Lothar remains near the lead of the group with his hammer at the ready, choosing to ignore the bickering and speculation of the rest of the group to focus on scanning for anything out of the ordinary (and potential threats in particular).
Haruto pauses a moment, ears twitching, then he looks around warily. "Someone is preparing to fight," he states.
as the party moves foreword, they head into a new open room, with a small "camp" setup with a fire and bedroll.
a dwarf stands ready, taking a step forward, and shrieks with rage. he prepares to cast a spell, but in a flash what seems to be a silvery spear pierces through his chest, and his shriek becomes a gargle, blood dripping from his mouth. the ooze behind him snaps off of the silvery "weapon" it just made, and the weapon retreats into the dwarf's flesh.
the dwarf gargles and twitches, his whole body starting to shimmer. his eyes are drained of all color, and he slumps forward, dribbling more of his blood from his mouth, before, rather suddenly, eight tentacles rip from his back and wrap around him. these tentacles quickly stitch themselves together with webs, like the leather on a bat's wings.
after another brief moment, the webbed tentacles unwrap to reveal a silvery underside, and a hole in the dwarf's chest that's filled by a strange elongated point, appearing to be stone, save for the barely visible red eyes.
the creature's gargle becomes a shriek once more, a high pitched cry that echo's throughout the cave.
the silvery blob is gone in a flash, darting deeper into the caves.
anvina has tears in her eyes, shivering with fear, as she takes aim and waits for a clean shot.
aravansul loudly asks "what's going on? not yet taking action.
horgus simply complains. 'it's so nasty. we really have to avoid that silver thing."
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Hanna looks somewhat horrified, not sure what to make of the creature and the dwarf, she casts shield, forming a defensive barrier between herself and whatever that thing is. She moves to the side, letting the others have a clear shot or path to attack, and causing her myriad scarves to dance about, distracting anyone from being able to get off a clear shot at her
Not quite sure what to make of this creature, Haruto decides on an experiment. He steps forward and thrusts out a hand, and a lance of brilliant silver light springs out of his palm towards the former dwarf.
the creature flinches slightly at the ray of light, leaving a small char on it's face, but not doing much damage.
Aravahnial, what happened is that the silvery goo that we've been seeing just appeared to murder a dwarf, and it also changed him into something else, which we are now preparing to fight. I have no idea what it could be. If you have ever heard of such a thing, let us know.
Aravahnial, what happened is that the silvery goo that we've been seeing just appeared to murder a dwarf, and it also changed him into something else, which we are now preparing to fight. I have no idea what it could be. If you have ever heard of such a thing, let us know.
[dice=Ranged Attack]1d20+5
the dwarf's tentacles seem to protect it, yanking the drawf to the side as the arrow nears it, his body moving almost like a ragdoll getting tugged around.
aravahnial shivers, and shakes his head.
In one smooth motion, Lina darts across the room, pulling her starknife as she does so, and drives the point into the dwarf without hesitating.
Lothar looks around with confusion and revulsion in his eyes, "Does anybody have any idea what it is?" At the same time, he hefts his hammer off of his shoulder and bows his head over it as if in prayer or meditation.
the creature reels at the blow, grey liquid gushing from the wound. The creature hisses loudly and lashes out with it's tentacles.
but the attack does little at all, not even so much as grazing the paladin. It's lash causes the tentacles and webbing between them to seemingly ripple.
"I'll... Guard the behind."
Horgus "valiantly" volunteers.
Aravanshul is quietly on the fence about something.
Anvina lines up a shot and takes it, but it's smashed out of the air by the "dwarf"'s protective tentacles.
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Hanna, still rather unnerved by the creature, decides to strike out at range at him, firing off a magic missile at it to distract it from fighting her comrade, she fires at the creature's back with a forward thrust of her hand, moving slightly closer to prepare herself in the event that she needed to close on the monster
Azlana tries shooting it again.
(+2 if Evil Outsider)
(+2 if Evil Outsider)
Haruto murmurs a brief incantation while tracing in the air with a finger, then jabs the finger at the former dwarf.
A silvery, translucent fox head springs from his outstretched finger and flies towards the foe, nipping at its shoulder before disappearing.
Lothar, once he has confirmed that the creature is truly evil hefts his hammer in both hands and charges the thing, attempting to gauge its power before fully letting loose.
With Lothar in position, Lina expertly slips around to the creature's opposite side, moving and striking in one fluid motion.
the tentacles flick around, deflecting the incoming arrow while the tentacles seem to tug him out of the way again, only to be struck by a starknife again, grey liquid gushing out of the strike.
the dwarf lashes out at Lina once more, missing again, a low, resonating growl coming from it.
Horgus is still "guarding the rear".
Anvina aims another shot, slowly getting steadier.
aravanshul makes some arcane jestures and chants softly in elven, casting Mage armor.
Azlana takes another shot:
(+2 if Evil Outsider)
(+2 if Evil Outsider)
Seeing no sign of fatigue from the creature before him, despite Azlana's and Lina's efforts, Lothar lets out a warcry and enters a state of pure rage. His eyes become solid white and the marks on his wrists and shoulders glow such a piercing blue that you can clearly make out the details of each one even through his armor. For the second time in his life, Lothar has entered a bloodrage.
Feeling the power coursing through him, Lothar swings his weapon around, twisting his body to add just that much more momentum into the swing, attempting to power through the creature's obviously formidable defenses.
Haruto waits until all others have acted, then throws another magic missile if the thing still isn't dead.
"God damn you go down already!" Lina snaps as she swings again.
the dwarf gets yanked about by the tentacles, avoiding both the scarf and earth breaker, but soon getting struck by an arrow, twitching, and getting finally cut down with a starknife, and the room falls silent, the three following the party silent and disbelieving.
Azlana explains what happened to the blind elf.
Haruto frowns distantly, his gaze wandering over the rest of the room. "This leaves the question of what to do the next time we see that quicksilver slime," he comments.
Lothar comes down from his rage and spends the next ten seconds or so just catching his breath. "What to do? I'm going to remember that apparently this thing shrugged off two hits from my hammer, but got felled by arrows and daggers, and I'm going to smash the ever-loving shit out of the next slime we see."
"Because f%+$ these things."
Hanna kicks the downed body, wanting to be sure before casting detect magic, triying to find out anything she can about whatever the heck that was
Azlana explains what happened to the blind elf.
Aravanshul shivers. "that's... We... Once everyone has recovered from this encounter, we need to move on. We... Need to get out of here."
Anvina is just quietly shivering, trying to foucs herself.
Horgus seems to have a... Surpizingly strong stomach, as he's right back to compaining. "I donno, seems like only one of us needs to recover."
With a bit of a glare at anvina, and anvina glaring back.
Azlana puts her arm around Anvina.
Maybe you should lead the way then, Horgus. We need someone brave like you to help us out here.
Haruto's distant frown remains on his face as he gazes vaguely in Lothar's direction. "Hopefully that works better on the slime, Lothar. It certainly seems dangerous."
Lina checks her scarf and sheathes her weapon. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have lost my temper like that. Nevertheless, it will do us no good to linger here. We should learn what we can then move on."
She'll look around briefly for anything significant in the dwarf's campsite while the spellcasters do their work.
Azlana assists, trying to identify anything not already identified (the second potion, presumably?):
Haruto's distant frown remains on his face as he gazes vaguely in Lothar's direction. "Hopefully that works better on the slime, Lothar. It certainly seems dangerous."
Lothar shrugs in response, slightly embarrassed by his outburst. "It works on everything. It's just a matter of finding out where to hit."
Seeing Hanna fiddle over a few of the items on the body, Lothar investigates her findings. "Hanna, did you find anything interesting?"
Azlana puts her arm around Anvina.
Maybe you should lead the way then, Horgus. We need someone brave like you to help us out here.
horgus pauses, snorts, then...
"you know what? sure. give me a weapon, preferably a raipier if someone has one, and a light source, and i'll lead on."anvina quicky calms down.
"thanks."
and then looks, somewhat disbelieving, at horgus.
"Does anyone have a spare weapon?" Haruto asks.
"Now, who here is most susceptible to magic..." he continues, looking over the rest of the group while holding up the cloak.
'Euuuugh...' Lina touches her rapier. "I'm sorry, if I had known you preferred a longer blade, I would have lent you mine instead of my knife. You're welcome to use my rapier if I can have my dagger back."
The party continues in the direction we were going before being rudely interrupted by the creepy monster thing.
When no one speaks up, Haruto puts the cloak over his own shoulders. "I'm not sure who should take the other potion," he says.
Lina checks her scarf and sheathes her weapon. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have lost my temper like that. Nevertheless, it will do us no good to linger here. We should learn what we can then move on."
She'll look around briefly for anything significant in the dwarf's campsite while the spellcasters do their work.
[dice=perception] 1d20+7
'Euuuugh...' Lina touches her rapier. "I'm sorry, if I had known you preferred a longer blade, I would have lent you mine instead of my knife. You're welcome to use my rapier if I can have my dagger back."
Horgus trades weapons and thrusts the rapier in the air a few times. It's... Actually not bad. He seems to have the fundamentals down, but... The rest seems like he's the sort who practiced because he thought the rapier was a good way to show off, not becuase he was trying to actually master a weapon. Still, perhaps he's not entierly useless.
Just mostly useless.