"Um, we can find the door again, right," Tera asks as she looks to the others after helping to pile rubble in front of the door.
After being assured that, yes, they'd be able to get out, Tera looks at the southeastern tunnel and looks back to the others.
"Same arrangement as before, or should we make some adjustments," she asks before summoning her lights once more.
Kaede nods. "let's go and check out this other tunnel."
"I have been told that goblins can see in the dark, it may be wise to proceed with light so we are not cought at a disadvantage." Orin says, rubbing a recently banged shin.
Kaelaah, having nearly tripped over the same obstacle that Orin crashed into, grits his teeth...
Please... let us stop stumbling around in the dark... I have fire that will light the corridor ahead and behind of us well enough... and, like Orin says, we're putting ourselves at a disadvantage to those who may be watching us from the darkness anyway
...but, hesitant to be responsible for anything right now, Kaelaah keeps his counsel.
"I... hadn't thoughr of that," Tera admits sheepishly. "Kaelaah, Kaede, Zache. Can any of you make a light indefinitely, and can you put it out quickly if we need to," she asks.
Inwardly breathing a sigh of relief, Kaelaah's hands become aflame... a soft warm fire, flickering amber and bathing the group - and more importanlty - the tunnel with light...
Progress is much smoother as the group employs its new strategy and they quickly travel about a hundred feet to where the tunnel curves to the left. Just around the bend there is a heap of rubble and the remnants of a brick wall that had blocked the passage in the past. The craftsmanship resembles that of the other bricked over openings in the Glassworks basement.
Pressing on, the tunnel continues to curve left until two passageways off to the right come into view. As the humanoid figure of Tera's light spell draws up next to the first opening a shadowy quadruped figure springs out of it and crashes through the glow.
The creature is a hairless humanoid that lurches forward on back-bent, dog-like legs; its hideous mouth is flanked by tiny arms with three-fingered hands.
Snarling in rage, and seemingly undeterred by its failed first assault, the creatures lunges forward at Salomae and attempts to bite her...
...but even off balance and unprepared its prey proves too elusive.
ROUND 1 Initiative 19
"These creatures are resistant to magic, and their minds cannot be assailed! Avoid its bite if you can, It will try to disturb your thoughts." Orin yells as he moves closer to the front.
The flames flickering in Kaelaah's hand suddenly rage...
...but the gouts of fire, thrown furiously at the creature attacking Sister Salomae, sputter and die before they strike his target.
"Bow it is, then," Tera says, a quaver in her voice betraying her nervousness as she takes a step back and readies her bow.
"Sal! Duck," she calls out as takes aim
"I think a better question is how long has it been down here..." Kaede adds as she moves forward to cover Tera, stepping in-between her and the beast after she takes her shot.
"Sinspawn?" Zache breathes, taking a moment to ponder the implications of this new discovery, before racing into melee range, twin starknives clutched tight.
The wrathspawn, viscous black blood dripping from the wound Salomae left, lurches forward at the fencer with flailing claws and chomping jaws...
, ,
,
,
Zache takes advantage of the creature's lunge to step around it, his twin blades providing a flank for Kaede's polearm, before he swings both in unison at the foe.
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Tera backs away once more as she nocks an arrow. Zache had called this thing, this monster "sinspawn" and the way he said it makes her wonder what had lead to the creation of such a vile creature.
But her wondering is only for the briefest of moments. She needs to focus, and focus she will. She recalls the lessons Shalelu had taught her as she forced herself to calm down. Nock the arrow, then draw the string with your fingertips. Aim from the waist and make sure that your arm is straight. Hand should be next to the chin. Now breath in and hold it. Line up the shot, then release the string. Do it gently, but quickly.
Another arrow goes sailing past the creature's head and Tera feels her frustration grow a little as she reaches for another arrow.
The release! It's always the release! Why can't I ever get that right?
ROUND 2 Initiative 19
Orin siezes on the spot vacated by Zache and tries to bring his scimitar down on the foul creature.
for
Getting a good look at the beast that Zache called a 'sinspawn' only steels Kaede's resolve. "妻によって..." she whispers before whirling into her bladed dance, letting her glaive continue the discussion for her.
Stepping to one side, trying to get a clearer shot at the creature... the sinspawn? attacking Salomae... Kaelaah once more struggles to maintain the flame...
The twisted creature manages to evade most of the attacks directed at it but a slash from the bladed end of Kaede's glaive and another stab from Sal's rapier, that just catches thanks to the distraction provided by Zache, is all it takes to bring it down.
Examining its remains reveals that the creature carried no possessions of any sort. Moving forward the intrepid explorers find that the cave it emerged from is small and empty. Just beyond that cave the tunnel forks. The left passage continues on beyond the edge of the light while the right passage opens up into some kind of man-made structure with stone block floors and walls.
Tera lets out a sigh as she finds the remains of her arrows. She'd hoped that she might be able to use them again, but they'd snapped when they hit the walls.
Looking at the passageways, she thinks for a moment.
"It'd be best to keep our voices down," Tera tells the others. "Anything down here probably heard that thing and the brief fight, but we may be able to stay hidden if we are not loud. Now, do we have a way of blocking off the passage we don't take? I'd hate to give them a chance to catch us from the back."
"I understand your concern, and there are some items in the glassworks that we could use to block the passage, but if our purpose here is to investigate, we may give enemies time to flee if we dont press forward in a timly fashion." Orin offers, but makes it clear that he will run back to the surface to gather whatever the group wants.
Kaelaah, inwardly seething about the fire that he couldn't control, "I'll stay at the back... if anything tries to sneak up on us from the rear, I'll burn them!!!"
...and when Sister Amsel asks about which direction to take, Kaelaah shrugs, "Left?"
"Sinspawn are manifestations of a particular sin - in the case of this one, Wrath," Zache tells the party. "My grandfather once told me about them as a cautionary tale. I thought they were just a legend to frighten children, like the bogeyman." He shudders at some unvoiced memory. "We should be careful. If there's more of them, they're likely to be angry."
As the group moves on, he stands on his toe-tips, trying to see over Orin's head. "Left's as good a direction as any," he shrugs. "And if we do get caught from behind, we'll just have to deal with that when it happens."
Keade looks thoughtful for a moment then speaks up. "Then why don't Kaelaah and I hold a rearguard as we head down this left tunnel. I'm sure that the pair of us can hold something off for an extended period of time. the longer we debate, the more time they have to prepare for us if they know about us."
Heading left, the adventurers quickly discover that the tunnel forks again. This time both routes are visible... to the right the tunnel once again opens into a man-made structure of some sort, this time into a fifteen foot chamber with a large red marble statue ; the left most path continues another twenty feet before opening into what appears to be the back of a closed jail cell...
Tera keeps the vaguely humanoid light going as they move down the passage, when they arrive at the next fork, she asks, "Should we go right?"
"Right seems fine to me."
"Wait... do you hear that? Coming from the door... there's something in there", unconsciously, Kaelaah's flame burns slightly more intensely, "We need to know what it is..."
Spinning both starknives for a better grip and adjusting his scarf, Zache nods in agreement as the group begins to move.
Tera nods as well while dismissing the humanoid-shaped light, and while she is not quite as quiet as Sal, the young mage does manage to not make any major gaffs. Unfortunately, with most of her attention on staying quiet, she barely notices anything beyond the obvious.
Creeping forward it quickly becomes obvious that only one, or at most two, people could fit into the cell. Looking through the bars does not offer a very complete view of the chamber beyond but it is apparent that the opposite wall is lined with similar small cells and to the right is a wooden staircase that leads up to a raised platform that dominates the center of the room. The panting is still present, to those with ears keen enough to hear it, but its source remains out of sight.
While the cell is cramped, Tera was always on the smaller side. After seeing all that they could see, she gets Sal's attention and nods back to the others.
Once they are reunited, she whispers quietly.
"Anyone learn how to pick locks since we broke into the Glassworks," she asks.
"I'm not much for precision work, but I can try to force it."
Orin offers.
Moving up to see where the hinges are, he either puts his shoulder into it or gives it a good tug.
"Hey, you never know when someone's going to find they have a knack fro something," Tera says with a grin as she scoots out of Orin's way and readies her bow to cover him.
"Besides, it's always possible that Orin here has some hidden talents."
Orin's hidden talent proves to be brute force- with a clanging crash the door bursts open. As it does, two more wrathspawn drop down from their hiding spot in the rafters. They land mere feet from where the watchman has just come through the door....