Waffles fires off another bolt at the same targets.
Meanwhile, Niadroub Kliip summons a flaming sphere on top of the only cyclops he can see.
When Zelera saw what was in the room awaiting them she knew this fight would likely be rough. She quickly cast a spell an let the fervor of her belief serve as a blessing for her companions.
Invigorated by his allies' spells, Marten lays into the cyclops hard, trying to fell it quickly.
As Marten tears into the nearby zombie, Colwyn turns his attention to the one to the east. Empowered by Niadroub and Zelera's magic, Colwyn unleashes a flurry of arrows.
Waffles zaps Yellow & Red, Marten hacks at Red.
Niadroub starts Orange cooking.
Colwyn turns Red's empty eye socket into a quiver, sinking three arrows deeply inside it. It falls!
Yellow & Orange move up, with Green just behind.
The party may now act.
Marten focuses his attacks on the one coming in from the side , hoping that Colwyn has something in his bag of tricks that will deal with the one that's just moved up from the south.
Noting that the ones from the south side are pressing up to give Colwyn some trouble, Tessara launches her signature telekinetic missiles to damage the closest one .
At his arcanist's mental direction, Waffles keeps the lightning bolts aimed at the battle's northern flank.
Meanwhile, the arcanist in question targets the zombie cyclops that seems the most threatening, and summons a pit beneath it.
[/ooc].
Marten hacks at Yellow. Waffles zaps him and Tessera zaps Orange just before Niadroub drops the bottom out of his world.
Zelera?
Zelera was in a bit of a pickle as close as the cyclopes was and knew she needed more space. With that in mind she chose to become more evasive and withdrew from the reach of the cyclopes.
.
.
Colwyn winces as the rotting behemoth towers over him, and it takes a split second to even register as the zombie suddenly plummets down into the chasm that magically opened beneath him. Once the baron realizes how quickly the tables have turned, he hazards a sharp grin and begins raining down more arrows upon the trapped enemy.
Colwyn quickly puts Orange out of his misery.
What are you doing now?
Niadroub Kliip cackles as his pit spell wears off, raising the remains of two zombie cyclopes to the surface.
"Eet's foonny every tem!" he exclaims to the others.
Even Waffles can't resist laughing at a good large-thing-falling-down prank, but after he's done, he turns invisible and flies up into the darkened gallery above, using his sharp vision to report back what he sees.
"Yeah, but this part ain't so funny," Colwyn grimaces as he slips on his thick gloves.
He then sets about prying arrows out of the undead behemoths, examining the heads and shafts to see which ones can be salvaged.
"There's some stairs over there," he says, gesturing to the northeast with one of the recovered arrows. "Is that the only way left to go?"
Niadroub Kliip's chuckles fade away as he finally gets a chance to notice the people frozen in horrible death throws seated at the large dining table. He goes over to inspect them, dreading that they are some of the missing townspeople from Varnhold.
The dead bodies comprise no less than 33 of Varnhold’s colonists, identifiable as such with a DC 20 Knowledge (local) check from their clothing and, perhaps, a few recognizable faces if the PCs have had visitors to their nation from Varnhold. The body seated at the head of
the table is that of Maegar Varn himself. Also present is a corpse wearing the trappings of a priest of the faith of Erastil—Maegar’s longtime companion, the cleric Caspar Morgarion.
Waffles finds an area overlooking the room you are in.
W24. Balcony
This balcony has no rail—it overlooks room W23, 30 feet below.
What now?
"Aw crap. Found the Varnhold folk," Colwyn groans, gesturing towards the 33 dead bodies.
He examines the dead man seated at the head of the table more closely.
"Yeah, this one's Maegar Varn, the head of the settlement himself. And I think this was his friend Caspar. A shame. I hear he was a priest of Erastil, to boot. Damn it all. Looks like this rescue mission has become one of vengeance."
...
Once the party ascends the stairs to the balcony above, he scans the area quickly before moving on to examining the one door leading from the area.
Marten says, "No way for us to restore them? I know that it would be expensive, but given time and resources, couldn't we return them from the dead through the power of the gods? Assuming we can secure the area and somehow return the bodies home."
Colwyn finds no traps on the unlocked door. He is so perceptive he even notices the secret door in the room as well!
What now?
Colwyn presses his ear, in turn, against each of the two doors, trying to gauge whether he hears anything behind either one.
"I'd say take the concealed door first," Colwyn suggests quietly. "I'd like to see what the head undead around here doesn't want us to find. What do you all think?"
pb[:Yes, and it would be strategically unwise to leave an unknown secret passage behind us while going deeper into a place where we could be trapped."[/b]
"Definitely the secret door!" Waffles enthuses.
W26. Pool Guardian
A burbling fountain and pool that stink of sulfur occupy the center of this chamber. A shallow channel cut into the stone of the floor passes beneath a pair of bronze double doors, funneling the foul-smelling water out of the pool to the east.
You are looking into the room. What are you doing now?
Niadroub Kliip casts detect magic on the water and the bronze doors and reports his findings.
There is a strong aura of Conjuration magic on the pool of water.
What now?
Niadroub Kliip grunts at the pool of water. He surmises that something can probably be summoned from the pool of water, possibly related to whatever is beyond the bronze doors. They could go and check that room out first rather than be surprised.
With his bow at the ready, Colwyn circles around the pool, keeping to the edge of the room, and moves to examine the bronze double doors.
As Colwyn enters the chamber the waters of the pool twist and rise, forming a Water elemental which immediately attacks!
Niadroub may act first!
Niadroub Kliip hisses in alarm when he spies the water elemental from beyond the secret door.
"Doon't geet in the wetter! Eeet's stroonger eef you do!"
The arcanist realizes that he doesn't have a lot of really effective spells against this creature, but he casts flaming sphere anyway, hoping to at least have the creature take a moment to address it and give the others time to react.
Waffles digs out a wand of burning hands, but doesn't do anything with it just yet.
Twisting around the Flaming sphere the Elemental forms two arms and slams at Colwyn.
Battering him for 38 points damage.
Everyone else can now act then back to Niadroub.
Colwyn attempts to spit out a volley of profanity, but it only comes out as strangled cries of pain as he is slammed by the watery creature.
He makes a tactical withdrawal, diving through the hidden door back out into the hallway in order to escape another, potentially deadly attack.
Marten tells the team, "Back up! I'm going to try to bring it to us, but I don't want you all so close that it can reach over me to hit you."
Zelera took to heart not getting in the water when she saw it start moving and attacking! This was simply not acceptable and she felt she needed to do something about it. The question was what, exactly, could she do? She couldn't try to dismiss it, she didn't have that prayer handy now, so she drew and threw her dagger at it hitting it squarely.
.
.
.
Marten tries to provoke the Elemental.
And fails.
Staying out of your reach the Elemental swipes at
Marten & Zelera
.
Hitting both of them.
The party may now act.
Realizing that the party just needs to brute force this elemental out this plane, Niadroub Kliip casts haste on the group. He then gives Waffles his necklace of fireballs.
Taking the necklace, the faerie dragon detaches one of the two remaining orbs and flings it at the water elemental.
"All right. My turn," Colwyn growls as he turns sharply on his heel, his movements quickened by Niadroub's magic.
Thus, he does what he does best and unleashes a volley of arrows.
His expression grows sour, though, as he realizes his standard strategy may be ineffective here.
Waffles lightly singes the Elemental. Colwyn watches his arrows bounce off.
Zelera & Marten?
Perhaps foolishly, Marten steps inside, since it's clear that he's not going to get the elemental to come to him.
He lashes out once he's close enough, though he probably can't really hurt the elemental much—he just hopes to keep it busy while the team finds a way to destroy it.