"Damn, me and my big mouth!"
Samen rushes forward, moving erratically to avoid the creature's attacks, and swings his sword as hard as he can.
Klaytal runs along the side of the room, making space for his teammates to fend off the dozens of arms being displayed toward them. He attacks!
"Oh dear, my friends. What horrors have we yet to see? What terrors shall we yet defeat this day? This one and more, I bet." The boy's sing-song chant ignites a burning fire in the party.
After adjusting his shirt to make sure his missing chest hair isn’t obvious, Gate moves in to attack!
Klaytal hits, but not all of his piercing damage goes through. Samen, even with the help of the boy's magic, cannot penetrate teh thick hide.
Zombipede = -5 HP
ZOMBIPEDE chitters and lunges at Klaytal with its jaws.
It misses the nimble elf.
Whole party is up!
"I'll draw it's attention, you kill it!" Samen directs traffic, then feints at the big creature, trying to create an opening for the others.
The boy pulls out a small bottle and chucks it at the hundred dead limbs.
"Ho ho! Thank you Samen, but I think Gate's lack-of-tan is distracting enough even for the dead!"
Gate full attacks!
Klaytal skewers one of the flat-footed ZOMBIPEDE's eyes, and ichor spills out; Gate's daggers mince off one of its legs, and the boy's holy water sizzles its unholy flesh!
Nevertheless, the piercing damage everyone is doing seems less effective than it could be. Having dealt with zombies before, and having seen the effects of the last two rounds of combat, it might behoove you to recall most zombies have DR/slashing.
ZOMBIPEDE tries to strike back at Gate!
Its teeth sink into Gate's shoulder.
Just then the statue behind you comes to life; it steps forward and slams Klaytal from reach!
This is a clay golem, but it's not working very well.
It has strong DR/bludgeoning, just like many others of its kind.
It's immune to magic that has SR, with some exceptions that probably aren't useful/relevant here.
It attacks the flat-footed Klaytal from behind!
Zombipede = -53 HP
Gate = -12 HP
Klaytal = -25 HP
Whole party is up
"What the hell?!" Samen looks back over his shoulder at the suddenly-active statue, then grits his teeth and continues assaulting the zombipede, beginning by trying to fool it again.
Samen's long sword slashes ZOMBIPEDE in half!
The boy takes out a flask and throws it at the statue. "Alas, I've had no truck with statues, nor with zombie bugs."
Klaytal moves around the statue, "Someone help distract it so I can look for an opening!"
And tries to nimbly dodge any incoming slams.
He will wait for one of his teammates to join him in flank if possible.
"Wow, I'm going to break my rapier at this rate..."
Klaytal 5-foot steps across and flanks with Klaytal.
Klaytal's rapier bends on the golem's stone skin, striking true but doing no damage.
Gate's daggers chip tiny flakes of stone off, doing very little damage. The alchemist fire seems to work well, doing its full damage.
Golem = -7HP
Gate = -12 HP
Klaytal = -25 HP
The golem misses both times!
Whole Party is up!
The boy takes out another flask and throws.
Samen feints to the left, trying to get the creature moving so he can find a weak spot to point out to his allies.
Everyone waits for the right time to strike, when Samen can help them overcome this golem's DR.
Gate attacks!
Klaytal attacks!
The golem slams Klaytal twice!
Klaytal, being injured, tries to parry the first slam, and does so successfully.
Whole party is up, waiting for Samen…
The boy tumbles around Klaytal and taps him with the wand of bandages.
Samen once again tries to fool the statue into exposing its weaknesses.
Gate full attacks the statue!
Now susceptible to piercing damage, chunks of the golem fall off as Gate pierces it. It breaks apart, falling into dust!
You can rest for the night here, if you wish.
Gate holds his shoulder where he was bitten by the zombipede..
”And that was my bad shoulder too. Should we camp here and rest up?”
"If need be, though I worry what the extra time will mean for our captured princess."
Samen's brother sets about healing Gate and Klaytal.
"I fear we'll fail milady and her groom if we charge on with too much haste. But I could push yet further on a ways."
Gate thanks a boy for the healing.
"You're saying you want to keep going for now?"
"Thank you, Birne! I agree with you, I think we should continue onward."
Gate leads the way!
You move to the next level.
The walls here are made of a sludgy clay-like material that looks likely to collapse at any moment; the floors are mostly a supportive jelly or ooze, although patches of quicksand also occur.
At the bottom of the stairs is an archway filled by a curtain of water.
The area beyond is T-shaped, with a triple-vaulted ceiling. The entry to this room is flat and painted with a scene of a tidal wave swamping an erupting volcano.
The floor is flooded to a depth of 2 feet.
Anyone wearing metal armor feels a tugging on their bodies, as if an invisible current is drawing them to the center of the room.
You stop and look into the pool of water. There's darker water in the middle of the room — some kind of trap lays the middle of the floor, hidden under the water. You decide to make your way carefully around along the edge.
No one sees the trap.
Everyone but Gate falls asleep, falling into the two-foot deep water. Those wearing metal armor begin getting dragged to the cener of the room.
Samen is up, then Gate!
Samen must make a DC 10 con check or begin drowning.
Bubbles rise as Samen somehow continues snoring while face-down in the water.
Klaytal looks about, dazed and unasleep because he is an elf.
"Garçon– Er, brother, wakey wake!" The boy moves quickly to lift his sibling's head above the water.
"What's he laying about for? Gate wades over and attempts to pick Samen up.
Having safely bypassed the horrible magnetic sleep trap, the party moves on.
The doorway to the next room is also full of water — instead of a cascade this time, it's perfectly still and perfectly dark. This entire room is filled with lightless water.
You fight some Skum lurking in the dark, dispatching them easily.
You step out of the dark waters and into a short hallway, covered in slick algae.
You note nothing of value, so you move on.
There is a narrow platform beyond the next door, and water of unknown depth slowly churning around a series of pillars whose flat, algae-streaked tops rise just above the surface.
There are words written in a language you don't know on the wall here, and symbols carved into the each pillar-top.
To get across this room, one could jump from pillar to slimy pillar; an acrobatic person might get through with ease. One might also risk the water, or perhaps there's another way… there's a single 5'x5' platform directly opposite the door.
"Hm." Samen sizes up the stones, then, with some trepidation, hops across to the first one.
Samen makes the jump easily. He will need to make an acrobatics check every round he stays on the pillar, or can jump again.
Hucklepuck tries to decipher the script.
"As a drop becomes an ocean, the least of steps becomes the greatest of journeys."
It looks a single glyph of same language's symbols are written on each pillar.
You also now recognize five stylized images of humanoids next to five embellished symbols. These are not in any particular language and you can make 5 knowledge geography, history, or nobility to recognize these while Samen jumps to pillar #2.
What else is everyone doing? Are you jumping on pillars like Samen or waiting / helping the Boy translate this script?
The boy relays his findings as he looks further.
The Boy notes that these humanoids represent different creatures, and that the symbols next to them have more to do with heraldry than in common parlance. In fact, this heraldry represents a part of the creature's typical alignment:
Malenti — Lawful
Triton — Good
Scrags — Chaotic
Lacedon — Evil
Merfolk — Neutral
The boy notes that the first pillar his brother is inscribed with the symbol for "S" in this language, and the second one is inscribed with "C."
"A good beginning, brov. You’ll want to spell it out: s-C-r-A-g-S for Scrags. Let’s wait, dear Noodle and Sir Fart, until he’s done."
"I've always thought Scrags were a good idea." Samen says, not doing much to hide the sarcasm in his voice. Still, he follows Birne's directions, jumping to R, then A, G, S, and to the far platform.