"I agree," says Jolon.
Gamon nods in agreement, That sounds best to me.
Slipping out of the crawl-space you are greeted by the walls and ceiling of this tall hallway being encrusted with dozens of yawning skulls. Their mouths open into dark holes in the walls.
Aloysia heads to the door to listen for anything worth while...
Aloysia hears some cursing, grumbling, and the small clinking of glassware being shuffled around.
Jolon closes his eyes and mutters something in Shoanti, asking his ancestors to watch his deeds here.
As quietly as she can she checks the doors for traps and locks, and tries to slide the door open a crack to get a better view of what's inside.
Aloysia doesn't find any traps on the door, but the way her skin begins tingling lets her know that there's some form of magical trap in the hallway she's currently in and it will go off soon. She does manage to take a peek through the door.
The wooden tables here are stacked with vials, beakers, and other alchemical gear, although the southern one is heaped with broken vials and leans awkwardly on a hastily repaired leg. Three large cauldrons sit against the east wall, one of them upended. Its foul, rancid contents—old rendered fat—have spilled onto the floor. A derro is busily cleaning the non-broken beakers and grumbling about the mess.
Aloysia whispers, but yells at the same time, "Magic trap...somewhere in the hallway...detect magic now!" Not wanting to be nearby when the traps triggers she grips her daggers tight and tries to slide through the door unheard.
Gamon, who had begun to follow Aloysia into the crawl-space, hurriedly steps back in case her warning proves true.
Cecil will use detect magic to see if he can spot the trap's energy.
Jolon opens his eyes and does the same, the blue flame returning to them.
The Derro doesn't notice Aloysia slip into the room, preoccupied as it is with cleaning the glasswork along the south wall. The entire corridor that Aloysia just left is aglow with magic. The magic is gathered in the corridor, but it hasn't manifested yet.
Jolon observes the magic glow and ponders its purpose. Maybe listening to the spirits would give him insight.
Jolon's and Cecil's spells reveal a bit more about the trap, showing that it has very faint power and there are no other magical auras. Unfortunately Jolon can't quite discern what spells will manifest just yet.
Aloysia tries to sneak up to the Derro in hopes of ending it before any noise can be made...
The Derro continues humming obliviously to herself, allowing Aloysia to get close and shove her daggers somewhere painful. The first one finds purchase in the Derro's amrpit while the second skitters off the tough skin above her kidneys.
Gamon runs into the room, axe drawn, and moves behind the table in order to attack the Derro if it attempts to escape Aloysia.
The magic in the corridor flares as Gamon moves through it, but does not have time to gather sufficiently and fizzles. Majenko follows Gamon's lead and wings off from Cecil's shoulder to head through the door.
He flies into the room, diving at the Derro tail outstretched to sting and scratch it.
His tiny stinger bounces off the Derro's armor and does nothing to her.
Gritting his teeth, Cecil charges through the hallway and into the doorway, hopefully before the spell can go off. He takes stock of the situation and shoots a ball of acid at the Derro.
Again the magic in the hall flares up, but Cecil is through before it goes off. His acid splashes the table under Majenko and begins eating at the wood.
The Derro pulls her shortsword from its sheathe and stabs at Aloysia, backing away from so many enemies.
Aloysia dodges the stab and continues threatening it with her daggers.
Aloysia lashes out again in hopes of finishing this thing off...
Jolon, seeing the others move forward, hustles after them. When he reaches the room, he sees that they have the situation well in hand, and decides to summon and extra pair of eyes...and talons...to aid them.
Now that the Derro is cognizant of the danger it has a much easier time avoiding Aloysia's daggers. The magic again doesn't go off as Jolon slips through the hallway.
Gamon moves between two tables in order to corner the Derro, swinging with gusto at the creature.
Majenko flies above Gamon before striking down at the Derro with his tail again.
Only a small sting gets through the Derro's defenses, but leaves her just a bit bloodier.
With Gamon's approach the Derro drops its short sword and instead pulls a hooked aklys from its belt, swiping at him and attempting to drive him back.
Though it catches Gamon while he's pulling back for another swing with his mighty axe it doesn't hurt too badly, and luckily is missing anything potentially poisonous on its hooks.
Gamon growls as the aklys connects, his balance thrown off enough to distort his aim at the Derro.
Aloysia tries to squeeze in a couple of hits on the critter between the back and foreth of the Derro and Gamon...
Jolon finishes the spell as the spectral vulture appears and perches on Jolon's shoulder. He points at the derro, and it takes off, before descending on the little wretch with talons ready.
;
;
Aloysia manages to score on the Derro again and gives Majenko the idea to fly to the other side of it and hem it in. The Derro tries to stop him from doing this, swinging her aklo high overhead.
The Derro can't quite get him, allowing him to stab downward with his tail again.
Cecil fires off another orb of acid at the creature.
It again splashes against the corridor wall.
The Derro doesn't like where this is going and attempts to do something about it, reaching out to touch the cauldron by her.
Majenko attacks to stop the Derro with his tail.
Aloysia's dagger and Majenko's sting each drive into the Derro but she is able to complete her spell, tagging the cauldron next to her and dropping the ambient light around her, hoping it will help.
Aloysia swears in frustration at this little thing and swings again.
Gamon tries to focus on the Derro through the darkness, swinging again,
Gamon and Aloysia, frustration showing, manage to hem the thing in and dispatch it together.
The darkness dissipates leaving the blue glow from the ever-present mushrooms to fill the space again. Majenko blinks and flaps his wings, landing on the cleft (nearly in twain) corpse. "Ah. Thought I was going blind for a second there." He examines the ruins of the room, "My dragon senses are tingling, there's probably some good stuff here, but it'll take a bit to sort out. Do we take the time to look around or continue heading on?"
The spectral vulture perches on the wall and watches Majenko silently, while Jolon nods at him.
"I say we take a closer look around. Especially to figure out what's going on with that magical corridor behind us. It doesn't look like we triggered any kind of trap, but I don't know much about those sorts of things."
He begins taking a look around.
Gamon nods in agreement with Jolon, We already went through the trouble to get here, I'd like to look around before we continue on.
Jolon and Cecil are able to examine the previous corridor in more detail, determining that the corridor would fill with acid should someone stay in it about 18 seconds.
Gamon, Aloysia and Majenko start searching through the area, keeping an eye on the exits all the while. There is enough material here to cobble together an alchemist’s lab, as well as 3 doses of vermin repellent (this is the same foul-smelling mixture you found in the old fishery), two tanglefoot bags, 4 doses of black adder venom, a hybridization funnel, 2 doses of silversheen, and a handy haversack containing three potions of cure moderate wounds, a potion of lesser restoration, a potion of invisibility two scrolls of false life, and a scroll of dispel magic.
Aloysia quickly pockets the black adder venom, "I'll take this, you all can have the rest"
Gamon takes one of the tanglefoot bags and doses of silversheen, If there are things nobody especially wants, we should keep them until one of us is in need.