The party continues north into the hidden tunnel. After several minutes of travel you begin to hear feint sounds of combat and can make out Janira's voice half-shouting above the surface half-reciting, “As the legendary Gregaro Voth successfully battled the wild beasts in the deepest reaches of the Mwangi Expanse, so shall I defeat you, foul servant of Lamashtu!”
Male Human Cleric/Monk 1/1 | HP 8/10 || AC18 T12 FF16 | Fort +3, Ref +2, Will +2 | Init +2 | Perception +6 | CMB +1 / CMD 13
Newis is already running next to Jeffrey, a big smile on his face as he gets another chance to slay a minotaur, with a new sword too! "First one to draw blood gets a gold piece!"
Male Half-Elf Male Half-elf Warpriest 1 (besmara) | HP 9/9 | AC 15; T 12; FF 13 | F +3; R +2; W +5 | CMB +0; CMD 12 | Speed 30 ft | Init +4 | Rapier: +3 (1d6) | Perc +5 (low-light)
uh oh. don't like the sound of this. but i'll run after them, keeping a little behind just to stagger our positions in case there's some trap or something awaiting us.
The route to the surface leads through a maze of tight passages that include steep ascents and short climbs as you wind from west to east. As you travel can hear the sounds of a distant battle echoing through the caves, intermixed with inspirational tales of famous Pathfinders and the heroic deeds—the raging fight between Janira and the minotaur.
Jeffrey and Newis race each other up the tunnel trying to reach the surface to help Janira. Isobel and Nym follow suit with Deliyah and Sparrow bringing up the rear. In their eagerness to assist their halfling friend, the first three forward members of the party unfortunately fail to notice a transparent creature who is laying in wait in the middle of their path until it's too late. Jeffrey plants his feet into a small transparent square piece of slime that holds bits of broken weapons, coins, and a partially digested skeleton.
Jeffrey make a DC10 Reflex save to avoid being engulfed by the transparent slime creature.
The tight tunnels here range from 2 to 5 feet in width and average about 9 feet in height. The slick floors and steady incline from west to east increase the DC of all Acrobatics checks by 4.
As you arrive in this area, Janira’s words are sufficiently audible to grant you the benefits of her inspire courage class ability.
Male Human Cleric/Monk 1/1 | HP 8/10 || AC18 T12 FF16 | Fort +3, Ref +2, Will +2 | Init +2 | Perception +6 | CMB +1 / CMD 13
Skaldic Knowledge:1d20 + 3 ⇒ (20) + 3 = 23
Newis, having learned about this particular slime in a song about how it was slain by a wandering goblin, shouts out the full details of the creature to the rest of the party.
Newis relays that what they have stumbled upon is a form of a gelatinous cube!
One of the dungeon's most unusual and specialized predators, gelatinous cubes spend their existence mindlessly roaming dungeon halls and dark caverns, swallowing up organic material such as plants, refuse, carrion, and even living creatures. Materials the cube cannot digest, such as metal and stone, can eventually fill up the creature's mass with such detritus, and at times the creature may excrete some of this material out of its body. Often the treasure and possessions of past victims remain inside the gelatinous cube, leaving a ghostly impression of their material remains.
They make particularly efficient waste disposal mechanisms as well—a tribe that can trap a gelatinous cube in a pit or other area that it cannot climb out of can use it as a midden or even a deadly trap, depending only on the ingenuity of the creatures who caught it.
In locations with plentiful sources of food, gelatinous cubes can exist for hundreds of years, if not thousands. However, if denied organic material for more than 6 months, a gelatinous cube begins shrinking. Eventually this stresses its walls and the creature leaks rapidly evaporating slimy liquid until its body collapses and disappears completely.
A gelatinous cube's acid does not harm metal or stone.
Although it moves slowly, a gelatinous cube can simply engulf Large or smaller creatures in its path. Engulfed creatures are subject to the cube's paralysis and acid, gain the pinned condition, are in danger of suffocating, and are trapped within its body until they are no longer pinned.
A gelatinous cube secretes an anesthetizing slime. A target hit by a cube's may become paralyzed.
Due to its lack of coloration, a gelatinous cube is difficult to discern.
--
Jeffrey is able to avert his footing at the very last second and avoid stepping into the gelatinous cube!
Male Half-Elf Male Half-elf Warpriest 1 (besmara) | HP 9/9 | AC 15; T 12; FF 13 | F +3; R +2; W +5 | CMB +0; CMD 12 | Speed 30 ft | Init +4 | Rapier: +3 (1d6) | Perc +5 (low-light)
GM, you said he stepped his feet in it. is it in one such hole where we can just jump over it and avoid the creature? or can it climb out of that depression?
Sparrow - The slime is a transparent medium creature. It is not in a hole, but rather something that he was about to run into because he couldn't see it. He made his reflex save and so he didn't actually end up stepping in it, he avoided it at the last second and managed to move past it. Jeffrey is currently on the other side of the cube now.
The cube seems undeterred by Jeffrey moving past it and moves up five feet in an attempt to engulf the next creature, Newis.
Newis - DC10 Reflex save to avoid being engulfed by the transparent slime creature. Normally you would be allowed an AoO, but you are flat footed. Just as an aside, if you were to take your AoO on it (if you had one) you would forfeit the ability to make the reflex save and would become engulfed.
After Newis makes his check, the rest of the party is up: Newis, Deliyah, Nym, Isobel, Jeffrey
Nym - Lamashtu:
Lamashtu tore out her own womb and feasted upon it to gain power over the unborn, then regenerated her own flesh by consuming a thousand stolen infants. Her milk can sustain, poison, or even transform those who drink it. Lamashtu steals seed from men while they sleep and uses it to create half-breed monsters that she later sends to shame and wound their fathers. Her touch and breath cause stillbirths and infant deformities, and those who suffer it are usually plagued by nightmares.
Lamashtu’s goal is to create evil and chaos by twisting the flesh and spirit of all creatures into misshapen things that cannot stand the sight of the untainted. She is not an empire-builder or a warlord; she only wishes to corrupt mortals until the entire world is her altered brood, an enormous monstrous family devoted to her. If her world is full of warring tribes, so much the better, for it means there will always be a need for many births to replenish the ranks of the fallen. Lamashtu revels in destroying the most innocent, whether defiling their flesh or tainting their minds; to her, a nursery is a banquet. She is a fertility goddess, but while those who pray to her are more likely to survive childbirth, their offspring are inevitably tainted. Offering someone else’s newborn as a sacrifice to protect your own is a viable practice for the desperate, and many stories of “changelings” (infants stolen and replaced with wicked faeriekind) are actually Lamashtu-altered infants who appear normal and then transform overnight into monsters.
The Mother of Monsters has dominion over all unintelligent monsters. She murdered the god Curchanus and stole his portfolio of beasts, which is why the untamed creatures of the wild consider mankind an enemy. Many strange and unique monsters stem from her whim, as she enjoys molding the flesh of radically different beasts to create new terrors. Those plagued by monsters can pray to her for assistance, and in exchange for loyalty and offerings of newborns or infants (or sometimes merely breast milk or placentas, if she is in a good mood), Lamashtu sends her minions away to prey upon unbelievers. Her name can be invoked as a charm or prayer against nightmares, but using it might draw her attention and lead to monstrous births if the invoker is not a member of her cult or doesn’t make the appropriate grisly sacrifices.
Lamashtu’s worshipers believe that purity and perfection are temporary or illusory, while corruption and flaws are the natural and final state of things. While high-minded artists and philosophers might argue that change is a dynamic agent that prevents the stagnation of civilization, the followers of the Mother of Monsters don’t care about such things and only want to bend and tear and break the blasphemous beauty they see in the world.
Lamashtu’s true form is a pregnant woman with a three-eyed jackal head, taloned bird legs, and black hawk wings. The state of her pregnancy varies, but she is always visibly pregnant, and often hugely so, though this never affects her mobility. She carries two blades: one shrouded in fire called, Redlust; and the other in frost, called Chillheart. The length of each blade varies from that of a standard kukri to that of a falchion. Her voice is deep and rich, but rises to a howl when enraged, and when she screams it sounds like a lion’s roar and can be heard for miles.
When the Mother of Beasts is angry, her victims suffer painful joints, infections, or nightmares. For her worshipers, giving birth to an untainted child or one of a “prettier” race (such as a gnoll giving birth to a human or elf) is a sign of great disfavor and shame, requiring many prayers and sacrifices to atone (starting with the unwanted newborn).
Lamashtu is chaotic evil and her portfolio is madness, monsters (including wild beasts), and nightmares. Her domains are Chaos, Evil, Madness, Strength, and Trickery, and her favored weapon is the falchion—though the kukri, with its murderous implications, is also used by and is important to her faith. Her holy symbol is a three-eyed jackal’s head. Most of her clergy are clerics, many lesser humanoid clergy are adepts, a small number are rangers, and a handful are corrupted druids. She is called the Demon Queen, the Mother of Beasts, and the Demon Mother. Despite her titles, she is not the creator of the demon race as a whole, though she is served by many such fiends and herself sprung from the depths of the Abyss. Along with numerous well-known demons, she is served by seven powerful demonic sorceresses called the Seven Witches, who, in some tales, are actually her most powerful daughters.
Nym - Minotaurs are K:Local, I thought you only wanted info on lamashtu.
Male Human Cleric/Monk 1/1 | HP 8/10 || AC18 T12 FF16 | Fort +3, Ref +2, Will +2 | Init +2 | Perception +6 | CMB +1 / CMD 13
NOT stepping in slime:1d20 + 2 ⇒ (9) + 2 = 11
Newis hops back away from the slime as it moves up to him. "I am no CREATURE to be devoured by goop!" he yells down at the moving goo, raising his new magical sword to chop down at it.
Magical Longsword to HIT:1d20 + 2 ⇒ (11) + 2 = 13
Magical Longsword Damage:1d8 + 2 ⇒ (2) + 2 = 4
Newis then takes a quick hop over it to the other side to provide flanking.
Newis slams the sword into the cube, carving a small piece of the slime off from the base. He can tell it must have hurt the creature, but it doesn't seem particularly intelligent and doesn't seem to react to the damage.
Deliyah's arrow plunges into the slime and causes it to quiver slightly on impact.
Male Half-Elf Male Half-elf Warpriest 1 (besmara) | HP 9/9 | AC 15; T 12; FF 13 | F +3; R +2; W +5 | CMB +0; CMD 12 | Speed 30 ft | Init +4 | Rapier: +3 (1d6) | Perc +5 (low-light)
think i'm up again. i'll step up and whack it with my mace.
Isobel, Newis and Sparrow all manage to damage the creature. The cube of slime doesn't seem particuraly upset about it, it just continues forward on top of Sparrow, attempting to engulf him.
DC10 Reflex save to avoid being engulfed by the transparent slime creature. Party is up after that!
Male Half-Elf Male Half-elf Warpriest 1 (besmara) | HP 9/9 | AC 15; T 12; FF 13 | F +3; R +2; W +5 | CMB +0; CMD 12 | Speed 30 ft | Init +4 | Rapier: +3 (1d6) | Perc +5 (low-light)
Jeffrey avoids stepping into the cube as it moves forward into his location. With Isobel behind him, Newis in front of him he has nowhere else go to except to throw himself flat against the cavern wall to his north. With barely enough room to stand here, he is squeezing himself to prevent from touching the slime. After stepping aside Deliyah's arrow plunges into the cube, adding to the array of miscellaneous items stuck inside of it.
North was only square open, so Sparrow is there and squeezed since there is barely enough room for him here. Nym and Isobel are up, Jeffrey has delayed.
Not that it matters much on this one, but don't forget to add the engaged with melee penalties on your attack rolls.
Male Elf Wizard2 | HP14/14 | AC 14(18 Mage Armor),T14, F10(14 Mage Armor)| F+1 R+4 W+3 (special) | Per +4 | Init +12
I believe the creature gets a +4 to ac in range; soft cover firing through someone. Then there is a -4 penalty to the attack because its engaged in melee.
Isobel's throw was terrible, but the cube's ability to avoid a hit is nothing short of pathetic. The acid burns into the cube, sizzling and creating an acrid smell of putrefaction in the small tunnel.
The cube sludges onward, this time moving in the same space as Isobel. Does she move out of the way quick enough? DC10 Reflex. If you pass, you get to move to an adjacent square.
As Isobel moves out of the way Newis misses the creature (It is actually possible to miss the cube!) The slime trudges away from him down the tunnel. Party is up!
Male Half-Elf Male Half-elf Warpriest 1 (besmara) | HP 9/9 | AC 15; T 12; FF 13 | F +3; R +2; W +5 | CMB +0; CMD 12 | Speed 30 ft | Init +4 | Rapier: +3 (1d6) | Perc +5 (low-light)
i'll attempt to whack it. light mace:1d20 + 2 ⇒ (20) + 2 = 221d6 ⇒ 4
Sparrow and Jeffrey finally put an end to the terrible slow moving cube of slime. It collapses in on itself and splatters to the cavern floor all around the party. Everyone is careful to move around it, but have not forget why they were running to begin with. The party once again begins to run for the tunnel exit as the sounds of battle continue to grow louder.
The light of the surface world above provides a welcome reprieve from the blue and green fungus of the caverns below, and light illuminates a stream whose water is hastened by runoff from a recent storm further up the mountains. A ledge to the west rises up to the nearby forest canopy.
The stream is about 10 feet wide and 5 feet deep in this area and the water moves downstream, fast. The slope to the west gradually rises to a height of 20 ft. providing a commanding view and a clear advantage for any ranged attacks.
Nearly 100 feet from the cave’s entrance, Janira is locked in combat with her relentless foe. She it bloodied, battered, and engaged with the hulking Minotaur. When she sees you emerging from the cave, you are able to clearly make out Janira as she shouts, “You vile beast! I know not what drives your black heart, but I shall not fail in my duty. I shall see you driven from this forest, back to the hills from whence you came!”
Newis Jeffrey & Isobel are up first!
You are close enough to hear Janira, and are all once again under the effects of her Inspire Courage, +1 to Attack Rolls, +1 to Damage Rolls, and +1 to Saves v. Fear
In addition, you have three bonuses in affect from the rituals earlier, they are:
- Each party member receives a +2 insight bonus on a single combat maneuver check made in the next 24 hours. - +2 insight bonus on a single check made to perform the aid another action in the next 24 hours. - Party receives a +1 luck bonus on Fortitude saves against poison.
Newis smiles as he sees the giant beast; a fine story to be told when he gets back to Absalom's brothels. He begins with a low barbaric growl as he runs towards the river, drawing his shortspear from his back to hit it against his shield and sing with the beat.
+1 Enhancement Bonus to weapons/ammo.
Newis was the mighty Skald who slew the big fat goat.
He chopped his head and skinned his hide, and made a brand new coat.
All the poets sang his tale, and many more they wrote.
For it's far too easy for Newis Kher, to kill a dumb fat goat.
Male Half-Elf Male Half-elf Warpriest 1 (besmara) | HP 9/9 | AC 15; T 12; FF 13 | F +3; R +2; W +5 | CMB +0; CMD 12 | Speed 30 ft | Init +4 | Rapier: +3 (1d6) | Perc +5 (low-light)
Sparrow drops his mace, grabs his shortbow, and moves up 30.
Male Half-Elf Male Half-elf Warpriest 1 (besmara) | HP 9/9 | AC 15; T 12; FF 13 | F +3; R +2; W +5 | CMB +0; CMD 12 | Speed 30 ft | Init +4 | Rapier: +3 (1d6) | Perc +5 (low-light)
we've acted. guess its Janira and the Minotaur now. I imagine the weather might be causing some AFK delays.
Hey guys I haven't forgotten about you. Major outage at work today. Between the paizo site unavailable yesterday and this I'm a little behind. I'll catchup soon, I haven't forgotten about you.
Janira is wounded, limping, bleeding and barely able to stand. She clearly looks exhausted and just about out of stamina. She lashes our with her whip while attempting to continue her story for you all, but she just doesn't have the strength left to connect on her attack. The minotaur presses his attack, and swings his mighty axe in an upward momentum at Janira and rips a tremendous gash across the entire front of her body. The blow sends her off her feet and her head snaps back as blood flies everywhere. Janira's body lands in a crumpled bloody pile to the south of the minotaur. It triumphantly roars once and swings it gaze towards you and begins a thunderous stomp as the tremendous creature charges toward you, stopping just before the stream. Hatred and fury mark its face and its clear it intends to do you in just like the poor halfling who is bleeding out to the south.
If you intend to cross the stream you can either cross the 3-foot slippery log at half speed with a DC7 Acrobatics check or you can swim across the stream with a DC15 swim check. The water is rough and moving fast (30 feet per round).
