A man's body lies face down among the piers. As you open the doors a small crab, about two feet in diameter, scuttles from the body and into the pool.
"Huh. Korynne, you were right."
To the south, the ceiling has collapsed, leaving that end of the room covered in debris.
Those of you without darkvision are relying on Korynne's light spell for vision, and the air smells dank and musty, as if not much comes in from above, if any. You almost wonder if the tunnels didn't slope downwards somewhat.
The corpse is lying about 20 ft. away, in a room that's probably about 50 ft. E-W and (originally) 25 ft. N-S.
Korynne is looking nervously back down the hall when Uro points out the crab. "Hmm? Oh, yes, I suppose I was right, that sort of thing happens often enough. We can talk about how well versed I am in crustacean identification after we close these doors that lead to reanimated corpses, though, don't you think?" Korynne pushes the doors closed as quietly as she can, and relaxes slightly once they're shut.
"So, what now? Should we try to fish that poor fellow out of the pool and see whether he's got anything useful?"
"Sure. I lift, you fish?" Take 20 to lift whatever hunk of timber is pinning down the corpse 20+4=24
Uro pulls the body up. The crabs have very clearly been eating it. In fact, the motion seems to convince them there's more food to be had: five of them come avidly scuttling up out of the pool, eager for more noms.
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"Korynne, you were wrong, they aren't friendly!
Jym looks at the two magic stones in his hand, and then... puts them in his pocket. Then he brings his fiddle to his chin and plays a rousing sea shanty that prominently features butter, lemon juice, garlic sauce, and boiled crab meat.
Gwl shoots forward as the crabs surge from the waters's edge, stabbing furiously.
Gwlybwr is marginally faster than the crabs -- before they can get to him, he brings his spear to bear. Sadly, he misjudges the slipperiness and thickness of their chitinous shells, and his spear glances off rather than penetrating.
"I was being sarcastic about the friendly part."
Korynne lines up a clear shot and fires a bolt at one of the crabs, but it goes wide.
The crabs scuttle to the person already playing with them (Wil) and towards the big, tasty meal right next to the last meal (Uro).
Gwlybwr takes 5 damage total and is not grappled; Uro takes 4 damage and is lightly wounded again.
Korynne roots around in her pocket to get her portion back out in case Uro goes down again.
She also tries to remember if there are any good tricks for fighting crabs.
Gwl jabs again at the horde of crabs as they snip at him, but cannot seem to strike a solid blow.
She also tries to remember if there are any good tricks for fighting crabs.
Korynne recalls that crabs are not totally mindless, but act mostly on instinct, so it's hard to get any mind-affecting stuff to work on them unless it's vermin-specific. If faced with fire, sudden loud noises, etc., they'll generally flee. Also, they're not above cannibalism, so once one or two get killed, the rest may pause in order to get the easy food.
For my own benefit, but I might as well post it for everyone:
Initative:
14 - Korynne
13 - Gwl
13 - Crabs
10 - Jym
9 - Uro
We're waiting on Uro's round 1 action, it looks like. Yeah, that guy.
We're waiting on Uro's round 1 action, it looks like. Yeah, that guy.
Inspire courage and being lightly wounded cancel each other out, right?
Inspire courage and being lightly wounded cancel each other out, right?
Uro's axe demolishes one of the crabs. The other four pause at the impact, and their little antennae quivering. Then they begin scuttling towards the source of the vibrations.
Gwl pursues the crabs, continuing his staccato stabs. Unfortunately, his efforts, earnest as they are, are more of a distraction than a threat to the crabs.
Maintaining his inspiration, Jym will maneuver away from the door separating the party from the zombies they skipped. He'll recommend to Korynne that she do the same, as necessary.
Two of the crabs, being held at bay by Gwl's spear, try and double-team him.
Not only does the fishy guy neatly hold them off, he's also able to retaliate with the spear point as they attack.
The remaining two crabs fall on their dead cousin and begin tearing at the carcass, pulling away big chunks of crab meat.
Korynne shuffles around to where she can be of use as a potion administrator, trying to stay quiet. After Uro's resounding smash hit, she flicks a bit of crab meat shrapnel off her robe and makes a face, but isn't about to complain when she isn't the one getting smashed to bits.
Uro will try to squish the two attacking Gwl.
Another swing, another smashed crab. This blow almost missed, due to Uro's fatigue, but Jym's song is giving him enough pep to overcome it.
Korynne starts a prayer for the Old Switcheroo, doing a tricky little maneuver with her holy symbol while she speaks her spell to convert her bless into a cure spell.
Unnerved by the drowned men, Gwl has been fighting like a novice, swinging furiously but to little effect. He takes a moment to center himself and remember the lessons his mentor drilled into him.
"Zuoken, me to the pinnacle take ..." he prays.
He stabs a single time, as the crabs have been giving him plentiful openings as they attack him, and he wants to strike accurately, not wildly. His spear gives a meaty crunch as it punches through the crab's shell and he smiles fiercely.
Another crab dies, spitted on Gwlybwr's spear. That leaves only two left: one near Gwl, the other, disturbed from feasting on its dead relative by Uro's destruction of yet another dead relative, in a highly agitated state. Each of the remaining crabs attacks one of the two warriors.
Uro remains lightly wounded, the crab's continued gnawing on his leg keeping pace with the healing he's getting from Korynne. The other claw hits him too, though, leaving him heavily wounded.
It fails to get a good grip on the burly orc, however.
The last crab's attack on Gwlybwr draws blood but leaves it open again to his counterattack.
Seeing as how the battle seems to be going their way, Jym sees no reason to change his strategy.
"And our hero added parsley to the melted butter, or another seasoning of his chooooooooice!" Jym sings.
After the pre-emptive stab from the spear, the crab's nip at Gwlybwr pushes it over the edge, and it sags there, twitching feebly.
Uro:
Uro smashes the last crab, and the place is yours!
"Nicely done, friends! Let me patch you a bit." Making sure the crabs are dead, Korynne calls on some healing to close the claw wounds.
"Shall we investigate this poor fellow's corpse, then?"
Gwl will poke over the dead body. It's clear this is not the first time he's handled a corpse before.
The body itself is pretty much devoid of useful loot, but you catch a glint of reflected light in the shallow water near one of his hands, and come up with a silver dagger.
Gwl will poke over the dead body. It's clear this is not the first time he's handled a corpse before.
Gwl instinctively pockets the dagger, then pauses and draws it back out, showing it to the others.
It's shiny. Anyone with at least 1 rank in Craft (Smith) or Knowledge (warfare or lore) realizes it's masterwork. It probably won't hold an edge very well, but for stabbing a werewolf or something in the eye, it's probably a great choice.
"Ooh, very nice. It would make a nice letter opener, at the very least. Shall we press on? Wil, you seem like a strong swimmer. Would you mind taking a peek in the water here? I don't want to be surprised by something bubbling up from the bottom while we look for an exit."
Gwl dives into the pool and scouts the underwater portion of the room.
As he enters the pool, Gwlybwr becomes aware of an undertow; he's at home in heavy surf and ignores it, but landlubbers would likely be knocked prone. There are a lot of sea urchins in the pool, so falling down would probably involve getting poked with lots of spines and poisoned, leading to an ignominious death by drowning.
The pool deepens as he heads into it, to a total depth of 60 ft. in the deepest part. There, Gwl finds a tunnel at the bottom of the deep end of the pool (60 ft. or so underwater). He easily traverses 70 more feet of tunnels before emerging at the bottom of the shallow harbor between Parrot Island and Shadowshore; there, the surface of the harbor is a mere 20 ft. above him.
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Gwl surfaces in the harbor, trying to spot Vanthus, before diving and returning to his companions. There, he will tell them what he's seen.
"A s-short s-swim to freedom, but with s-some s-spiny urchins on the way. Bes-st find another way for you."
Vanthus seems to be long gone.
"I can go up top and clear the trap-door, also. You'd just need to avoid alerting any more monsters."
Gwl's comment about alerting the monsters might be ironic.
There is a loud moaning outside the door you came in. The others had been ignoring it while Gwlybwr was up swimming, but it seems to have gotten louder. You have the distinct impression there are a lot of zombies milling around immediately outside it. One of them bumps the door, and they quiet down for a moment, then start moaning a lot more loudly. You're thankful that they're mindless, but aren't sure you want to wait another round trip to see if they eventually force the door open.
Korynne shudders at the noisy undead, quickly moving towards the east door north of where they entered. She looks it over for traps, eager to put another barrier between her and the drowned.
If she doesn't find any traps, she cracks the door and takes a peek inside.
Exactly.
Korynne shudders at the noisy undead, quickly moving towards the east door north of where they entered. She looks it over for traps, eager to put another barrier between her and the drowned. If she doesn't find any traps, she cracks the door and takes a peek inside.
Korynne finds the door clear of traps (or even a lock), and (possibly with help) shoves it open. The room beyond is dry, about 15' x 20', with one big support column. There's another door in the far wall; you wonder if it leads to the big, open room you already avoided. It seems as if, moving in this direction, you'll in essence be playing Hunt the Wumpus with the zombies, unless you can contrive some means of barring doors against them, or else keep moving away from them.