Lorald remains ready for anything hostile with his crossbow. He knew wizards were fond of magical defenses but strange guardians were common as well.
Gareth peers intently at the oddly dark and uneven shape in front of him for a moment before he realizes, in his tipsy state. that he is looking at the back of Natalya's head.
Marlani is shocked; she praises Garuum and casts Dancing Lights.
She will also try Perception, and every 20 feet or so check the immediate area with Detect Magic.
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You venture into the cavern beyond Bactrophan's gate. the cavern narrows and evens out. You find yourselves in a nauseating wonderland of giant fungi. Foul smelling mold covers the walls of the cavern and as you peer at them you realize these are no longer natural walls but carved stone walls whose adornments have been concealed by fungal growths.
A narrow footpath winds among the towering mushrooms, all lit in an unwholesome blue glow, leading to two corridors heading off in almost opposite directions.
The entire chamber, which might be 20x25 feet is slippery and choked with organic matter, making it difficult terrain.
Well with nothing to go on, one direction is as good as any other!
With no further debate, Natalya leads off down the left hand corridor, despite her reassuring familiarity with the darkness, she's glad the others are following at her back.
"Natalya; I have heard of fungi that are rather ill tempered..."
Thanks for the warning, I'll keep an eye out for mobile mushrooms...
She tips her a wink but keeps an eye out herself.
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As unpleasant to the nose as the growths here are none of them appear dangerous. The corridor to the left is ten feet wide and after 50 feet you come to a set of double doors on the right hand wall.
These doors are of normal size but have been carved with the grinning image of a frog, just like the large ones you opened to get here.
A little further along the left wall appears to be another similar set of doors. With the luminescent fungi you can just see that past those second doors the corridor ends in a collapse.
Hopefully the 'boggard only' doors have been limited to the front to keep the bad element out!
She reaches out a hand and pushes open the doors on the right hand wall, moving in to the room if nothing jumps out at her.
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The door swings open and you find a complex workshop revealed by patches of dimly glowing fungi. A wall of kilns, ovens and forges divides the
workshop into two vast chambers, each crowded with unfinished sculptures, cobweb-covered tool racks and tables heaped with rusted detritus. The workshop’s ancient, splintering floorboards sag beneath heaped debris. Holes and cracked planks reveal an open space below the cluttered chamber, evidently accessed via stairways on the southern half of the room. Twenty feet overhead, cobweb-covered booms and racks support hanging crucibles and massive chains for hoisting quarried stone.
The outside edges of the room are stone walkways that are difficult terrain because of their crumbling state. The center of the rooms are wooden floors that appear in even more perilous condition.
As you can see from the map there are two doors on the opposite side of the room and one on the far right wall.
Wow, this place really is big... says Natalya softly, clearly impressed. She gleefully continues
I've always wanted to explore a proper underground lair!
She slowly walks around, admiring the unfinished work before having a brief scout around the room to see if anything looks useful.
Anyone else find it odd these are all unfinished?
she shrugs
OK let's try that door next she points to the doors in the south-east before marching over and pushing them open.
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Walking carefully around the room along the stone walkways Natalya notices that this place smells different from the hallway. the fungal scent is here, but also the smell of living things. The hallways were dusty and dead, as though no one had been there in a long time. It's hard to say precisely but she suspects someone has been in here recently.
Vermin skitters and scatters away form her as she walks, confirming that this place is not entirely lifeless.
Walking around she sees that the central areas are heaped with rusty, jagged scrap machines and materials. On the southeast side she notices two ivory-handled swords lying amidst all that debris. Ominously, near the swords are what appears to be a pile of chains, but then she recognizes they are sets of manacles, not at all old and rusted.
Along the southern wall, but the two doors she also notices an alcove that opens into a deep pit. The remains of some rope and pulleys indicate this might once have been used as some kind of freight elevator.
After completing a clockwise circuit of the room Natalya returns to the party and makes her suggestion as to which way to go, but just as she finishes the word, "next" ...
Make a reflex save.
Natalya notes all she observes with interest, narrating her findings to those hovering about the doorway. If nothing looks amiss she'll also stash the two interesting looking swords in her pack before moving on.
Then suddenly...
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Taking a step back. The wooden area in the centers, where the swords are, is so perilous to walk on it at half speed requires a DC 10 Acrobatics roll.
The moment she sets foot there, the wooden planks creak and groan. The rotting floorboards are full of holes which make it a maze of potential pitfalls. Holes, rot, vermin and piles of broken machinery make this area somewhat perilous.
Hmm, I don't think the floor is safe here, but those weapons look too interesting to pass up.
Knowing she's going to regret it, she takes off her armor and steps out, treading as carefully as possible and moving back to safety as soon as she's acquired the swords.
Presuming the above goes off without a hitch, she'll then strap her breastplate back on and move to the reflex save area...
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In any case it worked out, Natalya just barely manages to retrieve the swords. The perilous floor nearly trips her but she manages to extricate herself.
Back to that reflex save.
Just as she gets back to the door, the stone floor to the right of the entrance creaks under her feet. She jumps clear just before a 10 section of the stone floor collapses, revealing a 20 feet deep pit.
The room in question. Wherein my clever editing of the previous map is revealed!
Marlani watches from the safety of the doorway; She would use mage hand to poke at some of the odds and ends lying around the room as she searches:
I'll also slowly creep around the room and examine the floor for tracks:
And finally consider the overall situation with dungeoneering:
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Marlani examines the room, as well as the dust and rubble about the floors. She notices, among rat droppings and evidence of verminous insects three toed foot-prints that she immediately recognizes. Mites.
They seem to range pretty freely about the place, particularly down on the wooden floors, where she does not venture without making an acrobatics check. She does notice a few larger footprints going in to, but not coming out of, the right hand door on the southern wall, the one to the left of the alcove with the elevator shaft in it.
She also inspects the pit that Natalya almost fell into and determines it was dug out from underneath and made deliberately fragile, not part of the original construction. Probably the work of the sadistic mites.
I'll point out the evidence to the others; Mites!
Lorald had kept ready from before going in. But with the confirmation of enemies, nasty little ones at that, his readiness only sharpens to find the threat. And destroy it.
Marlani is always ready for a perception check.
Lorald aims at the source and informs the others as he looks for his target.
Gareth loads a bolt to his crossbow and readies himself. Hopefully, his alcohol-blurred vision will not throw off his aim to much.
As the floor drops out beneath her and she dances back out of danger, Natalya breathes a sigh of relief. With the sharing of her companions about what creatures have been through here recently, she swears quietly
%@#*& mites!
She sticks to the stone walkways, and follows the sound underneath the floor, keeping her sword ready at all times. She waits near the staircases to see what emerges from the depths...
Hold it together, man! Gareth tells himself as he tries to focus himself on the situation.
Fort Save
Well, we may as well go where we know they have been, we can search this place at our leisure once the squatters have been dealt with!
she moves to the doorway where the footprints led, and listens
then pops the door open and moves through.
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Natalya hear nothing within.
As she opens the door she finds what was once a storeroom. It's fairly large, 30ft by 15. The walls are lined with shelves and the shelves contain largely dust and a few broken pieces of crafting gear.
The room also contains three dead bodies. Three humanoids had been chained to the wall, long enough ego that they no longer smell of death, merely dust, judging by the tools littered about them, and the wounds they obviously suffered, they were obviously tortured to death.
Well that just about settles it then, no quarter...
grim-faced she turns from the room and marches quickly onwards to the middle door in the south wall, moving through it at pace now with a determined look.
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The middle door on the south side of the room was the storeroom with the footprints leading into it. Sorry for the confusion.
There's the elevator shaft going down. Double doors on the west side of the room and another door on the south side.
The unexplored door to the south leads down a 5 ft wide hallway, which abruptly takes a turn to the east. Even before you take the turn you can smell the overpowering stench of fungus.
The tunnel open onto a small ledge overlooking a large cavern. This massive vaulted chambre is filled with blue-white light from the luminescent fungi that fill the cavern. Moving amongst the towering wild fungal growths are a pair of giant ants, their exoskeletons dotting with malformed growths of white fungus.
You can see several tunnels leading off in several directions from this cavern as well.
"If those ants are scouts for their nest then we are better off killing them now than waiting for them to alert the others. In any event, I doubt they will leave us unmolested. "
Speaking quietly
That's a fair point Gareth, I was thinking that due to the sheer number of branching travel options available to us from this room, I'd be more inclined to trace our steps back and shut the door leading here, then try elsewhere first.
she indicates the ants
However those vermin need removing as they may be a threat to the kingdom if left here to multiply and fortify any further.
she looks pensive, then adds
Stuff it, let's take them now in case they're out hunting later and injure something we care about, we'd never forgive ourselves
She makes ready for battle and waits for everyone else to do the same.
Bows first to draw them in I think, then when they're nearly upon us I'll charge them to keep them away from the rest of the group.
Lorald readies a shot as soon as things turn hostile. He was more concerned about their strange appearance then the creatures themselves.
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The tunnel comes out to a ledge, like a stone landing. It's maybe 10 feet wide and five feet long. Beyond that it drops down into the fungus cavern. The fungus cavern is perhaps 160 feet wide, maybe 120 feet deep, 60 feet high. There are at least half a dozen tunnels of various size that lead off from this cavern.
Attack
From their vantage point above the ants, Natalya feels the position is excellent for a volley of ranged attacks.
She waits till everyone is armed and ready, holds a hand up, then drops it to signal the unified attack.
"I always wanted to be known as 'The Antslayer'" says with a wink to Valkus as he lets a bolt fly.
Attack
Damage if it hits
Keeping his position as hidden as he can. He fires his prepared bolts as soon as the others. His fly towards the target.
Ventilated - Double damage and 2d6 nonlethal damage
Natalya was about to swear at her bow again, and offer to pay the moving costs of any decent bowyers they could attract and import from Brevoy, but she'll hold on to those purse-strings for now. She nods in satisfaction as the arrows sink home in the approaching ant.
She did note her pull almost bent the poor bow in half though as she released her strikes.
Must retire this thing for something stronger she mutters under her breath. Glancing back at her sheathed sword and sighing despite the (now rather tattered) cheerful ribbon tied around the hilt, she adds
I'm going shopping the next time we're back at Oleg's! Though at our current rate that'll be some point next year and he'll have turned it in to a shopping paradise with more choice than a Chelaxian takeout menu!