Oleksandar, seeing that the situation is stabilising, swings once more, this time at the snake to his south-east, attempting to squish the beast.
As the large snake slithered away, Sebastion's swung his longswod one more time, but the effort was half-hearted. The foe was defeated and was not evil, at least as far as he knew, so he was content to let it leave with it's life. His focus immediately went to the unconscious man but was quickly pulled away to the fray he still found himself in. Surrounded by snakes, his longsword struck out again, this time drawing blood from one of the smaller snakes.
Ash fired off another frozen bolt at the retreating constrictor.
Ash hits with his frost bolt and gives the large snake some cold burns as it continues retreating towards the passage ahead.
Zaniah is able to shake off the snake's poisons effecting her.
The 4 small snakes that remain surrounding you are all still alive even though Sebastian, Oleksandar and even Zaniah's dagger find their marks. These snakes are a lot more aggressive than the large one and do not seem to give up despite their wounds, snapping forward threateningly but not able to find flesh to sink their fangs into.
Sebastion could already feel the fatigue setting in. Between the heavy weight of his armor, his enormous shield, and the blood-loss from the wound, his energy was fleeting. His sword arm raised again and fell, but the blade failed to strike flesh.
Another bolt fired after the fleeing snake.
Oleksandar swings again at the snake adjacent to Zaniah, trying his best to put it into the dirt. "Damn these reptiles!" he shouts.
Sebastion is unable to aim his attack properly, feeling the shock of his wound still.
Ash's bolt strikes the ground just past the snake, barely missing.
Oleksandar kills another snake, chopping it in half next to Zaniah. The rest keep striking, still only snapping at air for now.
Oleksandar steps to the north-east, activating his patrol again.
"Pull back Sebastian, I'll cover you from the last of them!"
->
->
->
The big snake was out of range now, so Ash fired down at the smaller snakes.
"NOO!!" Sebastion would not retreat, not here, not now. He feared giving ground would doom the man to die, and he would not let that happen. Instead he continued his onslaught.
Ash crawls along the wall carefully until he is over Sebastion. The magical cloud remains under him, helping to conceal Sebastion from the snake.
Oleksandar moves north-east, ready to patrol to protect Sebastion's retreat. The other 2 snakes follow him but meet their ends at his and Zaniah's hands. Only 1 snake remains but Sebastion is unable to hit it. It strikes out at the mist but finds nothing.
The large snake is gone, retreating somewhere to nurse its wounds. It won't be eating anyone for a long time.
Ash let himself sink back down to the ground, misty clouds still roiling around his ankles.
He quickly piled up the dead snakes. "Hopefully someone in the caravan will know how to dress these for cooking. Wish we'd managed to kill the big one. That would have fed a great deal more people."
Zaniah, meanwhile, is trying to not let on exactly how bad off she is.
Her constitution is bad already , and that poison had worked on her in the worst way...
She needs to make sure to not run into melee again.
"In the worst case, they will have to settle for burned snake."
That said... channel.
Ash wasn't a medic, but he could tell that Sebastion and Zaniah looked pretty bad off. Neither seemed like the sort to admit when they needed to rest, but they had a good reason to slow down.
"How's our guard?" he asked, gesturing to the man on the ground?
Oleksandar sees Zaniah is not only injured but physically weakened by the poison. He raises his hand and his runes glow brighter as he says softly "air ais", restoring her strength.
He then turns his attention to the guard, examining the man.
There are 7 smaller poisonous snakes. They can be made safe to eat by removing the poison glands . The poison can also be used by those skilled in alchemy and healing to create antitoxins, though unless preserved, , the poisons usually is useless in about 24 hours. There is also the danger of poisoning oneself.
The guard is still unconscious and not breathing until Zaniah channeled positive energy. He coughs and starts breathing deep breaths, holding his chest and groaning, likely suffering from broken ribs.
"You are safe now. Are you able to speak?"
Zaniah kneels down over the guard, looking him over further before burning another channel. Sebastian needs it anyways.
Ignoring the last snake, Sebastion sheathed his sword. He placed his free hand over his shoulder and summoned the light to flow through the wound.
Looking to the soldier, Sebastion asked "can you walk?"
"I think I can remove the poison from the snakes and save the meat, but it would take a little time and best be done while still. One wrong cut would contaminate the meat and ruin the poison. And what about him" he asked, nodding to the now-conscious soldier.
"Should we head back to the others?"
The soldier can speak and does so between grunts of pain. "I didn't see them. They weren't there before," he says referring to the snakes.
"We rested in a temple, but the captain took first watch. We didn't notice him leave. Then when I woke, the other two were already a meal for something in the temple we didn't see so I abandoned them and ran back here." It will be hard for him to walk and he will be no good in a fight in his current state.
"Temple, what temple? Where? To who? What did you see before you ran?"
"It would be best to return him to the others, so that they can assist him in moving. Once done, we should return to taking point. Ash, your familiar should serve to keep anything from ambushing us during the walk."
"No reason for us to turn back. The main group will be here shortly. Then we can leave them here and head to this temple."
"The Temple is further down the passage. Dedicated to some dwarven God. I don't know who exactly. We didn't know something already lived there."
"It's decided then that we'll wait for the main group, leave our lucky friend in their care, then continue on to see what became of Captain Marcus at this temple? Is there anything else you can tell us about it?"
"We didn't recognise it. None of us ever studied religions. There was what looked like an upside-down hammer but it had been vandalised and an arch was scratched over it with flames meant to be burning the hammer. There were pictures of dwarves and forges. But most of them were vandalised and made to appear broken. We thought nothing much of it." He takes more difficult breaths but now is sitting up and able to keep himself up, strength is returning slowly.
Oleksandar recognises the iron hammer and the forges as symbols of the dwarven god of creation, Torag. The reasons for vandilisation could be some rival desecrating the temple.
"The thing that killed the other 2 was covered in chains and glowing razor wire. Smoke came from its beard, hiding its face." The guard shivers, as if reliving the horrifying moment all over again.
"How far ahead was this temple?" Sebastion asked as he sat down on a rock. Before pulling out his dagger to remove the poison glands from the dead snakes, he summoned the light again to heal some of his wounds.
As his dagger flayed the skin from the snakes, Sebastion continued his questions. "This...thing, it did not follow you when you ran? It did not leave this temple? Maybe we can use this against it..."
"Maybe, 1 hour to walk. It was too busy devouring the others to chase me when I ran... They didn't have a chance. Throats ripped out in their sleep. Luckily I heard something and woke up before it could get to me... Maybe it only guards the temple."
"That sounds like a temple to Torag to me... or at least it would have been at one point. Poor bastards. Marcus was a prick, but he didn't deserve that. I am sorry for your loss."
Oleksandar turns to the others. "We will need to clear this obstacle to get the civilians out of here. Once we rendezvous with them briefly now we should keep them here while we push on and deal with... whatever this is. Agreed?"
Agreed," Ash nodded. He gave his familiar an empathic impulse that things were safe. Somewhere back down the passage, the little glowing cluster of stones moved the caravan of refugees forward again.
"Then it shall be." With a sage nod, Zaniah considered what she knew.
"Sebastion. Do you believe yourself recovered enough to carry forward?"
"Yes ma'am" Sebastion said as he rose from the rock he had been sitting on.
"It's mostly healed now, just a minor flesh wound left."
"Take a breath. The refugees will be here soon." Ash said, looking into the dark towards where he knew his familiar was.
Sebastion works to get the snakes edible.
It's not long before the rest of the group arrive, following the light of Array. Some look at you hopeful that you have finally found an exit to the surface. The kids are quiet, still quite scared. The elderly are struggling more than the rest but not complaining about the hardship. Everyone just wants to survive.
Horgus Gwerm comes forward to talk to you. "Has there been some progress towards our escape?" He looks around and notices the wounded soldier. "Was there some battle? Where is the Captain?"
Trying to force a smile, Sebastion answered "everything is fine uncle. We are closer to the surface, but it is slow going. This room is safe now, and has produced some food. It is safe to eat, although there isn't much."
Sebastion leaned in closer to his uncle and whispered "there was a battle, but everyone is okay so far. We haven't found the Captain yet, but there is a structure up ahead that we are going to investigate. Please try to keep everyone calm and feed who you can with these" he said as he offered the man the snake meat.
He stepped back and continued. "Do not worry uncle. The Inheritor protects us all."
"That will help. We don't have that much food. We need to find a way to the surface as soon as possible before we all starve. Though I have been speaking to some of the elderly and a few of them have volunteered to stay behind so we can move faster and consume less resources. We will look after the Captain's man. Go quickly and keep searching for a way. I pray the Captain found something and is going for help."
"No uncle. Everyone must stay together. I will not leave anyone behind. Not one person. We will escape this place as soon as we can. Who volunteered to stay behind? I will speak with them."
"Yes, I will keep them moving. They wished to volunteer to give the rest of us a chance. I hope we find something soon. Good luck in your search."
The group stops to rest, sitting on the ground and the piles of rubble and rocks from the collapsed ceiling. They will remain here until Array moves again.
The four of you move on, following the passage for another 15 minutes. There are several smaller openings that you come across that the larger snaked could have slithered down. The passage opens up suddenly into a larger cave and almost immediately you find a wall in your way. It does not completely block your way and you can move around it easily. The building looks rather old but solidly built, nothing like a temple from the outside. There is a door on the far side of it that is open just a crack, no light comes from the slightly opened door.
The passage thins again past the building continuing on...
Ash began to make his way carefully around the perimeter of the building. If this was the temple, then they knew there were dangerous creatures about.
"ASH, wait! You should let me go first" Sebastion quietly called out. He took half a step forward and quickly stopped as his armor clanked loudly and he grimaced.
So far nothing seems to come out to greet you. The slightly opened door beckons you inside.
This is definitely the building the near dead guardsman told you of. Tracks are visible going both ways, 4 tracks went in, 1 continued on and another set of scuffed tracks went back in a hurry, matching up with the fleeing guardsman's tale.
Sebastion gritted his teeth and then visibly relaxed. He hefted his shield and slowly crept around the building, longsword drawn and resting on the edge of his shield. As he turned the corner and found the door, he noticed the tracks in the dirt.
"This would seem to be the place the guard described. Be ready" he said as he sheathed his sword and began to cast a spell and then another. Once done, he moved to open the door.
Above the door you see the symbol that the guard described and recognise it as the Hammer of Torag. But it is defaced and another symbol has been 'painted' over it. A brown smear, long dried blood. The blood symbol is that of a stone arch with a fire burning below it, like a kiln or forge.
This is the symbol of one of Torag's enemies. Droskar. Originally one of the greatest student smiths of Torag, it was discovered that he had been copying his work from another whom he had enslaved. For this he was cursed by the Father of Creation to never be able to create an original work and cast from the pantheon. Rejected, he searched for followers of his own, promising them salvation in return for ceaseless work or simply enslaving them. None of these helped him, however, or inspired any originality within the god.
With this enslavement rose a new type of undead abomination. The Forge Spurned. Creatures that are immune to fire, can breath a cloud of glowing embers and ash, and are covered in one long chain that is said to bind the sould of those it slays with the souls former bodies becoming its mindless zombie puppets.
The Forge Spawned can't be destroyed normally. It rises again after 24 hours unless its chain is broken (hardness 15, hp 50, break DC 25). If a forge spurned’s chain is sundered, it is instantly slain, never to rise again. When a forge spurned’s chain is destroyed, the souls bound within are released.
Though on the outside a simple looking stone-carved structure, it been ornately designed on the inside with dwarven imagery. Inside the door is a small entry room where worshipers would remove their coats and wash their hands in the basin of holy water before entering the main worship chamber. The porcelain basin sits atop a stone bench partially full of holy water (enough for 2 doses).
Another stone door, closed this time but not locked leads to the main worship chamber.
"Hmm. I feel like I should know this symbol, but I never was a very good student. Lady Fellworth would be very disappointed in me" he said with genuine displeasure.
"Do any of you recognize it?"
Ash looked at it, knowing he'd probably seen the symbol in books, but not really making a connection.
Zaniah, who was busy being quiet takes a look at the symbol.
"I never really paid attention to any of that blasted religious rot. Were I to take a guess? Pick whatever god most perverts Torag's doctrine. It is that one."
She makes sure her gun is loaded. "Regardless, the graffiti artist will probably die like most everything else does."
With no advance knowledge of what might be the cause of all the trouble here, you open the door to the main chamber.
Inside you find more carvings and decorations on the walls that have been defaced and damaged with the same arch and fire symbol. In the middle of the room is a stone table, part of the floor with a gruesome pile of bones and flesh on top of it. Around the table are 3 creatures. Two simple looking zombies, with scraps of clothing and armour resembling the other two guards that were with the Captain. The third creature is the size of a dwarf, covered in chains and ash and smells of burnt flesh. It has partial cover behind the stone table. "Give me your souls!" It wields an adamantine warhammer and its chains seem to move on their own. It readies itself for your assault.