Thousands of icicles cover the ceiling of this cylindrical chamber. The outside edge forms a perfect circular curve, cutting into stone without mark of chisel or tool, impossibly smooth. Only places where ice flows over the stone, or wherethe structures have collapsed, mar the perfect precision of the cylinder. The remains of workshops and living spaces, still furnished, peak through holes in the cylindrical void. At the southern and western edges of the cavern, large portions of the stone and ice have collapsed, cutting into the immense void with piles of rubble.
Placing his small hands behind his back Prizm strolls forward while looking up and around at the fascinating ice formations.
"Did you know that ice molecules can exhibit up to sixteen different phases that depend on temperature and pressure. When water is cooled rapidly, up to three different types of amorphous ice can form depending on the history of its pressure and temperature."
Look around at the blank faces that obviously don't seem to care, he starts to whistle ever so softly under his breath.
"You know Bert, it would be nice to have at least someone with a little intellectual curiosity on this expedition...."
Looking around...
"Bert? Where did you go? Has anyone seen my Dodo?"
N Female Human - Sorcereress 3 | HP: 6/20 | AC: [16]12 (12 Tch, 10 Fl) | CMB: 0, CMD: 12 | Fort +3, Ref +4, Will +4 | | Speed 30ft | Electricity Ray: 7/7 | Spells: 1st 4/6| Reroll: 1/1 | Active conditions: mage armor
Moves forward, minding her step on the ice.
Getting an idea suddenly, she picks up one of the pieces of rubble in the chamber, casts light on it, and throws it into the large cylindrical room. She pauses for a moment, surveying the room carefully.
Once satisfied she then turns to look over at Davorin. Seeing the doors in front of him. “Want me to try to open one of those?”
Davorin looks towards the door on the north wall. "I would suspect based on this door's placement that we're looking at an entrance to the other side of that set of arrow slits. Let's get into position and then get this door open."
If everybody is in position before Kirin casts open/close, I'll just open it myself.
Still a little hopped up after the wolf fight Logg is stoked to get into position, like a legit military formation. He tucks away his kukri and whips out his big bad ass bardiche hoping no one can tell he's never wielded it before.
As he moves it occurs to him he has no idea what a formation looks like, so he places himself and turns to Davorin, "Black scorpion formation?" followed with a semi confident nod.
Hearing mention the aforementioned bug. Prizm muses -
” Hmmmmm….. predatory arachnids of the order Scorpiones. They have eight legs and are easily recognized by the pair of grasping pedipalps and the narrow, segmented tail, often carried in a characteristic forward curve over the back, ending with a venomous stinger.” – trailing off he glances up at the Skald.
Sense Motive:1d20 - 1 ⇒ (7) - 1 = 6
Looking genuinely impressed - "Tell me more about this formation, does it involve poison? Why do you call it a black scorpion? Do we all get matching outfits? I happen to very much enjoy greens over the drab dark colors... but if I must dress the part I wear a size XXXXS."
While the gnome mulls over what it means to be part of an elite fighting group - he glances at the door, remembers that things could become violent soon, and prepares himself for what is to come.
From the shadows Bert hears talk of elite fighting teams and his small Dodo eyes narrow. If they only knew that he laid in wait - for glory and spoils.
Ninja Bert hears talk of black outfits and lets out an extremely soft sigh.
The team takes a couple of minutes to explore the rooms to the north, which were obviously once used as guard posts. Desks sit empty, a few scraps of meaningless paper littering the drawers. A weapon rack in the southeastern corner of the room contained the town’s arsenal during their heyday. The door to the iron cage in the northeastern corner of the
room is locked. Only the tattered remains of an old cot and manacles remain in the room.
The team then resets (into the current positions) and Kirin casts open/close once more.
The frozen corpse of a dwarf slumps against the wall, perfectly preserved in a block of ice. He wears a hexagonal hematite beard clasp with a single dwarven rune inscribed on the face.
Surprise Round
Suddenly, the frozen dwarf bursts out of the ice in a flurry of movement! (I've indicated his movement with the arrow) He charges Davorin, biting at him!
charge bite:1d20 + 5 + 2 ⇒ (2) + 5 + 2 = 9
Round 1
The charging attack misses the ever wary Davorin, but then the undead dwarf attacks again
I'm near the end in the order but my actions are clear should it come back to me so I'll put them up now.
Kn: Religion:1d20 + 7 ⇒ (11) + 7 = 18
Davorin grunts in pain from the pair of claws that snuck in around the neckline. He looks backwards over his shield and shouts, "Be careful my friends, it's a ghoul; an undead abomination! I've read about these, their claws cause paralysis and their bite carries a rather deadly disease. I need healing or a sword by my side!"
Davorin sizes up his target before attempting to cleave into it with his falcata.
Move Action: Study Target for +1/+1 Standard Action: Swing falcata at the creature
"Lya, it doesn't appear you will be able to reason with this one. I suppose it's time I show you all a secret..."
With that said, the Galtian man grows if anything more silent. Drops his new shield to the ground. Then a spear of pure energy suddenly appears in his hand. Swift act: Short Spear +1
Then with careful strides he moves up to the cold dwarf thing and takes a stab.
Davorin nervously looks at the creature's pointy teeth, "If he gets his teeth into me along with those claws, you shouldn't expect me to assist in this fight. Anything you can do to help keep me alive would be appreciated."
OMG - I had a post eaten by the board gremlins! Since my update got eaten, Logg never saw the results.
Prizm keeps himself, and Bert, in a relatively safe position. Logg attempts to attack (Ray, remember you +2 for GM stars!), but still misses badly.
Then, Uliyara starts reciting an inspiring tale about survival in the North. Inspire Courage +1
While Davorin and Kirin miss the ghoul badly (and you've learned exactly what Davorin blurted out), Sgt. Blue is truly inspired by Uliyara, and barely hits the thing.
The thing then attacks. First it misses with its bite, but its first claw strikes dangerously close to Davorin's femoral artery. Crit chance, not confirmed/ Davorin starts to stiffen, but fights off the vile coldness of the undead, just in time to dodge out of the way of the other claw.
The above was narrated from the lost post
... and turning on his heels Sgt. Blue reaches out to Davorin's shoulder shouting at him, "Get back, you're no good to us as an enemy. Let the princess's magic do the damage."
After that the Galtian man tumbles one 5' square away with the undead.
Davorin looks over at Sgt. Blue, "You fool, it's icy, you'll never get away from it!" Davorin cringes a bit at what he imagines is an inevitable paralyzed magus.
Sgt. Blue wrote:
After that the Galtian man tumbles one 5' square away with the undead.
As Sgt. Blue is attacking, Uliyara notices the vector of his spear is a little off, so casts Gallant Inspiration inspiration:2d4 ⇒ (1, 2) = 3 Again, this makes him hit )Sgt Blue, you forgot the Inspire Courage!)
This spear thrust causes the dwarf ghoul to crumple to the ground.
When the dwarf falls, Davorin drops to the ground panting, "I...just...need...a...second. That was too close. Thank you all for being so active in our success." Once he has a moment to catch he breath he stands again, wipes the blood away, and looks ready to continue.
I'm going to apply both Logg's in-combat heal and this out of combat heal (9+5=14) if you're all okay with that since we didn't hear otherwise.
”That was a lot of blood Davorin! Do you need another hug?”
Sensing that the human is ok by the disapproving look on his face, Prizm starts to slowly hum to himself as he walks forward to peek around the site of the encounter. He then nimbly hops over the ghouls body (while making a wrinkled up face of disgust while looking at it). And then proceeds to slip into the room beyond.
”My-my-my, look at these chairs.. these have to be made out of walnut… why do the tall folk always kill trees to make such unattractive things. They were better before!”
"That was...unfortunate. If everybody is still alive, we should probably continue on."
Davorin begins picking through the corpse looking for any gear or clues to what may have happened here before entering the room and motioning everybody forward into the room to look for clues as well.
Reading the note aloud in his deepest most impressive voice (which is still regrettably high pitched), Prizm ponders a few random thoughts.
”Bardak… do I know that name? Hmmmmm”
Knowledge History:1d20 + 4 ⇒ (6) + 4 = 10
"Vaguely - but nothing helpful... So it appears that the dwarf here had a boy who went off, and he remained... but the evil witch lady had other plans.. and sealed him and his .. remaining men in this place with that block of ice. Which means there could/should be a few more of them..."
Noticing that Logg is searching for magical aura's the gnome shrugs and follows suite, all the while listening intently for the footfalls of the dead.
Lya will listen carefully to the Gnome's narration. She will step back and ask Uliyara if she heard of this story, while thinking back on her many tales.
kn:history:1d20 + 2 ⇒ (15) + 2 = 17
Through this conversation, Lya will observe the southwest area where Kirin's light was tossed.
Davorin muses, "Hey Hao Gin, haven't I heard other more experienced pathfinders mention that name? Trying to remember where..."
Kn: Local:1d20 + 10 ⇒ (6) + 10 = 16
While tripping over an old frozen chair to look under it Davorin starts talking to himself. Find Nadak's Point? Check. Find evidence that there's a royal family here? Check with that beard clasp and this note I think. But that can't be all of it, we need to find something."
Davorin stops searching and looks up to the group thoughtfully. "Something laughing outside the ice, meaning somebody deliberately trapped the Dwarves here to die. And this Dwarf became a ghoul, which doesn't happen spontaneously. I think Kirin may have the right idea, I'll keep guard too while you guys finish up. Where to next guys? Across the ice?"
N Female Human - Sorcereress 3 | HP: 6/20 | AC: [16]12 (12 Tch, 10 Fl) | CMB: 0, CMD: 12 | Fort +3, Ref +4, Will +4 | | Speed 30ft | Electricity Ray: 7/7 | Spells: 1st 4/6| Reroll: 1/1 | Active conditions: mage armor
"What do you think happened here?" Kirin says, pointing to the large cylindrical room. She walks over to the rubble and picks up a handful of small stones, casting light one at a time and throwing them in different areas to get a more full view.
"Some of the rooms are even cut in half? Or is that just me?" Kirin pauses, shaking her head puzzled. Looking over her shoulder to the group "Anyone up for climbing down?"
