"Now tha' be th' ticket! Hands ain't supposedt' be crawlin' about on their own. By Angradd's hairy back, I be thinkin' it's time fer smashin'!" Firebeard whipped out his battlehammer and brought the spiked end down on the nearest hand.
Everyone's doing a fine job. It's obvious my inspiring story helps them perform better!
The group all shriek with rage, and soon fire, hammers, swords, and axes descend on the hands with astonishing ease. The lid of the iron maiden opens wide, but Lena sees through whatever illusion was intended fo rher, and turns to throw a firebolt at the hands. It misses, but they're dead anyways.
Having failed to claim a victim, the iron maiden slams shut.
End of Combat
Rustom looks around "....huh, what the....."
Arval quickly turns around as to not look at the torture chamber. He tries to look like he is inspecting the wall.
"That was easy enough!"
A latch is found on the edge of the iron maiden which swings open to reveal a passage. The rough stone walls of this natural cavern drip with moisture, leaving stagnant pools of water on the uneven floor. It leads eastwards before opening up into a larger room.
Whiskeyjack sniffed the dank air and a grin ripped open his beard. "Ah, the smell o' th' underground. 's like a parfume t' a dwarf. Too bad Barlee dinnae make i' down here. Th' oaf'd be drooling wit' memories o' home. O' course, I feel much th' same way."
Whiskeyjack led the way down into the tunnel, pointing out the salient stone and minerals to an eraptured Eldon.
Kawrock pokes what is left of the hands with the tip of his blade to make sure they are dead. Satisfied that they will not be moving again he gathers the ashes created by his fire spell. He sprinkles them over his head while muttering in what sounds like warbling and bird song.
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Kawrock takes a moment and anoints himself with the ashes of the burned hand. A strange, smoky cloud moves with him, partially obscuring his form.
As Whiskeyjack drones on and on about rock formations Eldon is faced with an existential crisis for a moment as he realizes this may be how others see him. The crisis is quickly over though, because Eldon knows his stories are great and everyone loves them.
However, as Whiskeyjack makes his way through the tunnel, he steps in something. Searing, horrible pain shoots up his leg as he steps in what appears to be living acid, the sole of his boot dissolving instantly!
Almost transparent, a seemingly mundane puddle, patch of moist stone, or glistening rock is suddenly revealed to be more as a terrible pseudopod lashes out!
This a grey ooze, it is immune to cold and fire damage and has a risk of damaging any items that strike it. It is a voracious predator, eating all organic matter and metal.
Arval
Rustom
Kawrock
Eldon
Whiskeyjack (14 dmg)
Lena
---
Ooze
Whiskeyjack burst into a spate of cursing as the burning pain shot up his leg. The words "Angradd", "hairy", and "nether regions" featured prominently, though the rest seemed oddly distorted by the heavy dwarven brogue.
He hopped back a step and healed himself with a thought, thought not a very divine one.
"Ware yer feet lads an' lasses!"
HP 14/26. Current AC: 18/10/18
Active conditions:
Active spell effects:
Fervors remaining: 1/4
Blessings remaining: 4/4
Spells remaining: 1st 4/4
Lena's fire bolt slams into the living puddle and has no noticeable effect. Nor does this strange creature feature in any of her understandings of the world.
Arval is completely oblivious as to what is happening as he needs to move through the room again. He tries to avoid looking at the tools and body but doesn't do a very good job at it. He moves in after the others into the cave and suddenly jumps as Whiskeyjack starts cursing.
Upon the attack he swings his sword at the creature and yells.
"ATTACK!!!"
Arval's sword slashes down nastily at the ooze, which seems to do damage, but its acidic substance starts sizzling on his sword!
He pulls his sword back and looks troubles.
"Watch out! This thing damages your weapon!"
"It's also immune to fire!" Kawrock calls out as he moves forward and slashes at the creature with his bastard sword.
"It indeed is!" Eldon adds to Kawrock's words.
"Despite the rhetoric nature of your question, Lena, I feel that it is necessary to inform you about the factual nature of this creature. It is a gray ooze, and as you've noticed there's a risk of damaging any items that strike it. It is immune to both cold and fire damage, and is known as a voracious predator that eats both organic matter and metal."
Eldon continues to tell about oozes, for once telling some kind of useful information. "Oozes can hight amount of health, but their defenses are usually not that good."
He then trails of. "It's funny how this reminds me of how I once went fishing with my granny. That is, the granny who aided me in the defeating a dragon when I was a wee child. Not my other granny, who never did much else than tell tall stories..."
Rustom moves in, bolstered by Eldon's riveting story. He reaches for his axe, but strangely enough pulls out the hammer he used on the Mosswater Marauder!! Shrugging, he swings down at the ooze, doing good damage and yanking out his hammer before it is harmed.
The ooze then rears up, and lashes out at Rustom with a psuedopod!
The ooze completely envelops Rustom and begins burning and sizzling him and his armour!
Arval
Rustom (12 dmg) (grappled)
Kawrock
Eldon
Whiskeyjack (12 dmg)
Lena
---
Ooze (27 dmg)
"That ain't gonna be good." Whiskeyjack swung with his hammer at the ooze, trying hard to not hit Rustom. The hammer's head sank into the ooze, splashing the creature's fluid all about. He yanked the hammer back out and spat upon the head, listening to the sizzle.
Struggling with the oose Rustom yells "Get this thing off me."
Whiskeyjack's hammer smashes into the ooze, and then a magic missile follows up. A loud splut sounds out, and the ooze disperses, sinking into the floor. THe only sound left is the sizzling of your damaged equipment.
End of Combat
"My poor sweet sword!" Kawrock cries as he does his best to clean off the blade. "I will have to see about fixing the melted bits once we are out of here."
"It's a shame I never spent time learning the spell named mending," Eldon comments. "Did anyone else, perhaps?"
Eldon looks at the others, and Lena specifically.
"Such a shame," he'll say, if no one knows the spell.
"Me poor boot!" Whiskeyjack held up the offended item and waved it about. The boot was clearly ruined. The leather soles were completely gone, and the sides were tattered. His left foot looked pretty torn up as well. The blood had diluted the acid, but still the foot looked ruined. Only dwarven feet could have withstood that amount of damage and still held their owner upright.
With a quick bit of magic from his wand, Whiskeyjack healed up his foot, and most of Rustom's wounds, but the boot was a total loss.
Arval looks down at his sword with a sad face.
"This sword is very precious to me. Why did this have to happen."
He seems very very sad and distracted.
"It will have to wait until later as the mending spell can take a bit of time." Kawrock leads the way down the rest of the tunnel. Keeping an eye out for any other oozes or traps.
Although with their weapons and armour damaged, the group find that their equipment is still basically functional. The hall ends at a closed door, which Kawrock does not detect traps from. As the group look over the door, the cold, chill, and claustrophobia of Harrowstone seems to close in. There is a definite sense of danger beyond.
As you stare at the wall, you see your name written over, over, and over again. VladlenaVLADLENAvladlenaVLADLENA
If there are no objections Kawrock will open the door.
"Who goes first?"
Asks Arval, he looks fairly nervous.
Whiskeyjack grimaced, and put the remains of the boot back on his foot. He stomped along with the others, his bare left foot making a splat sound with every other step.
Nobody sees any writing on the wall except for Lena. The group resolutely girds their loins and makes their way into the secret door. They find themselves in a cell, and then push into a large room; a flooded oubliette. Eldon's dancing lanterns spread out to illuminate the room.
Several iron doors line the walls of this partially ruined cellblock—the doors themselves hang askew on their hinges, revealing empty cells beyond. Partially burnt wooden support timbers still function to the north, while to the south they’ve collapsed and caused cell walls to crumble as well. Rivulets of water drip down the southwestern wall to create a shallow pool in this ruined portion of the room, with overflow filling an oubliette hole in the middle of the room nearly to the rim.
The group look around the room, which is silent save for the dripping of water. However, Arval feels a sudden crazed, clawing at his mind as the letter A writes itself on the wall!
You feel a sudden horrible feeling that your name, your identity, your soul is being stolen. You must destroy those letters!
Eldon gives Arval a worried look. "Want to sit down and rest a moment? You look a bit pale."
Arval yells and charges at the wall with the letter.
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Arval screams and beats at the wall, knocking off the bloody letter. He feels somewhat relieved.
The threat to the Splatter Man's treasured spellbook seems to do the trick, and the water in the middle of the floor begins to boil noisily. A hideous shriek rips through the walls of the dungeon, and a twisted, greenish ghost rises up from the water. The Splatter Man is here.
Rustom
Kawrock
Arval
Lena
Whiskeyjack
---
The Splatter Man
---
Arval
"Looks like your little trick worked Lena." With a few mumbled words mixed with some hand gestures Kawrock summons a flaming sphere where the Splatter Man's ghost appeared.
"How d' ye work these things again?" Whiskeyjack fumbled with the siphon that he had from Norna's things. After a moment, he held it up - upside down - and wrenched the thing open.
HP 26/26. Current AC: 18/10/18
Active conditions:
Active spell effects:
Fervors remaining: 1/4
Blessings remaining: 4/4
Spells remaining: 1st 4/4
Whiskeyjack's haunt siphon begins to nosily suck in the area around it. The Splatter Man cackles madly as he is unaffected but you can see names being drawn from the walls, previously invisible, into the bottle.
A woof of magical flame sounds out as Kawrock conjures an enormous ball of flame, which falls through the Splatter Man. He moves deftly out of the way but is still minorly scored by the flames.
The magic missile spell hammers with full force into the ghost, drawing a shriek of misery.
Eldon starts a tale about the defeat of the Lopper, to remind the party how he dealt with that threat.
"As all of you can surely remember, I defeated the Lopper not too long ago. I'll recount that battle, so all of you can imitate the strategies I used then."