Coming out of the crack where you go to investigate comes a pair of creatures. These insectile monsters have four legs, a strange propeller-shaped protrusion at the end of its tails, and two long, feathery antennae.
They swam towards Simeon who is closest then then veer off suddenly heading towards Emmett and Elidal.
Party Initiative
Monster Initiative
Emmett blanches when he sees the monsters approaching: "I've heard of those! Seen a drawing!! These things eat metal, leaving nothing but rust! Careful! Careful!!" he warns, drawing his ranseur instead of his enchanted axe.
"Strike Sterne!" he roars, and his faithful companion springs forth and bites at the strange creature, while Emmett follows and strikes from above with his ranseur.
Jaru raises an eyebrow at Emmett's odd claim, but doesn't hesitate to slam a bolt in his crossbow and steps away as he fires at the creature on Emmett.
Simeon's attention is snatched away from his engineering musing by the appearance of the strange creatures.
His eyebrows rise as Emmett describes their abilities, "Fascinating...and dangerous." he comments as he also pulls out a bolt, places it in his crossbow and fires.
Nalun begins inspiring his allies!
Stern manages to attack one of the creatures, biting it on the leg but not tripping it, Nalun inspiring the beast. Simeon puts a bolt into it. The other attacks miss or bounce off the creatures chitin.
One closes on Emmett, triggering an attack of opportunity... and from Stern as well.
for
for
Hitting it hard and not killing it.
It now attacks Emmett.
against the Ranseur.
- A rust monster's antennae are a primary touch attack that causes any metal object they touch to swiftly rust and corrode. The object touched takes half its maximum hp in damage and gains the broken condition—a second hit destroys the item.
Other other weaves among the part of crossbow users to close to melee on Elidal and tries to attack her armour.
- See above for rust effect if hit
Round 1 over.
Round 2. Players up.
RM attacking Emmett - 22pts of Damage
RM on Elidal - no damage.
Jaru blows out in frustration at his miss and quickly reloads and fires again t the vermin on Emmett.
Nalun continues inspiring his allies, he draws his Crossbow and fires!
Balun and Jaru manage to drop the one attacking Emmett as Emmett also attacks that one.
The one attacking Elidal shuffles forward to strike at her.
Touch attack
Her armour corrodes at the touch.
- A rust monster's antennae are a primary touch attack that causes any metal object they touch to swiftly rust and corrode. The object touched takes half its maximum hp in damage and gains the broken condition—a second hit destroys the item.
Party up - One creature remaining.
Feeling somewhat sorry for the hungry creatures, Jaru reloads and takes aim at the last creature.
Elidal splits it down the spine and it falls open, shuddering.
Looking to where the creatures came from you can see a shadowy space and hear the waterfall below... within the shadowy space you can see many corroded iron beams, presumably holding up the section of castle.
Looking around briefly before continuing you see a wand poking out from under a rocky set of rubble.
The room is filled with the wreckage of what should have been a pretty large alchemical lab.
The wall that is destroyed leads to a rope bridge that bridges the next part of the schloss with the room you are in.
Sorry - yeah . Spell craft to ID
Jaru picks up the wand before Simeon can get his grubby fingers on it. He passes his hand before his eyes and examines it with magic sight. "A wand that extinguishes flame," he announces to the others.
While the wand was of interest to Simeon's grubby fingers, he was more interested in the bodies of the fallen rust monsters.
He experiments with pieces of metal, to see if the creature's antennae maintain thier metal eating properties after death...
If they do, he attempts to remove them...
Their rust capability is still there but is faint and appears to be fading by the moment but the antennae may benefit you by further experimentation or by way of spell components so you harvest them neatly.
It leaves you with the bridge to the next part of the Schloss.
Emmett puts his mangled ranseur back on his back with a disgusted look, then puts a warm hand on Sterne's muzzle, smiling at the brave dog, which yelps and licks the hand back.
With a sigh, he moves in front of Elidal and proceeds forward, casting a worried glance at the corroded beams.
Simeon, satisfied that his harvesting had gone well, joins Emmett at the precipice, looking professionally at the bridge installation.
The bridge looks well constructed... for a rope and plank bridge. It sways precariously in the wind and there is little in the way of safety of those who stumble. If two hands are used then it should be more than ok. Sterne is reluctant to step on to the bridge.
"Ropes are our friends," Jaru intones.
"All right, but I'll need one trip to carry Sterne across. If I can convince him to get roped on my back..."
Jaru pulls out his carved bone symbol and blessed the dog.
Sterne can best be lashed to Emmetts to Emmetts front in a sling. It would be more awkward on his back . Does this sound ok?
With Sterne strapped to his front, Emmett crosses, using the rope as an extra measure of safety lest he slips.
Emmett moves slowly across the wood and rope bridge steadying himself and his dog.
Emmett makes it 60 feet across the bridge...
As he steps past the half way point he hears a sizzle and a pop!
Looking down he notices the faint etching of a rune glow and then fade...
Above him the skies open and a tragic travesty of an angel appears. Wings stained black shear the air 50 feet above you in the air as her merciless eyes search for a target and alight on the ranger!
Party can take initiative!
"A summoning trap!" Jaru hisses as the dark angel appears. "But what is it?"
Emmett collects himself amd rushes forward to clear the chasm.
Ah, the learned Prof. Hildebrand once gave a lecture on these. Nalun absentmindedly says to himself and then gives a start
Nalun begins inspiring his allies...and looking for a likely place to retreat from this flying enemy!
Emmett goes a little pale at Nalun's mention and barrels through even faster.