Rowena slips into a deep, fatal dream. She feels a Pharasma's pale yellow light on her skin. Rowena's essence slowly eases its way out of her body.
Rowena twitches on the floor, but stops bleeding out. The two mongrels snarl and attack Jinxx from either side. One manages to thump the eidolon solidly with his club.
Ayesha moved forward to stand protectively over Rowena and Jinxx. Her scimitar whirled in a series of arcs, covering her from head to toe in a ribbon of steel. "I'll try and distract them while you finish them off"
Total defense = +4 to AC (21/18/17)
No AoO around the corners (thank goodness)
Sarkast steps back in and jabs at the mongrel he previously hurt .
Sarkast's spear penetrates deeply and the mongrel collapses with a groan. The one to the south suddenly looks a great deal less confident.
Seeing the mongrel collapse Jinxx turns snarls and attacks the mongrel that is left.
Jinxx snarls and pounces on the remaining mongrel, who looks about ready to get out of town. He viciously catches the mongrel with both claws, spattering the ground with blood.
Meriui steps in, and using the distraction Ayesha has provided slashes out brutally with his scimitar. However, he misses terribly, almost dropping his weapon as the mongrel parries.
Looking around wildly, the mongrel tries to dive past Sarkast and Meriui.
The mongrel amazingly avoids attacks from Sarkast and Jinx, but Meriui slashes out.
This time the attack hits, and it sends the mongrel to the ground, bleeding.
END OF COMBAT
Rowena took 16 damage.
Jinxx took 6 damage.
The room is now quiet, with the two mongrels dying noisily on the ground. Rowena's head has swollen dangerously and she lies unconscious on the ground.
Rowena drifts into a stable, but comatose, state.
The mongrels defeated, Sarkast drops his spear and pulls out one of the potions he is carrying. He lifts Rowena's head and carefully drips the contents into her throat.
Ayesha slipped the scimitar back into her sash and knelt beside Rowena. She stroked the woman's hair back from her face and held her still while Sarkast bent to heal her. As the healing energies flowed into the cleric, Ayesha smiled. "Good thing we found those potions, yes?"
Rowena coughs as the liquid is forced down her throat. Suddenly her eyes open and she gasps as her swollen head shrinks back to a normal size. She blinks her eyes open to see Sarkast, Ayesha, and Meriui looking down at her.
With haunted eyes, Horgus slowly makes his way up to the rest of the group.
"If she almost didn't make it then I'm dead if I go on my own. We'll... we'll talk about this later."
He shuts up and lurks angrily in a corner.
Rowena comes around and jumps to her feet. "Good thing indeed. Thanks for the TLC, dear." She searches for anything unusual on the bodies of the dead.
Alas, the mongrels are not carrying anything of note. You find a couple of copper pieces and the typical clubs they all carry. Nothing else of value. There is a door to the east of this little room.
Sarkast smiles at Rowena as she recovers, then collects his spear and checks the far door while everyone gets ready to move again.
Sarkast listens at the door for a while, and checks it over. No traps or sounds are heard. He opens it to check the next room.
This large chamber must have been a cistern for a sewer system, a possible sign that you are nearing the surface. Walls made of identical stone blocks hold up a lofty ceiling reinforced with elegant stone arches, while the centre of the room contains a more recent-looking structure made of brick walls that reach to the ceiling.
After ensuring everyone is ready to move on, Sarkast quietly enters the room. He moves slowly toward the north to get a look around the structure, making sure that the others are nearby in case of trouble.
Rowena slinks in after Sarkast, albeit with less grace. She touches the side of an arch. "What is this place?
Sarkast and Rowena look into the entrance to the structure. A 5' hallway bends away and opens up a bit. It looks like a small, crude maze.
"More strangeness ... why would anyone put a maze here?"
Sarkast puts away his spears and gets out his compass, making a note of his current orientation. He uncoils a length of silk rope, looping one end around the strap of his pack. He then hands the coil back to Meriui.
"Let's see how this goes for a bit. Hold this in case I need to be pulled back, or have difficulty finding my way."
He then takes out a periscope and steps into the passage. Walking quietly, he uses the periscope to check around corners before stepping.
Sarkast begins to creep slowly through the maze. It's quite small and does not appear to offer much in the way of challenge. He slowly explores, finding one dead end and then moving along. Shallow, somewhat hoarse breathing fills his ears as he creeps through, shielding his light to avoid detection. Finally, he peers around a corner to see a strange creature, crouched and trying to remain silent at a dead end. It is a bloated, hideous humanoid, much shorter than a human and with bristly hair poking out here and there.
It has not noticed Sarkast.
The creature is a dretch, a favorite frontline troop for more powerful demons. They're known as being weak, easy to bully, but incredibly vicious and with a great love of slaughter and chaos.
Dretches are resistant to weapons which are not made of cold iron or good aligned. As well, they are known to cast cause fear and stinking cloud.
Ayesha followed closely behind, trying to move quietly and also trying to figure out the purpose of the maze.
Sarkast holds up a hand when he sees the creature, then steps back and offers the periscope to Ayesha, to let her look around the corner and attempt to identify the creature. As she takes it, he quietly sets down the compass and draws his spear out.
Ayesha took the periscope from Sarkast as quietly as she could, and then after taking a moment to figure out how the device worked, peered around the corner. She barely held a gasp in when she recognized the dretch, knowing that they didn't have many weapons capable of defeating its natural defenses.
Pulling back from the corner, she whispered, "It's a dretch, a smaller demon used as front rank fodder for the demon armies. It has natural resistance against weaponry, unless it is made of cold iron or is good-aligned. Fortunately, thy aren't very capable fighters, usually. I don't know about you, but the dragon scale that called to me allows me to align my weaponry to defeat this evil creature's defenses."
Rowena scowls at the Dretch. "Does this mean we're heading toward an army? Dretch scum...I say we try to kill it."
Strangely enough, the dretch becomes aware of the conversations surrounding it. Its head rears up and although it misses Sarkast, it starts making moves towards the group!
Seeing the demon begin to move, Sarkast quickly darts around the corner and hides, waiting for it to pass so that it is between him and the others. He silently signals to the others to wait and draw it out.
Sarkast buries himself in a corner, waiting for the dretch. Rowena sees him try to mime something but it doesn't make much sense.
Ayesha attuned her mind to the scale in her pouch, and a light silvery sheen glowed along the edge of her black scimitar. The blade seemed to squirm in her hand slightly, but quickly settles down. So quickly that Ayesha was sure she had just imagined it. She moved down across from Sarkast, not bothering to be quiet, trying to draw the creature into the open.
[
Move, align weapon good on scimitar via the scale
Jinxx moves into the maze trying to get into better position.
Rowena waits to react, seeing what the dretch will do. Meriui gently lays down Thora's body and moves to Rowena's flank with his scimitar drawn.
The dretch snarls and starts advancing towards the group. It steps into sight of Ayesha and sees Jinxx up against the corner. Quickly, it starts to grunt and groan before an enormous cloud of foul gas appears beneath Ayesha's feet!
You are nauseated. Creatures with the nauseated condition experience stomach distress. Nauseated creatures are unable to attack, cast spells, concentrate on spells, or do anything else requiring attention. The only action such a character can take is a single move action per turn.
Ayesha
Ronan
Jinxx (mage armour)
Sarkast (hidden)
Meriui
Rowena
---
Dretch
Hiding around the corner, Sarkast is surprised by the foul stench that billows around from the demon. Barely holding in his gag reflex, he hurries away, trying to find clear air.
The gas floors Rowena, and she holds her stomach in sickness. She steps back beside Sarkast, trying to clear her head of the horrid gas.
, good aligned, +1 magic from arcane pool
The stench was awful, but Ayesha simply willed it away. Now was the time to strike! Where is he going? she thought, as Sarkast swept by her in full retreat. Now was not the time for questions, though. Now was the time to act! She almost felt pulled forward by the black scimitar in her hand as she dove for the creature's heart. It was almost as if the dragon scale's power was guiding her as she struck.
Jinxx was about to attack and taking a breath starts to gag, moving as fast as he can he tries to escape the cloud.
Sensing Jinxx distress Ronan just has time to prepare himself for the cloud of gas and with stands its effects.
Ronan not wanting to be sickened steps just outside the cloud of gas.
A silvery light covers her scimitar and Ayesha charges in mightily. Her wickedly curved blade cleaves into the dretch who squeals in pain and utter shock at actually being harmed by someone.
Meriui is also able to withstand the stinking cloud. Having retrieved his scale previously, he enchants his scimitar and moves in. Anevia starts to limp towards the cloud but starts coughing and retreats.
The dretch suddenly begins chanting, its eyes turning black.
The dretch is attempting to summon another of its kind.
For your edification, the cloud spell the dretch cast is stinking cloud. Notably, any creature which withstands the effects of the cloud runs the risk of succumbing the longer they stay in. It should only last a very short while though.
Meriui lets out a cry and points to his north. Weaving through the maze comes yet another dretch!
Ayesha
Ronan (nauseated)
Jinxx (mage armour)
Sarkast (hidden) (nauseated)
Meriui
Rowena (nauseated)
---
Dretch (8 damage taken)
Dretch
Ayesha lashed out at the dretch as it began to mumble in its arcane language, scoring another blow. All the while she kept trying to hold back the revulsion that she felt at the fogging air around here. "There's another one coming!"
Ayesha's blade flades out, and the spell dies in the dretch's throat. One more slash, and it collapses to the ground, bleeding out black ichor.
Rowena groans from the sickening and sinking feeling in her stomach. She throws up on Sarkast's foot.
Rowena, Sarkast, and Jinxx all continue to just wait out the nausea. The cloud fades out around everyone and Meriui slashes out at the dretch, but misses wildly.
The dretch snarls and puffs up to roar at Meriui, but the valiant paladin simply shakes off the fear effect.
Ayesha
Ronan
Jinxx (mage armour) (nauseated)
Sarkast (nauseated)
Meriui
Rowena (nauseated)
---
Dretch
Ayesha continued to move up the maze towards the remaining dretch, holding her breath and trying not to retch. She slashed at the beast, but gagged at the smell and missed completely.
Ayesha swings out mightily at the dretch, but misses wildly. Meriui follows up with an attack of his own. This one scores solidly, opening up a huge wound in the dretch!
Ronan takes a shot of his own, but the bolt simply slams into the wall right in front of him, sticking in a good inch.
Sarkast, Jinxx, and Rowena finally have their heads clear and the horrible nausea calm down as the effects of the stinking cloud wear off. The dretch, with nowhere to go, attacks Meriui frantically, scroing a hit.
Ayesha
Ronan
Jinxx (mage armour)
Sarkast
Meriui (3 damage taken)
Rowena
---
Dretch (10 damage taken)
There is a feeling of gratefulness in Ayesha's mind as she takes a breath of somewhat fresh air. With the demon's stench wearing off, maybe the others would be able to support her. With a flashing strike, she swatted out at the creature, trying to injure and hold it off until the others arrived.
Her Qadiran garb flowing gracefully through the air, Ayesha spins on heel to avoid an attack and comes up within the dretch's defenses, opening up a wound.
Finally shaking off the nausea Jinxx moved back into the maze with a burst of speed and lunges at the Dretch.