When Arya suggests leaving the others to look around, Mimi quickly changes her tune.
"Or maybe some rest first is a good idea. It seems to be pretty safe right here... I know! I've some food with me, why don't we all take a break and have a good meal!"
Mimi takes off her backpack and rummages inside for some of the food. She then starts doling out a day's worth of the rations between the five of them.
"Let's rest a bit, eat something, and chat a little..." Her eyes shift between Elaina and Valghaz. "Or maybe not. Quiet, no chatting so we don't draw anything nasty to us with the sound. Yes, quiet eating and resting..."
The echoing sounds of dreadful moaning and gnashing of teeth continue. It would be hard, but not impossible, to sleep if they noise does not abate.
1189
Valghaz wearily sits down next to Arenel, grimacing as he does so. "Rest would be welcome indeed. We'll need to shut the doors and set watch schedules. There be five o' us. We can work in pairs o' two. That way we can keep each other up an' have two pairs o' eyes to watch for danger. Make it shifts o' an hour an' a half. Six shifts in total. Will give plenty o' rest an' we can meditate for our spells. Iffin' this sounds good we can work out the watch schedule." He made effort to avoid looking at Elaina as he said this, not wanting to start another argument. He also greatfully accepted Mimi's food and added his own rations to the pile. As he talked he passed some food out to the rest of the group.
Arya rolls her eyes as Mimi backs out of her decision to keep exploring. She gratefully accepts the food when it's offered though. She was starting to regret giving her apple away but the rations would almost make up for it.
"Thank you Mimi, okay, I guess we can wait for the morning to explore the rest of these rooms."
Arya sits down to eat with the others.
"Your watch schedule sounds perfectly fine Valghaz. Elaina and I will take the first shift." She says as she smiles at the bard with a shrug. Please just agree and sit down.
"But what about that !" Elaina demands. "It could be someone that needs help. And it's wet here. And cold. And there's corpses everywhere. This is more than just a cave in a wall, someone built this. There must be somewhere for the vampire smugglers to stay. A hidden pirate city. With beds. And less moaning." She looks to Arya for support. Seeing that the sailor has already resolved to wait, she sits against the wall and pouts.
"Lass, yer gettin' first watch. That's like nay losin' sleep at all. Thank yer stars an' dunnae complain." With that Valghaz started to remove his armor. "Now eat yer fill an' keep watch. We will be needin' all o' our strength for the...vampire smugglers."
As you try to find a comfortable spot to rest, the moans and gnashing of teeth continue to set you on edge. It seems like every time you're about to fall asleep, a particularly loud moan suddenly jolts you awake. Still, eventually, you manage to doze off in a fitful sleep.
And now we pay the price for not checking the northern doors.
Arya quickly gets to her feet and snaps into action.
"Elaina, quickly, wake the others." Arya whispers to her watch partner.
"I'm going to wait behind the door for whatever that is. Once everyone is ready, I'll open the door and we can surround whoever comes through." As long as the door holds that long.
Arya draws her rapier and walks as quietly as she can up to the eastern door on the north wall, taking up a position to the side, ready to open the door and attack whatever comes through once it's entered the room.
Elaina had been dozing with her head on Arya's shoulder and topples over when the sailor rouses herself. "What?" She mumbles in a groggy fog, looking around and pushing herself into a sitting position, hearing the noises and processing the sailors words. Crawling towards the sleeping alchemist, she mutters about how she wasn't the one who wanted to stop. When she reaches the alchemist she puts a hand on her hip and gently nudges her awake. "Mimi." The bard whispers loudly. "Mimi you have to wake up. Monsters are trying to eat me." Once Mimi is awake, she summons her wisps and sends them to hover over the other two, loudly whispering her warning to them as well.
Groggily Valghaz rouses himself and begins to pull his armor on, expecting his comrades and the door to hold the line while he armors himself.
Zombie #1: hp 12/12; AC/T/FF 12/10/12; Fort/Ref/Will +0/+0/+3; vs Feint n/a
Zombie #2: hp 11/11; AC/T/FF 12/10/12; Fort/Ref/Will +0/+0/+3; vs Feint n/a
A mere second after Arya sneaks up to the door, it bursts apart in a shower of soggy wooden splinters revealing a ten-foot by fifteen-foot room containing two more zombies. They look ravenous.
Valghaz drops his armor and moves up 20ft, readying an attack on any zombie that comes in reach. He yells "Line up lassies! They're mindless beasties, let 'me walk into our weapons."
"Hold back and let them come to us. I'll use a couple of bombs first to soften them up."
Mimi moves to within throwing range and tosses a bomb.
Arenel quickly jumps up, grabbing her whip that she had laid on the ground. "Think I have enough time to get my armor back on?" She asked as she readied herself for a fight.
With the door splintering too soon and her original plan not going to work, Arya runs across to the far side of the room, hoping to clear the way for Mimi's bombs and preparing to move in to flank the zombies once they head into the larger chamber.
Elaina screams when the zombies burst through the door. It's a half-hearted scream, she was growing weary of the monsters. She takes up a position next to Arya, sword in hand, ready to defend the woman.
The zombies walk into several attacks at once, and are cut down in brutal efficiency.
The rest of the night goes uneventfully. When you wake up, you feel refreshed and more ready for whatever awaits you.
Arya can't help but laugh at how easily the zombies were dealt with once everyone took up their positions.
"Thanks for covering me." She says to Elaina, the bard had been so quick with her sword that she hadn't even had time to ready her own blade.
As the others return to sleep, she quickly peers into the room to see if any more foes await, and is satisfied to see it lacking in any more undead, or any more pillars for that matter.
Once everyone is awake and ready, Arya walks to the one door that remains unopened.
"Shall we take a look in here before we go for a stroll into the sea cave?"
Valghaz uses all of his magic to heal his wounds. He then dutifully makes his rounds, touching Arenel's, Mimi's and Arya's weapons. Each time he does so their weapons glow with light equivalent to a torch. "Me apologies for not being able to do so last night. I prayed for it while resting last night. Elaina, I believe ye can handle yer own. Also I've used up me healin'. By any chance can yer magic patch up any wounds we suffer today?"
Elaina shuffles her feet uncomfortably, chewing her lower lip and avoiding eye contact with anyone. How does he know I have healing magic? If I use my magic on them I won't have any for myself. "I...uh...I mean..." She stammers out awkwardly, trying to think of an excuse. Unable to come up with a sufficient one, she shrugs and mutters "Yeah." To the ground.
Once they start moving again, her spirits pick up. "Yes!" she responds emphatically to Arya. "This room will complete the set, and lead to something amazing."
"Oh my, she's agreed to be helpful! With no complaining or whining. She might actually be learning." Arenel said as she offered Valghaz a hopeful smirk.
"Sure, might be a good idea to ensure we've nothing behind us before moving foreword." Arenel agreed as she moved up to Arya to cover her should they be attacked through this room.
"Aye. Though lets not sell the mine before we dig it." He didn't say it, but while he knew that he had already received as many miracles as he could usually channel, he felt...different. As if though he still had something left within him. He felt no need to share it, as it looked like Elaina was starting to accept the concept of team work. And as much as he hated to admit it, her blade was useful. And so long as Arya acted as her minder...well, it meant a lower chance of being eaten alive by zombies. Which in his book was a good thing.
By the time anyone else is awake, Mimi has been up for at least three hours.
An idea came to her that just wouldn't let go, and she went to work on it. She cuts several pieces from a piece of stout leather, and sews them into small bags. When they are finished, she starts a small fire and melts a candle in a cup.
Using a stick, she seals the seams of the bags carefully with wax. Mimi then takes a couple of her flasks and pours the contents into the bags. She takes a crossbow bolt for each bag, and inserts it tip first, drawing the bag tight around the shaft and tying it securely.
She holds each bolt shaft tip down and dips the entire bag into the wax. As it begins to cool, she uses her fingers to shape the bag, reducing side bulges and making it as thin and pointed as possible, even though it burns her fingers a little.
By the time the others begin to awaken, Mimi is nearly finished with her project.
Elaina sidles up behind Mimi and watches her with narrowed eyes, her wisps flitting aimlessly about the room. It looks to her like the alchemist was messing around with some of the substance she had used to melt that one thrall. After a time she whispers loudly "Mimi. Mimi! What are you doing? That stuff is dangerous." The things Mimi did seemed effective, but she didn't understand any of it.
Mimi remains absorbed in her work, and doesn't look up when Elaina asks what she's doing.
"Well, there's a problem and I'm trying out a solution." she says as she carefully looks over the four bolts she's modified.
"I have a crossbow, but as we've seen piercing the zombies down here hardly bothers them. I also have bombs, but they have to be used carefully so none of us are hurt. I do have a machete too, but I barely know what to do with it aside from cutting poles and foliage, so that's no good."
Mimi checks all the bag seams again, as well as the seals where the bags are attached to the bolt shafts, adding extra wax anywhere it seems there might be leakage.
"But what if I could deliver the bombs with the crossbow? It would be useful again. Two of these bags contain a strong alkaline, and the other two contain acid. When I shoot the bolts and they impact the target, the bolt's head will pierce the bag. The bolt itself might not do much harm, but it will release the liquid, which works well against the zombies. I will have better range, and it won't splash, so no danger to anyone but the target. Separately the two weapons are difficult, combined they may be very effective."
Mimi gives each of the bolts a last careful, critical look. Elaina notices none of the hesitation or mousiness typical in Mimi's voice.
"I'll need to use the acid first, it will degrade the bolt heads, eat away at them. But I'd like to know how quickly that happens, an experiment. I can extrapolate a rate of erosion and figure out how far ahead of time I can make them before they would fail. I just need to collect the bolt tips and look at them after they've been used. The alkaline solution won't degrade the bolt heads, but it's more expensive."
"These are very crude, but I have almost nothing to work with down here. If we make it out, I have a much better design, actually two possible designs, to try. But I'll need equipment, and a particular size and shape of glass ampule in order to test them."
Mimi gathers the bolts and stores them away. "Hopefully I can find them somewhere around Siren's Bay. If not I might have to learn glassblowing." she mutters absently.
The western door on the north wall leads to a room with no remarkable features and no zombies. Continuing on into the flooded passages, you see that Arya was correct - now that it is low tide, the water has receded a great deal. The sea urchins remain in place.
Peering through the door to the north and finding it empty, Arya turns back to the others.
"No pillars Elaina, looks like you lose the bet." She says with a wide grin.
"Come on then, let's get out of this awful place."
As she walks through to the flooded area, Arya is happy to see that the low tide has indeed cleared most of the water from the cave.
"Careful walking through here, the water might have receded but if you're not careful you could still slip over and fall into a nest of those spiny critters."
Elaina nods absently at Mimi's explanation. Humiliate yourself apologizing to her and she barely acknowledges you. Ask her why she's playing with dangerous chemicals and she won't shut up. She didn't know anything about alkaline erosion rates, but it was nice to see there was something Mimi was passionate about since Mimi was her friend now. Elaina pats her on the shoulder and says "That's very clever Mimi. I'm glad you found a way to not melt me with acid." She thought it would be much easier if Mimi just used a sword, but she wasn't going to say anything as long as her strange weapons remained effective.
==
Elaina gasps when the contents of the last room are revealed. "It's not fair!" She shouts, her tiny bare foot making a soft "pat" against the stone floor when she stomps it. "I was tricked by the architect! Why would you have sequential pillar numbers and then skip five? Grrr!" She gives Arya a pathetic, defeated frown, tilting her head down and angling her eyes up at the sailor to look as small and cute as possible. "It was a reasonable guess..." She mumbles, her face and neck burning furiously with embarrassment at being wrong.
==
"I'll go first." Elaina says confidently. "I happen to have superb balance."
Mimì follows even though she doesn't like the look of the sea urchins at all.
"Someone still has rope right? Why not tie one person off so that way if they fall we can just pull them back so they land on the path and not the, what are those again Arya?" Arenel said as she looked over the area, and got a little nervous when Valghaz began to walk across the path.
Glancing back, and while doing his best to sound confident, Valghaz said "Aye, a good idea. But nay ye worry. The dawi be known for our stability. We be far too heavy for a wee bit o' water to be of a concern." Even as he said it he inwardly cursed himself. Should have just let Elaina do it...
"I can't remember what they're called but I don't think they look very friendly. Those spines probably hurt a lot."
Arya pulls a silken rope from her pack and hands one end to Arenel, then makes her way onto the slippery rocks.
She moves with grace and speed and tries to catch up to the others, even if Valghaz didn't want the rope, it looked like Mimi might need some help.
Arenel gave a thankful nod to Arya as she took the rope. She wrapped one part around her left wrist and widened her stance to ensure that if anyone needed it, she'd be there.
Elaina flutters ahead, humming happily and stopping to examine a particularly vibrant clump of the spiky urchins before looking back to see the progress of the others.
Mimi hesitantly moves forward, and within a few steps slips and falls onto several of the urchins.
Elaina turns just in time to see Mimi go down. "Oh!" She returns to where the alchemist fell and stands worried over her. "Mimi, you fell on those beautiful spiky creatures!" Do you pull people out of piles of sharp objects or will that hurt them more? The bard looks anxiously to the others for instruction then back to Mimi, bouncing on the balls of her feet and crooning with concern.
Unsure of his ability, and seeing Mimi go down, Valghaz stops in his tracks. He almost called out to ask if she was alright but decided that now wasn't the time for stupid questions. He instead decided to just wait for the rope to go across and to proceed from there.
"Mimi if you can, grab the rope." Arenel called out. "Valghaz, Elaina, move the rope down enough so that she can reach it and use it to climb out."
Mimi raises herself up on her arms. The pain from the stings is unlike anything she's felt before, electric, shooting straight to her brain in waves.
She looks up at Elaina and tries to smile, to tell her she's alright, but instead she vomits. This confuses Mimi and she shifts to a sitting position. People are calling about a rope, so she starts looking around and groping for it, not sure what it's for.
When she finds it she holds on to it and stands up. Her head is swimming and her guts are churning because the pain doesn't diminish, but she follows the rope.
Oh dear. Elaina thinks, guiding Mimi from the pool of urchins. Once safely away, she coaxes Mimi to her hands and knees so she might not vomit on herself. She removes her own gloves and scarf and slides one bare hand under Mimi's armor and tunic to firmly rub the length of the alchemists spine. With her other hand she dips a section of her scarf that didn't yet hold any of her own dried blood in a puddle of sea water, gently rubbing the sides and back of Mimi's neck with the cool, wet cloth. "There there, Mimi. It'll be OK. Let it all out." She says in a quiet, comforting voice. As steady as she sounded, her stomach was knotted with fear that the creatures sting might be deadly. It was best not to panic just yet.
Mimi is able to follow the rope back to the rest of the group. Arya and Elaina are able to effortlessly avoid slipping.
"Lass, he alright? Follow the rope an' take yer time. Bah! Walkin' dead we take down nay problem, but a slippery floor be our bane." As he said that he nervously glanced at the floor and waited for his turn to cross with the rope.
"I don't know, those crabs gave us a bit of a hard time too." Arenel said with a small smirk. "I mean, it almost ended poorly, for me at least." She joked, trying to lighten the mood.