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"Torvic! Fight the giants! Don't let those oppressors keep our people down!"
Shardra attempts to take some of the heat off of Azkadellia by pointing at the (Blue) giant.
Shardra points at Blue! "Ye nasty big-un, all fault no fun!"
Misfortune on Blue.
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Remembering Az's advice before, Lazlo remarks helpfully, Er...perhaps you, too, should stop getting bitten. The suggestion is made without a shred of sarcasm, as though the gnome is actually trying to help.
Lazlo spends a point from his arcane reservoir to activate his dimensional slide ability, moving through a dimensional crack to a spot inside the room just out of the reach of the giants and casts haste. This gets everyone in the party, including Torvic the Stupid.
He then uses a swift action to pop wand of acid arrow out of spring-loaded wrist sheath.
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"Good idea", she responds very sarcastically to Lazlo.
Azkadellia concentrates to cast Invisibility defensively.
She turns invisible, then leaves the room, hoping that these things can't see her to make attacks of opportunity, because she would provoke from both if they can.
"Dhastrach, get out from between them so I can fireball them both", her invisible voice calls out from behind Shardra.
Dhastrach moves around the giant and tries to avoid being hit, however the hulking beast barely is able to savage the man with his fangs.
Shardra tries to hex one of them and finds that her power over luck and fate barely wins over the sheer force of the giant's mind.
Lazlo tries to Haste the party, however the menacing of the trolls is too much and the gnome has to quickly break the spellcasting to not be squished.
Az turns invisible and quickly flees behind Shardra as the green giants work on dealing with the remaining three Pathfinders. The troll nearest to Shardra turns to attack her, but the creature can barely touch her even without her hex.
Dhastrach isn't so lucky as the creature's teeth raze the dwarf's flesh once more.
As the beast's rampage, you see the burns on the far creature begin to heal.
Initiative:
1st: Azkadellia @ 23/44 HP; Shardra; Dhastrach @ 45/56 HP; Lazlo
2nd: Green Giants(Red @ 24; Blue)
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"Silly silly tall thing, can't hit with your mighty swing"
She then begins to give Blue the 'Mom' look. Y'know, the kind a parent gives a child when they've been bad and aren't QUITE sure what to do to the child in question, but it's going to be horrific when it happens...
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The invisible sorceress moves even farther from the fight, then suddenly reappears, with a ball of fire coming out of her hand. The fireball flies towards the giant outlined in red, centered just barely far enough back that the blast misses Shardra and far enough up on the map to avoid hitting Torvic.
"I might run low on spells if these fights keep coming."
Lazlo coats the giants in glitter as the refelctive stuff seeps into their bulbous eyes. The unlucky troll is blinded by the abrasive confetti as the other has the mental fortitude to shield its eyes.
Shardra tries to further make the creature impotent as she glares at him.
Dhastrach flees from in between the green giants after kneecapping the blind one, drawing the ire of the one who can see as Az drops another firebomb between the pair.
Oddly enough, the one that has been afflicted by the most terrible things known to man is able to avoid the blast partially.
The giants stumble back into the room, trying to avoid the fire and evil dwarves, deciding that the gnome is the next best option.
The blinded troll lashes out at Lazlo with it teeth and claws. It misses horrendously with its maw, but might find purchase on Lazlo with its claws.
One of the claws viciously cuts into the gnome flesh as the other lumbers over to bite him.
Initiative:
1st: Azkadellia @ 23/44 HP; Shardra; Dhastrach @ 45/56 HP; Lazlo @ 41/48 HP
2nd: Green Giants(Red @ 53; Blue-Blind/Misfortune'd/Evil Eye'd(To Hit) @ 26)
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The dwarven shaman shrugs a bit as a little bit of fortune leaks through the misfortune. This can happen, though it is rare.
"Giants swing and giants bawl, the bigger they are... The Harder they Fall!"
Chant to maintain Evil Eye(Attack) and Misfortune on Blue
Seeing Red both within range and looking pretty badly singed, Shardra tries to help out Lazlo.
Misfortune on Red(DC18)
Over the next few seconds, the quartet of casters easily deals with the trolls and their derro master. It appears that Torvic has reduced the derro's head to a bloody pulp with his warhammer and seems very out of sorts. "Stupid... torturous... bastard..." he pants.
Although most of the dwarven items that once resided here have been destroyed, the laboratory still holds scrolls describing lost artistic techniques and valuable secrets of stonecutting and weaponsmithing. A dozen valuable dwarven texts can be found, along with a healer’s kit and 10 odd devices wrought of metal and glass—strange tools used by the derro torturers. The total value for these items is 3,440 gp.
Torvic Scrathmane’s dwarven lore texts lie heaped in a pile of trash, fertilizer for the mushrooms. He seems uninterested in them at the moment, but once he catches his breath he notices you holding them. "Oh! You found my other notes! You are the best guys." he says as if nothing happened.
In the far southeast room, you find the corpse of a pixie. The pixie appears to have been savaged by the torturers and died of its wounds, though it seems the final blows were dealt by a cold iron rapier.
Status:
1st: Azkadellia @ 23/44 HP; Shardra; Dhastrach @ 45/56 HP; Lazlo @ 41/48 HP
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"Thiss scene is highly disturrbing," Dhastrach comments as he plows through the curious items. He takes notes of what they find, and attempts to make copies of Torvic's own notes before he snatches them away. Dhastrach examines the pixie, wondering. "The mitess we saw earrlierr arre fey as well. A pixie, ass you all know, iss also a fey crreaturre. But I'm worrried of seeing derrros here. It could mean we arre too close to the Darklands."
"And Torvic, you shall neverr again rrush off like that, we werre most cerrtain it would be yourr demise."
Seeing Azkadellia pretty beat, Dhastrach decides to channel Nethys' healing energies.
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"Thanks for the heal", the sorceress says to Dhastrach.
"Torvic, you seemed to know this derro. Do you know who these creatures are and what they're doing here?"
"Also, are we in a rush to continue on in this place today? I'm starting to run low on available magic for the day, so if there's a safe place outside to make camp, I think I'd like to rest and recover my energies."
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"Alrready?" Dhastrach asks Azkadellia, surprised, "while it would be a good notion to rrest and gatherr ourr strrengthss, thiss combat with the giantss must have rraised suspicion. It wasn't the quiet sorrt, afterr all. If we leave now, the derrross and whateverr crreaturress lie herre can rregrroup and prreparre to ourr rreturrn."
"Besidess the soundss of torrturre neverr bode anything good."
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"While running to check on folks bein' tortured an' all is a good idea, we have t' keep in mind that there may be other things on this floor that might be crucial to dealing with that situation, an' we might pick up information doing so, aye?"
Shardra's wanting to 'clear' the floor first, so nothing can come at the party's backside as they navigate the lower level(s?)
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Lazlo moves toward the stairs until Shardra speaks her mind, at which the gnome seems to consider a moment, then says I don't much want anything sneaking up on us either. Particularly being at the back as I usually am.
With a worried glance toward the stairs, he continues. However, those sounds are...troubling. I don't like pain, and I don't like the idea of anyone else enduring it. My vote would be to head downstairs. We can always search up here later on, once we've rescued...well, whomever we need to rescue, of course.
You head down the stairs, some reluctantly, to find that the sounds change from battle to raucous laughter and music, though it is quite not to your taste.
You round a corner and see dozens of whirling, twitching humanoids fill ing a massive chamber, dressed in outlandish costumes. Masked derros madly waltz about, ducking in and out of the light shed by a few battered candelabra. Others wave banners of tattered cloth or whirl feeble, guttering torches, their dim light an unnatural blood red. Some mites wind between the derros’ legs in a chaotic mimicry of peasants’ country dances, while other intoxicated mites awkwardly gather dirty plates and goblets from tables. More creatures crowd an elevated gallery at the chamber’s east end and appear to be a mockery of an orchestra, each musician vying to outdo his fellows in thunderous cacaphony.
It seems that no one has noticed you... yet.
A handful of human bodies lie sprawled among the dancing creatures in the middle of the room.
Perched on a throne of carved alabaster at the far end of the room, an elf seems to enjoy the revelry. She has gaunt features with thick layers of white ceruse makeup. Pale linen robes shroud her armored form.
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"I agrree, let'ss back out. Apparrently they did not detect ourr combat'ss crreated commotion," Dhastrach whispers, immediately backing out back upstairs. "Those human corrpses, by the way, worre the colorrss of Andoran's Lumber Consortium. Those unlucky fellowss must've been kidnapped and drragged herre to these ludicrrous festivitiess."
Torvic follows you begrudgingly. "I thought we were gonna fight those stupid fey! This is dwarf land! We should clear them out and send them back to the Eldest!" he complains as you drag him upstairs.
Dhastrach readies the group as he opens the door. Patches of dimly glowing fungi reveal a complex dwarven workshop. A wall of kilns, ovens and forges divides the workshop into two vast chambers, each crowded with unfinished sculptures, cobweb-covered tool racks and tables heaped with rusted detritus. The workshop’s ancient, splintering floorboards sag beneath heaped debris. Holes and cracked planks reveal an open space below the cluttered chamber, evidently accessed via stairways on the southern half of the room. Twenty feet overhead, cobweb-covered booms and racks support hanging crucibles and massive chains for hoisting quarried stone.
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"We're here to explore, put together a report, and cooperate towards that goal. We can check in on them later."
Kolo sort of gives Torvic a beady stare.
As the party looks at the newly unveiled room, Shardra gives it a very thorough glance, especially the construction to see if it would support the party.
Shardra looks around the room but she doesn't see any thing but loads of garbage, rust and mold, aside from the doors and hallways branching from the room.
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Ooh! Lazlo exclaims, scurrying into the nearest chamber near the unfinished sculptures. My cousin-in-law Remmick is something of a stoneworking artist. Well, more of a dabbler, really. Actually he's never sold one. But that doesn't stop him from trying. Lazlo looks closely at several, trying to discern what the artist's intent was. I admire that kind of dedication... he murmurs aloud as he looks.
Lazlo thinks that these statues were to be valiant dwarves in combat with epic monsters, but that the sculptor never quite finished his work. As each statue is still in the creation stage, it is apparent that the artist had a temperamental, impulsive tendancy that left his creations unfinished.
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"That'ss a verry larrge furrnace," Dhastrach exclaims, taking out his notebook and starting to scribe meticulous notes about their findings, "with something thiss big you could constrruct nearrly anything. I wonderr what it wass rreally used forr... warr machiness?"
He moves inside the chamber and looks around, trying to determine everything there is to determine from the hall.
Knowledge (arcana)]1d20+9[/dice] "Are the furnaces created with magic?"
Knowledge (dungeoneering)]1d20+9[/dice] "Is the chamber natural?"
Knowledge (engineering)]1d20+12[/dice] "How well made the structure is?"
Knowledge (geography)]1d20+5[/dice] "Where?"
Knowledge (history)]1d20+12[/dice] "Forges are a very dwarven thing."
Knowledge (local)]1d20+9[/dice] "Has something been done here that is in use in the public?"
Knowledge (nature)]1d20+9[/dice] "Any molds or other fungi growing here that like the furnaces' heat?"
Knowledge (nobility)]1d20+5[/dice] "Dwarves?"
Knowledge (planes)]1d20+10[/dice] "Fire elementals?"
Knowledge (religion)]1d20+10[/dice] "Is it also an altar?"
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"We'll drive off those evil fey, but it's best to be prepared, rather than going in wildly", Az reassures Torvic. "Maybe we can learn more about them exploring up here first. And I still want to replenish spells before attacking them, if we have time. I'd much rather be able to fireball them 4 times, instead of just 2."
Looking around the room...
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It appears that the furnaces are still lit and running, which explains why this room is much warmer than the surrounding chambers, however it doesn't appear that they use any form of fuel, likely a modified Continual Flame.
The chamber is not natural. It looks to be handcrafted by dwarves and it is clear that there was a method to construction.
The structure was created by a set of amazing dwarf architects and the structure has stood the test of time for centuries. There may be trash, mold and decay, but the overall structure looks like it could last another ten millenia before even a single brick falls out of place.
No idea. You already know where you are, so the question boggles me.
This is a true statement.
You would definitely not know that without some log of creations built in this room and none are apparent to you.
There is mold everywhere, but nothing seems to favor the furnaces.
Yes, dwarves.
You do not see any fire elementals.
There does not appear to be any altars, but you do spy some ornamentation that gives praise to Torag.
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Azkadelia can confirm with her own rolls what you have deduced Dhastrach.
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Dhastrach moves further into the chamber, looking in marvel at the dwarven creations. He keeps to the sides, seeing that the old wooden floor might not be the most durable surface around here. Regardless, he is rather care free and keep scribbling in his journals. The dwarf is going towards the lonely door.