What are that swamp thing's vulnerabilities? Let's dispatch it quickly...
Sonny looks at the creatures and then the group "Follow me, weapons ready but lowered. Let's see if we can end this peacefully" He then walks into the room doing nothing to conceal his presence. About halfway to the skum he stops and speaks. "I am Sonny of Sarenrae and would like to know what is going on here and how we can avoid conflict and your deaths."
Sonny walk in the room followed by the group. Once closer to the Skums, he tries to communicate with them. All three turn toward the clerics. As they are looking at you, you notice that their eyes are darting from side to side and the their facial expression make you doubt if there are any sanity left in there. They all raise their greataxes and start moving toward you.
Andjela takes aim at the furthest creature...
This whole place stinks of madness...
If you were aware of an opponent before rolling initiative (such as when you ambush an enemy or negotiations break down into combat, but not when both sides happen upon each other or you are surprised), you can attempt a Sense Motive check as part of your initiative check (DC = 11 + the highest Bluff modifier among your opponents or DC 15, whichever is higher). If you succeed, you gain a +1 bonus on the initiative check, plus an additional +1 for every 5 by which you exceeded the DC.
Danica moves forward in order to shield Tolvan and Sonny.
Happy to fight something with an anatomy, even if they're gross fish monsters, Anna steps up and fires at the middle one with her heavy crossbow.
Anna and Andjela's ranged attacks score some good hits against one of the Skum. Bleeding from the wounds, the creature doesn't seem to acknowledge the three impacts. The fat one moves toward Anna and swing his greataxe at her. The rogue, however, is too agile and completely dodges the attack. The wounded one moves next to the other one and attacks him... for some reason. The blade slashes at the other Skum and tears open the flesh. At the same time, the third Skum punches himself in the face?!? Danica moves forward and attack the fat Skum. She gets a good hit in, but the damage is somewhat superficial.
Sonny shakes his head and says "I had to try, but these are too far gone." as he raises his crossbow and fires at red.
Tolvan also fires at Red while explaining Thee creatures act as though confused by the spell. And I now fear I know why they collect the young daughters from the fisher. He shudders slightly.
Sonny fire a bolt at the far Skum and gets a hit . Tolvan uses his magic to conjure an arrow made of acid. He sends it toward the same target as Sonny. He also manages to hit the creature, but its mind is to far gone to care.
"Get in my spot!" Anna tells Danica as she tumbles over to get into flanking position. Once Danica shifts into the space opposite hers, Anna stabs with her dagger.
Danica moves over to her new flanking position.
Andjela reaches out to detect evil, if confirmed... she charges the closest enemy, not engaged in melee... drawing her blade as she does.
Sirrah!
The groups attacks are starting to show as the Skums are bleeding from multiple wounds. They are, however, not paying attention to those wounds as their eyes are filled fury, giving you little doubt that there will be no prisoner in this fight. The one fighting Anna still can't get a single hit on the elusive rogue. But the one that Andjela charged turn his attention toward her and inflict a wound almost just as bad as the one she did on him.
Sonny reloads his crossbow and fires at red again.
The acid from last round does an addtional 4 points of damage. Tolvan, hoping to save some resoures fires again at Red with his wand of Acid Arro, but fails to hit.
Anna keeps stabbing at the skum between her and Danica. If it falls, she takes a step toward the others in the cavern.
These guys are strong! Best to hurry, bringing them down.
The Skums survive another series of attack and return the favor. The green on finally manages to land a blow on the elusive rogue, bringing dangerously low health wise. Andjela also get hit by the red one now that he stop babbling. As for the blue, he turn and take a swing at the red one. Inflicting a serious wound to his comrade.
red=84
green=86
blue=77
Seeing Anna badly wounded Sonny moves forward toward her, expecting to be attacked and casts cure critical wounds on her.
Frustrated by his miss last round and now concerned for Anna's safety Tolvan moves for a clear shot and blasts the skum attacking Anna with a pair of scorching rays.
Danica continues her assault on her current target.
Sonny heals some of Anna's wounds while Tolvan fire two beams of flames at the Skum. The creature collapse to the ground, two burnt hole in the chest. Danica, now free to move, engages on of the other Skums. Sadly, her attack doesn't have the precision required to hit the target.
Anna gives Sonny a look of thanks when he heals her wounds.
Then Anna moves next to the red skum. "Andjela! Gimme a flank!" she shouts, hoping the paladin will distract the creature enough so that she could make an effective strike.
With pleasure! Andjela steps to take a flanking position, and attacks the same creature as Anna... should the creature fall, the paladin will attack the remaining Skum.
Anna downs another Skums with her dagger. Right after, Andjela hits the remaining one once with her sword. Still standing, the Skums keep fighting with a insane spark in his eyes. He attacks the Paladin, barely able to pass her defense.
blue=92
Tolvin will go back to his wand, moving for a clean shot and firing at the skum.
Sonny fires at the remaining skum.
Danica attacks again.
Tolvan and Sonny injure the Skum, but he still remain standing... if barely.
These behemoths are grueling. Enough! Andjela tries to dispatch the creature once and for all.
Anna tumbles into flanking position to attack the last one with Andjela.
Andjela's curved blade digs deep into the Skum, almost cutting him in two. Even after that, the creature tries to raises his weapon, but Anna's dagger drive into its back. Blood gush from its mouth as it collapse to the ground.
Anna wipes her dagger off on the clothes of the corpses, then retrieves her crossbow from where she dropped it. "Those guys were weird. You think it had something to do with that strange color thing from earlier?"
3x masterwork heavy steel shield
3x +1 greataxe
3x amulet of natural armor +2
12 gems worth 50 gp each
3 bracelets made of the strange reddish fishgold worth 150 gp each
Tolvan puts up his wand and begins to examine the items found.
Hey, these amulets are quite nice. Natural Armor of the second level. We have three. Who needs them?
To Anna's comment he considers That light creature might not have even been able to distinguish between us and them. It was quite alien.
Andjela flicks the grume from her elegant blade, wiping and sheathing it.
I have a lesser such amulet, nothing sentimental... I can swap of no one else is in more need.
You guys have been local longer... What now? A short break would be nice, if we can afford it. If we must press onward, so be it.
Everyone alright?
Sonny says, "I've got an amulet but it is a little less powerful than those. If no one minds I'd like to upgrade mine. Those guys were tougher than I thought. I'll have to expend more magic next time. I thought they were going to go down easier and I was conserving some after battling that light thing. Everyone gather around and I will channel to heal everyone."
Anna considers the amulet around her own neck. "Yep. Mine's not as good as these either. I'll swap it out, too."
Tpolvan doles out the three newer and more powerful amulets to Andjela, Sonny, and Anna. [/b] Good upgrades all around.[/b] he says with a smile. If we are done exploring here we can leave but we still have that tunnel the creature of light came from.
Andjela accepts the amulet, "Thank you." She then quietly steps away as Sonny prepares to channel.
Sonny chuckles as Andjela steps back, "You know my healing won't harm you right? I just need to remember to exclude you when I try to damage undead. I do have a wand of cause light wounds to use on you. I once traveled with a damphir and am familiar with the differences."
Habit... some healing would be good.
Anna stretches and checks her wounds after Sonny's burst of healing. "Not bad. Almost as good as Kimberly." She gives him a smirk.
Thinking about the long tunnel, she runs her hand through her hair. "Well, that's... the next place to go, I suppose. Was this break short enough for you, Andjela? Since I'd still like to find those 'neighbors' and have a talk with them about trading daughters for friggin' fish."