While Kikinnin looks into the room, JJ finishes the first of the hillmen.
Juraan takes aim with his bow and lands an arrow at the shoulder of the remaining hillman, very close to the neck. He shouts in pain and terror.
"I yield! I yield!" starts the man to shout looking at his dead companion.
By his smile and nervous look, this one is plotting something. He is looking at something near the southern window.
"Drop your weapon and I'll spare you." acknowledges JJ without a real thought.
"I won't kill an unarmed man. But you'll tell us everything you know about this place."
"Do as the man says! Weapons down, face down and start telling us all!"
Juraan knocks another arrow and aims it in a threatening way at the surviving bandit. For emphasis.
"Sorry, I meant to say Pretty Please!!"
Marigold pushes her way past Maxim in order to get a better view of the battlefield, drawing her crossbow as she goes. Unfortunately with the logjam at the door she still can't really see what's going on and settles on giving Maxim a small bit of guidance, pointing towards the sound of the melee.
As the battle rages in the next chamber, the bottleneck of combatants prevents him joining the fray.
His attention is drawn by Kikinnin's query on the cage and its mechanism;
"Aye brodir. I can work out the basics of its function... Need to figure out its inner workin's..."
Ignoring the reduced clamour, and conversation in the next chamber the gun-mage instead casts another critical eye o'er the cage and its workings;
:
"Damnation! Still stymying me..."
Nothing about the man's surrender raises the black-beard's hackles, so he keeps his attention on Marigold and Maxim nearby.
The remaining hillman out of sight from where Ryan stood, seemed to be giving up. Strange but welcome. "Have a care Surabar, appears this one actually has a thought for tomorrow."
"Look, I don't know what you are looking for, but take anything you wish, but let me alive please" as the man moves closer to you he sets himself against the southern wall. He raises his hands to his neck "I surrender"
As soon as he finishes a horrible sound spans through the cavern.
The man touched with his back the stone protruding next to the window.
"!"
Marigold's eyes grow wide as the cacophonous sound suddenly echoes through the cavern and she points at the man with accusation and alarm.
"H-he p-pushed that st-stone on the wall, b-by the w-window!"
JJ steps forward and swots him with the flat of his blade.
"Wh-what? Me? No-no-no!" exclaims the man in response to Marigold.
JJ then knocks him down with his sword by emptying his lungs in a strike.
Registering both men you find out a couple of keys. They seem to match with the winch lock.
2x Chainmail
2x masterwork large steel shield
2x masterwork longsword
2x potion of cure moderate wounds
The terrible sound reverberates in the back of the cavern, then comes back to you as an echo.
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"Well guess they know we're here now, Kikinnin did you make dinner reservations? The matrade' has been summoned." Ryan quips as the alarm sounds off.
Ryan moves back out onto the ledge next to Kikinnin, watching for any to appear.
Juraan runs into the room
"Quick! Everyone inside the building!"
"Make it look like a false alarm!"
He then fires a ray of frost at the bandit (to shut him up):
Kikinnin hears something of sense in Juraan's bidding, so enters the wheelhouse, and waits. For what, he's not so sure. "How long we need to wait before we know how hard the hornet's nest was kicked?"
He looks back out on the cage. "You don't think they'd just cut the cable, and prevent anyone from getting over?" He needs to wait on Maxim and JJ, anyhow, as they fret over the mechanism.
"You know..." says JJ with a wicked grin on his face.
"Unless they have a back exit... we kind of have the advantage here. "
Then he remembers the rapidly rising waters.
"Although with all this rain, maybe time is not on our side today."
"That would depend on how easy it will be for them to get out on that side. It would be just as easy for them to hang out over there and pick us off as we come across in the basket, better to move quickly. Is there anyway to silence the alarm and free the basket?"
Shaking his head at the far side of the line, Ryan moves back inside to check behind the door leading further in beyond the hillfolk they've already seen.
"Let's see what else there is here." says JJ.
"Then I have an idea to get down there if we don't turn anything up. I'm pretty sure I picked up a potion to make myself invisible a while back.."
"We better check this door too!"
Juraan tries to be alert for any sounds coming from that door.
Maxim scowls at his nemesis - the mechanism, until his focus is broken by the strange alarm.
"Skit! Either we'll have company or the landlord knows he's got guests..."
At the questions on the potential operation of the basket and its speed, the dwur shrugs frustrated;
"Damn things got me beat. Should be simple but ain't."
Behind the last door there is a storeroom with a bunch of planks like the ones at the ledge.
Eventually the alarm ceases but no one shows at the beach at the other side of the ledge.
"Nothing exciting in stores here!"
"But these bandits' keys look like they should work on the winch."
… after a brief pause …
"When we go across in that cage, Marigold or I should cover with bow or crossbow before coming across."
Kikinnin sticks his head out the door. "Doesn't look like we're getting a welcoming party. We should head out. Who goes over first?" In partial answer to his own question, Kikinnin loads himself into the cage, and readies for its movement.
Juraan takes the bandits and puts them in the store room.
Making sure to hog-tie the one who is still alive.
"Can anyone help me make sure this one is secure? I'm not good with knots."
"Marigold, do you want to go across with the first group, or cover with your crossbow?"
Kikinnin uses some of the planks in the ledge to reach the cage. Once he makes foot on it, the cage balances to one side and another. The lake cavern is calm.
The group secures the hillman into the storeroom, then Juraan examines the keys observing both of them are same. JJ uses one of the locks to unlock the winch. Then with a bit of effort the winch spins and the cage moves slightly.
You do notice something entering the waters and disappearing below them in the eastern beach of the cavern.
"That is a long time to get down there. Especially if they have a way to jam the mechanism at the other side.. I wonder if we could make a sling and slide down the rope faster?"
Kikinnin doesn't like the swaying of the cage one bit, but he's equally unhappy with the thought that there might need to be a plank on the other side to accept them off the ride, once they arrive.
He stays in the cage, waiting for one or two others to join him.
Kikinnin observes the rope where the cage is mounted descends to the beach at the other side. That beach is at the same level of the water, while the ledge where the party is standing is about 90 feet over the lake. There is a building at the western side over the beach where the cage should stop. A mechanism similar to the one on your building raises over the western side building.
JJ notes the descend with the sling might be to fast when facing the building in the beach. An acrobatic character might be able to walk over the ropes though, or climb down the rope.
JJ looks down at the 90' drop.
"I'm not sure that tightrope walking is my style, but I think I could climb down invisibly. Then if there is opposition to our landing at least those in the cage wouldn't be sitting ducks."
"I'd rather try the cage, to be honest!"
"I think we should go three at a time."
"I'll go down first with Kikkinin and someone else."
"Then we can make sure the other end is safe for the others to follow."
"To get down relatively safety, I'll need to take my armour off.." sighs the lad.
"I can bundle it up in my pack. I'd feel much better with someone on the other side in-case they try anything."
He thinks a bit harder. "I wonder why the cart is at the top. Presumably that means they are expecting visitors, rather than to leave."
Kikinnin, JJ, and Juraan can go down first, Maxim, MG and myself will watch over you and then, come down after you've reached the other side. The longer we delay the more likely someone will catch us in the open.." Ryan offers...
"What do you think of my plan of going down invisibly first? Then if they come out and try and shoot us, we can have a bit of a nasty surprise waiting for them."
It looks like if nobody else is interested, JJ is just about ready to let it drop.
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"Uh...d-did anyone else s-see that?" Marigold suddenly asks, staring hard at the water below. "It l-looked like s-something s-slipped into the water d-down there, near the eastern p-part of the b-beach."
She looks up. "Um...let's hope th-there's not a lake m-monster d-down there..." she says with a shiver. "Otherwise we m-might b-be like b-bait in that little cage..."
Then she sighs and swallows hard. "B-but we have to g-get d-down there s-somehow. JJ, I...I d-don't really l-like the idea of you c-climbing d-down without b-being secured to anything, b-but if you th-think it m-might b-be worth the risk..." her voice trails off as she shifts nervously.
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"The other option is climbing around the walls, but that might be a long long trip."
He glances down, seeing nothing in the waters.
"Probably just a trick of the light. Or maybe it is the Drunken Morkoth in his rainy season home?"
Kikinnin taps his axe on the cage. "Let's go. Ryan, get to crankin'. JJ, in or out, this cage is leaving now."
"Well, I'm as ready as I can be."
"How to you plan to get invisible, JJ?"
"I had a scroll for that, but used it at the Lucky Monkey."
At Marigold's exclamation Maxim moves to the edge and eyes the waters below;
:
"Somethin' lurkin' eh L'il Miss? Reckon we best be ready until its dinner makes its way down!"
The gun-mage chuckles as the cage is lowered and JJ begins a climb.
"Remember to give it indigestion lads!"
The gallows humor is tempered with knowledge his magicks may shortly be required...
"A potion, but if the car is leaving now, I'll be in it. Lets go."
He grabs one of guards shields and prepares to hide behind it while in the cable car.
The cage dingles and swings softly on the cable as Ryan makes the winch to spin with a bit of effort. Like that, the cage flies over the lake, laboriously descending to the western beach. Kikinnin, Juraan and JJ can feel the effort of the ropes while the cage descends to the calm bottom of the cavern. The silence is only broken by the winch spinning and the cage friction on the ropes. Over the ledge, Maxim and Marigold, weapons at the ready can feel the tension.
Despite the worst thoughts of the team, the cage arrives to the other side without any other problem, and the three members of the Cauldron Watch jump down to the beach sand.
When the trio start to make signals of the arrival and initial exploration of the beach, a sudden splash of water takes the attention of JJ and Juraan. As they turn to look at it, a reptilian creature, roughly the size and shape of a crocodile emerges from the waters propelled itself with its four tails. The long finned appendages with razor-sharp spines are the bottom of a streamlined lizardlike body with a head like a many-fanged serpent, and four webbed limbs. The creature roars, the sound reverberating on the cavern.
The beast brings its jaws over the unnarmored Juraan.
The bite is tremendous, a clasp resounds all over the cavern while skin is tore from Juraan's right arm.
This is a Skulvyn. A bestial fiends native to the reeking seas of the Abyss. Skulvyns are evil-natured predators who delight in picking off the weak and defenseless. They take great pleasure in toying with their prey before finishing them off. They have a 30' slow aura, reach and DR/good. Their tails cause cumulative bleeding. Despite they are good swimmers, they can only walk very clumsily on ground.
AC = 22 (24 if Smite)
HP = 44/44
Weapon Equipped = MW Dwarven Greataxe
Condition(s) = Bless?
Kikinnin shoots a Look at the creature, himself having a hard time believing it's anything but evil. Nonetheless, he gauges it for aura, before deciding on asking Abe for help in his swing.
Once the decision has been made, he scuttles around Juraan, taking a step into the water if need be to access the monstrosity.
Edited, rather than clutter later :)
The creature detects as evil.
Gasping in surprise, and pain, Juraan takes a 5 ft step back
"Damn! It's a Skulvyn!
"Tough creature from the Abyss!"
"Slow on land, though!"
Juraan fires an acid ray at the Skulvyn
… and takes another 5 ft step back
"Resistant to all but holy weapons!" says JJ, adding his own learning to the question.
JJ does a partial charge in the moment of surprise.
"Although maybe this one is weak..."
He turns his twinned swords on the creature, hopeful it can be swiftly dispatched.
"Stay back Juran, those heads can reach a long way."
He admires the work his silversheen sword does "This is a blade and a half! I wonder if one of the churches would bless it for me?"
Juraan steps back and shots an acid ray at the abyssal creature.
The elemental ray fizzles out and dismisses when reaching the skulvyn!
JJ charges over the sand, and when he does so the skulvyn responds with a tail slap even flatfooted!
But misses and the young man stabs the sword in the creature's chest! JJ feels his sword deals not all the damage it is supposed to do under that brutal attack.
Kikinnin moves then closer to the skulvyn, that also attempts to slap the dwarf.
But the dwarf's armor deflects the attack as he positions himself next to JJ.
The young ranger spins with his swords once more, the first one getting deep through the neck of the beast. Although the weapon does not deal all the damage, the skulvyn growls horribly in pain.
With the others out on the otherside, Ryan reverses the crank on the winch and starts brining the cage back across the lake, not realizing combat had broken out until Maxim or Marigold tell him, at which point he grabs the Hvy Xbow ready nearby and brings it to bear on the creature.
"My you're an ugly one."
Marigold gasps and begins pointing frantically as she sees a fight break out down below on the beach; their friends fighting against a real lake monster!
I knew it! I knew I saw a lake monster!
Unable to do much else, she draws out her crossbow and attempts to fire at the beast - maybe they can distract it?
Juraann tries to shoot an arrow at the Skulvyn and hopes for the best:
… and takes another 5 ft step back