<- Hit
<- Hit
<- Hit
<- Hit
<- Hit
<- Hit
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Nerisriel's attack misses. Draxvale and savage each slaughter one of the four-armed attackers and Gerri and Aquila manage to overcome the mental barrier of the cabin door.
The surviving attackers shift and lay into Savage and Aquila, slashing and biting. One even seizes Aquila in his long claws.
Anyone, go!
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Round 3
yells Gerri, as he hurls a force bomb at creature D.
plus DC 23 Ref vs knocked prone.
Extending splash to Creature A.
Excluding any square around creature D that has a party member in it.
Splash Damage to Creature A, 13 points of Force, DC23 Ref for half.
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On Going Effects: Mutagen +4 Con|-2 Cha|+2 NA, 100 min; Echolocation, 100min; Heroism, 50 min
Draxvale?
Aquila, these are "xill". Xills are the scourge of the Ethereal Plane, conquering everything in their paths with only one purpose: to perpetuate their race at the expense of others. All xills are female and capable of fertilizing their own eggs, but require living hosts to incubate these eggs, which they inject into paralyzed victims by means of a grotesque ovipositor normally kept retracted behind their mandibles. Evil and alien, the plane-shifting xills possess impressive intelligence and a totalitarian, militaristic culture all their own. Though they see most other life forms as incubators, they particularly prize phase spiders for this purpose.
Their bite contains a paralytic toxin and they are highly resistant to magic.
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Drax will move W W, overrunning D.
Drax has improved overrun and greater overrun; if Drax knocks them prone, Drax gets an attack of opportunity against the thing.
Drax himself does not provoke an attack of opportunity.
His CMB is +16;
to overrun
to hit with an attack of opportunity if Drax knocks it down.
damage if he hits
not sure what happens to Aquila if the thing grappling his is knocked prone. The goal is to break the grapple with Aquila. If he cannot do that, or if you don't think that Drax can overrun someone who is grappling someone else, Drax moves SW and attacks twice instead.
to hit one time
to hit one time
damage if he hits
damage if he hits
Also not sure if Drax gets a flanking bonus from Aquila since he is grappled.
<- Miss
<- Success
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Savage Vengeance lays into the xill, crushing chitin and leaving two great gashes in its carapace. Merisriel seems to pop up out of gods-know-where and stab it in a surprisingly tender spot. The creature blinks twice and then falls to the floor, dead.
Timber snarls and guards Bishop, who fires past his huge dire wolf and plants two arrows in the back of the xill attempting to kill Aquila.
Then Gerri hurls a bomb at it. As he mixes the volatile formula, the xill lunges, trying to skewer him, but his ghostly mage armor deflects the blow. The bomb erupts around the xill, burning it badly. A moment later, Draxvale buries his sword in the outsider's skull and it dies screaming.
The chamber is yours.
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Merisiel pokes a toe at the creature. "Egg? Incubated? That sounds unpleasantly... intimate. But I'll bet," she looks hopefully at the others, "that some of this shell stuff could be turned into good armor. ? . ?"
"But I'm not really sure if that qualifies as loot. Let's hunt up some of those fabled treasures." And Merisiel sets about interrogating the chamber, coercing it with taps and knocks to yield up its secrets, and 'loot'.
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Gerri is awed and amazed at the wonders within the room, but his attention is drawn back to the door they came in through.
So I wonder if getting out with be just as hard? Should I try now or wait? Maybe it allows a person the ability to pass through it so many times before it needs to recharge? If it needs recharging, what if one goes through and stops midway? Should I mention anything to anyone else just yet?
These and many other thoughts race through Gerri's mind, as we contemplates the door.
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On Going Effects: Mutagen +4 Con|-2 Cha|+2 NA, 100 min; Echolocation, 100min; Heroism, 50 min
Your fight has evidently taken place in the ancient vessel's galley and stores. A crystalline grill is inset into a bulkhead with an aperture in the overhead that once provided ventilation, though it is now blocked by a seamless crystal plug. Side chambers are empty but still have meat hooks and hanging nets embedded in the overhead to provide storage for foodstuffs and other supplies.
Looking forward, you can see the crew cabin. Berths for 39 humanoids line the bulkheads of this chamber in 7-foot long by 3-foot high concavities, stacked three high. There is no trace of any personal effects. The farthest tendrils of the strange creeper are semi-corporeal and extend through the walls and deck of this cabin.
No further passages into other areas of the ship are visible.
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Merisiel mutters to herself, "OK, no one builds a ship so that you have to walk through the galley to get to the crew quarters. There must be some other passage in/out of these crew quarters." and more darkly, "And when I find the crew that took all their loot with them, I'm going to give them a piece of my mind. and the blade of a dagger. or three."
Merisiel thoroughly inspects the crew quarters for any hidden or concealed passages.
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Tic, Tic
His attention drawn away from the only obvious doorway between these two rooms, he says, "While it would seem that these creatures and plants are capable of moving/phasing into the walls, I do not recall any plants outside of the doorway. This leads me to believe either they can not move/phase through to the outside areas or they know better than to try."
"Now this ship was created by the Ancient Azlanti, and I recall no mention of them having an innate way to move/phase through walls, so I would expect to find some sort of exit within this room. This theory is further supported by the fact that we had to enter a door to get into these room."
"So I would agree with Merisiel, that there must be another way to leave these rooms other than the way we entered. We should all search for that other exit."
Gerri turns to Savage, smiles and says, "That is the the Eunuch thinks."
Gerri will help search the rooms, maybe his Echolocation will help.
Toc, Toc
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On Going Effects: Mutagen +4 Con|-2 Cha|+2 NA, 100 min; Echolocation, 100min; Heroism, 50 min
Merisriel, Bishop and Gerri combine to search through the thick tangle of semi-material vines, ultimately finding what they seek on the compartment's forward bulkhead: the faint lines that betray the presence of a hidden door etched into the crystalline latticework of the hull.
Each dead xill carries a heavy steel shield, two shortswords, two longbows and 40 arrows, as well as a small number of coins from across the multiverse. Nothing else of value rests in the crew cabin.
So who's doing what with the doors?
Bishop emerges into a simple compartment ends where two angled walls come to a point. Lines engraved into the crystal along these walls give the chamber a sense of motion toward the terminus of the bulkheads.
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"Well that doesn't look like a treasure room. Or even a broom closet." Speaking conspiratorially to Gerri, "no brooms.."
"I think the ship ends there - let's see if we can find some doors to the back - back by the ladder down here. There must be some loot around here."
And Merisiel matches actions to words and heads back, trying to pass through the odd door between the galley and the room with the ladder.
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Gerri turns back and forth watching both ends of the rooms as best he can, thinking about all that they have encountered so far.
"Yes that is odd to make a room and then not put anything in to it. Maybe the lines mean something. Look how they give the appearance of motion forward. Aquila, make sure there is nothing at the apex of the walls, a button or panel maybe."
Two...interesting... things happen at about the same time. Aft of the galley, Merisriel finds that she cannot activate the portal that allowed her and the other Pathfinders into the ancient Azlanti vessel.
Far forward, when Aquila touches the forward terminus of the room, he disappears.
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"Merisiel, what did you do?! You disintegrated Aquila!
Gerri looks over at the location there Aquila was just at and notices the lack of a pile of dust.
"Well maybe not... let me check something."
Gerri will step up to the location that Aquila was just at.
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On Going Effects: Mutagen +4 Con|-2 Cha|+2 NA, 100 min; Echolocation, 100min; Heroism, 50 min
Stepping up does nothing, but when Gerri touches the apex of the room, he too, disappears.
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"Hey! no fair! wait for me!
Merisiel runs the length of the crew quarters, and dives headlong at the apex of the chamber, hands extended above her head. She anticipates a floor at the same level as the one she leapt from. Merisiel has some anticipation that she might fetch up against the apex of the hidden room, but she's more focused on slapping the apex and completing a stylish tumble on the other side - wherever that might be.
Upon touching the apex of the room, each Pathfinder finds himself suddenly turned the other way, facing away from the apex. Only now, the secret door to the room is gone, replaced by a set of stairs leading upwards towards an eerie glow. Soon, all the Pathfinders have touched the apex and arrived.
This feels like the heart of the strange ship, and the pulse of its energy is almost palpable. The cabin is dominated by a cube composed entirely of brass that balances on one point atop a 3-foot crystal plinth, where it rotates slowly counterclockwise. Every inch of this cubiform monolith is covered in cramped script, symbols, schematic designs, and glyphs. Blue tracers of power flash across its surface every few seconds and are absorbed into these etched characters.