Jacinth jabs at #2.
Longspear: reach
to hit to hurt
Felos moves to (someplace where he can hit the crab), drawing his flail as he goes, and he brings it down on top of the crab.
Attack:
Damage;
Festa follows Felos' advance and clips the overgrown crustacean a good one.
Tippi moves up to the remaining crab and stabs her blade into the gaps in its shell. It survives the blow, however. Jacinth also tries to stab it, but is unable to hit. Then, Felos moves in and finishes it off.
Shefton wipes his brow with the back of his hand and sighs with relief.
Felos heads over and retrieves his bow.
Tippi bends down to inspect the blood trickling down her leg from the crab's pincer attack. "Shefton!" she summons the half-elf, nodding to the floating corpse. "You recognize Bob out there?"
"Maybe that is Penkus." Jacinth sees Tippi inspecting her wounds and looks over everyone to see their condition.
Felos is also quite injured (6/12).
"Well?" she repeats, looking expectantly at Shefton. "Anyone you know?"
Once we're sure the crabs are all done for and ready to cooked, Jacinth channels positive energy.
Shefton steps forward nervously and approaches the water. He looks at the body and shakes his head. "Doesn't look familiar," he says, "although it's hard to tell with him floating in the water."
Tippi is able to retrieve the body with her prehensile whip without difficulty. The body is in bad shape, partially eaten and heavily water-logged. Shefton takes a closer look and shakes his head again. "Doesn't look like anyone I know. It might be that Penkus guy, but I don't know."
A search of the body reveals nothing of value on it.
The wound on her leg mostly scabbed over after Jacinth's healing burst, Tippi unwraps her whip from the corpse's leg and leaves it in the shallows to rot. "Too many doors," she sighs as she looks around the room, "and still the other set on the far side of the hall we haven't checked into. They say when you're exploring catacombs you should keep turning the same way; that way you can always retrace your steps without getting lost. We turned left out there; shall we continue taking the leftmost option until we find out way out of here? That would be the door in the west wall."
Festa looks and Tippi incredulously. "But... that wouldn't work. Unless the catacombs didn't loop back on themselves. But I'm all for keeping going. West it is."
"Who's 'they'?" Felos asks.
"Tomb robbers," Tippi shrugs casually. "Met quite a few in Sothis."
"Oh."
"Why?"
"I wintered there attending the antiquities auctions on behalf of my employer, looking for certain items that might interest him. Chatting up the folks who did the acquiring gave me an idea what would be available in the upcoming auctions. Picked a up a few tools of the trade over drinks and such." She flashes him a grin.
"If it's not Shefton, then he must be some other poor fellow that was accidentally trapped in here. Let's bow in prayer." Jacinth gives a short prayer. Pharasma, we did not know this man, but we hope you judge him well. We hope he is found worthy of a restful eternity. Pharasma, we ask that as his spirit rises that his body does not. If it does, Sarenrae provide us the strength to do what must be done. Finally, Desna, help his family and friends be at peace with his passing. By the light of Sarenrae, the judgment of Pharasma, and the song of Desna, we pray. Amen."
"And Gybrael, if he was an unrepentant pirate, let him rot in hell," Felos adds matter-of-factly.
"You might want to say a word to one of them about getting out of here while you have their attention," Tippi suggests, impressed by the sheer quantity of deities invoked.
"Of course. They assure me that there is a way out. We must find it ourselves, though. So which door do we try first?"
Felos gasps, his eyes widening in pleasant surprise. "Really? That's amazing! I knew you were blessed, Jacinth, but to actually hear the voices of the gods, to have them speak directly to you. Incredible!"
"Yes. Through my faith, they give me hope."
The door is swollen with moisture like the other doors in this place, making it just a little stuck. A bit of effort gets it open fairly quickly, though. Beyond, the sound of churning water is louder. The water laps and splashes against the walls of a twisting, natural cavern. A sandy slope descends from the door down to the edge of the water. Dozens of purple and red sea urchins glisten in shallow divets along the ground and lower walls here, their spines glittering with water.
"Just to be on the safe side: did they mention whether the way we came in is not also the only way out?" Festa quietens afterward to listen for any other signs of (un)life beyond the door.
Then he enters.
Jacinth smiles. "Faith, Festa, faith." Is his response.
The only sound beyond the door is the sound of the water lapping about. Festa descends the sandy slope to the water's edge to get a look around the corner. As the dancing lights move up and provide illumination, Festa can see that the passage twists again after just a short distance, and the floor is completely flooded with the water. The water is fairly clear though, and doesn't look very deep--no more than a foot or two in the area that Festa can see, although it may get deeper farther in.
Once it's safe, Felos advances up with Festa. He takes one look down the flooded passage with a foot of water and announces, "Okay. This passage is blocked," and turns around to head for the door.
"I thought you were a sailor," Tippi remarks to Felos. "You're afraid of getting your feet a little wet?"
Felos growls. "Mworrr! I'm not afraid! I am a sailor. Sailors stay in the boat. Sailors don't go in the water. That's called drowning. It's bad."
"Unless you're planning on walking on your hands," Tippi replies, "you'd be hard put to drown in two feet of water. What if the only way out of here is through the wet?"
"Festa, why don't you decide. Try another door or wade in the water."
"Unless this is an uncharacteristic flooding of the place, wisdom suggests that smugglers would have a dry route from end-to-end to not dampen their contraband. I think that door will do." [ooc]Mid-top-left[/ooo]
"Wouldn't wisdom suggest that they have a dry route note infested with zombies?" Felos adds, then realizes he's nullified Festa's argument for not going through the water and shuts up.
"Who knows? Perhaps we didn't say the magic words or something to pacify the route. In which case the zombies are the right route."
"Zombies are never the right route," Tippi disagrees firmly.
Besides, Tippi wants to take only left routes in here," Felos reminds Festa helpfully.
"Non of this is very helpful. Let's just get out of here." Jacinth goes to the door Festa indicated and opens it.
The door on left side of the north wall is cracked and broken, and hangs loosely on a single remaining hinge. Peering past it, there seems to be only a bare 10-by-10 room. Trying to open the door to go into the room causes the door to crash down to the floor. A quick look around the room reveals that it is indeed empty.
The next door is in better shape, only a little swollen from the dampness. Opening it reveals pretty much the same as the last room. This room is a little larger than the last, but just as bare and empty.
The remaining door on the north side of the east wall opens to a small 5-by-5 space containing another door.
Open it. If no one else does, Jacinth will.
As he's right in front, Festa opens it. Cautiously.
Festa opens the door to reveal a chamber with a single pillar supporting a sagging roof. Two corpses lie on the floor across from the door, one of them in front of another door. Both appear to be human and both suddenly twitch.
Order: Festa, Shefton, Zombies, Felos, Jacinth, Xanthippe.
Up First:
I knew it was a smart idea to be cautious. Milani smiles. Festa quickly moves in, positioning himself next to one of the zombies via a safe route. Then he kicks it.
Felos will move in to Y47, next to the zombie Festa kicked, trying to take it out before it can respond.
Claw:
Damage:
Festa circles around the pillar and kicks #5. He can hear ribs shatter from the strength of the blow, but the zombie continues moving as it prepares to stand.
"Oh gods, not more," Shefton whimpers.
The two zombies pull themselves slowly to their feet, providing Festa another opportunity to attack it.
Next Up: AoO for Felos, Jacinth, Tippi, Festa, Shefton (subject to delayed action), Zombies.
Jacinth releases his last channel for the day.
Channel Energy to hurt undead dc 14
"Really? Just stay down!"