At this point Benedict will call out to wake Amkarang, Haela, and William.
"To arms!"
Aerel casts light on the one of the stones, keeping it under his cloak to shield the light.
”I will try to put light behind them. Look away from me so you don’t get dazzled when I bring it forth.”
He waits until the sleepers are up to make it so obvious where the party is positioned.
William awakes with all the commotion going on. He sits up and asks "What is going on?"
William awakes with all the commotion going on. He sits up and asks "What is going on?"
"This elf claims undead are hunting her. Grum says something messed with his mind. Aerel hear something out in the dark."
William frowns, grabs his bow and quiver and stands. He looks toward Grum and says in Minatan "Grum that something in your head probably came from much closer."
The noise of the unseen enemies grows closer, but they remain just out of view of the party's darkvision.
Kisegar wakes up as the alarm is sounded, snatching up her crossbow and swiftly loading it. She rubs her eyes as she sees the dusky gray elf. "Why is a drow in camp with us?" she asks bitterly, then raises the crossbow to her eye and fires a bolt into the darkness.
A hiss of pain sounds from the direction she fired.
Amkarang blearily comes to. "Blast and damn, no rest for the weary."
”Avert your eyes on three. One, two, three.” With that warning, he throws the glowing rock throw the opening to their camp toward the far wall of the Long Walk.
As the light flares and gets thrown towards the unseen foes, there's a hiss as several beings -- mostly drow and duergar -- are illuminated. Instead of living beings, their reddish eyes and elongated teeth mark them as something else.
How many are there, how far away are they, and can Benedict recognize what kind of undead they are?
the creatures.
Benedict keeps a close eye on the elf. What is she doing?
He forms up with Grum and readies to attack the first foe within reach.
He asks the ghouls, in Undercommon, "Is she your prey or your master?"
Aerel will fall back from the gap where the woman entered and ready his bow to fire at the creatures.
William starts firing arrows starting with the closest undead and moving to next closest if the first drops.
Aerel recognizes these creatures as ghouls of a slightly tougher variety, but are still not much of a threat. William's barrage of arrows drop four of them, one arrow sufficient to drop each one!
That's enough to stop the charge of the ghouls, and the few remaining ones fall back into the long shadows cast by the light spell.
Suddenly, a wave of fear washes over the party!
Kisegar throws down her crossbow and flees out of the campsite in a panic!
Benedict is immune to fear, and grants everyone within 10' a +4 morale bonus.
Haela is perhaps adjacent to 1 or 2 allies? That is at least +4 from her teamwork feats if adjacent to 1 (Shake it Off +2 untyped, Lastwall Phalanx +2 sacred).
Additional +2 if vs a spell or SLA, but not if a (Su) ability.
William throws down his bow and takes off running.
Aerel flees.
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Grum stood up front, glaring into the darkness. The magical energy washed over and threw him, with the half-orc's blade slowly lowering as unnatural fear coursed through him. He almost held his ground. Almost. But then Kisegar fled, and William turned to flee, followed by Aerel, and the panic took over him. With his comrades in flight, he lost what self-control he had left and followed after.
Benedict and Haela resist the supernatural fear while the rest of the party flee the small box canyon. They turn to see the elven woman now a horrific sight, withered and drenched in stale, coagulated blood. Her hands now end in claws and her mouth is filled with sharp teeth!
Amkarang turns tail and runs.
"Okay, then."
As everyone except for Haela turns and flees, Benedict stands his ground.
The elf was about 40' away?
He uses his Alter Self SLA to take the form of a Wayang, and Barroom Brawler to pick up Dodge.
He declares SMITE EVIL against the treacherous elf.
His base AC of 30 goes up by +3 for Smite (+4 deflection replacing his usual +1), by +2 for Alter Self (+1 size and +1 Dex), by +2 sacred for Lastwall Phalanx if Haela is adjacent, and +1 Dodge. This makes him AC 38.
Haela lines up behind Benedict. She enters Dwarven Hatred Style and uses Total Defense.
Her AC is a base 27, +2 Lastwall Phalanx for 29, and +4 Total Defense for 33. If she is struck, she will use Dwarven Seething as an immediate action to gain +4 AC against all subsequent attacks by that foe.
The creatures issues a rasping hiss and rushes at the two remaining foes.
Benedict will call upon the 1/day power of his Lucky Horseshoe, boosting it from +1 to +4 for this save.
He manages to resist the paralysis.
Benedict strikes with his new Dwarven Waraxe.
Haela steps up next to Benedict, uses Tactician to share Blood for the Empire (swift), and attacks.
Haela is AC 31 against the enemy.
Benedict scores one hit on the strange vampire-like undead while Haela strikes twice. The Clever warrior feels his bleeding intensify, and watches as the fresh blood flies towards the creature. The dark, coagulated blood becomes fresh and glistening wet as she revels in Benedict's lifesblood.
The vampire claws and bites at him further.
Her claw and bite come *very* close to harming him again, but his combined defense with Haela remains staunch.
Benedict dodges and weaves, working in tandem with his dwarven ally to evade the monster's claws and fangs.
He ducks under a claw swipe and brings the axe in an uppercut, followed by a backswing and then a strike to the midsection.
If the vampire-ish elf is still up, Haela will try to finish it off. No more Fighting Defensively.
Unfortunately, she does not have Benedict's luck. Hoping that 177 damage is enough.
If not, Haela is AC 29 against it (and Benedict is still 38).
Aerel slows his flight, looking around for the others. And the ghouls that retreated. Drawing a potion, he drinks it, hoping it provides some bracing effect against whatever scared him so.
In a display worthy of Grum, Benedict hews the bloody undead creature with a series of vicious attacks with his axe. As she expires, his blood loss reduces to a trickle.
The pair of remaining ghouls are effortlessly dispatched by the heroes who had fled, using their backup weapons before returning to the camp.
Kisegar also returns to camp. She scowls at the undead, but looks suitably impressed at Benedict.
Benedict drinks a potion of Cure Light Wounds.
He quietly hands Aerel his own potion of Remove Fear to replace the one that Aerel used - Benedict has no need for it anymore.
Benedict cuts off the undead's head and watches it closely to make sure the creature is dead.
”Should we burn it? Did it have anything more than claws and teeth?”
Aerel looks at Kisegar and asks, ”What was this? Is there a way to protect ourselves from it in the future?”
In the back of his mind, he’s thinking how he would fare in a line scout against such a creature. Not well.
”Amazing job, Benedict. How did you even… amazing.”
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Sheepishly Grum walked back, his head down and dejected. Seeing the carnage at the feet of Benedict and Haela he stood there awkwardly, a pained look on his face. ”I am shamed before you.” He forced out, his face would have been flushed if it was possible. ”It won’t happen again.” He finished, looking back at the carnage, the look on his face changing to something between jealousy and respect.
"You have carried the day for us many times, Grum. This time it fell to others, but we are a team, are we not? The battle is won. Let's allow those whose sleep was interrupted to finish up their rest and then be on our way."
With the endless night that is the Darklands, the party is able to return to their bedrolls and get the additional rest they need to effectively resume their long journey.
After a few more hours of rest, the heroes of Phaendar follow Kisegar's lead as she and Aerel take point.
For that day's journey, it is relatively uneventful. Occasionally Kisegar gives instructions for the group to cross from one side of the highway to the other, or to avoid a crumbling path, or to stop and wait for a few minutes as something large in the darkness rumbles past.
She finds another spot for a camp for the next stopping point, and the "night" goes by uneventfully.
After a few miles' journey into the following day, a glowing patch of violet mushrooms comes into sight. The unexpected light and color easily draw the eye, and as the party gets closer they are able to see the mushrooms are growing around a corpse of a humanoid figure.
Kisegar holds up a hand to get the party to stop well short of the patch of fungus. "Twilight mushrooms," she tells them. "Very deadly. Duergar cultivate them to help discourage the unauthorized use of the Road. And we loot anything that succumbs to them."
Kisegar is right, but probably underselling how extremely deadly these mushrooms and their spores are. They release a choking cloud of noxious spores that incapacitates and kills its victims.
Kisegar gestures to Haela to come along. "The rest of you should all stay back. Duergar and dwarves are immune, though. Come on, let's see what the body might have on it."
Aerel stays back and posts up with bow ready, looking both ways along the passage for threats.
Benedict knows that Kisegar hates Haela, and this sudden suggestion of teamwork feels off.
"These mushrooms are poisonous?"
He is totally immune to poison, whereas Haela is just resistant. But he doesn't offer yet to go up and investigate.
"Let's have William check that dead figure for magical auras from a safe distance before risking it. William, would you?"
Amkarang takes a look at the mushrooms, "Horribly poisonous mushrooms. Just when these caves couldn't get much more of a pain."
Aerel notices that the patch of mushrooms are fairly close to a sheer rock wall that rises up and past the extent of his darkvision. As is the case in this mostly lightless realm, his keen eyes are hampered by the limits of his ability to see in the dark. The soft purplish glow of the mushrooms do not shed enough light to extend his sight past the limits of his darkvision.
William's magic sight does reveal a magical aura on the corpse.
William calls to the others, "There is magic present there. Be careful. It could be a magic item or it could be a trap of some sort."
”What is up there?” He points at the darkened wall above the corpse.
Benedict looks where Aerel points.
"It's a rock wall. I can't see anything up there.
Kisegar, can you?"
"William, can you keep studying and learn any more? Like what it is that I am to retrieve?"
Benedict is willing to go up with Kisegar to bring back magic items, but he may as well see if William can get more detailed information.
Kisegar looks up at the wall. "It keeps going up. Oh, but there's a cleft in the wall, about halfway up that I can see."
As William concentrates, it appears to be a +1 weapon, likely a spear or polearm.
it keeps going up…
Aerel shakes his head at the scale of this underground highway, but says nothing further. His maintains his wary overwatch and is careful to include the area above the mushrooms in case something issues forth.
William tells the others, "It's probably a minor magical weapon of some sort, spear or polearm maybe. Just don't anybody die." With Aerel covering one way he covers the other.