Seeing Tal impaled by the fangs, Tragershen edges back from the serpent, hurling a sphere of acid as he goes.
Ready acid flask, cast acid splash, 5' step away.
Acid Splash, ranged touch attack to hit
Damage
Anzath sneaks forward, using the columns for cover along the way.
All that physical conditioning has come in useful!
Talathel can multi-task: think and stab at the same time.
Bedlam creates and tosses a Tanglefoot Bomb.
Aurora's spell hurts the beast. Tragershen misses. Talathel wounds the snake again.
Snek sees Slayer.
The cobra is avoids the goop. The fire damage of the blast doesn't seem to bother it.
It tries to kill Talathel:
...but fails, for now.
Determined,
Bedlam creates and tosses a Tanglefoot Bomb.
Tragershen continues to keep his distance, and sends more acid at the snake.
Acid splash, to hit
Damage
"Sorry." he mumbles when he almost hits Bedlam in the back of the head with his spell.
Talathel dodges the snake bite and tries a blow of his own.
Aurora loads a bolt onto her crossbow and fires!
Anzath smoothly retrieves the poisoned dart from her inner jacket pocket, thinks about kissing it for good luck, decides against that, takes careful aim, and lets it fly.
Bedlam's bomb goes a little wide, but the snake is a little gooped up now.
Tragershen's gob of acid fails.
Talathel grazes the snake for a third time.
Aurora hits it right on the nose! But alas, it has a very sturdy nose.
Anzath's dart glances of the thick scales of the reptile.
When, all of a sudden, a muffled shriek fills the room. An armored figure wielding a tower shield suddenly snaps back into the moment and rushes toward the snake, full bore, sword raised!
If it wasn't for Bedlam's goop slowing the snake's snakelike reflexes, Gelver would be utter toast. Instead, he gets through the strike by twisting his body out of the way of the enormous fangs that pierce his tower shield and mist his face with venom--and then he swings!
...but despite Bedlam's goop, Gelver fails to hit the beast by just a shade, his sword clanging off the now-gummy scales of the monster.
Talathel does his best to begin circling the snake, to find a weak spot.
"We have to hurt this thing." Trag mutters to no one in particular.
Using bonded object ability to cast Magic Missile. Damage .
As Gelver goes flying into the fray, Aurora sighs and considers her options. She lowers her crossbow, casts Guidance on herself, and—you guessed it!—utilizes Divine Vessel.
Anzath moves in and positions herself to flank with Tal and Gelver.
Then swings Critfisher with all her might.
Bedlam hefts his heavy pick.
Dat be better!
The dwarf then walks up to it, applies an acid flask, and swings!
The dirty dwarf spits on the floor.
As the snake hisses in Gelver's face, Anzath begins to take it down from behind. But it's Bedlam who ends things--with the snake being distracted by Gelver and Anzath providing the flank, he has plenty of time to pin the beast to the floor, striking just behind its head with his pick. The mining implement crushes the snake's spine. It writhes convulsively for a while, but soon it is still.
Talathel raises his branched spear in salute at Bedlam's martial prowess, then joins the others in searching the room when they get around to it.
Tragershen stops mid-spell when Bedlam strikes his telling blow.
"Beware. There may be a mate, or offspring."
Trag joins the others in searching for valuables, making good use of his detection magic to search for anything of particular value.
Bedlam shrugs his shoulders.
Be a gud pick!
The dwarf searches the area for anything of value.
Tragershen approaches the gooey snake and thinks a moment. It shrugged off the heat of the bombs. It was sleeping in one of these giant green fire pits. Might this beautiful snakeskin also have fire-resistant properties? Snakeskin isn't usually available in such quality or quantity, maybe it could be of some use...
Otherwise, there's no treasure here.
Bedlam decides that this snake is good for garments.
The dwarf takes the time to skin it.
The Alchemist then brews a Mutagen and an Extract.
When the dwarf sets to skinning the snake, Tragershen nods approvingly.
When they are ready to leave the room, Tragershen calls them to a halt in one of the unremarkable appearing corridors.
He pulls the spy eye from his backpack. "This sensor that Yaza had has numerous counterparts. Any of them that are set up can be used to watch the space around them. I am going to check and make sure we didn't miss one on the levels we have now explored. But another one of these can be used to spy through this one, so I wanted to take precautions. This space looks like so many others in this place, so it should not tip them off to where we are specifically. I don't know if hostile magic can be cast through them, so if I don't come out of my concentration within a minute, one of you should wrest it from my grasp and return it to my magical knapsack."
He'll then concentrate on the marble, trying to see through the others linked to it. Through each one, he'll try to catch a detail or two so that if they come to the place where one is set up, he'll recognize it.
Satisfied in having cut the giant snake deeply herself, Anzath stands slack-jawed after witnessing Bedlam’s killing blow. After shaking her head and regaining her senses, she comments, “Vell done, dwarf.”
She helps in the skinning of the beast. “Dis vaz no ordinary snake, yez?”
She also tries her hand at extracting some of its venom.
Anzath recovers her Wyvern dart. It's no worse for the wear.
Seeing Anzath struggling at the maw of the serpent, Trag moves over to help. He pulls out his scrivener's kit. "Here, take one of these." he says, handing her a spare pen nib. "If you cap the fang with it, it will help control the poison when you are ready to force it out. And this" he says, offering the small knife in the kit used to cut quills to pens "Is probably better for cutting down to the poison sack without damaging it. It will take longer, but it should be worth the time."
Trying to use profession (snake handler) to aid Anzath. Take 10 gives him a 12.
He'll also capture some of the snake's blood in a small vial from the kit. "Ullman may find this interesting."
Tragershen's advice proves to make the difference, and Anzath now has a dose of Giant Cobra Venom.
Anzath struggles using her gladius blade to get to the venom gland of the giant snake. When Tragershen interrupts her struggle to lend advice, at first, she’s annoyed, but then she pays careful attention and learns a thing or two.
She can’t recall being this close to the elf wizard before, and she seems to be studying him as he demonstrates his skill at snake handling.
After they work together to extract the poison, she hands the vial to Bedlam to be preserved. Impressed by Tragershen’s skill and knowledge, she asks, “Vhere did you learn to do such a ding?”
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As they work to secure the poison, Tragershen answers her question.
"I grew up in a small village on the edge of the Tanglebriar." Remembering she was from the Darklands, he added "It is a swamp on the southern border of the elven kingdom. It is haunted by a major demon called Treerazor and his minions. Because of the dangers there, our village was quite isolated and we had to be self reliant. With few powerful druids or clerics, the rangers captured local snakes to use their venom to make antidotes. I spent a season training with the snake handlers in my youth. At one point or another over the decades of my youth, I helped out with most functions around the village at one point or another. Most of the young did."
And he gestures at the scrivener's kit they were using. "And we had to improvise a lot. We had to make due with whatever was on hand."
Aurora reclaims her quarterstaff and observes the group at work, keeping a vigilant watch over their snake-harvesting efforts.
Time passes. After the removal of venom sacs, Tragershen proceeds to his plan of using the Spy Eye.
First, he sees the damned fountain that he glimpsed last time. Instead of water, the pool seems to be blood, pus, and excrement. A zombie aimlessly shambles around.
The second channel brings up the face of a ghoul dressed in red and black, with what appears to be a human arm in its mouth. The ghoul drops the arm it had been gnawing on and starts shouting (of course, you can't hear what it is saying). Tragershen sees men of Orcus milling around, and, if he stays on channel, Yaza Mongro appears. She looks furious and draws her finger across her throat, etc.
The next channel is a view of a door from the bottom of staircase. Tragershen recognizes the style of the paint job from the magical mosaic room--this could be a view from the bottom of that very staircase.
The next channel seems to be a stable. The horses look horribly thin. As Tragershen examines them, he realizes that their flesh is hanging in ribbons--they appear to be zombified. There's another door and staircase in the corner of his field of vision.
The next time he changes the channel, he sees the fountain and the zombie again.
Talathel waits, and guards, and ponders.
He decides to speak his mind.
"My skill grows. But so must my flexibility. Mindlessly attacking is a road to destruction, and I must take care to avoid marching down it. The satisfaction of success in battle is...intoxicating."
When he breaks away from looking at the spy eye, he clutches it tightly in his fist before thrusting it away in his magical pack.
He turns to the group and says "There appear to be four mates to this spy eye.. One is indeed in the possession of Yaza and her minions. I saw her with what appeared to be a ghoul."
"Now, I also saw that putrid fountain again, with a zombie nearby. She must find monitoring it significant for some reason."
"Another looked like it may be below those stairs in the mosaic room. If it is, we could retrieve another quickly, blinding her further."
"The last one was in a stable hosting an undead horse."
"When we encounter each of these locations, we had best be on guard. Even if we blind each eye as we come to it, she will know where we are at that moment and may be able to send minions against us."
Anzath watches Tragershen carefully as he scries into the depths. After his report, she nods in agreement, “She must have someding vaiting for uz at de bottom of dose stairz.”
Something inside of her feels pleased that they’ve been able to irk Yaza so, but again, Anzath knows the undead priestess is well prepared for them now.
Her face twitches as she contemplates the situation, then she speaks up, “If ve have noding better to do, I vould like to burn off dat green slime and try to recover bodies buried vithin. It is best ve do diz before Yaza doez. Besidez, I am under kontrakt.”
Anzath then suggests her plan to explore the nearby caves and find a way to get at the slime from above.
"I am not opposed to exploring those caves. There will be challenges there also."
The dwarf finishes his concoctions. He gathers his gear, stores it in his bulging pack, and hefts his heavy pick.
Be only right and proper.
"I have been considering the problem on the remains. With some preparation, I may be able to summon an elemental briefly. Maybe just long enough to run into the room and recover the remains. If we take some time for me to confer with my spellbook, we could attempt it."
"I am tempted to run down those stairs, snatch that [i]spy eye, and then retreat out of this complex for a rest. Just to deprive her of that source of intelligence."
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Anzath convinces Tragershen that the party needs to check on the Sarenrae group before hunting around for the security camera marble thing. Something like, "Ve vill do that next, I promiz."
The party inspects the collapse and tries to figure out approximately where they are relative to the cave entrance. After a few Spatial Reasoning checks, they head outside to hunt for Anzath's hunch-cave.
They startle a few bats and get thoroughly muddy while spelunking, but they find a likely looking pit, led to it by an absence of guano that seems to signal the presence of the organic-material-devouring slime. Magical light cast into the darkness reveals a sickly green puddle below.
Anzath and Bedlam contrive a controlled explosion of some sort, much to the dismay of the rest of the party. But it works. The tunnels below them wobble, but they hold. The slime disintegrates in the heat. At this point the party's lack of a heat or cold cantrip costs them some time doing careful, torch-based slime hunting. Occasionally they take a break to let the smoke clear. Soon they can start digging.
Forming a human chain, they start lifting the large, loose rocks to the surface, always maintaining a vigilant watch for stray scraps of slime. They find the first body--once a proud holy warrior. Now only a few scraps of corroded plate armor remain. Worthless. They stash the scrap for future reference and continue.
What is that sound in the darkness? A voice? No... a cooing? A desperate cooing?
Soon they lift a stone, revealing a little pocket among the stones. A pigeon hops around inside, flashing sparks of light from its... leg?
In the center of the pocket is the crumpled body of Vael, the paladin from Anzath's last party. Vael's pack has been torn open, and a pile of sunflower shells litters her rotting corpse. And let's just say that this space is not free of guano. The poor little bird has been hopping around for weeks, using its boon from the temple of Sarenrae to fend of the slime's advances, eating Vael's supplies, hoping with the faith of a holy creature, waiting for some kind of rescue. The cracks in the stones must have allowed some circulation of air, and the bird's Ring of Sparks allowed him to drive the ever-present tendrils of slime away from the body of his spiritual protege.
Valrah looks hopefully up at Anzath. Recognition! The pigeon fires a celebratory spark off from her anklet.
Finally, someone takes on the grim task of constructing a stretcher to haul Vael's soggy remains to the surface.
Due to Valrah's vigilant care, the party is able to recover all of Vael's belongings. Inside the ruptured backpack and its nearly-depleted cache of seeds they find a golden scroll case that contains a scroll of Resurrection and a scroll of Restoration.
It is loud, messy, hard work, but Aurora puts her back into helping move the stones to unveil the corpses below them, pausing only briefly to wipe the sweat from her brow or take a swig of water before setting back to it.
A still-living dove with an anklet shooting sparks earns a cocked brow from her; the soggy corpse earns a strong wrinkle of the cleric's nose. That can't smell pleasant.
Once the corpse and its belongings have been safely brought to the surface, and the gilded scrollcase located, she takes the Scroll of Resurrection and hums. "Sarenrae smiles well upon your friend, Anzath," she says, delicately tracing a finger along the back of the parchment. "I would say it is your call whether or not you want her back. Her church, I am certain, would be interested in such... as would her bird."
Kneeling to the floor next to the body, Aurora looks up to Anzath and waits for the half-Drow to weigh in.
Anzath, sweaty, dirty, and stinking to high heaven, stands over the corpse of the paladin of Saranrae. She had fully intended to burn the bodies and scatter the ashes in the sea as the priests had instructed her, but well, Yaza can’t raise what the green slime already consumed. So the cleric is accounted for, but this one... Anzath never pretended to be a religious type, but it seemed fate had something more in store for this one.
Anzath takes up the bird, thiz bird... and holds it to her chest. It all feels so ominous, like it should start raining at any moment. Vhy kouldn’t it be de klerik?
“Okay,” she nods to Aurora, “Hold on to your buttz.”
Wiggling a little but ceasing the shooting of what little fire she has. It had to be the one she bickered with... Looking back and forth between the human, the more familiar face of Anzath, and the decaying face of the mortal she was charged with. Don't say no. Don't say no. Don't say no!
Pushing further into the woman when picked up. The whole not getting along fading away at the joy of some kind of contact.