Bowing formally, Sebastion introduced himself plainly. "My name is Sebastion Gwerm, a soldier with the Stalwart Shields. I am honored to make your acquaintance. I volunteer to scout ahead. It's true I'm not exactly sneaky, but I'm no stranger to wandering about in the darkness either. My eyes almost seem to work better in the dark."
He looked around at the small company and nodded in greeting to everyone present.
"Wonderful. Two human-sized dwarves," Ash said wryly. "I am Ash."
Oleksandar glares at Ash, not sure whether the comment was an insult or a compliment, or something in between. He then glances at Zaniah and Sebastian before raising his still glowing hammer into the air.
"Let us push forward then. I propose Sebastian takes the lead, followed by Mr Ash, then Crusader Riverthorne. I will cover our rear. Any objections?"
Horgus nods to Sebastion to scout ahead. As you prepare and introduce yourselves two of the soldiers that were moving forward into the cavern call out. "Sir! We found something dead over here. It's huge!" Marcus turns to look at the men standing near a rather overgrown spider's corpse. One of the men jokes to the other, "It's not as big as your mum." The other man retorts back, "It's still prettier than your wife. Wonder what killed it..."
"None," Ash replied to Oleksander.
At the announcement of the dead spider, Ash started moving forward towards it, moving into position behind Sebastian as their group took it's first steps as a team.
Zaniah was juuust about to ask Ash about the shiny silver plates he'd found (to see if she was stuck with a thief or if they were useful) when the spider was discovered.
"I have no issues with the marching order put forth... but that corpse seems as though it could be a problem for us."
She moves to check on it to see if it looks like it's fresh or has been there for a while, gesturing for the others to come with in case whatever killed it was hiding just off in the shadows.
Oleksandar follows the group over to the corpse, keeping his eyes peeled for trouble and making his hammer glow brightly again.
As they approached the spider corpse, Ash pulled out a handful of shield-shaped silver medallions... no... scales. Dragon scales.
"I found these when we fell. They were Terendelev's. They... well, you'll see. There's four of them, and four of us, and I stopped believing in coincidence about twenty years ago, so, here."
Scale of Sacred Weaponry
Three times per day as a standard action, the scale can be used to cast align weapon, but only to make a weapon lawful or good. Unlike a normal align weapon spell, this effect can be cast on an unarmed strike or natural weapon.
Scale of Resistance
Three times per day as a standard action, the scale can be used to cast resist elements—but only against electricity or cold.
Scale of Disguise
Three times per day as a standard action, a scale can be used to cast alter self. While disguised, the target gains a +4 bonus on all Bluff checks made against evil creatures.
"Thank you," Oleksandar says, reverently taking the scale and touching it to his runes, before stowing it safely in a pocket in his armour.
I will mount it when I get the chance, to keep it close to me at all times.
"I have lived under the protection of her my entire life. It is... strange to think that she is gone."
Sebastion accepted the gifted scale with awe. Such a personal tribute to Terendelev's great sacrifice was not lost on the young man. He looked up at Ash as he spoke, meeting the elf's gaze eye to eye.
"You honor me with such a priceless token of the great protector. I shall cherish it. My shield is yours, from now until I fall."
It was not a pledge made lightly. As dark as these days had become in the last few hours, Sebastion felt something...more. A connection of sorts, to those few around him. Maybe it was because of Terendelev's sacrifice or maybe he was feeling whatever Terendelev herself felt that made her save them. Regardless, he could feel something turning, as if the universe itself was aligning for something grand.
As the call of alarm rang out, Sebastion's attention was brought back to the immediate surroundings. He quickly made his way over to where the guards were standing around the corpse.
Ash was speechless at Sebastion's oath. All he could say was "I am... honored."
"Get everyone organised and ready to move." Marcus says to Horgus who turns to the people and calls out to them to gather round.
-----
Marcus heads towards the carcass to get a closer look. The enormous spider is definitely dead. "Any idea where it came from? Any tracks? Any wounds or marks to tell us to watch out for something even bigger?" The men are examining it, "I don't think so sir, no wounds, no blood, no tracks. I'd say it's been here a while. Want to find out the last thing it ate?" The man stabs his sword into the spiders flank and carves it open. To everyone's disgust, a pile of tiny maggots falls out of the spider and all over him. "Get them off me!" He screams waving his sword around, cutting off one of the spider legs. The spider didn't have a last meal, it was the last meal. Marcus laughs at the man as thousands of maggots crawl over him and fall to the ground. After a minute he gets himself mostly clean of the maggots with an angry curse sets his torch to a pile of them. They crackle in the flames. Marcus looks at you standing around watching, "Have you found us a way out yet? Move!" As the spider corpse starts to burn an acrid smell fills the air and without warning the it bursts and flaming acid covers the area. Not only did the explosion cover everyone in acid, it expelled the maggots that were feasting inside. You are surrounded by giant maggots crawling slowly towards you.
Oleksandar readies his shield and hammer to smash aside any maggots that close in on his friends, shouting out incoherently in disgust "URGH".
Ash winced as the burning set in, but his mind was already too busy to pay much attention to it.
"Clear an escape route." Ash barked. "Captain, get your people out of there!"
Ash stepped behind Sebastian and let loose a torrent of blue-white flame that left a scorched afterburn on the eyes, like looking at the sun.
As soon as she touched the scale, Zaniah moved her bolts and her bullets to be next to each other in case she needed to use it. 30 bullets, plus her bolts, would be 50. More than enough ammunition. As she noted the dead spider, she pocketed the scale.
And then, suddenly acid.
The maggots that had exploded out had gotten all around them. She waited for some of the others to move, and then moved once Ash spewed his flame forth. Oleksander was working on some form of defensive formation. Ash was, to put simply, a multi-target weapons platform.
Very well. She should show what she could do as well. She took a five foot step away from the maggot in front of her, trusting that the gout of flame probably wiped out the maggots.
She held her pistol at the ready, focusing her will down the barrel, finding a way to use Oleksander's reach to distract the vermin to her own benefit.
BANG. She fired at the maggot she'd just stepped away from.
As quick as she'd fired, she already reloaded.
Staying next to Ash, Sebastion interposed himself between the mage and the encroaching maggots. He moved with a quickness belied by his armored shell and wall-sized shield. As he moved, he drew his family's longsword. The sound of so much moving metal rang out in his own ears. When Zaniah's pistol reported, he barely registered the sound and flash. What he did notice was the burnt smell of gunpowder. It, along with the rotted flesh and smell of decay was almost enough to turn his stomach. He swallowed hard, gritted his teeth and brought his sword down towards a maggot.
Ash incinerates 2 of of the maggots behind you with his arcane flame. The smell of burning acid fills your lungs. A perfect shot from Zaniah turns another into goo. Marcus studies the maggots for a moment before cutting of the head of the closest one. "They're simple creatures. Don't let them surround you, fall back."
The way that she shut clear through the maggot felt nice, but from an objective standpoint these enemies were not worth the cost of the bullets. She swapped her gun to her offhand and drew a dagger as she walked towards one of the maggots near Sebastion.
She brought it down hard, using her finesse to leverage a blow into the squishy bug.
"Ash. That spell. Do it again, on the group of five near the fighter past Marcus."
Oleksandar sees the two beleaguered guardsman surrounded by maggots and steps up to defend them. Knowing that he won't be able to take out the maggots quickly enough, he leaps between the guards and shouts "Bacaidh!" as his runes glow erupt out, forming a transparent runic barrier around Oleksandar, and between the guards and the maggots. "Pull back, get to safety!" he says to the guardsman, then raises his hammer and shield and prepares to defend his companions once more.
Rather than rely on brute strength, Sebastion took a different approach with the enlarged maggot. His last blow carved a slight furrow in the cave floor when he missed. To Sebastion, this highlighted a tactical flaw. The maggots had no real defense against the blade. Certainly not the physical hardness of the ground. Instead of swinging with might, he simply hefted the blade over top the maggot and let gravity pull the weight of the blade downward and into the maggot's rubbery flesh.
Ash moved past Captain Marcus and a flaming hand raised. "Get behind me." he said to the soldier. "Withdraw."
Zaniah and Sebastion kill and wound the maggots near them. Oleksander erects a barrier that the maggots gnash their teeth on as the soldiers fall back behind Marcus who decapitates another maggot. As soon as they are clear Ash incinerates 4 more with burning flames. The maggots move in towards Oleksander, their teeth ineffective against his armour and one goes after Ash and sinks its teeth into his leg.
Zaniah takes a short step up, and stows her dagger back into its holster. casting a spell, she touches the heavily wounded expert with a Cure Light Wounds to make sure they didn't suffer casualties here.
The last thing she needs is some know it all guard captain to get a burr on his behind from having one of his precious few flunkies killed.
"Ash! Wait!" Sebastion called out. He did not like the idea of his charge moving ahead of him and into the thick of the battle. It didn't help that he could barely see where he went. That was until the eruption of fire occurred again.
Sebastion suddenly felt awkward. Was this how others felt when he himself ignored their direction and went charging in? It was an interesting sensation, the irony. He quickly surmised that people were people and we're going to do what they wanted just as he himself had often done. It did not change his oath.
His mind distracted, he was not focused on the threat at his feet and his blade carved another groove into the floor. He shook his head in an attempt to concentrate on the more pressing matter in front of him and moved a few feet closer to the front on the line as he did so.
Ash's little floating orb dashed out and tried to distract the Maggot just before it bit Ash.
Ash took a step away from the maggot and fired a frozen bolt at the wounded maggot near Sebastian.
Seeing that his barrier was ineffective against the maggots, but glad that the wounded soldiers were able to pull back anyway, Oleksandar brings his hammer down onto one of the maggots around him.
Zaniah heals one of the men of his fresh maggot bites and the wounds close over. Sebastion cleaves the maggot before him slicing it in 2.
Ash gets out of the way and a bolt of ice grazes a maggot. Oleksadar cuts into one of the maggots surrounding him. Marcus steps up cutting off another disgusting maggot head but the other 2 of his men wait with weapons in front of them hoping not to have to fight these overgrown bugs. The 2 remaining maggots attack Oleksandar but can't get past his shield.
Initiative - PC's - Allies - Maggots
Map
Zaniah rushes right by the man she's just healed, she draws her dagger once more to send it hurling into the head of the remaining maggot from a short distance away.
Unfortunately, she's not quite used to throwing her dagger and the shot almost leaves her fingers going wide. Feeling it before she releases, she feels her pride summoning itself up to try and keep the shot on course through sheer force of will.
Perhaps oddest of all, it works. She takes a moment to look at her hand, flexing her fingers before her attention returns to the fight. She'd have time to wonder about that later.
Oleksandar brings down his hammer again onto the maggot, trying to conserve himself as much as possible.
The situation was under control. Ash backed up and let the people with the weapons finish things.
Ash leaves the others to finish off the last few maggots. Zaniah's dagger seemingly miraculously hits when it should't have. Oleksandar cleaves open one of the remaining maggots. Sebastion runs in to help finish off the last one but slips on a bit of maggot goo. Marcus steps off and does it for him, cutting off the last maggot head.
"Disgusting." Marcus tries to brush off the acid and goo. "Are you ok sir?" The other soldiers who were previously exploring the cavern stand outside the acid contaminated area. "We found 2 passageways out of here."
"Ok. You three will stay here with Horgus. Get yourselves cleaned up and get the civilians ready to move. You 3 are with me. We will scout one of the passages." Marcus looks at the four of you that helped kill the maggots. "You 4 will scout the other passageway. Find a way back to the surface then return. Those are your orders." There is a tiny little bit of respect that wasn't in his voice before.
He's going to get himself and his men killed, Ash thought. He didn't give voice to the thought though. He simply nodded. With no information to go on, the choice was essentially random.
"Surely we should leave a group here on guard, and have the other group explore the one of the paths? What if the civilians are attacked?"
Oleksandar isn't particularly hopeful at convincing Spatz, but maybe he will be able to see past his ego.
"Hmm..." Zaniah gave it thought for an instant, but only for an instant.
"At this point, my orders are clear. Under the Order of the Flaming Lance general deployment guidelines, Section 3: Regulations for Domestic Life, Subsection 2: Chain of Command clarifications, Point 2 states, and I quote, The city guard of a town you are currently stationed in shall be considered to hold authority so long as you are within city limits. While we are unquestionably underground, we are most likely below the city and thus still within its limits. Thus, at this point, it falls to me to see to it that the remaining passageway is explored to its fullest."
She picked her dagger back up, cleaning it off before sliding it back into its holster.
"If the three-man guard he has stationed does happen to be inadequate, and the civilians Terendelev gave his life to give a chance to should perish as a result of it?" She inspected her gun, making sure it was primed and ready.
"That is not our issue, nor our concern. Their blood will solely be upon his hands. You have nothing to worry about."
While you walk over to look at the southeast passage, Marcus is already speaking to his men and heading towards the other.
The passage is narrow, best to walk single file and you walk for about 10 minutes as the way narrows and widens in parts. The earthquake caused by the demon's eruption has damaged this making it difficult terrain most of the way until you come across a blockage in the path. A 15ft. cliff rises in front of you . Hopefully the path continues above it.
Ask looked up the sheer face and then down at his expensive clothing and sighed. He really wasn't prepared for cave diving.
Oleksandar lowers his hammer and holds out his hand, uttering in a low voice as his runes pulse a bright blue "cruthaich an raon". The shape of a ladder is transcribed in to air in the same blue light of his runes before coalescing into a solid, real wooden ladder. He leans it against the cliff and motions you forward. [b]"Who's first?"[b]
"Well that is a handy trick." Ash said, genuinely impressed. He'd spent years studying magic and never learned anything with that degree of utility. "What can you make with that? Is it limited to ladders?"
"I am" Sebastion said as he stepped forward. Cautiously he tested his weight on the first few rungs. Satisfied, and somewhat relieved that he didn't come crashing down, he proceeded up the ladder. He mentally cursed himself for not having a rope with him as he climbed. He should have been better prepared, this close to the Worldwound.
With Oleksandar's ladder, the obstacle is surpassed and you all make it up easily. Thankfully the path does continue ahead.
You spot another ledge higher up. It doesn't look like it leads anywhere but the thing that catches your eye is a backpack that has fallen when the ground opened up and been snagged on the ledge.
The pack itself is a masterwork backpack that contains 10 days of trail rations, a flint and steel, a set of caltrops, two flasks of oil, a bundle of 12 arrows, and 2 potions.
Ash attempts a minor telekinetic magic to retrieve the pack.
The bag twitches, the strap caught in the rocks slowly shifting. The bag is too heavy to lift but shifting its weight with your spell you are able to slide the strap out of where it was caught and the bag falls down towards you.
Ash scanned the bag with aura-sight then passes it off to Oleksander, figuring he'd have the best idea what to do with the contents.
Oleksandar answers Ash as they climb the ladder. "I've always been able to do it, but to a smaller degree. This and the rest of my powers have been a part of me my whole life. But they have been growing lately. I can form anything about the volume of a person with a form of cloth, wood, metal or stone. It comes in handy."
Once the ladder is climbed and the bag is in his hands he rifles through it, careful and wary of its contents.
Zaniah keeps an eye on the ledge as they do their work, keeping a lookout in case anything happens to come down the trail after them.
Unlikely, but one can never be too careful.
Ash's eyes went wide at Oleksander's description. "That is amazing."
His mind started whirling with the versatility of Oleksander's magic. The only spells he was aware of that came close to that level of creative versatility were far above his own level of mastery. He had to admit he was envious.
The pack itself is a masterwork backpack that contains 10 days of trail rations, a flint and steel, a set of caltrops, two flasks of oil, a bundle of 12 arrows, and 2 potions. The potions have a magical aura about them, both of conjuration, one slightly stronger than the other.
This is a potion of Cure Light Wounds
This is a potion of Lesser Restoration