Brand is a bit shocked and overcome by Lolly's flight from the combat. But after a few moments, he shrugs and sets about cleaning the leech guts off his blades.
Turning toward the ash-skinned newcomer he smirks, and sheathing his blades, steps toward her, picking up the abandoned scimitar along the way. "So, lass, tis lucky dat we found ye 'ere in dis lovely lil corner o' joy. I be takin' it yer a 'unter o' sorts... namely, o' men. But dis Yaza Magroo, ye say, ye tink 'e be 'idin' down in dis 'ere dungeon? Kinda mad, if'n ye ask me. Course, we be pokin' round 'ere fer a bit o' wealth an' fame, so, guessin' I can't be sayin' notin'."
Aurora shakes Anzath's hand when it is offered. "I see no reason why not. I do not imagine he would be any friend of ours, if he has fled here with such a bounty on his head."
The trapper duo feel relatively comfortable with the secret door's safety, and pop it open.
Surprise! There's another corpse inside. This one looks like a poor adventurer who might have crawled inside to hide from something. She seems to have succumbed to a few massive paired fang-wounds, nothing like the circular bites of leeches.
Rummaging in her pockets pulls in some shinies, about 80 GP worth of coin and gems.
Bedlam seems appalled at his apparent lack of empathy, as he plunders the misfortune adventurer.
The dwarf then laughs!
Winking at the group, he smiles.
Bedlam looks wistfully at the stairs leading down into the depths.
Me tinking dat we be needing ta clear this floor.
"I agree, Bedlam. Clearing this level of long time residents should significantly reduce opposition if we are forced to retreat from a lower level."
As the party backtracks, they explain the scenery (mostly corpses) to Anzath. This is where we fought the ants. This is where we found Gelver. Watch the trap. This is the Temple of Gambling, care to take a spin? That's Bandanna. Secret door to your right, good hidey-hole. Over here's the room of rats. 'Nother trap. Anzath, who has been tracking the party, nods politely, but much of this is not new information.
Finally, "Ok, we haven't gone into this one yet..."
From The Book: "This room contains 5 circular pools, each of which is 5 ft. in diameter and has a 1 ft. tall stone lip. Once the characters have entered the room, they notice a hole beside the north door of the room; it was obviously once a much smaller murder hole used to guard the door, but it has been partially battered away, and the opening is now about one foot by two feet large."
Bedlam searches the dark prior to entering.
As he does so, the Alchemist downs his Mutagen..
Bedlam sees what I quoted above. He also hears a strange buzzing noise. It doesn't seem to be related to the drink he just quaffed...
May be needing to cut da secret ingredients in half...
Bedlam then downs his Heightened Awareness Extract then enters the room.
The first of the fountains is somewhat closer to the door. There are two behind it, and two more farther apart in the corners of the room.
Anzath can see just fine in the dark. She watches her new comrades just as much as she orients herself to their carnage. They seem a pretty capable group, she notes.
She helps to keep an eye out for anything alarming.
She also stays pretty quiet.
In reply to Anzath:
"Most propitious. I trust that you will find our group more companionable than what you are used to, if I have correctly assessed your accent."
Talathel requires no light to find his way, but does not object should others reveal one.
Venturing closer to the fountains, he keeps up his spear. And vigil.
Anzath sees what Bedlam saw--a room of fountains. She also hears the odd buzzing sounds. She recognizes them as dozens of wings taking short flights. They seem to be coming from the hole in the wall.
Anzath gives Talathel a knowing nod. She would have liked to keep her heritage a secret as long as possible; most don’t take kindly to even a half-drow. She’s grateful Talathel recognizes her and is still welcoming her accompaniment.
She draws her blades as they enter into the pool room. After studying the environs a bit, she points to the hole being the source of the strange buzzing.
“A hive. Bugs, insekts... maybe ve smoke dem out, yes?”
Talathel cocks his ears, unsure if he is also hearing insects.
Considering our new companion's likely origins and thus presumably underground experience, it would be foolish to ignore her warnings.
"Agreed. Let us temporarily withdraw, prepare smoke weapons, and then deploy them."
Anzath steps back out of the room and lowers her pack to the floor. She retrieves a couple of unlit torches and suggests, "Ve use dese, yes?
Bedlam--excitedly--unshoulders his heavy burdened pack. Happily rifling through it, the Alchemist whistles,
Finally, me be gitt'n ta blow sumthin up!
Source Heroes of the Darklands pg. 30
Price 45 gp; Weight 1/2 lb.
Category Alchemical Tools
Description
This volatile gray paste sticks to solid surfaces and creates a concentrated blast when exposed to fire, making it a valuable excavation tool. You can apply 1 dose of blasting jelly to a 5-foot square as a standard action. The paste can be ignited with another standard action by striking it from an adjacent square with a metal weapon or object. When thus ignited or otherwise exposed to fire, the jelly explodes, dealing 2d6 points of fire damage to creatures and unattended objects within the treated square. If the ignited square is adjacent to another square containing blasting jelly, that square ignites as well. Blasting jelly deals full damage to objects made of stone or softer material. Blasting jelly decays relatively quickly when exposed to air, becoming inert after 4 hours if not ignited.
Talathel nods.
"Bedlam, you are our alchemical expert. I trust that we can leave the matter in your capable hands."
Tragershen watches the dwarf advance with a (maniacal?) glint in his eye.
"Will this be loud?" But the elf does not move to stop him.
"If we need to retreat, let's regroup at the stairs leading out. If some enemy is blocking that route, let's regroup in the small secret room we found." Then he tells Anzath "If it comes to that, follow any one of us to the room."
Anzath nods to Tragershen and stands with her back against the wall, a torch in one hand, a gladius in the other, waiting for some signal or instruction from Bedlam.
Bedlam--excitedly--applies the reagent to the wall all around the hole.
The Alchemist steps back. He points to the newbie and then to the area, pantomime fire.
The dwarf folds his arms across his broad chest and eagerly waits...
Ok, Anzath, dis is your plan. First time to prove yourself to dese folk. Better hope dis works.
“Hold on to your butts,” mutters the half-drow under her breath, before stepping around the corner and jamming the lit torch through the hole.
While the stirge didn't notice Bedlam's futzing around with the hole, Anzath's torch catches their attention and draws them like... well... like a bug to a flame. It is what it is.
And so, the banjo music begins, and the stirge hive rouses itself for battle:
Most of the party is still peering through the doorway. They see the light from Anzath's torch flood the room of fountains, illuminating Bedlam where he stands just out of blasting range, admiring his work. Nobody can see what's going on in the hive, but they sure as hells can hear that the light has attracted someone's attention.
Brand is the first to flinch into motion.
Now wait fer da opportune moment..., the dwarf chuckles.
Bedlam has heard of these beasts: tiny creatures known as stirges. They are sometimes known as "dire mosquitoes" and continue the bloodsucking vermin theme established with the giant leeches.
Bedlam knowingly nods at the dark elf....
As Anzath's light illuminates the dark room, a pair of dire mosquitoes fly through the hole in the wall!
They fly towards the light, ignoring Bedlam for the present.
...Anzath is swarmed by a pair of horrible buzzing monstrosities, who, perhaps dazzled by the light, fail to do much of anything.
Anzath swats at the buzzing critters with her blades, ducking and dodging to get out of the way. She looks at Bedlam confusedly, "Vhere iz big-badda-boom?!"
Bedlam irritatingly brings his heavy pick down at the Stirge.
Turning his bearded face at Anzaths question, the sickening sound of serios damage erupts from the floor under the Stirge!
If'n sumone might be sporting 'nough ta put blasted fire ta da goo!
Tragershen pales when he realizes what is flitting beyond the hole. With an arcane word, he sends a stream of glitter through the hole, where it explodes silently.
Casting Glitterdust through the hole, trying to catch as many stirges as possible in the radius. DC17 or they are blinded. Plus, they are all sparkly now!
The stirges, blasted by magical dazzle, are suddenly sparkly and festive. Four of them are blind, while three others manage, somehow, to fight through the glam with sheer force of will.
The blind stirge takes a big sniff, pausing to scent the direction to the nearest foe. It then flies out of the hole towards Bedlam, as it's not distracted by the torch. It's now adjacent to Beds, and tries to shake off the blindness:
...it fails.
With two of the buggy critters buzzing around her, Anzath prioritizes. She takes a moment to watch one of them carefully, analyzing it's form and movement before striking out.
Anzath, this is your first chance to act since initiative was rolled when the bugs in the hole saw the light from your torch, before you had a chance to touch off the explosives.
You are currently adjacent to two stirges who managed to get the jump on you and get through the hole.
Now, stirges, for all their unusual size, are tiny creatures, so I made an error earlier--you should have been allowed to roll an AOO on one of them as it attacked you.
You should:
Roll an AOO, retroactively. I'll just use the roll from your last post sans Studied Target: hit, kill, one less stirge.
You may:
1. Move up to the hole and light the jelly. Trying to light it while throwing it through sounds pretty tricky, as there's no fuse. You may ready an action to blow it the instant a stirge passes through the hole.
2. Stab the bugger who is currently flying around your head instead of lighting the jelly.
3. Do something else entirely.
Anzath sees a glittering stirge approach the hole in the wall, and at the exact right moment, shoves the torch onto the blasting jelly.
With a mighty BOOM that shakes dust down from the ceiling and resounds through the dungeon, the blasting jelly destroys the hole in the wall, sending shards of rock flying into the room, and:
...kills one shining and blind stirge while incapacitating another, less blind bug.
Unfortunately for all concerned, blasting a hole results in a bigger hole. Unless you've reaaally shaken up something structural.
The wall holds, except for the aforementioned bricks that fly into the room. Now the hole in the wall is big enough for a medium creature to pass through without hindrance.
The injured stirge looks like a wounded fighter plane--glittering in bright colors, trailing smoke, and buzzing intermittently, it plops against Anzath. One healthy, blind bug sniffs its way through the wreckage towards Bedlam. Then, one healthy bug attacks each of them.
Both adventurers feel the unwelcome sensation of a proboscis entering their flesh...
...and while they aren't infected by anything, they each suffer one point of CON damage. That will immediately affect Bedlam, but not Anzath.
As the blast echoes through the dim halls, something hears...
Talathel seeks a gap in the party's line through which he can strike a stirge with his spear, preferably a sighted one.
The point of Tal's spear plucks a stirge out of the air.
Pulling her quarterstaff into her hand, Aurora approaches the nearest stirge to swing the staff at it. Hopefully without whacking an ally in the process.
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Aurora thumps a bug badly, but it isn't quite squished.
Brand moves forward, places himself between Anzath and her swarm of bugs, and calmly dispatches one while muttering cockney witticisms to himself, as usual. He's feeling lucky. Archaeologically lucky.
Then, the swarm arrives in force. Normally, this would be time for the party to start taking lots of AOOs and making saves, but let's see how many are left after Talathel's reaping.
...and after consulting Tal's post, it would appear that the elf gracefully flows from insect to insect, gracefully poking three of them to death, while managing to wound a fourth.
One of those who isn't immediately murdered is glittered up, and blindly bumbles over to the nearest party member using scent.
The three healthy stirges distribute themselves among the party, each trying to latch onto someone...
The party hears a commotion in the corridor. Someone is coming.
One of the first bugs out of the breach attempts to land on Anzath...