Seoni knows that the creature is something called a "grodair", a race of intelligent fish-like magical creatures from the fey-dominated First World. They are said to be highly intelligent but cursed with a careless and absentminded nature that borders on the supernatural.
Moving on to the next door around the ring, the Pathfinders find it closed, but like all the others in the dungeon, it opens at a mere touch, revealing another section of curved hallway and beyond that a long hallway. Experimentation reveals that gravity works normally there.
The wily rouge finds no traps along the route or on the portal.
The ceiling of this hemispherical room is shaped like a massive dome, with the tallest part of the chamber soaring over sixty feet in height. Smashed glass orbs and various metallic baubles litter the ground, their sheen hidden under a thick layer of dust.
As you enter the room, what appears to be a section of the wall moves, sloughing off a shiny substance that begins to ooze towards you. It is a creature of some sort, amorphous and silvery.
Initiative Order
Talhearn
Ooze
Kyra
Seoni
Saki
Talhaearn, go!
With a smooth flowing motion, the ooze flows around the shards of glass as if they were not there and tries to flow over Saki, but her armor is simply too well made for it to score a solid blow.
Anyone, go!
|
Saki risks the potential of counterattack by stepping back over the shards of broken glass in order to get a clear swing with her glaive. The strange ooze's attacks seemed oddly pathetic for what was assumedly a guardian of this place. She seems to hit upon a particularly weak point of the ooze, slicing it in twain.
Kyra moves further into the room, her scimitar drawn and slashing towards the strange silver blob.
Seoni blasts the strange creature with fire. It sizzles and pops, releasing a nauseating smell and crisping badly. A moment later, Saki tries to sidestep the ooze and it lashes out with a silvery pseudopod that slams into her and wraps around her body, squeezing hard. It also makes her feel very strange for a few moments, the contact burning wherever it touches her flesh.
Then the paladin slices into the ooze. Kyra and Talhaearn do likewise. Each blow breaking off small parts of the ooze.
The monster continues to hold onto Saki, squeezing her with its powerful pseudopod. Also, Saki feels strange...
Mercury Poisoning (Ex)
Slam—injury; save Fort DC 17; frequency 1/round for 4 rounds; effect 1 Dexterity damage and 1 Constitution damage; cure 1 save. The save DC is Constitution-based.
If an opponent failed a save against the poison, one week after suffering the effects of the mercury poisoning, if the target has not received the benefits of a neutralize poison during that time span, then he must succeed on a DC 17 Will save or be affected as if by an insanity spell (caster level 10th). The effects can be removed by the successful casting of a greater restoration, heal, miracle, or wish spell.
Anyone, go!
"You seem to bear the brunt of our injuries, Saki!" Kyra calls, striding past the ooze as it has rippled around Saki, and raising her hand that holds her holy symbol.
Talhaearn's arrow slices another furrow in the quivering silver mass while Saki wrenches herself away from the thing's poisonous grip. Kyra's prayers soothe the injured paladin's wounds completely.
Seoni, go!
So close!
A wide blade of flame rips into the ooze, crisping it and leaving a horrible stench in its wake. The creature writhes and bubbles, incapable of understanding what is happening to it. In blind pain, it retreats, but before it can shuffle away, Saki lashes out with her polearm and slices the creature. It can take no more injury and loses cohesion, breaking up into small puddles of the noxious stuff that quiver and lie still.
PING!
Kyra cheers at Seoni's fiery blast, and again as Saki buries her weapon into the silvery mass. "Well-struck, both of you!" she cries.
"Did that ... thing... hit anyone except Saki?"
Once any injuries are taken care of, Kyra quickly moves into the room, glancing around for any signs of trouble. Besides the smashed bits of glass and other things, the room seems empty to her. She scans the room quickly for any signs of magic.
The servant of Saranrae listens at the door a moment for any trouble.
Finding no magic in the room, the Pathfinders move on through the door, coming to a hallway which ends in a section of collapsed stone and earth. A side hallway holds a single door
Anyone, go!
Kyra follows Saki, scimitar ready, stopping to detect magic on the door as well before she gives the nod for Saki to open it, if Tal doesn't find anything.
The half-elf diligently checks the approaches and doorway, finding nothing amiss. The door is the same sort as found so far throughout this much older "dungeon" - it will open when touched in the middle.
A massive, arcane machine takes up the majority of this room, its various cogs, gears, and canisters nearly covering the southern wall and branching out toward the various other corners of the chamber. Tubes and pipes stretch like tendrils into holes in the badly weathered walls. The center of the room’s ceiling has sunken in considerably, and reaches a height of barely fifteen feet in the center of the room.
As you gape at the ancient device, something moves in its heart. A mass of chitinous legs and silent speed, an enormous spider appears... a spider with a woman's head. You recognize the face as that of the elven woman seen in the walls a few rooms back.
"You can't have it! You can't keep me here! You did this! Bastards! I'll slaughter you all, as I did them!" The thing screeches in mad and heavily-accented tones, and tenses for an attack!
Initiative Order
Talhaearn
Spider
Seoni
Saki
Kyra
Talhaearn, go!
The archer's surprisingly fast attack catches the huge spider unready. The ash shaft drives in among its many eyes with a crunching sound and a spray of thick greenish ichor. Waving its legs and screaming in pain from its eerily feminine face, the monster charges wildly.
Everyone, go!
"Hang on, Tal," Kyra says to the elf, and draws the wand hurriedly, since that seems safer than casting with the many-legged horror so close.
"Is she evil, Saki?" the cleric calls as she touches the blessed piece of wood to Tal's injuries. If only she had a spell to free him from its grasp... but keeping him healed may be the best she can do right now.
Saki detects no evil, but of course that doesn't mean the mad creature isn't wildly dangerous. The paladin lands a solid blow on the spider's abdomen. Meanwhile, Kyra provides some small healing to Talhaearn, who struggles vainly to break free.
[Seoni, go!]
Seoni blasts the weird spider with twin cyan missiles of pure arcane energy. The monster responds by tucking Talhaearn between two legs and advancing to attack the sorceress! It sinks it fangs into her shoulder, injecting a deadly and painful poison, but Talhaearn manages to slip out of its grasp as a result.
Anyone, go!
Seeing that Seoni is savaged by the spider's bite, Kyra hurriedly steps into the hallway to join her, and do what she can for the sorceress's wounds.
Saki, Seoni and Talhaearn slash, lunge and invoke until the monster shrieks, coughing blood and collapses. "Take my curse!" it wheezes. "May you be trapped, as you trapped me..."
[COMBAT OVER]