Everyone but Grevayne easily spots the large plant sitting just beyond the slightly open front gates. You are still out of range of its tremorsense, but so far it hasn't reacted in any way that you can tell. Perhaps as you get closer? Only one way to find out, unless you want to leave the fort to a redcap?
"Well," Oona mutters. "We could just ambush it from range. Let it come to us. It's a plant; I can't imagine it moves very fast."
She glances at Mac with a frown. She knows the wolf will likely avoid the creature--it's a little too much on the side of "unnatural" for him--but she also doesn't want to take the risk. "Mac, defend," she mutters to him, nodding at Freyja.
Mac huffs indignantly and plops down next to the ranger. He never gets to have any fun.
Oona shakes her head at Mac with a bemused sigh. "Buff up," she says quietly, "then we'll all lob attacks at it at once."
First, she focuses on the image of a tiger, enhancing her reflexes and manual dexterity. Then she draws her bow and nocks an arrow, waiting until the others are ready.
Grevayne considers his repertoire, but the only defensive magic he has prepared is illusory, and he's not sure that would work against a creature without proper eyes.
After a moment he decides on an old staple. With a gesture and a muttered word, a rippling disc of force appears before him, before vanishing from sight.
Once Freyja has cast any preparatory spells she has, Oona takes aim and fires at the basidirond.
Freyja casts gravity bow on her bow and smiles at the warm white energy that surrounds it. Then she nods at Oona, and they both loose their arrows.
"Stay, Trjega."
The basidirond has no mouth, but its physical reaction to the two arrows calls to mind a screaming creature. You now know what a badly hurt carnivorous plant looks like.
The plant's biology doesn't seem to suggest any way to move, much less with anything resembling haste, so you are all quite surprised when it covers half the distance to the party in a few scant seconds.
Basidirond (35 damage)
Oona (68/68 hp)
Mac (57/57 hp)
Freyja (72/72 hp)
Trjega (52/52 hp)
Grevayne (69/69 hp)
Bold may act.
Oona briefly considers switching to the scythe, which she's more comfortable with, but remembers this thing has spores and decides to put that off as long as possible.
Mac steps next to Freyja, ready to eat whatever comes in to attack her.
Grevayne decides it's best to play safe for now. He stays at range and lobs a volley of magic missiles at the basidirond.
The basidirond explodes as Grevayne's missiles impact it, spraying plant matter in an enormous radius around ground zero.
Spores successfully avoided.
Grevayne blinks in surprise. "Oh. That was easier than I thought it would be."
"Speak for yourself," Oona grumbles as she gathers up her spilled arrows. This is why I'm not a damn archer.
Grevayne has the presence of mind to refrain from comment, pointedly looking away while Oona struggles. When she's done, he says innocently, "Shall we continue?"
Freyja checks the door.
"Seems fine to me."
Oona opens the door as quietly as possible.
The door opens quietly. Two weapon racks stand in this room, although they contain no weapons; instead, short strips of grayish leather stretch across them. A staircase ascends to the south, and a wooden door leads to the east. The stench of carrion fills this room.
A small creature in a red cap tends to the macabre scene, its back to you.
This is a red cap! They are nasty little creatures and much tougher than they look. They have DR 10/cold iron and can use weapons a size category larger than them.
They cannot stand the symbols of good-aligned deities. If presented with such a symbol , there is a chance it will become frightened.
Oona
Oona (68/68 hp)
Mac (57/57 hp)
Freyja (72/72 hp, gravity bow [10 rounds])
Trjega (52/52 hp)
Red cap (0 damage)
Grevayne (69/69 hp, +4 AC [minutes])
Bold may act.
Oona whispers to herself, "Magdh guide my blade," and charges forward, scythe at the ready and full of Magdh's vengeance.
At Oona's call and pointed direction, Mac rushes in, circling around to Oona's left before dashing in to take a bite out of the redcap.
Grevayne channels arcane power into his fists, which ripple with kinetic energy, then begins casting a spell as he walks into the room. With a gesture and an uttered word, extra Grevaynes spring into existence around him. With a shuffle of feet, it's suddenly impossible to tell which was the original.
Freyja enters the tower and sees the red cap prone on the ground. She knows it will be harder to hit, so reaches for a normal arrow despite the thing's resistance. If she'd known she'd be facing so many fey, she'd have bought many more cold iron arrows at the Market Festival.
Was that really only a month ago?
She tells Trjega to stay at her side, knowing she probably can't hurt the thing.
This poor redcap was just minding her own business, fussing over the strips of flayed flesh, and the next thing she knew, she was on the ground, weaponless, and bleeding from multiple wounds. What the f$&*!?
She growls, grabs her scythe, and stands up . Oona sees several of her wounds begin to close up.
Oona (68/68 hp)
Mac (57/57 hp)
Freyja (72/72 hp, gravity bow [9 rounds])
Trjega (52/52 hp)
Redcap (?? damage)
Grevayne (69/69 hp, +4 AC [minutes], 4 images [7 minutes])
Bold may act.
Oona takes advantage of the opening Mac just gave her to carve into the redcap again.
Freyja fires three normal arrows.
That was just. Ridiculous.
The only thing on the body is a mundane scythe and small leather armor.
Mac savages the bleeding redcap, snapping her neck in his huge jaws before she can recover. He then spends the next several moments trying to lick away the unpleasant taste of fey blood from his mouth.
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"If only they all went down so easily," she mutters. She takes a quick look around the room before leading the party upstairs.
Grevayne looks down at the buff spells on him and sighs. I hope we get to fight something before these wear off, he thinks sourly. He doesn't bother helping to look around; he knows his eyes aren't nearly as keen as the oread's. He simply follows her and Freyja up the stairs once she's done looking around.
Freyja finds a black shortspear behind one of the weapon racks.
The spear is quite well-made and emanates magic.
You ascend the steps to the next level of the tower. The wooden floor of this large room is slick with blood. Three mostly flayed hobgoblin corpses are lashed to wooden tables and four dead redcaps lie on the floor. Stairs lead up and down on the south wall, and arrow slits pierce the north and west walls.
Grevayne runs his hands over the spear using his arcane senses. "A cold iron spear, and magical. I may use this in the battle ahead, if that is alright. While my fists can be made to strike quite hard, the defenses of these fey are potent. I am happy to put it in the 'sell' pile once we are out of this gods-cursed hole."
"If Freyja has no interest in using it, it's fine by me."
Once the spear situation is sorted, she continues upstairs.
Freyja chuckles. "You don't want me to get that close. You take it."
Oona takes a look around to see if she finds anything interesting.
Grevayne sweeps the room with detect magic.
The four dead redcaps each wear small leather armor and carry a medium scythe. Each also carries coins, jewelry, and other trinkets (combined value 54gp). A bloodstained basket on one table contains a healer's kit, six potions of CLW, and eight bandages of rapid recovery.
Oona looks over the corpses of both the hobs and redcaps, shaking her head. "What happened here, do you suppose? It couldn't have happened during the fight with the hobs to take over the fort, right? They would have cleared away the bodies of their comrades afterward. Or strung them up like these hobs."
She hunkers down near one and inspects it for clues.
Grevayne stares hungrily at the hob corpses for several long moments before tearing his eyes away and looking pointedly at the nearby wall.