Khartelosch allows his previous swing to flow through to his back and he circles the hammer again to bring it down, coming a little closer this time.
After the beast bites Thaane, the half-orc calls out in rage and swings again, but his wounds are tiring him out, he realizes. He steps back five feet, preparing to put distance between them if the situation becomes dire.
Silvash flanks the creature with Thaane and attacks with his rapier.
Crit Confirmation
Despite the fact that he only has eleven bullets left, Thaane reloads quickly and fires both barrels again at the bug.
The bullets hit a vital organ of the bug behemoth as it drops to the floor in a massive thud following Thaane's lucky shot.
The smoke clears from Thaane's shot and the mist drops over Verrin to reveal him lying unconscious on the floor not far from Ibrah. There is a small pile of debris and bones in the northwest corner of the cavern and a ledge in the northeast corner that leads up to an opening.
Thaane smiles and congratulates himself at his lucky shot that he completely forgets about his fallen comrades.
Coming out of his rage, Khartelosch pants and sweats buckets and he struggles to concentrate what mental resources he has left to cast. He stumbles over to Ibrah first and then Verrin, letting healing energy flow into each.
Seeing that this was enough to stabilize both and bring Ibrah back to consciousness but not Verrin, he tries once more on the latter.
It is clear that his magical energies are ebbing. He withdraws a potion from his haversack and takes time to administer it to the unconscious Verrin.
This appears to bring the martial artist back to conscious but leaves him quite weak. Khartelosch removes his healing kit and gets to work on all of them to staunch the bleeding until they can find a safe place to rest.
"I... I have one more potion, but I would prefer to save it until we are in a guarded place where I can work my healing skills as well."
Khartelosch suddenly looks up at Thaane as though prompted by unseen hands. "Ah yes, it would be wise to clear up your wound as well, Thaane. That was an extraordinary shot at the end, and not a moment too soon." Khartelosch activates the wand of inflict light wounds on Thaane.
I have a few potions as well, hopefully this will at least allow me to move without slowing you down
Nothing has ever done anything like that to me before... Ibrah looks at the bug's carcass with a look you have never seen on him before. He begins looking at the wall where it came from again, trying to figure out if there is more to see there. Then he begins searching the entire cave and all the carcasses therein, trying to find anything he might have missed.
It is something you get used to in this twisted region.
Under the slashed rags of his tunic, you can see a multitude of scars, the fine scales that hardly look different than normal flesh seem to grow thicker there and in a various different dark and sickly colors.
As his clothes are already ruined, Verin focuses on gutting the bugs, looking for useful remnants, edible portions or pieces that can be useful.
Ibrah finds nothing along the wall. This cavern appears to be a nest of some sort. There is now faint glow of magic to be found anywhere and the pile of rubble looks as if it has been picked through. There is no soft glowing fungus to be seen in this cavern. Ibrah inspects the dead bug creature and notices its soft fleshy parts are shredded in between the hard shell plates that acted like armor. The only exit out of the room besides the way that they came is a hole upon a ledge in the northeast corner. The ledge is about 15 feet in the air. The hole is about 7 foot tall by three feet wide.
Ibrah points to the hole in the cavern wall by the ledge.
I wonder what's through there.
I can help you up there, if you want to take a look.
Ibrah considers for a moment, then nods at Khart.
Khartelosch twines his fingers together to boost Ibrah, pointing out the best spots for ascending.
Khartelosch lifts Ibrah up onto the ledge with ease. Ibrah can see partially down another tunnel slightly smaller than the ones they have been scurrying through. Most likely to keep the bug creatures from escaping.
[ooc]Are we beyond the steel door the durger came through or is it still an avenue of exploration?[ooc]
We need to find a relatively safe place to rest. Those creatures were... challenging.
I agree Verrin. Ibrah, will you grab my rope and secure it so that we may all climb up?
Ibrah catches the rope and looks for a secure place to tie it down, proceeding to do so if he does find one. If not, he'll try to hold the rope steady for whomever wants to climb up next.
Khartelosch will help the others up before climbing up himself. Up you go.
With Khartelosch's and Ibrah's help, plus the silk rope, the injured party members ascend the cliff slowly, but easily. The tunnel before them is dark and they can hear a subtle moan coming from somewhere inside of it.
Motioning for the others to be quiet, Silvash disappears into the shadows and slowly advances down the tunnel looking for the source of the sound.
Silvash moves ahead into the tunnel and notices that part of the wall on the right side of the tunnel has an odd shadowed line that doesn't seem right. Carefully, he moves through the dark shadows undetected to spy a gray-skinned dwarf posted inside of the fissure with a loaded crossbow waiting for someone to come down the tunnel.
Silvash know he has the drop on the dwarf and attacks him before he can harm anyone.
The guard is startled by the thrust and drops his crossbow to clutch his chest. Surprised, panicked and pained, he reaches for his short sword as he is finally aware of Silvash's presence.
Khartelosch turns to the others at the opening to the tunnel. Did you hear something fall?
Silvash attempts to silence the guard and when that doesn't work calls to his friends.
"I've got a guard here. Assistance would be good."
The gray strikes out at Silvash in final desperation.
The short sword catches Silvash, piercing his side.
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Verrin also rushes forward to aid.
Verrin
Ibrah
Khartelosch
Thaane
Silvash
The small tunnel doesn't seem to offer much room for moving around, to say nothing of swinging a lucerne hammer. Instead he draws his greataxe and tries move past the foe to a place where he can block the dwarf's retreat.
Verrin darts forward attempting to richochet a stone around Silvash to strike the offending duergar, with no success.
The guard juts out from a niche in the wall revealing a slight opening into a cavern. He stands his ground against the group knowing it will probably be his last fight.
Thaane draws his falchion with the intent of charging the dwarf before he becomes invisible, but he is blocked from the action by the rest of the group.
Silvash attempts to finish the dwarf.