Her fingers can no longer hold onto the chains and Dee's grip slips away.
Ensis winces, As much as I relish the chance to rescue a lady from mortal danger, there's a certain lack of romanticism in pulling her up out of a fouled cistern.... Despite his misgivings, he rushes to the noblewoman, transferring his blade to his left hand in order to lift her over his shoulder in one swift motion, ready to riposte if the fleshy blob true to strike at him. "Ben, Bertom, finish off the Hellspawn, I'll get Dee to safety... Seems I like her more than my boots..."
The shock of cold liquid stuns Dee's unconscious form into not breathing in the contaminated water while Ensis wades in to haul her up on his shoulder.
The creature wades forward and continues its thrashing at the nearest form - Dee/Ensis. Its flailing claw finds Dee's flesh yet again with a weirdly uncanny magnetism for the monk.
Crit confirmation:
7 more pts of damage for Dee, who is now at -8 and bleeding. DC 18 Con check to stabilize.
Valexia rushes over to try and help with getting Dee stabilized, but realizes that despite knowing a little mend spell, she knows very little about keeping people from bleeding. "Does anyone have a potion for curing wounds left? Here, Ensis, hand her over and I'll drag her somewhere safe while you do that violence thing you are so good at."
Ben, despite his success so far with his crossbow, upon seeing Dee knocked into the foul soup, essentially loses his cool demeanor. He drops his crossbow, which hangs forgotten by his carry strap, his eyes widen, and his green-tinged skin turns a shade darker.
"DEE!!" Ben howls, rushing around Bertom, then Charges at the creature, bellowing "BEN SMASH!!!" at the top of his very-powerful lungs.
Charging, however, carries tight restrictions on how you can move.
[...] You must have a clear path toward the opponent, and nothing can hinder your movement (such as difficult terrain or obstacles). You must move to the closest space from which you can attack the opponent. If this space is occupied or otherwise blocked, you can't charge. If any line from your starting space to the ending space passes through a square that blocks movement, slows movement, or contains a creature (even an ally), you can't charge.
So since it's a full-round action, charge requires that the path from your starting space that turn to the opponent be clear of allies, obstructions, and difficult terrain. The straight line from Ben to Thing 1 passes almost entirely through, yeah, allies and difficult terrain! So the charge action is unavailable, but the move/ATTACK! is certainly viable. You can get to X28 in a single move and then clobber time.
"Dee NO! Bertom cries out, though his worry quickly turns to rage as he rushes forward and leaps at the thing from the edge of the pool, driving his werewolf slayer as hard as he can into the blob creatures face "I warned you not to touch her!!"
Rexus rushes to aid Valexia, pulling a potion from his belt pouch as he does so. ”I’ll help Valexia get Lady D out of here. Let’s pull her clear so I can give her this potion."
Ben rushes in for the attack, but, though his cane connects, fails to harm the tough creature.
Bertom has more luck with his silver wolfsticker, tagging the blob with a terrible thrust.
Valexia and Rexus get to Ensis in an effort to take Dee from him so he is clear to fight the thing.
Ensis keeps his blade up, carefully leaning back to allow Rexus and Valexia to take Dee from him while preparing to parry the beast's claws, "Take her and keep her well. It seems the work of a dashing rake is never quite done."
Ensis smiles as he hands Dee to his waiting companions and without the beast striking, "Say, ugly, have you met my sword?", he asks as he darts to the left and brings the blade up into the creature's chest, wincing as the thing's weird flesh resists the sharpness of his steel blade...
Ensis can tell, as can everyone watching, that his strike was true, but the creature shrugs off the stab as if it were nothing.
The proto-devil finds itself in a target-rich environment and swings away gleefully with its blobby paws.
Despite Ensis' most recent attack and Bertom's definitive damage, Big Ugly objects strongly to Ben's presence, clouting him with a nasty blow. As if in mockery, its face changes to resemble Ben's, even taking on a greenish tinge.
"OWW!"
;)
"I'm gonna pound you into pulp! THEN I'm gonna reconstitute your remains, so I can pound you again!" Ben bellows as he takes another mighty swing with his cane that looks too small in his mutagen-enhanced grip,...
EDIT-
Bertom tries to quickly finish off the blob monster so they can make sure Dee is safe, though maybe he's rushing too much, his strikes aren't as carefully placed as they ought to be. "We need to finish this and get out of this mess..."
Ensis says, "I'll get behind it to distract the beast... But someone us buying me new boots...", then leaps into the air, tucking into a ball as he arcs over the lemure, twisting to land on his feet across from Bertom. He smiles, "Sometimes I even impress myself," then drives his longsword into the fiend.
for
Ben bashes the brute while Bertom, distraught by Dee's downfall, doesn't do damage.
Ensis goes airborne, astonishing his adversary, whose accuracy is afflicted. Ensis finishes off the lemure with a mean longsword stab.
While the martial types put an end to the combat, Val and Rexus wrestle Dee's inert form to the floor near the fountain. Rexus coaxes a potion down her throat.
All is quiet once the malformed devil slumps into the polluted cistern.
Ben hits even without flanking.
AoO vs Ensis: Miss
Potion of Cure Light:
"About your boots, Ensis, I am very well practiced in making things clean like new! That's the whole point of magic, you know," says Valexia, matter-of-factly, as she assists Rexus with the dumping of magical goo into Deanna's throat.
"Though we may wish to invest in some sort of magical armour for Dee. She's been through a lot today," says Valexia with some concern.
"Hm. I need to invest more time to figure out how to share my extracts. I have a couple that might be able to help her with that." Ben rumbles thoughtfully. As the conversation takes a turn that catches his interest, his previous rage fades like the morning dew.
Once assured that Dee is going to be alright, Ben moves over to the corpse that isn't lying in the fetid water and begins to examine it. He pulls out a couple of vials and almost gently collects various samples from the misshapen horror. Both samples of torn flesh and blood of the creature are shoved into vials and sealed tight. He can be heard muttering as he works.
"Resistance to both physical blows and energy, this is a rare opportunity. If I can isolate even ONE of those elements,..."
Ben stops collecting samples and goes very still. His head turns as he looks at the remains of the larval horror before him.
"Um,... Val? Perhaps your magical interests might be more advanced than my own. I could be mistaken,... but aren't creatures from another plane of existence supposed to vanish back to their plane of origin once killed? Or is that only their so called 'spirit' and their body stays behind?"
"Well, if they were summoned they would have vanished. But I suppose these fleshy fellows wobbled on through a portal or something..." says Valexia.
"She's not waking up," Rexus frowns, patting Dee's cheek. "Does anyone have another potion?"
"Well, if they were summoned they would have vanished. But I suppose these fleshy fellows wobbled on through a portal or something..." says Valexia.
"Ah. Yes. Of course. Traveling the planes is not quite the same as summoning between planes is it? Or so I've been told."
Ben looks around, partially inquisitive, partially nervous.
"I do hope that whatever means they used to travel here is well and truly closed."
"She's not waking up," Rexus frowns, patting Dee's cheek. "Does anyone have another potion?"
"What? Oh my yes, of course!" Ben hastens to stuff the vials with the creatures remains into his shoulder bag with one hand, while he removes a much more pleasant looking vial from his jacket pocket with his other.
"Here you are. Fresh made last night. I added a bit of cocoa and essence of peppermint to aid restorative properties." Ben rambles on as he kneels down next to Dee and expertly administers the vial to the dozing damsel.
:(
"Maybe easier on the pepperment next time?" Rexus suggests, waving away mint fumes.
Ensis says, "Well, I'll certainly take magically cleaned boots over this disgusting mess."
He nods at Rexus' request, "I do, indeed.". He starts digging it out, then stops as Been produces his.. then frowns, "Dee's wounds seem to be resisting the magic... Is it something about the foulness of the beast's claws?"
Valexia uses her favourite spell for her favourite use for it, cleaning off poor filthy Ensis. "I may not have enough magical energy to mend wounds anymore, but at least I can make everyone's life a little less disgusting," she comments as she does so.
"Speaking of healing energy... I am out of anything that will mend any wounds at all," says Valexia, "What's our remaining stock situation looking like? I'm all for adventure, but it would quite ruin my day if any of you die. And I can't even imagine what it would do to your days if I died."
"By Besmara's Buoyant Bosom, what I am I covered in?" Dee groans starting to sit up then clutching her side and deciding that a quick lay down is preferable. "I take it my distraction worked..." She groans softly, recomposing herself.
"What were those things?" Wiping her face of the water and pulling her hair back. "They came from the pool, could it've been an ancient portal or summoning ring."
"What were they? Disgusting, primarily." Ben says, his face relaxing noticeably upon seeing Dee move and speak, even if barely.
"But potentially useful." He adds, patting his leather shoulder bag with a small smile.
He pulls out another vial and peer at it closely, tapping it and watching the reaction within. He puckers his mouth in a moue of thoughtfulness.
"Here. This should fix you up. It is my last one, so sip it slowly for maximum effectiveness." Ben says as he hands it to Dee.
Ben watches as Dee sips his concoction, concern still visibly etched on his face.
"I hate to leave now, but I certainly don't want anyone else getting hurt either. How much more of this place to search can there be? It isn't THAT big. I'd love to at least find a clue as to where this 'stash' was hiding before we evacuate. Besides, once whomever is in charge realizes that we've taken care of their dogs, and fought off Fae and killed two demons, I doubt that we will want to try and re-enter the premises through the amount of security they will add for next time!"
"Not to mention, if they suspect we were here looking for something specific, they may start searching and find it before we do!"
Ben does not add that he would hate to have gone to all of this time and injuries for nothing. But the way he looks at everyone, including the wounded Dee lying down, says it very loudly all the same.
Ensis nods, "I have one potion left, after Ben's... And I think we should see this to the end. Surely the demons were some sort of guardians -- and we've defeated them."
Bertom comes to join the others gathered around Dee's immobile form, he lets out a slow sigh in relief when she comes around again. He flops down on the ground sitting to rest for a moment. "Yeah... I guess it worked... but can we try to make sure your distractions don't end up with you face down in sludge?" He looks down at his clothes, then back towards Dee "You could have chosen a cleaner pond to take a dip in you know."
The young rogue looks up at the others as they discuss continuing on "We've got to make sure Dee's safe first. It'd be great if these were the last enemies we encounter, but is it worth the risk? I feel like we could have other chances to search for stashes, but we only have one Dee, and one of each of us. With no healing it's a big risk if someone else gets hurt."
Rexus looks grim. "If it gets much worse, I fear my mother overestimated me greatly." He sighs and looks around. "If anybody - or anything - is nearby and meant to eat us, it would have joined in with the blob devils, don't you think? Maybe we can at least look around this room and see how much more there is of this unexpectedly large stable. Dee can sit here quietly and recover. Or sit here noisily. Whatever suits milady." He bows to Dee and picks up the lantern, holding it up to better light the room.
The room is quiet now that the creatures are dead.
"Well, if things get any worse, we can cut and run. Dee will need your potion, Ensis, so that she can run with the rest of us if we need to," decides Valexia, gesturing between the swordsman and the monk quickly.
"And no more risks, Dee! At least not today, not until I can mend your wounds myself. On occasion I like to go a little crazy, too! But staying in one piece, that's important too." She continues using prestidigitation while she speaks, here and there, to make sure her friends are tidy.
"It's not crazy, it's a calculated risk. Unfortunately as my tutors said, I'm terrible at mathematics." Dee stands up and looks around the room casually.
"But I'm fine." she adds a trifle unconvincingly, but from her stance it's obvious she's annoyed with herself for being such a drag. "We can check out here and maybe move on, as Rexus says there's no immediate threat."
Holding a hand upto Val, before she cleans Dee's clothes; "Since I'm already dirty, I could have a look in the pool. Especially now we've found out it's not that deep."
Well, I can aid in searching." Ben says, pulling out another vial.
"In hindsight I should have prepared an extract more suitable for fighting. But since we were supposed to be coming here to search for something,..." Ben holds up his vial and jiggles it. The fluid in the heavy crystal shimmers in the dim lantern light.
Ben swigs the small vials contents in one swift gulp.
"This extract enhances my own senses. It should last for about 20 minutes or so. Long enough to do a complete and thorough search of this chamber. Provided there are no other distractions of course." He adds wryly as his eyes momentarily shimmer with green light. Recovering his own lantern, Ben begins a step by step search of the chamber,...
As Rexus said, all is quiet after the fall of the two devils. There’s no trace of the whispery pipe music. Rexus carries the lantern while the party explores. There’s nothing more in the circular plaza area, but opposite the entrance is a set of ruined doors. These lead to a run-down and crumbling area that once held several rooms.
These rooms have fallen mostly into disrepair. Chunks of plaster hang from the walls, exposing rough stonework beyond. Scattered furnishings that once outfitted bunkrooms, a kitchen, and even an armory lie scattered about in states of complete disrepair, and doors hang from hinges in the crumbling archways that lie between the chambers.
There’s a small nest in the northeast corner, much cleaner and tidier than the grimple pen, but nothing is in it and there’s no evidence of what created and used it.
The nest is built atop three crates. Two are wooden, but the third is a locked iron coffin that looks well-built enough to be watertight.
The first crate contains a set of leather armor, a shortbow, a hand crossbow, a morningstar, a cloak, and a pouch with pearls. The second is packed with straw. Carefully nestled within the straw are six tiny statues of ravens worked in silver. Down one side are two batons: one of ivory with gold chasings and an etching of 3 drops painted in red, and a simple wooden wand engraved with a design of cups and plates.
Cloak of Resistance +1 (currently Dee’s skirt)
+1 leather armor
Composite shortbow STR+1
Masterwork hand crossbow and bolts
Masterwork silver morningstar
Cloak of Elvenkind
Pouch of pearls (about a dozen)
Wand of cure light wounds (40 charges)
Wand of purify food and drink (26 charges)
Whatever is in the lockbox.