Now that Kel had its attention he planned on keeping it.
He reached out with his blood born power and sent a shattering rippling tear through the ground around them.
Round 3
bah
Confident that his magic will bypass the creature's defenses, Kaval steps forward and delivers a pair of quick jabs.
,
,
,
Kaval successfully pummels the creature with the new enhancement of his unarmed strikes. The creature lashes out at both Kel and Dennis this time.
His first attack is at Dennis, which Dennis successfully parries. His riposte is successful as well and the undead creature crumbles at his feet (He only had 1 hp after Kaval's attacks).
Kel kicks the remains to scatter them, just to be sure the thing was really dead and then looked around to make sure everyone was safe.
The ground beneath his feet continued to crack and grow jagged stones. Occasional deep red light glowed from new tears, or vanished as the ground strangely sealed itself back up again.
"Uh, watch your step." Kel said, a little embarrassed.
Did I do that? I didn't know I could do that.
I did that. I figured if the thing was forced to stay close to you, it might just decide to keep hitting you.
[b]"Oh. Well, thanks, I guess. That's a handy trick".[/b] Kel muttered to himself.
...I just tried to get you killed, and you're thanking me? What is wrong with you!!?
"Ok, that was nasty. If it's any indication of what we're going to find down here, we'd best be on our guard. I'm still a bit wounded here, if anyone is handy at healing. "
"Sorry, my fire's kind of a one-a-day thing for healing. Apparently, you're not allowed to benefit from such holy blessings more than once per day, which I think is supposed to be the gods' way of saying to not rely on them for EVERYTHING and focus on bettering yourself. Or something." Efin said.
"Right. Logic like that reminds me of why I follow the drunk god. "
Your priest friend is a complete idiot. It isn't some arbitrary limitation of the gods that keeps her fire from being able to sew up wounds all day. Its the limitations of mortals. The gods simply gave her a small way around those inherent limits.
There's only so much of a direct divine charge that a mortal soul can process. Some of it nourishes the body. The excess is absorbed or diffused as a byproduct of other biological functions. Its like filling up a funnel. No matter how much goes in the top, it can only go out the bottom so fast. Pouring more in won't help, and can actually be wasteful if the funnel overflows. The process is complicated, but as an answer to the problem of how to keep mortals from simply exploding when they come into contact with divine energy, it is rather elegant in its simplicity.
"Should I tell her that?" Kel asked himself quietly.
That she's an idiot? Go right ahead.
"Either that or the real power is saved for those who're actively worshiping, not just getting lucky with ancestry." she added, continuing to look and sound rather cheerful. "Now... let's see if there's anything interesting left here, eh?" she added, looking around the room.
"Nevermind." Kel muttered and turned to take a look at Dennis' wound.
"Do we have any other healers among us?"
Shimmer casts a cure light wounds on Dennis.
"Well, I'm not really sure if it will work, since Efin's ability looks an awful lot like what I can do, but we can try it out and see? Hold still and maybe I can cauterize some of those wounds for you," the grippli says excitedly as white flames run down his arms and leap out to envelope Dennis.
"It worked! Fantastic!"
Yes, it works as long as it is from a different person.
This shrine was always humble, and little treasure can be found within save for that on the huecuva’s body. A pouch on its belt contains two potions, and on one withered hand it wears a knotted gold ring. The priest’s masterwork warhammer lies dusty on the ground, long forgotten.
The ones that made the knowledge check are able to fill you in on the nature of this creature. Huecuva are the undead spirits of good clerics who were unfaithful to their god and turned to the path of evil before death. As punishment for their transgression, their god condemned them to roam the earth as the one creature all good-aligned clerics despise — undead. As such, this shrine is probably considered to be desecrated.
"Oh... this dwarf betrayed Torag somehow, and he was twisted into unlife as punishment. Perhaps we can fix this place back up to set things right before we move on? Can't hurt to have a holy place we can fall back to with demons roaming the streets above."
Kaval reveals that this shrine can be consecrated—either to Torag or to a new deity—with 8 hours of work cleaning and praying. it has been about an hour and a half since the you fell down here. That makes it about 1:30-2:00 in the afternoon. However, If you spend the 8 hours, you can rest in shifts and start with your daily uses replenished.
"Good idea." Kel said. "I don't know much about Torag though. What needs to be done?"
"Oh, various bits of this and that. Just follow my lead." Efin said as she started pointing out various little tasks that needed to be done to help clean the place properly. She hummed a bit as she did so, occasionally conjuring up some water (as needed to scrub things down) and checking on the other members of their group. Doubtless they were worried about not rushing straight to the surface, but no good ever came of ignoring the gods and rushing ahead without their blessings. Quite the opposite, really.
Dennis pitches in with the effort, though he does think it distracts from the urgent task of getting back to the surface.
No reason to make waves since the rest want to do this. Might give time for the hurt folk to recover a bit more.
Congratulations, you have made a wise choice. Spending the time to rest here as well as cleaning the temple, everyone gains the benefits of healing as if they had spent 24 hours bed rest with long term care. In addition, I need everyone to make a knowledge religion check (even untrained). Also, everyone's daily uses are restored and casters can change around their spells. There are also the two potions to identify.
derp
One is a cure light wounds, the other you are unsure of.
Efin blinked slightly as the froggy stared at the potions, and as she worked, she took a glance. <"Target: Cone. Effect: Sense Magic."> she said in Celestial as she looked towards the other potion they had and worked to identify its properties.
The second potion is also a cure light wounds. Don't forget about the gold ring (not magical) and the masterwork warhammer (also not magical).
You successfully reconsecrate the shrine. Torag notices your efforts and blesses your group.
Horgus seems to have softened towards you a little more. He comes up to you and pulls out his bag.
"Here, I found these as we were leaving the first cavern. I can tell they have power as when I touch them they reveal themselves, but they won't work if you have more than one." He pulls silver scales from his bag. They are the size of a man's hand and you immediately recognize them as scales from Terendelev. He hands one to each of you.
When you touch them, you receive a flash of insight about the scale’s properties, along with an emotional rush of sadness tinged with resolute determination.
Mel's eyes go wide as he reverently takes the dragon scale. "Uh, thank you Horgus. This is incredible."
I really don't deserve this.
True.
Kaval looks down at the large silver scale in his hand quietly for a few long moments before looking up at those around him, "She's really gone isn't she? I remember seeing her every so often while I was training, as she flew off on important business. I never saw her fight until today, but you could see the respect in the commanders' eyes when they caught sight of her. What... are we supposed... to do without her?"
"You mean the dragon?" Kel asked the frog-man. "Who was she? Why did she save us?"
One of them must be important, and I just got lucky being nearby.
"Well that's a confirmation I didn't really want to see, but I suppose we better face facts. She died saving us and gave us even more in passing. Best we get a move on and not squander her gift. "
getting together his portion of what limited wares they have to carry. "We better get headed out. "
I know if I let them get settled into a fairly safe space, they will be that much harder to get moving.
The passageway leading south from here continues for about 3,000 feet (at a speed of 15 feet, this takes about 40 minutes to navigate) before ending here after a gradual rise in elevation of 30 feet in another cavern. Stone figures are carved into the walls of this cavern. Each depicts a different crusader clad in armor and wielding weapons, but their carved stone features contain expressions of sadness.
"Now that is weird. Why would this be down here? Seems like a lot of work to make a bunch of statues down here where nobody will see them. "
"What makes you think nobody sees them?" Efin asked blankly. "Although I suppose nobody's done so recently... this was probably a stop on the way to Torag's place." she thought for a moment. "Does Kenabres have dwarves living under it...?" she didn't remember hearing anything like that, but...
Aravashnial perks up at mention of the statues.
"Can you describe them to me?"
He listens intently as you describe the statues.
"There is an old legend that after the First Crusade a group of crusaders who had become infected with Abyssal energies fled into these caverns to raise their deformed children in peace, and that their descendants live on today in the tunnels below the city. The presence of these statues here gives significant credence to that tale."
"Well that sure makes more sense. Didn't quite get why dwarves would make human statues. Do you know if these descendants are likely to be a threat?"
"It's hard to say for certain. If they maintained any type of continuity with the past, I would expect them to be more of allies than enemies."
"Aaaaah, thank you, my lady, for guiding us to this long-forgotten path!" Efin prayed, almost bouncing up and down in excitement. "If they are down here, maybe we can convince them to help us get to the surface. A major demon raid could affect them, too, after all."[
Dennis will take a look around the room in case there is anything worth salvaging before they move on.
As you converse and look at the statues, three dark shapes fall from the ceiling towards your group.
Surprise round
creatures
Argus
Efin
Kaval
Dennis
Shimmer
Kel
Horgus
Aravashnial
fail!
miss!
miss!
Horgus -4