Creed retreats a step and hurls another bomb at the clustered party.
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Melina screams as she burns.
"You bastard!"
The quickly launches a tanglefoot bag at the bomber.
An entangled creature takes a –2 penalty on attack rolls and a –4 penalty to Dexterity and must make a DC 15 Reflex save or be glued to the floor, unable to move. Even on a successful save, it can move only at half speed.
A creature that is glued to the floor (or unable to fly) can break free by making a DC 17 Strength check or by dealing 15 points of damage to the goo with a slashing weapon. A creature trying to scrape goo off itself, or another creature assisting, does not need to make an attack roll; hitting the goo is automatic, after which the creature that hit makes a damage roll to see how much of the goo was scraped off. Once free, the creature can move (including flying) at half speed. If the entangled creature attempts to cast a spell, it must make a concentration check with a DC of 15 + the spell’s level or be unable to cast the spell.
Balooo and Fahd both land solid blows which stagger the bomber but not enough to keep him from getting his feet up in time to prevent being stuck to the floor by Melina's alchemical paste.
Unable to resist Zinkyudo's forceful command, Vancid goes stock still except to wince when Ushaka clubs him in the side of the head.
Unable to defend himself, the party makes short work of Vancid Creed.
On the late artillerist's body, the party finds a mostly fresh healing wand, an alchemical cookbook, and a tanglefoot bag.
The door atop the long, steep staircase opens into an octagonal room thirty feet across with a smooth domed ceiling twenty feet high. Each wall is set with a tall tarnished silver panel, as well as a dark mural of colored glass depicting an eye — each eye has a differently colored iris. In the center of the room is a raised pedestal ten feet in diameter and three feet high. A thick layer of dust blankets the room.
When the party enters, one of the panels of glass lifts away and stands up becoming some kind of construct. It immediately attacks.
Zinkyudo's arrows send cracks through the construct's glassy form but don't seem fully effective.
The bag of alchemical paste splatters across its form, gumming up its limbs and sticking the construct to the ground.
Finding itself unable to move, the construct lashes out at those in range with its glass-shard limbs.
Melina recognizes this creature as a glass golem. They're resistant to non-adamantine weapons and immune to most magic. In addition they can reflect spells periodically.
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Hearing Melina's muttering to herself about what the creature's weakness is, Zink reaches for arrows whose tips have been treated with an alchemical solution, coating them in adamantine! Not wanting to waste them, he calms his spirit, draws back his bowstring with quiet deliberateness, and lands two powerful shots.
Fahd and Ushaka's blows send more cracks through the glass golem. They're followed by Zinkyudo's blanched arrows which blast clean through the construct shattering it into a thousand pieces.
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With the glass monster shattered, Zinkyudo lays a hand on the golden key that hangs on a cord around his neck and utters a few words of praise and thanks.
Turning to Melina, he asks, "Any idea what the story is with this place? Aside from the obvious, that there are lots of eyes. Do the colors mean anything?"
Based on what she read within the entry hall, Melina believes this chamber used to function as a lighthouse for the ancient cyclops' naval forces.
This elongated octagonal room features deep, widely spaced stone shelves along its walls.
Moving back up the stairs, the party explores the far side of the original chamber.
This octagonal room is fifty feet wide. A twenty-five-foot-wide archway takes up most of the northern entrance, and three staircases descend from it to the south. A raised stone lip in the center of the room defines a pool of clear water. At the bottom of the pool, a mosaic eye resembles the large single orb of a cyclops. The eye appears to gaze directly at every creature in the room, following them as they move around.
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Balooo is confident that the pool is full of water.
Balooo detects a powerful divination aura on the water.
Stairs from the northeast descend into this octagonal room. Against the walls sit a carved stone weapon stand, a broken stone table, all scaled for creatures twice human height. The southwestern wall is covered in an unusual black substance that looks like coral, and massive formations of the material choke the exit to the southwest. A narrow path seems to have recently been cut through the mass into a room beyond.
This large chamber has a sixty-foot-high ceiling supported by several thick stone columns. The worked stone of the southwest wall remains uncovered by coral, and is decorated with engravings of crude giant figures and roughly formed runes. The columns have markings chiseled into them as well, in what could be many different styles of handwriting.
Smashed stone tables and oversized benches are piled in the southeastern section of the room. Beyond the rubble, a tunnel slopes down to the east, and another descends from the southwest corner.
Moving southwest, the party emerges into an enormous underground cove. In the distance, a warship coated with thick plates of black coral is docked.
Two bridges of rope and wooden planks split off in different directions. From the north , a woman's voice can be heard calling for help.
The stink of rotting flesh and saltwater hangs heavily in the air. At the back of a small cavern sits a tall door of iron bars.
Behind the bars the source of the voice comes into view, a bear-sized beast with a body like a squat simian, a dog's face, and a long tail that ends in a clawed hand.
"Kind strangers!" it says in an inhuman voice. "Free me from by bonds!"
Balooo recognizes this creature as an ahuizotl, malicious aquatic beast known for luring lost travelers in swamps or bogs to watery deaths. They can grab victims with their tail-claw and rake with them with its hind legs.
Zinkyudo doesn't get the sense that the alien beast is being duplicitous.
The ahuizotl flinches at Balooo's racist remark.
"I haven't hurt anyone in years. Please, free me! I'll tell you everything I know about this cursed place and its master."
"Look for something to eat most likely."
The beast's words send a shiver down Zinkyudo's spine.
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"The columns say little of immediate use - mostly just cyclops travelers bragging about travels."
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Melina encounters more then a few scrapes attempting to get through the coral, but finally gets through. She takes the time to mend the worst of her wounds.
When they encounter the ahuizotl, she cocks one eye. "Look, Mr. Eater of Travelers, my friend Balooo has a point. In other news... is anyone going to say anything about the giant warship?" She pauses. "Also, Mr. Eater, how exactly did you get here? You can't have been here since the original inhabitants, certainly. Who put you there?"
"I'll tell you everything once you free me from this cage. Everything...."
"Yes! I tell you and you set me free. Another woman came through this cavern recently. A woman with dark hair and a tall hat. She came for treasure but I'm certain the she serves Him now. He'll use her as a trap to lure you in."