Moving into the secret door, you find a fairly large chamber. A recessed mesh of iron gridwork crisscrosses the northern end of this room. Hundreds of tiny blue runes have been painted inside of each of the small squares formed by the grid pattern. A long-dead figure lies slumped against the wall to the northeast.
You also see dull, red eyes, grasping claws, and leathery wings giving a demonic aspect to a creature's smoky form. It immediately moves toward the party!
Ares does not like the looks of the new creature.
"With a face like that, it begs for shoot first ask later... . "
He fires a pair of cold iron arrows...
for
.
for
.
Ares fires two arrows at the creature, but bith miss by mere inches!
Lia steps forward and follows Ares' example.
Lia steps forward and fires an arrow, striking the creature! The arrow seem to meet resistance and doesn't do as much damage as would be expected!
"Grr...grbl...'ill ta 'ing!" Hammer grumbles as he moves forward and readies to attack!
The creature flies forward, avoiding Hammer's blow and attacks the dwarf, biting into his shoulder!
I must've annoyed Desna something fierce lately, Reynaldo muses aloud. Seems everyone I meet lately wants to kill me. Or my friends. Or both.
Rey five foots in and attacks the... whatever it is.
Rey will spend a panache point and one attack of opportunity (Deed: opportune parry & riposte) to attempt to parry the melee attack, then counterattack.
Ares fires agsin.
for
.
for
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Reynaldo steps up and stabs the smoky creature!
Ares fires two arrows, but they noth fly wide!
Maffei tries to dart past the creature and recieves a terrible bite for her troubles.
Maffei then returns the blow, slashing the creature!
Lia continues to try to whittle it down.
Hammerfist steps to the side and gives a big swing.
Lia fires her bow, hitting the creature, but it does no damage!
Hammer swings hard, but misses!
The creature attacks everyone within reach, biting Hammer, and slamming Maffei with its wings. It tries to claw Reynaldo, who parries the blow, but can't connect with the riposte.
"Ow! Grunts Hammerfist before swinging back.
Rey five foots to the beast's flank. Maffei! Get across from us and we'll be able to distract him more effectively!
Rey will ready to attack triggered when Maffai flanks.
"Must shoot harder!" Lia repreimands herself.
Everyone, but Ares takes a shot at the creature, but misses!
Mafei steps over to flank the creature, but misses twice!
"This thing certainly is nimble!"
for
for
Ares fires two arrows, hitting the back wall!
The creature lashes out, in a frenzy, tearing onto Hammer, Rey, and Maffei.
Seeing he is doing no good with the bow, Ares drops his bow as he calls upon Erastil to bless his blade. He moves up adjacent to Rey to add support or extra flanking if needed
"Fight the good fight and we shall prevail. . "
The creature's first claw misses Rey, but the second strikes a deep wound on his torso. With gritted teeth, he returns the attack!
Lia fires another arrow at the thing, though it doesn't seem to do much at all, missing gloriously. "What is this thing?!"
Reynaldo steps in and lands a vicious strike! The thing, which Lia identifies as a belker, seems shaken!
Lia fires an arrow, but misses!
Hammer swings at the creature again, but misses once more!
The creature suddenly turns to smoke and moves south, envelpoing Hammer and Rey!
Hammer coughs and sputters. "Dis *COUGH* worse *COUGH* den 'anic at da'isco! *COUGH*
No idea what you said, hammer, Rey coughs, but if it's about bad smoke, I have to agree.
Ares steps back with his glowing blessed glaive and swings at the smoky cloud.
Don't breath that stuff hammer! You are hard enough to understand. And if the Sarenrae temple reports are correct, it will give you lung cancer at an early age!"
for
As Hammer rilves his days at the disco, he swings and misses!
Reynaldo slices through the gaseous form, doing a little bit of damage!
Ares swings his glaive, but misses!
Lia steps back, unsure what to do with the gaseous creature before her. She casts a spell to burn away the mist which the creature turned into.
Lia conjures a ball of flame, and the smoke writhes as in pain!
Maffei steps forward and slices into the creature once!
The smoky form dissapates with a screech!
Searching the room, you find a withered and rent body in the northeast corner of the room. The corpse's robes are rotten, but a pouch at its side still contains a scroll of cure critical wounds, a scroll of flame strike, a scroll of protection from energy, and a scroll of summon monster V.
Ares will take the divine svrolls unless anyone objects.
" Excelent teamwork. I was worried for a bit. "
Moving to the north, the party enter the remaining door. This space apparently served as the monastery’s kitchen. It appears to have been used recently, though the strange stains and smells don’t seem like they were created by preparing food. A cauldron of bubbling fluid sits atop a small fire burning in one of the fireplaces.
the substance in the cauldron does—a pint of the fluid can dissolve a single dragon scale, creating a potion of resist energy against the type of energy associated with that dragon.
"Foul work here, no doubt"
Hammerfist grumbles.
Reynaldo, never one to turn down a meal, makes a beeline straight for the cauldron of bubbling fluid. He grabs a spoon and stirs it up, but is clearly disappointed when it doesn't appear to be soup.
He emulates Hammer with a grumble.
Going out of the kitchen, you ascend the nearest stairs, to the next level. Scattered about this room are coils of thick rope and three large bells. There is no ceiling—merely the steeple of the monastery’s bell tower high above, accessible via a spiral stair to the south. A long rope dangles down from above, attached to the great bell sixty feet overhead.
The stairs continue to ascend to the belfry, where you think you hears the sounds of someone moving.
Ares readies his bow as he moves up the stairs.
Ares moves up the stairs into the belfry. At the top, he sees a Garundi woman, who stares daggers at him as she readies to attack!
Rey seems surprised by the non-bat in the belfry. Still, Wyrmsmite is in his hand in a trice and he closes with the menacing woman.
Now, really, is that any way to treat new-found friends?