Morgan's hands begin to shake, as fear grips her heart. Her eyes fly open in shck and terror.
Crom runs with Horster.
The Siswa rush to engage the group after Horster rushes up the stairs. Four more rush from the shadows to aid the six priests.
Trying to get free shots on the group, the Siswa position themselves to take advantage of any but Horster who retreat.
The two more senior of the elves seem content to continue to cast.
ORDER
Horster (fled)
Mit'l AoOs aplenty (max)
four Siswa double move
Six Siswa to cast
Party
Siswa
As the Siswa rush Mit'l repetitively jabs at each target in a blinding fury of activity ...
Mit'l glances around at his comrades and a look of horror crosses his face as he realizes his predicament.
RUN AWAY!
Mit'l skewers an elf as she approaches (one did hit!), but the others beat at the adventurers before and after they retreat. Having rushes to flank the group, the elves take shots at the party as they rush up the steps and out of the living quarters of the Siswa.
ORDER
Mit'l
All flee round 1 of fear but Mit'l
Siswa
I think our group is running to the left, correct?
Mit'l is going to full withdraw with them ... I think he can do that without any AOOs ... oh but wait... I am assuming the elves where melee, not bow?
Crap, I just noticed Mit'l is at 13/18 ... I wonder if that's even true!
... 5/18, yeah he's full withdrawing with the group ... staying ahead of them if he can!
You run up what looks to be a hidden stairway in the dome outside. Ozzy stops his fleeing, but the others wish to run away. The Siswa rush to follow you and, fortunately for you, the chokepoint of the door in the dome outside keep them from getting past you.
Order
Mit'l
Ozzy
Rest flee
Siswa
"Keep up with the others Oz!!"
Mit'l continues his full withdraw ... hoping the others remain relatively grouped up.
Kelgan will continue fleeing in terror, using withdraw actions if at all possbile.
Ozmund fires a forcebolt at one of the elves as he helps Mit'l hold the doorway for the others.
Damage:
Kelgan continues his retreat as Ozzy fires a forcebolt at the elves. Horster returns from his headlong flight and joins the group as the dwarves continue to run at a dwarven pace (40' / round dbl move).
Mit'l jabs at a Siswa that fails to use the wall for cover as he approaches Ozzy in the open.
The elder Siswan invokes a spiritual hammer that hits Ozzy for minimal damage. Two flame bolts from the clerics arc toward Mit'l and one hits for
Ozzy dodges a sickle, but one hits his thigh and starts a nasty wound.
Crom and Kelgan continue to flee, but the rest of the party rallies and is ready.
Order
Party (Crom and Kelgan withdraw)
Siswa
Seeing Ozzy stop, Mit'l stops as well ... just as a Siswa comes withing range ...
Pulling the spear out after it satisfyingly slips into the Siswa's flesh, if the Siswa is still standing he jabs again, otherwise he targets another.
And then 5'steps to try and draw some more AOOs
Ozmund takes a 5' step back and places a spell upon himself to protect against attacks (mage Armor). He also reaches back and withdraws a potion from his pack. (but cannot drink it yet!)
Horster pulls out his bow and looses an arrow at whichever of the Siswa he has the best shot on.
Mit'l stabs the Siswa before it can attack Ozzy and she falls to the ground.
Morgan delays waiting for an opening.
The Siswa pick up their fallen and retreat back down the steps into their chambers.
Kelgan and Crom recover and begin their jog back to the dome (it will take them about two rounds to get back).
You realize the Siswa are probably on alert, and you do not know how many are down there. You do know that you can bypass their area if you enter the temple proper and go through the teleporting wall.
Once Crom regains his composure he will turn to the others, "The only way to free the Siswa is to kill the priest. Let's head back through the teleporting wall and head straight for the temple."
Kelgan shakes himself, his expression of abject fear settling to one of fury. His knuckles whiten on his axe-handle as he spins around, heading back from whence he came.
Again you move through the back right wall and you are transported with almost no motion or distress to the same spot as last time.
You emerge in a hallway complex very much similar to the one you left in a four way intersection with two ten foot passages leading to a dead end and two long passages.
The left passage leads to the two doors that you investigated before. The right passage would bypass the huge temple with the golem you approached before.
You consider retracing your steps to the temple or the Siswa quarters, bypassing them by continuing down the hallway, taking the right hallway, or exploring the ten foot dead end walls behind and to the left.
A cursory search shows nothing in the alcoves.
"Shall we try the right, then?" Kelgan asks.
[ooc]I figure we would have healed right after the last battle ... I need to dig through the posts to find the current charge on the wand but ...
Mit'l 5/18
18/18
Morgan 12/20
20/20
Ozzy, roll for yourself as I don't see your current total.
Crom shakes his head at Kelgan, "Should we not confront the priest in the temple and end this curse? Why risk further confrontation with the siswa."
Horster agrees with Crom, "Let's be done with this foul business before we land into more trouble. Lorcan's body's getting colder by the minute."
Moving into the large temple, you see the altar and the immense construct which begins to approach you in a deliberate manner.
You are moving back into the central temple I thought. Where the priest poofed away.
CLW Wand:
Is the priest not in the temple? If not, there's no point going in. Let's take the right passage.
Morgan rejoins the group after the fear leaves her.
"I hate magic that manipulates my mind," she growls. "Couldn't they have just hit me with a ball of fire, or something?"
She looks at the rest of the group.
"So are we gonna kill that pit-spawned priest or what?"
Moving right you head past a set of double doors on your left that you are sure leads into the central large temple from the east. The symmetry is apparent as you come to a four way. To the right, you head ten feet into a wall and the north passageway seems to lead on into the darkness. Following it, you immediately appear in the passageway you fought the desperate bandits! Just as they did, you attempt to retrace your way, but the teleporter is a one way teleporter.
Sighing, you retrace your way to the same intersection and move left, once again moving around the large temple and find yourself in a similar junction with a passage leading north into the darkness, one leading straight ahead ten feet into a stone wall, and one bending south to pass around the large temple complex, with double doors to the left entering the large temple from the west. Heading north you are again teleported back to where you fought the bandits. You retrace your steps again, careful to move around the temple in counter clockwise pattern. You are curious why the path is so clean, when the enchanted Siswa probably are not much on cleaning, when you continue to the south.
Morgan and Horster notice the outline of a clear, massive cube of moving jelly. It appears to be some sort of aberration that cleans the halls!
Morgan tells everyone:
One of the dungeon's most unusual and specialized predators, gelatinous cubes spend their existence mindlessly roaming dungeon halls and dark caverns, swallowing up organic material such as plants, refuse, carrion, and even living creatures. Materials the cube cannot digest, such as metal and stone, can eventually fill up the creature's mass with such detritus, and at times the creature may excrete some of this material out of its body. Often the treasure and possessions of past victims remain inside the gelatinous cube, leaving a ghostly impression of their material remains.
"Do we have time to take that thing down, or is there a way around it?", Horster says to the ranger.
"Depends. Trying to hack it apart is a bad idea. It can take quite a few hard hits, and if you accidentally come in contact with it, it will suck you in and digest you. A lot of fire works best, and when I say a lot of fire, I mean a lot of fire."
"So maybe it's better finding a way around, unless Ozzy's up for it...", he says, looking enquiringly at the wizard.
The dungeon cleaner is quite slow, you can withdraw if you like.
[dice=Perception]1d20+2[/dice
Crom agrees with Horster, "We don't have time to waste on scavengers. Let's go around it."
Perception:
Ozmund shakes his head sadly.
"Sorry no fire, but I can throw a number of magic missiles and force bolts at it!"
"If you have a lot of them, that could work. If you only have a few, the impacts will probably draw it towards us."
The cube begins moving toward you. A few bones of past victims inside.