"Who's THIS guy, again!?"
"Who's THIS guy, again!?"
"I am Koko Tosscobble at your service, Sir. I am a long lost circus performer, but let's save introduction for a more convenient time. First order of business needs to be to get rid of these nasty snapping centipedes. May I suggest you used something ranged. In these narrow confines I find nothing better than a good arrow. Do you have such a weapon, my friend? Here let me show you."
Koko takes another series of shots with his shortbow.
•
•
•
Koko and Seelah combine to kill another! Only one centipede remains.
Round 5
Centipedes: Bites!
Zakrael: Go
Longmoor: Go
Koko: Hit
Seelah: Hit
Maliit: Go
With one target left, Zakrael takes a moment to focus on the target, studying weak points before he lets his arrows fly.
"Let it through, Seelah! It's the better part of valour, really!"
Maliit tries a slightly different approach.
"I'm not jumping, darn it!"
The evoker tries one of the first cantrips he was taught.
with a flick of the wrist a dart of pure light streaks toward the centipede.
Zakrael and Maliit both miss with their attacks as the centipede continues to plague the party.
ound 5
Centipedes: Bites!
Zakrael: Miss
Longmoor: Go
Koko: Hit
Seelah: Hit
Maliit: Miss
botting for the Cleric:
Swelling with confidence at the sound of goblins' unfolding defeat, Longmoor moves back to the tunnel's exit as his hands glow once again and he hurls a at the remaining goblin.
.
.
.
The centipede easily shakes off the spell. Alone it tries to attack Seelah:
for + FORT
Round 6
Centipedes: Bites!
Zakrael: Go
Longmoor: Go
Koko: Go
Seelah: Go
Maliit: Go
The gnome tries another spell. something has to work!!
Zakrael releases more arrows!
Koko continues firing arrows at the remaining centipede.
"My dear gnome, you do not jump to attack it. You jump to avoid be bit by it!"
FINALLY, the party, now a quintet, takes out the last centipede!
Hoping for some reward for the danger, the party searches the lair, but comes away with only detritus, and nothing of value.
Maliit suggests we check the next cave.
"Well met, kind folk. Well met indeed! I am Koko Tosscobble at your service." The halfling bows deeply and smiles with a twinkle in his eye. "It is my pleasure to meet each and everyone of you. I must admit that your timing was rather fortunate for I had gotten myself into a bit of a pickle. Your presence here is greatly appreciated and for that I offer you my services. I am luck bringer, ledge walker, lock picker, gold finder, arrow shooter, and if I may humbly add, occasional lady charmer. And who, may I ask, do I have the pleasure of making acquaintance with, my fine adventurers?"
"A pleasure to meet you," the elf smiles. "I am Zakrael the Wanderer, and this is my trusty companion Benedict." He points at a small bear, who cranes his head at the sound of his name. "Traveling with us are Seelah, Maliit, and Longmoor."
"I question the title 'luck bringer' given the circumstances, but I do not fault you. We are here to help a friend. What misfortune brings you here?"
"It is a pleasure to meet you and your companions, Zakrael." Koko replies with another gracious bow to his new acquaintances. He then recounts a brief story to answer Zakrael's questions.
"I suppose it all began with an opened letter I found in the tent of Clive Ooberhump, the ringmaster of the Big Peach Travelling Circus and Extravaganza, an entertainment business in which I had been conscripted to for some years. Anyway, curiosity sometimes gets the best of me and I discovered from the letter that a very prominent woman named Keleri Deverin lost a family heirloom called the Star of Desna. Can you imagine it?! Desna of all gods! Well, I saw this as a sign and decided to make my escape. I figured that if I could find and return this Star, I would be a hero and have endless luck! So, when the Big Peach came to Magnimar, I fled the circus to try and find Desna's Star. From the letter I found out that it was somewhere down in the sewers in a place called the Ashen Ossuary. So I'm here in this stench filled mud pit looking for a shining star. So what brings you folks to this place? Don't tell me this is now a tourist attraction here in Magnimar?!"
The next passage over is decidedly less full of giant centipedes than the first. The narrow passage opens up into a small burial vault that has been ransacked. Shattered remains of skeletons lie on the floor in twisted heaps among scattered rocks and debris, but the bodies of four recently killed goblins on display in the four niches are much more intact.
Maliit storms up to the halfling."You can tag along if you want. BUT..I...AM NOT..JUMPING!" the gnome waggles his finger a slim inch away from the halfling's nose.
Maliit will inspect the room and the bodies?
Heal, err I mean medicine check?
after that, head to the next entrance.
Maliit can't piece together what happened, though obviously something did happen...
More the sort to look out for danger, hidden passageways, and hazards Zakrael puts his senses to the test with Benedict.
"You can tag along if you want. BUT..I...AM NOT..JUMPING!"
"My dear gnome, I had no idea that you had such an aversion to jumping. Very well, very well. You are welcome to stand and get socked about all you like. However, when you've collected enough socks and decide that you would like to avoid the bites, nips, slams, thuds, whams and boofs, then I am happy to give you a lesson on jumping that may reduce the wear and tear of adventuring. Please know that I am your lucky halfling and that I am here to serve. I will certainly not push my point of view upon you. In fact, my friend, I'm rather curious if your approach has some merit to it. I will see how you fare with your technique as this little adventure goes and I'll let you know what I think."
"In the meantime, let me sneak forth and be your eyes and ears. I'll let you know if I see anything hiding in the shadows."
Once, Koko has had a chance to make his acquaintance with the party, he volunteers to go forth and scout for everyone. He watches carefully for any traps and dangers both seen and unseen. He searches the cave with the four dead goblins carefully and then he moves west through the narrow passage.
Moving to the final side cavern, the party makes a fast stop. The walls of this gently curving passageway are covered in thin, fibrous tendrils that connect to a large mass of red fungus growing in the center of this small vault. The central mass is almost three feet high, from which several long, pale gray stalks have extended upward to brush against the ceiling.
mindfog fungus! It's spores can leave someone confused and stupefied.
You determine that while burning it destroys the fungus, doing so releases a virulent cloud of spores.
When Koko recognizes the fungus he speaks in an urgent whisper. "EeeGads! Stop, stop, stop! It's high alert time! Do you see that red patch of fungus clumped in the center of this vault? I recognize it at once. While I do confess that I have enjoyed many a mushroom in my day, I can assure you that this is one fungus that we do not want to try. It's called mindfog fungus! It's spores can leave someone confused and stupefied. My brother Poko and I once tried to burn a patch of mindfog fungus. It did destroy it, but it also released a virulent cloud of spores. I won't even mention what happened to poor Poko. Not the sort of thing we want to get close to. However, just in case the Star of Desna is in here, we should still search this place. I'm open to suggestions on how you want to deal with this bit of nastiness."
"The star of Desna should radiate magic which I can sense. One moment."[b]
The gnome reaches his hand out with two finders and his thumb extended.
[b]"nope, nothing." he says way to quickly for anything real to have happened. and turns around and walks to the stairs.
Maliit points towards the stairs,"I believe we need to head that way."
"My dear, Maliit, that was most impressive! So you didn't even need to go in the room to find the Star of Desna?! Can your powers work through walls? Maybe you could lead us there right away!"
Koko continues to scout ahead for the party. He checks through the passageway to the east.
The sound of dripping water echoes through this chamber. On the north side of the room, a nearly ten-foot-tall visage of a woman’s face is carved into the wall. Trickles of water run down her cheeks like tears into a foul and polluted reservoir below, which itself drains to a large pool of fetid black water on the south side of the room.
"Okay, folks. Follow me at a safe distance. If I see trouble, I will be sure to call forward Seelah."
Koko moves quietly down the hallway looking carefully for any threats, creatures, traps, or treasure.
Once inside the room, he peers into the black pool to see if there is anything moving inside of it!
Koko looks into the water. The waters cried by the fountain once likely were clean and pure, but now the murky seem anything but. Koko is just barely able to make out an object in the pool. It looks like a statuette.
Maliit searches the fountain and the statue for magical auras.
Maliit detects no auras, but the water still seems a bit sinister, mostly due to the nature of the idol. It looks like a pregnant humanoid creature with horns sitting on a throne.
"well, it's not going to move itself..." He pauses a moment, takes a slow breath and picks up the figurine.
Maliit picks up the idol out of the water
It's an idol of Lamashtu!
The idol splits open like a cracked egg and unleashes a pair of fiends! These fiends have thin and wiry bodies, horned heads, and tattered bat wings.
Longmoor:
Zakreal:
Maalit:
Seelah:
Round 1:
Longmoor: Go
Zakrael: Go
Foe: TBD
Seelah: TBD
Maliit: TBD
"Bah! Some luck, Halfling!" Longmoor leaps back and casts , making his companions feel more... uh... "potent"... and less... impotent?
.
.
.
Longmoor bolsters the party and gets out of the way!
Round 1:
Longmoor: Bless
Zakrael: Go
Foe: TBD
Seelah: TBD
Maliit: TBD
Koko pulls out his rapier and strikes at the closest fiend. Trying to catch his opponent flat footed, Koko tries to bring in his precision damage.
[•] draw Rapier
[•]
[•]
""Bah! Some luck, Halfling!"
"Indeed we are lucky, Longface. Imagine if we hadn't found these critters and they snuck up behind us!"
Koko, trained to take the initiative, delivers a pair of vicious stabs. The quasit is nearly undone by them, and is immediately panicked by the violence they appeared into.
Round 1:
Longmoor: Bless
Koko: Hits!
Zakrael: Go
Foe: TBD
Seelah: TBD
Maliit: TBD
red: 24
"Bite, Benedict!" Zakrael says, pointing to the bat creature with red wings.
The bear strides forward and, with a toothy jaw, attempts to clamp down.
The ranger then strides to get a clear shot, and lets loose an arrow.
Benedict chomps down on the creature, and in a puff of smoke and sulfur, it's gone!
Zakrael's arrow strikes the other in the chest, but not enough to put it down.
The nasty little creature shouts in it's staccato language and flies over to Zakrael, claws extended:
for
MISS
....and like Seelah in the room before, now Zakrael feels poison coursing through his veins.
Round 1:
Longmoor: Bless
Koko: Hits!
Zakrael: Hit & Kill
Foe: ATK
Seelah: Go
Maliit: Go
Black: 13
Zakrael fights off the poison, much to the dismay of his foe.
The Gnome is shocked as the demons fly out out of the stone idol.
"Iomedae's Sign!
Maliit reaches out with her senses and flings a stone at the imp.
Seelah strides across and cuts the beast in twain! With a second puff of smoke, she redeems herself from the battle against the centipedes.
"There we are my good friends. We took care of that bit of nastiness! Let's see if we can find the star."
With all of the apparent threats taken care of, Koko begins searching the pool and the surrounding area.
