Grommund looks at the farmer leaning against the wall, "Are ye daft lad? We ARE the town. We've been sent here as their representatives. We did negotiate a peace treaty, we just haven't told the town the good news yet. If they're too stoopid or stubborn to say yes to what we've arranged, that's their own damned fault. If ye're just gonna b*tch about it the rest of the time we're here, go back now and start negotiatin' yerself! We got real work ter do."
After giving Larry the (presumably) unwanted lecture, Grommund wanders off to continue his search, grumbling about humans under his breath in dwarven. Once they are finished he checks the next door for traps and opens it.
"We go three sets o' double doors. I'm thinking our right side first, in case it loops back to where we just were in compost, get that section of the Citadel cleared," The dwarven rogue suggests, pointing to the southern door.
"And if we are too dead to tell the town about it, like the ACTUAL heroes we've come to track down, what peace deal will exist then? We're here right now so you can all feel better about what you promised, not because it is the best thing for the village."
"Yar, whatever. Don't die," Grommund grumbles. Damn whipper snappers! So stubborn!
The party enters the hall, lit by the strange bio-luminescence of the vibrant green bushes poking through the flagstones of the dwarven keep. Trying to avoid the plants as much as possible, the group makes their way south to the set of double doors, where Grommund goes through his intricate check of the doors and walls and floor. 6 minutes later Grommund says there are no traps and the group arrays themselves in front of the door.
Klor follows along. nods his approval of Grommond's lecture, no need to add to what was already said.
besides there's a mystery here that needs to be solved and a dwarf hunter that needs to be tracked down.
only thing on Klor's mind right now is finding that dwarf hunter that got the best of him earlier.
you says its clear? then we go go Klor starts to open the doors
Zarrick stands ready with his mace clenched with both hands.
Larry stands ready as well, one of his spears out and prepared.
The door is pushed open and gone is the vibrant green foliage shedding its greenish hue on the walls and a sickly pale violet fungi clings to the floor here and large mounds. This time the bio-luminescence is a pale purple. The room is shadowy and hard to see in, for all except Klor, Grommund and strangely enough Tae. Everyone feels like they are on a night with clouds covering the moon.
Grommund begins to examine the room for traps, or hidden doors.
Grommund moves into the room, taking a full minute to look around the floor before entering. He moves slowly methodically around the room and several minutes later returns saying nothing of importance here except purple fungus.
Klor steps into the room stops a moment to examine the fungus.
Thinking back trying to recall what he remembers about this funus. which isn't very much...
Klor looks in and sees glowing violet fungus that he can say he has never seen before or even heard of for that matter.
"Movin' on." Grommund says, proceeding to search the next door they've come to clockwise from this one.
pausing in front of this door as Grommund begins to check it out he can hear a sound not unlike a steam kettle from within the room....
"Someone's makin' tea in there. Get ready lads...and lass," Grommund says before opening the door quietly with one hand, axe ready in the other.
Tea? Ekan wonders why anyone would do that here of all places, but waits till the others go through. He'll follow once they are. It's hard to see past the taller members of the party sometime, which is pretty much everyone, but it's comforting to have them taking the forefront Can't deny their courage.
The young farmer just shakes his head. People are pretty much the same everywhere, aren't they? Tea. He sighs softly, waiting for the little old grandmother to be revealed.
The doors slide open as Grommund and Klor both grasp a handle and push, and they come into another odd looking room of fungus. This one has sickly green-gray fungus with puff balls clinging to the floor in mounds. towards the center of the room on the right side is what appears to be a worm like creature, blood red and steaming from the heat emanating from it's body. Its head snapped towards the party and a beak like mouth snapped open and shut once before it launched itself towards them aggressively.
"Torag's testes! What in the nine hells is that? It looks hot," Grommund says, grabbing his sling. He loads a stone and lets it fly at the creature. His stone bounces off the creature's stony hide harmlessly. "Well that didn't work."
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Tae fires an eldritch bolt at the creature.
Klor looks to this creature. feeling the heat radiating from it.
Just like workin a forge I say. Klor moves in to give this worm a sound slashing.
Klor slashes into the creature managing to pull the blade away before any of the heat can affect the blade of his axe.
A shimmering shield of magic appears before Ekan.
Larry trys (and fails) to work his way into the room in order to attack this . . . thing. Once he gets as far as he thinks he can, Larry throws the spear he's holding at the creature, but the throw goes high.
----
Move to F11
Zarrick switches to his crossbow readying a bolt.
Grommund takes a step into the room to make room for the others and pulls a sling out loading a stone, twirling the sling around his head and loosing a stone, it clatters harmlessly off the wall behind the strange worm-like creature.
Trying to stay out of the Fungus area's, Tae moves in and along the wall to get a clear shot at the creature and losses a blast of eldritch energy on the creature. Its skin turns bright white where her blast hits and it snaps its head towards her.
Wanting to draw the Worm to him, Klor moves into the fungus patch between The worm and Tae and readies his axe for its approach.
Ekan casts a spell that brings up a shimmering field of force that always seems to interpose itself towards who he looks at.
Running straight in, his footfalls sending up clouds of spores, Larry chucks the spear in his hands at the worm, and it sails high and hits the wall behind the worm and bouncing down to the floor below.
Zarrick steps into the doorway, and changes to his crossbow, loading it.
Erky moves forward to get a better view, but holds off on doing anything.
The worm moves quickly through the fungus, leaving it shrivelled and burnt as he goes coming towards Klor who strikes out at it cutting a deep gash in its back, and jerking the blade back out before a gout of fire like blood engulfed his axe.
It strikes out at Klor and slams its hardened beak into his armored body, but cannot find a place that is not armored to grasp him through. He feels the heat radiating from its body and a few of his beard hairs shrivel
HP: 28/9 AC-15 Flat Footed-14 Touch-11 CMD: 15 (Cannot be tripped) FO: +5 RE: +4 WL: +2. Immune to Fire, Immunity to bleed, paralysis, poison, sleep effects, and stunning. Not subject to critical hits or flanking. Does not take additional damage from precision-based attacks, such as sneak attack. Body radiates tremendous heat. any physical contact causes 1d6 fire damage. Weapons that hit require a character make a DC 13 Reflex save or the weapon takes 1d6 damage, ignoring the first 5 points of hardness. Weapons that take more than half acquire the broken condition, and weapons that take their full damage are destroyed.
Grummond tries his sling again.
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Grommunds Sling bullet hits the worm of magma and the bullet melts even as it scores the creatures skin.
Klor circles around with his axe as a counter balance to the prior swing and hit.
but the Swing misses its mark as Klor nearly looses control. but his skill prevents him dropping the weapon.
in any event, it still is a miss
I wonder if it's more resistant to cold? or more vulnerable?
Ekan flings a ray of frost at it to find out. Experimentation is the soul of academic research, after all.
The ray of frost shoots past Klor and strikes the target.
And the halfling manages to annoy it, clearly cold does have SOME effect.
Tae sends another bolt of eldritch energy at the creature.
Looking at the still smoldering creature, and then back to the group, the farmboy has to ask "Does anybody have any idea what that was?" And then he moves to retrieve his errant spear.
"Rogavug's butt worm? Who knows. Glad it didn't touch me."
"Let me take a closer look...though, not too close. It's still giving off some powerful heat. You okay, Klor?" Ekan asks even as he inspects their downed foe.
Just singed some a me hair. not like dats never happen before
"I don't know what it was, but it certainly looked and acted hostile. I'm glad there was only one of them. Is everyone okay? any healing needed?"
"It's from another plane... yes, I remember reading about this. This...uh, it's called a Thoqqua, is from where the planes of Fire and Earth touch. Cold works very well against them... I should have remembered that from the start. Sorry. We may have some sort of otherworldly spill, otherwise it wouldn't be here." He rattles in amazement. "Best we defeated it though... would have caused a lot more fires if it got out of this place."
Good work you guys and Tae. We seem to be getting closer and closer to stranger and more dangerous foes. Zarrick keeps his crossbow in hand as he searches the room, trying to be careful not to disturb the fungus.
Perception
Ekan takes a moment to detect any magic he can in the area, his hawk on his shoulder lending her sight. They need to move quickly, he knows, but maybe there's something here that can help them succeed.
Grommund searches the Thoqqua's chamber and then continues up the hallway, searching at intersections until he gets to the next door. He searches it, unlocks it if locked, and once everyone is ready, opens it.
A quick check of the room doesnt find anything at all except for the dead body of the Rogue Elemental Worm, still emitting a fading heat. and the constant puffball fungus.
Grommund moves to the other door in the gallery and methodically goes over the doors and floor finding nothing out of the ordinary. and as the part catches up to him, he opens the doors seeing another grand hall like the one they stand in, beyond. At the edge oif their darkvision another set of doors and to the right one also. Once more this hall is dimly lit with a vibrant sickly green light from the bushes within.
Grommund will repeat his searching procedure at the next door on the right.
Ekan will hang back further, as his shield will not last forever and he's just used his most powerful defensive magic.
"This place is set up like a maze, isn't it? Anybody remember which doors are which?"
filing around the vibrant green bushes, the group makes their way to the next set of double doors of this once proud dwarven stronghold, turned gardener's paradise. The pungent odor of fertilizer rises from the floor where tiles have been pried up to expose the soil below from which the bushes sprout. Always present is the vibrant green light given off by the plants.
Grommund goes through his routine checking the area before the door thoroughly taking the requisite long minutes to do so before declaring it void of traps.
After finding the door clear, Grommund opens the door.