Gwl, seeing that Korynne and Jym need a bit more of a distraction to slip free, will edge toward the drowned men, making extra sure of his footing and carefully avoiding stepping on any spiny urchins.
Daintily avoiding the urchins' spines, and ignoring the tugging undertow, Gwlybwr inches forward until he's within the zombies' reach. Three of them hungrily attack:
All three of them fail to bite him.
Once Gwlybwr calls out to her and Jym, Korynne pushes open the closet door and starts toward the hallway that leads to the trapdoor, hoping the zombies are distracted enough to give them a head start.
Korynne waits until the zombies are in a frenzy attacking Gwlybwr, then makes a break for it! She can run all the way out the door and into the hall, but then rounds the corner towards the exit and leaves the radius of the dim light from the pool.
One of the zombies notices her, and the three that aren't able to get to Gwl chase her instead -- but they can only move 30 ft. in a full round and barely make it out the door, so you've got a 20-ft. head start on the lead zombie.
Knowing that he can't move as fast as Korynne, Jym will try to keep going toward the exit when/if Korynne slows down to re-cast her light spell. He still intends for Korynne to go up the rope, first.
Seeing both of his new friends bolt, Gwl will step back and throw the glowing pebble down the hall after them, trying to illuminate their passage.
Jym covers 40 feet (double move) on his stubby little hobbit legs; that puts him from the closet to just outside the door, which means one of the zombies almost reaches him before he puts on a burst of speed!
Gwyl throws the pebble, sailing it through the doorway and into the hall. Even if it lands a bit short or far of the intersection, it sheds enough light there to illuminate the short stretch south before the first dog-leg. Once you're around the corner and in the leg of hallway between the two dog-legs, it'll be dark again, reducing Jym to 10 ft. speed and allowing the zombies to catch and eat him -- unless he's able to pick up the pebble on his way past it next round.
Jym fails to snatch the pebble on his way past, so he keeps on running, hoping that Korynne will either snatch up the pebble or re-cast the light spell on something else. He figures she'll out pace him to the exit, anyway.
Seeing Jym struggle to catch up and the darkness ahead, Korynne takes a deep breath to steady herself before casting another spell for light on her hat. Oly, I hope you're getting me out of this one alive...
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[dice=Healing Potion]1d8+1
[dice=Endurance]1d20+8
After drinking the potion, Uro nods to Gwls plan. He'll wait until he hears from Jym and Korynne at the bottom of the well. In the meantime, he'll gather any rocks that look like they would splatter a zombies head if dropped from the height of the trap door.
Cool.
As Korynne and Jym, newly-lit, disengage from the zombies and scurry into the entry room, Korynne yells for Uro to open the trapdoor. Frantically, the two of them grab the rope together, accomplishing little in the way of climbing -- but Uro, seeing the situation, seizes the rope and hauls them up with some effort, just before the zombies can bite them.
Cool
"Hang on!!" Uro yells out as he pulls up on the rope with all of his might."
As Korynne and Jym crest the top of the trapdoor, the librarian crawls over the top and lies down on the ground, tired from sprinting and trying to calm her terrified nerves. The light of the sun and the smell of fresh sea air revive her quickly, and she jumps up to throw her arms around Uro. "Ha ha ha! We're alive! You're a literal life saver, Uro!"
Giddy with her state of not being dead, she beams at her teammates and looks to the horizon, glad to be in an open space again. "Now!" she begins enthusiastically, "once Wil gets back, let's murder Vanthus!"
Gwl rejoins them after a short swim and sits down under the shade of a tree to dry off.
"Well, that was intense. I have never been so afraid in all my life. To think we came through that, just think of what we might do next!"
Once dry, he carefully pushes the shrub near the tree aside and digs down to retrieve the bundle he buried there.
"Vanthus is not here anymore, but I doubt he thinks we s-survived that. Next time we s-see him, I'm going to s-stab him with my new s-spear. Oh, and I need a new s-spear."
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"Korynne, when we first met, I as-sked you all a very s-strange question. I as-sked it for a reason. Until rec-cently, I did not look like this-s." Gwl gestures to his fishy features.
"When my s-skin began to s-scab, I left my home, not wanting to infect the children who also lived there. When I came back, many of them were dead. Not from this-s dis-sease, this curs-se, whatever it is. No, they were cut down, dis-smembered. My friend, my teacher was als-so s-slaughtered. I found s-some of his things, things the mons-sters who killed them mis-ssed. One of thos-se things was a journal."
He pauses, then continues. "I cannot read it. I do not know if it will lead me to the killers, but I mus-st try. I feel that I can trus-st you to help me. Will you?"
"Now!" she begins enthusiastically, "once Wil gets back, let's murder Vanthus!"
Jym blinks.
"Orrrr, we can legally have him arrested!"
"Now!" she begins enthusiastically, "once Wil gets back, let's murder Vanthus!"Jym blinks.
"Orrrr, we can legally have him arrested!"
"Sorry, all that time in the dark left me feeling a bit revenge-y. I'm sure we can come to some sort of satisfying compromise."
Korynne listens to Gwlybwr's tale sympathetically, and nodding answers, "Of course! I owe you my life, and besides, you seemed like a decent sort even before that. I'll take a look - if I can't read it either, I know a spell that can help."
Gwl:
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That evening, Gwl returns to the shrine of Geshtai and pays the priestess to cast remove disease on him. He is feeling elated at the way things have been going lately: they survived the tunnels, he found someone to help him read his sensei's journal, and he'll soon change back to normal - now that his disease is gone. He rejoins his companions to pass the night and notices new scabs forming on his scales, but this doesn't bother him - after all how else will his real skin regrow?
That night, the scabs grow rapidly, covering him like a cocoon. He tosses and turns in the dark, his moans muffled by the chitinous shell. When he awakens the next morning, he cracks himself free, like a snake molting. As he peels away the last remnants covering his hands, he gives a horrified yell and rushes into the common area, frantic.
He is gripping something tightly in his hand, rather, his claws, for his fingers now end in wicked talons. Holding it up for the rest to see, he cries out again.
"My finger!"
Looking closer, all of you can see that it is indeed a finger, and that Gwl now only has three on each hand. Moreover, his eyes are no longer milky. Instead, enormous blood-red irises takes up the entirety of his now-lidless eyes.
Fear and confusion flash through his face as he looks about, and his stature and posture are different even from the form you met him in. Not exactly hunch-backed, he does lean forward at the shoulders, and his iridescent scales have morphed into a smooth, blue sharkshin.
"Help me," he croaks, and collapses.
Before they leave Parrot Island, Uro takes his time to throw all of the boulders onto the heads of the zombies down below. Once they've all been thrown, Uro dusts his hands off and shuts the trap door.
He then walks over to Gwl, Korynne and Jym and scoops all three of them up in a giant hug.
"I thought that I lost you three. Let's make sure that we find this Vanthus."
Uro nods to Jyms comment about arresting him "I hope very much that he resists."
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Jym, nods at Uro, acknowledging that the orc is respecting his point of view, and showing that he respects Uro's in return. Then they somehow make it off Parrot Island before a cutthroat looks at them the wrong way and causes enough damage for them to keel over.
*********
The next morning at the inn:
Thinking quickly about the situation, Jym realizes that all the commotion Gwlybwr is causing is going to seriously slow down breakfast service.
And then, thinking a little less quickly about how he can be helpful in this situation, Jym pulls out Banjo and starts to play a repetitive, calming melody.
"This man is still drunk from last night, and he's all bruised and broken from the beat down he took! Let's let the helpful orc take him back to his room! Let's all move past this disturbance and get back to enjoying our breakfasts!"
By the time you arrive at the inn, it's night. With your circadian rhythms out of whack from being underground, you're up too early for breakfast -- or too late for it. In the common room are only a serving wench and an elderly couple sipping tea; the old woman exclaims "Oh, how awful, that poor dear!" The old man grumbles about how, back in his day, the Azure Watch was so vigilant that ruffians would never dream of assaulting innocent passers-by. The serving maid grimaces, shrugs, and goes back to polishing bowls.
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"Oh, praise Zuoken. This is all just a bad dream," Gwl moans from the floor.