Snaggletooth's dagger bites deeply indeed, but doesn't quite finish his opponent. Against all likeihood, the berserk still stands, glowing and vile.
Erik's voice fails him, but he moves to a more advantageous position, poised for the fray.
"Okay now I'm impressed, what the heck is keeping him up?" Leo openly asks.
"I don't know, but I hope he falls soon. We can't take much more," Perigia says.
Leo slowly allows a very evil grin to emerge.
"Commander if you will I believe either a command to let Snaggletooth have another try on our stubborn friend or perhaps a wolf pack tactics if you will?" Leo asks Caine.
Leo
Leo ** spoiler omitted **
To DM:
Snaggletooth looks at the berseker with some respect in his eyes. "I sorry, big one. You much tougher than I think. I still kill you, it just take me longer." As he tosses his dagger between his hands, his eyes narrow and look for an opening.
Caine judges his attack with clinical precision and finds a way through the berserk's defenses. Silently, it falls at the warlord's feet.
Now only the mangler remains, glowing and eerily silent, watching and flexing its claws.
"Good work commander," shouts Erik, whose words are once more laced with magic.
Free Action: Virtue of Valor on Caine; Caine gains 4 temporary hit points.
"Let's finish this," Perigia says, with a glint in her eyes that you have never seen. She crooks her finger and suddenly the mangler is engulfed in a fountain of flames.
Perigia's action has an immediate result. The mangler bursts into flames and as they die away you all see that blue ichor is running freely down its contorted body.
Moving with unnatrual grace Brujo postion himself beside the Mangler
Predator-like, Brujo moves inexorably towards the mangler and attacks, sending chill ice writhing into the creature's open wounds.
In response, the mangler dances lightly among the companions, courting death with every step and pausing only to grind fetid claws into those it passes.
Leo calling upon his faith heal himself of some of his injuries before pursuing the last foe.
Moving alongside however his sword blow fails to reach its mark even as the spellplagued wounds lose some of their bite at last.
Kelemvor may have temporarily taken his eye off the ball in the attack department, but he compensates by healing his paladin.
"KEH!"
"KEH!"
Brujo-who-is-not-Brujo adds a blow to the departing mangler, somehow just finding a way past its defenses.
Erik winces from the force damage, which nearly drops him. He takes a step back and attempts an eldritch incantation he picked up along his travels. Now likely invisible, Erik shrugs off the continuing damage from the mangler's attack.
Move Action: Shift to L11.
Standard Action: Eyebite vs. M4; 24 vs. Will for 10 psychic damage and Erik becomes invisible to the mangler until the start of his next turn.
Saving Throw: 1d20=16
"Where you going, monster?" Snaggletooth asks as he moves to block the mangler's escape. "You not leave this place alive."
His dagger makes a disgusting sucking noise as he thrusts into the mangler torso and then rips it out. His little hand is covered in ichor and blue blood. He shifts his hand on his blade and says, "You dead, yet?"
The mangler has never spoken and does not do so now. It collapses at Snaggletooth's feet.
Erik makes his save and only Caine has still to prevent himself from taking further damage.
"How are the rest of you? I have a single use remaining of my lay on of hands available if needed?" Leo asks the others.
Standard Action: Heal check on Caine with a 1d20+4=15. Caine may make an extra saving throw as a free action.
Erik turns his attention to Commander Caine and urges him to speedy recovery.
Erik's help is enough and the commander manages to rid himself of the ongoing damage.
The chamber is now quiet, although the blue glow of corpses continues to flicker disconcertingly.
Snaggletooth decides to check for loot. He seems skeptical that he will find anything, but one nevers know.
Erik shows little interest in treasure, but will go investigate the bloody pages left on the lectern.
"That was probably harder than necessary," Erik muses while reaching for a page. "If we don't improve then I fear we may not interrupt the ritual in time."
Caine sits down on the floor of the chamber.
"Keh, TOO easy. Idiot Brujo letting your body get broken by such stupid things" Brujo goes about rapidly kicking the manglers corpse as the flames seem to heal his wounds
Snaggletooth roams the room restlessly, but finds nothing of value. The only item of interest is the blood scribed book which Erik is reading with some distaste.
Erik
The parchments are loosely bound together and form a kind of diary. The first few pages are fairly lucid, but the tone and subject matter degenerates fast.
The madman was a con-man. A thief and murderer, he ran from justice in Oreme and stumbled on Volkanth and the complex barely a year ago. He managed to convince the tiefling that he was truly as seer and Volkanth welcomed him into the cult as an honoured guest. Here he spouted false visions and invented tales to please his master, never thinking that any of them were likely to come true.
His opinion of Volkanth does not seem to have been high, and there are comments that suggest that he thought the tiefling was soft in the head, both for his belief in the Dreamer and his inability to see through the madman himself.
To his horror, however the madman was infected by the spellplague and felt himself turn to something quite other. The next pages detail half-seen visions and his own fear that he was being taken over as a channel. He describes his attempts to flog the spellplague from his body and his final desperate attempt to stop seeing by blinding himself. The final pages of the book are gibberish, with only the occasional phrase referring to the coming of the Dreamer making any sense at all.
In short, it is a sad tale of a man who tried and succeeded in fooling another and got more than he bargained for.
Erik reads over the book and shakes his head.
"Poor man didn't know what he was getting into. He was a simple bilker who bit off more than he could chew. I hope he's found peace. Too bad it was at the end of my blade."
Erik then slips the remains of the book into his pack for later reference.
"What now comrades? I would suggest we move on, as we don't know how long this ritual of theirs will take. It could be days, or it could be hours or minutes. Sadly, it appears as though our dear Commander has taken the worst of it."
"If bad guys finish ritual before we stop them, bad things happen. Like monsters here, bad things kill and destroy everything in path. I not see anybody else here, so it up to us to stop them." Snaggletooth looks up from reading the journal. "But if we die, nobody stop them."
"I okay. I fight still. Not hurt too bad. If we go on, I can disable traps on lightning floor and get us to other door. Then we follow path and get to blue fire leader. Kill him, stop ritual, right?"
"If we move in further we would have to do it with stealth."
"Snaggletooth, we need your skills here."
"Snags an I will lead the way," Perigia says. "If anyone asks I can say he is a prisoner that I'm taking for interrogation."
"As the least stealthy of our group I will stay behind but I need a clear vantage from which to view the events, so I know when to reveal myself."
"I am not particularly stealthy myself, Commander, but if possible I could continue our ruse. However, it is likely best, as everyone has mentioned, if we know what we're walking into first. If the two of you," Erik adds while looking at Snaggletooth and Perigia, "feel courageous enough to sneak ahead, then do be cautious. Don't engage anything in combat without the rest of us there."
"Snags an I will lead the way," Perigia says. "If anyone asks I can say he is a prisoner that I'm taking for interrogation."
Snaggletooth sniffs with derision. "No need of clever trick. They not see me if I no want them to. But I will travel up front with Fire Lady. I just hide in her shadow. I be little, nobody notice me. Then, if Fire-Lady has trouble, I jump out and attack!"
"We go?" Snaggletooth asks Perigia when he finishes disabling the floor traps. "You remember password? We need it soon, I think."
1)Do we know where the ritual is being performed?
2) If we proceed any further do we hunt down Volcanth in hopes he has the body part and after retrieving it leave this place and get as far as possible before the rest of them realise whats happened?
2. Volcano-man is preparing for the ritual, according to the stable boy. We don't know how many are with him, but if it gets hairy, we should focus on getting the artifact back and running for the hills. Without the artifact, the ritual can't be done. Mission accomplished. If we kill Vol, so much the better.
Leo and Brujo - and anyone else wanting to know the possible consequences of the spellplagued attacks.
Infection from the Spellplagued Berserks
Treating this as a disease per DMG.
Both please make a saving throw now. Leo's is unmodified, Brujo's is at -2 as he already has a spellscar.
If either of you fail, you are infected. You immediately take the following effect:
Lose one healing surge until your condition either improves or worsens.
At the start of the next encounter, roll a d20.
On an odd number, you manage to control the infection.
On an even number, you don't and are dazed (se).
At the end of each extended rest roll an endurance check (DC21, you improve, DC18 you stay the same, DC15 or below you worsen). Anyone can substitute a heal check on your behalf instead of the endurance check.
You need to improve twice to cure the infection.
You need to worsen twice to suffer the full effects
First Improve: Regain use of the lost healing surge, but still infected and need to roll d20 at start of encounter.
Second improve - cured: surges restored, no longer fighting infection so don't need to roll at start of encounter.
Stay the same: Self-explanatory. Remain in current condition.
Worsen: lose another healing surge. Roll d20 at start of combat. Odd number you control the infection, even you don't. Dazed and weakend (se).
Final state: Spellcarred with randomly determined effect if not already spellcarred.
Spellplagued with randomly determined effect if already spellscarred.
Subsequent infection causes the random effect to get more violent.
Snaggletooth goes back to the statue and checks out the robe.