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The door opens easily. The group's light sources spill into the room as you all step in.
Sagging shelves, held together by dust and an extensive system of rolling ladders, ring this library of husky, dull looking tomes. At the room’s center broods a heavily worn table surrounded by uncomfortable chairs. A chandelier of iron vines dangles above. The scents of leather and old paper pervade the high-ceilinged space, but so does a distinct bestial musk.
A strange, otherworldly language greets you all. The sound comes from a tiny, ratlike creature with tiny human hands in place of its front paws, and an unnerving human face. Despite its strange nature, it is easy to tell that the speakers are frantic!
The rat-things (Knowledge Arcana to ID), which are standing atop the bookshelves 10 feet up, skitter about Two of the creatures begin a strange, squeaky-sounding spellcasting (Spellcraft to ID).
A third hustles forward to throw a book at Johari!
ROUND 1
Enemy: Attack
Wellstone: Go
Deldhindon: Go
Arryn: Go
Zadok: Go
Johari: Go
See here! Wellstone scolds. That's no way to treat such a librium! There could be valuable information therein!
Wellstone steps to the side taking aim with his pistol and firing at Green (I presume that's the one that threw the book)!
"They're looking for back up! Don't let any leave!"
To the creatures, in Aklo, "Wait, wait! If you don't mean us harm, we won't hurt you! Let us parlay! "
Spellcraft:
The slayer is a bit confused at the aggregate of strangeness...the weird creatures, the strange language, having been struck by a book (?!), and finally hearing Zadok speak in that same odd tongue. Not being a total dummy, he assumes Zadok is trying to speak peace, so instead of responding with immediate violence, Johari, prepares to stop any from leaving.
Readied action: attack the first one that tries to leave, use non-lethal.
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Wellstone recalls that ratlings are nimble little creatures capable of finding a weak point when a foe is distracted (Sneak Attack). They're reflexes mean that they are also surprisingly adept a avoiding harm (Evasion).
Zadok's words in Aklo seem to surprise the ratlings, but they seem committed to their hostile actions.
And since you rolled a 20, I will still give you something for it. Will play out next turn.
Whatever arcane words are being uttered are unknown to Arryn.
ROUND 1
Enemy: Attack
Wellstone: Shoot
Deldhindon: Go
Arryn: Go
Zadok: Go
Johari: Readied
"Dammit! I'd like to not have to shed more blood, but you asked for it."
Double move.
Arryn delays to see what his companions do, and what he can do for them.
Deldhindon begins casting Sleep
Arryn retrieves a scroll from his posessions and casts Cure Light Wounds on Johari.
HP restored.
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Arryn closes Johari's wounds with the magic of a scroll. The timing is very good.
Two of the rat-things complete the complex casting they had been in the midst of doing, and out of the woodworks seems to pour hundreds of rats! The vermin churn and clamber over each other, searching for ankles, arms, and other exposed extremities to bite. One cluster finds Arryn and Johari!
The third rat-thing, seeing Zadok fast approaching, calls upon some innate magic and disappears from the shelf... only to reappear on the other side!
ROUND 2
Enemy: Swarms + Dimdoor
Wellstone: Go
Deldhindon: Go
Arryn: Go + Fort x2
Zadok: Go
Johari: Go + Fort x2
<--awesome
Johari manages to keep his cool amidst the heebie-jeebie-inducing swarm of rats. He moves away from the swarm, then carefully studies the wererat on the shelf nearest him
Wellstone takes a pot shot at Green...
...then gets away from the swarming rats, while at the same time fearful of what they might do to the vast knowledge in this library.
"Damned sloppy. Damned sloppy!"
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Johari and Wellstone retreat from the swarm, the former taking a shot with his hand cannon that makes a lot of noise but just misses.
Zadok meanwhile heads north, balancing precariously on the top of the bookshelf as he seeks another way.
ROUND 2
Enemy: Swarms + Dimdoor
Wellstone: Miss
Deldhindon: Go
Arryn: Go + Fort x2
Zadok: Move
Johari: Move
A small bit of sand sits in his palm. As Deldhindon finishes his incantation, he blows the sand away. It is carried on a sudden breeze, up to the wererat(s) on the upper bookcase. The wind swirls the sand around them, bringing much needed rest to their weary minds.
Deldhindon begins tracing runes into the air, eldritch sigils floating in the air before him. The sigils begin forming concentric rings growing outward into an expanding circle. As Deldhindon completes the final circumference, the rings lock and become rigid in the air. The interior of the circle begins to waver and shimmer when suddenly a golden eagle rushes from within, flying up to the wererats above.
Deldhindon then steps back away from the rats.
The eagle swoops in at the wererat.
Fort Save the first:
Fort Save the second:
Arryn keeps his cool and moves out of the room, leaving the doors open. He waves a hand and traces an invisible rune just outside the door.
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One swarm of rats follows Arryn, triggering his rune before they climb over him, nipping at his heels.
The other, attracted by the noise from Wellstone, gives chase.
Frightened and alone in its consciousness, the rat-thing tries to bite the eagle that harries it.
1 nonlethal, plus Bleed 1 (though it'll hardly matter).
ROUND 3
Enemy: Swarms + Bite
Wellstone: Go
Deldhindon: Go
Arryn: Go + Fort x2 + Rune Blast
Zadok: Go
Johari: Go
Fort Save 1:
Fort Save 2:
Blast Damage:
Arryn again keeps it together and flees towards the table, dropping another rune.
"Dammit. Blasted bollix up dammit!" Zadok swears his way back down and follows uselessly. The man is clearly furious at his lack of participation.
The slayer hustles up to the bookshelf, climbing the ladder
He glances up, dagger in hand, poises over the sleeping rat man. Kill, or spare?
double-move to get there.
Kill,[b] Wellstone replies, [b]unless the rest lay down their arms. But mind that the blood doesn't stain the tomes...
Wellstone finishes climbing the ladder and pulls himself atop the catwalk. he then readies an action...
The eagle continues to harry the ratman.
Deldhindon withdraws from the swarm.
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The two groups of rats swarm toward Zadok and Arryn, the latter group being momentarily blasted by runic magic!
The rat-thing, harried as it is by the eagle, takes a cautious step back before calling upon some innate magic to reappear on the other side!
Finally, the magic binding the rat swarms together seems to finally unravel. The rats scatter, no longer a threat to the group.
ROUND 4
Enemy: Swarms + Bamf
Wellstone: Go
Deldhindon: Go
Arryn: Go
Zadok: Go
Johari: Go
Zadok shrugs off the worst of it, though his frustration mounts. He continues to runabout the room like a neophyte page.
The slayer plunges his dagger into the slumbering rat man's throat, viciously ripping sideways.
Fort Save:, Fort Save 2:
Dying! Con check to stabilize:
Stable.
Wellstone takes a moment to reload his pistol , then lets it fly at Blue.
The report is loud, but the bullet sails well wide of its target. Confusticate and bebother!
The giant eagle swoops across to the last wererat and swipes at it with a claw.
Seeing the swarm of rats scuttle away, Deldhindon makes his way back into the library.
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Wellstone's pistol makes a loud but ineffective noise as its bullet flies just wide of the rat-thing.
Deldhindon returns to the library and, with a gesture, sends his summoned eagle after the only conscious foe. With a shriek and a swoop it claws the thing, opening a gash on one of its arms.
Injured and with its allies out for the count, the last rat-thing raises its hands. In perfect Taldane it says, "Please, no more! Mercy! Mercy!"
We should accept, the good Doctor responds. After all, we've no need to dissect another when we have one that Johari has already done for us.
To the rat-thing, he asks, Why were you trying to kill us? We offered parlay when we arrived, yet you descended like locusts upon us.
The slayer goes to the downed Arryn, and force-feeds him a potion.
Zadok, breathing a bit heavily from the running around, stands guard over Glasswalker. His ears trained on the answers to the doctor's questions.
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"We don't want to share what we find with you! This was to be our find. And I, Genny Two-Tail, was to be the most powerful of my kind!"
At the mention of her own name, she swishes her two tails as if proud of this feature. "This library was to have magic scrolls for me, and I was going to return to my kind triumphant. Not that you big folk could ever find us. It's deep below the building, unreachable for you." she says this last bit with a glance to a tiny hole in the floor nearby.
'What do you want?"
You beg for mercy and then insult us? Wellstone asks, his eyebrows arched. Perhaps I should not have stayed Johari's hand.
Johari wipes his dagger on the downed rat, then makes a show of moving to sheathe it, then stopping & keeping it out as he closes back to the party, looming in the background.
"For now. FOR NOW, I will take information. I will take a story. Tell me the history of this place; both pluperfect and imperfect." Zadok's gaze is intense.
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"Mercy, O Powerful Big One! I only spoke the truth, I swear it!" it practically bleats at Wellstone.
To Zadok it answers. "I don't know the history of this place. Maybe the books might tell you something? I and my kind live deep below this place. And we stayed away until recently. The other big folk fought, so we knew now was the time to be bold."
Zadok doesn't get any hunches that the creature is misleading him. It seems genuinely scared. Given that she's not even made a move for the other rat-things though, he gets the impression that it doesn't much care for its companions.
"Friends, I would gladly stay and peruse these books. Answers may lift the burden of our ignorance, and a heavy chain it is."
He turns back to the creature, "Where is the way to your cthonic realm? I seek to close it."
Wellstone nods sagely at Zadok's suggestion. Indeed! I should like to indulge myself in these pages, he says.