With the information Caladriel provides about the creature, Arani switches to specialized arrows with broad, flat heads made of a dense metal, firing a volley at it.
Falina was not happy seeing this creature attack her companions and wanted it to feel pain. She cast a spell and an arrow of acid flew at the things.
T'chazzar whangs a couple blows off the xorn ineffectually, then bounces a critical hit off of it as well.
RUINS OF THE LUCKY BONES GAMBLING HALL (14 Desnus)
As none of the attacks your group launches seems to land against the xorn, it begins to dawn on some of the party that this specimen is tougher than the average xorn . Caldriel and T'chazzar get the impression from its ease of movement in dodging attacks that the multi-eyed beastie cannot be flanked.
The xorn steps into the party's midst and again chomps Jessibel, leaving the bard badly wounded and awash in her own blood. Two of its claws target the stricken bard as well (the third slshes at T'chazzar), but fortunately all miss the mark.
Jessibel looks pale and horribly frightened; whatever spell she thought might be effective against the xorn apparently won't kill it before it kills her, so the teen tumbles away from the fight, leaving a trail of blood on the multi-colored floor before passing Falina and deftly crossing the ledge surrounding the pit. This leaves poor Arani at the far edge of the girl's light spell, in dim light . Jessi keeps up her war chant, for those who still want to battle the guardian.
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T'chazzar finally manages to wedge his magical mithral blade in the plates of the xorn's hide in a way that seems to get some traction.
Unfortunately, Caldariel still had issues with landing a solid hit…
Arani continues to fire shot after shot, with only one managing to land a solid hit.
"!%^$#@" she curses loudly. "Fall back! I'm not losing anyone here!" she says looking back over her shoulder at the heavily bleeding Jessi.
RUINS OF THE LUCKY BONES GAMBLING HALL (14 Desnus)
T'chazzar and Arani manage to hit the tough guardian, but it looks like it's still got lots of fight left in it. The thing again lashes out with tooth and claw; Arani dodges the dangerous bite attack and T'chazzar side-steps a claw, but Caldariel is struck by the other two and ripped up some more .
Jessibel continues her inspirational chant just in case anyone chooses to ignore Arani's order and keep battling the brute. She works a healing spell into the rhythm, healing herself back from the edge of unconsciousness.
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”Oh, bother.” The elf said in response to the wounds. ”A fighting retreat may be wise. It unfortunate that it has become our forte.”
Round 3
Falina cursed when she realzied her spell missed so she cast it once more sending the arrow of acid flying out at the creature.
Round 4
With the resulting success of her spell Falina lobbed another arrow of acid at the thing hoping for another solid hit even as the acid from the first one continued to sizzle away.
T'chazzar grunts as he barely manages a hit, which simply glances off ineffectually.
RUINS OF THE LUCKY BONES GAMBLING HALL (14 Desnus)
While Jessi heals a bit, Falina causes damage with her acid arrows that Caldariel and T'chazzar seem unable to do in melee with the creature (though her latest one barely misses the mark, as T'chazzar provides the thing with cover). Still, you'd estimate you're approximately halfway to killing the xorn.
The guardian's teeth find Arani ; claws scrape Caldariel and rip into T'chazzar .
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T'chazzar shifts to put his back to the wall and open the line of arrow fire while he grits his teeth and keeps trying to damage the xorn.
This time he manages the tiniest of effective scrapes.
Caldariel laughed as he bled. With his mask on he truly did not want to retreat. Perhaps catching it off guard, he leaned in for the attack rather than recoiling from the pain, scoring a single solid blow.
Letting out a cry of pain as the creature bites into her, Arani unleashes a virtual torrent of blunt arrows at the creature that brutally tears into them.
Falina watched the damage to the creature mount up as the fight continued and knew they were in really bad shape given the harm to their front line. HEr acid continued to sizzle away at teh xorn and she prepared to cast a flurry of magic missiles if it was still standing.
gobbldeytgook
gobbldeytgook
RUINS OF THE LUCKY BONES GAMBLING HALL (14 Desnus)
The assortment of attacks slowly wears down the otherworldly guardian, but Falina indeed needs to expend another use of magic missile to put the beast down for good. Jessibel uses all of her remaining spell slots (save one 1st) to heal up Arani and T'chazzar some; then she pulls out the wand of cure light wounds to offer additional healing to the battered group.
With the deadly threat removed, your group can now better examine the room and its contents. Caldariel can now see that the skeletal remains on the floor both show wounds consistent with the bite of a powerful creature. Among the valuables he finds on the dead are a pair of older signet rings (belonging to the noble families of Delronge and Jarvis). Arani, having noticed something different about the areas of the floor tiled in yellow, discovers that each covers a hidden compartment containing an assortment of jewelry and other baubles.
Shuddering, Caldariel removed his mask and took a deep breath. He took his time to clear his head, and after cleaning his hands he quietly made his rounds. Wounds were cleaned, treated and bound with professional efficiency. A small touch of innate magic applied didn’t hurt.
RUINS OF THE LUCKY BONES GAMBLING HALL (14 Desnus)
Caldariel works his healing wonders and soon the party's back to full strength. After a quick check for traps on the double doors, Arani says she believes it's safe to proceed. Beyond is a dusty hallway with two choices of where to go next: a single door in the west wall and a set of double doors to the west. Again, Arani finds no traps anywhere.
"One of those signet rings is of House Delronge, the same house as the woman that was speaking in Redroof Market, Delilah Delronge. The house as a whole is pro-Thrune. Jarvis is pretty prominent…Court of Coin…supposedly more loyal to the city than the Crown or any ruling house." Arani notes to the others upon the discovery of the signet rings on the bodies.
"Shall we continue?"
"Yes, let us continue. It matters not which direction...how about the double doors to the east? They seem auspicious enough." The elf said, as he put his mask back on.
"Sure," says T'chazzar. He keeps both blades in hand. "It's been all bad so far, maybe we'll get lucky this time?"
Arani glances over at T'chazzar for a moment, shaking her head, and moving to inspect the door.
RUINS OF THE LUCKY BONES GAMBLING HALL (14 Desnus)
Finding the doors trap-free, Arani throws them open, revealing....
An intense battle occurred here in the fairly distant past, as indicated by gouges and old bloodstains on the walls and floor, scorched patches from old fires, and the moldering skeletons of several men and women sprawled on the floor...not to mention the overpowering stink of death and corruption that flows from the chamber when the doors are opened. The middle of the room features a ten-foot-diameter iron capstone over what appears to be a well, next to which stands a winch made of wood and rusted iron. A large carving of a strange, tall, lanky bipedal figure in a cloak adorns the capstone. The being’s four eyes are softly glowing gemstones.
The stench of death is so potent that your PC is sickened (–2 penalty on all attack rolls, weapon damage rolls, saving throws, skill checks, and ability checks).
The dead bodies here haven't decomposed as fully as you'd expect. Perhaps they're undead...ghouls??!! Probably ghasts, considering the stench of death they exude.
The four gemstones are: a malachite, a moonstone, a ruby, and a turquoise.
As the stench from beyond the opened doors hits her like a runaway carriage, Arani lets out a groan as her stomach flips, forcing herself to fight back the bile rising up her throat at a stink so vile, her eyes water immediately.
"Ungghhh...gods that's....awful....The bodies....they should be more....unhh....more decomposed. P..possibly....ghasts!" she sputter out.
”A solid deduction.” The elf said, completely unperturbed by the stench of death. ”Their ambush could be their undoing. Can anyone take advantage of their prone postures with a spell or weapon which could effect the entire area?”
RUINS OF THE LUCKY BONES GAMBLING HALL (14 Desnus)
Arani, Caldariel, and T'chazzar see through the ghasts' ploy; Jessibel and Falina are temporarily clueless that the dead bodies strewn across the floor are dangerous.
Your PC is sickened for 9 minutes.
T'chazzar is helpless before the ghasts... frankly it's kind of embarrassing how much he fails at everything, you start to suspect that he's not actually a drow warrior at all but just an escaped commoner who's been lying to you this whole time.
Though somewhat debilitated by the stench, Arani quickly retrieves her last vial of Holy Weapon Balm, applying it to a group of her arrows in preparation for dealing with the undead.
"Gods, we could really use a cleric right about now."
Caldariel said nothing, rather he stood still. A close inspection would make it appear that his mask and face had become one.
RUINS OF THE LUCKY BONES GAMBLING HALL (14 Desnus)
T'chazzar steps up to defend against what he fears will be a sudden onslaught of teeth and claws against the party, positioning himself next to the dead thing nearest the doors, though the stench of the things hits him hard and sickens him. Sure enough, the ghasts try to hop to their feet when their 'play possum' scheme is discovered, swarming to engage the intruders, the first in decades. "Fresh meat!" one of the creatures hisses in anticipation.
T'chazzar manages to graze one ghoul as it rises and dodges its retaliatory strike. The other ghouls are far enough away that all they can manage in their moments of advantage is to stand up and close on their intended prey.
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With the vile stench affecting her, Arani takes her time to place her shots. putting two arrows in the first unengaged ghast, and one in the second.
T'chazzar keeps swinging his swords like he's windmilling and manages a few more scrapes.
Who sane would seek to get one’s faith close to a ghoul’s mouth? The elf head butted the nearest ghoul, the horns on his mask ripping through flesh and cracking bone upon impact. There was no hesitation as he moved forward to get into the thick of the fray.
RUINS OF THE LUCKY BONES GAMBLING HALL (14 Desnus)
The Silver Ravens strike back with fury! Aided by Jessibel's inspirational song and a volley of magic missiles from Falina, the frontliners put down 4 of the six ghouls! Caldariel manages to avoid a flurry of claws and teeth, but T'chazzar's run of bad luck continues as his foe--who has to circle the capstone and can only bite at the drow this round--manages to chomp him in the neck!
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The sickened and now diseased T'chazzar flails ineffectually.
It would seem that the doktor was immune to the smell of death. This time, rather than headbutt a ghoul (a risky proposition), he instead slammed his fist into an abdomen.
Falina was not about to have anything to do with the ghasts when she realized what they were. Those things needed to die and quickly and she was going to make it even easier. She chanted and gestured, her movements slowing to a snails pace and then released her spell.
RUINS OF THE LUCKY BONES GAMBLING HALL (14 Desnus)
With Arani's help (and at least an earnest attempt from T'chazzar), the last two ghasts are put down. Caldariel and Jessibel put their heads together and believe that it'll take up to 10 minutes for the ghasts' stench to disperse and for those affected by it to return to full strength, giving the party plenty of time to examine the room and its covered well...and to loot the (un)dead.
Collected loot from the ghasts and other remains in the room include: 168 gp, a decent amount of gold and silver jewelry (value 3,000 gp), and two items that detect as magical: a stained vest of sky-blue silk (which Jessibel magically cleans with a prestidigitation spell) and a mithral short sword.
The short sword is a basic +1 mithral short sword.
This item is a magical vest of escape.
There doesn't seem to be any mundane way of removing the capstone from the top of the well. Perhaps there's some sort of internal mechanism triggered by manipulating the gemstone eyes of the creepy creature carved into it.
The four gemstones are: a malachite, a moonstone, a ruby, and a turquoise.
The creature depicted on the capstone isn't humanoid; it appears to be a semi-anthropomorphic version of a rare, poisonous, insectoid monster called a xenopterid, a big bug capable of mimicking the form of its favorite prey--humanoids.
I'll give more info if someone actually manages to hit this check.
Jessibel Rolls....
T'chazzar slides up against a wall and then slumps into a heap on the ground, shivering and drooling uncontrollably as he tries to keep from retching repeatedly.
REMINDER: There's one more obvious area the party hasn't yet explored in the ruins: What's behind the single door across the corridor to the west.
The elf took a long moment to study it...
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RUINS OF THE LUCKY BONES GAMBLING HALL (14 Desnus)
No one has any revelation to move the party (or plot) forward. Jessibel examines the two magic items; she identifies the vest as a vest of escape but is unsure what enchantment(s) are on the mithral weapon. After staring at it longingly for a few moments, the young silver balladeer presents it to T'chazzar. "If we ever find a mithral rapier, though...Dibs!"
The inquisitive bard then approached the capstone covering what you assume to be a well or shaft to a lower level. She pronounces the strange figure depicted on it to be a stylized version of an unusual giant insect, a xenopterid, which is skilled at posing as its favorite prey--humanoids. She adds that the gemstones that make up the creature's four eyes are a malachite, a moonstone, a ruby, and a turquoise, and that they look pretty valuable.
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"Ah yes, dibs." Caldariel said. "The gentlemanly way of resolving property disputes." He looked away from the capstone. He was a doktor, not an engineer, an architect or a mage. "Let us go to the room across the hall. It is more productive than staring in slack jawed awe like dwarves seeing the ocean for the first time."
Studying the odd capstone and gems as Jessi explains what she can, Arani is struck by a thought. "Perhaps the some sort of internal mechanism triggered by manipulating the gemstone eyes. It's the only thing I can think of to move the capstone and gain access to that descending shaft."