Talvek's quick stab at the orange carpet bounces off the hairy hide.
Arcos has no problem with his bolt of electricity scorching the pink one. It wobbles a bit but keeps standing.
Despite its wobbles, it recalls the sweet taste of Lubella's arm and attempts another chomp...
for GRAB hit
for NOT
GRABBED!
for GRAB miss
for miss
Orange tries to grab the pesky Talvek
for GRAB miss
for GRAB miss
for miss
=== Round 3===
13- Aldren(sick), Sidius(),Talvek(), Fhingle()
=== Round 4===
19+ Arcos(),Lubella(-8, grappled *)
18- Small-Pink(-26, grappling, hex 2/8), Small-Orange(-11)
16- Big-Red(asleep 3/5)
"Get off me!", Lubella cried, hacking at the horrible tentacle monster.
Aldren finally regains enough control over his stomach to stop spewing coffee and curdled cream. Though woozy from the effort, he makes his way down the stairs, crossbow still in hand.
Spurred on by Lubella's cry, Talvek regains his focus and manages to land a hit.
He goes back to a defensive stance in anticipation of another whirlwind of tentacles and teeth.
Fhingle remains bottle necked at the top of the stairs, his allies wounded and possibly dying Fhingle cannot press forward till others move.
Talvek with a swift flick of his blade, draws another squeal from orange.
Lubella, despite having been grabbed by a tentacle, is able to slash ping and it drops her as it falls to the ground twitching.
Aldren fires his crossbow at orange, but the bolt goes wide of the mark.
Fhingle looks for space to perform his heroics or healing.
=== Round 4===
13- Talvek(), Fhingle(delay)
19+ Lubella(-8, grappled *),Aldren(sick), Sidius(), Arcos()
18- Small-Pink(prone, bleeding out), Small-Orange(-17)
16- Big-Red(asleep 3/5)
After her opponent fell, Lubella twisted out of it's grasp and maneuvered around the reuse pile, moving next to the sleeping adult.
Sidius turns his evil eye on the last of the beasts, pushing his will to distract the beast and make it easier for his companions to tear apart. He whispers into the spell, "Someone needs to end the big one before it wakes."
Lubella steps up to be closer to the big snoring heap.
Sidius puts his evil eye on one of the two remaining (orange or big red?)
Arcos moves further into the room to allow the rest of the party to enter before shooting a bolt at the slumbering otyugh.
Sidius hex lands on the smaller orange one.
Arcos slips into the room and hurls another bolt of electricity and squarely hits the sleeping large creature. It burns some hair and the creature emits a low squeal as it emerges from slumber.
Orange lashes out at Talvek
for GRAB
for GRAB
for
Big Red sees one of its offspring laying bleeding and lashes out at Lubella.
for GRAB
for GRAB
for
=== Round 5===
13- Talvek(), Fhingle(delay)
19+ Lubella(-8, *),Aldren(sick), Sidius(), Arcos()
18- Small-Pink(prone, bleeding out), Small-Orange(-17, hexed)
16- Big-Red(prone, -5)
"Leave her alone, you lump!" Talvek hisses as the large otyugh attacks Lubella. He flicks the point of his rapier towards the closest living target, carefully not to slip on the fetid floor.
"Yeah, that's what you get for trying to eat us!", Lubella admonished the big otyugh, emphasizing her point with the blade of her scimitar.
As the larger of the beasts stirs back to life, Aldren stows his crossbow , steps carefully towards the beast and assumes a defensive position until he can get his morningstar out .
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Sidius sighs, Why on earth wouldn't you kill the sleeping thing instead of just waking it? I can't sleep it again, now., then casts snowball, trying not think about how he's wasting magic unnecessarily, even as the ball of ice appears in his hand and he hurls it.
Talvek's parry and reposte drops the smaller orange blob with deft precision.
Then Lubella's strike from behind draws the ire of the large creature which Sidius then hits squarely in the open maw with a well placed snowball.
A wooden door, reinforced with rusting iron strips, sits in the eastern wall.
This space looks as if it’s threatening a collapse at any moment. Air and (during the day) shafts of sunlight filter in through a few gaps in the ceiling here and there. The stink in the air comes from sewage, waste, dead animals, and other garbage left strewn about this place.
"That was a bit disturbing!", Lubella commented to the others. "I wonder if there's anything useful here?"
She muttered an incantation and scanned for magic auras, and then looked quickly through the rubbish for anything of value.
"Who's hurt? I've got some teeth marks on me."
With the successful parries, indeed Lubella is the only person to have been injured in this filthy chamber.
Scanning around, she spots an aura set in a niche to the southwest; The items consist of a silver comb worth she estimates 50 gp, an iron chalice inlaid with pearls likely worth 200 gp, and a magical bead all of which have miraculously avoided the maw of the 3 beasts.
"Ah, what have we here?", Lubella exclaimed, picking out the magic bead. After cleaning it with a bit of water, she examined it more closely.
Lubella washes off some trinkets.
Lubella showed everyone the bead, "It's a good thing we didn't accidentally set this off! This here is a Bead of Force; you throw it at a creature — it explodes, damaging everyone nearby, and also imprisons the target for about 10 minutes. I'd hate to think what would happen if Rexus got his hands on one of these!"
Talvek carefully navigates the tentacle-filled floor to reach the eastern side of the chamber, trying to discern what lies beyond.
I hope this fight didn't alert them, but we have to prepare for that eventuality.
Still queasy from the stench, Aldren looks a little green and says with a wan smile, ”Sorry, gag reflex; I should be flogged. I may need a minute. But I’m also filing a complaint. When I went to Aria Park, I was promised operas and mansions. Instead I’ve gotten alligators and... whatever those are.”
When he sees Lubella is wounded, Aldren hands her a potion. ”I think we should conserve the spells. We don’t know what lies ahead.”
Speaking quietly, Aldren asks Talvek, ”That’s a sturdy door for a rathole. You have the key, Jackdaw? Also, I can turn you invisible again before you go further. It’ll do more good cast on you than myself.”
Lubella accepted the potion from Aldren saying, "I suppose you're right." She quaffed the healing liquid and felt renewed.
Fhingle finally able to make his way down the stairs sees Lubella healing herself. "Sorry I couldn't get down to help out, I will use my powers to take some of your wounds." Fhingle says putting hand on Lubella's shoulder.
"Did they ever tell us how big this place was?" Fhingle asks referring to the Hell Knights and the Nobel they questioned.
Sidius shakes his head, "No, I don't think they did... though if I'd have known there was this much stench, I would have made some bitterleaf paste to rub under our noses. It smells awful, sure, but it doesn't induce vomiting."
He pauses and looks at Aldren a moment, then asks, "Are you certain you're well? I can treat what ails you with an herbal remedy if you aren't."
After thanking Fhingle for the healing link, Lubella moved to the side of the far door, and checked for any type of alarm mechanism. She whispered, "Shall we move on?"
Aldren nods at Sidius and lazily waves a hand in a dismissive gesture, though a smile suggests he appreciates the concern, "Yes, I just need a minute for my stomach to calm down. The smell just set something off; probably should have eaten something other than just coffee this morning. Thanks, though."
Fhingle lays a hand on Talvek and then Aldren [b]"You are both now attached to me spiritually, I will take some of your wounds but if it gets to much I will have to cut it off.[/ooc]
As Aldren recovers from retching and Talvek searches the eastern portion of the room, no other trinkets are found.
He and Lubella are able to find the door leading to the east is actually in good condition and locked.
While no alarms are spotted, both can tell the lock itself appears to have some sort of defensive mechanism inside it.
"I think we should use the special key for this lock," Lubella suggested. She moved back to give Talvek some space.
Talvek nods at Aldren's proposal. "That would be useful, once we get past the door." He pauses, then adds. "Thank you."
Pulling out the key they had gotten from the "noble", the tiefling approaches the door.
"Alright, stand back in case I trigger something, even using the key."
Talvek carefully inserts the key in the lock, trying to figure out how to stop the defensive mechanism from firing.
Fhingle lays a hand on Talvek and then Aldren "You are both now attached to me spiritually, I will take some of your wounds but if it gets to much I will have to cut it off."
A quip about Fhingle putting his spirit at risk came to mind, but the oracle seemed so earnest, Aldren kept the jokes to himself. The halfling was willing to not only heal others, but to suffer some of their wounds for them. Regardless of whether he thought it wise, the Calistrian had to respect the sacrifice. "Thank you -- Ba."
Talvek nods at Aldren's proposal. "That would be useful, once we get past the door." He pauses, then adds. "Thank you."
The pause didn't escape the priest's attention. While Aldren had thought Talvek occasionally shy in the past, their exchanges had never been so stilted or tense. Ever since the half-elf had found the others in the street the day before, it had seemed he was constantly tripping over some issue or another with the swashbuckling tiefling. But, a subterranean garbage pit with a bunch of cultists in front of them holding two kids hostage was not the place to sort things out.
Nor to dwell on them. The half-elf shrugged slightly and replied, "Of course," and prepared himself for what was to come.
Talvek inserts the special key into the lock and realizes that he is fortunate he did, as a barbed needle is held back by the shape of the key which otherwise would have surely punctured his hand.
The door opens easily when unlocked. Beyond is a stairwell heading down and around, deeper into the strange complex.
Lubella moved up behind Talvek, telling him, "I'll let you go first, and give you just enough space to sneak ahead without my light giving you away."
Talvek nods, and turns to Aldren before stepping through the doorway. "Aldren, could you make me invisible please? It was quite useful earlier."
As soon as the half-elf works his magic upon him, he steps through and descends the stairwell carefully.
Aldren obliged, praying to Calistria to cloak the tiefling in a spell of invisibility. As the others descended into the stairwell, Aldren hefted his morningstar and considered the oath he'd made to the Shellets. And so, with a moment of concentration, he shifted his appearance once more, adopting the guise of a masked and cloaked figure clad in black leathers and gold armor. There was no particular tradition of war priests in the faith, but this seemed suitable enough. Disguised or not, his breastplate would still make more noise than any of the others, so he took position at the back of the line.
So that nobody at the head of the line was surprised and thought he was one of the cultists, he whispered through the message spell to let them know of the change.
Talvek invisibly descends the stone stairs ending in closed, but apparently unlocked door. Peeking in, he sees a large room or shrine with no apparent occupants.
Twin rows of stone pillars support a shallow vaulted ceiling ten feet above the floor of this wide room. A number of wooden doors hang half open on rusty hinges to the north and south, and fragments of tables and chairs lie in various states of ruin throughout the room. To the west, a stone stage stands empty, while empty torch sconces line the walls between the doors. Images of a one-eyed insectile face, smeared on the walls in what appears to be blood, decorate the spaces between sconces.
check identifies the one-eyed devil as the symbol of Mahathallah.
Lubella concealed her glowing scimitar under her cloak when she stepped onto the intermediate landing, before the final flight of stairs down. She checked whether the there was any light in the chamber below.
Now that he had a little more information on the minor deity, Talvek recognizes Mahathallah's unholy symbol in the frescoes. He looks around carefully, and should no threat present itself he messages Lubella to come forward.
"Check for magical auras, if you please, and let's not wander too far into this room."
Lubella joined Talvek as he requested, drawing her blade again so she could see. She cast a spell and scanned for magic auras.
"Lovely," she sneered when she saw the blood-smears representing the symbol of Mahathallah. "Let's check these side rooms before we continue on."
As Aldren descended the stairs with Arcos, Sidius and Fhingle, the half-elf found even his better-than-human eyesight failing him in the deepening darkness. Trusting that Talvek and Lubella would call if they needed help, he stayed back on the stairs and cast light on his holy symbol.
Fhingle will move up with Lubella as well, casting his own light spell on a piece of rubble from the previous room. "Which door do we go to first?" Fhingle asks Lubella.
As the halflings enter the large room with their light and comments things happen...
Initiative:
Fhingle hears noises of hurried movement originating from inside the doorways to the north and south.
== Surprise Round ==
22-Fhingle()
21-North Doors
18-Lubella(Light),Arcos()
13-South Doors
12-Sidius(), Aldren(),Talvek(Invis)
"Movement from the rooms to the north and south, I have this door, Lubella watch my back." Fhingle says loud enough for the others to hear.
Fhingle calls out and readies to strike.
Three of the north doors emit the sounds of hurried movement and divine chants, but nothing appears from any of them.
== Surprise Round == Single Action or Move only...
22-Fhingle(readied)
21-North Doors (x)(x)(x)
18-Lubella(Light),Arcos()
13-South Doors ()()()
12-Sidius(), Aldren(),Talvek(Invis)