Moving through the tunnel that exits the room of three holes, the party travels briefly south, then north-northeast for a short while before reaching a fork in the path.
"Ok folks lets pick a direction and move on...this one looks promising!", he says looking down the first tunnel they come to after leaving the cavern with the 3 holes.
"Lead on Jack! we have your back. Your scouting has been great thus far..." Beerg give Jack the affirming nod to move forward. Whilst trying to stay out of site but close enough to engage if trouble should surprise him. Shield and warhammer drawn.
"If you rouse any enemies, run back behind Kraz and I" Beerg exclaims with a small tap of his warhammer on his shield.
Kraz is ready..
Jack creeps forward into the left-hand tunnel. It bends to the left and begins to climb quite sharply. It continues on this way for some time, and at certain stages gets so steep that Jack is climbing more than walking. After a bit, Jack realises that he is ascending counter-clockwise up a corkscrew of a tunnel.
After about ten minutes, the tunnel opens into a medium sized cavern. This chamber must be directly above the chamber with three holes in the ceiling, as there are three shafts descending into the floor of this room. The closest (northern-most) hole is rigged with a large stone block right at the top of the shaft, suspended by a rope mechanism that seems rigged to fall in response to a trigger. The western-most shaft (on your right) is only the size of your fist, and slightly ovoid, with a shining platinum coin wedged into the opening. The eastern-most shaft is maybe three feet across, but is completely covered by a stretched out sheet of waxed paper, which bows in the middle due to the fact that some phosphorous liquid is pooled in the centre of it. There are no other obvious exits from the room.
Nilelane leans close to the liquid, examining it carefully. It has a distinctive purplish-blue glow in the darkness, and she recognises it as a mixture of naturally occurring phosphorescent fungus and water. It is not poisonous per se, but it is not terribly good to ingest, and foul-tasting to boot.
Jack moves over to the hole with the platinum coin. He examines the shaft and area around it carefully before attempting to remove the coin.
Perception:
Investigation:
Sorin climbs up the shaft some distance after Jack arrives. Looking around, she sees the mechanism, holes and other things. She then turns her attention to the bigger room, it must be used for something.
Jack examines the top of the shaft carefully, and sees nothing that might be dangerous about the coin. Still, he reaches his hand out gingerly, and half-expects some horrible trap to spring, but he takes the platinum coin without problem. Now that the coin is no longer blocking the hole, Jack can see that the shaft widens as it descends, and is lined with what appear to be razor blades in the top third of the shaft.
Sorin looks around the room carefully, but can discern no other purpose for the cavern except as the site of rather complicated and dangerous traps in the form of the shafts. She recalls that the only other exit from the room below was a secret door also hidden behind a permanent illusion.
"Onwards!!"
"Well that was an eye-opener! Someone has a sadistic bent to their nature...must be Drow!"
Jack heads back down the cork-screw and turns at the first tunnel he encounters.
The party wends through the multitude of tunnels, and finds very little of interest. Having explored nearly all of the cave complex, Jack rounds a corner to spot a bubbling mud pool in a medium-sized cave, its 30' high ceiling covered in small stalactites. He crouches at the corner, watching, listening, waiting for any sign of life, but seeing nothing to alarm him, steps inside.
Jack doesn't even see it coming. One second he is creeping forward into the room, the next he has been struck by what seems to be a falling stalactite, and is lying stunned on the ground, blood oozing from a large gash in his head. . The stalactite twitches - it isn't a stalactite at all, but some kind of creature. The thing has two black eyes and a small mouth ringed by hooks, and it begins climbing slowly towards Jack, mouth gaping.
Sorin’s scrambles forward quickly grabbing jack by the arm and dragging backward away from the advancing creature. Hoping Kraz and Beerg can distract the creature long enough to get Jack conscious again.
Sorin rushes forward, then pulls Jack back away from the slow-moving creature. Nilelane blasts it with the ray of cold energy, and it twitches in pain.
You all hear a bubbling sound from around the corner to the east, but none of you have line of sight to where the sound is coming from...
Kraz will move up and attack it.
Kraz steps forth and deals a mighty blow to the creature, which twitches, but appears to be still clinging to life. He smiles, proud of his blow, but then a movement in his peripheral vision makes him swing his head around, and he sees a weird shape seemingly part of the mud pool to his right. The vaguely humanoid creature winds up and slings something at him.
The projectile hits Kraz squarely in the pelvis, and he finds himself covered in thick warm mud. It instantly begins to harden around his body, restricting his movement.
can i tell if this creature is defending its territory or means to kill intentionally?
Beerg can tell that the creature has obviously dropped in order to kill some food.
Beerg will move to the humanoid creature attacking Kraz at the front of the mud. Calling upon Torm to strike this foe with his mighty powers.
Beerg moves up beside Kraz and deals a terrifying blow to the strange thing twitching on the ground, his warhammer glowing with divine power. The creature explodes beneath the power of the strike. Beerg looks to his right, and also sees the strange mud creature rising out of the mud pool.
Sorin says a prayer to Torm. “While the beat of battle still drums, this one’s courage is needed on the field. Please allow his fight to continue.” Still surprised that Torm is listening, Sorin’s hand begin to glow and Jack is filled with a small amount of healing energy.
Jack's eyes suddenly blink open and a groan escapes his lips as he gets up from the ground, holding his head in his hands.
"What happened? What hit me?"
Sorin stands and offers Jack a hand. ”Get up and see for yourself, the others are in combat as we speak.” As if to punctuate Sorin’s point, Nilelane calls forth cold magic as she fires her icy ray mere feet from where Jack is sitting.
The creature hesitates, faced with a number of targets, then slings another ball of mud at Beerg, the closest.
Beerg barely manages to get his shield up in time, but he does, and the mud ball splatters over it, hardening, visibly moving and spreading before gripping the surface of the shield. The creature cocks what appears to be its head before virtually melting into the pool of mud.
"Kraz thinks maybe we should just leave mudman be.. It obviously does not want to fight now.."
Beerg, with his shield covered in hard mud and still facing the mud pool turns his head to Kraz.
I'm with you Kraz, let move on from here. I'll keep the back for now until we are out of this things range.
Beerg pulls in further behind his shield to allow the party to pass.