Ven points to the far door across the hall and whispers to Aenian. "That door should lead to the stairs."
He quietly follows behind the best he can.
"What about the blocked one? What scares these idiots?"
Regardless, Aenian heads to the indicates one. He points at the bubing pot, giving it a wide berth, "Haunt?"
Ven shrugs, "We can explore the other doors once we complete the business in the tower."
He stays a safe distance from the pot.
You cross the kitchen quietly, hugging the southern wall to keep a good distance from the rattling cauldron. You step over the cordon of rocks and approach the western door, but nothing happens (although the pot continues to clatter).
Opening the door, you find another orderly station. The western side of the room is completely filled with rubble from the upper floor. A door on the north wall is open to outside grounds, and the room is filled with the sickly, yellow mist, making it difficult to see more than a few feet.
Ven will detect thoughts (DC 14) on the mist in an attempt to identify if there are sentient creatures present. "We need to close that door and shut off the mist."
Winter tries to ineffectively wave away the mists with her hand. "Aye, that might..."
Her words are cut off by a blood-curdling howl, emanating from somewhere in the mist-filled room.
Aenian leaps up on the balls of his feet gesturing with Red Destiny, "Look there's something coming."
Aenian will light the shape up with faerie fire.
Ven moves and closes the north door as he scans the mist. "Where is the infernal beast?"
Aenian's faerie fire outlines a brightly colored, long-necked amphibian with six legs, a fanged snout, and numerous finlets running down its spine. It is about the size of a large dog. After Ven runs over and shoves the northern door shut, it moves forward with a burst of speed, wall-running around the room and pouncing on Aenian with its jaws and claws. The force of its assault throws Aenian to the ground.
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Winter shakes off the chilling howl and steps up to Aenian's side. She again manifests talon-like claws, raking at the creature but cannot cut through its tough hide.
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Aenian turns into a whirl of flashing blades and is able to redirect the bite, but gets gouged several times.
Aenian lashes back out at the creature with Red Destiny.
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Ven assumes his dark half and then blasts the creature with a magic missile.
; +1 bleed
Aenian deflects enough of the creature's momentum to retain his balance, even striking a counter-attack though it fails to pierce through.
Ven's force missiles strike it, leaving bleeding wounds.
Spitting, the monster sidles around Aenian and lashes at Ven with its bite and many claws. The small thing has powerful jaws, and forcefully yanks Ven to the ground.
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Winter tries again with her claws, this time raking two deep gashes across the monster's back.
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Aenian steps to the southwest to flank with Ven stabbing out with his blade as he spins ... and indicates to Winter to move up to the north.
Badly wounded and cornered, Ven drops his dark half and switches to total defense.
Aenian stabs the creature, piercing deep. It howls and growls, spinning to attack Winter. She blocks and bats aside a few of its claws, but still it latches onto her leg with its toothy jaws and pulls her down.
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Aenian moves again to the northwest, cursing that Winter was taken down as well.
Ven jabs at the creature with his quarter staff from a prone position.
Like Ven, Winter attacks from the ground, using her claws. She lands one solid hit, drawing some blood.
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Aenian finishes it off with a driving stab. The creature howls, twitches twice, then lies still.
"More disturbing things in the mist," Aenian mutters pulling his blade out with a twist. He helps first Ven and then Winter up. He then goes to close the door to the north.
"The south then? Or do we think there is something out there?" He glances back at the northern door.
"Oh, I'm sure there is more in the mist. Let's just try to focus on getting to the tower."
He bandages his wounds and then follows Aenian through the southern door.
Winter nods her thanks to Aenian as she gets back onto her feet. She brushes herself off and examines the corpse of the creature. "It was nothing natural, that's for sure."
She offers healing to you both before you continue.
After closing the door, the yellow mist clears in a minute.
You have to push aside some rubble, but eventually get the south door open enough to squeeze through. Beyond is a long corridor that leads to a junction of corridors. A tremor shakes the floor, causing flurries of paint chips the color of of eggshells to come down. Many of the walls are cracked and sag, and doors lean awkwardly in their broken frames.
Ven looks around with apprehension as the ground shakes. "Whatever triggered the initial cataclysm continues."
He points to the wall south of the entry corridor. "Beware, that wall is about to collapse!"
Ven whispers to Aenian. "And there's something crawling around behind that wall. If we move quick, we may be able to dart through the corridor before the wall collapses. What do you say?"
Winter nods, stretching her fingers. "Ready."
Aenian breaks himself from his reverie and nods to Ven, counting to three and then leading the party in a sprint past the wall.
Also,
At Aenian's signal, you rush forward together. There's a muffled shout of surprise from behind the unstable wall, and all at once it leans towards you and comes crashing down in a heavy pile of bricks, mortar and wooden beams. Luckily, because of your quick movement, you are clear of the area before it comes down.
You hear hisses and snarls from the room behind the wreckage, and as the dust settles three ghouls emerge, drooling with unholy hunger.
"More ghouls!" Winter's eyes flash fear. Again, she shrouds herself in the orange ectoplasmic shield, and also casts a ward from evil upon herself.
Ven looks around as he prepares for the ghouls, "There's more coming from the north and southwest. We need to move before we're surrounded!"
He runs for the stairs.
Aenian moves to follow Ven but positions himself between Winter and the ghouls (hoping she moves) and readies for approach
+1 panache if successful
Ven runs back to the stairs. The three ghouls rush out from the room, crawling and hopping over the wall's wreckage. Luckily, because of the difficult footing, only one can close on Winter and attack. It gnashes at her with slavering teeth, but her ecotplasmic barrier deflects it back.
Aenian moves back, positioning in front of Ven. Winter also withdraws to stand beside Ven at the stairs.
Ven runs up the stairs.
Ven continues to retreat further up the stairs and around the corner. His stomach drops as he sees the way up is choked with the collapsed remains of the second floor.
The three ghouls break from the rubble and chase, closing quickly on Aenian. Prepared, he stabs one through the eye, killing it instantly.
Winter rushes in to Aenian's side, slashing at a ghoul with her clawed hand and wounding it deeply.
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Cursing, Ven double moves back down the stairs and draws his crossbow.
"Venn stay on the stairs! WE shall move to hold our ground there if there are more dead coming!"
Aenian will attack Winter's foe and then step to the northwest if Ven doesn't move all the way down, other wise he steps to the north.
Ven halts on the stairs.
Aenian stabs the leftmost ghoul then backs up. Grumbling, Ven comes back down the stairs and readies his crossbow.
Doors across the corridor and to the south open, and five more slathering ghouls emerge. One from the south is tall and muscular, but appears to be missing one hand. The hand itself is tied around its neck with a cord.
"Bring Klades one alive. I like to chew when they're still breathing!"
Two claw and bite at Winter and Aenian, but you luckily avoid any contact.
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Winter's eyes go wide as the gang of ghouls rush in. "Autumn, we need your help... Now!" she cries out. You see her struggling to control a wave of rapidly-changing emotions. The orange-tinged aura that protects her pulls away, spiraling up, around and down before coalescing next to Winter in the form of a ghostly, auburn-haired woman.
The phantasm regards Winter with obvious disdain. She looks at you two and makes an exasperated grunt. "Two men, Winter? Your appetite is insatiable," she quips, her voice a breathy rasp like dead leaves swirling in the wind. She does not wait for a response, but turns to face the oncoming ghouls.
Aenian nearly falls over as the bizarre ghost appears next to him, but finds enough of himself to stab at the dead thing clawing at him.
Ven points to the one handed ghoul. "Your minions have failed you. They must be punished."
The one-handed ghoul shakes his head a few times, blinks at Ven, and turns on his minions. Aenian stabs his target through the shoulder.
The closest ghouls cluster around you and attack, with the others waiting to close in. Winter is raked by claws, and Autumn takes a bite and claw as well, though the ghoul's teeth do not appear to affect her as much.
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"Mine, I said!" Klades roars, clawing at one of the ghouls from behind. The attack is off-balance and misses wide.
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