Danica waits for the others to make it across.
Anna hears nothing when she listens at the two doors on the north side of the hallway, perhaps some faint squishing sounds. The southwestern door she can barely make out the occasional raspy whisper of leathery wings. Listening at the eastern door seems to increase the sounds of the large river far below.
Andjela makes it across the gap slowly, but without falling.
Tolvan shifts over, joining his friends. Looking at the potions me ponders the usage of Basalist blood.
After he voices his thoughts on direction. I think we should move East. We know there are threats and likely more water the other directions.
"That is a wise choice Tolvan." Danica nods in acceptance.
The inquisitor moves east with sword at the ready.
Danica casts Guidance on herself.
Sooner we're out of here, the better, Anna agrees.
She studies the eastern door for traps, then tries the door if it's clear.
Opening the untrapped door Anna leads the group eastward and outside once more. A grand stone bridge arches over the gorge to a stack of rock on which perches a high tower topped with a lightning rod. The wind tugs gently but insistently at your hair and clothes and light spray of the falls to the south barely manage to dampen your skin. Hundreds of feet below, the river rages past, powerful resolute, and unconcerned with the small figures passing high above. The bridge has no handrail and is only three feet wide, but as long as the group goes slow, traversing it should not be a problem.
Tolvan relates what he knows about basilisks blood as it would be had to be turned to stone with no one else knowing this tidbit. At least the zoo keeper has the means on hand to treat accidents. he notes as he gathers up the resources. Who wishes to carry the displacement and gaseous form potions? He keeps one blood and hands the other to Kimberly to keep safe, realizing the danger of having both antidotes on the same person.
"Hmmm the gaseous potion may come in handy for someone like Anna or myself to do some recon with rooms filled with monsters."
"As for the displacement potion, well....any one of us can benefit from its effects."
Anna accepts the potion of gaseous form. So, let me get this straight. When I drink it, I'll be like a cloud? Will I fly? Could I be blown away? She'd never been touched with such a potent transmutation, so she appears a little unsure of the magics. And this was probably created by this Caromarc guy, right? Do we want to trust it?
Tolvan explains Yes you will be able to fly. And yes, you will be impacted by winds. The potion does not may you immune to damage though and a spell of fire could do great damage to someone in gaseous form. And it is smart to check the potions before you drink them. And Tolvan will do so.
By all indications they are what they claim to be on the labels.
Andjela keeps her own counsel. She is ready to defend...
Andjela, I think this potion of Displacement could best be used by you. Use it when the threat is dire. Tolvan hands the paladin the potion.
Sounds... reasonable.
As the wind whips at her and the water cascades far below, Anna takes the lead in going across the bridge. The last one we crossed had some kind of trap on it, so I'm going to check out this one, she says over the wind.
Moving adroitly across the three foot bridge, hundreds of feet of empty space below her, Anna looks right at home. For all the concern she shows, the bridge could be 50' wide. Regardless, she moves easily and doesn't find any traps after a thorough search.
Kimberly follows along drawing her small dagger just in case, not that it will do much harm to the big things that guard this place. or the fact that she probably wouldn't try and hurt them anyway if she could help it.
Danica crosses the bridge right behind Kimberly.
Tolvan stands back watching the group's progress, ready with his Feather Fall spell, just in case.
Tolvan's watchful gaze observes the entire group make it to the tall building on the other side without issue. Set into the tall stone structure is a relatively small and simple door.
Danica looks at the door try to determine if there is anything odd about it.
Upon closer inspection Danica determines there are small lines etched into the door, seeming at random, but as her eyes make out the patterns she can see it's actually a series of faint pictures, some crude and some not. But altogether a interesting design.
Moving at a careful walt Tolvan crosses last. He notes that Danica is studying the door and joins here. [b]What has caught your interest? [/b[ He asks as he peers over her shoulder.
Anna studies the door before trying it.
Since nothing has exploded and Anna detects no traps, the door seems safe enough, and opens easily an Anna's light, testing push.
Here goes... Anna mutters as she pushes the door open slowly and as quietly as she can, after throwing up her hood on her cloak.
Kimberly stays a bit back so as to not be in the way as Anna open the door. she swallows hard as her nervousness builds, wondering what lies beyond the door.
clutching her dagger at the ready, just in case.
Danica tells the others to wait as she moves to Anna's side to help her determine any threats. Like in the previous room Danica will use her Darkvision ability if needed.
Slipping inside Anna sees a curving stone staircase winds along the wall of this circular chamber up to a trapdoor in the ceiling some thirty feet above. The room is in chaos, with books, alchemical equipment, and curiously twisted metal everywhere. A huge, broken cage stands in the center of the room, its bars bent and door smashed apart -really just a messy twisted mass at this point. An immense shape huddles under the stairs behind the broken cage, and its head swivels as the door opens. Anna sidesteps neatly and crouches behind a broken bookcase near the door, and remains undetected. She can see the creature is large, has four arms, claws and teeth all stuck together in a grotesque patchwork of muscled flesh.
Anna takes advantage of her position, knowing that the fight is about to begin as soon as Danica steps inside. She snaps off a shot with her heavy crossbow before it can react. Then she'll try to keep the bookshelf between her and it.
Head's up! Big and ugly in here! she calls out to the others.
Anna acts quickly, before anyone else is even aware of a threat, the fired bolt catching the flat footed monster right in the neck. However, the bolt unexpectedly deflects away at a crazy angle, the creature displaying some sort of natural resistance or armor. The attack did manage to grab the creatures attention, and seems to have given it a healthy dose of animal rage.
Anna
Tolvan
Andjela
Kimberly
Danica
Flesh Golem
- Tolvan
- Anna
- Danica
- Andjela
- Kimberly
- Flesh Golem
Though they are clearly different creatures, or created from different creatures, you still recognize some similarities with this golem and the Beast. This creature is a Flesh Golem, it's parts largely look to have been taken from girallon. It's resistance to Anna's attack indicates incredible natural armor, and likely resistance to damage entirely.
Seeing the 4 armed creature, the wizard is worried that this could be a difficult fight. He wonders about its construction, strengths and weaknesses.
Tolvan wants to catch everyone in his Haste spell so he moves into the tower, casts Haste, and the Shifts back to where he started.
Round 1
this creature seems much more dangerous than anything she has ever faced before. Kimberly prays to Pharasma for strength and to protect her friends.
Pharasma protect the faithful, guard the souls and she reaches over to touch Dancia.
Weaknesses:
Danica steps inside into the middle of the room with her temple sword in hand and positions herself in front of the others. She tries to grab the creature's attention and to coax the creature towards her in the middle of the room.
"Anna, flank it if possible. I'll try to keep it occupied."
Does tactical retreat mean anything? Fools again! What is it this time?
It's one opponent. Here we can flank it in relative safety. Are you saying you would rather fight it on the narrow bridge where only one of us can reach it and it could knock us to our deaths? And are you suggesting we give up the chance to attack first? If so, you are the fool!
Head's up! Big and ugly in here! she calls out to the others.
Andjela steps in and onto the steps for the higher ground advantage... and maybe draw the creature.
Golem
Tolvan wants to catch everyone in his Haste spell so he moves into the tower, casts Haste, and the Shifts back to where he started.
"I think we're in trouble," Anna says when her first bolt glances off the creature. She pulls out her hand crossbow while she moves, the spell accelerating her around the tower to the spiral staircase, coming to a stop above and slightly south of the creature, near a heavy-looking trap door set into the ceiling. This bolt is even more accurate than the one before, and is not deflected by the creatures natural armor as it hits nearly the exact spot in the neck she shot at before.
Danica steps inside into the middle of the room with her temple sword in hand and positions herself in front of the others. She tries to grab the creature's attention and to coax the creature towards her in the middle of the room. "Anna, flank it if possible. I'll try to keep it occupied." The creatures eyes have been tracking Anna's run up the stairs, and it doesn't seem interested in going after anything or anyone else at the moment, but it's still collecting itself.
Andjela steps in and onto the steps for the higher ground advantage... and maybe draw the creature.
This creature seems much more dangerous than anything she has ever faced before. Kimberly prays to Pharasma for strength and to protect her friends. "Pharasma protect the faithful, guard the souls." and she reaches over to touch Danica.
Injured by Anna, and obviously angry about it, the creature strangely does not persue her. Instead it turns to look at Danica and Andjela, sizing them up in a moment and roaring a beastial challenge. It stays where it is, 10' away against the wall, and lashes out with four massive arms at Danica's seemingly ill-protected body. The first, second (this one nearly landing but the creatures hand getting deflected at the last moment by a thick cage bar) and last blows miss, but one claw makes it through her dodging and magic defenses, despite the mangled cage increasing the difficulty of actually hitting a smaller creature inside it. You get the sense that the damage could have been much much worse had that bar not been there.
- Tolvan
- Anna
- Danica
- Andjela
- Kimberly
- Flesh Golem
This creature is a Golem. It is nearly immune to magic and will resist some damage from all but adamantine weapons. We need to kill it quickly.
With his statement he moves back a few steps and casts Glitterdust at the creature, trying to blind it.
You attack everything... What choice do they have, but to become enemy? Deduce, wizard. What did this thing do except perhaps escape its prison?
Would you do otherwise?
Andjela moves closer, detecting evil.