T'chazzar finally gets tired of wiping his face and rummages around for one of the cloths he uses to wipe down his sword. He wipes off the remaining grimple vomit.
"I've heard of worse," he says with a sour look, "but not by much."
"I'm just glad I managed to put down the big'un as quick as I did. The only way I'd have wanted to see him puke is if he was pointed at Mayor Barry."
As he opens the grate, Dom examines where Kiri blasted the grimple through. "He broke the plane; that's a point for you, Kiri."
Leora checks around the room for any signs of the spider that wove the webs as well as checking out the grate.
As long as there are no signs of spiders, she joins everyone near the grate. "Alright, let's find Jessi and the guy who definitely isn't the the firefly man." She winks at Dom, not convinced to give up on the bet yet.
-Posted with Wayfinder
"Alright, let's find Jessi and the guy who definitely isn't the the firefly man." She winks at Dom, not convinced to give up on the bet yet.
"It's all so clear what he uses the fireflies for. I should have seen this coming." Dom gestures at the webs. "Snacks. For his pet." Hefting his sword and returning Leora's grin, he says, "Let's get them both to roll over and play dead."
When Dom starts to open the grate, it shrieks like only a rusty iron grate can shriek; the half-orc accordingly just opens it enough for folks to slip through one at a time, hoping that nothing hostile heard the short but loud scraping.
Pink X on the newly-revealed western area of the map marks the spot where you find the giant spider (Medium sized) responsible for the webs. It's dead, its legs curled up over its slowly desiccating form. It, like the grimples, shows signs of demon bile contamination. It also looks like something small (perhaps the grimples) nibbled on it a bit before giving up on the carcass.
"Found the corpse of the spider that spun those webs. Looks like the grimples had been eating it." Leora reports back to her companions.
May Cayden Cailean watch over you, Dom. And help us find Jessi.". Leora casts a small blessing on her friend as he takes the lead . She takes up the rear (or near the rear) as Dom suggests.
"So are we laying bets on whether or not the demons are back? Demons covered in Demon Bile." she shudders at the thought as she lines up ready to go through the doors to the yucky water room.
Domitius turns to Davina, and raises an eyebrow in thought. "I'll bet that the Firefly Man is the head honcho of any and all demons down there. If he's the minion, I lose. If he's not there, I'm out double, once to each o'you ladies. How's that one sound, Miss Eradon?" Dom grins and holds out his hand.
The first thing you notice as you enter this vast chamber is the half-filled bottle of fireflies sitting on the floor a short ways from the double doors used to enter the area. Then you realize you’ve found Jessibel: The young noblewoman stands inside a globe of magical light on the western side of the narrow walkway encircling the small pond of sludge. She wears dirty ill-fitting rags and is bound from shoulders-to-knees in an assortment of animal harnesses and restraints that pin her arms at her side and barely allows her to walk; a dirty length of rope encircles her neck as a leash. Her captor stands nearby: a slightly puffy, deranged-looking man with curled dark hair, wide red-rimmed eyes, and a toothy grin that hints at madness. He wears the familiar black-and-red studded leather armor, armband, and Thrune amulet of a Queensman, though his armor looks to be a size too small for the man.
Jessibel’s captor stands behind the bound girl, using her as a human shield, his hands clutching her shoulders as they stand at the brink of the foul pool, which you notice is no longer filled with rusty brown slurry but is instead cultivating a vast, jelly-like, purple swath of demon bile. “Unless you lay down your arms and surrender immediately, I’m afraid I’ll have no choice but to throw my lovely assistant into the pit. Even if by some miracle she doesn’t drown—in which case her body will still be able to fulfil the purpose I have planned for it—I assure you she’ll not emerge the same being she was before she went in. Now, if you’d please—toss all your weapons into the pit and remove your armor….”
”Dom! Guys!” Jessibel screams in a strange mix of excitement, hope, and fear. ”Don’t listen to him! He means to summon a host of demons from the Abyss!” Indeed, a clutter of wicked chalk symbols have been added to those that were already on the walls when you first visited this place. Despite Jessibel's words, you all fear from the man's bearing and the fierce (perhaps mad) determination in his eyes that the Queensman would toss the young woman into the demon's bile without a second though.
You have no doubt the Queensman will follow through with his threat and toss Jessi into the demon bile if you don’t comply with his commands. You also sense that he’s up to something…a trick or misdirection of some kind.
Dom does his best to mask his concern.
"Please, dymka, we've seen this guy's handiwork. He couldn't summon his manhood if he paid his weight in gold to Tessa at the Three-Legged Devil."
T'chazzar proceeds to just screw up anything he tries to do and be useless in the ensuing boss fight.
Dropping his sword, Dom rushes up, and grabs hold of Jess. As he gets up next to the girl, he assesses her, and tells his friend, "You look terrible."
"Well I guess you owe us double. This creature is certainly NOT the mastermind." Davina tries to not look terribly worried as she waits to see what happens after Dom runs up to Jess.
Despite the Queensman's threat, he's very slow to react to Dom's forward rush and grab onto his hostage. The Firefly Man seems distracted or surprised by your party's arrival.
As Dom rushes to grab Jessi, T'chazzar lets out a heavy sigh. "I guess it always comes to this," he says. His cold iron backsword comes dully and quietly out of its sheath as he advances toward the Firefly Man. "Nothing personal, but folks who tie people up and dip them in demon bile? Yeah, they get smote."
The Firefly Man stares briefly at the pit of demon's bile almost as though expecting it to rise up and attack on his behalf. Letting out a sigh, he says, "I guess I'll have to dispatch of you lot on my own." Releasing the rope tht held his captive, he draws a rapier and attempts to stab T'chazzar. When the blade digs deeply into the drow's shoulder , the Queensman gives an odd laugh and adds, "I'm a better swordsman than I recalled. First time I've used a blade, actually...."
for
T'chazzar takes the blade in his shoulder and stabs back, but misses (based on the rolls above).
Leora notices something odd about the way the Queensman is acting, but doesn't know what it could be. He's wearing the odd queensman armor that doesn't fit and talking about how bad he is with a sword even though he nearly killed T'chazzar in one blow! So she joins her friends in taunting him. "C'mon, that's not what you're really trying to do! What's the scoop, man?"
Although Dom and T'chazzar seem to have Jessi safe, Leora sees T'chazzar practically run through with the enemy's rapier. And with one slip, Jessi could fall into the demon bile. Glad she'd figured out this nifty side-effect of Cayden Cailean's power back at Gavin's creepy hideout, Leora moves closer to the pool and raises her flask high. "By the power of Cayden Cailean, I banish your wounds and the demon bile! And stop summoning demons and stuff!"
She's a little dismayed that most of the energy is channeled into destroying some of the demon bile and not into healing her friends.
(+3 more if he's evil)
(+2 more if he's evil)
Kiri was amused by the Firefly Man's demands and was about to throw her dagger into the pool with more than a little amusement. She was saved the trouble though when Domitus simply charged in and pulled Apprentice from the edge. The fight now well begun the strix woman couldn't help but be pleased with the outcome of this fight. She needed to get on the other side of the melee if she wanted to be able to attack the fool and decided that it was time to take a chance. She moved swiftly straight towards the pit and jumped. As she went the air slammed into her like a hurricane from behind and made her fly clear across the pit with an oomph of pain as she ran into the wall on the far side of the pit.
Davina double moves up near Jess. "You ok Missy? We were worried. Seems this big lunk got the better of you, but we'll fix that soon enough."
"I guess it always comes to this. Nothing personal, but folks who tie people up and dip them in demon bile? Yeah, they get smote."
"Like hell it ain't personal," the half-orc growls as he gets Jess to safety. "Mudaki that do this to my friends? Them, I cut up with a smile on my face."
Though gravely injured by the Queensman's rapier thrust, T'chazzar fights back with a riposte from his short sword. He feels a measure of satisfaction as the blade cuts through armor and flesh like a warm, cold iron knife through evil demonic butter. Kiri soars across the cistern of demon's bile while Davina hustles forward to join the battle. Jessibel nods in reply to the aasimar's question and says they can speak of it more once the 'lunk' is defeated; then she breaks into bardic performance, singing a battle song. Leora's positive energy washes over much of the area, clearing a swath of demon's bile from the pool and slightly healing Dom, Davina, T'chazzar, and even Jessibel (who had a pair of fang marks where her neck meets her shoulder).
Dom drags Jessibel out of harm's way before moving back to re-engage the Firefly Man, drawing his gladius en route.*
Unwilling to let the Firefly Man(?) do anything else sinister, T'chazzar lashes out again in an attempt to stop him before he can strike once more. He brings his backsword back, using his shield to obscure his moves, before suddenly thrusting forward again in a corkscrewing motion designed to both throw off the appearance of the target and avoid any sudden clash and deflection by the enemy's weapon.
Again T'chazzar beats the Queensman's defenses, though this time the damage inflicted is less severe. Still, there seems to be some serious concern now in the man's bloodshot eyes as he shifts into a more defensive position and...feints a jab at Dom's face before swiftly stabbing for the half-orc's chest! Though Dom's fooled by the false attack, Firefly Man slips on some of the loose rubble underfoot and his jab is a wayward one.
for
There will be time enough later for Dukkan to berate himself over the close call. Now, emobldened by his friend's song, the furious half-orc joins T'chazzar's assault on the Firefly Man, bringing his cold iron sword in low and ripping upward with all his might.
T'chazzar shifts his position somewhat, working toward setting up a flanking situation with Dom, and continues raining down blows with his sword against the ersatz Queensman.
Leora moves forward next to Jessi "Glad you're alright!".
Putting a hand on Davina's shoulder, she raises her flask again. "To good triumphing over evil!"
Ready to deal with the fool once and for all Kiri approached, staying back, and getting a nice clear line of attack. She still had to avoid her allies with her blow but she felt more confident now that she could hit. With a focused roar of sound the air rushed in at her victim with resounding force.
Davina nods at Leora. "We'll take care of this small little thing. I've had just about enough of this silliness. Trying to use gobs of goo to summon something? Really? Not going to work." She moves up and gets into a flank with T'chazzar.
Firefly Man's decision to fight with an emphasis on defense pays immediate dividends, as he manages to dodge all the incoming attacks aimed his way. Still, he's rapidly being surrounded, so he makes a tactical withdrawal, scrabbling over the rubble to the north before turning east, hopping into the pool of sludge and demon's bile, and wading through the waist-deep slime to get a bit of cover from one of the great stone pillars suspending the chains above the pit.
Even as he moves, you notice the skin of his face bulging and pulsing. When the man stops, however, his fleshy Queensman disguise splits, revealing a wormlike bipedal demon. With a slurp and some crunching, the thing sucks much of the abandoned host into its gaping maw like human sinew spaghetti and swallows it down quickly. Several of the wounds on its rubbery flesh heal before your eyes.
Jessibel continues to sing to inspire courage but adds some to-the-point lyrics to the melody:
"It a vermlek demon, friends, and without good or cold iron weapon things are dire!
It's immune to poison and electricity, with resistance to acid, cold, and fire!"
The creature is a vermlek demon, a parasitic outsider that inhabits a corpse and is best attacked with cold iron or good-aligned weapons.
Vermleks are immune to electricity and poison and have moderate resistance to acid, cold, and fire.
Vermleks are healed by negative energy; among their spell-like abilities is one that utilizes negative energy. They can also summon dretches with a 50% success chance.
T'chazzar slashes with his backsword as the creature scrabbles away.
...but misses again.
He pursues the monstrosity and slashes again, a gleam of violet light flashing off the blade of his sword.
...again missing.
Obligatory quote: "You gotta be ****ing kidding..."
"That's still only the second-grossest thing we've seen today," Dukkan says, grinning fiercely as the creature tries to flee. "Too bad for you it won't save you." He swipes wildly at the demon as he pursues it.
Turns out I had time for a quick post when I got home. :) You were unsure if I'd have had enough move to reach it and still attack....
When Dom & T'chazzar enter the pool, the rancid sludge underneath bubbles up through the areas where it's topped with demon bile, and the stench is powerfully bad.
The stench overwhelms you, making you nauseous. Return your token to the square where you entered the cistern (or, in Dom's case, where he landed in it).
Unable to overcome the stench of the cistern, T'chazzar simply remains at the edge, gagging.
"Did... did I just see that, or did I have too much to drink before we came in here?" Leora wonders aloud as the firefly man completes his horrifying transformation.
Before Dom charges after the man-worm-demon, she moves behind him with another prayer. "Cayden Cailean, protect Dom from the evilness of this demon jerk!" Leora wishes she remembered some of the rude Orcish words Dom used to add to her prayer.
As furious as he is, and emboldened as much by Leora's positivity as her spell, the foul stench doesn't stop Dukkan. He vaults down after the creature, with the smile on his face that he promised it.
"Think of me as the early bird, suka..."
"In addition to what Jess said, Vermleks are healed by negative energy; among their spell-like abilities is one that utilizes negative energy. They can also summon dretches with a 50% success chance. It's nasty. They inhabit corpses."
Davina pulls out an extract and drinks it. Her arms grow longer as she moves past T'chazzar trying to get closer to the creature, but she just ends up gagging at the edge of the pool.
Nope, just dangling chains.
Not seeing anything of use above Kiri sent a blast of air slamming out at the monster in the pool.