Grenwold does manage to send an arrow sticking out of the cube.
Watching the thing jiggle as the others attack it, Ratel breaths a sigh, looking at Bear, ”You may not want to bite it, but Attack,” Bear takes the most direct route, running up to the cube, he sniffs, shaking his head as he chuffs at the thing, then taking a swipe with a claw. Ratel, heads to the other corner and attempts to bash it with his shield.
Ratel manages to slam the slime cube, that jiggles more, and bear slashes it with a claw.
Robert draws his longsword, then moves in to attack the creature.
The slime cube tries to engulf Robert, Ratel and Bear, but gets stabbed by both Robert and Ratel and stops quivering and deflates.
Inside the cube lies a masterwork crystal dagger seems to hold sparks, a gold nugget worth 100 gp, a breastplate emblazoned with a starburst pattern and two potions.
Nigel identifies them as potions of bull strength
Longsword
Gren happily follows the party’s lead, wherever they may go. He appears to be humming a tune to himself that nobody can place, and marveling at the cave construction. He looks ahead into the darkness beyond the limits of the light.
Seeing the gelatinous cube melting, Ratel grunts, "Huh, just like jello…" He points to the breastplate, asking, "Is that magical?" turning to Robert he recommends, "If it is, it would be more effective for you, allows greater movement than the chainmail, I hear that's important to archers." He winks, "Not that Bear or I would know."
After helping pick up the loose items, he gestures towards the east, "Lets go that way."
The party does manage to construct a block and tackle system to get Ringo down. Grenwold finds There are 16 gems in the wall, each worth 10 gp—all that remains of glittering mosaics that once depicted the life of some towering, spindly, four-armed entity. The crystal dagger and breastplate are not magical, however Hedran realizes the crystal dagger is made of the same material as Handiss greatsword. Closer examination of the dagger reveals that the material has been attuned to the powers of air, and anything being struck by the dagger will take an additional point of electricity damage.
The chamber beyond the hidden door is all but buried in a pile of rubble. Finished walls encircle part of the room but end in a collapse to the south. Dried flesh and wisps of white hair still cling to a handful of ancient bones lying on the floor.
3 small skeletons with wisps of white hair on them are hammering at the iron banks of a now cold forge.
Grenwold recognizes those skeletons as derro skeletons. They have 5 DR/bludgeoning.
Gren drops his glaive and draws his morningstar as he rides Ringo through the door and to the closest skeleton. He strikes with Ringo using pack flanking and uses combat expertise (but doesn’t have his shield out at the moment). ”Blaagh! Skeletons! Use blunt weapons, let’s get em Ringo!”
Grenwold also knows that these skeletons have spell resistance and are immune to cold.
The air in the room is rather stale, but Grenwold and Ringo are fine, for now.
Grenwold tries to clobber a skeleton, but he is unused to their small size and swings too high. Ringo manages to butt one in the ribs, but his horns don't seem fully effective.
The skeletons drop their hammers and begin to swarm Grenwold, clawing at him with their claws.
Despite Ringo's best efforts to protect his master, two claws still get through
From outside the room, longbow, with blunt arrows.
Robert shoots the red skeleton, denting some ribs.
Ratel moves into the back of the room.
The orange skeleton tries to claw him as he passes, but he blocks it with his shield.
He then bashes the red skeleton with his shield, shattering it to pieces.
"Flank, Bear!" He orders, as Bear moves into the room, then rears up on his hind legs, trying to bite off the head of the orange skeleton, but it ducks to the side.
Hedran moves in, drawing his morningstar to clobber the orange skeleton, but the skeleton ducks out of the way.
Gren draws his shield and attacks the last one with his morningstar, this time without any expertise. Ringo attempts to gore.
But connects largely with air.
Breathing the stale air, Grenwold and Ringo both feel weak and fatigued.
One skeleton steps up and tries to claw at Ratel, while the other continues clawing at Grenwold.
One claw makes a slight nick in Ratel's forearm, but the other doesn't get through his hide armor.
Grenwold gets a nasty claw on his face by the skeleton, but manages to block the second claw.
Robert shoots at the orange skeleton with a blunt arrow,shattering ribs.
Now that Ratel and Bear have created room, Nigel moves in, and takes a swing.
Fort: .
Hiking Stick: , for damage.
Nigel finishes the orange skeleton badly with a well placed blow of his hiking stick.
Shivering, Grenwold and Ringo hustle out of the room. Breathing deeply in the better air chattering, he asks ”Could I use one of the healing wands?” as he coughs a bit.
Ratel swings his shield at the skeleton, then kicking out with his boot, Bear moves forward and rears up on his hind legs, attacking with tooth and claw.
Ratel feels weak and sick.
He kicks, then bashes a skeleton, but is unable to finish it off. Beat manages to bite off its head and it falls down in pieces.
Seeing the skeletons dead, Hedran heads out of the room.
Nigel on the other hand feels sick from the stale air.
From outside, Hedran detects some magical things in the corner but does not want to risk suffocation to get it.
Hedran realizes that natural gas displaced air, causing the air in the room to be detrimental to living things. Opening the room door for an hour, or igniting the gas will clear off the gas and allow fresh air to go in.
Igniting the gas would also cause a large explosion.
"Come on Bear." Calling his companions, Ratel Follows Nigel out of the room.
Bear feels weak and sick.
Hearing about the gas, Ratel looks from Hedran to Nigel, "Let's just come back in an hour or so and see if the gas is gone."
Nigel stubbornly runs in and staggers out, exhausted.
The gas vents in the south western corner are mostly blocked when the complex collapsed but there is still a slow trickle from them filling the room with a nearly odorless poisonous gas.
Tiny, intricate carvings line the walls of this room, forming great columns of text. Much of it has cracked and crumbled, and the entire southern wall is fractured, with a yawning cavern beyond.
Nigel recognizes the language it is written in as Aklo, he does not know it but manages a good guess of its contents based on his studies in Dwarven.
grandmother, in seeking the Excavator, turned her eyes to the Stone, and to the Steel, and finally to Woe.
|
Having identified the gas vents, Nigel pulls several lengths of tubing from his portable alchemist's lab, and inserts them into the vents, sealing up the cracks around them with fine clay. He then attaches the tubing to a large, empty bladder, intending to collect the flammable gas for later use.
He then searches the room for additional treasures.
Nigel looks thoughtful.
"Vell, zat is certainly cryptic; I vonder what it pertains to?"
He then continues on his way, following Ratel and Bear (although he is leaning heavily on his hiking stick).
The tunnel opens into a long irregular cavern running from north to south. Streaks of purple crystal run along one wall, and look as if they have been mined. Apparently those who once mined were forced to abandon the site in a hurry, considering there are 14 amethysts (worth 25 gp each), 2 steadfast gutstones, and 40 platinum pieces scattered around that area. To the east, the room descends down a steep angle to a tunnel. A low, ethereal moan rises from the cold depths, and a barricade built of masonry blocks and chunks of stone partially blocks the wide, low tunnel to the south.
Nodding his head at Nigel, "Yes let's continue." He looks at his fatigued pet, "You feel it too, huh, Bear. Come on, we may as well take point."
Seeing the blockage to the south and hearing the moaning from the east, Ratel turns and tells the others, "I hate the idea of whatever is causing that moaning to sneak up on us while we move the rocks pile, so let's go check it out first." Nodding to his pet, "Come on Bear." He then heads to the east path descending.
Ratel leads the party past the blockade, down the narrow tunnel, where he realizes that the sound is caused by the moaning of the wind through the tunnel. The party travels for 10 minutes steadily downwards when they see a serpentine humanoid has bright scaly skin, a long sinuous tail, and a fanged serpent’s head, with cold black eyes. The serpentine humanoid salivates at the party, ”So warm…so tasty..”
Grenwold, Nigel and Robert realize they are up against a degenerate serpentfolk. They usually form cults underground, in the darklands, or in jungles. Degenerate serpentfolk degenerates have devolved to the point of primeval savagery and have lost much of their magical legacy—more civilized serpentfolk generally regard these degenerates with shame and disdain. They also have a poisonous bite.
Bite—injury; save Fort; frequency 1/round for 6 rounds; effect 1d2 Str; cure 2 saves.
They are also immune to mind affecting effects and are immune to paralysis and poison and have spell resistance.
The serpentlike humanoid moves forward and bites Ratel on his shoulder.
Ratel feels the venom sap his strength.
Seeing the serpent folk on top of him, Ratel, anemically swings the shield then kicks at the creature, stepping back as he tells bear, ”Bear Attack” he and Bear switch, who quickly attacks with tooth and claw.