"No, Mahjik, she has to drink the blood. She's a vampire goddess, remember? She must be Zura." She puts away her sling. " I hope he gets un-misty again," she goes on with a bit of concern. "I don't think Ieana would go misty if it didn't wear off eventually." She heads back toward the dais to get a better look at the hole in the ceiling and once again finds everyone standing in her way. "Excuse me, Lorenz!" she says pointedly.
Douena moves moves closer to the dais. While she does that, the cloud that was Yarzoth floats up, stretching out so that she can fit into the tiny opening, and heads up it.
Next Up: Makoa, Urza, Pezock (subject to delayed action), Mahjik, Douena, Yarzoth.
Lorenz, not eager to get himself turned into mist, complies with getting out of Douena's way.
Makoa ignores the pain from Urza's fire and continues after Yarzoth.
As Lorenz moves out of the way for Douena, Makoa floats straight up and into the hole. After about 15 ft, it comes out into an X-shaped chamber with a low ceiling and walls dense with ancient carvings and bas-reliefs of a bat-winged demonic woman, including a particularly large one on the northeast wall whose lips are smeared with dried blood. A number of supplies--food, discarded clothes, a few waterskins, and a well-used bedroll--lie near the centre of the room.
The mist that was Yarzoth floats just to the side of the hole. The faerie fire effect flickers out at that moment and the room is left in pure darkness (although Makoa can see because he has darkvision).
Down below, Pezock says, "We must go after them! Wizard, makes us all like that so we can follow!"
Next Up: Pezock (subject to delayed action), Mahjik, Douena, Yarzoth, Lorenz, Makoa.
"Well... er... just do what she did." Urza uses some of blood from his wounds to coat the statue's mouth.
Urza instantly turns into a mist and follows after Makoa, making it part way to the hole in the ceiling.
"What about us?" Pezock calls. Then, grumbling, he moves to the statue and leaps onto it. "Beast Slayer, give me some blood from altar," he tells Lorenz.
Next Up: Douena, Yarzoth, Lorenz, Makoa, Urza, Pezock.
Mahjik leans against the bottom of the statue, still breathing heavily. He nods to Douena, "Does Desna maybe have something to help, little one? I don't feel the poison burning anymore, which is good, but I need some form of healing, if possible."
Douena backs up to get a running start and leaps over the pool of blood in front of the altar. She looks up at the misty, moisty form of Urza floating toward the hole in the ceiling. "I can't do anything about the poison," she reminds Mahjik. "We need Aycenia for that."
In the room above, the mist that was Yarzoth suddenly coalesces in to the form of a humanoid serpent, and then solidifies. Yarzoth hisses in annoyance at the misty form of Makoa.
Next Up: Makoa, Urza, Pezock, Mahjik, Douena, Yarzoth.
With his lips curled in revulsion, Lorenz dips his hand into the fountain and lifts his cupped hand up toward Pezock. "How's that?" He says faintly, his stomach suddenly queasy.
Grinning, the mist-Makoa wills himself solid again.
"Bet you didn't think I'd come after you."
"Perfect," Pezock says, while up above, out of his the others' sight, Makoa becomes solid and Urza floats up to join him.
Pezock dips his finger into the blood Lorenz is holding out and wipes it across the statue's lips. His body instantly dissolves away into mist.
Next Up: Douena, Yarzoth, Lorenz, Makoa, Urza, Pezock.
"We better follow - or we won't hear the end of it," Mahjik grins weakly at Douena as he nods towards the vanishing Pezock.
He extends his hand down toward the gnome, "You want to go poof?"
Mahjik leaps up onto the statue, passing through the misty form of Pezock.
Next Up: Yarzoth, Lorenz, Makoa, Urza, Pezock, Mahjik.
Douena flinches. "You just went right though Pezock! I think that's Pezock anyway. Did he feel feathery?" Herself uninjured, she dips her hand in the trough of blood, then reaches up to grab Mahjik.
While Douena provides Mahjik with only the barest amount of healing, Yarzoth hisses at Makoa. "I'll tear you apart! Great Lord, feast on his flesh!"
Makoa and Urza (despite Urza still being misty) feel what seem like hundreds of snakes slithering over them and biting them repeatedly.
Next Up: Makoa, Urza, Pezock, Mahjik, Douena, Yarzoth.
Lorenz waits for Mahjik and Douena to get out of the way before slapping the lips of the statue and vaporizing himself like the rest of the lemmings.
"Actually, I think I'll feast on yours once your carved up!!" Makoa growls as he lunges forward with his axe.
His axe slides off of her scales though, and Makoa's plans for lunch are put off... for now.
Yarzoth laughs at Makoa's feeble attack.
Next Up: Pezock, Mahjik, Douena, Yarzoth, Lorenz (subject to delayed action), Makoa.
Urza moves to be 5 feet away from Yarzoth then wills himself solid.
"Definitely not feathery. More... wet, I'd say," Mahjik offers. "Let's see what happens."
Urza floats away from Yarzoth then returns to a solid state. Meanwhile, Pezock begins floating up the shaft to the room. He makes it part way up.
Mahjik wipes blood across the lips of the statue and instantly becomes mist. He begins floating upward, reaching just below the hole in the ceiling.
Next Up: Yarzoth, Lorenz, Makoa, Urza, Pezock, Mahjik.
Douena turns to the only other non-mistified party member. "What do you think is up there?" she asks Lorenz. "And what would happen if someone plugged up that hole? Do you think there's another way out, or would everyone be stuck up there?" Unable to resist finding the answers to her own questions, she clambers up the statue surprisingly easily and wipes her bloody hand across the snake-goddess's mouth.
Douena becomes the next to turn to the mist, while up above, Yarzoth looks about furtively. Although her snake-like facial expression are strange, it's clear she's starting to worry.
Moving fast, but somehow not quite as fast as she was moving before, Yarzoth lashes out at Makoa, sinking her teeth into his arm. Pain shoots through him as the venom starts its work.
Next Up: Makoa, Urza, Pezock, Mahjik, Douena, Yarzoth.
Urza steps in toward Yarzoth and claws at her.
Claw:
to hit damage
Claw:
to hit damage
Lorenz opens his mouth to try to answer Douena but she's gone before he can think of what to say. But it makes him think: No one knows just what is up there. Suppose it was a big trap? All his friends could be dead right now and Ieana could be gloating over their dissipating mists. Or maybe Ieana was hiding and avoiding them and after everyone had gone through she would come back out again and escape. Or maybe they couldn't stop being mist. Could they be vampires now?
His thoughts and indecision freak him out so much that Lorenz decides that discretion would be the better part of valor. He wipes his bloody hand on his pants and holds his scimitar up, waiting in case Ieana comes back, or his friends turn into vampires and try to suck his blood, in which case he plans to run like hell.
Makoa swings at Yarzoth again, but is again unsuccessful. His axe seems so heavy...
Makoa swings at Yarzoth again, but is again unsuccessful. His axe seems so heavy...
Lorenz waits down below. Up above, Makoa swings at Yarzoth again, but fatigue and the poison going through his system slow him down and the snake woman barely needs to move to avoid the blow. However, Makoa's attack distracts her just enough that she doesn't avoid the first of Urza's claws, which rips across her arm and side. She quickly recovers and dodges his next attack.
More mist (Pezock) floats into the room and passes right through Yarzoth to the opposite side of her .
Next Up: Douena, Yarzoth, Lorenz (subject to readied action), Makoa, Urza, Pezock.
Lorenz! Lorenz! Look at me! I'm flying! Douena intends to say and is annoyed to find she can't. Well, not really flying, more like floating, she amends, trying to stir her dispersed molecules into something like a hurry and succeeding only in swirling her misty form around as she drifts softly toward the pinhole in the ceiling. She spares a longing glance for the bars at the far end of the room where the river of blood disappears into darkness, wishing she could go see where it flows, but at this speed, all the excitement with Ieana would be over by the time she got there and back. After we've gotten rid of Ieana I'll float all over this place, she promises herself.
Mahjik floats upwards, following the gases that preceded him.
Mahjik floats through the shaft, the light disappearing below him. He emerges into total darkness. Behind him, Douena travels part way up the shaft.
Yarzoth hisses and steps back into the mist that is Pezock . She wipes a bloody hand over the lips of the bas-relief demon woman on the wall. She resumes a misty form.
Down below, Lorenz waits.
Next Up: Urza, Pezock, Mahjik, Douena, Yarzoth, Lorenz (subject to readied action).
Seeing Yarzoth turn to mist, Makoa hurries back to the hole they came up and firmly plants his foot over it.
Seeing Yarzoth turn to mist, Makoa hurries back to the hole they came up and firmly plants his foot over it.
Next Up: Pezock, Mahjik, Douena, Yarzoth, Lorenz (subject to readied action), Makoa.
In desperation, Urza tries a simple cantrip.
Acid Splash: RTouch
to hit damage
Overcome SR
Wise man will find that if he looks into the darkness, he will find it staring back at him, Mahjik thinks to himself. He tries to expand himself, to fill up the room, to try to see if he can sense what is going on in a form of gaseous tactile sense.
Urza flings a glob of acid at the immaterial Yarzoth, but unfortunately, it vanishes as it reaches her, snuffed out by her spell resistance.
Just after that, Pezock materializes in the same space. "I can't see anything! Bring some light!" he demands.
Mahjik tries to expand to examine his surroundings and finds that expanding is much more difficult than contracting in this form.
In the shaft leading up, Douena suddenly discovers the way is blocked.
Next Up: Yarzoth, Lorenz, Makoa, Urza, Pezock, Mahjik.
Urza flings a glob of acid at the immaterial Yarzoth, but unfortunately, it vanishes as it reaches her, snuffed out by her spell resistance.
Urza flings a glob of acid at the immaterial Yarzoth, but unfortunately, it vanishes as it reaches her, snuffed out by her spell resistance.
In that case...
The blob of acid splashes over the misty form of Yarzoth. Some of the mist bubbles away as it contacts the corrosive acid.
Douena swirls around unhappily in the shaft. Where did Mahjik go? And why can't she find him? He was right ahead of her.
Yarzoth floats away from the wall and towards the hole. The mist circles around Makoa's foot and almost seems to bristle with annoyance as it does so. The she reforms , blood dripping from her heavily injured body. With a snarl and flick of her tongue, she says, "So be it." She braces herself for the onslaught to come.
Below, Lorenz continues to wait.
Next Up: Urza, Pezock, Mahjik, Douena (subject to delayed action), Yarzoth, Lorenz (subject to delayed actions).
"So be it." Makoa replies as he brings his axe down at Yarzoth.
"So be it." Makoa replies as he brings his axe down at Yarzoth.
1d20+4
1d6+2
Yarzoth tries to dodge Makoa's axe but her wounds must be slowing her down as she is not quite quick enough. She screams in pain.
Next Up: Pezock, Mahjik, Douena (subject to delayed action), Yarzoth, Lorenz (subject to readied action), Makoa.
Urza flings a glob of acid at the immaterial Yarzoth, but unfortunately, it vanishes as it reaches her, snuffed out by her spell resistance.
Feeling like a fifth wheel, Urza continues to battle.
Claw:
to hit damage
Claw:
to hit damage
As soon as the way is unblocked, Douena come bursting through -- well, as quickly as a mist can burst through anywhere. Her satisfaction quickly turns sour, however, as she realizes that it's so dark she can't see. She tries to find an empty corner to rematerialize in.