Aravashnial sighs, but accepts the shards, tucking them into his pouch. Horgus rolls his eyes, quite visibly (to everyone except Aravashnial).
Continuing with her original plan, Ellena moves toward the foul-smelling passageway. It is narrow hallway that slopes downward steeply. The walls are stained with foul-smelling streaks of refuse, and a mound of rotting garbage lies heaped at the far end of the hallway.
Ellena continues her path making sure she explored everything. If nothing jumps out at her, she will return to the others.
Climb
Ellena slips on the slick floor and slides the length of the hallway, landing feet-first in the accumulated muck at the bottom.
At first, it seems that the only price of this is the bad smell - but then the trash moves. A massive blob, shapeless and almost invisible save for the detritus trapped inside its translucent form, oozes from the muck. It is half Ellena's height and roughly the same width, and it lunges toward her.
Initiative
Ellena screams as the muck reaches out at her. "Living garbage, what is this?!
Ellena scrambles to her feet and picks up her sword. "Leave us be, foul trash heap!"
Lyddy drops her pack and retrieves one of the lengths of rope from it.
"Ellena, use the rope to come out - let the others shoot that.. whatever it is."
Belgood lines up a shot, hoping to get one in before the hallway fills with his allies.
"It's an amoeba of some sort. Hopefully we can outwit it."
Rashak retrieves his crossbow and loads it.
Ellena jumps to her feet, while Lyddy tosses a rope down to her. Belgood fires a shot, cutting open the translucent sac and letting a bit of ichor ooze free, while Rashak readies himself to do the same.
Anevia also fires down the shaft, taking two shots in hopes of getting at least one through.
To her surprise and pleasure, both arrows actually hit, and the wounds that open are somewhat larger than the one Belgood created.
Heedless of - possibly incapable of even noticing - the damage, the amoeba lunges toward Ellena, part of its surface deforming into a kind of protoplasmic tendril that tries to lash around her leg, droplets of acid falling away as it does.
The tendril waves uselessly, though, and Ellena avoids it almost without noticing.
Ellena wasn't sure if she was strong enough to pull herself up in her armor, even with the rope. She decided to push her luck of the time being and try to cut the trash heap down.
Attack
Damage
Ellena's sword dispatches the amoeba in a spray of protoplasm, leaving her triumphant... if also standing knee-deep in refuse.
"Disgusting," Ellena remarks, as she tries to grab the rope and pull herself out of the muck.
With the rope's assistance, Ellena has no problem making her way back up the slippery hallway to the mongrel's common room.
"Anyone feel like taking a quick trip downward? That ladder has to serve some purpose, doesn't it?". Ellena grabs ahold of it and heads downward.
"I was afraid of that" Rashak mutters under his breath. "Be careful down there milady." He sends his light to help her see.
Belgood steps up to Rashak, and whispers, "Privy, in'nit?"
It is not, in fact. The rope ladder descends about fifteen feet to another, larger chamber, similar in size to the mongrels' sleeping area above. The air in this lower cavern smells of damp and mold; water glistens on the walls, and collects in a stagnant pool along one wall. Another set of barricades, very much like the ones in the entry chamber before, crosses the room at waist height.
Perception
Two mongrels pop up from behind the barricades, each armed with a light crossbow, and fire at Ellena. As soon as the bolts are released, they shout in their guttural tongue what are unmistakably warnings through the doorway behind them.
Ellena gets pricked by a bolt as she charges the bowmen. "Throw down your weapons, evil doers! Iomedae commands you."
Init.
Current HP 24/26
Attack
Damage
Whispering, "Goddess watch over fools that rush in."
Ellena rushes toward the nearer mongrel, but she is still adjusting to the situation, and her swing is more reflex than skill. A piece of the barricade goes flying, but her target was never in any danger.
Belgood climbs down the ladder, and readies to take a shot in the next round.
Lyddy stays topside for the moment, concerned about protecting the two noncombatants. "Go on, my friends. We will wait and protect your flank."
Rashak drops to the floor and tries to reach down and catch one of the mongrels with an Acid Splash.
,
Rashak's conjured acid strikes the barricade in front of one of the mongrels, making the wood sizzle a little but producing no other real effect.
Anevia starts to jump down the hole, but makes a face as her leg buckles a little under the shift in weight. Looking annoyed, she too simply climbs down the ladder and spins to see the rest of the room.
With Ellena right of front of him, one of the mongrels drops his crossbow and pulls his club to swing at her, shouting defiantly.
The other mongrel reloads her crossbow and returns fire at Rashak.
Rashak dodges the bolt easily, but the mongrel's club catches Ellena hard in the chest, knocking the wind out of her for a moment and making her see stars.
Ellena swung at the mongrel who was in melee with her, trying to strike for her goddess.
Attack
Damage
Shethen uses her lay on hands ability for the second time of the day and regains HP.
Current HP 21/26.
"Eyes and/or ears open, my friends. I don't want more of these to sneak up on us. Aravashnial, can you manage a ladder in your condition?"
She readies an action to attack any mongrel that comes into striking distance, straining to see farther than her blessed eyes will allow.
Belgood decides against trying to ram another barricade, taking aim at the woman with the crossbow, instead.
Ellena reaches across the barrier with her blade and cuts deep into the mongrel's side, and the man howls in pain. Belgood's arrow answers the crossbow woman with about as much effectiveness.
Upstairs, Aravashnial grits his teeth, but replies, "If someone can guide me to the top and warn me when I am about to reach the bottom, yes, I think I can."
Horgus mutters something under his breath, but then continues in a voice loud enough to be understood. "I'll make sure he doesn't break his fool leg," the merchant grunts, then surprises you by adding, "It'd be easier for me to keep him alive if I had a rapier."
"I would be grateful for another blade to fight for us, but I have no rapier to offer."
Gesturing toward her sword, she says, "The technique would be different, but I would loan you my longsword until something you preferred came along. Or my dagger." With a smile, she adds, "I promised to use the morningstar on Chief Sull's behalf, so I will carry it for now. Otherwise, I would offer it to you."
Peaking down the ladder, she suggests, "Master Horgus, if you would go down the ladder first, I will guide Aravashnial's feet to the ladder when you are ready. Before you go..." Reaching out, she speaks a prayer, then, "May be gods protect us all."
Horgus stares for a brief second at Lyddy, then takes her longsword with ill grace. As he does, she can make out his muttering for a moment: "No sir, we're out of the veal, perhaps you'd care for some horsemeat instead?" Even so, he grips the blade and swings it once like a man who actually knows what he's doing, and he doesn't resist when Lyddy casts her spell on him. With another grunt, he begins descending the ladder.
Down below, Anevia takes aim and fires at the crossbowwoman as well, hoping to have better luck than Belgood did. A pair of arrows scythe through the air...
...and one manages to make it past the barricade, cutting into the cheek of the mongrel.
Rashak crosses the room to get the right angle on his foes, and splashes into the small pool. As he does so though, he feels a sharp stab in his foot as a dagger-like rock hiding below the water's surface pierces through his boot and into his foot.
Undaunted, he raises his falchion and points it toward the mongrels, and a blast of maddening colors washes over them.
The mongrel with the crossbow crumples, but the one battling Ellena manages to turn away before the worst hits him. He shouts again, and you are displeased to hear answering shouts from beyond the doorway behind him. He smiles, revealing a set of mandibles hiding inside his cheeks, and swings again at Ellena.
This time, though, her armor protects her. Right on the heels of his attack, two more mongrels burst into the room. One shouts and moves to kneel next to the unconscious woman, slapping her a few times in a futile attempt to get her to wake up, while the other shouts to Ellena's foe. He answers back and points at Rashak, and the new arrival raises a crossbow and points it at the wizard.
Even with his wounded foot, though, Rashak dodges the shot easily.
The paladin keeps hacking away at the mongrel.
Attack
Damage
Once again, Belgood singles out the mongrel with the crossbow, and looses an arrow.
"Have a rapier, Hargus, sir, but a small one."
Lyddy leads Aravashnial to the ladder, guiding his feet to the top rung.
Whispering, she offers, "You are very brave, doing this without your sight. If we encounter an enemy up here, I will feel much better knowing that you are with the rest of the group while I run interference. It is up to you whether you descend immediately."
Ellena's blade finally catches the elusive mongrel, and he crumples with a spray of blood. Belgood's arrow hits the more recently-arrived crossbowman, although the wound it leaves is not deep.
Behind him, Belgood hears Horgus snort indignantly. "I'm waiting!" he calls back up the shaft. In the room above, Aravashnial nods in roughly Lyddy's direction, then kneels, feels around for the top of the ladder, and begins climbing down.
Back in the lower chamber, Anevia decides she agrees with Belgood about the best choice of target, and aims two more arrows at the crossbow-wielding mongrel. This time, though, both arrows are blocked by the barricade, and Anevia swears as she realizes her quiver is running low.
Rashak calls on the reserves of his falchion to unleash another blast of swirling colors at the new foes.
Almost comically, the mongrel bent over the unconscious woman Rashak just knocked out is himself knocked out a moment later, sprawling across his companion. The sole remaining mongrel drops his crossbow and draws his club as he circles to attack Rashak at close range. He raises the clib and grips it in both hands, trying to bring it down on the half-orc wizard's head.
This time, the blow makes contact, and Rashak reels beneath the force of the impact.
Ellena moves to catch the mongrel in between she and the wizard.
Attack
Damage