Marcus briefly considers his net, but settles on another option.
Calling on Gozrah to punish this creature, Marcus sends a flash of light at the beast.
Steam rising from his clothes as he starts to burn, Kaelaah crashes another blast of livid flame towards his foe...
Tera pulls out her bow and sends an arrow streaking for the creature.
Sorry, didn't realize stormburst provoked.
Without hesitation, Kaede moves her hands down her glaive's length, and begins to strike swiftly at the beast with both ends of the weapon, holding off on calling for her Lady's blessing for another moment.
Zache continues singing. Using Kaede as cover, the swarthy Varisian boldly closes the distance to tentacled beast and brings his starknife whirling around at it in a graceful arc.
,
After a flurry of misses, including Kaede's first slash, the Shelynite bashes the creature solidly with the haft of her glaive, shoving it right into Zache's incoming blade. The creature thrashes for a moment as midnight-blue fluid drains from its body and then it falls still.
Tera turns to Kaede and Marcus after Zache slays the monster and pulls out the wand.
"How badly are you two hurt?"
"I think I'm ok," Marcus says, checking himself out, "At least the presence of this creature means the goblins weren't down here often."
Marcus looks over the mouth of the cave for any valuables other victims of the monster may have left.
Then joins the group at which ever tunnel they choose.
"I suppose it should be no surprise that there was something here to feed on whatever washes in from the sea", Kaelaah shrugs and then lets his flames illuminate the tunnels ahead of them... he nods at Sister Amsel as she suggests heading along the closest of the passageways, Sounds like a plan to me"
With a light source in place, and no longer in immediate danger, the heroes can see a bit more of the tunnels... The northern most tunnel runs twenty feet to the west and ends at an actual door; fifteen feet down that tunnel (five feet before the door) another tunnel branches off to the north. The southern most tunnel heads west for about ten feet and then turns sharply to the south.
"It doesn't look too bad and this wand's almost spent. If it starts getting worse, we'll heal it, but we need to save what we can," Tera says after looking at Kaede's and Marcus' wounds. She gives both of them an apologetic shrug before finishing the drying that Zache had started. She turns to the tunnels and sighs before pointing to the northern one.
"We should head that way first, I think. Doors don't grow in caves like apples or pears on trees."
"I'm more of the mind to find a way to block the door and go the other way,"Kaede responds. "that way we'd know if someone was coming up behind us. Still ,exploring what's down the tunnel before the door is a good call too."
Kaelaah, seeing indecision amongst the group, nods towards Sister Flinders, "Indeed... a door? Maybe the entrance into Thistletop do you think? In which case..."
Tera nods and steels herself before stalking forward and listening carefully at the door before checking it to see if anything was amiss.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Zache lets his breath out in a quick sigh, cleaning the dead creature's blood from his blades. "Let's hope there are no more of those," he mutters. "Goblins are bad enough, but that was... horrifying."
Following the tunnel that branches off to the north, the explorers round a bend to the west and discover a roughly fifteen foot by twenty foot cave that must have been the creature's lair when it wasn't hunting. The ground is littered with innumerable bird and fish bones, and the remains of several unlucky goblins. A quick scan for magical auras reveals to Tera that one of the goblins is wearing magical armor. Upon closer inspection it is found to be wearing the enchanted hide of a horse, and carrying a masterwork longbow .
Backtracking to the door, they pause to listen for any signs of guards... Not hearing any, they carefully open the simple but sturdy wooden door a discover behind it a well-crafted hallway. The hallway runs west for twenty feet before opening into a ten foot square antechamber. From there, one hallway runs north for ten feet and ends at another simple door; a second runs south for fifteen feet and ends at wooden door that has seen some wear. Two large stone doors sit in the western wall, their faces carved with images of horrific, deformed monsters clawing their way out of pregnant women of all races.
Kaede can feel Tera shiver as she realizes what the carvings mean.
"This place is dedicated to Lamashtu," she whispers as she clutches at the holy symbol of Abadar around her neck. It takes her a moment to stop the quiver in her knees. By then, Sal is already at the northern door. Deciding it would be better to make sure their path ahead is safe, Tera goes to the southern door to see what lay beyond.
As they search, Marcus is careful to keep toward the middle of the group, both for his safety and to keep lifelink going.
When the group seems too preoccupied with potential threats and their next step, Marcus takes it upon himself to collect the valuables as they proceed.
Kaede frowns as she notes the Lamashtan iconography as well. "We can consecrate the place for a better use after we clear this place. North or south?"She calmly states before looking toward the southern door.
Neither Salomae nor Tera hear anything behind their respective doors.
Knowing that, in the fullness of time, there would likely be a need to explore all of the passageways and chambers down here, Kaelaah suggests the southernmost of the doors...
Tera sees both Kaede and Kaelaah behind her. She gives a nod and gestures to get Sal's attention and wave her over. Once the Erastilian is next to her, she whispers, "I think we're going to check beyond the southern doors first. Do you think we should have both of us up front?"
The door opens into a fifteen foot by twenty foot room that has been emptied of everything except a few ratty fur rugs and some broken bits of tableware. A lantern hangs at the center of the north wall and just beyond that a staircase winds upwards. Five rickety doors hang in frames around the room: one to the west, three to the south, and one to the east.
Marcus moves slowly to each door, listening for signs of activity. Then goes over the rubbish in the room carefully.
"I'm more worried about missing something. I wish we could both be everywhere at once, but I don't think that's possible," Tera replies before joining Marcus in going over the doors.
Marcus' eyes get big as he hears the voices,
"Someone's behind this one." He whispers, pointing to the westernmost wall, "And it sounds as if they've heard us."
Marcus takes a few steps back so that the others can form up.
Tera backs away from the door and nocks an arrow on her bowstring.
Tera gives Sal a curt nod without taking her eyes off the door.
Flames are licking along Kaelaah's wrists already... experience suggests that whatever lies behind the door is unlikely to be friendly - and it is better to be prepared.
Kaede drops her glaive into a fighting stance in front of her as she moves to stand opposite the door. "If that's the case, maybe we should deal with the archer after this?" she whispers, staying focused on the door that's a threat.
"Sounds good. I'm sure we can work our way around to them," Zache murmurs back, readying himself to support - or charge in, as the case may be.
Several tense moments pass as the vigilant adventurers keep weapons and special abilities aimed at the door... eventually the silence becomes awkward as they all realize that nobody is opening the door...
As the others group up and ready themselves, Marcus moves to the door, opening it when everyone is ready.
With a mischievous grin, Marcus tries to project an adultish voice through the door.
"They're on the other Side of this door! Pikemen in the front! Archers in the rear! Mages, make yourselves invisible! Take no prisoners!"
Trying no to giggle too much.
At a nod from any of the others, Marcus will open the door, trying to stay positioned behind it.
...and, as Marcus moves to open the door, Kaelaah focusses upon the shape of his flames - ready to fling them forwards if events demand.
Tera catches on and gives a cheerful, "Aye, Cap'n! Don't get tongue-tied Baalthzy. We don't want to blow the place sky-high!"
Tera makes ready to draw her bow and nods.
At the signal, Marcus throws the door open and yells. CHARGE!!
As Marcus swings open the door an overwhelming stink of flowers and some kind of musk or urine fills the air. Inside the chamber are four very well-fed, scantily dressed female goblins. As that image is searing itself into the young adventurers' minds one of goblinesses shrieks and darts forward at Sal. It sidesteps the thrust of her rapier and tries to take a bit out of her leg with its abnormally long pointy teeth...
,