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Mird will be the last to enter.
As he moves he will pay attention on the creature behavior to see if it notice his presence in the room or not. If not noticed Mird will try to attack the creature's back (Don't know if there is some Flanking or Back stab bonus)
In case he is notice he will make a regular attack with his bow
Initiative
Attack:
Damage
Mird:
As you move into the room the Monster turns to engage Dirk directly, it seems oblivious to your presence. Whether that's because it doesn't see you or because it doesn't care is unknown.
Selena is surprised by the sudden attack of the creature. She lifts up her hand almost as a reaction and releases a ball of dazzling light from her palm that will hopefully distract it from attacking.
Spotting the lurking creature and anticipating the threat, Dirk charges at the beast with his sword over his head!
Init
K. Arcana
K. Dungeoneering
Lash goes into action a fraction of a second before Dirk charging alongside him and striking at the side of the creature's body
Attack
Damage
Dirk, I think that you were attacked by the cute little C###### C###### first, so there might not be enough room to charge.
The outline of the creature at the back of the room is familiar to you somehow.
As you prepare to meet this monster in combat your mind races over some piece of information you know is critical yet isn't quite on the tip of your tongue. The shape reminds you of a cross between a lobster and an armadillo and seems very unique in your mind to a creature you know. ()
The color of the creature, a deep red brown, reminds you of a color very very prevalent in the rest of the room...particularly on the piles of dust and the rusted metal scraps laying around the room...
Rusted Metal...
The oddness of the room strikes you like a physical blow as it all comes clear. The cage, made entirely of wood, obviously different from any of the other cages in the room that held these creatures. The purely wooden doors entering the room, different from all the rest of the doors in the complex. The work table, in perfect condition other than having fallen completely apart as if it wasn't held together by anything. The fact that this creature, among all the rest, has not starved to death by now.
Now that the pieces have finally fit into place in your mind you realize the creature at the back end of the room is a Rust Monster, a dungeon scavenger that magically decomposes metal and eats the remains. It must have recently broken out of it's cage and started to eat the rest of the metallic contents of the room. By the look of it, it's been down here for quite some time and has managed to eat through almost all of the remaining metal, it's likely VERY hungry.
Your knowledge tells you that this creature is not highly dangerous to people, having little more than the bulk of it's 200 lb body and it's small mouth to attack with. Yet you also remember that this creature possesses possibly the most feared ability of any living creature short of the famed dragons: one touch of it's tentacles will destroy any non-magical metal piece of equipment on contact.
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"Rust Monster! Don't draw your weapons!"
At the same moment Mird takes his cloak off and holds it on his right hand along with his long sword. The idea is to make a Bullfight cape.
He will try do call the attention of the monster with the tasty long sword placed on the front side or the cape, and when the creature attacks he will use the "cape" cover the creatures face and tentacles. If he succeeds he will then try to hold the cape on its face embracing the creatures head. The idea is to let the sword fall into the ground at the end of the movement so the creature will not reach it.
Don't know what to roll here but here we go:
To attract the beast attention - Handle Animal:
To effective make the Bullfighter move and cover creatures face- Combat Maneuver:
At the same moment Mird takes his cloak off and holds it on his right hand along with his long sword. The idea is to make a Bullfight cape.
He will try do call the attention of the monster with the tasty long sword placed on the front side or the cape, and when the creature attacks he will use the "cape" cover the creatures face and tentacles. If he succeeds he will then try to hold the cape on its face embracing the creatures head. The idea is to let the sword fall into the ground at the end of the movement so the creature will not reach it.
Don't know what to roll here but here we go:
To attract the beast attention - Handle Animal: 1d20+4
To effective make the Bullfighter move and cover creatures face- Combat Maneuver: 1d20+4
Hearing Mirds call, Dirk hesitates... amusement and concern etched on his face.
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Initiative
Fyird moves his shield to his good hand, and watches to see what the Ranger has in mind. If the creature attacks, Fyird will move to assist the armor class of the person being attacked.
assist armor class.
Breaking into a run and slipping his cloak from his shoulders as he moves, Mird dashes between Lash and Dirk and breaks wide around the room to come at the Rust Monster from the side.
Realizing that Rust Monsters hunt by the smell of metal, Mird holds his cloak in front of him as he advances. Whether because of the speed of his attack, the overpowering scent of Dirk / Armand in their armored plates, shields and large weapons, or the Rust Monster's daze at the explosion near the door only moments ago, it doesn't seem to recognize Mird until the last minute.
It momentarily turns it's head as the sound of Mird's approach becomes clear, but by that time Mird's cloak is already over it's head, the tentacles and face covered by the cloak, which also seems to lay about half way down the creature's back.
Practically falling on top of it, Mird drags the creature to the ground, momentarily disabling it on the floor.
Closes his mouth slowly while his arms hang in the air in preparation to cast a spell. Thantos shakes off the shock after witnessing Mird's impressive display of acrobatics and ferociousness.
Thantos then pauses for a moment to consider the contents of the room.
Knowledge Arcana:
"Damn Mird,that was....insane."
The sparkle of brilliant light is absorbed harmlessly into the cloak.
Selena takes a moment to survey the situation, then turns to Mird. "You didn't have to kill the poor thing. It's just an animal, defending itself."
"Well leave it here with the other animal carcasses."
Selena looks around the room, and moves over next to the broken cage. She sizes it up to rust monster, wondering if it may have been kept in it at one time. "Animal testing. No wonder it was so scared."
"Selena.... ahhhh, uuhhhh" - Says Mird obviously having a hard time to stay in control of the creature.
"Poor thing?!?!?"
"no no... you're not getting out pal..."
"Poor US if this thing gets loose!"
"Mird, you can let it go". "It is dead" Fyird states as he waits for the room to be explored.
Dirk unbuckles his back-up longsword, walks over to the wiggling beast in Mirds arms and quickly slides the blade between its plates and into its heart.
The sparkle of brilliant light is absorbed harmlessly into the cloak.
Selena takes a moment to survey the situation, then turns to Mird. "You didn't have to kill the poor thing. It's just an animal, defending itself."
"Well leave it here with the other animal carcasses."
Selena looks around the room, and moves over next to the broken cage. She sizes it up to rust monster, wondering if it may have been kept in it at one time. "Animal testing. No wonder it was so scared."
Dirk unbuckles his back-up longsword, walks over to the wiggling beast in Mirds arms and quickly slides the blade between its plates and into its heart.
Selena shudders at Dirk's savagery. "Was that really necessary? We come across the first creature in the basement so far that isn't inherently evil (and likely had been subjected to horrible magical testing) and you two blind it, strangle it, and stab it in the heart!"
Mird's tackle of the monster produces an unforeseen circumstance. As both Mird and the rust monster tumble to the floor the cloak gets caught on the edge of a jutting piece of mostly rusted metal that looked a lot less solid than it actually was. A ripping sound, as the metal tears into the cloak, is accompanied by a resounding 'CRACK' as the cloak catches the head and tentacles of the rust monster's but doesn't entrap it's body. The force of the tackle and the weight of the monster's body applied to it's neck is too much as it's backbone snaps.
The sudden stop of the monster's body throws Mird off the cloak and farther into the room () to slam against the collapsed wooden table.
The body, partially covered by the cloak, twitches in it's death throes while Dirk walks up and plunges his backup longsword into it's chest. The creature stops twitching almost immediately and lies still, quite dead. Almost immediately the longsword's blade turns brown and cracks off at the hilt, leaving a jagged, completely rusted leather wrapped handle and crosspiece with only an inch or two of corroded blade left attached to the obviously decomposing hilt.
Dropping what's left of the sword to the floor in surprise, Dirk watches as one of the sword's two cross pieces snaps off and practically shatters as it hits the ground, the whole thing sending bits of rusted metal out from the impact point like small shards of glass. One moment the sword was whole, intact, sharp and quite serviceable, and the next it was entirely corroded, brittle and looking like it'd been soaked in brine for years.
Selena holds out Dird's old longsword. "Serves you right, I should say. But I suspect you'll be wanting this back now."
Looking both shocked and even still a bit fearful, especially after witnessing what happened to the sword, Armand stares at the creature with wide eyes and asks:
"What...in all the depths of the abyss itself...was that thing? That sword...it turned to dust in your hands...how..."
Trailing off, Armand looks puzzled a moment and then nods.
"I've heard of these things. Beasts, living on the remains of metal objects and ore, that lurk generally in underground complexes. My father took me to the mines in southern Kethlenica at one point when I was a child and we toured the mining complex. I remember one of the miners complaining to my father about a lobsterlike creature in one of the tunnels connecting to a larger underground labyrinth that destroyed the miner's equipment just by touching it. At the time I had thought the man joking, or mistaken, or even a little crazy. Now, however, I think I understand."
Armand looks at the wreckage of the room and nods again "And it would explain why the creature was still alive even though the rest of the creatures in this room are dead of starvation, it's obviously been living on the metal in the room."
Taking a deep breath to steady himself, Armand asks "Does anyone know what the heck that thing is?"
Selena shrugs her shoulders, but is still saddened by the death of the creature. "Fyird called it a 'rust monster' when he told us to keep our weapons away from it."
Through your magical studies in the School of Knowledge in your "past life" in Kethlenica, your mind returns to some of the schooling in magical creatures and effects you studied as a student.
The monster under the cloak is called a rust monster, a voracious animal with an unheard of appetite with the magical ability to destroy metal on contact. These monsters are born hungry and spend their somewhat lengthy lives hunting the caverns and dungeons they roam for bits/scraps of metal that they can break down with their magical touch and eat. While they can live on raw ore, they prefer refined metals like iron and steel () to snack on. Precious metals (like gold and sliver) are not immune to the corrosion effect of the rust monster, but it is not their preferred food. They hunt by smell and was obviously going toward the party member with the largest concentration of metal on their person, Dirk and/or Armand. Their appetite is such that they cannot pass up the opportunity for a meal, seeming to get as much satisfaction out of destroying the metal as in eating it.
One of the other creatures on the floor (the centipede like creature) is obviously a carrion crawler, a creature that regularly works in concert with rust monsters in a somewhat symbiotic relationship in dungeon/under ground environments. Carrion Crawlers feed on the dead and dying flesh and meat of living creatures. Sometimes, when hungry or no source of decaying flesh is present, carrion crawlers will poison their victims with a paralytic toxin, and then proceed to kill and eat the unlucky creature, oftentimes still alive. Generally, however, the Carrion Crawler and Rust Monster act as a cleaning system for a dungeon/underground complex. Staying out of the way of the bigger inhabitants, these creatures generally wait till some poor adventurer gets killed in the complex. The crawler will then typically feast on the body while the rust monster breaks down and destroys the majority of the adventurer's equipment. Many an adventurer has simply "disappeared" and been lost entirely in a dungeon leaving behind only their leather boots, belt and backpack.
Other dead creatures on the floor you recognize for other magical properties. Most are small, many are poisonous, and to a corpse, all provide standard spell component parts: Bat Guanno from the cluster of bats in one corner, to chicken feathers from a starved and decomposing chicken in another, all around the room you see creatures you can link to the production of magical components.
Typically setups like this and the alchemy lab you just left are a mage's "research" center for advancing and learning his or her craft. A laboratory and "storehouse" akin to this was setup in the school of learning in Kethlenica, and, you suspect, is probably reproduced by any wizard worth his salt across all of Norwold. While this lab seems quite extensive, you can see some creatures laying around that would have produced or provided some of the raw materials for the alchemists lab to the north. While some mutilation and "harvesting" of creatures for magical components is always necessary by wizards, you notice evidence of bandages and wrappings and other "care" items that are also common to labs like this to ensure that the "occupants" are kept in good health...to continue to provide more spell components over their lifetimes. It is unlikely that many of the creatures in this room (other, obviously, than those creatures who's body parts were needed to provide components for research) were overly "abused" in their stay here, other than potentially in their lack of freedom.
Looking at it with your trained wizard's eye, you are quite impressed with the setup down here. A fully stocked alchemists lab, a meditation, practicing, and study room, and a fully stocked "storehouse" would provide any wizard everything he or she needs to advance the research of magic across the realms. With the dining facilities and guest rooms and what is likely the wizard's personal quarters in the big room to the south, you could see Kavorquian being able to sustain himself down here for years at a time, advancing his research, perfecting his craft, and living the dream life of many wizards.
Unlike the obvious distaste of some of your other companions, nothing you've run across so far, even the undead servants, strike you as "evil", mostly, it strikes you as "normal" and even "extravagant". Kavorquian was obviously a master of his craft and a powerful man indeed...but nothing so far strikes you as out of the ordinary for a man making his profession in wizardry.
Not having been trained in the wizardly arts, your companions might not understand that.
Your studies of the room and discussion are interrupted by a new sound.
From from the door in the south wall, the sound of metal on metal and the crunch of metal, heavy metal, on stone clangs into the room softly. The sound is barely audible and as each of you stop to listen only a very soft clang can be heard periodically...followed by something you suspect is shouting, though the voice and the tone are too muffled to provide any information, or enough even to make you certain that you heard it.
Looking around at each other, you realize that you are, in fact, hearing something and that it's coming from past the door to the south.
Lash walks over to Selena and places a hand on her shoulder.
"Lena, I know you don't like the idea of killing things and I'm sory this had to go this way. You're probably right, the "rust monster" was just reacting to what happened. But these creatures were probably tortured and experimented on until they were so scared and crazy with pain they would have attacked us no matter what. At least for most of them it was quick. " She turns Selena enough to make eye contact.
"And don't you dare blame yourself for coming up with the dagger trick. None of us had any idea what was on the other side of that door and given recent events we're all a little paranoid. But I'm glad we've got you to remind us that this is all about protecting Armand, not just killing everything we meet."
Selena holds out Dirk's old longsword. "Serves you right, I should say. But I suspect you'll be wanting this back now."
Selena looks away from the corpses, nodding back at Lash.
"I suppose... there wasn't any way we could have avoided this. It did charge us after all. I just wish that we hadn't killed innocent creatures."
Selena jerks her head toward the door. "Now... find out what all that commotion is about."
Dirk seems unfazed by Selena's harsh words. "If it threatens Armand... or any in this group, including you, it will meet my sword, innocent or no."
Then with a wave, "Keep the sword, may it serve you well."
As the others continue their search of the room, Dirk will move closer to the Southern door. "It seems we are closing in on our clever opponents."
Putting his ear closer to the door, he will listen more intently to the voices.
Dirk:
As you move toward the door to listen to the continuing faint sounds of people from down the corridor, a glint from one of the light sources in the room reflecting off of polished metal catches your eye.
As you stop and turn toward the source of the glint all thought of the door or the corridor flees from your mind as your attention is drawn fully by the metal laying 10' to your left. Finding it odd that anything metal in the room would have survived the rust monster's apatite, you reach down and pick up the unblemished object that you now see is a common iron spike it's end somewhat polished and reflective with the number of times it's obviously been pounded into a hard object and removed. Several small piles of rust and dust lay haphazardly on the floor near the spike.
"Wait, why didn't it eat my dagger? Something doesn't make sense."
Lash walks over to the dagger and crouches town to pick it up, looking for anything else odd.
Selena looks over at the dagger. "Is it perchance, made of silver? Silver does not rust."
Lash:
Everyone looks up at you as you ask your question and move over toward the door. The closer you get the less sense this makes. The dagger trap setup on this side of the door would had to have sat there for at LEAST several minutes as you moved down the hallway from the meditation room, setup, searched the door, and implemented the solution to disarming the trap. At most, it could have been placed just after you entered the meditation room the first time over an hour ago. It seems impossible to you that this monster, which you realize from your dungeon delving experiences hunts by smell, that it would have left something like that wedged into the doorway, unmolested, for so long.
You turn around and move back to the fire blackened and weakened door, the flame obviously out and the wet wood having repelled even the most stubborn of fires on it's planks. The scorched floor around the impact area, still radiating a slight amount of heat from the flame, shows clearly where the glass vial of alchemist's fire hit when it dropped off the dagger. Glass shards from the vial lay scattered everywhere, some having partially melted somewhat due to the heat of the chemical fire.
What's strange is there's no dagger in sight. Even accounting for the leather wrapped handle having burnt away the metal would not have simply melted...alchemist's fire doesn't burn that hot. And even if it did there'd be a newly hardened pool of steel on the floor. There's also no rust indicating the rust monster having eaten it either (though how it could have eaten it with the potion still hanging in air is beside the point). Thoroughly confused at your missing dagger you look around and your expert eye catches attention to something...a fire blackened shard of wood, same type as that of the two doors in the room, lays on the floor just beyond the glass shards. Examining the piece of wood, you see that the edges are clean and obviously whittled sharp...the wood was shaped after it was removed from wherever it was taken from.
And then you see it. At the very tip of the "blade", untouched by the fire...the remains of some silver paint.
"Wood painted to look like metal? So whoever took apart my trap and set this one kew abou the rust monster and swapped out the dagger. Damn!"
Lash looks at once puzzled and impressed.
Dirk looks puzzled as well, "But why bother to paint the wood to look like a dagger? Why not simply use the wood shard as is? Would that not have sufficed to reset your trap Lash?"
Furrowing his brow, he continues, "Also, our crafty friends would have had to disarm and disassemble Lash's trap before resetting it... which would have meant being on the outside of this rooms door... perhaps there is another way out of this room that allows access to that hallway. A secret door perhaps? Our employer did mention that it was possible that not all secret doors were accounted for on the map."
Selena ponders things carefully, though uncertain if her meanderings will be helpful.
"Hmmm, Lash sets the trap up on the outside of the door with a genuine dagger and a vial of alchemist's fire."
"When we return to this door, we find that the trap has been removed mysteriously, and then discover that the trap has been set up on the other side of the door."
She paces for a moment or two.
"We trigger the trap from a distance... killing an innocent centipede-looking thing in the process, and then encounter a rust monster (once again, innocent) that had escaped? been set loose? from its cage, which we then dispatch."
"And now we discover that the trap had been set up on this side of the room with a painted wooden dagger instead of Lash's original one."
She stops in midpace.
"It would stand to reason then that the rust monster was released from its cage only recently, after the trap was established. It also stands to reason that the creatures we are pursuing are fairly intelligent, and that they have no regard for the creatures who had emaciated themselves in this room."
"By the Heavens, are we pursuing dragonkin?"
At Dirk's suggestion, Selena responds.
"Or they were not in this room to begin with and are very familiar with the layout of this.... dungeon."