Plus, Paige is casting quite noisily, which Hajar might hear: Avraishimanacacooyabooreadelima And waving hands in the air in noisy magical gestures.
Khayal brows furrow at the sight of yet more danger, he ponders not a second at what they may be and seeks only to protect his friends. He attacks the nearest one with his kukris.
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Jumping nearly clear out of his skin as the eerie creature took him by surprise, Amir whirled to meet his attacker: an inky beast with arms nearly as long as its own physique!
"Great. As if we didn't have enough problems," groaned the Pathfinder, hand afire with newly conjured magic. With a few murmured words ushered out in an airy tongue, Amir reached out and gave Yazi a quick touch on the shoulder, letting the arcane energies course through and bolster her abilities. Once his task was done, the explorer reached down and drew steel in preparation of the ensuing melee.
Move Action: Draw Longsword.
Khayal swung both his blades, but missed the closest creature. Paige started a spell. Amir cast a spell onto Yazi. Bartan's Harrow card went wide, striking the wall instead . Yazi also attacked, and also missed the small creature on the wall.
ROUND ONE
Init:
Paige continues conjuring bats...until the bats are conjured:)
Bartan will squeeze past his allies and toss a card from around the corner at the nearest creature.
Kayla five foot steps over to make room for his allies. Sweat dripping from his brow he swings at the nearest one still standing. Moving onto the next if a target falls.
Khayal smiles as his blades finally make contact with the flesh of his enemies.
Yazi's new blade hits the snarling creature, and blood spewed from the rubbery flesh. The creature caterwauls, unable to get away up the wall. Khayal stepped up and finished the thing with extra-long arms. The fighter's second kukri hit another creature on the opposite wall, which screamed in protest. Paige continued her spellcasting. Bartan's second playing card went wide again.
The first creature dead, the other two scrabbled up the walls, easily clinging to the stone surface . Both attacked the closest human.
The second creature hit Kayal with a taloned claw, squeezing the fighter's throat.
They're chokers, well-known vermin infesting old tombs and sometimes large cities. You see them more often underground. While easy to hit and kill, their rubbery, octopus-like hands and arms make them quick killers if one is not careful.
Meanwhile, Hajar stood in the chamber outside the room, looking from wall to wall.
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"Ugh. Chokers. Wriggly little bastards," groaned the Pathfinder again, now getting a good look at the unruly beasties. Up on the ceiling, a sword was hardly going to get the job done; doubly so with one of the monsters' hands wrapped around Khayal's throat.
Dropping both his sword and shield in a clatter, Amir instead reached for the only implement he had that could aid this situation: his trusty short bow. With surprising rapidity, the bardic explorer knocked an arrow and let loose against the insufferable cretin trying to wring Khayal's neck, desperate to force it to loosen its grip.
Move Action: Draw Composite Shortbow +2.
Standard Action: Attack Choker that's choking Khayal.
Hajar moves forward behind Khayal.
Go ahead and nitpick, Khayal, I'm human like everybody else and can make mistakes. The grab, constrict, and grapple all have these special restrictions as well as "auto-hit" and "no AoO" clauses.
Grab states "it deals normal damage and attempts to start a grapple as a free action without provoking an attack of opportunity." So no AoO.
Constrict "makes a successful grapple check".
Chokers also have "strangle" and "Large" in their Special Attacks description, which means "An opponent grappled by the creature cannot speak or cast spells with verbal components." and "If the creature can use grab on creatures of other sizes, it is noted in the creature's Special Attacks line." So a Small grappling a Medium is allowed. (Just note that a choker can't keep the grapple without a -20, so it's a one-round-on, one-round-off type of special attack.)
Khayal's CMD = 22. I did forget to roll the choker's CMB (+8) against Khayal's CMD, but if you take either the natural 20 or the 14 Critical non-confirm, it would have made Khayal's CMD. So you can grumble against the GM there, and I'll promise to roll again (a third time!) next time.
Khayal can break the grab+constrict.
If You Are Grappled: If you are grappled, you can attempt to break the grapple as a standard action by making a combat maneuver check (DC equal to your opponent's CMD; this does not provoke an attack of opportunity) or Escape Artist check (with a DC equal to your opponent's CMD). If you succeed, you break the grapple and can act normally. Alternatively, if you succeed, you can become the grappler, grappling the other creature (meaning that the other creature cannot freely release the grapple without making a combat maneuver check, while you can). Instead of attempting to break or reverse the grapple, you can take any action that doesn't require two hands to perform, such as cast a spell or make an attack or full attack with a light or one-handed weapon against any creature within your reach, including the creature that is grappling you.
(Personally I'd go for cutting off the choker's forearm with both kukris, arguing that flat-footed AC applies. But the book says you can only break the grapple.)
Amir's bolt hit the choker squarely, causing it to yelp. Hajar poked his head into the room, moving to support Khayal.
ROUND TWO
Init:
Covered and unable to speak Khayal tries to chop himself free.
Khayal's swing misses very wide, beginning to grow fuzzy from the lack of oxygen from the choke.
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Knocking another arrow, Amir poised himself, ready to take another shot against the choker still holding Khayal in a death grip... then stopped as Yazi moved in to assist.
He couldn't hold on to that shot forever; instead, Amir steadied his hands, a bead of sweat dripping down his brow as he held the string taught and watched the ensuing struggle. It was getting a little too crowded for his tastes; there was no way he could comfortably make that shot. Instead, the bard swiveled his arm and eyes along the ceiling towards the other Choker traipsing about, using Bartan's light to guide the way as he fired again!
A swarm of hideous bats materializes in the face of the Choker that appears the least bloodied and therefore the most dangerous...
Khayal struggled with his kukris against the choker. Yazi's stroke was better, cutting the entire length of the outstretched arm, nearly severing it. That choker released Khayal, and the creature died from blood loss. Amir's shortbow shot hit the remaining choker, just as a swarm of summoned bats also formed around the small creature.
The swarm was too much for the underground vermin, and it screeched, dying on the wall.
All three chokers were now dealt with; their sucker-like protrusions on their feet and hands kept them attached to the cold stone walls of the room, like a gecko lizard.
The druid's bat swarm, however, continued to flutter around the choker corpse uncertainly.
Hajar heals the wound Khayal took.
Khayal's wounds begin to heal but his is left with a large sucker mark on his throat.
Looking a little sheepish he turns to the group. I may need your help explaining how I got his massive hicky to my wife.
The choker's nest is made up of pounds and pounds of shredded parchments and papyrus fragments. Inside, you find scattered old coins worth 164 gp. The coins were minted in Osiriani, and are over fifty years old.
Fragments of parchments lead south, to the next room.
"Those coins are very interesting. We should have them valued, incase they would be valuable to a collector."
Khayal shakes his head at Yazi's suggestion, blushing a little.
Perhaps we head south then Khayal suggests after looking through the nest.
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Reslinging his bow and collecting his gear, Amir nodded in concurrence with Bartan's thoughts.
"Mmhmm. Y'never know what's worth its weight in gold in a place like this; it's positively seeping with history. Chokers and giant spiders, too."
Pausing, the Pathfinder surveyed the path southward, the weary explorer waggled his brow and pursed his lips in thought.
"It's that or back the way we came. So forward it is! Just keep your peepers open for more of those little blighters; heroic sagas and reports to the Society aren't in much demand for endings wherein the heroes are all strangled to death."
Paige dismisses the bats. I know, they ARE cute, arn't they? And so helpful...
Paige is too curious to simply leave the brass tubs unchecked. She slides one of the lids off...
The brass tubs hold nothing but accumulated dust.
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Khayal takes a quick look and then moves into the next room. Alert for danger after his close encounter with something more clingy then Yazi to dealer ;)
Stupid empty enticing brass tombs. Not that she wanted treasure, but Paige likes to explore.
Paige follows Khayal into the southern room of unknown terror.
While the coins offer the most obvious treasure, your search turns to the ancient jars on the ledges that you almost hit with your playing cards. Inspecting the ceramic jars leads you to believe the potions therein might be salvageable, somehow. If you could apply your magical knowledge...
Reeking of dust, this ransacked room appears to have been some sort of scriptorium. Slate-topped tables and cedar-wood stools lie overturned and broken amid the cracked remains of scroll cases and rolls. Three wings lead to the east. In them, decrepit scroll racks of dry-rotted cedar lean haphazardly against the walls, their contents dumped out. Flecks of papyrus carpet the floor, a library of ancient lore laid to waste.
It seems quite obvious, looking at the scraps, that the chokers ransacked this room merely for bedding for their nest. Hundreds, if not thousands, of potentially historical or magical scrolls are now crumbling pieces. No scraps survive with any legible writing. The wisdom of the ages, recycled as needed by mindless beasts.
A massive basalt plaque dominates the southern wall of the chamber, surrounded by images of the god-king Nethys on the deck of a river barque. Osiriani inscriptions on the ominous southern portal alternate between descriptions of the positive and destructive properties of magic.
In all this searching you have not found any human or leopard tracks; Haidar did not go this way.
"Hmm, it looks like there are some potions here that I could possibly rehydrate and recover the contents of."
Bartan pulls out his waterskin and pours a cup or so of water into the first jar. He swirls it around and sniffs the concoction.
You just re-hydrated a potion of bless. Looking through the other jars, you find another salvageable potion of bless, a potion of clairvoyance, and a potion of see invisibility.
The plaque is man-sized, and analogous to the sealed brass portal in the cavern. You're now seeing the other side.
The portal has no obvious markings or protrusions like a lock or handle, however.
Paige is sad about the lost knowledge of the library. She takes a pook in the wings in the western wall . Then helps Yazi find the secret door.
Bartan will busy himself with rehydrating the rest of the potions and placing them in smaller glass vials. "These will come in handy later, I'm sure of it."