Cyrioul also casts detect magic, and focuses on the items with Bree...
Then offers to help Caladra...
While the others sift through the bodies in the pool, Cedric takes a seat on the cave floor. The water which filled his boots was unpleasant to begin with, but upon discovering that it's filled also mildly toxic plant life, he's even more eager to be rid of it. He pulls off his boots and pours out all the water, doing his best to dry out the insides before putting them back on. Hopefully the time the others are spending harvesting and identifying the things they found will be enough time that he'll be all set to press on by the time everyone else is ready as well.
With drops of water still falling into pools beneath him, Thorek tosses the stray fish back into the water and snatches the dagger from the squeamish Boudra.
With guidance from Lily, drawing upon her alchemical expertise, Thorek cuts into the fishers. Through steaming gouts of blood, he locates and excises the filament glands from the creatures. He holds up the lumpy, ruddy chunks of tissue for someone to claim.
As Cyrioul examines the collected items, he finds the only magic among them to be within the wand.
He focuses to discern its properties, finding it to be imbued with enough energy to invoke an armoring spell a little more than two dozen times, he estimates.
However, while considering the abjurative aura of the wand, another glow catches his keen eye. The other aura, radiating transmutive magic, seems to be focused around the waist of the smaller body in the water.
Muttering curses in Dwarven, Thorek plods back towards the pool to retrieve the belt, handing Caladra the rope again as he passes.
"This may merit a use for me now, to be honest. I would hate to be caught by a stray projectile when protection is in hand. Thanks for retrieving it, Thorek, and thanks again for heading back into this mess..."
Cyrioul examines the belt...
...before using the wand.
After a second, begrudging dip in the pool, Thorek returns bearing a belt of fine golden links. The clasp depicts a falcon with its wings curved into an elliptical shape.
He hands the dripping, algae-slick belt to Cyrioul for inspection.
This is definitely the source of the transmutation aura, and after scrutiny, Cyrioul concludes that the enchantments laid upon the belt are meant to bless the wearer with increased grace and agility.
The wizard gives a low whistle, then shares his findings with the rest of the party. "It's a mighty prize for any adventurer, to be sure. Let us consider who might best use it, and quickly, so that we can finish our clearing of these caverns and get the townspeople to safety."
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"nothing smells worse than wet dwarf," Caladra said with a pinched nose and twasing smile. After stretching her joints slightly she regathered her equipment and said, "are we pushing forward or resting?"
"I'm fine though I'm not the one taking all the hits. I do say if you are going to give me the belt I think someone might do better with the armor I'm wearing. I've weirdly enough never been hit,"Lily says with a confused look on her face.
"I still have all of my day's my ability to channel energy, so I think we can press our luck a little bit longer," Cedric suggests.
She smiles at their responses. She still feels it. The itch for combat. While their overall situation may be worse, she cannot deny it is certainly more exciting for her being on the run than stopping a few drunks back in town. "Then I say lets keep pushing."
Other than the passage you initially came from, three more exits sit on the eastern end of this cavern.
Facing east, the widest of the three is just to the right and becomes a sloping passage leading gently downward.
Directly ahead is a narrow tunnel that would require those of you in armor to squeeze through.
Lastly, just to the left is a water-logged passage feeding the pool with a stream of water. The greenish water is dyed a ruddy color with streaks of blood and bits of gore floating down from beyond.
"Lily, I think I'd feel better if you kept the armor on. Boudra can summon something equivalent to it if there is a sudden need, as can I," he gestures to the wand, "And this way you can be just a little more protected if you are firing from the rear and someone sneaks up behind us."
- - - - - - - - - -
Looking at the passages, Cyrioul asks, "Does anyone feel confident about their ability to be quiet?" He pulls a vial from his pouch and holds it up. "This potion will make you invisible, and I feel that it might be beneficial to have on hand in the event you make a lot of noise while checking out that narrow passage. The wide passage seems just a little too much like a thoroughfare for our opponents, and if we can get the jump on them, I'd be happy to do so."
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I can be...reasonably quiet. I think, Boudra signs. And I'm not wearing armor. I can give it a try.
"Sending one person ahead to see what's coming and draw any resistance to us, instead of the other way 'round, worked well the first time," Cedric agrees. Just be careful about getting into too much trouble farther away than we can get to you."
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Bree nods assent. "Thorek, do you have anything in mind in terms of laying a trap?"
Boudra creeps forward along the sloping passage until one last, sharp drop in the tunnel's roughly hewn stone steps leads to a large chamber.
The charred, smouldering remains of a bowl-shaped firepit lies at the center of the room, its faint glow barely illuminating the dark room.
From the shadows hugging the room's walls, peer a number of leering stone faces, carved into the natural stone in the form of reptilian visages.
Their mouths hang open in silent growls, filled with jaggedly carved teeth. No pupils have been carved into their oval eyes, making them seem blind.
More veins of crystal dimly twinkle along sections of the walls.
One passage to the right presumably curves back towards the entrance of the cavern, while three others beckon to deeper portions of the troglodyte lair.
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I'm deaf, you're blind, Boudra thinks to herself wryly as she passes the carved faces. Aren't we a set? Figuring that the group behind her is preparing the cavern with the pool for a fight, she keeps creeping forward. Shadows swirl around her without her notice as she peers down the second-from-the-right chamber.
Lily just nervously paces back and forth silently as she waits for Boudra to come back from her scouting. "I hope she is all right," she says with a frown on her face.
Peering around the corner, Boudra gets a good look into the next room, dimly lit by a weakening fire.
The tunnel descends into an irregularly shaped chamber with many alcoves and nooks along the uneven walls. Directly opposite the tunnel mouth, a carving on the wall shows a creature hatching from an enormous egg.
A low fire flickers in a wide, shallow pit about halfway between the tunnel and the carving. Large stones are piled around the edge of the firepit, their sides blackened.
More stones sit within the nooks around the perimeter of the cavern, near piles of dried grasses and animal pelts.
She sees no trace of enemies, and it occurs to her that many of the troglodyte tribe members may have been among the warband that greeted the party at the cave entrance.
Deciding that it would be a bad idea to push her luck, Boudra heads back to the group. I've only explored a couple of chambers, but all so far are abandoned, she signs. We can probably move forward to the next cave, at least.
Thorek thinks a moment, considering Bree's question as he looks about the room.
"Well, let's see if we can't find something to form a decent barricade. Between Lily's archery, Cedric's spear, my dorn-dergar, and the spells of you and Cyrioul we should be able to dish out plenty of hurt even if we turtle up a little. Caladra's not a bad archer herself, and if they get to our lines she's an unholy terror with that bloody huge sword."
When Boudra reports the next few rooms as empty the dwarf shrugs. "There may not be as many of them here as we'd feared, but a barricade still wouldn't hurt..."
"Huh, based on Boudra's scouting, we may be almost out of trogs. Wouldn't that be a lucky break for once. I'd like to check out this tunnel to the east (the skinny one, not the wet one). If you want to set up a barricade, we might can use some of the rocks around here." Bree is hoping that the skinny tunnel and the watery tunnel wind up in more or less the same place and they won't have to bother getting all wet.
Boudra nods. I'll go look... Moving carefully, she starts down the skinny tunnel, turning sideways to squeeze through any narrow parts.
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Boudra quietly squeezes through the narrow passage, and straight away she wishes that it was her sense of smell that was denied her.
The stench of death and old blood overwhelms even the smell of troglodyte in this chamber. The floor slopes down to the north wall where a narrow underground stream flows past, leading back to the grotto previously hunted by the cave fishers.
The light of a burning torch reflects glimmers from the running water against the low ceiling and rippling light patterns dance off the wall.
Racks against the walls hold the carcasses of forest creatures, some still draining their life's blood on the ground, others mere skins left to dry.
Much of the gore and offal has been left to drain into the flowing stream.
Among the blood-stained water, Boudra can spot the head of another monitor lizard just poking above the water line as the creature gnaws on an elk haunch.
Cyrioul makes sure to have his wands at the ready, and begins helping to arrange rocks and other debris to make the barricade.
"A lizard and a bunch on body parts? Eww. We should be able to take care of that without much problem, though I'm not sure how to clean that place out. One of us should be able to lure it back here pretty easy so not everyone has to squeeze through. That sound like a plan?" Bree asks.
Boudra returns to report her findings without difficulty.
She signs a question, asking who should act as bait. With gestures towards Caladra, Thorek, and Cedric, she also suggests that the more heavily armored among you
may have trouble squeezing through the passage and might risk getting "caught" by the lizard.
I can lure it back if need be, she adds. And we should not clean the place up...some of the kills look fresh. We could all use more meat.[/i]
"Lily, can you translate for me? Tell her to be careful in case there are other critters she didn't see."
"Lure it here, or squeeze through to it, I'm fine either way," Cedric shrugs. "The only input I might have is that it seems like there might be less chance for catastrophic error if we go to it than if we lure it to us. I recall that even Caladra had a difficult time getting out of the other lizard's jaws once it had caught her. I wouldn't want that to happen to an ally in another room while the rest of us wait obliviously."
Caladra looked down at her leg, puncture marks through the leather joints on her armor. "I think i remember. Rage memories are hard for me to remember sometimes." she then looks back at the others and adds, "Here or there i'm ready."
"I think we could put one of those cave fishers on a rope, drop it for the beast to bite at while we keep it moving. Might need to all be tugging on it on this end to get it through, though if the martially inclined get their weapons ready for the moment it comes through, the rest of us should be able to pull."
Lily calmly translates Boudra's words. Looking at Cedric she chimes in and says,"Yeah... I don't want anyone getting trapped by that lizard all alone. Best to meet that thing head on."
Boudra nods and agrees, signing, Let's lure it here. I'd feel safer that way.
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It is wet, smelly work, but you get a rope tied securely around one of the fisher carcasses.
Thorek and Caladra haul the body over to the narrow passage and toss it through.
In perhaps the strangest feat of accuracy in their lives, the pair manage to aim the body through the clearance without the dead fisher getting stuck.
The body lands on the cave floor beyond with a squishing thud. After a tense moment, splashing sounds can be heard beyond as the monitor lizard scrambles back onto land to investigate.
Despite their efforts to lure the beast in, the lizard's surprising speed allows it to chomp down on the carcass.
Caladra and Thorek soon find themselves in a grueling tug-of-war against the lizard, but with much sweating and grunting, they yank the rope and forcefully drag the lizard into the party's midst.
Cyrioul points a wand at the lizard and barks a command word to activate it, creating a slippery layer of grease underneath the creature's feet!
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Lily just shoots an arrow amazed that the weird plan worked...