Arsith gets up-again!-and defends herself from the derro
"Please do," Joanna says as she swings at the derro again.
Both Ziomarra and Teldon hit the kidnapper with their attacks… neither are grievous blows yet the injuries upon the cruel denizen of the darklands are starting to tell… whereas Joanna, uncharacteristically and possibly still reeling from the grotesque smell coming from the golem, misses with her attack.
As Arsith stands, both the derro and the golem attempt to catch her unguarded… yet judicious use of her shield and some timely assistance from Teldon sees her standing with only a glancing blow from the derro…
Behind them, Shadlah struggles with the vile stench… and cannot muster an attack… whilst Briana seeks to obscure the derro’s vision with a localised storm…
Faced with a wall of steel – amour and shields – the derro and its patchwork golem, despite their flurry of attacks – club, spiked gloves and flailing cadaverous limbs, cannot land a single blow upon Joanna nor Arsith…
Still reeling from the multiple blows from derro and golem, Arsith cannot deliver a single strike. She tries not to be too frustrated, but everyone can easily see she'd like to be more useful in the melee.
Briana’s encouraging words seem to inspire Joanna… the next swing of her blade proving to be devastatingly accurate as she stabs forwards at the derro…
Teldon marvels, with some concern, at the derro's durability.
it may be for the best for us that they ran, fighting three of these at once could be trouble... unfortunately, they've probably gone for reinforcements...
Knowing that it's too late to disengage now, he presses the attack against the wounded foe holding to his previous strategy...
,
Teldon continues to force the derro back... his spear finding angles and weak spots that the kidnapper cannot defend against...
"From the earth it was taken, and to the earth it will return," Shadlah says grimly, gathering power before blasting the golem.
The fragments of rock that Shadlah pulls from the wall sink deep into the flesh of the golem... mindless, it continues to move towards Joanna - another attack looming... and then, pulling her hands apart, Shadlah commands the rock embedded in the golem to explode. There is a horrific wet sound as the flesh of the golem is mulched... and then it falls forward - dead once more.
Hissing with displeasure, the derro steps backwards - claps its hands... and the room becomes dim...
Arsith strikes in the darkness, and there is a loud *thud* as her weapon connects.
I hope it's not you I just hit, sweetie pie..
Zee makes the Varisian sign of the evil eye at the derro, fixing him with a glare that would melt lead.
The derro, badly wounded by Arsith, steps backwards and is fixed by Ziomarra's glare...
Teldon studies the derro and attempts to end it with one last thrust of his spear...
,
Teldon thrusts forwards... but his spear pierces only shadow....
Joanna's eyes flash for a moment as her sword dives in deep.
Growling in frustration as her blast misses entirely, Shadlah stomps the ground, lifting a small pile of rubble the size of her fist.
…and, as Shadlah also loses sight of the derro to the shadows, Joanna steps forwards – and thrusts her sword deep into the chest of the vile kidnapper. Wordlessly, the derro slips from the blade and dies next its golem creation…
The room that the derro had retreated to is a twenty-foot square domed chamber with a jury-rigged pair of operating tables… complete with blood-stained leather straps that presumably held the derro’s victims down. Strewn across the operating tables, there are several well-crafted (if quite bloodied) surgical tools… examining them, it appears that they are of a high quality although the collection seems incomplete… a cursory look around reveals that the missing tool is a drill - subsequently found embedded into the golem’s skull.
There are several scrawled notes, loose leaf and stuffed into a journal, within the room… all of which are written in a language alien to the group …
The derro was carrying two potions on his person – both of which, upon examination, are Potions of Invisibility.
*****
"Excellent work, everyone! Shadlah, what you did to that golem was extraordinary... and more than a little frightening."
She looks at the derro's notes. "I cannot make out the language. Teldon, have you seen anything like this?"
"It's Aklo," Teldon answers Zee, "but I only know a few words. It's not a language that's encountered very often in a typical library. I'm sure I can work out it's meaning, as I did with the Kriegler code, but it will take more time than we can afford right now."
"We knew they were experimenting with transplanting eyes; that probably requires magical assistance as well..." he reasons, placing the journal and loose notes into his bag. "Jo, you're the strongest of us, can you get the drill out of the golem? We should bring the surgical tools with us in case the watch needs more evidence when we tell them what we've discovered. And we need to decide quickly what we're going to do now... If we wait here the other derro will return- possibly invisibly, and possibly with reinforcements. We either need to retreat to somewhere safe so we can rest and prepare to fight them, or chase them now while we have some chance to catch them alone or unprepared."
"I can try, but shouldn't we chase down the other two? What if they come back, or went to kill any prisoners," the young paladin answers as she starts making her way to where she saw the others run off to.
"I'm with Jo on this. We can come back to gather things after we've dealt with the derro. We should press our advantage now before they can regroup!"
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"Let's move quickly then," Teldon replies while stuffing the surgical kit into his bag. As soon as Jo starts moving he trots along right behind her.
I never thought I'd think this, but I miss slow journeys through the wild... at least then I could walk next to Briana and hold her hand...
The young scholar catches himself glancing, longingly, over his shoulder and forces his attention forward once more.
Let's go so! And beware these naughty dwarves... what can you tell us about derros, Teldon? What can we expect of them?
Zee answer's Arsith's question, "Derro are half-mad creatures that live deep below the earth. They covet the comfort of living on the surface, but they are poisoned by sunlight. They kidnap surface-dwellers and conduct hideous experiments on them to try to learn how to live in sunlight. This group has been responsible for dozens of disappearances in Magnimar over the past few months. We can expect them to be equal parts clever and insane... and extremely dangerous."
Leaving behind the gruesome operating tables of the derro, the friends look to maintain their momentum and - staying alert for danger - move along the main chamber towards the doors that the other derro escaped through… in doing so, they pass the spiral staircase in the centre of the chamber – a breeze, noticeably colder than the ambient temperature of the chamber, blows from it as they pass…
…making their way past the spiral staircase, the friends note the unlit passageway that heads to the north – there is no sign of life in that direction.
As they draw closer to the doors that the derro fled through, there is no sign of them returning...
Zee points at the door to the southwest. "They went through there. I say we follow them!"
"They're also resilient to mind-effecting magicks because of their natural madness," Teldon adds stepping up to the door. He quickly inspects it then readies his spear and signals for Jo to go ahead.
Arsith is on her guards too, and try to find clues about the derro recent
passage
Let's try to follow these tracks...
There are no obvious signs left by the derro that fled through the southwestern door... but the friends are fairly certain that at least one of the vile folk came this way. Alert to danger, and mindful of all that Ziomarra and Teldon have said about the strange folk, the friends follow through the door...
...into a corridor that splits and seems to ends in two equally sized square rooms — a bedroom to the northeast and, from the stench of death, some sort of abattoir to the southwest.
...also, as the friends move along the corridor towards the junction, the temperature seems to have markedly dropped.
Teldon points to the northeast and whispers, "Something's moving over there..." Then he grips his spear tightly, fills it with arcane energy, and prepares to follow Jo or Arsith in.
Moving towards the sound of movement in the north-eastern room, Arsith and Joanna take the lead… the temperature rising ever so slightly as they move away from the room to the southwest… and there, wielding a strange spear, one of the derro stands. Shouting in its strange dialect, it advances towards the friends… spear outstretched…
Briana's quick observations of the south-eastern room from the corridor, she can see a number of hunks of frost-coverd meat placed on a bench, don't reveal anything moving... the room seems unoccupied...
Zee moves into the corridor. With so many friends between herself and the enemy, she decided to help her friends. She casts a spell, and the ghostly images of several Varisians rise from her Harrow deck. Most appear to be older women. The expressions on their faces are friendly and welcoming, and they float with outstretched hands as one of them passes through each of you, then returns to Zee's deck. At the conclusion of her spell, Zee says, "Vă mulțumesc, bunicile!"
Everyone feels a warmth and strengthening of resolve, as if you just know you're doing your family proud.
Joanna charges in, her eyes glinting with the divine rage that burns within.
Arsith charges alongside Jo, but with less accuracy
With Ziomarra’s summoned ancestors – appearing in this ancient place - encouraging them, Joanna and Arsith surge into the room… both strike the ill-prepared derro as they charge upon him, the force of the blows nearly lifting the evil kidnapper from its feet…
Quickly regaining his balance, the derro stabs at Arsith with his spear… as the polished steel tip pierces her armour, Arsith feels a sudden numbness around the wound as a pale blue solution leaks out…
…and then, as the room becomes strangely dim, a leathery beast – not unlike an octopus yet with webbing between its tentacles – starts to peel from the ceiling above Joanna.
The darkmantle isn't a particularly good climber, but it can cling to a cave roof like a bat, hanging by the hooks at the ends of its tentacles so that its dangling body looks nearly indistinguishable from a stalactite. In this hidden position, the darkmantle waits for prey to pass beneath, at which point it drops and swoops down to attack its victim, slamming its body against the foe and attempting to wrap its webbed tentacles around the target. If the darkmantle misses its prey, it swoops back up and drops again until its prey is vanquished or the darkmantle is grievously injured (in which case the creature flutters back up to the roof to hide and hope its "prey" leaves it alone). The darkmantle's inborn ability to cloak the area around it in magical darkness gives it an additional advantage over foes that rely upon light to see.
Darkmantles prefer to dwell and hunt in the caves and passageways that are closest to the surface, as these tend to possess more traffic for the monsters to feed upon. Yet they do not confine themselves to these dark caverns, and can sometimes be found dwelling in ruined fortresses or even in the sewers of bustling cities. Anywhere food is plentiful and there's a ceiling to cling to is a possible den for a darkmantle.
A darkmantle's life cycle is swift—young grow to maturity in a matter of months, and most die of old age after only a few years. As a result, generations of darkmantles quickly accrue, and over the years the evolution of these creatures is similarly swift. In this manner, a cavern's ecosystem can have a significant effect on a group of darkmantles' appearance, abilities, and tactics. Aquatic caverns might develop darkmantles that can swim, while those beset with volcanism might generate darkmantles with a resistance to fire. Other darkmantle variants might develop much stonier hides, and instead of swooping down to crush prey might simply drop and pierce them through with their stalactite-like lengths. The deepest, darkest caverns are rumored to host darkmantles of incredible size, capable of smothering multiple human-sized foes at once in their leathery folds.
Come on! Why do I have to be poisoned, sickened or worse every single time! Are my hair not pale enough? Hey , what's this?
"It is not long for this world," Shadlah calls back with a broad grin, placing a hand on the wall next to her, fingers trailing into the stone as she hurries forward. Peering into the gloom, she points her free palm at the creature on the ceiling, sending a quick blast at it, the recoil jolting her arm.
"It's called a darkmantle, be careful, it will drop down and try to wrap you up," Teldon calls out. "Or, it would have," he adds as Shadlah's rocks crush it. Studying the derro, he charges in behind Jo and Arsith and attempts to stab the twisted dwarf over their shoulders.
,
"Briana, can you illuminate the creature, please?" he asks in the darkness.
Zee fixes the derro with a baleful gaze and whispers, "Neîndemânatic!"