Bran leads the way once more, looking for the pump room.
The ragged hellcat sniffs the air instinctively at times, even though he can smell very little underwater.
Fulk stops to examine one of the rune-ethched rings more closely.
The rune seem to be in Elven and say "For controlling the tides". They appear to be magically crafted but are part of a non magical mechanical device."
Well, as skum are still about, lets be cautious about the way we go.
"Well, do we go deeper in these natural tunnels, hoping it curls around to the pump room, or do we back out and go through the finished tunnels? Pumps make me think the finished tunnels might be better, but, you never know, really . . .."
Logically the finished tunnels are the way to go. But I guess we will have to see.
Fulk translates the runes for the others, and nods to Ragnar. "Yes, I think the tunnels are a good idea."
Well, then, shall we be off ?
Ragnar picks everything of his up, and waits for Bran to move out.
Bran leads the way through the finished tunnels, his matted, ragged fur rippling in the water.
Heading back into the worked areas you find yourselves looking into a room with a low seven foot high ceiling. It appears to be completely flooded and appears to be a torture chamber. Two whipping posts are positioned to the north and south, while narrow, rusty cages sit against the walls. A partially collapsed rack slumps in the centre of the room, while a low stone well sits in an alcove to the west.
Bran lets out a low growl of warning.
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Adonara grips the hilt of her sword more tightly as she cautiously steps into the torture chamber. As if the upper levels weren’t example enough of the Spiders’ viciousness, she muses, as she takes a look around the room, trying to re-establish her bearings in relation to where the pump room must be.
She steps forward to the well on the far wall, realizing that the workings and outflow of the pumps must be somewhere below and to the south, as she takes a look around to count all the doors out of the room. As she does, she also checks for signs of recent passage and what the narrow cages might have been used for originally.
She's normally made of sterner stuff, but she's distracted by the sinister presence of the broken rack in the silent room that just won't get out of her head and keeps drawing her eye, not least because she knows some of her people are locked away somewhere down here. Who knows what might have been done to them?
Tapping Adnoara on the shoulder.
Lass, there is nothing that we can do right now for those that were broken on the rack. All we can do is ensure that they don't do that again.
"What people will do to each other always surprises me. Sometimes pleasantly. Others . . .." He indicates the contents of the room with a wave of his hand, simply shaking his head. Then he looks to Adonara. "You know, more than a few think this sort of thing is how Her Sting should be felt, right? There are followers who believe this is right. So many different ways to see the same thing."
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“Yeah, you’re right,” Adonara acknowledges Ragnar’s gentle encouragement, the depth of her consternation marked by her slip into colloquialism.
Til’s words, too, help recall her fully to herself, and she shakes off her mood with a concerted effort.
“Oh, absolutely. To say I have no objection to asserting a bit of dominance, a bit of binding, of weaponplay … would be putting it mildly,” she smiles broadly. “But a rack, for goddess’ sake. Girls aren’t taffy, and I don’t expect boys are either. And nothing to make anyone comfortable afterwards. I would say it’s all a bit much, but then who am I to judge? I’m just glad my clients know better than to ask me for this.”
She peers through the waters to what look like the most promising other gaps in the walls and piles of rubble.
“There first, I think,” she says, pointing to the south-east corner where a corridor might open up, “and then I think there might be something interesting beyond the north wall.”
Heading southeast the walls of this flooded cave are encrusted with filth and sludge; a mound of awful sloppy mud, bones and refuse lies near the centre of the cave, below a five foot diameter hole in the ceiling.
"That hole could be a problem later."
Fulk looks around for anything significant.
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Adonara nods her agreement, her hair waving strangely in the water as she does so, and she resolves to put it in a braid next time she has to spend any amount of time immersed.
She drops her gaze from the hole in the ceiling to the walls and the debris heaped on the floor. Could the controls to the pumps be buried somewhere in all the mess? Again, the courtesan tries to reconstruct mentally how all the tunnels in this place must relate to one another. Also, reluctantly, she pokes and prods at the muck with the toe of her boot and the point of her weapon.
Bran looks around, occasionally sniffing the air. He gives a low growl of frustration, "Nothing smells right under water."
Fulk and Adonara you can see a large creature trying to hide amongst the refuse. It is a grotesque mass of blubber and rancid flesh with a vast maw filled with teeth.
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Adonara throws a warning look at Fulk, since she knows she has no idea what the thing is, apart from disgusting. It doesn’t seem to have spotted (sensed?) them yet, so she quickly hisses, “What is that thing?”
She brings her sword up to a guard position, bracing for any aggressive movements on the blob's part while everyone gets in position and hopefully figures out how best to deal with the creature.
let us let the thing sit for now. we can deal with it when we have the pumps going
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“You might well have a better sense of direction than I do, certainly underground,” Adonara admits, “but I don’t think we went that far up the lower tunnel to find the outflow pipes, surely?”
“And if that’s right, the controls have to be somewhere under all that muck, and either past or through that lumpen mass,” she adds grimly.
Well, then, prudence says that we avoid that mess of goo in the centre and try to take a look around the other side of that wall, to see if it goes anywhere.
Then we may have to look at moving that mass of goop.
Fulk pushes his hood back, as if that will let him see better. "Hmm. Yes, strange indeed."
Fulk you recognise the creature as a globster, they are immune to acid, bludgeoning and piercing damage.
"Still that way, though, you think?" He sighs. "Avoidance would be nice. Maybe it is dependent upon the water somehow. Anybody see a route past it? Or something we might be able to use to draw it into another corner? Maybe one of the corpses we just made?"
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“It doesn’t seem to be particularly interested in us, yet,” Adonara considers. “If we can just drain the awful thing away, that would be lovely, wouldn’t it? I wonder…”
Before turning to check for clogged drains and the like by more mundane means, she tests to see if there’s any magical part of the pumps that aren’t buried under too much muck or monster to get a good sense of where the controls might be.
If we can get rid of it without putting ourselves in harms way, I consider that a win.
Ragnar looks to see distance between teeth and wall.
I wonder if I hug the wall, I can get to the far side to look past it. Hopefully without getting bit.
Bran tenses when the creature is pointed out to him.
He stands watchfully, balanced on all fours, ready to pounce if the creature attacks.
Ragnar continues to look over the room, trying to figure out if there is an exit to it on the far side.
"This isn't great. That's a globster. Immune to acid, as well as blunt-force trauma. Poking holes in them is also pretty useless. Anybody got swords, axes, and energy attacks that aren't acid-based?" he asks, glancing at his own hands No bolts, they're acid. I do have a dagger, I guess.
"All I've got for that is a dagger, then. Small cuts work, right? Even if slowly?"
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"This isn't great. That's a globster. Immune to acid, as well as blunt-force trauma. Poking holes in them is also pretty useless. Anybody got swords, axes, and energy attacks that aren't acid-based?" he asks, glancing at his own hands No bolts, they're acid. I do have a dagger, I guess.
Adonara flicks her wrist to sweep her weapon through an instinctive, assessing circle, noting the drag of the water with some displeasure, but trying to focus on the brighter side of things, “I can slash as well as stab with this, and Ragnar has his axes. Bit of a waste, but could we try that wand the leader of the skum was carrying?”
"All I've got for that is a dagger, then. Small cuts work, right? Even if slowly?"
“It should,” she nods, eyes flicking back to the nasty pile of glup. “It will probably make an unholy mess. But let’s see. Together, shall we?”
Anybody need to use a light axe then ?
He flips both the boarding axe (S/P) and Maulaxe (S/B) up and offers them hilt first.
I got my own axe that I usually use Indicating the war axe on his belt.
Bran’s whisper rolls through the water, ”Yes, I am ready.”
Adonara, nothing detects as magical, other than the items you have on you.
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“Very well,” Adonara nods, her expression growing serious as she prepares to do her best to dispense the aptly-named globster. “Goddess keep us safe!”
She lays down a few spells before closing, bolstering her weapons and invoking Calistria’s blessing on them all, sure that they might well need it.
The thing is almost too horrid to contemplate, and despite the seriousness of the situation, the courtesan can't help but mutter, "Now there's no face that only Urgathoa could love," casually jibing at her own goddess' would-be rival.
Unfortunately, even before her first strike really starts sweeping too slowly through the water, Adonara realizes that with a creature like this, she's not even sure where to aim, or even if she should aim, as opposed to just trying to carve slices of the thing off.
Seeing no one is taking him up on the offer of the axes, he scabbards his light axes, and then draws out his heavy war axe.
May the lady grant us Strength
Ragnar taps first Bran, then himself transferring a touch of Iomadae's power to both himself and Bran
Hoping to stick the thing in place, Fulk casts Web on it.
Adonara's blow misses
You can all have a surprise round action