SILVER STEIN INN (8 Gozran)
The more your group discusses it, the less you believe the black mold will be a real obstacle to returning to the secret door in the sewers.
Jessibel seems particularly pleased to have been invited along again on a mission that has at least some degree of danger. She assures Davina that she'll hang back mostly, inspiring courage with her ballads and healing where she can. "I'll pick my spots," the teen promises. "You won't have to face my grandmother with news that her favorite granddaughter was killed or nearly killed in the city sewers."
I believe I made a secret Knowledge (Dungeoneering) check for you earlier, perhaps offline.
In any event, what T'chazzar said (both in his post and when I put words into his mouth a few posts earlier) seems about right. The only thing you take issue is would be that the freestanding, naturally occurring mold swatches in the sewers could possibly have affected your group with shared dreams. You believe there's something else going on...but aren't sure what.
Falina considered what Jessi said about the mold not being the cause and said, "I agree, if nothing Sabrinah and I weren't down there to be exposed."
"I think fire is the best solution, killing it with fire is always a good solution." She finished her preparations and then went with them down into teh sewers. When they arrived below the city Falina's first reaction was to wrinkle her nose in disgust. "Ugh, this place smells awful." She pulled a cloth out that had been perfumed and wrapped it around her face to try and keep the worst of the smell at bay before looking around the area.
Davina studies the door. "I'll open it. I an see in the dark." She opens it.
SEWERS OF KINTARGO (8 Gozran)
After bypassing the black mold, the heroes gather around the secret door found a day earlier. The sharp ears of Leora and Arani pick up the slightest sound of movement beyond the door, allowing them to warn the others. Davina nods to the others and pushes open the door so the rest of your group can file in and whoop whatever stirs in the darkness beyond.
Unfortunately, your foes likewise heard your approach. As soon as the door's opened, a gaunt, clawed humanoid with an unnaturally long, wagging tongue rushes T'chazzar and tries to bite him; fortunately, the thing's jagged fangs catch only the chain links of his armor. Even so, the stink of the undead creature threatens to make those closest to it ill: Jessibel nearly swoons and T'chazzar, Davina, and Arani are all potentially affected as well .
From what little you can see, this may have once been a storeroom of some sort, but now there's a hole in its west wall.
Then stench is so overwhelming it leaves you sickened (see individual durations below).
Arani: 10 minutes; Davina: 6 minutes; T'chazzar: 8 minutes; Anyone Else: I'll roll when it happens.
These creatures are ghouls, undead menaces similar to the ones that raided the Red Jills' hideout while many of you were captives there.
These creatures are ghouls, undead menaces similar to the ones that raided the Red Jills' hideout while many of you were captives there. The leader is a ghast, slightly more powerful and bearing a horrid stench that can sicken the weak-stomached for several minutes. All these undead have diseased bites that can turn one who succumbs into a ghouls, and all their bite and claw attacks can potentially paralyze prey for up to half a minute.
These creatures are ghouls, undead menaces similar to the ones that raided the Red Jills' hideout while many of you were captives there. The leader is a ghast, slightly more powerful and bearing a horrid stench that can sicken the weak-stomached for several minutes. All these undead have diseased bites that can turn one who succumbs into a ghouls, and all their bite and claw attacks can potentially paralyze prey for up to half a minute (though elves are immune to this paralysis from ghouls but NOT from ghasts).
All these undead have some measure of resistance against positive energy channeling.
for
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
"Ugh, ghouls again! Just like the ones that attacked the Red Jills!" Leora moves around to the other side of T'chazzar. Drunken Hero, protect T'chazzar from these evil ghouls!" Leora splashes some of the whiskey from her flask towards the dark elf. It forms an amber bubble that glints around him, shielding him from the ghoul attacks.
Nope. Everyone's got a fresh slate of spells come morning.
Thanks--that looks great!
Be careful. They are ghouls." Davina drinks her extract of shield, and waits for the doorway to clear a bit.
Her bow snapping up, Arani fires a pair of quick shots over T’chazzar's shoulders, at the lead ghoul.
Since one of the ghouls is right there, and he's immune to their paralyzing attacks anyway, T'chazzar just lays into the foe in the doorway.
SEWERS OF KINTARGO (8 Gozran)
Both Arani and T'chazzar hit with one-of-two strikes, putting a good deal of hurt on the surprisingly agile lead ghoul ; Falina steps forward and snakes a pair of magic missiles into the scrum, knocking the thing over backward--seemingly dead once again--into the remains of an old firepit. Two more lesser ghouls leap forward, renewing the bottleneck at the secret door while a third slip out the hole in the storeroom's back wall. The lead ghoul tries to bite T'chazzar while its comrade tries to throw an awkward left claw around the corner. The bite misses by a mile, while the claw strikes the wall providing T'chazzar with cover.
Jessibel starts a slightly off-key battle song. Though still affected by the ghast's stench, the teen fights it off enough that you still feel the magical boost her songs provide.
for
for
T'chazzar hammers again at the ghast but after his initial volley seems to now be out of luck.
To help make T'chazzar quicker, Leora casts a spell on him "Cayden Cailean, give T'chazzar the grace of a cat! He needs more speed!" She then backs out of the corner in case one of her companions wants to step in.
Arani leans to shoot around T'chazzar's right side, hitting the ghoul directly in front of him high. Spinning fluidly to roll back to back with the drow for a moment, she comes out of the spin in a low crouch, firing under his arm to hit the same ghoul low in the stomach.
SEWERS OF KINTARGO (8 Gozran)
Arani drops the creature blocking the door with a pair of pinpoint arrows. Aided by Leora's spell, T'chazzar stabs the next ghoul in the chest after stepping into the chamber.
Moving around to see the final ghoul, and still keep some distance from it, Falina cast again. Another pair of missiles lanced out at the ghoul and slammed into it.
SEWERS OF KINTARGO (8 Gozran)
With Sabrina still acting as her bodyguard, Falina fires two more magic missiles into the fray, badly wounding the remaining ghoul.
Davina slides up and tries to stab the ghoul around the corner.
SEWERS OF KINTARGO (8 Gozran)
Davina displays some impressive swordsmanship, slipping a stab around the corner and into the last ghoul's heart. It slumps to the ground, vanquished.
But it wasn't the last ghoul, now was it? At least one escaped through the hole in the back of the chamber, and now the folks on the sewer shelf hear another door slide open to the north. The escaped ghoul--or another quite similar to it--emerges and scrabbles to attack the party's flank! Jessibel, still singing her inspirational war chant, bravely (or recklessly) moves to intercept the undead, stabbing it weakly in the arm.
for
Turning on her heel, Arani takes a single step forward as she sends a shot streaking past Jessibel's cheek to sink into the undead.
T'chazzar moves quickly to assist Jessibel before she's overwhelmed.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
SEWERS OF KINTARGO (8 Gozran)
Jessibel lets loose a little yip as Arani's arrow zips past her face and takes the taller ghoul in the shoulder near its neck. When T'chazzar moves to help, the pale bard manages a weak smile before saying quietly, "I can see now why I got relegated to the bench--she's good!"
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
"Yeah! Drunken Hero, guide Arani's arrows straight!" Leora thumps Arani encouragingly on the shoulder.
In an effort to help Jessi witht he last ghoul Falina gestured as she spoke and sent a glob of acid sailing at the undead thing.
Davina rushes into the fray, and attacks the ghoul. "You inspire us Jess. Though not even that could help me right now."
SEWERS OF KINTARGO (8 Gozran)
Falina somehow squeezes a blob of acid into the fray, searing the gray flesh of the ghoul battling Jessibel, Davina, and T'chazzar. Another ghoul scrambles out of the northern doorway, closing on Jessibel and T'chazzar while a third pops out of the original secret door, right behind Falina! Sabrina, still acting as the sorceress's bodyguard, reacts (albeit a bit late) by stepping up to the threat and stabbing the thing's gray arm. Having lost her fashionable armor when she was a captive of Saul Porter and the imp, Blosodriette, the brave redhead is ill-equipped to fight a ghoul.
The two new arrivals had to move a decent distance to reach the party and can't also manage any attacks. The one near Jessibel and T'chazzar, however, lets fly with myriad teeth and claws. Apparently it's never seen a drow before, because it hurls all attacks at the not-paralyze-able elf rather than attacking the more vulnerable human. T'chazzar dodges the bite and one claw, but the second claw barely slips past his multiple defenses and opens a shallow wound on his forearm .
Jessibel keeps singing and inspiring--and even tries to contribute to the cause with a rapier stab--but it's clear the sickened girl isn't up to that task. "I'm just taking up space," she admits to Davina, stepping back to let a better swordswoman challenge the ghoul.
for
for
for
for
for
T'chazzar pivots and swings his other shortsword at the next ghoul, ignoring for now the scratch on his arm.
"Aww come on! More ghouls?" Leora raises her holy flask high and channels positive energy to harm the ghouls, a wave of amber energy washing over the undead creatures.. "Purge these nasty ghouls from the sewer!"
Davina moves up between Jess and the ghoul, and stabs with her rapier.
Quickly assessing the threats in comparison to those facing them, Arani swings around to target the ghoul approaching from behind, taking a side step for a better shot.
SEWERS OF KINTARGO (8 Gozran)
Leora's burst of positive energy, combined with some expert striking and archery from T'chazzar, Davina, and Arani, eliminates the remaining ghouls in sight. Jessibel stops singing and quietly comments, "Wow--that was impressive!"
A quick search of the fallen ghouls reveals nothing of value on their slow-rotting corpses; perhaps they have a hoard hidden inside their lair.
"Let's check out the door inside this lair here" Leora says, pointing towards the room they'd just tried to enter, before the ghouls jumped out of it.
Noticing the nasty claw marks T'chazzar received from the ghouls, she uses the wand of Cure Light Wounds on him.
Leora takes a careful look around the hidden room to see if the ghouls had anything stashed there.
Arani follows, keeping her bow up.
Davina follows Leora into the room. "Careful. That was nasty. Everyone all right?"
She moves to the secret door and listens.
SEWERS OF KINTARGO (8 Gozran)
South Room and Ghoul Warrens (Davina, Arani, Falina, and Sabrina)
The tunnel dug in the back of the southern room is irregular, with its ceiling a mere 6 feet in height—perfect for hunched-over ghouls but a bit cramped for humans. You worry that the hollowed-out caverns seem too big to have been the work of just the five ghasts and ghouls you defeated, yet no more of the undead lurk in the darkness. The first object of note is a great bone pit about 10 feet across and several feet deep. It is filled with the gnawed bones of hundreds of creatures. The deceased are mainly dire rats, but the two most recent sets of remains are of a human and a horned humanoid, likely a devilspawn tiefling.
North Room (Leora, T'chazzar, Jessibel)
The northern secret door leads to a large unfinished room. Like the southern room, there's a shattered wall to the west and a dark passage beyond. If this ancient Kintargan home or business is the where the pearl thief in your shared dream was arrested, the man’s ill-gotten treasure is not lying in plain sight. What is plain to see, however, is the man-sized depression in the earthen floor in the room’s southwest corner: It appears that a fairly-intact corpse was recently excavated here…or arose on its own.
Leora, hopeful of finding the missing pearls, spies a flat stone near the impression of the body. Lifting it, she finds a musty, decayed leather stachel. Inside is another silk bag filled with dozens of pearls!
"Yes! Found em!" Leora holds up the bag of pearls triumphantly. She looks around the room for any other interesting historical artifacts, or signs of if the ghouls had been living in this room.
"Wow, this place is pretty creepy. I can't imagine what the Darklands must be like," Leora comments to T'chazzar.
Arani takes in the gruesome scene, pulling her veil up across her face. "So two questions, what kind of predator did this, and where is it now?" she says quietly, keeping an arrow fit to her bowstring.
T'chazzar replies to Leora conversationally, "This is kind of like a tiny, very under-detailed version thereof. Also with less treachery and sudden betrayal."
"Looks like something broke in here. Maybe ghouls clawing their way in, looking for buried dead... maybe something larger."
"I don't know. This is disturbing." She carefully looks around the room for anything of interest or clues to what might have been in this room.
Falina entered the room with the other Ladies and looked around. It was disgusting to say the least and she wrinkled her nose in disgust glad she had a perfumed handkerchief around her face. "I can't believe anything would live, er un-live in this mess. Absolutely filthy and disgusting."
Finally seeing where the body had once been she heard the suggestions of what might have happened and looked around nervously. When she spoke her tone was very sarcastic as she said, "Thank you for such delightful ideas, They are so wonderful that there aren't words to describe it."
"Don't mention it, Princess." Arani replies, the smirk covered by her veil, evident in her voice.
SEWERS OF KINTARGO (8 Gozran)
Leora's group discovers nothing new in the northern chamber. Davina's aasimar eyes, however, spot something half buried in the bone pit. As she digs out the item--a large, filthy leather satchel--she notices that the bones have been gnawed upon 'til all the flesh has been stripped off them and then cracked open so the marrow could be sucked out...typical of ghouls. The satchel, once retrieved and opened, contains three items: a tarnished but functional masterwork silver light mace, a small wooden coffer containing four labeled potions (oil of arcane mark, potion of virtue, potion of jump, potion of pass without trace), and a smaller sack containing a mix of coinage (worth 50 gp).
”Well done, heroes!” a raspy yet familiar voice echoes throughout the sewers and the underground chambers your group has been exploring. It seems to originate to the south. ”You proved yourselves worthy in my dreamscape, and this day you’ve eliminated a threat to your own time and city! Yet there is one more threat I must ask you to deal with.”
When you seek out the source of the voice you discover a haggard humanoid standing on the sewer shelf. Though his guard tabard has long since rotted away and his chain shirt is in rusty tatters, the gaunt, undead figure before you is still recognizable as Belfram Carthen, the Kintargo Guard captain you encountered in the shared dream of the previous night.
”My life was taken on the day you experienced in your dreams last night,” the undead captain explains. ”I arose as one of the creatures you battled…and I was changed. I felt the urge to kill—so foreign to my previous life as a protector of Kintargo and its people—and I fought it as long as I could. When my will was about to fail me, I locked myself away in the building where the thief had stashed his pearls, a building left uninhabitable by the flood waters. I...hibernated...apparently for long centuries. I know not what evil force or event awakened me recently, but awaken I did, finding my tomb the lair of these foul ghouls. I reached out and found your sleeping minds and brought you here to eliminate the threat these creatures presented to your city. And now I ask you to rid the city of one last threat. I feel the evil in me trying to spur me on to murder and mayhem. Please—destroy this cursed mockery that I’ve become!”
Even as you look upon the tragic figure of the caring watchman from the past, you can see a hardness begin to seep into his eyes and facial features: the hatred of the living that most undead creatures feel. As the last vestiges of humanity drift from Carthen's face, nasty sewer water begins to leak and gush from his corpse, coating the floor around him with slick raw sewage.
"Oh no! Captain Carthan!" Leora's heart sinks as she hears the man's awful story.
"May T'chazzar put a quick end to this evil!" Leora says, casting another spell on the drow, then moves closer to the undead captain.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |