come to a northern passage choked with sharpened stakes. Roughly-woven nets hang from the ceiling - apparently a deterrent to leaping gith - and several tari can be seen behind a crude rampart of bone and stretched hide. After a minute of agitated chattering, your guide motions for you to crawl over the rampart and deeper into the tari warrens.
Following the sharply turning passage, you crawl over another rampart watched over by a half dozen tari guards before passing into a columned hall decorated with faded and flaking murals. Many seem to depict figures meditating or performing super-human acts. The most prominent show the figure with the fiery third eye.
Your tari guide leads you into a relatively clean, oval-shaped chamber to the north. Pictograms, more recent and crudely drawn than the murals outside, cover the walls and the floor is covered by woven fur maps.
<<Naked not-gith stay here, this one fetch tari-chief>> your guide mind-speaks as he leaves, shutting the door behind him.
Raun follows the others, her adrenaline withdrawal slowly fading, leaving her moving more confidently.
"Why rat people not guard the water?" Raun asks as they bypass the lines of tari defense. They seem to take defense seriously, but just leave the valuable water source unguarded. "Who three eye'd person?" she asks curiously as their guide leaves them, the half-giant finally lowering her hammer and lowering herself to sit against the curved wall.
The kreen anxiously waits, hoping that this is not a trap.
Grit tries to commit the path to memory as they move through the maze of warrens and rooms. When he sees the source of water he asks about it and if its good to drink. If allowed to inspect it, he does.
When asked to wait he happily agrees. Once alone he recommends We should do some healing. Raun, how badly are you still hurt. I took a good hit, but your wounds look worse. I have one healing spell. We should not look weak when meeting this leader.