Fumbus has finished his entire meal as the others have talked. He looks at Ezren and Merisiel. "More food? Or we go find ooze-people now? Maybe we get Amiri. She like to break people."
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You make your way to the docks of Quantium, where the abandoned apothecary lies. It's not difficult to discern the shop among the well maintained buildings in the nearby vicinity. The shop’s facade has been defaced with graffiti, its windows are all broken, and its wares are plainly plundered. The doors are bolted, unusually with a relatively brand new looking lock.
Valeros looks over the facade of the building and remarks upon seeing the brand new lock, "Why would a brand new lock be on a deserted and ransacked building? I mean, someone could just go through the broken windows. I think we need to do some searching as we explore this place."
He employs Search tactics for the exploration mode.
"Of course. This looks like exactly the kind of place they would send us to search," Ezren grumbles.
Ezren casts Detect Magic and searches for indications of lingering spells, magical traps, or magic items.
Amiri will scout the area in case someone is lying in wait for the group...
Valeros motions for Merisel to employ her skills to examine the door and then unlock that nice new lock.
Ezren scowls up at the broken window, leans his cane against the side of the half-ruined building, and begins a series of stretches. For all of his grumbling, he appears surprisingly spry.
He picks his cane back up, turns to Merisiel and says, "Well, what do you think? Do we go in the window or do you get us in through the door?"
Merisiel may have had a little too much wine while conversing. She shakes herself out of her daze of following the group.
"Wait, I have these with me for this very reason!" She pulls out her thieves' tools and gets to work on the lock.
"Why bother? I could just break the door down and be done with it..." Amiri suggests sounding impatient
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Merisiel easily picks out the lock to enable access to the shop for the Pathfinders. Internally, the place is in much worse a condition than the exterior, decrepit and with a foul order. Dust and Cobwebs fills the empty broken shelves, and not a single soul is in sight. No magic emanates from anything in this room.
However, it isn't difficult for the group to find a secret trapdoor lying under the dust behind the shop’s wooden counter.The trapdoor’s hinges are well-oiled and show signs of regular use and is also unlocked. The trapdoor leads into a darkness where a foul stench reeks in the chambers below.
Valeros wrinkles up his nose. "That smells worse than Amiri's clothes any day! Why does it smell so bad down there?" Valeros draws his sword and tightens the straps holding his shield to his arm.
"Who knows what kind of creatures we'll run into down there. Hopefully, my sword will be enough to cut them up." He sighs. "I don't suppose you want to cast some light on my shield, Ezron? It's a bit dark down there."
Valeros looks for a way down into the darkness below.
"Who knows what kind of creatures we'll run into down there. Hopefully, my sword will be enough to cut them up." He sighs. "I don't suppose you want to cast some light on my shield, Ezron? It's a bit dark down there."
Ezren is holding a dull gray aeon stone in one hand, the other just beginning to make an arcane gesture over it, when Valeros asks the wizard to cast Light on his shield.
"No, I don’t want to ca..." Ezren trails off, then huffs out a breath and slips the pebble into his pocket. "What was I saying? Create some light on your shield? Nothing simpler, my boy. One moment."
With a snap of his fingers and a mellifluous incantation, the wizard causes the warriors shield to glow as brightly as a torch.
One thing I am certain of: if one of us needs to be a brightly-lit target down there, the youngster is better able to take a few hits - or explosions, or what have you - than I am.
"As well used as this door is, I'd say we'll probably find the most difficult creatures of all; people." Merisiel draws her rapier and keeps her off-hand free to help her climb down behind the fighter.
"My clothes don't smell!" Amiri says indignantly before turning to Ezren:"That's nice! Do my sword as well mage!"
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Valeros litted shield uncovers a fairly large chamber about 20ft below grade. The basement of Wishful Cures is a jumble of boxes and crates, most of them left ajar, and heaps of yellowed papers and dried herbs scattered across the floor, suggesting perhaps a storage room of some sort. The air contains a sour, chemical smell emanating from an opening in the far wall of the closet to the south.
As the party descends, Kyra immediately halts the group to points out there are several pressure plates on the floor hidden among the detritus and ask that the group walks around it. As the party moves through the room, Ezren discerns some magical item hidden under the boxes. The object appears to be a ring.
The opening in the walls seems to be made relatively recently and seems to be done by unskilled labourers. As if someone broke into the wall without giving it any real care and created a ugly looking tunnel to the best of their ability. A slurry of yellow tinged, foul smelling water fills the tunnel. Further ahead, the tunnel moves in deeper but also to the west, another opening that leads to what you believe to be the main sewerage system that runs under the city.
~~~
Fumbus grumbles at the silly human need for light. Giving it to Valeria seems to be a smart choice by Ezren. The goblin examines the foul water and is tempted to taste it. You never know what you can learn by tasting things. It seems fairly obvious though that the ooze lovers made this. "Ooze people do this. They try to find a way around the city sneaky like."
The goblin begins keeping the the shadows and trying to stay hidden.
"Hmm. This must be a very powerful ring! I have never seen anything like it except in ancient tomes. We should bring it back to the Lodge for further examination."
Merisiel curses herself for missing the traps, now obvious that Kyra pointed out.
"I think we should hold off on heading towards the main sewer system- maybe we should keep heading South?"
"I really don't know that much about oozes. I hope my sword works on them. They ought to chop up real easy like, though."
He peers ahead in the room.
"Kyra, you saw the traps. Guide me through them please and I'll lead the way."
Following her advice, he makes his way through the room and into the sewers, sword and shield at the ready.
"My clothes don't smell!" Amiri says indignantly before turning to Ezren:"That's nice! Do my sword as well mage!"
Ezren closes his eyes and pinches the bridge of his nose in exasperation. "Certainly not any worse than his do, anyway," he mutters. In a more conversational tone, he says, "My dear young woman, I would be happy to make your sword glow as well, but that would cause the spell on Valeros's shield to wink out. As long as he is taking point, wouldn't it be better for him to hold the source of illumination?"
The wizard continues to explore, using Detect Magic to scan for more wondrous items.
"... fine! But old man, I shall remember you favored that puny fighter over the mighty Amiri. Now, light-bearer! Lead the way! I believe everyone wants to move south so... start walking!"
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Passing through the corridor right down into cavernous path leads you to passages covered in thick blue tinted slurry about 2 ft deep. The deeper the traveled path the stronger the stench of what can be described as chemical sewage. While it's evident that you could easily travel through the winding narrow openings, due to the blue tinge of the waters, it's impossible to see what you are stepping on.
Passing the sewer entrance, you catch a glimpse of the room, a relatively large chamber with sludge-stained ceiling, and sewage slurry.
"This is... repugnant."
Merisiel continues following Valeros.
Valeros has a bad feeling about the extremely bad smelling narrow passage and decides the lesser horrors will probably be in the room. He backtracks and goes into it. Raising his shield, he plays the light around the room scanning it for danger.
"Bah... squeamish elf! What did you expect? It's a sewer!"
"She's not wrong! Unless I see magical auras in one direction or the other, I don't suppose it much matters to me which way we go, because now that we're here we need to explore the entire place before we report back." Ezren's sigh echoes through the gloom. "Given that the worst horrors are likely to come at us from the stinking sewer to the south, I suppose that if I were in young Valeros's shoes, I would be more comfortable clearing out the sewer first, rather than risk some noxious feculent creature sneaking up from behind." The wizard pauses, then says, less certainly. "Actually, standing in my own shoes, as the one walking behind the rest of you, I would be more comfortable clearing out the sewer first as well."
Ezren continues scanning with Detect Magic, following the group.
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While the group suggest to move deeper into the cavernous path, Valeros feels squirms and backtracks the group into the sewers for a moment.Ezren notices no magical auras from either path at this time.
The sludge-stained ceiling of this sewer chamber rises to twelve feet high. Wide passages containing a greenish, slow moving slurry flows from north to west. In the northwest corner of the room are several loose stones and a few metal canisters. To the west, a staircase ascends north to an area illuminated by a steady light source. A wooden plank has been turned into a makeshift bridge over the northern sewer canal. A collapsed wall to the east leads to the apothecary shop’s basement and to several twisting passages. The greenish slurry is concentrated in the twisting passages to a viscous slime a nauseating blue in color.
The party immediately spots a dark mass of thick slurry moving under the surface of the sludge. Kn. Occultism will be the appropriate roll for a recall knowledge action.
~~~
Valeros uses his first action to Recall Knowledge.
He then moves to where he is on the map and raises his shield to complete his turn.
Seeing the monstruos creature attacking Valeros Amiri feels furious rage buring in her belly and she sprints forward jumping into the pit and slashing with her giant cleaver-like sword...
→
"When looking for ooze-lovers, one is bound to find some ooze..."
Kyra has no idea what the thing in the pool exactly is, and she has no wish to get to know it better. As she moves further into the room, she only hopes it is hurt by fire.
"Saranrae, burn this creature!" Kyra cries, and flames burst from her outstretched hands.
Fumbus hurries into the room when he hears Valeros shout. Seeing Kyra use fire, the goblin likewise reaches for a firebomb. He hurls a vial of alchemist's fire at the ooze. He is able to angle the attack as to only splash on the ooze.
Ezren hears shouting from up ahead. "Blast that boy!" he mutters, then hustles up to the intersection next to Kyra.
The wizard calls out, "Don't attack it with anything sharp! You'll..."
Amiri splits the ooze into two.
"... only split it into two deadly blobs! Oh, Hells. It's also immune to acid, in case you were going to try dissolving it."
Merisiel glares. "Nothing sharp? What do you mean nothing sharp? All I have are daggers and a rapier!"
Merisiel moves herself into a better position, rapier in hand, just in case.
Valeros realizes he is pinned by the creature and that his longsword's slashing capability will not be good. He recalls that the longsword can be used as a piercing weapon and hopes that does something.
Merisiel glares. "Nothing sharp? What do you mean nothing sharp? All I have are daggers and a rapier!"
"I mean nothing sharp! What do you think I mean? Nothing stabby or slicey! Nothing pokey or slashy! You're the one with all the knives, just don't use any of those! And definitely not your sword! Don't you have a cudgel or something for when you want to bash someone on the head and steal their purse?"
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Ezren is fully aware of this monstrous gelatin begins known as black puddings. Mindless scavenging organism of the underworld that are always on the look out for their next fleshy meal.
In light of the developments, Ezren, Kyra, and Fumbus, focus at one of the black puddings, hoping to take it out early. Although it seems to take quite a beating without flinching!
~~~
Merisiel adjusts her grip on her rapier and strikes out at the oozy creature, primarily hitting with the handguard.
Valeros attacks the thing nearest him using his longsword to deal blunt damage as Ezren has informed him not to stab or cut it.
He uses Double Slice at first.
He chooses not to raise his shield so as not to get it broken and attacks again for a third action.