Tink tries to help Astrid escape, then fails to turn the big bug into a house cat. All three of Loiosh's strikes hit, sending centipede blood and gore spraying all over Astrid, but, unsurprisingly, he doesn't manage to become the primary grappler.
Astrid (39/93 hp, raging song, 6 str damage, very stinky [10 minutes], grappled)
Veldanis (49/125 hp, inspired)
Creeper 1 (79 damage, unconscious and dying)
Creeper 2 (dead)
THAT'S A BIG BUG (49 damage, climbing [level with the chasm edge], grappled)
Creeper 3 (56 damage, climbing [15'])
Creeper 4 (39 damage, climbing [15'])
Creeper 5 (17 damage, climbing [15'])
Creeper 6 (38 damage, climbing [15'])
Destroyer 1 (132 damage, unconscious and dying)
Destroyer 2 (142 damage, unconscious and dying)
Randall (97/105 hp, 11 str damage, very stinky [15 minutes], climbing [15'])
Tink (96/96 hp)
Loiosh (56/90 hp, inspired)
Bold may act.
Astrid sees Tinks face and manages "What's wro--" before getting snatched up by a horrifying giant bug monster.
She never thought horrific wounds all over her body would work in her favor, but thanks to the profuse blood covering every inch of the battered skald (not to mention the massive boost from Tink), she manages to wriggle out of the monster's mouth. She immediately returns to plucking her bowstrings, then tries to sing out a spell to save her ass from becoming a bug snack.
She vanishes from sight, then scrambles several feet away.
Rand jabs at the two creepers as they try to bugger off.
Magical, Piercing
Magical, Piercing
Rand watches the skald vanish, briefly thinks Gosh, that looks like fun, wish I could do that, then rushes up to the bug to try and spank the bug.
Magical, Piercing
V is crouched, ready to dash forward and leap, when suddenly a massive insect rears up from the crevasse and he stumbles backward. "BUGS??" he cries in dismay. "Oh Hells no."
He steps up and tries to chop the damn thing in half.
The centipede roars in surprise and frustration when Astrid escapes; it isn't using to losing a meal once it has captured it! Then, within a few seconds, its day goes from frustrating to life-threatening as V severs multiple legs at the hip (shoulder? I don't know bug anatomy). Rand swung at air again.
On the bright side, it now has SO MANY CHOICES for a different meal. It unwittingly chooses the hardest person in the world to grapple, but even Rand's insane CMD isn't high enough for this hefty boi. It snatches Rand off the ledge and turns to carry him down the crevice.
Rand tries to gently dissuade the centipede.
Magical, Piercing
Veldanis is less gentle.
Rand, Loiosh, and V let the centipede know what they think about it taking Rand downstairs for dinner. V's desperate swing almost goes wide, but the centipede was slowed just enough by having to schlep Rand's body around that his strike landed true .
Rand feels the centipede's mandibles loosen their grip on him, then feels more than sees the back 15' or so of the centipede fall past him to the floor below. In the split second before the now dead centipede's remaining feet lose their grip on the chasm wall, he begins preparing himself for the fall: he scrambles up the segmented body to put more of it between the floor and himself, then tucks himself into the flesh. He knows the sudden stop will still be painful, but at least the bulk of the creature will soften his fall.
Unfortunately, he didn't have time to consider inertia; when the centipede's body hits the floor a split second before he does, it stops. He does not. It's... messy. As he is crawling out of the creature's thorax, bruised up and absolutely dripping with viscera, but otherwise unharmed, he congratulates himself on another winning idea. He finds himself in a very large room that just happens to have some flavor text:
Several walls of this old, massive storehouse have collapsed, and rocks, detritus, and large, chitinous plates litter the floor. The ceiling rises to thirty feet here and has partially collapsed, exposing a large fissure leading up to a faint, green glow. The sound of rushing water echoes from the west. The only visible exit is a partially collapsed tunnel to the northwest.
Meanwhile, up top, the creepers have seen enough. #5 and #6 scurry to the opening to the north and then turn upward. #3 and #4 do the same, but out the southern opening.
Neither group is out of reach, but the fact that they went up rather than down suggests that no longer want to f$~@ with these intruders (so MEAN) and intend to get the hell out of dodge.
Randall (91/105 hp, 11 str damage, very stinky [15 minutes], prone)
Tink (96/96 hp)
Loiosh (56/90 hp, inspired)
Astrid (39/93 hp, raging song, 6 str damage, very stinky [10 minutes], invisible)
Veldanis (49/125 hp, inspired)
Titan Centipede (dead)
Creeper 3 (56 damage, climbing [35'])
Creeper 4 (50 damage, climbing [35'])
Creeper 5 (17 damage, climbing [20'])
Creeper 6 (38 damage, climbing [20'])
Bold may act.
Tink blinks at the insanity that he just witnessed. He calls down the hole, "Rand! RAND! Are you okay?!"
Then he looks at the others and motions to the fleeing morlocks. "Are we chasing them?"
Loiosh looks down the chasm. [color=maroon]"Rand?"[/color]
From somewhere far, far down below, Loiosh here's a faint "I'm okay."
Rand extricates himself from the bug guts, Quietly thanks Tink for the spider climb, and begins the slow trek up through the crevice back to the others.
V figured Rand would be alright, but he still finds himself breathing a sigh of relief when he hears the monk's faint response. He waves off Tink. "Let 'em go," he says wearily. "Maybe they'll spread the word to give us a wide berth. Doubt it, but we can hope."
He sheathes his blade, then walks over to pick up his bow.
Astrid nods at Veldanis, but she keeps her bow trained on the creepers as they slink off, ready to take a shot if any of them move back toward the group.
The creepers scurry off up to higher levels, presumably never to be seen again.
One of the destroyers and one of the creepers are dead-dead, but one each are unconscious and stable if Rand wants to make sure they stay alive. On the bodies, you find:
- amulet of natural armor +2 x2
- small mwk blowgun x2
- small mwk short sword x2
- small padded armor x2
- bloodbrain venom dose x4
- blowgun darts x?
- potion of cure serious wounds x2
- +1 greatclub x2
- mwk hide armor x2
- throwing axe x8
A soft green glow emanates from arm-sized shards of crystal studding the rocky walls of this bulbous chamber. The cavern roof here reaches thirty feet at its highest point. A deep fissure mars the floor in the center of the chamber, roughly ten feet wide and running from the north to south. Tunnels snake out to the northwest and southwest.
Now that the fight is over, you all once again become aware of how terrible these glowing green crystals make you feel. It might not be a bad idea to leave this chamber ASAP.
Loiosh looks down the chasm intently. He still has Tink on his back, but he can't help himself when Rand comes into view; he begins tippy-tapping, jostling Tink in the saddle. The closer Rand gets, the more violent his excitement becomes, until finally Tink is thrown into V standing nearby.
Loiosh does not notice because Rand is finally clearing the lip of the chasm. Loiosh covers him in dinosaur kisses, which in turn causes Loiosh to taste the centipede gore covering Rand, which he then begins enthusiastically licking off of Rand's entire body.
[color=maroon]"Rand! RAND ALIVE!"[/color]
Tink stands up, brushes himself off, gives V's arm an apologetic squeeze, and looks dispassionately at Loiosh's... affectionate?... display. "It's probably best if you just let him finish. Who needs prestidigitation?"
Tink looks at Rand and Astrid. "You both look a little under the weather, especially you, Rand." He pulls a few potions out of his pack. "These will help."
Astrid envisions trying to drink anything with how nauseous this room is making her feel, and takes the potions gingerly. "Let's get out of here first, then we can worry about that."
She starts climbing down the side of the chasm that Rand just climbed up out of.
Rand watches the party start moving to go the way he'd just come from and groans. He moves to follow, but then stops when he gets a particularly aggressive lick from Loiosh. It seems the gnome was right. He sighs and waits for the allosaur to finish before following the others.
V pats Rand on the shoulder with mock solemnity before following Astrid downward.
Once away from the noxious green crystals, Astrid feels better--but only mentally. Physically, she's grievously wounded and still queasy and weak.
"So. The poison. I think I could get rid of both our poisons quickly, if I can rest and regain some magic. Trying to copy magic I've seen is taxing, and I can only do it a little. But I think we should still use the potions for the poison, because we have a bigger problem." She blanches. "Those crystals exposed us to a very nasty disease called blightburn sickness. It can absolutely kill us if we don't get rid of it. I saw a cleric cast a spell that removes diseases once, I think I can mimic it, but only twice. I'll have to get the other two of you the next day--assuming the spell is even successful, that is. Anyway, I think we should rest. I'm beat to the Nine Hells and back, and it's going to take quite a bit of my magic to heal up. Me especially, but also Veldanis and Loiosh."
While the rest of the group weighs in, she gets started on the healing.
Astrid slumps against a wall after finishing the healing, drained but proud of her work.
V groans as the bone-deep itch of healing magic pulses through him, but admits he feels significantly better with all the horrific cuts and internal bleeding gone. While Astrid works, he mulls it over.
"I dunno. I mean, I'm feeling pretty good with that top-off. I can keep going. I think you should save your... uh, spell... mimicking... thing... until you can get rid of the disease. That sounds a lot more pressing, especially if we have the potions to take care of the poison's effects. I don't like being without more potions like that, but we'll have to make do without. One of these days we'll be back in civilization, and we can stock up. Or maybe pitch in and get a wand of that? Is that a thing?"
Rand doesn't bother waiting to hear from anyone else. He just snatches up a couple of the potions and chugs them.
Rand still doesn't feel spectacular, but he does feel a lot better. He was never a heavy lifter to begin with.
Astrid shrugs and follows suit.
She hands the other two back to Tink. "I'm not at full strength, but I'll manage. We should save the other two for an emergency."
She puts her hands on her hips. "I'm not at a hundred percent, and I've cast a lot of spells, but I do have a few left, if we want to continue. How are you looking, Tink?"
"We should definitely push on. I think the spider climb should last at least another twenty minutes. However, you two"--he gestures at Rand and Astrid--"smell bad. It obviously doesn't bother Loiosh, but anything down there will be able to smell you coming." It is at this moment that you notice he is not so subtly keeping his distance from the pair. "If I remember correctly, it should wear off in about ten minutes."
He thinks for a moment, then holds a finger up in the most clichéd I-just-had-an-idea manner you've ever seen. "I'm doing okay on spells, but I can still meditate for more. That takes about ten minutes. What say we head down while we can still climb, and I'll meditate once we're down there. Far away from"--he clears his throat--"you two. No offense. By the time I'm done, the stinky situation should be cleared up and we can proceed."
Tink dismounts Loiosh, pats him on the flank, and shrinks him to a statue. Once everyone is ready, he wildshapes back into a gecko and heads down the chasm.
Astrid looks a little hurt at the gnome keeping his distance, but one whiff under her arms and she gags hard enough to have to swallow down bile. "Yuh," she croaks. "Got it." She waits unhappily away from the others with Rand until the stench clears.
Rand sits in awkward silence with the skald for a few seconds before blurting, "So, uh. Come here often?"
I am so good at this.
Astrid glowers at the monk hard enough to make him shrink away, then goes back to brooding and going over tunes in her head that she can use in future battles.
After about three minutes of watching his best friend stew in his own idiocy, V sighs, gets up from his spot next to the gnome, and walks all the way over to plop down next to Rand. "Figures you'd be the one oozing stink poison. You've got spectacular luck, brother."
Rand sniffs disdainfully, but immediately regrets it as he gets another nostril-full of his own vile stench. "I dunno how troglodytes do it, man. I smell this bad for 10 minutes and I wanna open my wrists up to make it stop. Imagine smelling this bad all the time."
Not entirely over her annoyance with Randall, Astrid still can't help but pipe in. "Well, I mean. They grow up with it. From themselves, and everybody around them. If you smelled this bad all the time, you'd probably get used to it too. Might not even notice it."
Rand blanches at the thought. "Gods. What a life. I'll stick to occasional ten-minute increments, thanks."
With that, he mulls in silence for the remainder of their time-out.
----
Once the time has passed and he no longer smells like someone lit a dirty diaper on fire, he gets up, stretches--oof, yeah, still a lot of weakness in his muscles--and heads down the chasm while they still have some juice left in the spider climb tank.
"Last one down's a rotten egg!"
He hops over the side and slides a significant distance down the craggy wall before he has to catch himself, meaning he's basically guaranteed to reach the bottom first.
V gives Astrid and Tink a look that is equal parts amused and apologetic, then follows his friend down the chasm at a much more cautious pace.
Astrid just shakes her head as she watches Rand, V, and TInk scamper down the side. She plants her fists on her hips and mutters "men" with an exasperated shake of her head before following them down.
You reach the bottom of the chasm and quickly regroup. Several walls of this old, massive storehouse have collapsed, and rocks, detritus, and large, chitinous plates litter the floor. The ceiling rises to thirty feet here and has partially collapsed, exposing a large fissure leading up to a faint, green glow. The sound of rushing water echoes from the west. The only visible exit is a partially collapsed tunnel to the northwest.
Oh, and there is a gigantic, bisected, and partially exploded centipede corpse filling almost half of the enormous chamber.
Tink unstatues Loiosh, then climbs into the saddle and casts heightened awareness on himself. He nods to the others. "Lead the way."
Loiosh emerges from the statue, shakes his head (flinging gore everywhere, though it doesn't really make this room any worse), and stretches. As Tink is mounting, Loiosh notices the centipede corpse and his eyes go wide. He rushes to the corpse, mouth agape, as Tink tries desperately to stay in the saddle.
Loiosh enjoys his sixteenth meal of the day while the others decide what to do next.
Not wanting to be near another graphic Loiosh snack, Astrid moves to the west and inspects the sound of water.
V pokes his head down south to check that area for anything interesting.
Seeing the others be useful, Rand forces himself to look away from the horridly fascinating sight of the dino eating MORE MEAT and scopes out the tunnel to the northwest, straining both eyes and ears for clues.
To the west, Astrid sees a circular room. A cylindrical torrent of water rushes down from the ceiling into a 40-foot-wide cistern of water, creating a deafening racket. Colorful mineral formations cover the walls both above the water and below. She doesn't pick up any magic, but Astrid knows that, at her current angle, she wouldn't be able to detect anything at the bottom of the pool.
V finds nothing but empty space and bones, presumably the remains of the centipede's meals.
Rand sees a long corridor leading off to the west. The worked stone of the room they are currently in ends after about 20' and transitions to natural rock. It looks as if there has been some excavation work here, but you would need to head further down the hall to investigate further.
None of you hears anything over the roar of the waterfall.
Tink pulls Loiosh away from the centipede (with only a little bit of coaxing) and joins Astrid. "See anything interesting?"
Astrid nods at the pool. "No, but I think it's deep enough that I can't quite reach the bottom with my detect magic spell. And that" she points at the waterfall "is loud enough to wake the dead, so if there's anything going on down there, we won't know unless someone dives in. You a good swimmer?"
She takes another step forward and tries to peer down to the bottom with detect magic again, but with a slightly better angle.
Astrid takes a step forward and is immediately dragged into the water by a giant mantis shrimp. It's a CR9 creature in a CR12 dungeon, though, and the party handles it with ease.
At the bottom of the pool, otter!Tink finds a few shinies!
- an angular golden crown (1200gp)
- 12 large amethysts (150gp each)
- minor ring of cold resistance
- 1112gp
---
A visible chasm in the northwestern floor of this ragged cavern leads down into darkness, while the remainder of the room curves to the west and south. A massive, tarnished-bronze door is set into the partially collapsed southwestern wall, and piles of rubble line the remaining walls.
You've seen chasms like the one to the northwest before; it clearly leads deeper into the complex. The natural stone of this clearly excavated chamber gives way to worked stone again off to the southwest, and a corridor leads into the darkness to the south. The crumbled masonry work around the bronze door looks like it has wedged the door shut, but you would need to investigate more closely to know for sure.
There is also a small pile of treasure unceremoniously discarded in a corner:
- +1 light fortification stoneplate
- marvelous pigments
Rand almost dives for the shiny baubles in the corner, but his thief's instincts stop him in his tracks. "That's some shiny ass loot. This all feels... hinky."
He studies the loot on the floor, then the rubble near the doors, for any signs of danger.
Astrid washes her magical senses over the items, notes that the items are magical, and then sweeps her arcane vision across the rubble and doors to look for danger there too.
Rand and Astrid's paranoia may not be misplaced down here, but in this particular case, everything seems to be on the up-and-up. The treasure is as it seems: just some treasure, perhaps found during the excavation and discarded as not useful to morlocks. And the doors are fine--old, but fine--dwarven craftsmanship. The morlocks' amateurish excavation has probably sealed them permanently, short of some extremely heavy lifting, machinery, and/or magic.
The corridor to the south leads off into the darkness.
V frowns at the boulders blocking the doors. "I'm pretty strong, but I ain't that strong. Anybody got magic to lift those? If not, I think we're gonna have to go around." He pauses, and considers the chasm to the north. "Or down. I mean... I know it's not wise to leave enemies at our backs, but do we need to kill all these morlocks? I know morlocks aren't saints. They'd probably gut us in our sleep if the roles were reversed. But we're not morlocks. Why don't we just keep going down? Bypass them entirely? Word's gotta be spreading that some holy terrors are plowing through their abode. Might be a lot of 'em don't wanna fight anyway."