"Gurk no be scared of water. Watch." In so saying, Gurk launches a stone in a high arc into the water...as far back as he could be from it.
HP 25/28
AC 17, touch 12, flat-footed 15, CMD 18
Fort +5, Ref +5, Will +1 (+2 vs. emotion spells, effects)
Tactician (5 rounds): 0/2
Studied Target (+1 bonus on Bluff, Knowledge, Perception, Sense Motive, and Survival checks; weapon attack rolls and weapon damage rolls):
Effects:
Temmer looks a the water with a frown, after thanking Lady Dusk and the others for their assistance while the creature had a hold of him. "There are many tentacled things out there in the water; some are horrific, others merely a staple while you're at sea. It's hard to know what this might be."
He urges the others to head for the northern area.
Gurk tosses a stone which splashes into the water some distance away, but nothing seems to happen. With some of the members of the group hesitant Adistan urges the group to continue back north.
Gurk takes up his position and leads the way. Heading back north, Gurk passes through the door back to where they started before entering into the western cave. He checks the door to the east and finding no threat opens it up to find a small room, a bronze plaque, green with corrosion and inscribed with spiky runes, hangs over a closed door to the southeast.
“Do not leave cages open.”
Checking the next door, under the plague, Gurk finds that this one is actually locked.
"Do not leave cages open," Lexi translates flawlessly.
"A zoo!" she squeaks in excitement. Then her eyes narrow a bit as she thinks things through a bit more. "Who would build a zoo in the piling of a bridge?"
"Ancient Thassilonians!!??" As much as Lexi would love to find an ancient Thassilonian zoo, her intellect won't be overcome by her hopeful optimism.
"More likely the cages of some guard monsters," she grumbles. To Gurk she adds, "I can't believe you led us to someplace likely more dangerous than the squid swimming pool!"
She's likely just teasing the goblin though, for a moment later she's actively helping him search for traps on the door.
Verris heaves a sigh of relief as they decide not to tempt the potential tentacle monster. She follows the others to the new door occasionally throwing a glance back towards the murky pool for any sign of snaking tentacles following them.
The mention of cages worried the Andoren sailor, but not as much as potential attackers. Temmer looks around for any threats.
Finding no traps, and with no one telling him to stop Gurk like they did at the murky, tentacle water, Gurk slides up to the door and works on the lock, able to pick it and unlock the door. He swings the door open. Stone tables line the sides of this room. Atop them are battered iron cages of various sizes, many of which hold the skeletal remains of various occupants. A number of these have been forcibly wrenched open and lie in ruins. It becomes quickly obvious what had opened the other cages as a number of small creatures composed of half-formed body parts, standing on two monstrous legs rush forward, a mouth full of jagged teeth dominates the creature’s bulbous head. Its veins pulse just beneath transparent flesh. It's warped flesh reminds you of the sinspawn you encountered earlier.
You know this creature is called a fleshdreg. Fleshdregs are misshapen lumps of tissue, appendages, and biting mouths. These incomplete sinspawn are practically immortal, require little food to sustain their unnatural physiology, and don’t seem to mature past the point of creation. They have a nasty bite that can impart some ill effect depending on the sin associated with their creation.
"Fleshdregs--unfinished sinspawn!" Lexi blurts upon seeing the monsters. "Don't let them bite you!"
That's about all the young archivist can tell you about the threat faced...but it's better than nothing.
Verris moves forward to get a better aim on the creatures and to help back up Gurk. She fires at the closest one as it attacks the party.
Gurk slinks into the room, staying behind the greenshank for a good opportunity to slash. This be better. Many meats on these ones.
The group jumps to action with the new threat as Davor leads the way toward the closest foe. The thing is small though and darts out of the way of his incoming attack. Bixby uses his wand but as the puny firework collides with the creature it just washes over him doing nothing.
Lexi tells the others what she knows about the creatures, which doesn't seem to have the depth she normally does. Even so it still helps them in their efforts. Gurk gets behind Davor waiting for the little, creepy meat bags to come to him and come they do, though they crowd around Davor first.
None of the literal ankle bitters are able to get a hold of Davor, but the one that manages to attack Gurk takes a chunk out of the goblin as it seems something else is trying to eat him now. As Lexi noted it's bite was particularly painful, as it is somewhat acidic burning at Gurks flesh.
HP 28/28
AC 17, touch 12, flat-footed 15, CMD 18
Fort +5, Ref +5, Will +1 (+2 vs. emotion spells, effects)
Tactician (5 rounds): 0/2
Studied Target (+1 bonus on Bluff, Knowledge, Perception, Sense Motive, and Survival checks; weapon attack rolls and weapon damage rolls):
Effects:
Seeing Gurk in some trouble, Temmer rushes to help him, bringing his quarterstaff down in a hard blow, though he rushes the attack.
Lexi moves to a corner where she reloads her crossbow. Her encouraging words hang in the minds of her friends as they continue to battle the little freaks.
Backed in a corner now, Gurk slashes out at the tiny creatures. "You no eat Gurk. Gurk be eating."
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Verris takes a shot at the one that bit Gurk sticking it with an arrow, but the thing still looks at Gurk with hunger as it chews on some of his flesh. Adistan moves up trying to hit the same one, but the little thing moves out of the way of the incoming blow as his staff hits the empty ground instead.
Bixby tosses some acid at one near Davor. The acid explodes on the one melting some of its flesh, as a horrid smell fills the air. It splashes on to some of the others and Davor as well, burning each just a bit. Davor jabs his trident at the more injured one and manages to catch it on the side, but the thing is still standing, but looks pretty bad off. He leans over to try and bite one but the smell is too much and he just can't bring himself to get close enough.
Lexi continues her inspiration while she reloads her crossbow and Gurk slices and dices the already injured one near him, making a point to demonstrate that he is the alpha predator over these mutated creatures.
Undettered and seemingly unconcerned as one of their own fall the creatures continue trying to eat Davor and Gurk.
This time one manages to bite Davor, while the one left on Gurk barely misses.
With one eye closed as she aims and her tongue hanging out the corner of her mouth, Lexi again fires her crossbow at one of the little creatures--the one just south of Gurk. Then she reloads.
for
HP 28/28
AC 17, touch 12, flat-footed 15, CMD 18
Fort +5, Ref +5, Will +1 (+2 vs. emotion spells, effects)
Tactician (5 rounds): 0/2
Studied Target (+1 bonus on Bluff, Knowledge, Perception, Sense Motive, and Survival checks; weapon attack rolls and weapon damage rolls):
Effects:
Temmer steps in and whirls his quarterstaff in an arc, striking with both sides at the creature between him and Davor. Unfortunately, he's still not used to using the weapon this way, and does nothing but embarrass himself.
Verris attacks again, trying to down the surprisingly tough little monsters.
Grinning menacingly at the small creatures, Gurk continues to swing at them.
Verris lands another shot on one of the bizzare creatures doing significant damage but not enough to end it alone. Adistan steps up swinging his quarterstaff and trying to attack, but both times the little thing darts out of the way as he continues to only be able to attack the stone floor.
Bixby blasts one again with his wand, but just as before the magic seems to fizzle as it hits the creature, doing no harm. Davor takes up a defensive stand with so many crowding around him. Favoring defense over offense he doesn't connect with the one he is attacking.
Gurk finishes off the one Verris injured with a swift slice across the creatures gut, spilling its innards on the floor.
The ones on Davor do not relent and try to continue to bite the half-orc.
It seems his preference for defense pays off as none are able to bite him. With them focused on Davor, as he maintains his defense the others are able to circle around and finish off the remaining pesky critters.
Once they are all dead, Lexi realizes her hopes of an ancient zoo are not to be realized as this room looks more like a holding chamber for experimentation. There is a closed door in the SE wall.
Lexi gets over her disappointment over not finding an ancient petting zoo quickly; in fact she seems almost giddy for some reason. She jokingly chides Gurk for playing with his food and tells Davor "You must taste like lime, cuz those little fellows were lined up to get a nibble!" The true reason for her excitement is revealed when she finally gets to Verris.
"Did you see? I actually hit something when I fired my crossbow! I just nicked one of the fleshdregs, but a nick still counts as a hit...in my book, at least!"
Then she asks Davor and Verris if this might be a good place and time to expend some "free" healing resources or if she should use additional charges from the wand to fix up Davor and Gurk before proceeding.
And finally, she suddenly realizes there's a door that needs examining and helps Gurk with that task.
Verris smiles at Lexi's excitement and nods, "It was a good shot. It's harder to hit smaller things, you did well." As she talks to Lexi, Verris pokes at one of the small creatures with the tip of her boot, examining its strange anatomy.
Temmer stays quiet, hanging his head in shame as he realizes he was again nearly useless in the battle.
While Lexi's feeling pretty good about her contributions during and after the battle with the fleshdregs, she eventually notices Adistan's moping.
"Good job, Master Temmer, in engaging those beasts and keeping them from breaking through to devour our party's second rank," she says in the formal way the Andoran sailor seems to prefer.
While Gurk's examining the door for traps (forewarned by some of her own observations!), Lexi produces the healing wand and taps the goblin once with it. Then she examines Davor's rather thick legs (especially when compared against Gurk's) for lingering tooth marks.
"Is this thing broken?" she asks aloud before again tapping Gurk's shoulder with the wand. "There we go! I'm pretty sure I mispronounced the command word the first time. No problem, I think; no wasted charge."
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Bixby shakes his wand, wondering why it hadn't harmed the creatures. He stows it and looks into the room.
"Those were ugly and awful. Certainly seems like a taste of things to come down here," he says, making some notes in his journal.
He looks around for anything they might use, as well as hidden dangers.
Gurk takes a small taste of one to test it. Should they be good, he'll scavenge as much as he can put in his pack before checking the door.
Gurk checks the door not finding any threats. Opening the door leads to a small hall ending in another door, after similar results at the second door Gurk continues on. A stout iron portcullis blocks the eastern entrance; its winch stands to the side. A skeleton, still in the scorched half-plate armor it wore in life, is slumped over the winch. Interestingly, the lever you found earlier looks like a perfect fit for the winch here.
Verris looks at the scorched armour, then at the winch, then back to her companions. "Don't like the look of this either," she says, thinking back to the tentacle decorated pool.
"Yes, it does scream 'Trap!', doesn't it?" Lexi replies flatly. The bard casts resistance on herself and Gurk and then moves forward with the goblin to double-team the potential hazard.
"Thank you, Lady Dusk, but I'm afraid you're being too kind. I was all sorts of useless there, as much as wings on a fish."
Once they finish inspecting the device, Temmer calls Gurk and Lady Dusk back. "Better that I try it," he says. "I'd hate to see either of you burned, and if I don't make it back, it will be of less import."
He holds out his hand for the lever.
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Adistan finds himself on the receiving end of one of Lexi's weird, emotionless, unblinking stares.
"Don't be silly! You protected us quite well! As for harming your foes...well, I think you may have been concentrating too much on your form and not allowing your body to move with the ebb and flow of the combat. I do that myself. You wouldn't guess it from what you've seen, but Lady Heidmarch once said she thought I had great promise as a fencer. Hmm...maybe she was being literal and thought I could make a living building fences."
Lexi frowns, refusing to hand over the lever. "No," she says slowly. "I have some innate resistance to electricity...fire, too. I'll try using the lever."
That bit about being resistant to fire was a lie. In fact, you probably remember Lexi crying after burning her hands solving the puzzle on the enchanted door on the group's previous visit to the Crow.
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Bixby stands well back as the others discuss activating the winch.
"You realize, of course, that this is a trap. Or is it one to make us think it's a trap when, in reality, it's not and then we let our guard down and go past it and step directly on a different trap? Or both?"
He scribbles some notes as the others discuss what to do.
His dwarven bodyguard shakes his head.
"Gurk like fire," Gurk points out, not following as he checks the strange device. Does this be making fire, then?
Lexi hangs her head at being caught in her really poor lie. Still, she's fairly resolute about being the one to try using the lever.
"You folks take most of the risk most of the time," she points out. "Let me take the risk here. Besides, I'm pretty spry on my feet!"
"Absolutely not, Lady Dusk. I couldn't bear the thought of something happening to you. Clearly it makes the most sense for me to risk myself. I'm in good health, I dare say, and have shown some powers of recuperation," Temmer replies.
He immediately starts wondering if he might come across as unfathomably pompous for his braggadocio, but sometimes you need to be assertive to protect others.
Gurk stands confused on why the longshanks try to be one to pull lever, until something clicks. They be fighting to see who be one to get fire! With the sudden realization, Gurk quickly yanks on the lever. "Gurk get fire first!"
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Temmer winces as Gurk just goes ahead, though he can't help but be impressed with the goblin's bravery and sense of self-sacrifice. He wouldn't have attributed some ideas to the small creature when they first met, and he can't help but feel guilty for so badly having underestimated one of his companions.
Verris is about to intervene in all the bickering of who gets to sacrifice themselves first when Gurk just uses the lever while everyone is still arguing. She freezes, waiting for something to happen.
After some infighting Gurk tugs on the lever with people standing clustered up nearby. There is a loud click... and the portcullis begins to raise.
Beyond is a short hall leading east and then north. Gurk leads the way forward and he quickly sees the normal hall give way to something else. The walls, floor, and ceiling of this curving corridor are sheathed in rusty plates of iron that have been bolted in place. Scorch marks mar this armor plating at periodic intervals, and the gnawed fragments of blackened bones are scattered here and there. Row after row of tiny runes have been etched into each iron plate.
You deduce that the entire chamber is built to be some sort of device to focus planar energies, with the layout of the walls and their rune-infused iron plates designed to create a thin spot between the planes at the center of the maze. The entire thing is known as a rift siphon.
You confirm that the magics at work here currently focused on Hell.
These plates seem to be related to some sort of more in depth magical machination. You are fairly certain that prying no fewer than 10 iron plates from the walls (no two of which can be closer than 10 feet apart), would cause the entire device can be ruined.