"We are on official Champion's Games business. We understand some of the teams are cheating and there is evidence to be found down here,"
"But you are gladiators. Wouldn't that make you partial?" The guard looks a bit confused, not quite sure what to think.
"Of course we're partial, thats exactly the point! Who better to send on an investigation of cheating gladiators than gladiators with experience investigating things!"
Feres imubues himself with a bit of Sarenrae's divine glory before adding to the conversation.
"Indeed, that is why Master Raknian hired us and started those rumors of how inept we were before the first round - so that we could move about easier and question the other teams without raising suspicion. Now that the field has been narrowed to the more likely cheaters, we are to move into the next phase of our investigation, which is to search this portion of the under-Arena. Have you seen any members of the other teams in this area?"
"That explains a lot."The guard chuckles. "You'll have to watch out, mind you. A lot of people lost money because of you. Of course a number of people made a fortune, but they don't tend to be as grateful as the others are resentful."
"Oh well, look around if you like. I doubt you'll find any irregularities down here. There is just one prisoner left, anyway, and he's not going to tell you anything - poor soul is deaf and dumb."
He waves vaguely across the room and returns to his card game with the other arena attendants.
As you enter the corridor, he is confirmed. The cells are usually holding criminals about to be executed in the arena, but all the cells except one are empty, with just one poor wretch huddled in a corner.
Do you want to try to talk to him anyway or will you continue exploring?
"That poor man," Feres says sympathetically upon seeing the wretched prisoner. "We should do something to help him. Knowing how evil Raknian is, it wouldn't surprise me if this man wasn't a criminal at all," Feres adds, waving to the deaf-mute prisoner to get his attention.
"What's a prisoner doing in the arena in the first place? That doesn't make much sense"
Vulcan murmurs to himself, shifting his perception into the magical spectrum before studying the man.
"Deaf and dumb just seems rather convenient to me,"
The reason there are prisoners down here is that the arena serves as a place of execution when there are no games on. And in the City State with its draconic laws, there are lots of things that can get you executed.
There is nothing magical about the man. As you try to speak to him, however, he starts to frantically draw pictures of what looks like worms or something in the dirt on the floor and pointing to the empty cell across the hallway while making strange guttural noises.
Feres' eyes widen when he sees what the prisoner is drawing in the dirt on the floor. "Look at that! Those look like worms! With what we know about Raknian and the Apostolic Scrolls, do you think those could be Kyuss worms?" Feres asks his companions in a loud whisper. "He keeps pointing at the cell across the hall. Valgrim, can you tell if there's any sign that there may have been any Kyuss spawn in there?"
"Kyuss, eh? That might explain why Raknian wanted to kill us; maybe we know too much."
"Sure, I can try." Valgrim searches for tracks in the area and around the corridor, especially undead ones.
The scuffled hay, a shriveled worm and some other subtle clues tell a grisly story. It seems that a man went into this cell but a spawn of Kyuss left. There are also some indistinct tracks of some kind of cloven hoofs.
The tracks of the undead creature lead along the corridor and through a door to the left.
Feres motions to the deaf-mute prisoner to gain the man's attention. The stout priest points to the cell across the hall, and then points down the corridor to the door on the left, raising his eyebrows as if to ask, "Is that where the creature went?"
Valgrim leads the party after the undead trail.
Bubba follows after Valgrim.
Vug drinks her mutagen and follows.
The deaf-mute confirms your suspicions by nodding frantically. You follow the trail through a door and into a small cellar contains several barrels and hundreds of glass bottles on shelving on the south wall. The air is thick with the smell of vinegar.
Valgrim's sharp senses reveal a carefully-hidden swiveling wall section
in the northwest corner.
Valgrim checks for traps and if he finds none, steps through the secret passage. If he finds one, he asks Vug to disarm.
The door is not trapped, but the small landing behind it is, with some kind of magic trap. As you open the door a rotten stench wafts towards you. A narrow staircase winds its way down.
"Vug, trap, magical I believe. Can you disarm?"
"Uh...not that I know of. I can whip up a mite and send him charging through, though."
"Can you summon 2 of them? Have one run through and then the other to see if the trap resets?"
"Sure, if you give me a minute to whip up another extract."
Vug starts mixing some chemicals with a blank matrix of protoplasm.
While Vug prepares her extract Vulcan quickly intones a spell, the familiar swath of whirling air beginning to orbit hs body.
Vug spills the mite out onto the floor and tells it to run down the stairs. Just as it sets foot on the landing, though, it clutches its heart and falls to the floor, dissolving into a puff of smoke as it goes.
Are you going to send another after it and what's its instructions?
Vug tells the second mite to walk down to the landing, first of all.
The trap was above the stairs, and the second mite passes it without getting harm. Are you sending it down the stairs?
Vucan shakes his head at the wicked trap that wipes out the first mite, quickly muttering another spell that takes effect in a rush of wind as the sorceror rises to hover four inches above the ground.
Feres takes the opportunity to use one of his Pearls of Power to recall his Shield of Faith spell, but does not cast the spell yet.
Vug allows Valgrim to resume the lead, if he so wishes.
Valgrim takes the lead, if the mite passed safely, and heads down the stairs.
The mite follows, followed by the rest of us (I presume).
Descending the stairs Valgrim notes that one or more undead clearly passed this way. Also, the stench is getting worse. The stairs end in a narrow corridor, which ends in a door, which appears to be clear of traps, so I'm going to assume that Valgrim opens it.
The door opens into a square room containing three plain wooden coffins. Two coffins lie along the south wall, while a third has been placed in the north part of the room. Several empty sacks are piled near the third coffin.
As you enter three skeletal undead dripping with fat green worms out of their mouths and eye-sockets rise out of the coffins.
Roll for initiative.
(I assume that the mite vanishes by this point.)
Init:
Well, the monsters go on 5, so Valgrim, Vug and Feres all beat them and probably Bubba too, so have at it.
Valgrim swings his frost greataxe at the undead spawn in J31 with Vital Strike and Power Attack and then steps to M31:
Valgrim destroys the closest undead as it starts to emerge and then moves in on the other two . Vug and Vulcan (and possibly Bubba) to go, then the monsters.
Vulcan grasps the rod at his hip before sending a stream of hailstones hurtling towards the next skeleton to advance.
Magic missile
Vug chucks a fire bomb at the undead in J34.
Vug and Vulcan destroy another spawn, while the last one decides to go after Valgrim. An impending sense of doom grasps you. as it slams Valgrim for 8 points of damage, leaving a fat green worm in the wound.
You are up.
"Finish them Val!"
Valgrim steps back 5' and pulls out a handaxe and tries to carefully cut the worm off his wound, before it burrows into his flesh!
"Will someone please kill that last hell-spawn?!"
Vug takes a step away and tosses a firebomb at it, avoiding her allies.
Oops...roll for scattering...
Splash damage 10, Ref DC 19 for 1/2