"Southern wall of the lower level..." Yaziyah mutters to herself as she leans over the edge to look down. "Quite an undertaking, digging this labyrinth under their manor. I guess it was done over many generations, or they used powerful magic." The Shoanti looks pensive for a moment, then turns back to the group.
"I will stand watch while you play."
"No, Aru can only perceive things through my own senses." He then considers the idea of his cards talking. "Also, do you feel you can trust the cards? I'd assume that, if there is something innately dishonest, it would be a pack of cards."
"Aside from that, knowing each other cards is not that much of a big deal. You need to be mischievous and smart."
The party stops on the landing for a few minutes to get oriented, and then sends the insect scouts out to do their work. In the interest of comfort, the party then descends more than 200 feet down the spiral staircase and prepares to wait in the entrance of the large cavern and play a card game.
The air in this vast grotto is cool. An iron-framed flight of spiral stairs winds up through a hole in the ceiling in the northwest section of the room from the top of a semicircular ledge. The ledge winds down along the cavern’s inner wall to a series of rope bridges that descend even lower from ledge to ledge. The upper ledge is breathtaking and strangely beautiful—a tableau of all manner of odd-colored fungi, lichens, and molds. The fungi have been cultivated, shaped into symmetrical patterns normally not seen in nature, transforming the ledge into a sort of underground fungal garden. Here and there, f lickering torches burn in sconces above the fungi, while from somewhere in the darkness below comes the soft splash of water against an unseen shore.
In the darkness on the far side of the cavern to the south, there is a slight shimmer to the light.
Four humanoid-ish skeletons that seem to be animated not by necromancy, but instead with some odd preservative magic, slip out from around a dark corner. They’re obviously invisible. They start moving quietly towards the party, seemingly levitating just off-the-ground. Despite wearing chain armor, there is barely any sound. They seem intent on attacking, and are obviously thinking they’ll take the party by surprise.
Majenko whispers to everyone, ”Is see smelly-tons coming from fungus like over there. What do we do, Vera? They are invisible!”
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"Surprisingly beautiful." Aru admits about the strange garden. "I've never seen such care with fungi. Remarkable."
Aru narrows his eyes slightly, but then turns to the others, doing his best to mask his emotions. Invisible enemies were very tricky. "All very interesting." He nods and mumbles as he fetches for his old nonsense book, looking between Magda and Vera.
"Take a look here, Vera. What a coincidence, uhn!?" He offers his book to her in a way that she could look at it and at the invisible creatures at the same time. As he releases the book in her hands, the creatures disappear for him. "Can you do something about it? To share this knowledge with others?"
"I will stand watch while you play."
With a nod, The Gray Maiden moves opposite of Yaziyah to also stand guard while others are distracted by unimportant children games with the cards.
Silent but observant through the previous exchanges, The Gray assumes her position in the group and continues to scan the shadowy expanse of the cavern for trouble. Her eyes narrow as Majenko whispers of invisible threats lurking amidst the fungal flora. As Aru begins to ask Vera about, she adds "Can any of you make them visible? I am unable to see them."
Vera takes ahold of the book Aru offers and she sees what Majenko must see--some invisible creatures.
"Looks like our first test. I can make them visible, but they sure won't like it. Get ready!"
She conjures a burst of glitter over the cluster of likely foes!
The enemies wordlessly move up after being revealed, even though two are blind.
Everyone can see the skeletons of humanoid creatures that seemed to have muscles - but the muscles have largely been replaced by strange plant matter that has sept into the bones as well. They have fine scimitars, and armor (though the armor is a little obscured by the fungus) and shields. Their eyes are vacant but they seem bent on trying to destroy the party.
Not knowing what fungi skeletons are or what affects them, Mags asks the city to help cause the nearest not blind one to get in its way.
Once Vera has coated the enemies in glittering powder, Aru takes his book back from her hands. "Sorry, I'm really attached to it. Not that I do not trust you with it, of course. But just in case."
The fact that the enemies were part plant was interesting, but what were they previously?
In his experiences, the first line of defense to any tomb or dungeon were not very impressive. Better to hold his powers for now to some extent. Goro stretches his arm, his hand open, and soon a spectral copy of it materializes in from of him.
"Fungal jann, I'm pretty sure!" Aru exclaims as he pieces the information together. "Resistant to fire and deadly spore clouds!" He turns to Marcus and the Gray Maiden. "Hold your breathes when you engage them, uhn?"
"Fire, hmmmm" Mags was thinking This would be the time that her city's amazing gift of a flaming wall would have been perfect and all, but not today. "I'll find what you want me to do, sooner or not." she says to herself, moving closer to the creatures but behind the Wall still.
"Fungal jam? Not the worst idea I've ever heard, preserve-wise." Yaziyah shifts her grip on her polearm to the end of the shaft, testing the balance. "Let me have a go at them, I might be able to whack them from a distance."
She taps Marcus with a little helping orison.
The Gray Maiden strides confidently alongside Marcus, each step measured and precise. She positions herself directly in front of Magda, instinctively taking on the role of protector.
With a fluid motion, she raises her Maiden's Aegis, the heavy shield not just a piece of armor but an extension of her will to safeguard those behind her.
"HOLD!" she commands, her voice echoing authoritatively through the cavern.
The one that's closest at the star of the turn does something strange. It seems to point at Marcus, who feels odd for a moment.
The effect does nothing. The others move up, but one slower than the others.
"Marcus?"
There were layers in the question. "Are you alright?" but also "What's the plan?". Marcus was their tactician, and while Yaziyah was itching to smash these fungal skeletons or whatever they were to bits, she couldn't very well rush ahead on her own.
Magda moves with the wall and the grey forward, and letting the city mess with the nearest skelemush. In a natural cavern the city's normal techniques of getting in the way are hampered, but rats are everywhere, so a trio of the urban warriors fall from a perch on the shoulder, helment, and back of the oncoming creature.
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"Not sure, think I shook it off." Marcus barks back in reply to Yazi, not turning his eyes off the enemy. He bends his knees, weight forward. "Forward!" He roars! And he takes off...and his back leg reverberates magic as he launches forward, popping the air and gouging into the rock as he moves forward with a speed that blurs his massive frame!
The Gray Maiden mirrors the ferocity and unwavering momentum of Marcus's charge, advancing behind him. With a swift, practiced motion, she raises her longsword and slices through the air toward the skeletal figure.
"Jann, the plural of 'janni', which are the least powerful of the genies." For some weird chance, he recalls notes quoting them as the "weakest" of the genies, but in his opinion that was just a lack of politeness and respect on the author's part.
"They can also get big!" He yells as Marcus and the Gray Maiden charge. Or small, but that was unlikely now. "And do not forget about the spores! Hold your breath!"
Figuring Yaziyah was about to charge as well, Aru tries to pull the closest enemy's arm, but for some dumb chance he misses. "Great way to start."
"I think I prefer my version," replies Yaziyah. "All those snacks earlier actually made me hungry." Then she charges into the fray as well, using the length of the hammer shaft to maintain a respectable distance between herself and the fungal not-preserves.
She lunges and extends, but her foot slips on the moist cavern floor and the strike goes wide of its intended target.
Vera blasts out a shot of magic from her wand at the one most damaged by Marcus.
All four of the fungal janni 5' fly up to be hovering above the party, and in the process, the two that were knocked down right themselves from prone.
The two that were most injured explode in a mass of choking spores. The spores try to burrow themselves into the lungs of all the creatures nearby.
The clouds seem to linger in the area, but don't obscure vision very much.
The other two that are outside the cloud seem to be concentrating on some sort of ability.
Marcus gets out of the poison fog, clearing his lungs with hacking coughs. He drops his shield and swings for one of the floating monsters!
Aru raises his arm in reflex, as if it would have helped anything with the spores. He watches it engulf almost everyone. "Not too late to hold your breath..." That wasn't as bad as 'told you so'... in his opinion at least.
Aru reaches forward, and pushes the closest enemy a bit, just so the Gray Maiden could have a better chance at hitting it. He then retreats away from the clouds.
"The other two are trying to get large! Well, only one now since Marcus broke its mojo."
Stumbling back a step, Yaziyah begins to cough, trying to clear the spores from her throat and lungs. This time following Aru's advice, she holds her breath as she lunges at the closes janni. This fighting style is still new to her, however, and neither of her strikes land.
Mag steps back out of the horrible billowing poof, feeling her city unable to get a hold on the annoying thing, so she instead focuses her ability on the gray.
The Gray Maiden unleashes a with her longsword as the air explodes with poisonous fumes around her.
Feeling the imminent threat of the exploding spores, she pivots on her heel, retreating to a place between Magda and Yaziyah, acting as a shield to any further onslaught.
Heeding the call to hold her breath, she tightly seals her lips, her lungs burning with the effort to contain a breath amidst the chaos. Her shield is raised defensively, positioned to intercept any direct threat, her stance unyielding as she prepares for the next move.
The guardian swings at TGM as she steps away, but misses.
Vera uses her wand again.
This drops the fungal Janni that was at the front of the pack.
One of the remaining Janni near Yazi and TGM drops to the ground and approaches the least armored person
The remaining Janni with Marcus just attack Marcus.
Abandoning the lunging combat style, Yaziyah attempts to take out the fungal creature standing between her and Marcus. She had full confidence that he could handle things, but it never hurt to have some back-up, and she didn't like the spore-infested distance between them right now.
She continues to hold her breath, leaning back from the cloud of noxious spores.
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Mags winces in pain, but keeps up her city chant, describing a corner of the market, as the sun dips low, the place stills, and cloth awnings sway.
She steps back from the thing attacking her, then lets the city's anger at its child being hurt into her words, a cracking of a beam, and collapse of a ceiling, a congestion at a busy intersection.
Marcus steels himself for the slugfest and takes another pair of vicious hacks at the same creature!
The Gray Maiden, fueled by Magda's rallying chant, steps decisively between her and the advancing enemy. With a determined glare, she swings her longsword at the creature twice.
"You are doing great!"
His new companions were likely poisoned, however, so he Goro retrieves an antitoxin from his pack. "Would any of you fancy an antitoxin?" He then notices just how bad Yaziyah is doing. "Damn!"
He quickly moves over to her to feed her the concoction. "To the last drop! Don't fight the taste if it is bad..."
Vera blasts the front one with magic missile.
Majenko flits over and tries to blast the flying one with glittery breath.
The one near the group enlarges and attacks TGM.
The remaining Janni with Marcus just attack Marcus.
"It just makes them a bigger target," comments Yaziyah on the enlargement, but her movements are a little sluggish and she's looking somewhat green around the gills.
The big janni close to them was trouble, but Yaziyah and the Maiden could handle it. Marcus was alone though and could be in danger. "I'm going to help Marcus." He says, patting Yaziyah on the shoulder.
Aru closes his gauntleted fist and concentrates on the topaz on it. It glows lightly and soon there is a ball of golden energy expanding from his palm... he tosses the ball ahead of him and deftly jumps over it, uncannily balancing on top of it even if it should be impossible. The ball swirls and soon Aru is flying around the poisonous cloud!
"Heya! Do you need some help?" Doesn't look like, considering there was already one enemy on his feet.
Marcus takes more big sweeping chops at the remaining creature. Four can probably handle the one that's left. Marcus nods, not turning from his opponent. "Take my spot." He says simply, and steps to stand underneath Aru.
Seeing Yazi suffering, Magda shifts her chant to slip in warm fires in the hearth and freshly baked bread.
The Gray Maiden keeps up her attack, bolstered by Magda's battle spirit. She ignores the burning in her lungs and swings her longsword twice more at the large creature before raising her aegis.
Yazi and TGM hit twice, and nearly defeats the fungal monster here. With a flick of her wrist, Vera finishes it off with another round of magic missiles.
The remaining Janni with Marcus just attacks Marcus after he misses, swinging with his scimitar.
The last fungal janni manages to hurt Marcus, with a vicious slice across his chest.
"At once!" Aru takes Marcus' place, trying to grab the enemy's arm and setting up for Marcus to flank.
As she could not fly like Aru, Yaziyah takes another step back from the roiling poisonous cloud, praying for restored vigour as she tries to see what was happening on the other side.
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Mags isn't sure if the gray isn't going to charge through the poison fog, so she keeps up her words from the city to help her defeat its enemies. Poison flying fungus bones is a prime example of enemies of the city.
Since chanting requires breathing, Mags herself is not so foolish to dash through the fog. Anyway someone dear to her is hurting. The half orc tries to help Yazi resist the last of her poison.
Marcus takes a 5 foot step to get the flank with Aru and continues to cut at the hovering creature!
The Gray Maiden drops her longsword, and her shield and retrieves her bow - a common sight of gray maidens in the city which triggers odd memories - nocks an arrow with a black feather fletching, and fires at the enemy across the way.
Vera joins and follows up with a magic missile charge.
Aru keeps trying to coordinate with Marcus. Still learning.
Marcus weathers the blow as best as a member of this group could, and looks to return in kind!
Mags sends her city's protection into the Gray, for both the Gray and her friend inside her.
TGM makes her save, Vera wiggles her wand, and the last odd enemy dies. The only sounds in the cavern are the dripping of water and the sloshing of the tidal river in the cavern below.
"Well," says Yaziyah weakly, but doesn't really follow that up with anything. She squints through the poisonous cloud. "You alright, Marcus?" Turning to the others, she asks. "How long until this poison dissipates? And did anyone else breather it in and feels sick?"