Coran looks back at the rest of the party "We have just a little ways to go everyone then we can rest up for a bit.
Coran would also take a look at the wounds from the creatures and try to figure out the best treatment. Heal Check
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Coran walks over to Franco, moving his hands over the crushed tissue and bone from the earlier zombie attack. He murmurs as his hands knead the injured areas and a metallic tang momentarily fills Franco's mouth.
The warmth of healing magic fills Franco's wounds, he can feel the wounded areas knitting back together, but some injury remains. Coran continues healing Franco, the tang in his mouth again, lingering longer with the continued healing.
The continued treatment leaves Franco feeling much improved.
Coran ceases treatment on Franco for a moment and begins to examine his own wounds, as well as those on Jo (assuming Jo allows it) and Ithad.
You see confirmation that the creatures were sucking blood from all of you and that you all have suffered significant blood loss - you most of all. Unfortunately, healing this damage is beyond your current skill and likely beyond the skill of all in your group. It will likely require a night of rest for your two partners, but for yourself, it will probably take four days.
Jo has only Con Damage and wants no one casting magic on him.
He could use some rest and food though. His stomach continues to growl like and angry bear.
Coran stops healing Franco "There that should help, once we get somewhere I can rest I can take care of the rest of your wounds. He sighs and looks at Jo and Ithad "Now for the bad news, our wounds are more of common sense medicine and will heal with rest. You two should be feeling better in the Morning as long as we can have uninterrupted sleep. Where my wounds are more serious they will take more then a few evening of rest. Coran looks down at the symbol and points in the direction it shows. "Let's get going and hope we don't hit any more trouble."
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After the brief stop for healing, you hurry through the darkened sewers, Coran and Franco leading the way now that you find yourselves so close. Rushing down the tunnel, they alert you that past the next turn, a side tunnel leads to a dead end where a ladder leads to a trap door exit. You round the corner.
Alarra and Satinal spot a writhing, dark serpentine form squeeze through a sewer drain right in front of the end of the tunnel. It doesn't seem to have a head, but somehow you know that it sees you too. The tangle of living darkness turns and heads toward the group.
Satinal's voice calls out again in that familiar heavenly voice, but it seems to have no affect as the creature crawls down from the grate and moves down the tunnel toward Alarra. It is about four feet long and as it draws close you can see that it looks like it is made of shadow with a thin layer of oily black slime. Tendrils with shadowy claws reach out at you.
Moondark
Alarra
Franco
Coran
Jo
Ithad
GM
Satinal
Alarra will attempt to dodge past the creature and get behind it.
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Alarra attempts to roll past the creature, but three tentacles lash out at her in quick succession.
Two miss, but the claw on the third one finds an exposed area above her armor and tears viciously through her neck.
Fortunately, the blow as not as deep as it might have been and Alarra comes back to her feet. Some of the slime from the creature comes off on Alarra's neck, a feeling of numbness begins at your neck and begins to spread down your body.
Alarra was trying to move through its space.
Coran is going to cast Guidance on Jo for a plus 1 to Attack.
Cursing under her breath, Alarra tries to dodge around it once more.
She will then try to tumble away from it again, in preparation for attacking it from range next turn.
Jo sees Alarra get struck by the beast and rage wells up inside of him. He knew he was supposed to protect her and he failed.
"ALARRA! Nooooooooo! Get behind me!"
Seeing Alarra tumble away from him, Jo will move into her spot when his turn comes.
Jo is also going to rage when his turn comes.
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Alarra dodges around the shadowy creature. Again, its tentacles lash out and claws brush against Alarra, but lightly and no damage is done. A moment later, she has positioned herself behind the creature.
Franco takes a step forward, positioning himself with his back to the wall and facing the creature. He raises his flail and swings it down as hard as he can against the beast.
The shifting shadowy nature makes the monster difficult to judge though and Franco's blow fails to land.
Coran chants softly and reaches his hand out to brush against Jo's arm. Jo is filled with a sense of greater confidence in his ability to strike the foe.
Jo roars with rage as he advances on the shadowy creature.
"EAT MY HAMMER BEAST!"
Swing:
Damage if I hit:
Ithad looks at the shadowy creature, a for a moment is caught with fright. Trying to stay calm, Ithad takes aim with the crossbow.
Watching the bolt fly straight and true, he wracks his brain for any knowledge on this beast.
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Jo's hammer descends right toward the center of the beast.
Incredibly, the shadows seem to contort in front of your eyes. What was the center is merely an edge and the mighty hammer blow falls harmlessly to the side.
At nearly the same time, Ithad's bolt is launched directly at the creature also seemingly true.
This time, the creature's tricks do not suffice and the arrow strikes the center of the creature. Wisps of shadow erupt to the sides and it seems to momentarily lose control of the tentacles before reasserting control.
This can only be one of Westcrown's legendary shadow beasts, but you don't know anything more than that. Perhaps a different sort of knowledge would yield answers.
The beasts tentacles last out again, this time reaching toward Jo.
Two of them strike the giant figure - one on his arm and the other across his chest.
A feeling of numbness penetrates Jo's skin from both of the wounds. The one in his arm stops there, the numbness from the wound in his chest spreads through his body, giving him a feeling of sluggishness, like he can't quite feel his extremities.
Satinal moves up behind Jo and scoops up a stone from the tunnel floor. He whispers in his otherworldly voice and the stone begins to shine with a bright light.
Safely away from the creature, Alarra fires a crossbow bolt at it.
Seeing it miss, she reloads her crossbow as quickly as possible before stepping further away from the action .
Ithad tries to steady his hands as he reloads the crossbow and brings it back around at the creature to fire another round.
"You will not have me shadows, die! Die! DIE!", Ithad screams as he lets the bolt fly towards the shadow beast.
Coran is going to adjust 5 feet and attacks the shadow beast. "Die creature of shadows."
Attack
Damage
Not sure of two things - if the alchemetical fire will affect Jo or not and if Coran's guidance is for more than one attack.
Jo will press the attack though. Second round of Rage.
Attack roll:
Confirm:
Damage:
That is the second high damage roll. Better not miss this time!
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Moondark's vial arcs over half the party before dropping right onto the shadow beast.
A burst of flame envelopes the creature for a moment before burning out, but not before licking out and singing Jo and Franco.
Jo and Alarra, the burst of light seems to melt off the shadowy slime that was numbing you.
Franco swings the flail down at the shadow beast again.
Like Jo's earlier blow, it appears that Franco is going to strike the beast, but the shadows shift and swirl and the flail misses.
Coran steps up, his years of practice in the dark and previous encounter with the shadow beasts having inured him to the difficulty of fighting in shadowy conditions. His shortsword slicks out and slices through the shadowy mass.
Jo swings his hammer down and again, it appears to slam right into the midst of the creature's mass.
This time, his strike is true and it crushes into the heart of the beast. It falls to the floor, but then, right before your eyes, the creature deteriorates into wisps of shadow and fog. A moment later, it has vanished except for a small smooth oily black stone laying on the ground.
"By the Nine Hells, let us not tarry. The shadow beasts can even find us down here!", Ithad looks around to make sure no other shadows move when they should not.
Jo let his hammer hit the ground as his rage leaves him. He slumps to one knee, his energy drained.
Breathing heavy he says "What da !@#$ was dat?!"
But he already knows the answer having heard Ithad say the name. Jahat had described the shadow beasts but he had never seen one. Now they had just defeated one.
"Good job everyone. Looks like we make a pretty good team killin one of dem day first time we see one!"
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Ithad does not see any other moving shadows, but now that you know what you've faced, a palpable sense of danger pervades the sewer tunnel. You've all heard stories of larger groups of shadow beasts before.
Moondark looks more closely at the stone. It is a small, smooth stone, about the size of two or three gold coins. It has a strange looking surface to it - an oily look even though there doesn't seem to be anything coating it. You've never seen anything like it before.
"Looks like da thing's heart is a piece of coal", Jo gasps.
He looks towards Alarra "You okay?"
He also looks toward the rest of the party and comments "We need to get up dat trapdoor and out of deez sewers."
Coran looks quickly at the remains of the shadow beast thinking about the black stone and what it could be. "That looks a bit small for a heart, but what could it be?"
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To the touch, the stone is cool, smooth, and slick. Strangely, the stone seems lighter than it should be for what would be typical for a stone that size. Coran isn't sure exactly what it represents, but vaguely recalls hearing that once or twice shadow beasts have been slain and some sort of residue has been left behind. He also recalls stories that there are some in the city said to offer bounties for such evidence that a shadow beast has been slain.
Leaving the Hellknight helmet on the floor, Moondark packs it away and together the seven of you move to the ladder at the end of the tunnel.
One by one, you make your way up the ladder, pushing through a warped, wooden trapdoor and emerging into the Westcrown night. You're all in a narrow alley, but it is difficult to determine where in Westcrown you might be.
Franco gestures toward a boarded up door down the alley, "This way everyone." He knocks on the door. After about a minute, you can see evidence of a light moving toward the door. A moment later the door creaks open. It is evidence that this is a normal door, cleverly disguised as those it is boarded shut. A familiar female face is lit by a sunrod, "By the grace of the Inheritor, you made it, quickly come inside."
It is Janiven.
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Janiven hugs you each enthusiastically as you each come in the door, "I was so worried about you when I went after Morosino. I finally caught him and when I came back to where I left you, there was a group of Hellknights. It didn't sound like they had you, so we took another route out of the sewers. Thank Iomedae that you've made it."
You can see as you enter that you're in what must once have been a temple to Aroden. "Come with me. There are others here that I'd like you to meet." She begins leading the way deeper into the old temple.
Jo looks around the old temple. The only other 'big' building he had been in had been The Pits. He marvels at the size.
"What's dis place lady?"
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Janiven leads you down a short hall, "It was a temple of Aroden in the days before the god died. Like many other Aroden shrines and temples, the ownership passed to the church of Iomedae. But with the ascendancy of Asmodeus-worship in Westcrown, this temple, like many others fell into disuse and was abandoned. When Arael came to Westcrown several years ago, he was distraught at the condition of the city's abandoned shrines to Aroden and selected this one as a safe house and headquarters."
You can see as you move through the temple that the doors and windows are screened dark curtains to keep interior light from being heard outside. As you move deeper into the temple, you can hear excited voices coming from up ahead.
"Arael? Who's Arael?" Jo looks quizically at Janiven and then Alarra.
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You've heard of a half-elf named Arael through Mother Muddlum. He is said to be a priest of Iomedae that came to Westcrown a few years ago. You've heard her mention that he has been of help to her in smuggling halfling slaves out of Westcrown - most recently with help from a halfling named Fiosa.
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Janiven replies, "Arael is the leader of our group, "Children of Westcrown", "Scions of Aroden", whatever we call ourselves. Unfortunately, as Morosino blurted out at Vizio's, he's been captured by the Dottari and the Order of the Rack is trying to work through the Westcrown bureaucracy to get him in their hands."
She opens a door at the end of the hall and the voices get a little louder, you can see a light glowing from an open door ahead on the right. "I'd been hoping to get you all to join us, but given the start you've experienced, I'd understand if you all want to go home in the morning and never talk to me again."
She continues leading you toward the door, "Since you should spend the night at least so you don't get hauled in by the Dottari or eaten by a shadow beast, why don't you come meet the rest of our group that's here tonight."
Coran studies the temple of the fallen god, wondering if the walls could talk what wonders could he hear. "I want to hear more on the cause, but I am pretty sure I will be willing to join your fight. As for a place to stay wonderful." Looking at Jo "Wouldn't want to face any of those shadow beasts on my own. looking back at Janiven Thank you for your hospitality"
"Ehhhh, shadow beast not as tough as Jo taught. We make good team. Even you little girl. Jo wanna help anyway he can. Maybe we get dis Arial back for you. You tell Jo who to smash and Jo smash."
Jo holds up his hammer in a threatening manner to get his point across. Then his face goes from menacing to quizical again.
He looks at Janiven..."Hey lady, you tink you gots any more of dem boiled rabbits around. Jo real hungry!"
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Janiven wrinkles her nose, "Eeew. Jo real stinky too. I can definitely wrassle up a couple more rabbits, but why don't we get you all a chance to clean up quick first. I guess it should be expected after traipsing around in the sewers for a few hours. Morosino and I were dreadful too."
She takes a quick left turn down another hall and gestures to a couple doors. "Ok, boys in here and girls in this one. We've only got a couple baths, so you'll have to take turns or just freshen up. Morosino and I will be back with water."
Jo not ever have a baff and Jo not gonna start now! Jo think to himself.
But at least she gots more rabbits!
"A chance to freshen up and a light meal sounds delightful.", Ithad says as he heads towards the "boy's" door.