Not alone.
Reynaud starts stripping too.
Just as Garrosh and Reynaud finish removing their armor, he and Brodin hear noise from back the way they came. Taking position opposite Reynaud, flanking the door, they prepare for melee, while Brodin and Agyen take up position farther back.
And then Belle and Tony appear from the way they came.
And since it has most likely been more than a half hour.
, , , , ,
It must be that you have all gotten used to the foul air down here. None of you are overcome with the distraction of the stench.
"Oh my gosh! I'm so glad we got here in time. That place..."
she points to the tunnel
"...is an absolute warren. If you go in there is no telling where you come out. I was lucky and came out above. Tony says he saw a huge mass of rats but he ended up upside too. Good thing they did not spot him!"
"I do have some very bad news though. When we got up top the door was sealed and we had to get the key again. I'm going to bet that if we return up top right now the door will be sealed. We may HAVE to use the rat warrens to get out of here and take our chances."
"Kill me! Oh, I'd make you pay for that! This is NOT a good place for killing someone, or haven't you noticed yet?"
A wry smile lifts one side of her face. The same side as the eyebrow she usually raises.
"Kay, so which way? I'd say maybe find another route to that warren and clear it out so we can escape easier. But that is dependent if we have large scale destruction available. Cause all I can think of at the moment is Belle's grease spell and my alchemist fire."
Tony is worried, with all the heavy resistance on just the first floor, if they can challenge it now.
"Question. How ready are we right now? Spells, arrows. That sort of thing?
"Well, if we took a break I could copy that burning hands into my spell book and memorize it. That would help. Probably not enough though from the sounds of things. We might need to wait until I'm capable of casting a fireball. How about you, Agyen?"
Deciding to push on, the group forms up and heads off down the hallway. A short distance down, Tony notices something odd about the right hand wall about fifty feet in front of him. He cautiously approaches and examines it, determining it is a secret door. No magical aurae are detected on the door, nor does Tony detect traps, or hear anything beyond.
To the south, the passage continues, but reverts to rough stone. Reynaud brings his light forward, a couple dire rats look up at the approaching group.
How can we resist a secret door!
Tony quietly opens the door to peer in.
A narrow, natural passage descends in a series of irregular steps into the darkness, turning slightly to the left. The stench of death is eminent.
"Guys, this smells like zombie. Give me a sec, and if I scream...avenge me." Tony quietly descends, using the maximum of his skills to avoid detection. He goes slowly to not trigger anything.
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Tony creeps down the stairs, blending into the darkness. Even with Reynaud and Belle at the top of the stairs, they cannot hear him after he turns the corner, out of the light.
Tony finds the end of the steps soon enough, opening into a worked stone chamber, rectangular in shape. In one corner stands a chest, closed. In the other corner, a dark crack leads to an even darker passage. A quick scan of the area at the end of the steps reveals no obvious traps.
Garrosh waits patiently.
Reynaud leans against the wall and begins muttering a prayer for Tony's safety under his breath.
Belle looks longingly at the exit.
Tony carefully heads to the corner with the nest passage way. He peers through the crack, to get an idea of what's down that way. Learning what he can be quickly makes his way back to alert the group.
Quietly slipping over to the crack, Tony peers in. The first thing he notices is the stench just got one hundred times worse. The second thing he notices is the form of a man in the crack. As Tony's form is backlit by the dim light of Reynaud's ioun torch, the man's head jerks up. "Oh my gods! You found me! You're so intelligent and perceptive! I've been in here for ages and I am....so hungry!" Tony immediately realizes the stench is emanating from the humanoid form in the crack, an undead creature!
COMBAT INITIATED
Tony, please roll me a DC 15 Fortitude save. If you fail, please look under the spoiler.
Tony, because you were stealthing, you surprised it and get a single action before initiative.
INITIATIVE
Surprise Round -
* Tony 1 action
Round 1 -
* undead creature
* everyone else in whatever order you post.
"BY THE GODS!", Tony screams.
As an ill wave overcomes Tony, he bolts back up the stair case. Drawing his new magic dagger and a cold iron dagger with it.
for damage, if hit.
"So smart to find me in my hidey-hole!, the creature says as it follows after Tony, lunging to bite him when he catches up. Fortunately, Tony dodges away from the creature's filthy teeth.
COMBAT CONTINUES
Round 1 -
* everyone else in whatever order you post.
Foul thing. You won't have him!
Reynaud succumbs to the creature's nasty aura, but soldiers on to the best of his ability anyway.
Reynaud's attack hits the creature, carving a bloodless wound in its flesh. The creature bares it's teeth and hisses at the warrior.
"Looks similar to the ghouls we fought."
Belle will cast Grease under the nasty slimey thing. DC 19.
The grease area is the purple box.
Tony rips into the slobbering ghoul thing.
Tony does a quick step away as he call out to "Garrosh!"
Garrosh barely has time to react as Tony rips into the creature, his first strike eviscerates the creature. He reverses the dagger in his hand and his second strike pierces the creature's eye, penetrating deep into the creature's skull. With a spray of rotting grey matter, the creature slides off the dagger and collapses to the rough steps, dead, again.
"...Nevermind. Tony pulls out a vial of Holy Water and splashes it on the creature just in case.
"Ugh, these things freak me out to much. There is a cheats down the way a bit. I'll open it up, just stay at the ready.
Tony cautiously walks around the corpse, still sicked. And weakly magics his theives tools open to the chest. Wary of anything popping out.
Tony examines the chest and finds no traps. Those who can examine the aurae around the chest and detects three aurae emanating from inside the chest; faint transmutation, faint conjuration, faint illusion. Not detecting any traps and assured that the magical aurae are not of a trap nature, Tony opens the chest revealing a pile of copper and gold coins, that will take quite a while to count. The magical aurae seem to be emanating from within the lid of the chest.
"Nice, as long as its not cursed or something. Think of all the nice gear we can buy now! Um, did you know that there are some auras in the lid? Perhaps there's a secret compartment! I just hope its not some trap creature. I heard there are creatures that can pretend to be treasure. Do be careful!"
Tony hearing there is a secret compartment in the lid, is just about to fiddle with it. When he hears of a possible sneaky creature, he pulls his magic knife to try and pry/stab his way into the compartment.
Tony searches the lid but is unable to find any sign of a secret compartment, let alone a mechanism to open it. Shrugging, he begins to pry at the iron bindings holding the wood together.