The trap, as lethal as it looks, is far from complex... and Rallos renders it safe even without needing to engage the morlock that, through unfocussed eyes, stands ready to release it...
...and, seeing its violent mechanism sabotaged, it squeals and runs away to the south...
I guess we should follow that Morlock.Even if he seems confused, he probably went to alarm his fellows.
I guess we should follow that Morlock.Even if he seems confused, he probably went to alarm his fellows.
...after fleeing into the passageway that heads south, the morlock turned right and went through one of the western doors. Moving quietly forwards, Rallos listens...
...and hears many voices - all speaking the same strange underworld dialect, there must be more than ten individuals behind the door... and they sound highly agitated.
Rallos tells the party what he hears.
We could fight it out, not knowing the makeup of the morlocks, or we could fight dirty... Rallos says with a smile.
Ok, so we set up on either side of the door, Me on one side, Ea or Murassa on the other with Gray in the middle. Yasmin stays behind Gray and pokes with her spear to save using her magic. We thin the numbers out then we head in and finish them off...sound good?
Rallos quietly ties a rope on the door handle to open the door from a distance.
Readies your wide area spells, Yasmin. We could need them.
The morlocks have been speaking Undercommon… this language, effectively a common dialect between many (but far from all) races that dwell beneath the surface of Golarion, has very little in common with the ‘Common’ speech of humans and the other surface-dwellers…
"I'm not sure I can blast all the Morlocks at once without hurting you - I promise those freezing arcs are more targeted than they appear! Hakan, however, has some magics that can smoke out the Morlocks, don't you?"
The small genie materializes once more. "Of course - I have some new tricks up my sleeve!" it says with excitement.
Yasmin and Hakan explain that Hakan can create a stinking cloud in the next room to make it unpleasant to stay inside.
The corridors that lead to and from the chambers of this level have varying degrees of ceiling collapse... at their worst, the passageways drop to a hieght of little more than three feet... and, at best, Grayface still needs to walk with a slight stoop...
Gray took in everyone's words. Rallos' plan was a sound one, and so he positioned himself in the middle of his friends' grinder formation, ready to absorb the rush of enemies fleeing Yasmin's magic.
With everyone in place, the friends put their plan into action... and Grayface fills the opened door...
This large, square room appears to have been a receiving room. Its ceiling extends upward in a high arch, from which dangle the remains of four candelabras on long chains. Great chunks of the floor have been torn free, leaving three gaping pits. The smallest pit is filled with stagnant water whilst the adjacent pit contains some sort of charred, fleshy mass. The ceiling above that pit is coated with greasy black stains, suggesting the morlocks used this pit to cook or burn things.
The largest pit is filled with miscellaneous refuse... most of the organic matter has rotted into a fetid pool of sludge about 4 feet deep. Crudely skinned pelts lie in small piles strewn about the room... all of this of little relevance, right now - the eight morlocks rushing towards the open door are far more of a concern... and, behind the larger adult morlocks, a further four smaller denizens are lurking.
Ea uses her Bless wand, giving her friends and allies a slight advantage in the upcoming fight
As Grayface, Rallos and their friends ready themselves, the horde of morlocks within the room charge at them… scrabbling around each other, they seem to form an endless flow of scrabbling, flailing limbs…
…and Rallos’ position is quickly under attack, the door to the south creaking open and a pair of filth-covered morlocks bounding into attack…
Rallps whirls around and in one fluid motion lashes out with his blade.
Well, there goes that plan...not my finest of moments...
Hakan appears, squeezing into Yasmin's space. He fills the room with Morlocks with a cloud of stinking vapor!
"Damn it, too slow to catch them all in the cloud!" says Yasmin with disappointment. She tries to zap the ones who have swung around to attack Rallos, beginning with the nearest.
Stinking cloud creates a bank of fog like that created by fog cloud, except that the vapors are nauseating. Living creatures in the cloud become nauseated. This condition lasts as long as the creature is in the cloud and for 1d4+1 rounds after it leaves. (Roll separately for each nauseated character.) Any creature that succeeds on its save but remains in the cloud must continue to save each round on your turn. This is a poison effect.
A bank of fog billows out from the point you designate. The fog obscures all sight, including darkvision, beyond 5 feet. A creature within 5 feet has concealment (attacks have a 20% miss chance). Creatures farther away have total concealment (50% miss chance, and the attacker can't use sight to locate the target).
Despite his heavy shield and fine magical breastplate, the verminous morlocks managed to find openings in his defense. He saw the squalor and filth they lived in and couldn't help but imagine the same filth entering his bloodstream from their sharp weapons being thrust into his sides.
Assuming a defensive posture, he swung his mighty sword at the foes whenever an opportunity afforded itself.
Grayface, almost overwhelmed by the onrushing morlocks, steadies himself and slashes at his attackers… his first blow is devastating, lopping the head from the shoulders of the first of the beasts, before driving downwards into the shoulder of the second morlock… Rallos is equally deft with his attacks although his swordplay is not quite as lethal…
…Yasmin, once more lashes out with arcs of frost – jagged crystals of ice forming upon the ruined walls and low ceiling of the corridor to the south of Rallos.
…moments later, the stinking chamber that the Morlocks are swarming from fills with a fetid cloud of gas…
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The gouts of flame from Murassa’s spell obliterate the single morlock remaining in the passageway… the stench of burning flesh, when mixed with the smell of the morlocks’ chamber and the wisps of mist from Hakan’s cloud, is overpowering in such tight confines…
As the choking fog fills the Morlock’s chamber, the filthy creatures retreat back into the concealing clouds… withdrawing, they bark at each other for a moment or two before becoming silent…
The fighter waved his shield to waft away the noxious vapors. The morlocks drifted back, right into the conjured poison cloud without hesitation.
"I'm not going in there."
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Yasmin is stunned as the Morlocks walk into the cloud. "Damn it, the vapors must not bother the morlocks! Stay back, this won't last forever."
It was worth a try...
Rallis moves to cover the second door.
Ea doesn't know what to think about Murassa last words.
Is that a way to talk to people? Killing them isn't enough?
I hope your last words won't be your last words, Murassa. It would seem strange to read on your tomb.
The noises, grunts and whistles subdued within the cloying fog, slowly subside as the cloud begins to dissipate…
…and, as the last of the choking gas fades, the friends see that the morlocks appear to have fled. The room, which still smells quite rank even after the cloud has gone, now stands empty with one of the western doors slightly ajar…
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The warrior moved cautiously into the room as the magic cloud seeped away to nothingness, eagerly awaiting the stench's exodus as well. The stench unfortunately remained steadfast, and so Grayface was glad that he had eaten only a light breakfast.
The horrible conditions in which these creatures lived continued to appall and fascinate the fighter. This room was the worst one yet; he looked at the huge pit of refuse and rot and saw crawling vermin, mold growing on fungus, and detritus not even a gully dwarf would utilize.
...then suddenly his sharp eye caught a twinkle from within a skull's eyesocket, lying in the middle of the rotten garbage pit.
"Paydirt. Well, pay...within the dirt, that is. Look there; look at the skull next to the pile of rat tails and rusted helm. There is something inside of it that looks like a gemstone.
That pile is heinous and will get us sick if we get too close, I'm sure of it. Do any of you have magic that can pluck it out from a distance?"
Once Grayface points it out, Yasmin recognizes the gemstone. "Let's just hope the gemstone isn't also dirty. I'll see if I can clean it up a bit before we touch it."
Yasmin uses her magics in an attempt to both lift the gemstone away from the pit at a safe distance, and also clean it. Once that's all done, she takes a look to see what they've managed to recover.
Rallos looks around while the cloud slowly dissipates.
Should we try to run and catch them?
The skull, scored with teeth marks and with a brutal looking indentation above the temple, is pulled from the filth and – with judicious use of magic – is cleaned. Within the eyesocket, the jewelled prize that Grayface saw is revealed as a moderately sized aquamarine Further examination of the room reveals nothing of value… whilst footprints in the muck smeared over the floor suggest that the morlocks fled through the northernmost of the western doors.
Rallos heads to the other door(the southern on) and jams a piece of wood into the door jam to make it hard to open the door.
Don't want anyone coming up behind us.He the heads to the door they escaped through and quickly checked for traps.
"Yes, let's pursue," agrees Yasmin.
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As the fighter watched Rallos intently study the area for further traps, Gray was reminded of the pain in his leg where the spear trap had skewered him so recently.
"Ea, could I get a tap of that healing wand before we move on? I would prefer to be at my best."
Pushing through one door, and another shortly beyond it, Grayface discovers an alcove in which stands the vandalized remains of what is barely recognizable as a statue of bird-headed being with serpents for legs. Long, bronze tubes line an alcove behind the statue.
...and crawling across the statue, three of the adult morlocks...
Lurking towards the rear of the effigy, and smearing muck over it as they climb, the morlocks seem to dare the friends to enter their lair...
A statue of Abraxas, a Demon Lord.. But it doesn't look very much worshipped here. This can be of interest for the Hellknights.
"You won't get away a second time!" Yasmin takes a step back and arcs frost right into the line of Morlocs, from north to south.
As Murassa wrenches one of the morlocks from its perch atop the demonic statue, Yasmin unleashes a torrent of ice...
A thrill shot up Gray's spine as his friends' surges of magic flew past him, one that rolled along the floor in a tremor, the other as a teeth-chattering frigid cold that left a frost sheen on his scruff of beard. They counted on his sword and steel just as he counted on their sorcery, sneak-thievery, and holy influence.
He nimbly moved past the threshold and chopped in a flurry at the nearest morlock.
Rallos lunges forward and tries to skewer the closest morlock.
With the morlocks frost-rimed and injured, Grayface and Rallos move into the room and do what comes naturally to them. A flash of steel and two more of the filth-spattered wretches lie dead on the floor... and then, giggling in high-pitched voices, the two remaining morlocks charge the fighters...