Technically, it's an exhibit , giving us, as investigators, full rights to open it!
"Anyway, it may not be the best moment to do that? Let's continue the chase while we still can. I'll take my time to open it later."
Leaving the larder and toilet unexplored for now, you turn to the passageway, with Giggett wanting to go first.
You start down this corridor to the east, at the south of the room.
You see this is very different, it more like part of a system of natural caves.
No longer the well carved of the basement place you were just in.
You slowly start walking along, wary of an ambush, and traps--
--but the path just goes on.
Although the path is far from level, it has been worked to allow for easy travel: stalagmites have been cleared away in some spots, and small wooden footbridges have been stretched over pools of stagnant water... no more than 5 feet deep.
After a few minutes, you realize you might be walking for quite a while.
Dragh follows Giggett, reminding to look for the tracks.
"He might want to lure us out of his house to collect the things and disappear. "
Says the dwarf.
Loaded crossbow in hands, Tamerius follows his comrades. Stoping from time to time to look for tracks
It's a possibility, I will try to find out. Says Tamerius to Dragh.
"We haven't found his lab... I would be him, it's here where I would be headed, as losing all his work is far more important than losing a few personal items."
Dragh sees that there are some signs of passage in these corridors.
It is hard to tell just when, and how many people, but it is recent, and not more than two at the same time, maybe just one.
It is a natural stone floor, so not much to go by.
Tamerius is unable to spot things, maybe because it is dark in here.
So, after about 10 minutes of travel, you arrive at a small cave, with a larger pool of water in the middle.
Here, the passageway opens up into a large natural chamber.
The center of which is occupied by a pool of brackish water.
Stalactites and stalagmites occupy much of the room, but a path between them leads around the pool and to--
--another corridor on the opposite side of the cave.
Natsume and Giggett just have time to see this as they turn the corridor, while Dragh and Tamerius only see part of a cave ahead, because--
--as soon as the first two enter the room, the light of your magical torches dancing over the water from the pool, the light starts to... grow?
Oh, actually--
--a strange blue glow emanates up from the pool!
In seconds, a cascade of shimmering light is cast up to the ceiling above.
And then, the head of a giant blue snake rises from the pool--
--with sparks of electricity dancing between its fangs.
While a metal, rattle-tipped tail pokes out of the water behind it, audibly building up a charge with every flick of the rattle.
Giggett wonders whose electric attacks will do more damage.
But then Giggett does not have a tail.
For that matter, none of you have tails, do you?!
Natsume frowns and looks around; she tosses her steel shield to the side. It seems like a bad idea, at the moment.
”Do you speak Common?” she asks... then asks similar questions in each language she knows.
As Giggett and Natsume step into the cave, and the serpent moves up to the surface, and electric light illuminates the grotto--
--Tamerius reacts first, thanks to Dragh's scouting abilities and little tips he often gives about the terrain you are moving through: "--and to avoid such problems, in tunnels such as these, do not forget to purchase a cask of Gale!"
Natsume is up front with her shield raised, instinctively feeling the serpent is not here to cuddle.
Giggett does not feel hidden, as the snake's black and cold eyes, dripping with water from the pool, glanced both at her and Natsume, as blue electricity crackles and builds up--
--Tamerius...
Avoid Notice - Sneak vs. Percep’
Search (free Seek)
Scouting (½ speed) +1 Init
Defend (free raise shield)
Things go pretty fast, and Natsume does not have time to move her nice electricity inducing conductive shield aside yet, but as she starts to ask if the snake speaks common, she does not see even a flicker of recognition in the two cold eyes of the serpent.
Maybe other languages?
Which one will Natsume try?
Natsume casts a glance at her companions, then speaks again in a second language. It’s lilting and... chirpy?
The serpent does not react-- nor does it appear to care.
It seems not the brightest bulb in the pond.
The serpent popped its head out where Giggett and Natsume could both see it, then emerged a little bit behind.
There are a lot of stalagmites, that hinder progression somewhat.
Tamerius shoots at the creature, his hunter’s instinct sure that the creature will not be open to negotiations.
His bold bolt miss by far...
He tries to call for Asmodeus power to harm it!
Giggett mumbles for herself:
"How can I hide if there's light everywhere..."
Tamerius is still back in the corridor.
To see the serpent one has to pass Natsume.
Tamerius would have to move and then either Harm--
--or shoot and start reloading.
Or else...?
The big black things on the map are the rock.
That blocks line of sight.
Giggett sees the water is brackish and stagnant.
So probably not that deep.
But for a Gnome, "not that deep" could be too deep.
Then, again, the other smaller ponds you passed were 5 feet deep at the most.
Giggett does not see very far at all into the water, so no idea how deep or not it is.
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Tamerius moves to see the creature and shoots.
Tamerius' bolt misses the serpent...
The serpent moves forward, and exits the pool - making Giggett very happy -, before turning and cutting over, to come up just in front of Tamerius.
There, it raises its tail end and rattles its strange metal attachement--
--unleashing a bolt of lightning that goes forth in a line, hitting Tamerius, Natsume and Giggett!
Shocked by this bolt you all try to avoid getting hit right in the face.
• Success = 4 damage
• Failure = 8 damage
• Crit' failure = 16 damage
Giggett was expecting such kind of attacks and was prone to jump against the wall at the right moment.
Natsume yips and steps to the side...
just barely not in time to avoid it entirely. "Yip!!!"
She looks pretty frazzled, but shakes it off before scooting around the battlefield, trying to get into position.
Whipping her flail around, she goes for two!
Tamerius to his own surprise dodges part of the bolt!
I’m bold!
Giggett moves to Natsume and whispers to Tamerius when next to him:
"Don't hesitate to step back, Tamerius, we gonna handle it with Natsume."
She then makes a weird move, like if she was using her shield to attract the creature's attention.
against creature Perception DC. As I rolled high, I assume I made it for the rest of my turn. If it's not the case, I'll change my next action.
And attacks with her rapier when the serpent expects it the least:
piercing damage + precision piercing damage
Tamerius manages to dodge some of the attack, as does Natsume.
Thanks to that, Giggett, who comes last manages to not be hurt.
Natsume moves around and flanks the serpent, swishing the flail at it--
--but only hitting with the first blow, the second bounces off the thick leathery skin.
Giggett manages to feint the creature, enabling her to scratch its hide with her rapier.
Tamerius--
Tamerius casts harm on the creature then chill touch on the creature.
By Hell!
The serpent manages to shake off part of the harmful attack--
--and it totally resists the chill touch.
Just before, Dragh--
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Dragh put one of his hand on his sheathed dagger while the other he extends towards the giant snake. He focuses on the arcane memory imprinted in his dagger, repeating the same formulas used last time when he caster magic missles. His right hand begins to waves in the air drawing symbols that begin to shine with bright light.
When his allies attack he gathers energy which soon he releases at the serpent.
The serpent is badly battered by the onslaught of magic missiles flying out of the Dagger of the Goldenoak Clan.
But it is still standing... or, well, still slithering.
The slithering serpent turns its head towards Giggett and tries to stick its fangs into the Gnome--
--its mouth opens WIDE... and clamps down around Giggett's shoulder.
The fangs pierce her armor and skin--
--and then an electric charge blasts the Gnome's shoulder.
As the snake snaps its mouth away, it tries to take another chunk of Giggett, but it misses.
And then the serpent coils itself, making a kind of spiral with its body, its heady moving to and fro on the top.
Natsume, hoping to end this quickly, lashes out, keeping her flail spinning as much as she can!
Natsume starts flailing about--
--and, though her aim is not that great, she manages to connect twice thanks to Tamerius distracting the serpent, which is flat-foot-tailed!
Thus her first blow barely hits, but hits!
The serpent is still moving.
But Natsume's second blow slays the snake--
--and then she bops herself on the head with the flail!
OUCH!
But the serpent is dead...
Giggett waits for Natsume to make her attacks, just to check what the monster is doing while coiling itself.
And... she doesn't do anything as the monster's dead. She calms herself and looks for her wounds.
"Damn, I'm not in a good state for fighting, now."
Giggett has blood on her shoulder and her hair is now more shaggy than ever.
Natsume groans as, like a child playing with a kendama, she grows overzealous and the flail head bounces off her skull.
Thankfully, she has a thick skull, and only recoils momentarily, holding her brow and looking around with her open eye.
"Everyone okay?"
She's actually looking fairly bloody herself, now that one might mention it.
The snake opens its eye for one last brief second, and casts a dying glance at Giggett... you NEVER were in a good state for fighting!
We are not in shape for continuing the pursuit. We need to patch up our wounds. Let’s take a break here, the time I work on you two.
Better than nothing...
You spend some twenty minutes there, as Tamerius patches Natsume and then--
--himself.
Giggett's wounds start itching again...
What do the others do during these twenty (or even thirty) minutes?
Natsume will poke around the chamber; no sense chasing him while Giggett slips around in her own blood, after all.
"You don't suppose the guy we're chasing tamed that thing, do you? If he came running through here, he'd have to have passed it."
What, where, how do you wish to poke?
"Dogs, wolves, this guy likes animals so... Maybe?
The thing is, as he's big and strong, we may have overlooked his mental abilities. But he knows traps, alchemy, and animals... I could be jealous."
While Tamerius patches himself and Natsume, Giggett will start looking at the box.
"Dragh, can you detect magic inside this box? Could be an interesting information."
I've got, what, 20-30 minutes? Natsume will poke around the body of the serpent, maybe cut open its belly with that longsword, see how deep that lake is, if there's anything in it, and just kind of do a wander-around of the current cavern and see if anything is sitting there.
"Or he could have a friend," points out Natsume.
Natsume looks around the grotto--
--inside the pool--
--and the snake.
The snake, when cut up, reveals some alchemical-styled implants, like those of the wolves, that are linked to that metal rattle-tipped piece that was implanted onto the snake's tail-tip.
Otherwise, the animal seems just that: an animal.
The grotto has nothing of note.
At the bottom of what is actually another shallow pool, 5 feet deep at the most, Natsume finds--
--the remnants of a body.
Obviously someone who died many years ago.
Nothing more than bones now.
The body has slowly been consumed by the limestone-saturated water.
This has calcified around its skeleton.
Beside the body, something glints--
--this seems to be the pommel of a weapon. Sticking out of the stone.
Natsume feels you would have to breaking it out, and that will take a hammer... and at least 20 minutes of work.
Which, if you have access to a hammer, could be done by the time the healing is over.
As for Giggett--
--she walks back the 10 or 12 minutes it took to get here, through the passageway and over the other pools, to go back to room with the chest?
Before, or after being healed?
Alone?
"So, this critter's bugged-out like that wolf was," she says, showing off the weird alchemy. "And if this guy also, like the goblin said, poisoned us... well, I think it's all coming together, isn't it?"
She frowns. "If only we can catch the guy."
As for Giggett--
--she walks back the 10 or 12 minutes it took to get here, through the passageway and over the other pools, to go back to room with the chest?
Before, or after being healed?
Alone?
"Friend... or family. All that looks too much like a 'My father died during the Plaguestone, while I was still a kid and I've just recently stumbled on his alchemy formulas'. This house, for example, has been built while Hallod was still in his father's balls. Still, it has the secret passage and all. So, it may be a pure coincidence... But investigator Giggett doesn't believe in coincidences."
Giggett searches for a pool of clean water or what is closest to clean water, and starts cleaning her face. Phiggett was looking like s*@% lately, time to get rid of it.
All the water is bracken and stagnant and quite murky.
But it will wash things away.
Do you heal Giggett--
--or move on?