Sven fires off three arrows, but only one manages to penetrate the creature tough hide!
Whitestripe tries to bite the creature, but its hide proves to be too tough!
The creature's tail whips around and sting Gruhk!
The creature tries to bite Whitestripe, but misses the small animal!
Whitestripe pissed off by its missed attack tried to do better
Sven tried to do better than his last attacks
This time at least two of his arrows find their way into the creature's flesh !
This time, the big cat does better, landing three massive attacks and gouging away much purple flesh!
Sven then fires a trio of arrows, landing two!
The big worm is starting to look very bad....
Good boy, Good boy
Said Sven to Withestripe
Aiuda dances around closer to the worm and stabs!
Aiuda tries to dart past the worms reach, but it snaps its head and bites her, then clamps it jaws on her! She is able to cut it a little with her blade.
Grûkh resists the poison! He retaliates against the worm with all his might.
Grukk slams his flail into the worm, hitting it twice! The worm's gigantic body spasms and it drops Aiuda, then ceases moving!
Aiuda asks for Grukh's assistance in healing her wounds. "Ugh, that thing was nasty. Thanks, everyone. Let's clean up and keep going."
May be the creature eat something like a clue of what's going on here ? said out loud Sven while he casted detect magic while searching for unusual things
Grûkh frowns at the purple worm, aware that they have defeated a formidable foe. He then gets his wand to heal himself.
"No gugs in there, apparently. Though this one could have amushed us in these caverns, so getting rid of it is a good thing."
Searching the area, you find remnants of the miner’s small-scale distillery, including a badly cracked ceramic tub lying on the ground and a pipe that juts out of the wall near the ceiling. The pipe once ran water from the Karggat River above into the tub, but it’s now too clogged with dirt and other debris to function. Stuck under one of the cracked tub’s legs is a crumpled bag of holding.
You also note, about five feet from the rough ground, in the northernmost
portion of the wall beneath the upper ledge, is a 5-foot diameter circular hole leading to an adjacent cavern. Taking the tunnel, you enter a hidden chamber. After a some searching, you spy a corner of the dun tarp Habblegash laid over his secret stores here. Beneath the tarp are 5 days’ worth of rations, three potions of cure moderate wounds, a bag of dust of disappearance, two elixirs of tumbling, and a newly crafted flask of dust of weighty burdens.
Good finding but still no clue about what's really going's on here...
Said Sven looking at their findings.
Aiuda nods in agreement. "These are useful but we still haven't found the source of the problem. I think this two-headed thing the rat told us about will offer some answers, although perhaps not willingly. I doubt we will get anything out of the gugs when we find the rest."
Aiuda stashes the consumables and says, "Let's keep going down this way."
Grûkh pockets one of the curative potions, and nods to Sven as well. "We'll have to keep it alive when we meet him in combat, so that he may face Groetus's judgement... and cooperate to the de-gugization of the mines in the meantime."
The oread leads them further.
Travelling back across the mine, you move toward an eastern tunnel, but find it quickly splits to the northeast and southeast.
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"You have a keen eye for direction, Grukh. Spend much time underground?" the wizard muses as he floats behind the oread.
Taking the southeast tunnel, you move into what looks to have been a kitchen, though the food stores have long rotted to dust. On a counter, a mass of rotting food pulsates and undulates. Looking closer, you realize it is infested with some sort of grubs! Detecting fresher food, the grubs swarm out of the rotting food, moving toward the party!
[dice=Knowledge (dungeoneering)]1d20 + 17
[dice=Knowledge (nature)]1d20 + 17
"I have not, as a matter of fact. Groetus has ordered me to preach in towns and cities, but I guess that's a natural perk of my kin."
"Swarms... we'd better retreat, unless one of you can exterminate the lot of them."
Knowing he has nothing to help his companions with, Grûkh retreats.
Aiuda follows behind Grukh and yells back, "You can take care of this, right Bill?"
I have something if needed ! Erastif provide me with His purifying flames.
Sven hold Whitestripe and waited for Bill's action before trying calling Erastil's flames.
Bill will float in the air away from the rotting swarm of grubs and incant a few words. "Videte quoniam non duratus frigore carne vestra glorientur."
A blast of freezing wind erupts from his outstretched hands to engulf the swarm.
Bill intones a spell, blasting the swarms with cold, while his team members back up. One of the swarms manages to scatter, while the other takes the full brunts of the ice storm! Both swarms still move!
Sven, seeing a swarm still dangerous, called for Erastil's Purifying Flames.
Sven follows up by blasting the swarms with cleansing flames! The swarms are both caught in the flames, leaving charred little grubs everywhere!
Searching this area turns up nothing of interest.
Aiuda comes meandering back after hearing the all-clear. "Well done. Should've known there'd be something like that down here but I guess I just wasn't prepared this time."
"No need, my dear lady. Cone of Cold is somewhat a specialty of mine for just such an occasion." Bill smiles at Aiuda as he says this.
"After you, dear Grukh."
Fire and Ice added Sven with a smiling face
I second Bill, Grûck, after you.
Grûkh comes back to his companions, and pats Bill and Sven on the shoulder. "A timely intervention, well done both of you. Now let's move onwards."
Grûkh leads his companions forwards in the cave leading south.
Continuing in a counter clockwise direction, the party enters what used to be a pantry. This decrepit pantry’s shelves are barren, save for the sheet of dust and soot covering the room. The hutch in the southeastern corner of the alcove appears to have been smashed in, and most of it lies in shambles.
Searching the pantry you find a small secret drawer in smashed hutch, full of ordinary flatware. Upon closer inspection, one of the spoons among the various ornate pieces of silverware (worth 300 gp altogether for their craftsmanship alone) is actually a sustaining spoon.
Finding nothing else of interest, the party moves north, into a large hall. This broad hall appears to have once been a dining chamber, but the long, rotten tabletops taking up the bulk of the area’s floor space have been covered in the bloody hides of various animals. A set of stone stairs to the north leads to a raised platform adorned with but a single round table. In the room stands five gugs, four of which are smaller than normal gugs! Seeing the party, they move to attack!
Aiuda whips the bow from her back and fires!
Deadly Aim, Rapid Shot, Precise Shot, favored enemy +5, bane, point blank:
Withestripe, attack Said Sven, designing the last same creature than Aiuda targeted with her arrows.
Then he waited for Withestripe action.
Whitestripe at its master's order moved to the one designed and try to bite it.
Then Sven began shooting arrows
"Hmm... Let us see how this works, shall we, Mister Grukh?" Bill states before intoning a deep chant, hands extended.
"Exportent, et dabit illi socio hostis gladium adductius celeritate." A crackling white flame erupts from Bill's hands, engulfing the Inquisitor.
Grukh turns to ashes on the ground before the flames leap up near the gug on the far left. Out of the flame leaps Grukh, weapon in hand.
As he's pushes forward by Bill, the oread cannot suppress a slight expression of surprise and uneasiness. However, he uses that opportunity to strike the gug. He doesn't aim for vitals but for the legs instead, attempting to trip the aberration.
"Groetus has deemed you unworthy of his apocalypse. Die before the Final Days!"
As he's towering over the prone gug, he strikes twice more.
Aiuda fires many arrows, peppering the nearest gug, dropping it with the fourth arrow!
Whitestripe moves up to the next gug, bites, then throws it to the ground!
Sven fires at the next standing gug , plugging it full of arrows!
Bill pushes Grukh forward on a magic, invisible carpet! The oread trips the western gug, then pounds the poor aberration with his flail!
The fully grown gug in the back mutters some words and the ceiling and floor under and above everyone turns to muds and fall onto the party members!
The blue gug near Whitestripe stands up , moves out the mud and tries to bite the big cat, but misses!
The yellow gug stands, taking a blow from the mired Gruhk, for the effort, steps away, then tries to bite the man, but misses.
The green gug moves up to flank the oread and tries to bite him, but misses!
G-60
Y-57 prone
Aiuda takes a hit from the falling debris but stands her ground and fires back at the caster gug!
Deadly Aim, Rapid Shot, Precise Shot, Bane, Favored Enemy
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Bill winces as some of the mud drops into his teacup! "Well then!" he huffs.
He incants a few words as his other hand swirls the tea. "Et infernus te conterat."
He flings the contents of the porcelain dish at the caster gug as the tea turns into three scalding hot liquid jets that splash over the beast, burning him severely.
[dice=Reflex]1d20+11
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Aiuda fires four arrows, hitting the caster gug with three on them!