Chakos does not detect any magic coming from the halfling bodies. Also all their visible possessions seem to have already been looted. They still have their clothes on, but no weapons, armor or other equipment.
Astra keeps examining until she can ferret out whatever she found, using her dagger to make an incision in the cloth if necessary.
"So was there more to this treatise on spores, mold, and fungi, or was that it?"
Let us at least bring their bodies near the pool. Liz will do so and then point off to A^. We might as well head that way. Keep your eyes peeled for that woman.
Chakos will assist in moving the bodies.
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"If you're interested in the topic", Astra says enthusiastically, eyes brightening, "I could lend you my 4684 edition of Spengler & Ramis." Astra will join Elizabeth in moving the bodies toward the pool. The three halflings, the half eaten thug, and Parda from the stalactite chamber. The halflings are small enough for her to easily carry by herself if necessary, although they are a little gross with all the fungal remnants adorning them, causing her to grimace while carrying them.
If you would happen to have an early edition of Azlant Construct Building, I would be very happy.
"I'll have to check when I get home... For now, let's get back on track. What was this woman you mentioned, anyway?"
Sneek said he was attacked and she ran off.
"is there a condensed version?"
Argug snickers a little at Chakos's comment about Astra's state of solitude, and then starts to gather up the bodies to take back to the pool, carrying a good handful of halflings at once. "Whatever. We can toss these folk all in a pile near the exit, but we still haven't found the wizard, so I say we keep lookin'."
You move towards the area where the woman ran, and stand above the room.
The temperature drops noticeably in this passageway, and a rime of white frost lines the walls and floor leading into the cavern beyond. What seems to be a light layer of brown dust carpets the cave floor beyond-a body of some sort sits slumped against the eastern wall.
The cold cavern is down a ten foot ledge .
The body is difficult to see from atop the ledge. You need to get closer to examine it.
Sneek can tell that it was not the gray woman.
"Everyone stop. Right now. Don't use any torches, or anything that produces heat", Astra stops dead in her tracks, holding her arms to the sides to block the passage from anybody who might be behind her in the marching order. "Give me a moment." She glances around just to make sure that anybody wasn't using a torch or a heat source. Then, she takes a few steps forward, to place herself at the front of the formation if she wasn't there already, and crouches down to study the layers of frost and brown dust, making sure not to actually touch any of it. "Rhizopus thermophagus. Brown mold. Even going near it will freeze you to death. Heat sources will make it grow explosively." She glances toward the body slumped against the eastern wall. "I'm not sure I'd chance it."
"Sneek, with your murine heritage I'm guessing you're probably more agile than I am. Would you care to try to sneak past all the brown mold and examine the corpse?" It's not entirely clear whether she's just being realistic and prudent about her own abilities, sending someone else in -- or just a coward. "If you can, you could try pulling it out so I can get a better look at it?"
"Will cold hurt it, or acid?"
Chakos assist Argug in moving bodies. While moving them, he grunts and growls a bit.
"I know that at least cold will hurt it. I don't recall any studies on reactivity to acid."
I don't have any magic that will freeze it so we should not touch a thing until we can deal with the mold.
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”Ok.” Sneek tries to sneak past the brown mold and examines the body without touching it or the mold."Don't understand you Astra sometimes."
If he can’t find anything he will pull the body away out of or away from the mold. “Sneek sick from water, need rest after this.”
Sneek climbs down the ledge, maneuvers past the mold, and reaches the body. It is very cold in this cave. He feels his body stiffen slightly.
Being extra careful he wraps his small winter blanket around the body and pulls it closer to the bottom of the ledge.
Those at the top of the ledge can see the body, once Sneek pulls it closer.
Once Sneek brings the body to the edge of the cavern, Astra will try to help out with hauling it to the ledge. After the body is on the ledge, she will once again try to CSI, examining the body closely for what might have killed it.
Blessed Brigh! Gerrol Sonder, I remember seeing him around town looking for technology. What could have killed all these people so easily?
"I attribute it to carelessness. How many are we still missing?"
After pulling him up you all easily see the rust colored ribbons on his flesh.
Russet mold can be killed using acid, alcohol, continual flame (spell) or remove disease (spell).
Gerrol's body has a masterwork chain shirt, masterwork thieves' tools, masterwork hand crossbow, 5 bolts, empty vials, and 75 gp.
"What's the word there Doc?"
"Gerrol is infected with a different variety of mold. This one transforms infected people into plant creatures called vegepygmies. He's seen combat, but survived it. Instead, he was killed and preserved in this state by the cold of the brown mold. I estimate two to four days until Gerrol's transformation is complete if he is removed from the cold of this cavern. Fortunately enough, the infection is treatable with means both magical and mundane. We just need to get him out of here to that end. I am certain that his fiancée Emilia would be very grateful -- financially -- to have some closure."
"As for how many are still missing, we haven't seen hide nor hair of the faithful of Brigh. And other than this unfortunate fellow, the entirety of Khonnir's expedition is unaccounted for as well."
We best get it dealt with before returning the body to her or else she will get a horrible surprise. Liz's eyebrow twitches at Astra's hope of money for returning the body. Good deeds are their own reward.
Astra shrugs her shoulders. "To some of us. But Argug is an orc and you know how *they* are."
"So how do we treat this body, and what are these vegepygmies you speak of?"
"Good deeds are their own reward, but payment for services rendered is not dishonorable either. Can anyone use this gear while we complete our mission?"
Grunts
"A cleric may be able to treat the russet mold infection magically, so that should probably be our first stop. Failing that, alcohol kills russet mold on contact, so immersing him in a large barrel of whiskey would probably permeate his tissues to a sufficient degree. Knowing him from around town, I have to say he would probably also have enjoyed the idea of being pickled in whiskey." As to the question about Gerrol's items, she does not speak up about any of them, leaving them to the others.
"Vegepygmies -- Ambulatoris pygmae -- are small, roughly halfling-sized humanoids that are classified as fungi in the Tree of Life due to their peculiar physiological makeup. Though humanoid in shape, their metabolism and indeed the totality of their bodily functions is more akin to a mushroom than a human. They are closely related to russet mold which some consider to be their reproductive system, strangely separated from their bodies. It's a fascinating phenomenon to be sure, as I can't off-hand think of another organism that propagates itself in a similar manner. I believe some have theorized that the vegepygmies' reproductive system actually evolved over time to first be on their outer surface of their bodies, then eventually detached, like an egg, to become known as russet mold. Personally I am dubious of that hypothesis. I find myself more persuaded by the vegepygmies and russet mold having been separate organisms to start with, but who over time evolved a symbiotic relationship, as a result of which, whatever propagation method the vegepygmies used to have must have atrophied..." She may never get around to actually giving any useful information unless someone prods her a little.
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Argug glares at Astra for her comment, then shakes his head. "If you don't want to get paid, that's fine. More for those of us who do." He looks over the chain shirt, then starts to remove it from the body. "Hmmm. Yes, this will do nicely..."
So another to take to the entrance and then we have just the passage we passed over. Liz helps with the body.
Astra will take the other end of Gerrol's body, helping Elizabeth get it over to the entrance pool, then returns back to the rest of the group. Now, I believe there's only one unexplored direction to go in?
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In the middle of Astra's soliloquy on molds and vegepygmies Chakos slaps himself on the forehead and whispers, "what was I thinking?". Then he hears something that interests him, "wait! how do we kill them again?"
"...well, you wouldn't want to use piercing weapons like arrows or rapiers, they don't really have vital organs in the way we think of them...you'd want to either use a slashing weapon like a sword to cut them to pieces, or sheer blunt force trauma. Oh, and I think lightning is also something that doesn't do much to them..."
I have a club and can cast a spell that sends a magical arrow at targets. Argug's big axe looks like it will be very effective.
Holding out his axe Chakos asks, "this will work, right?"
"Indubitably."
After leaving Gerrol's body at the entrance, you head back to the crate room and then down the Southeast corridor overlooking a large cavern.
The ceiling of this vast chamber rises nearly thirty feet overhead.
A five-foot-wide ledge runs along the western wall, sloping down to the cave floor ten feet below. Four ramshackle huts made of what appear to be strips of metal, hides, and some sort of fibrous plant matter sit in the cave, while to the south yawns a dark pit.
Far to the east, barely illuminated, is a strange metal wall.
Liz loads a crossbow bolt. I'll keep watch while some of us go down the ledge.
Chakos attempts to climb down.
Chakos loses his footing as he attempts to climb. He falls on his back on top of the rough cavern floor with a thud.
Seeing Chakos fall like that, Argug winces, then -carefully- climbs down.
He helps Chakos up to his feet. "Yeesh, man, that was a heck of a fall."