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yndra dithers between the babbling woman and going outside after the Midnight Mauler. She also glances at the wolves' corpses. "I'm guessing research has to wait 'till later, Professor." With that, she steps close to the woman lying on the bench. "Ma'am, we will do our best, but we need information. Do you know why he was here? And where he is going next?" Her tone makes it clear that she wants answers, and that she's in a hurry.
"It looked like an accursed werewolf! What business would I have with such beasts? It's a menace that needs to be put down!" she replies as he staggers to her feet.
"But let it not be said that Justice Pradowca is an ungrateful woman," she adds as she struggles to regain her composure. She hands you her ceremonial sword and a small jewelry box.
"It looks like the beast was headed towards the holding cells, though for what purpose I do not know. Hurry, before you lose his trail!"
With the judge unable (or unwilling, you're not sure) to provide further information or assistance, you head over to the building that the Mauler had escaped to. Judge Pradowca unlocks the door for you, and you find within amongst the empty cells a torn-open sewer grate. You quickly conclude that either Aeleth was here and thought he might find candy behind the grate, or the Midnight Mauler has fled through the sewers.
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Yndra harrumphs. "Yes, of course. We're on the case, ma'am." Her flat voice makes it unclear whether she's being sarcastic or not. She takes the jewels and the belt, holding the latter out for the others. "Anyone interested? Otherwise I'll store it for later research."
Yndra follows Starling down into the sewer.
The tight confines of the courthouse sewers eventually open into wider tunnels collecting effluence from the neighboring buildings. The putrid stink of human refuse mingles with a more natural stink of decomposition. Bubbles and ripples occasionally break the water’s surface, filling the chamber with a constant gurgle.
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Yndra sighs as the humans in the group take precious time to light torches and cast their magic. "Come on, it's gaining on us with every minute..."
In the sewers, she makes a dirty face at the stink. She shakes her head, hikes up her robe and starts walking. "Tracking won't be easy with this much standing water, I fear."
You follow a clear trail of sizeable mucky pawprints along a raised walkway to the side of the bubbling muck. As you walk along the narrow ledge, careful to avoid the stagnant sewage, none of you notice anything amiss about your surroundings...until you hear the sounds of soft clicking and shuffling chitin coming from the North. Just as Stephani is about to stop and turn to see what is coming, however, she walks into a clear, viscous... something. None of the rest of you immediately notice, however, distracted as you are by the approach of a swarm of something else coming from the North. Something with lots of eyes... and legs...
Initiative order:
Starling
Yndra
Swarm
???
Ducklord
Stephani
Elvik
Yndra believes that Stephani has stumbled into a Konnyaku cube. Konnyaku cubes are made from the corm of the Konjac plant that grows primarily in Minkai. Usually they come in bite-sized pieces and are often made with fruit-flavoured syrup and fruit pieces mixed in. How such a large one came to be made and find its way into the sewers here is a mystery to her.
That mystery does not deter her from noticing that fact that Stephani does not enjoy the flavour of this Konnyaku cube, and she wades into the bubbling sewage to try to cut her paladin-friend free. Her axe bites into the jelly easily enough, but she suspects that she will never be able to wear her dress in polite company ever again.
Initiative order:
Starling
Yndra
Swarm
??? -10
Ducklord
Stephani
Elvik
Stephani feels her muscles stiffening up, but thanks to Ragathiel divine power bolstering her inner fortitude, she manages to maintain control of her muscles. She is however still pinned and will need to struggle her way free of the jelly cube as the jelly's acidic body slowly eats at her flesh...
Initiative order:
Starling
Yndra
Swarm
??? -10
Ducklord
Stephani -3
Elvik
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Starling instinctively reaches for her lute, strumming its strings with a well-practiced motion of her fingers and creating music that seems out of place in the sewers. While enemies appear from both sides, Starling gathers all her courage to continue to play the poem she chose, a northern ballad about Fair Gunther the Page and his heroic deeds in the battle of Hargvar a decade ago. She manages to play, but can't really pay attention to anything else at the same time.
With Starling's encouragement, Yndra's axe cuts a little deeper than she thought it would.
But the Konnyaku monster is far from done. Its acidic jelly continues to eat at your hapless paladin.
Seeing Perceiving the two shorties before it, his high gelatinousness decides that more kiddies need to share in his jelly-goodness. It wobbles (5ft steps) over Yndra and Elvik, attempting to introduce them to its soft and gooey center!
Meanwhile, the little spiders swarm in from the other side. It seems they are having a party, and are quite eager to invite Dusklord and Starling (though they don't quite reach you yet).
Initiative order:
Starling
Yndra
Swarm
??? -11
Ducklord
Stephani -3
Elvik
Knowing her own strengths and weaknesses, Yndra stands her ground and slices at the jelly as it engulfs her. "Too late now, anyway. Blblmrph..."
[dice=Attack -PA]1d20 +5 -1
[dice=Damage +PA]1d8+3+3
Yndra cuts deep into the jelly as it engulfs her, significantly compromising the wobbly surface. As she allows the jelly to embrace her, she begins to feel a tingling sensation on her skin...a tingle that quickly spreads throughout her body as she contemplates how fruit pieces must feel when encased in jelly.
Initiative order:
Starling
Yndra -4, paralyzed for 13 rounds
Swarm
??? -11
Ducklord <------------we are here
Stephani -7 (breaking out of the jelly on her turn)
Elvik
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Dusklord, slow to react for once, examines their situation.
"If you would all kindly extract yourselves from that ooze, this will all go much better. Now, I believe I have prepared a spell for precisely this contingency," he says as he raises a hand and fire erupts from it, engulfing the swarm.
"Now, where is that confounded gnome when you actually need him to burn something down?"
Seeing what happened to Yndra, Elvik instead jumps back and barely manages to evade the jelly's embrace. He returns the favour with a swift chop across the jelly, spilling more slime on the... slime... on the floor.
Despite his exaperation at his allies' inability to handle a simple jelly-cube, he decides to leave them to it, opting instead to single-handedly take care of the menace approaching from the other side.
Stephani meanwhile finally manages to swim her way out of the jelly. She emerges from the back, gasping for air as she wipes the exfoliating gel from her now-smoother face. Starling begins casting a spell to summon...something, anything, that might help in this situation.
Meanwhile, Yndra continues to blissfully contemplate the fruitiness of her situation. She feels acid on her skin, but is certain that it's just citrus.
The swarm moves closer to Dusklord, and is promptly turned into the latest in Ustalavic street cuisine.
Moving right along to desert.... the desert moves right along... over Elvik and Starling!
Initiative order:
Starling
Yndra -6, paralyzed for 12 rounds
Swarm
??? -38
Ducklord <------------we are here
Stephani -7
Elvik
Elvik and Starling both manage to evade the gelatinous menace, and under the combined attacks of the party, the jelly monster quivers and melts into a pool of gooey gelatin that flows into the sewage. Yndra unfortunately is dumped rather unceremoniously into the muck as the jelly dissolves.
After about a minute, Yndra finally shakes off the paralytic venom in the jelly. She decides it will be a long time before she eats anything wobbly again...
Initiative order:
Starling
Yndra -6
Ducklord
Stephani -7
Elvik
After recovering from the wobbly ordeal, you continue following the Mauler's path through the sewers. Eventually, you find the prints leading to an exit, and eagerly follow it out.
The mouth-filling stench of the sewers finally breaks in the relatively fresh air of Ardis’s docks. The moonlight shining down upon the weathered stones beneath the sewer gate catches a glint of gold: a small, worn locket smashed upon the rocks holds a pair of tiny portraits. One shows a Vonran Vilk who might have walked the streets fifty years ago. The other, torn and gnawed, shows Markov Rutowski — Vilk’s former lover.
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Yndra harrumps when she's back to her senses, dusting off her cloak and clearing out some last bits of jelly. She slices off a couple of cubes and wraps them in canvas, storing them for later research.
"Thank you, dear," she thanks Stephani for the healing. "Let's get on, shall we? We were following some tracks, last I thought. Well, don't just stand here!"
Yndra pushes on in following the tracks through the sewers, not letting her ordeal with the jelly deter her. Once back on the streets, she picks up the locket. "Well, this doesn't promise much good. Anyone fancy a guess where he's going next?" To herself, she grumbles "Why didn't we tell the man to flee the city, while he still could? In a rage like that, Vilk could target anyone from his past, couldn't he?"
No sooner has Ducklord made his suggestion than a howl pierces the night sky. Several blocks away, a hunched figure pauses to watch you at the sewer exit, and then takes off running in the direction of Rutowski’s townhouse. You curse as you notice that there is a partially-collapsed building in between you and your target... and the chase is on!
• It takes a move action to move through a single square. When a character exits from a square, he must choose one of that square’s two obstacles to face as a standard action before moving to the next square. Instead of exiting a square, a character can choose to take another action not directly related to navigating the chase’s course, such as casting a spell or drawing a weapon.
• For each 10 feet slower than 30ft a character moves, he suffers a cumulative –2 penalty on any check made to navigate obstacles. Likewise, for every 10 feet faster than 30ft he moves, he gains a cumulative +2 bonus on these checks. Significant mobility advantages over the baseline speed type (such as flight) grant an additional +10 bonus on checks made to avoid obstacles, simulating the character's use of enhanced movement to bypass obstacles entirely.
• A character may attempt to move three squares during his turn by taking a full-round action. That character must overcome both obstacles on the square he is leaving. In this case, if a character fails either obstacle check by 5 or less, he only moves one square forward and his turn ends. If a character fails either obstacle check by more than 5, he cannot move at all that turn. A character unfortunate enough to fail two obstacle checks in a turn becomes mired in his current square. A mired character must spend another full-round action becoming unmired, effectively losing his next turn.
• A character can also choose to make a ranged attack or cast a spell during his turn in a chase. If the action is a full-round action, he can’t move at all. Use the number of squares and their established distances (in this case, 30 feet) to determine ranges as necessary. The terrain where the chase takes place might provide the target partial or even full cover or concealment. A character can only choose to make melee attacks against targets that are on the same card.
Initiative order:
Yndra
Starling
Elvik
Stephani
Ducklord
TMM