The rank odor of the Cassomir sewers wafts up to meet you as the sewer grate is opened. It's a particularly feculent cocktail of fishy brine combined with rain run-off, human and animal waste, and the city’s other refuse.
Murky puddles dot the tile floor below, which gently slopes toward the room’s center where some of the puddles are very slowly draining into a large, 10-foot-by-10-foot drain. Thick, sticky webs cover most of the corners of the room, and several large vermin appear to be caught in the webs. The sound of running water can be heard to the west.
Tresca and Tanselle search for any sign of movement but all appears still below. Tanselle notices one of the creatures caught in the webs looks as if it might be humanoid, though she is not certain from her current distance.
Kurse sees it as well, a small, bluish grey hand protrudes from a mass of bundled web.
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Tresca peers down at the others, and makes sure the rope is no longer shaking from Grim and Raul's descent before even considering the task herself. After carefully lowering her pack down on its rope, she gives the rope one last appraisal, then starts her descent. "Don't you dare break on me..." she whispers at the cord.
While her descent is nowhere near graceful, owing to the arms made shaky from supporting her own weight, the alchemist somehow manages and joins the others in the sewer. Picking up her sunrod, she tucks it alongside the wand at her hip, keeping her hands free if necessary.
Settling her backpack on her back, she offers her two coppers of advice to Raul. "Just don't let yourself get too far ahead. If you hit any sort of branch, your escape route back to us could get cut off."
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Tanselle follows Tresca and her other companions into the sewer.
Fighting back the urge the vomit from the smell and veritable mausoleum of webbed rodents, she flips open her wayfinder and activates the light function.
"A derro, I presume?" she says, pointing her pistol toward the humanoid mass caught in some nearby webs.
Tanselle plucks a cartridge from her belt pouch and plugs it into her pistol. Satisfied that all her equipment is in good working order, she falls in step with the rest of the party.
"What she said, Raul," she cautions. "Won't be much help to you beyond the light."
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Tresca's eyes go wide as the hand is pointed out to her. Not even 10 minutes into their mission, and already a body. Crouching beside the web, she holds her sunrod close, and tries to get a good look at it. With luck, perhaps she can confirm whether it's a derro, or at least make sure it's not some poor human elf or dwarf.
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Tresca confirms the creature caught in the webs is indeed a derro, albeit a thoroughly desiccated one. It still carries it's gear, including 2 potions of cure moderate wounds, leather armor, short sword, and a repeating light crossbow with 10 bolts. The bolt tips are stained with a dark substance of some kind.
As Raul steps down on the heavy metal of the drain in the center of the room, his eyes searching for hiding threats, he realizes too late that he should have been looking lower. A tiny shift, a puff of rust and the briefest groan of over-stressed hinges and the drain grate collapses into its recess with a shattering bang and a cloud of foul dust.
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So, to summarize, Tresca, Raul and Grimaldus are keeping watch down the passage while Tresca and Kurse investigate the body in the web. Once they determine if there is anything worth noting (or keeping =) we will set off with Raul scouting out front, and then probably Grim as the melee sump, Tanselle and Tresca as ranged support, and Kurse as the rear guard / support unit. Anything I missed?
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To see if he notices the rickety hinged drain. if not , Raul completely obvious to where he is walking tumbles into the hole unleashing a audible yelp
Raul groans in a very annoyed tone: ugh im alright, i think this metal drain broke my fall YOU DAMNED FOOL and to think the half-giant was supposed to be the clumsy one. great impression. He attempts to stand up and brush himself off before attempting to climb out.
welp i made a nice big noise to alert everyone ahead of our presence so for now ill stay close being storm drains can sneak up on me
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The grate falls down a full ten feet before catching on the edge of the pipe. The metal makes a ringing rebound, rattling the rogue's senses for a moment. He touches his head and draws back some blood.
Kurse moves in to assess the damage, providing light for Raul to climb out.
Grimaldus reached out, something of a delayed reaction, but in the process he turns unwittingly makes himself vulnerable. An unnoticed threat, a spider the size of a man takes her opportunity. Perched high on the wall, she surprises the party, firing a line of sticky webbing at Grim, entangling the big man.
Initiative Order - Surprise
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Spider -
Initiative Order - Round 1
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Tresca
Grimaldus
Raul
Spider
Kurse
Tanselle
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Grim reaches for Raul but misses, watching him fall down the drain. He is completely unprepared for the thwapp of the spider web on his chest - he tries to break the web but it hit him from behind and to his left and he can't quite get at it! "Beware - enemy above!" he grunts as he tries to get in a better position to face the creature.
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"Definitely a Derro" Tresca announces, "And with some good stuff, too! Couple of healing potions... crossbow... those bolts look pretty nasty... Tresca makes an inventory aloud. "Grim, you'll want to hold on to one of these potions for an emergency? You heavy armor types are like magnets for enemy swords." she suggests. Raul's unfortunate yelp snaps her attention back to the center of the room just in time to watch Grim get nailed by a web.
Tresca's hand flies to her alchemical pouch, from which she draws a pair of phials. Dumping one into the other, she re-corks the full phial and gives it a vigorous shake. "Uggh!" Tresca exclaims in disgust. Spiders were creepy looking. Giant spiders were just repulsive. Feeling the phial go warm in her hand, Tresca takes aim and lobs the bomb at the vermin.
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Raul being disheveled from his fall hears the hurried scuffles of combat above I knew something made them damned webs
raul puts his bow over his shoulder and raising his hands above himself jumps up reaching for the ledge, trying to get enough momentum to thrust over the ledge back onto the ground above
if Raul succeeds in that action he will take a five foot step towards the beast and draw his bow again.
Initiative Order - Round 1
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Tresca - bombs the spider for 10 damage.
Grimaldus - struggles to break free of the web
Raul - leaps out and draws bow
Spider -
Kurse
Tanselle
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Tresca -
Grimaldus -
Raul
Spider
Tresca responds to the threat with lightning reflexes, mixing and throwing with timely accuracy. The vial strikes the spider and explodes with a concussive BANG that leaves your ears ringing in the enclosed space. The spider screeches in pain and falls heavily to the floor.
Grimaldus struggles to break through the webbing, revolving like a dog trying to catch his own tail, with the distinct sensation that a pair of violet, half-elven eyes were rolling in amusement at his antics somewhere out there.
Raul vaults out of the pit with the grace of an acrobat, feeling a little less sheepish about his performance thus far and arms himself with his bow, readying to fire at the overgrown arachnid.
The spider rights itself groggily, and fires another line of webbing at Tresca, entangling the alchemist as well.
Tanselle fires with deadly accuracy, splattering the spider's innards on the wall behind it. The creature curls in on itself and is still.
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Raul looks back at the bearded man with shock as he jabs the wand in his side, but instantly the pain in his lower back was gone, and the gash on his forearm started to heal before his eyes. this is amazing, magically healing by far beats bandages any day nodding to KurseThank you sir
Raul asks the party does anyone have any none flammable forms of light i can use?, i need to be able to hide the light if need be and a i didn't consider a torch being hard to conceal while trying to sneak about. When we resurface i shall repay the kindness in turn assuming he is able to obtain sunrod or a light spell on one of his daggers he will continue onward heading down the hallways stopping at the next intersection.
Raul keeps the light only revealed enough to light his direct path, He stops at the intersection and peers in all directions listening for movement as well looking for obvious dangers such as hostiles or traps.
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"All right, let's give this one last try... " Tresca mumbles, still trying to squirm her way out of the spider webbing.
While her escape is nowhere near graceful, the alchemist manages to disentangle herself from the webbing. As she stands, she tries to brush some of the debris from her clothing, though there was little she could do about the wet patches (other than try really hard not to think about what they were wet with).
Pulling the still glowing sunrod from her belt, she offers it to Raul. "Something like this, you mean? " she says, "it should stay lit for several hours still, so no need to worry about getting stranded without light"
The dark, fetid sewers beneath Cassomir stretch out before you, echoing the sounds of water lapping, pouring out of pipes that come in from every direction, many of them more foul than the last. Occasional splashes in the distance remind you of the rodents that must infest this place, but they stay out of view.
Raul slips into the shadow, silent as the grave and scouts the way south and east. A slight glow of light emanates from the room just beyond your view. Raul hears the distant shuffle of some activity, though he is not sure what it is.
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Raul graciously thanks Tresca as he takes the sunrod, and places it halfway in his pants, He listens for a moment and walks back to the group he whispers:I think i hear movment just down here but i can't make out what it is He tests the boards with have his weight and then crosses over if they seem sturdy enough. He will draw his bow once on the other-side cautiously ushering the others over as he guards ahead
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Tanselle holsters her weapon in order to gain better balance walking over the boards. She tests them first, checking whether they are sturdy and steady enough to bear her weight, before crossing them. If they turn out not to be up-to-snuff, she will follow the fighter around the long way.
"If these boards can carry Grimaldus," she says. "Then they ought to carry the rest of us with ease."
If she reaches the other side of canal without incident, she pulls her pistol and readies herself to load it with bullet and powder.
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Kurse wrinkles his nose as they move further into the sewer.
"It ssmellss like poo gass in here. Now I am going to ssmell like poo gass for the resst of the day."
Kurse will follow along and cross the plank after the rest of the party, though the plank seems to make some suspicious noises as he crosses, like someone passing gas.
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Tresca waits to see that the boards support Grim's weight before scurrying across herself. She wasn't keen on swimming in clean water after all, she definitely didn't want to take a dip in this stuff.
Keeping her ears open to listen for threats, the alchemist takes a moment on the other side to load her crossbow just in case. She whispers to her allies as she does so.
"I should have mentioned this earlier, but you all should be aware. These dero apparently use slaves as guards and soldiers. If we offer their freedom, well, that's one less enemy to fight, wouldn't you agree?" Tresca wasn't entirely sure if she was supposed to share the information her faction had given her, and she hoped that Grim and Raul weren't upset with her for doing so.
Raul slips as silent as a shadow to a position to see into the room ahead, and observes quietly, as yet unseen while his companions wait some distance back for him to signal.
This room appears to have once been the basement of the building above, the wall separating the basement from the sewer long ago smashed in and repaired, giving it the appearance of a natural part of the sewer system. The ceiling here is 30 feet high and the room is lit by torches in the north and south walls. Stacks of crates and barrels line the north wall, and a set of finely carved stone stairs start on the south wall and make their way up and around the west wall to a door high above the room in the northwest corner. This room is clean and well-maintained, a harsh difference from the sewer just outside the archway. The torches provide normal light within 20 feet of the north and south walls, and dim illumination in a small bit of shadow at the center of the room.
A man wearing half-plate armor seems to be directing a pair of small blue creatures with bulbous heads and enormous eyes, squinting in the dim light as they struggle to move a large crate between them.
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Grim nods once at the report, thinks for a moment, and whispers, "Tanselle and Tresca, go around to the other side of this passage and be ready to range attack the door Raul, sneak back to the door and shoot the man with your bow, then hightail it back here. When he or the blue things come out the door, T & T hit them with "shot and awe" and then I'll let them say hello to my little friend here." He looks at his 5' greatsword and smiles. "Kurse, you and Raul are with me as backup. If any of you can get into that room and keep anyone from leaving, that would be ideal. Questions? Other ideas?"
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Tresca nods. "Solid plan" she whispers back. Last mission, it seemed like her and the other pathfinders did nothing but get ambushed. She was happy to be on the other end for a change.
Carefully, she removes her backpack to leave behind and makes her way to the other side of the sewer. Once there, she takes the wand of shield out of her wrist sheath...
Tresca really should have tested her sheaths better. The wand of shield shoots out of the sheath, and smacks the wall in an all too audible thunk. The alchemist snatches the wand before it manages to hit the ground, and gives it a quick wave. She had a feeling she was about to need the shield that now hovered in front of her.
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Tanselle nods at Grim's plan, smiling as he refereed to Tresca and herself as "T&T."
"Try and draw them out of the room if you can," she says. "It'll be tough getting a clear shot otherwise."
The gunslinger moves as stealthily as she can muster and lines herself up across from the doorway. Once there, she jams a bullet into the barrel of pistol.
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The man, who looks rather familiar to the half-elves, looks up at the noise and spots Tresca. "Drop that and kill the intruder, you bug-eyed oafs!"
Two small blue creatures with bulbous heads and enormous eyes, squinting in the dim light draw blades and begin to plod dutifully to intercept your party.
But the man has failed to notice Raul as he lines up his shot. The arrow strikes and penetrates at the neck of his armor, spraying red as the man tries to stanch the wound.
Initiative Order - Round 1
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Raul - strikes for 11 damage
Grimaldus
Enemy
Tresca
Tanselle
Kurse