To be clear, even without Etna possessing the appropriate skill , she could tell these Reptilian Humanoids looked different than the Lizardfolk you defeated.
The group creeps up carefully to the base of the stairs. getting ready to rush the creatures.
Etna charges into the room, placing herself squarely between defenders in order to charge. While her blow was extremely well-placed, the beast's hide thwarted it being more critical. Still, the creature has suffered a mighty blow.
Ajaline moves onto the stairs and sees his shot. His shortbow's string sings out, and the shot is true. Both beasts are wounded.
And please refer to Slave Pens map
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Ajaline watches his arrow fly true and strike the beast. "Ah! Take that, you slimy and disgusting filth!" But the next moment he is stunned as a wall of foul odor slams into him.
He turns to look at the others who haven't come up the stairs yet. "Are you guys going to help here or do the little one and I have to do everything?"
Ajaline becomes
While some in the party may take some small guilty pleasure in watching him suffer, his bowshot did do less damage (though still struck home even with penalty).
Isme, on the other hand, suffers no ill effects--perhaps all that time spent in the alchemy lab paid off--heck, this stench has nothing on ghast retch.
At first, Zavubak thinks he fine. Then he breathes a sigh of relief, and the stench becomes too much. He too becomes sickened.
Barl, with the staunchness of a dwarf, shrugs off the stench as if he well knows his way around a midden heap. Then he shouts out to his compatriots: "They're Troglodytes. They like wet rocky areas, they typically speak Draconic...Oh, and they have an aura of stench that can sicken foes. Luckily, if you resist the stench's initial shock, you shouldn't have to worry about that Troglodyte's stench for the rest of the day." He looks at Zav and Ajaline and shrugs. "It should wear off in a minute or 2."
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Ajaline watches as a few of the party move to engage the nasty beasts and then suddenly the overwhelming stench catches up with him. His face turns green and spasms of alternating cold and heat flashes race up and down his body. His hands and arms get shaky and his knees weak. He staggers a little as he tries to hold it together. The dwarf tries to offer some condolences but Ajaline only grunts in reply.
Alas, Troglodytes have very tough hides, and Etna's well-placed thrusts just don't seem to penetrate enough to critically wound the beast. But Barl the Stalwart steps up and finishes the beast off, crushing its leg with his warhammer. It crumples to the ground.
One is still standing, with Ajaline's arrow stuck in its arm. Isme takes a 5' step and stabs at it with her longspear.
Alas, her strike goes wide, and the beast unleashes a hideous hiss as it lashes out with its claws and teeth at Etna.
the troglodyte drops like a stone, entangled in Ajaline insidious vine. It hisses at you venomously (but the venom is merely literal)
Lorian enters the room, takes a stab and misses, then proceeds to vomit all over the troglodyte.
Zavubak barely resists the urge to hurl himself as he steps up, and with a snort of derision finishes off the remaining troglodyte. But the sight of the spilled intestines are then enough to make him hurl as well.
You all are a bit surprised to hear a few weak ragged cheers coming from the cells nearby. Clearly a few of the humans here have not yet been broken by these evil serpentfolk torturers.
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Etna will let out a little laugh as she leans against a wall. She had some nasty scratches from the beasts claws on her face and sides. "W-Well that was unexpectedly painful. Give me a breather, got to get myself a nice strong drink."
She will pull out the water they had just enchanted and chug it down, trying to ignore where it had came from.
Most of her wounds will heal, a small scratch remaining on her side scabbing over the only evidence she was harmed.
"Thank goodness we found that stuff. Feeling right as rain now. Lets see about finding those keys to let these fellows out."
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"Well done," Isme nods approvingly. "Is everyone else okay? The aroma in here is...staggering, to say the least," she asks as she moves to check on Zav, Lorian, and Ajaline.
Once assured that everyone will recover, she turns her attention to their surroundings, the instruments of torture holding a rather morbid fascination. Though she doesn't argue with Etna's desire to free the slaves, she doesn't volunteer to help search for the keys either.
Best let her do it if it will satisfy her, even if it's futile.
Barl starts chatting with one of the prisoners in Undercommon, then walks over to one of the Trogodytes and quicky locates a large ring of keys. The humans in the cells in this room move to the bars in eager anticipation, despite their emaciated and abused condition.
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"I've no clue what these captives are saying, but I suppose I can try to assist in getting information." Zavubak begins contorting his face and hands into various motions - mainly opening his palms and mumbling a few words - anything that might help in communicating with them. The warrior looks pretty embarrassed when he's finished, and stands further away with his arms crossed.
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Barl quickly translates for the group what the prisoner told him as he collects the keys. Everyone seems eager to work with the prisoners, so he responds:
We have only a very short time remaining here, so we can use all the aid we can get. If you pledge to share your information with us and fight alongside us, we will free you and proudly fight with you to slay every serpent we can find."
As Barl relays the prisoner's words, you hear the sound of weapons clashing to the West. The freed prisoners immediately flee to the south, away from the sound of battle. But before you can begin to gird yourself for battle, you hear a ragged cheer from the West, a cheer that definitely was not serpentlike: human voices raised in triumph.
"Psst! Hey buddy... whistle if you need a hand!"
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Ajaline is impressed with how well the team dispatched the unpleasant creatures and also with how willing everyone was to help the prisoners escape. He is about to offer an encouraging, and even friendly, word to everyone when he is interrupted by the cheers coming from the west.
"Well, I agree with the little one. We should go and see what the commotion is." He starts to head to the west, expecting the others to follow.
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Although she'd initially seen freeing the prisoners as a waste of time, Isme had to admit that Barl had a good point - the more help they had against these serpentfolk and the more chaos they created, the easier it would be to fulfill their own mission.
"That was good thinking and good talking Barl," she murmurs as the freed prisoners scatter to help their fellows. "This should make it easier to continue looking around."
As the commotion breaks out to the west, the half-elf looks up at Ajaline and nods. "Yes and that seems to be the only way to proceed as well. Let's get to it!"
Voices sound out further down the hall—the guttural and staggered ringing of human speech rather than the lilting hisses of snakes. Men and women—many of them malnourished and wounded but athletic nonetheless—stand over the fresh corpses of troglodyte minders while gripping makeshift clubs.
At the head of the group stands a particularly strong looking female human with a greatclub. She is the one who immediately notices your group approaching, and with a quick gesture and sharp command, all the others cease their reverie and/or looting of the troglodyte bodies and warily clutch their weapons.
Barl overhears one of the men muttering
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Seeing the uneasiness of the humans, Lorian held up his right hand with no weapon. "Master Barl, please let them know that we do not want a fight and they are welcome to join us in dealing with the Troglodyte. Tell them that while they have just meet us, they have been prisoners of the Trogs for much longer and we share a common enemy.
Even with the language limitations, Lorian's actions and non-threatening bearing--along with a few key words he uses that the woman seems to recognize--help to ease some of the tension; you get a sense of wary indifference.
She utters a few unrecognizable orders to the men, who turn their attention to watching down the two other hallways, before she looks back at the group. She says,
You think might have caught mention of the name Uszanriar, perhaps referring to herself?