Fidget sees Nat miss his attempt to warm Horgus up to their group, and decides to fix the situation. She closes her eyes and whispers inaudibly for a few seconds, then scurries up to the grumpy nobleman and walks along with him. "Horgus, sir! My name is Fidget Pendleton. We're so thankful to have you with us! I know an important man like you can be a great help."
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Nat nods and shakes the rat's paw. "A pleasure." His eyes are quickly drawn away from the gnome, the half-elf wincing slightly at her voice. Casting his gaze up at the backpack, he squints and thinks a moment. "I can get myself up here, but it'll cost me a precious spell. Like Tiknesr- mind if I call you Tik?- says, anyone here good at climbing?"
Nodding while his hairless tail switches back and forth, the man-rat says, "Tik will do. And don't worry about trying to get Th'th'th'th'slifp right. I've yet to meet someone without these--" pointing to his yellow-brown rat teeth, "--who can say it right."
An idea comes to Valeria, and she drops her hand to the scale in her pocket.
"Wait, no sense risking someone hurting themselves. Let's see how well this works."
She then activates the scale's magic, directed on the backpack.
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The pack is a masterwork backpack that contains 10 days of trailrations, a flint and steel, a set of caltrops, two flasks of oil, a bundle of 12 arrows, a potion labeled cure light wounds, and a potion labeled lesser restoration.
Fidget sees Nat miss his attempt to warm Horgus up to their group, and decides to fix the situation. She closes her eyes and whispers inaudibly for a few seconds, then scurries up to the grumpy nobleman and walks along with him. "Horgus, sir! My name is Fidget Pendleton. We're so thankful to have you with us! I know an important man like you can be a great help."
[dice=Diplomacy]1d20 + 7 + 2
The nobleman looks like he's about to snark, but the cuteness that is Fidget wins him over. "Well, yes, I am rather important. Unlike these others you are a lovely little creature, Fidget. I will try to stay out of your way. If you can get me back to the surface I will pay you 1,000 gold coins."
"I think we should examine the abandoned campsite in the other tunnel before continuing further." Ruarc says, looking over the loot in the backpack Valeria retrieved.
Now that Horgus has settled, Valeria makes her way over to him. "I'm...sorry for how I acted before, sir. Not all of us are as brave as we'd like. I promise you that, with your help, I will try to keep emotions in check. I apologize for my lack of knowledge in the higher echelons of Kenabres society, but I'm certain that someone of your station has the finest training available, and will be able to help keep us all safe as well," she says, attempting to play to his ego.
She then turns to the dark warrior, and says, "I agree," and steps into that passage, bow and arrow at the ready.
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"Valeria, let Bart go first; he's tough, and I think we want those claws at the front if we run into something, not your bow." If she doesn't mind, Bartimaeus growls in agreement and steps to the front, moving into the cavern, eyes seeing through the darkness made slightly brighter by the glowing elven rune on his forehead.
Now that Horgus has settled, Valeria makes her way over to him. "I'm...sorry for how I acted before, sir. Not all of us are as brave as we'd like. I promise you that, with your help, I will try to keep emotions in check. I apologize for my lack of knowledge in the higher echelons of Kenabres society, but I'm certain that someone of your station has the finest training available, and will be able to help keep us all safe as well," she says, attempting to play to his ego.
She then turns to the dark warrior, and says, "I agree," and steps into that passage, bow and arrow at the ready.
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[dice=Diplomacy]1d20 + 2
"Maybe you lots aren't as s~%%ty as I first imagined. I'll give you peasants 2,000 gold pieces if you can get me out of here alive," Horgus says, grinning. He apparently enjoys the attention of attractive women. "I cannot fight, but I am an accomplished scholar. If my knowledge is needed, I will share."
"That's the spirit, Horgus," Aravashnial says, following along with the help of Aneiva. The injured woman keeps up a quiet, running commentary on everything they come across for the elf's benefit.
The immortal Bartimaeus leads the group into the other passage and to the abandoned camp sight. This smaller cavern appears to have once served as a campsite or temporary lair. A torn bedroll lies nextto the cold remains of a fire. A pile of bones, broken equipment, and rubble lies just past the campsite. As Bart enters the camp, two dog-sized insects burst from the mound of trash to attack him.
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Initiatives
Party 12.2
Roaches 4.5
Valeria sees the elf dart forward, as well as the lion-man leap into action. She hurries forward into the cavern, and seeing their insect foes, sends an arrow sailing at the one yet to be attacked.
The arrow sinks deep into the roach, a few inches past its antennae and remains lodged in it's carapace.
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Fidget's huge eyes grow even bigger with astonishment at the sight of the huge cockroaches. She blinks once, then scoots around the corner and stabs at the remaining bug. Her wee scimitar just misses its head.
Ruarc moves up to the roach and swings Justice at it. He also misses the giant bug, as it scuttles out of the way.
Muttering, "More bugs?" Tiknesr decides to fall back on his crossbow, but the bug is too fast for him, even I'd he wasn't trying to avoid shooting his new allies.
The cockroach tries to bite through the layers of leather around Ruarc's leg and fails.
He swings his sword at the insect, but misses as it skitters aside.
A thorough search of the room turns up a torn bedroll, three candle stubs (each can burn for 30 minutes), a bent fishhook, 10 feet of badly frayed hemp rope, and a copper brooch depicting a bat perched on a mushroom both of the bat's eyes are tiny amethysts.
There is only one way forward.
Valeria steps over to retrieve her arrow, but sees it didn't survive the onslaught unleashed upon the creature. She retrieves the arrows found in the pack earlier and adds them to her quiver, saying non-chalantly, "Looks like I'm gonna be goin' through a lot of these down here..."
Tiknesr titters, "Hehehehe, nice work on those blasted bugs! Though you've got a bit of carapace stuck in your teeth, Bart."
As he's talking an agitated looking scorpion comes scuttling out of the man-rat's sleeve, making a tiny tk-tk-tk-tk-tk noise. Tiknesr turns to the scorpion and says, "What? No of course that's not how I feel about all bugs. Yes of course I'm grateful the Patron sent you to me. Here, I'll introduce you to my stalwart new companions"
Trying to contain a smirk, he comes up behind Valeria and taps her shoulder as she takes the quiver and says, "Valeria, I'd like you to meet Halea'a," holding the scorpion out for her inspection, maybe a trifle too close.
Valeria turns and jumps with a start at the scorpion and rat-man being right in her face. She takes a step back, and tries to create a genuine smile, but it obviously isn't genuine.
Not wanting to anger this creature, she slowly and nervously reaches up a hand to touch the scorpion, and asks anxiously, "It won't sting me, will it?"
Before her hand can touch the thing, she screams and grabs at her head, and falls to the floor. She falls on her side, and her body begins shaking violently. Her skin is hot to the touch, as if it were a fire into itself.
Darkness. Darkness followed by pain. Flashes of memory came before Valeria's eyes. She was bound to a table, with robed figures standing about her. Her skin was covered in runes and markings painted on in blood. A man stood over her with a knife, and was chanting in a foul tongue as he made a cut along her abdomen. Valeria screamed in pain. The man reached to his side, and lifted up a strange looking organ from some creature. He held it above her, continuing his chant the whole time.
The organ began to dissolve into a fiery light that swirled down towards her. "No! Let me go!" she screamed as the flames flowed into the open wound. She could feel her blood boil as the dark energy entered her body, and looked on in horror as the last of the fire entered her bloodstream, sealing the wound shut behind it, without as much as a scar.
Then, a flash of white light, and Valeria sat up once more, screaming uncontrollably as she does so. She was once again in the caverns with the other survivors. She looked down to her stomach, clutching at it with her hands as if she could remove what she had seen with her bare hands.
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Nat bends over and picks up some of the roach remains; he experimentally rubs some of the goo between his fingers. Hmm...
Polite conversation behind him interrupted by screaming and thrashing, he starts and turns around, drawing his weapon wildly. "What the hells?!" Bending over, he drops his blade to the ground and tries to hold Valeria down so she doesn't hurt herself; Bart grabs her legs. Nat looks around. "What happened?!" When her senses seem to return, he relaxes slightly, looking nervously at her. "Are you alright?"
As Valeria realizes where she is, she breaks down into tears and wraps her arms around the elf in a desperate bid to find something to cling to, as if it could keep her from slipping back into the nightmare. She says nothing for now, only shakes in terror and breathes erratically.
Tiknesr -- seeing his little prank explode before his eyes -- shifts from smirk to horror. What in Shadow is wrong with her? And-- glancing at the other hairless ones --They're not going to blame ME for this, are they?
He's relieved to see Nat and Bart attend to her, and shoos Halea'a back up his sleeve.
Tiknesr thinks of several things to say, rejects all of them as doing more harm than good, and finally slinks over to Fidget, saying, "Say dearie, what ever do you think is happening to her? Do you think there's anything you could do?"
After a minute or two, Valeria appears to have regained her composure. She releases Nathaniel from her embrace, and mutters quietly, "I'm...I'm sorry. I don't know what happened. It was terrible."
She slowly stands to her feet and seeing the others wanting further explanation, she adds, "I'd rather not talk anymore on it right now. Let's just move on..."
Fidget's mouth drops open at Valeria's fit. "A-buh?" she gurbles.
"Say dearie, what ever do you think is happening to her? Do you think there's anything you could do?"
"Tikkernik, looks like she fell asleep and had a bad dream!" she answers, obliviously butchering the rat's name. Her eyes widen. "Maybe she's dreaming about scorpions! But it's not your fault!" she assures him.
Pleased that the gnome clearly doesn't blame him, Tiknesr relaxes somewhat. When Valeria makes clear she doesn't want to talk about it, he's both wary (that she clearly can't be depended on) and relieved (that he won't be interrogated about his antic with the Halea'a).
"It doesn't make sense for us to go forward with lights blazing and boots clomping--and I'm used to moving about underground, without being detected. Halea'a and I will walk ahead. If we see anything troublesome we'll warn you before you arrive. Otherwise, keep far enough back that your light and clomping won't give us all away."
You can help someone achieve success on a skill check by making the same kind of skill check in a cooperative effort. If you roll a 10 or higher on your check, the character you're helping gets a +2 bonus on his or her check. (You can't take 10 on a skill check to aid another.) In many cases, a character's help won't be beneficial, or only a limited number of characters can help at once.
In cases where the skill restricts who can achieve certain results, such as trying to open a lock using Disable Device, you can't aid another to grant a bonus to a task that your character couldn't achieve alone. The GM might impose further restrictions to aiding another on a case-by-case basis as well.
Tikneser makes his way forward, where the passage opens into another small chamber. Several mounds of rock lie in heaps in this cavern, recently fallen from the walls and ceiling. Now and then, bits of dust settle from cracks in the stone above. Tikneser can smell the musty odor of a reptile in the chamber, but can't see any animals.
On the other side of the chamber the passage narrows back down and continues on out of sight.
Emerging out of the shadows beside Fidget, Tiknesr reports: "There's something up there for sure -- a lizard, unless my nose lies -- but I'm afraid it's hidden somewhere in that room. I couldn't spot it myself."
Tik will load his crossbow and then lead the way to the room, allowing his less squishy companions to go in first.
As Bart leads the way into the cavern, he gets only a few steps in before a two meter long viper the same color as the stone rears up to strike at him, changing color to a vibrant yellow in the process. Its fangs aren't powerful enough to penetrate the outsider's thick hide, and merely dimple Bart's flesh slightly.
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The viper withdraws onto its coiled body, head still rearing into the air and readying for another strike.
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Initiative
Party 14.6
Viper 10
Bart rips the snake to shreds before anyone else can even react.
A search of the cave reveals nothing in the way of loot. There is only one way forward. After traveling the winding route from area for about 1,900 feet , the Crudsaders reach the tunnel's end at a junction. To the north, a 5-foot wide opening in the wall leads into a cave filled with soft but nasty-looking green light-the tunnel itself continues south beyond this.
A single sizable 20-foot-tall building remains in the center of this 30-foot-high cave, a bunkerlike structure with no windows and walls of worked stone blocks. A 10-foot-long carving of a hammer decorates the building's facade. The ruins of collapsed outbuildings stand to either side.
Valeria had remained quiet during their trek, not speaking of her episode. As they look on at the structure, she finally speaks up, albeit sheepishly.
"A building, down in these caves...maybe someone inside could help us."
"Whooaaa... nice work, big lion!" Fidget says to Bart, nodding in appreciation of his swift kill.
"A building, down in these caves...maybe someone inside could help us."
Fidget grabs Valeria's forearm, looking a bit panicked. "There could be more bugs in there!"
As summoner and his companion circle around the left side of the building, they see that its rear corner meets the edge of the cavern and that they'll need to circle around right to get to the back of the building. All the crusaders hear a rustling sound coming from the top of the structure, followed by a loud buzzing. A moment later, a huge bloated fly the size of a rottweiler comes buzzing lazily off the top of the building. It hovers over Nat and Bart, it's mandibled-sucker mouth clacking ominously as it examines them with its huge glitter compound eyes.
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Initiative
Party 10.6
Giant Fly 7
Ruarc drops his shield and whips his sling from around his waist. He loads a bullet into it from a pouch on his utility belt. "Enemy sighted, ranged weapons!" he calls out. He steps forward to give the others more room to maneuver.
Valeria slips in and moves up to the corner of the building. After placing her back against the stone, she knocks an arrow and swivels around and fires a shot at the huge fly.
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