Anna detects no traps on the door at the other end of the hallway, while Kimberly scales the knotted rope like a monkey after some initial trouble. Meanwhile Andjela fails on her first attempt.
Anna opens the door and peers inside.
Tolvan tries his best to help Andjela up from above, but mostly gets in the way.
Andjela makes it up the knotted magical rope after a couple tries, gaining the hallway with the rest of you.
A rotting stench comes from a trio of headless, apelike creatures inside heavy iron cages. The waters lap against these corpses, while the twisted remnants of an iron walkway lie half-submerged
in the water. A door sits high in the north wall (Anna peers out of a door on the east wall), twenty feet above the floor.
There are three large furry shapes hiding up near the ceiling. It's difficult to tell with the dense shadows up there but it's pretty clear the shapes have wings as well.
Kimberly giggles a bit, trying to not let Andjela see or hear, at her attempts to climb. she soon remembers her own failures at climbing and quickly stops but it is nice to know she is not the only one that has trouble with ropes.
I wonder if she failed on purpose to make me feel batter? she wonders to herself.
Anna's stomach heaves, and she claps a hand over her mouth. Then her eyes flick up to the ceiling and she withdraws from the room, closing the door behind her.
Gah! Whew! That room's occupied! she calls out to the others.
What did you see? Tolvan asks as he is trying to get the door on his side closed, but finds the space too small to easily hold the party. I am still not sure that this room here is totally empty. That water looked pretty deep. It could hide all manner of creatures.
Danica, in the rear and watching Andjela struggles with climbing the rope, glances over at Anna as she attempts to keep down her morning rations. "What's going on over there?"
Phew! Dead things! Some sort of gorilla creatures without heads. I think they were making the stink. But there was something else; something that was up in the shadows with wings. I didn't get a good look. I figure we'll try to go around.
Kimberly seems excited after reaching the group.
did you see that? I climbed the rope. I actually climbed the rope, and really fast too, nobody had to carry me! soon she realizes that nobody really cares.
Well I thought it was great anyway she says trailing off her excitement coming back to the reality that is Anna not liking the next room.
Anna pulls away from the door and gives Kimberly a smile. Good for you! she encourages.
Danica moves forward. "Let me take a peek. I may be able to figure out what those creatures you are referring to."
The inquisitor moves towards where the creatures are located.
She can smell the putrid odor but it does not bother her. She has smelled worse.
Danica sees the creature and stares at it. Within a couple of seconds her Darkvision kicks in which allows her to get a little more detail. She quietly stares at it to determine what manner of creature they are.
She considers the three lumps, and as they become clear in her dark vision, Danica puts two and two together to realize she's looking at three girallon-headed vargouilles. Vargouilles attack by swooping in on their opponents, shrieking them into paralysis, and then biting them with rows of razor-sharp teeth. When multiple vargouilles take up a common cause and fight as allies, they overwhelm their victim with bites and shrieks, tearing it to shreds. The kiss of a vargouille starts a terrible transformation for the victim, slowly transforming him into a vargouille if his fortitude fails him. As if the kiss weren't trouble enough, the bite of a vargouille injects poison into the victims veins.
Danica eyes open wide as she realizes what they are facing. She slowly heads back to the others and says, "These guys are nasty."
The inquisitor continues, " They are called girallon-headed vargouilles. They attack inflight and their shriek is paralyzing to all within earshot. They got nasty razor like teeth which will tear hour to shreds and their bite is poisonous. To make things worse, their kiss will transform you into one of them."
Danica smiles at the group. "Well??? Who wants to go fight them?"
The room had two visible exits. One door sits high in the north wall (Danica looked out of a door on the east wall on the same level as the north door). A second exit is 10' below the door the group is at, on the south side of the room. Essentially the entire chamber is -structurally- a mirror opposite of the other circular room to the east. The contents of the two chambers is of course different, as this one contains three large cages with headless girallon corpses and several girallon-headed vargouilles hanging out near the ceiling. The eastern room had the large, suspicious pit of water inside.
A known threat might be better than an unknown one. Tolvan notes. And Elves are resistant to some paralysis.
Getting an idea, Tolvan goes back to the landing at the initial room and casts his Dancing lights spell, creating 4 gloves of light and sending them down to probe the depths of the water.
Alright! I'm good now. On we go!
The magic lights zip down into the water, shining light into the previously murky depths. First it's just an unusual eddy in the depths of the water, but slowly Tolvan realizes there's too much of a pattern to the moving water for it to be natural eddies in the water. That realization suddenly brings what he's really seeing right to his conscious mind; swimming upwards slowly is some sort of transparent aquatic creature with huge, gleaming eyes and a mouthful of sharp teeth.
First - lol. :) Second, I do not think I was the one throwing rocks into the mist. And third, it should have occurred to me to send the lights into the deep murky water earlier. Now that we are trying to choose the lesser of two evils to proceed it makes total sense to check the water again. I almost asked to take 20. Hopefully you feel less pity understanding my motivation….?
Peering into the deep dark water that is now illuminated Tolvan catches sight of something moving. Looking more closely he tries to identify it.
Danica has the following as a character trait.
Celestial Crusader - Some aasimars follow their destiny to war against the powers of ultimate evil. These individuals gain a +1 insight bonus on attack rolls and to AC against evil outsiders and a +2 racial bonus on Knowledge (planes) and Spellcraft checks to identify evil outsiders or items or effects created by evil outsiders; they may use these skills untrained for this purpose. This racial trait replaces celestial resistance and skilled.
And I'm not really sure what we've got lurking in the depths -- so I'm not sure if my leap up out of the water was viewed as suspect. If so... sorry.
Anna shakes her head desperately. No. No, no, no, no. I don't want to fight those things. Paralysis, teeth, poison, and turning into one? Again I say, NO We have a possible way around; I'm checking that out.
Muttering, Anna heads toward the other door, swiping the rope back from Tolvan if that's what it takes to reach it.
Well I'd like to think I'm just being paranoid, and I'm not suggesting anyone's action was inappropriate, but I'd just be sad if I influenced the game by making information available the characters haven't earned yet. For example, Tolvan rerolling the perception to see into the water, which is actually a good idea, just gets me wondering if a second roll would have been attempted if y'all didn't know a spoiler was lurking :) Not a big deal, and your reassurances that they aren't affecting your decisions do make me feel better. I prefer to think I'm not corrupting the game with the spoilers, as they are convenient for me.
Anyways, water under the bridge.
Tolvan has to think hard, but he finally decides the creature is a translucent Slime-Infected Basilisk, somehow bestowed with natures natural swimming appendages. Its most dangerous aspect is its gaze attack, and you notice it doesn't seem to want to swim up to get within range, typically about 30' for a Basilisk.
Danica determine if there are any weakness to this creature.
Danica can't think of any obvious weaknesses, except that it seems like it'd be unsuited for land combat.
By the gods! Tolvan exclaims. There is some form of translucent aquatic Basilisk down in the water. Do not look at it! and he averts his own eyes as he is saying this.
Anna looks down in reflex, then shuts her eyes and backs away from the deep pit. Don't say things like that!
She'll command the rope to extend out to the other door, then climb to it.
The rope obediently shimmies across the wall and ties itself to the sliver of catwalk extending from the northern door. Anna shimmies across it quickly, and makes it safely to the other side.
"Ok Kimberly. Jump aboard and hold on tight." Danica scoops up Kimberly allowing her to piggyback once again. Then Danica follows next in her trek across the rope.
Aquautic, huh... Any of those chemicals work?
Anna checks out the door before opening it. If it's clear, she'll flip up the hood of her cloak and try to slip into the next chamber stealthily.
Kimberly sits on Danica's stomach like a clinging primate as the Aasimar traverses the 15' distance to the northern door. They make it there just as Anna slips through.
Anna slips through the untrapped door to find... another hallway. It runs parallel to the hallway connecting the two southern circular rooms you just examined. There are five doors, two on the south side of the hallway (one of which you just exited), two on the north side of the hallway, and a single door to the east.
At the far west end of the corridor is a set of shelves with broken bits of glass all over it, and spilled liquids of various colors mixing into a rainbow colored mess -all running down the front of the shelf. There are a few vials and potions intact, conveniently labeled.
Kimberly at first puts up a little fuss but quickly gives in with a sigh.
I wanna be able to do this stuff on my own, I feel like I'm just some extra baggage to you guys. always having to carry me over difficult spaces. I bet I could have done it all by myself. she says then glaces back at the water slimy bakinglicks? she then looks at the rope then back at the water, well maybe not this time, but next time for sure.
Looking to the Paladin and trying not to look down into the water Toilvan says After you Andjela. I cannot teleport you so you have to make this climb on your own. I could carry your shield if that is encumbering though.
Anna makes a disgusted face at the basilisk's blood, but whistles quietly at the other potions. She wondered what they actually did, but had an idea about the gaseous form potion.
She listens to each door, but makes a point to stay clear from the southeastern one.