"Blitz try touching the dragon." Julio says as he backs up to the wall near the locked door.
Blitz holds his torch to the fountain and the fire briefly races across the dried up scum and then extinguishes leaving an acrid stink in the air. He then holds it to the inscription to no apparent effect.
Though having no skills to help the present situation, Blitz takes a look around...
[dice=PERC]1d20+ 3
Blitz looks at Julio, puzzled. He then follows the rogue's line of sight to the relief carved in the fountain.
"Uhh, yeah...that actually sounds reasonable!"
He then holds the torch to the mouth of the dragon carving.
While the others experiment on the door and fountain, Savien moves with his torch up to the unusual hallway ahead, hopefully lighting the path. It's the most likely place they would be met with foes and the guardsman doesn't like being caught flat-footed. It also manages to put him farther away from the fountain.
Blitz better not light us all on fire with that thing.
Blitz holds the torch up to the dragon's mouth...and a line of flame races into the mouth, and then extinguishes to no apparent effect.
Savien moves forward another 20 feet or so and finds another open area, with a wooden door leading to the west. In addition, the hallway continues ahead and Savien can make out what looks like steel barred holding cells lining both sides.
Akula put his hand on the door. A gentle blue energy surged.
As the rest of the party watches Akula approach the door, they see a faint blue energy that quickly dissipates. Nothing else apparently happens.
Although disappointed that Akula's attempt did not progress the party's situation any further, a tiny part of Blitz's innate manhood breathes a sigh of relief that he isn't the only ineffectual member.
"This place is clearly broken!"
Akula looked at the door for a few more monents, then walked to the fountain.
While the others continue their experiments, Savien, bored, creeps cautiously forward and peers into the first couple of cells.
I'm just as likely to die waiting around for them to accidentally blow that room up as anything else. Might as well explore a little.
Blitz is starting to get a little frustrated at the lack of progress. Meanwhile, Akula turns to the other side of the room, gestures and begins filling the fountain with water. There is a certain elegance to the design, now that it is flowing and lit by torchlight. That said, there doesn't seem to be anything else to glean from it this way.
Savien begins creeping forward.
The iron barred doors of the first two cells are more or less opposite each other. Both are currently closed. Peering into each of them with your torch reveals little. The cell to the right (east) is partially collapsed along the back wall. The dust on the floor looks mostly undisturbed. The cell on the left is empty except what looks like small pebbles along the floor.
From straight ahead, Savien hears the squeak of iron hinges along both sides of the hall. He looks up to see four sets of eyes staring at him from the depth of the edges of the cells ahead.
Pre-Round 1 (Julio and Akula) Fight!
Something in the air pricked Akula's senses, he glanced around seeing nothing. He had learned to trust where the wind guided him though, so he drew back his bow and waited.
Akula instinctually feels the danger coming, even before Savien realizes what is happening. His shot skips off the wall near one of the rats and continues up the hall.
The fight is on.
The guardsman's practiced reflexes kick in as he drops the torch and brings his polearm to bear in the blink of an eye.
S@~+...
Julio draws his weapon but only advances far enough to see that is going on. "Stick close to me Meepo. Our brave companions are better suited to deal with these vermin."
Julio begins moving up the hallway, trying to reassure your kobold companion.
Savien begins reacting, dropping his torch...but as it is falling...
Round 1, Bad Guys
The first rat runs up from the right and takes a bite...
It momentarily latches onto Savien's pant leg but doesn't seem to penetrate the hardened leather.
Another rat attacks from the left, trying to confuse the human with a flanking attack...
Still another rat charges forward from deeper down the hall on the left. It lunges, mouth open at Savien's midsection...
...mistiming its jump and instead colliding head first with Savien's thigh.
The final rat also charges ahead, right on the tail of the one in front of it...
...but stumbles a foot away from Savien and ends up with a mouthful of his boot.
Round 1, Good Guys
"Rats...why did it have to be rats?"
Blitz almost hesitates. then a jolt hits him as he realizes something that could be construed from what Julio said earlier,
"Blitz try touching the dragon."
If the imminent danger threatening Savien wasn't enough to spur him into action, the resulting confusion from the earlier remark is.
Blitz looks at Julio rather strangely, He then advances into the corridor.
Savien scowls and drops the torch immediately. Ignoring the fresh wound on his ankle, he takes a step back and swings at one of the rats, connecting with a solid *scrunch* sound.
Julio comments,"Well Meepo, it looks like your tribe will be eating well tonight."
Akula walked forward at a measured pace, firing again, and missing again.
Blitz begins moving forward and finds his mind wandering.
Savien lets loose a powerful swing with his hammer, smashing a rat's head into a bloody pulp.
Julio provides commentary from his position in the rear while Akula pushes forward firing again into the room beyond the rats.
Sureliah shoves Melaphisto forward. Unfortunately he is not quite able to get to the rats to make his mark. Likewise Sureliah can't quite get into range for her spell.
Meepo also moves up the hallway. "These are big rats, Julio. Kobolds will only eat well if we leave them leftovers!" He begins to slow and mutters a cantrip, gesturing up the hall. A glowing green glob leaves his hand, gliding between Melaphisto and Akula.
Unfortunately, while the rat didn't see the acid coming, the presence of two burly fighters makes it a bit too small of a target to hit.
Round 2, Bad Guys
The rat in front of Savien screeches, rises up on his hind legs and tries to bury its teeth in Savien's leg.
...the spray of blood from the side distracts the rat and it ends up mistiming its bite.
The next rat steps forward and lunges at Savien's ankle.
The final rat moves forward, sits up on its haunches and sinks its teeth into Akula's arm.
Round 2, Good Guys!
Savien takes a step back with a scowl and takes another swing.
"Damned rats bit through my damned armor!"
Blitz swallows his apprehension of contracting filth fever again, steps up, and takes a swing at a rat with the short sword.
And misses heroically!
"Since damned rats seem to be so good at biting through damned armor, I think you should try wearing blessed armor!"
Savien brutally dispatches another rat while Blitz is still trying too hard to impress his new companions.
Julio moves up closer to the party but is still standing in the back watching the rear (aka escape route).
Akula dropped his bow and brought his axe down from over his shoulder.
|
Now that the two of them are in range(even if Sureliah could have fired her crossbow safely from 120ft) Sureliah loads her Crossbow and lifts it to shoot at her target again
however she doesn't seem to get a good shot off.
Melaphisto lunges forward to attack the same rat that blitz is going for,
( moving any movement that needs done before the attack of course)
Julio moves up, keeping a close eye on the the party's rear since there really isn't much room from him up front anyway.
Meanwhile, Akula gives up on his bow (for now) and leaves a vicious gash spouting blood along his rat's right side. It stays on its feet though.
Sureliah fires off a shot with her crossbow but can't seem to draw a clean bead with all of the traffic in front of her. The party hears the bolt ricochet off a wall far ahead. She then directs Melaphisto forward, and the thing brings both hands down hard on the rat's head. It does not get up.
Meepo sees this happen and notes, "If your beast slams a rat that hard, its bones will shatter and it will be harder to cook without swallowing bone chips." He then casts a spell at the remaining rat.
The blob of acid sizzles as it sears the hair off part of the rat's head.
Round 3, Bad Guy
The remaining rat lunges one last time at Akula.
And the rat slumps over unconscious, with its mouth still on Akula's right calf.
Akula kicked his leg free of the rat and roughly stomped on it's head. Then he stowed his axe and retrieved his bow.
With a scowl, Savien sets his polearm to the side and throws down his pack.
"Yeah, yeah. I got my 'blessed' armor right in here. Here, help me put it on."
The guardsman pulls out a heavy set of shining scale-mail, barely worn. It's in much better condition than his well-used and now chewed leather. The only mark on it is the faded residue of paint from what might once have been a herald of some kind on the chest, scrubbed thoroughly off. It's hard to tell specifically what it once was, as faint as it is.
"I used to hate wearing this stuff. But I'd like to see rats try to bite through this."
Savien holds up the metal shin-plate with a grim smile.
Blitz steps up and helps Savien into his armor, if only to feel useful at this point. He then searches the area.
Savien takes a moment to change into something a bit more sturdy. When the others hesitate to help, Meepo makes his way forward looking at the others as he passes them.
"Here you go big guy. I don't know why they aren't helping and I don't know how this stuff works but...Oh wait. I can't reach that spot between your shoulder blades...Can one of you guys get that strap?"
After a moment, Savien is again dressed.
Meepo casts Light on his dagger again, waves it up the hallway and looks at the group. "Well, should we keep going?" As he looks that way, he says, "Hey, is that a hole in the floor?" He does not move up the hallway to look though.
|
|
Sureliah moves to Melaphisto to check if he is hurt, when she finds he isn't she sighs. You know, those of you who don't like disease should let Melaphisto try to get the rats attacking him. If he suffers any wounds I could always heal him and disease isn't an issue, if he dies from it I can always summon him again and he'll be fine... she looks to the group
To be honest, Melaphisto would give his life a hundred times over if it came to protecting me... she says, smiling at her Eidolon, who only remains stoick as always.
Akula was alerady moving with Meepo, checking the hole in the floor and the rest of the hall.
Akula moves down the hallway, peeking in the holding cells as he passes them. There are 6 in total, 3 on each side and each is empty except for various bits of rubble, especially along the eastern side where parts of the outer wall have collapsed. He gets to the end of the hall and finds that the hole is actually another pit trap that has been skillfully disabled with a spike. Furthermore, there is another pit just ahead and to the left, in front of a door on the western wall that has also been spiked open. Looking around the room, the only other thing of note is another fountain straight ahead against the wall. Its design is similar to the one you previously found. Meepo skips around the pit and looks at the fountain.
"This one says 'Let there be death' in Draconic. What do you think that means?"
"I think it means we need to be cautious going forward."
Julio holds his light a little higher and raise the tip of his rapier to a more ready position.
Akula grunted his agreement and continued moving forward.
"Let there be death, eh?" Blitz refrains from putting a dead rat into the fountain.
The guardsman, in his heavier and much more obvious armor, picks up his pack and his polearm, leaving the sputtering torch behind on the ground. "Thanks... hey lizardman. Keep that light nearby, eh?" Savien gestures with both hands firmly holding his lucerne hammer and nods toward the torch as he leaves it behind.
Savien edges around the pit in front of the door leading west, followed by Meepo.
"I really thought I'd be closer to the rear than the front", whispers the kobold.
As you approach the door, the light from Meepo's dagger makes it clear that the door is actually cracked open slightly. With his back to the jammed pit trap, Savien edges the door open.
The stench of rotting meat suffuses the air, rising from much-chewed carcasses of several cave rats, smaller vermin, and some suspiciously humanoid looking bodies. One body in particular appears more recent than the rest with armor still in reasonable shape and the glint of metal weaponry stuck beneath it. The cadavers lie upon a floor of filth, old bones, hair, and fur that combine to make a particularly large and vile nest. The northern wall is smashed, opening on rubble-strewn darkness.