Unphased by the new enemies, turning to his allies, "It makes sense there'd be hostile creatures down here, quick let us dispatch of them and proceed onward,"
Drawing his light mace, Daneran eyes his beetle foes and takes a few steps forward to get ready.
I feel naked with my armor or my shield, I wish I could have brought them
Zendara shoots at the closest beetle.
Seeing Zendara fire at the closest beetle, Kanek follows suit and draws his pistol and fires.
Teodorn uses telekinetic projectile to fling a nearby rock at the green beetle.
Kanek attacks the green beetle and immediately smashes it. The group can hear the crunch. Teodorn attacks the green beetle. But just witnessed it being smashed.
The red beetle moves to Graz and tries to bite him. The beetle lands it’s teeth firmly into Graz.
The remaining beetle moves to Daneran and tries to bite, but misses.
Combat round 2
Everyone may act
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Round 1
As the beetle bites Graz, the former slave only grunts at the pain. Stoically, he whips his chain at the hard carapace fo the beetle, trying to crush it with his most powerful blow.
Round 2
Unwrapping his chain once again, Graz swings it in a large arc, down onto the back of the nearby insect.
Unable to get by the half-orc and his fellow android, Ryder bides his time, waiting for the opportunity to contribute.
Kanek quickly loads a paper cartridge into his pistol and takes aim firing at the closest beetle.
With the beetles dead, Kanek takes a moment to load his pistol with powder and a bullet
Zendara shoots again at the closest beetle.
Surveying the carnage his companions levied out on the poor beetles,
"That seems to have ended the beetles lives. I doubt they'll be the worst thing we find down here,"
Daneran keeps his eyes peeled for any more beetles that may come scurrying out.
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His wet clothes weighing him down, Teodorn lays down on the sand beach to catch his breath.
Zendara uses Prestidigitation to dry everyone's clothing, if they want it.
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"By Brigh's bronze bells, that feels better. My thanks, Zendara."
Okay Graz, I can understand if you are afraid. If you change your mind, let me know.
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Graz mumbles to himself, casting a wary eye on the pretty lady. Graz not afraid." he mutters. "Graz just not like magicks and wet is not too bad."
Graz makes a big presentation of looking around the rest of the area, so he doesn't have to think about his fear of magic too much.
Teodorn takes notice of Graz's response, and he stands a little taller in the half-orc's presence. He had been intimidated by Graz's impressive size and strength, but hearing his grumbling, Teo realizes his own powers are worth a little more than he thought.
"Graz, I have the power to unlock great potential in you, making you as large as an ogre. Do you not want such a transformation in dire circumstances? Perhaps Daneran or Ryder would be more interested."
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"Blue-Eyes use magicks on Graz to make Graz ogre?" Graz looks at him curiously pondering. "Graz is happy as orc-man. Graz is strong enough." He flexes his prodigious biceps to emphasize the fact. "Graz not need to be ogre. Maybe metal-man would instead." He finds the concept rather funny, and chuckles aloud as he considers it.
The Pathfinders continue on after dealing with the beetles.
A shallow creek runs through the middle of this cavern, while to the south a stony bank rises up from the water. Thick carpets of green and gray mold and fungus grow on the bank, particularly around a trio of three-foot-high, foul-smelling mounds.
Three mounds of foul-smelling fungus and mold grow over the bodies of three ill-fated halflings. On the bodies you notice what looks like a mold moving around.
The dead halflings have been looted already , but a single agate worth 55 gp can be seen on the central body.
Much of the fungus growing on the bodies is natural, though slightly accelerated in growth due to the strange nutrients in the water here. Each mound has recently spawned a dangerous creature—a young slime mold. These creatures are still quite young and lack adult slime molds’ ability to engulf prey and inflict disease, but they’re still eager to attack fresh food.
Kanek listens with slight amusement at the conversation. "Magic is just science that we don't understand yet." he thinks to himself. When everyone appears ready they move on to the next chamber. As they start to make their way, Kanek can't help to start coughing. "What is that wretched smell"
Zendara wades through the creek, but seeing the growths on the halfling bodies, she walks up on the bank to take out the mold if she can so they can identify the bodies. She has heard that fire is good against mold, so she tries it.
Looking around as they progress further into the depths of this cave,
But everything seems pretty normal for a cave until he comes up on the slimes.
"Argh, mold creatures, I hate mold, they corrode metal and ruin inventions, truly a bane to Brigh!"
Seeing Zendara blast them with fire he'll look to his own light hammer. Calling on a blessing from his Goddess his hammer glows a hot red, the air shimmering around it from the heat. "This should work,"
"Hard to say, but I suspect it has something to do with that fungus." Ryder says to Kanek's question.
Teodorn lets others lead as he takes up the rear. From his vantage, he's uncertain about what is happening as those in front start to react.
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The green mold tries to slam Graz and barely hits him.
Zendara tries to burn the mold, but they resist the burning hands.
The green mold tries to slam into Graz and hits him.
Kanek moves slightly to get a better footing on the land before taking aim and firing at the mold nearest Zendara.
Zendara has never heard of fire-resistant mold, so she doesn't know how to help. Instead, she backs up to give someone else room on the beach and she starts singing to inspire the courage of her fellows.
Teodorn is too concerned with his own safety to try to venture to shore to attack the creatures.
"Curious..." Ryder comments as he takes aim with his crossbow.
(firing into melee)
(firing into melee)
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Daneran watches the events unfold and then looks at his burning hot mace with a frown.
Sloshing through the water to get on land, he approaches and attacks the Blue mold, putting himself between the mold and Zendara.
"Does anyone know what these are?"
Kanek takes a shot and hits the mold. Zendara encourages the others. Teodorn continues taking a swim. Ryder takes aim at the mold and eliminates one instantly with a shot from a crossbow. After getting stung Graz swings his chain and obliterates a mold. Daneran gets on dry land and gets rid of the remaining mold. Graz seems to want another shot , but all the mold is gone.
A collection of stalactites and stalagmites choke this low- ceilinged cavern, making it difficult to squeeze between them. Matching stalactites close in from the five-foot-high ceiling, giving the impression of a maw of needlelike teeth bearing down on one another. A dead half-orc sprawls on the ground near the cave’s eastern entrance.
You recall the half-orc as Parda Garr who was a popular brawler in town, and that she was one of those who traveled with several thugs into the caverns. Almost everyone called her a friend, and many felt that her falling in with the thugs was going to be her end—turns out, they were right.
You examine the body and confirm she was slain by multiple stab wounds from a short-bladed weapon like a dagger.
"This is Parda Garr, a Torch local. She was a friend to many in town. She came with on of the other expeditions. I think we should bring her body back when we return. Daneran, could you say a blessing over her?"
(free use of inspiration)
(spending 1 pt of inspiration)
Ryder nods in agreement of Teodorn's assessment of the identity of the half-orc woman.
"It would seem that local opinion of her poor choices in the company she chose to keep would be here end." Ryder says, investigating the body a bit more closely.
"Multiple stab wounds, likely a dagger or multiple daggers. She was not a victim of either of the obstacles we have encountered thus far. We should be on our guard."
With the mold destroyed, Kanek takes the time to reload his pistol. As they move on and come across the body of the half orc.
"Poor girl, everyone in town had such nice things to say about her."
"I agree Ryder. Someone killed her and unless it was whatever those molds killed, that someone could still be here."
Knowing that some of the others might think it is in bad taste, Zendara nevertheless asks
Is there anything useful on the body? We're likely to need all the help we can get down here.
Zendara examines the area.
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Graz looks down at the fallen half-orc wistfully. He didn't know this girl, but she was a half-human like him. He wondered if she had lived the same life of tribulation that he had. He also wondered why she died down here all alone.
"Who killed girl?" Graz asks, his face showing the begins of anger and pain. "Graz wants to know who did THIS!" he nearly shouts the last word, gesturing at the corpse. With some effort, he regains his composure, but not before the companions see that making Graz angry might be a really bad idea.
His breath comes in quick inhalations as the silently fumes, flex and unflexing his rather large fists. When Zendara asks about looting the corpse, Graz nods in agreement. "Girl not need anything now. The dead will help the living if they can. Graz saw this many times in the mines..." He bends and searches her very gently and with great care and respect.
There is nothing on the body of value. A few beetles and rats scurry off as you examine it.
A dark cavern opens up here, its twenty-foot-high ceiling thick with stalactites. A rocky shore overlooks a placid pool and stream, fed by a trickle of water leaking from a narrow fissure to the north. A small garden of toadstools and dark mold grows along the banks.
Up ahead you see a strange frog like creature.
The grotesque creature that still bears a brand on its flank as well as a tattered leather hood that hangs in strips from its head. The brand is a short phrase in Undercommon that reads “Pet,” but gives no other indication to its previous ownership.
Blindheims are grotesque, frog-like creatures that dwell beneath the surface, subsisting on meals of fungi, rodents, and other underground creatures. They live in the darkest, dampest regions of cavernous sprawls, particularly enjoying underground bogs, lakes, rivers, and swamps. Although not aquatic, blindheims are excellent swimmers. They prefer to latch onto branches or rock outcroppings, where they maintain the high ground while in pursuit of food. They use the light from their eyes to attract prey, but go dark when larger creatures approach. A blindheim uses its blinding gaze to disorient both prey and possible threats, then deactivates its gaze to scuttle away in the dark if the threat is too great. In very large caverns inhabited by blindheims, distant areas often flicker from brightly lit to absolutely dark as the creatures feed and flee. Though of animal-level intelligence, blindheims are cunning enough to coordinate their hunting tactics with others of their kind, using one creature to act as a lookout and make hit-and-run attacks with its gaze until its fellows can arrive to help finish off the prey.
Blindheims can convey simple information through gestures and flashes of their lights, and tend to be rather silent in combat, adding an eerie element to battles with them. They cannot be taught to perform humanoid-appropriate labors and thus make poor slaves, though the duergar and drow sometimes use them as bait or distractions when raiding. Other races have been known to train these creatures as mobile light sources when going on long underground expeditions.
Stout and thick-skinned, a blindheim is just under 4 feet in height and weighs 150 pounds. A blindheim gives birth to small litters of three or four young. Though gestation can last up to a full year, it only takes about 4 years for a blindheim to mature and become self-reliant, at which point the creatures generally form broods that stick together, only striking out on their own if their brethren have perished. Blindheims can live for up to 25 years.
A cursory search of the pool reveals a man’s body, mostly eaten. Little remains to identify the body, for the blindheim has eaten most of it and has ruined its armor and clothing in the process.
Examining the body
A belt pouch on the body’s hip is still intact and contains 42 gp, a silver unholy symbol of Zyphus worth 25 gp, and two water-tight potions of cure light wounds.
As they come across the body earlier, Daneran gives no indication of blessing the body before being asked to do so. At Teodorn's behest he pulls out his holy symbol and says a quick prayer to Brigh asking her to guide the soul safely through the Boneyard and if she could find them a place in the Citadel of Resplendent Clockwork.
When that is done he hefts his mace once more and continues on with the group. Stumbling across the grotesque looking animal, "What a hideous animal, truly an abomination,"
Remaining cautious and looking to Zendara and the others, "Any idea what this creature is, should we kill it immediately or is there some trick to it?"
More than a little scared by this creature, Teodorn flings a rock at it with his mind.
And misses wildly.
I say leave it alone unless it attacks us. No reason to kill it. It looks tame. Someone must have made that hood for it. Might be hungry. Anyone have extra rations?
Zendara moves over to the pool and discovers the body, retrieving the belt pouch. She shows the contents to the party, mentioning that whoever it was worshipped an evil god, so was unlikely to be one of the people they were looking for.
Anyone want to carry one of these healing potions?