Ayala twirls and suddenly part of her garment is twisting through the air around her like a flail. The tips of her scarves have wicked little blades sewn into them and she lashes out at Rommin.
Two more of the dog-sized rats come darting into the room at the sound of combat. They're able to enter the fray but not able to get off attacks of their own this turn.
Or I could move and then cast the extract, which means that it can prolly get there on its own move action.
Regardless, ranged touch attack is
Either way, it gets there and starts its attack, and idk, maybe this boss has to roll to avoid catching a possible disease.
Valai charges into the room, robes fluttering behind her as she chants. When her slippers skid to a halt, she shouts the final word to her spell -- and orange-red flame blasts forth from her fingertips, enveloping the rattish beasts battling Rommin and Lawson!
Amadia's stirge doesn't take the round off - it latches on to the leather armor under the wererat's flowing scarves and hangs on, seeking a spot to try with its probiscus.
Afli moves to get a shot at Ayala with his crossbow. He lets fly with a bolt but fails to connect with the spinning target.
Rommin can keep one of his bright shiny rolls as compensation for losing his attack. That cuts the damage in half, dealing 3 hp and leaving him staggered. Raging can get Rommin those 4 hp back and allow him to act. Those pesky rats are no longer an issue...
Did the Stirge drain 1 point of Con from Ayala and did she avoid the slight chance of catching a disease?
The Stirge is attached but the blood drain ability requires that the stirge still be attached at the end of the round. Ayala has the option on her turn to try to break the grapple and avoid the bite, or act offensively. Pretty nice move on Amadia's part actually.
I figured the beastie is supposed to stick around for two rounds, so the first surprise round counts as 1/2. This full round brings its life to 1 1/2 rounds. So it should stick around long enough to have this distracting/draining effect for one round only before it's gone (loses its second action in the next round).
Ah, I misread, I incorrectly assumed end of its turn meant after its attack, not end of the round. My mistake, im still learning summoning things and tactics.
Rommin presses his attack home, slicing through armor so that his blade comes away red.
Hema is inspired by her new friends prowess. She rushes forward to help.
Both Lawson and Hema fail to connect with more than scarf. Ayala ignores the bleeding wound and the conjured monster on her back, twisting away from sword and flame while fanning her own blades out in the rogue's path.
Valai charges up the hall, skids to a halt next to Rommin and lashes out with her silver longsword, the blade narrowly missing the stirge as it drinks of the last Tower Girl's blood.
"Either you surrender or you die, vermin, and I care not which!" she hisses at the beleaguered wererat,
Valai darts in and draws the monster's blood. Surrounded by enemies, Ayala's swings turn more desperate. By the crazed look in her eyes she's going down hard.
"You made your choice, vermin," Valai says, her voice grim as death as she cuts at the wererat once again with her silver longsword.
Ayala finds herself out of time and space to run. She dies under a rain of steel.
The door swings open onto a large irregularly-shaped chamber with four interior pillars supporting a high ceiling. The western wall is dominated by a set of black double doors made of stone with a complex silver seal in its center. Directly across the room is another sealed door. To the left as you look into the room (east) the room comes to an apex and there are two more doors, one on either side of the room's eastern point. One of these doors is slightly ajar and there is light in the room beyond.
Hema looks around at the dead. Well, it seems I was rescued by very worthy folk. My I be of assistance to anyone? It would seem a shame to lose someone before we were made better acquaintance! She looks around forlornly. She'd really feel better if she found her things.
"I would recommend we search the body - carefully," Valai says. "She may be carrying" - she glances at Hema - "an item of corruptive and evil magic."
Ayala's armor is very nice, though it's now also bloodstained (masterwork studded leather). She also has a pouch containing 25 gp, a small ring with two keys on it and a set of nice earrings - but no hidden artifacts.
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Grabbing the pouch and earrings. Lawson pockets them securely for later distribution and appraisal. "Nice leather suit, though it'll need cleaning and maybe some patching." He said as he stooped to pick up and gently fold the bladed scarf into something that won't cut him to shards as he puts it into his pack. "Might be worth something, if only a trophy."
Wincing again his cuts looks over to the group. "Lets patch up and make sure this level is clear. Hopefully we can find Hema's things, then we can take a closer look at that big silver seal."
Once everyone is healed and we are sorted, Lawson will lead the way to check on the ajar door to the east. Keeping an eye out for traps.
Hema makes her way to the gentlemen of the party. "This is all I am able to do until I get my holy symbol back."
It turns out both doors on the eastern side of the room lead to the same place. The room beyond these doors is odd on a couple of counts. First, the room is shaped vaguely like an X, with window openings along the eastern side of the X that mirror the two doors that connect this room with the room you just left. These windows are tall and narrow and look out over the lancet bay where you landed your boat. Looking up, you can see the wooden platform and ropes you used to swing out over the bay and ascend into the ceiling.
The two windows are artfully worked into a wider tile portrait along the walls that shows wizards stitching monstrous humanoids together out of dismembered parts.
Scattered around the room are crates and boxes of supplies. Within one of these you find all of Hema's possessions, along with many of the items stolen from Father Darienne. There's also a small strong box with a lock that matches the smaller of the two keys found on Ayala. Within the strong box you find a pile of loose papers written in Varisian, a pile of coin (87 gp, 175 sp) and a wide collection of odd and very ancient looking jewelry.
You also find the following items scattered in the crates and boxes:
2 doses bloodroot poison
mwk composite short bow
grappling hook
50' silk rope
mwk thieves tools
Valai curses when she sees the papers. "I cannot read these," she complains. "Anyone else?"
As an afterthought, Valai casts a brief cantrip and regards the various items, as well as the chamber itself.
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"These are useful." Lawson said looking the well crafted thieves tools. "Very good quality. Anyone need these? Mine are similar quality."
Glancing over the papers Valai is holding he shakes his head. "Sorry. I worked towards Giant and Dwarven in my studies at the lodge."
"Looks like your stuff is here Hema!" Lawson said as they continued looking through the boxes.
While everyone is getting their bearings for the moment, Lawson will take a closer look at the odd and ancient jewelery.
Hema is relieved to have her things back. She quickly gathers them and makes sure everything is there. Her confidence grows and she stands a little taller as each piece is put back where it belongs. She takes a moment to offer up a brief thanks to Saranrae before she looks over the things from Father Darienne. She suffers a moment of grief and then gets on with it. She looks at the papers. "I'm sorry my friend," she says to Valai, "I am of no use when it comes to languages."
"It is of no import," Valai says, shrugging. "Mayhap I can translate it. My dagger...?" The Elf holds out a pale, slender hand for her cold iron dagger, a hint of a smile hovering on her lips.
Hema hands the dagger back. "My thanks for the loan,"Hema says as she settles her scimitar and mace in their proper places. "It will work in an emergency but I prefer my weapons with a little more...heft." Hema moves to the middle of the group. "Now that I have my things I may try healing again. It would seem some of you are still in need."
The righteous healing magic of the Sun goddess courses into your bodies. Hema, you recognize the last of Ayala's two keys as Father Darienne's. It unlocks a pair of chests he brought along to Magnimar filled with the ornaments of your faith - items with which he intended to re-found her worship.
Afli takes the sheaf of papers and flips through it. Gypsy script - that's all I can tell. I don't know Varisian either.
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"These are actually extremely valuable" Lawson said after examining the jewelry. "Just on their own, I'd say 850 gold pieces. More maybe if they have any historical or sentimental significance."
Feeling much better after Hema's healing wave, Lawson feels the last of his wounds vanish. "I feel much better! No more holes or leaks!" He says with a smirk.
"We can stash the papers for now I guess." Lawson says with a shrug. "There was one more door other than the big silver door in the main room, once we know this level is clear we can take our time to poke at the silver one. What do you all think?"
"I agree that we should be thorough," Valai says as she rises, stows the papers in her pack and dusts off her hands. "We also need to be exceedingly cautious from here on in. Those gewgaws, Lawson - can you stow them in your pack? Once we find the artefact, I think we'll have a good use for this strongbox; we don't want to be affected by the item before it can be made safe."
The last door is much like the others you've found in the crow and it opens at an easy pull. The corridor beyond is choked in the rubble of a ceiling collapse. Beyond twenty or so feet, the passage is totally impassable.
There's a pick and a shovel here next to a pile of rubble that's been cleared away and shoved to the side. Going anywhere in this direction is a long and dangerous job.
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"So much for that. We'll have to tell the Pathfinders, they'll get the man power here to dig everything up." Lawson said.
Moving back to the main room Lawson will look at the Silver Seal on the double door in detail.
"So...any ideas anyone? How does giant magic work Valai? Maybe your shard will open this?"
"Hmph," Valai snorts. She mutters a Word of Power and makes a gesture at the door, regarding the silver seal steadily, her large eyes taking in every detail.
The seal registers as a very strong source of evocative magic. As you're examining the engravings in the metal it suddenly flashes pink - a quick and subtle color flash that's only noticeable under close study.
The seal is a confusing puzzle of sliding tiles and concentric rings superimposed over the pattern of the sihedron. Each of the three rings can be rotated clockwise and counterclockwise. Each ring also has seven tiles on it that can be slid into and out of the ring so that the order of the tiles can be changed. On each of the tiles is a Thassilonean rune. Below the seal is a lever that slides up and down. It's currently in the up position.
Lawson, your intuition tells you there's danger here, but you haven't detected any trap mechanism to disable.
"Ah, Thassilonean script!" Valai says. "Have a seat and take your ease a bit, my friends. I need to take my time with this - it's a puzzle-lock. I can get it, but I need to go slow."
The cantankerous Elf focuses her full attention on the lock, glancing occasionally at notes in her journal and her spellbook while she looks at the sliding parts of the seal. Muttering under her breath, she finally starts to rearrange the lock to make the correct parts line up.