Before the Pathfinders make their way down the ladder, their little blue friends begin chattering at each other in a strange language as they scratch with their nails in the dust a rough map of buildings. Finally they finish and begin pointing to those furthest north. After a moment of mumbling, one of them manages a bit of Taldane and says, "S-Slaves here."
Raul leads the group silently down the ladder as Grimaldus waits above. As you climb down darkness presses in as if it had substance and weight on the long decent into the gaping cavern of Cassomir Below. The iron ladder seemed sturdy enough when you first tested it, but the cold metal collects condensation from the damp air and every rung seems slicker than the last as you fight to maintain your grip and footing.
Finally, you feel the stability of ground beneath you and turn to take in your new surroundings.
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2)
4)
5)
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
Initiative Order - Surprise
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Raul
Rats
-------------------------------------- Round 1
Grimaldus
Tresca
Tanselle
Kurse
Raul
Rats
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"That sounds like a 'Get down here now!'" Grim says to himself. But it wasn't shouted, so perhaps his companions have it in hand and are trying to stay quiet. Well, it's time for him to go down - he'll be as quiet as possible... ...managing to quietly climb down the rungs and not even losing his grip!
Initiative Order - Surprise
-------------------------------------
Raul - draws daggers
Rat1 - bites Raul
Rat2 - moves
-------------------------------------- Round 1
Grimaldus - Starts down, makes ? ft progress.
Tresca
Tanselle
Kurse
Raul
Rats
Raul draws his knives in a hurry and you look around to see what has put him on guard. As your light penetrates the shadows nearby, you notice the eerie red glow of light reflecting back at you through the eyes of creatures lurking in the gloom. They greet you with a nerve-wracking chattering and gnashing of teeth as they move toward you. These must be the great dire rats you were warned about, you think to yourself as you watch one rear up as tall as a man and bellow it's screeching attack call before snapping at Raul. Fortunately the rogue is quicker and avoids the rodents foul yellow teeth.
Grim hears the ruckus from above and quickly starts down the ladder.
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"Uuugh!" Tresca recoils in disgust as she sees the rat rear up. She didn't care if she knew what she was getting into when she accepted the mission, giant rats were still just so gross.
The alchemist retreats behind Kurse and Raul before waving her wand of shield, feeling more secure as the floating disk appears. "Raul, you're not usually our front-line man. Let me know if you get injured, and I can heal you." she reminds him.
Initiative Order - Surprise
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Raul - draws daggers
Rat1 - bites at Raul, misses
Rat2 - moves
-------------------------------------- Round 1
Grimaldus - Starts down, makes 4 ft progress.
Tresca - moves, casts shield
Tanselle - loads and fires for 4 damage on R2
Kurse - touch attack, misses
Raul - stabs for 6 damage on R1
Rats:
-------------------------------------- Round 2
Grimaldus
Tresca
Tanselle
Kurse
Raul
Rats
Trying to be quiet and move swiftly, Grimaldus misplaces his foot and slips off the ladder. He quickly grabs the vertical side rail to prevent himself from falling, but the condensation makes the metal slick and he slides 4 feet down before managing to gain control again. He takes a steadying breath and prepares to climb down again when an idea occurs to him.
Tresca raises her shield and Tanselle fires on one of the rats, drawing a screech of surprise and pain from the beast. Kurse attempts to lay his skeletal hand on the creature but as it reels from the pistol blast, he is unable to grab hold.
Raul lunges with both blades, scoring first a glancing blow that barely pierces the monster rat's hide and then stabbing deeply into the creatures belly. He circles round, drawing a snapping bite that he only narrowly avoids. The rat snaps again, but again the wily rogue avoids it's nasty yellow teeth.
Kurse is not as lucky, however. The great rat's beady eyes burn with a feral rage as they focus on the oracle. It bites down on his wizened shoulder and gives him a mighty shake, ripping it's huge rodent teeth through the flesh.
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Tresca discharges her crossbow at the rat that's currently chewing on a small chunk of Kurse.
Tresca is so nervous about hitting Kurse, however, that her shot goes wide and lodges itself firmly in a nearby crate. With a frown, she reloads her crossbow and steps closer to the rat that Raul is engaged with, hoping to provide him with some tactical advantage.
Initiative Order
-------------------------------------- Round 1
Grimaldus - Starts down, makes 4 ft progress.
Tresca - moves, casts shield
Tanselle - loads and fires for 4 damage on R2
Kurse - touch attack, misses
Raul - stabs for 6 damage on R1
Rats:
R1 - misses Raul
R2 - bites Kurse for 6 damage
-------------------------------------- Round 2
Grimaldus - Chuck Norris' his way down
Tresca - fires crossbow, misses, draws bolt and 5ft step
Tanselle - fires pistol, misses
Kurse - touch attack misses
Raul - hits and finishes R1
Rats:
-------------------------------------- Round 3
Grimaldus
Tresca
Tanselle
Kurse
Raul
Rat
As Kurse is still reeling from the powerful bite of the R.O.U.S., you all hear a terrible sound from above. The groan of iron under stress and a rhythmic tink of metal on metal that comes faster and faster as a shadow descends down the ladder at rapid speed. Kurse sees his peril just in time and quickly steps aside as Grim lands at the base of the ladder. He executes the maneuver well though, tightening his grip to slow his landing and bending his knees to absorb the force of the fall.
Startled by his sudden decent, Grim's comrades fumble their shots. Tresca draws a crossbow bolt and holds it menacingly as she steps toward the rat threatening Raul.
Raul takes a prime shot to the creatures ribs as it turns to defend itself when Tresca approaches it's flank. The dagger penetrates to the rodents heart and a quick twist of the wrist ends it's beating forever as it falls, bleeding out.
Kurse swipes at the rat that bit him but the beast is on high alert and avoids his skeletal grip.
The second rat bellows a shriek at the huge intruder as he turns to face the threat. Before he can ready his blade, the biggest rat he has ever seen bears down on Grimaldus, slashing with it's foul yellow teeth.
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Like a meteor hurtling out of the sky, Grimaldus impacts the sewer floor grinning. "That must be what an orbital pod drop is like..." thinks the marine to himself. When he looks up and sees a giant rat biting him, his exuberance changes to righteous fury! He wrests the greatsword from its holder on his back and vows to end the creature's pitiful existence.
Unfortunately, the impact must have jarred him more than he thought, as he completely misses the beast!
Tresca finishes loading her crossbow and carefully aims into the melee. Her shot is true, the bolt embedding in the monster's throat. It chokes on it's own blood and falls to the cavern floor.
The vastness of this cavern makes every sound echo in strange ways as the ghosts of your voices return to you. The sounds of your combat whisper back to you long after all is again still.
The buildings here are nearly all built of sturdy wood planks, much in the older Taldan style like those in the Old Cassomir district. They reach to the ceiling of the cavern, as if they were support pillars. Their wooden skeletons creak and groan softly under their burden. The few stone structures are very different, rough and simple in design and seem newer as well.
Tanselle and Kurse note that among the nearby crates, 2 are marked with a red "X".
2)
3)
4)
5)
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Tanselle takes note of the two crates in her journal before loading a precious cartridge round into her pistol.
"Sooner we check these buildings for captives, sooner we get out of these stinking sewers," she says. "If there were anyone else down here, they would've heard Grim falling on his armored @$$ and come for us already."
Tanselle walks to the first little building's door and kicks aside the carcass of the rat. She walks the perimeter of the small building and the identical one beside it, looking for windows, cracks in the boards, anything helpful, really.
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Grim looks sheepishly at the others and shrugs. "I determined that speed trumped silence in this case. Let us continue..." He then goes to check the two red X crates, trying to find a linkage between these and the previous one from upstairs.
He then follows along behind Raul, keeping him in sight but staying out of noise range...
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Tresca gives Grim a light pat on his armored back, the enormous difference in height between the gigantic warrior and the tiny half-elf making the gesture almost comical. "I don't care how loud it is. I appreciate you getting your armored self down here as quick as you did." she looks at the wound the rat inflicted on Grim and shudders, "That definitely looks worse than I could handle. Let me get that for you."
Tresca pulls out her healing wand, gives it a wave, and gently brushes her fingers across Grim's wound, nodding with approval as the skin stitches itself back together.
As she works, Tresca keeps one ear open for the sounds of other rats. She didn't want to be caught off guard, after all.
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
The crates marked with a red "X" appear to contain mundane supplies for the most part. Food and tools for the most part.
As you make your way east, Raul finds only abandoned buildings strewn with ruined furnishings, though some look to contain stored goods.
Tresca draws your attention, and whispers, "I see something hiding up ahead."
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Tresca squints as she tries to make out what's ahead. Blue. So either one of the kin or their BMG friends, or one of the derro. The half elf whispers to grim.
"It could be like one of our little blue friends from above." she tells him "I don't think you're likely to be able to sneak up on it, so what if you try the diplomatic approach and try to convince it we're on the same side? The rest of us can sneak up for an element of surprise in case things go bad."
Tresca drops her bag beside her, the quaffs an extract drawn from her alchemy pouch. The half-elf becomes even tinier, shrinking to half her usual height. Quietly, she moves along the buildings, trying to remain hidden.
Grim looks to where Tresca points, trying to see what she did. "If it is a threat, I will remove it. If it is not, then perhaps you can enlist its aid...either way, we must approach it quickly and without raising an alarm."
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Grim nods and grimaces, remembering his past attempts at diplomacy...the only time he succeeded was with that pleasant Chelaxian countess...
Putting the sword in its sheath on his back, Grim moves cautiously towards the little blue creature, like approaching a wild animal. He moves slowly, but directly. He doesn't try to sneak or hide his presence - that would imply dishonesty. He holds his hands open and slightly apart down at waist level, showing he is not holding a weapon. If he gets close enough to converse in a low voice, he will speak softly to the creature. "We are friends, come to free you from slavery. Show us where the others are kept so that we may free them also, and then we will take care of your former masters."
The blue creature looks shocked at being addressed and he ducks down out of sight again and you hear the soft sounds of a muffled argument, chirped in their native language. Before long a small voice calls back.
"Go free? Go home?"
2)
3)
4)
5)
The mite comes forward enough to be visible, still looking a bit dubious about these friends, but he points to the southeast.
"Derro masters there."
They watch you warily as you pass, and then scamper away to the northern area, disappearing from view.
The Pathfinders move further east and they notice another of the out-of-place stone buildings with supplies accumulated around it. As you approach the building, several of your party spot a container among the crates and barrels of supplies that is not like the others. It is a heavy trunk with an old fashioned iron padlock.
All seems quiet inside, though Grimaldus and Tanselle hear something moving in there.