The party sets down to rest just around the corner and out of sight from the gates beyond the lava chasm.
Kraz and Sorin sit up for the first watch, and for the first little while the tunnel remains deathly quiet, but for the occasionally loud lava bubbling popping below. However, after about an hour and a half, both the half-orc and the half-elf hear the grinding of stone and machinery coming from the chasm chamber. It starts, and after five seconds has not stopped. It is not loud enough to wake the rest of the party.
"Kraz doesn't like the sound of that. He is not very good at sneaky though so he will stay put."
Sorin says concerned. ”Rouse the others. We may need to move away from here quickly. I will see if I can tell who or what is coming. “ After a quick prayer, she heads toward the entrance.
Sorin peers around the corner to the chasm cavern, and sees the huge drawbridge moving down. It's perhaps a third of the way down to connecting the two sides of the chasm. At this rate it will take at least another twenty seconds for it to come to rest and form a bridge across.
Sorin notices movement in the arrow slits beside the drawbridge on the far side, although she can't make out what is behind them.
Kraz moves to wake the others and prepares for a fight or flight..
Kraz shakes each of you awake, swiftly explaining the situation.
Jack slides into the shadows after pouring Drow poison on several of his bolts.
Stealth:
Beerg wakes after a short sleep. He rubs the fresh sleep that had only just formedin his eyes. He sees it’s the dirt and grit from the caverns they’ve been exploring.
we better be prepared for anything
Beerg casts bless on Kraz, Sorin and Jack.
Sorin watches, reporting to the group back around the corner what she sees. As the huge stone drawbridge comes near to resting on your side of the chasm, and it reveals a 10-foot wide exit tunnel on the other side between the arrow slits, leading beyond a well-made fortified stone facade. However, the most urgent thing revealed by Sorin's new line of vision over the nearly lowered drawbridge is the furry, frantic, writing mass a creatures rushing across it!
At first glance, the creatures appear to be some grotesque cross between a chimp and a lion. They seem utterly mindless, slavering and gibbering as they charge en masse. Behind them, pushing forward towards the rear of the horde of at least thirty creatures, are four bright lights, obviously magical, hovering in the air and herding the creatures over the bridge. In the time it takes for the creatures to make it half way across Sorin has seen at least four of them fall to their death, off the side of the drawbridge and plummeting down to the lava flow below.
Nilelane's ploy is more successful than she may have hoped: ten of the creatures, startled by the glowing orbs, swerve away from them and over the edge, shrieking as they fall to their deaths!
Beerg, having just woken up from his slumber, has just pulled his weapon to ready himself after casting bless. Silently watching nilelanes glowing orb trick for effectiveness.
As the creatures come into range, Jack targets the largest of the beasts and fires his poisoned bolt.
Attack:
Adv.
Crit Damage:
Sneak:
Drow Poison: DC 13 or poisoned condition
Although a glorious death would please Torm, a pointless one would not. Sorin chooses the better part of valor and tells the others ”We must pull back or be over run, does anyone have anything to slow them down?”
Knowing Jack is fast enough to get away, Sorin begins to usher Nilelane away from the intersection.
Kraz will attack the one he is adjacent to.
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With no where else to go, Sorin will stand her ground hoping to withstand the initial rush from the creatures. ”Kraz, Beerg, we must hold the line or we’ll be overrun.” She steps in front of Nilelane with her staff in a defensive position and calls to Torm for strength.
Beerg will answer Sorins call for assistance and move up beside her with weapon and shield drawn ready for what is about to go down.
As he arrives at Sorins side he says a prayer to Torm to aid the party in this battle.
Sorin prepares her defences, a brief force flickering around her as she waits on her toes for the creatures to reach you all. Jack pokes his head around the corner, shooting one of the oncoming horde through the throat; it falls under the feet of the stampeding creatures behind it. Kraz holds his weapon high, ready to strike as soon as they arrive, and Beerg moves up to stand beside his fellow half-orc and Sorin.
Then the wave of creatures breaks upon you all.
Kraz lashes out, felling two before they can even touch one of you, but the rest hardly notice, rush in to you, lashing out as they surround you.
Kraz, having dropped the first two that reached him, manages to avoid taking any wounds from the frenzied creatures as they swarm around you. Everyone else takes some kind of damage from the horde, though. However, as the creatures push around you, you all get a chance to lash out at the back of one of the creatures.
Kraz swings his blade into another one before attack twice more on his turn.
"Take that nasty little buggers!"
Jack swiftly hobbles out of the creature's way, keeping close to the side of the cavern.
for
With her staff spinning around her defensively, Sorin steps from side to side using the end of her staff to strike out at her foes.
for
Kraz lays about, knocking down numerous creatures who fall to the ground, bleeding heavily. Sorin takes out one that rushes past here with a blow to the back of its skull, then finishes off another than Nilelane wounds just as it's about to retaliate against the elven wizard. Beerg also smashes one to the ground, muttering Torm's name as he does. Most of the party takes defensive postures, seeking to endure the tempest of creatures rather than attempt to seriously defeat all of them.
Still, the sheer press of the creatures makes their attacks almost impossible to avoid, and only Sorin resists taking damage from the horde.
Having attacked the party, the pack continues on, mostly moving through and beyond you all.
As the frenzied footfalls and snarling gibbering of the creatures fades into the distance, the only sounds are your heavy breathing from your stress and exertion, the piteous whimpers and groans of the felled creatures that have not yet fully expired, and the faint susurrus from the lava flow below the bridge. Then, you hear a snore from the crevice where you all rested. It seems Tirrendale's slumber was not disturbed, tucked away as he was into the recess.
Kraz has no interest in fighting fleeing creatures..
Jack works his way around the swarm, keeping to the darkness as much as possible, and tries to see if the bridge is still down.
Stealth:
agreed Kraz. We do not kill fleeing creatures.
Beerg accesses his wounds and that of the party to identify who needs his attention first.
Nilelane slashes out at a retreating creature, but the rest of the party turns their attention forward, towards the bridge. The huge slab of stone is still resting on your side of the chasm... for the moment. As you all hesitate, wondering what to do, a shuddering noise of machinery begins again, and the bridge gives an upward lurch.
"Why does Kraz feel he is getting into more than he can handle.. Whelp, let's go save some dwarves!"
Assuming the mute is with us charge across..
Jack leaps to the raising drawbridge with the others and turns quickly to assist anyone who needs it.
Acrobatics:
Kraz motions to the bridge, then charges forward, and the rest of the party follows. Jack waits a little for Tirrendale, who lags behind a little, and helps hoist the dwarf over the slowly growing horizontal and vertical gap between the ledge and the bridge. As the young rogue helps the dwarf across, he notices the tightness of the priest's face, the naked fear that fills his eyes as he returns to the place of his imprisonment and mutilation. Still, there is no time to lose, and dwarf and human alike turn to follow their companions and rush across the slowly rising bridge.
It takes no longer than five seconds for all of you to cross the bridge, but it feels like hours; the entire time, you expect squads of drow to emerge from the dark, shadowy gate ahead of you and send poisoned bolts firing towards you. However, despite your fears you all reach the far ledge without interruption. The bridge is starting to head towards 45 degrees, hauled up by a massive chain on each side. The dark entrance ahead waits for you.
Upon reaching the other side and after assuring they were not under attack, Sorin turns to the others. ”I hope we were able to do enough damage to that horde. It is hard to say where they are heading, but I’d hope to not be in thier path again.”
She scans the are on the opposite side of the bridge.
Beerg obviously leaps across the draw bridge ensuring Tirrendale is safe.
' With Torm aiding us we will free your friends and family soon, Tirrendale!' Beerg looking at Tirrendale with conviction in his eye.
"Well let's get moving.."
Move on in, sword ready..
The party moves forward cautiously, Kraz bravely leading the way.
Perception:
Lost in the dark, Jack places his hand on Kraz's shoulder and whispers in his ear.
"go slow, my friend...it is darker than the blackest night in here."
As kraz leads the way, Beerg checks out the area to acces the arrow slits to ensure we can’t have any one come up behind us.
Returning to the pack he comforts tirrendale seeing he is clearly uncomfortable heading deeper into this place.
Stay strong my friend. You need to stay strong for the others.
Beerg steps up just behind Kraz, and peers into the 20-foot square recesses off to each side inside the gate. Instantly, he and Kraz are aware of creatures there, two on each side. They appear to be the same robed creatures that you fought before in the tunnels, and all four hold blowguns to their lips. One of the two on the right seems to be climbing on the ceiling like some weird humanoid spider.
The creatures are obviously aware of you all and ready to attack as soon as you enter the gate. The noise of the blowguns echoes in the stone-worked "foyer", and none of you are hit by the darts - except for Jack, who has time to look down at the dart in his shoulder before his eyes roll back in his head and he slumps to the stone floor.