"GREMLINS! NASTY, EVIL CREATURES. WE HAD PLENTY OF THEM IN THE BLACK WOODS."
If he has a chance, Johann would like to tell the group what he knows about them.
[dice=k nature]d20+6
As if they understood Johann’s words about them, the gremlins recede into the darkness of the ratholes where they cannot be seen... But their high-pitched gibbering can still be heard faintly echoing out of the dark little tunnels...
Hearing Johann's description of the gremlins, Boga checks his cold-iron dagger to confirm it's in its place. Slightly comforted by its presence, he looks at his companions to gauge their responses. "Johann, should we send a scout ahead? Or will the gremlins make that too dangerous?"
Hearing Johann's description of the creatures, Ogon unsheathes his cold iron dagger and holds it up. "If any of you would like to have this at the ready, by all means, take my dagger. I will stick to my electric attacks."
After either passing off his dagger or sheathing it again, the Fox then approaches the corridor beyond this rectangular room to look ahead. "Do you hear anything, Orpheus?" he whispers.
I hear you whispering, Mister Fox! Tra-La-Laaaa! Tra-La-Laaaaa!
Hearing Johann's description of the creatures, Ogon unsheathes his cold iron dagger and holds it up. "If any of you would like to have this at the ready, by all means, take my dagger. I will stick to my electric attacks."
After either passing off his dagger or sheathing it again, the Fox then approaches the corridor beyond this rectangular room to look ahead. "Do you hear anything, Orpheus?" he whispers.
[dice=Fox Perception]1d20+1+2
[dice=Orpheus Perception]1d20+5
The corridor runs west some thirty feet before turning north ahead...
"The coast looks clear," the Fox says as he looks back toward the others. "Orpheus and I will keep looking farther ahead."
He walks down the corridor looking for the next room.
"The coast looks clear," the Fox says as he looks back toward the others. "Orpheus and I will keep looking farther ahead."
He walks down the corridor looking for the next room.
As Fox turns the corner to the north, he hears the high-pitched, maniacal giggling of several unseen gremlins as a spike-studded barrel swings toward him at the end of a rope......striking Fox for piercing and bludgeoning damage!
HEHEHEHEHEEEE!!!
the Fox yells in pain. "Those bastards!" He keeps moving forward but tries to keep a more wary eye.
"Ogon! Are you okay?" He moves forward to be ready to assist.
"Don't walk into this spiked barrel hanging here!" he calls back.
the Fox yells in pain. "Those bastards!" He keeps moving forward but tries to keep a more wary eye.
The corridor bends again to the west up ahead...
[dice=Perception]1d20+11
"Ogon! Are you okay?" He moves forward to be ready to assist.
[dice=Fox Perception]1d20+1+2
[dice=Orpheus Perception]1d20+5
Both Fox and Orpheus spot the next booby trap in the gremlin’s gauntlet—a sack of flour precariously balanced on an overhead rafter, poised to be upended to spill the flour all over the victim!
[dice=Fox reflex]1d20+6+2
[dice=Orpheus reflex]1d20+5+2
Fox dashes past in plenty of time...
Orpheus is powdered in flour and blinded for rounds!
*COUGH!* Bastards!! I’m blind!!
As the thrush flutters about, flustered by the flour, Ogon reaches out with one hand. "Come on, here, just perch on me again and you'll be okay."
When told about using special metal to hurt the gremlins, Zagathoth sheathes his magic sword and draws his cold iron battleaxe.
"If we know there are gremlins, and gremlins know there are us, why is the fox scouting alone?" he asks with real curiosity.
With a nod to the priest, Zagathoth trots up towards the Fox.
Quinlan looks back behind them as he walks forward. "Damn I should have been more careful with my skeletal friend, could have sent him through the traps."
Fox advances toward a spacious chamber, another ossuary, in which the skeletal remains of Romans are interred in shallow alcoves in the walls. Small dark ratholes like those the talking dire rats fled into in the previous area riddle the walls between the alcoves, and numerous sets of beady, red, rat-like eyes glow in the dark ratholes, watching Fox as he enters the chamber...
The indigo crystal hangs above an unlit bronze brazier at the far end of this chamber...
Gremlins titter and whisper as the Fox scouts out the chamber...
Giant rats squeak and whisper nervously, also hidden just inside ratholes...
The Fox sighs. Well, it's not like I saw that spiked barrel coming, either, did I? Better to let the others have a look... He turns around and walks back to meet up with the rest of the group.
"The corridor is clear so far, and I haven't actually spotted anything in the next chamber, but those gremlins will probably surprise me again like they did with that spiked barrel. Can you all come have a look?"
Quinlan puts a hand to his kilt and speaks brief word in gaelic. His tattoos pulse for a moment.
Johann comes into the chamber. "WE SEE YOUR EYES, GREMLINS. YOU MIGHT AS WELL COME OUT AND DIE NOW. WE EXPECT YOUR TRAPS."
[dice=perception]d20+9
At Johann’s suggestion that the gremlins come out and die gracefully, there is a chorus of high-pitched gasps of fear and outrage, and the little red eyes vanish back into the darkness of the ratholes...
As he scrutinizes the walls, floor and ceiling of the indigo crystal chamber, Bear notices something off about a ten-foot-square patch of ceiling directly above the area right in front of the brazier and crystal, as if the ceiling slightly sags here...
Boga moves up behind Johann, next to Ogon, anxiously peering about.
-- if can take 10 for a 21, then will do so, but if not...
"We must all be ready for anything, especially the evil designs of our enemy." He pulls a scroll of "Protection from Evil" from his magical pack.
Boga moves up behind Johann, next to Ogon, anxiously peering about.
[dice=Perception]1d20+11 -- if can take 10 for a 21, then will do so, but if not...
"We must all be ready for anything, especially the evil designs of our enemy." He pulls a scroll of "Protection from Evil" from his magical pack.
Boga can also make out a slight difference, a sagging, in the ten-foot-square section of ceiling right above where someone lighting the indigo crystal would stand...
Boga and Johann nudge each other, pointing to the sagging ceiling. "Looks like another trap, one designed to catch whomever lights the brazier." Boga absentmindedly taps the scroll against the palm of his hand. "Indeed these gremlins are tricksters. Traps, rats, and gremlins. Any suggestions?"
Boga and Johann nudge each other, pointing to the sagging ceiling. "Looks like another trap, one designed to catch whomever lights the brazier." Boga absentmindedly taps the scroll against the palm of his hand. "Indeed these gremlins are tricksters. Traps, rats, and gremlins. Any suggestions?"
Squeaks, gibberish, and high-pitched chuckling echo faintly from the ratholes...
”Fox could shoot fire at it like he doed to the bonemen?”
Don't fall for it boys! We got em right where we want em!
Yeah! They don’t know what to do next! Heheheheeee!
Haha! Yeah! Look at the Bear, he thinks we’re stupid enough to come out and fight him like he likes to fight! What a maroon!
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Damn gremlins. I hate their ilk so much. This will show them.
Johann pulls out the decanter of endless water, flips it to "geyser" and yells "FLOW!" Water pours out of it, and Johann holds it against the holes in the wall... a few seconds here, a few seconds there.
"HOPE YOU ARE THIRSTY, EVIL DOERS!"
Damn gremlins. I hate their ilk so much. This will show them.
Johann pulls out the decanter of endless water, flips it to "geyser" and yells "FLOW!" Water pours out of it, and Johann holds it against the holes in the wall... a few seconds here, a few seconds there.
"HOPE YOU ARE THIRSTY, EVIL DOERS!"
The water gushes through the network of rat tunnles, drowning the little vermin and flushing the carcasses of drowned dire rats and jinkins gremlins out of the ratholes!
Johann gets a manic look on his face as he continues the water blast well past what is necessary."AH HA HA! HA HA HA! CALL ME A MAROON? MAROON THIS!"
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Eventually, Johann turns off the water and pulls himself together. "Well, that was fun," he says in a quieter voice than normal. "I feel... I feel like I may have lost control a bit. Something inside me has been feeling different recently. Like... like there is something in there just trying to break free. I don't know. I don't know if I should fight it or embrace it."
Wow, Bear! That was spectacular! He’s smarter than the average bear, I tell you!
Nifty trick, Bear! Where’d ya get that magic firehose, aye?
That thingamajig would come in handy when a fire breaks out in the city, wouldn’t it?