During the light-hearted banter, Lirana refrains from comments on human girls who like bad boys.
When the vomit starts flowing, Lirana slaps a hand across her own mouth in an attempt from contributing to the vomit already spewed about. She mumbles: "Oh that is so horribly disgusting!"
Berenice cusses loudly as she loses her grip on the ladder and lands with a tiny thud on the floor.
"GODSDAMMIT! I hope my bow's okay!" she says as she checks the weapon and grabs an arrow out of her quiver.
"Good good, it's fine. Now to deal with these little cretins!"
She nocks the arrow and prepares to shoot at one of the pairs of red eyes.
HP: 8/9
AC 14, touch 14, flat-footed 12 (+4 vs. giants)
Fort +3, Ref +2, Will +4 (+3 vs. illusion spells/effects)
CMD: 10
Effects:
Spells:
Carawyn clambers to her feet, rubbing her rear as she can feel it begin to bruise. She glares at the nearest creature, her nose wrinkling.
"Rude ghosts! We are not amused!"
AC 16 (no shield)
Weapon not drawn
Shaking the dizziness from his head, he looks around and sees the ill tidings coming out of the gloom. "Stupidity... definitely."
Aldren quickly shuffles to his feet and clasps the holy symbol clanging against his breastplate. "Calistria, show them your sting!" A blast of dark energy washes out from him in the shape of a thousand shadowy wasps. They flow around Berenice and Carawyn as if the two women were protected by a shield, but anything else near Aldren finds itself pricked and poisoned by the energy blast.
@lirana- yes there is rubble all over the place.
@berenice yes your turn
@aldren- some of the creatures looks like you effected them, but overall Calistra didn't give you enough strength. (1 lol) and no your not prone. you can get up or straiten up during the "surprise round"
@Everyone The Grimples are proud of themselves and laughing and pointing at your group during the whole ordeal.
A bemused look passes over Laurent's face as he is faced with the bizarre creature's vomit flying over his shoulder. "I guess this proves that they're not bats or opossums," he says.
Laurent readies his sword to strike at the creature, lunging at the winged beast to his west and attempting to strike it on its wings.
Berenice looses her arrow at the most visible critter.
;
@laraunt- you hit the creature but the wounds seem to don't do any dmg. (DR_)
@Lirana, Septimus. I will NPC your attacks due to time since round started.
Septimus draws his longsword +5 d8+4 and attacks the nearest creature. believing Laurant has the other one.
Septimus kills the creature.
Lirana seeing the creature vomit decides not to get close to the creature instead grabbing a broken crowbar lying in the mess.
unfortunately the attack misses the creature.
creatures turns.
the grimple by himself not in combat upstairs, casts grease on Septimus's longsword.
Septims's longsword drops to the ground.
the Grimple being attacked by laraunt vomits on laurant because the vomit is a 30 ft line lirana is also needs to save. (fort save DC 11; nasiated d4 rounds)
the Grimples in the lower area vomit on aldren and getting berenice, were the second casts a spell of grease on berenices bow.
the rats attack the closest person to each one.
Laurant Nausiated 4 rounds (ouch)
-- 1 point dmg from rat bite.
Round 2 heroes Go.
Aldren dons his shield then calls for Calistria's wrath once more as another wave of shadowy wasps blasts out from him. "Mistress, let not Your servants fail! Show our enemies Your wrath!
Lirana will grab another random piece of debris and toss it at a grimple again.
"This is incredibly gross. I wish these things would quit throwing up on us. I'm going to have to soak in tub for a full week after this."
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HP: 8/9
AC 14, touch 14, flat-footed 12 (+4 vs. giants)
Fort +3, Ref +2, Will +4 (+3 vs. illusion spells/effects)
CMD: 10
Effects:
Spells/Abilities:
Dancing Strings: 1/1
SLAs: bleed [], chill touch [], detect poison [], touch of fatigue []
0: mage hand, open/close, prestidigitation
1st: animate rope[], peacebond (DC 14)[], unseen servant []
Carawyn concentrates for a second and suddenly her clothing seems to shudder and begin whipping around her as if it had a life of its own. It lashes out at the nearest rat that attacked her as it still suffered from her cursed evil eye.
"We do not like these things," she says, crossly.
@lirana- roll a d4 plus your non existent str. lol.
A full splattering of monster vomit hits Laurent square in the face. The foul brown liquid drips down the front of his fine shirt as the young nobleman can do nothing by sputter and muster all of his willpower to stop himself from dry heaving. He manages to take a few stuttering steps to back away from the creature and out of the collapsed wall.
Septimus takes one look at his fallen longsword. draws his short sword takes a small step to the side and stabs at the gremlin that got laurant. "Go back to Asmodeon you scum!" Berenice follows up with another shot from her bow. unfortunately Septimus tried to attack to many creatures and neither attack was effective.
berenices attack causes no damage.
the lower group sees a grimple come flying down the chute.
@carawyn- your attack manages to kill the already wounded grimple and it falls to the ground.
@lirana - your piece of trash that you threw was ineffective. (DR_) you see that the creature you tried to hit was the one that fled the main room he again tries to flee flying past Septimus.
@aldren - you channel has killed all the small rats in the room. 5 rats suddenly die falling on their backs with their feet twitching in the air along with the two grimples that are also down there.
after seeing all his buddies die the Grimple at the top. yells out " ME surrender!!" and makes no move to attack on his round.
Carawyn looks around.
"The rats all seem to have died. I wonder if it was the ghosts..." she says. "Maybe the thing above can let them know we appreciate it if we ask it."
Aldren looks like he's getting over a little bit of a euphoric rush as he winks at Carawyn. "T'was no ghost, Miss Carawyn. It was the wrath of my goddess and a sign of her favor." He sighs contentedly. "Okay, Bee....this might beat a trip to the cathouse after all."
With that, Aldren puts his shield away, draws his morningstar, then begins to inspect the goblin-like corpses.
"Wrath: vengeance or punishment as the consequence of anger. If this is favor, we wonder what she would do if she wanted to show disfavor. Especially if there were cats... Would they try to eat that rat thing?"
"Two things can be true at the same time. She shows us Her favor by showing Her wrath to others..." He pokes at some of the corpses to see if they have collected anything of interest.
"But indeed, I am careful to not displease Her for I do not want to invite Her wrath upon me."
Berenice curses under her breath as her shot hits, but is slowed down by the slippery bowstring to the point where it merely bounces off the critter's hide. Upon hearing the call to parley from above, she blinks.
"These things can TALK?!" she says incredulously.
Unfortunately Laurent is too busy retching out in the hallway to hear the last creature offer a surrender. He does manage to fumble a handkerchief out of his pocket to cover his mouth (and hopefully clean off some of the monster vomit).
Lirana share Berenice's surprise. "Apparently so. I hope its surrender means it will quit throwing up everywhere. What a revolting way to attack someone. Also, I wonder if it has lived here long enough to have seen this place in use as a hideout..."
She will call up to the creature. "Your surrender is accepted. We require you to fly down to us and answer a few questions. First of which, how long have you made you home in this building?"
Aldren yells up to Laurent, Lirana and Septimus, "They attacked us and could well have broken my neck with that damned trick on the ladder. Put it to the sword and be done with it!"
The rest of whatever the half-elf is thinking he keeps to himself with some muttered grumbling. Mistress, please don't let Berry think we need to babysit these 'poor things'.
If he finds nothing of value in this room (23 Perception check), he will head over to the door on the west side of the room and listen there.
@lauraent since combat is over your nausea is done.
I want to let Spetimus make his decision. ill npc again if he doesn't post, ill wait until tonight.
@Aldren you here the final stanza of a lute play a sad song. when you listen to the door. that then goes silent. nothing but trash in this room.
Berenice begins wiping her bow on her pants, trying to get the grease off it.
"Too late, Aldy. Liry seems to wanna chat with whatever that critter is. Don't know what she thinks a nasty thing like that would know," she says with a shrug.
"Stay here." Septimus tells the creature while he retrieves his longsword from the ground. "go down to the others." Septimus watches the creatures pathetic flying as it more coasts than flies down to the others after a moment more the Grease spell wears off and Septimus heads down following the creature not waiting on Lirana or Laurant.
the pathetic mewling creature gets down the shaft, "what can Stellx tell you?"
Laurent finishes wiping the creature's vomit from his face and shirt, placing his now-ruined handkerchief back inside of his pocket.
Shaking his head in disgust, he heads back into the "secret" room and sees that Septimus and the monster have gone down the ladder; Laurent arrives in the basement just as the monster is asking Septimus if it can tell him anything.
Aldren looks at Berenice a little oddly -- shes finally met something she doesn't want to save? -- then groans as the beastly thing flutters down into the storeroom. "Oh gods, Septimus, you're not a guard anymore, you can't arrest it! Ugh!"
Then it speaks and Aldren is once against surprised. What in the Nine Hells...
He looks at the others, then back at the thing. "Alright... You want to live, right? Tell us what you know and we'll see if we can come to an arrangement. How long have you and the other things been living here, and why did I hear music on the other side of that door?
"You heard music? Is someone still on the other side?"
He nods at Lirana, "Yes, it sounded like a single string instrument, maybe a lute, but it stopped while I was listening." He glances back at 'Stellx' and says a little more quietly, "And I don't think one of those plays a lute."
Berenice blinks in surprise as the grease on her bow disappears before her very eyes, then looks down at her pants leg to see there's not even a stain.
"Huh. That's a relief. I thought I was gonna have to go to the laundries after this."
At Aldrens response Stellx says "Me can too, play music." to Septimus statement "Me not Gnat, Your a Gnat!" and sticks his tongue out.
"Stellx and Family been trapped here for a long time, big dumb stupid people create a...........Thing that keeps us here. WE bored."
"We don't know what cause music, me brother Bobbellx went to see and never return. We no go that way."
"me help?"
during the entire quesiotneer you see the Grimple scratch at himself multiple times as if he is infected with something.
"What the heck ARE you anyway, Stellx?" Berenice asks.
"Me a Grimple, Me a pretty Fey."
This putrid-looking humanoid bears a disquieting resemblance to a half-starved, mange-ridden opossum.
Grimples are filthy urban scavengers that lurk beneath the eaves of abandoned buildings, clock towers, belfries, and steeples. Sickly-looking and ragged, they shed constantly as a result of the small parasites they host. Quick climbers, grimples also have loose flaps of skin that stretch between their arms and allow them to glide short distances.
Berenice gets a queasy and incredulous look on her face.
"If you...say so..."
Laurent has to suppress another wave of nausea just looking at the foul creature, apparently a "grimple." He takes note that it does not seem too upset that its compatriots were killed
Though he has no idea how grimples will react to Avistani principals of diplomacy, Laurent tries to put his best foot forward. "M. Stellx, perhaps if we investigate this music for you, you and your family would be willing to relocate yourself outside of the city? It would likely be much safer there anyway, not to mention much easier to find food."
Aldren can't suppress a scowl as the thing refers to itself as 'pretty'. Between the mangy flesh, vomit, and general stench, he nearly misses the comment about something 'big' making a 'thing' to trap the grimples. Remembering this detail is the only thing that prevents him from objecting to Laurent's proposal and swinging his morningstar at the thing's 'face'.
And so, for once, the half-blood says nothing.
"I wonder why anyone would purposefully trap a bunch of, uhm, Grimple such as yourself. What could someone gain from doing that? Or did your group just happen to be in here already when someone else made it hard for others to get in or out of a secret hideout?"
"Me not know, Me guess some powerful supreme being did it." as Stellx says this he picks his nose and examines what he found with intense interest before engulfing it. to Laraunts question Stellx replies "yes, me love to be free"
Aldren's eyes go wide for a minute in barely contained outrage. The damned things nearly killed me... us... and now we're helping it!? Dear Mistress...
He continues to stare at the grimple, takes a deep breath, then says in a voice infused with far more calm than he is feeling, "This thing and its family nearly killed us. Some of us could have broken our necks going down that ladder. Are we seriously talking about setting this thing loose on the rest of the world? Maybe whatever trapped it and its family here was doing everyone a favor?"
"It ain't right to kill someone who's surrendered, Aldy. You're better than a Thrunie, aren't ya?" Berenice replies.
"Maybe we could set him loose in the new Lord Mayor's residence..."
"Maybe we could set him loose in the new Lord Mayor's residence..."
Berenice gasps in delight.
"Lirana? You're a genius!"
The mercurial priest glowers at Berenice, wanting to say it's completely different but realizes that he can't. Instead of conceding the point, he deflects, "If it leaves here, it will attack someone else and maybe kill them. You must know that. And if it stays here, it's only a matter of time until it tries to arrange another accident for us."
He looks back at the grimple and scowls, "And you're a fey, anyway. If we kill you, don't you just go back to wherever it is you're from?"
When Lirana makes her suggestion, he just groans, throws his arms half-way up into the air, and walks back to the western door, practically sulking. This will be a disaster...
"If me kill you, do YOU go back where you belong." the grimple says. and lets out a little gas.