Four creatures burst through the door to the west unexpectedly. A Derro and two mite slaves, both recognizable from your previous adventure down below.
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Kimiya is about to alert his fellow pathfinders to the imminent danger when the door flies open. He mutters to himself, "more mites? That's a shame." He moves around the pit, calling out as he moves, "friend mites, we are not here for you. Step aside and we will let you go." As he comes to a stop, he continues, "as for your master, I offer a similar choice. Stand down and I will not kill you. Resist and my friends may not be so kind."
The Derro let's Kimiya get about two words into his spiel before the entire room is bathed in complete darkness.
Kimiya feels a whoosh of air behind him.
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Kimiya, aware of his position in regards to the pit moves closer to the outside wall. Recalling the rush of air, he takes a chance and turns, striking where someone may have come up to flank him. I hope that derro didn't come inside my range. As his weapon connects with something soft, he calls out, "I pray that wasn't you sneaking up on me friend mite."
Attack square with yellow.
Kimiya hears the sickening crunch of his blade striking something followed by the sounds of something hitting the ground.
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"Friend mites? Someone want to tell me what's going on? And can anyone see anything in this cursed darkness?"
Velen draws his short swords and carefully feels his away around the far side of the fountain to where he thinks he remembered seeing Kimiya head when they walked in, and hearing sound of a scuffle.
In a lower voice, hoping he's reached his intended destination, he murmers "Kimiya, is that you? Are you alight? What the devil is happening?"
He assumes a ready stance in case someone or something attacks or threatens him.
Darkvision allows many characters and monsters to see perfectly well without any light at all, but characters with normal or low-light vision can be rendered completely blind by putting out the lights. In many cases, some characters or monsters might be able to see while others are blinded. For purposes of the following points, a blinded creature is one who simply can't see through the surrounding darkness.
Blind creatures must make a DC 10 Acrobatics skill check to move faster than half speed. Creatures that fail this check fall prone. Blinded creatures can't run or charge.
All opponents have total concealment from a blinded creature, so the blinded creature has a 50% miss chance in combat. A blinded creature must first pinpoint the location of an opponent in order to attack the right square; if the blinded creature launches an attack without pinpointing its foe, it attacks a random square within its reach. For ranged attacks or spells against a foe whose location is not pinpointed, roll to determine which adjacent square the blinded creature is facing; its attack is directed at the closest target that lies in that direction.
A blinded creature loses its Dexterity modifier to AC (if positive) and takes a –2 penalty to AC.
A blinded creature takes a –4 penalty on Perception checks and most Strength- and Dexterity-based skill checks, including any with an armor check penalty. A creature blinded by darkness automatically fails any skill check relying on vision.
A creature blinded by darkness can make a Perception check as a free action each round in order to locate foes (DC equal to opponents' Stealth checks). A successful check lets a blinded character hear an unseen creature “over there somewhere.” It's almost impossible to pinpoint the location of an unseen creature. A Perception check that beats the DC by 20 reveals the unseen creature's square (but the unseen creature still has total concealment from the blinded creature).
A blinded creature can grope about to find unseen creatures. A character can make a touch attack with his hands or a weapon into two adjacent squares using a standard action. If an unseen target is in the designated square, there is a 50% miss chance on the touch attack. If successful, the groping character deals no damage but has pinpointed the unseen creature's current location. If the unseen creature moves, its location is once again unknown.
If a blinded creature is struck by an unseen foe, the blinded character pinpoints the location of the creature that struck him (until the unseen creature moves, of course). The only exception is if the unseen creature has a reach greater than 5 feet (in which case the blinded character knows the location of the unseen opponent, but has not pinpointed him) or uses a ranged attack (in which case the blinded character knows the general direction of the foe, but not his location).
The creature near Jeffrey swipes at him, but is unable to hit him as he is awed by the fighter's amazing armor. The derro quickly slashes at Kimiya, cutting him with his short sword. Since the samurai cannot retaliate quickly in the darkness he twists the knife in a critical spot on the nagaji's side. Seeing velen approach in the darkness, he quietly sidesteps away.
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Ha ha ha! Do you even know who I am? I AM GRETHE!!!!!!
Grethe lets out a mighty roar as he enters blood rage. Navigating through the darkness just as if it were daylight he charges directly towards red and attacks with his big ass two handed sword.
Blood rage round 1/6
Power attack
Charging
Movement-charge to red (could come one please move me there?)
Standard-power attack that mofo
Grethe drives forward and cuts clean through the slave, annihilating him in a single blow. Chunks of flesh and gore splash on him and the nearby Jeffrey.
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Alrathien followed Grethe into the room, muttering about the intelligence of those who would charge blindly into a darkened room filled with other blind people with sharp objects. Anyone nearby culd hear him castigate his own choices as well with a muttered, "Who's the more fool? the fool, or the fool who follows him?" Blindly, the mage followed the wall to the left.
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Grethe lets out a loud booming laugh in this darkness which echos off the walls of this cave.
Good show friend Velen! I come help!
Grethe continues to navigate through the darkness with ease until he approaches Orange from a flanking position. He holds up his massive greatsword and brings it down with a heavy swing.
Move action: move 20 to flank.
standard action:
round 2 of bloodrage. Attack with greatsword.
With only two quick strikes, the combat is over. Grethe surgically removes the threat and a minute later the spell wears off and the room returns illumination of the blue-white light from Alrathien's staff.
Back in the hall in the west, slaves are huddle against the wall. Kimiya breaks apart the chains shackling the prisoners together while Jeffrey sets back to work on those tumblers he saw just before the creatures appeared.
They prisoners say that they are engineers, city planners, and one man is a mason. They were all kidnapped within the last week. One of them says, "We were told that a man named Dalirio was going to turn us into skeletons." They have been in darkness so much that they don't know where they were kept relative to their current location; the derros purposefully led them in circles to disorient them. Once you are done speaking with them, they thank you and scramble for the exit.
Jeffrey finishes moving the tumblers and with a final audible click the tumblers lock into place. Suddenly, the fountain begins to rotate and its stale waters drain rapidly. The grinding of the gears echoes off the stone walls, causing the ground to shake. As the fountain rotates, a spiral staircase appears where the fountain’s solid basin once sat. A slick staircase slopes down into Cassomir’s bowels, twisting its way down and around a deep cistern.
Both the Derro and mites had small short swords. The derro also had a repeating light crossbow with eight poisoned bolts.
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"Alrathien thinks that Dalirio will not be turning anyone into skeletons again, excepting perhaps himself. If Alrathien recalls correctly, and that is almost certainly the case, Dalirio was dispatched days ago by the very ones you see in front of you now. You see? Heroes, one and all, are Alrathien's close companions."
"Oh, good job, friend Jeffrey! Your insights have proven most elucidating this day, Alrathien is certain. It seems we have more to do, dear friends. Onward and downwards!" So saying, Alrathien stepped aside and generously indicated for someone else to go first.
"If Alrathien recalls correctly, and that is almost certainly the case, Dalirio was dispatched days ago by the very ones you see in front of you now."
The man pauses on his way out and shrugs his shoulders. "Strange, they just told us that this morning. I guess they aren't aware of your heroics yet?" The man scampers up the stairs to freedom.
The party heads down the stairs, descending well over 200 feet before they come to a door. Opening the door reveals an enormous room ahead, filled with dozens of family crypts decorated with family names, heraldic crests, and a variety of death-themed statuary. The walls, floor, and ceiling are made of smooth, polished stone, and the crypts are made of thick, square blocks of granite. A handful of statues stand throughout the room, though they don’t seem to be placed with any plan—some face the wall, some lie on their sides, and others are damaged beyond repair. The northwest quarter of the room is dominated almost entirely by a single large crypt. The name “Ismacco” is displayed across the front of the crypt.
Four undead skeletons wander about in this room. Upon spotting you they take up their broken blades and head towards you.
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Upon seeing the skeletons, Alrathien groans aloud. "If it's not utter darkness, it's mindless automatons of undeath! Seriously, can not this adventure be any less well suited to one of my prodigious talents? Truly, what's the point of being able to bend the perception of reality and focus a subjects mind only on what you want them to see if they have no mind to begin with? It is not that Alrathien means to complain, but honestly, look at them. you might as well swat them with clubs."
Both Velen and Watkins dispatch their targets, the bones crumbling to the ground. Both skeletons move down around Jeffrey, flanking him, but fail to hit him as their broken scimitars come close but do not connect.
Kimiya's attack is expertly places, but it seems that whacking the skeleton with that type of damage has no effect. The creature stares at the nagaji with hollow eye sockets.
The skeleton dodges out of the way of Grethe's attack.
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"Friend Kimiya, perhaps it is not Alrathien's place to say this, but your efforts to avoid permanently damaging your foes - while completely admirable in many respects - is wasted upon these foes. As they are not living - notice the lack of organs? - they would be less than susceptible to your normal methods of attack."
So saying, Alrathien walked up to the nearest skeleton and tapped it on the shoulder with his quarterstaff. "Pardon, but would you mind showing my friend here how effective his attacks would be if he, say, took your head off?"
Alrathien's attack comes up short and while Velen's hit may have been perfectly placed, but his weapon choice also seems to not be ideal against this foe. The blow skims across the undead creature, inflicting minimal damage.