Addiz considers risk versus reward. Her revenge would be so much sweeter when she would wield all that vampiric power, like turning into a bat and drinking blood to... eh. For what did vampires do that actually? For sustenance? hmm... she shudders. Drinking blood? 'Yew!' she says, apparently out of the blue, grimacing as she says it.
Tranen shivers as the power of the arifact is revealed to him. "Should we try to destroy it with the Dragons Fire? he asks. Or would such an attempt release the magical trap?
Tomak is not interested in collecting any foul object. While destroying it may have its benefits, he believes they shall not waste their meager magic resources now if it’s not part of their overall goal. ”Does it have anything to do with the Black Vault? Do we have to pass it? If not, I’d say let it be. We need to focus and conserve what strength and health we have until we can rest again. We can perhaps come back if it’s important, but let’s continue otherwise.”
Sunday, 9th day of Goodmonth, 593 C.Y.
Eleventh day spent entirely underground.
Current time is unknown, feels like the early in the day
-------------------------------------------------
The group decides to leave the blood grail where it lies, perhaps returning for it later in order to destroy the evil artifact. Opening the only other doors in the chamber reveals a fresh horror in this unholy vault. The room that lies beyond is vast, though indeed this chamber cannot really be called a room at all, judging by the appearance of the walls themselves. It seems more of a cankerous wound out of a nightmare – for every inch of the walls is comprised of a sticky, oozing substance not unlike pulsating flesh. Open blisters and sores permeate the living chamber, orifices that reveal foul, noxious vapors every few moments, accompanied by explosions of gore and terrifying, bodiless screams that echo shrilly in the ears of the adventurers. Here and there inside the fleshy walls the party can catch sight of vaguely humanoid forms buried just beneath the surface, writhing as though in pain and unimagined torment.
Whether the floor and ceiling of the chamber are of similar design cannot be discerned, for the entire room drops away just beyond the threshold of the door, disappearing into darkness below that not even Addiz’ sharp elven vision can penetrate. Above, long strands of thick, iron-like webbing coat the upper walls from the level of the door to the unseen ceiling. Closer at hand a group of five pillars carved of dark stone rising ahead of the party, though oddly they appear to be floating on the air about twenty feet away, as though held up by an invisible floor. The rounded faces of the columns exhibit deep scratches and cuts, and rise up through the thick layer of webs, their tops disappearing from view. A cold black flame burns through the central pillar, casting a strange light that seems to conceal as much as it illuminates, and sending flickering shadows that race across the hideous room, allowing awful glimpses of the unholy walls that last just long enough to evoke a dreadful terror before disappearing from sight again.
On the far side of the chamber is another set of doors, similar to the ones you just opened. Lying before them are an enormous pair of hellhounds, both of them brutally torn apart, as well as another armored ettin similar to the ones you just faced a short time ago. The corpse of a demonic spider also hangs from the webs, its body slashed with deep wounds, as though from axes and swords.
Addiz peers into the depths... hmm.... Then she notices the columns, that appear to be hanging from the ceiling, ending just above where a floor would be. She looks back to the room they are still in, looking for a pebble to throw into the depths, hoping they bounce off from some invisible floor...
[lacking that, she will take a copper piece]
"Pelor protects us!” The cleric touches his holy symbol.
It’s like his senses play tricks on him in order not to shut down entirely. The revolting scene of the next room is even worse than the ones before, and Tomak feels his mind is trying to protect him from getting inflicted with the madness. Why would anyone build anything like this if not mad? He tries to focus on what is facing them and shutting out the pulsating walls. Addiz seems to question what she sees too, as he can see her trying to verify if there’s a floor or not in front of them. While he waits for her to do her examination, he looks forward into the room. He can see some corpses lying ahead. The cleric does not know very much about hell hounds and what they do to stay alive. Do they eat like regular dogs? How can they find enough to sustain themselves down here? Were they guardians of this room or killed intruders? Surely the ettins they fought before seemed to be guarding and there is a corpse of another torn ettin on the other side of the room. Who killed whom? And the seemingly dead spider? The marks on the pillars appears to be from a fight (or from something desperately trying to climb the pillars?). Have the beasts killed themselves or is there still a worse enemy lurking? His eyes search the ceiling.
Finding no handy pebbles and leery of touching the unwholesome, flesh-like walls the elven rogue slips a copper out of her pack and flings it forward, nodding in satisfaction as it clatters on an invisible floor - and one that sounds more like glass than stone, for that matter.
Tomak cautiously looks around in revulsion, but sees nothing - though the webs do a truly fine job of blocking line of sight more than about ten feet over their heads. The cleric's internal questions are good ones, and there is no immediate answer - though he wouldn't be surprised if the hellhounds were 'pets' of the fiendish ettins.
Tranen uses the Dragon's Sight again, trying to reveal some more information about the room.
Sunday, 9th day of Goodmonth, 593 C.Y.
Eleventh day spent entirely underground.
Current time is unknown, feels like the early in the day
-------------------------------------------------
Tranen searches for magical auras and quickly finds that the entire 'floor' radiates magic, the sorcerer determining fairly quickly that it is a Wall of Force that has been made permanent. Though the thought of a spell that could potentially be dismissed, sending the group plummeting into the unseen depths is concerning...
Beyond that, Tomak closely considers the seeming scratches on the pillars and notes that there appear to be patterns that might indicate they are symbols and runes, perhaps of some forgotten language? Neither Tranen nor the priest recognize the script, if that is what it truly is. They will also have to cross the transparent floor of the room in order to get close enough to try and read them in any case.
Addiz shrugs. "script you say? I'm not good at languages. Luckily I have a spell for that in my spellbook... But I'd need to study it a bit more before I can use it.
Let's get closer first, though."
Addiz locks and loads het handcrossbow, holding it level, supported with her other hand, then carefully enters the room.
OOC: Tomak knows that Addiz doesn’t like to be disturbed when she concentrates, but if Tranen has relayed the info about the floor having issues, he will suggest to her that perhaps she should tie a rope around her again so that they might pull her back if need be. The cleric is prepared to hold the other end of the rope or otherwise loads his crossbow and keeps watch towards the other end of the room and the ceiling.
Sunday, 9th day of Goodmonth, 593 C.Y.
Eleventh day spent entirely underground.
Current time is unknown, feels like the early in the day
-------------------------------------------------
Addiz starts to move into the room despite the sight of the hideous walls that ooze and pulse like living flesh with open blisters and sores. An occasional bodiless scream rends the silence, and at times one of the pustules will explode violently, either sending a sticky, oozing substance flying in all directions or releasing a noxious-looking cloud of gas – though fortunately one would have to be right up against one of the walls to be affected by either. But even as the rogue steps onto the glass-like floor in order to examine the scratches and carvings on the pillars, Tomak stops her and suggests a more cautious approach. The cleric ties one end of a stout length of rope around her waist and then holds on to the other end along with Elissif and Ferah, releasing more and more slack as Addiz makes her way across the transparent floor, a gulf of absolute darkness yawning beneath her booted feet - but to the relief of all she doesn’t fall through as she approaches the nearest pillars. The elf is fairly certain that the runes and scratches are script of some kind, and they even seem vaguely familiar to her, even if they are indecipherable. But the wizardess knows well that she has a spell in her tome that could translate, if the others don’t mind taking a long rest so that she can memorize the incantation. She opens her mouth to speak of this, when suddenly there is movement from above and a pair of spider-like demons erupt from the webbing that conceals the ceiling!
Tranen reacts to the danger first...
Tranen sees the spiders moving, and quickly stretches out is hand to evoke the Power of the Dragon and let one of the spiders taste the White Dragon's claw.
Addiz, distracted by the scriptures, is late in responding to what most of her friends see.
She rolls back, getting out of harms' way and then releases a bolt, hoping to get to the spider-like creature hidden in the webs.
OOC: Dodge on closest spider, tumble towards the door she came from.
Attack spider with handcrossbow.
She growls, and moves forward, attacking up at the spider.
OOC: Move forward 10 feet, diagonal up, the using the reach of the glaive to attack.
The floor seems to hold Addiz and Tomak is just about to relax a little when the spiders appear. He lets go of the rope, loads his crossbow and fires it at the most visible foe.
OOC: Tomak has ranged attack +6/+1. I guess he cannot attack twice with a light crossbow because it’s a move action to load it?
Light crossbow: concealment?
Damage:
Sunday, 9th day of Goodmonth, 593 C.Y.
Eleventh day spent entirely underground.
Current time is unknown, feels like the early in the day
-------------------------------------------------
Reacting to the danger first, Tranen sends a flurry of magic missiles at one of the creatures (4+6+3+6 = 19 damage total), though the effect seems minimal to the eyes of the sorcerer. Elissif scrambles ahead, but finds the monster to be out of range, and she readies herself to attack should it approach [Ready attack]. Ferah, armed with the glaive, moves into the room as well and stabs at the monster, though her weapon glances off its thick carapace without harming it.
The demon spiders lunge forward hungrily, and Elissif strikes as one of them comes into range, her axe biting into one of its legs, though the magical blade seems blunted somehow (3 damage), as some protective aspect of the demon overcomes the cold iron edge of the battleaxe. Those fighting the demon spiders note that they both appear to have substantial wounds, attesting to the fact that they have likely been recently injured, very likely in whatever battle resulted in the bodies seen strewn throughout this chamber. The demons focus on Elissif and Addiz, the stalwart Olmani perhaps deflecting the attention of the first demon upon herself by inflicting some damage upon it. Elissif is wounded (24 damage) by the attack, though her armor protects her from one of the massive claws of the creature, while Addiz is savaged by her attacker (34 damage), and her magical leather is nearly torn to shreds!
vs Elissif’s AC = Hit!
vs Elissif’s AC = Miss!
vs Elissif’s AC = Hit!
vs Addiz’ AC = Hit!
vs Addiz’ AC = Hit!
vs Addiz’ AC = Hit!
vs armor (-9 for hardness, Addiz’ armor has 12 hit points remaining)
Tomak watches Addiz being hurt terribly and thinks about pulling her back using the rope. Elissif and Ferah running in blocks the escape route some though and the cleric instead rushes in himself, calling for his patron’s divine healing upon her.
Move 4 squares east, just south of Elissif. Since the spiders are 10’ up also, I hope that I’m out of reach for AoO there(?), but just to be safe:
Sacrifice Divination for CCW 4d8+10
Concentration: casting on the defensive action vs DC15+4=19
Healing on Addiz:
Addiz feels the claws rend through herself and her trusty armor and thinks only one thing: let's get out of here!
OOC: Double move (with 3.5e it's 'when all you do is move, you don't provoke for the square you leave', right?). Tumble stright towards the doors, around Elissif. Dodge on blue spiderdemon. With her tumbling skill and mobility-AC she might get away out of harms' way. (so down-left, left, left, half-speed tumbling for first move)
Move through the doors after that.
Let's try to Catch a Spider in the Dragon's Web, Tranen telepathicaly transmits to his Familiar as he prepares to channel more Power.
Sunday, 9th day of Goodmonth, 593 C.Y.
Eleventh day spent entirely underground.
Current time is unknown, feels like the early in the day
-------------------------------------------------
Tomak moves swiftly to heal the wounded Addiz, nearly all of the rouge’s dire injury disappearing in the span of a single heartbeat. Tranen uses his own magic to try and trap the spider-like demon in a web – a fitting form of justice, the sorcerer notes mentally. And though the thick webs hold firmly in place, still the demon is able to avoid the worst of the spell’s effects. Ferah hacks at the wounded demon with her glaive and though her first strike hits at a bad angle, the second stroke penetrates the thick hide of the monster – but seems to inflict little damage (3 damage)! The attack gives Addiz a chance to tumble acrobatically away from the demon monster, Elissif attacks again as well, her heavy axe biting deep into the demon’s body (17 damage) on her follow-up attack after the first misses badly. Again though, the weapon doesn’t do the kind of damage she’d have expected, given the strength and angle of her near-perfect blow.
The demons attack again, and though one is webbed it is able to reach the cleric with its claws and fangs (26 damage) even as the other manages to bit through Elissif’s armor (19 damage).
vs DC 17 AC = Success!
vs Red Demon Spider=Miss!
vs Red Demon Spider =Hit!
vs Red Demon Spider=Miss!
vs Red Demon Spider =Hit! Possible Crit!
vs Red Demon Spider =Critical Hit!
vs Elissif’s AC = Hit!
vs Elissif’s AC = Miss!
vs Elissif’s AC = Miss!
vs Tomak’s AC = Hit!
vs Tomak’s AC = Miss!
vs Tomak’s AC = Hit!
Tomak is running low on spells and they do not seem to make much impact on the demon-like spiders. He believes they’ve been trapped and need to regroup.
“Fall back to the doorway!” he shouts, hoping it will be hard for both of the spiders to fit into it and then withdraws back out the doorway
OOC: Withdraw 4 squares west
Tranen hears Tomak order retreat, and falls back as well.
Addiz removes the clip from her handcrossbow, and re-loads it with adamantine bolts. Then she remembers something and quickly checks her friends if one of them is using adamantine weapon or not. If no-one is using adamantine yet, she tries a shot if she gets a clear sight through the doors.