RPG Superstar 2014 Top 4
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As Rahk throws out his hands and finishes his arcane incantation, a swirling ring of sigils form around his wrists, then expand outward into a briefly extant cone of mystical writing. A moment later the walls of the cave glisten with a thick inch of clear fat and grease so profound that globs slough off the wall and fall with a plop to the cavern floor. The lead skeleton's legs slide apart and it throws a clawed hand out to catch itself on the wall. But the skeleton behind it slides, legs akimbo, then spins around and crashes to the floor in a greasy heap.
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Thaddeus, Mors, and Helgoron may take their turns!
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RPG Superstar 2014 Top 4
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Mors grunts a laugh then nods to Brox. As he hustles across the cave, he whispers a few quick words, "Make me strong and quick." Squeezing past Helgoron and staying out of reach of the skeleton, Mors makes it safely into a tight alcove in the cave wall, hearing the groaning sounds of the living dead and the rattling bones of the less living dead. Thaddeus moves to fill Mors' rank, but his spear thrust is dodged by the agile cadaver blocking the tunnel. Likewise, Helgoron's swipe with his bardiche finds the polearm biting into greased stone rather than ancient bones.
The skeleton lets out a silent scream as its jaws fly open and it lunges ahead, but instead of finding traction the creature slides, skids, and falls down into the grease with a wet slap and clatter. The skeleton that had already fallen likewise tries to stand, but finds itself slipping, sliding, and unable to purchase the ground for more than a moment before crashing back down into the tunnel. The zombies behind it shamble forward, but seem either unwilling or unable to move through the already crowded hallway. Instead, they release a groaning protest accompanied by the gurgle of water-filled lungs.
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Rahk and Brox may take their turns, then everyone else may go. Both skeletons are prone (-4 penalty to AC vs. melee attacks.)
Slash at the prone skeleton with both gladii
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RPG Superstar 2014 Top 4
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Brox leans out from around the cave wall's corner and lunges down at one of the skeletons on the ground. His blades clash against stone, but the writhing skeleton still manages to fend off his attacks, even while prone and barely able to stay still. But when Mors steps in to attack there is brutal efficiency behind his blows. His longsword comes down and cleaves through the skeleton's right arm and halfway through its rib cage. Then, with his dagger, he drives the blade square into the brow of the creature and shatters its skull like a clay pot.
Even in spite of the skeleton's resilience to slashing and piercing weapons, it was absolutely no match for Mors' ferocity.
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Thaddeus and Helgoron are up! If Helgoron doesn't take his turn by the time I'm out of work tomorrow (he said he'd be back on Friday) I'll NPC him for this round.
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RPG Superstar 2014 Top 4
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Stepping in to fill the ranks, Helgoron raises his bardiche and thrusts downwards at the other skeleton mired in the oil. Even with the restricted moving space for such a large weapon, the tiefling paladin finds his advantage and slams the blade down between the skeleton's ribs. As the greased and writhing bones reach up to try and remove the bardiche, Helgoron exhales a grunt and twists the polearm, leveraging the width of the blade and splitting the skeleton apart like like a roasted pheasant.
Even as the last of the skeletons is slain, the zombies that remained at the back of the cave begin lurching forward, letting out wet and gurgling breaths with each step. In spite of their limited grace, the lead zombie lurches and slips through the grease with surprising ease, arms outstretching as it clears the distance to Helgoron. The shambling corpse at the back, however, falls the moment it steps on the grease and lands face first on the floor, letting out a rasping cry of confusion.
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Rahk and Brox are up, then Thaddeus, Mors, and Helgoron may go!
Watching Helgoron, Brox's eyes roll up and regard the undead thing that advanced forward.
Takes a step back where yer wuz, dere...betta fer me dat way!
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RPG Superstar 2014 Top 4
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Brox's blades bite in to the oncoming zombie with minimal gains, a deep gash with a backhanded slash being the most he can muster. When Mors leans in and swings with his brute lack of finesse, his cleaving blade slashes clean through one of the zombie's outstretched arms, spinning it directly into the oncoming path of Thaddeus' longspear, which drives through the animate corpse's face, sending it crashing down to the grease heap with a wet slap.
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RPG Superstar 2014 Top 4
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Slowly pawing at the stone wall, the last remaining zombie hauls itself up to its feet, sliding and slipping in the grease with every motion it takes. Unsteadily upright, the flesh-hungry abomination turns its dead eyes back down the tunnel towards the party, letting out a gurgling groan and a mouthful of brackish, black fluid.
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Y'ns is gonna get me kill't
Hold for the zombie to move!
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RPG Superstar 2014 Top 4
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The zombie continues to lurch down the tunnel, unwittingly moving into a murderhole orchestrated by the Pathfinders-in-training. Emerging from the tunnel into their carefully designed trap, the zombie is torn apart by a flurry of sword strokes, spear thrusts, and cleaving polearm swipes that leaves it a dismembered heap of greased organs and bone on the cave floor.
With the zombie's death, the cave grows quiet once more, and the corpse at the back of the cave that stayed behind never once moved. Perhaps this one isn't of the animate variety.
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Mors watches impassively as the undead thing is destroyed. He grunts, wipes his blades on his pants leg, sheaths the dagger, then looks down at the goop. "Handy trick."
He stands idly for the remaining few seconds of the spell to tick off, then moves deeper into the cave. He idly kicks the skull he shattered on the way by, but his eyes are on the rest of the room ... careful of further threat.
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"As it should be" - Helgoron nods as the creature is obliterated - "Well done my friends"
The tiefling then pokes about the remains of the creatures they have just defeated with the tip of his weapon, looking for clues of their former life, or that can provide them aind in their quest - "Strange that these wretches remain here - mindless abominations such as undead usually attack on sight, whomever it is that crosses their path" - he ponders - "Is it not?"
If he finds nothing relevant he moves ahead to check the one that did not move - "I am moving further" - he adds.
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"Strange that these wretches remain here - mindless abominations such as undead usually attack on sight, whomever it is that crosses their path"
"My assumption was that they did exactly that. We may be the first living passerbys in this area for some time."
Peering further into the path ahead, he follows the others. "All the same, I could live quite happily without ever encountering their like again."
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RPG Superstar 2014 Top 4
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With the grease dissolving on the stones the neophyte Pathfinders make their way deeper into the fetid cave, the stench of decay becoming overwhelming the further they go in. In the wake of the confrontation, the group realizes they stand among five bodies, though only four appear to have reanimated into undead. The two zombies do not look entirely human, and a cursory inspection reveals the decomposing gills on the side of their neck, much like Uori's people. The skeletons are a much more complicated task to identify, however. Though the fifth body appears human, but the advanced stage of decay makes that an uncertain proposition.
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"...{illegible}dn't considered how difficult collecting specimens would be. The presence of the mit{illegible} has caused more problems. I've lost three of the onyx pieces necessary to raise the specimens accordi{illegible}tructions. Perhaps there is a way to reanimate the dead without the required reagents, I will endeavor to experiment with substitute materials, perhaps laz{illegible}."
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Ignoring the dead man's baubles, Thaddeus focuses instead on that of most value - knowledge. Plucking the soiled page from the corpse's hand, he reads it softly aloud to the group.
"Hmm. Some kind of necromancy? The writer seems to be operating with borrowed knowledge - a less-skilled practitioner or amateur, would be my postulation."
"There appears to be another branch of tunnel, here..." he says, indicating a darker shape in the gloom of the rocky wall.
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'Perhaps he or she has fallen prey to whatever machinations attempted to carry out?' - Helgoron pipes in, then conjuring a few short words, his eyes glowing with divine power.
Moving closer to the corpse, he adds - 'There is magic in these items - this amulet and the arrows within the quiver. I cannot fathom their nature however'
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Mors sheaths his own longsword before stooping to dig free the one in the rotten scabbard. He gives it a few test swings before holding it up before the group , ”How ‘bout this?”
As he waits for an answer, he looks back and considers the bones of the destroyed skeletons.
"Those bones had about the same shape as our boy Uori back there does. I'd beg gold they were gillmen, too." He shrugs, "... for whatever it's worth."
At Thad's mention of a door, Mors moves that direction carefully, baring an inch of his chest-sheathed dagger and whispering a prayer. It bathes the area in the light of a torch.
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RPG Superstar 2014 Top 4
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The blade in Mors' hand feels better balanced than the one he was wielding before. If nothing else, its of finer craftsmanship and seems to have not lost its edge in spite of however long its been down in these mouldering tunnels. As the group discusses their plan, the silence of the cave is punctuated by the occasional drip of water and faint gust of cool breeze blowing in from the tunnel that Thaddeus discovered.
Approaching Mors, Rahk gives the sword and amulet a cursory glance, followed by an incantation that briefly causes his eyes to glow. Brows furrowed, the orc shakes his head. "The amulet is a mystery to me, but the blade is enchanted—if only just."
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"Those bones had about the same shape as our boy Uori back there does. I'd beg gold they were gillmen, too." He shrugs, "... for whatever it's worth."
At Thad's mention of a door, Mors moves that direction carefully, baring an inch of his chest-sheathed dagger and whispering a prayer. It bathes the area in the light of a torch.
The tiefling stares at the bones for a few seconds, pondering the situation - "We need to investigate this further" - he comments to his companions - "Let us proceed through" - he adds, joining both Thaddeus and Mors.
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RPG Superstar 2014 Top 4
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If the current predicament is anyone's fault, it's Thaddeus'. He found the tunnel, and this tunnel may well become the group's tomb, if it hasn't yet already. For the last fifteen minutes, the neophyte Pathfinders have followed an increasingly narrowing series of crooked and janky tunnels on a meandering path upwards. Maybe its heading closer to the surface, maybe it's winding into the Kortos Mounts. At this distance underground, it's hard to tell.
The luminescent fungus is all but gone from this portion of the cave, swallowing the Pathfinders in suffocating darkness. Only the light of sunrods and other handheld illumination guides the way, and that light reveals dozens of branching pathways—some too small for a human to fit through—riddling the ancient rock. The cave walls glisten with moisture and are slick with more mundane fungus and slime of some kind.
On entering a network of tunnels with a relatively high ceiling—the first time the group has been able to stand upright for some time, they're now sandwiched together. The tunnel rarely gets wider than three or four feet and more often pinches down to two narrow feet of space to fit through. It's uncertain if there's anything to find in here...
...or it was uncertain, until the faint sound of a battle cry echoes down from further in the tunnel. Maybe the group has come closer to the surface, maybe they've managed to find a passage that doubled back to near where they entered, but the voice they hear is unmistakable.
Janira.
Somewhere beyond the gradually inclining and slimy tunnel ahead, Janira's voice calls out in defiance of some unseen but easy to imagine foe. She sounds like she's still fighting that minotaur. While her voice may be a call to urgency, there's no telling if the fissure that voice is coming in from is even big enough to exit out of.
Also, up ahead on the main tunnel artery, Mors can see a thick morass of muddy sludge on the tunnel floor, a mottled brown and gray color and probably a foot thick and about three feet across. That's gonna get in his boots.
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Each move into or through a narrow space counts as if it were 2 squares, and while squeezed in a narrow space, you take a –4 penalty on attack rolls and a –4 penalty to AC.
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When Thad reports back, he's answered mostly by Mors's usual dim-witted expression. "You think the sludge is natural? Or somethin' like Rahk's spell-stuff from earlier?"
The cry pulls him up short, though, and he strains futilely to see into the darkness. "Janira." His dark eyes shift to the crew, "We have to go help."
Nah....lemme scout 'head an make sure it aint no trap, 'kay? Wait 'ere a sec...
Brox looks around and draws the hood of his cloak over his head. He draws one gladius and proceeds down the main tunnel at a slower pace than usual (1/2 movement for difficult terrain, no penalty for movement in stealth)